Chapter 23 Tan Yankai: The Victim of the Incident

In the Republic of China, Tan Yankai was a figure.He served as the chairman of the government in the Wangji National Government, and in the Jiangji National Government, as the executive president.Although it seems that the real power is not in his hands (whatever he does, the real power does not seem to be in his hands), but after all, he is a high-ranking official. After his death, a state funeral will be held.It is really a state funeral, buried in the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum, next to Sun Yat-sen, a place that Chiang Kai-shek always wanted, but finally couldn't ask for. However, Tan Yankai is not a member of the old alliance. As a big man, his qualifications for revolution are very shallow.His relationship with the Kuomintang and Sun Yat-sen began with the Revolution of 1911.The revolution was a turning point in his career. If it weren't for this revolution, he might be a famous gentry, or a high-ranking official, or a famous calligrapher, but in any case, it would not be related to the revolution, and would not involve so many scenes. In war, one will not be dismissed as a warlord, commander, and army commander, and then as chairman and chief executive.

In fact, Tan Yankai emerged in the late Qing Dynasty.Tan Yankai is a noble son, his father Tan Zhonglin, who served as the governor of Shaanxi, Gansu, Fujian, Zhejiang, and Guangdong and Guangxi in the Qing Dynasty.Tan Yankai is a well-known talent far and near, and he achieved success at a young age.At the age of 13, he was a scholar, and at the age of 24, he won the Huiyuan of the last imperial examination in the late Qing Dynasty, that is, he won the first place in the examination, breaking the record in Hunan.If it hadn't been for the empress dowager's deliberate pursuit of auspiciousness due to her unfavorable age, perhaps the champion would not necessarily be Liu Chunlin from Zhili, but Tan Yankai from Hunan.But this Huiyuan also made the people of Hunan very proud for a while.The Xiang people in the late Qing Dynasty were very good, but the best Hu Linyi, Zeng Guofan, and Zuo Zongtang were not high-level academicians, and they have never been high-level academicians.A Tan Yankai saved a lot of face.

Tan Yankai's father was a conservative.During the Reform Movement of 1898, there were not many big officials who supported the reform, and there were not many high-ranking officials who jumped out to oppose the New Deal, but he was the first to abolish the New Deal affairs when he was the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi.However, his son Tan Yankai is a newcomer.In the year of 1911, he was the chairman of the Hunan Consultation Bureau and one of the leaders of the constitutional faction, which caused a lot of trouble for the Qing government.He was also an active promoter of the previous constitutional petition.Not only that, Hunan's Consultative Bureau was one of the most active consultative bureaus in those years, and it was very prosperous.Every move has attracted the attention of the whole province.Because of the tax increase case, he fought the governor's lawsuit to the Zizhengyuan and won.Before the revolution, he had nothing to do with the revolutionary party, but in the year of 1911, governor Yu Chengge tried to kill party members several times, but was stopped by Tan Yankai.When the revolution happened, Tan Yankai, like Tang Hualong in Hubei, was extremely disappointed with the Qing government. Therefore, even though he didn’t know the truth about the revolutionaries, he cooperated very well. Minister of Military Affairs.However, in a country that pays attention to seniority, Jiao Dafeng, a party hero who borrows names from both the revolutionary party and the society, cannot gain a foothold in Hunan, where the authority of the gentry is extremely heavy.Even after Jiao Dafeng became the governor, he didn't have the kind of quack style, appointed officials indiscriminately, and held banquets every day, his commander-in-chief would not last long, because there would always be people who were dissatisfied.

The dissatisfied people instigated soldiers to riot and killed Jiao Dafeng and Chen Zuoxin, but they supported Tan Yankai as the governor.That day, all the soldiers and men poured into Tan's house, went straight into the hall, and shouted: "Who is Tan Yankai?" Tan Yankai's face was so frightened.The military man didn't care about anything, and rushed him into the governor's mansion, which had the taste of Zhao Kuangyin's yellow robe.According to historical data, "the sergeant used coercive means to carry it into the sedan chair with four people, and the four people carried it (meaning to carry it) and went away", which was similar to kidnapping.As a foreigner, the Changsha Tax Department reported to his superiors that Tan Yankai was crying all the way to the Dudu Mansion.When he got there, Tan Yankai regained his composure for a while, and realized that these soldiers didn't want his life, but wanted him to be the governor.He put forward two conditions: first, Jiao and Chen should be buried generously, because they are revolutionary heroes after all; second, soldiers must observe discipline and obey military laws.If he doesn't agree, he would rather die than be the governor.Now that the matter has come to this point, the soldiers can only agree to him, and everyone shouts long live together.That situation was just like when Zhao Kuangyin was supported by soldiers and wearing a yellow robe.

Since Tan Yankai became the victim of this incident, later historians often said that he was the instigation of the assassination of Jiao Dafeng, although there was no evidence.In fact, Tan Yankai also felt a certain embarrassment at the time.He deliberately alienated Mei Xin, an officer who made trouble, and made this person depressed all the time.At the same time, all the personnel of the capital governor's mansion appointed by Jiao Dafeng will stay in their posts as a show of appeasement.As a literati, he was supported by a group of soldiers as the governor, and he was unable to punish the rioters, so that was probably the only way he could do it.It is said that Tan Yankai also has good marksmanship, and he once showed his skills in front of soldiers.He has also been besieged by soldiers who are making money, but he is not surprised at all.However, he was not a soldier after all. In that troubled world, it was difficult for a literati to convince a soldier.After he became the governor, Hunan was in his hands, and as the direct rear of the Hubei front, it was maintained until the success of the North-South peace talks.Interestingly, when the constitutionalists fell to Yuan Shikai one after another, Tan Yankai joined the Kuomintang reorganized by the Tongmenghui and became the famous governor of the Kuomintang until he was dismissed by Yuan Shikai.During the governorship of Hunan, he was very kind to the revolutionaries and deliberately flattered the "revolutionary greats". He also renamed a road in Changsha "Huangxing Road".

Since then, Tan Yankai has been active in the political arena as a member of the Kuomintang.He supervised Hunan three times before and after, and finally became the commander of the Second Army of the Northern Expedition during the Northern Expedition.Like Cai Yuanpei, he was one of the two revolutionary Hanlins within the Kuomintang.It's just that Cai Yuanpei has always been a civil servant, while Tan Yankai has always been a general.But this general has a very good temper. While people respectfully call him Weigong (his name is Wuwei), they call him Grandma Tan in private, and no one is afraid of him.Granny Tan's handwriting is good, and it's better to ask for it. In Hunan, a small dim sum shop might have a signboard written by him, but it was all free.Whoever bumps into him, ask for it, and he will agree.After being a general for so many years, no one in the Kuomintang regards him as a soldier.The Kuomintang has two very popular figures, who are called "licorice" (in traditional Chinese medicine, licorice is mild in nature and can be used with any kind of medicine without fighting), Wu licorice is He Yingqin, and Wen licorice is Tan Yankai.A person with a good temper has good official luck, but he can't accept it.But this official luck is not only related to his temper, but also related to his catching up with the Revolution of 1911, and even more related to his choice of shift after 1911.