Chapter 18 fourth quarter

The situation before the uprising was so dangerous, and the victory of the uprising came so quickly, people couldn't help asking, why didn't the Qing army in Wuhan come to fight it?How many troops did the Qing army have in Wuhan? There were four units of the Qing army stationed in Wuhan, namely the Eighth Town (in charge of Zhang Biao), the 21st Mixed Brigade (in charge of Li Yuanhong), the Patrol Battalion (directly in command of Ruicheng), and the navy (in charge of Chen Delong). There are twenty-three battalions and two teams, with a total strength of about 11,750 people; and the number of revolutionaries in the new army has reached more than 5,700!And it was a great opportunity, because of the outbreak of the "road protection trend" in Sichuan, some new troops from Hubei were transferred to Sichuan at that time, and Wuhan was the most empty time for defense.

The Sichuan Road Protection Movement was another major event in China in 1911, between the Huanghuagang Uprising and the Wuchang Uprising.We have seen that after the uprising in the southeast coast was suppressed, Sichuan in the west immediately sang a strong voice of resistance, and it was really called one after another. In 1902 and 1903, when Emperor Guangxu was still in power, the Qing government issued an edict to allow private railway companies to operate.The Guangdong-Han Railway and the Sichuan-Han Railway are two important arterial lines connecting the north and the south and penetrating the interior, so they have become the targets of imperialism.

In order to regain the self-management rights of these two railways, the people of Guangdong, Sichuan, Hunan, and Hubei adopted the method of collecting "private shares", and the local governments added rent shares, rice donation shares, salt donation shares, Housing donations, etc., to raise funds for road construction.After several years of raising funds, not only the gentry, merchants and landlords in the four provinces became shareholders, but even some farmers also held shares. By 1911, the shares raised in Sichuan alone reached 12.4 million taels of silver. Unexpectedly, in January 1911, the Regent Zaifeng issued an imperial edict according to the "Nationalization of Railways" plan drawn up by Shangshu Sheng Xuanhuai of the Ministry of Posts and Communications, announcing that all main railway lines would be nationalized, and only branch lines were allowed to be privately run.

The basis of Sheng Xuanhuai's policy is that the efficiency of China's private construction and management is low, and the main railway lines must be nationalized and run by experienced and skilled foreigners. During the preparation process of the two railways, the Guangdong-Han Railway and the Sichuan-Han Railway, the people of several provinces had suffered enough, and what they were looking forward to was the income after the completion of the railway.The Qing government's paper documents immediately shattered hopes.What especially aroused public outrage was that the government would exchange all the funds used by the Chuanhan Company and the company's existing funds into national railway stocks, and the cash would not be refunded.Shareholders in Sichuan Province are not allowed to guarantee their capital and refund, but are only allowed to exchange railway stocks. That is to say: the government not only collects roads, but also takes money.

In the midst of public grievances, rumors added fuel to the flames: the Guangyi section of the Sichuan-Han Railway, the northern section of the Guangdong-Han Railway, would be handed over to Britain, the United States, Germany, and France for construction and management, and the Qing government would exchange for a loan of 6 million pounds , and in this process, the relevant officials in charge can get a large kickback in handling the railway sale! The loss of vital interests, the injury of national self-esteem, coupled with the hatred of corrupt officialdom, anger and resentment swept the Southwest, Central South and even at home and abroad.

A group of gentry and merchants in Hunan fought for the road. On May 14, more than 10,000 people from all walks of life in Changsha gathered to force Xiangfu to ask the court to withdraw its order.After Shangzuo was reprimanded, people from all walks of life went on strike, class strike, and market strike one after another, and the whole province refused to pay rent and tax.Businessmen in Hubei also protested in groups, putting forward the slogan of "save the road and save the country".The citizens of Guangdong denounced the imperial court for selling the right of way, and refused to use the government-issued banknotes to cash out the cash in protest.Chinese students studying in Japan also rallied in solidarity, saying that "the road survives and survives, and the road dies and perishes".

In Sichuan Province, which suffered the most, on June 16, the Sichuan-Han Railway Company held an emergency meeting and decided to immediately organize the road protection comrades meeting, and issued a notice overnight, and announced its establishment the next day. On June 17, the Yuefu Street in Chengdu was filled with water, and more than 2,000 people attended the meeting.After the meeting started, Luo Lun, Deng Xiaoke, Liu Shengyuan and others gave speeches one after another, crying.After Luo Lun took the stage, he bowed to the crowd and said, "The Sichuan-Han Railway is over! Sichuan is over, and China is also over!" After saying this, he burst into tears, and immediately the whole audience wailed for twenty or thirty minutes.The police who were sent to suppress the incident held guns in their hands and had tears in their eyes.

The Baolu Comrade Association was thus established, and Pu Dianjun, the chairman of the Sichuan Provincial Consultative Bureau, was elected as the chairman, and Luo Lun was the vice chairman. Pu Dianjun was a constitutionalist and originally opposed revolution, but the behavior of the Qing Dynasty pushed his own people to the opposite side. On the day when the Baolu Comrade Association was established, all the attendees went to the chief envoy's office to petition. Everyone's expectations. Wang Renwen immediately wrote a letter to explain the situation, and the regent's reply was "to stay in China by order".The so-called "remaining in China" means staying in the palace without answering.

Wang Renwen played Sheng Xuanhuai's book again, saying that Sheng Xuanhuai "disparaged the law and flattered the outside world, harming the country and the people", and demanded that "the crime should be punished strictly and the country's codes be respected"; Disturbing the peace. The Qing court replied: There is absolutely no reason to go back on the loan contract. If the Sichuanese make trouble again, I will ask you Wang Renwen. The petition was invalid, and the road protection movement became more and more fierce.The upright Wang Renwen was first dismissed "pending inquiry", and then detained in Xi'an "pending investigation". Fortunately, the Wuchang Uprising broke out immediately, and the busy Qing court dismissed him.

After the Republic of China, Wang Renwen lived in seclusion in Tianjin for decades without competing with the world. The struggle to protect roads has been carried out under the guidelines of "struggling for roads with civilization" such as Pu Dianjun, a constitutionalist.Duan Fang, who bought hundreds of thousands of taels of silver to supervise the fat vacancies of the Sichuan-Han Yue-Han Railway, further intensified the contradiction with his memorial. Duanfang's memorial reads: "Since the railway state has ordered it, the rebels are almost all the people who have a happy event in their youth; just and gentlemen, it is unreasonable..." He also showed Pu Dianjun this naked rape public opinion memorial, asking Pu Dianjun to wait Give up.

On August 25, Pu Dianjun reported the content of the Duanfang memorial at the special meeting of shareholders of the Sichuan-Han Railway, and the whole audience immediately boiled over. The wave of mass market strikes and school strikes started in Chengdu, and quickly swept across Sichuan. In the city of Chengdu, the tablet of Emperor Guangxu, who issued an edict to allow private railways to be run, was pasted on the door of every household. the original words.Some people walk around the streets with Guangxu tablets on their heads; others set up pavilions in the middle of the street, enshrining Guangxu tablets inside. Officials dare not pass by on horseback or sedan chair, so they have to walk or detour. On September 1, the Sichuan-Han Railway Company shareholders meeting notified the whole Sichuan that they would not pay grain tax. The governor of Sichuan is Zhao Erfeng, who hunted and killed more than 100 members of the party on Yongning Road, known as "Zhao Butcher".To deal with the massive road-protecting trend, he wanted to soften it, but the Qing government strictly urged to suppress it. On September 7, Zhao Erfeng sent invitations to nine leaders of the Baolu Comrades Association, including Pu Dianjun and Luo Lun, to trap them. Citizens who went on school strike and city strike have always followed the requirements of the comrades' association leaders not to gather together, riot, attack churches, insult the government, or close daily necessities stores during the protest.Seeing the arrest of the leaders, thousands of people, holding tablets of Guangxu in their hands, went to the governor's office and knelt down in rows, pleading for the nine leaders and asking for their release. Thousands of people knelt in front of the yamen. Zhao Erfeng panicked and ordered people to set fire to the street next to the yamen in order to frame the petitioners afterwards. At the same time, he ordered people to shoot madly at the people kneeling on the ground, killing 32 people on the spot. ! The road protection movement has moved from "struggling for roads with civilization" to armed resistance. After the Chengdu massacre, someone cut out wooden planks and wrote "Zhao Erfeng first arrested Puluo, then suppressed Sichuan. Comrades from all over the country rose up to save themselves!" and threw them into the Jinjiang River one by one.In one day, this "water telegram" was immediately spread throughout Southwest Sichuan. The flames erupted! Comrade armies with farmers as the main body in more than ten prefectures and counties near Chengdu, led by members of the League and the leaders of the Gelaohui, besieged the provincial capital from all sides, and fought fiercely with the Qing army in places such as Hongpailou and Xipu on the outskirts of the city.Zhou Hongxun led his patrol troops in Qiongzhou anyway, and occupied Xinjin with the comrades from the South Road.Luo Zizhou led the comrades in Yazhou and Xingjing to guard Daxiangling and block the Qing army.Comrade troops from all states and counties responded one after another, guarding the pass, intercepting newspapers, and capturing the county seat.Dazhu Li Shaoyi, Qianwei Hutan and other party leaders rose up. The Yi and Tibetan compatriots in Xichang area attacked the city and expelled officials.People of all ethnic groups in Sichuan fought bloody battles, and the anti-Qing struggle was like a prairie fire. On September 25, Wu Yuzhang and Wang Tianjie, members of the League, led Rong County to become independent and established the country's first county-level revolutionary regime before the establishment of the Hubei Military Government. The Sichuan Road Protection Movement was the harbinger of the Wuchang Uprising. Because of the Road Protection Movement, Hubei’s new army was transferred to Sichuan, resulting in the success of the Wuchang First Uprising; and the victory of the Wuchang Uprising strongly supported the struggle in Sichuan. By November 27, the Revolution of 1911 In the tide of the epidemic, Chengdu declared its independence, and the rule of the Qing Dynasty in Sichuan was completely overthrown.