Part 3

As general of the Twentieth Division of the northern army, camped at Lanchow, just east of Peking, was General Chang Shao Tsen (we shall call him Chang the First to distinguish him from two other generals Chang of the Manchu camp at Nanking and elsewhere in the northeastern provinces). Chang the First was well trained by the revolutionists in their doctrines of liberty, and was told to watch two camps, the so-called People’s National Assembly at Peking and the Manchu Court at Peking. Chang the First was trained in war by Yuan Shih Kai and the Manchu general-in-chief, Yin Tchang, both of whom were effective men, the former schooled by Tientsin and Peking foreigners, the latter well trained in the Austrian ranks and before the line of guards at Berlin. In old Canton, the mighty stanch Wu Hon Man was president of the provincial assembly of Kwangtung province. He, too, was ready to declare for rebellion, despite the imperial viceroy, Chang Ming, and the loyal Tartar general, who were quartered on his province. In the north, Governor Sun Hao Chi, of classic old Shangtung province (the home of Confucius), was ready to go over. In the province where Shanghai is located, the president of the assembly, Chang Chien, who proposes to visit American chambers of commerce, and who is well known as the host in China of visiting Pacific coast chambers of commerce, was more than ready to declare for reform. He, with Wu Ting Fang, was insistent on the abdication of the Manchu dynasty and the declaration of a republic.

At Lhasa, in far-away Tibet, was an imperial resident who had been trained in reform at Shanghai and in law at Yale College, in America. He was the eminent Wen Tsung Yao, destined to be the assistant foreign minister of the first rebel government, and whose son (a West Point graduate) was slated to lead the most daring charges at Hankau and Nanking. Even in the home of the Manchus, at Mukden, Wu Yun Lien, a Chinese immigrant, president of the Manchuria Assembly, was filled with the doctrine and ready to declare for reform. Great viceroys, who had served China long in official positions under the Manchus, were ready to go over, but for the most part the radical reformers were new men, unknown to the world, as the Manchus had naturally never given office to them.

Many causes, all important, helped to precipitate the crisis. Sheng Kung Pao and others at Peking, Tientsin and Hankau, both Chinese and Manchus whom foreigners know well, had, partly under foreign advice and Japan’s example, planned to compel the provinces and the gentry of the guilds to sell out their many little railroads, a number of which were paying well, to the central government, which intended to nationalize the railroads quickly under immense loans from the banking nations of the Occident and Japan. These loans meant to the local gentry the extinction of distributed small fortunes and opportunities; concessions of mines to foreigners, such as the immense gifts of franchises to the British “Peking Syndicate” in Shansi province, to the London and China syndicate in Hupeh province, to Belgian, German, French, Italian and other syndicates; heavy interest; continuation of the unscientific Likin system of customs as a security, and payment of obnoxious bonuses, as when Hupeh province, under Chang Chih Tung, in 1904, had to pay a bonus to buy back a Chinese railway concession; and in 1911, when China had to buy the bonds which represented by an excess payment of $3,750,000 a Chinese railroad which existed only on paper; and as Professor Ross points out in _The Changing Chinese_, when Shansi province had to pay a syndicate over two millions to relinquish an undeveloped concession in China which cost them almost nothing. The bitter complaint, _written in blood_, of the Hunanese of Changsha City on this subject is quoted in the New York _Railway-Age Gazette_ of October 13, 1911, and includes this sentence: “When a piece of meat is in the traitorous railway thief’s mouth, it is hard to take it out.” All may not agree with the Chinese position, but all should duly consider the Chinese side of the question as expressed in their words. “Peking has betrayed Wuchang,” cried the Hupeh men.

There were many more instances from the Sungari to the Yangtze basins, yea, to the Mekong basin, through 2,500 miles of mine and men, traffic and trade, of the hard bargain driven by the foreign lender, generally under bad foreign advice.

No foreign house should ever send a representative to China unless it is willing to send an enlightened and humane man, who intellectually appreciates the able Chinese as much as he appreciates the foreigner, and whose sympathies are equally divided between Cathay and his own nation. Only such a man can deal fairly and give impartial advice, which alone in the end will win for the foreigner what properly is his of the profit and prestige. “Why should we, with the richest mines on earth; the richest passenger, freight and labor field; with lands plethoric of water power and grain; and the lowest debt, if unjust coerced indemnities were wiped out, pay foreigners such immense bonuses, interest and concessions, discounts and profits to go out of our country”; rang the cry, not only in Hupeh, Hunan, Szechuen, Shansi and Kwangtung provinces, but even in native papers printed under the shadow of the foreign banks on the bund at Tientsin in the north.

There was one large meeting of protest held by the Chinese of British Hongkong in the Chui Yin Hotel on September 3, 1911, delegates attending even from distant Szechuen province. Viceroy Liu Ming Chuan’s memorial was recalled: “The wealth of the country is being monopolized by foreigners”. The Railroad Protective Association, of Chingtu City, in August, 1911, issued a famous placard in which the four banking nations in caricature were made to say: “The wealth of the four provinces of Szechuen, Kwangtung, Hunan and Hupeh, all is given to us four foreign nations to swallow down at one gulp”. Chinese men, women and children, bound together before the ancestral graves, are made to say: “Bound helplessly; it is unbearable. We are bound in one bunch to be given to foreigners. Come quickly, friends of the Railroad Protective Association, and deliver us.” The loot, lying ready for the syndicates of the four nations to take away, is pictured as cash money, bullion sycee, bank bills, and books of China’s Confucian classics and history. Other caricatures were prepared so as to inflame patriotism in the breasts of the new students, the foreigner being made to say cynically: “The venal students only want their up-keep, purchased diplomas, political office, four chair bearers, free theatricals and they’ll hush up. The mask may be brave as a dragon’s head, but the tail is cowardly as a crawling snake.”

Remembering that Russia and Japan, in 1896, etc., first sought for railway control and then practically occupied the three Manchurian provinces, we can understand the patriot’s side of the following article objecting to the three nations’ railway loan, published in Chinese in a Hankau paper: “The merchants of Hupeh urge the people to take shares in the Szechuen, Canton and Hankau railways. The people of China are in a sad plight. Why is China so poor that every foreigner is eager to come to her aid? You Chinese say you have plenty of money, but you are unwilling to loan it. Why do you not use your money to construct these railway lines? If you do not, the foreigners will come under false pretenses, destroy your nationality, and cut off your supplies. England has used this diabolical system to obliterate Egypt; otherwise how could she have got it?” Even if a foreign banker, statesman or merchant does not fully agree with the local feeling of the Chinese, it is wise to look frankly at their side of the argument in making educational, financial and political plans in the future.

There was much complaint also of the private hoards of the Manchu princes, both in strong-boxes and in foreign banks. The taxes levied in the southern provinces mainly supported the empire, and these taxes were increased. Something then was brewing, especially in the southern and central provinces. The word went forth, “We are not Boxer murderers if we cry China for the Chinese, and it is not fair to put a stone around China’s neck with indemnities just because you are ahead of us in possessing fleets. We love the American and British peoples, and their glorious books on _Liberty_, even if we do not love some of your unregulated trusts any more than you and your Supreme Court’s decisions do! We are willing to pay a fair rate of interest. Not a hair of a foreigner is to be touched. We appreciate the education and lovable alienation of the missionaries, and especially the miracle of Occidental medicine and surgery.”

Here is the guarantee of the “Sia Hwei” (reform association), of Fuchau, to the Methodist and other missionaries of Fukien province. “We have just heard that the missionaries, on account of the uprising of the New China revolutionary associations, with their just cause, have been requested by your foreign consuls to go to the provincial capital, Fuchau, to be protected. The Chinese people have become very much enlightened and their old customs have changed. The Chinese people and the missionaries’ church are at peace, because your church has opened schools, hospitals, orphanages and similar good institutions. Not one of these but is held deep in the hearts of the Chinese people. Although we are a humble folk, still we have seen and appreciated these things. This reform association requests that you missionaries remain at your posts throughout the province. Should anything unforeseen occur, we should, of course, exert ourselves to protect you and your property. We are quite sure that we can afford efficient protection from mobs and imperialists.” These Fukien people were as good as their word, for besides sending levies to the revolution, the “hsiang lao” (head men) of the villages organized home guards for the protection of both foreigners and natives. When the revolution broke out at Wuchang, the soldiers of the thirtieth regiment escorted the American missionaries out of the line of fire from Serpent Hill. The American Episcopal missionaries crowded aboard the German freighter _Belgravia_, bound for Shanghai, the American gunboat _Helena_, Commander Knepper, standing by. The revolutionary soldiers of Generals Li and Hwang shouted a peace message: “American republicans are brothers of ours; good-by!”

A cry went through the vast nation that the Manchu dynasty of usurpers was signing away the land with hardly a struggle: Tonquin to France; Formosa and vast Korea to Japan; rich Manchuria, and possibly Jungaria, to Russia; Kiaochou to Germany; and so on, even little Portugal wanting more of Heungshan Peninsula; the effete nations of Europe, with only paper ships, “bluffing” like the monster nations, all demanding “your provinces or your life”, and getting the provinces. The articles in the independent press in America were translated in many instances into Chinese, and the spirit of protest in America, Britain and Germany was emulated in awakened China. The minority Manchus could not be trusted to control the Chinese, and “pack” boards (Pus), ministries, and even assemblies, to suit themselves. Government by “privileged minority” was being called in question throughout the earth as unconstitutional; why not in China? There must be true popular government, which the Manchus postponed from month to month with “standpat” doctrines, and while a deliberative body was formed at Peking, the ministries, boards and the majority of the National Assembly were appointed in “machine” style by the Manchus from their set, which, of course, included many of the Manchuized Chinese, as well as Manchus and Mongols. The Chinese officials--the old literati--are the viceroys, ministers and members of the governing boards, whom we foreigners best know. Many of them are very able, and some of them love reform, but few of them dared anything for the revolution except Wu Ting Fang. Give him that credit as often as possible.

The heavy indemnities, amounting to the awful sum of $250,000,000, for the massacres of 1900, which the “Boxer” empress dowager, Tse Hsi, a Manchu, approved, have been a heavy load upon the Chinese people of the southern and central provinces, who had nothing to do with the persecution of foreigners. The Chinese of the taxed south greatly appreciated, therefore, American and British action in returning part of their indemnities. But other nations should do likewise. The _Westminster Gazette_, of London, now supports this position.

Histories of peoples, not dynasties and oligarchies, such as John Richard Green’s _History of the English People_; books which helped to bring about the American revolution; the American missionary, Doctor Macklin’s, Chinese translation of Henry George’s _Progress and Poverty_; great pæans of liberty and political pain the world over; editorials from the progressive American press; chapters from American and English books which sympathized with the Chinese, were translated and read. The notable book _Service_ was re-read. It was written in 1897 by Tan Sze Tung, the son of a governor of Hupeh province. Tan was one of the martyrs of 1898 who were beheaded by the dowager, Tse Hsi. Tan’s book criticized absolute monarchy and recommended reform in politics and commerce. Sin Chin Nan, by translating parts of Dickens, had shown the Chinese people that the common man endured wrongs that should be righted. Thomas Paine’s _The Crisis_, which was read before the American regiments of 1776, was translated to be read to revolutionary societies like Sun Yat Sen’s “Ka Ming Tang” and the “Sia Hwei.” Special note was taken of the establishment of a Duma even in oligarchic Russia; the success of the Young Turk party in even such a terrific oligarchy as Turkey; the successful revolt in Mexico, where a practical oligarchy gave lands to favorites and would not grant real popular government; and the representation of the Oriental race in the legislative bodies of Hongkong, India, Straits Settlements and the Philippines.

The preliminary dance was opened in September, 1911, by far western Szechuen province, Peking issuing this edict in the yellow _Peking Gazette_: “Whoever shall serve us by killing rebels or by capturing and binding members of the rebellion party, shall be rewarded regardless of rules.” The Peking government had practically confiscated the railways of the Szechuenese, as the paper which they were given in exchange bore no guarantee of interest, and no reliance was put upon the value of the security by the provincial gentry, bankers and farmers. When provinces and states lose confidence in the sincerity of a fixed central government that is not run by parties, that government totters to its fall. A national anthem was given to the nation to sing:

“May China be preserved! In this time of the Manchu dynasty, We are fortunate to see real splendor; May the heavens protect the imperial family.”

The south only sang it in parodies. The railway board (Yuchuan Pu) was putting through its nationalization-of-railways scheme, in accordance with the $50,000,000 gold loan from the syndicates of four of the banking nations. To back up arguments, troops were increased under the various generals, Tartar and Manchuized Chinese. Some of these troops were from the federal army, northern divisions, and had been trained by Yuan and General Yin Tchang. Some were provincial viceroys’ troops, trained both under foreign and native systems, like the splendid army of the Yunnan viceroy, Li Chin Hsi. The small railway owners, the small mine owners, the contractors of man-transportation, the noted farmers and river men of Szechuen province, were ordered to consent to the new scheme of a national railway to break across Szechuen province from Ichang to Chingtu, and for other railways in the province. The terms of the foreign loan, the price at which the bankrupt federal government would pretend to buy out the provincial gentry and guilds, the heavy new taxes on the west and south, were all partly explained, and the men of Szechuen (by blood largely Hupeh and Hunan provinces’ emigrants) rebelled and “fired the shot that was heard around the world”.

A noted, partially loyal Chinese general was shortly put in command of the imperial troops in the ancient capital, Chingtu. His name was General Chao Ehr Feng, the famous commander who did the astonishing thing, both from a religious and military point of view, in 1910, of driving the Dalai Lama out of Lhasa and Tibet into Darjeeling, in India, and thus putting Buddhism and its pope at the feet of Confucian China. China also brought up her bloodiest general, Tsen Chun Hsuan, infamous for putting out the last terrific Mohammedan rebellion in mountainous Yunnan province of the clouds, in unnecessary rivers of blood. Foreigners scowled at the employment of this man, and Manchu China was a little uncertain. Promises meant nothing to Tsen. He was a man-eating tiger, the bloodiest man in the world, who pretended and looked to be nothing else, and was descended from as bloody generals. Peking meant business, and the railway policy, which was as much a war policy, seemed to be going through.

It was not long, however, before General Chao’s forces were cooped up in Chingtu, which was besieged by the rebelling province of Szechuen under the leadership of the president of assembly, Pu Tien Chun, and in the engagements General Chao was captured and decapitated. The strategic importance of the railways already built then appeared like the flash of a saber at the bare neck of the victim. Modern troops were hurried down to Hankau by rail in twenty-four hours and up the river to Ichang by steamer, in the rear and on the flank of the besiegers. Then something like thunder happened among the divisions which had been mobilized at the triple cities of Wuchang, Hanyang and Hankau. The Eighth Division, under General Li Yuan Heng, territorial troops of the modern army, hoisted the rebel tri-color sun flag of red, white and blue over the yellow dragon of the Manchus, put white bands on their arms and rebelled for the new-born republic of Han. They captured the leading arsenal, steel and coal plant at Hanyang, the populous commercial city of Hankau, and the luxurious viceregal capital of Wuchang on October 13, 1911. This put a high standard on the rebellion, for Li was a young well-trained general of the new school, a diplomat, a sturdy man in the field, a patriot who could not be bought and who was organizer enough to see that his men were not bought. Admiral Sah, with a fleet of gunboats and small cruisers, aided the imperial divisions under the bloody general, Chang Piao Tuan, which tried to retake the native city of Hankau. Li’s troops, especially his “Dare to Die” (Pu Pa Tsze) Brigade of shaven round-heads, fought bravely, although their artillery was only equipped with percussion shells, as compared with the time-fuse shells brought down from Peking, Tientsin and Kiaochou to supply the imperial troops. When ammunition ran out, the rebel troops used the bayonet charge with reckless daring. It was a new era in fighting in China when yellow men would charge, with only cold steel, across an area swept by machine guns. On October 21st, Generals Li and Hwang, with 15,000 ill-equipped rebels, won the battle of Kwang Shili in Hupeh against General Yin Tchang, the Manchu minister of war and commander-in-chief, with 20,000 finely equipped loyalists. Part of General Li’s force was a section of an army division which had gone over. Others of his new troops were recruited from the most famous boatmen of the world, the Szechuen trackers of the wild rapids and sublime gorges of the glorious Yangtze River, and from the indefatigable, cheerful mountain coolies of Hupeh province, who are as agile as a chamois.

The propaganda of the rebels now bore fruit in rapid succession. On October 22nd the rebels, under the leadership of Tan Yen Kai, president of the Hunan Assembly, took Changsha, the capital of Hunan province. Yale College has a branch in this long forbidden city. Hunan has always been notable for honest, sturdy, independent men. It is the proudest province and the sternest in China. “What way Hunan goes, that way goes China.” It was the last province to permit missionary activity. Nanchang, the capital of Kiangsi province, the land of pottery, was taken on the same day, completing the occupation of the four adjoining central Yangtze provinces, which was all that Sun (Sunyacius) first planned to do, as a beginning and a basis on which to solicit foreign loans. It was rebellion indeed, and not a riot. The Tartars, Manchus and loyalists fled. New provincial governments were set up, each with a popular assembly. Peking was desperate, for China was almost split in half by the political earthquake. Peking felt sure that she held the north, however, with a well-equipped army of about twenty divisions. The reformers, however, had breathed into the ear of the troops, and pay was overdue in the impoverished condition of the central government.

On October 24th, ancient Singan, the capital of the north-western province of Shensi, the original capital of China, where the empress dowager, Tse Hsi, fled in 1900, went over to the rebels, despite the threats of the bloody Mongol governor, General Sheng Yun. This really meant a fifth seceding province, as far as the populace was concerned. On the same day, Kowkiang on the Yangtze went over. Then Kweilin, the capital of Kwangsi province, went over on October 25th. This was the first of the southern provinces to join the movement openly. On October 25th noble Fuchau, the famous seaport capital of old Fukien province, went over, and we have already quoted a wonderful message to the white man from their “Sia Hwei” (reform association). On October 26th, Ngan-king, capital of Nganhwei province, declared for the rebels, and on the same day General Li was suggested as provisional president of the forming republic of Han, with six of China’s twenty-one provinces already seceding. Reform was as hot as a prairie fire, and almost as hard to manage.