1911-3-2210 Wuchang, to Mr. Xiao Hengshan: Under your command, your troops killed thirty-one railway workers.
The injustice and misery are so profound that even the river waters turn cold.
You, sir, are a fox, borrowing the tiger’s might of Wu Ziyu to lord over the Jianghan region, preying upon the people with ever-increasing ferocity.
In one battle, you crushed the Beijing-Hankou railway workers—how valiant indeed!
The world speaks of the sanctity of labor; you, sir, must proclaim the sanctity of warlords.
Judging by recent events in Wuhan, warlords are indeed sanctified.
Yet I have heard of laborers who cannot be exterminated, but never of warlords who cannot be wiped out.
Consider, sir, those around you: aside from a hundred or so division and brigade commanders, garrison commanders, and police chiefs—utterly irredeemable villains like Du Xijun and He Xifan—who among them is not a comrade of our laboring class?
Today, soldiers load their rifles to kill laborers; tomorrow, with a tearful gesture from us laborers, they may turn their guns against the warlords.
You, sir, call us rebels, but do you not know that the land is filled with rebels?
Of four hundred million people, at least three hundred ninety million are rebels.
You do not seek the people’s support but instead brutalize them; you do not reflect on yourself but only multiply the killings.
The accumulated resentment will drive people to desperate acts; even withered trees and rotten stumps will rise to make trouble.
Vast as the world is, there will be no place for you to stand.
We earnestly offer this loyal counsel; may you choose wisely.
Jointly signed by the Hunan Provincial Federation of Trade Unions.
The 10th.