Zhang's merits and demerits

Zhang Yisheng was criticized from three aspects: first, the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi suppressed the Huanghuagang uprising; Second, he once supported Yuan Shikai's restoration of monarchy. Thirdly, he held a wrong position during his stay in War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression.

During his tenure in Guangxi, Zhang suppressed the turbulent civil unrest in various places on the one hand, and carried out some "new policies" on the other.

Guangxi is located in the south of Xinjiang, on the frontier, and its military position is very important. Therefore, in 1907, the war department asked Guangxi to train a new army and a town (the basic organizational unit of the new army in the late Qing Dynasty, the number of officers and men in each town was 125 12, which was composed of soldiers, horses, artillery, engineers, trench and other arms, and was led by the control system. The town is composed of association, standard, battalion, team, platoon and shed, which is basically equivalent to the later brigade, regiment, battalion, company, platoon and class, and is limited to five years of full training. Zhang actively supported the plan of the War Department, and set up a training institute at the end of the year to train the new army and carry out military reform. Guangxi is a poor province, and it is difficult to raise funds for training new troops. Zhang managed to get 1.52 million silver from the foreign tax of Guangdong Customs as the cost of training the new army. In the case of limited funds, Zhang asked to select elites from the old army such as Long Jiguang and Lu Rongting and train them into a new army. Due to lack of funds, by the time of 19 10, Guangxi had only organized a mixed association of Chenglong New Army Standard and Guilin, far from being a town (three associations).

Because of years of war, many places in Guangxi are poor in rural areas and the people are poor. Zhang believes that the resumption of production must start with mining and reclamation. In reclamation, on the one hand, he practiced official reclamation, on the other hand, he encouraged businessmen to take the lead in reclamation. 1909 promulgated the newly revised Guangxi Reclamation Regulations to reward the successful reclamation. With the encouragement of the government, there is an upsurge of establishing companies and reclaiming wasteland among the people, and dozens of reclamation companies have been established in the whole province. In mining, he did several things: first, he surveyed minerals. He appointed Wang Chongyou, a miner studying in the United States, as a miner, responsible for the survey and mining of minerals in the province, and hired Zhang Jinsheng, a graduate of the National School of Mining in Paris, to conduct on-the-spot survey of coal mines in the Xiwan area of Hexian County (now Hezhou City); The second is mining. Zhang asked the Qing government to set up Fuhe official office, Fuhe coal mine and Xiwan tin mine. Although coal mines are losing money, tin mines are profitable; The third is to attract overseas Chinese to invest in mining. He sent people overseas to attract overseas Chinese to return to China to run mines, and Zhu Bowen, Ye En and others returned to China successively to invest and mine minerals in Guixian (now Guigang), Nandan and Hexian. In addition, Zhang also encouraged private individuals to raise funds to mine tin ore, so that "officials, gentry and businessmen can come by themselves to smelt and export for sale", which greatly increased the export of antimony sand, and the raw antimony and pure antimony increased from 40008 pounds (453 grams in British and American weight units) of 1 9 1 to 10000 pounds. He also did a lot of things in organizing modern enterprises. Among them, the most important ones are: setting up a "career suggestion road" to reward industrial and commercial development; Established "Shenggong Textile Art Factory" in Guilin, recruited 300 apprentices, and used new technology to weave; Set up an antimony smelting furnace in Wuzhou, purchase equipment and recruit technicians to be responsible for antimony smelting and testing; Established Silk Industry Co., Ltd. in Wuzhou. In this way, Guangxi began to have some modern enterprises, which laid a certain foundation for the further development of Guangxi's industry.

From 65438 to 0905, the Qing government abolished the imperial examination system and set up new schools all over the country. During his administration in Guangxi, Zhang supported this policy very much and set up various schools successively. In order to promote the development of education in Guangxi, he changed the sports school founded by Huang Huaisen, the former governor of Guangxi, into an excellent normal school, with the aim of training primary school teachers and middle school teachers. This school is the earliest place to train teachers in Guangxi, and it is the predecessor of Guangxi Normal University and even Guangxi Normal University. Simple normal schools have also been set up in various places. What's more worth mentioning is that he also founded a women's normal school in Guilin, the provincial capital at that time. Zhang believes that the development of industry needs specialized talents, so he attaches great importance to industrial education. Sericulture school was founded in Wuzhou, frontier secondary industrial school was founded in Longzhou, and the attached workshop of Guangxi Agricultural Experimental Field was founded in Lingui. From 65438 to 0909, the three industrial schools were changed into the first, second and third agricultural schools in Guangxi. These schools hire teachers from home and abroad to teach scientific knowledge in Guangxi, buy new instruments, breed animals and seeds, and develop agriculture and animal husbandry. In addition, he also founded the army primary school, army cadre school, army surveying and mapping school, law school, police school, prison school and other military, political and legal schools to train military, political and legal talents. From 65438 to 0907, Tusi School was established in Guilin to train local talents. A primary school was also established in Tuzhou County, which contributed to the promotion of culture and education in ethnic areas.

An important part of the "New Deal" in the late Qing Dynasty was to reform the official system. According to the design of the Qing government, an advisory board was set up in the central government and in the provinces as a public opinion organ to organize local autonomy. After preparation, election of members of the advisory panel and election of the speaker, the Guangxi advisory panel was formally established in Guilin in September. 1909. In order to organize local autonomy, Zhang Yu 1908 set up an autonomous bureau, and then set up autonomous research institutes and local autonomy preparation offices in various places. In the reform of the judicial system, according to the requirements of the Qing government, the provincial judicial department of Guangxi was changed into the Ministry of Justice, which was responsible for the judicial administration of the whole province. It has three departments: general affairs, trial and prison. 19 10 In June, the Guangxi Court was established and the High Court was established. In June of the same year 165438+ 10, Wuzhou District Court and Cangwu Primary Court were established in Wuzhou, with civil and criminal courts. Before the collapse of the Qing Dynasty, Guangxi initially established a modern judicial system.

In addition, Zhang also sent overseas students to study in European and American countries, founded newspapers and libraries, and made achievements in cultural construction.

Guangxi is a relatively backward province in economy and culture, especially lacking talents. To keep the "New Deal", we have to borrow it from other places. Zhang is still relatively open in talent introduction and has boldly absorbed a number of talents. 1907, when the army primary school was founded, Cai E was hired as the general manager of the school; 1908, when the Guangxi Military Reserve Office was established, Li Shucheng and Sun, who graduated from the Japanese Army NCO School, were invited to come to Guangxi to jointly organize a new army. Subsequently, the whole country recruited talents, and nearly 80 military talents came to Guangxi. Zhang also recruited a group of talents in finance, mining and politics and law. In short, during Zhang's administration, Guangxi was once a place where new people gathered. The introduction of talents is undoubtedly beneficial to Guangxi's economic, military and cultural construction and social progress.