Chapter 6 Constitutionalist First

The Wuchang Uprising of the Revolution of 1911 was called "Shouyi" by later generations, which means the first uprising.To this day, banners reading "Promote the spirit of the First Uprising" are hung on the top of Wuchang City to frighten people.As common sense, people know that the Wuchang uprising was the work of the revolutionaries, but in fact, the constitutional party also participated in this uprising.It is hard to say whether the first uprising in Wuchang would have been successful without the Constitutionalists. Constitutionalists are reformists.They are basically responsible for the councilors of the Advisory Bureau and the Council of Ministers in the imperial court.For the Qing government, in theory, they were helping rather than rebelling.In the New Deal of the Qing Dynasty, the constitutionalists were indeed helping, pushing the government away, hoping to push the government to constitutionalism as soon as possible.But when it came to the year of 1911, the brothers couldn't push it anymore.Three petitions broke my throat, only in exchange for three years of shortening the constitutional time.You know, these gentlemen who are old and young are not middle school students, so it is very easy to make a petition.If the petition fails, you can't just lose face.Not only can it not be pushed, but the Manchu relatives and nobles have to take over power, transfer the local power to the central government, and transfer the power of the Han people to the Manchus.Fighting for a constitution, the gentry originally wanted to share more power with the Manchus, but they didn't expect that those who wanted to share were not given, and what they had, they would take away.If it is said that the imperial court's move to withdraw the road and mining rights from the local area has made these gentlemen furious, then the introduction of the royal cabinet has completely disappointed them, and they are chilled from the top of their heads to the soles of their feet.Before the Wuchang Uprising, Tang Hualong went to Beijing to fight for the right of way, but to no avail. When the uprising broke out, he was sulking at home.

History always likes to join in the fun. Just when the Constitutionalists were feeling cold, a group of soldiers from the new army rose up and revolutionized.However, the soldiers who occupied Wuchang City had no leader, and had no choice but to drag Li Yuanhong out as the leader, but they were a silent "Bodhisattva".Rui Cheng, governor of Huguang, was still on the Chuyu ship by the river, and Zhang Biao, the commander, was still camping outside the city with his troops.If reinforcements arrive, they will definitely counterattack.A group of soldiers without a leader can make a fuss, but if they really fight, they will be in trouble.The leader of the revolutionary party, before the incident, died or fled, there was no hope at all.At this time, Tang Hualong, chairman of the Hubei Counseling Bureau, took the stage. Strictly speaking, he arrived on the second morning of the uprising.That day, Tang Hualong was living at home. People rushed to the Council but couldn’t find him. Everyone was in a panic. Tang Hualong came by himself and readily agreed to take part in organizing the government and serve as the minister of political affairs. operate.Some people also said that Tang Hualong agreed to leave the mountain only after he listened to the persuasion of his son and daughter's relative Hu Ruilin.

Tang Hualong is a standard gentry in the New Deal era. He passed the Jinshi and studied in Japan. He was a core figure in the constitutional petition movement.In Hubei, where there are many famous gentry, there is absolutely no one who can be the chairman of the Advisory Council.Like the vast majority of constitutionalist leaders, he was very angry at the Qing government’s refusal to establish a constitution, the establishment of a royal cabinet, and especially the withdrawal of road mining rights. On the eve of the Wuchang Uprising, he was still working on the road protection in Sichuan and had just returned to Wuhan. .This trip after the revolution was at the request of the uprising soldiers, but Tang Hualong, who was invited, was very active.On the same day, a meeting was held to discuss, and he immediately came up with an idea to let the revolutionary army telegraph all provinces, spread the news, and ask all regions to respond, so as to prevent Wuchang from fighting alone.It was also because of his repeated persuasion that Li Yuanhong changed from Li Bodhisattva to Li Dudu.Li Dudu began to watch the matter, and indeed he made extraordinary moves. The revolutionary army beat Zhang Biao and the Chuyu ship away.When the navy fleet of the Qing Dynasty came, because Li Yuanhong was born in the Beiyang Navy, the leading navy minister Sa Zhenbing was his teacher.Li Yuanhong wrote a letter to Sa Zhenbing, enclosing a gift, and Li Guoyong, another constitutional party member, entrusted him to take him on the warship.Sa Zhenbing received the letter and returned the gift, but tended to be neutral.Tang Hualong's younger brother, Tang Xiangming, also served in the navy fleet, serving as a staff officer next to Sa Zhenbing.Tang Hualong also did a lot of work through Tang Xiangming.When the Beiyang army went south and fought the revolutionary army in the three towns of Wuhan, the navy instead stood on the side of the "rebels" to fight the Qing army.You must know that Li Yuanhong's contribution is that the revolutionary soldiers have been issuing notices in his name, which is equivalent to accepting the vote for him, so he couldn't help but refuse.But anyway, Tang Hualong took the initiative.At that time, the chairman of the Advisory Council who was a Jinshi, in that year, would have obstacles in doing this kind of beheading and extermination, but he did it.

There are three things that help the constitutionalists get involved in the first uprising.One is the participation of these big gentry and businessmen, which made the Westerners in Hankou feel that the revolution was not a rebellion at the bottom. At the same time, they used their good relationship with the Western consuls in Hankou to operate the consuls of various countries to declare that they recognized the revolutionary army as the warring party, while they were neutral. .It is equivalent to a country that has formal diplomatic relations with the Qing government and openly admits that the rebels within the Qing Dynasty have the same status as the Qing government.This undoubtedly made the situation worse for the battered Qing government.The other is the telegram of the uprising drafted by Tang Hualong himself. From the very beginning, he criticized the relatives of the Manchus, monopolized power, and abandoned the Han people.As a result, the following provinces responded and became an ensemble of revolutionaries and constitutionalists.The independence of almost every province has the presence of Constitutionalists.In some important provinces, such as Zhejiang and Jiangsu, the Constitutionalists are still in charge.The famous gentry Zhang Jian and Tang Shouqian there, like Tang Hualong, felt the pain of the perverse behavior of the Manchu relatives.The third is that the Hankou business group controlled by Tang Hualong immediately invested in maintaining order. Such a large Wuhan would be impossible to control if there were less than 4,000 revolutionary soldiers after the uprising.

The participation of the Constitutionalists made the revolution much easier and much milder.Originally, these constitutionalists were local power factions, deeply rooted and flourishing in the localities.They have relations with local officials and the old-style patrol battalion that are not very revolutionary, and they have great face. If they come forward to lobby, no matter whether the other party agrees or not, they will not be tied up and pushed out to beheaded.After three words and two persuasions, quite a lot of people obeyed, but if they didn't, they would leave their posts at most, and few led troops to resist.So much so that in many places, the revolution has almost become a storm in a teacup, and the dagger is not alarmed.When the common people woke up, they found that the only change was that the yamen had hoisted a white flag.After Suzhou, the capital of Jiangsu Province, did not even fire a single shot, Cheng Dequan, who was changed from governor to governor, ordered the removal of a few tiles from the eaves of the governor’s yamen with a large bamboo pole in order to show that the revolution must be destroyed.Throughout the revolutionary process, as long as there was no war, basically business travelers would not be alarmed, and ordinary people would live their lives as they should.The only thing that troubles the common people is that they hear that the emperor is gone.As for foreigners, it’s fine even if they stay in the war zone. Regardless of whether they are soldiers from the Qing Dynasty or militiamen, they will walk around the houses of foreigners when they come across them.

Of course, although the Constitutionalists got involved in the revolution, it was because they hated the Manchus, but even so, they would never have fired the first shot.Someone fired the first shot, and they dared to take the second step.Just like Tang Hualong and Li Guoyong, they walked very firmly. Even if the Beiyang army attacked fiercely and went down to Hankou and Hanyang, they did not intend to quit.