Chapter 3 2. Get an official title from the barrel of a gun, seize the opportunity and soar into the sky

After the Sino-Japanese War broke out, Yuan Shikai was sent by Li Hongzhang to the Northeast Front. He still co-organized the former enemy camp affairs office in the name of Zhejiang Wen Chudao, responsible for raising food and liaising with various armies.As the Qing army retreated steadily during the war, people in the government and the opposition wrote their chapters after the war, vying to offer advice to the court on how to train the army. When it comes to military training, those scholar-bureaucrats are basically scholars who talk about military affairs on paper, and they are far behind Yuan Shikai.Based on Yuan Shikai's experience in training recruits in North Korea, Li Hongzhang asked him to be a master of the former enemy's camp affairs office, which is really a bit inferior.Yuan Laosi, who was eager to serve the country, was not reconciled to this. He took advantage of the court's eagerness to train the new army and organized a group of people to help him translate foreign military textbooks, including training methods, organization, and battalion systems. Based on his experience in military training that year, he drafted materials such as "Thirteen Rules for Military Training", "New Army Battalion Salary", "Draft of the Contract for Recruitment of Foreigners" and other materials, which were widely distributed among the officials of the imperial court and won a lot of attention for himself. Praise for knowing soldiers and managing affairs.At that time, many officials of the imperial court, such as Prince Gong Yi, Prince Qing Yikuang, Minister of War Rong Lu, Minister of Military Aircraft Li Hongzao, and local governors such as Li Hongzhang, Liu Kunyi, Zhang Zhidong, etc., all praised Yuan Shikai and unanimously recommended him.

This is really strange.As for the high officials above, they were all the most prominent officials in the imperial court at that time. How could they value Yuan Laosi so much, who was only thirty-six years old?To put it bluntly, there is no love or hatred for no reason in this world. This Yuan Laosi is indeed a little bit tricky. It's firearms management, recruiting standards, etc., everything is on point, which opened the eyes of those court officials who don't know what the new army is, and praised it. Yuan Shikai's luck was really good. At this time, Hu Yifen, who compiled and trained the Dingwu Army, was transferred to supervise the Jinlu Railway. Yuan Shikai took the opportunity to go up and down the activities. Rong Lu and others then jointly recommended Yuan Shikai to replace Hu Yunfen and go to Xiaozhan for military training.With the sponsorship of these bigwigs from the DPRK and China, things will of course be easy to handle.From this, Yuan Shikai ran to Tianjin Xiaozhan to train soldiers, which also became the beginning of his career.

In December 1895, Yuan Shikai went to Xiaozhan to formally take over the Dingwu Army, which had begun to take shape. After recruiting the original Dingwu Army to 7,300 soldiers, Yuan Shikai renamed it the New Army.In order to build the new army into a model army, Yuan Shikai paid a lot of money to hire more than a dozen German instructors, including the retired officer Schall, and stipulated that the whole army should use uniform new rifles, carbine guns and fast guns, most of which were German or Austrian. The standardized firearms made by the Chinese government greatly improved the combat effectiveness of the army.

Yuan Shikai was very strict in governing the army. He personally formulated the "Eighteen Laws of Beheading" for the new army, requiring soldiers to strictly abide by them. Those who form alliances and establish associations, who spread rumors to confuse the crowd, those who fight with weapons and gather crowds to make noise, will be executed; The military system of the new army is very strict, including detailed regulations on recruiting, marching, drills, and stationing.Yuan Shikai managed the army very strictly, supervising operations during the day and patrolling the camp at night, never slacking off.One night when Yuan Shikai was patrolling the camp, he accidentally found a soldier eating opium. Yuan Shikai drew his saber and killed him on the spot. The whole camp was shocked. Since then, no one in the camp dared to eat opium.

At this time, Yuan Shikai put all his energy and thoughts on this army, and almost used all his strength to feed.In the barracks, Yuan Shikai set an example. Like ordinary soldiers, he wore military uniforms, belts, riding boots, and sabers. He looked like a valiant warrior.In normal training, Yuan Shikai often came to the scene to watch the drills in person. During a certain military parade, it suddenly rained heavily, and the officer under him wanted to hold an umbrella for him. ?” At the beginning of the establishment of the army, Yuan Shikai also deliberately created an image of being friendly to the soldiers. He personally supervised every time the salary was paid, so as to prevent the bad habit of officers eating empty quota and deducting military salary.Not only that, but Yuan Shikai often went deep into the battalions to get close to junior officers and soldiers, and even small leaders like shed heads could be called by name, which was not easy.

Yuan Shikai's efforts were not in vain. After a period of training, the appearance of the new army was completely new.In the barracks of the army, there are serious and responsible foreign instructors, energetic new officers, energetic soldiers, brand-new guns and cannons, and horses neighing on the playground. It really is a well-trained and disciplined model military! Of course, it is not without hidden dangers.It is said that Yuan Shikai once blatantly established his personal power in the army. At that time, every barracks had Yuan's longevity plaque, instilling the idea that "Master Yuan is our food and clothing, and we must work for him".Some people say that every day when the soldiers gather, the officer will ask the soldiers: "Whose food shall we eat?" The soldiers answer in unison: "Let us eat from Yuan Gongbao!" The soldiers replied in unison: "Let's help Yuan Gongbao!" In this way, this new army became Yuan's army, no wonder other people couldn't dispatch this army at all.

Yuan Shikai still has a way of employing people. Later, most of the influential figures of the Beiyang warlords came to the fore after being promoted and appointed by Yuan Shikai. Cao Kun, Lu Yongxiang, Duan Zhigui and others, and even the defeated generals of the Sino-Japanese War who were dismissed by the court such as Zhang Xun, Jiang Guiti, Tian Zhongyu and others, all joined Yuan Shikai's command and worked hard for him. The new army trained by Yuan Shikai is actually the first modern army in modern Chinese history.Grasping the barrel of a gun in troubled times, the official title came out of the barrel of the gun. With this capital, Yuan Shikai's reputation has risen since then, and he has soared into the sky.However, there are good and bad things in everything. Yuan Shikai did have achievements, but this attracted the jealousy of many people, especially the nobles of the Qing Dynasty. For a while, rumors arose that Yuan Shikai was going to rebel against the Qing Dynasty.

At that time, Yuan Shikai's immediate boss, Minister of the Ministry of War, Rong Lu, also believed the rumors for a time. Later, he went to the small station to check in person. If he found Yuan Shikai showing signs of treason, he would be cut off immediately.Unexpectedly, after Rong Lu went to the small station, he found that the newly-built army was really well-groomed, with bright equipment and brand-new barriers... a completely heroic division, which left a deep impression on Rong Lu at that time.Master Rong has been a soldier all his life, and he has never seen such an excellent and modern new-style army, so his love for talents was unavoidable. After returning, instead of killing Yuan Shikai, he drew Yuan Shikai as his confidant. Great use.As a result, Yuan Shikai also voted under Ronglu's sect.

As we all know, Yuan Shikai was active at the beginning of the Reform Movement of 1898 and donated a large sum of money to the Strong Society.It's a pity that the situation changed suddenly later. In order to protect himself, Yuan Shikai told Ronglu all about Tan Sitong's night visit, which caused the six gentlemen to spill blood on the streets, and Emperor Guangxu was also placed under house arrest in Yingtai. Heroes emerge in troubled times, and Shuzi also becomes famous.Yuan Shikai dyed the crown on his head red by betraying reformers. After the 1898 coup, Yuan Shikai gained the full trust of the Empress Dowager Cixi, and opportunities followed. In 1899, Yuan Shikai became the governor of Shandong and led 7,000 people from the Wuwei Right Army to suppress the Boxer Movement.In the Year of Gengzi, Yuan Shikai not only stood still, but also expanded the original 20th Battalion of the Shandong Old Army into the vanguard of the Wuwei Right Army under the pretext of "protecting the environment and the people".In this way, Yuan Shikai won the praise of Chinese and foreign people while keeping one side safe.After the Gengzi year, Li Hongzhang, an important official of the imperial court, specially recommended Yuan Shikai to the imperial court before his death.As a result, Yuan Shikai soon acted as the governor of Zhili and the minister of Beiyang, and he seemed to be the Prime Minister Yuan in the prime of life and powerful!

You must know that Yuan Shikai was only in his early forties at that time, and his future was not only far better than those of his family's Jinshi and Juren Dalords, he was probably even better than the old leader Li Hongzhang. Due to the disastrous defeats of the Qing government in the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895 and the Battle of Boxer, expanding the size of the new army became a consensus among the ruling and opposition parties. For Yuan Shikai, this was simply a great opportunity. In November 1903, after some hard work, Empress Dowager Cixi finally agreed to Yuan Shikai's proposal to set up a military training office.As a result, Yuan Shikai threw off his arms and went to work, and the six towns of the Beiyang Army were roughly completed two years later. This was also the beginning of the Beiyang warlords.

Of the six Beiyang towns at that time, except for the first town which could not be controlled because it was a banner soldier, the other five towns were all direct-line troops brought out by Yuan Shikai.The main generals of each town were almost all selected by Yuan Shikai, and all of them were from Xiaozhan: the first town was ruled by Fengshan first, and then He Zonglian; the second town was ruled by Wang Yingkai first, and then Zhang Huaizhi; The control of the three towns was first Duan Qirui and then Cao Kun; the fourth town was control Wu Fengling; The middle and upper-level officers in the Beiyang Army who served as coordinators and standard officials were also Yuan Shikai's people, such as Lei Zhenchun, Chen Guangyuan, Li Chun, Wang Zhanyuan, Lu Yongxiang, Bao Guiqing, Wang Huaiqing, Tian Zhongyu, etc. Xingruyun, these people came to the Republic of China, and they were all prominent figures of the time. Yuan Shikai not only trained well in military training, but during his tenure as governor of Zhili and minister of Beiyang, he also made great achievements in other aspects such as opening mines and factories, building railways, founding police patrols, rectifying local administration, and setting up new schools.Under the leadership of Yuan Shikai, Zhili has been at the forefront of the provinces in the New Deal in the late Qing Dynasty.It is worth mentioning that Yuan Shikai and Zhang Zhidong also jointly petitioned the Qing court in 1905 to abolish the imperial examination system that had lasted for thousands of years; and in the subsequent constitution, Yuan Shikai also advocated the reform of the official system and implemented a responsible cabinet. He was talented in all aspects Prominent, aggressive. The crescent moon shines on Kyushu, some families are happy and some are sad.Seeing the growing new army and the increasingly powerful Yuan Shikai, those Manchu relatives and nobles inevitably felt like they were infested with tigers.Indeed, Yuan Shikai is very capable, but he is too capable, and he is a Han Chinese.Yuan Shikai's huge Beiyang military and political group has gradually run loose, and the reins of the Qing court seem to be a little bit unable to hold him.Especially in terms of the army, although the Qing government planned to train thirty-six towns, except for Yuan Shikai's Beiyang six towns, most of the other provinces did not train them; After all, Yuan Shikai is not a loyal and patriotic scholar like Zeng Guofan who was born in the imperial examination. If he... hum, the consequences will be disastrous.