On October 10, 1911, the Wuchang Uprising broke out and was quickly victorious. The Wuchang Uprising had a tremendous impact on the whole country, it promoted the rapid development of the democratic revolutionary movement led by the bourgeoisie and the petty bourgeoisie, the revolutionary wave stirred the whole country, and the reactionary Qing Dynasty faced extinction.
Chen Guofu cheered at the victory of the Wuchang Uprising, but did not know how to respond. At this time, his second uncle Chen Qimei came to Nanjing from Shanghai, preparing to launch an uprising in Nanjing and lead the southeastern provinces in response to the revolution in Wuhan.
Old photos of the Wuchang Uprising with white ribbon revolutionary army
Chen Qimei told Chen Guofu of his intentions, and Chen Guofu was also deeply encouraged and expressed his willingness to act with Chen Qimei.
Therefore, Chen Guofu first contacted the members of the alliance of the No. 4 Army Middle School in Nanjing, about thirty or forty people, under the unified command of Chen Qimei. They "met every night in the playground to plan an uprising in Nanking."
In order to facilitate leadership, they set up a branch of the Army No. 4 Middle School League and actively carried out various preparations before the uprising.
Soon, however, their actions were discovered by the Manchu officials, and the Qing army strengthened its precautions against the Fourth Central Committee, and took some actions, such as transporting the bullets that had been stored there, locking up the guns, and transferring the troops of the Ninth Town, which were connected with the revolutionaries, to the outside of the city.
At this time, Chen Qimei went back to Shanghai, Chen Guofu was helpless for a while, so he and two other classmates rushed to Shanghai to ask for instructions, but unfortunately Chen Qimei had just left Shanghai and went to Hangzhou.
Chen Guofu had no choice but to find Huang Xing, Song Jiaoren and others and report to them the situation in Nanjing. Huang Xing and others believed that since the Qing army had strengthened its precautions, the Nanjing Revolution could be postponed for the time being.
At present, the main task facing us is how to support the Wuhan revolution, and launching an uprising is one aspect of support, and we can also directly mobilize a large number of League members to Wuhan to join the army and fight to defend Wuhan.
Chen Guofu's words aroused Chen Guofu's enthusiasm, and he thought that what Huang Xing said made sense. At that time, the Qing government was mobilizing a large army to besiege Wuhan, and the city of Shouyi was in danger.
"If we can support Wuhan as a stronghold, we can wait for the provinces to respond, and if we can support it one more day, the situation will improve one day. If the Wuhan base is lost, it will be difficult for all parts of the country to respond."
Thinking of this, he immediately decided not to return to Nanjing and went to Wuhan. So, the young Chen Guofu "went to Rongji for thousands of miles, and Guanshan was like flying", and rushed to Wuhan with enthusiasm.
At this time, Wuhan was already a beacon fire in three towns, and the city was full of gunsmoke. Yuan Shikai sent Feng Guozhang to dispatch the whole army to attack Hankou, but the revolutionary army resisted hard, suffered many casualties, and retreated to Dazhimen, and Hankou was in danger.
Chen Guofu found Minister Sun Wu in the Military Affairs Department of the People's Army. Sun Wu briefed them on the war in Wuhan, saying that the war in Hankou was unfavorable, and that there had been a mutiny in Hanyang the day before, and the situation was also critical, and he said that everyone was welcome to support the war in Wuhan.
Chen Guofu was anxious to enter the war and asked for specific work to be arranged. Sun Wu said: "Now Hankou may not be guaranteed, and it will be difficult to recover for a while, and Hanyang must be defended, are you willing to go to Hanyang?"
Chen Guofu replied: "We are here to go to any dangerous place. Sun Wu greatly appreciated Chen Guofu's courage, that is, he issued him a passport and ordered him to report to Hanyang.
At this time, the situation in Hanyang was very bad, and the people's troops who were originally guarding here heard that Hankou was about to be lost, and the army was in a commotion, and almost all of them mutinied and dispersed.
After Chen Guofu reported for duty, he was assigned to the artillery platoon as a soldier. Originally, according to his level in army middle school, he could be a junior officer, but Chen Guofu didn't care about this, he was willing to start as a soldier first.
The artillery platoon commander, surnamed Qiu, also came from Nanjing, and he trusted Chen Guofu very much, often taking him to patrol the Yangtze River, and sometimes, to Guishan Mountain to let him test the artillery. Chen Guofu had learned to fire artillery in school, but it had never come in handy, and he felt very proud to be able to directly serve the revolution this time.
Life as a soldier is hard, especially sleeping at night, which is almost a sin. There was no covering, everyone was clothed, huddled together, and lay on the ground. Sometimes, in an emergency, you have to sleep on the battlefield.
Whenever this happens, Chen Guofu always can't sleep. He looked at the distant night sky, listened to the sparse gunshots coming from the riverside, and constructed interesting novels in his mind, thinking that he would be a novelist if he succeeded in the future, but he thought that this was too romantic, and his knowledge was too little, how could he write a novel that would be praised through the ages?
Chen Guofu's mind can adapt to this difficult environment, but his thin body is difficult to adapt. Originally, his lung disease had just improved, and his vomiting of blood had healed. But after coming to Wuhan, I worked intensely during the day, and I couldn't sleep well at night, so I rarely rested, and gradually my body couldn't support it.
One night, he and the troops transported the bullets to Montenegro, and when he came back, he had a great time rocking the hand-cranked car used on the railway, but he still insisted on shaking, and suddenly felt that the world was spinning, and he fell to the ground unconscious, and it took more than 10 hours to wake up.
When he awoke, he went to work without saying a word, and his companions, seeing that he was so weak, advised him to go back and rest, but he refused, and together with everyone, he persevered, and the other soldiers were deeply moved.
On October 28, Feng Guozhang led the Qing army to launch a general attack on Hankou, the people's army bravely resisted the enemy, and the general public also actively participated in the war. The army and the people shared the same hatred for the enemy, fought hard, and broke several enemy attacks.
However, due to the defeat of military command, Hankou was finally lost, so Hanyang became the forward position of the war, and the Hanyang army and people organized several counteroffensives, but they were unsuccessful, and they suffered losses.
At this time, the Qing army also figured out the military strength of Hanyang, that is, launched a powerful offensive against Hanyang. The people's army bravely resisted the enemy, and the battle was fierce. At this time, Chen Guofu was ordered to guard the headquarters of the People's Army at the Hanyang Arsenal, and he and other soldiers stuck to their posts day and night, not daring to slack off.
One day, spies sent by the Qing army set fire to the headquarters of the People's Republic of China in order to respond to the attack of the Qing army.
The personnel of the headquarters thought that the enemy army had entered the city of Hanyang, and some rushed to the army to personally command, some went to organize firefighting, and some even escaped from the battle.
The leaders of the headquarters who presided over the work were all gone at once, leaving only Chen Guofu and four or five guards guarding the empty headquarters hall. When some soldiers saw this, they also wanted to leave, thinking that it was better to defend an empty room than to go straight into battle. But Chen Guofu insisted on not leaving.
He believes that although the commander of the headquarters is gone, if the guards are here, they can still sing about the empty city plan, and if the guards are gone, then people will definitely think that the headquarters is finished, and the morale of the army will be in chaos. So, he asked a few guards to guard the door, chose the best gun himself, brought enough ammunition, and stuck to the hall, performing an "empty city plan".
After a while, the people's army and local citizens arrested the spies who set fire to the guns and sent them to the headquarters one by one. They thought that Chen Guofu was the commander of the headquarters, so they handed it over to him to deal with, and Chen Guofu had no choice but to fake it.
However, there were only a few guards in the headquarters, and he was not easy to interrogate, and it was not easy for him to make a claim after interrogation, so he pretended to be stern and said that it was too late today, and that he would try tomorrow, and that he would ask the guards to lock up these spies in the room next to the hall.
A few hours later, the Qing offensive retreated, the fire was extinguished, and the men from the headquarters returned one after another. After listening to Chen Guofu's report, the head of the People's Army praised him for his resourcefulness and bravery in an emergency.
Later, Chen Guofu remembered this incident and was really a little afraid. He said: "Fortunately the spies did not know that we were false, or we would not have been dealt with so smoothly, though we had kept the door closed and the window open, and had not bound them, or if we had been a little timid." ”
After Chen Guofu and the revolutionary army held on to Hanyang for a week, when the war situation entered a critical moment, Huang Xing came to Wuhan and served as the commander-in-chief during the war, and the morale of the people's army was greatly boosted.
Huang Xing's old photos The picture comes from the Internet
After Huang Xing came to Han, he met Chen Guofu, who saw that Chen was only a soldier and felt wronged by him, so he transferred him to the military and political department of Hanyang Mansion.
The main task of the Military and Political Division is to recruit and train new troops and provide armed forces for the defense of Hanyang. After Chen Guofu took office, he often went to the people to propagate the importance of defending Hanyang, and mobilized the masses to join the army and participate in the war.
Chen Guofu trains this unit every day. He taught the soldiers all the military knowledge he learned in Lu Xiao and Lu Zhong, and the training was very strict. In a short period of time, this contingent of 1,000 people has mastered preliminary military knowledge and is able to cope with the needs of war.
Chen Guofu's excellent work impressed the section chief, and he also trusted him very much, the section chief often went to Wuchang for something, and the entire section entrusted Chen Guofu to act as an agent.
On November 23, the Qing army swooped down on Hanyang, and the rice grain mountain, Guodi Mountain, and Biandan Mountain, which were held by the people's army, were lost successively. The Qing army broke through the defense line of Sanyan Bridge, captured Tangjiashan, and joined up with Detachment B to attack Shilipu, the situation in Hanyang was very critical, and the personnel of various organs of the military government also went to the front line to kill the enemy.
Chen Guofu gathered the students of the former Nanjing Army High School in Hanyang to form a team of more than 100 people, and also pulled to the front line to fight with the army.
Chen Guofu fought bravely with his classmates in Lu Zhong and fought hard to kill the enemy, and some classmates died one after another, and their blood was sprinkled in Jiangcheng.
However, on the 26th, the Shilipu line was still broken by the Qing army. On the 27th, the Hanyang Arsenal, where the headquarters of the People's Army was located, was also occupied by the Qing army, and Meizishan and Guishan were lost one after another, and the essence of the People's Army was lost.
Old photos of the recruitment of new recruits by the Wuchang Uprising Revolutionary Army The picture comes from the Internet
Under these circumstances, they had no choice but to retreat to Wuchang, and Hanyang was finally occupied by the Qing army. Huang Xing said sadly: "Hanyang is lost, I have no face to see people, only dead ears!" wanted to die in his post, and then retreated to Wuchang under the persuasion of his comrades.
After Huang Xing retreated to Wuchang, he convened an emergency military and political meeting overnight, believing that Wuhan had lost the two towns of Hankou and Hanyang, and that Wuchang had become an isolated city, and that it was now necessary to attack Nanjing downstream, establish a revolutionary base in the southeast, and then recover Wuhan.
Li Yuanhong agreed with Huang Xing, but most revolutionaries objected. Zhang Zhenwu, the leader of the Communist Advancement Association, immediately drew his sword and said sharply: "Those who dare to give up Wuchang will be killed!" All the applause was like thunder, and they unanimously decided to defend Wuchang.
Huang Xing saw that everyone did not agree with his opinion, and after the meeting, he left Handong by wheel.
Chen Guofu believes that Huang Xing's proposition is not unreasonable, and under the tense situation of the war in Wuhan, recovering Nanjing is the correct decision to save the crisis in Wuhan and support the first uprising in Wuhan, which can play a role in encircling Wei and saving Zhao.
When he looked at Wuhan, which had been baptized by war, the scorched earth and the ruined walls seemed to make him particularly nostalgic.
Wuhan was the first stop for him to leave school and go to society and participate in the revolution.
In less than a month, he didn't even have time to appreciate the scenery of Wuhan before he was leaving, but he had to leave again. He wanted to go to Nanjing, and he hoped to personally participate in the uprising to recover Nanjing, and solve the crisis in Wuhan with Nanjing's victory. He came to Wuhan in a hurry, and now he has left Wuhan in a hurry.