Baotou character: Li Maolin, a member of the Chinese League Association, died inexplicably and tragically in Shi Quan

Li Maolin (1883-1920), also spelled Songru, was born in Shenmu, Shaanxi. During the Tongzhi period, his grandfather Li Wannian was already well-off. His father, Li Rongchang, moved to Baotou and purchased land in Liuzhu Kiln and other places. In the ninth year of the Qing Dynasty (1883 AD), Li Maolin was born in the Great Yushu Courtyard of Baotou Town (now No. 18 Erdao Lane, Caishen Temple). He was the first student to study abroad in Baotou and the first bourgeois democratic revolutionary in Baotou to join the China League led by Sun Yat-sen.

In the 28th year of Guangxu (1902 AD), Li Maolin entered the Qingshuihe Primary School and was sent to the Shanxi Provincial Normal School the following year because of his excellent academic performance. In the 30th year of Guangxu (1904 AD), he was promoted to the capital of the Jingshi Guozijian to study, called the regular tribute, and obtained the five pins of blue plume to wear. In the same year, he was sent by the Qing government to study in Japan, first studying medicine, and then entering the police department of Toyo University.

During his study abroad in Japan, Li Maolin began to come into contact with bourgeois revolutionary theories such as natural human rights, freedom and equality. He was in a foreign land, and he had heard and felt a lot; in contrast to the tragic scene of the motherland being invaded and bullied by the great powers outside the motherland and being ruled by the darkness of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, he had a strong desire to change the reality. In the thirty-first year of Guangxu (1905 AD), Sun Yat-sen founded the Chinese League in Tokyo, and Li Maolin was one of the first members to join the League, often listening to Sun Yat-sen's teachings. In the same year, Sun Yat-sen went from Japan to Belgium.

In the thirty-second year of Guangxu (1906 AD), under the guidance of Sun Yat-sen's revolutionary strategy of "righteous teachers, overthrowing the government, and returning our sovereignty", Li Maolin and many members of the league returned to China to carry out revolutionary work, and Sun Yat-sen personally sent them off and took a group photo with Li Maolin.

After Li Maolin returned to Baotou, he took advantage of various occasions to actively publicize advanced ideas of change, and he personally practiced it, mobilizing his wife to take the lead and put her feet on the ground, which became a new thing that sensationalized Baotou. Whenever he encountered a folk society singing, he took advantage of the opportunity before the opening of the play to go on the stage to give a speech, spread revolutionary ideas and new things he had heard and witnessed in Japan, such as how fast the train ran, the stove for heating, etc., but it was not understood by the closed and conservative people at that time, and when he saw that there was no braid on his head, he secretly cursed him. He also rode around the streets on a bicycle he had brought back from Japan (the first bicycle in Baotou), and people thought he was crazy, so the people called him "Li Crazy".

On the one hand, Li Maolin served in the government office, and was successively appointed by the Saraqi Department as a member of the Consultative Council, responsible for elections, tobacco investigations, the establishment of education associations, and persuasion; on the other hand, he secretly developed the members of the Alliance with great energy and made public opinion preparations and organizational preparations for overthrowing the Qing government. Under the propaganda and encouragement and secret organization of him and the league members sent from Shanxi, Baotou had the first batch of league members, including his fellow friends Guo Honglin, Li Shiyuan, and Wang Dingxi. Li Maolin's family became the secret contact point of the League, and people from the Beijing League often sent secret letters to his home.

In October of the third year of the Qing Dynasty (1911 AD), the Wuchang Uprising broke out, and Li Maolin and Wang Jianping, who was sent by the Shanxi League, actively planned a response. Under the cover of selling horses, Wang Dingxi wrapped his guns in firewood and transported them to Li Maolin's house. At that time, Zhou Weifan, the commander of the Qing Eight Banners Border Defense Battalion stationed in naturalization, led some soldiers to revolt, among which a sentry led by Cao Fuzhang and Zhang Lin drove from Wuchuan to the north of Baotou City, intending to seize Baotou. When Guo Honglin and Li Maolin heard the news, they sent people to negotiate with Zhifan Enqing with the Wuyuan Hall, which was stationed in Baotou for temporary administration, and persuaded him to let the rebel army enter the city and declare the independence of Baotou. While pretending to be sympathetic to the revolution and welcoming the rebels into the city, Fan Enqing, an old and cunning man, secretly ordered his men to ambush the east and west battalions and wait for an opportunity to act. On December 24 (November 3 of the lunar calendar), Fan Enqing held a banquet in the public hall of Baotou Town (addressed in Mahao Lane) to entertain the leaders of the rebel army and the leaders of the League. The League was unaware of Fan Enqing's ruse. During the banquet, more than 10 people of the revolutionary party were killed on the spot, and Guo Honglin was injured and arrested, and later killed tragically. Because Li Maolin was good at martial arts, after hearing the gunshots, he alertly hid under the table, jumped over the window and ran away over the wall, but survived. In January of the following year, after Yan Xishan led the Shanxi Nationalist Army to capture Baotou, a memorial service was held for Guo Honglin, and Li Maolin took the altar and wrote the sacrifice text. Yan Xishan personally took a sedan to Li Maolin's house (Yan and Li joined the Alliance association together in Tokyo) and mobilized him to accompany him to Shanxi, and Li Maolin rejected Yan Xishan on the grounds that his mother did not agree.

In the first year of the Republic of China (1912), Sun Yat-sen was inaugurated as the provisional president of the Republic of China in Nanjing, and Li Maolin went to Nanjing to report to Sun Yat-sen on the progress of the revolution in the north and assist in the preparation of the Provisional Government in Nanjing. In the second year of the Republic of China (1913), he was active in Beijing and Shijiazhuang, doing senate elections and other work. Yuan Shikai sent people to secretly monitor the activities of the former members of the League (which had been changed to the Kuomintang). Li Maolin found that the two retinues who were serving him were eavesdropping on his secret letter, and in anger, he stuck the man's neck and slammed him to death. For this reason, he was persecuted by Yuan Shikai and imprisoned in Shijiazhuang. Yuan Shikai only ended the lawsuit after his downfall.

In the 5th year of the Republic of China (1916), Li Maolin returned to Baotou. Under the rule of the Beiyang warlords, it was more difficult to carry out revolutionary work, and he served as a police chief in Fanzhi County and Wuzhai County in Shanxi Through his old friends. During this period, correspondence with Sun Yat-sen continued.

One day in the 9th year of the Republic of China (1920), Li Maolin's eldest son went to Shiqiu to pull coal, he was not at ease, he rode alone to find it, and never returned. In May of the following year, the family learned that Li Maolin had already died in the courtyard of Shiqiu Yima, the body was black and green, the cause of death was unknown, and he was buried in the Liu Zhu Yaozi cemetery in Baotou.

Source: Baotou City Chronicle, Volume 1, June 2007. Huang Xiang (Yin Shan Worm) was sorted out in January 2022