Chapter 204 The abdication of the Qing Emperor
November 23 and 24, these three days can be said to have a decisive impact on the situation in contemporary China. If the assassination of Yuan Shikai in early October led to a mutiny in Beiyang, which promoted the republican process.
Then the series of events that happened in the past three days directly laid the foundation for China's subsequent communist politics, and also directly affected the future choices of several major factions in Beiyang.
On the 23rd, Wang Yingkai's first town was the first to enter the capital, and successfully met with Wang Shizhen's sixth town and controlled the important areas in the capital city.
On that day, a large number of magnates and dignitaries, including Feng Guozhang, began to flee. A few people successfully fled to embassies of various countries to seek *, but at this time, it was obvious that they had forgotten Cixi and Guangxu. The Forbidden City was still trembling under the iron hooves of the Beiyang army, but in order to avoid excessive political influence, Wang Yingkai Wang Shizhen did not show the momentum of the French Revolution, but only surrounded the Forbidden City and did not directly break into the palace.
At this time, in fact, many people, especially some governors in the south, were able to reach a decent agreement with Beiyang, and even the content they thought, that is, to let the Beiyang army clean up a group of young and strong faction to avenge the so-called Duke Yuan. However, even thoroughly implement the virtual monarch constitutional system, That is to say, the administrative power was handed over to Beiyang, but the royal family continued to retain the title of emperor as the nominal supreme national leader.
In this case, Beiyang has obtained the power they want, and the royal family can continue to retain its glory and wealth!
But they obviously underestimated Wang Yingkai's determination!
As the second person in Beiyang after Yuan Shikai, Wang Yingkai has been the new leader of Beiyang since his death!
This change in identity makes him feel that he has shouldered the heavy responsibility of the country and the nation. Since the day he rose to take office, he has decided to completely sweep the Manchuria into the garbage heap of history and let Guangxu abdicate to establish his position as the leader of Beiyang.
He dares to say that as long as he succeeds in driving Guangxu and Cixi out of power, and as long as he leads the Beiyang people to lay the foundation of the Chinese republic, his prestige can definitely soar to the sky, even surpass the previous Yuan Shikai!
When Yuan Shikai did not die, people's evaluation of him was already quite high. When he died, in fact, there was no difference between the north and south this month. The republican faction or the constitutional faction or the imperial faction coincidentally sang a hymn to Yuan Shikai, not only praising him for taking over the Qing royal family and Li Hongzhang in the years of Xin Chou. A lot of messes led to the frenzy, and the reform of China's new policy promoted in a short few years has made China progress from ancient feudal countries to modern countries in one fell swoop.
To be honest, this kind of boast is too much, but people's concept is that the dead are respected, and the achievements since Yuan Shikai took charge of Beiyang are indeed obvious to all. Even Sun Wen and those revolutionaries have to compliment them, saying that the death of Yuan Gong is the pain of the country and the nation.
Yuan Shikai, who was deliberately touted, um, Yuan Shikai, who has died, has far surpassed Li Hongzhang, the previous generation leader of Beiyang, in reputation, and is only a small step away from the great man.
This is completely different from the ten-thousand-year history of Yuan Shikai's death after he became emperor!
In history, if Yuan Shikai hadn't been confused before he died, it would have been quite easy to get the name of a republican father.
To some extent, Wang Yingkai has become Yuan Shikai in history from 1911 to 1912. Among other things, just entering Beijing and driving Guangxu out of power is enough to make him famous for thousands of years. If he can persist in the republican system, then the name of the father of a nation The head can't run away.
Of course, Wang Yingkai, who has more expectations for the future, will not easily agree to the various negotiation conditions put forward by Tieliang and other Qing royal families. Even Cixi's proposal to appoint him as the first prime minister and take charge of national government affairs has been rejected, insisting on letting the Qing royal family abdicated to establish a republic.
26, in the face of Cixi's stubbornness, Wang Yingkai ordered the troops of his first town to capture the Forbidden City. When they went all the way to Yingtai, they saw the Guangxu Emperor with a calm expression and sad eyes!
"I knew this day would come, but I didn't expect it to come so soon!" This * is still under house arrest by Cixi at the last moment, and this Guangxu is also a typical 'tragedy'.
On the 27th, Zhao Dongyun, who has quietly returned to Tangshan, holds a newspaper in his hand, which can be said to be a major event that has never happened in China for thousands of years!
The emperor abdiced!
At the last moment, Emperor Guangxu wrote this abdication edict, and then the soldiers covered it with the national seal found elsewhere in the palace, and this abdication edict was done!
For the first time in thousands of years, China did not have an emperor above its head, and it was replaced by a so-called republican government!
In this extremely famous country, even if Wang Yingkai has entered the capital before, even if he has been loyal to many Beiyang generals and even a few southern governors, he still has not established a so-called 'government'.
But waited until the abdication edict, according to the clause of Emperor Guangxu in the abdication edict to authorize Beiyang to form a republican government, which justly raised the signboard of the republican government.
On the same day, Wang Yingkai established the so-called "National Establishment Committee" in Beijing, called himself the "Commander of the State" and appointed Duan Qirui and Zhao Dongyun as the "Vice Commander-in-Chief of the State".
And invite provincial governors and famous gentry from all walks of life to go north to Beijing to discuss national affairs!
Although Wang Yingkai's methods have been predicted for a long time, today it still seems that Zhao Dongyun's heart is full of envy and hatred!
Who conquered Tongzhou, forced Wang Shizhen to betray the court, and then destroyed Feng Guozhang and the Qing royal family in one fell swoop? It was Zhao Dongyun, but why did Wang Yingkai become the commander-in-chief of the country in less than three or four days? Then he looks like a republican leader.
Zhao Dongyun is ambitious. If you say that he doesn't think about the presidency in his heart, it must be nonsense. In addition, Zhao Dongyun has a large number of troops in his hand, which is enough to compare with other generals in Beiyang. However, why are he still forced to live under Wang Yingkai?
Although he knows why rationally, it is nothing more than prestige and qualifications!
However, emotionally, he can't accept it. Looking at what he had hoped to get in his hands, he ran to other people's hands in a blink of an eye. It would be strange if he could be convinced.
Not to mention that Zhao Dongyun is not convinced, even other generals of the Soviet generals are black-faced. The struggle between Zhao Dongyun and Wang Yingkai is not only a private struggle between the two people, but also a struggle between the two major factions led by the two. Zhao Dongyun's defeat represents the defeat of the Soviet faction, which is for Cao Kuan, Chen Guangyuan and other Su It is also difficult for generals to accept.
"Commander, what else is there to say when it comes to this situation? Let's fight directly. I don't believe that Wang Yingkai can stop our three towns and three associations!" Meng En sat far away. Although his expression was as serious as ever, he was full of anger when he spoke.
Chen Guangyuan also said, "How can Wang Yingkai be the leader of our North Sea and the president of the Republic? If we retreat today, according to the hatred of our two families in the past, can we still have good fruits to eat in the future? I'm afraid the future will not be guaranteed in Northeast China!"
Zhao Dongyun continued to speak calmly, and Gu Lanyu beside him also said, "Now the situation is really unbearable. Why did Wang Yingkai ask us for our opinions on the previous joint telegram or the subsequent abdication? He did these things by himself, and I heard that the first town and the sixth town raided hundreds of houses in Beijing, plus the money obtained from the household department and the bank, he could get at least 30 to 50 million yuan. If they use this money, our disadvantage will be even greater in the future!"
Zhao Dongyun listened to these people's words, and then looked at Xu Bangjie, who had just arrived in Tangshan: "Old Xu, you also said it!"
Xu Bangjie, like others, is also a headache about the current situation. He frowned and said, "Now we are in a dilemma. If we want to fight, even if my second town and the first mixed association arrive, our army's troops in the customs will not be more than two towns and one mixed association, and one cavalry association, and the total strength will not be enough. 40,000. Wang Yingkai and they have three towns in Beijing, and they have accepted the seventh town, and then recently expanded troops in Zhili and other places, which may add up to more than 60,000. Moreover, Zhang Huaizhi's fifth town and the 29th mixed association of Henan Wang Ruxian can also quickly go north. At that time, our military disadvantage will be even greater, so if we fight, it is not a big problem to defend, but it is still relatively difficult to launch an attack to defeat the enemy and conquer the capital!"
"But if we don't fight, after Wang Yingkai and others stabilize their position, I'm afraid that what we will face will not be 50,000 or 60,000 enemies, but more than 200,000 enemies. With our population and financial resources outside the gate, it is definitely impossible for us to expand our army to hundreds of thousands. At that time, I'm afraid it will be more difficult. ."
Zhao Dongyun also frowned after hearing this. He has also considered these possibilities, but he wants to be very different from listening to others, which sounds even more embarrassing.
Now Zhao Dongyun regrets entering the customs for the first time. If he did not enter the customs and turned to the Qing court, it is estimated that Wang Yingkai and Duan Qirui will still have to spend time with Feng Guozhang and Wang Shizhen. If they fight for a year or two, when they expand their army to 100,000, they will be able to clean up the mess in one fell swoop.
However, this idea can only be thought about. The shock caused by Yuan Gong's death was extremely great. If Zhao Dongyun still wanted to compete with Wang Yingkai and Wang Shizhen for the position of the Lord of Beiyang, in fact, it would be impossible to watch the play outside the customs all the time. In that way, it would be safe and safe. But prestige will immediately make him at the same level as Wu Fengling and Zhang Huaizhi.
Look at what Wu Fengling and Zhang Huaizhi, who escaped among the seven bigwigs in Beiyang, have become now. In the eyes of the world, they have completely become second-rate warlords. If they can still get along in the future, 10,000 miracles will happen. In fact, even the defeated Feng Guozhang, who took the initiative to participate in the war, is much better than them in prestige. Among the four people Wang Shizhen, Duan Qirui, Wang Yingkai and Zhao Dongyun, especially Zhao Dongyun and Wang Yingkai, are even more prestigious, at least when people are discussing the future republican president. Unconsciously, people have listed Wang Yingkai and Zhao Dongyun as candidates, while Duan Qirui and Wang Shizhen are candidates, but Zhang Huaizhi and Wu Fengling are gone.
Politics is sometimes so realistic, and when playing politics, you can't be worth staring at the so-called interests and losing consideration, because many things, even if you know that you will lose a lot, you have to do it.
Just like now, even if you clearly know that the allied forces of Wang Yingkai have little chance of winning, and if you want to conquer the capital, it is basically the same as a fool's dream, but this does not prevent Zhao Dongyun from making up his mind to fight with Wang Yingkai!
When there is a political need, even if it is a defeatable war, then it must be fought. What's more, who dares to say that Zhao Dongyun will definitely lose?
Is there still less than a few examples in history?
Although its own army is small, its advantage is also obvious. First of all, it still controls Tangshan, and what does Tangshan have? Fuyuan Machine Factory, with this machine factory, Zhao Dongyun can get 7,000 or 8,000 rifles and millions of bullets every month, as well as barrel artillery, mortars, heavy machine guns and many other ordnances.
With Fuyuan Machine Factory, at least Zhao Dongyun doesn't have to worry too much about the subsequent military expansion and supplementary war losses.
In addition, Zhao Dongyun has another advantage over Wang Yingkai, that is, Zhao Dongyun's troops are all his private army, and all of them obey his Zhao Dongyun's orders.
However, Wang Yingkai, his army is a coalition army. The meaning of the coalition army is that Wang Yingkai can't command Duan Qirui and Wang Shizhen. At most, it is just a coordinated battle. At that time, as long as he bites one of them to fight with them, it is still a question whether the other party will come to save them.
In this situation, Wang Yingkai is rich, ally and prestigious, while Zhao Dongyun has armor and unified command. Who dares to say that Zhao Dongyun will definitely be defeated before the war?
After a long silence, Zhao Dongyun then said, "Now that I am at the critical moment of life and death, the whole country is ours further. Maybe I will lose my reputation when I take a step back, so I hope you can work hard with me!"
Speaking of this, Zhao Dongyun nodded to Fang Biyong on his right hand side. Immediately Fang Biyong stood up and said loudly, "Following the commander's instructions, the General Staff has formulated the following combat deployment:
"The third town can return from Tongzhou and Ji counties to assist the Tangshan war zone. The deployment of the Tangshan war zone is as follows. The northwest area of Tangshan, that is, Yutian and Fengrun First Line, is responsible for the third town, and the western front line of Tangshan, that is, Dazhongzhuang and Bamen City, is responsible for the second town.
The first mixed association was stationed in Tangshan, building a defense line for deployment. The first cavalry association went north to Zunhua, and then threatened the enemy's flank and guarded against the second town of Wu Fengling to go south.