Chapter 13 Zhennan Pass: The Story of the Uprising

The Battle of Zhennanguan in Guangxi at the end of 1907 was one of the ten anti-Qing uprisings in the history of the Kuomintang.According to Sun Yat-sen, it was the sixth failure.This uprising, though so insignificant at the time that posterity often forgets it, was the only uprising that Sun Yat-sen attended in person.Later, there are legends that Sun Yat-sen visited Zhennan Pass in person and fired cannons at the Qing soldiers himself, thus winning the reputation of "Sun Dapao". However, the earlier records of the Kuomintang about the uprising did not mention that Sun Yat-sen fired a cannon. They only said that when Sun Yat-sen arrived at Zhennanguan, when the Qing army attacked, the retired French officer who came with him fired a cannon and killed the enemy. More than sixty people and so on.A person who is said to have participated in the uprising (Liang Liya) recalled that it was Sun Yat-sen who ordered the gunners to fire back, and the French followed suit, and did not say how many Qing soldiers were killed.In the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China, calling someone a "big gun" was actually not a compliment anyway.Generally speaking, it is said that this person is a big talker and coquettish.Many occasions when Sun Yat-sen was called a cannon are obviously speaking in this sense.Therefore, it is another matter whether Sun Yat-sen fired this cannon or not, but he certainly will not be awarded the title of "cannon" because of this cannon.But this uprising has special significance because of Sun Yat-sen's presence.

In fact, in the records of the Kuomintang member Zou Lu, the scale of this uprising was quite small.Because Wang Heshun, the leader of the rebel army appointed by Sun Yat-sen in advance, failed to gather people, he had to be temporarily reassigned as the leader of Huang Mingtang. Huang led more than a hundred volunteer township regiments to climb up the Zhennanguan Fort from the cliff and guard the fort. The army fled in embarrassment, so they occupied three forts and seized many cannons.Then Sun Yat-sen came with Huang Xing, Hu Hanmin, as well as the Japanese and French, and "rewarded them with great honor".Then the Qing soldiers assembled and began to counterattack.After the rebel army fired back, Lu Rongting, the commander-in-chief of the Qing army, asked someone to bring a letter of surrender in an extremely submissive tone, but for some reason, Sun Yat-sen did not agree. Instead, he took the first step and withdrew from Vietnam.Here Lu Rongting launched a fierce attack. The rebel army fought a bloody battle with the Qing army for seven days and nights, killing and wounding hundreds of Qing soldiers, and finally retreated safely.During the whole process, only two rebels died.Later, Liang Liya recalled that when Sun Yat-sen arrived, the rewards disappeared, and it became the leader's spiritual speech to the rebel army, having a party with the rebel soldiers, and then the rebel army was greatly encouraged.Not only that, Sun Yat-sen also went down to the fort, went deep into the homes of ordinary people, and visited the poor.But in Liang's memory, the rebel army had become more than 500 people.In Zou Lu's writing, Liang Yazhu (Scar Liang), the general of the Qing army who only lent weapons to the rebels, participated in the uprising in Liang's memory.

In the official archives of the Qing Dynasty, there is no record of how the insurgents captured the fort.It's just that a large group of bandits came to commit crimes. Zhang Mingqi, the governor of Guangxi at the time, even claimed that there were 4,000 bandits in his telegram to the court.The report from the front-line commander Lu Rongting described the battle in great detail. It also said that the bloody battle lasted for seven days and nights, the enemy was killed without counting, sixty or seventy guns were seized, and the fort was taken back.Of course, Zhang Mingqi, the governor of Guangxi who was about to be handed over to the Ministry of Discussion, would be fine if he committed a crime and performed meritorious service.Lu Rongting was greatly rewarded, so he was promoted.

However, in the memories of He Sui, a senior official of the New Army who served in the Guangxi New Army later, he mentioned the border of Guangxi.At that time, the forts in the Nanguan area of ​​Guangxi were all built by Su Yuanchun, the military leader of Guangxi, in the 1880s and 1890s.By the time of the New Deal in the late Qing Dynasty, the cannons had long been rusted and unusable.There is no human habitation for dozens of miles on the border, and it is very desolate.I asked the local officials about the Zhennanguan uprising, and said that the fort was occupied by the revolutionaries.Then Long Jiguang (Lu Rongting's boss) dispatched troops and bombarded them with cannons for several days, but there was no movement. When he went up to look, no one was there.In the report to the superiors of Longzhou Customs, it was also stated that the revolutionaries actually withdrew by themselves, and the Qing army made a big fuss when they occupied it.

According to the recollection of Hu Hanmin who followed Sun Yat-sen to Nanguan, the French artillery captain who followed found that only one of the three forts was usable.But these cannons were all aimed in the direction of Vietnam, and they couldn’t beat the Qing soldiers even if they fired them. If you want to change the direction, there are no craftsmen. Even if there are craftsmen, you can’t change it for a while.It was impossible for Sun Yat-sen to fire the cannon himself, and it was impossible even for the French to fire the cannon.In Liang Lieya's recollection, the Qing soldiers also discovered that the fort was lost when they found the flag of the revolutionary army flying on the fort, and the defenders of the fort had long devoted themselves to the revolution.However, in the official archives, the news that the Zhennanguan Fortress fell into the hands of the revolutionaries was not learned from local officials and defenders, but was learned by the Imperial Military Aircraft Department from Longzhou Customs, and then passed on by the Military Aircraft Department. Governor Zhang Mingqi strictly ordered him to recover immediately.Longzhou Customs learned that the fort was occupied on October 28th in the 33rd year of Guangxu.Zou Lu recorded that the revolutionaries had already occupied the fort on the 26th.For almost three days, no one knew that there was a revolutionary uprising at all.The customs of the Qing Dynasty were handled by foreigners. After taking care of their own affairs, they became the official first source of information.Therefore, in this uprising, it is very likely that these forts on the border of Guangxi have been deserted for a long time. Although there are defenders in name, there are actually no one.The revolutionaries just bought some stragglers and occupied the unguarded fort at Zhennanguan. There was no fighting during the occupation process, otherwise the fleeing enemy troops would tell their superiors anyway.If it wasn't for the revolutionaries being too ostentatious, no one would know how many days later.But the uprising happened after all, and Sun Yat-sen also visited the front line once.By the time the Qing soldiers counterattacked, these people had already withdrawn from Vietnam.Both sides did not lose a single soldier, and the "bloody battle" and so on only existed on the pens of both sides.Then, firstly, the Qing army wanted to make up a story. The commanders Long Jiguang and Lu Rongting wanted to claim credit, while the governor Zhang Mingqi wanted to be exonerated.Although no one really believes the cliché of "killing the enemy is worthless", as long as the "lost ground" is regained, it is no problem to celebrate and reward.On the side of the Revolutionary Party, Sun Yat-sen personally participated in the uprising, and of course the story also needs to be told.Several generations have been down like this, not only the number of participants, but also how the guns are fired, each person has a different opinion.Describe the rewards of the big business as ideological and political work, coupled with visiting the poor and asking the poor, it has imprinted the deep imprint of the later era.The most unsatisfactory part of the story is that the superior enemy army actually asked to surrender before the battle. The letter of please surrender was written in a super low-key manner, but it was translated from Japanese.What's even more strange is that the revolutionary party refused to allow such a powerful enemy to surrender, insisting on a "bloody battle" with others.In the second half of Zou Lu’s memorabilia, there is a record of a letter from Sun Yat-sen. In the letter, Lu Rongting’s request to surrender suddenly turned into the soldiers of the Lu Ministry “coming more to make an appointment.” The first sum is 30 yuan per person, and then another 100 yuan. In this case, the 4,000 people in Lu Rongting's department will need more than 100,000 yuan just to pay the down payment.The Lu Department is the strongest army in Guangxi. If this army is bought, Guangxi will also be taken.However, the money could not be raised, and the uprising had to be aborted.It seems that Sun Yat-sen at that time did not dare to be like the later generations, but Zou Lu, who was the history writer of the Kuomintang, brought it out without even making up such a flaw, which shows that it was not easy.

A story to be told by both sides naturally becomes an event, an uprising.Although, even an uprising might just be a story.