Chapter 7 Chapter Seven Sun Yat-sen and Yuan Shikai's Great Fight

On February 14, 1912, Sun Yat-sen did not fire the cannon this time. He fulfilled his promise and submitted his resignation to the Provisional Senate. As the founding father of the Republic of China, Sun Yat-sen served as the interim president for only 45 days from his inauguration to his resignation, becoming the president with the shortest term in the history of the Republic of China. It failed to directly flatten the north to rule the world and establish a brand new Republic of China.This made Sun Yat-sen very painful! Work hard!Work can save you, and hard work can make you forget the pain.

Sun Yat-sen also thought so. There was still a period of time before Yuan Shikai officially took office, so he had to use his remaining energy to get the most important things done. The most important thing is of course to consolidate the achievements of the revolution. Sun Yat-sen did not believe in Yuan Shikai at all. Of course, this is also human nature. Would you trust a person you have never met? On February 15th, outside Chaoyang Gate, under Zijin Mountain, and in front of Ming Xiao Mausoleum, Sun Yat-sen was giving a speech. Sun Yat-sen's speech was as exciting and moving as ever, and the applause of the audience below almost overwhelmed the speaker's voice.The speech first announced the recovery of the Han nationality and the unification of the Republic of China, and the content was calm, but the content that followed was a bit surprising.

Sun Yat-sen said: I firmly believe that Yuan Shikai will definitely make the Republic of China stronger, but there is one thing, the interim government must be based in Nanjing, and the president must take office in Nanjing.This is mainly because Beijing was too much influenced by autocracy. In the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China, it was necessary to reform the past and reform the old, and the establishment of Nanjing as the capital was conducive to creating a new situation for the republic. Everyone in the circle knew that Sun Yat-sen insisted on Yuan Shikai taking office in Nanjing, and his real purpose was to restrict Yuan Shikai.The north is Yuan Shikai's lair, as long as he goes south alone, he will become a puppet of the Southern Revolutionary Party.

But this is not Sun Yat-sen's trump card.His trump card is the "Provisional Agreement" which is under preparation. This "Interim Agreement" is not simple, it is a constitutional document.Where is its greatness? The "Provisional Constitution" stipulates that the government of the Republic of China implements the cabinet responsibility system, and the presidential system currently used by Sun Yat-sen is no longer used. The cabinet responsibility system in the "Provisional Constitution" really means that the cabinet is formed by the political party with the majority of seats in Congress, and the decisions made by the president under the cabinet responsibility system must be signed by the cabinet prime minister.To put it simply, the president only has the right to suggest, not the right to make decisions, and is completely emptied.

Sun Yat-sen was particularly afraid of Yuan Shikai's supreme power, so he naturally thought of the cabinet responsibility system, pushing the power of the cabinet and parliament to the highest level, while keeping the power of the president low. It is worth mentioning that when Sun Yat-sen was elected president in Nanjing, Song Jiaoren insisted on implementing the cabinet responsibility system when choosing the political structure. Sun Yat-sen replied: "Now is an extraordinary period. Without a powerful president, we cannot carry out a strong political system." Revolutionary struggle!" Song Jiaoren could only remain silent (Tang Degang's "Ten Years Before the Republic of China").

Because the "Provisional Constitution" is still only a draft, Sun Yat-sen issued a death order: Your provisional Senate must finalize all the provisions before Yuan Shikai takes office. Through the above actions, Sun Yat-sen proposed to Yuan Shikai three prerequisites for becoming president: 1. The capital must be in Nanjing. Second, Yuan Shikai must go to Nanjing to take office. 3. Yuan Shikai must abide by the "Temporary Agreement" customized for him by the South. These three conditions are like three magic spells, tightly attached to Yuan Shikai, the president of the new University of Science and Technology.But would Yuan Shikai accept it?

On February 15, 1912, when Nanjing was in the coldest time of the year, Sun Yat-sen finally completed the most important thing before leaving office. The rest of the things are played out according to the routine, which is lackluster. That afternoon, the Provisional Senate of the Republic of China voted to elect the interim president.As expected, Yuan Shikai was elected unanimously as the second interim president of the Republic of China.Incidentally, Li Yuanhong was also unanimously elected vice president. Yuan Shikai was not excited when he learned that he had been elected president. He had been in office for more than 30 years, and he had never seen any big storms. How could he fail to see Sun Yat-sen's intentions?

Yuan Shikai's coping strategy is very simple: advance with retreat. Although this trick is not new, it is very effective. Yuan Shikai unhurriedly sent a telegram to Nanjing: I don't have enough virtue and ability to dare to take up the post of president.Moreover, the north is now full of dangers and dangers, and it is currently inconvenient to go south.After repeated consideration, it is better for me to withdraw from the competition than President Sun's resignation. As soon as Yuan Shikai's telegram was released, public opinion from all sides expressed opposition to the establishment of Nanjing as the capital.

The constitutionalists opposed it, Madman Zhang opposed it, Li Yuanhong opposed it, and even the Nanjing Revolutionary Party sang against it, publicly accusing Sun Yat-sen, you are deliberately stirring up trouble! After Sun Yat-sen heard the news, he was happy that Yuan Shikai resigned, but he did not expect that most people would not support his determination to establish Nanjing as the capital.But Sun Yat-sen is not a pedantic person, he has a resolute personality, and he will never give up until he achieves his goal. You won’t come, will you?Then I'll come to the door and pull you over!

On February 27, the "Southern Delegation" sent by Sun Yat-sen to welcome Yuan Shikai to take office in Nanjing arrived in Beijing. The lineup of this welcome group is very luxurious. The head of the group is Cai Yuanpei, and the main members include Wang Jingwei, Song Jiaoren and others. Yuan Shikai's superficial skills are also well done, and he greeted the southern delegation with a high standard... A thousand words are omitted here, and everyone can imagine the scene when our country celebrates major festivals. The southern delegation was arranged to rest in a specially prepared building. The windows in the room were bright and clean, neat and elegant, and the waiters were also warm and thoughtful. There were elite soldiers outside for sanitation, and the security work was in place.

Fortunately, there was no traffic control, road closure or field clearance at that time, so Yuan Shikai found a good balance between protecting the safety of the southern leaders and disturbing the people. In the evening of this day, Cai Yuanpei, Song Jiaoren, and Wang Jingwei, accompanied by Tang Shaoyi, went to Yuan Shikai's welcome dinner. Comrade Yuan Shikai never had the habit of neglecting distinguished guests, and he went out to greet them in person. After the ceremony was over, Cai Yuanpei went straight to the point and explained his intentions. Yuan Shikai's answer was also very face-saving: "The kindness is hard to turn down, then I will set off when the left-behind candidate is arranged, how about it?" Seeing Yuan Shikai being so eloquent, everyone in the welcome group felt relieved immediately, and the tense atmosphere changed instantly.During the interlacing of toasts and chips, the host and guest chatted happily. For two days in a row there was nothing wrong. But two days later, at around 7:30 in the evening, a mutiny broke out suddenly, known as the "Beijing Mutiny" in history. The rebellion was the third town in Beiyang led by Mr. Cao Kun. The content of the mutiny was mainly robbery and arson. The key disaster area was Dongjiaomin Lane where shops and foreign embassies were located. As for the reason for the mutiny, the official explanation is: the soldiers have not received their wages for a long time, so they can only rely on their own efforts to get enough food and clothing-robbing shops to grab money. Although the material base determines the superstructure, it is necessary to focus on economic construction. Without money, it will not work. If the old man does not pay wages, it will indeed cause mutiny. This reason is pure nonsense. The real reason is that Mr. Yuan Shikai needed this mutiny. After the mutiny broke out, the foreign missions in Dongjiaomin Lane (a group organized by ambassadors of various countries to China) responded quickly.On the grounds that foreigners were also being robbed, they mobilized guards into Beijing to protect the expats and embassies.Not only that, but also strongly protested to Yuan Shikai: If China does not immediately form a republican government and restore good order, we will mobilize more troops to enter Beijing. Internal and external troubles came all at once, and the situation in the north seemed impossible without Yuan Shikai. At this time, Yuan Shikai finally had a good reason not to go to Nanjing to take up his post: it was not that I didn’t want to come, but that I couldn’t come, because the security of the capital would not be maintained once I left. The masters compete with each other, and they compete immediately. Whether it is playing power or resources, the Southern Revolutionary Party, which is not strong enough, can't do what Yuan Shikai can do, send and receive freely. This time, even if Sun Yat-sen, Huang Xing and others felt unwilling, they could only admit defeat. March 10, 1912, Beijing. Yuan Shikai was sworn in as the interim president wearing a tuxedo, and the five-color flag symbolizing the republic of the five ethnic groups was finally hoisted over Beijing. After a brief war, the South and the North finally achieved formal unity. At this point, China officially entered the period of the Republic of China, and Yuan Shikai finally got his wish and became the second interim president of the Republic of China in Beijing. President Yuan walked through the Xinhua Gate with his head held high, and officially moved into Zhongnanhai, a symbol of power and status. This residence lasts for four years, going in straight and coming out sideways. It is said that after Yuan Shikai saw the trick and broke Sun Yat-sen's first two curses, the third curse--all the provisions of the "Provisional Agreement" were finally finalized the day before President Yuan took office under the urging of Sun Yat-sen. Yuan Shikai did not respond to the "Interim Contract".Maybe Yuan Shikai didn't understand the mystery of the "Temporary Agreement", or maybe Yuan Shikai didn't care.After all, the things that are created over there are all temporary. As long as he becomes the temporary president first and obtains a legal status, Yuan Shikai has the final say on what he wants to do at that time? After the "Provisional Constitution" did not encounter major objections, the new government began to build its own leadership team. Yuan Shikai recommended Tang Shaoyi as the prime minister of the cabinet.This candidate is the result of his deliberation. First of all, Tang Shaoyi is his staff member. He has been his old scalper for 30 years, so he can use it with peace of mind.Secondly, Tang Shaoyi and the southern revolutionaries came and went during the peace talks, and they talked about a common language and feelings, which could be accepted by the southern revolutionaries. As expected, Yuan Shikai's proposal was successfully passed at the meeting of the Provisional Senate. But everything is difficult at the beginning, and it is not easy to be the first prime minister. The Republic of China has just been established, with numerous factions and conflicts between the North and the South.The first thing Tang Shaoyi has to do is to reconcile the contradictions of the various factions and achieve a balance in the distribution of power.But the reality is that there are too many monks and too few porridge, and the cabinet has only a few departments in total. How to arrange so many great gods from the south and the north? This problem is really difficult for Prime Minister Tang, and he can only try his best to deal with it.Let’s take a look at the list of chief ministers of various ministries of the first cabinet that Premier Tang dealt with: On the surface, it seems that the Revolutionary Party has indeed suffered some losses, but this is normal. After all, the strength of the Southern Revolutionary Party is much weaker, and Yuan Shikai has to take a few important positions to appease him. My little brothers, otherwise, who would want to hang out with him in the future? In fact, whether it is the president under the presidential system or the prime minister under the cabinet responsibility system, he should be free to form a cabinet—whoever comes to power should find someone who agrees with his own political views and listens to his own words. The power is put in one place, and there is less open and secret fighting, fighting for power and profit and internal strife, and the efficiency will naturally increase.Oversight is the concern of voters and MPs, not cabinet members.It is really boring to fight for cabinet members. But the Revolutionary Party was still very uncomfortable.They believed that Huang Xing was more suitable for the post of army chief than Duan Qirui.Chen Qimei also refused to come to Beijing to take office, thinking that the official was too small and had no real power. From this point of view, in the face of power, it is difficult for ordinary people to suppress their desires. In any case, by the end of April 1912, only two months after the abdication of the Qing emperor, and only half a year before the Wuchang Uprising, the initial political structure of the Republic of China was finally set up. The Senate, the cabinet, and the president had all been determined. The word "temporary" is still hung on the front. But the superficial calm cannot conceal the turbulent crisis hidden in it. The crisis mainly comes from system design.To be precise, the power check and balance mechanism is not perfect. Although the revolutionaries had to hand over the presidency to Yuan Shikai due to lack of strength, they were worried about Yuan Shikai. principles to follow. As a result, the presidential system stipulated in the Provisional Constitution was hastily changed to a cabinet system.The power of Congress has also been overextended. Congress can remove the president, prime minister and heads of ministries, but the president does not have the power to dissolve Congress. Of course, the crisis between Congress and the president has not yet come, so let's take care of the present first, because there is a crisis right now. The crisis comes from the division of powers between the president and the prime minister in the "Provisional Agreement"-the president's order can only be counted after the prime minister's signature. It is said that on the night when the cabinet was established, Tang Shaoyi readily joined the Tongmenghui under the introduction of Sun Yat-sen and Huang Xing.According to Tang Shaoyi's original intention, he wanted to use this to reconcile the contradictions between the North and the South in order to carry out the work smoothly. But in Yuan Shikai's view, Tang Shaoyi got too close to the revolutionaries, and had a tendency to separate from Big Brother. And Prime Minister Tang did not communicate with Big Brother about this matter. It must be known that communication is the ultimate skill to eliminate misunderstandings.As a result, the seeds of discord began to sprout between the two people who had cooperated sincerely in the past. What's more serious is that the superior-subordinate relationship between President Yuan and Premier Tang has been maintained for nearly 30 years, and now it is suddenly reversed. The order issued by Yuan Shikai still needs to be signed by Tang Shaoyi to take effect.Moreover, Tang Shaoyi is a bookish and angry youth at heart, and often refuses to sign because of his different political views with President Yuan Da, which is very disrespectful to the old superior. This made Yuan Shikai, who was already suspicious because Tang Shaoyi joined the League, even more uncomfortable.In his opinion, Tang Shaoyi was using the forces in the south to fight against him. It was really a villain's success, extremely rude, and unbearable. In this way, there were more and more frictions between Yuan Shikai and Tang Shaoyi. At some point, Yuan Shikai simply put aside Tang Shaoyi as the prime minister, and directly directed Zhao Bingjun, Duan Qirui and others to work regardless of the parliament. With Yuan Shikai's support, Zhao Bingjun, Duan Qirui and others did not take the newly appointed Tang Shaoyi seriously.In the end, people like Zhao Bingjun didn't even attend the state affairs meeting. The leaders don't give face, and the subordinates don't give face either. Tang Shaoyi, the prime minister, has a very bad career prospect. One wave is not flat, and another wave rises again. Tang Shaoyi suddenly wanted to assign the post of governor of Zhili to Wang Zhixiang, the candidate of the Southern Revolutionary Party.It is probably because the Southern Revolutionary Party suffered some losses in the personnel arrangement of the cabinet, so Tang Shaoyi wanted to compensate them from another aspect. Of course Yuan Shikai would not agree to this appointment. Revolutionaries could not be allowed to sleep soundly on the side of the couch. His favorite candidate was General Feng Guozhang. Tang Shaoyi wanted to fulfill his promise to the revolutionary party, and Yuan Shikai would not budge. Premier Tang, who was caught between the Revolutionary Party and Yuan Shikai, was really miserable. One day in mid-June, Prime Minister Tang packed his bags, dragged his family and went straight to the train station to go home. Tang Shaoyi resigned from the job! Tang Shaoyi, an old comrade-in-arms who worked together for many years, left, and President Yuan was also a little sad.But the republic must go on.Yuan Shikai had no choice but to use his brains to plan the candidate for the next prime minister.There is one person in his heart that is perfect, and this person is his loyal comrade-in-arms-Xu Shichang. But when Yuan Shikai nominated Xu Shichang as the candidate for the cabinet premier, he was strongly opposed by the parliament.The Tongmenghui, which holds the majority of seats in the parliament, gave the reason that Xu Shichang was an old Qing bureaucrat who knew nothing about republican democracy. In fact, this reason is completely untenable. In the current government agencies, I don’t know how many people are old bureaucrats from the Qing Dynasty. Which one is not the president or vice president?Why did the League oppose it? Just because Xu Shichang is Yuan Shikai's sworn brother, and with his ability and qualifications, he can easily hold the cabinet in his hands. Once the two join forces, it will be terrible. Therefore, this candidate is very inappropriate and does not conform to the interests of the revolutionary party, and the revolutionary party firmly refuses to accept it. Before this matter was over, the Tongmenghui made another surprising decision: the members of the Tongmenghui in the cabinet resigned collectively. The person who came up with this idea was Song Jiaoren.He said: Our Southern Revolutionary Party has two purposes for doing this. One is to set an example for Yuan Shikai, so that he would be embarrassed to appoint his cronies as key positions in the cabinet, and the other is to show that members of our Tongmenghui will never be greedy for power. In fact, Song Jiaoren still has one of the most crucial goals that he did not tell everyone. How can the small chief of the cabinet satisfy Song Jiaoren's passion for serving the country.The current cabinet is just a temporary cabinet, and soon there will be formal elections. Which party wins by then will form the cabinet. Instead of wasting energy here doing all these things, it is better to free up your hands and concentrate on organizing Party participates in the general election.If you win in the future, you will be able to organize a political party cabinet-you will become the prime minister of the cabinet as the head of one party, and the cabinet ministers will be selected from members of the same party or friendly parties with the same political views.Forming a cabinet as you want is far better than being a cabinet chief now. Therefore, Yuan Shikai nominated Lu Zhengxiang, who had a relatively simple background, as the prime minister of the cabinet.The nomination was approved by the parliament, but this person's ability is seriously questionable, and he couldn't get along after working for less than a month. In desperation, Zhao Bingjun became the next prime minister.But Zhao Bingjun's post as prime minister has a sad word "generation". This is normal. If Yuan Shikai does not go to Nanjing to take office, the Provisional Senate will have to move north to Beijing. The Provisional Senate established in Nanjing is obviously made up of members of the Tongmenghui. How can a parliament dominated by the Tongmenghui sell Yuan Shikai's face? In any case, Yuan Shikai finally found a acting cabinet premier Zhao Bingjun who listened to him, and finally organized a cabinet that no longer took quarrels as its own responsibility, but was able to do some serious business.