時報
- Chu Yupu Returns from Jinan to Tianjin
- A Survey of the Allied Army's Present Positions
- The Conference after Chu Yupu Reached Jinan
The Shibao page of 26 October 1926 carried war news from the north and from the Shanghai area as the Northern Expedition advanced. A Jinan wire reported that Zhang Zongchang convened a military conference when Chu Yupu arrived. The Zhili and Shandong commanders agreed to issue a joint circular telegram and send troops to aid Hubei. Both armies would get a month's pay, and the troops would march south once Chu was back in Tianjin. A survey listed where units of the allied army's 7th Division were stationed in Songjiang and Shanghai, down to the temples and barracks they occupied. A further Jinan item reported that Mei Lanfang, Yang Xiaolou and other opera stars were kept on to perform Farewell My Concubine and other plays on the military governor's new stage.
This edition covers three excerpts selected from the page. Characters at the joins between news columns may be lost or doubled, and uncertain joins were avoided. Subscription and advertising-rate tables and the small-print notices from the Mixed Court, on bonds and from Amoy University are too faint to transcribe and are not translated. A headline beginning 直魯援鄂軍、決定直軍一 is cut off and was not used. The troop survey breaks off mid-sentence in the selected text.
Translation
Chu Yupu Returns from Jinan to Tianjin
When Chu Yupu came to Jinan, Zhang Zongchang convened a military conference. It was decided that the commanders of Zhili and Shandong would jointly issue a circular telegram, carry through the principle of cooperation, and actually send troops to aid Hubei. The Zhili and Shandong armies will all be issued one month's pay, and as soon as Chu returns to Tianjin the troops will set out southward. (Xinlu News Agency telegram, Jinan, the 24th)
A Survey of the Allied Army's Present Positions
The 1st Infantry Battalion and one mortar company of the force of Zhang Guanghou, commander of the 27th Regiment, 14th Brigade, 7th Division, are stationed at Chaoguo Temple in Songjiang; the 3rd Battalion is stationed at Guangfu Temple in Songjiang; and one more infantry company is guarding Shihudang. The headquarters of the 14th Brigade of the 7th Division is at Zuibaichi in Songjiang, and the headquarters of the 27th Regiment is in the former provincial commander's yamen. The entire 2nd Infantry Battalion of the 27th Regiment, 14th Brigade, 7th Division, together with the machine-gun company, is stationed at the Old Barracks at Xieqiao in Shanghai,
The Conference after Chu Yupu Reached Jinan
The famous actors Mei Lanfang, Yu Shuyan, Yang Xiaolou, Shang Xiaoyun and others were also kept in Jinan for a day by Mr. Pan. Tonight (the 22nd) Mei and the others continue performing on the new stage at the military governor's yamen; the program includes Farewell My Concubine by Mei Lanfang and Yang Xiaolou, among others. Tomorrow (the 23rd) they are still to perform for one more day.
Context
Why the Zhili and Shandong armies pledged to march on Hubei
The Jinan wire reports that Zhang Zongchang called a military conference when Chu Yupu arrived. There the Zhili and Shandong commanders resolved to send a joint circular telegram, dispatch troops to aid Hubei, and give each army a month's pay before it marched south. The march was to begin once Chu returned to Tianjin. The two men named were the leading figures of the northern bloc. Zhang Zongchang ruled Shandong from 1925 to 1928, and in 1926 Chu Yupu became leader of the Fengtian clique's Zhili Army and military governor of Zhili. By the time of this conference, Hubei was no longer a Wu Peifu province that could simply be reinforced. Wu's remaining troops at Wuchang had already surrendered, which completed the National Revolutionary Army's conquest of the province. Earlier in the campaign the Fengtian clique had offered Wu support, but he refused it because he feared the northern warlords would undermine him. A late-October pledge to march south therefore meant the northern coalition was taking over a war Wu had tried to fight alone. The promised month's pay is the only financial detail the article gives. Later accounts describe Zhang's Shandong as funded by excessive taxes and by provincial currency printed until it became worthless.
Sun Chuanfang's garrisons after the Zhejiang revolt
The survey lists the dispositions of the 27th Regiment, 14th Brigade, 7th Division under Zhang Guanghou. Two battalions were quartered in Songjiang temples and a company guarded Shihudang. The brigade headquarters was at Zuibaichi, the regimental headquarters was in the old provincial commander's yamen, and a battalion with a machine-gun company was at the Xieqiao barracks inside Shanghai. The headline's allied army most likely refers to the forces of Sun Chuanfang, who then ruled Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian, Anhui and Jiangxi. The list appeared days after a serious scare for Sun. When Zhejiang's civil governor Xia Chao rebelled, his force came within 5 kilometres of Shanghai by late 17 October. Sun had few troops to spare for the city and had the railway from Hangzhou torn up. His army then retook Jiaxing on the 21st and Hangzhou on the 23rd. On that same day the Nationalist organiser Niu Yongjian ordered an uprising in Shanghai. The garrisons recorded here, with troops posted both in Songjiang and in Shanghai, show how Sun held the area around the city in the days after the revolt. That hold did not last. In March 1927 Shanghai was captured by Communist labour unions allied with the National Revolutionary Army, and Sun was forced to flee Nanjing.
Peking opera stars on the governor's stage
Under a headline about the military conference, the paper reports that Mei Lanfang, Yu Shuyan, Yang Xiaolou and Shang Xiaoyun had been kept in Jinan an extra day by a Mr. Pan. They performed on the new stage at the military governor's yamen on the 22nd, with Mei and Yang in Farewell My Concubine, and were due to play again on the 23rd. The scene matches what historians record of Zhang Zongchang's Jinan headquarters, which he ran like a medieval court with lavish entertainment and grand feasts. Zhang also acted as patron to artists, writers and entertainers, as well as arms dealers, drug kingpins, diplomats and Western journalists. Seen this way, the performances belonged to the same show of power as the conference itself. Holding the most celebrated actors of the day in Jinan while generals gathered there displayed the governor's wealth and reach to his guests. The article says nothing about the cost of this court. Zhang's government taxed heavily, and by 1927 Shandong's educational system had collapsed and the local economy was in tatters. The paper names only Mr. Pan as having kept the actors on and does not say who paid them.
What became of the march south
The Jinan conference promised a march south once Chu Yupu was back in Tianjin. Zhang Zongchang's forces did eventually move south during the Northern Expedition. The episode historians record, however, is a brief retaking of Shanghai, not a relief of Hubei, and it ended with his army being driven back north. The coalition that met in Jinan in October 1926 did not survive the campaign. In 1928 National Revolutionary Army troops under Bai Chongxi defeated and destroyed Zhang's army, capturing 20,000 of his 50,000 men.
Original
褚玉璞由濟返津
褚玉璞來濟、 張宗昌召集軍事會議、 決定由直魯各將領聯名發表通電、 貫澈合作宗旨、 實行出兵援鄂、 直魯軍一律發餉一月、 俟褚返津、 軍隊即出發南下、 （濟南二十四日新魯社電）
聯軍現駐地點之調查
第七師十四旅廿七團團長張廣厚部步兵第一營及迫擊砲連一連、 駐紮松江超果寺、 第三營駐松江廣福寺、 尚有步兵一連駐守石湖蕩、 第七師十四旅旅部駐松江醉白池、 二十七團團部在舊提督衙門、 第七師十四旅二十七團第二營步兵全營、 及機關槍連、 駐紮上海斜橋老營盤、
褚玉璞到濟後之會議
各名伶如梅蘭芳 • 余叔岩 • 楊小樓 • 尙小雲等、 亦被潘氏留濟一日、 今夜 （二十二） 梅等在督署新戲台續演、 其戲目爲梅蘭芳楊小樓之霸王別姬等、 明日 （二十三) 尙須再演一日、