1in July, 905, Tao returned to Shaoxing with Gong Baoquan after receiving a letter from Xu Xilin brought by Qiu Jin about discussing the revolutionary plan, and discussed with Xu Xilin the problem of cultivating the revolutionary backbone. At this time, the Guangfu Association was planning to set up a school to provide military training for the backbone of communist party in all parts of Zhejiang in the name of running a school, in order to prepare for launching an armed uprising and overthrowing feudal autocratic rule. Tao, Xu Xilin and others set out to organize the Datong School. First of all, starting a school is faced with the problem of running funds. Cai Yuanpei's younger brother Cai Yuankang suggested to Xu Xilin to rob a bank to raise funds for running a school. Xu Xilin agreed and took immediate action. He borrowed 5,000 yuan from Xu Zhongqing, a member of the Guangfu Association and a wealthy businessman in Shaoxing, and asked Shaoxing magistrate Xiong for approval in the name of students performing gymnastics. He bought 50 guns, 9 rifles and 20,000 bullets from Shanghai. Xu Xilin also asked Zhu Shaokang to return to Shengxian County, and selected more than 20 physically strong Communist party member youths to come to Shaoxing, each of whom gave 20 yuan a fee. Xu Xilin personally supervised the training in East Lake, and prepared to implement the robbery plan as soon as the time was ripe. Tao strongly opposes this and thinks that improper fund-raising cannot harm the overall situation. Because once the plan is implemented, it will inevitably cause great repercussions in society, not only exposing itself, but also discrediting the Guangfu Association, and ultimately it will not be worth the candle.
In addition to the difficulties in running a school, it is also quite difficult to choose the site of Datong school. Fusaiji, near Dongpu in the west of Shaoxing City, near Datong Bridge, has convenient transportation, spacious houses and a lot of open space. It is an ideal place to run a school. Xu Xilin, with the consent of the abbot, borrowed an empty house in a temple to run a school, and prepared to set up a Datong armament school to train party member. Xu Xilin's father, Xu Fengming, immediately intervened to stop him. The school-running plan of Guangfu Association was blocked by Xu Xilin's father and was about to abort. This matter was quickly learned by Xu, the alternate magistrate of Yucang County in the city. He wanted to get a good evaluation from advocating academics, so he took the initiative to find Xu Xilin and offered to borrow Yucang's empty house to run a school. To this end, Tao, Xu Xilin, Gong Baoquan and others borrowed several empty houses in Yucang from Xu as school places. Datong school is located in front of the ancient palace garden in Shaoxing, with Yucang in Shanhui as the school building. The name of the school was originally named Datong Ordnance School. However, at that time, the Qing government stipulated that private military equipment schools were not allowed. In order to cover the revolutionary activities, Tao suggested that the school be renamed Datong Normal School, but it mainly focused on military training. In order to obtain the legal status of running a school, Tao personally went to Hangzhou, the provincial capital, and submitted an application for running a school to the Zhejiang Academic Affairs Office. In the application, Tao suggested that Datong College set up a special gymnastics course. After six months' training, the students returned to their hometown to establish Yingyong for the government. At that time, the honest official was confused by Tao's grandiose reasons and thought it was reasonable, so he approved the application for the establishment of Datong School.
Xu Xilin suggested that all Shaoxing officials should be invited to attend the opening ceremony of Datong School, and all of them should be eliminated. And asked Tao to inform all local parties to respond at the same time and launch an armed uprising. Tao thought it was premature and tried to persuade Xu Xilin to give up the hasty uprising plan. On September 23rd 1905, the opening ceremony of Datong Academy was held, with Xu Xilin and Tao in charge, Qian Bao Sun as the head teacher and Chen Wei as the director. Since then, Datong Academy has become the main base for the Guangfu Association to attract members and engage in conference activities. It is also the first school for training military cadres founded by bourgeois revolutionaries in China.
Tao, Gong Baoquan and Lv Xiongxiang went to Zhuji, Yongkang, Jinyun, Jinhua, Fuyang and other places in Zhejiang, and called on party leaders to gather in Shaoxing and study soldier gymnastics in Datong School. Datong Academy initiated the secret society of China and received modern military education. Tao Wei Datong Normal School has formulated a number of rules and regulations, stipulating that all students in Datong Normal School should join the Guangfu Association; After graduation, students are still under the control of school staff; However, the backbone of the club only practices soldiers' gymnastics, and after graduation, it is issued with a diploma with a special code. In order to coerce Shaoxing local government and gentry and force them not to oppose Datong School at will in the future, every time the school starts and graduates, clean officials, noble gentry and scholars in Shaoxing are invited to attend, and photos are taken as souvenirs, and sent to various departments and schools in prefectures and counties for hanging.
Tao also stipulated that Communist party member could only participate in military gymnastics training to train military talents for armed struggle. The curriculum of Datong school is mainly physical education, with special emphasis on military sports, including soldiers' gymnastics, equipment gymnastics, marching at night, climbing mountains, swimming and trumpeting. The school's teaching equipment is mainly guns and ammunition for military exercises, equipped with sports exercise equipment such as flyovers, pomegranate trees, platforms, irons, wooden horses, swings and hoop rings. Datong school has special classes and ordinary classes. The students in the special class are all Communist party member. They only practice martial arts and don't learn other subjects. Ordinary classes recruit ordinary young students, with both civil and military courses. Besides basic culture, military training is equally important. Students in Datong school live a militarized life and have a serious style of study. Whether you get up and turn off the lights, or after class, use the horn; Students imitate the formal military establishment, hold three exercises and four lecture halls every day, do military gymnastics, and conduct strict military training in suburban universities. When practicing, they all queue up in and out in sportswear. In case of heavy rain, practice in the canteen or run in the corridor. Every training activity will be repeated many times until students learn to learn well, and sometimes live-fire military exercises will be conducted.
Datong Academy, under the guise of running a normal school, recruits volunteers all over the country and conducts militarized training. Datong Academy became an important stronghold and organ of China Guangfu Association, and trained a number of revolutionary backbones. They became an important force in the Revolution of 1911 in Zhejiang and played an important role in recovering Hangzhou and Shanghai and conquering Nanjing.