In fact, people in that era rarely had the opportunity to go abroad, but there was one exception. In 1859, Yuan Jiasan, a Henan general who had been fighting abroad for many years, mailed a letter back to his hometown, reporting that the army he led had defeated the northern peasant uprising army (Nian Army) and was about to triumph.On the day the family received the letter, a baby boy in the family was born. Some people were born with a stone in their mouth (Jia Baoyu), and some simply jumped out of the stone (Monkey King), but this child seemed to be a messenger sent by heaven to bring the victory of the battle, so everyone was very happy, thinking that the boy grew up. It will not be easy to be a big queen.

From now on, this is actually just a very common coincidence.For example, one day you suddenly yelled on the road, and when you went home and looked through the almanac, you found that it happened to be the beginning of spring. You can't say that this spring was called out by you, right?But for the Yuan family, this is a good sign after all, and their excitement is understandable. This boy is the grandson of Yuan Jiasan's elder brother, that is, Yuan Jiasan's nephew, and his family tree ranks in the "Shi" generation. The family members took this auspicious omen to name him "Kai".

Not long after, Yuan Shikai was adopted to his uncle Yuan Baoqing's family as his son.This Yuan Baoqing used to be a general under Yuan Jiasan's command. After retiring from the army, he served as Jiangning Salt Fadao (senior official at the deputy ministerial level), and his main job was to be in charge of the production and sales of salt in the Nanjing area.Yuan Baoqing had great expectations for Yuan Shikai. Apart from being an official, his most important thing was to supervise Xiao Yuan to study hard, so that he could take the right path in the imperial examination and get a good name in the future, so that he could live up to the good omen he was born with.

It's a pity that Yuan Shikai seems not born to learn cultural knowledge. He once mustered up the courage to take the imperial examination twice, and it was the most basic rural examination. The result was that he lost his name to Sun Shan, which made Yuan's family lose face. Everyone blamed Yuan Shikai, and Yuan Shikai was also very annoyed, but his next move was not to prepare for the third exam, but to find all the textbooks and review materials-and set them on fire.This move means that he bid farewell to the college entrance examination (imperial examination) forever, and he will no longer take the civil service examination if he is killed.While burning it, he declared: From now on, I will aspire to serve as a soldier and fight in the war, abandoning literature and joining the military! (A man should serve the battlefield, keep the inside and fight the outside, how can he stay dirty for a long time, and waste time and evil!)

For Yuan Shikai, this is a very important decision.And why he made this decision, the secret will soon be revealed. At this time, his adoptive father had passed away, so he traveled thousands of miles from Shanghai to Shandong to join a man—Wu Changqing.As Yuan Baoqing's sworn brother before his death, Wu Changqing took Yuan Shikai in and made him a staff officer (aide) in the army by his side.The year was 1881, and Yuan Shikai was already 22 years old.Like our college graduates today, he finally got his first job. Yuan Shikai, a newcomer in the workplace, will soon go on a long trip, and it is very far away, going to North Korea.

We are familiar with North Korea as a country. In 2012, North Korea’s CCTV released a report saying that people in the world ranked the highest in terms of happiness in life, with China first and North Korea second.Therefore, it is necessary for us to understand the somewhat long history of the relationship between the two brothers. In the Ming Dynasty, North Korea was a vassal state of the Ming Empire. In the first year of Tiancong (1627), Huang Taiji failed in the battle against the Ming Dynasty. He was short of silver, so he made it easy first and then difficult. Shanhaiguan), since then North Korea has become the logistics supply base of the Eight Banners Army. Food may not be full, but ginseng can be taken casually.You think how fierce the army that just drinks ginseng soup is fighting.In this way, the Eight Banners slashed at the enemy while bleeding from the nose, all the way into Shanhaiguan.After the establishment of the Qing Dynasty, Korea naturally became a vassal state of the Qing Dynasty (although they have always missed the Ming Dynasty).

The so-called vassal state is somewhat similar to the meaning of the second child protected by the boss.North Korea only has a "king" but no "emperor", because their "emperor" is the emperor of the Qing Dynasty, and the reign name used is also the reign name of the Qing Dynasty.The king of North Korea is only equivalent to the prince of the Qing Dynasty.For this reason, the palaces of the kings of Korea and the houses of the common people had to be built shorter than those of the Qing Dynasty.We know that the national flag of the Republic of Korea is the Taegeukki. In fact, when the Koreans designed the national flag, the Qing Dynasty used the yellow dragon flag as its national flag.The North Koreans finally have an idea: Everyone is a dragon, you fly in the sky, we crawl on the ground, the mother's version is too different, so they changed it to Taijiqi.

By the way, North Korea was not the only vassal state of the Qing Dynasty at that time. Except for Tsarist Russia in the north and Japan in the east, almost all the countries adjacent to the Qing Dynasty were its vassal states. From south to west, there were: Annan (Vietnam) , Myanmar, Siam (Thailand), Sulu (Philippines), Nanzhang (Laos), Nepal, Sikkim, Bhutan... This is a tribute system centered on the "Heavenly Kingdom", even in 1840 Later, these countries were occupied by Western powers and became colonies, but they still respected the Celestial Dynasty and insisted on paying tribute to the Qing Dynasty.

Another characteristic of North Korea is that it has always been relatively poor (relevant to the fact that Huang Taiji robbed too much back then). At that time, their first-rank officials also had cars when they went out, but it was a very light and fuel-efficient car-a wheelbarrow.This kind of treatment is at the same level as the young daughter-in-law who returned to her natal family in the Northeast of Qing Dynasty at that time.And North Korea basically has no army. They have been counting on the Qing Dynasty to solve the national defense, which simply saves military expenses. For North Korea, apart from being poor, there is actually no other way. The Qing Dynasty is too powerful, and the Northeast is the "land of dragon prosperity" of the Qing court. Just don't have any army.

We all know that when you are poor, you want to change. There is also an idiom that makes trouble out of poor mountains and rivers. This is very reasonable.Facts have proved that North Korea's "little brother" is extremely unstable.Later they discovered that another neighbor—Japan has gradually become a new boss, and Japan has always paid attention to cultivating power in North Korea. For example, the first unequal treaty in North Korean history ("Ganghwa Treaty") was signed with Japan. As a result, the Korean court quickly divided into two factions. One faction is more conservative and insists on being close to the celestial dynasty—the Qing Dynasty. They believe that they will always follow the big brother and always have buns to eat. Therefore, they are called the big party (from "Mencius"), which is actually the pro-China faction; The other faction secretly accepted the benefits from the Japanese, thinking that they would not only get steamed buns to eat with this big brother, but they might also be able to drink seaweed and egg drop soup. They thought they were more civilized, so they were called Kaihua Party (pro-Japanese faction).

It is not difficult to find that the conflict between the Shida Party and the Kaihua Party is irreconcilable. It belongs to the kind of meeting that greets your mother and then turns around and flies, so they went to work with bricks (historical data Records), the palace began to shoot bricks when there was a disagreement, and things like copying guys and breaking heads would happen every two or three years.It was in the second year (1882) when Yuan Shikai found a job that the conflict broke out again! That's what happened.In Seoul, the capital of North Korea, the people instigated by the big party beat and killed more than a dozen Japanese people, and then they broke into the Japanese legation and chopped down anyone they saw.Several staff members of the Japanese embassy became ghosts under the knife, and the Kaihua Party is not easy to mess with. With the support of Japan's troops from the country, they began to fight back, so the whole country was in chaos, with beatings, smashing, looting and burning everywhere. A group of people with ulterior motives took the opportunity to fan the flames and affect social stability. This matter had to alarm the Heavenly Dynasty.In order to maintain the political stability of the vassal state and prevent the pro-Japanese faction from taking power, the Qing Dynasty immediately sent troops to quell it.And it was Wu Changqing who commanded this army. Yuan Shikai, who was working hard for less than a year, followed Wu Changqing into North Korea.Wu Changqing brought three battalions of troops, and as soon as he entered North Korea, Wu Changqing temporarily handed over one of the battalions to Yuan Shikai and ordered Yuan Shikai to lead the soldiers forward.To be honest, Wu Changqing didn't mean to send Yuan Shikai to his death, but to let him make meritorious deeds so that he could be promoted in the future. Of course Yuan Shikai could understand Wu Changqing's good intentions.For the first time leading a battalion, he didn't feel the slightest fear, but was more excited than eating Korean ginseng.In the next few days, he will take practical actions to make Wu Changqing feel his terror, and all of this will also lay the foundation for his life's career. Yuan Shikai, you gave up the imperial examinations and joined the army; instead of staying in China, you came to North Korea to make troubles. This is just going your own way. What Yuan Shikai returned to Wu Changqing was a special gift. At that time, the Qing army suppressed the peasant uprising with two brushes, but the discipline has not been very good.For the troops from the Celestial Dynasty, the people of North Korea lined the road to welcome them and warmly entertained the "Wang Shi".But the performance of the Qing soldiers is really worthy of a line in "Crazy Stone": What quality? After they finished eating, they blatantly invaded ordinary people's homes, robbed property and raped women, causing Wu Changqing a headache. Yuan Shikai believed that discipline must be rectified before fighting.So he reported to Wu Changqing: Marshal, I have punished several soldiers who took the lead in making trouble, please go and inspect. Wu Changqing nodded approvingly at Yuan Shikai, feeling that Yuan Shikai still had a genius as a general.In order to properly reprimand these troublesome soldiers, Wu Changqing prepared a draft while walking, and prepared to publish a lecture that was both harsh and emotional, and asked these soldiers to conduct a deep inspection to maintain military discipline. He followed Yuan Shikai to the place of detention, the door opened, Wu Changqing's smile froze, and he suddenly realized that his lecture was unnecessary. For the dead cannot hear. I saw seven human heads neatly placed on the table in the black room. It turned out that what Yuan Shikai wanted Wu Changqing to see was not a living person, but a human head.After catching these rioting soldiers, he neither asked for instructions nor reported (this is the usual practice), so he beheaded them all on his own initiative.And what Yuan Shikai killed was not the soldiers of his own battalion, but the people of the other two battalions. Wu Changqing suddenly felt shuddering and stayed there for ten minutes.He also understands the so-called killing chickens to scare monkeys and killing people to establish prestige, but he chopped melons and vegetables and beheaded seven comrades in one breath without causing trouble, which shows that Yuan Shikai's is not simple. In fact, what Wu Changqing didn’t know was that long before going abroad, Yuan Shikai complained to the people around him: As the commander in chief of the army, Uncle Wu would always be gentle and refined like a scholar, satisfied with the name of “Confucian General” Kill stop kill, what are your plans, anyway, I am planning to leave here after returning from North Korea! Wu Changqing didn't say anything in the end, but Yuan Shikai's prestige in the army rose after this killing.In the ensuing battle, he showed the characteristics of taking the lead, rushing to the front of the team with a desperado style of play, and the soldiers followed him and charged forward with all their strength to kill the enemy.Finally, with the reinforcement of Wu Changqing's army, Yuan Jun quelled the chaos in the Korean palace. The Qing Dynasty regained control of the Korean palace. The Japanese and the leaders of the Kaihua Party were driven out of Seoul. Wu Changqing's army stayed in North Korea. The Qing Dynasty still maintained its status as the suzerain of North Korea. . Wu Changqing wrote a memorial to the imperial court overnight recommending Yuan Shikai. In this way, the 23-year-old Yuan Shikai was promoted and became a "Tongzhi" of the fifth rank of the Qing Dynasty—that is, a deputy city-level official with an annual salary of 80 taels. He officially became a battalion of the Qing army stationed in the court sir. Later, when Wu Changqing was transferred back to China, he did not bring Yuan Shikai back to China. He knew that he could not keep Yuan Shikai, and he did not want to bring Yuan Shikai with him again. Partisans, prevent them from making small moves. What happened next proved that Yuan Shikai was definitely the best candidate for the job. Two years later, another palace coup took place. This time, the Japanese army stationed in Seoul took advantage of the chaos and broke into the Korean palace, executed the ministers of the major parties, put the king under house arrest, and declared North Korea's "independence." North Korea's "independence" not only meant that it actually abolished its vassal status to the Qing Dynasty and stopped paying tribute to the Qing Dynasty, but also could only listen to the Japanese in the future. When the news came out, the chiefs of the other two battalions of the Qing army stationed in the court decided to immediately report to the domestic court and wait for the court's instructions.But Yuan Shikai firmly disagreed. He believed that the military situation was critical and special circumstances should be dealt with specially.The so-called generals are not allowed to accept the orders of the emperors abroad. If they wait for the instructions of the imperial court, the Japanese will become the overlords. They must take advantage of the power of the Japanese army in North Korea and make a decisive decision to quell the coup d'état and safeguard the interests of the Qing Dynasty in North Korea. Because Yuan Shikai's attitude was very firm and his mood was very angry, the chiefs of the other two battalions finally agreed: Yuan Shikai would lead his troops to attack the Korean palace occupied by the Japanese army, and the other two battalions would help support it. Yuan Shikai made another move.Like last time, he rushed to the front of the team again, leading his soldiers to swarm up, unstoppable, and the Japanese fled in a panic.After driving away the Japanese soldiers in the palace, Yuan Shikai incited the hooligans in Seoul (with whom he had a good relationship), hacked up any Japanese they saw on the street, and set fire to the Japanese legation.During the melee, Yuan Shikai successfully rescued the kidnapped king, escorted him back to the palace, and took out his own military expenses (the North Korean palace had no money) to personally do the work of compensating the family members of the ministers of the big party who were killed. Due to Yuan Shikai's series of carrot and stick policies, the Korean court once again restored its status as a vassal state to the Qing Dynasty. All the decrees that were unfavorable to the Qing Dynasty issued during the king's hostage by the Japanese were abolished, and the interests of the Qing Dynasty were once again maintained. Because Yuan Shikai showed military decisiveness and political maturity in this turmoil, his position in Korea was further consolidated.Later, the Qing Dynasty withdrew its troops stationed in North Korea, but Yuan Shikai was still not transferred back to China, and became the highest leader of the Qing Dynasty stationed in North Korea—the Qing Prime Minister stationed in North Korea to negotiate trade matters. This official position is equivalent to a Taoist in the Qing Dynasty, that is, at the provincial and ministerial level (Zheng Sanpin).In fact, it was Jian Guo, the plenipotentiary representative sent by the Qing Dynasty to North Korea.Why not just call Jian Guo?This is to avoid suspicion.Of course, it is not enough to be called a minister, because the face-saving Shangguo believes that "a subordinate country has no diplomacy", and those who are sent to the younger brother should naturally avoid using some diplomatic titles.So under the name of "commercial", to exercise the power of supervising the country. To be honest, although he is the "second generation official", so far Yuan Shikai has achieved everything by himself. He is capable and willing to give, so no one has any objection to being a plenipotentiary in North Korea. In this way, Yuan Shikai began his long stationing life in North Korea, which lasted 13 years.In a foreign country far away from the center of power, when the ministers of the Qing court almost forgot about him, and surrounded and provoked by the Japanese everywhere, Yuan Shikai almost single-handedly successfully resisted and counterattacked again and again, sticking to the bottom line of the Qing Dynasty's interests, The Japanese were very troubled by this man from the Qing Dynasty who was not a hooligan. They first wanted to drive Yuan Shikai away, and then carried out an assassination attempt, but Yuan Shikai avoided them all. These days, in Yuan Shikai's own words, he is "supporting the overall situation in the East with one hand." Although this is bragging, I think it is quite reasonable. Because Yuan Shikai is very tough and cunning, the king of North Korea can only use one word to describe him in front of him - trembling.Yuan Shikai could not only enter and leave the palace at will, but also gave advice to the king. At that time, the diplomatic documents sent by the king to other countries had to be stamped with his Lord Yuan’s seal in addition to the jade seal to take effect. Indispensable.While Yuan Shikai was in and out of the palace, he found out that the North Korean princess had a younger sister, the very young Smecta (16 years old), and the very beautiful Smecta, so he took her as his third concubine. Accepted as the second concubine and the fourth concubine.According to unofficial history, Yuan Shikai also had the idea of ​​the beautiful North Korean princess, and he probably had an affair with her. Of course, there is no clear historical evidence for this statement, but I think that in terms of Yuan Shikai's character, this kind of thing is true. Absolutely. In short, in the eyes of outsiders, Yuan Shikai was very prosperous in North Korea.He also has a wheelbarrow. The so-called spring breeze has ginseng, and it is true that there are beauties on the wheelbarrow. But no one knew that Yuan Shikai was not happy at this time.He is very unhappy. Because all this is not what he wants, to be precise, he wants more than that. During his stay in North Korea, Yuan Shikai kept reporting to the domestic leaders in charge of him, asking to return to the warm embrace of the Qing Dynasty, but no one paid any attention to him. The reason for ignoring him is simple: because Yuan Shikai's work performance is too outstanding.If he can handle the Japanese, let him continue to handle it.After going back and forth, Yuan Shikai believed: If there are no accidents, he can retire in North Korea-the leader appreciates you, there is no way. A few years ago, I heard such a point of view in a lecture that claimed to be a workplace guru, and I felt very fresh at the time: If you are the leader of a certain department or a certain business, you cannot do a good job, otherwise your superiors will You will think that there is no more suitable person than you to replace you, and it will be difficult for you to have a chance to be promoted again. Of course, this "master" point of view is wrong.Because he only saw the surface and the front, he seemed relatively petty.He must not know that there is another point of view: to do big things, find a substitute first. Now that you are a leader in any field, don't keep staring at your one-third of an acre of land, for fear that others will cut you a few ridges of wheat.In fact, being a leader requires not only outstanding ability and hard work, but more importantly, knowing how to let go and delegate power. You must also pay attention to cultivating your own successors, otherwise you will soon become Mr. Yuan's bosom friend. Yuan Shikai's distress came from this.Since the domestic side has been slow to find someone to replace him, he can only stay in the North Korean position forever. If the leader in charge of Yuan Shikai's memory ability is good enough, he must be able to remember the year when Yuan Shikai was sent to North Korea-that was 13 years ago. 13 years!At that time, Yuan Shikai only had one wife. He was full of enthusiasm and his sword was ringing in the box. He thought that he went to North Korea just to fight, and he would come back soon. Unexpectedly, it was a ten-year-old One-way ticket. do i love this placedo not love.do i miss homemiss.Can I go back to my country?cannot. I'm 35 years old and I've been serving this backcountry for 13 years and there's no doubt that both my career and official position in North Korea have peaked and the King of North Korea won't give up his throne mine.I am the boss here, but when I return to the Qing Dynasty, I am not even qualified to go to court!As a middle-aged fat man, my career used to be brilliant, but now it has encountered a big bottleneck.I need a new stage, I need a breakthrough in life and career.My hobbies are not business, nor adultery, but—leading soldiers.Go bring real soldiers! In addition to wanting to continue to be promoted, Yuan Shikai's eagerness to return to China has more complicated reasons. After more than 30 years of Westernization Movement, the modern industry of the Qing Dynasty has developed. In addition, Zuo Zongtang led the army to recover Xinjiang. The Qing Dynasty won the actual military victory in the Qing-French War. , launched a massive political and diplomatic offensive to revive its reputation internationally.At this time, the United States had just finished the Civil War (1865), and Germany had just completed its complete reunification (1871). The whole world was hyping up the "threat theory of the Qing Dynasty". Western newspapers even believed that there were only four real powers in the world at that time—— —Britain, France, Russia and the Qing Empire. But over the past ten years, Yuan Shikai has realized more deeply that all this is unreal. Under the superficial prosperity and strength, the Qing Dynasty hides a huge crisis.The internal worry is of course the corruption of the government, but in terms of external troubles, the first threat is Japan.He has dealt with the Japanese for more than ten years, and no one can feel the eerieness and horror of the Japanese neighbor as deeply as he does. Obviously, the future Qing Dynasty needs a military and political figure with an iron fist, a style of martial arts, and a bloody spirit. This is the reason why Yuan Shikai gave up the imperial examination back then. At that time, he only vaguely felt it, but now, Yuan Shikai felt it more strongly. "Some birds can't be kept shut after all, because their wings are too plump." Although Yuan Shikai didn't know this classic line, in his opinion, he is the one who will save the future Qing Dynasty.In order to realize his ideal, he must first return to the country and become a general in charge of military power! Yuan Shikai's first approach was to ask for instructions.He kept asking for instructions and reports from the leader in charge of him, requesting to be transferred back to the country.Various reasons and perseverance, it was really painful for Yuan Shikai, who had never passed a single provincial examination and could write neatly. In 1888, Yuan Shikai wrote another very long report, requesting to resign and return to China, but was once again ruthlessly rejected.From then on, he seemed to be in despair.No longer writing reports, no more making noise, settled down in North Korea with peace of mind, found three aunts and wives, drank and played every day, occasionally wrote a poem or family letter diary or something, to record the feeling of loss.On rainy mornings, Mr. Yuan Shikai stopped by the low window and looked in the direction of the empire. He wanted to go back to China—but he couldn't. Is Yuan Shikai desperate?no.He only showed his fangs when he needed to, and what he showed most of the time was just an incisor.Yuan Shikai knew this deeply.He believes that there will always be opportunities, and this opportunity is created by himself. You can't always pin your hopes on others. Before the opportunity comes, you must wait for it with perseverance; when the opportunity comes, you must have the strength to seize it. Yes, time is a good man's best friend.As long as you calm down and wait patiently, God will take care of you one day.On that day, wishes will come true and happiness will come.And before that olive branch falls, you must pack up your mood, pack up your luggage, and sharpen your fangs—it will reflect the light when it shines! So, in my opinion, when Yuan Shikai stopped writing reports for returning to China, he just changed his way of fighting for it, a way of no longer relying on others but on himself.While waiting for the opportunity, he began to recharge himself, make friends, learn western military knowledge, and help the king of North Korea to train soldiers. In short, everything is preparing for his ideal-to become an excellent military and political figure.He didn't mess himself up first, he lived a simple and bright life, and he believed that he would seize that last chance after all! Just after the New Year in 1894, Yuan Shikai's opportunity came.