Chapter 36 Subei No. 2: My Lord Who Kills My Enemies

Haizhou, located in the north of Jiangsu Province, which is today's Lianyungang, had a special status in the late Qing Dynasty.On the one hand, it is a Zhili state, directly under the provincial administration.However, it is also located at the northernmost point of Jiangbei, bordering Shandong. In the late Qing Dynasty, Jiangbei formed its own system, and the customs and habits of the residents were closer to the southeast of Shandong.Therefore, it is close to other places in Jiangbei, and the admiral of Jiangbei can control it, while the residents have close contacts with Shandong, and even speak closer to Shandong.On the contrary, the Jiangsu provincial government doesn't care much about it, feeling a bit beyond its reach.Haizhou is near the sea and is a place where salt is produced, and the salt industry produces a large amount of it.Because of the salt, it is much richer than other cities in Jiangbei.The salt industry is out of the control of local officials, and it belongs to the salt transportation envoys in Yangzhou, but the products produced in their own boundaries, the localities can share some benefits.Because it is far away from the north of Jiangbei, the atmosphere of Haizhou is not open.Haizhou has no part in the political excitement in southern and central Jiangsu.Education is also quite backward. Before the New Deal, the imperial examinations were underdeveloped, and a Gongsheng student was the boss here.There is a new school, but it is not very famous.The newspapers in Shanghai basically do not radiate here, and the propaganda materials of the revolutionary party that are widely circulated in the Yangtze River Delta area are not available here even if you want to read them.

When the Wuchang Uprising broke out, there were three groups of military forces here.One is the green battalion, a hereditary group of old and weak soldiers, only a few tattered foreign guns, and the rest are swords and spears.There is also Zhizhou's guard camp.It stands to reason that a small Zhizhou is not qualified to have a guard camp, but there is a lot of salt and money here, and the Zhizhou can take the opportunity to recruit private armed forces by itself.In the last few years of the late Qing Dynasty, the system of local military and political separation had been broken. In order to control the local area and wipe out bandits, most of the rich local officials set up their own guard camps, commonly known as "small teams".The weapons of the guard battalion are better, but without training, the combat effectiveness is not good.The only decent one is the Salt Defense Battalion, which is an army under the control of salt transport envoys, and specializes in catching illegal salt. Therefore, not only are the guns excellent, but they can also shoot a dozen (because most illegal salt dealers have weapons).As soon as the revolution came, civil upheavals sprang up, and folk tyrants pulled up teams, some under the banner of revolution, while others did not.But most of them have no ambitions, attacking the city of Zhou, just guarding the roads and robbing, making the traffic in Haizhou very dangerous.There is no food production in Haizhou, and all food is imported, and salt has to be shipped out. Therefore, the traffic is blocked, which poses a great threat to Haizhou.

Sun Baoqi, the temporarily independent governor of Shandong, and Jiang Yanxing, the already independent governor of Jiangbei, both sent telegrams to Haizhou to inform them of the situation.Upon seeing this, the governor of Haizhou had no choice but to call a meeting of local gentry and merchants to discuss whether Haizhou should become independent.It's a pity that the gentry and businessmen in this place don't know what revolution is.Although Zhizhou has hinted that he is also Han Chinese, everyone hesitates and haws, and still doesn't know what to say.The last old Gongsheng said: "The one who kills my enemy is my king."Then he made a speech, saying that the biggest threat in Haizhou now is banditry, whoever can eliminate the banditry, we will follow.Who can disagree with such a "politically correct" and utilitarian proposal.So, everyone agrees.Since the gentry and merchants have such an opinion, Zhizhou, who is unwilling to walk in Lianzhan, thinks, if I can suppress the bandits, can I continue to do it?Therefore, after the meeting, he immediately started to expand his guard camp, actively contacted the green camp, prepared to suppress bandits, and opened the way to transport salt.

However, the wishful thinking of Zhizhou and the gentry and merchants soon came to nothing.They forgot that Yangzhou's salt transport envoy had already slipped away, and Yangzhou had no contact for a long time.The soldiers of the Salt Defense Battalion with guns in their hands and rich combat experience are all outsiders with guns in their hands. Young outsiders can easily become the most dangerous people beside the couch when no one is controlling them. enemy.As a result, not only the bandits outside the city were not suppressed, but the well-equipped salt defense battalion was blown up. One night, they suddenly broke into the city, opened the prison, let the prisoners go, and robbed the shops and government offices. Not spared.Zhizhou's newly recruited soldiers also booed.The guard camp and the green camp stayed in the camp honestly, neither daring to come out to make a fuss, nor dare to come forward to stop them.Fortunately, the rebels only cared about looting, but they didn't really hurt people's lives.After grabbing it, they scattered and went back to their hometown to enjoy happiness.It never occurred to me to occupy this rich and rich cash cow and enjoy it slowly.Interestingly, when the rebels entered the city, the common people said that the revolutionary party had arrived.

Regardless of whether it is true or not, after the riots, the Revolutionary Party really came.Probably Zhizhou found that he could not maintain the situation with his own strength, so he asked Jiangbei Governor Jiang Yanxing for help.Such a big commercial port, a big salt capital, how can there be no reason not to eat the meat delivered to the door?In this way, the governor of Jiangbei sent a battalion of new troops.Residents of Haizhou finally understand at this moment that it was not the Revolutionary Party who robbed people a few days ago, the real Revolutionary Party only came now.Even so, the gentry and merchants were still trembling when they were bitten by a snake.When queuing up to welcome them, push the young students to stand in the front row and hide behind.Their fear was not unreasonable. In fact, these new troops were recruited again after the mutiny over there, and they also had previous convictions for robbery.

However, after these new troops arrived, they did not rob, and lived in peace with Zhizhou, Zhizhou's guard battalion, and the useless green battalion. Everyone came to the Republic together with Weixin.The Battalion Commander took office as the Civil Affairs Chief of Haizhou, and got the biggest piece of cake. During the Revolution of 1911, coastal cities and inland urban and rural residents received very different reactions.Residents of the coastal cities generally welcomed the revolution, but the interior was different.Whether they were gentry merchants or ordinary people, they were actually not interested in revolution.It's just that when the revolution comes, the trend of the times, they are powerless to say "no", they can only deal with it.In the eyes of many people, there is no essential difference between the revolutionary party and the bandits.Whether it is the Revolutionary Party, the Qing government, or Yuan Shikai, their most sincere attitude is: kill my enemy and my king.Support whoever can maintain order and give peace.The Tax Department of Zhenjiang Customs reported to the General Administration based on his knowledge of the situation in Jiangbei that the local Chinese were not afraid of the Revolutionary Party or the Qing Army, but were afraid of robbers who took advantage of the fire.