1911年夏天，在武昌市，几乎没有人接到任何起义的命令。然而，随着奥斯曼帝国的崩溃，中国的各地都爆发了反抗的浪潮，人们开始为建立共和制的中国而奋斗。 在武昌的革命者们，早已准备好要推翻清政府了。他们通过秘密的电话和电报，联系起来，开始策划起义。 在这一时刻，革命的呼声越来越响亮，人们的信心也越来越大。他们相信，革命的胜利是必然的。 1911年10月10日，武昌起义爆发。
《神州大地》系列 總第 12 集：「A Railway Dispute and a Massacre: Who Forced the Shot at Wuchang」是本集影片的完整图文转录，可逐字阅读，也可前往影片页观看对应画面。
1911年夏天，在
武昌市，不是一个人
接到了任何的起义命令。
然而，到十月份，这个省会城市已经
点燃了自己。 没有指挥官，没有作战计划，也没有一个协调的信号枪。让一个统治中国超过260年之久的王朝基础不稳的，并不是一个精心策划的起义，而是一个铁路，和一个意外事件。 在这个故事中，我们还不能说谁最终获胜。
我们只会展示如何点燃这个保险丝
因为一旦你理解了这个保险丝
你就会明白为什么那些随后的动荡
会发生得这么快，而且为什么
它们的代价会那么高昂。
一个王朝的衰落永远不是一夜之间
发生的
它开始于日常生活中的每个人
一根一根地松动
无数普通人的铁钉。
在武昌的茶馆里,
在军营的红砖床上,
在那些年里,
总是有人在低声议论着:
怎么样才能改变现状呢?
这句话不能让朝廷听见,
然而却比任何皇帝的诏令更有力量。
哪一条铁路,
哪一张纸,
最终点燃了这把火?
接下来的章节，我们从
一条路开始。
.
故事从一条铁路开始。
晚清政府想要修建两条干线铁路：川汉线，从成都到汉口，和粤汉线，从广州到武昌。政府没有自己的资金，所以让沿线的民众
购买股份。
在四川这里被称为土地租佃
，按亩数分配；湖南、湖北和
广东各有自己的方法。
四川汉口铁路的流行认股额据
清末财政记录约为十四万两银
，数十万农户通过节省硬币
来积累。 1911年5月，邮传部部长沈钧儒宣布两条线路将被国有化；只需支付少量民众持有的股份，剩下的三百万两银子则不予承认。 与此同时，部长
从英国、法国、德国和美国四国银行
联盟借了六百万英镑来偿还铁路债务
。他们在一方面拿人民辛苦挣来的钱；
在另一方面又从外国人那里借钱。任何
识字的村民都能算出这个数字。 更令人恼火的是：
铁路权利被收回后,
修建铁路线的工作就被交给了外国人。
从铁路权利被收回的那一天起,
开始在人民中传播着一种更深层的思想：这法院是否还为中国人服务？
除了四川、湖南、湖北、广东外,
还有其他地区也参与了这场暴动，只是程度各不相同；
广东的商人和士绅在广汉铁路线上表现得同样激烈。
申光绪是这个计划的设计者。 他认为官员管理加上
外国贷款会让铁路修建
更快，但他没能预见到
被拿走的不仅是铁路
权利，还有数百万人的
对法院的最后一丝信任。
这不是某个人的愤怒
而是一个社会的信任
崩溃。
至于土地租赁的分配，按亩计名义上分配的
实际上收集到的却是最低收入的
农户的口粮钱。四川汉口的土地出租登记册上
绝大多数都是小土地所有者，他们
根本无法生产出超过几两的收入； 他们一生中
都没有见过火车，
却每年都在这
条线上缴费。
当时盛宣怀掌管这
一线，他以国库
为计算单位，
进行统一调度，
一次性收到外国贷款，
使得修建速度加快。
他没料到的另一个账目是法庭掏空自己的民众的口袋，然后向外人借钱；当那条消息传到村子里时，它比任何一份革命小册子都有影响力。当1911年5月颁布的命令下来时，四川、湖南、湖北和广东几乎同时爆发。 各省议会、商会和学校举行会议不断；
甚至通常稳重的绅商也无法
坐稳，原因是被抢夺的不是某个遥远的国家事件，而是他们自己的抽屉里的钞票。
那几年中国人仍然穿着
遵循着古老的穿着规则：男人穿着长
袍和马褂，后面垂着辫子；官员穿着
官阶标志和冠冕，胸前绣着鸟或
兽的图案，官阶一眼就能看出来；
村民穿着短衣和草鞋，头上裹着
一块布料； 穿着大衣和裙子的妇女，双脚被绑得很小，
需要有人搀扶才能走得远远的。
流通中的货币也是一团糟：大量的银锭，
按其纯度进行分类，按不同秤重量，经常会打折扣；
每日的铜钱交易，铜钱串成一根绳子，一千文钱就是一根绳子；
而在条约港口，银元越来越流行。银条、铜钱和银元并行不悖
自己就是那个时代的缩影。当朝廷伸手到民众的口袋里，然后又去借钱于外人，雪崩的开始就从这里开始
但真正点燃了武昌的火花还在未来的前方。
.
最激烈的反应来自四川省。
1911年夏季，成都成立了铁路保护会；
士绅如罗伦和蒲典俊等人率先站出来，
数十万人签名，跪在官府衙门前请愿。
他们最初的要求很简单：
退还我们自己积蓄的股份费用。 社会也出版了一份报纸，
读着法庭的公告，逐行宣读给村民们听；读得越多，愤怒就越烈。
这份请愿书带来的，却是一场大屠杀。
九月初七，四川总督赵尔丰以为来衙门议事为名，引诱逮捕蒲典俊、罗伦、邓孝可、严凯、张兰等人。
消息传开后，成都每个家庭的男人都出来了，十几万人涌向衙门要求释放囚犯。他们手中拿着光绪帝的牌子，举起的手里插着一根香，
这是那个时代最明显的信号：这些都是恳请的平民百姓，而不是造反的暴民。 人群拥挤到大门前,
赵尔丰命令士兵开火，骑马冲击队伍 —— 这是一场无辜平民的屠杀，他们带着请愿的牌子前来。据辛亥革命时期四川和湖北的记载，现场死亡32人，伤员数不清；
死者中有一个十三岁的孩子
他死在还紧紧抓着一块平板电脑上
屠杀之后，赵尔丰下令
不允许在三天内收集尸体
那是夏天，雨水不断地下落
这就是成都血案
——是一起对和平请愿者的屠杀
当时的人们给赵尔丰起了个外号：赵屠夫。
他下令开火;
他的部队拉动了扳机；
禁止三天收尸也是他的命令。
谁的责任是被追究的，历史记录里清楚地写着。
在开火之前，这些人是持有木板和香烛的请愿者； 枪声落定后，
四川再也没有人再去请愿了。
像蒲典俊、罗伦这样的官宦阶层人士敢于站出来的人，
本来就是朝廷允许的；
他们也被捕，说明已经有不满情绪超出了请愿的范围了。
血案之后，
各县都起来了义军。 秦则坚和侯宝绰率军围攻成都，
七八天后百万人聚集在城下。 隆明健、朱国臣和曹铎写在木片上，赵尔丰
首先抓捕蒲和罗，然后平息四川—
同志们各地迅速自救，涂上桐油，
裹上油纸并丢进金水河—这些就是
水文电报，通过它，下属各县得知
省城已经爆发。
On the twenty-fifth day of the ninth
month, Tongmenghui members Wu Yuzhang and Wang
Tianjie declared Rong County independent — the first
county regime established by the Tongmenghui.
The Qing court urgently transferred the Hubei New Army
into Sichuan. This move would later be
raised again and again: the best fighters
in Wuchang had been drawn away,
and those left in the city were
mostly recruits who had never seen battle.
The best fighters of Hubei were transferred
away. What remained in Wuchang were recruits
who had never seen battle, yet had
long since made contact in secret
the spark for the next episode is
buried in this very step.
.
What was drawn away was the longest-trained,
best-equipped contingent of the Hubei New Army;
yet among those who stayed, many had
secretly joined revolutionary groups.
This brings us to Zhang Zhidong.
His New Policies in Hubei — training a
new army, founding schools, opening factories
inadvertently planted another seed in Wuchang.
The new army he trained had an
abnormally high literacy rate; many soldiers were
farm boys who could read, some even
xiucai degree-holders. These men could read newspapers
and take in new books; their disappointment
with the court came earlier and ran
deeper than others''. The schools and new
army Zhang Zhidong founded in Hubei were
meant to give the court a usable
force, yet they placed literate men and
rifles under the same roof — a consequence
he never foresaw. At the time Wuchang
had two main revolutionary organizations: the Literary
Society, its core mostly junior officers and
soldiers of the new army; and the
Gongjin Association, with broader outside contacts.
In their daily rounds they made contact
through barracks, teahouses and schools.
Walk into Wuchang today and you can
still touch those traces: the Chu Wang
Tai arsenal, the city''s central storehouse of
guns and ammunition; the old Engineering Battalion
site, by Ziyang Lake.
Whoever held Chu Wang Tai held the
whole city''s bargaining chip — a point clearer
to people then than to anyone since.
The Hubei New Army was organized into
divisions and brigades, some fifteen thousand men,
and in several battalions the Literary Society''s
members made up a considerable share.
Zhang Zhidong''s New Policies in Hubei also
included the Hanyang Iron Works, the Hanyang
Arsenal, and a cluster of academies such
as the Lianghu Academy and the Ziqiang
School. The factories made guns, the schools
made men — and neither ended up serving
the purpose the court intended.
The troops stationed in Wuchang were scattered,
while the ammunition was concentrated at Chu
Wang Tai; between the two lay a
distance of a whole night — this geographic
mismatch would later decide the course of
that night. The new army''s dress was
utterly unlike the old Green Standard soldier''s:
queues cut off, or coiled up inside
the cap; on top, a Western-style standing-collar
uniform with rank badges on shoulder and
collar; on the feet, leather shoes;
at the waist, a leather belt;
and slung on the shoulder, mostly the
Hanyang Make rifle from the Hanyang Arsenal.
Life in the barracks had its own
rules: drill at dawn, roll call at
night, pay at month''s end, the silver
arriving on time. In those years a
farm boy who got full meals and
monthly pay already counted as a man
of standing. Off duty their favorite haunt
was the teahouse — a pot of tea
for a few coppers, and news spread
across the table. Chu Wang Tai was
the city''s central arsenal, yet the troops
were scattered and the ammunition lay a
whole night away — that distance would later
decide the course of that night.
.
The Literary Society and the Gongjin Association
were not really one family; their minds
even ran differently. Jiang Yiwen of the
Literary Society was silent and pragmatic,
with deep roots among the soldiers,
his words heeded; Sun Wu of the
Gongjin Association was hot-tempered and full of
schemes, with wide outside connections.
Liu Gong put up the money,
Sun Wu worked the outside, Jiang Yiwen
managed the barracks — three men, three sets
of ideas. Men like Ju Zheng and
Liu Gong, some handling documents, some supplies,
all nominally given posts; yet when the
moment of truth came, who would heed
whom, no one below felt sure.
Had the Sichuan upheaval not forced the
situation to a crisis, this hand might
never have clasped. They agreed to make
Jiang Yiwen commander-in-chief and Sun Wu military
chief, yet those below understood clearly that
who would heed whom was still unsettled.
This looseness later became a fatal flaw:
the moment a command went astray in
transmission, the whole game fell into disorder.
Yet it was precisely this looseness that
made it unlike a conspiracy, more like
the stacked wagers of countless ordinary men.
Two organizations, three sets of minds
a hand that could never have clasped
was forcibly pressed together by an upheaval
far away.
.
Speak of revolution and many think first
of Sun Yat-sen. But before October 1911,
Sun Yat-sen was not in Wuchang,
nor even in the country; he was
abroad, traveling to raise funds.
On the fund-raising there is a matter
later much disputed. Several participants recorded that
before several uprisings Sun promised comrades at
home that arms, ammunition and pay would
be procured from overseas, yet many promises
were never fulfilled, and the front often
faced overwhelming odds, losing men for nothing.
Zhang Taiyan, between 1907 and 1909, publicly criticized the Tongmenghui''s
opaque fund-raising; such accounts appear in his
collected works and contemporary letters.
The later break between Sun and Zhang
was sparked, among other things, by how
the money was raised and spent.
From the 1895 Guangzhou uprising to the
1911 Huanghuagang, Sun launched more than ten
uprisings over a dozen years, most failing
before a shot was fired.
The front repeatedly came up empty;
a recurring story: the guns, ammunition and
pay promised before the rising arrived late,
and when the men showed up and
the plot leaked, they found themselves empty-handed.
What Zhang Taiyan cursed was precisely this
disconnect between fundraising and dispatch.
The above accounts come partly from participants''
memoirs and opponents'' records; the original sources
await further verification. We present them as
they are, without judgment.
One thing is clear: for those far
overseas, every penny raised bore on the
life and death of the front at
home. And the one who truly charged
the front line, who poured in his
life, was another man.
The man placed at the very front
was not present; the one truly charging
the front was another name — yet this
man, too, was still on his way.
.
Huang Xing was among the few revolutionaries
who truly stood on the front line.
In his early years he founded the
Huaxing Society in Hunan, later becoming the
military mainstay of the Tongmenghui.
In 1904 he plotted an uprising in Changsha;
when it leaked he fled, and from
then on staked everything on the front.
Rather than sit and theorize, he chose
again and again to stand before the
guns. On 27 April 1911, at the Huanghuagang battle
in Guangzhou, he led men against the
governor''s yamen; his finger was shot off,
yet he kept directing the retreat.
That battle is commonly called the Seventy-Two
Martyrs, though eighty-six are verifiably counted,
many young scholars who went and did
not return. The following year, at the
Yangxia campaign, Huang Xing held the front
at Hanyang and Hankou for over forty
days. In armed uprising, Huang Xing''s practical
role was more direct and more forward
than Sun Yat-sen''s, who raised funds far
overseas. Yet in October 1911, Huang Xing was
not in Wuchang either; he was still
on his way. This fire in Wuchang
was lit by those at the bottom,
at a time when neither of the
two great men was present.
Neither of the two great men was
in Wuchang. Then who lit this fire?
The answer is those whose names never
made it into the textbooks.
.
On 9 October 1911, at Baoshan Lane on the edge
of the Russian concession in Wuhan,
a Gongjin Association hideout ran into trouble.
Sun Wu and Deng Yulin and others
were there rushing the manufacture of explosives
and flags, preparing to rise.
While mixing explosives, Sun Wu set off
an accidental detonation, wounding himself on the
spot and blowing the whole conspiracy into
the open. Others in the hideout,
Deng Yulin among them, scattered to hide
once it happened, but the flags and
seals on site were too late to
clear. Later the arrested Liu Tong,
unable to withstand interrogation, betrayed the hideout
and a number of comrades, making the
search suddenly precise. The Russian concession police
came at the sound, and seized the
uprising''s flags and seals, and a name
roster. That roster listed who in Wuchang
had taken part. The police handed the
things to the Huguang governor-general, Rui Cheng.
In an instant, an uprising still hidden
in the shadows became an open hand.
According to records, it was the arrested
Liu Tong who, unable to withstand interrogation,
betrayed the hideout and comrades, making the
search suddenly precise. One explosion blew the
hidden conspiracy into the open; and that
roster would next be delivered into the
governor''s hands.
.
Rui Cheng got the roster, and that
night the whole city was placed under
martial law; arrests by name began.
Rui Cheng was a man who,
when trouble came, thought first of saving
himself; normally leaning on the Beiyang clique,
at the critical moment he could not
make up his mind.
He ordered the Wuchang gates closed and
a house-to-house search for those on the
roster; suddenly the whole city lived in
terror. For those on the roster,
only two choices remained: wait to be
arrested, or rise tonight.
This is the cruelest logic of an
uprising: when a secret can no longer
be hidden, not to rise is to
die. A group still hesitating was pushed
by a single roster to the edge
of the cliff. The roster in Rui
Cheng''s hands had been compiled by the
revolutionaries themselves — names, native places, units,
all complete — in effect handing the governor,
in one move, everyone in the city
who had taken part.
That night the Wuchang gates were shut
tight; those inside could not get out,
news from outside could not get in.
It is recorded that several battalions issued
cartridges that very night, yet no one
knew whom to fire on.
In official circles, Rui Cheng''s first thought
was self-preservation: he pushed the arrest duty
onto subordinates and stayed in the yamen
awaiting Beijing''s reply. But however fast the
telegram, it could not outrun the smell
of gunpowder already spreading through the city.
Once the roster reached the governor''s hands
and the Wuchang gates were shut,
for those on the list only two
choices remained: wait for death, or rise
tonight.
.
Late on the night of 9 October,
Jiang Yiwen issued the uprising order,
agreeing that a gunshot would be the
signal and all battalions would act together.
But the order, half delivered, was interrupted
by a search; most units never received
it at all. Yang Hongsheng''s transport of
explosives was also exposed; Liu Fuxing,
in a panic at the hideout,
threw a bomb to cover his comrades,
yet exposed still more.
The agreed time passed; the gun did
not fire, yet the men were already
alarmed. Jiang Yiwen himself escaped; what he
left behind was a group of junior
officers and soldiers who knew not whether
to advance or retreat.
The plan was in disarray; the uprising
seemed about to die unborn.
Yet the roster was already in the
governor''s hands, and time was no longer
on their side. The uprising order was
cut off mid-delivery, most units never received
it — the plan seemed about to die
unborn, yet time was no longer on
their side.
.
Those on the roster could no longer
hide. Peng Chufan, a clerk in the
military police, was captured without losing his
composure; according to accounts he denounced his
accusers even before execution — a stubborn,
hardened man. Liu Fuxing, a core member
of the Gongjin Association from Changde in
Hunan, of the fiercest temper, after arrest
spoke openly and never concealed his convictions.
Yang Hongsheng, a Hubei man responsible for
transporting explosives and ammunition, was caught when
the plot failed and under interrogation would
not implicate others. The three were taken
to the Huguang governor''s yamen, interrogated through
the night, and before dawn dragged outside
the yamen gate and beheaded.
From arrest to martyrdom was but a
few hours. The order was given by
the Huguang governor-general, Rui Cheng.
In the small hours of 10 October 1911,
the three were killed — these are the
later-called Three Martyrs, Peng, Liu and Yang.
They were no great men; only ordinary
people whose names had been written into
that roster, yet at that moment they
left their lives in Wuchang.
Peng Chufan was in his twenties when
he died, with an aged mother at
home; Liu Fuxing had been married only
recently; Yang Hongsheng left behind a child
just learning to walk.
These details appear in later compilations of
the martyrs'' biographies; we record them as
they are, without comment.
That night the governor''s yamen followed old
routines: torches on the hall, bailiffs standing
to either side, the interrogation by the
stale formulas of the penal code
first the accomplices, then the instigator.
The townspeople only learned at dawn that
men had been killed outside the yamen;
the bold came to look and saw
three bodies no one dared claim.
A Wuchang morning should have begun with
the stevedores'' calls at the docks,
the opening of the teahouses.
That day those sounds were still there,
only the people of the city already
knew something had changed.
Three ordinary men died, yet those still
alive on the roster all understood one
truth: wait any longer and the next
would be oneself. That night, it was
truly coming.
.
The blood of three men thoroughly doused
the hesitation. Those still alive on the
roster all understood one truth: wait any
longer and the next would be oneself.
On the night of 10 October, the mood
in Wuchang was like a string pulled
to its limit. In whose hands this
string would snap, we leave for the
next episode. Come to Wuchang today and
you can still touch the traces of
that night on Peng-Liu-Yang Road, at the
Red Building, at Chu Wang Tai.
The Red Building is the former site
of the Wuchang Uprising military government;
the old Engineering Battalion site still stands
by Ziyang Lake. One city, one railway,
three names — they pushed an era to
its turning point. And beyond the turning
point lay longer turmoil, and countless ordinary
people who paid the price for this
revolution. We tell of this fuse not
to glorify any side, but to make
clear: when a regime repeatedly disappoints its
own people, what comes loose is not
only trust but the very base of
the whole order. The price that followed
was, for the most part, silently borne
by the most ordinary people of that
time.
.
▶ 觀看本集影片（含畫面與地圖）：A Railway Dispute and a Massacre: Who Forced the Shot at Wuchang