If you want to sort this out, you have to start with the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. During the uprising of
the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the Qing Dynasty found that the soldiers of the Eight Banners and the soldiers of the Green Battalion had lost their fighting capacity and could not defeat the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom at all.
What to do? The
imperial court came up with a two-pronged approach: on the one hand, it gathered the Green Battalion soldiers who could still fight, and on the other hand, it mobilized officials and landlords from all over the country to launch armed regiments on the spot, which had the meaning of plunging Long Hair into the vast ocean of the people’s war.
So Zeng Guofan, the right assistant minister of the Ministry of War, who returned home from Ding You, received an imperial edict from the imperial court in this situation. Zeng Guofan said that I am not modest, I am an assistant minister of the Ministry of War, how can I suddenly start to engage in regiment training? The court said that everyone has studied and decided, so you can roll up your sleeves and work harder!
But Tuan Lian belongs to Tuan Lian, but the court doesn’t care about the food and pay-according to the idea of the court, you Tuan Lian are all local armed forces, to protect the safety of the place, shouldn’t the place pay some protection money? Therefore, Tuan Lian’s salary is basically raised by the people
who pull the team, but the advantage is also here: since you bring your own food to defend the Qing Dynasty, the Qing court will naturally not care how big your team can be.
So in this difficult environment, Zeng Guofan began his work.
Zeng Guofan’s method of recruiting troops was very simple: he pulled out a group of people himself, and then let these people go to recruit soldiers separately: you can recruit as many people as you can, and if all your people are finished, then you don’t do it.
Everyone said they knew, so they went back and started to develop offline from their relatives and friends.
It’s like a pyramid scheme.
The battalion officer is chosen by the commander, the outpost is chosen by the battalion officer, the chief officer is chosen by the outpost, and the brave officer is chosen by the chief officer. If the Hunan Army records
the system of the Hunan Army, then the upper and lower levels will maintain each other, and the generals and soldiers will be close to each other, and each will protect its chief officer, who will die, whose army will be scattered, whose army will survive, and whose army will be finished.
Since Zeng Guofan was from Hunan, most of his relatives and friends were also from Hunan. The result of this is that the team he pulled up is basically Hunan people, so it is called the Hunan Army. The result of
this is that the army has completely become a private army, but the advantage is that the will of the whole army is unified, Zeng Guofan commands like an arm, but since these soldiers are recruited temporarily, the combat effectiveness is naturally somewhat worrying. As a result, when the early Hunan Army fought with the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, it was often defeated.
However, Zeng Guofan did not believe in evil, and he said that he had been beaten? In terms of success or failure, heroic life, the big deal is to start all over again! Let’s do it again!
So after fighting again and again, we were surprised to find that the Hunan Army had changed from a standard weak chicken army to a strong force.
The court euphemistically expressed its concern about this.
Zeng Guofan was born as an assistant minister. In the middle of the common people, as soon as they shouted, millions of people would follow them, fearing that it would not be a blessing for the country. Yong’an Wenbian
‘s court naturally looked down on a hundred stepchildren like the Hunan Army, while the court’s own troops were the Jiangnan Camp and Jiangbei Camp, which were built by the elite of the Green Camp of the whole country. But these own teams have a characteristic, that is, they can do anything, but not fight.
A bandit named Tang Baichuan was captured, and four copies of Huang Bai-ling’s inverse book were found. There were words in the inverse book that the officers and soldiers were not worried about. After reading them, they were angry and ashamed. The lost documents of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom made a comment on the history
, but it turned out that the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was too dark, and directly demolished the Jiangnan Camp and the Jiangbei Camp! Now the last troops directly under the court are gone! As a result, the Hunan Army became the last straw of the Qing court, and its establishment was expanded again and again. Zeng Guofan, who wanted to make contributions, led people to fight one hard battle after another, and finally broke the capital of Tianjing and destroyed the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom! Zeng Guofan’s position also rose, from the assistant minister of the Ministry of War to Prince Taibao and first-class Marquis, with hundreds of thousands of Hunan troops under his command, directly controlling the lifeblood of the southeast.
So the court began to panic. As soon as
the imperial court pondered that you, the Hunan Army, only listened to you, Zeng Guofan, was not a thing! Long hair (Taiping Heavenly Kingdom) is almost done now. If you want to drive out the Tartars one day, no one can stop you.
It can be said that in 1863, the future direction of China as a whole was largely determined by Zeng Guofan.
However, Zeng Guofan said that my ambition since childhood was to be a big loyal minister, okay? Rebellion? Rebellion against what! It is serious to be careful that Gong Gaozhen unloads the mill and kills the donkey. Now the war is almost over. Your Majesty, let’s cut down the Hunan Army! Of course, the
court was overjoyed, but one person objected to it.
The man’s surname was Li, his given name was Hongzhang, and his courtesy name was Ziqi.
Li Hongzhang was originally Zeng Guofan’s aide and was highly regarded by Zeng Guofan. In the war with the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Li Hongzhang also made great contributions-but this is not the point, the point is that Li Hongzhang also had a team called the Huai Army. The establishment of
the Huai Army can be traced back to the time when the Jiangnan Camp was completely defeated by the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. The collapse of the Jiangnan Camp made the whole Jiangnan under the military front of the Heavenly Kingdom. The vast number of landlords and old money had no way to go to heaven and no way to enter the earth. They rushed to Shanghai in an attempt to seek refuge. But the problem is that it is useless to go to Shanghai without soldiers! So everyone finally went to Zeng Guofan’s head, saying that we had nothing else, but more money! You send a team to protect our safety. Can we spend money to buy safety?
Zeng Guofan said I was very interested! (At that time, the Hunan Army was badly short of money.) But who to send became a problem. After many setbacks, Li Hongzhang took the job. He imitated
the organizational system of the Hunan Army and pulled a team from the Jianghuai area of Anhui Province, so this team was called the Huai Army. The basic organizational system of
the Huai Army was similar to that of the Hunan Army, but since it was defending Shanghai, the Huai Army inevitably came into contact with more foreign things. Therefore, since its birth, the Huai Army has been more modern than Hunan Army.
The formation uses Tessie.. Ming Jiao’s Orders Are All Yi Language — — Hunan Army Annals, Volume 10
Li Hongzhang thinks that we all rely on the army to start, say disarmament, after disarmament, what if the court has some other ideas? The most important thing is that the Qing Dynasty is not peaceful at the moment, and there are many swords everywhere. We can keep the troops everywhere to suppress the rebellion. With the help of Chu Yong and Huai Yong, the
Guangdong bandits, the Nien bandits, and the Hui bandits were brought down. Volume 81 of the Imperial Classic Continuation, Minister
Xu Tuanlian, one of the two men took the initiative to disarm and wanted to retire after success to set an example for all generations of loyal ministers, while the other chose to grasp the barrel of a gun in his hand and become a powerful minister. Because Li Hongzhang highly praised the military technology and ideas of the West, he naturally began to promote various Westernization movements after he came to power, including the first army school in China, which was modeled on the Western military school. Beiyang Military Academy
in Tianjin. As the first military Academy in modern China
, Beiyang Military Academy has trained a large number of well-known military generals, such as Feng Guozhang, Duan Qirui, Cao Kun, Wang Shizhen and so on.
However, there was a man who did not come from the Beiyang Military Academy, but became the first leader of the Northern Warlords after Li Hongzhang.
He is yuan Shikai.
yuan Shikai, courtesy name Weiting, No. Rong’an, native of Xiangcheng, Henan Province, his academic achievements when he was young.. Comparatively average. He took part in the provincial examination again and again, but failed all the time.
yuan Shikai said angrily, “If I don’t stay here, I have my own place to stay. I can’t study. Can I join the army?”?
That has to work!
yuan Shikai’s great-uncle, yuan Jiasan, was a general of the Huai Army, while yuan Baoqing, yuan Shikai’s adoptive father (because yuan Baoqing had no children, so yuan Baozhong adopted his own son yuan Shikai to yuan Baoqing), and Wu Changqing, then a fierce general of the Huai Army and a confidant of Li Hongzhang, were sworn brothers. So yuan Shikai easily became an aide to Wu Changqing. In
1882, when the internal turmoil broke out in Korea, Wu Changqing was sent to Korea by Li Hongzhang to control the situation, accompanied naturally by yuan Shikai. As a result, after arriving in Korea, yuan Shikai showed extraordinary military talent, not only easily helped Wu Changqing fix the internal turmoil of Korea, but also tit-for-tat withstood the pressure of the Japanese.
This made yuan Shikai famous. The Japanese originally thought that they could take this opportunity to control Korea, but yuan Shikai disturbed the situation. The Japanese government lodged a solemn protest with the Qing Dynasty, saying that we friendly people were inexplicably surprised and must severely punish yuan Shikai!
Everyone sees that I can go to this yuan Shikai! Young and promising! Li Hongzhang immediately made the final decision: “Well, I see you are both wise and brave, so you should stay in Korea for a long time and control the situation for the court!”!
Cha has the same knowledge of yuan Shikai, who has both courage and strategy, and can know the general situation. Wu Changqing led his troops to the east and stayed in Wangjing for a long time. Renwu, Jiashen two set the chaos, the most familiar situation, the old and new members of the Korean Xianxiang respect. It seems that it is appropriate to give priority to his powers as the Prime Minister stationed in Korea to negotiate trade matters — — The Complete Works of Li Hongzhang, Memorial Manuscripts, Volume 55
, One Step to the Sky!
At that time, yuan Shikai, who was only in his twenties, suddenly became the third-grade official of the Qing Dynasty and the overlord of Korea. After that, he stayed in Korea until the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War. I don’t need to say much about the result of the Sino-Japanese
War of 1894-1895. Everyone knows that the army and navy of the Qing Dynasty were defeated by the Japanese, and the whole country was shocked. In summing up the experience and lessons, everyone coincidentally targeted Li Hongzhang and his Huai Army, believing that these troops had been completely finished, and that if we want to revive the Qing Dynasty, we must carry out military reform! Moreover, we must change from the root and build a new army!
(Huai Army) Arrogant and Lazy, Relaxed Military Aircraft, Defeated in Every Battle, Unusable — — Historical Materials of Sino-Japanese Negotiations in Guangxu Dynasty, Volume 30
: If you want to stress the way of self-improvement, you must first focus on training, and if you want to quickly increase the strength of the army, you must reform the old system. Disciples of Rong’an, Volume 2
, and foreigners are naturally happy to see all this, and foreigners have said: “Training?”? Good thing! In this way, we help you plan, we want to practice, we will train a top army!
The court said that this is very much to my liking, but how do we train this top army?
Foreign big people said that this matter is easy to handle, you approve money, guns and resources, and then our foreign instructors command the team, keep the first-class training for you to fight! As for the quantity, let’s have a hundred thousand people to practice first.
Get out of here.
Li Hongzhang and others said that you were afraid that the monkey was not invited to tease? A new army of 100,000 men! Do you know how much it costs? And then this team has to hire foreign instructors? Is it up to me or you to decide when there is something else? So we discussed and discussed, and finally decided to cross the river by feeling the stones. The result of crossing the river by
feeling the stones was that Li Hongzhang’s direct line, Hu Jian, personally set up a three-battalion “Dingwu Army” in Machang, which copied the Western military system as a pilot project.
However, military training is not a day’s work-even if the Qing Dynasty has its own national conditions here, biu’s military forces can be quickly completed, I am afraid three battalions can not do anything important. Therefore, in addition to this, the imperial court also transferred the “Gan Army,” which had been putting down the war in the northwest, to the vicinity of Beijing, and pulled out 30 battalions of troops from the Huai Army that could fight, and switched to the Western military system for training, which was called the “Wu Yi Army.”. The Wuyi Army, the Dingwu Army, and the Gan Army jointly defended the capital and were known as the “three armies of the Northern Warlords.”.
However, although it is known as the Beiyang Army, only the Dingwu Army was established in full accordance with the Western military thinking, and its weapons, equipment and training are naturally far better than other two armies. After practicing for a while, the court felt that the effect of the new army was good, so it decided to further expand the scale. However, Machang was a small place, and the barracks were naturally stretched after
the expansion of the army. So after consulting the imperial court, the pilot troops moved to a small station and began a new round of expansion.
The troops could be expanded, but Hu Jian, the chief military officer, was a bit unable to do it. He was originally a civilian, but he was chosen to form a new army because he proposed training and shouted fiercely, and he was a direct descendant of the Huai Army. Now that the size of the team has expanded again and again, he began to feel that he was unable to catch up. At this time, Li Hongzhang was criticized for signing the Treaty of Shimonoseki, and the wind direction changed greatly, so Hu Jian was soon transferred to repair the railway.
So who will take over Hu Jian’s position and train the new army?
Everyone said, of course, you have to find someone who knows how to fight, is in the prime of life, and is loyal to the court!
Where can we find such a talented person?
yuan Shikai!
yuan Shikai did not stay in Korea for nothing these years. He took advantage of his position to get a large amount of gold and silver. After returning home, he keenly sniffed out the change of wind direction in Korea. So he tactfully got through the joint of Li Lianying, a big star beside the Empress Dowager, and got on the line with Rong Lu, a hot and powerful minister at that time. When he
was bored, he suddenly met his friend Ruan Jun Dou Zhan, who was willing to be Cao Qiusheng, and advised his younger brother to stay under the door of General Manager Li. On the one hand, it is a matter of flattery and speculation to get its inheritance and visit the direct governor of the Jin Dynasty, Rong Zhongtang — — Selected
Historical Materials of the Northern Warlords; On the other hand, yuan Shikai did make great efforts to create his image as a “military master.” He not only frequently wrote letters to explain his military thinking, but also paid his own money to print these things into books and distribute them to the ministers in the court. As a result, everyone in the court knew that there was such a yuan Shikai, who was proficient in military affairs and was in the prime of life. He had made contributions in Korea in his early years and helped the Korean government train the new army. He was a rare talent!
Even better, because yuan Shikai tried every means to sneak back into the country before the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, the cauldron of defeat could not be put on his head at all! Li Hongzhang was about to lose power, and yuan Shikai was naturally strongly recommended by Li Hongzhang as the “talent” he had previously favored.
So up and down, when talking about the next candidate to take over the new army, everyone’s tone was surprisingly consistent! Whether it was the Westernization Group or the conservatives, whether it was the Manchu dignitaries or the Han ministers, whether it was the central officials or the feudal officials, everyone shouted out a name with one voice: yuan Shikai! yuan Shikai was 37 years old in 1895, the 21st year
of Guangxu.
The small station training has begun. When
yuan Shikai took over the Dingwu Army, the Dingwu Army already had ten battalions, and the total number of people was close to five thousand. After yuan Shikai took office, he further expanded his military, recruited more than 2,000 men, and renamed the Dingwu Army the “New Army.”. The whole army was built in full accordance with the German army system, with infantry, cavalry, artillery and engineers all available and well-equipped.
More importantly, yuan Shikai made great efforts to build the army.
He selected the elite from the outstanding cadets of the Beiyang Military Academy over the years as the backbone, and at the same time, he made a network of the generals who lost power after the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895 and the generals of the Huai Army whom he had long been familiar with. In this way, on the surface, the officers in the new army, big and small, were either proficient in military science or experienced in battle, all of them were temporary choices, but in fact, almost all of them had a deep personal relationship with yuan Shikai, and even were grateful to him. If
an officer is bribed by the market, what about the big man?
Easy to handle, brainwashing!
On the one hand, yuan Shikai strengthened military discipline and gave strict orders; on the other hand, he set an example and personally paid the officers and men, trying to put an end to all kinds of bad habits of withholding military pay and taking empty pay. Most importantly, he paid special attention to the ideological construction of officers and soldiers, instilling all kinds of Confucian ethics into officers and soldiers every day-Lord yuan is so good to us, we have to be satisfied! You must know how to repay a debt of gratitude!
Everyone thinks it makes sense.
So someone pointed out, how can we just pay back the kindness by words! We have to institutionalize and normalize the matter of repaying kindness! Just. Give Lord yuan a position of longevity and kowtow sooner or later!
Therefore, under the encouragement of those who are interested, the new army quickly became yuan Shikai’s loyal running dog. While yuan Shikai was very gratified by this, he also spared no effort to train his troops and move around, trying to gain more power.
At that time, the conflict between the Empress Dowager and Emperor Guangxu had become more and more intense, and after the defeat of the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, the voice of reform in China was getting higher and higher. yuan Shikai naturally refused to miss this speculative opportunity. As a result, on the one hand, he maintained relations with people like Rong Lu, and on
the other hand, he began to have close contact with the reformers. Kang Youwei’s famous “Ten Thousand Words Book” was handed over through yuan Shikai’s channel. This time
, however, yuan Shikai failed.
Conservatives say you have the new army in your hands, and you are in close contact with the reformers. You are holding rallies together and paying for sponsorship. What do you want to do? The officials and gentry
in Tianjin said that yuan Jun was meticulous in handling affairs, was fond of killing and was not subject to the control of the ministers of the Northern Warlords. Meng Jiaoting Miscellany Volume II
The imperial court soon made a move, and Rong Lu, who had strongly recommended yuan Shikai, was sent to investigate the case. We don’t know what happened after they met, but we can be sure that Rong Lu got what he wanted from yuan Shikai. So much so that after he returned to Beijing, he praised yuan Shikai for sparing no effort in military training. He was a rare backbone of the Qing Dynasty!
However, although yuan Shikai managed to muddle through this time, with the gradual intensification of the conflict between Guangxu and Cixi, he had to stop his hedging behavior. On September 4,
1898, Guangxu issued a decree to dismiss the officials of the Ministry of Rites who opposed the reform. A week later, Guangxu had an audience with yuan Shikai and began to make official wishes.
yuan Shikai expressed his gratitude to Zhu Long for his kindness.
Rong Lu, on the other hand, found yuan Shikai and said, “You have something in mind. Hurry back and stay well. What?”? Is it not convenient for the emperor to ask you to resign? So what? Britain and Russia are going to war recently, and you say you have to go back to prepare for defense.
yuan Shikai said that Xiaoguan would follow the instructions.
Guangxu summoned yuan Shikai again and said, “Don’t listen to Rong Lu’s nonsense. In the future, you two will be in charge of your own affairs and you will listen to my command.”.
yuan Shikai expressed his willingness to die for the emperor.
yuan Shikai knew very well that Guangxu had almost no cards to play. But as far as Cixi and Rong Lu were concerned, they had too many cards in their hands. You know, the other two armies in the three armies of the Northern Warlords were still firmly in Rong Lu’s hands. At present, 100,000 troops are gathered around Beijing. No matter how many troops you can fight in the new army, they are only more than 7,000.
Seven thousand dozen hundred thousand, is it worth taking this risk for Emperor Guangxu?
yuan Shikai thought it might not be worth it, so it was better not to take the risk. However, he did not intend to stand on Cixi’s side: after all, the emperor was still the emperor, what if he made a comeback later? Do you still want to live? So the best way is to preserve strength in this coup and please both sides.
However, at the most critical moment of the coup d’etat of 1898, Tan Sitong found yuan Shikai with a secret letter from Emperor Guangxu. We need yuan Aiqing now. You led the troops to the capital, killed Rong Lu, and helped the Qing Dynasty. Will you come?
yuan Shikai said that I must go! You wait, I turn around and lead the troops to the capital to rescue you!
Tan Sitong left happily. However, as soon as he turned around, yuan Shikai sold him: “I report it!”! I expose! They. They’re going to rebel! There is
really no way, there Cixi ordered strict investigation of the reformers, here you let me lead the troops into the capital, this time in any case can not continue to play dumb. In this case, yuan Shikai finally made his own choice and stood opposite Emperor Guangxu. The
Reform Movement of 1898 failed completely, but yuan Shikai was promoted again. Cixi said that yuan Aiqing had a firm political stand, a clear-cut stand on major issues of principle, and a clear mind in the face of major issues of right and wrong, so he should be rewarded! In this way, first give your new army two thousand troops, and then you follow Rong Lu to do a good job together!
At this time, Rong Lu was already a super minister in charge of the government of the Qing Dynasty because he had helped the old Buddha suppress the anti-Qing elements. He was fully aware of the important role of guns in the coup process, so he decided decisively to integrate the Gan Army and the new army into the Wuwei Army! Re-integrate military power into the hands of the central government!
yuan Shikai’s new army was reorganized into the Wuwei Right Army, while the Gan Army was reorganized into the Wuwei Rear Army and the Wuyi Army was reorganized into the Wuwei Front Army. The Wuwei Zhongjun, on the other hand, was composed of soldiers of the Eight Banners, and was personally led by Rong Lu. As for the Wuwei Zuojun, it was the “Yi Army” led by Song Qing, the old man of Batulu in the Qing Dynasty, who had fought side by side with Senggelinqin.
Rong Lu set up the Wuwei Army, originally intended to gradually recover military power, while reforming the military system, transforming the entire Wuwei Army into a new army. However, with the exception of yuan Shikai’s Xinjian Army, the other units were either too burdened by history, or the chief officers were too old to be interested in military affairs, so they went on and on, and the Xinjian Army was the most outstanding one among these units. yuan Shikai, who had been in power in Korea for many years, not only collected countless gold and silver treasures for him to make friends with important officials in Korea, but also made him deeply realize that if he wanted to gain a firm foothold in Korea, he had to rely on foreign self-respect. Therefore, from the beginning of his military training, he repeatedly held various military parades, inviting dignitaries and military officers from various countries to watch the drill. In this way, even the foreigners knew that there was a famous general named yuan Shikai in the Qing Dynasty
, and the troops he led were the first-class strong army of the Qing Dynasty.
According to Western standards, yuan Shikai’s army was the only fully equipped army in the Qing Dynasty. In
1899, when the Boxers in Shandong rose up, yuan Shikai had another chance to rise in the world.
Lord Yang said that the present governor of Shandong in the Qing Dynasty is not good at suppressing bandits. In this way, you have yuan Shikai, who is very good at leading troops. You should send him here to suppress bandits as soon as possible!
So the imperial court ordered yuan Shikai to take his headquarters to Shandong to suppress bandits! How is
the effect?
For foreign adults, the effect is really great. The people of
our country have always been able to protect the territory of Shandong without danger, which is really admirable. Therefore, our army will never go to the border to suppress, needless to say forget. The telegram
from Waldsey, commander of the Eight-Power Allied Forces, to yuan Shikai, published in the 1900 World Communique, was too tragic for the people of Shandong.
Since April and May, yuan Zhongcheng of Shantung had killed no less than four thousand bandits, and no pardon had ever been announced. The subordinate officers captured the bandits and asked whether they should be escorted to Jinan for trial, but Zhongcheng ordered them to be executed on the spot without sending them. When his generals were ordered to suppress the bandits, Zhongcheng Quan told them, ‘Kill all the bandits in the regiment.’ The historical materials
of
the Boxer Rebellion were burned and shot to death. Although countless people were killed, the bodies were still piled up everywhere. The archives
of the Boxer Rebellion in
Shandong. However, although the Boxer Rebellion in Shandong was controlled by yuan Shikai, The Boxers
in the Beijing-Tianjin area are making more and more trouble. Finally, in 1900, the Eight-Power Allied Forces entered the city of Beijing,
the Empress Dowager rushed to the west, and yuan Shikai once again came to the crossroads
of choice.
The Eight-Power Allied Forces entered Beijing.
Wu Weijun was beaten to a pulp. Cixi said what about yuan Shikai? Isn’t it said that yuan Shikai
‘s team is the most powerful? Call him to help!
Save? Or not? For yuan Shikai, this is not a problem.
yuan Shikai said that I especially wanted to go back to Beijing to rescue him-but if I left, what would Shandong
do? All right, I’ll send three thousand people back to Beijing first!
Ok! Better than nothing! Let’s start with three thousand!
yuan Shikai said that three thousand people are ready for you, but I have to train them
again, and you can support them again. Hey. Why can’t you hold on? Eh? Old Buddha, why did you
run away. Now Beijing is in danger. yuan Shikai, the military prefect after General Fu Rong Zhongtang, held five thousand troops in his hands, with the nature of a curling frame and the heart of cunning and danger. As a result, most of his actions ran counter to those of the government, and those who saw him were shocked by his different aspirations, and it was widely rumored that his generals wanted to rebel. Why didn’t
yuan Shikai send troops anyway?
The reason is very simple, because the Boxers had already destroyed the telegraph lines in the vicinity of Beijing, so most of the telegraph communication between the central government and other places was transmitted through Shandong. So yuan Shikai got the first-hand information at once! Of course, he knew that the southeastern provinces had begun to discuss mutual protection, and without the support of the southeastern provinces, the central government was absolutely unable to fight a protracted war.
However, for yuan Shikai, Cixi’s escape provided him with an opportunity to have it both ways. On the one hand, he constantly sent people to send money and goods to Cixi, asking after her well-being; on the other hand, he worked hard to suppress the ground, ensure the safety of the foreigners, and had a hot relationship with the foreigners; on the other hand, because Shandong became the intelligence hub linking the southeastern provinces with the central government, yuan Shikai suddenly became an important figure comparable to Li Hongzhang, the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, and Liu Kunyi, the governor of Liangjiang! The popularity of the governors in various places has risen steadily.
North-South hub, only Shandong.. Since the foreign soldiers entered the capital, the two palaces were in the west, and the capital officials went south to Dezhou, where the boxers and bandits disappeared and felt at home. The newspapers of the southeast provinces were all transmitted from Shandong. When the governors and governors asked to deal with the culprits, they all followed the lead of the horse, and naturally their style was heard at home and abroad.
The Boxer Incident was finally over.
And yuan Shikai finally had enough good feelings: Cixi thanked him because he had provided endless money when he fled in panic; foreigners thanked him because he had protected their safety when the whole north was in turmoil; Even the people of Shandong began to appreciate him, because he saved Shandong from the disaster of swords-yuan Shikai once again won everyone’s approval!
All the people who took refuge in the West and came from the south of Shandong all said that yuan Zhongcheng was our savior. On the matter
of the boxers and bandits causing trouble and the mediocre ministers harming the country and the Western soldiers entering the capital (yuan Shikai), he could be called a person who promoted the cause of Germany.
The most wonderful thing about Waldsey, the commander of the Eight-Power Allied Forces, was that he was a man of great power. With the exception of yuan Shikai’s troops, all the military guards directly under the Central Committee were beaten to pieces! This meant that yuan Shikai and his Wuwei Right Army grew up in an instant and became the decisive force to defend the capital. November 7,
1901. Li Hongzhang, the last paperhanger of the
Qing Dynasty, came to the end of his life.
On the same day, yuan Shikai was appointed Governor of Zhili Province and Minister of Beiyang, taking over Li Hongzhang’s political legacy and becoming the man who stirred up the situation in China in the next decade. After
yuan Shikai took office, he realized a problem, that is, although he is now in power and his new army is gradually fully fledged, he still can not guarantee his absolute control over the Beijing-Tianjin region-the former Wuwei Army is an example. Once Cixi realized that Beijing and Tianjin were empty, they were likely to mobilize troops from other areas to enrich the defense forces in Beijing and Tianjin.
How can you be in power?
So yuan Shikai took a two-pronged approach. On the one hand, he trumpeted the vulnerability of the old army. See? About 100,000 people collapsed in front of the foreigners. In order to implement his “regulations for recruiting and training the new army,” on the other hand, on the pretext that he was too busy to do anything, he set up a “military administration department” to specially integrate the armed forces in the Zhili area. The Department of Military Affairs has three divisions, namely, the Military Equipment Division, the Staff Division, and the Coaching Division. Who are the officers of these three departments? Liu Yongqing, the general manager of the
Military Equipment Department, was later replaced by Wang Shizhen, the former general manager of the newly built Army Supervisory Battalion Office and the chief instructor of the Military Academy. Duan Qirui, General Manager of the
General Staff Office, was the commander of the new Army Artillery Corps and the supervisor of the camp school. Feng Guozhang, General Manager of
the Coaching Office, was formerly the General Manager of the New Army Supervising and Training Battalion Office.
Wang Shizhen, Duan Qirui, Feng Guozhang. These three men were later nicknamed the “Three Heroes of the Northern Warlords.” One of them, Wang Shih-chen, was not bold enough, and often appeared and disappeared to pretend to be mysterious, so everyone called him the dragon of the Northern Warlords, which means “the dragon sees its head but not its tail.” Tuan Chi-jui had a fierce temper, was self-willed, and had a momentum like a tiger, so he was also called the tiger of the Northern Warlords. Feng Kuo-chang was loyal and loyal, and was also good at steering according to the wind, so he was.
But if people like Tuan Chi-jui are yuan Shikai’s “Five Tiger Generals,” then there is another person who can be called his “Zhuge Kongming.” This is Hsu Shih-chang, a close friend of yuan Shikai’s before he made his fortune. When
Xu Shichang was a petty official in Zhunning County in his early years, he met yuan Shikai, who had not yet made his fortune. They hit it off immediately. yuan Shikai paid his own money to help Xu Shichang go to the capital to catch up with the examination. It turned out that
the investment was very cost-effective, because Xu Shichang went to the Hanlin Academy after winning the Jinshi. After yuan Shikai returned from Korea, he introduced him to the court leaders. After that, yuan Shikai began to train troops in small stations, and specially asked Xu Shichang to be his chief of staff and general manager of the battalion office. Xu Shichang played the role of a binder and a think tank in the whole Northern Warlord system, and was heavily relied on by yuan Shikai.
With the efforts of these people, the whole Beiyang Army was very popular, and the court saw that you were doing very well. Can we extend your advanced experience to the provinces?
yuan Shikai said yes!
However, after a round of promotion, the effect is very limited. The imperial court said that this was no good. Seeing that Japan and Russia had been fighting all day in the Northeast, maybe one day there would be a fight. If our new army could not be trained any more, it would be over. Well, we might as well set up a training office according to the system of the Department of Military Administration, unify the training of new recruits throughout the country, work hard and quickly, and train hundreds of thousands of strong troops.
This is good, yuan Shikai’s Beiyang system all of a sudden control of the national military training power, more importantly, they can finally use the national financial resources to build the Beiyang army.
With the power of the Qing government, it attracted the wealth of the whole country for the training of troops in the Beiyang area. In the last 30 years of Chinese military history
, how many troops were trained by the Northern Warlords in the end?
Six towns, a total of seventy thousand men-a town, equivalent to a division. In May
1905, the fifth and sixth towns of the Beiyang Standing Army were formally organized.
This year, Einstein, a staff member of the Swiss Patent Office, published a series of papers, such as “a Tentative View on the Generation and Transformation of Light” and “On the Electrodynamics of Moving Objects”, which created a new era.
That year Sun Yat-sen put forward the Three People’s Principles of “nationality, civil rights, and people’s livelihood.”.
That year, Higo Heihachiro hung a zigzag flag over the Tsushima Strait, shouting, “This is the only battle for the rise and fall of the imperial country.” He gambled on the fate of Japan. The international situation has been turned upside down this
year.
This year, the imperial court was finally shocked and realized that if he did not do something, he would really be swept into the garbage heap of history.
So what do we do?
At that time, the most shocking thing was Japan’s great victory in the Russo-Japanese War, which made the Qing Dynasty thoroughly realize that we were always bullied by foreigners, not because our race was not good, but because of the system! You see, the same yellow race, after the Japanese constitutional monarchy first beat us, and now beat Lao Mao, what does this mean? Explain that the constitutional law is good! With the size of the Qing Dynasty, if we can also start a constitutional monarchy, then it will not change greatly in three years, and the emancipated serfs will sing?
So under the guidance of this idea, the Qing Dynasty finally began to prepare for constitutionalism.
yuan Shikai was particularly concerned about constitutionalism. You know, Emperor Guangxu was not dead yet. Although Cixi was strong, her body was getting worse year by year. If
one day Cixi returned to heaven, Guangxu would not be able to kill himself? But if the constitution, then the situation is not the same, when the power of the monarch is limited, at least they can end safely ah! yuan Shikai,
however, forgot one thing.
Constitutionalism means reform. Reform, on the
other hand, means conflicts of interest.
Court officials, especially Manchu officials, had long been dissatisfied with yuan Shikai’s power. In the process of preparing for constitutionalism, yuan Shikai presided over the reform of the official system, which suddenly became the target of public criticism. Everyone said that we had long discovered that yuan Shikai had no good intentions. Are you trying to usurp the throne? Are you plotting against the law? One person (yuan Shikai), who
wanted to take charge of the power of the four departments of officials, households, soldiers, and workers, was shocked by the public sentiment, saying that he suspected that the monarchy had acted on its own and relied on faith, which was unprecedented in ancient times. The attacks
on yuan Shikai came one after another. Today you compare yuan Shikai to Nian Gengyao, tomorrow I will join him in bending the law for selfish ends; today you say that he has placed confidants in the court, tomorrow I will say that he is plotting against the law. So yuan Shikai had to show his loyalty to the court again and again. Didn’t you say I had too much power? I delegate power, and I quit this part-time minister! Didn’t you say it was inappropriate for the military power to be concentrated in my hands? Can I hand over half of the team to go out?
Unfortunately, I can’t.
Under the deliberate arrangement of Cixi, yuan Shikai was soon promoted from Governor of Zhili Province and Minister of Beiyang to Minister of Military Aircraft. However, this was not the end, and more unfortunate things followed: on November 15, 1908, the old Buddha Cixi drove a crane to heaven.
Took Guangxu by the way.
yuan Shikai was completely out of luck: Emperor Xuantong, who succeeded to the throne, was a little kid, and the government was controlled by his father, Prince Regent Zaifeng. Zaifeng, Guangxu’s brother, was always bitter about yuan Shikai’s betrayal of Guangxu.
Zaifeng said, “I’m going to kill yuan Shikai today to avenge my brother. Don’t stop me.”.
People say it’s not appropriate, right? The transfer of power is not yet stable, and there are a lot of revolutionary parties in the country recently. Are you stable? Don’t be so ruthless first?
Zaifeng said OK, don’t kill it, but he must go home for me-what? What excuse do you ask me? That, that, that, his legs are not good! Yes, yuan Shikai’s legs and feet are not good enough. If you don’t believe me, let him take two steps!
As a result, the all-powerful yuan Xiangcheng was driven home because of his poor legs and feet. yuan Shikai, Minister of
Military Affairs and Minister of Foreign Affairs, inherited the previous Dynasty and was repeatedly promoted. I YuJi after, reply to Mao reward. It was precisely because his talent was available that he was able to follow suit, but he did not realize that yuan Shikai was now suffering from foot disease, walking with difficulty, and was unable to win his post. yuan Shikai went back to his hometown to cure his illness in order to show his sympathy. — Xuantong Zhengji
Zaifeng felt that he was very stable this time — When Cixi died, all the talented people in the country who could be called were almost dead — Liu Kunyi, the governor of Liangjiang, died in 1902; Zhang Zhidong, the last of the four famous ministers in the late Qing Dynasty
, died in 1909. In theory, after yuan Shikai was driven home, no one in the court would pose a threat to the Qing Dynasty.
As for the revolutionary party, it is all a disease of ringworm and scabies, and it has nothing to do with it.
Is Zaifeng’s judgment correct?
Yes and no. After
yuan Shikai left, there was indeed a huge power vacuum, and it was true that no other Han official had the same strength as him to become a major threat to the court, but the problem was that you Manchu officials who wanted to seize power were unable to completely fill the power vacuum he left behind. This is very embarrassing.
Under yuan Shikai’s management over the years, the Beiyang Standing Army was like an iron plate, loyal to him from top to bottom. In 1907, Xu Shichang became the governor of the three northeastern provinces, and extended the power of the Beiyang Army to the northeast area. After Xu Shichang became the governor of the three northeastern provinces, he trapped and killed Du Lisan, a bandit who had been in the northeast for many years, and made a remarkable contribution, which was put in an important position by Xu Shichang.
This man’s surname was Chang, his given name was Zuolin, and his courtesy name was Yuting. He was nicknamed “Kuaima Chang” by the people of Jianghu. He was later the leader of the warlords of the Feng clique. At the moment, however, he is merely the commander of the Fengtianqian Road Patrol, an old-style military organization retained by the imperial court outside the New Army to maintain local security. The relationship between the Patrol and the New Army can be roughly understood as the relationship between the Armed Police and the People’s Liberation Army, or the relationship between the National Guard and the United States Army.
So why did the imperial court set up a patrol in addition to the new army? The answer is simple, the new army. It’s too expensive! After the establishment of the
training office, the court saw that the new army in the six towns was very good, so it told the provinces that the training of the Beiyang New Army had been fruitful, and that our reform had a clear direction, so we had to completely abolish the old army, and it was expected that in three to five years, the new army in 36 towns across the country would come out. Let the army of the Qing Dynasty take on a new look!
Everyone said that your plan was really good, but where did the money come from to train the new army?
The court said that the six towns of Beiyang would soon empty my body. Do you still expect the court to pay for you to train the new army?
The Qing court repeatedly issued strict orders, ordering the provinces to abolish the bad rules and regulations, eliminating the middle satiety, and ordering Tieliang to go south to collect the training fees. In addition, the tax on tobacco and alcohol, the tax on earth paste, and the surplus of copper yuan were all allocated for military training. As a result, it was only for the use of the six towns near the Northern Warlords. The military history of China in the last 30 years (a series of historical materials of modern China)
, so the final result of wrangling was that the provinces raised funds to build a new army. Naturally, the old army had to be completely abolished, and the funds saved were allocated to the construction of the new army. But on the one hand, it is easy to cause social unrest by withdrawing troops rashly, and on the other hand, it always takes time to train troops, so a patrol team was set up to retain some of the elite of the old army to deal with emergencies.
However, the key to this plan lies in the four words “self-financing.”.
This meant that the imperial court easily shifted the burden to the local authorities, but it also meant that the imperial court had extremely limited control over these armies. As a result, this large-scale new army training plan for 36 towns eventually became a dead letter. By the second year of Xuantong, how many new armies had been trained
in the whole country?
In addition to the six towns of Beiyang, Jiangsu, Hubei, Yunnan, Jilin and Liaoning each have about
one town, and other provinces.. Not even a town has been trained, and there are less than sixty thousand people in total.
And how many troops are there in the six towns of Beiyang at this time?
74,500 people.
However, the biggest difference between these new armies and the six towns of Beiyang is that they
are not under the same strict ideological control as the Beiyang Army, so the
progressive ideas in these new armies are extremely active. And the proportion of intellectuals in the Southern New Army is much higher than that in other
places, almost to the point of astonishment-the Hubei New Army recruited
96 soldiers in Huangpi, of which there were 20 students and 24 scholars!
A group of intellectuals insist on joining the army. What is the purpose? The
purpose is to save the nation from subjugation and strive for self-improvement! Besides, the imperial examination was abolished by the blind reform of the Qing Dynasty. I have to
think of some ways to support myself, right?
As a result, all kinds of new ideological trends were unstoppably stirred up in these new armies, while the revolutionaries, who suffered from
insufficient funds and no guns, hit it off with these new armies and began to
infiltrate on a large scale.
The undercurrent is turbulent.
However, the imperial court still felt that it was very stable: the threatening Han officials no longer existed
, and the six towns of Beiyang still listened to my orders-as for the revolutionary party, hehe.
They should think about where the money is for the next meal first. On May 12,
1910, Booth wrote a letter to Sun Yat-sen, saying that he hoped to strengthen the organization of the deployment, not to rush into action, so that as soon as the actual maturity, because every failure was published in American newspapers, it was disappointing and affected the loan plan
. Then please raise 500000 yuan through another way, only for the purpose of Guangzhou plan.. If you cannot raise 500,000 yuan, please do your best to raise it. In any case, please remit 50,000 yuan
immediately. “” The letter of September 18 and the book were received a few days ago. Shortly afterwards, I received a letter from Mr. B saying that the consortium would hold a meeting in early October. But October has passed, and I haven’t seen any definite news yet, so I don’t have much hope for him. I hope you can raise funds for our party independently as soon as possible. I look forward to hearing from you soon.
Recently, I have received a large number of letters urging me to return to the east as soon as possible and launch an uprising as soon as possible. The only remaining urgent task is still trying to raise the necessary funds for the uprising.. Some letters
from Sun Yat-sen to Homer Lee However, the court did not realize that the strength these revolutionaries relied on was not their swords and guns, but their ideas. These ideas are like a virus, spreading rapidly in the country, more people are infected with this virus every day, and the most densely populated place is the new army.
So in this very stable state of mind, the court leisurely push forward their own constitutional plan, in all kinds of painless places to show their determination to reform-after today’s announcement, ministers do not have to call themselves slaves, all can submit; Tomorrow
it will be announced that our reform will continue to deepen, and each province can set up an advisory Bureau to discuss reform matters. The day after tomorrow it will be announced that we have taken an important step in the institutional reform of the Qing Dynasty. The Military Department has been abolished and a cabinet has been set up. As for why most of the members of the cabinet are members of the royal family.. The
Qing Dynasty has its own national conditions here! Why do you talk so much nonsense!
Finally, on October 10, 1911, the Wuchang Uprising broke out.
The Wuchang Uprising was actually beyond everyone’s expectation, the court did not expect that it could be so big, the revolutionaries did not expect that it could really be done, so for a time both sides were embarrassed-less than half a year ago, the Guangzhou Huanghuagang Uprising, which Sun Yat-sen and others had planned for a long time, had just failed. Everyone felt that the Wuchang Uprising had to be organized or not, that it had to be closely planned or not, and that it did not look like a successful one. The result was that it had the intention to plant flowers without hair, and that it had no intention to plant willows into shade! The revolutionaries of the great success of the
uprising were leaderless, and they suddenly found that although the old order had been broken, no one knew how to build the new order! So we discussed and discussed, and we felt that we still had to find a few prominent people to be leaders.
So everyone thought about it, someone said that I think Li yuanhong, the commander of the 21st Mixed Association of our Army, is a good man. He is usually kind to our soldiers. He is also a good man and has a tendency to progress. Just him!
In order!
As a result, an old bureaucrat who had nothing to do with the revolution and had even suppressed the revolutionaries many times was forced by the revolutionaries to become the new governor of Hubei.
While the rebels were forcing viceroy Li yuanhong at gunpoint to lead their rebellion, the real elite of the revolutionary party, such as Huang Xing and Song Jiaoren, were rushing to Wuchang in the starry night. And the Qing court.. The Qing court was anxious to deploy troops and sent people to capture the Wuchang rebel army.
But that’s not the point.
The point is that after the Wuchang Uprising, the tariff was cut off.
At that time, the financial revenue of the Qing court mainly came from four parts: one was the traditional land tax, that is, the agricultural tax; one was the salt tax; one was the Lijin, that is, the toll; and one was the tariff. Of
these four major areas, the agricultural tax is the least promising. I, Emperor Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty, pinched my fingers and calculated that I had taken care of the Three Feudatories and killed Galdan. The land of the Qing Dynasty is bound to be strong for thousands of years without any worries. So let’s just “never increase taxes” to basically fix the agricultural tax and demonstrate the benevolence of the Qing Dynasty.
Of course, in the Qing Dynasty, as a big country that wanted face, the ancestors said that they would never add taxes, and the descendants were embarrassed to hit their ancestors in the face. But the problem is that in the future, the Bailianjiao Uprising, the Opium War, the rebellion of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, and the Boxer Rebellion were all money-demanding businesses. You will never increase taxes here. Where will the money come from? It
‘s easy to do. We can add “donation.” Donation is nominally a voluntary donation made by everyone in order to promote the sound and rapid development of the Qing Dynasty. Then it can’t be attributed to taxes, can it? Can donate to donate, there is always a time when the people’s power is exhausted, but at this time the Qing Dynasty suddenly found that there is a tariff in the world-you transport goods to my country, but you have to pay me!? What is
more gratifying is that because the Qing Dynasty was even defeated, it almost lost its underwear on the side of the big powers, so the customs was extremely humiliated by the foreigners. However, the court was pleasantly surprised to find that the foreigners were conscientious and conscientious in order to check the tariff. Under their control, the tariff revenue and expenditure were detailed and accurate, and there was no malpractice of tax evasion and tax evasion by the officials of the Qing Dynasty! This is really a pleasant surprise.
So the Qing government was very happy to give the tariff to the foreigners, and the foreigners were also very happy to hold the tariff of the Qing Dynasty, so by the time of the Wuchang Uprising, a big problem appeared.
At that time, Wuhan was a treaty port.
If it is a treaty port, there will naturally be customs.
As soon as there was a revolution on this side, the General Revenue Department of the Chinese Customs on the other side, Anglian, instructed his subordinates to withhold the tariffs and remit them to the Shanghai and Shanghai Banking Corporation. His reason was very high-sounding: In the past, most of the treaties and foreign debts were mortgaged by tariffs. Now that you have revolted, what if these people misappropriate the tariffs and harm our interests in China? So this tariff must be deducted. I’ll put it in HSBC and watch it for you.
You should try to pay the tax into my account at HSBC and wait for the situation to develop. It will not do to let the tax money go to the treasury of the revolutionary party. Anglian’s instructions to Su Gudun, Jianghan Customs Department. China Customs and the Revolution of 1911
. This is a complicated issue.
Although the rebels across the country were not necessarily the opponents of the six towns of Beiyang, the problem now was that the court could not mobilize the troops of the six towns, so the process of mobilizing the Beiyang Army to attack Wuchang southward was not particularly smooth; And the foreign adults think that if you
delay this, I’m afraid the situation is not good. Shall we quickly find an iron-fisted figure who can control the six towns of Beiyang to suppress the rebellion?
What to do?
Without a move, Zaifeng pinched his nose and asked yuan Shikai, “Well, come back. You’re the governor of Huguang. You’re fully responsible for the suppression of bandits.”
yuan Shikai said, hehe.
It was you who wanted to separate at the beginning, and now you want to coax me back with true love? There’s no way! I’m not being modest. You can hire someone else! I can’t do this because my legs are not sharp!
In fact, at this time, both the imperial court and yuan Shikai had absolute confidence in exterminating these revolutionary rebels. As we said earlier, the six towns of Beiyang had a decisive advantage over other new armies, not to mention that the old armies in various places were actually quite powerful. Therefore, people are only worried about whether the revolutionaries in other provinces will respond in groups, and whether the suppression of bandits will lead to the revolutionary army running around if it is too hasty. So yuan Shikai’s awkwardness did not last long. He clearly realized that this was a rare opportunity for him. If he continued to refuse, the court would really find someone else, or simply wipe out the Wuchang rebels? So soon he decided to go out of the mountains to suppress bandits-but out of the mountains, the court you have to give me enough military expenditure! Wuhan has been lost because of the sudden
change this time. Brother, I can’t quit. Yesterday, there was a discount to thank you. However, Li Chen’s symptoms, the cloud is anxious to fear that it will be difficult, and must be properly arranged and so on. In addition, there are eight abridgements, to the effect that if you have no soldiers and no pay, how can you do anything with your bare hands. It was planned to mobilize more than ten thousand men from the Zhili Continuation and Reserve Army, organize and train 245
battalions, and take them to Hubei for the purpose of suppression and pacification. He also planned to ask the Du Branch to raise three or four million yuan for military pay and various urgent needs. If everything is done, the elder brother should do his best. yuan Shikai. Letter from Zhang Zhenfang (October 18, 1911)
However, in the process of the court’s entanglement with yuan Shikai, the revolution began to start a prairie fire with a spark. Wuchang was the first uprising that could persist for so long, and its existence filled the revolutionaries in all provinces with infinite longing. Inspired by the Wuchang Uprising, the provinces began to become independent one after another. The Wuchang Uprising
on October 10, the Changsha Uprising on October 22, and the declaration of Hunan’s independence! On the same day, Xi’an revolted and Shaanxi declared its independence! On October 29, there was a mutiny in Zhili, and the capital was shaken! On the same day, the Tongmenghui successfully rose up in Taiyuan, and Shanxi declared its independence. The leader of this uprising had a well-known name: Yan Xishan. On October 30, the 19th town of the Yunnan New Army, the 37th Xiexietong, revolted and went straight to Kunming. This Xieetong was later called by Sun Yat-sen as the head of a generous class in his life. His surname was Cai, his given name was E, and his courtesy name was Songpo.
For the Qing Dynasty, this is the worst case.
More unfortunately, the dream of the collapse of the revolutionary party as soon as the imperial army arrived was shattered. On October 18, the Qing army and the revolutionary army fought a battle in Hankou and were defeated. Since the occupation of Wuhan, the
revolutionary party has set up gun emplacements in the Hongshan, Turtle and Snake Mountains to defend the fortress of Zhitong. The terrain is very superior, and it is most beneficial to fight against it. The host and guest of our army are different in shape, and because the river and paddy fields touch each other vertically and horizontally, the movements are inconvenient. Light than
attack, sincere fear of loss is not worth it, but for a long time, very anxious. “Minister Yin Chang’s telegram to the cabinet” (September 4, the third year of Xuantong)
However, in the eyes of most people, this is clearly the intention of the Beiyang Army to dawdle for yuan Shikai’s comeback! As a result, conspiracy theories were rampant, but in any case, yuan Shikai’s comeback was finally a foregone conclusion.
History has played a big joke here.
On October 18, yuan Shikai was still thinking about how to arrange the additional soldiers he wanted once the war was over in his letter to Feng Guozhang, but in another month, he was thinking about how to end the Dynasty. On November 1,
1911, yuan Shikai, Prime Minister of the Cabinet, arrived in Xiaogan, Hubei Province, and began to direct the suppression of the rebellion.
At this time, the two generals on the Wuchang Front were Feng Guozhang and Duan Qirui. Feng Guozhang commanded the First Army composed of the Fourth Town and the Third and Eleventh Mixed Associations, while Duan Qirui commanded the Second Army composed of the Fifth Town and the Fifth and Thirty-ninth Associations.
As we have said many times before, tying the new army of the whole country together is not necessarily the opponent of the six towns of Beiyang.
So as soon as yuan Shikai arrived at the front, Hankou was lost.
However, yuan Shikai was not in a hurry to continue to push forward, and he was keenly aware of the current problem: more and more independent provinces. What does it mean that tariffs have been cut off, that financial resources in Southeast China have been cut off, and that the court is even considering a 60-year long-term loan of 90 million francs from the French, while
it has just received a large amount of military expenditure and power from the court?
This means that he is now the person who can control the future direction of China!
At that time, no one could deny that yuan Shikai was almost a perfect candidate for leadership: he was capable, talented, had a beautiful resume, and had progressive ideas (remember when he once advocated constitutional government?). It has one of the strongest fighting forces in China. Emperor Xuantong was a little kid, and Sun Wen was more like a lucky gambler who suddenly won a big prize. Who better to rule the country than yuan Shikai?
No more.
For yuan Shikai, there is only one problem left.
How to ascend gracefully.
Directly pull the flag to say Lao Tzu also reversed, and then turn around to kill Beijing, the Qing Dynasty up and down all the princes Baylor, of course, not a big problem. But if you do this, I’m afraid your reputation will be completely smelly on the street-after all, when you come out of the mountains this time, people will give you whatever they want, and you turn around and become Erwuzai, which is too chilling.
And turn over the hands to destroy the revolutionary party, and then seek real power, constitutional monarchy, naturally no problem, but so down the hands stained with the blood of the revolutionaries, it is not good to wash the ground for themselves in the future.
So the best way is to make everyone willing to push themselves to the top.
Want to drive others, the best motivation, one is fear, the other is greed.
So yuan set out to return to Beijing, where he had returned to better manipulate the situation and seize greater power from the court. And the Wuhan front.. Is that still a thing?
So yuan Shikai returned to Beijing on November 13 and began to prepare for the formation of a cabinet. On November 27, Feng Guozhang settled the three towns of Hanyang and Wuhan, namely Hankou, Wuchang and Hanyang. Now the two towns were in hand, and Wuhan came back with a slight shiver.
Feng Guozhang said, then what are we waiting for! Cross the river!
Don’t! yuan Shikai quickly stopped him: “Do not cross the river for me!”! You can play with heavy artillery in Wuchang every day across the river! Don’t cross the river!
So everyone panicked.
The imperial court found that the Beiyang Army on the front line in Wuhan did not move, as if it had been submerged by water, and was at a loss-having given yuan Shikai more and more power, the imperial court could only continue to bet on yuan Shikai, expecting him to turn the tables on himself. As a result, yuan Shikai had more and more power and less and less restriction. On December 7, Zaifeng rolled home and yuan Shikai grasped the defense of the imperial guards and the capital, completely pinching the lifeblood of the Qing Dynasty.
On December 17, peace talks between the north and the south began-the so-called south was a provisional government formed by 17 provinces that had declared independence, while the north was naturally the Qing government.
In fact, the revolutionaries are not monolithic, and some of the constitutionalists have long expressed their support for the true constitutional government proposed by Lord yuan. The more stubborn revolutionaries had long been well educated by yuan Shikai’s cannons. When Hanyang fell, Huang Xing, the head of the revolutionary party’s armed forces, was beaten to a pulp and ran
away with his nose in his hands. So when a handful of diehards finally pointed out that yuan Shikai had evil intentions and must not be credulous to delay the event, Huang Xing decisively jumped out and hit them in the face.
Huang Xing said that he was just a president! Let’s let him be! After a few years of happiness, haven’t we achieved the goal of our revolution? Otherwise, if you fight with him, are you his opponent? Anyway, I can’t do It. You can do it!
yuan Shikai is a cunning and daring man. As long as he is willing to overthrow the Qing Dynasty and return half of the country that has not yet been recovered to the Han people, we will give him a popularly elected president, whose term of office will not last more than a few years, so that the war can be stopped early and the people can live a peaceful life early. If not, he will be our enemy, and if we cannot defeat him, we will not only lose the whole of China, but also lose the land that is now recovered. The revolutionary activities
of Mr. Huang Keqiang before and after the Revolution of 1911, and the most crucial foreigners also expressed their views one after another: We understand yuan Shikai! Dependable! We can rest assured that he will handle affairs!
We have very friendly feelings and respect for yuan Shikai. Such a government will receive all the diplomatic assistance we can give.. A Provisional Government Should Be Formed by yuan Shikai — — The British Blue Book on Chinese Affairs, China No.1
, 1912. However, at this critical moment, Sun Yat-sen came back.
As a revolutionary leader, Sun Yat-sen’s contribution to the revolution can not be denied by anyone. Therefore, after he returned to China, the representatives of the provinces immediately elected him as the provisional president. yuan Shikai, on the other hand, said in an instant that he could not understand: What about the president who was promised to me? This, this is the replacement!?
All right, yuan Shikai said, “Let’s stop talking. If you raise sand for me, don’t blame me for picking your eyes. An agreement has been reached to cancel everything!”! Cancel it all! Remove the representative sent before! Remove it all! Let’s forget we ever talked about this! The generals of
the Beiyang Army unanimously expressed their firm support for yuan Shikai’s various propositions! Who said anything about a Republic? Who!?
If the National Assembly resolves to adopt a Republican form of government, we shall fight to the death and refuse to recognize it! Solve the regime
with iron and blood! — Tuan Chi-jui and other generals of the Beiyang New Army sent a joint telegram to record
the key points of the Republic of China. It was rather troublesome for the matter to develop to this point. Everyone quickly appeased yuan Shikai: You see, how can we not let you be the president! Let me tell you, when Sun Wen became the president, it was temporary. Otherwise, everything in the seventeen provinces would be in a mess? When the emperor of the Qing Dynasty abdicated, we will let you be the president according to the negotiated conditions! Can this thing be false?
yuan Shikai said, “I’m afraid you’re not teasing me.”? When the Qing emperor abdicates, when the time comes, you give me an election, the demon moth comes out, what can I do? Did you lead the troops to destroy the interim government and declare your election illegal? Don’t give me that! If you really want to commit to this, you make a written statement!
No move, Sun Yat-sen clenched his teeth and made a written statement: I will resign if the emperor of the Qing Dynasty abdicates and let you be the president. If you don’t resign, you will be a puppy.
If the Qing emperor abdicated and declared a Republic, the provisional government would never break its promise, and Wen could officially announce his dismissal, with merit and ability, first of all, yuan. The Complete Works
of the Premier However, I have been operating in the Qing Dynasty for so many years, and even a rotten ship has three nails! At the critical moment of life and death, princes and nobles, loyal ministers and good generals from all walks of life have voiced that how can we say that a Republic is a Republic? Have you considered the feelings of those of us? I’m willing to kowtow to the emperor! No one can deprive us of the right to kowtow!
But since the defense of the entire capital was in the hands of yuan Shikai, these people could only engage in non-organizational political activities to express their ideas at most. As a result, the biggest royalist leader was killed by a bomb thrown by the revolutionary party! In this case, especially considering that the police force in Beijing was established by Xu Shichang, these royalists are basically fighting with each other, after all, even if the right to kowtow is worth defending, there must be a head to kowtow.
yuan Shikai, on the other hand, brought up the last wave of rhythm: All kinds of telegrams from home and abroad flew into the city of Beijing like snowflakes, and everyone moved them with emotion, explained them with reason, showed their power, and lured them with benefits. In a word, it is the best thing for you to abdicate now and for us to implement the Republic! These Beiyang generals
, Duan Qirui, duly delivered the final blow: If you don’t abdicate.. If we don’t abdicate, I’m afraid we can’t control ourselves!
Recently, the generals are quite vigorous and irresistible. When I heard yesterday that King Gong and Duke Ze were obstructing the Republic, I was indignant. Observing the trend of people’s hearts silently, I am afraid that it is still a way out of the Republic. Series of Materials on Modern Chinese History: The Revolution of 1911
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On February 12, 1912, the Qing Dynasty fell.
