Chapter 72 New army with guns but no bullets

The formation and training of new armies in various provinces was part of the military reform of the late Qing Dynasty.However, as soon as the new army in the provinces took shape, the imperial court discovered that there were revolutionaries infiltrating the new army.However, one of the ways that officials from all over the country can prevent it is to limit the bullets of the new army, so that the new army has guns but no bullets.What's more, even the bolt of the gun was removed, and the gun, bolt, and ammunition were separated.The artillery team of the new army also removed the artillery bolts.Such an army would be useless at all if there were any emergencies.The guy in his hand is a fire stick.However, for the sake of safety, the logic of the officials of the Qing Dynasty everywhere is that they would rather make the army useless than let it be harmful.Don't let anything happen. If something happens, first of all, your black hat will be lost.

Therefore, the first step in the subsequent New Army uprising was to go to the arsenal, but the bullets to open the arsenal were obtained by themselves.For example, in the Wuchang Uprising of 1911, the soldiers of the engineering battalion who fired the first shot, the bullets were obtained from outside.As for the new army of the Yunnan Uprising, the bullets were usually hidden when shooting targets.Obviously, this method did not effectively prevent the new army from rebelling, but also stimulated the new army's rebellion.Speaking of which, the earlier New Army uprisings by the revolutionaries and the two larger-scale uprisings were all related to the new army's ammunition management method.One was the Anqing Uprising in 1908, and the other was the Guangzhou Uprising in 1909.

In 1908, the Anhui New Army had only one Association (Brigade).In the autumn of that year, under the leadership of the Xietong, the first part of the association followed the governor of Anhui, Zhu Jiabao, to participate in the autumn exercises in Taihu Lake, and the province was empty.Xiong Chengji, a revolutionary, was an artillery officer (company commander) in the New Army at that time. Although he was only a company commander, the Yuewanghui, an organization of the Anhui Revolutionary Party, had a strong foundation in the New Army, and there were quite a few people who were inclined to revolution.At the time of Qiu Cao, it happened that the Empress Dowager Xi and Guangxu died within a day, and the whole country was shaken.Xiong Chengji later said that his plan at the time was to launch an uprising when the people's hearts were unstable and the province was empty.Although there were many soldiers in Taihu Qiucao, they were all empty guns. It took time for the police to equip weapons. Taking advantage of this gap, Anqing took it.There are many weapons in the city. Taking Anqing can expand the army and accomplish great things.Therefore, Xiong Chengji resolutely launched an uprising, and almost all the artillery battalion and cavalry battalion responded. The two leaders (battalion commanders) refused to obey, and one died and the other was injured.People from other troops also joined. The rebel army has a total of about a thousand people, almost half a brigade.First, with the cooperation of the internal response, they occupied the arsenal outside the city and obtained ammunition.Then the whole army went straight to Anqing City.

However, Governor Zhu Jiabao had already been sent back to Anqing by Governor Duan Fang of Liangjiang at this time, the city was no longer leaderless, and those who were planning to respond internally did not dare to move.Anqing City has been easy to defend and difficult to attack since ancient times. When the Hunan Army attacked Anqing, it fought for more than ten years.There are thousands of people in the uprising military area, and there is no internal support, so they can't attack anyway.Although the rebel army had cannons, they were not powerful enough to blast through the city walls.Unable to attack for a long time, the Qing army gathered four reinforcements, and the navy also came. The Chucai warship belonging to the Hubei New Army fired artillery and hit the artillery positions of the rebels.The cannons of the rebel army were destroyed, and they were attacked internally and externally, so they had to retreat.An uprising is originally a matter of vigorous efforts. If you win, more and more people will gather. After a long delay, if you can't win, the hearts of the people will disperse, and you will retreat all the way. In the end, there are only a few dozen people left. Xiong Chengji dismissed the rest and fled by himself .Later, he was informed in Harbin, arrested and died.

If the Anqing Uprising took advantage of the fact that the New Army had no bullets, then the Guangzhou New Army uprising failed because of the lack of bullets.The new army uprising in Guangzhou was caused by a fight between the police and the new army.Discord between the military and the police is an old problem.This kind of thing can happen in any country at any time.However, after the fight happened, the Guangzhou authorities of the Qing government mishandled it, turning the fight into a group fight, and the group fight into an uprising—it was used by a revolutionary with ulterior motives, Ni Yingdian from Anhui.When Ni Yingdian was in Anhui, he was the battalion commander of the new army. The signs of revolution were exposed and he was reprimanded. He came to Guangzhou under a pseudonym and became a platoon leader again.However, this platoon leader led the new army to revolt when the crowd was furious. About a thousand soldiers of the three standard (regiment) soldiers of the Guangzhou New Army followed Ni Yingdian.However, since they did not seize the arsenal in advance, they only got a small amount of bullets reserved for the commanders of each battalion, a total of more than 7,000 rounds, less than seven bullets per person.This small amount of bullets, if put on the later Eighth Route Army, might be enough to fight a battle, but for the soldiers of the new army who are used to firing their guns indiscriminately, it is really too little.Lacking ammunition, and without cannons (the cannon bolts had been removed in advance), the rebels dared to attack Guangzhou, and encountered more than 2,000 people from the patrol battalion who had ambushed in advance at the Niuwang Temple.Not long after, the rebel army ran out of ammunition, and the opponent still had cannons. Under the bombardment of the guns, the rebel army suffered heavy casualties, and Ni Yingdian also died.That's how the uprising failed.

The Qing Dynasty implemented military reforms and trained new troops, of course, to maintain its own rule.As for whether to protect the Qing Dynasty or protect China, it is hard to say, but most likely it will be both.Due to the high cultural quality of the recruits in the new army in the south, there were indeed revolutionaries infiltrated. However, just because of this, it is really wrong to distrust the new army as a whole.Even then, not all the most literate recruits were revolutionary.There are dozens of associations in the Wuhan New Army, but only a few are revolutionary.In other words, the revolutionary party has not yet become popular in the new army.However, at this time, the local government of the Qing Dynasty, even after these new troops participated in the suppression of the Ping, Liu, and Li uprisings organized by the Revolutionary Party and the Hui Party, still used insulting methods such as not giving bullets or even unloading the bolts of the guns. It is obviously absurd for the new army to take precautions.This is obvious discrimination, and discrimination stimulates rebellion.The patrol battalion was originally an old army that was about to be eliminated, and was always looked down upon by the new army.However, officials from all over the country often give special preferential treatment to the old army, but they are very worried about the new army, and even rely on the old army to suppress the new army (such as in Guangzhou).As a result, discrimination is exacerbated in the contrast between old and new.In fact, this approach only pushed more officers and soldiers of the new army into the revolutionary camp.In the Anqing and Guangzhou uprisings, two junior military officers could stir up big waves and instigate uprisings by most of the local garrisons, which shows that the discrimination policy is inappropriate.However, since the two new army uprisings, officials from all over the Qing Dynasty distrusted the new army even more and took stricter precautions.Even training exercises restrict the use of bullets.Originally, drinking salt water makes you thirsty, but you drink twice as much to quench your thirst.In the end, we discovered that in the end there was still a new army with guns and bullets that overthrew the Qing government.