時報
- Great Battle in Western Jiangxi and Eastern Hubei
- Benevolent Flower Slips
The legible part of this page carried a war report from the Jiangxi front of the Northern Expedition. It said the Southern Army, having fallen back from Nanchang, had turned to the attack along the whole line in what it called a clash of main forces that would decide both sides' fate. The paper weighed the Southern troops' high morale and skillful tactics against the eagerness of Sun Chuanfang's own troops, who were said to be resentful at having missed earlier chances for glory. It predicted heavy casualties and a decision within about a week. A second, only partly legible item was a charity society's notice: holders of a postcard urging purchase of flower-patterned letter paper would receive one or two yuan's worth in mid-October unless they replied promptly to change or cancel the order.
This covers only two excerpts that could be read reliably. The OCR mixes in unrelated vertical columns and misreads names, and several other reports on the page can't be transcribed because of small print, continuations at tile edges and faded characters. The charity notice is low-confidence: its opening and the society's name are missing, and the heading uses 簽 while the text uses 箋. No authoritative source was found on how charities used mailed flower-slip sales in 1926, so the commentary does not cover that notice.
Translation
Great Battle in Western Jiangxi and Eastern Hubei
[?] ◎ The Southern Army, which fell back from the Nanchang area, intends to retake Nanchang. It has now gone on the offensive, and fierce fighting is under way along the entire line. This battle is a clash between the main forces of the two armies, and its outcome is enough to decide the fate of both. Although the Southern Army cannot avoid spreading its strength thin, its morale is extremely high and its operations are quite skillful. Their spirit is very bold, and they would not shrink even from hand-to-hand fighting. On the Allied Army side, the troops directly under Sun Chuanfang are quite resentful at having had no chance to distinguish themselves in the recent fighting, and in this battle they will fight to the death to show what they can do. The fighting can therefore be expected to be ferocious, and casualties are bound to be very heavy. The outcome should be decided within about a week. [?]
Benevolent Flower Slips
[?] If you have already received a postcard urging you to buy flower-patterned letter paper, this society will send one or two yuan's worth of the letter paper to you around the middle of October. If you wish to buy more, or do not wish to buy any, please reply at once to avoid errors. [?]
Context
Who were the 'Southern Army' and the 'Allied Army' at Nanchang?
The two sides in the report can be identified from the course of the campaign. The 'Southern Army' was the National Revolutionary Army of the Kuomintang government in Guangzhou, and the 'Allied Army' was the coalition led by Sun Chuanfang, whose directly commanded troops the report singles out. In 1926 Sun's coalition controlled Fujian, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Anhui and Jiangxi, and at the height of his power his army numbered over 200,000 men. His headquarters were in Nanjing, and Jiangxi, with its provincial capital Nanchang, was the westernmost of his five provinces. The Nationalists had turned against Sun only recently. Although the Guangzhou government had offered him a non-aggression pact, Sun was unwilling to subordinate his administration to Kuomintang rule, and on 4 September 1926, while the siege of Wuchang was still going on, Chiang Kai-shek launched an attack across the Jiangxi border. When the article called the battle a clash of main forces that would decide the fate of both armies, it was describing a contest over one of the five provinces on which Sun's power rested.
What had happened at Nanchang before this report?
The article's opening premise, that the Southern Army had fallen back from Nanchang and was now trying to retake it, matches the first reversal of the Jiangxi campaign. Early in the Northern Expedition the Nationalists avoided provoking Sun, and he did not intervene while they advanced into Wu Peifu's territory. After they turned on Jiangxi, Jiujiang and Nanchang had both come under Nationalist control by 19 September, a success hastened by the defection of Lai Shih-huang, one of Sun's generals. When Sun arrived from Nanjing with reinforcements on 21 September, the Nationalist offensive was forced into retreat. Sun retook most of the lost territory and reasserted his authority by killing hundreds of students, teachers and suspected Kuomintang members. By the time of this report, less than two weeks after Sun's arrival, the Nationalists were trying to reverse that setback. The sources do not say which of Sun's units did the September fighting, so the paper's claim that his directly commanded troops had so far had no chance to distinguish themselves, and resented it, cannot be checked against them.
Was the battle really decided within a week?
The paper expected a decision within about a week, but the Jiangxi fighting went on for more than another month. Bloody fighting continued in Jiangxi into October, and by the end of that month Sun's forces were again in retreat across Jiangxi and Fujian. In early November the Nationalists moved to capture the Yangtze ports of Jiujiang and Hukou, and by 9 November 1926 they had retaken Nanchang. Sun's retreating forces abandoned substantial materiel, which strengthened the poorly armed National Revolutionary Army; that army suffered 20,000 casualties in the final push on Nanchang alone. Heavy casualties did follow, as the report predicted, but its one-week timetable did not hold. The stakes the paper described were real: at the same time as his army was being driven back, Sun left for Tianjin to seek help from the Fengtian clique, and on 1 December 1926 he became one of the deputy commanders of the new National Pacification Army under Zhang Zuolin.
Original
贛西鄂東大戰
[?] ◎ 從南昌方面退却之南軍、 意欲奪回南昌、 現取攻勢、 正在全線劇戰、 此戰係兩軍主力之衝突、 其勝負足以決定兩軍之運命、 南軍雖不免分散兵力、 然士氣極旺盛、 且其作戰又頗巧妙、 彼等意氣甚豪、 縱至短兵相接、 亦所不辭、 聯軍方面、 孫傳芳直轄之軍隊、 因日前戰鬥無立功機會、 頗爲不平、 將於此次之戰鬥、 出死力以顯其能、 故戰鬥之猛烈可以預料而死傷之數亦必甚多、 約在一星期以內可以決定勝負也、 [?]
慈祥花簽
[?] 尊處如已接到勸購花箋之明信片本會於十月中旬前後即將花箋一二元檢送尊處如需多購或不願購用務請即日示覆以免錯誤 [?]