In modern history, there are many people who have devoted themselves to writing, especially during the eight-year War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, when a large number of young students gave up their studies and rushed to the battlefield. However, after the end of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, very few people went back to continue their studies, and perhaps it was difficult for their hearts to calm down any longer.
Of course, such people are not absent, such as this Mr. Huang Renyu that the inn wants to talk about today.
When people today mention Huang Renyu, they all know that he was a great historian, who became popular in the world with the "big historical view" and became a prominent figure in the study of Chinese history at the end of the last century, and still has a far-reaching influence to this day. However, few people know that in fact, Huang Renyu fought as a soldier in his early years and served as a company commander in the Kuomintang army.
Huang Renyu was born in 1918 in Changsha, Hunan Province, to a gentry family, so he received a good education from an early age, and was admitted to Nankai University at the age of 18 and became Zhou Enlai's primary school brother.
Huang Renyu was admitted to the Department of Electrical Engineering, which was a very fashionable discipline at the time, and it was easy to find a good job after graduation. However, reality made Huang Renyu choose another path.
Just the second year of school, the all-out War of Resistance broke out, and Huang Renyu, like most enthusiastic young people, watched the Kuomintang army gradually lose, "At that time, I was not yet 20 years old, and with this childish spirit alone, I thought that most of the losses in the front of the war were due to the fear of death and responsibility of officers below the old generals." They keep retreating, and their mouths only say that they will turn in, and if they are as determined as my generation is, mouth to body, there is no retreat, they will be able to save the decline. ”
Therefore, Huang Renyu held a passion for blood, resolutely threw his pen from Rong, and was admitted to the 16th session of the Whampoa Military Academy. After graduating in 1940, Huang Renyu was appointed platoon commander and acting company commander of the 14th Division of a certain unit, realizing the dream of killing the enemy in battle.
In February 1943, Huang Renyu was sent to the Chinese Expeditionary Force as a captain's staff officer and received a first prize medal for the Navy, Army and Air Force.
However, reality gave Huang Renyu a basin of cold water, such as the quality of soldiers, Huang Renyu later wrote in the article: "By the late stage of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the quality of soldiers was constantly declining. Not only is he physically weak, but he also looks like an idiot and can't stand the coach. The method of the division headquarters is that each battalion will draw soldiers who can be trained, form commandos, and concentrate on training, and the other soldiers will be placed under the supervision of each battalion, and there is no training, but it is hoped that the advantages of the large number of people can be reflected in the mountains in future operations. ”
Moreover, governments at all levels are also very cruel to conscription, such as Jiang Menglin, president of the Red Cross Society of China, who recorded: "The newly recruited Zhuang Ding will die 90% on the road, for example, 1,000 recruits recruited from Longtan, Sichuan, when they were sent to Guiyang, there were only more than 100 people left." ”
These real problems made Huang Renyu gradually calm down and begin to think about more important issues than war.
In 1950, at the age of 32, Huang Renyu resolutely made the second choice in his life - to return to the study hall and continue to do his studies.
Since then, Huang Renyu went to the United States to study history, and at the age of 46, he received a doctorate in history from the University of Michigan. In the more than ten years of study, Huang Renyu had almost no financial resources, and only relied on the usual odd jobs to make a living, according to his later recollection, during this time, he successively worked as a dishwasher, bartender, kitchen helper, cleaner, receiver, draftsman, elevator waiter and so on.
Years of hard study did not fail him, and Huang Renyu was hired as a professor at the State University of New York at Newports to teach Chinese history.
However, Huang Renyu was dismissed because he was immersed in learning and did not meet the requirements of the school in academic works. But in the second year of his dismissal, a book that influenced his life and even the entire historical circle of China was published, that is, "Fifteen Years of the Wanli Calendar".
Regarding this book, there is no need for an inn to introduce it again, it can be said that this book subverts the routine of the entire Chinese historical research, just like detonating an atomic bomb in the historical circle.
Since then, "Fifteen Years of Wanli", "Great History of China", and Huang Renyu's "Great Historical View" have become hot topics for everyone, and even a "Huang Xue" has emerged.
The world is so impermanent. At that time, Huang Renyu only wanted to be an engineer, but he was pushed into the battlefield; when he wanted to be a general, reality made him see another more important thing; later he was dismissed from the university, as if the whole world had abandoned him, but God gave him a broader space...
Perhaps, you should also take some comfort from it.
On January 8, 2000, Huang Renyu died of illness in New York at the age of 82.
For richer and more interesting historical stories, please add weChat public account: mashaohua108