Chapter 65 Yuan Shikai's first step in making a fortune - it is very important to be able to fool

Recalling carefully, the "organization and training of the new army" is another restructuring of the Qing army after the Eight Banners World Army System, the Green Camp Recruitment System, and the Hunan Army model. What was changed this time? The answer is to form an army according to the model of a Western power.Because everyone thinks that the reason why the Japanese won was "specializing in Western methods." In the eyes of everyone, training the new army is a promising project and a good venture capital investment.Take a look at Zeng Guofan and Li Hongzhang, which one doesn't have power over the world?All powerful and ambitious officials are ready to move.

Yuan Shikai was one of this group of people. After Yuan Shikai left North Korea and returned to Beijing, he had not been assigned a job yet, so he lived idle in Beijing.Although I live at leisure, I am unwilling to be lonely. I often go out for activities, make friends, and get close to celebrities.Li Hongzhang, who happened to be dismissed as a civilian because of the First Sino-Japanese War, also lived in Xianliang Temple in Beijing. When Yuan Shikai was free, he went to visit the old leader, contacted the old leader, and asked for advice on how to be an official. After a period of time, Yuan Shikai lost some connections and finally found a formal job: Daotai, which governs Wenzhou and Chuzhou, is roughly equivalent to the current deputy governor in charge of the two cities, which is not bad.However, Yuan Shikai didn't like this position very much. He still preferred to deal with the army.Now, the whole country is discussing the training of the new army, and Yuan Shikai also realizes that this is an excellent opportunity!

So he asked his good brother Ju Ren for advice. It is said that after Xu Shichang became sworn brothers with Yuan Shikai, he went north to take the imperial examination with the support of his adopted brother, and finally participated in the palace examination at the age of 31-the "civil servant examination" in which the emperor personally set the questions and interviewed himself, and was admitted as a Jinshi. scholar. This concubine has a great background.Among all the Jinshi, only the top three—the number one scholar, the second place, and Tanhua—can directly enter the Hanlin Academy.The top few in the second class will take another exam, and only after passing the exam can they become Shu Jishi and enter the Hanlin Academy for internship, and take another exam three years later to decide whether they can become regulars.Those who succeed can take up the post of editor of the Imperial Academy. The job content is to explain classics and history books to the emperor and help the emperor draft edicts. In other words, he is the emperor's secretary with great power.

And this Xu Shichang is now a good man, do you think he is great? Yuan Shikai was very impatient, and asked Xu Shichang urgently: Is there any good way to get the job of training soldiers? Xu Shichang said a very interesting sentence: When the opportunity comes, you must show the difference between you and ordinary people. Opportunities only favor those who are prepared! Yuan Shikai seemed to understand, but under the guidance of Xu Shichang, who pretended to be profound, the two made two good moves together: As a first step, they published a few books.At that time, there should be no sense of copyright, and publishing a book is not called publishing, but publishing.

Except for one book, the other books are the military textbooks of Germany, the United States, Britain and other powerful countries that Yuan Shikai hired at a high price to directly translate. Of course, the signature is Yuan Shikai. As for the rather special book - "Thirteen Points for Military Training", Yuan Shikai created it by referring to the German military system of the European First Army at that time, and combining his experience in leading troops in North Korea over the years.The combination of advanced western military theories with the realities of the country, the combination of Chinese and Western, is indeed a genuine product of Yuan Shikai.

The second step is to launch a publicity campaign. Yuan Shikai managed to pass these books to the top leader of the new army who supervised the new army—the director of the New Army Committee, Prince Gong Yixin (who was appointed after the Sino-Japanese War, but his health was broken, and he had no fighting spirit. In the hands of Deputy Director Qing Prince Yikuang, committee members Weng Tonghe, Rong Lu and others. Objectively speaking, Yuan Shikai’s 12 years of diplomatic and military experience in the court, his qualifications in dealing with Western powers without losing the wind, and his understanding of modern Western military systems are absolutely incomparable to the military generals of the Manchu Dynasty. Those who look forward to their backs.Enough is enough, and "Thirteen Points for Military Training" is indeed an excellent military theory textbook. Yuan Shikai's strength has conquered the big guys.

Once passed on to ten, ten to a hundred, Yuan Shikai's reputation as a "knowledge soldier" spread among the bigwigs in the court. Yuan Shikai and Xu Shichang successfully fooled everyone by relying on these few illegal publications. In fact, half a year ago, the imperial court had internally appointed a candidate for military training, named Hu Yufen. At that time, this man had initially trained a team of 5,000 people, called "Dingwu Army". What is very strange is that after Yuan Shikai's activities, the court announced that this half-done Hu Yifen was transferred to repair the railway. He was repairing the Jinlu Railway. It is worth noting that Zhan Tianyou, a naval soldier, was one of them. engineer.

At such a critical moment, the appearance of this transfer order is really unreasonable.If it is said that Yuan Shikai took the opportunity to move up and down, and made the court chiefs in charge of the preparation and training of the new army feel that Yuan Shikai was more suitable for this position than Hu Xingfen, then everything was reasonable. Of course, this is just speculation. In short, the final result is that Yuan Shikai succeeded. In December 1895, Yuan Shikai was recommended to train the new army at Tianjin Station, and Xu Shichang also went to Tianjin as his assistant at Yuan Shikai's request.