Zhang Xun's rise to power brought darkness to Nanjing
Just after the Wuchang Uprising, Zhang Xun, who was then the viceroy of Jiangnan, led 20,000 Qing troops to Nanjing on the orders of Zhang Renjun, the governor of Liangjiang. Zhang Renjun was old and timid, afraid of the revolutionary army, and after Zhang Xun came, he handed over the power to defend the city of Nanjing and became a puppet himself.
Speaking of Zhang Xun, he is fierce and fierce, because he has always had a long braid, and everyone also calls him "Braided Marshal", and as soon as he arrived in Nanjing, he and Zhang Renjun proposed to suppress the revolutionaries and remove the Ninth Town of the New Army stationed in Nanjing.
The Ninth Town of the New Army was unique, it was the first unit in the late Qing Dynasty to implement the conscription system, most of them were young people with lofty ideals, and revolutionaries Zhao Sheng, Bai Wenwei and others also carried out activities in this unit. At that time, the military strength of the town was also equivalent to that of the division.
Zhang Xun continued to make trouble, and the ninth town was driven out of Nanjing and transferred to Moling Pass. As soon as Zhang Xun's "big heart troubles" were removed, his brutal side was revealed. He hunted down the city on the grounds that he had caught the revolutionaries. Arbitrary slaughter, burning and looting. In just over a month, three or four thousand innocent residents were killed. Nanjing is plunged into darkness!
In order to serve the country, Xu Shaozhen marched towards revolution
The new type of army established in the Ninth Town, which imitates the Model of the Japanese Army, is called the "New Army". Suppressed by Zhang Xun's "old army" forces and forced to transfer from the city of Nanjing to Moling Pass, Xu Shaozhen thought that the country was invaded by great powers, and he was also suppressed by Zhang Xun, wanting to repay the country, but there was no direction, and there was a flame burning in his heart. At this time, news came again, and Zhang Renjun, the governor of Liangjiang, replenished a large amount of ammunition for Zhang Xun's troops, 500 rounds of ammunition per person, while the ninth town only replenished three rounds per person, and not only that, but also was confiscated back cannons and machine guns.
When they came to Moling Pass, they grabbed some spies and interrogated them to find out that they had been sent by Zhang Xun to monitor them. After that, there was another incident in which Zhang Xun's henchmen tried to assassinate Xu Shaozhen with guns in the middle of the night. This incident made the officers and men of the Ninth Town very angry, and they were all waiting for Xu Shaozhen's instructions.
Because on November 3, 1911, an uprising broke out in Shanghai, Shanghai was restored, and the rebel army occupied Wusongkou with the trend, Xu Shaozhen decided to persuade Zhang Renjun to respond to the uprising, but after meeting Zhang Renjun, Zhang Renjun was indeed wavering and could not make a decision.
The Hongmen Feast came up to fight the Fa
Speaking of this Xu Shaozhen, his ancestors are not ordinary people, that is Xu Da, the first great hero of the founding of the Ming Dynasty! He was the fourteenth grandson of the Duke of Wei, a mid-level man, who also went to Japan to study military affairs, trained a new army after returning to China, was dissatisfied with the corruption of the Qing Dynasty, sympathized with the revolution, and managed to rescue the revolutionaries in the ninth town.
After persuading Zhang Renjun to fail, Xu Shaozhen and the staff officer Gong Zhilin discussed for a long time and decided to set up a Feast of Hongmen, inviting Zhang Xun, who was in charge of the army, to persuade him to respond to the uprising!
After Zhang Xun received the invitation, his aide Bian Liqing said to him: "Senior Marshal, this Xu Shaozhen Pingsu and we rarely socialize, and now the soldiers are in chaos, we must not help but guard against it!" Zhang Xun said disapprovingly, "You are rare and strange, I have been fighting horses for half my life, I have never seen any big winds and waves, he is a white-faced scholar who has set up a feast at the Hongmen Gate, and I am not afraid!" Bian Liqing still persuaded him to be careful, and Zhang Xun said, "The soldier is not tired of deception, if he wants to set up a feast at the Hongmen Gate, then I just have a plan and take him down!". After saying this, bian Liqing was instructed to arrange for 200 elite soldiers to go to the ambush and bring a group of fast gunners to the banquet.
At the banquet, Xu Shaozhen returned to the mountain with a sword and crossbow
That night, Xu Shaozhen hosted Zhang Xun at the Wujiao Pavilion, hoping to persuade him to conform to the general trend and support the uprising. After three rounds of drinking, Xu Shaozhen said to Zhang Xun through the wine: "Xuan Gong, you and I are shouldering the heavy responsibility of national security, and now the common people are suffering a lot, the people are not happy, the Manchu Qing Dynasty, the loss of power and humiliation of the country, which princes and ministers of the imperial court ~" Before the words were finished, Zhang Xun was already angry, pointing at Xu Shaozhen and saying: "You talk nonsense, disobey the criminal!" Xu Shaozhen still hoped to persuade Zhang Xun and continue to say to him: "As soon as the cannon sounded in Wuchang, the revolutionary banner of righteousness was raised, and all localities responded. Xuan Gong, this is the people's aspiration, China really has to be revolutionary! Zhang Xun was indeed furious: "Don't say much, rebel, kill without forgiveness!" At this time, Bian Liqing stood up and made a secret signal, and the 20 fast gunmen accompanying him also stood up. Gong Zhilin, the staff officer of the Ninth Town, saw the situation and preemptively stood in front of Bian Liqing, and more than 100 officers and men of the Ninth Town behind the rockery surrounded the Wujiao Pavilion with guns! Inside the Five Corners Pavilion, Zhang Xun didn't know the situation outside, pointing at Zhang Xun and shouting, "Whoever wants to rebel, I'll hit him with a few holes!" Speaking of preparing to throw the cup as a trumpet and lead his own fast gunner in, Bian Liqing knew outside that his side could not defeat the other side, and the 200 people he had ambushed were still outside the back lake, and it was too late, so he hurried into the Wujiao Pavilion and pulled Zhang Xun and Xu Shaozhen and said: "Xuan Gong, Gu Lao, you two have drunk too much." Repeatedly signaling Zhang Xun to quickly withdraw, while saying: "Gu Lao, another day to recount!" After saying that, he took 20 soldiers and went away with him. When Gong Zhilin saw them gone, he felt very sorry. Asked: Gu Lao, how do you let the tiger return to the mountain? Xu Shaozhen said slowly: "The people's hearts are the direction of the times." He Zhang Shaoxuan will understand later. Saying that he and Gong Zhilin rushed back to Moling Pass overnight, the next day, November 7, 1911, they gathered all the officers and soldiers of the town, solemnly declared an uprising, and prepared to attack Yuhuatai outside the Jubao Gate in Nanjing.
Lack of ammunition to supply the rebels with bloody rain
Yuhuatai was outside the Jubao Gate in Nanjing, and the terrain was dangerous, and Zhang Xun installed two forts here, and sent officers and soldiers to guard and strictly guard. Under normal circumstances, it was difficult to fight, and at this time, Su Liangbin, a revolutionary in Nanjing and a member of the League, came to Molingguan to contact Xu Shaozhen, saying that he had contacted the guards of the Governor's Palace and several Qing troops of the patrol team to revolt in the city to meet the revolutionary army. Xu Shaozhen also contacted the Shanghai Revolutionary Army and promised to send arms supplies to support the uprising. Therefore, Xu Shaozhen and Su Liangbin agreed that in the early morning of November 8, an attack would be launched inside and outside the city at the same time. In the early morning of November 8, Xu Shaozhen issued an order to attack Yuhuatai. The rebel army fought fiercely with the Qing army at Yuhuatai and Shuiximen. The Qing army's Yuhuatai Fort hurriedly fired a cannon and bombarded it, but due to panic, it was not placed in a flurry.
At the beginning of the battle, the rebel army was highly motivated, rapidly advancing, and soon approaching the front of the enemy position, but at this critical juncture, the situation of the battle changed. The ammunition supplies promised by Shanghai were blocked in Zhenjiang and could not be reached the front line in time. In the fierce battle, the rebel fighters' original small ammunition was quickly consumed, and under the intensive artillery fire of the enemy, they could no longer cope with the battle, so they had to hide and be beaten. Suddenly, with a roar of anger, the earth was shaken, and Tang Youde, the vanguard of the rebel army, brandished a battle knife and commanded the soldiers to prepare for hand-to-hand combat. He had just jumped two or three steps before he was swept away by enemy machine guns. The captains Zhang Guojun and Pan Shoucheng were seriously injured in the fierce battle, and the casualties of the soldiers were repaired. The plan could not keep up with the changes, and the uprising in the city also failed because of the traitors leaking secrets. The soldiers of the front-line uprising, fighting alone, exhausted, were in a desperate situation. Later, although due to the heroic battle of the death squads, the rebel army once occupied Yuhuatai, but in the end due to lack of ammunition, heavy casualties, the next morning, Zhang Xun's defenders launched a counterattack, and the rebel army took advantage of the thick fog to withdraw From Yuhuatai. In this battle, Xu Shaozhen threw in the strength of two regiments, with nearly a thousand casualties and many casualties of the enemy army. But the strong attack on Yuhuatai still failed.
Xu Shaozhen revived the military's might and wisdom to take Wulong Mountain
Xu Shaozhen rebelled at Moling pass, commanded the ninth town to attack Yuhuatai and failed, and retreated to Zhenjiang to rest. Xu Shaozhen himself rushed to Shanghai in the night of the stars, and was elected by Chen Yingshi, the governor of the Shanghai Revolutionary Army, and the revolutionary armies in various parts of Jiangsu and Zhejiang to organize the jiangsu and Zhejiang coalition forces of the revolutionary army, and Xu Shaozhen took office as the commander-in-chief of the jiangsu and Zhejiang joint forces and commanded the coalition forces to attack Nanjing.
The strength of the Jiangsu-Zhejiang coalition army is said to be 40,000, but it is less than 20,000 people. At this time, the Qing admirals Zuo Song Wenxiang and Wu Zhennan, who were anchored in Zhenjiang and Gaozi to defend the Yangtze River, led fourteen ships to revolt and came to the headquarters of the coalition army. Xu Shaozhen immediately assigned various ships to patrol Zhenjiang and cooperate with the revolutionary army.
In contrast, the Qing army's defense force guarding Nanjing, a total of more than 20,000 people, was commanded by Zhang Dong, of which the main forces were Zhang Xun's "Jiangfang Battalion" of 6,000 and Wang Youhong, a "named admiral" known as a bold general in the Qing army, 6,000 people, as well as the strength of a division in Xuzhou Town transferred from Xuzhou and the Yamen Guards of the Governor of Liangjiang. The two sides are actually similar in terms of military strength.
At this time, the revolutionary military government issued the "Attack on Nanjing", which greatly encouraged the fighting spirit of the revolutionary army. On November 16, when Xu Shaozhen, commander-in-chief of the Jiangsu-Zhejiang Combined Forces, convened the deliberations of the generals of the various armies, the news came from the Shanghai Westerners' newspaper that foreigners might interfere in the revolutionary army's attack on Nanjing, so it was decided that the revolutionary army would act quickly. On November 20, Commander-in-Chief Xu Shaozhen issued an attack order, ordering the Jiangsu-Zhejiang coalition forces to attack in all directions. The fiercest offensive battle in the history of the Xinhai Revolution is about to be launched in Nanjing.
At the military conference, Xu Shaozhen, commander-in-chief of the Jiangsu-Zhejiang Coalition Army, pointed out that the danger of Nanjing lies in the five major fortresses, and our army will not be able to attack the city without first occupying the five major fortresses. He also said: Five fortresses, around 60 miles, and now Zhang Xun has arranged these five places into a connected war zone, of which Wulong Mountain and Shogunate Mountain are the gateways to this war zone; At the Wulongshan Fort, there are more than 20 heavy artillery pieces, and the lethality is very great, so the WulongShan Fort must be outwitted and attacked head-on, and our army will suffer heavy losses. Li Tiancai, the Song army, asked for a battle and attacked Wulong Mountain. When Li Tiancai regained Shanghai, he attacked from the Huangpu River to Wusongkou, drove the Qing army down to the sea, and won a great victory for Wusong. Before Xu Shaozhen issued the offensive order, the General Headquarters had a special guest, this person surnamed Guan, named Cheng Kun, graduated from the artillery department of the Qing Army Army School, and was not long ago the commander of the Qing Army's Nanjing General Battery. This time, he came to the General Headquarters of the Coalition Army and asked to meet Commander-in-Chief Xu. After Xu Shaozhen received them, the two secretly discussed for a long time, and Guan Chengkun bid farewell happily.
The night was dark, the cold wind was fierce, and there was a silence before the battle, Li Tiancai led the Song Army and the Zhejiang Army to reach the foothills of Wulong Mountain, attacking the Qing army position under the cover of night, and the defenders of the Wulong Mountain Battery woke up from their sleep and hurried to the battle, they quickly removed their gun suits, quickly loaded shells, and prepared to launch artillery bombardments. At this time, an unexpected strange thing appeared: the Qing army suddenly found that all the bolts of the cannons were missing, and the cannons could not be fired. Just as the Qing army was stunned and panicked, some officers and men in the fort had already raised the banner of insurrection, and the revolutionary army occupied Wulong Mountain without being wounded or a single soldier.
Wulong Mountain was lost, Zhang Xun jumped like thunder, in order to turn the tide of the war, he dispatched reinforcements overnight, and 100,000 rushed to the Shogunate Mountain to reinforce. At this time, Xu Shaozhen ordered Li Tian to expand his achievements and fight continuously, rushing to attack the Shogunate Mountain. Li Tiancai was brave and good at fighting, and he was a pioneer, and under the dense artillery fire of the enemy, he fought fiercely for 6 hours, and the enemy was not supported, and the whole line collapsed. At dawn, revolutionary forces occupied the Shogunate Hill Fortress. When Jang-hsun's reinforcements approached Shogun Hill, they learned that Shogun Hill had been lost and had to retreat.
After the revolutionary army occupied the Shogunate Mountain Fort, it immediately shelled lion mountain, and only fired a few cannons, when the Qing army of lion mountain waved a signal flag on the fort, demanding that the shelling stop and expressing its willingness to submit. In this battle, the revolutionary army took down the three major fortresses of Wulong Mountain, Shogunate Mountain and Lion Mountain, and seized 16 fortress cannons and countless ammunition.
The rapid occupation of Wulong Mountain laid the foundation for victory. The mysterious disappearance of the Qing Army's Wulong Mountain Fort and the gun bolt is the turning point of the overall situation, which has a great impact. It turned out that on that day, Guan Chengkun met with Xu Shaozhen, accepted the secret order of Commander-in-Chief Xu Shaozhen, persuaded some officers and men of Wulong Mountain to turn to the revolution, and before the battle, he unloaded all the bolts of the cannon and made a great contribution. Afterwards, Xu Shaozhen appointed Guan Chengkun as the commander of the artillery of the Jiangsu-Zhejiang coalition forces.
The bold general killed the enemy lightly, and Xu Shaozhen invaded Nanjing to become the founding father of the country
During the day and night, the Qing army lost three fortresses of Oolong, shogunate and Lion Mountain. Zhang Xun hurriedly mobilized heavy artillery to strengthen the front-line firepower of Tianbao City, Yuhuatai and Taipingmen in Nanjing City, and dispatched Wang Youhong, the admiral of the "Jiang Defense Battalion", to lead the heavy garrison.
On November 26, the revolutionary army attacked on all fronts. Xu Shaozhen, commander-in-chief of the Jiangsu-Zhejiang Combined Forces, led his adviser Yu Youren and staff officer Gong Zhiyan to personally command the Taipingmen front. At this time, there was a sudden emergency, and it was reported that two or three hundred enemy forces, each with two or three hundred men, were advancing in the direction of the General Headquarters of the Allied Forces, intending to sneak into the General Headquarters. Xu Shaozhen received the news and immediately transferred back to the General Headquarters.
At this time, the troops directly under the Allied Forces General Headquarters had all been sent to the front to participate in the battle, leaving only Yang Yanchang, captain of the garrison, and Zhou Yingshi, deputy captain, leading more than a hundred soldiers, and the situation was very critical; Xu Shaozhen immediately ordered Yang Yanchang to form two reinforced platoons of more than 100 soldiers, and the two garrison captains each led a reinforced platoon and spread them out on the left and right flanks of the general headquarters, and the gunmen with guns and the empty-handed bare-handed soldiers were ambushed one by one, and each of them maintained a certain distance, so as to extend the position, and when the enemy approached, the mobile guns were fired from the front and back , as a suspect. In a few moments, two Qing troops arrived, saw the revolutionary army's gunshots rising and falling from side to side, echoed on all sides, suspected that there was a large army ambushing, cowered, and finally, in a panic and retreated, all fleeing back to the city.
On November 27, the commander-in-chief of the Jiangsu-Zhejiang Coalition Army personally led the Zhejiang Army and the Song Army to attack Taipingmen. Wang Youhong, the qing general of the Taiping Gate, known as the "bold general", was rewarded by the Qing court for his meritorious efforts in suppressing the Boxers. This person is proficient in martial arts, usually uses a large knife, has the "courage of ten thousand men", and is a fierce general under Zhang Xun. Wang Youhong has always looked down on Xinjun and Xu Shaozhen, believing that Xiucai talks about soldiers and is useless in listening. Today, when he wanted to fight Xu Shaozhen, he even boasted about Haikou and said, "If you dare to attack, call Xu Shaozhen to die on the battlefield, and the piece of armor will not be left!"
In the early morning of the 27th, the morale of the Jiangsu and Zhejiang coalition forces was strong, and under the command of the commander-in-chief Xu Shaozhen, they stormed the Taiping Gate. Wang Youhong tried several times to lead the team to rush to kill, but was persuaded by his subordinates to stop. Wang Youhong's staff officer, Wang Xiaoshan, presented a plan to Wang Youhong: "The coalition forces have newly acquired Wulong Mountain, the shogunate, and other places, and their vigor is flourishing. We should avoid their sharpness and hold our positions until they cannot be attacked for a long time and their morale is exhausted, and then our army will be able to win a complete victory by rushing to kill them. "This is the strategy used by the famous ancient general Cao Jie and exhausted himself. After Wang Youhong heard this, he barely suppressed his anger and roared in the position. From early morning to noon, the coalition forces could not be attacked for a long time, and their morale gradually deteriorated. By the afternoon, the sound of allied guns and artillery had faded, and the chaos on the coalition positions could be faintly heard, mixed with the sounds of scolding and complaining. Wang Youhong heard the turmoil in the coalition positions, was overjoyed, and deeply praised the strategy of the old nephew Wang Xiaoshan, who was really a great fighter who was "exhausted by the enemy's qi" and immediately ordered an all-out attack. In order to maintain the prestige of the "bold general", Wang Youhong himself was fully dressed as a vice-admiral, with a red top and a flower feather on his head, wearing a yellow coat of qin, straddling a Uyama horse, holding a command knife, and taking the lead in the Prancing Horse. As soon as Wang Youhong got out of his horse, his red-topped flower feathers and yellow coats were particularly dazzling on the battlefield, and immediately became the target of the intensive firepower of the coalition forces. In just an instant, he was shot more than a hundred times in his whole body and fell to the ground and died. Originally, Xu Shaozhen knew very well that Wang Youhong had always despised the new army and was so rash in battle that when fighting, he secretly ordered the front-line coalition forces to pretend that morale was declining, and specially arranged to create all kinds of illusions to confuse the enemy army. As a result, the arrogant Wang Youhong was indeed killed.
Tianbao City is located in the western peak of Nanjing Purple Mountain, was originally the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom after the establishment of the capital of Nanjing, in order to defend the fortress of Tianjing architecture, the city was built with huge stone blocks, there is a husband and wife to pass the momentum, is the military control of Nanjing's pass, ranking first among the five major fortresses. The attack on Tianbao City was the last battle to restore Nanjing, and it was also the most fierce battle, with the heaviest casualties on both sides. When the attack on Tianbao City began, the revolutionary army's various armies charged towards the Purple Mountain, and the sound of charge trumpets, guns, and fighting shook the earth. The Qing defenders of Tianbao City held their positions with dangerous positions, their guns constantly strafing, and their cannons constantly bombarding. The revolutionary army charged several times, but it failed to break, and both sides were killed and wounded. At this time, Xu Shaozhen, commander-in-chief of the coalition forces, ordered the rebel naval warships moored along the Yangtze River to fire cannons along the river and bombard the enemy positions, and with a fierce burst of artillery, Tianbao City was shrouded in a smoke of artillery fire.
After two days and nights of fierce fighting, the revolutionary army charged and fought, and the former servants followed. Yang Yunke, the commander of the Zhenjiang Revolutionary Army, led the officers and men of the whole battalion to rush towards Tianbao City, seriously wounded and heroically sacrificed, at the age of 30. Later, when Dr. Sun Yat-sen became the provisional president of the Republic of China, in recognition of the martyrs, he named Tianbao City Yunke City. Ye Yanggao, captain of the death squad of the Zhejiang Revolutionary Army, led 100 members of the death squad to climb the cliff in the middle of the night in heavy rain and sneak up on Tianbao City from the side of the Purple Mountain.
On December 1, the Qing defenders retreated without support, and the revolutionary army finally attacked Tianbao City, and powerful artillery fire directly hit the city of Nanjing. At this time, Zhang Renjun, the governor of Qing Liangjiang, and the general Tie Liang of Jiangning were waiting for Zhang Xun to discuss the military report in the command post of Zhang Xun in the Arctic Pavilion. Suddenly, a shell hit the attic, booming, and 5 guards were killed on the spot. Zhang Renjun was frightened and discouraged, and under the support of Tie Liang, he fled in panic and left Nanjing. Zhang Xun was on the front line, and when he learned that Zhang Renjun had fled, he saw that the general situation had gone, and had no choice but to grit his teeth and lead a group of defeated soldiers, and also withdrew from Nanjing and fled to Pukou.
On December 2, the city of Nanjing was filled with firecrackers and crowds, and the commander-in-chief Xu Shaozhen led the revolutionary army, the Jiangsu-Zhejiang Coalition Army, into Nanjing. A month later, on New Year's Day 1912, Dr. Sun Yat-sen inaugurated the provisional president in Nanjing, declaring the end of China's thousands of years of feudal monarchy.