According to reports, on the banks of Pingtou Mountain outside the West Gate of Anqing City (in the courtyard of the present-day Anqing No. 4 Middle and West Campus), a martyrs' cemetery stood, and Dr. Sun Yat-sen personally inscribed "Anhui River Martyrs' Tomb" and personally wrote an altarpiece. The sentence "Wu Jun, struggling to throw" in the text is a revolutionary feat that praises the famous martyr Wu Yue, who sacrificed his life by bombing the five ministers of the Qing court at the Beijing station. Unfortunately, the "Anhui River Martyrs' Tomb" was destroyed later, and now there are very few remains, and it is difficult to find them, but the story left by the owner of the tomb has been sung.
An altarpiece written by Dr. Sun Yat-sen
1. From a school bully to a teacher
Wu Yue, character Meng Xia (Meng Xia), a native of Gaodian, Tongcheng, Anhui, was born in 1878, lost his mother at the age of 8, and his family was poor. Wu Yue is talented, intelligent, diligent and studious, and is a well-known local bully. Wu Yue had a precocious personality, was well-read, and was especially good at ancient poetry, and was greatly influenced by the famous scholar Wu Rulun (Wu Yue's cousin) of the Tongcheng School.
During his studies at Baoding Higher School, Wu Yue served as a senior and was awarded the honorary plaque of "Pin Duan XueZhi" of the school. During his studies at the Higher School, Wu Yue founded Liangjiang Public School in the Liangjiang Guild Hall and took on teaching tasks. At the same time, Wu Yue and a classmate named Jin Weinong jointly founded the "Zhili Vernacular Newspaper" to spread revolutionary ideas.
Wu Yue
2. Establish the Northern Assassination Corps
Wu Yue was active in thought and believed in the teachings of Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao in his early days. At the Baoding Higher Normal School, he read progressive books such as "Revolutionary Army" and "Alarm Clock", and got to know Chen Tianhua, Cai Yuanpei and other well-known figures in modern Chinese history.
In Baoding, Wu Yue and the revolutionary Zhao Sheng met, the two saw the same thing, the food was the same table, lying on the same bed, often poured into the long talk of the night, Wu Yue revolutionary ambitions are more determined. But the two men had different views on what kind of revolutionary road to take.
Wu Yue advocated assassination, which was somewhat similar to the usual beheading action, that is, killing the leading figures of the Qing Ruling Clique, such as Cixi and Tie Liang, through assassination, to achieve the purpose of revolution.
Zhao Sheng advocated the adoption of an armed uprising to achieve the purpose of the revolution. Although Zhao Sheng did not approve of Wu Yue's revolutionary approach, he expressed strong support for his revolutionary activities.
Zhao Sheng went to Yang Shouren, a revolutionary in Beijing, and briefed him on Wu Yue's situation, hoping that Yang Shouren would help Wu Yue establish a revolutionary organization, the "Northern Assassination Regiment." Yang Shouren studied in Yokohama, Japan, and learned the technique of making bombs. The revolutionaries started by building bombs with Yang Shouren.
Yang Shouren, who had the same revolutionary ideas as Wu Yue and also advocated assassination activities, secretly rushed from Beijing to Baoding to discuss the revolutionary plan with Wu Yue. Wu Yue and Yang Shouren decided to form a "Northern Assassination Group," and the first members of the assassination group were: Wu Yue, Jin Weinong, Yang Xingyu, Ma Hongliang, Jin Yansheng, Zhang Xiaoyin, and 6 others.
Revolutionary hero Zhao Sheng
Late one night, the moon was as bright as a mirror, and in the Cuizhu Xuan of Liangjiang Public School, Wu Yue and others were enthusiastic and held a solemn ceremony of joining the alliance, and the "Northern Assassination Regiment" was formally established, the ultimate purpose of which was to overthrow the qing dynasty rule, save the nation from peril, and establish a democratic state.
Wu Yue believed that Cixi was deep in the inner palace, Yi Li lived in simplicity, and the assassination was not easy to succeed, while Tie Liang held the military power and often went out to move, so he could take advantage of it. Therefore, the assassination team targeted Tie Liang and prepared to carry out the assassination.
Wu Yue was actively involved in the preparations for the assassination of Tie Liang, and he bought a small Japanese pistol and a portrait of Tie Liang, hung it in the Cuizhu Xuan, and insisted on practicing shooting at the target every day. During this period, Wu Yue recorded his revolutionary ideas at any time and collected them into a book called "The Age of Assassination".
Just as Wu Yue and others were working intensively on assassination preparations, Yang Shouren came to Baoding from Beijing again. Wu Yue reported to him on the preparations for the assassination, and took out the small pistol he had purchased and practiced showing it to Yang.
Yang Shouren laughed, "This is An Oriental product, using it to beat a dog, it is still not dead, let alone assassinating the heavily guarded Tie Liang." Yang Shouren said to everyone: "I brought a sharp weapon, which is ten thousand times more powerful than a pistol." He took out a large paper bag, revealing a copper round jar about three inches in diameter, sealed tightly around it, like a can of food.
No one has ever seen this thing, and they don't know what it is. Yang Shouren said mysteriously, this is my homemade bomb, tomorrow we will go to the suburbs to experiment, let everyone see its power.
The next day, Wu Yue, Yang Shouren, and others came to a valley outside Baoding. They buried the homemade bomb under a large rock, connected the bomb lead to the fuse, and piled some dead grass and leaves near the lead.
Everyone hid in the safe zone, Yang Shouren lit the dry grass, the dry grass was burning, and it looked like it was about to burn to the lead, but the strange thing was that the bomb did not explode. After waiting for a while, it was still silent. Yang Shouren ran up to look at it, and it turned out that the dry grass had been extinguished in the middle of the way.
They lit the dry grass again and quickly retreated to safety, just at this moment, the "boom" of a lifetime of loud noises, earth and stones flying, gun smoke filled the air, the bomb successfully exploded. The stones around the bomb were blown to pieces, and the branches next to the crater were also cut off a lot, which was very powerful.
The successful development of the earth bomb gave the assassination regiment a great weapon, and everyone was greatly encouraged. Wu Yue decided to immediately carry out the assassination of Tie Liang. He left Baoding and came to Beijing, where he lived in the Tongcheng Guild Hall, often carrying a bomb in his arms, looking for an opportunity to attack.
But Tie Liang was injured in an assassination, and his vigilance was very high, and he closed his doors most of the time and was very well guarded. Wu Yue had no gap to take advantage of for a while, so he had to stay in Beijing.
3. Blood Zhengyangmen Station
In 1905, in order to deceive the people, the Qing government proposed to "prepare for the establishment of a constitution" and sent five ministers, including Zhenguo Gong Zaize, Hubu Shilang Dai Hongci, Bingbu Shilang Xu Shichang, Hunan Inspector Duanfang, and Shangbu Right Minister Shaoying to investigate constitutional government. In order to powder the Qing court conspiracy and awaken the people, Wu Yue decided to assassinate five ministers with a homemade earthen bomb.
Yang Shouren's heart sank after knowing it, because the bomb at that time did not have electrical equipment, and the method of using lead ignition and detonation was not very realistic, if the "needle collision method" bomb was used, the bomber might be killed. Yang Shouren persuaded Wu Yue not to go, but Wu Yue said that as long as I could blow up and kill five ministers, bankrupt the Qing Dynasty's constitutional deception, and strengthen the determination of the world's heroes to revolutionize, I would die without regret.
Wu Yue grasped the details of the itinerary of the five ministers in advance and prepared for the assassination. On the evening of the 23rd, Wu Yue drank bitterly with his fellow villagers at the Anhui Guild Hall. During the banquet, Wu Yue made generous speeches, the language was fierce, sometimes laughing, sometimes chanting poetry, and there was a kind of tragedy of death. "The wind is cold and the water is cold, and the heroes will not return once they are gone."
Group photo of the five ministers and their attachés
On October 24, the train of the five ministers stopped at Zhengyangmen Station. Wu Yue, dressed as a servant and carrying a homemade earthen bomb, came to Zhengyangmen Station early in the morning. The five ministers sat in the middle of the five special trains and scheduled to depart at ten o'clock.
The station is heavily guarded and heavily guarded. Wu Yue was sandwiched between the servants, and walked in a big way, and smoothly came to the carriage where the five ministers were riding. He was about to go into the carriage when a soldier stopped him.
Wu Yue hurriedly explained that he was a servant of "Ze Ye". But things should not go well, this guard happens to be Zaizawa's bodyguard, and he immediately becomes suspicious of Wu Yue. Because Wu Yue was born, this guard did not know, plus Wu Yue spoke an Anhui accent, and he did not look like a Beijing native at all.
The guards were about to twist Wu Yue to get off the train, and Wu Yue, fearing that the matter would be exposed, quickly took the bomb from his arms and smashed it into the train. There was a loud "bang", thick smoke filled the air, flesh and blood flew everywhere, and Wu Yue was heroically sacrificed.
Because the bomb was far away from the five ministers, except for a few soldiers nearby who were killed, the five ministers Zhong Shaoying was injured on the right side, Duan Fang, Dai Hongci was slightly injured, and the rest were fine.
This heroic feat of Wu Yue had a great impact, revolutionary forces in various places held uprisings one after another, and the rule of the Qing Dynasty was severely hit. When Cixi heard about this, she was afraid and hateful, and while sending people to investigate the matter, she strengthened her vigilance. You can look at the wall of the North Palace Gate of the Summer Palace, and the top three feet were added later, which was caused by Wu Yue's assassination at that time.
Wu Yue's former residence
Wu Yue was only 27 years old at the time, and he was full of glory and sacrificed for the choice of revolution. What is even more singable is that his fiancée heard of his feat and immediately committed suicide and was martyred. A good couple, at the most brilliant age, turned into two shooting stars and disappeared into the bright starry sky.
In order to commemorate such a hero, a bustling street in Anqing City is named Wuyue Street, and in Wuyue's hometown of Tongcheng, there is a Wuyue Ancestral Hall, and Wuyue Middle School and Wuyue Primary School are run to commemorate it. Heroes are immortal!
Note: After the martyr Wu Yue was sacrificed, the Qing court added "wood" next to his name (樾) as an insult. This was the consistent practice of the Qing Dynasty against "great rebellious criminals", and many people later called Wu Yue Wu Yue. The editor believes that the use of the name "Wu Fan" is inappropriate and does not respect the martyrs enough.
WuYue Street