The Xinhai Revolution in 1911 was able to succeed in one fell swoop, and the Qing Dynasty quickly collapsed, which had a lot to do with the Manchu court's failure to destroy the Great Wall.
The most direct loser was the first Qing Dynasty governor to abandon the city and flee during the Wuchang Uprising. This person was born in 1863 in the Yellow Banner of Manchuria, and his grandfather was Qishan, a famous person in the history of the Opium War.
Ruizi, who was born in a family of eunuchs, was a gentleman when he was a teenager, and was known as the "Three Evils in the Capital" together with Lao Ziqiao and Cen Chunxuan. But there are good days for the wicked. After Guangxu ascended the throne, he recited Qi Shan's merits and specially allowed Ruizi to enter the country to study. Since then, Ruizi has reformed his ways, studied hard in Guozijian, and finally entered the officialdom as he wished.
In 1901, the Gengzi Incident, Cixi Guangxu fled westward, Ruizi stayed in the capital to help the aftermath of the merit, recommended by Yixuan, and finally won the foreign appointment, promoted to Jiujiang Road, after which the career was smooth sailing, step by step, a few years later he served as Shanghai Road. At that time, Shanghai Road, Tianjin Road, Ningbo Road and other platforms belonged to the most critical positions in the Qing Dynasty and were famous for their fat shortage. The one year and eight months in Shanghai Road can be called the highlight of Ruizi's career as an official. The most influential of these was the vigorous ban on opium;For him personally, it was in Shanghai that he met Hartung, a wealthy Jewish businessman, which made it possible for him to escape from Wuhan and live in Shanghai after the Wuchang Uprising. However, according to Ruizi Continuation Liao Keyu, during Ruizi's tenure as Shanghai Daoist, while actively banning smoking in the official face, he was secretly banned from opium.
Ruizi's "exploits" in banning opium impressed the imperial court. In October 1907, he was promoted to the position of Jiangxi Provincial Inspector, and soon transferred to Jiangsu as the political envoy, and the official was promoted to the second rank. In June 1909, he was promoted to governor of Jiangsu and entered the ranks of governors. Less than half a year later, in November, the Qing court transferred Chen Kuilong, the governor of Huguang, to the governor of Zhili, and appointed the governor of Huguang with Ruizi.
The official title of the governor of Huguang is the governor of Hubei, Hunan and other places, the governor of military affairs, food and salary, and the governor, referred to as the governor of Hubei and Hunan, because Hunan and Hubei provinces belonged to Huguang Province in the Ming Dynasty, so they are commonly known as the governor of Huguang. At that time, Wuhan under the rule of the governor of Huguang was the largest commercial capital in the Yangtze River basin except Shanghai, and the economic core of Chinese mainland.
After Ruizi served as the governor of Huguang, his reputation was not bad, and he was said to be relatively honest, after all, Kufu had left a huge amount of 40 million yuan for the rebellious revolutionary party, and he was also considered to be the more capable ** among the Manchurians, and he seemed to be very enlightened. Therefore, many people can't understand why as soon as the gunshots in Wuchang rang out, the Governor was hit by a shot, and he abandoned the city in a hurry and fled
At 8 o'clock in the evening of October 10, 1911, the 8th Battalion of the 8th Town Project of the Hubei New Army in the Loess Slope of Wuchang City rang out a crisp gunshot, and Cheng Zhengying, a member of the Communist Association and a soldier, shot and wounded Tao Qisheng, the platoon commander who came to patrol the camp, and fired the first shot of the Wuchang Uprising. After that, a group of soldiers, led by Xiong Bingkun, a representative of the revolutionary party, rushed out of the barracks, walked onto the street, and occupied the Chuwangtai armory near the Zhonghe Gate (now the Uprising Gate) in Wuchang City.
Hearing that the soldiers of the New Army were rioting, Ruizi immediately asked Zhang Biao to discuss with his staff, some advised him to defend to the death, and some advised him to hide. In fact, at this time, the artillery of the insurgents had not yet reached the governor's palace, and even the arrangement of the attack was not carried out. The Qing Dynasty magistrate abandoned his post and escaped, which was a felony of killing his head, and Ruizi, as a Manchurian man, knew that he could not run in the face of a crisis no matter what. However, Chen Delong, the pipe band of the Chuyu warship, was also present that day, and he said that the governor's mansion was too dangerous, and the Chuyu stopped in the Yangtze River on the edge of Wuchang, and withdrawing to the warship was not an escape, but could command a counterattack. This was exactly what Ruizi wanted, so after the cannon was fired here, Ruizi didn't even dare to go through the gate, and his entourage asked the soldiers to knock off the mud from the back wall of the back wall with the butts of their guns, pry loose the brick joints with bayonets, and then smash the butts of their guns against the walls. With the collapse of the wall, a big hole appeared in the back wall, and more than 20 people from Ruizi's family, wives, concubines, servants, and sons and daughters-in-law all got out of this hole and fled to the Chuyu warship not far from the governor's office. At this time, there was not even a shadow of the rebel army outside the door.
Ruizi fled to the warship Chuyu, thinking that he was clever, thinking that he could advance or retreat according to the development of the situation, and that if the situation was not good, he could flee along the Yangtze River to Jiujiang, Nanjing, or Shanghai at any time.
But after all, Ruizi has not gone through the battle formation, lacks experience, and after arriving on the warship, he is helpless, helpless, and has no tricks to counterattack.
At that time, there were only more than 2,000 new troops participating in the uprising, which means that Ruizi still had more than 5,000 troops to mobilize, and he still had an advantage in numbers, especially a regiment composed of banner men, which was absolutely loyal to the imperial court and reliable. However, after Ruizi fled from the governor's palace, Lian Jia, the political envoy of Hubei, and Wang Shoupeng, the envoy of learning, also fled one after another, and their whereabouts are unknown. The Qing army was leaderless, even if they had the heart to resist the rebels, they had no heart, and the three towns of Wuhan collapsed like an avalanche, so the rebel army successfully occupied the entire Wuhan.
After Wuchang, the inland provinces revolted one after another, and the governors of the provinces fled or changed.
At that time, the overall situation was not good, and the Qing court was employing people, so he was polite to Ruizi, and gave a dismissal and retention, which meant that he would be guilty of meritorious service, but he did not stay for long, and on October 26, he went straight down the Jiujiang River to Shanghai.
As for the reason for fleeing to Shanghai, Ruizi said in a telegram to the cabinet that on October 20, the Chuyu ship sailed to Jiujiang, Jiangxi, and on the night of October 23, the Jiujiang Revolutionary Army rebelled, and there were rumors that Ruizi would be acquired for 200,000 yuan. There were not many bullets on the Chu Yu, and the soldiers were discouraged, for fear of becoming the target of the public, and the soldiers were very reluctant to let him be on the ship. Because of the Jiujiang mutiny, the other ships also sailed on their ships one after another, and did not listen to the dispatch. Without soldiers and generals, he had no choice but to take a merchant ship and flee to Shanghai.
Hartung, a wealthy Jewish businessman in Shanghai at that time, had some friendship with Ruizi and was willing to take in this kind of ** frustrated person, so he hid in the Hartung Garden in the concession.
The Qing court, which learned of Ruizi's escape to Shanghai, issued an order on October 29 to have Zhang Renjun, the governor of Liangjiang, arrest Ruizi and escort him to Beijing. The next day, Zhang Renjun immediately called Liu Yanyi of Shanghai Dao and asked Liu to "remain quiet", arrest Ruizi, and take care of him first. On November 2, Liu Yanyi told Zhang Renjun that although he had met Ruizi, Ruizi said that he was seriously ill and could not go north. And because he lived in the concession, Liu could not be arrested.
The "deeds" of Ruizi's escape were soon put on the stage, and the Shanghai Grand Stage (now known as the Shanghai People's Stage) choreographed a modern Peking Opera "Ezhou Blood", mocking Ruizi for being greedy for life and afraid of death, and taking the young lady to escape, and the play was once very popular.
Some young Manchu aristocrats in Beijing were even more resentful of Ruizi's "dereliction of duty" and organized an "assassination group" to go to Shanghai in an attempt to kill Ruizi. Later, due to the sudden change in the national situation, the ** plan could not be implemented.
In this way, Ruizi has been hiding in the Shanghai Concession, alone, and disgraced for nearly a year, and died of illness in July 1912.
Yun Yuding, president of the Qing Dynasty Heroes Museum, said in his diary, "The speed of abandoning the city and fleeing in the past three hundred years is second to none." When the widows of the Qing Dynasty mentioned him, the roots of their teeth were tickled. They discussed together that they would give him the nickname "Chief of the Criminals." Sure enough, during the ** period, when Zhao Erxun revised the "Qing History Manuscript", he called Ruizi the "chief crime" of the Qing Dynasty, and compared with Sheng Xuanhuai, the "first evil" who advocated the nationalization of the railway and caused the Sichuan Road Protection Movement.
Judging from Ruizi's performance in Wuchang, he is indeed too incompetent, and it is not too much to be called the "culprit" by the Manchurians. Why is such a person who has no great talent called a "capable official", constantly being reused, and becoming a member of the party?It was really because after Cixi's death, the regent Zaifeng was too small to trust the Han people, and a large number of relatives and nobles were appointed, and most of the feudal officials were Manchus, and the overall quality of the Manchu nobles at that time declined, and the eldest son could only be promoted among the dwarves.