Chapter 5 Chapter 5 War and Peace

On October 30, 1911, Yuan Shikai arrived at the front with his beloved general Duan Qirui. When the Beiyang Army saw the old chief coming, they were immediately inspired.In particular, Feng Guozhang, the front-line commander selected by Yuan Shikai himself, had been thinking about taking Hankou for a long time and making a mountain gift for the boss. Although the revolutionary army was at a disadvantage in numbers and weapons, they showed astonishing psychological quality and good military quality. They assembled their forces to deploy defenses in Hankou City in the face of danger, and made reasonable use of the geographical advantage—relying on the dangerous position in Hankou City to persist in street fighting , causing great damage to the Beiyang Army.

Feng Guozhang is an experienced commander. He knows very well that if the Beiyang Army falls into hand-to-hand combat like street fighting, it will not be able to give full play to its comprehensive advantages represented by weapons, numbers and tactical literacy.The longer the delay, the greater the number of soldier casualties. So Feng Guozhang decided to adopt a new method-fire attack, and set fire to Hankou City. The approach is right, but the price is painful.In the raging fire, Hankou was burned to the ground, and civilians suffered heavy casualties. On November 1, the revolutionary army was forced to withdraw from Hankou.Hankou changed hands.

After Hankou was in his hands, Yuan Shikai did not "advise to chase the remaining brave bandits".On the surface, he asked the troops to rest for a few days, but in fact he wanted to take this opportunity to send someone to touch the bottom of the Revolutionary Party to see if the problem could be resolved through negotiation. Yuan Daguan knew that war is an extension of politics.Military is just a means, politics is the end.Why use force if political goals can be achieved through negotiation? After Yuan Shikai's envoy arrived in Wuchang, the two sides did not reach an agreement.

The main reason is that the two sides have huge differences on how to deal with the dilapidated imperial court in Beijing. Yuan Shikai felt that the best solution was the constitutional monarchy adopted by Britain and Japan. A constitutional monarchy belongs to the "virtual monarchy republic". The monarch is only the head of state in name, and the sovereignty of the country belongs to the people. It is actually a democratic republic.In essence, the purpose of the revolution has been achieved. The point is that this plan is more suitable for the current situation. Retaining the emperor took care of the court's face, and implementing a constitutional law satisfied the requirements of the constitutionalists, and Yuan Shikai's own prime minister would also hold real power.

But the attitude of Li Yuanhong and others is very tough. We rebelled to "drive out the Tartars", the emperor must abdicate, and the Qing Dynasty must perish.In fact, Li Yuanhong didn't say a word, if the emperor is left, if the emperor holds a grudge, what will he do if he wears shoes for those who have fought so hard to rebel? Negotiations failed, and the bottom line of the Revolutionary Party was almost understood, and Yuan Shikai's aggressive personality did not fade with his aging body, so he decided to continue fighting.If you don't agree, you will be hit until you agree, if you don't agree, you will be hit until you agree.

With Yuan Shikai's order, Feng Guozhang quickly assembled a large number of troops outside Hanyang City, with aggressive vigor. How long can the revolutionary army last? As one of the three towns of Wuhan, Hanyang is separated from Wuchang by a river.Hankou has been lost, and if Hanyang falls again, Wuchang will not be able to keep it.The revolutionary army must fight to the death. The commander-in-chief of the revolutionary army was Huang Xing, the second in command of the Tongmenghui who arrived in Wuhan on October 28.Why is it Huang Xing instead of Li Yuanhong who is more proficient in military affairs?The reason is two words: fame.Huang Xing, the second in command of the Tongmenghui, is a world-renowned rebel leader both at home and abroad, much more famous than Li Yuanhong.

Fame does have its power. When Huang Xing came to Hanyang, the morale of the revolutionary army was soaring, and the depression of being defeated by Feng Guozhang a while ago was almost wiped away. Not only that, the Hunan Revolutionary New Army also came to help. In the Hunan New Army, there was a hidden dragon and a crouching tiger. Mao Zedong, who was under the age of 18, was also among them. He was an ordinary private in the left team of the 1st Battalion of the 50th Standard of the 25th Mixed Association. The highest leader of his unit was Cheng Qian. At this time, it was just half a year after the Huanghuagang Uprising in Guangzhou under the command of Huang Xing. I believe he was also worried. Therefore, Huang Xing's defense plan-concentrate the main force on the front of Hanyang and deploy a small amount of troops on the flanks of Hanyang as containment, which seems a bit conservative. .

Huang Xing's stable plan was opposed by the "San Wu"—Sun Wu, Jiang Yiwu, and Zhang Zhenwu.These three are not only the leaders of the Wuchang Uprising, but also the grassroots cadres of the new army. They are generals who have been tempered in actual combat, and naturally they are not just for nothing. They believed that Feng Guozhang would never use troops honestly, and his main attack direction was not the front of Hanyang, but the west gate of Hanyang—Caidian on the flank, so Huang Xing should send heavy troops to guard Caidian. In fact, whether it is Feng Guozhang's Beiyang Army or the Self-Strengthening Army where the "Three Wu" is located, they are all new-style armies compiled and trained by the imperial court under the auspices of Yuan Shikai and Zhang Zhidong for more than ten years, and they share common strategies and tactics.So they have a common idea of ​​attacking and defending Hanyang.

If Huang Xing adopted the "Three Weapons" plan, it might be a bloody battle of equal strength.It is a pity that Huang Xing did not adopt the "Three Wu" plan, and the result can be imagined. The revolutionary army fought fiercely with the Beiyang army for more than 20 days, and sacrificed tens of thousands, but Hanyang was still lost. On November 27, 1911, the Beiyang Army captured Hanyang, and the Yangxia Defense War ended. Although this battle ended in failure like all the previous battles Huang Xing commanded, but in all fairness, Huang Xing fought against an enemy twice as powerful as himself for 24 days, dragging the main force of the Qing army to Hubei, and paved the way for the independence of other provinces. It won precious time, and it was still a passable answer sheet.

Just when the imperial court was expecting Yuan Shikai to win Wuchang in one go and wipe out the revolutionary army in Wuhan as soon as possible, Yuan Shikai suddenly stopped fighting. What did Yuan Shikai want to do?Raise bandits to protect themselves. Once all the animals on the grassland are eaten, the lion will starve to death.Once the enemy is wiped out, the court will kill the donkey.Therefore, it has become a major issue for high-ranking officials to keep their beloved power cause and even their heads that they miss so much.So for thousands of years, it has attracted countless officials to think about solutions.After the bloody practice of countless officials, they finally found the perfect solution: if there is no enemy, create an enemy, and if there is an enemy, don't kill the enemy all at once.This is the so-called raising bandits to protect themselves.

Yuan Shikai knew very well the key to supporting the bandits and protecting himself. First of all, he had to beat the revolutionary army to the point of pain, so that the revolutionary army would restrain itself and accept the peace talks.Secondly, he can't beat the revolutionary army too badly. He must let the revolutionary army have the strength to exert pressure on the court, so that he can realize his dream of a constitutional monarchy. In short, Yuan Shikai had to maintain the balance between the revolutionary army and the imperial court. Yuan Shikai's plan was good, but there was a small mistake in the process of execution, and the mistake was on Feng Guozhang. Feng Guozhang received an extraordinary reward—a second-class baron for his meritorious service in the three towns of Wuhan, which gave him full motivation to move on.So Feng Guozhang prepared to fight across the Yangtze River to liberate the whole of Wuhan and make greater contributions. Unexpectedly, Yuan Shikai sent a telegram ordering him to temporarily cease fighting, which immediately poured cold water on Feng Guozhang.Feng Guozhang couldn't understand why he couldn't completely win the Revolutionary Party's territory and make meritorious deeds when the situation was dominant? So Feng Guozhang sent a telegram to Yuan Shikai saying: "Brother, now is the right time, Wuchang is at your fingertips, I will shoot it down and give it to you." He ordered his men to continue shelling Wuchang.There is no intention of giving up the attack. Yuan Shikai was very depressed when he heard the news. After so many years, Feng Guozhang's political IQ is still so low, and he has not improved at all.I trained you in vain, you go down for me! Therefore, Comrade Feng Guozhang, the "dog of Beiyang", was transferred back to Beijing. Because he had worked as the principal of the army noble school, had a good relationship with the Manchu royal family, and was accepted by the imperial guards, Yuan Shikai put him in the monolithic forbidden army. Guards to monitor the movement of the royal family. The new commander-in-chief of the former enemy who succeeded Feng Guozhang was Duan Qirui, the "Tiger of the North Sea" with a slightly higher political IQ. With the perfect cooperation of Yuan Shikai and Duan Qirui, the attitude of the formerly tough revolutionary army changed. The Beiyang Army chose the second of the three towns in Wuhan, and Duan Qirui's troops approached the city of Wuchang. The Hubei Revolutionary Army was in an extremely disadvantaged position, so they had to send representatives to ask for a truce and peace talks with Yuan Shikai. However, negotiation is a technical job, especially the key technology in the negotiation process-controlling the negotiation rhythm (timing and conditions).Whoever controls the rhythm can reap more benefits in the negotiation, so Mr. Yuan is not in a hurry, because he is a master of the art of controlling the rhythm. First of all, he wants to air the representatives of the revolutionary army, let the revolutionary army know who is a vulnerable group, and make the revolutionary army anxious.The more impatient the other party is, the more conducive it is for him to cut the other party's price in the negotiation. Secondly, he has to spend time dealing with the royal family and nobles, and strive for greater negotiating initiative. I said before that Zaifeng and Puyi agreed to Yuan Shikai's conditions for leaving the mountain, promised to cancel the royal cabinet, and promised that relatives and nobles would not be ministers of state.This is the reason why Yuan Shikai was upright, and he used this reason to sweep those royal family and nobles out of key departments one by one, even his old enemy, the regent Zaifeng, was not spared. On December 6, Zaifeng, the last regent of the feudal dynasty, handed over his seal and went home to pick up his child.Since then, the royal power has officially withdrawn from the decision-making stage of Chinese political history. After Yuan Shikai finished this matter, he basically mastered the military and political power of the imperial court, and he finally had time to look back and think about the peace talks.However, Yuan Daguan didn't want to talk secretly, he wanted to put it on the table for formal negotiations, but how could he get the emperor to agree to the peace talks? This is not a problem for Yuan Yuan, he bought the eunuchs and maids around the Empress Dowager Longyu, and asked them to talk about the strength and heroic deeds of the revolutionaries in front of the Empress Dowager Longyu every day. The effect is immediate. A few days later, Yuan Shikai was formally authorized by the Empress Dowager Longyu to negotiate peace with the Revolutionary Party. Yuan Shikai wanted peace talks, but no one from the Southern Revolutionary Party came to talk to him.What kind of trick is this doing? It turned out that the Revolutionary Party at this time was still in a state of anarchy.There are many internal factions, and there is no revolutionary leader that everyone expects. Fifteen provinces across the country became independent. Among them, the revolutionary parties in Wuhan, Nanjing, and Shanghai were the strongest.Li Yuanhong from Wuhan and Chen Qimei from Shanghai are the representatives. Li Yuanhong stood up first: Our military government in Wuhan is the leader of the country and the number one contributor to the success of the revolution. Do you have to send people from your provinces to Wuhan to talk about the establishment of the central government? Mr. Chen Qimei is naturally not a fuel-efficient lamp.He saw Li Yuanhong making a big move, so he saw the trick, and hurriedly united with his neighbors, Jiangsu Governor Cheng Dequan and Zhejiang Governor Tang Shouqian, and three days later jointly sent a telegram to the whole country, asking all provinces to send personnel to Shanghai to form a central government. The Revolutionary Party itself quarreled over the issues of "who is the boss" and "who is the central government". Who cares about peace talks with you, Yuan Shikai? When Wuhan and Shanghai were fighting over who should take the lead, Yuan Shikai got impatient.He felt that it would be better if it was too late to make a change. After all, he still wanted to use his limited time to do something big in his lifetime. Alas, the cruelest part of life is that a person can only be young once!Yuan Shikai was a little sad. At this moment, Yang Du stood up and offered a compromise idea to the sad leaders: Why don't they fight for theirs, let's talk about ours, and we send representatives to Wuhan, Shanghai and even Nanjing to talk with them, as long as Isn't it the same after we have talked about it?In this way, the negotiations can be started as soon as possible to save time, and secondly, the internal contradictions of the revolutionary party can be used to benefit from it. Yuan Shikai also felt that this seemingly unwise approach was the best way at present, so he immediately asked Yang Du to handle the matter with full authority. Yang Du's work efficiency was very high. Wuhan, Shanghai, and Nanjing soon learned about the plan, and they had no objections.After all, compared with the Beiyang Army, the Southern Revolutionary Army was at a disadvantage in terms of the quality of soldiers, weapons and equipment, logistical support, and financial support. They were far more looking forward to peace than Yuan Shikai. The matter was settled in this way, and the North and the South formally negotiated peace talks. Two months after the Wuchang Shouyi, the Yangtze River Basin finally ushered in the long-lost tranquility. Yuan Shikai's negotiating team had a very high standard. Tang Shaoyi was the principal, Yang Du was the deputy, and Mr. Yang Shiqi also joined the negotiating team halfway. The negotiating team of the Southern Revolutionary Army is not weak either. On the Wuhan side there is Li Yuanhong, and on the Shanghai side there is Huang Xing, who retired to Shanghai after the failure of the Battle of Hanyang.But Huang Xing was helping a man named Wu Tingfang. Wu Tingfang studied in the UK in his early years and was the first doctor of law in Chinese history to study abroad. He served as the chief negotiator in Shanghai, and he was a match for Yuan Shikai's diplomatic activity expert Tang Shaoyi. The negotiation process of these eloquent people talking about it will not be described in detail here, but a brief report on the results of the negotiation. Everyone first reached an agreement on the issue of a comprehensive armistice, but they still failed to negotiate on the most important issue of the political system. Here are some excerpts from the viewpoints of the representatives of the Revolutionary Party: Li Yuanhong said that the common people Ling Yu admired Duke Ming (Yuan Shikai), and if the Qing emperor could abdicate, he would elect Duke Ming to be the president. Duke Ming is China's Napoleon and Washington. Wu Tingfang said that the people of the whole country now yearn for a republic. If Yuan Shikai favors a republic and abolishes the monarchy, the revolutionary army can elect Yuan Shikai as the president. Huang Xing also promised that as long as Yuan Shikai can make the emperor abdicate, everyone will definitely recommend him to be the great president in the end. There was also news from Nanjing that after the republic, various factions in the revolutionary party would push Yuan Shikai to preside over the overall situation. These promises clearly told the northern negotiators that the Revolutionary Party insisted on expelling the Tartars and realizing a republic without an emperor. If Yuan Shikai expelled the emperor, the president would belong to Yuan Shikai. Negotiations reached an impasse, and Tang Shaoyi had no choice but to report the truth to his old superior, Yuan Shikai. Yuan Shikai was also very embarrassed about the firm determination of the southern representatives to let the emperor step down without fear of war or beating. From his heart, although he personally does not resist the throne of the President of the Republic of China, as a person with some conscience, he does not want to be infamous for bullying orphans and widowed mothers. It's done.It would be much easier to implement a constitutional monarchy, but this is not easy to handle. When Yuan Shikai was struggling, unexpected news came.