Zhao Sheng (1881-1911), the commander-in-chief of the Huanghuagang Uprising, was a native of Dagang Town, Zhenjiang New District. He devoted his life to transforming the New Army, organizing the Gengzhi New Army Uprising and the Huanghuagang Uprising, igniting the fire of the New Army's armed uprising, and laying the foundation for the victory of the Wuchang Uprising.
△ Zhao Boxian statue
First, transform the New Army
In 1903, Zhao Sheng secretly wrote the "National Anthem" denouncing the brutal crimes of the Qing Dynasty and advocating the creation of a republic. At the end of 1905, Zhao Sheng, who had entered the new army, was introduced by Huang Xing in Guangxi to join the newly established League. At the beginning of 1906, Zhao Sheng served as an officer in the nine towns of the New Army, and took advantage of the recruitment opportunity to recruit the revolutionary volunteers he had met in society and a large number of enthusiastic young people who had been intensively trained in his hometown into the New Army. He cultivated middle- and lower-ranking officers in the New Army, took the middle- and lower-ranking revolutionary officers as the core, and carried out the ideological enlightenment and transformation of the New Army's democratic revolution from top to bottom.
△ Zhao Boxian Rong costume
After the recruitment, Zhao Sheng was promoted to the position of The Thirty-Three Standards of the Nine Towns, that is, a group of reliable revolutionary comrades were successively sponsored and arranged to the leading posts at all levels of the Thirty-Three Standards. For example, Wu Chongren of the first battalion pipe belt, Gu Zhongchen of the second battalion pipe belt, Bai Wenwei of the third battalion pipe belt, Jiang Qianwu, officer of the left team of the first battalion, Leng Sui, officer of the right team of the second battalion, Li Jingcheng, zhengmu of the gendarmerie, Xiong Chengji, and Ni Yingdian, officers of the artillery corps, and so on. Under the leadership of Zhao Sheng's organization, a revolutionary new army is constantly developing. In February 1906, Zhao Sheng led Bai Wenwei, Ni Yingdian, Lin Shuqing, Lin Zhixia, Leng Suo, Wu Chongren, Li Jingcheng, Tao Junbao, Zhao Nianbo and other officers of the Ninth Town to join the League, making the new army an important component and revolutionary force of the League.
△ Zhao Shengrong dressed as a horseback riding statue
On the grounds that the training regulations of the new army require that "training troops" and "training soldiers" be given equal importance, Zhao Sheng set up a "reading newspaper" in the army, made "spiritual speeches" to soldiers every week, and practiced revolutionary propaganda in the name of training and education for soldiers. Jiang Qianwu's memoirs say: In order to train his subordinates, Zhao Sheng set up a lecture hall for middle- and lower-ranking officers, which was twice a day for external exercises and two classes. He strictly supervised the training, and once every Saturday, he led the whole battalion to the field exercises in the Xiaolingwei area of Nanjing, and made spiritual speeches. During the rest time, he often told the history of the Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties with officers and soldiers, such as zhu Yuanzhang's uprising to overthrow the Mongol yuan rule, the Manchu Qing entry into the customs, the internal cruelty, the external fainting and incompetence, the establishment of unequal treaties, and so on. Zhao Sheng's speech was passionate and generous, and the hearers could not help but cry. In this way, Zhao Sheng trained a large number of revolutionary talents in the Nanjing New Army, and the Thirty-three Standards were built by him into a revolutionary fortress against the Qing Dynasty and saved the country, and planted revolutionary seeds in the Suwan region. Duan Fang, the governor of Liangjiang, once said angrily: "The thirty-three standards are all revolutionary parties, and they can be bombarded with cannons." From Duan Fang's words, we can see how effective Zhao Sheng's movement of the new army and the transformation of the new army have been in just one year.
△ Zhao Boxian's former residence in the 1960s Yin Hongshun / photography
At the beginning of 1907, Zhao Sheng went to the Guangdong New Army, effectively carried out propaganda and organizational work in the Guangdong New Army, and as quickly as Nanjing, a revolutionary party group of the New Army was formed with Zhao Sheng as the core and middle- and lower-ranking revolutionary officers as the main body. In the spring of 1908, Zhao Sheng was reappointed as the supervisor of the Whampoa Army Primary School, and zhao Sheng, who was heroic and heroic, became an idol of young soldiers and was worshipped by the teachers and students of the military academy as "Living Guan Gong". He took the opportunity to dispatch Zhu Zhixin, Zhang Yicun, Yao Yuping, Hu Yisheng, Jiang Zhengchan, and other revolutionaries to the school to teach and vigorously develop the revolutionary party; he cultivated a number of reserve forces for the new army's revolution, such as Deng Yanda, Deng Yanren, Chen Mingshu, and Jiang Guangnai.
△ Former residence of Zhao Boxian
Zhao Sheng's personality is noble, both literary and military, he is "not obedient to the superior, not to the inferior", he is "willing to hand over to the corporal of the world, pour into my arms and hide". He "talked about the liver and gallbladder and the monarchy, and wanted to save his heavenly duty and resign from hardship", and he had lofty prestige and personality charm in the revolutionary party. There were originally two factions of the revolutionary party in the military circles in Guangdong, the revolutionary party of the patrol battalion represented by Yao Yuping and Zhang Yicun, and the revolutionary party of the new army did not have contact with each other and fought for each other. Under the inspiration of Zhao Sheng, all factions of revolutionary forces in guangdong's military circles united under Zhao Sheng's command.
△ Zhao Boxian makeup portrait and Li Jing imaging
In 1908, the New Army in the South was expanded, and Zhao Sheng arranged for the revolutionary Ni Yingdian to serve as an artillery officer of the New Army, and arranged for Leng Suo to go to Guangxi to carry out the work of the New Army. In the winter of the same year, Zhao Sheng was transferred to the position of the first standard of the New Army and installed a large number of revolutionaries to serve in various units. With zhao Sheng's unremitting efforts, the membership of the League in the Guangzhou New Army increased to more than 3,000. In the artillery battalions of the first and second standards and Ni Yingdian commanded by Zhao Sheng, the number of officers and men "has reached more than 70 to 80 percent." (Zhang Yicun: Memories before and after the Gengzhi New Army Uprising, Memoirs of the Xinhai Revolution, Second Volume, Beijing: Literature and History Publishing House, 1962 edition, p. 284)
2. Strategic deployment
In 1906, when Duan Fang, the sworn enemy of the revolutionary party and known as the "murderous tyrant", came to serve as the governor of Liangjiang, some comrades proposed to Zhao Sheng: "When Duan Fang takes over the seal, he will stop the killing and revolt." Zhao Sheng believed that although the New Army in Jiuzhen had considerable revolutionary strength, the Anhui and Jiangxi sides were not yet ready to make good contact. He said: "Isolation and no response will inevitably lead to defeat, and it is indispensable to the achievements of the Su, Anhui, and Gansu movements." It will also contact the armies other than the soldiers of the town of Nanjing, and at the same time rise up together, so that it will be enough to do great things."
△ Zhao Boxian's former residence Hongxi Boy / Photo
Regarding Sun Yat-sen's insistence on calling for an uprising in Guangdong, Zhao Sheng took into account the overall situation and made a comprehensive strategic plan. Before Zhao Sheng went to Guangdong to develop, he instructed Xiong Chengji to go to Anhui to launch a new army; Comrades Leng Suan, Ni Yingdian, and others continued to accumulate revolutionary forces in Jiangnan and waited for mutual cooperation with Guangdong. "At the turn of the spring and summer of 1908, Zhao Sheng's frequent revolutionary activities in the New Army in Guangdong were suspected by the authorities, and in order to avoid the eyes and ears of the enemy and paralyze the enemy, he used the pretext of returning to his hometown and contacting comrades in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui, and Gansu provinces" (Zhao Qilu, "Zhao Sheng's Revolutionary Deeds"), further implementing and coordinating this strategic layout.
In the preparation process for the Huanghuagang uprising, Zhao Sheng concurrently served as the head of the traffic department, whose responsibility was to contact the provinces in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, responsible for mobilizing other provinces to respond and prepare for the Northern Expedition after the uprising. Because the layout of the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River was implemented by himself, its revolutionary forces were mostly the old parts he cultivated. Zhao Sheng sent Tan Renfeng with the necessary funds to Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Ganxiang' and other places to start up party members, set up organs, and prepare to respond.
△ Zhao Bo successively took a group photo at the original Zhao Clan Ancestral Hall
Although the two new army uprisings of Gengshu and Huanghuagang were in Guangdong, the leaders and important revolutionaries who participated in the two battles spread throughout the provinces of central and southern China, which was directly related to zhao Sheng's network of revolutionary forces formed by running the Yangtze River and the New Army in Guangdong for many years. Later, although the Huanghuagang Uprising failed and the Northern Expedition was aborted, Zhao Sheng's early mobilization work and layout played a crucial role in the success of the Wuchang Uprising and the restoration of successive provinces. For example, after the Wuchang Uprising, Zhao Sheng and the Jiangsu-Zhejiang coalition led by the remnants of the party played a role in influencing the whole country and deterring the imperial court in the process of rapidly recovering Shanghai and Zhenjiang and conquering Nanjing. Jiangsu Inspector Cheng Dequan sang the imperial court and said: "Do not suffer from the fall of Wuchang, but suffer from the response of everywhere."
△ Dagang Zhao clan Wen Qi spectra
Through five years of arduous work, Zhao Sheng moved the new army and meticulously laid out the new army in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River and the two Guangzhou areas, creating a general trend of revolution.