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On April 27th, 1911, the
United Parties led by Dr. Sun Yatsen held the 10th unsuccessful
uprising to overthrow the Qing Dynasty. 72 Martyrs were
laid to rest on the Huanghua Hill (Yellow Flowers Hill).
Originally planned to take place on April 13th (March
15th of the Chinese calendar), the uprising was joined by
some 500 volunteers with Zhao Sheng as the commanding officer
and Huang Xing as his vice-commander. They planned to simultaneously
attack several strategic points of Guangzhou city and after
the seizure of the town lead the troops north to Hunan and
Jiangxi Province toward the town of Nanjing.
Struggled by shortage of funds and weapons, the uprising
had to be postponed for two weeks. Additional to that, the
tighten security after the assassination of one of the Qing's
generals had strongly affected the initial plans of the
insurrection. Unfortunately these conditions weakened the
revolutionary network. Not until the afternoon before the
uprising did Zhao Sheng and his troops , who were scattered
and hiding in the suburbs of Guangzhou, Hong Kong and some
surrounding towns and villages, receive the confirmation
of the exact date. And thus they were unable to arrive in
Guangzhou on time. With all these problems, Huang Xing,
the vice-commanding officer was forced to start the rebellion
with highly reduced number of followers.
On April 27th, 1911, at 5:30 in the evening, Huang Xing
leading a little over 100 revolutionaries attacked the Governor's
office building. In the meanwhile, another smaller group
led by Yu Peilun and Yao Guoliang joined them. They tried
to capture the governor Zhang Mingqi and force him to turn
against the Qing government. But the governor had escaped
the plot and hidden himself at a local naval base. Not having
attained their objective, the revolutionaries managed to
put the government buildings on fire and continued fighting
against Qing's followers on the streets of Guangzhou.
Being without the planned support of the Qing troops,
lost communication between the revolutionaries' groups and
heavily outnumbered by the Qing followers, the insurrection
fell. Although the uprising did not succeed, it did though
strengthen the fighting spirits against the Qing government
and lay a solid foundation for later Wuchang Uprising, which
successfully ended the rule of the Qing dynasty.
After the fall of the uprising, the Qing government decided
to leave the dead bodies on the streets to warn the opposition
against any future revolts. On May 3rd, 1911, Pan Dawei,
one of the members of the United Parties, under the threat
of his life, organized the crew to bury the dead at the
location of today's memorial park.
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