時報
- Xia Army's Advance Units Fall Back to Jiashan
- Shandong's Zhang and the Southeast Question
- Sun Army's Advance Units Reach Shihudang
The Shibao of 19 October 1926 followed the Zhejiang crisis almost hour by hour. Reports timed through the 18th said the vanguard of Xia Chao's army had suddenly turned back at dawn, passing Shihudang and Fengjing without stopping and returning to Jiashan. The same item said the military authorities at Jiaxing had ordered locomotives kept on standby and that a ten-car troop train had carried 300 soldiers from Hangzhou. On the other side, the paper traced Sun Chuanfang's advance units to Shihudang, his pickets beyond Mingxing Bridge, a platoon reaching Songjiang and battalions holding Meijianong and Xinlonghua. A Beijing telegram reported Qi Xieyuan's visit to Zhang Zongchang in Jinan. On the surface the talks concerned aid to Jiangxi and Hubei, but they also touched on the Southeast, and the telegram called reports of Shandong troops at Bengbu premature. This reading covers three news items, and much of the page remains illegible.
This reading covers three news items taken from the page images rather than the out-of-order OCR. Characters marked [?] are illegible. In the Qi Xieyuan item the character after 不 cannot be read, and the phrase is rendered as 'before long'. One item in the Sun army story, which has a blurred bridge number, is left out, and parts of the remaining items break off mid-sentence. Columns cut off at the tile edges, including 孫軍之運輸 and 宋梅村旅續有到滬, are not read, and neither is the small print of the advertising rates, legal notices and price lists.
Translation
Xia Army's Advance Units Fall Back to Jiashan
◎ The Xia army's vanguard suddenly withdrew at 5 a.m. yesterday (the 18th), passing through Shihudang and Fengjing without stopping at either, and returned toward Jiashan. (Report of 2 p.m. on the 18th)
◎ The Xia army's front line has now returned to Jiashan. (Report of 3 p.m. on the 18th)
◎ The military authorities stationed at Jiaxing yesterday ordered the railway administration to have at least three locomotives standing by at Jiaxing station, ready for use at any time.
◎ At 10:09 a.m. yesterday (the 18th), a troop train left Hangzhou. It pulled ten cars in all and carried 300 soldiers, departing from the City Station for Jiaxing. Also, in the afternoon……
Shandong's Zhang and the Southeast Question
▲ Qi Xieyuan Arrives in Jinan to Meet Zhang
◎ Qi Xieyuan's journey to Jinan has drawn considerable atten[?] from all quarters. It is reported that Qi went to Jinan to meet Zhang Zongchang. On the surface he is still [?] consulting on the questions of aid to Jiangxi and aid to Hubei, but in fact the Southeast [?] situation was also discussed. It is reported that the Shandong army's move to aid Jiangxi can be expected to materialize before [?] long, and that its route of deployment will still follow the itinerary [?] fixed earlier. Outside reports that the Shandong army has reached Bengbu seem rather [?] premature. (Beijing telegram, 18th, [?] p.m.)
Sun Army's Advance Units Reach Shihudang
◎ The Sun army's advance units have already reached Shihudang 3, 1 (report of 2 a.m. on the 19th)
◎ Sun army pickets, at a little after 3 a.m. on the 18th, [?] to beyond Mingxing Bridge. (12 noon on the 18th [?])
◎ In the Sun army's 13th Regiment, a certain platoon leader led a [?] unit of soldiers forward by a side road from Meijianong, and by 6 [?] p.m. had already reached Songjiang. (7 p.m. on the 18th)
◎ The 1st and 2nd Battalions of Wang Yazhi's command in the Sun army's 13th Regiment, together with the 9th, 10th and 12th Companies of the 3rd Battalion, three companies in all, one battalion of the 151st Regiment of the 6th Brigade, and one battalion of the 152nd Regiment that has arrived, were yesterday (the 1… still stationed at Meijianong, Xinlonghua and other places, standing guard,
Context
Xia Chao's Zhejiang revolt and the march on Shanghai
The "Xia army" in the first report was the force of Xia Chao. Sun Chuanfang had made Xia civil governor of Zhejiang in return for his help in the 1924 takeover of the province. Before rising, Xia cut the railway from Zhejiang to Shanghai, the city historians describe as Sun's center of power. On 16 October 1926 he declared Zhejiang independent with the backing of several local commanders and civilian officials, and then sent troops toward Shanghai. By late on 17 October his force was about 5 kilometres from the city. This page, printed three days after the declaration, records the first retreat of that campaign. The paper reported that the vanguard suddenly withdrew at 5 a.m. on the 18th, passed Shihudang and Fengjing without stopping and went back toward Jiashan. The same item said troop trains were still running from Hangzhou to Jiaxing and that locomotives had been ordered to stand by at Jiaxing station. These details come from the paper's own dispatches. The historical accounts give only the broad sequence of advance and withdrawal.
Why the advance on Shanghai collapsed
Historians tie the withdrawal reported here to Sun's preparations and to the failure of Xia's allies. Sun had detected Xia's plans days earlier, and Xia was almost immediately forced back into Zhejiang. Once Sun received reinforcements to defend Shanghai, Xia's advance was blocked. The uprising inside Shanghai that Xia had been promised failed to materialize, because local Communist Party and Kuomintang leaders were still debating whether and how to act. Xia was then forced to retreat. The sudden withdrawal at dawn on the 18th, as the paper reported it, fits this sequence. The consequences followed within days: Sun's army took Jiaxing on the 21st and Hangzhou on the 23rd, which marked Xia's final defeat. Jiaxing station and Hangzhou's City Station, both named in the article, were therefore in Sun's hands within a week of this issue.
The Shanghai–Hangzhou railway between the two armies
Both sides acted against the railway linking Hangzhou and Shanghai. Before his revolt, Xia cut the line from Zhejiang to Shanghai and dispersed the Hangzhou garrison to weaken Sun's grip on the province. Sun had few troops to spare for Shanghai's defence, so he ordered the railway from Hangzhou to the city torn up. Sun had run his territory from headquarters in Nanjing since November 1925, and his rule had grown to cover Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian, Anhui and Jiangxi. The third article shows the corridor from Sun's side. According to the paper, his pickets were beyond Mingxing Bridge, a platoon of the 13th Regiment had advanced by side roads from Meijianong to Songjiang, and battalions of the 13th, 151st and 152nd Regiments were stationed at Meijianong and Xinlonghua. The first article shows the Zhejiang side demanding locomotives and running a ten-car troop train toward Jiaxing. The unit numbers and times are the paper's reports and cannot be checked against the histories.
Qi Xieyuan, Zhang Zongchang and northern aid for Jiangxi
The Beijing telegram describes a meeting between former enemies. During the 1924–25 fighting, the Fengtian clique sent Zhang Zongchang south, and Qi Xieyuan and Sun Chuanfang proclaimed the Jiangsu–Zhejiang Allied Army to resist him. In 1925 Wu Peifu appointed Qi deputy commander of his Anti-Thief Allied Army. By 1926 Shandong belonged to the coalition led by Zhang Zuolin, head of the Beiyang government and the Fengtian clique. Wu had earlier refused Fengtian aid, fearing that northern warlords would undermine his position. The talk of aid to Jiangxi and to Hubei reflects the progress of the Northern Expedition. Chiang Kai-shek attacked across the Jiangxi border on 4 September, Sun arrived from Nanjing with reinforcements on 21 September, and Wu's last troops in Wuchang held out until 10 October. Jiangxi was part of Sun's domain, so a Shandong army there would mean northern troops entering his territory. The forecast that aid to Jiangxi would come soon, and the judgment that the Bengbu reports were premature, are the telegram's claims. What Qi and Zhang actually agreed is not established here.
Original
夏軍前隊退回嘉善
◉ 夏軍前隊退回嘉善 ◎ 夏軍前鋒昨 (十八) 晨五時忽然後退、 經石湖蕩楓涇均未停留、 回嘉善方面、 (十八日下午二時消息) ◎ 夏軍前線現回嘉善、 (十八日下午三時消息) ◎ 駐紮嘉興軍事當局昨命路局、 至少須備機車三輛、 停候嘉興站上、 隨時聽用、 ◎ 昨日 (十八) 上午十時零九分、 由杭開出兵車一列、 計挂車十輛、 裝兵士三百人、 由城站出發至嘉興、 又下午
魯張與東南問題
▲ 齊燮元到濟晤張 ◎ 齊燮元赴濟、 頗引起各方之注 [?] 聞齊到濟晤張宗昌、 表面上仍 [?] 洽援贛援鄂各問題、 實則與東南 [?] 局亦有討論、 聞魯軍援贛之舉、 不 [?] 可望實現、 其出兵路線、 仍依前此 [?] 定途程、 外傳魯軍抵蚌埠、 似未免 [?] 之過早、 (北京十八日下午 [?] 時電)
孫軍前隊抵石湖蕩
◉ 孫軍前隊抵石湖 ◎ 孫軍前隊已抵石湖蕩三、 一 (十九日晨二時消 ◎ 孫軍步哨、 十八日晨三時許、 [?] 至明星橋之外、 (十八日上午十二時 [?] ◎ 孫軍十三團有某排長率兵 [?] 隊、 由梅家弄小路前進、 下午六 [?] 已達松江、 (十八日下午七時 ◎ 孫軍十三團王雅之部一二兩及第三營九、 十、 十二、 三連、 並六旅一百五十一團一營、 及由到之一百五十二團一營、 昨 (十仍在梅家弄新龍華等處駐紮、 防範、