Chapter 207 Chinese Federal Empire

In October and November 1906, when the Beiyang mutiny caused by the assassination of Yuan Shikai continued to be turbulent in the northern provinces of China, especially Zhili and the three eastern provinces, Shandong, Henan and other provinces, many governors in the south did not sit idle and wait for the results of the Beiyang infighting to come out. .

And many governors in the south, especially Zhang Zhidong and Duanfang, are all experienced traditional bureaucrats. Their way of doing things is completely different from the new warlords such as Zhao Dongyun in the north. At least they are not connected with Zhao Dongyun and Wang Yingkai one by one day, and the whole world knows everything. .

Many governors in the south, that is, Zhang Zhidong, issued several unhurish telegrams in the early stage, mainly to persuade the Beiyang generals to keep restraint, but next, when the Beiyang generals beat you to death, many governors in the south did not have much sound.

Even Duanfang and Yinchang, who have been shouting about sending troops to the north, have put down the high profile of the past and then buried and rectified the army in the province. In the past two months, Duanfang has quickly cleaned up a large number of officers who tend to the Beiyang faction, and then controlled the stationed Jiangning at the middle and senior officer level. The ninth town, the 27th Mixed Association of Jiangxi, and the 31st Mixed Association of Anhui.

And Yinchang was also unwilling to lag behind. After kicking out some middle and senior officers of the Beiyang faction, he also barely controlled the Jiangbei Mixed Association.

It is not only the two rivers and north of the Yangtze River to rectify the army and expand and prepare for war. In fact, Hunan, Fujian and Zhejiang, Liangguang and even Yunnan and Guizhou have coincidentally accelerated the pace of training the new army!

In addition to rectifying the army, there were also frequent and secret contacts between the southern governors. Relying on the prestige of Zhang Zhidong, the leader of the southern governor, and the support of the Manchu ministers led by Duanfang, in fact, the southern provinces soon reached a situation similar to the alliance of the southern provinces in the Gengzi year.

Since Beiyang started its in mid-October, it can be seen that no southern governor has publicly supported it. In fact, the southern provinces have no good impression on Beiyang, especially Beiyang after Yuan Shikai's death, let alone support it.

In the hearts of many southern governors, this uprising in Beiyang is a serious rebellion, which is intolerable, let alone let them bow down to Wang Yingkai or Zhao Dongyun. Whether it is Wang Yingkai or Zhao Dongyun, they talk about prestige and qualifications, generally can only be said within the Beiyang system, but If this so-called prestige and qualifications are placed nationwide, it is basically not even second-rate.

Around the year of Gengzi, the leading important minister of Han in China was naturally Li Hongzhang, and after Li Hongzhang died, although Yuan Shikai was the successor of Beiyang, he could not suppress many important ministers at the end of the Qing Dynasty, such as Zhang Zhidong. When he wrestled with Li Hongzhang, you Yuan Shikai was still hooking up with Min. Where's the concubine?

In addition, among the important ministers whose prestige reaches the whole country, there is also Cen Chunxuan, and then several important ministers of the Manchu people are actually not small in prestige. Duanfang and Xiliang are the few Manchu ministers in the political arena who can fight against the important ministers of the Han people in the late Qing Dynasty.

So when it comes to the word prestige in modern times, in fact, it is not Wang Yingkai and Zhao Dongyun's turn. A group of governors in the south are better than them.

In this case, when the north is in turmoil, naturally don't expect the governor of the south to obey Wang Yingkai or Zhao Dongyun in the northern ocean. At this time, they did not hesitate to raise the flag of another leader, that is, Zhang Zhidong!

In the face of the turmoil in the north, it is not the first time that the southern provinces have united to protect each other. They did it once in the year of Gengzi. Although the situation is different from those years, it is true that the capital has fallen and the north has fallen into war.

Especially after Wang Yingkai forced Guangxu to write an abdication edict with a gun, the shock to the southern provinces was great. Duan Fang and others refused to recognize the validity of the abdication edict.

But even if the southern governors, especially those Manchu governors, are unwilling to admit it, the fact is that the capital has fallen into the control of Beiyang, and a large number of royal families, including Guangxu, Cixi and even Zaifeng and Zaixun, have been captured and then placed under house arrest. Even if a few of them fled into the embassy area, it also affects Not the overall situation.

The Beiyang generals jointly attacked the capital and adopted the method of encircling and then attacking. In addition, the previous confidence of the royal family of the Manchu Qing Dynasty was still relatively high. They did not expect Wang Shizhen to rebel before the battle. Feng Guozhang would be defeated so simply and miserable, so the Manqing royal family very tragically lost the third opportunity to hunt in the west. Xu, Cixi, and several royal brothers of Guangxu, all fell into the hands of the Beiyang army.

In addition, no matter whether it is forced or voluntary, the abdication edict was actually issued, and the national seal above is authentic. In this case, in fact, from the legal point of view, the southern provinces are already the object of loss of loyalty, and they are not allowed to bow to Wang Yingkai. Possible.

In this case, Duanfang, who fantasized about the great cause of resuming the country, discussed with several Manchu governors such as Yanchang, and then turned around to express his loyalty to Zhang Zhidong!

Their request is very simple, that is, to keep the throne of the Aixinjueluo family!

That is to say, they accept to imitate the British virtual monarch system. The emperor only retains his false reputation and does not want any other power!

And Zhang Zhidong is already quite unhappy with Wang Yingkai and Zhao Dongyun, the leaders of Beiyang warlords. Your new policy was originally playing well. You Beiyang insisted on rebellion. In Zhang Zhidong's view, the Beiyang generals, whether Wang Yingkai or Zhao Dongyun, are all ambitious people who harm the country and the people!

In addition, as a son of Confucianism, like many traditional scholars, he instinctively resent the so-called republic. Chinese people have a history of emperors for thousands of years. Is it okay if there is no emperor?

Of course, as the leader of the important Han ministers, Zhang Zhidong also has no way to accept that Guangxu continues to stay with Han ministers to poop and pee, so in recent years has he teamed up with Yuan Shikai to promote the constitutional monarchy.

In his opinion, the emperor still needs it, otherwise who will you sell the talents of the world's scholars to?

But the times have also changed now. Although this emperor has to have it, it's better not to be in charge of things. Naturally, we and other Confucian scholars are in charge of military and state affairs. Don't worry about it. Just learn from those emperors of the Ming Dynasty. If you have nothing to do, you can practice Dan, saw wood, and occasionally play with leopards and see an elephant or something. That's fine. It is a model of the way of kings and ministers to get along with each other!

In addition, if you agree to Duanfang, then a prime minister will come!

At that time, it can't even be said that it is above 10,000 people under one person, but absolutely above 10,000 people!

Many reasons add up, and see that many governors in the south also support themselves, and there seem to be a lot of troops in the southern provinces. At least there are several towns and associations. If you train more troops, it is estimated that it is not difficult to make up more than a dozen towns.

So under a series of southern governors, a 'Chinese Federal Empire' officially appeared on the stage of history!

The reason why I didn't continue to call it the Qing Empire or something is that it doesn't matter whether Guangxu was forced or voluntary, the abdication edict really can't be true, and there is nothing you can do if you don't admit it. In addition, many people are still thinking about anti-Qing and Han, in order to avoid outsiders chewing their tongues, and also to attract many important Han ministers. , Duan Fang and others took the initiative to suggest that the name of this country have to be changed, and the Qing Dynasty and so on will no longer be used, and replace it with a tly one.

So these people thought about it and came up with the name of a 'Chinese Federal Empire', and then issued a telegram saying that they would continue to respect Guangxu, who was trapped in the capital as the first emperor.

On December 2, Zhang Zhidong held the so-called 'Parliamentary Congress' in Wuhan and representatives sent from southern provinces agreed on the so-called constitution and various systems and so on.

However, Zhang Zhidong became the first imperial prime minister, Yinchang became the minister of the army, and Cen Chunxuan, Beiyang's sworn adversary, also ran away from Shanghai and then served as the minister of the branch. It is worth mentioning that in the first cabinet of the newly established Chinese Federal Empire, except for Yinchang, who was Manchurian , the others are all Han ministers!

is to show the outside world that this is definitely not a regime or cabinet belonging to the Manchu people, but a cabinet belonging to the people of the world!

But this is only a surface, because the name of the Manchu governor occupies nearly half of the subsequent announcement of the many governors loyal to the Chinese Federal Empire!

From December 2nd to 3rd, almost all the governors of many southern provinces issued telegrams to support the Chinese Federal Empire one after another. Among them, there were Duan Fang, the governor of Liangjiang, the minister of the army who also served as Jiangbei Admiral Yanchang, Xiliang, the governor of Yunnan and Guizhou, Enming, the governor of Anhui, Ruiliang, the governor of Jiangxi, the governor of Xinjiang, and Shanghai Daotai Ruiyu and so on.

At the same time, there are also a large number of Han governors, including Zhou Fu, governor of Guangdong, Ding Zhenze, governor of Fujian and Zhejiang, Zhao Erfeng, governor of Sichuan, Zhao Erxun, governor of Shaanxi and Gansu, Chen Kuilong, governor of Jiangsu, Zhang Zengyang, governor of Zhejiang, Pang Hongshu, governor of Guizhou, etc.

After the news spread to Tangshan, Zhao Dongyun, who was originally glad that Zhang Zhidong had established the so-called Chinese Federal Empire, also began to worry.

Why?

Because of the struggle between Zhao Dongyun and Wang Yingkai, and even the previous war with Feng Guozhang and Wang Shizhen, although the fight is very fierce, in any case, this is a Beiyang infighting, which is not about the leadership of this country, but the status of the boss of Beiyang.

How to say, the struggle between the bigwigs in Beiyang is not a life-and-death battle. Although Feng Guozhang was defeated, he is still living well now. Even if Wang Yingkai is disgusted, after Feng Guozhang announced his opposition, Wang Yingkai still had to eat and treat him well. After all, the bigwigs in Beiyang are all After many years together, many people used to be friends and even had a lot of friendship in private, but the interests of their respective factions made them draw swords.

Ten thousand steps back and said that no matter who wins this infighting in Beiyang, the meat is rotten in Beiyang's pot. Once Wang Yingkai and Zhao Dongyun win or lose, the next step is to unify Beiyang and develop and strengthen the Beiyang system.

But now Zhang Zhidong and other southern governors have created a so-called Chinese federal empire in the south, which has harmed the overall interests of Beiyang.

If Zhang Zhidong and others really get out some Northern Expeditionary Army, and then kill Zhili and defeat Wang Yingkai and others, Zhao Dongyun's end will not be so good!