At this time Malaya, which included what is now Peninsular Malaysia and Singapore, had the largest Overseas Chinese population outside of China itself.  Many of them were rich and carried out activities for the revolutionaries.  On November 13, 1910, Sun Yat-sen, along with several leading figures of the Tongmenghui, gathered at the Penang conference to draw up plans for a decisive battle. The following day on November 14, 1910, Sun Yat-sen chaired an Emergency Meeting of the Tongmenghui at 120 Armenian Street  and raised Straits Dollars $8,000 on the spot. The planning events are known as the 1910 Penang Conference.  Originally planned to occur on April 13, 1911, the preparations on April 8 did not go as planned, delaying the date to April 27. Huang Xing and nearly a hundred fellow revolutionaries forced their way into the residence of the Qing viceroy of Guangdong and Guangxi provinces. The uprising was initially successful but Qing reinforcements turned the battle into a catastrophic defeat. Most revolutionaries were killed, only few managed to escape. Huang Xing was wounded during the battle; he lost one of his fingers when it was hit by a bullet. Only 86 bodies were found , and the bodies of others could never be found. The dead were mostly youths with all kinds of social backgrounds, former students, teachers, journalists, and oversea Chinese.  Some of them were of high rank in the Alliance. Before the battle, most of the revolutionaries knew that the battle would probably be lost, since they were heavily outnumbered, but they went into battle anyway.  The mission was carried out like that of a suicide squad.  Their letters to their loved ones were later found.
Question: When did the revolutionaries know they would lose the battle?
Answer: Before the battle