Yuan then called upon the Manchu princes and royalty for money, saying
that if they would draw two millions a month for six months from their
foreign banks, he could carry on the war. Fearing that the republicans
would send an army by sea from Shanghai to Chin Wang Tao (where the
Great Wall and Peking railway meet the sea, and the only ice free
port in the north) to break Manchuria from the north, and march on
Peking, Yuan sent an army to Chin Wang Tao, but several of the Chinese
regiments rebelled. The republicans had arranged for such a transport
service, as they had seized the ships of the government steamship line,
the China Merchants’ Steamship Company. At the Lanchow camp east of
Peking, several Chinese regiments also rebelled, and there was much
bloodshed in putting down the riots. Yuan had five strong northern
armies, one under General Feng at Hanyang, one under Chang the Second
north of Nanking on the railway, one under Sheng Yun operating in
Shensi and Shansi provinces, and an army in both Shangtung and Honan
provinces. It looked as though the war would continue, the republican
strength being mainly in that they threatened, if successful, to
repudiate any loans made after January 1, 1912, by foreigners to the
Manchus. Hongkong now sent the One Hundred and Twenty-sixth Indian
Regiment of Baluchis, a battalion of the Yorkshires and a battery
of English garrison artillery to Shameen Island, Canton, to protect
the famous foreign settlement and assist President Wu, of Canton, in
maintaining order. The island was fortified with sand-bags and barbed
wire entanglements. The Hongkong Chinese were enthusiastic for a
republic, and the British government did not prohibit their rejoicing.
Their processions included the use of automobiles and brass bands. What
a changed Hongkong, which used to hide its head in a monster dragon and
parade the streets!
President Sun now informed foreigners that while he could employ them
in all the remainder of China’s development, he could not do so in the
republican army, as the republicans desired to be free of suspicion,
and did not want to create foreign entanglements or embarrassments. The
foreign nations divided up the Tientsin-Peking railway, and foreign men
of war, independent of the republican navy, patrolled the whole rebel
front from Shanghai to Hankau. Germany despatched another full regiment
to Tsingtau in addition to the large garrison already there, America
alone up to January 7, 1912, had held her troops at Manila. When the
imperialists were evacuating Hanyang on January 4th, a regiment broke
parole, necessitating an attack by General Li’s republicans, which
attack was promptly and effectively sent in. On the right wing the
republicans advanced up the Nanking-Tientsin railway, forcing General
Chang the Second to withdraw to the north. President Sun was now active
in appeals to the foreigners for recognition of the republic, his
manifesto of January 5th, reading as follows:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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