Chapter 58 Assassin's Skeleton

Wu Yue, a revolutionary who assassinated the five ministers, once wrote a pamphlet called "The Age of Assassination".In the first ten years after China entered the 20th century, it was indeed an era of assassination, especially in those years after the start of the New Deal, assassinations occurred almost every year.Although the Chinese have been in contact with foreign guns for several years, the officials of the Qing Dynasty were obviously not prepared for the new pistols and bombs that could be used for assassination. These two things are really too convenient for assassination. The bomb is even more majestic.After the destruction of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Ma Xinyi, a high official of the Qing Dynasty, was assassinated, and the killer used a dagger.In a sense, the officials of the Qing Dynasty were repeatedly caught in the assassination of the Revolutionary Party, which is related to their way of traveling through the streets by carrying big sedan chairs, ringing gongs to clear the way, and swaggering through the streets.A group of people came over in a big way, only the sedan chair of the official was the most targeted, as if telling people, come on, I am here.There is no armor on the sedan chair, and it walks slowly. Whether it is shot or bombed, neither death nor injury.The five ministers who went abroad to inspect the Constitution took the train instead. There were too many people, and the assassination was not so convenient, so Wu Yue actually blew himself up, and the target of the assassination was only slightly injured.The movie "October Besieged City" was released, and the reporter asked me, did the Qing government ever assassinate Sun Yat-sen like this?I said, if there is, it can only be reversed. It is the revolutionaries who assassinate the high officials of the Qing Dynasty. Even the Queen Mother and the Regent are the targets of their assassination.Only when Sun Yat-sen was not well-known, did he have a "London disaster" that was unclear and harmless.Assassination was the patent of revolutionaries at that time.The government of the Qing Dynasty only had the role of parrying. How could it have thought of assassinating Sun Yat-sen?

Assassination, like an armed uprising, is for the purpose of fighting the country.Relatively speaking, the revolutionary party at that time paid more attention to assassination than instigation of uprising.Taiwanese scholar Chen Mengjian studied the Min Pao, the official newspaper of the League, and found that Min Pao was particularly keen on advocating assassination. Among the pictures contained, assassination themes accounted for 22.67%, and among the articles discussing revolutionary methods, those advocating assassination accounted for 100%. 21.65%.Wu Yue's assassination of the five ministers who went out to inspect the constitution was somewhat unfair, because it was to prevent the Qing from changing in a good direction.However, "Minbao" reported at length, described him as a national hero and model, and made up a series of so-called justifications for his actions, although after all, it was nothing more than the fact that the Manchu race was inferior and there was a massacre The criminal record of the Han people is no longer qualified to rule China, but there are as many as six of them listed.Huang Xing, who was not very keen on assassination at first, became discouraged about organizing the uprising after the failure of the Huanghuagang uprising, and turned to hope for assassination.Obviously, assassination is more convenient than uprising, and a few people who are not afraid of death, plus those who take advantage of it, can practice.Because of this, officials in the Qing Dynasty hated those who wanted to kill them. For example, Li Zhun, the admiral of the Guangdong Navy, suppressed uprisings many times and was assassinated twice in a row. The last time he was seriously injured and almost died; Assassins with benefactors, such as Anhui governor Enming, will also be killed, because they have done a good job, which is not good for the revolution, and personal favors cannot replace justice.A Manchu talent like Liang Bi who is good to the Han people must be killed because he is more deceitful.Even the "good things" that the five ministers went abroad to inspect the constitutional government had to be prevented, because the Qing Dynasty had really established a constitution, and the revolution would no longer be easy to play.The direct example of Chinese assassination is the Russian Narodnaya Volya, and all Narodnaya Volya assassination heroes are also heroes of the Revolutionary Party.When we were in Japan, the Russian Narodnaya Volya Party taught the League to make bombs.

Assassination requires strict organization, so there were several assassination groups at that time.Wang Jingwei organized an assassination group, Liu Sifu had an assassination group, and even Cai Yuanpei, who was regarded as gentle and elegant in people's eyes, also organized an assassination group in Japan.There were also women's assassination groups organized, but they didn't seem to be released for practice. Only a few women participated in Wang Jingwei's assassination of the regent Zaifeng. Among them, Chen Bijun also had a poignant love story with Wang Jingwei, which can be regarded as participation.

At that time, the favorite weapon used by the revolutionaries for assassination was the bomb.Cai Yuanpei once liked to use poison, but later he figured out that bombs are better than poisoning people, so everyone stepped up research and development in Japan.The bomb used by Wu Yue is said to have been made by Cai Yuanpei and Chen Duxiu.The bombs of the revolutionaries were generally developed abroad at first, such as Japan and Hong Kong.Sometimes, when I am in a hurry, I also try it in China.For example, before the Wuchang Uprising, several leaders of the Revolutionary Party tried to make a bomb in the Hankou Concession, but they missed it. Although they did not kill themselves, the organization was exposed.But in general, the bombs of the Revolutionary Party are getting better and better, and their power is getting bigger and bigger.On the eve of the Revolution of 1911, General Fengshan of Guangzhou had just taken office, and was blown to pieces as soon as he landed.At the last moment of the Revolution of 1911, a small number of Manchu Socialist Party insisted on refusing to decentralize power. The revolutionary Peng Jiazhen dropped a bomb, which killed Liangbi, the core figure of the Socialist Party, and the rest scattered like birds and beasts.It is said that the Manchus are most afraid of bombs, and they can't get over it for many years after 1911. It was all caused by the assassination group back then. In 1924, when Feng Yuxiang expelled Puyi from the palace, several elders still wanted to hang on. The National Army took out bombs and fiddled with it, and everyone from the emperor to the eunuchs obediently obeyed.

Assassination is such a job, if you have no guts, it's really hard to do it. It's not like an uprising, a large group of people, good and bad people mixed together, it's okay to be Mr. Nan Guo, and follow along.Assassinations are mostly done alone, and one person goes into battle. If you don't have the guts, the gun can't be released or the bomb can't be thrown at a critical moment, then it's over.Therefore, the assassination group must first practice courage.Liu Sifu organized an assassination group in Guangdong back then, and members of the group had to undergo a strict joining ceremony.The ceremony must be held in the middle of the night, the room is sealed with a black cloth, there is only one table in the middle of the room, the table is covered with a white cloth, and a skull is placed on the table—it is a real guy, not a fake.A white candle was placed behind the skull, the whole room was pitch black, only one candle was lit, the candle flickered, the skeleton shook, and the atmosphere was gloomy.Those who join the alliance must sit quietly facing the skeleton for a long time, and if they don't sweat a little, they can perform the ceremony of joining the alliance.It is said that the initiation ceremony of the Skull and Bones Society, which is composed of children of the rich and powerful in the United States, is also like this.I don't know whether they learned it from the Chinese Revolutionaries, or the Chinese Revolutionaries copied it from them.This Liu Sifu, a son of a noble family in Guangdong, later changed his name to Shifu and became the originator of Chinese anarchism. But at that time, he was an assassination king of the Revolutionary Party. After coming out, the assassination remained the same.The death of Guangzhou General Fengshan and the serious injury of Li Zhun, the admiral of the navy, were all masterpieces of his planning.

However, although the assassination created an atmosphere of terror and killed several Qing officials, it was difficult to really scare the Qing government away.Peng Jiazhen's last bombing, of course, had immediate results, but without the independence of the provinces, Yuan Shikai's intentions would be useless anyway.On the eve of the Guangzhou Uprising in the year of 1911, Wen Shengcai assassinated the nursing general Fu Qi. He killed him, but he caused a lot of trouble for the uprising that came immediately, and directly led to the failure of the uprising technically.The actual effect of the assassination is like the skeletons used by the assassination group to train their courage. It is indeed terrifying enough to be placed there with the night and candlelight.But the more I saw it, the more it happened.Assassination cannot kill the world.

All the revolutionary parties at that time believed in the heroic view of history, and they all regarded themselves as prophets.They stubbornly believe that the country must be saved by them and can be saved.It only takes a wave of waves to bring about earth-shaking changes.However, in the end they found that what really worked was the solid mobilization, the uprising of the soldiers.