Chapter 4 The first act of the year of Xinhai, what happened in Wuchang

On the night of October 10, 1911, the uprising in the engineering battalion of the New Army in Wuchang took place. Although there were some arrangements made by the revolutionary party before, it was actually just the spontaneous behavior of the soldiers when it came to an end.Revolution, with great chance.But such a coincidence, it can finally be done, is actually a coincidence.The reason for saying this is that on the previous night of September 24, there was also a spontaneous and accidental uprising by soldiers in the artillery unit of the Wuchang New Army stationed in Nanhu. All the same, aroused a general response, and thus quietly miscarried.

The thing is like this, according to reports at the time, some veterans of the Eighth and Third Battalion of the Hubei New Army Artillery Brigade had expired and were discharged as ordered.Because these veterans are old and popular, everyone gave them wine to see them off. On the night of September 24th, Wang Xijiu and others were drinking with their former colleagues. Some Qiuba, when they got drunk, yelled and made rude remarks, which made the officer feel uncomfortable (there is also a saying that drinking is For the sake of Wang Xijiu and others, he asked for leave to leave the camp).Liu Buyun, the platoon leader of the team, had always been at odds with Wang Xijiu and others, and stepped forward to interfere (almost the same as what happened in the engineering battalion on October 10, and the platoon leader who came out to interfere).Veterans have always been aggressive, and always have been.In the past, it was fine to listen to others, but now I am about to leave the army, and I have to suffer this anger, how can I bear it?Coupled with the fact that these people were originally connected with the Revolutionary Party, it was even more difficult to restrain them.So the two sides changed from quarreling to fighting.All the soldiers got up and opened the ordnance room, took out a dozen carbine guns, and bombarded the officer's room, but the bullets in the guns were all training bullets that had no seeds and could not hurt anyone.These people did not stop doing anything, dragged out three quick cannons, and prepared to do a big job.However, since the new army's cannons and shells were separated, and there were cannons but no ammunition, they went to grab the ammunition depot again, but they couldn't break the gate of the depot in a hurry.Later, in the uprising of the engineering battalion, the whole battalion responded when the gun fired.However, the actions of the South Lake Artillery Team did not attract others to follow suit.When the responders did not come, the repressive cavalry came down, and the soldiers who rebelled had to abandon their guns and flee.When the cavalry caught up with them, Wang Xijiu told them that we are all brothers, so why bother?The cavalry soldiers also retreated.

After the incident broke out, the Revolutionary Party once wanted to launch ahead of schedule.But considering the lack of preparation and the suddenness of the incident, Rui Li and Zhang Biao were faint-hearted and cowardly, so they might not really get to the bottom of it.So, just arranged for the two leading soldiers to escape without further action.Sure enough, after getting the news, Ruicheng and Zhang Biao would rather believe that the incident happened by chance, but that the veterans were drinking and making trouble, so they dismissed several people from the military and let the matter rest.

The Nanhu Artillery Corps and the Engineering Battalion were only fifteen days apart.As far as the revolutionary situation is concerned, it is actually no different.Neither of them had the intentional arrangement and leadership of the revolutionary party, and both launched troubles on their own, and both fired shots.The latter responded en masse, while for the former, everyone watched from the sidelines, at most shouting and booing.The difference between the two events is only one thing, and that is the situation. As the saying goes, situations are stronger than people.As the saying goes, this situation is exactly what I am talking about.In fact, this situation was created by Ruicheng, the governor of Hubei in the Qing Dynasty, and the revolutionaries. On October 9th, the revolutionaries tested a bomb in the stronghold of Baoshanli in the Russian Concession in Hankou, and accidentally exploded, exposing the stronghold.The futile and hopeless revolutionaries threw all the rosters, proclamations, flags, and even weapons and funds to the scouts, which led to a large-scale raid in the whole city of Ruili. Many strongholds were cracked and more than 20 people were arrested. The leaders of the revolutionary party fled one after another.Peng Chufan, Liu Yaocheng, and Yang Hongsheng died, and their heads were hung on the city wall in a demonstration.Rumors that Ruicheng and Zhang Biao were going to find out what they wanted spread throughout the camp.This is the situation in which the engineering battalion launched a crisis. With this situation, the uprising will respond to everyone.

We know that any kind of rebellion or uprising requires mobilization.The greater the mobilization, the greater the chance of success.But the best mobilization is to create an atmosphere of terror in which everyone is in danger.With such an atmosphere, everyone feels threatened, the chance of rebellion is high, and the morale of fighting is high.This is why the initiators of rebellions in history often need to create rumors. On the eve of the Engineering Battalion Uprising on October 10, everyone felt insecure, firstly from the failure of the Revolutionary Party, and secondly from Ruicheng’s mishandling, and the two miraculously formed a complete logical line, which one couldn’t help but believe.As a matter of fact, Rui Cheng and his aides really thought about finding out who they were and arresting them according to the list of party members, so the rumors were not without reason.With the disputes over the right of way in the local area, the frequent activities of the revolutionaries, and the precarious situation, the hearts of the people were already unstable.With rumors coming together and no effective measures to appease them, people's hearts will collapse.On the eve of the engineering battalion's attack, it was reported that Zhang Biao had arranged the management of each battalion, and all soldiers in the camp who read new books and newspapers, spoke loudly, and cut their braids were all expelled and escorted back to their original places.In addition, it is strictly forbidden for soldiers to come and go between battalions, and it is not allowed for more than five soldiers to gather and talk.Although it was not implemented in time, it added to the tense atmosphere, allowing the soldiers to "confirm" the authenticity of the plot from the stern expressions and sneaky actions of the officers.In fact, although there are many revolutionary parties in the new army, they are not as many as imagined. At least, there are quite few revolutionary parties among the officers. As long as there are not enough responders, they can be suppressed.But according to Tu Suoji's rumors, not only all the revolutionaries in the new army who did not escape felt the threat of death, but also those who had contacts with the revolutionaries were panicked. The roster of the revolutionaries was made by themselves. Who knows Who is in that roster?If you don't move, you will die. If you move, you may have a way to survive.According to a revolutionary, "If you revolt, you will die, if you don't stand up, you will die. If you are dead, you would rather take risks than be a turtle in the urn." The situation of the Chen Sheng Wu Guang Uprising, history tells us that in such a situation, the soldiers are very effective.However, even so, almost half of the new army did not move.In fact, all units with a little more revolutionaries "rebelled", and units with less revolutionaries and soldiers who were less worried about being implicated did not respond.It's just that they didn't have the heart to suppress the same kind of uprising. Once the governor left, the soldiers would disperse.

From this point of view, if there were no accidents in the Hankou Concession on October 9 and the uprising proceeded according to the plan deployed by the revolutionary party, the revolution may not really be successful.Because of the planned uprising, the intensity of mobilization was obviously not enough.It's hard to say how many people responded to the cannonball of the uprising.After the success of the Wuchang Uprising, Liu Gong, one of the original revolutionary leaders, said that when they mobilized the new army soldiers, although many people had the intention of revolution, once they implemented specific actions, they would hesitate.So they even thought of threatening these soldiers with bombs, and if they didn't participate, they would be killed.In order to prove this point, there was already a ready-made example before. If everyone wanted to rebel on the night of September 24, and the Nanhu Artillery Team fired their guns and mobilized, they would still be able to succeed.Later, it was also the Nanhu artillery team, but most of them responded to the uprising. The addition of artillery played a decisive role in the capture of the Governor's Mansion.If you want to plant flowers and flowers, you will not succeed, but if you have no intention of planting willows and willows to make shade.Since ancient times, the things that have been done crookedly and rightly have been written in books.Perhaps the Wuchang Uprising was such an unintentional act.