An Unaccomplished Task

Mission: As previously discussed.

Time: The 29th of this month, 5:30 p.m.

Objective: The Kwangtung Governor's Office and other important government offices.

Personnel: Ten 50-100-man units.

Plan of attack: Split into four groups. Then, according to the map, Group A under Huang Hsing will attack the Governor's Office. Group B under Yao Yu-p'ing will occupy the arsenal. Group C under Chen Chiu-ming will launch a surprise attack on the army training grounds. Hu Yi-sheng will provide outside support.

Equipment: Each man to have a black phosphorus watch, a beancake, and a silver bar.

Identification: White armbands and black shoes.

Signal: The sound of a conch shell.

At 5:20 p.m. March 29,1911, the conch shell sounded in Canton, but owing to a delay with the boat, Yao Yu p'ing, Chen Chiu-ming, Hu Yi-sheng, and their volunteer troops would be unable to make the city in time.

The plan had called for a thousand men, but only a little more than one hundred were available. Yet the plan must be carried out, and so, splitting into three groups, they went about their mission, sewing the seeds of tragedy.

Huang Hsing, Fang Sheng-tung, and ten others made their way through the south gate out of the city, where they were to link with revolutionaries who were soldiers and officers at the Ching military base. Little did they expect that the men from the base, in order to allay suspicion, were planning to put on their armbands only after they had entered the city. The two parties met outside and exchanged gunfire, with heavy loss of life.

The group attacking the arsenal was met by a large detachment of Ching soldiers, and could only retreat to the Yuansheng Rice Store, where they tried to defend themselves among the rice sacks. They held out for a day and a night before their ammunition ran out and Ching soldiers set the building afire.

The party trying capture the training grounds was similarly outnumbered and one by one was taken prisoner.

To be cut down on the battlefield before the final victory has been the tragic but fitting fate of warriors for centuries, but the revolutionaries taken prisoner instead found themselves tasting the bitterness of defeat. After interrogation and torture, they were beheaded on April 3rd, never knowing that within half a year the Ching dynasty would be overthrown and the first republic in Asia established.

These pictures, taken from a contemporary magazine, show the revolutionaries bound and shackled before their execution. Starting from the right is Lo Lien, an officer from Kwangtung. At his left wearing the long-sleeved shirt is Jao Fu-t'ing, a Shanghai student. At his side is the 25-year old Lo Yu-shen, a factory worker who was from the same county as Lo Lien. At left is Chen (Ya) Ts'ai, a Vietnamese Chinese. The man to his side, Sung Yu-lin, came from a distinguished Anhwei family. At his left stands Wei Yun-ch'ing, who showed little interest in school but was a brave soldier. Hsu Man-ling, sitting, was a farmer and probably wounded in the fighting. At the end is Liang Wei and Yu Chieh-p'ei, both from Hua County in Kwangtung.

Heroes do not die of disease or a broken heart; they die for a dream. The men photographed knew their execution was minutes away, but their faces show neither sadness nor anger, only the certainty that where they have failed, others will triumph.

[Picture Caption]

The Revolutionaries' Attack on the Kwangtung Governor's Office

The Revolutionaries' Attack on the Kwangtung Governor's Office.