Chapter 195 194. "Li" Bodhisattva Can't Protect Itself

On June 15, the 11th year of the Republic of China, Li Yuanhong, who was reborn as Feng's wife, issued a nationwide truce order in an attempt to stop the war between the northern and southern armies in Jiangxi first.However, Cai Chengxun, the "commander-in-chief of the Jiangxi aid army", refused Ouyang Wu sent by Li to mediate, and refused to accept the appointment of Xie Yuanhan, governor of Jiangxi Province appointed by Li, which hit Li's prestige.In order to adapt to the trend of self-government of the provinces and realize the separation of military and civilian rule, Lebanon appointed seven provincial governors, five of whom were rejected by the warlords and could not take office.

Tang Xiangming, Governor of Hubei sent by Li, had served as the governor of Hunan in the 4th year of the Republic of China. At that time, Cao Kun was only the commander of the third division, stationed in Yuezhou, and Wu Peifu served as the deputy commander under Cao. Cao sent Wu to Changsha He got in touch with Tang Xiangming, Tang admired Wu very much, and asked Cao to keep Wu, which made Cao look at Wu with admiration, so Tang could be said to be the first to recognize Wu, and it could also be said that Tang had old favors towards Wu. Cao and Wu gained power, Tang was promoted by Li Yuanhong because of his relationship with Li Tongxiang, and he was promoted to the post of governor of Hubei. Li asked Tang to go to Baoding and Luoyang to meet Cao and Wu and make contact. Unexpectedly, when Tang arrived in Baoding, he met Cao. Cao's attitude was very cold, and he reasoned that Hubei was not his jurisdiction and asked him to ask Wu Peifu first.When Tang arrived in Luoyang, Wu Jing refused to see him.At the same time, both Cao and Wu sent telegrams to Li, recommending Xiao Yaonan to concurrently serve as governor of Hubei.When Li saw this telegram, he couldn't help saying angrily: "Hubei is my hometown. I don't care about other places. I must take care of my hometown!" So he asked Tang Xiangming to go directly to Hubei to take over the matter.

When Tang arrived in Hankou on July 29, Xiao Yaonan ordered the "Rejecting Tang faction" to lie on the tracks of Jinghan Road, blocking the passage of the train Tang was on. However, quite a few "Yingtang faction" on the river bank were beaten and humiliated by the military and police, and forty or fifty people were seriously injured. Xiao Yaonan sent his adjutant, Zou Haiqing, to meet Tang on the warship and persuade Tang not to land, so as not to cause riots.Tang refused to listen to dissuasion, and crossed the river to Wuchang to meet Xiao in person after landing. Long, and Xiao immediately announced his inauguration.

Tang made a miserable mess and reported the situation to Li and asked to resign. Li replied, "This is not a question of whether you can be the governor, but a question of whether I can be the president." Xiao Yaonan was promoted by Wu Peifu, so Li Yuanhong hoped that Marshal Wu, who promoted him to be re-elected president, would come forward to support him.But Wu kept silent, pretending that there was no such thing. Li Yuanhong's current life is no better than that of Xu Shichang who just stepped down. The president has no power at all. He always has to watch the warlords' faces and touch their nails at any time. This president is really not as good as a county magistrate with real power.

The issue of abolishing governors and reducing troops that Li Yuanhong chanted before coming to power was ignored by all parties after he came to power.Cao Kun excused that the war in the whole country had not stopped, and that the governor could be abolished but the army could not be dismissed, and he repeatedly urged Cai Chengxun to be appointed as the governor of Jiangxi.Although Wu Peifu claimed to support the reduction of troops, he recruited recruits in the three provinces of Zhi, Shandong, and Henan to make up for the vacancies of the third division. In a telegram to Cai Yuanpei on July 4, Wu said bluntly: "Abolition of military governors requires a comprehensive plan after the unification is completed. At this time, the abolition of trade talks is appropriate to increase chaos."

During July and August, Li successively ordered many serving military governors and division commanders to be crowned with the title of "general".In fact, this is not a new method, because Yuan Shikai has already adopted it.Yuan used this method to abolish the governor, but it didn't work.Yuan Du can't work, so how can Li work. Beijing still has an old problem -- a financial problem.Beijing has long faced the impasse of financial bankruptcy.Li appointed Gu Weijun, an Anglo-American diplomat, as the chairman of the Financial Discussion Committee, with the purpose of obtaining large loans from Western countries.After the Fengzhi War, the ministers meeting of Britain, the United States, and France decided to financially assist the Beijing government to unify.Japan also agreed to participate in order to eliminate the suspicion that it had aided the Feng faction.However, the contradiction between Japan and Western countries on the issue of China has not been eliminated. Therefore, when the Japanese cabinet discussed the issue of "participation", it believed that the time had not come and advocated postponing it.

Due to the delayed payment of debts by the Beijing government, military salaries could not be paid on time, so mutinies broke out all over the country.In just two months between July and August, mutinies spread in Baoding, Weihui, Rehe and other places, and Beijing was also affected. In particular, there were many mutinies in Jiangxi, which caused repeated serious protests from the diplomatic corps. . Civil servants in various ministries of the Beijing government were busy asking for salaries all day long, and all the teaching staff went on strike because they were cut off from cooking. Crying and complaining were heard everywhere in Beijing. On July 15, more than 700 people from the Ministry of Army were laid off and organized a salary claiming group to surround the State Council. Li Zheng was attending the state affairs meeting and hurriedly avoided it. The people who petitioned for salary grabbed him, tore his jacket, knocked off his short-sighted glasses, scratched his eyelids, and slapped him three times. He was so frightened that he screamed for help.After the incident, he felt that it was not easy to be a "poor" official, so he submitted his resignation the next day and insisted on resigning.

Financial difficulties make it difficult for a smart woman to cook without rice. This is an old disease in Beijing for many years. Of course Li Yuanhong cannot save it. The future of the Beijing government is precarious.The director of transportation, Gao Enhong, planned to use the four roads of Jingfeng, Jinghan, Jingsui, and Jinpu to make a unified large loan of 300 million yuan. The group of banks from the four countries had concerns, so they dared not do this deal. After Li came to power, the cabinet was originally represented by Yan Huiqing temporarily, and Yan only agreed to watch over it until the day when the National Assembly resumed on August 1.Li has always wanted to find someone from the south to achieve a formal reunification of the north and the south.He originally invited Wu Tingfang, because Wu Tingfang acted for Ge Kui when he stepped down the previous time, and now he is reinstated, and Wu is already a giant in the southern government. If Wu came to Beijing to serve as the Prime Minister, everything would be perfect.But Wu Tingfang died of anger when Chen Jiongming rebelled, so Li thought of Tang Shaoyi, another "celebrity" in the south, and wanted to ask him to go north to organize a cabinet in order to promote unification.

In late July, Li sent Jin Yongyan to Baoding and Luoyang to ask Tang to form a cabinet to seek the opinions of the two bosses Cao and Wu in advance.Cao and Wu were very polite, saying that the prime minister should be appointed by the Yuan first, and we will never interfere.Cao Kun proposed that Gao Lingyu be the chief of transportation, Wang Shiyuan as the chief of finance, Zhang Shaozeng as the chief of the army, and the rest of the cabinet members should not be asked.Wu Peifu added another person, that is, to ask Cao to agree to keep Gao Enhong as the chief of transportation, and transfer Gao Lingyu to be the chief of finance.

On July 31, Le Pai Wang Chonghui temporarily acted as the Prime Minister of the Cabinet. On August 5, Li officially issued Tang Shaoyi's cabinet formation order, and Wang Chonghui temporarily took over before Tang Wei went north.The list of cabinet members is as follows: Koo Vui Kwan Tian Wenlie Gao Lingxuan Ko Eun Hong Zhang Shaozeng Li Dingxin Attorney General Cheong Yew Tsang Ong Chong Hui Lu Xin Li thought that this new pavilion was a compromise between all parties, because the two big bosses, Cao and Wu, were all accommodated in important positions, Lu Xin was Tang Shaoyi's confidant, and Zhang Yao used to belong to the Department of Political Science.For the sake of prudence, Li Huan discussed with Rao Hanxiang and Han Yuchen, strategists in the government, when he brought up Lu Xin and Zhang Yaozeng. They believed that the head of state had the privilege of organizing a cabinet, and there was no need to ask others for advice on everything.Li also carefully studied the list of cabinet members and the Speaker of the National Assembly Wu Jinglian, and obtained Wu's consent before taking it out.

After the cabinet formation order was published, Tang Shaoyi refused to "come out" from his hometown of Xiangshan, Guangdong. This new pavilion is still dilapidated and incomplete. In order to avoid others saying that he interfered in the administration of the cabinet, Li no longer attended the cabinet affairs meeting. On August 8, Acting Prime Minister Wang Chonghui held a political banquet. During the banquet, Sun Danlin, Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs and Acting Minister, took out Wu Peifu's two telegrams, Ma (6th) and Yang (7th), and passed them on to everyone. Wu's Ma Dian said: "Xiaofeng (Jin Yongyan) came to discuss the matter of forming a cabinet. He absolutely disapproved of Tang. It was better to maintain the status quo. If Yan refused to continue, Liang Ji (Wang Chonghui) replaced Kui, and Gaojiao (referring to Gao Enhong's traffic chief) did not move. , Zhang Changjun, I ask the head of state to consider it. Li Yinquan (Li Gengen), Zhang Xixi (Zhang Yaozeng), Gu Jiufeng (Gu Zhongxiu) gentlemen, (according to the above three are all from the Department of Political Science), Sichuan, Yunnan, and Guangdong have a close relationship with them I feel disgusted, and now I am trying to unify, so it is not convenient to join the cabinet." Wu's Yang Dian said: "Suitable for the government's song and telegram, the Tang Pavilion has been published. Check out the eight-year peace meeting of the Tang Lord in Shanghai, and there are annoying rumors from the outside world that Zhang Xixi's entry into the cabinet will hinder the unification of Sichuan, Yunnan, and Guangdong; Lu Xin cheated money for the Jinxing Company Exchange Hooligans (according to Lu is the general manager of the company) are not allowed to join the cabinet. Jin Xiaofeng came here, and he said it all the time. Unexpectedly, he announced it suddenly after returning to Beijing. The public hole is in the overall situation, and it will never be passed lightly." On the same day, Wu also sent a telegram to a "certain important person" saying: "There are political studies in the south, and Anfu in the north. The political parties in the north and the south are the same!" These telegrams shook the political arena in Beijing like several bombs.It's very simple. Wu Peifu is now the backstage boss of the Beijing government. He openly expressed his dissatisfaction with the status quo. How can this government still exist? However, Wu and Cao repeatedly stated that they would "not intervene in politics", and they made it public and sent out a declaration.Therefore, the strategists in the government think that this is a fake telegram fabricated by Sun Danlin, and that Sun is using it to vent his personal anger because he did not take the position of Chief of Internal Affairs. On the 9th, Li Yuanhong summoned Sun Danlin to the government office to inquire about the truth of Wu Peifu's telegrams. What was disappointing was that these telegrams were actually true and were sent by Wu Peifu.Li couldn't help turning his embarrassment into anger, and patted the table and said, "It's all your fault. You are the second Xu Shuzheng." He calmed down, he did not leave Beijing. Li went to Wang Chonghui again to complain, and Wang advised Li to give Sun Danlin the position of Chief of Internal Affairs, so as to avoid Sun's secret mischief and instigation of political tide.Li Yuanhong's old problem recurred. He expressed his resolute refusal to give in, and said angrily, "I don't. Let's see what they did to me. They pushed me onto the stage to make me suffer!" In fact, Xu Shichang has had enough these days.Li Yuanhong is also someone who has been there, he may have forgotten.Political power is so fascinating, once you walk in, you can't help yourself.When Li Yuanhong became president for the first time, he was angered by Duan Qirui, Xu Shuzheng and the warlords; Xu Shichang was punished by Duan Qirui, Zhang Zuolin, and Cao Kun; It is not easy for Li Yuanhong to serve Wu Peifu, the new backstage boss. Wu hates the Anfu Department because it is the incarnation of the Wan Department, and it belongs to Duan Qirui and Xu Shuzheng.But why does Wu hate the Department of Political Science?The Department of Political Science grew up in the south, attached to Cen Chunxuan and the Guangxi Department.In the past, Li had alliances with Cen Chunxuan and the Guangxi faction, but now the advisers and strategists around Li, such as Li Gengen, Han Yuchen, and Jin Yongyan, are all the backbone of the Political Science Department.The Department of Political Science in the old Congress had quite a lot of influence. Now they are making a comeback, with the support of the President behind them and the space of Congress to move around. They are a terrifying political force.From the bottom of his heart, Wu Cong was not happy that there was such a power in politics, so he was extremely dissatisfied with the Department of Political Science.In addition, Jin Yongyan often ran around as Li's representative, Wu was very angry, and reprimanded Jin for "falsely preaching imperial edicts" and "making waves."Zeng indirectly expressed to Li that he was advised to "be far from a small person" and reject "undesirable elements". Li wanted to find Tang Shaoyi to form a cabinet, which made Wu even more dissatisfied. Wu believed that Tang Shaoyi was the enemy of the Beiyang faction. If he was promoted as the prime minister, it would be very detrimental to the Beiyang faction, so he firmly opposed it. At this time, Wu Peifu had already torn off his mask of not being involved in politics. Someone compared him to Zhang Xun back then, and he was exactly the same, because in the 5th year of the Republic of China, when Li became president for the first time, Zhang Xun also violently opposed Li's invitation to Tang Shaoyi and Zhang Yaozeng to join the cabinet. of. At this time, Li deeply felt that it was difficult to deal with the backstage bosses of the Zhili, so his strategists proposed to contact the Feng and Anhui cliques, as well as the six southwestern provinces, to jointly deal with the Zhili.Since the Zhili Maizai had been split into Baoding and Luoyang factions, it would be enough to isolate Wu Peifu if they could further jointly protect Luoyang. At this time, the Department of Political Science sang a high-profile, advocating that the president stand up and unite with Congress to fight the warlords.This is an upright sign. The president made great efforts to dismiss Wu Peifu and Xiao Yaonan on charges of "resisting government orders and rejecting the governor of Hubei". . Of course Li didn't dare to take such a risk. His status at this time was like that of Emperor Han Xian in the last years of the Eastern Han Dynasty. He acted rashly, so he finally decided to send Wang Zhixiang to Baoding first, and asked Cao Kun to persuade Wu not to oppose the Tang cabinet, and not to make trouble with Li everywhere.Cao told Wang Zhixiang only that he would not interfere in politics, and made no other promises. Cao Kun wanted to ascend to the presidency by himself, so Wu Qili could not step down. He was secretly happy. He was trying to use Wu Qili to trouble him, but Li retreated when he knew it was difficult. Wouldn't this create a good opportunity for himself to come to power. Wang Zhixiang couldn't get the essentials in Baoding, so he went to Luoyang in person, hoping to achieve his goal, but when Wu saw the queen, he formally proposed that Wang Chonghui organize a cabinet. Wu Peifu not only expressed to Wang Zhixiang that he wanted Wang Chonghui to form a cabinet, but also Geng Dian (8th) sent a message to Wang himself: "I am willing to support my brother with all my strength, but we must reject those who conspire to disturb and hinder the reunification." Wang Chonghui felt that the position of prime minister was difficult, and it was difficult to deal with the president and the backstage boss, so he resigned on the 11th. Long before Li Yuanhong returned to the presidency, Wu Jinglian, Bian Shoujing, and Zhang Shaozeng, who went to Tianjin to ask Li to restore the legal system, organized a small group that took care of all the problems of the Beijing government. Wu Jinglian recommended Zhang Shaozeng to form a cabinet, but Li did not agree.Zhang Shao used to be Wu Peifu's son and daughter, so of course he wanted to be the prime minister. He, Wu Jinglian, and people from the Cao faction in Baoding were preparing for a general election and wanted to promote Cao Kun as president, which Wu Peifu disapproved of.Wu intends to let Li act as a puppet first, and make a transition, ostensibly to restore the legal system, so as to promote the unification of the North and the South.Of course, Wu has his own plans. By doing so, Wu will become the number one person in China and can control the entire situation in China single-handedly.But of course this proposition was opposed to the Baoding faction. Since Zhang Shaozeng joined the Baoding faction, Wu refused to support Zhang's formation of a cabinet.Later, when Zhang Shaozeng was nominated as the chief of the army or Cao Kun and Qi Xieyuan, Wu just nodded.According to Zhang Shaozeng, he was not satisfied with the position of a chief executive, so although he was included in the list of the new cabinet, he did not take office.It was not until after Wang Chonghui resigned that he announced his inauguration on the 12th (the day after Wang resigned).He thought he could represent Ge Kui because of his position as chief of the army.Knowing this situation, Wu Peifu immediately sent a telegram to Zhang, saying: "Don't get involved in the political tide, get stuck in the quagmire, be obsessed with power and position, be used by others, and blame the country." Because of Wu's telegram, Zhang's wish to act as Ge Kui also fell through. up. At this time, because Gao Enhong had promised to allocate funds to support education funds, but could not cash them when due, the teaching staff surrounded him to demand salary, so he avoided going to Beidaihe to avoid entanglement.At the same time, there was a trend of the cabinet appointing officials and the president refusing to stamp the seal. The situation is as follows: Cao Kun and Wu Peifu jointly sponsored Lin Xiguang as the governor of Gansu. According to the spirit of the responsible cabinet system, Wang Chonghui and Sun Danlin believed that the president must seal the bill passed by the State Council, but Li rejected it on the pretext that the president has the right to veto the appointment and dismissal of senior officials. , Sun Danlin resigned because of this anger.Due to Sun's resignation, the cabinet lost the two chief ministers of transportation and internal affairs, making it even more desolate. Wang Chonghui avoided the hospital under the pretext of treating eye diseases. It turned out that because Wu Peifu opposed Li Gengen's entry into the cabinet, Li Yuanhong planned to change Li to be the governor of Gansu. Now Cao and Wu have saved Lin Xiguang. . However, Li could not stay stagnant for long, so on August 19, he reluctantly stamped the order of Gansu Governor's appointment, Sun Danlin no longer resigned, and Gao Enhong returned to Beijing to resume his post. Lu Xin, the new head of agriculture and commerce, came to Beijing to take office on August 16. According to the habits of Beiyang official circles, the new official must have congratulatory messages from all parties, especially the congratulatory messages from many top warlords.After taking office, Lu submitted the congratulatory telegrams received to the newspaper as usual for publication. Qi Xieyuan, Xiao Yaonan, Wang Chengbin, and Feng Yuxiang included in the congratulatory telegrams. Unexpectedly, Qi, Xiao, and Wang declared in the newspaper that they did not send congratulatory telegrams to Lu. Feng Yuxiang’s congratulatory telegrams were like this Yes, Feng was suppressing bandits in Guide, and the Secretary of the Supervisory Office sent a congratulatory message for the appointment of the cabinet members in Beijing as usual. Of course, this congratulatory message was not submitted to Feng for review, so Feng's congratulatory message could not be regarded as forged, but Feng declared that he and Lu Xin had never met. On August 20, Wu Peifu continued to send telegrams opposing the Tang cabinet.He used the saying that "the emperor has his ministers, and his father has his sons" to cover up his suspicion of meddling in politics.His telegrams received responses from the immediate warlords of the provinces. On the 23rd, Li Yuanhong answered him with the classic "Four Character Classics": "Yuan Hong's shy face was reset, and he believed that he had good friends, but I couldn't catch them. In the end, there are only two brothers. Border officials are also members of the parliament, and there are also guests in the parliament. There is a division between respected relatives. Family....Zhu Xin (Tang Xiangming) went to Luo, and once asked to deliver a speech: Zhi'e family, you and I are one....A body of guilt, thinking about it day by day, praying for night with dream fragrance, urgently looking for a replacement, trying to benefit the country, not As soon as the court is revered, and clever words are used to cover up wrongdoing, everyone will abandon it together." Li sent a telegram to complain about the governor of Hubei, but his real purpose was to plead with Wu, saying that he could step down at any time, and asked Wu not to make it too difficult. Wang Chonghui formally submitted his written resignation on August 19, and at the same time recommended Zhang Shaozeng to act as the prime minister. On the 23rd, Lebanon invited figures from various political parties to the government to discuss cabinet issues.Members of the Department of Political Science and Yiyoushe unanimously advocated that there is no need to take into account Wu Peifu's objection, and directly announce that Zhang Shaozeng formed a cabinet, or pass the Tang cabinet.However, Li Yuanhong advised them to be cautious and not to make enemies with powerful factions, so as not to burn themselves.The meeting broke up without result. Le Zao consulted Congress on August 5 to approve Tang's cabinet, and the speech incidentally mentioned the issue of the president's supplementary resignation.It turns out that the president's resignation must be approved by the National Assembly to take effect. When Li was forced to resign in 1969, the National Assembly had already been dissolved. Therefore, Li's resignation was not complete in terms of legal procedures.Now Li has been mentioned as "acting president", not an official president, and Congress cannot accept the unofficial president's speech to vote on cabinet candidates.Congress must quickly formulate a constitution and produce a formal president before formally exercising the consent of cabinet members.Li Yuanhong hopes that the Congress will veto the president's resignation case, so that both Feng Guozhang's acting president and Xu Shichang's successor as president will become illegal, so that he can obtain the legal status of president to make up for the unexpired term of office. The National Assembly considers the resignation of the president and the consent of the prime minister to be two separate matters that cannot be handled together, and will return the original case.On the 26th, Li sent a message approved by Tang's cabinet. He believed that if Congress accepted the message, he would acquiesce in his presidency.This is a way of cheating.However, the Congress still returned the original case on the grounds that the case did not have the consent of Tang himself, and there was no need to seek the consent of the Congress first. The Tang cabinet could not be established, and Wang Chonghui lost his legal status as acting prime minister. Therefore, on September 14, all cabinet members submitted their general resignations. On September 19, Li finally succumbed to Wu Peifu's opinion and dismissed the nominal Tang cabinet, and formally appointed Wang Chonghui to form a cabinet. The list of cabinet members is as follows: Prime Minister Wang Chonghui Minister of Foreign Affairs of Gu Weijun Chief Financial Officer of Luo Wengan's Office Zhang Shaozeng served as chief of the army Chief of the Navy Li Dingxin Attorney General Xu Qian Director of Education, Towne and Department Sun Danlin, Chief of Internal Affairs Ko Eun Hung Director of Transportation Director of Agriculture and Commerce of Gao Lingyu Department Dong Kangshu, Dean of Dali Institute In this list, all Wu Peifu’s opponents are not on the list. Gao Enhong, Wu’s direct descendant, is still in charge of communications, and Sun Danlin is promoted from deputy chief to chief. Therefore, it is called the "Luo faction government".At the same time, among the cabinet members, Wang Chonghui, Gu Weijun, Luo Wenqian, and Tang Erhe are all Anglo-Americans, non-party and non-affiliated people who do not belong to domestic parties, so they are also known as the government of good people. The list of the cabinet this time is Li Yuanhong's full bow to the powerful faction. However, Shun's aunt failed to satisfy her sister-in-law, and Li satisfied Luoyang, but made Baoding very angry. Among the new pavilions, there was only one Gao Lingfei who belonged to the Bao faction, and Cao Kun was of course dissatisfied.And people around Cao, such as Cao Rui, Bian Shoujing, Wang Yuzhi, Yang Du, Xia Wuyi, etc., instigate from the sidelines, saying that Wu Peifu has already won the cabinet, and the next step is to take the president. Cao Kun was actually persuaded by his left and right , thinking that Wu had the ambition to usurp the throne.So Baoding took Wu as its only enemy, and turned all other old and new enemies into friends, hoping to form a united front against Wu.Bian Shoujing recruited politicians from the Anfu and Transportation departments to increase the momentum of the Bao faction.Cao Kun called Zhang Zuolin, expressing his aversion to repairing it, and not only the Bao faction in the direct lineage, but also anyone who was not Wu Peifu's direct lineage, all felt a great aversion to Wu's bossy and arrogant. Wu did not have a good relationship with the Congress either. The Yiyou Society, the Department of Research, and the Department of Political Science all resumed political activities in Beijing at this time. Wu did not treat these politicians well. When the Congress resumed on August 1, Wu gave Their telegram is: "Only make a constitution first to consolidate the foundation of the government, and mediate the centralization and decentralization of powers to determine the state of the country."The congressmen were very angry when they saw this telegram, and said angrily: "The big boss has lectured Congress!" At this time, there were not only struggles between the president, the Congress, and the warlords, but also the internal struggles of the Zhili warlords. Although Wu won the cabinet issue, his position was becoming more and more isolated day by day.