Chapter 85 Stocks Build a Revolutionary Army

Sun Yat-sen said that the road protection movement in Sichuan was the herald of the Revolution of 1911.There is some truth in this statement. Although Baolu may not be able to save the revolution, the dissatisfaction caused by Baolu itself has indeed helped the revolution.The revolution broke out, and the road protection movement in Sichuan directly transformed into riots in various parts of Sichuan, leading to the recovery of Sichuan.However, the Sichuan Railway Company, which this movement wanted to protect, was completely forgotten, and all the workers who repaired the railway in the Yichang area lost their jobs.However, the forgotten Sichuan Railway Company actually did something in the revolution. It was because of their participation that the Sichuan people not only formed a Northern Expeditionary Army, but this army returned to Sichuan and became a member of the Revolutionary Party in Sichuan. The most important military force performed well in the first wave of warlord melee in Sichuan.

This incident has to start with Xiong Kewu, a veteran revolutionary in Sichuan.Xiong Kewu was one of the first members of the Tongmenghui. He went to Japan to study and originally planned to study military affairs, but he couldn't get into a serious military academy, so he had to spend a while at the private quasi-military academy Dongbin School. This school was run by Japanese ronin for Chinese people. The cradle of the party.Xiong Kewu learned to shoot a gun in it, and also learned to make bombs in private. He returned from Japan very early and became a dedicated revolutionary party.He instigated many uprisings in Sichuan without any results. In the spring of 1911, as a frontrunner in Sichuan, he participated in the Huanghuagang Uprising.After the uprising failed, he fled to Shaanxi to hide.The Wuchang army was flourishing, and he and some Sichuan revolutionaries came to Shanghai one after another, preparing to organize an army of Sichuanese to participate in the Northern Expedition.The one who assisted him was Peng Jiazhen who later assassinated Liangbi (he later left the army and went north to do great things).In forming an army, the first priority is money.The Sichuan Railway Company refused to be accepted by the imperial court at the beginning. A large reason was that most of the money the company put in Shanghai to buy equipment and materials was hacked in the stock market and became a bad debt.However, the camel fell and there was still a stand. Due to the road protection movement, the Sichuan Railway Company, which was not nationalized, was not without a penny, and there were still about 1.7 million taels of Langezhi stock left.Langezhi is a British company whose main business is rubber and petroleum. The stock of this company was particularly popular during the Chinese rubber stock boom in 1910. At this time, the stock had fallen to more than half of that year, but Still belongs to the reputable international securities.If these stocks can be obtained, they can also be used as collateral to buy weapons.

These stocks at that time were kept by Sichuan businessmen Dong Tong Zijun and Jia Yingquan of Sichuan Railway Company in Shanghai.Therefore, the revolutionaries in Shanghai tried their best to lobby the two through various relationships.However, the two were reluctant to agree because the money was too large and the responsibility was too heavy.At this time, Huang Zhenxiang, who is also from Sichuan, was the captain of Li Yuanhong's guard during the Wuchang Uprising. He was injured in the defense of Wuchang and came to Shanghai to heal his wounds. After he recovered from his injuries, he also had the ambition to form another army. The idea of ​​these stocks.Huang Zhenxiang had just come off the battlefield, and he was more aggressive. He directly led a dozen people with guns, kidnapped Tong Zijun, locked him in a house, and forced him to submit.Xiong Kewu heard the news that this revolutionary party who had joined Brother Pao felt that this was outrageous, so he approached Chen Qimei, the governor of the Shanghai Army, and brought a platoon of people to rescue Tong Zijun who was locked in the dark room.Tong Zijun and Jia Yingquan were very grateful for Xiong's generosity to save people. When they were excited, they readily handed over all the stocks they had saved.Xiong Kewu and the others used some of them to buy 2,000 Russian-style rifles (probably the spoils of the Russo-Japanese War) from a Japanese firm, with 2 million rounds of bullets, 12 machine guns, and 6 mountain cannons. Mountain cannons and machine guns are all new types.According to the standards at the time, these weapons were enough to equip an army of mixed brigades.It is said that after the military governments of Chengdu and Chongqing merged, more than 200,000 yuan was allocated from the savings of the Shu military government and returned to the Sichuan Railway Company.However, I doubt it.

If you have guns and money, you don't have to worry about not being able to recruit people.The money is from Sichuan, the guns are bought with Sichuan money, and people have to find people from Sichuan.They recruited three battalions among the builders of the Sichuan-Han Railway on the line from Yichang to Wanxian.In this way, not only the money belongs to the Sichuan Railway Company, but also the people.The peace between the North and the South was negotiated, and the Republic of China was completed. Xiong Kewu led the three battalions back to Sichuan along the Yangtze River.Passing through Wuhan, I bought a batch of rifles and bullets from Hanyang Arsenal.In Yichang, they also robbed several tons of explosives used by the railway company for road construction, and used them to make a batch of bombs and set up a bomb team (Xiong Kewu himself had learned how to make bombs back then).When the troops arrived in Wanxian County, they had a small test and solved more than 1,000 patrol battalions stationed there.Due to the small number of gunmen, the troops continued to expand. After arriving in Chongqing, they received part of the troops and firearms from the military government of the Shu Army, and the team expanded into a division, numbered the Fifth Division of the Shu Army.However, this division has more personnel than the other two divisions, and the officers are mainly young students, energetic and ambitious.Liu Bocheng, later known as the God of War of the Shu Army, also served as an officer in this team.What's more eye-catching is that this army is the most well-equipped in Sichuan.Sichuan is located in a remote area, and it is not easy to bring some weapons in. Many troops reorganized from the Comrade Baolu Army still have local guns, knives and spears, but the Fifth Division imported all equipment.Needless to say, this is thanks to the Sichuan Railway Company.

During the Second Revolution, this army closely related to the Kuomintang launched a hasty attack, but did not really start the fight. Xiong Kewu went into exile in Japan. I can live the life of my stepmother, lingering on my last breath without food and wages.However, due to the excellent weapons of this army, Hu Jingyi, the governor who ruled Sichuan on behalf of Yuan Shikai, never dared to destroy it.After Yuan Shikai proclaimed himself emperor, an opportunity came. The Yunnan National Defense Army entered Sichuan. Xiong Kewu slipped back to Sichuan to fight against Yuan, and rose rapidly. machine, and then shake off the Yunnan army who wanted to overthrow him, and stand out.His troops were able to fight, and their weapons were good. He even became the ruler of Sichuan for a time, and his troops expanded to five divisions and two brigades.However, in this place of Sichuan, there are many factions, and when a tree grows, it attracts attention.Not only the Sichuan army in other systems was dissatisfied with Xiong Kewu, but also a split occurred within the Kuomintang system.Xiong Kewu, who didn't sit hot on the governor's chair, soon went to the field under the siege of the army and the betrayal of relatives.The Shu army, which was in full swing back then, was also torn apart, throwing itself into wave after wave of melee in a mess, and everyone became warlords or cannon fodder for warlords.The batch of foreign guns and cannons bought with the money of the Sichuan Railway Company were originally intended for revolution, but in the end they were used again and again in the fratricide of Sichuan people.