時報
- Military News from Jiangxi and Fujian
- Wu Sends a Representative to Fengtian to Seek Aid
- Revolutionary Army Entered Wuchang Yesterday
This partially legible Shibao page of 11 October 1926 carried war news from the Northern Expedition. Its Jiangxi dispatches reported Sun Chuanfang's Allied Army beating off a southern attack on Xiushui, Sun's return by warship to Nanjing while his generals held Jiujiang, and the move of his supply headquarters to Hukou after revolutionary troops near De'an threatened the Nanxun railway. A Beijing telegram said Wu Peifu, short of pay and arms, had for the first time sent an envoy through Tianjin to ask Fengtian for troops, following a fragmentary lament over refugees stranded in Hankou. A headline announced the revolutionary army's entry into Wuchang the day before, though the legible text beneath it concerns urgent railway work at Guangshui.
The reading covers three partially legible reports from the page. The OCR was heavily scrambled across columns, so the text was checked against the image only. Fragmentary openings that belong to neighboring columns are translated as they stand, with [?] marking illegible characters. The body under the Wuchang headline survives only in scraps and does not include an account of the entry itself. Small-type advertisements, bond prize numbers and most of the report on relief for women and children in Wuchang were too blurred to transcribe, and unclear datelines and numbers were left out.
Translation
Military News from Jiangxi and Fujian
…recently specially sent a representative … aid, [?] … o'clock telegram) [?] … after the festival, down … (2) the southern and northern lines, divided into five, … Wu rather … the prospects of the war … seven o'clock telegram) … army commander, … matter, … seven o'clock telegram) … sent a report on the 9th … two regiments of the garrison troops on the … side, … news from …hai) … further it is reported that a certain army … all have connections; no matter what troops are sent to suppress them, they have backing and are unafraid. Their leader, too, does not wish them to indulge in rape and plunder; he simply has no power to restrain them. (October 8)
◉ Military News from Jiangxi and Fujian
◎ The southern army of 2,000 that suddenly attacked Xiushui on the 7th was beaten back on the 8th by the 2nd Division of Sun's army, toward the mountains to the west. The Allied Army's newly organized 6th Army has as its commander Yan Jingchong, who rendered the most distinguished service in the battle of De'an. (Jiujiang, 9th, Dentsu)
◎ This morning a certain legation received a wireless message from Nanjing: Sun Chuanfang left Jiujiang by warship on the afternoon of the geng day (the 8th) and arrived in Nanjing last night; Chen Tiaoyuan and Zhang Mingqi are still holding Jiujiang. (Beijing, 10th, 7 p.m. telegram)
◎ Since the revolutionary army appeared at De'an, the Allied Army, which uses the Nanxun railway as its supply line, has felt itself in great danger because the line is about to be cut. Therefore, from the 5th it has moved its general supply headquarters to Hukou, and munitions and military supplies are all being shipped via Poyang Lake toward Nanchang. (Jiujiang, 7th, Dentsu)
◎ Yongding … Lei … the merchants of Guangzhou have stopped delivering goods. (Hong Kong, 10th, 7 p.m. telegram)
Wu Sends a Representative to Fengtian to Seek Aid
…refugees; if they stay long in Hankou, they will also be hard to sustain. Their food and clothing at present [?] … whether cotton jackets and trousers for girls can be bought is still uncertain. These refugees, who in ordinary times would wear only finely patterned clothes and eat only [?] fine grain, have met this great calamity and cannot get even coarse grain to fill their hunger; this is close to a wanton waste of Heaven's gifts.
… sends a representative to Fengtian to seek aid. All along, no request had been made for the Fengtian side to send troops; but because of [?] change, Wu, now short of both pay and arms, and with the recent [?] situation especially serious, has admitted that his strength is insufficient and hopes the Fengtian side will send troops to help. Recently he specially sent a representative [?] who on the …th passed through Tianjin on the way to Fengtian to negotiate aid. (Beijing, 10th, 4 p.m. telegram)
Revolutionary Army Entered Wuchang Yesterday
…city, hui (…19 o'clock telegram) … the British Minister, … do his utmost [?] …th, Reuters) … Gao Zhao Dianzhi, … Han, … are Chen and Liu
◎ According to a report from Hankou received by a certain local quarter, the southern army is now treating the engineering work on the Guangshui–Wushengguan line as an urgent task. Yesterday (the 8th) one arrived at Guangshui. (Toho News Agency, 10th
◉ Beacon Fires Near the Kaifeng City Walls
Context
How Wuchang fell on 10 October 1926
The headline in this 11 October issue announced that the revolutionary army had entered Wuchang "yesterday", but the legible fragments beneath it deal mostly with other matters, chiefly a Toho News Agency report from Hankou that the southern army was treating work on the Guangshui–Wushengguan line as urgent, with one arrival at Guangshui on the 8th. Independent accounts place the entry at the end of a long siege. The National Revolutionary Army took Hanyang and Hankou on 6 and 7 September 1926, while Wu Peifu and most of his army fled north to Henan; the troops he left inside walled Wuchang held out for more than a month. They surrendered on 10 October, the fifteenth anniversary of the 1911 Wuchang Uprising, and the surrender completed the Nationalist conquest of Hubei. The paper's one-day report therefore matches the established date, and the railway work it describes was being done by an army whose main opponent had already withdrawn northward.
Sun Chuanfang's Five-Province army and its Jiangxi counteroffensive
The "Allied Army" and "Sun's army" in these Jiangxi dispatches were the forces of Sun Chuanfang, who ruled Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian, Anhui and Jiangxi and named his army the Allied Army of the Five Provinces. He had kept his headquarters in Nanjing since becoming military governor of Jiangsu in November 1925, so the legation wireless was reporting his return by warship to his own headquarters. By 19 September 1926 the Nationalists held both Jiujiang and Nanchang, but Sun arrived from Nanjing with reinforcements on 21 September and forced them back. The paper's wires of 7 to 10 October show the following phase: the Allied Army repulsed 2,000 southern troops at Xiushui and rewarded Yan Jingchong for De'an, yet still feared that revolutionary troops near De'an would cut the Nanxun railway, so it shifted its supply headquarters to Hukou and shipped supplies across Poyang Lake. These figures come from Japanese agency wires and an unnamed legation. Sun's recovery proved short: by the end of October his forces were again retreating across Jiangxi and Fujian, and in early November Nationalist troops moved on the Yangtze ports of Jiujiang and Hukou, the very place the paper had named as his new supply base.
Why Wu Peifu turned to Fengtian after losing Hubei
The Beijing telegram of 10 October said Wu had never before asked Fengtian to send troops, and that only a shortage of pay and arms and a worsening situation made him admit his weakness and send an envoy through Tianjin. That account agrees with the established record: the Fengtian clique had earlier offered Wu its support, and he refused it for fear that the northern warlords would undermine his position. Much of his strength had meanwhile been committed to fighting the Guominjun at Nankou Pass near Beijing. Wuchang fell on the same 10 October, and Wu's power base was destroyed when the Nationalists conquered Hubei in late 1926. Fengtian's next step was to build a new northern coalition. In November 1926, after its victory in the Anti-Fengtian War, Zhang Zuolin's camp formed the National Pacification Army, in which Wu was merely counted as a part. The available record shows this broader move by Fengtian; it does not show how Zhang answered this particular envoy.
Original
贛閩軍訊
近特派代接濟、 [?] 時電) [?] 節後下 (二) 爲南北線分五、 吳頗以戰事前途七時電) 軍軍長、 事、 七時電) 九日發報方面之防軍二團、 海消息) 續聞某軍、 均有關係、 無論派何軍隊往剿、 彼輩有恃不恐、 彼之首領亦不願其肆淫掠、 特無權以約束之耳、 (十月八日) ◉ 贛閩軍訊 ◎ 七日突然進攻修水之南軍二千、 於八日爲孫軍第二師所擊退、 向西方山地、 聯軍新編第六軍、 以德安一役最有功之顏景崇爲司令、 （九江九日電通社） ◎ 今晨某使館接甯無線電、 孫傳芳庚 （八日） 日下午乘艦離潯、 昨夜抵甯、 陳調元張鳴岐仍扼守九江、 （北京十日下午七時電) ◎ 自革軍發現於德安後、 聯軍以南潯鐵道將被截斷、 以該路爲兵站線、 甚覺危險、 故自五日起、 將總兵站部移設湖口、 軍火軍需品概由鄱陽湖轉運南昌方面、 (九江七日電通社) ◎ 永定雷廣州各商、 停付貨物、 (香港十日下午七時電)
吳派代表赴奉乞援
之難民、 在漢久留、 亦難維持、 其衣食刻 [?] 女孩棉衣褲能可購得、 尚無把握、 難民輩、 平日衣必文采、 食必 [?] 粱、 遭此浩刼、 粗糲充饑而不可得、 是殆暴殄天物、 天派代表赴奉乞援始終未請奉方出兵、 惟因 [?] 變更、 吳既餉械兩缺、 且近 [?] 勢、 尤形嚴重、 遂自認力量不足、 希望奉方出兵援助、 近特派代 [?] 日過津赴奉協商接濟、 (北京十日下午四時電)
昨日革軍入武昌
城、 灰 (十九時電) 英使、 盡力 [?] 日路透社) 高趙典之、 漢、 係陳劉 ◎ 據本地某處、 所接漢口告、 南軍現以廣水武勝關綫工程爲急務、 昨 (八日) 有一開抵廣水、 (東方社十日 ◉ 汴垣附近烽火