Chapter 48 The sixth act hastily up and down

Before the Revolution of 1911, the most crucial point in the dispute between the Revolutionary Party and the Kangliang Party members about the revolution was that the revolution would cause huge damage.The reason Kang and Liang advocated reform was that the price was too high in view of the bloodshed and destruction caused by the revolution.However, the revolutionaries who had been advocating revolution, destruction, chaos, and iron and blood before the revolution, when the revolution really came, one of the things they were most worried about was order.Except for a few areas, most of the revolutionary parties advocated that the murder should be as little as possible, and the damage should be as small as possible.I used to use the party as the vanguard of the revolution, but once the revolution was successful, I was suspected of killing the donkey and restricting and crowding out the party with the Constitutionalists.The biggest reason is to curb the destructiveness of the party.

For those who pursue China's progress, the Boxer incident is a huge shadow.As with the Constitutionalists, so with the Revolutionaries.Since then, their actions, no matter what they do, have a motive of pursuing civilization, so as to draw a line from the ignorance and xenophobia of the Boxers, and even strive to correct the uncivilized image of Chinese people in the eyes of Westerners in their actions.Once a revolution occurs, it means turmoil to some extent. Foreigners will worry about the Boxer complex of the Chinese people and their barbaric xenophobia.Therefore, no matter where, the most important thing for revolutionaries is that foreigners regard them as Boxers.The pursuit of civilization means self-conscious self-transformation according to the norms set by the West. Of course, it first manifests itself as goodwill towards Westerners.Therefore, they will strictly restrain their own people, and strictly prohibit all people within their jurisdiction from infringing on foreigners.The uprising in Hunan was led by Jiao Dafeng, the leader of the party, but the first notice after the uprising was that it is strictly forbidden to invade foreigners.In Shaanxi, where the Hui Party is relatively powerful, after members of the Hui Party became governors (one of the six governors), party members from all over the country set up wharves, opened mountain halls, and disturbed the place. No one could do anything about it.However, after some docks made moves to support the mob attacking the church, their chief Zhang Yunshan also had to order the cancellation of the docks, and sent troops to suppress those who refused to obey.During the entire revolution, although the revolutionaries may not be able to control the overall situation, the violations of foreigners and churches were quite rare, and occasionally they were suppressed by the new regime with all their strength.The soldiers of the revolutionary army in Chongqing carried two flags when they took to the streets, which read "Republic of China" and "Fu Han, Destroy Manchu, Protect Education and Safe People".The notice of the Shu military government in Chongqing reads: "Xing Han is full, protect the merchants and defend the people; when the army revolts, there is no surprise; the government offices, churches and people are all protected and are not allowed to invade; if there are bandits, take the opportunity to rob. Follow the military law, and kill without pardon; follow the law when you say it, and do not overstep it!" The church members were specifically listed as the focus of protection, and they were well-intentioned.After the recovery of Ningbo, the military division government issued a notice announcing the Pentakill Order, the first two of which were related to foreigners: "1. Those who demolish churches and foreigners' houses will be executed; 2. Those who harm foreigners and their own people will be executed."

Naturally, when foreigners came forward to advise the revolutionary government to maintain civilization, they did not refuse to do so.After the Wuchang Uprising, the revolutionary government originally wanted to enter the post office to check the mail, but when Su Gudun, the tax secretary of Jianghan Customs, who was a foreigner, told them that the postal service was inviolable, which was a common practice in civilized countries, they withdrew.The tax secretary also warned the revolutionary government to protect the Manchus like foreigners.If the Manchus broke the law, they should be tried and not executed arbitrarily.The revolutionary government agreed one by one.A foreign reporter asked Mr. Liu, a well-known revolutionary member, whether the revolutionary party had included killing the Manchus in its original plan, and Mr. Liu flatly denied it.In fact, of course the uprising itself had to kill the Manchus, but after the uprising was successful, whether to kill or not to kill is not necessarily the case.However, due to the intervention and persuasion of foreigners, even if the revolutionaries want to maintain their image in front of foreigners, they will never commit murder.The general office of Yichang Yanli General Administration, after Yichang was liberated, cut off his braids, shaved off his beard and pretended to escape, but was still captured by the revolutionary army.But a foreigner came forward to intercede with him, saying that killing the old man would not be of any benefit to the revolutionary cause, but it aroused the disgust of foreigners.As a result, the official with a bad reputation was released.As long as foreigners protest that their rights are not fully protected, they will be taken seriously.In some places, the Chinese who worked for foreigners had their pigtails cut off by the revolutionary army. As long as they complained to their bosses, and the bosses reported to the revolutionary government, the perpetrators would be punished.And this kind of thing, in the eyes of the Chinese themselves, is a matter of course.Jingzhou is an important place for the Manchurian garrison in Hubei. It is under the command of General Jingzhou, and of course it has become the focus of the Hubei Revolutionary Army's offensive.However, under the mediation of the local foreign church, the local garrison surrendered.The life safety of all the Manchus, including the general, the Dutong, and the deputy Dutong, was guaranteed by the church.The local bishop and two priests also signed the surrender agreement.Of course, these people are really safe.

Every time the revolutionaries recover a place, they are very concerned about the local order.Except for a few places where the party is in charge, such as Shaanxi, Hunan, and Shaoxing, where the king of Shanda Wang Jinfa in Zhejiang Province is in charge, the prisons are opened to release prisoners after entering the city.In some places, some rioting prisoners were deliberately brought out and publicly shot at the meeting.After the revolution, in order to prevent people from taking advantage of the chaos and looting, the revolutionary army and local business groups would take to the streets to suppress them. Anyone who encountered robbery or misdeeds, regardless of their crimes, would be shot to death.In order to ensure order, almost all the revolutionaries respected the original local autonomy, respected the autonomy of the chamber of commerce, and respected the power structure of the gentry.All requests from the squires to suppress the rioting villagers were agreed, and the peasants were absolutely not allowed to take the opportunity to overthrow the squires.In short, the less revolutionary damage the better, not burning a house, not killing a person, is the best state.Especially in the treaty ports where there are a large number of foreigners, the revolutionaries are particularly concerned about their own image.

The Revolution of 1911 was a revolution within China, but it was also a revolution that occurred after China was dragged into the Western world system.The existence of this world places great constraints on what appears to be an internal revolution.The revolutionaries also know that Western countries are measuring this revolution by their civilizational yardstick.If they could please the Westerners, the revolution would not encounter the interference of the great powers.Obviously, their goal was achieved. Most of the Westerners and Western newspapers in China expressed their understanding and sympathy for the revolution. On the contrary, they were more harsh on the Qing army, and they were severely condemned if they were careless.Soon after the uprising, the foreign envoys regarded the rebellious revolutionaries as equal belligerents.In the eyes of the "legitimate" government at the time, this was obviously a kind of abandonment and betrayal that did not conform to international practice.In the later battles between the Beiyang Army and the Revolutionary Army, only the Beiyang Army was repeatedly interfered by the foreigners in the concession, preventing them from setting up artillery here or attacking there, but the Revolutionary Army had many preferential policies.

Of course, the purpose of the revolution was originally to learn from the West and adopt Western systems.Naturally, Western standards of civilization are bound to be valued by revolutionaries. In this sense, revolutionaries will try their best to be civilized and orderly.The Congregation Party, which had previously been instigated to launch the revolution, destroyed the image of the Revolutionary Party precisely in the face of this scale, causing most Constitutionalists and gentry to turn to support Yuan Shikai.