Chapter 30 30. Tang Shaoyi's Self-Destructed Future Was "Slashed With an Axe"

Tang Shaoyi was the first prime minister of the Republic of China. He was once prominent in the political arena in the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China. However, he resigned in anger less than a year after the founding of the Republic of China. The reason for this is quite a sigh. Tang Shaoyi, courtesy name Shaochuan, was born in 1862 (three years younger than Yuan Shikai), from Xiangshan, Guangdong, and was an authentic fellow with Sun Yat-sen.Tang Shaoyi's father was a comprador in tea business in Shanghai, and his uncle Tang Tingshu once worked under Li Hongzhang's door to help with foreign affairs, and later served as the general office of Shanghai Shipping Merchants and Kaiping Mining Bureau.Due to family reasons, Tang Shaoyi became the third batch of young children studying in the United States at the age of twelve, and studied and lived in the United States for 7 years (at that time, he was enrolled in Columbia University). Later, due to the obstruction of domestic diehards, All these students studying in the United States were recalled without completing their studies. Tang Shaoyi was only nineteen years old when she returned to China.

Due to the failure of their studies, Li Hongzhang felt that it was a pity that these half-launched "returnees" were idle, so he sent these people to various Westernization Schools in Tianjin for refurbishment. Tang Shaoyi soon entered the Tianjin tax office and was sent to North Korea to assist in taxation. , thus forming an indissoluble bond with Yuan Shikai, the commercial representative in North Korea. When he was in North Korea, Tang Shaoyi was Yuan Shikai's clerk, and it can be said that he was Yuan Shikai's earliest subordinate. With this relationship, Tang Shaoyi also rose with Yuan Shikai's promotion. He successively served as a Taoist officer of Tianjin Customs, a minister of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and a governor of Fengtian. Tang Shaoyi was unemployed until Yuan Shikai was kicked out by the regent Zaifeng.

After the Wuchang Uprising, Yuan Shikai came out again, and Tang Shaoyi was called into the curtain and sent to the south to negotiate with the Revolutionary Party.After Yuan Shikai became the interim president, Tang Shaoyi was nominated as the first prime minister of the cabinet, becoming the second person after Yuan Shikai.Interestingly, during the process of peace talks between the North and the South and the formation of the cabinet in Nanjing, Tang Shaoyi shared a common language with the southern revolutionaries, and he readily joined the Tongmenghui under the introduction of Sun Yat-sen and Huang Xing.From Tang Shaoyi's point of view, this incident may be an attempt to reconcile the conflict between the North and the South, but in Yuan Shikai's eyes, Tang Shaoyi was too close to the revolutionaries.As a result, Tang Shaoyi also planted the root of discord with Yuan Shikai.

In the political chaos in the early years of the Republic of China, the main problem was the authority of the president and the prime minister, among which the deputy authority of the prime minister was the most difficult.Take the relationship between Yuan Shikai and Tang Shaoyi as an example. Since the 1880s, Tang Shaoyi has been following Yuan Shikai, and his status as a staff member has been maintained for nearly 30 years. Suddenly, one day, Yuan Shikai needed Tang Shaoyi to countersign the order. The Prime Minister's signature cannot take effect, this is how Yuan Shikai can accept it.

Although Tang Shaoyi had followed Yuan Shikai for nearly thirty years, he was still a scholar at heart.Before the Qing emperor abdicated, when Tang Shaoyi was ordered to negotiate between the North and the South, he cut off the long braid on the back of his head after boarding the train going south. This seemed to be beneficial to the negotiation, but in fact it broke with the Qing court.During the negotiations between the North and the South and the formation of the cabinet in Nanjing, Tang Shaoyi got along very well with the revolutionary parties in the south, which had to arouse Yuan Shikai's suspicion and suspicion.

According to Yuan Shikai's original idea, he originally hoped that his old friend Xu Shichang would be the prime minister, but Xu Shichang, out of consideration for fame, refused to retire to Qingdao as a "second minister".Yuan Shikai's original idea may have been to hope that Tang Shaoyi would be his deputy to help handle government affairs, but now that Tang Shaoyi had a close relationship with the Revolutionary Party, it would be suspected that he would use the forces in the south to confront him. However, although Tang Shaoyi had a close relationship with the Revolutionary Party, he was still a member of Yuan Shikai's faction. He only fought with Yuan Shikai repeatedly for political views because of his responsibility for the cabinet.Yuan Shikai is an old school figure. He neither understands nor agrees with the principle that the president, prime minister, and responsible cabinet control each other. In his opinion, Tang Shaoyi is unavoidably bookish and even overwhelmed.What Tang Shaoyi did, even the people in the presidential palace said indignantly in private at that time: "Today, Prime Minister Tang is here to bully our president again?" How does the role switch?)

One time, Prime Minister Tang had a dispute with President Yuan because of something. Old Yuan became impatient and said in a rage, "Shaochuan, I'm old now, so you can be the president, okay?" Tang Shaoyi Hearing such a sentence suddenly, he was frightened into a cold sweat on the spot. After all these years of bureaucrats in front of the officials, their backs could not be hardened after all. Due to too many conflicts with Tang Shaoyi, Yuan Shikai later simply put aside him as the prime minister and directly commanded the heads of various ministries Zhao Bingjun, Duan Qirui and others.Zhao, Duan and the others were originally obedient to Yuan Yan, but now they have Yuan Shikai's backing, they bypassed Tang Shaoyi in everything, until later, they didn't even attend the state affairs meeting.As a result, Tang Shaoyi, the prime minister, felt sad. In his own words, "My cabinet is a backpack cabinet. One more day in the post of prime minister means one more day of guilt!"

Not only did Prime Minister Tang have a tense relationship with the presidential palace, but even the Congress made things difficult for him from time to time.Due to the lack of guarantee of fiscal revenue in the early years of the Republic of China, Tang Shaoyi once made his own claim and borrowed several loans from foreign countries, but some congressmen immediately asked Tang Shaoyi to go to the Senate to explain the situation.At the meeting, the young and energetic congressmen questioned Tang Shaoyi. They not only questioned the purpose of the loan, but also accused Premier Tang of breaking the trust of the people and being suspicious of neighboring countries. Some even called Tang Shaoyi a "destroyed prime minister".

Tang Shaoyi has never seen such a posture before (now you know how powerful democracy is), and after being exhausted in the venue, he simply lost his response and sat there dumbfounded, without saying a word.After being persecuted by the Senate for no reason, Tang Shaoyi was so angry that she had nowhere to vent, so she asked President Yuan to resign that night.Although Yuan Shikai was dissatisfied with Tang Shaoyi, he didn't want the first cabinet to collapse so quickly, so he had to persuade Tang Shaoyi to stay calm and be patient for a while. After one wave was not settled, another wave rose again, and the issue of the candidate for the governor of Zhili caused another wave.It turned out that after the Revolution of 1911, it was popular in all provinces to have their own governors, such as Li Yuanhong in charge of Hubei and Li Liejun in charge of Jiangxi.Wang Zhixiang is a native of Tongxian County, Zhili Province. He was originally the chief envoy of Guangxi and the commander of the patrol battalion. Anyway, during the 1911 Revolution, Wang Zhixiang could not stand because Lu Rongting became the governor of Guangxi, so he led his troops to Nanjing to prepare for the Northern Expedition.Later, the Northern Expedition failed, and the Southern Revolutionary Party wanted him to be the governor of Zhili in order to expand the power of the Revolutionary Party.

However, Zhili is the confidant of the Beiyang Army, how can you allow others to sleep soundly on the side of the couch?Therefore, Yuan Shikai ignored the proposal of the Southern Revolutionary Party, but appointed his confidant Zhang Xiluan as the governor of Zhili.During Tang Shaoyi's cabinet formation in Nanjing, he tried to reconcile the conflict between the North and the South. At that time, he also echoed the request of the Southern Revolutionary Party, and proposed to Yuan Shikai that Wang Zhixiang be the governor of Zhili.Although Yuan Shikai was unhappy, he did not object verbally, and only said that Wang Zhixiang should come to Beijing first.Tang Shaoyi thought that Yuan Shikai had agreed to appoint Wang Zhixiang as the governor of Zhili, so he invited Wang Zhixiang to Beijing.

When Wang Zhixiang arrived in Beijing, Tang Shaoyi asked Yuan Shikai to issue a letter of appointment, but Yuan Shikai took out a telegram from the Zhili Fifth Route Army against Wang Zhixiang's appointment as the governor. People? What's more, military interference in politics is probably not a blessing for the Republic of China." Yuan Shikai didn't admit it: "Why did I agree? Wang Zhixiang is a revolutionary party. If he came to be the governor of Zhili, wouldn't he be leading wolves into the house?" Tang Shaoyi said angrily: "It is the cabinet's responsibility to appoint or not. How can the military interfere? Just change it at will? Besides, Wang Zhixiang has already arrived in Beijing, how can I, the prime minister, explain it to me?” Yuan Shikai smiled with his beard: “It’s not difficult, I have my own way.” Later, Yuan Shikai summoned Wang Zhixiang alone, and promised to give him a generous sum of money, let him be reassigned as a consolation envoy of the southern army, and return to Nanjing to assist Cheng Dequan, the governor of Jiangsu, in disbanding the army.After all, Prime Minister Tang's face was not as high as President Yuan's. Wang Zhixiang was originally a bureaucrat who followed suit. After receiving Yuan Shikai's guarantee, he ignored the support of his friends and agreed to Yuan Shikai's new appointment. When Wang Zhixiang took the letter of appointment to Tang Shaoyi and asked him to countersign it, Prime Minister Tang was completely kept in the dark and didn't know anything about it.After learning that she was betrayed by her boss, President Yuan, and her friend Wang Zhixiang, Tang Shaoyi angrily rejected the request for a countersignature, but Wang Zhixiang went straight to Nanjing to take office with a letter of appointment without a countersignature from the Prime Minister! That night, Tang Shaoyi stayed up all night and wandered all night.At this moment, thinking of all the humiliations and criticisms he had suffered since he took office as Prime Minister for more than a month, he seemed to have overturned a bottle of flavor in his heart. Sadness, resentment, loneliness, and helplessness were really mixed feelings, all of which came to mind.Sitting alone in the cold window, Tang Shaoyi couldn't help but said to herself: "A democratic republic is determined by the "Interim Constitution". Since the order of the president does not need to be countersigned by the cabinet, what should I do as the prime minister?" It was decided that when the sky was getting brighter, he packed his bags and went directly to the train station with his family to go to Tianjin. Tang Shaoyi’s departure without saying goodbye seems to be caused by an accident (that is, the countersignature of Wang Zhixiang’s appointment letter), but in fact it implies the fundamental problem of the conflict between the construction of the power system and the actual situation, which is largely caused by It was caused by unrealistic provisions in the Provisional Contract.From the perspective of abiding by the law and the "Interim Contract Law", Tang Shaoyi's resignation is a commendable thing, because he saved the dignity of the law with his own personal sacrifice, and would not make the responsible cabinet system fall into Yuan Shikai's despotic power. Down.But from the perspective of utilitarianism, Tang Shaoyi's resignation is obviously inappropriate, because the establishment of the Republic of China needs the overall stability most, and the only person with appeal at that time was the great president Yuan Shikai. Unfortunately, Tang Shaoyi's first cabinet It was really unexpected that such a farce ended in less than three months. Tang Shaoyi may not have thought that after he resigned, he would never get a position that matched his previous experience.After Yuan Shikai's death, Duan Qirui formed a cabinet and originally planned to nominate Tang Shaoyi as the Minister of Foreign Affairs, but the Beiyang soldiers believed that Tang Shaoyi had defected from the Beiyang faction and defected to the Revolutionary Party, so he firmly opposed this, and Tang Shaoyi was ultimately unable to take office.Until the North-South peace talks in 1919, Tang Shaoyi was appointed as the general representative of the peace talks. However, at the end of the Qing Dynasty, he represented the North that time, but this time he represented the South. After the start of the North-South peace talks, due to the complicated conflicts between various factions, the negotiations made no progress. During the period, the "May 4th Movement" that shocked China and the world broke out, which added a lot of variables to the peace talks.At the eighth official meeting on May 13, Tang Shaoyi proposed eight conditions similar to an ultimatum without informing other southern representatives, which eventually led to the breakdown of the peace talks. Lift (the roughness of his work can be seen). In the following years, Tang Shaoyi faded out of the political arena and became an embellishment and spectator of the Republic of China.After Chiang Kai-shek came to power, Tang Shaoyi, a veteran of the party and the country, only held some idle positions, such as the Central Committee of the Kuomintang and a member of the National Government. Chiang Kai-shek hired him as a senior adviser, but he did not take up the post.On weekdays, Tang Shaoyi either travels around mountains and rivers, or reciting poems behind closed doors, and seems to have lived a life far away from politics. Until 1931, Tang Shaoyi, who was nearly seventy years old, suddenly had a spring heart and became the county magistrate of his hometown Xiangshan County (which has been renamed Zhongshan County).Tang Shaoyi's move really surprised everyone. People's officials are getting bigger and bigger, but Tang Shaoyi went from Daotai, governor, and minister in the late Qing Dynasty to the prime minister of the cabinet and the seven presidents of the law-protecting government in the Republic of China. Finally, he became smaller and smaller. Seventh Grade Sesame Official is here!Having said that, County Magistrate Tang is serious and responsible. Official Zhima does it in a disciplined manner and never fools around. However, the good times didn't last long. Tang Shaoyi later offended Chen Jitang, a powerful figure from Guangdong and Guangxi, and was finally pushed out of Guangdong, even a small county magistrate couldn't do it.Later, Mao Zedong jokingly said in an article that (to be an official) one must be able to go up and down, to be the prime minister of the cabinet at the top, and to be the magistrate of Zhongshan County at the bottom. Tang Gong Shaoyi was not referring to him. Tang Shaoyi, who resigned from public office, later moved to Shanghai and started an apartment in a garden house on Fukaisen Road (now Wukang Road) in the French Concession, leading a peaceful life.However, after the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, Shanghai fell, and the Japanese military authorities came up with Tang Shaoyi's idea, the so-called "Southern Tang and Northern Wu Plan". "Negotiating" opponents. When the party and government officials of the Kuomintang in Shanghai fled to Hong Kong one after another, Tang Shaoyi still did not move at this time. This quickly attracted the attention of military secret agents, especially the Japanese and the traitors Chen Zhongfu and Wen Zongyao who were "into the water". After Tang Shaoyi's activities were detected by Dai Li's secret agents, the rumors that Tang Shaoyi might take up a fake job were spread to a certain extent, which made Chiang Kai-shek very unhappy, and then sent people to persuade Tang Shaoyi, such as Kong Xiangxi sent people A message was sent, "If you need anything, please call at any time." Tang Shaoyi's son-in-law Zhu Changnian was also ordered to come to Shanghai to persuade him to get out of the Japanese and puppet siege as soon as possible and move to Hong Kong. If he is willing to go to Wuhan, he should be appointed as the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee. Dai Li, the spy chief, also asked Du Yuesheng to write to Tang Shaoyi from Hong Kong, advising him to leave Shanghai for Hong Kong to avoid any accidents. Based on Tang Shaoyi's many years of political experience, he should know that he is in a dangerous situation on an isolated island. Although he told all visitors that he would not be a traitor and must go to Hong Kong, he excused some housework and did not leave immediately the meaning of.Tang Shaoyi's ambiguous attitude not only aroused speculation from all parties, but also brought about a fatal disaster for herself. Since Tang Shaoyi hadn't seen any movement for a long time, Dai Li believed that Tang Shaoyi might take up the post of the Japanese Puppet Maintenance Committee after comprehensive information from various sources, so he reported to Chiang Kai-shek and issued an assassination order to prevent future passiveness.Because Tang Shaoyi likes to collect antiques, the assassination team also used this as an entry point. Xie Zhipan pretended to be an antique broker. After gaining Tang Shaoyi's trust, Xie and Tang agreed to bring an antique dealer to the door for a deal on a certain day. opportunity for action. On September 30, 1938, Xie Zhipan brought an antique dealer and two servants to the Tangzhai. The person posing as the merchant was Zhao Lijun, a veteran military agent, and the two servants were military killers Wang Xingguo and Li Ada. The large antique leather case contains a large vase made by the Southern Song Dynasty and several other antiques. In the large vase, a small sharp steel ax is prepared in advance. Tang Shaoyi is very fascinated by antiques, and he is very focused on appraisals. He often has to screen out servants and close the door to prevent outsiders from seeing them. This is a good opportunity for spies to attack.After Xie Zhipan and the others arrived, they greeted Tang Shaoyi and asked Tang Shaoyi to appraise the antiques. Zhao Lijun pretended to be smoking to find matches, but there were none in the living room, so Tang Shaoyi asked the servants in the room to look for them.After the servant left, Zhao Lijun saw that the time had come, so he first asked Tang Shaoyi to appraise the vase, and while he was looking down, Zhao Lijun winked at the "servant" beside him, the so-called "seeing the poor dagger, revealing the axe". , I saw a flash of cold light, the military commander quickly pulled out a small ax from the bottle, and blew it at Tang Shaoyi's head suddenly. Poor Tang Shaoyi, the "veteran of the three dynasties", before he could snort, his brains splattered and he died on the spot. Seeing the completion of the operation, the military command agents quickly evacuated. When they exited the room, Zhao Lijun and Xie Zhipan pretended to be polite: "Mr. Tang doesn't need to send it away, please stay, please stay. We will send it when there is something good." Said. After finishing, he gently closed the door for Tang Shaoyi, then walked out of the Tang residence unhurriedly, got into the car, and ran away in a hurry.Seeing that the situation was peaceful, the servants of the Tang family didn't take it seriously at first, but when they found Tang Shaoyi lying in a pool of blood, they had already run away and disappeared. The next day, the news of Tang Shaoyi's murder quickly spread throughout the country, and some people had already guessed that it was the work of military reunification agents.In order to cover up his suspicion, Chiang Kai-shek pretended to be generous. On the one hand, he called Tang Shaoyi's family to express his condolences. Behind him, he was honorable and dignified, and the suspicion of being a "traitor" was never mentioned. Tang Shaoyi, who once had a great reputation in the political arena in the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China, whether he lost or not lost his evening festival is like the mystery of his murder.Tang Shaoyi was not the only one who suffered the same fate. Zhang Jingyao, Zhou Fengqi, etc. also had contacts with the Japanese puppets and were killed.