Qiu Hanjie
Qiú Hànjié 仇汉杰 | |
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| Born | July 12, 1869 Qinghua, Shangea |
| Died | April 24, 1935 (aged 65) Keisi, Senria |
| Allegiance | Heavenly Shangean Empire |
| Service/ | Heavenly Army |
| Years of service | 1889-1932 |
| Rank | Field Marshal |
| Unit | 4th Infantry Regiment, 9th Division |
| Commands held |
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| Battles/wars | |
| Awards | Order of the Orchid Order of the Azure Dragon Order of the Noble Orchid Legion of Merit |
| Spouse(s) | Yi Xiaohui (m. 1891–1935) |
- This is a Shangean name; the family name is Qiu (仇).
Qiu Hanjie (Shangean: 仇汉杰, Qiú Hànjié; July 12th 1869 - April 24th 1935 aged 65) was a Shangean military officer and génocidaire during the Great War. He became most famous as the Commander of the Senrian Expeditionary Army (SEA) that led the invasion of Senria and dominated the occupation of Tousuu from 1927 to 1933. In this role Qiu played a major role in the Senrian Genocide being seen as a key figure in approving the construction and expansion of the extermination zones.
Qiu was born into minor nobility, attending military school and receiving commission as a junior officer in 1889. Qiu participated as a major in the First Sakata Incident when Shangea seized the city of Sakata from Senria and subsequently was appointed as the commander of the Sakata Garrison in 1911. He was reassigned to command the 7th division in the Kaoming peninsula in 1915 and in 1918 was appointed as a member of the General Staff. Considered to be part of the hardline faction of the army he was a key player in the Jiayin Restoration that enthroned the Shanrong Emperor as the absolutist ruler of Shangea in 1922. During the Tousuu Intervention Qiu now serving as major general was appointed as chief of staff of Tousuu Expeditionary Army when Shangean forces intervened in the Senrian Revolution serving under Zhang Haodong, bolstering his reputation as a Senria expert in the Shangean army.
Following the Second Sakata Incident and the start of the Great War Qiu was promoted to field marshal and appointed by the emperor to command the SEA, effectively making Qiu the supreme commander of Shangean and Entente forces in Senria. Qiu was an important war planner for the Shangean invasion and following the creation of the collaborationist Reformed Government dominated the occupation of the territory. Whilst officially Qiu's remit was military as commander of the SEA Qiu played a large role in the civil and military administration of occupied Senria. An ardent Shangean nationalist who was amongst the most fervent anti-Senrian figures in the Shangean command Qiu is recognised to alongside Peace Preservation Birgade commander Shen Jinping to order the start of the Senrian genocide with the creation of the Extermination Zones in 1928. Debate around Qiu's actions centre on whether he had pre-planned the genocide of 9,500,000 Senrians or had implemented such policies out of perceived wartime difficulties.
Qiu fled Senria in 1932 after Shangean forces were defeated on the islands. Held responsible for the defeat on the islands Qiu was forced to resign from all posts in the army, retiring to his hometown of Qinghua. During the Senrian invasion of Shangea Qiu was captured by Senrian forces and detained at a prisoner-of-war camp; in 1935 he was transferred to Keisi where he was formally tried with war crimes. Qiu was unanimously found guilty and was executed by hanging in April 1935. He is widely considered by historians to be the main perpetrator of the Senrian genocide.
Early life
Qiu Hanjie was born in the city of Qinghua in the Wudan province on the July 12th 1869. He was the second son of Qiu Jiaodong, a minor landlord in the Wudan province with his mother Duan Changyin coming from a more wealthy landowning family in the same province. Qiu's family had no strong military background but in the atmosphere of the post-Restoration War Shangean it was expected that as the second son Qiu would pursure a military career.
Qiu was sent to be educated at a Cadet School in Qinghua. Education for boys during this period emphasised discipline, collective over individual good and of the glory of war over material goods. Qiu at school was observed to be humourless, dogmatic and opinionated with a tendency to bully other students. He was considered to be slightly above average within his classes but possessed tremendous self-discipline. Qiu transferred to the Baiqiao Military Academy, the most prestigious of Shangea's military academies, in 1881. His studies were briefly cut short during the 1887 Etrurian-Shangean War when he deployed to fight against Etrurian forces. Qiu was part of the decisive Battle of Jungfa, although he during the battle was assisting general Deng Baozhou at the staff office rather then the frontlines. Qiu graduated from the academy in 1889 with the rank of lieutenant ranked 34th out of 337 cadets.
In 1891 Qiu married Yi Xiaohui, the third daughter of a minor noble from his home-Wudan province. Qiu would have three children with Yi - twin girls born in 1894 and a boy born in 1897. Qiu was regarded as being a "cold, tyrannical father" who would regularly beat his children for minor misdeeds. Qiu pushed his son to similarly receive a military education. Historian Hanamura Soshitsu stated that Qiu's distant relationship of his children highlighted his focus on his military career, but noted that as his children matured Qiu treated them with far more respect as he saw them as similarly adopting his "ferocious self-discipline".
Pre-war military career
Following his graduation from the military academy Qiu was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the 4th Infantry Regiment of the 9th Division which was stationed in the Anqing province. From 1892 to 1897 Qiu was stationed as a military attaché in Senria. During his time in Senria Qiu became to be critical of Senrians; he regarded them as culturally inferior and barbaric in their disposition. Qiu stated that whilst modernisation had "enhanced the people of Shangea to meet discipline with modernity" in Senria it had led to a hedonistic people who were "soft" in their disposition. During his time in Senria Qiu learnt the language, although there is dispute as to whether Qiu was ever fully fluent in Senrian.
In 1898 Qiu applied to become an instructor at the Rongzhuo military academy specialising in "Senrian affairs". Qiu followed orthodox military views of his generation believing in maintaining a large field army that would use superior numbers and "martial spirit" to prevail over technologically superior enemies. Qiu was a particular advocate for the cult of the offensive that taught that the overwhelming force of the Shangean army would be able to cripple an enemy who attempted to defend. This orthodoxy in the army would not be challenged until the 1910's when younger reformists in the military such as Lu Keqian and Ren Xilian promoted the modernisation of the army around a professional core. Similar to all Shangean officers of his generation Qiu was opposed to positivist ideals which has been a major ideological influence on army reformists.
Qiu throughout his career fervently believed that a war with Senria was not only desirable but inevitable, and that Shangea was destined to expand into the islands as they constituted the "organic expansion of Shangean and thus human civilisation". Qiu was a firm believer in social competition and saw a hierarchy of races that were destined to succeed and others destined to fail and submit to the hegemony of the dominant races. According to this paradigm Senrians as a "naturally weaker people" were destined to swear fealty to their Shangean racial and civilizational superiors. Qiu was generally a conservative and unlike other officers was critical of Euclean influence in Shangea - Qiu refused to enter Euclean concessions and attempted to restore traditional clothing and hairstyles to the army albeit with scant success.
It was observed that Qiu was seen by his men as "strict with little tolerance for mistakes" commonly slapping soldiers across the face is they made mistakes or flogging them for insubordination, but was respected for his disciplined approach and was popular amongst some quarters for his stridently conservative and nationalist beliefs. In 1901 Qiu was promoted to the rank of captain (shang wei) and in 1907 to a major (shao xiao).
Sakata incident
During the early 1900's Shangean war planners advocated for Shangea to acquire concessions in Senria for security purposes. They stated that control via a concession would enable them to exert control over the strait between Shangea and Senria as well as act as a beachhead into Senria more generally. There was great fear in Shangea that Senria would be directly colonised by a Euclean nation and thereby be used itself as a bridge which could colonise Shangea. Qiu was part of a commission assembled by the general staff to study the possibility of expanding Shangean control over the strait - he was as such one of those who advocated for Shangea to seize the city of Sakata. The general staff secretly approved a plan for the annexation of the city to be undertaken unilaterally in 1907. However the plan was rejected by the newly enthroned Qingzhuo Emperor on the grounds on the potential to start a war in Coius.
In 1909 a Shangean military attaché, Jiang Hui, was shot in Keisi. The perpetrator was Taguti Hirotada, a left-wing agitator of the Senryuu Taisuutou who called for the end of the reactionary monarchies in Shangea and Senria; Taguti was subsequently detained by the Senrian government and sentenced to death. Despite the Senrian condemnation of the assassination Shangean public opinion went into uproar over Senrian "arrogance" towards the safety of Shangean soldiers and the government was petitioned to take "firm action" against Senria.
The general staff drew up a plan that would demand Senria cede the entirety of Tousuu to become a Shangean protectorate but were strenuously opposed by the Premier Kang Qisun who threatened to resign if the plan was implemented. A compromise was brokered where the Shangean would demand the transfer of the city of Sakata to Shangean rule, control over the Sakata-Ukyou railway and financial concessions for the Shangean Bank of Commerce and the Zhongdong Industrial Bank. The Shangean navy was deployed to threaten Senria in a blatant show of gunboat diplomacy when the ultimatum was handed to the Senrian foreign ministry. The Senrian government worried about the situation escalating into a Coian war and under pressure from Gaullica to accept the Shangean terms acquiesced to the demands, signing a formal Treaty of Friendship to legitimise the transfer and concessions.
Qiu Hanjie led a battalion of troops from the 9th division that landed into Sakata after the formal transfer of the city. The treaty sparked intense resistance in Senria with the 1909 Concession Riots, considered a turning point in Senrian nationalism as there was widespread opposition to cooperation with Shangea. In Sakata itself Qiu was deployed to quells riots although resistance in the city was more muted compared to the more intense actions in Keisi. He was subsequently promoted as lieutenant colonel (zhong xiao) in the newly formed Sakata Garrison.
Qiu like many in the Sakata garrison saw the Treaty of Friendship as to limited in its goals and had advocated an annexation of Sakata. In 1911 Qiu was again promoted to the rank of colonel (shang xiao) when he assigned as the commander of the Sakata garrison. As the Sakata garrison commander Qiu ordered military personnel who protected the Ukyou-Sakata rail line to observe and note the environment of the area. It is suspected that as Sakata garrison commander Qiu drew up several plans on planning the invasion of Senria, although such documents have been considered to either have been destroyed in 1932 or remained closed in the Shangean archives. Qiu was known for making the Sakata garrison amongst the most radical of the military formations in the Shangean army, with members of the garrison often openly talking about conquering Senria. This radicalism was viewed with distrust by the army high command who in 1915 promoted him to the position of brigadier general (da xiao) and reassigned him to the 7th division on the Gaoming (Kaoming) peninsula. This was viewed as a loss of influence as the 7th division was largely inactive.
Jiayin uprising
In 1918 Qiu was promoted again to the rank of major general (shao jiang) where he officially became a member of the General Staff in Baiqiao. Qiu fervently advocated a preventive war against Senria and promoted more intensive ideological training amongst Shangean troops in imbue them with an ultranationalism that would prevail over technological advantages over Euclean forces. The Shangean general staff at this point continued to believe that the next large scale war in Shangea would be between Shangea and one of the Euclean concession holders, most likely Estmere.
Qiu's ultranationalism placed him close to young agitators in the army such as Ren Xilian and Yao Fuzhang but his links to the established high command meant he retained large influence within the high command. Qiu used this influence to promote the ultranationalist agenda and undermine support for the civilian government and the imperial house.
Nevertheless, there was increasing discontent amongst the army regarding the Qingzhuo Emperor who was seen as incompetent in handling several domestic crises during the 1910's in relation to the Great Collapse. With the rise of functionalism in Gaullica many within the army were calling for the creation of a "National-Military State" ((国立军事政府; guólì jūnshì zhèngfǔ) that would end political corruption, entrench the absolute rule of the emperor, expand Shangea's borders across Coius and uphold the racial supremacy of the Shangean race. The positivist influence of the younger officers fused with the traditionalist marital race theories of the old officer class to create a form of scientific racism. Those such as Ren contended that other peoples in Coius were a lower race and so justified their exploitation under the guise of supervision and regulation. Senrians were seen as little more then subhumans often being compared to dogs who needed "strong discipline" and had to be "culled" to control them.
In 1920 Red Summer saw a coalition of peasant and anarchist groups in the Baozhou province rise up. Although being crushed in the Baozhou massacre the unrest weakened the authority of the Emperor, leading to a coalition of young officers to plot with the emperor's brother, Prince Zhanxun, to lead a palace coup against the Qingzhuo emperor. Qiu emerged as one of the ringleaders of this group alongside Ren and Yao.
On the 5 August 1920 the Baiqiao garrison revolted taking control of the post office, railroad ministry, National Assembly and imperial palace. Yao Fuzhang, the leader of the plotters, announced that the Emperor had pleaded to mental insanity and that a regency under his brother Prince Zhanxun would be created. The plot had following the Red Summer been given the blessing of the chief of the army Zhao Hongjun who was appointed as premier whilst maintaining his post as army chief. Qiu as one of the major instigators of the coup saw his influence increase having oversight over a wide range of policy areas as one of the army's most senior officers.