時報
- Fighting Broke Out East of Jiaxing Yesterday at Noon
- 8th Division's 30th Regiment Moves to Su-Shan
- Chen Yi's Important Statement
On 22 October 1926 the Shibao led its military and political news with the clash between Sun Chuanfang's Allied Army and Xia Chao's Zhejiang troops at Bridge No. 68, twelve li east of Jiaxing on the Shanghai–Hangzhou route. A 9 p.m. report described a three-hour exchange of fire with no clear result and small, equal casualties, while a 6 p.m. report relayed an unconfirmed claim from Sun's side that Jiaxing had been taken and Xia's men were falling back toward Wangdian, with the telegraph to Shanghai cut. The page also carried a Xuzhou telegram saying Sun had named Chen Yi civil governor of Zhejiang, a detailed account of two troop trains taking 8th Division units from Nanjing to Suzhou, and the opening of a statement from Chen Yi to the press about rumors in Shanghai.
This reading covers three partial excerpts from the page. Lines from the paper's own advertisement for surplus newsprint are mixed into the first and third excerpts, and the start of the third excerpt is a run of column-end fragments. Both are translated as they appear. Chen Yi's statement and the troop-train report break off mid-sentence. Characters marked [?] are uncertain. The final 善 in the second heading is copied as printed and may stand for part of 嘉善. The map labels, the subscription and advertising tables, some advertisement small print, and the cut-off lower lines of one block are illegible and not covered.
Translation
Fighting Broke Out East of Jiaxing Yesterday at Noon
Newsprint for Sale. Military and Political News. ◉ Fighting Broke Out East of Jiaxing Yesterday at Noon ◎ The Battle Is at Bridge No. 68 ◎ The armies of Sun and Xia have now been deployed along the Shanghai–Hangzhou road for six days. Yesterday (the 20[?]th) at 5 a.m., the vanguard of the 1st Battalion, 13th Regiment, 4th Division of Sun's army advanced to Jiashan, and the distance between the two sides grew ever shorter. After a brief halt at Jiashan, Sun's army pressed on again and at 11 o'clock reached the eastern end of Bridge No. 68 (12 li east of Jiaxing). Just as it was working out how to cross the bridge, Xia's army opened volley fire, and Sun's army returned fire. Both sides now have twenty of somewhat uneven newsprint, a bargain, may be bought whole or in part, those interested only then formally engaged, the time being 1:20 a.m. on the 21st. They bombarded each other quite fiercely, but soon, since the reinforcements of both were far in the rear, neither dared advance into danger. At 2 p.m. both sides ceased fire, and as of a little after 9 p.m. no change at the front had been heard. The two defense lines still have the east and west sides of Bridge No. 68 as their boundary. It is said an attack will be made at midnight. Yesterday's battle went on for three hours with no victory or defeat to speak of. It is said that on Sun's side one officer and twelve soldiers were wounded and several were killed, and that Xia's dead and wounded were equal in number. (Report of 9 p.m., the 21st) ◎ Sun's army yesterday (the 21st) morning advanced steadily from Jiashan; at a quarter past 11 a.m., the outposts of the Sun and Xia armies,
8th Division's 30th Regiment Moves to Su-Shan
post. (Telegram from Xuzhou, 7 p.m., the 21st) A news agency reports that Allied Army Commander-in-Chief Sun Chuanfang, because the situation in Zhejiang has changed, has ordered the appointment of Chen Yi, commander of Zhejiang's 1st Division, as civil governor of Zhejiang, and that a telegram to this effect went out yesterday. ◉ 8th Division's 30th Regiment Moves to Su-Shan [?] Wang Youhe's unit, the 30th Regiment of the 15th Brigade, 8th Division, was ordered yesterday to load onto two trains and head east. The first train, with twelve cars attached, carried one battalion under An Jinxiang of the 2nd Battalion of the Supplementary Regiment; it left Nanjing at 2:08 a.m., reached Suzhou at about 7, and was stationed there at once. The second train, with fifteen cars attached, carried one infantry battalion of the 3rd Battalion, 3rd Regiment, and one machine-gun company, led by the battalion commander Zhang Yuntao, at 4 a.m.
Chen Yi's Important Statement
more than twenty dan, sold at a low price for use as wrapping and lining paper; anyone interested, please contact this paper's business department. forenoon ten fierce, dared advance, ceasefire, moved, the two armies as the boundary, according to three small side, wounded company several men, met at Bridge No. 68, whereupon a clash broke out; the engagement died down only after about two and a half hours. According to word put out by Sun's side, that army has already advanced and occupied Jiaxing, and Xia's army has fallen back from Jiaxing toward Wangdian; but the telegraph between Jiaxing and Shanghai has been cut, so this could not be confirmed. (Report of 6 p.m., the 21st) ◉ Chen Yi's Important Statement. To all newspaper offices: I hear that rumors in Shanghai have lately been rife. Though they are groundless talk, they are quite enough to unsettle people's minds, and the matter is of no small consequence. I, Yi, dull and unpolished by nature, unworthily hold military command, in order to serve
Context
How the Jiaxing fighting grew out of Xia Chao's break with Sun during the Northern Expedition
In 1926 Sun Chuanfang's coalition controlled Fujian, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Anhui and Jiangxi, which put him squarely in the path of the National Revolutionary Army's Northern Expedition. While bloody fighting continued in Jiangxi, Xia Chao, Sun's own civil governor of Zhejiang, defected to the Kuomintang government in Guangzhou. According to his biography, Xia had promised to change sides if the NRA defeated Wu Peifu at Wuchang, which it did on 10 October, and on 16 October he declared Zhejiang independent with the backing of several local commanders and officials. The Shibao's remark that the two armies had been deployed on the Shanghai–Hangzhou road for six days roughly matches the time since that declaration. In the excerpts read here, the paper calls the two sides simply 'Sun's army' and 'Xia's army' and does not mention the Kuomintang link.
How the paper's battle reports compare with later accounts of Jiaxing
The Shibao printed two reports that pull in different directions. Its 9 p.m. dispatch said the fight at Bridge No. 68 lasted three hours without a decision, that the lines still ran along the bridge, and that each side lost roughly one officer and a dozen men wounded and several killed. Its 6 p.m. dispatch passed on a claim from Sun's side that Jiaxing had already fallen and Xia's troops were retreating toward Wangdian, but said the claim could not be checked because the Jiaxing–Shanghai telegraph was down. Later accounts support the more dramatic version: Sun's army took Jiaxing on the 21st and Hangzhou on the 23rd, which ended Xia's revolt, and some 6,000 of Xia's barely trained soldiers were captured after a short battle while Xia himself escaped. Set against that figure, the paper's small casualty counts suggest how little reliable news was getting out from the front once the wires were cut.
Why Sun moved troops by rail from Nanjing toward Suzhou
Sun Chuanfang had made Nanjing his headquarters when he became military governor of Jiangsu on 25 November 1925, so reinforcements for the Shanghai–Zhejiang front naturally came down the railway from there. When Xia's force first pushed toward Shanghai, Sun had few troops to spare for the city's defense and ordered the railway from Hangzhou torn up; once reinforcements arrived, Xia's advance was blocked. The Shibao's account of the 8th Division's 30th Regiment shows that movement in concrete detail: one train of twelve cars left Nanjing at 2:08 a.m. and its battalion was garrisoned at Suzhou on arrival around 7, and a second train of fifteen cars carried an infantry battalion and a machine-gun company. The excerpt breaks off before saying where the second train went, so it does not establish whether these particular units fought at Jiaxing.
Who Chen Yi was and what came of his appointment
Chen Yi was born in Shaoxing, Zhejiang. The Shibao reported, via a news agency and a telegram datelined Xuzhou, that Sun had named him civil governor of Zhejiang, describing him as commander of the province's 1st Division. On the same page Chen addressed all newspaper offices about the rumors sweeping Shanghai, calling them groundless but dangerous to public confidence and noting, in conventionally modest terms, that he held military command; the excerpt breaks off mid-sentence, so his full argument is not available here. His appointment did not keep Zhejiang loyal for long. Xia's biography records that Chen soon declared independence as well, this time with more success, and Chen's own biography describes him as a lieutenant of Sun who went over to Chiang Kai-shek's army in 1927.
Original
嘉興東昨午開戰
白報紙出售軍政要聞 ◉ 嘉興東昨午開戰 ◎ 戰在六十八號橋 ◎ 孫夏兩軍布防滬杭道上、 迄已六日、 至昨 （二十 [?] 日上午五時、 孫軍四師十三團一營前鋒、 進抵嘉善、 雙方距離愈近、 孫軍於嘉善略停後、 仍復前進、 於十一時達六十八號橋東堍、 （在嘉興東十二里） 方擬設法渡橋、 夏軍即開排槍射擊、 孫軍亦開鎗還擊、 雙方今有不甚整齊之白報紙二十爲合算全買或分買均可有意始正式接觸、 時爲二十一日上午一時二十分、 彼此互轟、 頗爲猛烈旋以援隊均遠在後方、 俱未敢前進以蹈危險、 至下午二時、 雙方停戰至晚九時許、 仍未聞前敵變動、 兩防線、 仍以六十八號橋東西爲界、 聞夜半將行攻擊、 昨日之戰、 經三時無勝負之可言、 聞孫軍方面、 傷長一名、 兵士十二名、 陣亡者數人夏軍死傷之數相等、 (二十一日下午九時消息) ◎ 孫軍昨 (二十一) 晨由嘉善陸續進展上午十一時一刻、 孫夏兩軍前哨、
八師三十團開至蘇善
職、 (徐州二十一日下午七時電) 通信社云、 聯軍總司令孫傳芳、 以浙局已有變化、 令委任浙第一師長陳儀爲浙江省長、 昨日已有電 ◉ 八師三十團開至蘇善 [?] 第八師十五旅三十團王友和部昨日飭兩列車裝載東下、 第一列車掛車十二輛、 載補充團第二營安進祥部下一營、 於上午二時零八分南京開出、 七時許抵蘇州、 即在該駐防、 第二列車掛車十五輛、 載三團第三營步兵一營、 機關槍一連、 該營長張雲濤率領、 於上午四時
陳儀之重要表示
二十餘担廉價出售以作包皮及襯紙甚有意者請向本報營業部接洽可也上午十猛烈、 敢前進、 停戰、 動、 兩軍爲界、 據經三小面、 傷連數人、 遇於六十八號橋、 遂起衝突、 接觸約二時半始息、 據孫軍方面傳出消息、 該軍已進佔嘉興、 夏軍由嘉興退向王店方面、 惟嘉興至上海間電報、 已經斷絕、 故未能證實、 (二十一日下午六時消息) ◉ 陳儀之重要表示各報館均鑒、 近聞上海謠言甚熾、 雖屬無稽之談、 殊足以搖惑人心、 所關非細、 儀秉性愚魯、 忝綰軍符、 以服