時報
- Liu Yuchun Captured
- The Situation Before the Revolutionary Army Entered Wuchang
- Military News from All Quarters
Shibao carried early reports of the fall of Wuchang, the walled Yangtze city whose garrison had held out against the Northern Expedition's siege. A Reuters dispatch from Hankou said part of the defenders mutinied and opened the gates on the afternoon of the 10th, that defence commander Liu Yuchun was being held in a foreign-run university, and that Chen Jiamo had reportedly been taken too; a Toho Agency report credited the Henan 3rd Division with opening the Zhonghe Gate and noted a report that Chen had fled long before. A badly damaged Hankou dispatch of October 8 described intermediaries' long efforts toward a Wuhan peace settlement tied to the release of women and children, naming Tang Shengzhi, Liu Zuolong and Deng Yanda as signatories for the besiegers. A short war-news column relayed the Nanjing allied headquarters' claim to have repulsed the enemy and its order to rush Jiangsu recruits to the front.
This edition translates three war-news excerpts from a partial reading of the page. The second excerpt, the October 8 Hankou dispatch, comes from a scrambled column: its opening lines are fragmentary, [?] marks characters that could not be read, it breaks off mid-sentence, and some personal names in it are tentative readings. The third excerpt is faint and also breaks off. Donor lists, lottery tables and rate tables elsewhere on the page are not covered.
Translation
Liu Yuchun Captured
▲ Two Accounts: Chen Jiamo Captured, or Fled
◎ Wuchang fell into the hands of the Southern army this afternoon, apparently as a result of a mutiny by part of the garrison. The defenders opened the gates and let the attacking army in. Liu Yuchun has been taken into custody and is now being held inside a foreign-run university in Wuchang; he is to be taken to Hankou tonight. It is reported that Chen Jiamo has also been captured. (Reuters, Hankou, 10th)
◎ According to a report sent from Hankou on the 10th and obtained by a certain quarter here, Wuchang fell into the hands of the Southern army on the 10th. The city had originally been due to open its gates on the 9th, but this did not happen. On the following day (the 10th), the Henan 3rd Division among the Northern troops opened the Zhonghe Gate and led the Southern army into the city. Liu Yuchun was seized at Zhonghua College. The Northern army was disarmed to a man and surrendered unconditionally. There is a report that Chen Jiamo had fled long before. (Toho Agency, Shanghai, 11th)
◎ Chen Jiamo sensed the danger two or three days earlier and went into hiding among the populace; on the afternoon of the 10th he was finally captured by the Southern army.
The Situation Before the Revolutionary Army Entered Wuchang
Before the time had come, the city gates were shut at once, and everyone took it to be the Northern army's own; coming out from within the city, relief [?] the situation before (dispatched from Hankou, October 8) not yet secure [?] proceeding eased, and Liu Yuchun too was not as before; the side opened for women and children, since his hope of reinforcements was already gone as well. The other day it was Qingshan, thirty li east of Wuchang city (the place name still belongs to Wuchang); all the rest were accepted, it is said.
A letter from across the river says that the Wuhan peace talks will certainly be concluded before the 9th, as was seen in the previous letter. It is now learned that both sides have signed the peace terms. On the Hankou side the signatories are the three men Tang Shengzhi, Liu Zuolong and Deng Yanda; on the Wuchang side, five men including Chen Jiamo, Liu Yuchun and Zhu Dapei. Looking into the Wuhan peace talks: ever since Lü Chaobo, Xu Rongting, Zhao Dianzhi, Wang Shenggao, Wu Gancheng, Tong Ziqiu, Xu Shifa and others pursued them along separate lines, they have met repeated setbacks; although on the surface they seemed to have stalled, in reality the work never slackened in the least. Moreover, the hope was that everyone would give way a step, and that, if nothing else could be done, the matter should be settled together with the question of relief for women and children. Before the two representatives Zhao Dianzhi and Wang Shenggao had made their final contact, there had been an agreement for Messrs. Li Kaishen, Wang [?] [?] and others to come forward; although it was ultimately dropped because of circumstances, it still shows the pains taken by the various bodies. Recently, since Zhao and Wang returned to Hankou on the 6th carrying the Wuchang draft
Military News from All Quarters
◎ Military News from All Quarters ◎ The staff office of the Allied Army headquarters in Nanjing has received a telegram from Jiu Changqing stating that on the night of Yang (the 7th) the enemy's First Army, about two, has been repulsed. ▲ As the Allied Army's front-line troops are in urgent need of replenishment, orders have been wired to Jiangsu to rush the newly trained recruits to the front at once, to be distributed ▲ The Jiangsu army representative appointed by Chen Taoyi, the Jinling circuit intendant
Context
How the surrender of Wuchang completed the Nationalist hold on Wuhan
The dispatches on this page record the end of resistance in the last of the three Wuhan cities. When the Northern Expedition's forces reached Wuhan, Hankou and Hanyang fell within days and walled Wuchang was left isolated. Wu Peifu and most of his army withdrew north into Henan, while the troops left inside the walls held out for more than a month. Their surrender on 10 October, the date given by both Reuters and the Toho Agency, completed the National Revolutionary Army's conquest of Hubei province, putting Hankou, Hanyang and Wuchang all under Nationalist control. The paper's two reports agree that the gates were opened from within; the Toho version names the Henan 3rd Division and the Zhonghe Gate, details that rest on the paper's own sources. Accounts of Liu Yuchun's capture also differ. Shibao reported that he was seized at Zhonghua College and held in a foreign-run university, whereas a later historical account says he fell back to Snake Hill with a thousand-odd men and was taken inside a church on 10 October.
Who Liu Yuchun and Chen Jiamo were, and what became of them
The two captives were the senior commanders of Wu Peifu's Hubei base. Chen Jiamo had become military governor of Hubei in 1926 after the death of Xiao Yaonan, while Liu Yuchun had gone over to Wu Peifu, who treated him as a confidant and made him commander of the 8th Division stationed in Hubei. The page's uncertainty over whether Chen had fled or been captured was settled by later events: both men were held, and the Wuhan Nationalist government tried them on 10 February 1927 at the supreme court in Wuchang, the day after it adopted regulations on counterrevolutionary crimes. The case lapsed after its first hearing, and both men were soon released. The later account also records a personal tie that bears on this page. Tang Shengzhi, whom the October 8 dispatch lists as a Hankou-side signatory of the peace terms, had been Chen Jiamo's sworn brother.
Mediation and the civilians trapped in Wuchang
The damaged October 8 dispatch reports that peace terms had been signed and links the talks to the release of women and children, reflecting a siege in which civilians bore heavy costs. Food and water ran short inside Wuchang and many residents starved. The Wuchang chamber of commerce and other bodies mediated, proposing that if Liu Yuchun brought his troops over, the garrison would be reorganized as a division of the revolutionary army; when the Wuchang county magistrate tried again with a guarantee of Liu's safety, Liu still refused and let out only part of the refugees. Foreign governments were also watching. On 9 October US Secretary of State Kellogg cited press reports of dreadful suffering among Wuchang's civilians, suggested that the consular body at Hankou try to arrange an armistice so that relief could be devised, and said the Red Cross would be disposed to assist if necessary. Whether the signed agreement the paper reported was honoured became a point of dispute. Prosecutors later charged Chen and Liu with fraudulently going back on the peace settlement, while Chen testified that he had agreed reorganization terms and had not reneged.
Sun Chuanfang's allied army as Wuchang fell
The short war-news column comes from the other front. The allied army headquarters in Nanjing belonged to Sun Chuanfang, who had established his headquarters in Nanjing as military governor of Jiangsu in November 1925 and extended his rule over Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian, Anhui and Jiangxi. In Jiangxi the Nationalists had taken Jiujiang and Nanchang by 19 September, but Sun's arrival from Nanjing with reinforcements on 21 September forced them into retreat. The column's claim that the enemy First Army was repulsed on the night of the 7th, and its order to rush newly trained Jiangsu recruits to the front, belong to this period when Sun was still contesting Jiangxi, and they come from one side's headquarters. The balance shifted soon after: by the end of October Sun's forces were again retreating across Jiangxi and Fujian.
Original
劉玉春被拘
▲ 陳嘉謨被拘與逃亡兩說 ◎ 武昌今日午後已入南軍手、 似係守軍一部份叛變所致、 守軍開門容納攻軍、 劉玉春被拘、 現羈留于武昌外人所辦之大學內、 今晚將解至漢口、 聞陳嘉謨亦被拘、 （漢口十日路透電） ◎ 據本地某處所得漢口十日發報告、 十日武昌入南軍之手、 其初本定九日開城、 未果、 至翌日 （十日） 北兵中河南第三師開中和門導南軍入城、 劉玉春在中華書院被擒、 北軍一律解除武裝無條件降伏、 陳嘉謨有早已逃亡說、 （東方社十一日上海消息） ◎ 陳嘉謨於二三日前即感危險、 潛匿民間、 至十日午後卒爲南軍所捕、
革軍入武昌前之形勢
間未到、 城門即閉衆皆以爲北軍之自、 自城中出、 救濟 [?] 前之形勢漢口十月八日發） 未固 [?] 進行緩和、 劉玉春亦不如前方面開放婦孺、 因其能援兵、 亦已無望、 前日乃爲武昌城東三十里之青山、 （地名仍屬武昌） 其餘一律承認云、 渡函云、 武漢和議、 定可於九日以前告成、 曾見前信、 茲悉和議條件、 雙方均已簽字、 漢口方面、 簽字者爲唐生智劉佐龍鄧演達三人、 武昌方面爲陳嘉謨劉玉春朱大霈等五人、 查武漢和議、 自呂超伯徐榮廷趙典之王縄高吳幹丞童資秋徐是法等分途進行以來、 迭經挫折、 表面上雖似停頓、 實際進行固未嘗稍懈、 且大家退一步的希望、 即是不得已亦應與救濟婦孺問題同時解決、 在趙典之王縄高兩代表尙未實行最後接洽以前、 曾有歸李開侁汪 [?] [?] 諸氏出台之協議、 卒雖因勢中止、 然亦可見各團體之苦心、 近自趙王於六日返漢、 携帶武昌草
各方軍事消息
◎ 各方軍事消息 ◎ 南京聯軍司令部參謀處、 接九長青電、 陽 （七日） 夜敵軍第一軍約二已擊退、 ▲ 聯軍以前敵軍隊、 亟待補充、 電令蘇、 將教練之新兵、 趕即運赴前線、 分配 ▲ 陳陶遺委派之蘇軍代表、 金陵道尹