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
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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