Republic of China: Guandong Ginseng King

Chapter 492 Uprising
Qu Shaoyang's layout in Fengtian was basically completed. Therefore, after Zhao Erxun took office, Qu Shaoyang quickly handed over official duties to him and immediately took his men back to Jilin City.

He showed no sign of being attached to the position of governor of the three provinces or unwilling to resign.

Zhao Erxun was relieved about this. He was actually a little worried that Qu Shaoyang would not leave and compete with him for power.

Zhao Erxun once served as the Fengtian General and was familiar with the three northeastern provinces.

Besides, he had been an official for many years and was very experienced. He was just the governor of three provinces and could handle the situation.

But things are different now. The Qing Dynasty is now in turmoil and has long lost the support of the people. It is not easy for Zhao Erxun, the governor of the three northeastern provinces, to do his job.

Not long after he took over, workers from some factories in Fengtian provincial capital, including the paper mill and brewery, went on strike, demanding wage increases and improved food.

The workers' strike had not yet been settled when the Fengtian Advisory Council took the lead in organizing representatives from eight groups and 46 prefectures and counties in Fengtian City to gather in front of the Governor-General's Office of the Three Northeastern Provinces to protest against the newly announced cabinet candidates by the court.

In order to ease the conflict, the Qing government promulgated a new cabinet system in May and announced the cabinet members.

Among the thirteen cabinet ministers, assistant ministers and ministers of various ministries, nine were Manchus, including seven from the royal family.

This is actually a weird royal cabinet.

Zaifeng further concentrated power in the hands of the royal family, and the so-called preparatory constitutionalism was a scam.

The Qing court's fake constitutionalism was originally intended to win over the constitutionalists to oppose the revolution.

Unexpectedly, this series of operations not only failed to achieve the original intention, but instead aroused most constitutionalists to become more and more desperate about the Qing court, and instead moved closer to the revolutionaries.

A movement against the fake constitution swept across the country. People from all walks of life in Fengtian's industry and commerce expressed their support and protested to the governors of the three provinces.

Immediately afterwards, teachers and students from primary and secondary schools, normal schools, medical schools, industrial schools and other schools in Fengtian City also went on strike and took to the streets to protest.

Before one problem is solved, another one arises. Zhao Erxun, who has just taken over, is exhausted by these things.

He could only try his best to deal with representatives from all walks of life and agree to report to the court in order to stabilize the situation first.

The situation here had just stabilized, but as soon as the leap month of June arrived, the rain started again and never stopped.

Heavy rains hit Fengtian, with the amount of rainfall unprecedented in thirty years.

The iron bridge over the Hunhe River in Fengtian was washed away. The Liaohe River overflowed, killing more than a thousand people in Xinmin, destroying thousands of houses, and leaving victims everywhere.

From the 17th to the 20th of the intercalary sixth lunar month, Yingkou was hit by heavy rains, with the water level reaching three feet deep in the urban area.

Many bridges and roads were damaged, causing the Fengying Railway to stop running, telephone and telegraph services to stop working, and a large number of houses collapsed and farmland was flooded.

This month, heavy rains hit the three northeastern provinces, causing floods.

The water levels of the Hulan, Tongken, Zak, Keyin, Hailun, Tangwang rivers, as well as the Song and Nen rivers rose sharply, flooding more than 300,000 mu of land. This was the worst flood in Heilongjiang Province in a hundred years.

The Songhua River overflowed, and the area around Wudao Street in Daowai District, Harbin, became a swamp. The water in the yard of the Electric Light Company was three feet deep, and the power supply was cut off.

In recent years, heavy rains have occurred in Jilin and Heilongjiang provinces in the summer, causing flood disasters.

Therefore, both provinces attach great importance to the development of water conservancy, strengthening dams, digging flood discharge channels, guiding people in low-lying areas to relocate to high areas, etc.

When summer arrives every year, all states and counties make flood prevention preparations in advance. Once heavy rain occurs, the flood prevention plan is immediately activated to protect the lives and property of the people.

Therefore, although Jilin and Heilongjiang provinces were also severely affected, there were almost no casualties.

After the flood, the two provinces immediately opened their warehouses to provide disaster relief, rescued the people displaced by the flood, and resettled them in a timely manner to prevent the victims from gathering in large numbers.

Fortunately, the two provinces took timely measures. Although many people were affected in the two provinces, at least no other accidents occurred.

However, in Feng Province, after the flood, many incidents of food robbery occurred.

Disaster victims from many counties and cities such as Liaoyang gathered together and robbed the local wealthy families of their food.

On July 23, in Fuzhou and Zhuanghe, a mass movement led by Pan Yongzhong launched an anti-donation and anti-taxation campaign. They surrounded the government offices and destroyed the autonomous council.

Soon after, they gathered another three to four thousand people to oppose the household registration survey and burned down the autonomous office.

Zhao Erxun had no choice but to dispatch troops to suppress the rebellion.

But the new army was under the command of the imperial court, and Zhao Erxun could not mobilize it, so he could only look for the patrol battalion.

Because of Qu Shaoyang’s previous actions, nearly half of the generals in the patrol camp now obey Qu Shaoyang, so Zhao Erxun naturally cannot order them around.

Finally, Zhao Erxun found Zhang Yuting.

Zhang Yuting was born in the outlaws, but he was very ambitious, knew how to judge the situation, and was good at winning people over through methods such as in-laws and sworn brotherhood.

When Qu Shaoyang was in Fengtian before, Zhang Yuting did visit him, but Qu Shaoyang did not show much enthusiasm.

Afterwards, Qu Shaoyang used some means to transfer all of Zhang's brothers away from the Fengtian Province Patrol Camp.

Zhang was dissatisfied with Qu Shaoyang, but he did not dare to show it.

When Zhao Erxun took office, Zhang came with generous gifts and expressed his loyalty.

But at that time, Zhao Erxun had just arrived in Fengtian and was full of ambitions. He did not take the commander of the front patrol battalion seriously.

At this time, Zhao Erxun found Zhang and asked Zhang to go and suppress the unrest among the people in Zhuanghe and other places. Zhang agreed without hesitation.

As a result, the two of them became closer.

In this way, Zhang led his troops to Zhuanghe and other places to suppress the peasants' anti-tax movement.

It's no secret that Zhang Yuting is good at leading troops. Although the front patrol battalion has only 3,500 people, their combat effectiveness is very strong.

The people who rose up against the tax in Zhuanghe and other places were all peasants. How could they be a match for the patrol battalion? As soon as the two sides came into contact, they were defeated step by step.

In August, everything was settled, and Zhao Erxun led a group to inspect Jilin and Heilongjiang provinces.

On the tenth day of August, Zhao Erxun arrived in Jilin City, and Qu Shaoyang led the officials and gentry of Jilin City to give him a grand welcome.

Zhao Erxun stayed in Jilin City for several days, and then went to Changchun, Harbin and other places for inspection.

On August 19, Zhao Erxun set out from Harbin to Qiqihar.

On August 19, 1911 (October 10 in the Gregorian calendar), soldiers of the Hubei New Army, who accepted the revolutionary ideas of the Tongmenghui, turned against the other side and occupied the provincial capital of Wuchang overnight.

On the evening of the 11th and the morning of the 12th, the new troops stationed in Hankou and Hanyang responded to the uprising.

Large red flags with eighteen stars fluttered in the three towns of Wuhan, and the Xinhai Uprising won victory in the central region of the Qing Dynasty.

After receiving the news, the capital was shaken and all the civil and military officials in the court were in a panic.

Zaifeng immediately thought of sending troops to quell the rebellion, but he was embarrassed to find that he had no one to send.

At present, the only people in the court capable of quickly suppressing the rebellion, apart from Cen Chunxuan who had been dismissed during the Empress Dowager Cixi's era, is Old Yuan.

However, Old Yuan was dismissed by Zaifeng himself, and Zaifeng is too embarrassed to go back to Old Yuan.

There was no other choice but to use Manchu generals first, so Zaifeng ordered the Minister of the Army Yinchang to lead the army south to quell the rebellion. Although Yinchang was trusted by the court, he lacked a foundation in the army, and the Beiyang Army did not listen to his orders at all.

As a result, the army's efforts to suppress the rebellion were not going well, and emergency documents came in one after another.

At this time, cabinet officials headed by Yixin all demanded that Yuan Shao be reinstated.

Although the great powers declared that they would "remain strictly neutral" towards the Wuchang Rebellion, they neither supported the revolutionary new army nor the imperial court.

But they supported Yuan Shikai and asked the court to quickly appoint Yuan Shikai to stabilize the situation.

The more people pushed Yuan Shikai, the more painful Zaifeng became, and he became extremely unwilling.

This is equivalent to slapping him in the face. How can the regent bear it?

However, the situation was critical and Zaifeng had no other choice.

On August 22, Zaifeng finally issued an edict appointing Yuan Shikai as the Governor-General of Huguang to oversee the suppression of bandits.

At the same time, the Qing government sent a telegram to Zhao Erxun, the governor of the three northeastern provinces, with a secret decree: "Wuchang has fallen, and people are now in a state of panic. We must closely monitor and guard against incidents at all times to avoid any incidents, in order to take the overall situation into consideration and eliminate hidden dangers."

At this time, Zhao Erxun was inspecting Heilongjiang Province. After receiving the imperial edict, he hurried back to the provincial capital of Fengtian from Qiqihar.

On August 24 and 25, Zhao Erxun convened a meeting of heads of various departments and circuits to discuss all matters concerning maintaining public order.

On the other hand, spies were sent to Shanghai, Nanjing, Beijing and other places, carrying secret codes to communicate.

Then, Zhao Erxun convened a meeting of the commanders, assistant commanders, and commanders of the new army and patrol camp stationed in Fengtian.

At the meeting, Zhao Erxun said, "We receive the emperor's salary, eat the emperor's food, and even our bones belong to the emperor.

The court’s deep grace and kindness should never be forgotten by the ministers for a moment.

We must devote our lives to our cause and repay our enemies with our lives, this is our duty as soldiers.

Now the traitors in Hubei have rebelled against the imperial court. They are truly abandoned by both gods and men, and cannot be tolerated by heaven and earth.

...Our priority is to protect the country and the people. With this goal in mind, no matter who comes, we will be able to deal with them honestly. "

This shows that Zhao Erxun, a senior monarchist, tried to take measures to protect the territory and the people in order to continue the Qing court's rule in the Northeast region.

After the meeting, Zhao Erxun forwarded the Qing court's secret telegram about the outbreak of the Wuchang Uprising, ordering all provinces to take strict precautions, to the governors of Jilin and Heilongjiang provinces, the various towns of the New Army stationed in the Northeast, and the various officials of Fengtian Province.

He also telegraphed an order to "keep calm, deploy detectives, and prevent any disaster before it happens."

After receiving the secret telegram from Fengtian, Qu Shaoyang sneered and threw the telegram on the table.

As early as before August 19, he had contacted Chen Yunzhe, Chen Yunhan, Zhang Tianzhi, as well as the commanders of the Dingbian Army, the New Army, and the Patrol Battalion.

Order everyone to stay where they are, closely monitor movements in all directions, and not allow outsiders to spread the news recklessly.

After receiving the secret telegram from Zhao Erxun, Qu Shaoyang sent people to meet with Chen Yunzhe, Chen Yunhan and others in secret. He only said one word: wait.

Now is not a good time to start an uprising and declare independence. We should wait for a while.

Let Zhao Erxun fight with those revolutionaries until they are both defeated.

Of course, on the surface Qu Shaoyang still had to obey Zhao Erxun's orders and take some measures to prevent revolution.

Qu Shaoyang appointed Wu Zhaoyi, who had "served in Bian for many years and was familiar with the situation", as a scout to go to Xinyang, Henan to investigate the movements of the enemy.

At the same time, Qu Shaoyang also telegraphed the four prefecture governors stationed in Changchun, Harbin, Yanji, and Sanxing to "supervise the patrol teams and regular police soldiers to take strict precautions and interrogate anyone with suspicious behavior."

The officers and soldiers of the 23rd Regiment of the New Army in the provincial capital of Jilin were also under surveillance and were prohibited from exchanging letters or telegrams with soldiers in other places.

On August 27, Zhao Erxun notified Chinese and foreign newspapers to temporarily postpone publishing news of the Wuchang Uprising.

The Da Zhong Gong Bao in Fengtian published a special edition with news of the uprising. When Zhao Erxun learned of this, he ordered a ban on the Da Zhong Gong Bao. The newspaper office was closed down and the editor-in-chief was summoned.

Zhao Erxun instructed the General Police Bureau to open and read all the correspondence between the brigade officials and soldiers and the local governments of Hunan and Hubei, and prohibited the transmission of any information.

However, the news could not be blocked; newspapers such as the Three Eastern Provinces Times, Shengjing Times, Changchun Daily, and the Japanese-language Manchuria Daily News all published news about the uprising.

After the news of the uprising spread, people felt that the end of the Qing Empire had come, and the markets in Fengtian, Yingkou, Dalian, Changchun, Harbin, Jilin and other places were in turmoil.

All shops tried their best to store silver in cash, and people rushed to the Bank of Qing Dynasty and the official silver banks of the three northeastern provinces to cash silver and foreign currency with banknotes, causing the value of banknotes to plummet.

The three provinces immediately issued a restriction order on the exchange of paper money for silver, implemented quota exchanges and stabilized the situation.

At the same time, Zhao Erxun borrowed 5 million each from the Kinsho Bank of Japan and the Michikatsu Bank of Tsarist Russia for emergency use in the eastern province.

Zhao Erxun also secretly met with the Japanese Consul General in Fengtian, Koike Zhangzo, hoping that the Japanese police could cooperate with the Fengtian police to prevent any accidents from happening.

At that time, the Japanese government supported the Qing government and secretly strengthened the police force, railway garrisons, and garrison troops in various places as a response to Zhao Erxun.

On August 29, Zhao Erxun petitioned for permission for Fengtian Province to recruit four battalions of cavalry and infantry to strengthen the defense of the Fengtian provincial capital.

Heilongjiang Province is allowed to add five cavalry battalions, and Jilin Province is allowed to add six cavalry and infantry battalions.

Taking this opportunity, Qu Shaoyang transferred the forest inspection team and the tax inspection team to Jilin and Qiqihar to set up patrol teams and expand their forces.

In order to block the news of the uprising and deceive the masses, Zhao Erxun issued a notice and an announcement, saying that the military mutiny in Hubei Province only took place in Wuchang and would be quelled soon.

If there are unscrupulous businessmen secretly inciting others and trying to take advantage of others, once they are discovered, they will be strictly investigated and dealt with.

In Jilin Province, Qu Shaoyang also issued a notice, ordering people everywhere to go about their business as usual and not to believe in rumors.

If any gangsters spread rumors and incite people, they will be severely punished once they are verified.

Heilongjiang Province also issued a similar announcement, trying its best to maintain local stability.

At the same time, Qu Shaoyang also ordered people to discuss and reduce taxes in various parts of Jilin Province as appropriate so that the people could live their normal lives and avoid unrest.

Of course, such a big thing cannot be covered up by just issuing a notice from the three provincial government offices and whitewashing the situation.

Ordinary people could barely make ends meet and perhaps didn’t care much about who became emperor or who rebelled.

However, the revolutionaries active in various parts of Northeast China were deeply affected, and everyone was excited and restless.

Feng Huanzhang, Zheng Jinsheng, Dai Xijiu and others from the Xinmin Martial Arts Research Society often got together to discuss how to respond to the Wuchang Uprising.

Most of the backbone members of the Liaodong branch of the Tongmenghui, including Zhang Rong, Xu Jingxin, Chen Gan, Shang Zhen, Zuo Yunong, and Zhang Genren, gathered in the provincial capital of Fengtian.

These people held secret meetings separately to plot an uprising and promote the independence of the three provinces outside the Great Wall.

The leader of the constitutionalists, Wu Changlian, director of the Fengtian Advisory Bureau, saw that the Qing court was doomed, so he tried his best to win over the revolutionaries and advocated seeking independence through bloodless means.

For a time, undercurrents surged in Fengtian and other places.

(End of this chapter)