Kerwang Gwas-run
The Hon. Kjong Gogh-rjun MP, GCOS | |
|---|---|
 Kjong in 1922 | |
| Native name | 龔后倫 |
| Other name(s) | 中羣 (trjungh-gljun) |
| Born | January 2, 1865 Lje-djang, Sjeh |
| Died | March 25, 1951 (aged 86) Kien-k'ang |
| Allegiance | Themiclesia |
| Service | Themiclesian Army |
| Years of service | 25 |
| Rank | Colonel (1925 – 1937) Brigadier (1937 – 1951) Major-general (posthumously) |
| Battles/wars | Prairie War Pan-Septentrion War |
| Awards | Grand Commander, Order of the Star (1949) |
Kjong Gogh-rjun (龔后倫, courtesy name: 中羣 trjungh-gljun; Jan. 2, 1865 – Mar. 25, 1951) was a Themiclesian legislator, civil servant, and military officer in the Themiclesian Army most noted for his role in intermediating the government and the military during the Pan-Septentrion War. Towards the middle of the war, the War Secretary became increasingly reliant upon his advice, whose power gradually eclipsed that of more senior commanders; through a staff colonel, his influence was chiefly exercised through the position of First Private Secretary to the Secretary of State of War.
Early life
Kjong was born fifth of six children to a rural gentry family, largely living off rent income, in 1865. His father, a civil servant, rose to the high rank of Under Secretary in the Foreign Office and Ministry of Commerce; his mother was a daughter of a similarly-ranked gentle family. Due to Themiclesia's recent loss of the Battle of Liang-la, the family's lands plummeted in value, saved only by early sale, possibly on insider information from his father's office. The Kjong family took up residence in Kien-k'ang, the capital city, where their family home has been opened to the public after Kjong's death. Kjong's father resorted to reckless trading of equities in the capital city, several times nearing bankruptcy in the turbulent market of the 1870s but ultimately making them affluent. Along with hundreds of rural gentry families driven to the cities in consequence of the depression, Kjong's father became a steadfast Liberal supporter, even though high-ranking civil servants were, as a rule, Conservative voters at the time. Kjong's childhood was spent with a private tutor, who introduced him to canonical topics such as mathematics, rites, phonology, philology, history, philosophy, and some modern subjects.
Kjong matriculated at the Western University, one of Themclesia's best universities, in 1887. His undergraduate work was in the Casaterran Classics; he became a Master of Classics in 1894, researching similarities between Themiclesian political institutions and Casaterran ones in late antiquity. Learning that a renowned Casaterran war historian had been retained at the Army Academy, he pursued his doctorate in military history with Professor Charles M. Edwards of Tyran. His doctoral research work covered the similar topic of Hexarchy political alliances as revealed by documents recently unearthed in 1895. While he had no inclination towards a military career, intending to go into politics instead, his graduation at the Army Academy made him eligible for commission in the future (at the rank of captain, as a doctor). After he left the Academy, he spent three years as Gentlemen-at-Arms in the court of Emperor Gar. Using his father's connections in the Liberal Party, he stood as their candidate in the Kien-k'ang constituency of Krar-lang, elected in 1900.
Member of parliament
His legislative career turned out to be short and unremarkable. As a Liberal MP in a Conservative-majority parliament, he became weary of parliamentary politics only two years into his term. The incumbent Prime Minister Tjo Hmet (1824 – 1915) was nearing senility and often failed to answer questions coherently. Despite virulent Liberal criticism, the Conservatives endorsed his premiership and blocked any reform bill to the bureaucracy and military, both of which the Liberals contended were outdated and hampered by excessive conservatism and constraint. When the Navy presented a modest shipbuilding programme in 1901, the Conservatives refused to give it a first reading in the chamber; Liberal front bench Hwang MP replied that "never before in human history has a government so proudly trampled upon the people willing to die for its continuation." However, the government's greatest hostility came with franchise reform, which was a topic in which Kjong felt interested, his electorate seriously plagued by strikes and demonstrations by workers who were not enfranchised; the Conservative speaker often ruled reformist speaches out of order or adjourned the house without warning. While Kjong did not make a single speech between 1901 and 1904, believing it to be largely useless, his colleagues remarked that he was a hardworking person, presenting drafts in the Party newspaper and actively finding fault in the Conservative government.
He was re-elected in his constituency in 1907, but the Conservative Party retained the majority. After a second refusal to enact workplace safety legislation in 1909, a riot broke out in Kien-k'ang. The franchise was extended, for the first time since 1877, to all men who could show property worth at least 65 hmrjing, doubling the size of the electorate overnight, for the concession that an income tax would not be imposed for 20 years. Kjong spoke passionately on the floor about the enlargement of the franchise, noting that the deterioration of cadet branches of "the patricians" had rendered them unsuited as the sole ruling class of Themiclesia. He urged that parliament should equally represent "those who have proven worth in measurable (i.e. monetary) terms", rather than those who "inherit the glories of the past". To adjust their electoral position, the Conservative Party was forced to shift towards the left, even proposing some original reforms of their own. Without warning, in 1913, Prime Minister Tjo retired and was replaced by Lragh, who proposed that the work day be limited to 15 hours for adults and 12 for children under age 10. This dealt a severe blow to the electoral position of the Liberals, as the Conservatives were now seen as active reformers without actually damaging much of their own interests. Indeed, the Conservatives immediately called a general election. As a result, Kjong lost his seat and instead fowarded his name to the Ministry of Administration, desiring to quit parliamentary politics.
Civil service career
Being an academic doctor with experience as gentleman-at-arms and as a member of parliament, Kjong was received favourably by the Ministry of Administration, which appointed him as the Marshal of Gar-ngwadh in 1915. While he complained to the Ministry that he did not wish to have a position connected to the military, the Secretary of State replied that if he desired speedy promotion, this was the best position available, which he then took. There, he would reunite with his friend at the Army Academy, Ri Rjem, who became a Master of History and was serving as the Major of Infantry in that prefecture. The two confessed to each that neither had achieved much and were both middle-aged. He spent three years on the position before being named the Director of the Hên-lang Left Guards in 1918. Two years later, he was made the Marshal of the Demesne, which technically made him the third-most senior military officer in the realm, without having held any actual military command before. In 1923, he was appointed the Marshal of the Royal Guards. While the Royal Guards were not a strategically important force, he symbolically reported to the Cabinet Office, the heart of the Themiclesian bureaucracy. His proficiency at administration and good speaking skills gradually garnered the attention of the Liberal War Secretary at the time. At the start of the Prairie War, the War Secretary made him a private secretary.