This year marks the 110th anniversary of the Xinhai Revolution and the 160th anniversary of the birth of Xu Shaozhen, the founder of Xinhai. Xu Shaozhen was the main figure in the founding of the new army in the late Qing Dynasty, and he was very dissatisfied with the corruption of the Qing court and embarked on the anti-Qing road. Shortly after the Wuchang Uprising, Xu Shaozhen served as the commander-in-chief of the Jiangsu-Zhejiang Coalition Army, and at the critical moment of the fall of Hanyang, he conquered Nanjing in one fell swoop, playing a decisive role in setting the capital of the revolutionary Provisional Government in Nanjing.
This article was originally issued in Jiangsu, by Zhao Ziyun, and reprinted with permission.
Xu Shaozhen
Training in Nanjing
Xu Shaozhen was the founding hero of the Ming Dynasty, Xu Da, who inherited his family's studies at an early age, worked hard and encouraged himself, and then became intoxicated with the military. In 1894, Xu Shaozhen participated in the Guangdong Township Examination and won the examination. Li Xingrui, the governor of Jiangxi, greatly appreciated Xu's talents, promoted him to the position of commander of the Jiangxi Standing Army, and from then on entered the career path, and later successively served as the general office of the Fujian Wubei Academy, the chief soldier of Susong Town, and the alternate Dao of Jiangsu. In 1903, Xu Shaozhen was ordered by Li Xingrui, then the governor of Liangjiang, to go to Japan to investigate the military, and after returning to China, he was appointed as the general office of the Liangjiang Military Armament Department, responsible for the training of the new army. The formation and training of the Ninth Town (Division) of the Nanyang New Army stationed in Nanjing was painstakingly managed by him. In the process of organization and training, he vigorously advocated the recruitment of knowledgeable youth and the elimination of old soldiers in the Green Battalion. The revolutionaries Zhao Sheng, Bai Wenwei, Ni Yingdian, Tao Junbao, Lin Zhixia, and so on were all among them, and were reused by Xu, which made the new army in jiuzhen full of revolutionary vitality and led to the turn of the new army. Under his drastic reform and strict training, the Ninth Town, with a total of about 10,000 people, was mighty and majestic, and became a well-known "Nanyang Powerhouse".
In 1905, in order to ease the tension, the Qing government announced the "preparatory constitution", but there was no concrete action, which made Xu Shaozhen very disappointed, and he turned sympathetic to the activities of the revolutionary party. When Duan Fang, the governor of Liangjiang, named Xu Shaozhen and arrested the revolutionaries in the Nine Towns, zhao sheng, Xiong Chengji, and Ni Yingdian, Xu Shaozhen cleverly resisted and allowed them to escape.
In 1911, the Wuchang Revolution broke out, and at that time, zhang xun, the viceroy of Jiangnan, the general Tie Liang of Jiangning, and Zhang Renjun, the governor of Liangjiang, were stationed in Nanjing, all of whom were very uneasy about Xu Shaozhen's nine towns and wanted to surrender all the guns of the nine towns by force. On October 23, revolutionaries Fan Hongxian and Bai Wenwei sneaked into the army, mobilized Xu Shaozhen to do anything, Zhang Xun, and others seemed to be aware, ordered martial law in Nanjing, wantonly searched for revolutionaries, and ordered the Forts of Lion Rock and Arctic Pavilion to target the nine towns and battalions, and to search the nine towns.
At that time, the officers and men of the nine towns only fired 3 bullets per person, and the situation was extremely dangerous. Fortunately, Wu Lansun, a famous scholar in Nanjing who sympathized with the revolution, suggested to Zhang Renjun that in order to avoid excessive trouble, the nine towns could be stationed outside the city, and the envoys Fan Zengxiang and Ning Shengma Xiangbo would also persuade him. Therefore, on October 30, jiuzhen developed the city and stationed itself in Moling Pass.
On February 15, 1912, Xu Shaozhen accompanied Sun Yat-sen to visit the Ming Tomb of Filial Piety
Bloody battle for Nanjing
On November 4, when Shanghai was restored, Xu Shaozhen sent more than 150 people to Shanghai in civilian clothes to ask for emergency reinforcements of bullets and prepare for an uprising.
On November 7, the news of the defeat of the revolutionary army suddenly came from Hankou, and Xu Shaozhen thought that he could not wait any longer. So he decided to attack Nanjing, waiting for the bullets to arrive. On the 8th, all the officers and men of the nine towns were indignant and attacked the city of Nanjing in three ways: one through Caojia Bridge to attack Tongjimen; one through Tiexin Bridge and Andemen to attack Hanximen; and the central column to attack Yuhuatai through Huamiao. The rebels soon engaged in fierce battles with the Qing army at Yuhuatai and Shuiximen, and soon approached the front of the enemy position, but at this moment, the battle situation changed, because the rebels only had 3 rounds of ammunition per person, and they were quickly exhausted in the fierce battle, and as a result, they lost and died heavily in the attack on Yuhuatai. More importantly, it is estimated that the bullets that should have been transported were intercepted for their own use by their own zhen (Jiang) army, and finally failed due to haste and ammunition, and finally, Xu Shaozhen led the whole town to withdraw from Yuhuatai in the thick fog and retreat to Zhenjiang.
Then, Xu Shaozhen went to Shanghai to ask for help and seek to attack Nanjing, and the Central Shanghai Alliance also clearly saw that if this stubborn fortress of Nanjing was not quickly captured, it would not only pose a great threat to the southeast, but also the Qing army would be able to trace the west of the river at any time, and it would also be harmful to the two lakes. In mid-November, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Song, and Zhen formed a combined army of more than 14,000 people (nearly 20,000 people, some say) in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and Xu Shaozhen was elected as the commander-in-chief. On the 22nd, they attacked Nanjing separately.
Because Xu Shaozhen had secretly won over the commander of the Nanjing General Battery who sympathized with the revolution, Cheng Kun, the coalition army did not wound a single soldier on the 24th and 25th, and successively took the Wulong Mountain and Shogunate Hill Forts in the five major fortresses in Nanjing. After 3 days and nights of fierce fighting, the coalition forces occupied various positions outside the city. Xu Shaozhen then issued an order for a general attack on the city of Nanjing. However, they were all blocked by the Qing army, the bitter battle was not broken day and night, the casualties of the coalition army were relatively heavy, and it was precisely at this time that they received an urgent telegram from Hanyang' loss, and at present, Nanjing could not attack strongly, Xu Shaozhen was eager to attack his heart, spitting blood, and fell to the ground. Fu held on to his men to continue the siege.
On November 30, the coalition army launched the most tragic battle against Nanjing, more than 2,000 death squads, mainly the town army, besieged Tianbao City, Xu Shaozhen personally went to the front line to supervise the battle, and the bloody battle lasted day and night, and finally conquered it on the morning of December 1. The coalition forces were commanding, powerful artillery fire directly bombarded the city of Nanjing, just at this time the two siege cannons transported from Shanghai arrived at yaohuamen station, and also nervously threw themselves into the artillery battle, the combined forces of Xiaolingwei, Shogunate Mountain, Wulong Mountain, and Yuhuatai all sent artillery to cheer up, the enemy strongholds in Nanjing City were violently bombarded, the Qing army wolf rushed to the ground, dead and wounded, and soon collapsed into an army, the Qing army's Arctic Cabinet headquarters was shot one after another, Zhang Renjun and Tie Liang almost died, seeing that the general situation had gone, Zhang, Tie and Zhang Xun fled the city of Nanjing, and Zhang Xun fled the front The remnants of the Qing army in the city were invited by the Qing general Zhao Ronghua and other merchants to ask the president of The Malin Hospital (now the Drum Tower Hospital), and the Canadian Ma Lin came forward to surrender to the revolutionary army at the Taiping Gate, and Nanjing was restored.
Tomb of Xu Shaozhen
Buried in Nanjing
The restoration of Nanjing stabilized the center of gravity of the revolution to the southeast and played a decisive role in the return of Dr. Sun Yat-sen to Nanjing, the capital of his country in the near future.
Moreover, in the coalition army, Lin Shuqing, the leader of the town army, first led the army into the city, and soon entered the Liangjiang Governor's Palace, and the young and vigorous Lin Shuqing, who was proud of his merits, even called himself the provisional governor of Jiangsu and issued notices all over the place. When Xu Shaozhen led the General Headquarters of the Coalition Army to the Liangjiang Governor's Palace, he found that all the rooms were occupied by the zhen army, and the general headquarters had no foothold.
Xu Shaozhen showed the style of a humble gentleman and led his troops to live in the second hall of the governor's mansion. What makes ordinary people even more unsightly is that the guard at the gate of the Governor's Mansion is headed by the town army, and when Lin Shuqing enters and exits, the guards stand in line to greet and send them according to the salute to the superior officers, but when the commander-in-chief enters and exits, only the guards standing guard are standing upright to him, which is a courtesy to the middle and lower-ranking officers. Lin Shuqing was cultivated by Xu Shaozhen alone, and Lin's series of deeds caused strong dissatisfaction in public opinion, but Xu Shaozhen, as the commander-in-chief of the coalition army, for the sake of the overall situation, expressed humility and restraint, and he quickly called the heads of the League, Zhang Taiyan, Huang Xing, Song Jiaoren, and Chen Qimei: "Zhen has no size of merit, how dare you plunder the work of the heavens and the people, please speed up the governor..." Finally, due to Ma Xiangbo's mediation and persuasion, according to the objective situation at that time, the League decided to appoint Cheng Dequan as the governor of Jiangsu, and Lin Shuqing also felt that it was improperly handled. He surrendered the Great Seal and became the commander-in-chief of the Northern Expeditionary Army. Xu Shaozhen was appointed commander of the Nanjing garrison.
In early April 1912, under the oppression of internal and external reactionary forces, Sun Yat-sen gave way to Yuan Shikai, and Xu Shaozhen followed suit. He also refused Yuan Shikai to give him the chief of staff, and after Sun Yat-sen set off a movement to protect the Fa, he followed him in the saddle. After that, he was entrusted by Sun Yat-sen to serve as the commander of the Garrison in Guangzhou, the inspector of military training in the War Department, the commander-in-chief of the Guimin Army, the governor of Guangdong Province, and the minister of the interior. In order to follow Dr. Sun Yat-sen, his family house was destroyed twice, and when he was sixty years old, he accompanied Sun Yat-sen on the Northern Expedition and planned military affairs.
On March 12, 1925, Dr. Sun Yat-sen died of illness, and Xu Shaozhen was deeply saddened, quietly retired, and immersed himself in writing. On September 13, 1936, Xu Shaozhen died of illness in Shanghai at the age of 75. The following year, he was buried by the Nationalist government at the foot of the Xiaobailong Mountain in Nanjing, where the general headquarters of the Jiangsu-Zhejiang Combined Forces was located at the Battle of Nanjing.
Zhao Ziyun
Source: Purple Cow News