Chapter 16 Act III cutscene characters

Li Yuanhong is a very lucky person.Looking at the appearance, this person has a square face in the shape of a Chinese character, with a dignified appearance.From the Qing Dynasty to the Republic of China, in the officialdom, people with such looks had a good life.During the Qing Dynasty Juren Datiao (that is, a procedure for selecting juren directly into official careers), this kind of person was the first choice. As long as he participated in the Dazhao, he was destined to become an official.The big pick standard represents a kind of appearance standard for employing people in that era.The people above probably think that anyone who looks like this is more reliable.Therefore, if such a person enters the officialdom, his official career will probably be prosperous, and the same is true for Li Yuanhong.This man who was born in the navy, entered the Beiyang Naval Academy, and was a student of Yan Fu was appreciated by Zhang Zhidong. After he switched to the army, he went smoothly and was promoted to Xietong (Brigade Commander).It's hard to say what skills he has, but he is honest and cautious.As a military officer, he never deducted his salary, and he was more lenient in leading troops.He has no ambitions, behaves well, and in the eyes of Ruicheng's little wife, he is an honest and straightforward guy who never says a word.In comparison, this man from the Navy seems to have a higher level of knowledge than an army general.A foreign missionary close to him told us that Li Yuanhong could speak to him in simple English.People from the Naval Academy should be similar, because the Navy learned from the UK back then, and the textbooks and teachers were all British and British students.In the new army in Hubei, he and Zhang Biao formed a mixed alliance and a town commander. Zhang Biao's reputation was mediocre, and there were many rumors, but there was almost nothing bad to say about him.But it was such a simple-minded guy who later became the president of the Republic of China on and off for many years.During this period, so many influential figures, at least in terms of status, had to condescend to him.For example, Duan Qirui, who later became the prime minister of the Republic of China, was already an official in the Qing Dynasty, but he was under Li Yuanhong when he entered the Republic of China.The key to having such a good life is that on the day of the Wuchang Uprising of 1911, he happened to be the coordinator of the Wuchang New Army.

In fact, on the day of the uprising, he stood on the opposite side of the uprising.Although he had never suppressed radical soldiers before, at the time of the incident, like most Wuchang New Army officers, he came out to prevent the uprising.In his association, there were not many troops in the city at that time, except for the engineering battalion and the supply battalion that had already rioted, there were only two battalions.In order to prevent the uprising from expanding, he personally went to one of the battalions to suppress it, and personally killed an uprising soldier who came to incite it.It's just that Li Yuanhong is not a strong man, and the effect of killing people and suppressing them didn't last long, and the situation became even more unstable.Seeing that the situation was not good, the guards and entourage advised him to be wise, so he ran away coyly because his belief was not firm.Throughout the history of the 1911 Uprising, a "reactionary officer" like him, whether he fled or not, would most likely lose his head.After escaping, Li Yuanhong also felt the danger, so instead of going home, he hid in the home of the staff officer Liu Wenji, and solemnly confessed his property to Liu Wenji and entrusted it to his family.

Fortunately, the Wuchang Uprising was a riot of soldiers without a leader.Small revolutionaries among the uprising soldiers, ordinary soldiers like Xiong Bingkun and Cao Yabo, certainly could not convince others, and Wu Zhaolin, the team officer (company commander) who was promoted as the temporary commander in chief, could only give temporary command.In a society accustomed to seniority, identity, and status, even the rebels habitually value these things.If you don't have revolutionary qualifications, you have to look at traditional qualifications.Who let the organs of the revolutionary party be exposed before the uprising, and the revolutionary leaders died or fled?In addition, Wu Zhaolin and Li Yuanhong have a teacher-student friendship, and they have a particularly good impression of Li (the Hubei Army Office has a special army academy, and Li Yuanhong is in charge of it. There is a special staff class in the school, and serving officers enter the school without taking part-time study. Wu Zhaolin is the class student).A meeting was held to discuss, and most of the soldiers also had a good impression of Li.Therefore, not only was Li Yuanhong not held accountable, but he was recruited as the governor.At the beginning of 1911, the Gongjin Association that instigated the uprising had already selected the governor, that is, Liu Gong, who paid the most money, and the deputy governor was Liu Ying.After the success of the preparatory revolution, four towns were established, the control of each town was appointed, and the great seal was engraved.However, when it came time for the uprising, all the pre-determined leaders left, and a completely irrelevant person, a reactionary officer, became the governor.

After the revolution, people have been saying that Li Yuanhong was a governor who was dragged out from under the bed by rebel soldiers.However, in the recollection of several parties involved, there is no such statement, and some people (Hu Zushun) directly denounced it as "absurd talk".Only the somewhat literary "Ezhou Blood History" said that he was searched from the secret room behind the kitchen of the staff home.Only Juzheng, who was not present, mentioned the story of pulling out from under the bed, but he clearly stated that he had heard it.Obviously, as long as you are blocked in the house and hide under the bed, you will definitely not be able to hide.As a soldier, Li Yuanhong was not afraid of death to such an extent.Although it wasn't dragged out from under the bed, the process of "inviting" Li out of the mountain was quite rude.Ma Rong, who leads the team, is a hot-tempered master who draws his sword at every turn.He invites people, and he has to come if he doesn't come.Li Yuanhong is an honest man, most of the honest people are cowardly, even if he has the prestige of the old officer, he can only go with others in this matter.When he came to the Chu Watchtower, Li Yuanhong was welcomed by soldiers with guns lined up, which was very grand, but he said a few harsh words to the smiling Wu Zhaolin.However, it was too late to say anything after entering "Liangshan". At this time, Li Yuanhong had actually become a prisoner, without any freedom of action.It is said that it was Zhang Zhenwu's idea. All the telegrams and announcements from the Hubei Army military government were issued in his name, which was tantamount to forcing him to sign a registration certificate to join the gang. If he wanted to refuse, he couldn't help himself.What's even more embarrassing is that people like Zhang Zhenwu yelled at him frequently and bossed him around.Naturally, Yu Shi also planted the roots for him to use Yuan Shikai's hand to kill Zhang Zhenwu in the future.Li Yuanhong, who was "tied" into the governor's mansion, was silent and motionless all day long in the first few days as governor, just like a clay bodhisattva, so people called him Li Bodhisattva.

After being a Bodhisattva for a few days, seeing the recovery of Hankou and Hanyang one after another, and Tang Hualong's constant persuasion, I was a little moved.Tang Hualong is a man of status, his words are no better than those brats, he said the most important thing.Gradually, Li Bodhisattva is not like a clay Bodhisattva, and starts to see things.Although it is said that when the war was tense, he also wavered. It is reported that after Hanyang fell, he had correspondence with the Qing army.However, in general, he persevered and became a signboard, the signboard of the revolutionary leader. Later, the revolutionary leader Huang Xing rushed to Wuchang, but he could only condescend to him and be the commander-in-chief of the former enemy.From then on, Li Yuanhong became a symbol, a symbol of the First Righteousness, which appeared in later political life.Through the Shouyi, he won political capital, and also got an aide Rao Hanxiang who could write four or six sentences.Rao Hanxiang's ghostwriting for Li Yuanhong, Pian Si Li Li Liu, is extremely gorgeous, but there are also jokes.Such half-new, half-understood sentences like "Yuanhong's Reserve II" and "Hanxiang's Legal Person" were used to make the narrow-minded journalists happy, and they were written in pairs: "Li Yuanhong usurped Yuan Ke's position. , Rao Hanxiang is a Parisian".

After the Ding Revolution, Li Yuanhong, who was the leader of the Shouyi, had no real power most of the time, but he had a halo.Later, representatives from various provinces formed a provisional government. Before Sun Yat-sen came back, his prestige was no less than that of the revolutionary hero Huang Xing.The provisional government, whether in the era of Sun Yat-sen or Yuan Shikai, could not escape his vice president.After the revolution, many politicians liked this honest and kind vice president, and was elected as the chairman of the Republican Party and the Progressive Party successively.Zhang Taiyan, the veteran of the Tongmenghui, looked down on anyone but Li Yuanhong. Because of Li Yuanhong, he even declared that he would find a wife in Hubei.By coincidence, Li Yuanhong, who suddenly became famous and powerful, did not do any great things after that, and was often looked down upon by those in power, but he was able to stick to his stand as a leader and carefully guard this top card.Yuan Shikai became emperor, and Zhang Xun was restored, but he did not "betray" and submit.After several repetitions, he served several terms of president on and off, until he was kicked out of the presidency by Cao Kun in 1923, and soon he traveled westward with a crane.Just imagine, there were many soldiers who were with him at that time. If he hadn't happened to be the commander of the Wuchang New Army during the Wuchang Uprising, hadn't happened to leave or died, and had happened to be supported by the governor of Chengdu, Li Yuanhong would never have had a future. Such a big movement.