這是一張1932年8月12日的《世界日報》，感謝互聯網，是這些老報紙可以被數字化並在網絡上流傳，雖然有些地方大概複印的原因有不少太暗和模糊，但掩蓋不住這小小紙張傳遞出來的緊張的戰爭氣息。下面的角落裡有一條不起眼的新聞，是關於蔣公電召李元箸的簡短報道，李元箸是我外公，估計蔣公召他就是為抗戰的事。這一年多來，我一直都沒有停止在網絡上搜尋他的信息。隨着越來越多的圖書館把書籍數字化並放到網絡上，我也越來越收集到了新的信息，雖然很不完整，但已經使我很感激了。

最近一直沒有寫博文，除了回國一趟外，也一直在修改英語小說《Gone like Spring Snow》, 除了修改句法錯誤，同時也在加進了更多的情節。

現貼出其中一段關於辛亥革命同盟會攻打南京的小節，這段修改得不是很多，因為考慮到這個故事是主人公從別人那裡聽來的，有個敘事的角度和局限問題。但作為人物自己的回憶就不一樣了，所以後面關於湘鬍子自己的回憶部分，就會需要添加不少情節。

Yet somehow her father seldom talked about himself. Most  stories of Xiang the Beard Yiner had  had heard were from the chats between the men themselves: the  villagers and the town-folk and the neighbours or the  relatives. They highly regarded her father a hero of the Revolution of 1911; they were proud  him and  praised of him.  It was where the title "the Beard" came from: In their hometown people would title a man with great prestige and dauntless bravery " the Beard" in showing their high respect and admiration. His name was Xiang Lan.

One of Xiang Lan’s legendary valiant deeds the people often talked about was what her father had had done in one of the battles of  siege Nanjing City. The historical city near Shanghai  in the southern China was more than six hundred years old,  a capital that had witnessed dynasties rise and fall, the latest one was the “Taiping Heaven Dynasty” which was founded by the self-claimed king, peasant Hong XiuQuan and his rebels. The Taiping Heaven Dynasty had existed  only ten years then was devastated by the government army of the Qing  in 1864. Nanjing was the largest bricked city enclosed within the longest city-walls in the world: there were four circles of walls laying amidst it, the outmost wall had eighteen gates while the inner one had thirteen. As a centre of  politic and culture and economy in the southern China that age, Nanjing was guarded  heavily by the government.

So the “League” plan to siege and take over Nanjing as it was the part of their revolutionary strategies  of overthrowing Qing dynasty after they successfully rose rebellion and sieged a few of other majority cities. Xiang Lan was one of the  vanguard commanders of  the uprising whose task was to break down one of the outer  gates near Yuhuatai Keep (a stone mound in the city). Attacks at all gates that they planned to break were going hard as the city defence seemed impregnable: with such old  stoned high walls and thick timbered gates dotted with bronze-studs and well-equipped soldiers and weapons, altogether the city was as firm  as an iron pail. Three days past, many had died, both the attackers and the defenders .  Yet no gate was brought down at all. More reinforcements of the defence were on their way sending to the city while the uprising had had put all men they had in siege since the beginning and was  eventually  running out of forces. Apparently they would seem to lose the siege, worst of all, that would mean a fatal failure to the “League” and its revolution.

A hero is called a hero because he will always emerge in the  right time and the right place to save the world and change  the course of history. This time it was Xiang Lan  the hero to be. In the fourth day morning, Xiang Lan donned a set of enemy’s armour  which was stripped off a dead soldier and  set out before dawn breaking in the East. Alone! He trotted on his black charger  toward the city gate, not slow not fast. In the dark of the predawn the city guards mistook him their own man since they  decided no enemy dare come alone like that. Or perhaps Xiang Lan tricked the guards by declaring himself a messenger or an officer who carried important messages—he was well trained in a Qing military school in Nanjing and served Qing army as an officer for a year before he joined the League.  Anyway, the city guards put down the drawbridge and opened the thick heavy gate  and saluted  him to pass. As soon as he stepped on the drawbridge, Xiang Lan reined  his charger to gallop. He rushed through the gate as swift as an  arrow flying  in the air; before the guards could have realized what was happening, he had found his way winding up  the city wall to where the enemy battle flag stood.  He dropped down the yellow dragon flag of the Qing dynasty from the flagpole and threw  it under his feet, then pulled out an uprising's flag  from his breast and raised it high to the pole-tip for everyone to see.

In the dim dawn-light the uprising battle flag swaying above the city wall, a figure of a tall and slender young warrior on his warhorse stood beneath it, he raised his sword high above his head against the grey-white  morning sky  like a statue.  It was a great signal in the siege as where the battle flag stood  meant a victory.  Everyone who saw it had thought that the  gate had  finally been broken down.  So the city guards began to pull out while Xiang’s men were  launching  an assault...

Nanjing fell into the League’s hand two days after and three months later the two hundred and sixty-eight year  old Qing dynasty had fallen. It also meant the autocracy that had been existing as long as more than two thousand years in China history was  at an end. The siege itself is called  “Attack Yuhuatai” in books as the battle at Yuhuatai Keep  was the beginning of the siege. This chief victory has become the historic turn-point of modern China. Dr. Sun and his league-mates built the "Republic of China"-- the very first democracy in Chinese history, and set Nanjing as its capital. It was November of 1911, where the name of "the Revolution of 1911" came from.