Chapter 7 gentleman party

In the eyes of nine-year-old elementary school student Shen Yuehuan, these days are obviously different from the past: the scene where his uncle is blushing and sharpening a knife under the light is really very interesting.The child walked past the warehouse to watch his uncle sharpen his knife, and then went to the study to watch his father clean his gun.He didn't understand what was going to happen, but he knew that something new and important was about to happen. When I woke up the next day, nothing seemed to have happened, but the faces of the family members were all pale.Counting, there seemed to be fewer people in the family, and the uncles were all gone.Only the father sat on the grand master's chair alone.Shen Yuehuan stepped forward and asked:

"Dad, Dad, have you ever killed a war?" "Little thing, don't talk nonsense, Yelai we killed! The whole army was wiped out, and thousands of people died!" On October 22, 1911, the Changsha New Army launched an uprising, ushering in the recovery day of Changsha.After the success of the revolution in Changsha, all parts of Hunan declared independence one after another. Only Chenyuan, Yongjing and other places in western Hunan, due to their location in a corner, resisted until the end of December to early January of the following year before declaring the success of the revolution.From October 27, 1911, the city defense army of Phoenix Hall in western Hunan and the recovery army launched a protracted offensive and defensive battle.The Restoration Army was composed of Huidang, Xinjun, and Miao people, claiming to have more than 10,000 people.The city defense army is mainly "Tao Biao", that is, the army led by Daotai Zhu Yijun, with a rated number of 1,006 and elite armed forces.The nearly 4,000-strong "Zhenbiao", that is, the army under the jurisdiction of Zhentai Zhou Ruilong, was originally a gentleman (including Shen Yuehuan's father Shen Zongsi) who came forward to liaise with the Liberation Army to revolt.However, more than 1,600 elite soldiers in the team were transferred to Changsha by Hunan Governor Yu Chengge to fight against the Revolutionary Party, and the rest of the soldiers were also detained with their weapons.

The Phoenix Hall is still alive and well, and it has been an important military town since the Qing Dynasty, with extremely strict defenses.Although the recovery army has a large number of people, attacking the strong with the weak will naturally fail to please them.Especially after they were defeated, Miao Tubei, that is, native officials among the Miao people in each township, attacked from behind and took their heads and released the city for rewards, so the situation was very tragic. Fortunately, Shen Yuehuan had watched Yamen kill people since he was a child, and he was not afraid of death, so a tall fourth uncle took him to see the head, and a brightly colored picture was displayed in front of the nine-year-old child:

) It is said that there are four hundred and ten heads in total.Shen Yuehuan didn't quite understand the whispered chatter of the adults, probably the gentlemen in the city had made an appointment with the siege troops outside the city long ago, mainly to attack the two yamen of Daotai and Zhentai, but at that time due to the conditions negotiated by the army in the city It's not right, I didn't respond, and I missed a big deal. Of course, Shen Yuehuan didn't know. There was no negotiated condition, mainly "whether to protect the merchants." Failed, finally routed.According to historical records, more than 170 people were lost to the Restoration Army in this battle, so the other heads are obviously a habitual trick of killing people and rewarding bandits.

The rebellion had failed, and the killing had just begun.After the city defense army arranged the city properly, they sent troops to the countryside to arrest people. The captured people only asked a few words, and then led them out of the city to cut them down.Too many people were caught, and some of them rushed out of the city without stripping their clothes or tying them up with ropes, and even got away among the spectators.But most of them were caught from the countryside, and they didn't know what was going on. When they got to the river bank, they were yelled at and knelt down. Such scenes are staged every day, and about a hundred of them are killed every day.It lasted for a month before gradually decreasing.The weather is cold, so there is no fear of the corpses rotting and getting sick. Besides, there is no time to bury them, and maybe they can be used as a public display. There are always four to five hundred corpses lying on the river beach.

Shen Yuehuan went to the top of the city every day to watch the beheading by the river, and competed with other children to see who could count the number of dead bodies on the river beach.Later, a new trick was added, which was to go to Tianwang Temple to watch the prisoners throwing bamboo.Because too many people were arrested, even the gentlemen in this city were startled to be killed, so they had to create a lottery system, leading the prisoners to the statue of Tianwang Temple and throwing bamboo sticks. One yang or all yang, both are released.Shen Yuehuan mingled among the children, "Look at how those country people closed their eyes and threw away a pair of bamboo sticks in their hands. Some of them didn't dare to open their eyes when it was time for them to be released. I also saw how those country people missed their homes even though they were supposed to die. I will never forget the dejected look of the child, the calf, the pig, and the sheep, who complained to God."

These images remained in Shen Yuehuan's mind like this.His impression of the revolution is to kill, to kill thousands of innocent peasants. At the beginning of the second year, Phoenix finally recovered.Although the provincial capital, Changsha, had already declared independence, it had to wait until the telegram of the restoration of Phoenix arrived, saying, "Bringing gongs in the streets and alleys to propagandize, the hearts of the people will be settled." The revolution caused such carnage, but the revolution itself was peaceful.As long as the guardian envoy, Dao Yin, and magistrate are willing to leave the country, nothing will happen.Except for a cousin of Shen Yuehuan who came back from Miao Township and slapped the county magistrate during a meeting in the whole city, causing the audience to laugh and make the meeting almost impossible, Fenghuang, a small town with more soldiers than civilians, had almost nothing to do. Changes, "After the revolution, the place has changed a little bit. The green battalion system has not changed much, and the farming system has not changed much. Those who have military service in the local area are still different because of their ranks. They or their family members go to the camp to receive food and silver on a monthly basis. , the guards are on duty, and they will go to the yamen to wait for orders as usual. There are still three or five drummers playing music in the gun bell and drum tower of the yamen every night. But the distribution of the defense army organization is slightly different, the equipment used by the army is different, and the local officials are different The county magistrate has changed from local people, and the guards have also changed from local people. Every soldier who is a soldier has a small plaque nailed to the gate of his home, which states everything, and the types of wooden plaques are completely different because of different military services.”

However, Shen Yuehuan firmly remembered those brightly colored pictures in his heart, bloody and bright red.He later said that this was "a lesson from the Revolution of 1911". When Shen Yuehuan came to Beijing in August 1923, he explained to a relative why he wanted to stay away from his hometown: "In six years I have seen tens of thousands of innocent civilians killed at my feet, and I have learned nothing but a stupid and cruel impression of the slain and the murderer. . . . A protest; 'You kill my body and I will rot your soul.'” This young man who had been used to watching murder since he was a child, and had been in the army for six years, left his hometown in the border town where life was like nothing, with the memory of countless human heads in his mind.He changed his name to Congwen, intending to use the pen in his hand to save the souls of the tens of thousands of bodies that were killed, and to fight against the stupidity and cruelty of killing in vain in this world.

When Wu Zhihui, a Kuomintang leader, gave a "citizen speech" in Changsha in 1920, he summed up Hunan's special products in this way: "In Hunan, there are only two major products. The first is the soldiers; the second is the revolutionary party." The party needs an indomitable spirit. In Liang Qichao's words, it is "the characteristic of Hunan people, so it is in the prefix of 'barbaric'", "the characteristic of being willing to sacrifice anything for the sake of doctrine", this kind of character is in In the background of traditional Chinese culture, it is particularly prominent: "The Chinese have always regarded moderation as a virtue, but the Hunan barbarians are not." ("Struggling Hunanese", 1922)

Specific to the period in the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China, an article in Changsha’s “Ta Kung Pao” in 1925 put it most clearly: “Vigorous advancement is its strength, while impetuous advancement is its short; stubbornness is its strength, but extremeness is its shortest. Dare to act The world is first, but one’s own foothold is uncertain. For example, from the end of the Qing Dynasty to the present, the Hunanese who advocated the revolution were the most fierce (Huang Xing), and the counter-revolutionary Hunanese were not weak (Huang Zhonghao died); the Hunanese who advocated the monarchy were the first (Yang Du) , and those who overthrew the imperial system were also headed by Hunanese (Cai E)."

When this article was published, the Republic of China had been in business for fourteen years.Huang Xing and Cai E have all become bronze statues of great men. Yang Du organized a preparatory meeting and studied Zen and Buddhism for a long time.Only Huang Zhonghao, a "counter-revolutionary" who was beheaded in the year of 1911, can still be remembered by Hunan people, which is an anomaly. Huang Zhonghao was born in Qianyang, Hunan. He was born as an "excellent tribute student", a top scholar, and later donated a small official who was a secretary in the cabinet.He started out as a scholar, but turned to lead soldiers, so he claimed to be Zeng Guofan's second.Previous Hunan governors such as Zhao Erxun and Chen Baozhen appreciated him very much.Before the Sino-Japanese War of Sino-Japanese War, Huang Zhonghao was transferred to Hubei. Zhang Zhidong also praised him very much. Frivolous", people called his army "Zhongzi Banner", which indeed has a bit of the demeanor of the Hunan Army in Zeng Guofan's era. Huang Zhonghao has been the commander-in-chief of Youjiang Town, Guangxi, and served as the admiral of Sichuan.After retiring from old age and returning to his hometown, as a gentleman, he organized the Hunan Provincial Education Association. Some people who heard his speech said that Huang Zhonghao advocated "to be rich and strong to resist the enemy, to promote education to renew the people", and to repair Dongting, revitalize agriculture, and talk about new ideas in Hunan. Among the academic crowd, he is quite famous. Moreover, Huang Zhonghao was also the leader of the mining industry in Hunan. He opened a gold mine in Yuanzhou, "for the beginning of Hunan's mining business."The road protection movement rose, and he was also a member of the opposition to the railway state-owned policy.Academics, military affairs, education, industry, and other important fields in the late Qing Dynasty, Huang Zhonghao was able to do everything. Looking at Hunan, there are probably not many such people. If there was no Wuchang Incident, Huang Zhonghao might have been talking about the New Deal in Changsha, running education, and developing industries.Even if the Qing Dynasty collapsed, he might or might not be a survivor, but most likely he would not be recorded in the annals of history as the number one counter-revolutionary in Hunan. The Wuchang Rebellion started from the New Army.Given the geographical proximity of the two lakes, their lips and teeth depend on each other, so of course the lips are dead and the teeth are cold.Moreover, a large number of Hunanese are making a revolution in Wuhan, and they don't need to know that they will send people to sneak back to Hunan, drum up new troops, create a second Wuchang, and then support Hubei in turn. As soon as Governor Yu Chengge received the news from Wuchang, he immediately planned how to guard against the new army.However, Xiao Liangchen, the governor of Hunan New Army, was from the north, and his subordinates did not obey him very much.Since Governor Yu's predecessors believed in Huang Zhonghao, let him be the commander of the patrol team! Yu Cheng asked Huang Zhonghao to lead the army not just because he was familiar with the military, but more importantly because Huang Zhonghao was a well-known gentleman in Changsha.The power of the gentry in Hunan is very important, and it is well-known all over the world. The rice rush in the second year of Xuantong was caused by the collective hoarding of grain by the gentry and the embargo.Appointing Huang Zhonghao made it easier to communicate with the gentry in Changsha. As long as these gentry did not intervene in the revolution, Yu Chengge was confident that he would be able to suppress it simply by relying on the new army and the party. Huang Zhonghao had originally planned to travel to Japan that year, but now Yu Chenggeqiang stayed behind to lead the patrol team.He was indeed able to help Yu Chengge very much. He planned to break up the new army and distribute them to Xiangxi and other places, let the local armed forces contain them, and then dispatched the famous "Supporting Soldiers" to Changsha.Changsha Shenjin also liked Huang Zhonghao's account very much.There was also a road protection movement in Hunan, and the gentry also wanted to change the current situation of confrontation between the government and the people, but what they were looking forward to was naturally a peaceful reform revolution.Tan Yankai, the chairman of the Hunan Consultative Bureau, and Tan Sitong and Chen Sanli, known as the "Three Princes of Huxiang", said in a public statement: "Civilization revolution is different from grassroots thieves. We should work together with rich families and military and political officials!" Huge He is a family member, he himself is, who is the military and political chief?Huang Zhonghao also.The gentry asked Huang to "declare the revolution, and serve as the governor himself, so as to preserve his hometown."There are also some persuaders in the new army, claiming that Huang can be elected as the commander-in-chief of aiding Hubei. It is said that Huang Zhonghao was not completely unmoved by the proposal of the gentry revolution.He sent a close aide to the front line of Hankou to inquire about the news of the war. Some people said that if the militiamen could occupy Wusheng Pass and block the main road connecting the North and the South, it would mean that the Qing court was over, and he might as well adopt the "intention of the gentry to push and pull." Make a revolution. Then four days after the Wuchang Incident, Huang Zhonghao received a telegram from Hankou saying that the Qing army was marching southward and Wushengguan was safe and sound.So he changed his ambiguous posture and suddenly called himself "Zeng Wenzheng Gong", and his staff also called themselves "Zuo Wenxiang Gong". Also be loyal to the Qing court. But some people say that Huang Zhonghao has never wavered. Even Tan Yankai personally hinted at him, and his answer was "There is nothing to do in the military. If you know it early, you will be entrusted with the responsibility. You can't regret death to take care of your long-cherished heart."Later, someone wrote a biography saying that Huang "follow the old sayings, willing to serve the fool and loyal", which refers to this point. As for why Huang Zhonghao was killed, there is another theory.It is said that the Advisory Council has already recommended Huang Zhonghao as the new governor of Hunan after the recovery.However, when representatives from the Advisory Bureau, the Patrol Army, the New Army, and the Hui Party held a meeting, Xu Hongbin, a representative of the Patrol Army, suddenly offered to "kill the commander Huang Zhonghao in exchange, otherwise the patrol team will not join." Had to reluctantly agree. Tan Yankai believed this statement.He later recalled that Huang Zhonghao ruled the army very strictly and was very confident.Once when Tan Yankai visited Huang's mansion, Huang Zhonghao talked about the strict management of the army, and the soldiers never dared to have second thoughts.As he spoke, he pointed to a follower: "This man's brother was killed by me. Doesn't your lord see that he still follows me honestly?" Tan Yankai advised him to be more careful, but Huang Zhonghao laughed at Tan, "Scholar!" . The follower Huang Zhonghao pointed at was Xu Hongbin, the representative of the Patrol Army. On October 22, the Changsha new army broke through the Futai yamen and found Yu Chengge changed into civilian clothes and was about to flee.Huang Yiqiu and Chang Zhi, two gentlemen recommended by the Consultative Council, immediately stepped forward to persuade: "Don't Xiantai know about today's affairs? We are here to respectfully ask Xiantai to go to the military government to handle affairs." Yu Chengge asked in surprise: "Military Where is the government?" Huang Yiqiu said, "It's in the Consultative Council." Yu Chengge was very hesitant, and said, "How can this be worthy of the emperor?" Chang Zhi sneered: "What emperor! It's such a young child, What does he know!" As he spoke, he compared the length of about a foot with his hands. Then Huang Yiqiu and Chang Zhi urged Yu Chengge to come out and preside over the overall situation, and they also used Li Yuanhong as an example to persuade him.Yu Chengge always pushed back and forth, and finally said: "This matter is too important, everyone, please sit down and rest, and wait until I go inside to discuss with my father." The two gentlemen and the accompanying new army actually let Governor Yu into the inner hall .Of course, Yu Chengge immediately escaped from a gap on the left side of Futai Yamen, and fled to the Japanese warship in the Xiangjiang River. ("Hunan Anyway Postscript") When Jiao Dafeng and others from the Tongmenghui entered the Futai yamen, the soldiers of the patrol team not only did not stop them, but instead raised their guns to salute.When they walked to the back door, they found someone wearing patched clothes and riding out hastily. At this time, some soldiers of the patrol team deliberately shouted: "Our commander is here!"The man yelled: "I'm not Huang Zhonghao! I'm not Huang Zhonghao!" No one listened to him, he pushed him all the way to the tower of Tianxin Pavilion and beheaded him. During the process of binding and shoving, some people punched Huang, some slapped Huang, and others stabbed Huang randomly with bayonets.These soldiers who didn't know Huang Zhonghao at all, why did they have so much hatred?Is it a public enmity or a personal grudge?unknown.Huang Zhonghao was tied up and sent to the city tower, with only half his life left, and then his head was beheaded and hung on the city gate for public display. Luo Feijun, a native of Xiangtan who later wrote Huang Zhonghao's biography, heard the news of Huang's murder and rushed to the city wall to see it.I don't want to meet an old man crying while looking at the head on the tower.Asked who he was, he replied that he was Huang Zhonghao's subordinate who led the troops in Guangxi.Luo Feijun heard from the old man that Huang Zongbing was in Guangxi, never greedy for a penny of military pay, never accepting a penny of bribes, fighting at the forefront, and would never hesitate to die, he can be called a model among soldiers. In the announcement of the Hunan military government that day, there was a saying that "soldiers are not killed, businessmen and people have fun".This can be regarded as a fact. On the day of liberation, only four people died in the whole of Changsha, all of whom were officials from the Qing court who refused to surrender.Huang Zhonghao is the one with the highest position. In fact, like Yu Chengge, he could have left without dying.This is the way of good fortune, from the possible governor of Hunan to the head hanging on the tower, Huang Zhonghao proved the stubbornness of Hunan people. It was common sense in the late Qing Dynasty that the power of the gentry in Hunan was very heavy.This privilege of the gentry is related to the rise of the Hunan Army due to the Hongyang Rebellion.After Ping Hongyang, the imperial court was worried that the Hunan army would not lose its tail, so it sent them away.Those officers and soldiers of the Hunan Army, who started in the army, returned to Hunan with their great achievements in overcoming rebellion and the treasures and gold and silver they had collected from all over the country. How dare a local official fight with them? But in the year of Xinhai alone, the power of the gentry in Hunan is on the decline.The locality is not bad. For example, Shen Congwen’s father, Shen Zongsi, was a military officer and was well-known in Fenghuang. When Xiangxi was restored, he was one of the principals. Do internal response.After the recovery of Xiangxi, "everything in the local area was maintained by gentlemen, and my father immediately became a local dignitary." The situation in the provincial capital is not so good.Just imagine that Huang Zhonghao, the governor (in other words, control) elected by the Consultation Bureau, was easily rejected by the representatives of the Hui Party or the patrol team, and was sent directly to the guillotine. One can imagine. This level can be attributed to the aftermath of the rice rush in 1910. On the surface, the rush for rice is a conflict between the government and the people.In the Great Wilderness of Hunan, the price of rice was so high and the officials did nothing, which led to the Changsha citizen Huang Guisun's family of four jumping into the old Longtan to commit suicide, which caused public commotion. When the policeman said to the people, "One hundred Wen's tea is drunk, eighty Wen's One liter of rice is too expensive”, which became the direct trigger of the rice rush in Changsha. Lai Chengyu later said that he did not say this sentence, but a lecture given to him by Hunan Governor Cen Chunling on the phone (telephone), and Lai could only repeat it.In any case, it is certain that officials mishandled it and caused a civil uprising.The folk Zhuzhi Ci sarcastically said: "When you meet a buyer, you are frequently angered by the big officials, and the official saying is that you make friends with neighbors. Huxiang is naturally a fertile soil. Why don't you raise rice for eighty words!" However, after the incident, the governor of Huguang, Ruicheng, and the new governor of Hunan, Yang Wending, would play the excerpts, which defended the local civil and military affairs such as the governor Cen Chunling and Fantai Zhuang Gengliang, while severely suppressing the local gentry.They told the court that the increase in the price of rice in Hunan was due to the fact that the gentry such as Wang Xianqian and Ye Dehui monopolized the grain market and hoarded it. After the government ordered an embargo on the export of grain, they also cooperated with foreigners to transport a large amount of grain out of the province, which led to an unprecedented grain shortage in Hunan. , The province's public and private rice reserves are less than two months' food.In the past, the price of rice was only two or three thousand yuan. During the flood in 1906, it was only more than four thousand yuan, but now it is as high as seven thousand yuan or more.Changsha is full of hungry people, the streets are full of hungry people, and dozens of people die of starvation every day in the wind, rain, and freezing. The official investigation of "Street Dung and Dregs Eats" ("Report Hunan Desolation Elephant Records") believes that it was the hoarding of the gentry, coupled with the daily conflicts between Changsha citizens and foreigners, that caused the rice rush to evolve into an anti-foreigner and anti-New Deal riot. The Hunan officials' report demanded that the Changsha gentry Wang Xianqian, Ye Dehui, Yang Gong, and Kong Xian be immediately dismissed and "severely punished."Zhezi also said that "at the time when the government and the opposition are preparing for a constitutional government, and when the officials and gentry are cooperating, if these evil gentry are allowed to control and obstruct, there will be no hope of implementing local self-government." This request was adopted by the imperial court, and Hunan gentry power suffered an unprecedented blow.As far as the aftermath is concerned, even the enlightened gentry will not be immune to difficulties.Tan Yankai, chairman of the Hunan Counseling Bureau, took the lead in the presentation, thinking that "the Hunan chaos was caused by officials, and it has been in the cave for a long time. Before the incident, the Hunan gentry repeatedly asked to stop it and prepare relief, and there are cases to investigate."However, the reply in the upper edict was "the function of the Consultative Council is to make legislation, and it is not appropriate to interfere in local political affairs", which is tantamount to a rejection. The reputation of the street is also very unfavorable to the gentry.A bamboo branch poem scolded them: "When the incident happened, the hall was full of councilors, and there was no one who spoke up for justice." More importantly, during the rice rush, the people not only burned government offices and churches, but also burned many schools.This reflects the dissatisfaction of the conservative Hunan with the "New Deal".Even the Japanese consul in Changsha observed this.He reported to the government of his country: "The significance of burning schools is that in recent years, in order to solve the huge expenditure of education funds, the burden on the local people has been greatly increased. The New Deal has caused inflation, which has caused a sharp rise in rice prices. However, the children of the poor Did not get any benefits in the new school." From this, it can be understood why Hunan, where the power of the gentry is extremely heavy, was the main force of the 1911 uprising, and the role of the Advisory Council was far inferior to that of Wuhan and Chengdu. The deputy governor has nothing to do with the gentry circles—of course, this situation did not last long, and the power of gentry power has not disappeared.