Tang Shengzhi
On the night of the incident Eugene Chen, the foreign minister of China, hurried to Consul General Takao and expressed his regrets and said that China would take full responsibility to resolve the issue. Wuhan garrison commander Tang Shengzhi also came and expressed his regrets, and requested the withdrawal of the Japanese landing party since his army was now guarding the concession. The consul general respected China's show of good faith and sought the evacuation of the landing party. Because it seemed that the Chinese were showing their sincerity by stationing their army in the area surrounding the concession, keeping away the crowds with the cooperation of the jiuchadui, and putting up posters exhorting citizens to not loot or harm the Japanese, the landing party for a time returned to its base at Taisho Hall. However, the Chinese army itself engaged in looting and immediately the Japanese redeployed their landing force. Tang Shengzhi's army which had entered Honganji was accused of looting the inner temple and was replaced by the army of He Jian, whose forces in turn withdrew from Honganji at the insistence of the Japanese landing party.