Lu Rongting

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Lu Rongting (陸榮廷) (1856 - 1927) was born in Wuming, Guangxi province in China. Originating as a common bandit, Lu became a military commander in Guangxi in the Qing dynasty and suppressed the revolutionary uprising at Zhennan Pass (now Friendship Pass) on the Sino-Vietnam border in Pingxiang, Guangxi led by Sun Yat-sen and Huang Xing.

However when Guangxi declared independence on September 11, 1911, the former Qing Governor, Shen Bingkun, became the head of the rebel administration, Lu Rongting the Vice-Governor, and the Provincial Assembly created by the Manchu reforms reconstituted itself into a local parliament. Shortly afterward Lu expelled Shen Bingkun upon the founding of the Guangxi Revolutionary Military Government and became the military governor from 1912 to 1916, and civil governor till 1913. Lu created a tight-knit organization, the Old Guangxi Clique through which he remained in control of Guangxi until 1921. This was built on ties of kinship and friendships stemming from his days as a Qing battalion and brigade commander.

Lu Rongting, despite his origins as a bandit, was said to have provided good government for the people of Guangxi. He pushed an anti-opium campaign, despite depriving his government of a major source of revenue, later eagerly exploited by his successors. Land taxes were the major source of revenue. These were only marginally increased over Qing tax rates, and were far lower than they would be under subsequent governments.

During the turmoil as China went from a republic headed by Sun Yat-sen to a dictatorship under Yuan Shikai, Lu tried to stay out of the conflict and did not oppose Yuan Shikai until late 1916 when the southern provinces again declared independence and organized the National Protection Army. Lu occupied Guangdong as military governor from 1916 to 1917, when the Guangdong revolutionary army left to fight against Yuan. The death of Yuan and subsequent events cut short the war, and increased Lu's power in the south. In 1917 he was named Viceroy of Guangxi and Guangdong by the national government, and was the most important southern warlord, rivalled perhaps only by Cai E, who had established himself in Yunnan after departing Guangxi. One of Lu's important allies in Guangdong was the local warlord Cen Chunxuan.

When Sun Yat-sen attempted to re-establish himself in Canton in 1917, Lu, remote from his power base in Guangxi, reluctantly supported Sun for a few years until Sun Yat-sen split with the Guangxi forces over the allocation of troops to commanders. Sun attempted to strip Cen Qunxuan of some units to be assigned to the apparently more loyal Chen Jiongming, the Guangdong warlord who had sponsored Sun's return there.

In 1920, Chen drove Lu Rongting and the Guangxi warlords out of Guangdong, in the or First Ao-Gui War. In 1921, Chen, pushed into Guangxi, starting the Second Ao-Gui war. Lu sent two wings, one led by his wife's younger brother, Tan Haoming, the other under Shen Hongying, into Guangdong where they drove back the Cantonese and occupied Qinzhou and Lianzhou. But the center at Wuzhou, commanded by Lu's follower Chen Binghun collapsed and Chen Jiongming drove up the rivers while allies came in from the north, forcing Lu Rongting to step down in July of 1921 and by August, Chen had occupied Nanning and the rest of Guangxi.

Chen Jiongming and the Cantonese forces occupied Guangxi until April of 1922. Their occupation was largely nominal because armed bands of Guangxi loyalists began to gather under local commanders, calling themselves the Self-government Army. Sun Yat-sen and Chen Jiongming soon split over the continuation of the Northern Expedition. Sun wanted it to have begun with the occupation of Guangxi, from whence he wished Chen to push into Hunan. Chen, however, aspired merely to be the warlord of Guangdong and after the Zhili clique in Beijing recognized his power in the south he abandoned Sun Yat-sen. By May of 1922, the Cantonese forces had evacuated Guangxi.

With the support of Wu Peifu and the Zhili clique, Lu slipped into Guangxi in 1923 and began to try to rebuild his coalition. He soon had control over the south with its important pool of manpower, but the situation had changed and his localistic political organization could not be rebuilt. Among the younger men who had been trained in military schools after the 1911 revolution there was a new appreciation for modern tactics, weapons, and political means. By the spring of 1924, three of these men, Huang Shaohong, Bai Chongxi, and Li Zongren, formed the beginning of the New Guangxi Clique had and created with opium revenue the well equipped Guangxi Pacification Army. By August they had defeated Lu Rongting and driven other contenders out of the province. Lu Rongting never returned and died in 1927 in Suzhou, in Jiangsu province.

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