One of the things I hadn't fully appreciated, until reading the link, was how divided even the perpetrators were. Firstly, there are indications that not all the armies worked together, e.g. "Beijing [Military Region] commander had refused to supply outside armies with food, water or barracks", and the suggestion that different armies may have had allegiance to different factions in the State Council, e.g. "we cannot substantiate reports that six military regions (not Beijing) support Li Peng". And secondly, if the information is correct, it seems the atrocities were committed by the 27 Army who were just one of at least 8 other armies present. Furthermore there are even multiple references to troops from other armies being victims of the 27 Army, e.g. "27 Army APCs [Armored Personnel Carriers] opened fire on the crowd (both civilians and soldiers) ... APCs ran over troops and civilians", "27 Army ordered to spare noone and shot wounded SMR [Shenyang Military Region] soldiers". And even within the 27 Army itself "27 Army officer shot dead by own troops apparently because he faltered". Sounds quite chaotic.
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The protesters were also beset by factionalism. One issue the government had was that it didn't have a reliable partner in negotiations: different student groups had a diverse range of goals, from anti-corruption measures, to more socialism, to more capitalism, to freedom of speech, to democracy, to better housing standards, to lower tuition. And there was a constant tension between moderate and hardline student groups.
Imagine if Occupy Wall Street was 100,000 strong and had occupied Times Square, and the city of New York was trying to negotiate with them to meet their demands.