Chapter 140 Chapter Ten Unarmed

During the period when Xu Shuzheng was under residential surveillance, a Japanese military officer stationed in Shanghai did not know if he was also an "iron fan" of Xu Shuzheng like the Onodera in Tianjin.He took the initiative to find Xu Shuzheng's friends, and together they discussed how to rescue Xu Shuzheng.At that time, the Japanese were not restricted from entering and leaving Xu's house. The military officer proposed that Xu Shuzheng could be disguised as a Japanese first, and then enter Xu's house by himself to bring him out. The friend truthfully conveyed the plan of the Japanese military attache to Xu Shuzheng.Xu Shuzheng said that I will stop doing these nonsense things, and I don't want to mess around with the Japanese anymore. I am determined to go abroad, and I don't want to do anything else.

Through these few days of closed-door meditation, Xu Shuzheng re-filtered his previous experience and lessons in politics.In his view, the "boss" (Duan Qirui) has been in power several times, and he has relied too much on Japan in terms of diplomacy. He only talks about "China-Japan goodwill", and there are countless Japanese experts such as Cao Rulin and Wang Yitang by his side. But there are not many people who are close to Britain and the United States. Xu Shuzheng still clearly remembers that once when the British came to visit Duan Qirui, they were anxious to find anyone who could speak English.He happened to be there, and although he was not proficient in English, he could handle one or two things, which resolved the embarrassment.

Before Duan Qirui stepped down, the Anhui faction was so powerful, why was it still defeated by the direct faction?Xu Shuzheng believes that it has a lot to do with foreign policy. Due to deviations in foreign policy, the direct lineage has received support from Britain and the United States, and its political reputation has risen; while the Duan faction and the Anhui faction have been implicated by issues such as borrowing from Japan, and have repeatedly been criticized by public opinion. attack.He said to his friends: "If you want to win over Japan, other powers, especially Britain and the United States, will of course be jealous. Therefore, Cao and Wu, who are directly related, have become rare goods to live in. Isn't the setback and insult we have suffered this time a proof?"

After thinking hard, Xu Shuzheng came to the conclusion: Under the new international situation, if you want to engage in politics, you must try your best to win over countries other than Japan.This time, he plans to take the opportunity to go to Europe to learn more about the political, economic and military situation of European and American countries. If he has the opportunity, he will also strengthen contacts with politicians from various countries, so as to help "the boss come out in the future". After obtaining permission from the concession authorities, Xu Shuzheng left Shanghai on a foreign ship.The foreign ship needs to stop in Hong Kong halfway. The Hong Kong Governor's Office learned that Xu Shuzheng was on board, fearing to offend the immediate family, so it sent people to wait at the pier early and declared that Xu Shuzheng would not go ashore.

Just when Xu Shuzheng was in a state of embarrassment and at a loss, in the afternoon, the attitude of the Hong Kong Governor's Mansion suddenly took a 180-degree turn. They sent people to board the ship with invitation cards and invited Xu Shuzheng to the Governor's Mansion to participate in the meeting that day. dinner party. The reason why the Governor's Mansion is so arrogant and respectful is because it received a telegram from the British Minister to China from Beijing: Duan Qirui has been embraced as the interim ruler of the Republic of China! Knowing that Xu Shuzheng was in Hong Kong, Duan Qirui didn't want him to go abroad according to Duan Qirui's original intention, but Xu Shuzheng had made up his mind, so Duan Qirui appointed him as the special envoy for European and American inspections, allowing him to embark on a trip abroad in a legitimate way.

Although Xu Shuzheng's going abroad made the reorganized Duanmu lack a core member, the recent addition of a talented person more or less made up for this shortcoming. This person is Zhang Shizhao who suggested Duan Qirui implement "harmonization and unification".Zhang Shizhao has long been famous in the north and south because of his literary and good thinking, and his political views and ideals at this time have been completely accepted by Duan Qirui. When they met again, they fell in love at first sight. Entering the stage of forming a cabinet and building a team, Duan Qirui set up an office in Tianjin Honzhai, appointed Zhang Shizhao as the secretary-general, and let him and his eldest son Duan Hongye be responsible for handling related affairs and receiving guests from all over the world.

Since the news of Duan Chushan came out, there was a cloud of crowns in front of the office, and there was an endless stream of politicians who came here to run around.Duan Qirui was getting old and couldn't bear the noise and entanglement, so he lived upstairs, and Zhang Shizhao and Duan Hongye were in charge of receiving downstairs. No matter who they were, they had to get their consent before going upstairs to see Duan Qirui. Zhang Shizhao was deeply grateful for Duan Qirui's kindness, and he worked very hard.In order to be able to discuss relevant issues with Duan Qirui at any time and deal with various relationships, he simply moved to Duan's house, lived downstairs, and shared a bed with Duan Hongye at night.

In Xu Shuzheng's absence, Zhang Shizhao partially took over his role as Duan Qirui's new military adviser.It is Zhang Shizhao's idea to govern in the name of "temporary governance" instead of a grand president or grand marshal.The reason for adopting this system design is mainly to learn the lessons of previous "conflicts between the government and courts", so the powers of the president and prime minister were simply combined into one, and they were all owned by the "temporary ruling". Another suggestion that Zhang Shizhao adopted by Duan Qirui was to investigate and prosecute members of Congress who participated in election bribery.It is justifiable to investigate and deal with the "Piggy Members" whose reputation has become so bad that they will not encounter any resistance. At the same time, since most of the former members of Congress have participated in bribery, the remaining members who refuse to bribe are not enough for a quorum and cannot hold meetings. "Temporary governance" will not be too much restrained by the Congress when governing.

After thinking that he was ready, Duan Qirui decided to set off for Beijing. On November 24, 1924, he completed the handover with the temporary transitional Regency Cabinet, and formally assumed the temporary power in Beijing.