Chapter 6 5. The turmoil arose upstairs in Wuchang, and the small platoon leader ruined the Qing Dynasty

The Wuchang Uprising was originally caused by the Sichuan Road Protection Movement. Because the situation in Sichuan showed no sign of improvement in September of the Xinhai Year, the Qing government dispatched a new army from Hubei to Sichuan, which ignited the long-prepared uprising. search. There are two revolutionary organizations in Hubei, one is the Gongjin Association and the other is the Literature Society.The Gongjinhui was a peripheral organization formed by the division of the Tongmenghui. It was composed of members of the Tongmenghui from several provinces in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, such as Sun Wu from Hubei, Jiao Dafeng from Hunan, and Deng Wenhui from Jiangxi.The Gongjinhui claimed to be the "action team" of the Tongmenghui. They mainly contacted the party and the new army, preparing to wait for an opportunity to revolt in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River.

At that time, there was a similar revolutionary group in the Hubei New Army, which was the Literature Society.The Literary Society has little to do with literature. It was actually an organization developed by the Revolutionary Party among the soldiers of the New Army. It was originally called the Qunzhi Society, but was later changed to the Zhenwu Society. Because of the discovery of its activities, it was finally renamed the Literature Society to deceive others.The Literary Society has Jiang Yiwu, Liu Fuji and others as its backbone, and they have recruited thousands of people in the Hubei New Army, twice as many as the Gongjinhui.Before the uprising, the forces that these two organizations could influence accounted for nearly one-third of the new army in Hubei, and the conditions for the revolution were very favorable.

After the outbreak of the Sichuan Road Protection Movement, the Gongjinhui and the Literature Society decided to cooperate and jointly promote major events.Just as they were making careful arrangements, news came that the Qing government had ordered the new army from Hubei to enter Sichuan. After a meeting with the Gongjinhui and the Literature Society, it was decided to hold an uprising ahead of schedule, and the time was set on October 6 (that is, the Mid-Autumn Festival in the lunar calendar).At the meeting, Jiang Yiwu from the Literature Society was promoted as the military commander, and Sun Wu from the Gongjin Association was promoted as the Minister of Military Affairs.

After the meeting, the news of "killing the Tartars on August 15th" spread like wildfire in the local area, and a local tabloid even publicly declared that the Revolutionary Party would start an uprising on the Mid-Autumn Festival (not that the news leaked, but that rumors were flying everywhere at the time, and gossip Although the news is inaccurate, it can be obtained occasionally).After the news spread, the governor of Huguang, Rui Cheng, was very frightened. He knew that the revolutionary party had penetrated into the new army, so he used the pretext of redeployment to distribute the new army that he thought was problematic, so as to break up the revolutionary party in the army. organizational relationship in.

A few days before the Mid-Autumn Festival, Ruicheng was even more nervous. He specially summoned civil servants, magistrates and military officers and captains to attend a defense meeting, and asked the army to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival in advance. During the festival, martial law was imposed. On the night of the Mid-Autumn Festival on August 15th, the scent of sweet-scented osmanthus and the bright moon hang in the city of Wuchang. At this time, instead of the imaginary hustle and bustle and riots, it seems extraordinarily peaceful and serene.It turned out that Jiao Dafeng, a member of the Hunan Revolutionary Party, sent a telegram on September 28, claiming that he was insufficiently prepared and requested to postpone the ten-day uprising; in addition, due to the need for temporary adjustments in the military deployment and the uprising command system, Sun Wu and others decided to postpone the uprising date Ten days, that is, on October 16, the uprising was launched.

After a tense Mid-Autumn Festival, the governor of Huguang, Rui Cheng, had just let go of his suspended heart, but a few days later, an explosion in the Hankou Concession immediately caused waves again. On the afternoon of October 9, when Sun Wu, Liu Gong and others were planting bombs and planning preparations in Baoshanli, the concession, Liu Gong's younger brother Liu Tong came in. Since everyone knew each other well, Sun Wu and others did not care.While other people were working, Liu Tong casually smoked on the sidelines, and accidentally flicked paper pyrotechnic chips into the gunpowder, which caused a violent explosion.

Immediately after the explosion, the house was blazing with flames and thick smoke billowing. Sun Tzu's face was severely burned on the spot, and he was sent to the hospital by his companions for treatment.While in a hurry, the Russian Concession patrol arrived after hearing the news and arrested Liu Tong and others who had not yet evacuated. They also confiscated important documents such as flags, proclamations, and rosters of revolutionaries prepared indoors for the uprising.Subsequently, the Russian Concession patrols handed over Liu Tong and others together with the seized items to the Hubei authorities.

The revolutionary party wanted to rebel, which was a big case at the time.Immediately afterwards, Ruicheng issued an order, and the whole city of Wuhan was under martial law, and the military and police went out everywhere to search and arrest the revolutionaries according to the roster.At this critical moment, Jiang Yiwu, who was transferred to Yuezhou, hurried back to Wuchang. He immediately called Liu Fuji, Peng Chufan and others to hold an emergency meeting at No. 85 Xiaochao Street, Wuchang to discuss countermeasures.At the meeting, it was unanimously agreed to hold an uprising immediately.In the afternoon of the same day, Jiang Yiwu signed an order to launch an uprising, ordering all uprising troops to fire guns from the Nanhu Artillery Team at 12 o'clock that night, and simultaneously raise righteousness inside and outside the city.

But unfortunately, due to the heavy security in the city, the uprising order was not sent to the South Lake Artillery Team in time.At midnight, everyone looked up at the starry sky, but the long-awaited sound of the cannon never fired.While everyone was anxiously waiting, the military and police had already searched No. 85 Xiaochao Street. Jiang Yiwu escaped by chance, while Liu Fuji, Peng Chufan, Yang Hongsheng and a dozen others were tightly blocked.After catching these important party members, Ruicheng ordered a sudden interrogation overnight. Subsequently, Liu Fuji, Peng Chufan, and Yang Hongsheng were killed at the Dongyuan Gate of the Supervisory Office in the early morning.

On the morning of October 10th, the military and police were still searching the streets and alleys. The strongholds of the revolutionaries were seized one after another, and more than 30 revolutionaries were arrested one after another.At this time, the governor of Huguang, Rui Li, thought that the big case had been solved and the situation was settled. He proudly telegraphed the court to ask for credit, saying, "There are rumors that the Revolutionary Party attacked the Superintendent's Office, but Rui Li remained unmoved and insisted on dealing with it calmly. Zhang Biao, Tie Zhong and other members are all loyal and hardworking, so as to eliminate the troubles at the beginning and fix the chaos in Erqing."

It's a pity that Rui Li was too happy too early.That night, there was a sudden gunshot in the city, and the peaceful night was suddenly cut through—the gunshot came from the Eighth Battalion of Engineering in the south of Ziyang Bridge in the city.After learning that Liu Fuji and other leaders were killed and revolutionaries were arrested one after another, Xiong Bingkun, the uprising convener of the 8th Battalion, was very anxious, and finally decided not to wait for the sound of the Nanhu artillery, but to gather the revolutionary soldiers of the same battalion to get up immediately that night. thing, no more delay. In this way, in the absence of the leader of the revolutionary party and the complete destruction of the command system, those revolutionary soldiers stood up and took the responsibility for launching the uprising.Just after seven o'clock that night, when Tao Qisheng, the platoon leader of the engineering battalion, checked the shed, he found soldier Jin Zhaolong wrapped in a white scarf and holding a rifle.Platoon Leader Tao has always had a strong sense of responsibility. He immediately suspected that Jin Zhaolong was planning to rebel and wanted to hand over his gun, so the two wrestled. During the fight between the two, Jin Zhaolong shouted: "Comrade, do it!" Cheng Dingguo, a soldier in the same shed, rushed to help after hearing the sound, and wounded platoon leader Tao's waist with a gun.This was the first shot of the Wuchang Uprising and the first shot of the Revolution of 1911.This shot announced that the Qing Dynasty was about to come to an end... From the perspective of chance, Platoon Leader Tao might never have imagined that the two hundred and sixty years of the Qing Dynasty would be taken by the rash actions of his little platoon leader To be buried. Platoon leader Tao escaped in pain after being wounded, not to mention.As soon as the gunshot rang out, Xiong Bingkun, the convener of the uprising, arrived as quickly as possible. He made a decisive decision and announced an immediate uprising.Under the call of Xiong Bingkun, the revolutionary soldiers acted quickly.The battalion supervisor Ruan Rongfa, the right team officer Huang Kunrong, and the platoon leader Zhang Wenlan and others saw that the situation was not going well, and rushed out of the camp to stop them. The soldiers shouted: "Sirs, join us in the revolution, and go together!" Poor Ruan, Huang and the others hadn't figured out the situation at that time... How dare they shout loudly at this time, but before they could finish speaking, the bullets had already penetrated into their chests.Afterwards, the revolutionary soldiers rushed out of the camp, and shot anyone who stood in the way. Due to lack of ammunition, Xiong Bingkun immediately led the soldiers to the Chuwangtai Ordnance Station.After arriving there, there were dozens of banner soldiers blocking them. Unexpectedly, there were also revolutionary soldiers in the ordnance station.So the soldiers opened the armory and quickly distributed weapons and ammunition. At that time, there were more than 400 revolutionary soldiers who rushed to Chuwangtai. Because Xiong Bingkun's military rank was too low (equivalent to the deputy squad leader), it was difficult to convince the masses and he did not know how to command, so he complied with the soldiers' request and publicly promoted the team officer (equivalent to the deputy squad leader). Company commander) Wu Zhaolin came to act as the interim commander.Wu Zhaolin was originally a member of the Rizhi Society (an early revolutionary group that was destroyed later), he was able to do things and had a certain commanding ability.After Wu Zhaolin was ordered, he ordered to strengthen the security around Chuwangtai, and at the same time sent people to contact other revolutionary forces inside and outside the city for unified action. As the night deepened, the situation was moving towards the side of the revolutionaries.Almost at the same time that Platoon Leader Tao was shot, a raging fire suddenly ignited in Tangjiao outside Wuchang City.It turned out that, like Xiong Bingkun and others, the soldiers of the Mixed Association Supply Battalion stationed in Tangjiao outside the city also made an appointment to launch an uprising that night. After seven o'clock in the evening, the revolutionary soldier Li Pengsheng and others lit the piled horse grass with kerosene lamps and announced the uprising . With the blazing fire and the crisp sound of gunfire, the barracks of the new army stationed in Wuchang immediately boiled. The revolutionary soldiers rushed out of the barracks one after another. They instinctively rushed to the gun station, the fort, and the commanding heights.At that time, the 19th Biao (equivalent to the regiment) and the 30th Biao were the closest to the engineering battalion that first launched the attack. After hearing the gunshots, the revolutionary soldiers, led by representatives Cai Jimin and Peng Jilin, went straight to Chuwangtai.After hearing the gunshots, the students of the nearby Surveying and Mapping School quickly rushed to Chuwangtai as a whole team; together with some soldiers from No. 31 and No. 41 who were stationed in the Zuoqi barracks, Chuwangtai had become the commanding height of the revolution at that time. After the fire ignited in Tangjiao outside the city, soldiers from the 11th Battalion of the Supply Battalion, Engineering Team and Artillery Team responded one after another. They quickly entered the city and captured the Phoenix Mountain Highland, and also sent some soldiers to follow the gunfire to Chuwang Taiwan responds.At the same time, the No. 8 Nanhu Artillery Team in the south of the city announced an uprising. With the support of the engineering battalion, they entered the city smoothly, and quickly occupied high grounds such as Chuwangtai and Snake Mountain, and deployed artillery formations.After the Nanhu Artillery Brigade took up the uprising, the nearby No. 32 and Cavalry No. 8 also responded to the revolution. They gathered in Chuwangtai, Snake Mountain, Fenghuang Mountain and other places to launch military operations. The uprising of the soldiers of the new army was different from the party and student uprisings organized by Sun Yat-sen and Huang Xing. They were all professionals with long military training, and once they took action, it would be no small matter.At that time, nearly 4,000 revolutionary troops participated in the uprising, while the strength of the Qing army that had not yet risen was no more than 5,000.More importantly, the revolutionary army concentrated its forces, and the only ones who could fight against it were about 2,000 Qing soldiers from the Guard Supervision Office and the nearby 8th Town Command.Therefore, the revolutionary army has an advantage both in terms of numbers and morale. After eleven o'clock that night, the revolutionary army, with the strong support of the Snake Mountain artillery, launched three consecutive violent attacks on the Governor's Office, and finally captured the Eighth Town Command at two o'clock in the morning.Seeing that the situation was not good, Ruicheng, the governor of Huguang, hurriedly led the guards to flee to the "Chuyu" ship on the river. Zhang Biao, the admiral of the Hubei army and the commander of the eighth town, saw that the situation was over, so he had to lead the defeated soldiers to retreat to Liujiamiao in Hankou. When the first ray of sight fell on the gate of the former mighty supervisor in the early morning, it had become the occupation of revolutionary soldiers.On this morning, the self-proclaimed "calm" governor and the "loyal and hard-working" ruler had already fled, and the rest of the chief envoys, tifa envoys, and Wuchang prefect and other officials, big and small, all They fled the yamen they were in charge of with expressionless faces, and no one resisted or martyred. At eleven o'clock in the morning on October 11th, on the top of Snake Mountain, which dominates Wuchang City, a flag with eighteen stars on a red background flew up. It announced the death of an old government and the establishment of a new regime at the same time. . Since most of the leaders of the uprising were killed or their whereabouts were unknown, and the soldiers who participated in the revolution lacked prestige, who would come forward to organize the new government became the most pressing issue.The revolutionary soldiers first approached the members of the Hubei Consultative Bureau, and they planned to nominate the speaker Tang Hualong as the governor of the military government.In the uncertain situation, although Tang Hualong expressed his support for the revolution, he evaded it with the excuse of "non-soldier" and "do not know how to use troops".After much deliberation, everyone thought of one person. This is Li Yuanhong, the Xietong (brigade commander) who is second only to the commander (division commander) Zhang Biao in the Hubei New Army.Li Yuanhong was originally from the Navy. He graduated from the Beiyang Naval Academy in Tianjin in his early years. In 1894, he participated in the Sino-Japanese Yellow Sea War with the "Guangjia" ship. After the ship was destroyed, Li Yuanhong was rescued by water.After the war, all officers of the Beiyang Navy were dismissed. Later, Li Yuanhong defected to Zhang Zhidong and was reused.When the Wuchang Uprising broke out, Li Yuanhong was serving as the commander of the Army's 21st Mixed Association (equivalent to a strengthened brigade).Li Yuanhong was originally an officer of the old school. He suppressed revolutionary activities many times in the training of the new army and killed revolutionary soldiers with his own hands.After the Wuchang Uprising broke out, he knew that the situation was not good, so he was hiding in the home of his friend Liu Wenji. When Li Yuanhong was still in shock, there was a sudden noise at the door—revolutionary soldiers came to the door.It is said that Li Yuanhong hid under the bed in desperation, but was finally dragged out.Surrounded by Wu Zhaolin and others, Li Yuanhong came to the Advisory Bureau helplessly.When he learned that the revolutionary soldiers wanted him to be the governor of the military government, he panicked and said repeatedly: "Don't harm me! Don't harm me!" Because Li Yuanhong refused to sign the Anmin notice, the revolutionary soldiers were furious, and someone signed his name on Li Yuanhong's behalf with a pen.Ever since, the name of "Li Dudu" spread like wildfire in Wuchang City. On the 12th, Hankou and Hanyang were recovered successively, and the three towns of Wuhan all fell into the hands of the revolutionary army.When the revolutionary situation was very good, Li Yuanhong's attitude suddenly took a 180-degree turn. He said impassionedly: "From now on, I am a member of the military government, and I am willing to live and die with you." Tang Hualong and others from the Advisory Bureau were also very active. They discussed frequently with Li Yuanhong and carefully designed the formation of the military government. On the 17th, after the "Sacred Heaven Ceremony", Li Yuanhong announced the composition list of the Hubei Military Government.What is ironic is that, except for Sun Tzu who served as the Minister of Military Affairs, the other six ministries were all subordinates of Li Yuanhong and Tang Hualong's cronies, and the revolutionary soldiers of the Shouyi stood aside instead.