Xinhai Revolution Hall Tang Cai chang sculpture
On the night of August 22, 1900, on the shore of Wuchang Ziyang Lake, the night was like lacquer, and under the moonlight, the lake water was faintly shining.
In the middle of the night, a rush of footsteps disturbed the originally quiet atmosphere, and as a group of heavily armed Qing troops trotted in, a group of prisoners with shackles and shackles were escorted to the lake.
Or the silent night, the soldiers and prisoners, most of them bowed their heads and quietly.
A gust of wind blew, and the saber and sheath of the soldier's body rubbed against each other with a fine crackling and crisp sound, sharp and piercing, and seemed to be eager to unsheath out and enjoy the invigorating pleasure of killing and bloodshed.
The prisoners were dressed in prison clothes, dirty and messy, and their bodies were covered with blood, except for one person, who stood in front of the crowd, with big ears and eyes like electricity, and the corners of his mouth were tight, revealing his incomparable fortitude, but he was the only one, his clothes were neat, his sideburns were solemn, and he had no shackles.
He was Tang Caichang, the first criminal of the "Self-Reliant Army" who was to be secretly executed by the Qing court.
Today, speaking of Tang Caichang, perhaps many people do not know that the one we are familiar with is another person, Tan Sitong.
But these two people are confidants of life and death.
Tang Caichang
Compared with Tan Sitong, who has a "high-cadre" background, Tang Cai is often more simple.
In 1867, Tan Si was 2 years old, also in Liuyang, Hunan, Tang Cai often fell to the ground, born in Shuxiang Mendi, Tang Cai often received a good education since childhood, and because of his talent and intelligence, he was known as a "prodigy" from an early age, at the age of 19, Tang Cai often took the top spot in the county, prefectural, and Provincial examinations, when people envied him as "small three yuan and the first", which can be described as a spring breeze.
During his studies at the Yuelu Academy in Changsha, Tang Cai often paid attention to current politics and despised the Eight Strands of Scripture. In the twentieth year of Guangxu, he went to Wuchang Lianghu Academy to teach, where he taught for a long time, like hunger, read a lot of translated Western studies, and his thinking slowly changed.
What greatly stimulated him was the fiasco of the Sino-Japanese War in the Qing Dynasty, the weakness and corruption of the imperial court that made him deeply resentful, and it was from that time that Tang Caichang completely abandoned the useless study of scripture and concentrated on the study of the political and diplomatic system of the West and Japan, hoping to explore the road to national prosperity and strength.
Under the general situation of the increasingly surging trend of restoration, Tang Caichang, who had just gained the false name of "plucking tribute", was bent on introducing Western political ideas and reforming the system. Together with Tan Sitong, Xiong Xiling and others, he joined the "Hunan Shiwu School" founded by Hunan Inspector Chen Baozhen (the grandfather of Chen Yinke, a university inquirer).
In 1898, Tang Caichang and Tan Sitong jointly founded the Xiang Bao, and appointed himself as the "chief writer", advocating "constitutional monarchy" and "parliamentary politics", shouting and advocating, and striving to change the law and strive to become stronger.
Tang Caichang's thinking became more and more radical, and he strongly promoted the democratic systems of Western countries, advocating "public world" and "public power", and a large number of scholars raised their arms, and the call for New Deal reform became louder and louder.
And this is undoubtedly touching the anti-scales of those feudal power classes.
Soon, the disaster flew in, the Penghu Reform Law failed, and Tan Si and the others were killed.
Tan
Knowing that he had been killed, Tang Cai was often suddenly mad and angry, so he made a long joint hanging:
When I said goodbye to my father-in-law for a few moments, suddenly the shock electricity flew in, hating not to carry twenty years of neck-to-neck intercourse, and went to Quantai together, and Man Win would go to Chu Guchen, and the sound of the whistle sounded;
Nearly ten days after the Supreme Being, he was killed by the yin of the crowd, and he abandoned four hundred trillion as slaves, buried in hell for a long time, and only the three masters of Fusang were left, and the sword qi was empty.
Seventy-two words, every word and tear, every word of hatred.
Among them, the "Fuso Sanjie" refers to Kang Youwei, Liang Qichao, and Zhang Taiyan, who were exiled to Japan.
Therefore, Tang Cai often traveled all over Hong Kong, Nanyang, Japan and other places, gathering overseas Chinese everywhere to give speeches, making generous statements, knowing the great righteousness, and raising funds and salaries, with the intention of avenging Tan Sitong.
In Japan, he also paid homage to Kang Youwei, the leading figure of the Fa-changing faction, and performed disciple ceremonies, plotting with Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao day and night to discuss the raising of troops.
As we all know, although Tang Caichang, Tan Sitong, and Kang Liang were first-class in the "anti-Qing" faction, they also belonged to the "royalist" faction, but at this time, Tang Caichang seemed to have ceased to be attached to the "royalist", and the death of his close friend made him full of stimulation.
In 1899, Tang Cai often met with Sun Yat-sen and plotted together to do great justice.
At that time, Sun Yat-sen and the revolutionary comrades were planning the "Huizhou Uprising", and naturally hoped that someone like Tang Caichang would raise his arms in Xiang'e and respond in the Yangtze River Basin.
At the end of 1899, Tang Caichang returned to China and founded the "Eastern Literature Society" in Shanghai, which was soon renamed the "Self-Reliance Society".
The "royalists" had money and the "revolutionary party" had people, and Tang Cai was often fully confident in doing things; he upgraded the "self-reliance association" to a "self-reliant army" and divided it into five roads, and he appointed himself as the commander-in-chief of the whole army.
On the one hand, he had Kang Liang's party as his endorsement, and on the other hand, he also carried the banner of Sun Yat-sen, so that the party members in the provinces of the Yangtze River Valley, the soldiers of the New Army, the rich officials who were inclined to revolution in the Yamen, and the peasants at the middle and lower levels joined in.
In 1900, Cixi instigated the Boxers to attack the foreigners everywhere, blindly "Boxers" like a flood of beasts stirring up chaos in the world.
Although Tang Caichang was dismissive, he also thought that "there is an opportunity for fist change", so he stepped up his activities and prepared to wait for the opportunity.
In July of that year, Tang Caichang held the first "Chinese Parliament" in Shanghai, where heroes from all walks of life gathered, numbering hundreds of people, all of whom were the backbone of the Self-Reliance Association and celebrities from all over the world.
At the meeting, everyone publicly promoted Rong Hong as the "president", Yan Fu as the vice president, and Tang Cai as the permanent director general, and in this regard, the establishment of the "self-reliance army" was also officially announced.
The meeting also established a less "revolutionary" purpose: to preserve China's right to self-reliance and create a new "self-reliant state", not to recognize the Qing government's right to rule China, but to ask the Guangxu Emperor to "restore".
That is to say, Tang Cai often did not leave the category of "royalist" in essence, and continued to support the Guangxu Emperor.
Shortly after the "Congress" was convened, the Eight-Nation Alliance invaded Beijing, and Cixi fled west with the Guangxu Emperor, and a perfect opportunity came.
Tang Cai often heard the news and was inexplicably excited: "Beijing has been broken, the emperor and the people of the Nala (clan), the emperor is rushing west, at this time, this opportunity, the most important topic, must not be lost!" ”
The so-called "great topic" is to lead the masses to start a rebellion in the name of "starting an army and serving the king", hoping to take this opportunity to create a situation of independence in the southeast.
However, history made a big joke, and the key person who could really achieve "southeast independence" at that time was not Tang Caichang, but Zhang Zhidong, a big name of the Westerners.
Zhang Zhidong, this person, and Zeng Guofan and Li Hongzhang are probably inseparable, the eunuch sea has been floating and sinking for many years, has long been shrewd and sophisticated, and has done everything good and bad.
At that time, the political situation was in a chaotic time, and Zhang Zhidong, a major minister of the imperial court, was naturally hot, the British and Japanese sides were successively drawn together, and the Kang Liang faction also frequently offered courtesy, but he and the various parties were vain and snake, calculating their own small calculations.
On August 9, 1900, Tang Caichang was ready to personally persuade Zhang Zhidong to establish a "self-established state" in the southeast.
Facts have proved that Tang Caichang's idea is very immature, or wishful thinking.
As a senior member of the imperial court, Zhang Zhidong had long been wary of Tang Caichang and the "Self-Reliance Association", and he reported to the imperial court: "In the Yangtze River area, there will be many bandits, so they will create all kinds of exposés, correct the masses and plot rebellion, which is really terrible, and it should be strictly prohibited!" ”
What he calls "self-reliance", which means "self-reliance", that is to say, Zhang Zhidong has always wanted to be cruel to the "self-reliance association".
Tang Caichang, on the other hand, had a 100,000-strong self-established army in his hands and was ready to start a campaign from Hanyang, Hankou, Anhui and other places, but unexpectedly, he was embarrassed by funds.
Kang Youwei, who was overseas, patted his chest to guarantee the funds, but did not remit them in time, and the confidence that Tang Cai often accumulated fell by more than half in an instant, and in a panic, Tang Cai often had to change the time.
Of course, this is not an accident, Kang Youwei also has his own considerations, Tang Caichang's "self-reliance army" is not the ideal choice for the main force in his heart, Kang Youwei values the most is the land of "GuiXiang", to put it bluntly, it is the old way of the "Taiping Heavenly Kingdom", starting from Guangxi, then crossing Guangdong into Hunan, then advancing into Hubei, and finally winning a surprise victory in Beijing.
Li
As a result, Li Hongzhang, the governor of Liangguang, became Kang Youwei's favorite choice.
However, after the Boxer Rebellion, Li Hongzhang went north to negotiate peace, the situation fell into a fog in an instant, Kang Liang was not sure, if Tang Cai often succeeded in starting a rebellion, it would disrupt their plans, so he hesitated, and the promised remittance has not been sent.
300,000, even at that time, was not a huge amount of money to determine the fate, even if it was remitted on time, it could provide a few days of support for 100,000 people? Tang Cai often attaches too much importance to the power of money after all, because of this mere three hundred thousand, hesitating and temporarily rescheduling.
You know, plotting rebellion is a big thing to lose your head, and one day late is one more day of variables, and the risk is even more abrupt.
Sure enough, the news of Tang Cai's frequent rebellion was soon leaked, and Zhang Zhidong decided to strike first and destroy the "self-reliance army" in the "spark of stars."
A sudden search, without warning, the headquarters of the Self-Reliant Army was put on the side of the Qing army, and Tang Caichang and other leading figures were arrested.
In order to protect himself for fear of long nights and dreams, Zhang Zhidong ordered the rapid execution of more than twenty people captured by Tang Caichang and others.
There were not too many interrogations, from arrests to executions, but two or three days.
On the night of August 22, 1900, Tang Caichang and others were put in prison by the Qing soldiers and quietly escorted to Ziyang Lake.
The moonlight is like water, sprinkled on everyone, Standing on the lakeside, Tang Cai often looks so dignified and outstanding, his face is calm and looking at the lake, like a poet who appreciates the scenery at night.
But it is clear that he was escorted here not to give poetry, but to die.
The lingering court of the late Qing Dynasty no longer dared to "ming canonical punishment" under the blue sky and white sun, but needed to get rid of this group of "great rebels" who were "foolish and eager to move" through secret executions.
At this time when the morning light of the new century is fading, Tang Caichang, together with more than twenty of his comrades-in-arms and comrades, will sprinkle the searing blood on the land of China.
As the night went on, the soldiers were instructed to kneel on the ground, pick up large knives, and without hesitation cut off their heads.
In the end, only Tang Caichang was left, and the leader of the soldiers gave him a special favor.
Bloody, soon filled in the humid air on the lakeside, Tang Cai often stood facing the lake, suddenly facing the wind, the blood flowed down the stone slab to his feet, and then slowly poured into the lake, Tang Cai often had tears in his eyes, as if he was in sorrow, as if he was moaning.
"It's time to go on the road", the leader of the soldiers put his hand on his shoulder, and like most of the generous righteous soldiers in the late Qing Dynasty, Tang Caichang finally sighed and recited a few desperate poems:
The new pavilion ghost cries in the dusk of the moon, and I want to sing and learn from Chu crazy.
Mo said that the autumn sound was too small to kill, and the wind blew the shackles all over the city.
In vain, it is difficult for me to speak, and to whom do the great heads pay?
Generous execution is really fast, and the heroic ending is always the same.
The remaining good heads pay the dead friends, and there is no true face to see the demons!
Then, pointing to his neck, he said calmly and firmly to the Officer of the Qing Army:
"Boy, how can you bend your knees!" You do it. ”
The leader took a step back, raised the large knife in his hand, and slashed at the back of Tang Caichang's neck.
Tang Cai often fell, fell in the night, fell before dawn.
The death of Tang Caichang completely cut off the illusions of the future reformists and revolutionaries about Zhang Zhidong and Li Hongzhang, who were big westerners. It indicates the end of China's "warm pulse" reformism, and also declares the beginning of a new revolution with iron blood.
More and more people of insight realized that the road to achieving national prosperity and strength through the Qing court was not feasible at all, and instead of being driven by the enslavement of the Qing court, it was better to shake his arms and turn around and become a master.
Once the hopes of "reform" are dashed, there is only one way to bleed.
Leaning on the sword to ascend to the eight wildernesses, the boundless autumn color is in the sky.
When the blood of Tang Caichang and others solidified on the land of Wuchang, the dawn of a brand-new China was gradually brightening.