June 1916: what Huang Xing’s telegrams say

A gap in the record

The drafts of Huang Xing’s telegrams for May–October 1916, kept by the historian Hsueh Chun-tu (薛君度), were published in China as 黃興等電稿: 126 pieces, described as previously unpublished^[29]. Between the piece of 8 June and that of 20 June they contain nothing. The telegrams intercepted in Japan and deciphered here (容密, 共密, 辰密) are mostly dated 8 to 16 June^[25][27]: they fall exactly into that gap. We found none of their texts in that edition or online; the 黃興集 collection and Li Yuanhong’s correspondence still have to be checked.

The edition also confirms their context: on 20 June Huang Xing answers Li Yuanhong’s telegrams 寒 (14th) and 洽 — the first is N34, which we read in clear; the piece of 8 June, signed Yin Ruli, Ge Jing’en and Huang Fu, announces the meeting “at Tang’s house” whose sequel is N24.

One code per correspondent

The published drafts record, at the head of each telegram, the name of the code used: 辰密 for Zeng Jiwu (曾繼梧) in Hunan, 共密 for Li Shucheng and Chen Jiahui, 安密 for Tan Yankai, 嚴密 for Peng Yunyi, and so on^[29]. The clear prefixes on the intercepted forms (容密, 共密, 辰密, 和密, 乾密) are therefore names of cipher books assigned to correspondents. This explains why each family has its own key, and why the 辰密 key, found in October 2026, is unlike the other two: it is the telegraph code itself, reordered (see the Chenmi page).

Japan: arms, loans, and a condition

The 容密 telegrams of Zhang Xiaozhun (張孝準), a graduate of the Tokyo military academy working alongside Huang Xing, detail an order of Japanese arms for Zhejiang, whose military governor Lü Gongwang had taken office on 6 May: about ten thousand rifles, ten or so mountain guns, machine guns (N02, N12); ammunition counted per weapon (N21); payment promised “before 30 June” (N36). Funding comes from a one-million loan offered by an intermediary named 芳川 (N12) and from the five-million loan of the Military Affairs Council at Zhaoqing (N02). Zhejiang offers its tobacco taxes as security (about 280,000 and 140,000 a year) and judges its wine tax (about 900,000) too valuable (N25); it sends an envoy, Wu Zhaolian, to Japan (N25, N36).

Above all, Huang Xing twice states that the Japanese authorities have decided not to lend to the Beijing government until North and South are unified (N17, 10 June; N19b, 11 June)^[25][27]. Yet on 20 June he writes to the Military Affairs Council that “the loan has failed, the Japanese authorities remaining in wait-and-see”^[29]: the June promise was not enough. The identity of “芳川” and of Wu Zhaolian is not established.

The return to the 1912 Constitution

On 10 June Huang Xing sets five conditions for Li Yuanhong: restore the 1912 Provisional Constitution and the old Parliament, refuse any amnesty, make Duan Qirui’s cabinet resign, move Wang Zhanyuan, and bring the republican leaders to Beijing (N17). The next day he adds that “a legal solution will have no effect without armed force behind it”, asks Zhejiang to be “the pillar of the South-East”, and asks Lu Rongting and Li Liejun to march on Hubei and Jiangxi (N19b).

In Shanghai, Huang Fu’s group reports what followed (N24): Li Yuanhong invites the notables to Beijing; Tang Hualong, Gu Zhongxiu, Zhang Ji and Fan Yuanlian are considered for a personal mission; then it is decided that Tang Shaoyi and Tang Hualong will answer that they will not come until an order abolishes Yuan’s laws and restores the 1912 Constitution. Zhang Guogan, the presidential secretary-general, wires that Duan agrees; Tang Hualong leaves for Beijing that evening. On the 14th Li Yuanhong himself answers Huang Xing (N34): he recalls their common fight at Wuhan in 1911 (陽夏同舟), asks him to “support him and correct his mistakes”, and promises to consult the country on “the great affairs of State”. On the 16th Huang Xing still warns against a Beijing manoeuvre to revise the Constitution through provincial delegates, and against Duan, “taking up Yuan’s old tricks” (N35). The 1912 Constitution was restored on 29 June.

Hunan: a division for Li Yuanhong

The four 辰密 telegrams, deciphered last, all go to the telegraphic address of the Hunanese group in Shanghai (Tan Yankai, Chen Jiahui)^[27]. On 9 June Huang Xing explains that the joint telegram to Li Yuanhong, Cen Chunxuan and the provinces is “very hard to word”: it needs a unanimous position, the agreement of the National Protection Army, and must not look opportunistic; he notes that “Japan is very much wait-and-see” (N13). The next day Zhang Xiaozhun proposes giving the new president a reliable force: having Zhao Hengti (趙恆惕), who “has always had Li’s trust” and is then training troops in Hunan under Governor Tang Xiangming, form “an elite division at Li’s disposal”, through Tang Hualong, the governor’s elder brother; the arms would be supplied (N16). This is the practical side of the “no legal solution without armed force” of N19b.

Other glimpses

• Sun Yat-sen orders his troops by telegram to cease fighting; his reply, published in the press, worries Huang Xing’s friends (N32).
• In late June the compromise on the Constitution (Duan Qirui would consult the parliamentarians in Shanghai in a personal capacity, through Ding Shiyi and Xiao Jinrong) is “overturned again”: Duan goes back to three delegates per province (V4B, Rongmi). Meanwhile Yin Ruli leaves for Beijing with Li Shucheng, and the arms purchase goes on with Aoki and Takakura (V4D).
• On 25 June, eleven notables gathered in Shanghai (Tang Shaoyi, Tan Yankai, Sun Hongyi, Niu Yongjian, Zhang Ji, Gu Zhongxiu…) urge Huang Xing to come back: “you built the Republic with your own hands, the whole country looks up to you” (V4A, in clear). On the 27th, Huang Xing hails the fleet that has just rallied (Li Dingxin, Lin Baoyi, Zeng Zhaolin): it is “the rock in midstream” (V4C, in clear). The digits of these two telegrams have not yet been re-read.
• To Tan Renfeng (譚人鳳, 石屛), a Hunanese veteran, Huang Xing sets his condition: “if Li [Yuanhong] governs according to the law, the seeds of disorder can be checked; should he depart from it, I will not accept it either” (N29, 14 June, in clear). Four days earlier he had only answered: “for the moment I have nothing to answer; I am deeply sorry” (N15, in clear, digits not yet re-read).
• Huang Xing backs the Shaanxi army and urges the independent provinces to march north (N04, in clear).
• A channel to Mukden (奉天), in clear: on 12 June a correspondent signing 季 announces that payment of bill of exchange no. 169 is being stopped, with three days of notices in the press (N20); Tokyo replies that the bank is waiting for a telegram from the Shōryū (N31). On the 13th, “侃” promises to return as soon as the date of the meeting is fixed (N22).
• Japanese go-betweens: Consul Koike and Consul General Ariyoshi (N30), Tanaka and Aoki (N23) — probable identifications, not proven.

Limits

The keys are reconstructions, not taken from a code book; every digit was re-read on the scans by Brice Dudout, but a few characters remain unresolved and the translations are proposals. The points above do not claim absolute novelty: they appear neither in the edition of Huang Xing’s drafts nor in the sources consulted online, which does not prove that historians do not know them. Texts, keys and scans: the Rongmi, Gongmi, Chenmi and Telegrams pages.