時報
- Atmosphere for Peace Talks Gradually Thickens
- Trenches Dug near Jiujiang
- How the Revolutionary Army Took De'an
This partial reading of the Shibao for 8 October 1926 covers three war reports from the Jiangxi front of the Northern Expedition. A Jiujiang wire dated the 7th said talk of peace was growing again and the focus had shifted to politics, while Sun planned to visit the front to encourage his men. A dispatch of the 5th described trenches at the gate of a cotton mill outside Jiujiang, Nationalist 'party troops' sighted at the foot of Mount Lu, and machine guns placed on nearby hills. A badly damaged account of the fighting around De'an reported heavy but indecisive battles at Gao'an and a partly illegible '-chang', listed troop positions near Wuning and Jiujiang, and told of a force of more than 5,000 crossing the mountains from Hubei, after which a commander named Xie broke out of an encirclement. The page also printed the paper's subscription rates.
This edition covers three partly legible war reports from the 8 October 1926 Shibao. The OCR scrambles and mixes columns, so the reading relies on the page images. The upper and lower tile edges are dark, and the small print in the advertisements and rate tables is mostly illegible. The second excerpt overlaps the trench dispatch inside the first, and the third begins with subscription rates that run into the De'an report. Some characters are uncertain, for example 與/興 and 廂, and illegible characters remain marked [?]. The ◎ dispatch block whose heading is not visible is left out.
Translation
Atmosphere for Peace Talks Gradually Thickens
…the atmosphere for peace has again gradually thickened, and the center of the situation has shifted to the political side. Sun plans shortly to inspect the battle line and encourage his troops. (Jiujiang, 7th, Dongfang wire)
◉ Trenches Dug near Jiujiang: Outside the city of Jiujiang, at Guanlianzha, there are already trenches in front of the gate of the Jiuxing Cotton Mill. Party troops have been discovered at Bailian Cave at the foot of Mount Lu. (Jiujiang, dispatched on the 5th) [?] Jiujiang one [?] outside, Jinjipo and Lianhuadong both …
Trenches Dug near Jiujiang
…near, trenches dug … lianzha, in front of the gate of the Jiuxing Cotton Mill, already … Party troops discovered at Bailian Cave. (Jiujiang, dispatched on the 5th) … outside, at Jinjipo and Lianhuadong, machine guns are densely emplaced at both. ([?] Qianshan, Yue …
How the Revolutionary Army Took De'an
[?] Subscription price: full year 5 yuan, postage 5 jiao; half year 2 yuan 6 jiao, postage 2 jiao 5 fen.
… De'an: How It Happened. Jiangxi Troops Rush One After Another to the Rescue. [?]chang and Gao'an See Fierce Fighting, Neither Side Winning.
In the battle of [?]chang, the southern army's elite, Wang Boling's unit, and [?] … Daye, on the [?]jiang riverbank, has again been occupied by others. A southern brigade of 3,000 men is near Wuning; one brigade of Zhou Fengqi's and … at Jiujiang; all the others are on the Hubei side. Chiang Kai-shek's army, itself holding Gungou, began provocations, and with Zheng Junyan, who was heading to [?] [?] … At this time Xu Zongren's army suddenly came across the mountains and over the ridges from Hubei and suddenly [?] near Wuning, with a force of more than 5,000, from Hu Zong[?] (Hongxun)'s unit. Xie's army, soon unable to withstand the greater numbers, then broke through the heavy encirclement, [?] [?], …
Context
Sun Chuanfang's five-province domain and the Jiangxi front
The Sun whom the Jiujiang wire described as planning to inspect the front was Sun Chuanfang, the Zhili-clique commander who ruled the lower Yangtze. From late 1925 he 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. When the Nationalists launched the Northern Expedition in 1926, their initial strategy was to defeat Wu Peifu while appeasing Sun, and the Guangzhou government offered him a non-aggression pact. Sun, however, would not subordinate his administration to Kuomintang rule. Once Wu's forces were in retreat, the National Revolutionary Army turned toward Sun's Jiangxi, aiming at Jiujiang and the provincial capital, Nanchang. That shift explains why every report selected from this page comes from Jiangxi places such as Jiujiang, De'an, Wuning and Gao'an.
Where the Jiangxi campaign stood in early October 1926
The paper's picture of entrenchment and indecisive fighting fits the stalemate that followed Sun's September counter-offensive. By 19 September the National Revolutionary Army had taken both Jiujiang and Nanchang, helped by the defection of Sun's general Lai Shih-huang. When Sun arrived from Nanjing with reinforcements on 21 September, the Nationalists were forced to retreat, and Sun retook most of the lost territory, killing hundreds of students, teachers and suspected Kuomintang members. Only by the end of October were Sun's forces again retreating across Jiangxi and Fujian, and in early November Nationalist troops moved to capture the Yangtze ports of Jiujiang and Hukou. When this issue reported trenches outside Jiujiang and machine guns on the nearby hills, the city therefore appears to have still been in Sun's hands and under preparation for defence. The De'an report of Jiangxi relief columns and battles 'with neither side winning' belongs to the same uncertain weeks. The unit names and the figures of 3,000 and more than 5,000 come from wartime dispatches and cannot be checked against these sources.
What lay behind the talk of peace
The Jiujiang wire reported that the atmosphere for peace was thickening and that the center of the situation had moved to politics, but the legible part of the wire names no negotiators and gives no terms. Relations between Sun and Chiang Kai-shek had been hostile for some time. During the Anti-Fengtian War of 1925–26, Chiang tried to persuade Sun to defect to the Kuomintang; Sun refused and executed Chiang's emissaries, and Chiang retaliated by executing Sun's envoys. The Guangzhou government had offered Sun a non-aggression pact, but he was not willing to subordinate his administration to Kuomintang rule. The talk of peace that this issue reported did not end the fighting: by the end of October Sun's forces were again in retreat across Jiangxi and Fujian.
Jiujiang, a treaty port beside Mount Lu
The places named in the trench dispatch lay close to a sizeable foreign presence. Jiujiang became an open treaty port in 1862 and exported Jiangxi's large rice crop, and Britain held a concession there. In the early twentieth century Kuling, a resort on top of Mount Lu, became the summer home of international residents. The report of trenches at a cotton mill gate outside the city and of Nationalist troops at the foot of Mount Lu therefore showed war preparations close to areas where foreigners lived and traded. The upheaval reached the concession itself the following year: in 1927 Britain surrendered its Jiujiang concession after it was robbed and its Chinese workers deserted their posts to the crowds.
Original
議和空氣漸濃厚
和空氣又漸次濃厚、 時局之中心、 移至政治方面、 孫近擬視察戰線、 鼓勵士卒、 （九江七日東方電） ◉ 九江附近掘戰壕九江城外關簾閘久興紗廠門首已戰壕、 廬山麓白蓮洞發現黨軍、 （九江五日發） [?] 九江一 [?] 外之金雞坡蓮花洞均
九江附近掘戰壕
近掘戰壕簾閘久興紗廠門首已白蓮洞發現黨軍、 （九江五日發） 外之金雞坡蓮花洞均機關槍密置、 （[?] 潛山嶽
革軍佔德安經過
[?] 定價全年五元郵費五角半年二元六角郵費二角五分德安經過贛軍紛往救援 [?] 昌高安有劇戰無勝負 [?] 昌一役、 南軍精銳王柏齡部及 [?] 江沿岸大冶， 又被人占領， 南旅三千人、 在武甯附近、 周鳳岐之一旅及在九江、 其他悉在湖北方面、 蔣介石軍自守滾溝、 開始挑釁、 與開往 [?] [?] 之鄭俊彥此時徐宗仁軍忽由鄂跨山越嶺、 突然 [?] 武甯附近、 擁兵力五千以上、 由胡宗 [?] （鴻勳） 部、 謝軍尋不敵衆、 遂突破重圍、 [?] [?]、