ime Yuan Shih-kai saw that the
revolutionaries were powerful enough to compel consideration and at
least partial acquiescence in their demands. It can not be thought
surprising that the proposed elimination of the hated Manchus from the
Government was popular, yet it must seem remarkable that the
revolutionary movement was so definitely republican in its aims, and as
such achieved so much success. There had been little open agitation in
favor of a republic, but the ground had been prepared for it to a
certain extent by a secret propaganda. The foreign-drilled troops of
the army were disaffected in many cases and were approached with some
result; the eager spirits of the party in the south, where practically
the whole strength of the movement lay, formed an alliance with certain
of the officers of these troops. No sooner was the revolution begun
than a military leader appeared in the person of Li Yuan-hung, a
brigadier-general, who had commanded a considerable body of these
foreign-drilled soldiers, and was supported by large numbers of such
men in the fighting in and around Wuchang-Hankau. That the
revolutionaries, who were chiefly of the student class, and not of the
"solid" people of the country, were able to enlist the active
cooperation of these officers and their troops accounts for the quick
and astonishing success of the movement. And at the outset, whatever is
the case now, many of the solid people--magistrates, gentry, and
substantial merchants--also indorsed it.

Toward the end of November the revolutionaries captured Nanking, a
decisive blow to the imperialists, and this former capital of China
became the headquarters of a Provisional Republican Government. Soon
afterward, through the good offices of Great Britain, a truce was
arranged between the north and the south. Yuan Shih-kai was striving
with all his might to retain the dynasty as a limited monarchy, but
"coming events cast their shadows before" in the resignation of the
Regent early in December. Negotiations went on between Yuan, who was
represented at a conference held in Shanghai by Tang Shao-yi, an able
and patriotic man and a protege of his own, and the revolutionaries,
but the leaders of the latter made it clear that there could be no
peaceful solution of the situation short of the abdication of the
dynasty and the institution of some form of republic. At the end of
December Dr. Sun Yat-sen, whose striking and romantic story is well
known, was a