時報
- Sun and Xia Armies About to Clash at Songjiang
- Sun's Troops Move Out to Defend Meijianong
- Meng's 8th Division Reaches Shanghai This Noon
This partial reading of the Shibao for 17 October 1926 follows, from Shanghai, the first day of Zhejiang civil governor Xia Chao's rising against Sun Chuanfang. The paper reported that soldiers of Sun's 13th Regiment tore up track and an iron bridge on the Shanghai–Hangzhou railway, stopping trains in both directions. It said Xia sent trains carrying about 1,500 security troops each toward Jiashan and Songjiang, and that both vanguards had come within 11 km of Songjiang. It also described machine guns rushed from the Gaochangmiao arsenal to Meijianong, soldiers watching the North Station telegraph room, a dusk-to-dawn ban on movement along the line at Longhua, Ding Wenjiang sending representatives to Nanjing, and Meng Zhaoyue in Nanjing sending his 8th Division and his officer Song Meicun to hold Shanghai, while assuring Nanjing that order would be kept.
This edition covers three articles from the Shibao of 17 October 1926. The OCR text is badly scrambled and runs lines from different headings together; corrections were made only where characters are legible in the scan. The opening paragraph of 'Sun's Troops Move Out to Defend Meijianong' is omitted because the tops of its columns are cut off, and '…' or '[?]' in the translations marks missing characters. The third excerpt opens with fragments from neighbouring columns, which are translated as fragments. The page gives two arrival times for Song Meicun (3 a.m. and about 5 a.m.). Black scan borders hide the lower parts of tiles r3c0–r3c2.
Translation
Sun and Xia Armies About to Clash at Songjiang
◎ Sun and Xia armies about to make contact at Songjiang. According to news received at 3 o'clock this morning, the railway between Xinzhuang and Xinqiao was torn up by Sun's troops at 1:30. Sun's vanguard has now reached Xinqiao, 11 kilometres from Songjiang, and Xia's vanguard has reached Shihudang, also 11 kilometres from Songjiang, so Songjiang can hardly avoid becoming the front line. A further report says the track between Xinlonghua and Xinzhuang was repaired at 2:50 this morning.
Military and Political News
◎ On the Shanghai–Hangzhou line, two sections of track between Xinlonghua and Xinzhuang were torn up by soldiers of the 13th Regiment at 4:46 p.m. yesterday (the 16th). At 5:40 the No. 5 iron bridge between Meijianong and Xinzhuang was also destroyed, so that traffic on the whole line was cut off. The No. 13 night express from Shanghai was suspended at once. The No. 7 semi-express that left Hangzhou for Shanghai at 2 p.m. reached Songjiang, heard the news and turned back to Hangzhou. Freight trains Nos. 23 and 25 also turned back midway, returning passengers and goods to where they came from.
◎ On the Shanghai–Hangzhou line yesterday (the 16th), the up and down night expresses Nos. 11 and 12 and the night freight trains Nos. 29 and 30 were all suspended. It is reported that whether today's (the 17th) passenger and freight trains will run is undecided.
◎ At the North Station, soldiers and military police are posted in the telegraph room, the inspection room and the stationmaster's office, watching over the work from close by.
◎ Telegraph and long-distance telephone between Hangzhou and Shanghai on the Shanghai–Hangzhou line could still get through as of 1 o'clock this morning. On the Shanghai–Nanjing line, apart from freight trains Nos. 33 and 35, which because of the withdrawal …
Sun's Troops Move Out to Defend Meijianong
[?] reached Shihudang at 9 o'clock last night. According to reports from various quarters, Zhejiang Civil Governor Xia Chao yesterday ordered a contingent of about 1,500 men to set out from Hangzhou in separate trains. The first train left Hangzhou in the … to garrison Jiaxing; the second … around … o'clock for Fengjing. … Governor Xia Chao yesterday (the 16th) dispatched from Hangzhou a train carrying about 1,500 men of the security corps, which left City Station at 4:45 p.m. for Jiashan; its second train, carrying the same number of soldiers, set out for Songjiang at about 9 o'clock last night. It is also reported that several hundred new recruits enlisted earlier at Xuzhou and elsewhere, all fully trained, had been issued arms and stationed in the provincial capital; yesterday the security corps confiscated all of these recruits' rifles.
Sun's army moves out to defend Meijianong. The 2nd Battalion of the 13th Regiment at Laolonghua, Companies 9, 10, 12 and 3 of the 3rd Battalion, and the machine-gun company of the 2nd Battalion of the … Brigade were all ordered … to proceed at 5 p.m. to the Meijianong and Xinlonghua area, and they drew machine guns, ammunition and other supplies from the Gaochangmiao Arsenal. The regiment's troops … At 9:30 p.m. on the 16th, two machine guns, three hand-held machine guns and ten cases of ammunition were loaded out of the Gaochangmiao Arsenal and carried by a special train from the South Station of the Shanghai–Hangzhou line to Meijianong, to be handed over for the use of the 2nd and 3rd Battalions of the 13th Regiment.
◎ Last night (the 16th), at the South Station of the Shanghai–Hangzhou line and at Laolonghua, Xinlonghua, Meijianong and other stations, the situation was unusually tense. After 7 o'clock, apart from railway station staff, all pedestrians were stopped and traffic was cut off.
◎ Song Meicun … at 2 o'clock this morning … 12 … travelling very fast, and reached Shanghai at 3.
◎ Song Meicun, … under Meng Zhaoyue of the 8th Division, was ordered to come to Shanghai from Nanjing by a specially prepared train at 9 … last night … duties …, and was expected to arrive at about 5 o'clock this morning.
◎ Ding Wenjiang sends representatives to Nanjing. ◎ … of Ding Wenjiang, Director-General of the Songhu Commercial Port, and … Department Chief Wen Yingxing went to Nanjing yesterday afternoon by separate special trains to report on Shanghai and … seek instructions.
◉ Train leaves Shanghai for [?] ◎ At 4:10 p.m. yesterday a special train left for Suzhou to bring the soldiers of the 1st Battalion of the 51st Regiment …
Meng's 8th Division Reaches Shanghai This Noon
… Jiashan, Songjiang … the … 500 men … at half past … torn up by Sun's troops … Xia's vanguard … front line … minutes, repaired … down-line No. 11 … the two night freight trains … 30 … 7) the passenger trains and … the stationmaster's office all have … office work … the telegraph and long-distance … can still get through … Shanghai … the two freight trains … 5, because of the withdrawal … apart from these, the rest all as … traffic cut off, pedestrians stopped.
◎ The Southeast News Agency reports: Wang Yazhi, commander of the Army's 13th Regiment stationed in Shanghai, considering that rumours have been rife in the port of Shanghai of late, and that Longhua is the seat of the Commercial Port Office, where precautions must urgently be made strict, has ordered the garrison to put security measures into effect. Every day from 6 p.m. until 6 a.m. at daybreak, along the railway from Longhua Station to Xinlonghua, the garrison will patrol in squads by turns and post sentries closely, forbidding pedestrians to pass; the restrictions are lifted only at daybreak.
◉ Meng's 8th Division reaches Shanghai this noon ◎ Meng Zhaoyue has ordered ten cars prepared to carry soldiers of the 8th Division to Shanghai at dawn today. ◎ Meng Zhaoyue has prepared trains and will send troops to Shanghai this morning. (Nanjing, dispatched the 16th) ◎ Rumours have been rife in Nanjing in recent days, and people are full of doubt and anxiety. Meng Zhaoyue, Garrison Commissioner of Jiangning, has announced that the problem of the current situation will certainly be satisfactorily resolved within days; as for public order in the provincial capital, the army and police bear full responsibility for maintaining it, and there is absolutely nothing else to worry about. (Nanjing, dispatched the 16th) ◉ Meng first sends Song Meicun to Shanghai ▲ To take charge of military affairs in Shanghai
Context
Why Xia Chao turned against Sun Chuanfang
Xia Chao, the 'Zhejiang Civil Governor' whose troop trains appear in the second article, owed his office to Sun Chuanfang, who appointed him in return for his help when Sun took over Zhejiang in 1924. In autumn 1926 Sun moved about 100,000 men and went to Jiangxi with his main force to meet the Northern Expedition; when Xia moved in October, Sun had few troops to spare for the defence of Shanghai. Xia publicly declared Zhejiang neutral while making a secret deal with Chiang Kai-shek: he promised to defect if the National Revolutionary Army defeated Wu Peifu at Wuchang. That victory came on 10 October, and on 16 October Xia declared Zhejiang independent with the support of local commanders and civilian officials. The Shibao's account of security-corps trains leaving Hangzhou that same afternoon, and of the corps disarming several hundred recruits raised at Xuzhou, reports the first hours of this break as seen from Shanghai.
Who cut the Shanghai–Hangzhou railway, and how close did Xia get?
The Shibao attributes the railway cuts to Sun's side: soldiers of the 13th Regiment tore up two sections of track between Xinlonghua and Xinzhuang at 4:46 p.m. on the 16th and the No. 5 bridge at 5:40, and Sun's troops cut the Xinzhuang–Xinqiao stretch at 1:30 the next morning. Later histories agree that Sun, with few troops to spare for Shanghai, ordered the railway from Hangzhou torn up. The same accounts say Xia had earlier cut the line to Shanghai and dispersed the Hangzhou garrison while preparing his move, so the line was attacked from both ends. Historians put Xia's attacking force at 2,500 men, poorly trained and armed, which does not match the paper's two trains of about 1,500 each. By late on 17 October Xia's force is said to have come within 5 km of the city; the paper's picture of the two vanguards each 11 km from Songjiang shows the front as it stood in the early hours of that day.
How reinforcements from Nanjing turned the crisis
The third article names the forces Sun drew on to save Shanghai: Meng Zhaoyue, Garrison Commissioner of Jiangning at Nanjing, ordered his 8th Division to Shanghai and sent his officer Song Meicun ahead to take charge of military affairs, while another special train went to Suzhou for a battalion of the 51st Regiment. Historians record that Sun did receive reinforcements at this point and that Xia's advance was blocked, though the accounts used here do not name the units. The uprising in Shanghai that Kuomintang agents had promised Xia never came, because Communist and Kuomintang leaders in the city were still debating whether to act. Sun's army then took Jiaxing on the 21st and Hangzhou on the 23rd, and Xia was captured and summarily executed. Meng's assurance from Nanjing on the 16th that the situation would be 'satisfactorily resolved within days' was thus made on the eve of that counter-offensive, and in December 1926 Meng succeeded Sun as commander of the Zhejiang forces.
Ding Wenjiang's port administration and the Longhua curfew
The Director-General of the Songhu Commercial Port who sent representatives to Nanjing was Ding Wenjiang, a geologist who in 1926 served under Sun Chuanfang as head of the Songhu Commercial Port Supervision Office. In that post he represented the Jiangsu provincial government in negotiations with foreign delegates in Shanghai. The historian Ho Hon-wai calls this service the most controversial episode of Ding's life and has studied what role Ding played in Sun's camp as the Northern Expedition closed in. The Shibao shows one side of that role. Because Longhua was the seat of the port office, the 13th Regiment's commander Wang Yazhi ordered nightly patrols and sentries along the line from Longhua Station to Xinlonghua between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m. The paper presents the curfew as a military order rather than a port-office measure, and it reports Ding's office reporting to Nanjing and seeking instructions on 16 October.
Original
孫夏兩軍將在松江接觸
◎ 孫夏兩軍將在松江接觸今晨三點消息、 莘莊至新橋間鐵路、 在一點半爲孫軍拆斷、 現在孫軍前鋒至新橋、 距松江十一公里、 夏軍前鋒至石湖蕩、 距松江亦十一公里、 故松江難免爲戰線也、 續訊新龍華與莘莊間之軌道于今晨二點五十分修復軍政要聞 ◎ 滬杭路新龍華莘莊之間有軌道兩處、 於昨日 (十六) 下午四時四十六分被十三團兵士拆毀、 至五時四十分、 梅家弄與莘莊間之五號鐵橋亦被拆毀、 以致全路交通阻斷、 由滬開之十三號夜快車即行停駛、 下午二時由杭開滬之七號中快車駛至松江、 聞訊仍折回杭州、 二十三二十五兩次貨車亦中途折回、 將客貨送回原處 ◎ 滬杭路昨 (十六) 日上下行十一號十二號夜快車及二十九三十兩次夜貨車、 均停駛、 聞今日 (十七) 各次客車及貨物車、 開否未定、 ◎ 北車站電報房檢查間站長室均有兵士及憲兵、 在傍監視辦公、 ◎ 滬杭路杭州上海間之電報暨長途電話、 截至今晨一時止仍可通達、 滬甯路除三十三及三十五兩貨車因抽
孫軍出防梅家弄
[?] 昨晚九時到石湖蕩、 各方消息、 浙省長夏超昨令一部份約一千五百人、 分乘列、 由杭出發、 第一列車於下離杭、 開往嘉興駐防、 第二列時許開往楓涇、 長夏超、 昨日 (十六) 由杭調派一列車約裝警備隊一千五百名、 於下午四時四十五分由城站開赴嘉善其第二列車載兵數同前、 於昨夜九時許出發至松江、 並聞前在徐州等處招得新兵數百名、 均已教練成熟、 已經發械駐省、 昨由警備隊將該項新兵槍械、 一律收繳、 孫軍出防梅家弄老龍華之第十三團第二營及第三營九 ・ 十 ・ 十二 ・ 三連、 及旅之第二營機關槍連、 均奉午五時開赴梅家弄新龍華一、 並由高昌廟兵工廠領取機架及子彈等、 由該團軍隊備十六下午九時半由高昌廟兵工廠裝出機關槍二架、 及手提機關槍三架子彈十箱、 由滬杭路南站特開專車運往梅家弄、 撥交第十三團二三兩營軍隊應用、 ◎ 昨晚 (十六) 滬杭路南車站老龍華新龍華梅家弄等站、 形勢異常嚴禁、 至七時後、 除鐵路站務辦事人員外、 餘均阻止行人、 斷絕交通、 ◎ 宋梅村今晨二點十二行甚速、 三點至滬、 ◎ 第八師孟昭月部下第宋梅村、 奉命於昨晚九甯乘坐特備專車來滬、 務、 約今晨五時可抵埠、 ◎ 丁文江派代表赴甯 ◎ 淞滬商埠總辦丁文江務處長溫應星於昨日下分乘專車赴甯、 報告滬地示機宜、 ◉ 上海開車赴 [?] ◎ 昨日下午四時十分、 專車一列、 開往蘇州、 迎五十一團第一營兵士來
孟八師今午抵滬
嘉善松江、 第十五百名、 於半爲孫軍拆夏軍前鋒戰線也、 分修復下行十一號十三十兩次夜貨七) 各次客車及間站長室均有辦公、 之電報暨長途仍可通達、 滬五兩貨車因抽外、 其餘均照斷絕交通、 阻止行人、 ◎ 東南通信社云、 駐滬陸軍第十三團團長王雅之、 以近日滬埠謠諑繁盛、 龍華爲商埠公署駐在之地、 防範亟應從嚴、 已飭駐軍實施戒備、 每日下午六時起至天明六時止、 自龍華車站沿鐵路至新龍華止、 由駐軍分組輪流梭巡、 密布步哨、 禁止行人通過、 至天明始行解嚴、 ◉ 孟八師今午抵滬 ◎ 孟昭月命備車十輛、 今日黎明載第八師兵來滬、 ◎ 孟昭月預備列車、 將於今晨派兵來滬、 (南京十六日發) ◎ 甯垣日來謠諑繁興、 人心抱疑慮、 江甯鎮守使孟昭月宣布時局問題、 日內定有圓滿解決、 關于省城地方治安、 由軍警負全責維持、 決無他慮 (南京十六日發) ◉ 孟先派宋梅村來滬 ▲ 主持上海軍務