"For over a month the various provinces have been greatly disturbed. The causes for this have not been all alike, and it is necessary to discriminate in again proclaiming Our intentions to the Empire. Those who are in favour of reforming the Government by revolutionary methods have been making impossible demands upon the Throne, yet We recognise that they have been called forth by a patriotic love for their country and are sincere; and also that the country is thrown into confusion and distress because We have failed to make progress in Governmental reform. We have repeatedly proclaimed that a reformed and Constitutional Government shall be established, and We have granted an amnesty to all who formally have been guilty of political crimes, also allowing Revolutionists to form themselves into a political party to be used in the service of the State. But with regard to those Revolutionists, who ferment race hatred, who desire to create a feeling of enmity between the Manchus and the Chinese, they are not working for the reformation of the Government, but are simply dealing out ruin all round in order to gratify their private hate, and for this there is no justification. We are labouring for the prosperity of the kingdom and the happiness of the people, and We cannot make the Government a constitutional one till the Empire is at peace. If these men are allowed to excite the people with their mischievous speeches and pernicious ideas the disturbances will increase, the people will be scattered and miserably perish. When the four classes of the people lose their occupation, the whole country is thrown into confusion. There will be no end to the calamities. We would, therefore, earnestly and sincerely impress upon you scholars, gentry, army and people, the necessity of understanding the principle of reforming the Government and repressing disturbances. The Throne loves and respects the people, and wishes them to seek after improvement, but as for those who act in opposition to this and keep on creating disturbances, they are the enemies of the public and a danger to all. Although they are but a minority, My people ought to put them down with a strong hand, yet if they will repent their former crimes, they should be pardoned and their past offences not brought up against them. But bad characters, who seize the opportunity to burn, kill, rape and plunder, cannot be allowed to escape by any law of reason. They must be rooted out and hunted down with all speed till they are utterly exterminated in order that the good and peaceful people may be protected. Therefore, let the Tartar Generals, commanders-in-chief, viceroys, governors and all who are in military authority respect my will and, discriminating between the political parties put down the irreconcilables. The Army and the people will understand this intention, and let all above and below with one mind labour for improvement. Then will the country be fortunate and the people enjoy felicity without limit.
"Let this Edict, together with the Edict of the 14th [Nov. 4th] be printed on yellow paper and posted, so that all may be informed. Respect this."
CHAPTER IX
THE STRONGHOLD OF WUCHANG
It was to Wuchang that the country was now looking. The Revolutionists knew it. Urged on by cleverly fashioned proclamations, they fought as men have rarely fought. The Imperialists knew it, and they, too, slept neither day nor night. The Revolution was spreading. Unable to ascertain what was to follow, foreigners from interior provinces came down to the coast and the treaty ports for safety. Foreign warships came up one after another, Japanese predominating in number, and at one time totalled no less than fifteen, under nominal command of Rear-Admiral Kawashima. Foreigners everywhere were doing volunteer duty. Barricades had been built up, and all tiptoed in expectancy. Fighting was desultory, with more Revolutionary losses than Imperial, for several days. Eleven days after the great battle of Kilometre Ten, more than the savage burning of the city, very little effective work had been done. Firstly, they had not done what they led the people to believe they would do. Promise after promise by Admiral Sah to bombard had been broken, the army had marched on Tachimen and captured it, Hankow had been shelled and the place left a mass of charred ruins with five hundred thousand helpless people cruelly turned adrift to seek shelter where they might—and there the accomplishment was in extenso. Although they had tried, the Imperialists had failed to capture Hanyang. Wuchang still stood as the stronghold of the Revolutionary party, with ever-brightening prospects of power.
Those who had closely followed events here had been surprised greatly by the manner in which the Loyalist Army had worked out this campaign. Instead of smashing the Revolutionary Army in a few days, which at the outset, after the first battle, seemed an easy thing for them, they had dilly-dallied to such an extent that now they had a greater task before them than they ever had—partly because of the fact that trained rebel reinforcements had arrived from Hunan, and partly because the esprit de corps among the Revolutionists, which, after their reverse, it would not have taken a great deal to have knocked entirely out of them, had again wonderfully revived.
Yuan Shih K'ai, cutest of all Chinese in China, probably foresaw this, and it may have been a part of his wisdom to stay his hand and wait. He was waiting, but he hardly knew for what. He had hoped probably that the first serious reverse would have knocked spirit out of the men to such an extent that the Revolutionary Army would soon have become disorganised, that the leaders would in true Chinese fashion have been quarrelling among themselves, and that soon, without money and supplies, the Revolutionary Army would have come again to its senses. Meantime, people were saying that General Li, the Revolutionary leader, was a fool, that he should have marched out his men and fought a good fight. They could not see that Chinese had met Chinese, and that both were playing their own game. Yuan was looked upon as being the great man who could make no false moves; Li was merely a trained soldier, and what could he know? He may not have known much, but he knew enough. He knew, at any rate, how to play his own game, and each night at sundown he congratulated himself upon having held the capital city yet another day—for Wuchang was still the stronghold, and it was from Wuchang, as has been said, that other places were taking the cue.
At last Yuan saw this. He also saw that city after city, almost province after province, was falling into the Revolutionary line, and he conceived a plan to stop the whole sad business. He began then to parley. He wrote to General Li in most conciliatory terms.[[1]] He promised a new Government on constitutional lines; he promised that the Manchu princedoms should be abolished; he promised free pardon to all offenders against law and order—he expressed himself ready to make any concession. But in his heart he realised that virtually he was in no position to dictate. He had to play the second fiddle, although trying to play thereon the notes of the first.