時報
- The Situation of Sun's and Chiang's Armies in Eastern Hubei
- Military Conference at Jiujiang
- Conditions Inside Wuchang Extremely Dire
This partial reading of Shibao's war page covers three reports on the fighting in central China. A string of wire items on eastern Hubei told of a withdrawal from Daye, an 'Eastern Army' ordered back to Jiujiang, and southern units reported near Tieshan, Huangshigang and the Ruichang border, while headquarters had no news from the front. Attached Anhui briefs reported a police officer in Nanling shot for spreading 'Red' propaganda, 300 recruits from Hefei and Lu'an shipped via Wuhu to the front, and Gao Shidu ordering counties to remit taxes after a telegram from Chen Tiaoyuan. A Jiujiang dispatch noted a sudden special martial-law order and Zhou Fengqi joining a military conference. A Reuters report from Hankou described about 2,000 civilians allowed out of besieged Wuchang, a woman trampled to death at the gate, and starvation inside the walls.
This edition translates three reports from the page, and the reading is partial. The OCR candidate was not used for transcription. Small-print briefs in several columns are blurred at the edges, so the translations keep gaps and fragments; the dateline of the Wuchang report is partly illegible, and the character before 'about 2,000' is uncertain. The fine print in the advertisement tables is illegible and is not covered. The background sources available here do not explain why martial law was declared at Jiujiang or record the posts of Zhou Fengqi and Chen Tiaoyuan, so the commentary treats those points only as the paper reports them.
Translation
The Situation of Sun's and Chiang's Armies in Eastern Hubei
…retreated toward the southwest. (Beijing telegram, 6th, 2 p.m.) After the withdrawal from Daye, the place again appeared… the Daye sector has been placed under Chen Tiao… (Toho telegram, Jiujiang, 5th) The Eastern Army, under orders, moved back to Jiujiang; the Southern Army… Tieshan, and another detachment reached Huangshigang. (Dentsu telegram, Jiujiang, 5th) News: during the day headquarters received no battle reports from the front; there has been no word… has already reached the Ruichang border. ▲ Cao Baxi, magistrate of Nanling County, recently telegraphed Chen Tiao… [?] that …Congshun and Patrol Officer Sun Tang had been spreading Red propaganda, and proposed punishment, which was approved; accordingly, on the 2nd, Police Assistant Gong was executed by shooting, and Patrol Officer Sun was sent under escort… ▲ Transport Commander Yu Shiying recently passed through Wuhu on his way to Jiujiang… military affairs; but since warships have lately been passing through from time to time, and… a military telegram ordered the water police stationed at Wuhu to send detailed reports every day. ▲ Wang Pu earlier sent men to Hefei, Lu'an and other places to recruit [?] recruited 300 men, who were shipped to Wuhu by small steamers and civilian boats… officer Hu Tang escorted them to the front on the 4th for service. ▲ Gao Shidu has just received a telegram from Chen Tiaoyuan at the front… for supplying military funds, and so on the 4th he issued a circular order to all counties urging them to remit their tax revenues. ▲ Xuzhou: Feng Shaomin's division, 13th Brigade, twenty [?]
Military Conference at Jiujiang
Important Military and Political News ◉ Military Conference at Jiujiang ◎ Although there has been no major change on the front line, a special martial-law order was suddenly proclaimed. Zhou Fengqi came from… and took part in a military conference. The situation appears rather… (Jiujiang, 5th, Toho [?] ◉ The fighting in Jiangxi as reported in Hong Kong and Hankou…
Conditions Inside Wuchang Extremely Dire
(Dispatched from Hankou, October [?]) On the… day, many civilians in Wuchang, reportedly about 2,000, were permitted by both warring sides to leave the city of Wuchang. But the moment the gate was opened, the crowd surged out, each trying to be first, so that a woman fell and was trampled to death. The people who came out of the city… pitiable. According to them, conditions inside the city are extremely miserable and many have starved to death; if the siege is not lifted quickly, the starving will be everywhere. (Reuters, Hankou, 5th)
Context
The siege of Wuchang and efforts to relieve its civilians
The Reuters report describes a walled city that had been under siege for about a month. By 2 September 1926 the National Revolutionary Army had nearly surrounded Wuchang; Wu Peifu and most of his army fled north to Henan, but the troops left inside the walls held out for over a month. The paper reports that both sides allowed some civilians, said to number about 2,000, to leave, and that a woman was killed in the crush at the gate; the figure and the account of starvation inside come from Reuters and from the refugees themselves. The suffering was noticed abroad. On 9 October 1926 Secretary of State Kellogg cabled the U.S. chargé in China that press reports told of dreadful suffering among Wuchang's civilians, and suggested that the consular body at Hankou might try to arrange an armistice during which relief could be organized. Wu's remaining forces at Wuchang surrendered on 10 October, the same day the Canton–Hong Kong strike was called off, and this completed the Nationalist conquest of Hubei.
The Daye–Jiujiang front in early October 1926
In 1926 Sun Chuanfang's coalition controlled Fujian, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Anhui and Jiangxi. The Guangzhou government had offered him a non-aggression pact, but Sun would not subordinate his administration to KMT rule, so while the siege of Wuchang was still going on, Chiang Kai-shek attacked across the Jiangxi border on 4 September. The Nationalist offensive was then forced back when Sun arrived from Nanjing with reinforcements on 21 September, and Sun retook most of the ground he had lost. The paper's telegrams of 5 and 6 October come from this back-and-forth phase: they mention a withdrawal from Daye in eastern Hubei, an 'Eastern Army' ordered back to Jiujiang, southern units at Tieshan, Huangshigang and the Ruichang border, and a headquarters with no reports from the front. The paper gives no reason for the special martial-law order at Jiujiang, and the sources consulted here do not supply one. The balance shifted again within weeks: by the end of October Sun's forces were retreating across Jiangxi and Fujian, and in early November Nationalist troops moved to capture the Yangtze ports of Jiujiang and Hukou.
Anhui as the rear of Sun Chuanfang's war effort
The Anhui briefs printed with the eastern Hubei reports come from Sun Chuanfang's own domain. Sun had extended his rule over Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian, Anhui and Jiangxi, and on 25 November 1925 he set up his headquarters in Nanjing as military governor of Jiangsu. The province therefore served as a rear area for the Jiangxi and Hubei front, and the paper's items show what that meant: 300 recruits gathered in Hefei and Lu'an were shipped through Wuhu to the front, Gao Shidu ordered counties to remit tax revenues after a telegram from Chen Tiaoyuan at the front, and the water police at Wuhu were made to report daily on passing warships. The shooting of a Nanling police officer accused of spreading 'Red' propaganda fits the repression in Sun's territory that autumn: when Sun retook lost ground in late September he killed hundreds of students, teachers and suspected KMT members. The paper presents Chen Tiaoyuan as a commander at the front to whom Anhui officials reported; the sources consulted here do not record his formal post.
Original
鄂東孫蔣軍情形
向西南退卻、 （北京六日下午二時電） 大冶撤退後、 該地復現大冶方面係歸陳調、 （九江五日東方電） 東軍奉命開回九江、 南軍鐵山、 又一部抵黃石港、 （九江五日電通電） 消息日間、 總部未接前方戰報、 消息杳人、 已抵瑞昌境、 ▲ 南陵縣知事曹灞溪、 日前電呈陳調 [?] 從舜 ・ 巡官孫棠、 有宣傳赤化情事、 擬處准、 遂於二日將龔警佐槍決、 孫巡官解 ▲ 運輸司令于世英、 日前過蕪赴潯、 與軍務、 惟以近來時有兵艦過境、 以及軍電令駐蕪水警、 逐日詳報、 ▲ 王普前派員分赴合肥 ・ 六安等處招 [?] 招得三百名、 用小輪民船、 裝運到蕪、 官胡棠、 於四日押赴前方應用、 ▲ 高世讀刻接陳調元自前方來電、 以軍項接濟、 因於四日通令各縣、 催解稅款 ▲ 徐州馮紹閔師第十三旅二十 [?]
九江軍事會議
軍政要聞 ◉ 九江軍事會議 ◎ 前方戰線雖無重大變化、 忽頒特別戒嚴令、 周鳳岐由來、 參列軍事會議、 形勢似頗 （九江五日東 [?] ◉ 港漢所傳贛省戰
武昌城內情形極慘
（漢口十月 [?] 日發） 日武昌有平民多人、 聞約二千、 戰雙方許可出離武昌城、 惟城開片時、 羣衆爭先擁出、 致有婦人跌倒、 被人踐死、 出城諸人、 可憐、 據稱城內情形至慘、 餓死有多人、 倘再不迅速解圍、 則餓遍地皆是、 （漢口五日路透電）