Battle of Yangxia
Also called: Battle of Wuhan, Battle of Hanyang
From late October to late November 1911 Yuan Shikai’s Beiyang Army, recalled by the Qing, retook Hankou and Hanyang. But meanwhile the provinces of the south and west broke away from the Qing one after another, and on 2 December the revolutionaries took Nanjing.
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Shaken by the Wuchang rising, the Qing court sent the Beiyang Army south and recalled Yuan Shikai, whom it had sent home two years before. The Beiyang troops entered Hankou at the end of October and set its streets on fire; on 1 November Yuan became prime minister, holding the army and the government together. The revolutionaries under Huang Xing fought to hold Hanyang, but lost it on 27 November.
Meanwhile Hunan, Shaanxi, Jiangxi, Shanxi, Yunnan, Shanghai, Guizhou, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Guangxi, Anhui, Fujian, Guangdong and Sichuan declared independence from the Qing one by one. On 2 December the Jiangsu–Zhejiang army took Nanjing, and on 1 December Outer Mongolia also declared it was leaving the Qing.
With Wuchang in front of him, Yuan halted and agreed a truce with the revolutionaries — he meant to bring down the Qing in return for the presidency of the new state. North–South talks opened in Shanghai on 18 December.
