Chapter 17 Chapter Three

In a person's 57-year life, 83 days are just a blink of an eye, but who would have thought that this short 83 days would be frozen forever.Yuan Shikai's death not only no longer had the opportunity to clear his notoriety as a "thief of the country", but also raised the most urgent question: Who will succeed President Yuan Da's vacated position? In terms of strength, Duan Qirui, the No. 2 figure in Beiyang, the head of the Anhui Department, did his part. If according to the agreement—the vice president succeeds the president, or according to the name—Yuan Shikai’s will orders Li Yuanhong to take over, and Li Yuanhong takes over as president, it is far more legitimate than Duan Qirui.

At this moment, Comrade Duan Qirui is also having a fierce ideological struggle.Faced with this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, he was very hesitant: Is it unreasonable-taking advantage of the situation, or is it reasonable-handing it over to others? Duan Qirui knew clearly in his heart: In terms of strength, he could completely ascend to the position of president by force; however, if he forcibly ascended to the position, not only would the National Defense Army refuse to agree (at this time, the National Defense Army had not agreed to negotiate a peace), Feng Guozhang might not let himself wish.That being the case, it would be better to let the weak Li Yuanhong become the president in name, while the real power is in his hands, and he can also gain a good reputation for taking care of the overall situation. Why not do it?

Now that Lao Duan has figured it out, things will be much easier to handle. On June 7, 1916, Li Yuanhong, who had been under house arrest by Yuan Shikai for nearly three years, finally escaped from prison and officially became the second president of the Republic of China.Subsequently, President Li Da reciprocated and appointed Duan Qirui as Prime Minister.The Prime Minister of State is equivalent to the Prime Minister of the Cabinet, just in a different way. When the new leader, Premier Duan, came to power, the first thing he did was to change Yuan Shikai's presidential system back to the cabinet system in the early years of the Republic of China.Prime Minister Duan did this not because he was high-spirited, but because he had to do it for two reasons.

On the one hand, the National Defense Army and Sun Yat-sen demanded that the Beijing government must restore the "Interim Constitution", restore the National Assembly, and form a new cabinet, otherwise they would continue to fight for independence and not belong to the central government.In a word, everything goes back to the early years of the Republic of China, that is, the cabinet responsibility system was demanded without naming names. On the other hand, the cabinet responsibility system is very beneficial to Duan Qirui.Under the cabinet system, the prime minister has the final say, and only a few things require the signature of the president.

It can not only unify the North and the South with a truce, but also get benefits. Is there any reason not to change it? As soon as Prime Minister Duan came to power, while shouting for approval of the cabinet system and restoration of the cabinet system, he also occupied a position by the way-the chief of the army in the cabinet.Duan Qirui has always done his part to the position of chief of the army who holds military power. After the restoration of the cabinet system, the independence of the provinces was revoked, and the War to Protect the Country came to an end, and the days of peace that the common people were looking forward to came again.

In this happy moment, two great fighters left us forever.The two of them are Huang Xing and Cai E from Hunan. The 42-year-old Huang Xing left the Republic of China on October 31, and the 34-year-old Cai E left the Republic of China on November 8. Both were buried in Yuelu Mountain, Changsha, Hunan. Green pines and verdant cypresses accompany the history, and the sky mourns the heroic soul with tears. Their heroic spirits and their fighting spirit will never go away with the years! ... As the saying goes, there are three fires for a new official to take office, and President Li Yuanhong, who is as smart as Li Yuanhong, cannot be exempt.

Soon after President Li Da came to power, he did a practical thing: pay close attention to elite education.He boldly appointed Cai Yuanpei, a veteran of the Kuomintang, as the president of Peking University, the best university in the country at that time.Immediately afterwards, Chen Duxiu, Li Dazhao, Hu Shi, Lu Xun, Liang Shuming and other academic masters who were rare in a century gathered at Peking University. For a while, the stars were shining brightly, which opened the prelude to the new cultural movement with the theme of "democracy" and "science". Although President Li Da has made great contributions to the great New Culture Movement, he still cannot be happy because some people base their happiness on his pain.

The people who do such immoral things are his nemesis - Duan Qirui and Xu Shuzheng. The second half of 1916 was the season of happiness for Mr. Duan Qirui.Because in terms of real power, he has firmly established the throne of the Republic of China's martial arts leader and is the first person in the Republic of China. However, Prime Minister Duan, whose career is going smoothly, is a little overwhelmed. He always feels that he has the backing of a gun, and he doesn't pay attention to President Li at all.Especially when it comes to major national affairs, Premier Duan neither consults President Le for instructions beforehand nor reports to President Li afterwards, treating him as a show.

Premier Duan's subordinates also followed suit, especially "Mr. Arrogant" Xu Shuzheng, who didn't pay attention to President Li at all, and only used him as a stamping machine. Once, Mr. Xu took a personnel change document from Mr. Yan Xishan and asked President Li to stamp it.President Li just felt that some names were relatively unfamiliar, so he asked a few words casually.This has offended Mr. Xu, in his opinion, Li Yuanhong is undoubtedly questioning Duan Qirui and his decision.When Mr. Xu was unhappy, he liked to be arrogant, so he disregarded organizational discipline and reprimanded him: "You only need to be responsible for stamping, and you don't have to worry about so much!"

President Li immediately turned pale with anger, and his blood surged up.I don't know if he vomited blood afterwards. Although President Li is alone in Beijing, has no soldiers, no generals, and less power than Premier Duan, it seems that he can only pretend to be his grandson.But there is a limit to everything, don't be too arrogant, rabbits will bite people when they are in a hurry.No good temper could bear such humiliation. Gradually, the secret fight between the presidential palace and the State Department turned into an open fight.A famous power struggle - "the battle between the government and the courtyard" kicked off.

As the saying goes, the emperor is not in a hurry for eunuchs.Therefore, eunuchs are often more anxious than the emperor.After all, standing up for the leader, performing your duty and showing your loyalty, is really the only way to add points to your work performance. There is also such a figure beside President Li-Ding Shiyi (Ding Foyan), Secretary-General of the Presidential Palace.Although Secretary Ding is not a eunuch, he is more anxious than a eunuch.Seeing that the president was so humiliated, Secretary Ding united with the enemy of the enemy—Sun Hongyi, the chief of internal affairs who was at odds with Xu Shuzheng, and formally proposed to the Congress to divide the powers of the presidential palace and the State Council. This proposal stumped Prime Minister Duan's tail.On the contrary, you actually want to weaken my power, dare to trip Duan Qirui, I will let you go first! So Prime Minister Duan sent the removal orders of Ding Shiyi and Sun Hongyi to Li Yuanhong, meaning to ask him to sign.President Li is a soldier after all, and it is his duty to protect his own people, so he strongly replied to Premier Duan: "It's not good to do this! I can't sign this word." Prime Minister Duan was not a good person. Seeing that Li Yuanhong was not on the right track, he blatantly tore his face openly: "Either remove those two people, or I will resign!" At an awkward moment, peacemakers Xu Shichang and Wang Shizhen appeared.Under the suggestion of these two, the two sides each played 50 big boards, and Ding Shiyi, Sun Hongyi and Xu Shuzheng were removed from their posts at the same time. After that, the matter came to an end. In fact, it was President Li who suffered. But through this matter, we see the benefits of the system.Duan Qirui is a strong soldier, but as long as he doesn't overthrow the republic, he has to follow the procedure. One wave just leveled off, and another wave rose again. It is said that after the death of Yuan Datou, the Japanese picked up Duan Qirui, who seemed to be the most powerful, and they wanted to support Duan Qirui as their spokesperson in China, and Duan Qirui was also eager to find a strong support, so the firewood, you Love I wish, the two sides immediately combined. The first major thing Duan Qirui will do after getting together with the Japanese is to declare war on Germany. Japan initially opposed China's participation in the war, but things changed later. With the development of the war situation, Britain and France urgently hope that China will join the war, because China can provide a large amount of cheap labor to liberate their labor force, so as to solve the problem of insufficient military resources of the two countries.The face of Britain and France was still sold in Japan at that time. But more importantly, Japan has secretly reached a consensus with the four major Allies (Britain, Russia, France, and Italy) through the exchange of interests: after the end of World War I, once the treaty between China and Germany on the Shandong issue is abolished, the Japan will inherit the contents of this treaty.In addition, Yuan Shikai also agreed to this point in the "Four Civil Treaties", so whether China participates in the war will not affect Japan's reaping the benefits. As a result, Japan changed its mind and agreed to China's participation in the war, while stepping on the heads of the Germans and Duan Qirui's shoulders to reap some other benefits. And Prime Minister Duan also used the rigorous attitude when the secretary wrote the report for the leader to carefully consider the benefits of participating in the war for himself and the country. After repeated thinking, he believed that the victory of the Allied Powers was a foregone conclusion. At this time, China joined the Allied Powers to declare war on Germany. There are two benefits. One is to reduce a part of the indemnity of the "Xin Chou Treaty", because Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire were defeated, and China, as the victorious country, can naturally take the opportunity to terminate the indemnity. The second is to use this to please Japan and borrow some money to spend.Yu Guo, to deal with the government's financial crisis; Yu Ji, to engage in an arms race to increase the value of force to unify China. Therefore, Premier Duan decided to declare war on Germany in accordance with the wishes of the Japanese. Since President Li lost a little last time, he also made up his mind to find a strong support for himself. Looking around the world, there is only one person who can sing against Duan Qirui. This person is the current No. 2 figure in the Beiyang system, the vice president (congress by-election not long ago), the governor of Jiangsu and the head of the direct line - Feng Guozhang.President Li contacted Feng Guozhang and straight to the point expressed his admiration for Feng's head and dissatisfaction with Premier Duan. Feng Guozhang was very happy with Li Yuanhong's overture: Although he was elected vice president by the Congress, he could not give up his territory and go to Beijing to take office.And Duan Qirui is too strong, if he wants not to be bullied by Duan Qirui, he needs someone in the center to take care of him.Now that President Li is delivering goods to his door, he has no reason to refuse. Therefore, Vice President Feng quickly responded to President Li—after highly praising the long-standing friendship between the two, he expressed his solemn position of willingness to wear a pair of trousers with each other. The two first reached a consensus on "declaring war on Germany". One of Feng Guozhang's backstage bosses is the United States.On the issue of China declaring war on Germany, the United States has an ambiguous attitude, sometimes supporting it and sometimes opposing it.This is not because Americans have a problem with their brains, but because the ultimate criterion for determining political trends is interests and the balance of interests, and the conditions for obtaining interests change with time.However, at this time, the United States and Japan were competing for control of China. If Duan Qirui's government led by Japan joined the war, it would not be conducive to the United States' competition for the dominance of the Shandong Peninsula, especially Qingdao. Therefore, the United States opposed China's declaration of war against Germany at this time. That being the case, President Li can only oppose the declaration of war. Now the conflict came, President Li opposed the declaration of war, while Prime Minister Duan wanted to declare war.Neither of the two wanted to give in, and finally had to submit the "declaration of war on Germany" case to the Congress for a vote. In order to pass the proposal smoothly, Prime Minister Duan raised the idea of ​​military intervention in politics. Under his instructions, Comrade Xu Shuzheng came forward to plan, and a dozen warlords (such as Mr. Yan Xishan) from the Anhui faction and who dared not sell Duan Qirui's face rushed to Beijing to form a "supervisor group" and openly threatened Congress: Oppose a declaration of war at your own peril. After the tough ones, Prime Minister Duan decided to go out in person and make some soft ones. Now, Premier Duan is patiently explaining the declaration of war on Germany to Congress with the attitude of a victor: First, Germany has turned from offense to defense, and there is no possibility of final victory. We don’t need to send troops to fight, and we can get so many benefits by making gestures. If we don’t do it, we will be fools. Second, deny what the public said that there is secret diplomacy between him and Japan. It should be said that Prime Minister Duan has a good political vision, and it is only right and proper to throw stones at a hooligan who has bullied us for many years.It's a pity that his performance was all in vain. First of all, the members of Congress were very dissatisfied with the arrogance and domineering of the warlords. Coupled with President Li's influence among the members of Congress, the proposal did not get more than half of the votes. House seemingly endless rain.At this moment, a piece of devastating news dealt Premier Duan a fatal blow. "Beijing News" disclosed: China and Japan are secretly negotiating a valuable military loan. Duan Qirui's promise in the Congress that there will be no secret diplomacy between China and Japan is a complete lie! Although this news was not good for him, Duan Qirui did not have a professional propaganda department to block news, guide public opinion, or even block the media, so the public opinion was in an uproar for a while. Well, you, Duan Qirui, said in a high-sounding manner that you attacked Germany in order to win back our interests, but it turned out that it was instigated by the Japanese! What is even more surprising is that President Li, who has always been weak and deceitful, suddenly straightened his back and ordered Duan Qirui to be removed from the posts of Premier of the State and Chief of the Army. Prime Minister Duan, who has always been competitive, was ruthlessly beaten. He would never be convinced, and immediately put down his harsh words: Li Yuanhong's actions are illegal, and I don't recognize this dismissal order!Afterwards, he left Beijing angrily, saying that he was going to Tianjin for vacation, but in fact he was looking for a comfortable place to watch Li Yuanhong's good show. After Mr. Duan Qirui, the current head of the Anhui faction, became angry, the governors of the various provinces under the Anhui faction publicly responded to the boss, accusing President Li of being a "traitor" and vowing to take the Northern Expedition. President Li, who has been pinched by Premier Duan and Xu Shuzheng at will, why did he have the guts to remove Duan Qirui this time? It turned out that Li Yuanhong unexpectedly got the support of a powerful figure.This powerful faction is the honorary head of the "Overseer Regiment"—the famous "braided commander" Zhang Xun. Don't think that Duan Qirui is the creative invention of Mr. Duan Qirui. In fact, the patent right belongs to Mr. Zhang Xun.It is said that after Yuan Shikai, the eldest brother of the Beiyang Department, died, Zhang Xun stood up and organized several "Xuzhou Conferences" to form cliques. The origin of the "Overlord Legion". Naturally, Zhang Xun did this to form a group, or more precisely, to find a partner for a "great" cause he planned.But the result disappointed him. Not only was no one optimistic about his career, but he also made wedding clothes for others—the "Supervisor Regiment" was used as a gun by Mr. Duan Qirui. Fortunately, Zhang Xun is hard-working and tenacious, and understands the unyielding spirit of "God does not believe in tears, and his heart will never die until the Yellow River", so he decided to take a risk for success. So, the tricks began to play out. Marshal Zhang made it clear to President Li: Duan Qirui dares to betray the country, I am the first to say no!Rest assured, President Li, I am always ready to be ordered to lead troops into Beijing to maintain law and order in the capital. With this promise, President Li's confidence suddenly increased, and he felt that he could use this to fight against Premier Duan, so the wonderful scene above appeared. However, more exciting is yet to come.While filling President Li Da with ecstasy soup, Zhang Xun also expressed his loyalty to Duan Qirui: "Old Duan, Li Yuanhong is too bad, if you don't mind, brother, I will help you deal with him, I am not afraid to carry this Notoriety!" Maybe Duan Qirui believed the nonsense of Zhang Xun, the honorary head of the "Overlord Army", maybe Duan Qirui wanted to see what tricks Zhang Xun, an old liar, wanted to play.In short, he decided to let the braided army enter Beijing. After Duan Qirui left Beijing, the situation in Beijing seemed to be more turbulent.Envoys from various countries expressed their worries one after another, and President Li was on pins and needles. In desperation, he urgently transferred Zhang Xun to Beijing. Perhaps because he has been bullied for too long, President Li finally lost the poise of a mature politician, and impulsively asked Zhang Xun for help, using him as a straw to save his life, so that he didn't think clearly: Why does Zhang Xun support you? Zhang Xun really didn't have any good intentions this time. This old boy is a staunch royalist. He has a low opinion of the Republic. He thinks that as long as there is an emperor, it is good, so he didn't even cut his braids. There was such a special army of braids in 1999. Everyone knows Zhang Xun's political stance now, but why did he get involved in this political struggle?It all started on September 27, 1916. On that day, Zhang Xun met a special person. This person is Kang Youwei.Kang Youwei, who had wandered in Japan for nearly 15 years, returned to China in 1913. Since then, he has been secretly trying to support the restoration of Puyi under the guise of supporting cultural construction.After more than ten years, Kang Youwei's thoughts have not been liberated at all. Even his apprentice Liang Qichao has turned his mind to support the republic. He is still so conservative and vows to carry out the cause of protecting the emperor to the end. Zhang Xun and Kang Youwei, who are also royalists, have joined forces. What good things can happen? In other words, they had already formulated a plan to support Puyi's restoration as early as eight months ago, and all subsequent actions were for this plan. On July 1, 1917, Zhang Xun led 5,000 braided troops (some say 6,000 or 3,000) through the territory of the Anhui Province and drove straight into Beijing, and the restoration farce was officially staged. Puyi, who was still an 11-year-old child at the time, became the protagonist of the emperor's second corpse fraud case after the Republic, but what does a child who is confused know?Everything has to be resolved by his two biggest backers - Kang Youwei and Zhang Xun. After entering Beijing, Kang Youwei and Zhang Xun began to be busy with their respective careers happily. Kang Youwei worked overtime, trying to smooth out public opinion—mainly talking to students.Liang Qichao, the royalist back then, once again firmly stood on the standpoint of the republic and stood on the opposite side of the teacher. He drafted an essay and launched a wonderful scolding war with Kang Youwei. While Kang Youwei spat with the students, Zhang Xun was also very busy.He was very busy dissolving Congress and dismissing members.Of course, the president can't ask for it, so Zhang Xun said to Li Yuanhong: "You resign yourself! I will ask the emperor to give you a first-class official title, and you can rest where you are cool. It's none of your business here." Li Yuanhong already knew that Zhang Xun had tricked him, and since he had made a big mistake, how could he agree to Zhang Xun's voluntary resignation?He knew that it was useless to complain at this time, so he ran away, so he took the president's seal and ran to the Japanese embassy for refuge. Zhang Kang and Zhang Kang, who created the farce of the restoration, are really short of knowledge, because they can't see the "momentum"-only those who stand on the side of the general trend and follow the trend can succeed.But now, a democratic republic is what the people want, and the trend of the times is the trend of the times. Those who go against the trend of history and engage in authoritarianism will not end well. Yuan Shikai, a far stronger Beiyang brother, is a negative example. So don't look at Li Yuanhong and Duan Qirui's turmoil before, but as soon as Zhang Xun was restored, the two immediately formed a united front. Li Yuanhong still called Duan Qirui as president to resume his post as prime minister and asked him to organize a "rebel army" to crusade against Zhang Xun.Duan Qirui, who hid on the sidelines and watched enough good shows, stopped messing around with Li Yuanhong, and gladly took orders. Although Duan Qirui and Li Yuanhong were so active, the first person who was obliged to raise the banner of anti-restoration was Mr. Sun Yat-sen. On July 3, Sun Yat-sen contacted the army in Shanghai, and even called back Wang Jingwei, who was romantic in France, and planned to form a rebel army to clean up Zhang Xun. However, as soon as Sun Yat-sen's army set off, they received the news that Zhang Xun had been taken care of by Duan Qirui.Sun Yat-sen was very depressed: the war to protect the country did not catch up, and there was no drama of his own against the restoration. How could the world change so fast? This is mainly because Zhang Xun was too unfulfilling and too involuntary to fight. He fell seven times faster than Yuan Shikai, and he didn't give Mr. Sun a chance at all. On July 4th, which was the third day after Puyi re-ascended the throne, Duan Qirui formed a rebel army in Tianjin.The anti-rebel army arrived in Beijing in less than a day. The battle process is not worth mentioning.Of Zhang Xun's ten battalions, six were instigated before the fight, and the remaining four battalions quickly collapsed under the attacks of Wu Peifu's and Feng Yuxiang's troops.Before the battle was over, Zhang Xun and Kang Youwei had already fled without a trace. The hearts of the people are against each other, and it is a crime through the ages! The scale of this war is small, the time is short, and the number of participants is small. There is really nothing to say.But there is one thing that must be mentioned. Qin Guoyong, the principal of Beijing Nanyuan Aviation School, took the initiative to challenge Duan Qirui and dropped three small bombs on the Forbidden City by himself. This is the first performance of the Chinese Air Force. Zhang Xun's restoration plan lasted only twelve days before it failed completely. Fortunately, Zhang Zuolin interceded for his son and daughter's in-laws, Zhang Xun, and everyone gave him a face, and spared Zhang Xun's death, allowing him to spend the rest of his life in Tianjin. As for the emperor Puyi, he naturally abdicated again and returned to the big cage of the Forbidden City. However, Mr. Kang Youwei had neither Zhang Xun's connections nor Puyi's blood, so he had no choice but to call himself "indulging in mountains and rivers and not asking about current affairs", and started a new round of escape career. "Down with Zhang Xun" was done by Duan Qirui. He was very proud, and he wrote a lot of credits for himself-"Three Republics", "Second Reconstruction" was to force Yuan Shikai to abdicate, "First Reconstruction" "It is to force the Qing emperor to abdicate. On July 14, Duan Qirui returned to Beijing, regained power, and declared war on Germany. If China wants to participate in the war and join the Allied Powers, it has to express something.So Prime Minister Duan said: "In the early stage, we replaced the army with labor, and provided labor to the friendly army to support the military supply and logistics as cannon fodder. As for the army's participation in the war in the later stage, let's take a step by step." As a result, China sent more than 200,000 laborers to Europe to help in the war. These cheap laborers finally won the status of a victorious country for the motherland at the cost of tens of thousands of lives. Not long after Prime Minister Duan declared war on Germany, he received a piece of good news that made him feel very happy: the Japanese cabinet decided to use Duan Qirui as the only aid recipient in the future, providing loans and weapons, and refusing to support the south represented by Sun Yat-sen. Such a fluffy sentence can't explain the preciousness of "good news" at all, let's use data to speak. The amount of Japan's loans alone is extraordinary.The Japanese lent Duan Qirui 145 million yen (including military loans of more than 40 million yen) in about a year.At that time, the yen had not depreciated as it is today. According to the exchange rate at that time: 1.1 yen = 1 US dollar, the Japanese lent about 130 million US dollars to Duan Qirui.Everyone should know in their hearts how much this huge sum of money can do with the purchasing power at that time. This loan is the famous "Nishihara Loan", named after the name of the Japanese handler, Nishihara Kamezo. Zhang Zongxiang, Ambassador to Japan. Of course, the loan is not for nothing.In exchange, Prime Minister Duan instructed the three gentlemen mentioned above under the suggestion of the Japanese: Don’t be afraid of itching if there are too many lice. Japan will get the rights and interests of the Germans in Shandong sooner or later. We might as well agree to the Japanese request and give them some benefits. Get some loans to spend, remember to bargain more! If China wants to bargain, Japan has to bargain. The result of the bargaining (negotiation) between the two parties is: 1. Except for a small part of the Japanese troops stationed along the Jiaoji Railway, they were all mobilized to Qingdao. 2. The public security along the Jiaoji Railway was entrusted to the Chinese patrol police, but the Chinese patrol police had to hire Japanese as police officers.After the ownership of Jiaoji Railway is confirmed, it will be co-organized by China and Japan indefinitely. 3. The Chinese side used the mining rights of several important minerals as collateral for borrowing from the Japanese side. Regarding the first article, the Japanese were worried that China would not agree, so they wrote a blank check: We are only temporarily stationing troops in Qingdao, and as soon as the "World War I" is over, we will withdraw our troops. Duan Qirui, Zhang Zongxiang, Cao Rulin, and Lu Zongyu saw that the loan terms offered by the Japanese were quite favorable, which was a good thing they could only wish for!What reason do we have to disagree with such a condition? There is no evidence for the words, all these contents are clearly stipulated in the "exchange letter" (contract) in black and white, which is similar to those contracts signed with the bank when buying a house for mortgage loan. It clearly tells you not to deny your account, otherwise there are ways to deal with it you. Mr. Zhang Zongxiang felt that he had done a great thing that benefited the country and the people, so he happily wrote a line of beautiful characters on the exchange of letters: The Chinese government readily agrees to the above-listed suggestions from Japan.But he would never have imagined that this line of writing would almost kill him during the upcoming May 4th Movement. This is because, in this world, there are many things that seem to be good things, but are actually not, such as this one. People like Duan Qirui couldn't imagine that the reason why the Japanese offered these seemingly favorable conditions was because it was a conspiracy to advance by retreating. Although Japan had de facto controlled Qingdao and Jiaoji railways after defeating Germany, it had not been officially recognized by the Chinese government after all.And now you "willfully agree" to the withdrawal of the Japanese army from the Jiaoji Railway to Jinan and Qingdao. Doesn't that mean that Japan's occupation of Qingdao and the garrison of troops in Jinan have been officially recognized by China? But Mr. Duan Qirui has no time to care about this at all. He puts all his thoughts on the great ideal of "unifying China by force". Duan Qirui came back, but one person was about to leave, and he was Li Yuanhong. During those days when Li Yuanhong hid in the Japanese embassy, ​​he fully understood: a president with no soldiers and no territory has no hope of doing a career, but he is bound to be bullied. But why is life so sad, at worst, start all over again! So he sent a telegram to his ally Feng Guozhang, asking him to come out to act as the president, and then went straight to Tianjin to start a new life, where he invested in real estate and finance, and often participated in some social welfare activities when he was free. His life was happier than being a president. much. For example, on the opening ceremony of Nankai University in Tianjin, patron Li Yuanhong came to the school to congratulate him and took a group photo with the students. His eldest daughter was also among the group of students.A young man named Zhou Enlai, who was in the same class as the eldest daughter, did not attract his attention although he looked heroic.However, when Zhou Enlai recalled the past of the first batch of male and female classmates in Nankai, he clearly remembered Li Yuanhong's words that "everyone eats if there is rice". Back to the main thread.It is said that after Feng Guozhang received Li Yuanhong's telegram, he could no longer restrain his inner excitement: he survived until the age of 59, and finally jumped from a local prince to the president in charge of the central government. He has no regrets in this life! Feng Guozhang, who was afraid of leaving regrets in his life, quickly arranged the backyard, and then resolutely left the place he was reluctant to leave before, and hurried to Beijing to take the post of president. When Feng Guozhang took over as the president of the Republic of China, did Prime Minister Duan have any lumps in his heart? No.Not only did he not, Prime Minister Duan also raised his hands and feet in favor of President Feng's arrival. Don't be surprised.Because Feng Guozhang's entry to Beijing is a dream for Duan Qirui.Duan Qirui had no way to deal with Feng Guozhang who supported himself and dominated the Yangtze River Basin all the time, but once Feng Guozhang entered Beijing, he would be easy to deal with. Therefore, after weighing the pros and cons, Prime Minister Duan resolutely decided to let Feng Guozhang be the president and continue to be the prime minister himself. On August 1, 1917, Feng Guozhang officially took office as acting president.These two Beiyang robes set up the leadership team of the new government. Prime Minister Duan and Feng Guozhang have been friends for many years, so their relationship is naturally closer than that of Li Yuanhong.Moreover, Prime Minister Duan did not dare to treat Feng Guozhang with the arrogant attitude he treated Li Yuanhong. After all, Li Yuanhong was turned into a polished commander by their boss Yuan Datou, and Feng Guozhang's direct line had soldiers, territories, and strong strength. Therefore, it was very sweet between the two at the beginning.The two of them worked together to accomplish a great thing.To be precise, it should be nothing.But at their level, if you don't do it, you just do it. After the establishment of the new government, in the spirit of governing by doing nothing, Premier Duan and Feng Guozhang still maintained the state after Zhang Xun's destruction in several key places, such as the dissolved Congress and the abandoned "Provisional Constitution". Bit is not going to restore them at all. But what is a republic without a congress and a constitution?And what?Duan Qirui, who was born in the military, although he is known as the "three-made republic", he prefers to speak with his fists.