Chapter 7 Citizens' Wuchang Uprising

A citizen in Western society is a very bright image in modern society.According to Western theory, the modern Western social system was developed from civil society.However, in ancient China, the citizens were not very positive.Since the culture is dominated by the countryside, citizens often mean uneducated, dishonest, and slippery.Citizens not only mean big and small merchants, but also notorious cars, boats, shops, feet, teeth, and government servants.These people, compared to farmers, often mean cheating.Although this bad reputation is often demonized, it dominates people's impressions.To do big things, no one can trust the citizens. Until Zeng Guofan trained the Hunan Army, he still abided by the principle of not wanting people from the city.

However, after more than half a century of modernization efforts, in China's open port cities, the old citizens are still there, but new citizens, such as workers, pilots, journalists, doctors, and compradors, have also appeared.Wuhan, where the Wuchang Uprising took place, is such a port city.As the hub of the thoroughfare of nine provinces, Wuhan was quite prosperous in those days, with trade routes leading to Russia in the north, Guangzhou in the south, Chongqing in the west, and Shanghai in the east.In addition, the Hanyang Iron Works and Arsenal, which were huge state-run factories in the Qing Dynasty, were both located in Wuhan. Therefore, the number of new citizens in this city was quite large, and the number of old citizens did not decrease due to the appearance of new citizens.With the expansion of the market and the prosperity of commerce, the original Baojia-style management method of the Qing Dynasty gradually became invalid.Merchants and residents in various streets imitated the concession and spontaneously formed a security committee to be responsible for fire fighting and public security.The presidents of the Security Council are all relatively large shop owners, and the members are voluntary shopkeepers, apprentices and residents.However, the fire-fighting equipment that needs to be purchased will be shared among the merchants.Each security association also dispatched a number of "civilian police" to assist the police in patrolling the streets.Later, on the basis of the security associations of the various streets and under the initiative of Tang Hualong, the leader of the constitutional gentry in the city, the security associations of the various streets jointly formed the "Federation of Various Organizations in Hankou" as an autonomous organization of citizens.The core of this federation is the banking research association organized by Tang Hualong and some leading figures in the business world.

After Tang Hualong dominated the federation, this famous gentry who had studied in Japan began to rectify the various security associations, uniformly equipping members with uniforms, like military uniforms.Let these scattered shop assistants, apprentices and workers receive education and training on a regular basis, publicize the meaning of the security committee to maintain law and order in the society, and the significance of fire fighting. , The fire brigade was dispatched to put out the fire.At the same time, Tang Hualong took advantage of his position to deal with various parties and asked the governor of Huguang, Rui Li, for approval. The federation purchased 2,000 German Mausers (if you don’t want to buy cheap Hanyang-made guns, you probably didn’t like them), and tens of thousands of rounds of ammunition.Some officers from military academies were hired to serve as military instructors in various security associations, and they were paid more money than officers in the army.He practiced for two hours every morning, and regularly shot targets and shot live ammunition.Each security association has almost one platoon of troops, and the entire association has a team of thousands of people.Members are often dressed in military uniforms, carrying guns, playing drums, and marching in line on the street.Let these apprentices and shop assistants feel that they have face.After Tang Hualong became the chairman of the Hubei Consultative Bureau, he also mobilized the Federation and organized a constitutional petition parade.Thousands of people lined up neatly, and a security guard with the same banner went to the governor's office to petition.

We have seen in many materials that the citizens of Wuhan welcome the uprising very much and send food and water.But in fact, citizens were not limited to expressing support for the uprising, they also participated in the uprising.The uprising broke out suddenly, and the regime changed overnight, but there was no major chaos. The most important thing was that Tang Hualong entered the military government. Under the coordination of the gentry, the various security associations immediately became security teams, wore red armbands, and added Weapons, come out to maintain the ground, help search for remnants, and suppress lawlessness.The customs report stated that the business leaders were maintaining the market in Hankou, and the revolutionary army and the citizens were working together to maintain order. When looters were found, they would shoot or bayonet them. "People of all walks of life expressed sympathy for the revolutionary army in various ways", and of course it was not just sympathy.Even, these members of the business group directly participated in the war. In the battle to attack Sandaoqiao, it is said that the armed forces of the Security Council played a great role.At that time, most of the revolutionary army was temporarily expanded, and a large number of recruits, some of them fainted when they went to the battlefield, and they didn't even know how to load or fire a gun.After all, the members of the security association have received more than a year of training, and they have also been to live ammunition drills. In any case, they are better than those recruits.It's just that the members of these security associations all have jobs. After one battle and two battles, most of them went home, and only a few joined the army to continue fighting.In this sense, citizens also participated in the Wuchang Uprising.Of course, their Shanghai counterparts worked even harder, and the main force in attacking the manufacturing bureau was the Shanghai business group.

We know that the success of the Wuchang Uprising had a lot to do with the fact that the constitutional party was disappointed by the imperial court and turned to support the revolution.Tang Hualong is a typical example. This famous gentry who was born as a Jinshi and became the chairman of a provincial consultation bureau unexpectedly threw himself into it immediately after the uprising broke out, willing to risk his head and family.To a large extent, it was because before the uprising, he took back the right of way from the imperial court, and it was so cool to set up the royal cabinet.Leaders are disappointed, followers are even more disappointed.Citizens of treaty ports like Shanghai and Wuhan are the first to get popular. Whether they support revolution or constitutionalism, they all hope that China's system will change in the direction of the West.When everyone thinks that the imperial court is making a false constitution and taking all the power in their own hands, the followers of the constitution, who are small people, must be more pessimistic and desperate than their leaders.Therefore, we can see that in the treaty ports where the revolution occurred, the citizens are more enthusiastic about the revolution.The citizens of Shanghai couldn't even tolerate newspapers reporting the defeat of the revolution. Whoever reported it would smash the windows of their houses.However, in the interior, it was the party masses who were obsessed with revolution, and the peasants and businessmen were indifferent.