[[3]] Li Yuan Hung at the time of the Revolution was forty-eight years old. His birthplace was a village in the north of Huangpi, not many miles from the scenes that made him famous. "Li Yuan Hung" was his official name; his friends were permitted to address him as "Li Sung Ching." His father was a soldier before him—Colonel Li Tsao Hsiang. In the year 1882, at the age of eighteen, Li the younger passed the entrance examination of the Tientsin Naval College, and after a course of six years he graduated. Soon after the war with Japan he was engaged by Chang Chih Tung, then Viceroy of Nanking, to fortify that city with modern guns, and was also made commander of an important pass near Nanking. In the year 1894 he followed Chang Chih Tung to Hupeh, and was commissioned to train the new army with the aid of a German instructor for three years. He was then sent to Japan to gain experience in defence work. After two years he returned to Wuchang, and was appointed Major of a Cavalry Brigade. In 1902 he was in command of the Kiangyin Navy and Army manoeuvres. Next year he took command of the Infantry Fourth Advance Guard. Two years later he became commander of the Second Division. As soon as the new army was organised he was promoted to be Colonel of the 21st Mixed Brigade, superintending the naval forces in the Yangtze Valley, the Military Academy and four departments of the Hanyang Arsenal, and the Army College. In the same year (1905) he was elected Provisional Commander of the Changte manoeuvres. He led his Mixed Brigade in the year 1911 to join the Autumn Manoeuvres at Taihu. On October 10, 1911, General Li joined the Revolution, as will be seen hereafter, and was elected Military Governor of Hupeh.
CHAPTER V
A PREMATURE OPENING
On October 10, 1911, an ordinary military officer in the Hupeh Army of China stood unflinchingly facing a band of Revolutionists in Wuchang. One was Liu King, a student not long back from Japan—a mere slip of a boy. He was now practically in charge of the Revolution of China, now prematurely, quite haphazardly, broken out, and he sat looking suspiciously at the military man before him. The military man was a colonel. Above his neck glistened half a dozen narrow swords held by dark-clad men who awaited instructions to send into eternity the man whom Fate intervened to make the most noted man in the world-history of our day.
That Colonel was Li Yuan Hung, whose fame within a month reached to the uttermost ends of the earth.
The Revolution, long planned and still maturing, had prematurely broken out. Li Yuan Hung had been chosen as the leader, and now stood offering his apologies to the men who pressed him into office. He was not anxious, he was explaining, to take the honour—of course he was not, for who knew that that small military revolt at Wuchang was to move the whole of the eighteen provinces of China? Li thought it was not worth while. His fate would be sealed at once, for the Model Army of China merely cut the heads off of any in its ranks who rebelled against military discipline. So he demurred that the honour was too great for him—he would rather that another, more able and experienced, should be invited to the leadership. More heavily those cold swords were pressed against his neck. Then it seemed as if another minute would find his head rolling to the floor. But he was given another chance. He was told in stern tones that he was the leader of the Revolution, that he must agree or else he would be decapitated immediately. But the Colonel still stolidly refused. Before the order was finally given to strike with those glistening swords the man was given one more chance. He agreed. The swords were raised, and at that moment the curtain rose and showed China in revolt to the world. Li Yuan Hung's behaviour after that fateful night when he stood so near his grave showed the wisdom of the choice of the man of all men who in this land of the passing Celestial did more to free China from the fetters of the past than any other man dead or living.
A CAPTURED BOMB-MAKER.
One of those responsible for the premature outbreak of the Revolution.