Chapter 23 Thirteen From "Embassy District" to "Concession"
At that time, the "Embassy District" and "Concession" were places of "hospitality".It was only when I entered the Japanese Legation that I realized that I was not the only guest. There was also a person named Wang Yuzhi living there at the time.Cao Kun did not have time to escape to the embassy area and was placed under house arrest by the National Army.Wang Yuzhi's legs are fast, so she became a guest here.I still remember that when I became emperor for the second time seven years ago, Li Yuanhong, who was driven away by Zhang Xun, also lived here. guest.Whenever the embassy has to receive visitors, the restaurants and hospitals in the embassy area will inevitably be bustling with it, because every time there will always be a group of people who are nervous and not worth enough to enter the embassy. It was so full that there were even people willing to pay rent at the bottom of the stairs.Xinhai.Ding Si and I were expelled from the Forbidden City this time, and many nobles of the Manchu nationality rushed to visit here.Once the hotel owner posted a very impolite notice: "There are too many sojourners in this restaurant, and the stairs are full. The sanitary conditions are extremely poor, and there are people who spit everywhere and are extremely uncivilized,... It is hereby stipulated that if anyone spits on the ground again, he shall be fined ten yuan, and there will be no lenient money!" Even so, some people flocked to it and lingered.
The enthusiasm I encountered here was unprecedented, and perhaps unprecedented.There is one little thing I didn't mention before, that is, when I came out from Beifu, there were two policemen from Beifu in my car, and they stood on the outside of the car on the footboard according to the habit of "big men" traveling in cars at that time. , one on each side, accompanied me to the German hospital.Later, they knew that I would not go back, and they could not go back on business, so they asked to stay in the Japanese embassy.They were granted permission to be taken in as my squires.Later, when I sent people to Beifu to pick up Wanrong and Wenxiu, the police there refused to let them go.The embassy sent a clerk to negotiate, but it was unsuccessful. In the end, Minister Fangze went to find Duan Zhizheng in person, and Wanrong and Wenxiu brought their eunuchs and maids to my side.
The owner of the embassy saw that there were such a large group of people around me, and it was obvious that the three rooms could not be accommodated, so he specially vacated a building for my use.As a result, my group of people - Nanshufang Xingxing, the Minister of Internal Affairs, and dozens of attendants, eunuchs, maids, women's servants, kitchen servants, etc., got their places again.In the Japanese legation, the office and duty room of the "Emperor of the Qing Dynasty" were fully restored.
More importantly, Minister Fangze obtained the government's understanding for me.In addition to making a statement to Minister Yoshizawa, the ruling government also sent Lieutenant General Qu Tongfeng to personally go to Takemoto Osamu in the Japanese barracks, and stated again: "The ruling government is very willing to respect the free will of Emperor Xun, and to do everything possible. within, to protect the safety of his life, property and those related to him.”
The princes headed by my father once came to persuade me, saying that the Beifu is now safe, with Duan Qirui and Zhang Zuolin present, the national army will never dare to act arbitrarily, and that both Duan and Zhang have guaranteed them.But I believe what Luo Zhenyu and the others said. Duan and Zhang’s assurances are all because I entered the embassy. If I am still in Beifu and the Nationalist Army is still in Beijing, no guarantee can be relied on.I turned them down.In fact, the princes were also looking for accommodation in the embassy area, and some of them entered the German barracks, and some entered the Six Nations Hotel.While my father was persuading me, he also rented a warehouse in Xishiku Church to store his precious belongings. Later, all the brothers and sisters in Beifu also went to live in Xishiku Church.
Seeing the Japanese embassy take good care of me, even many unknown elders became active.They sent telegrams to Duan Zhizheng from all over the country, asking for the restoration of preferential treatment; they sent me money (this is called "Jinfeng") for my use;Gong Gong of Mongolia seemed to have taken a stimulant, sent a telegram and submitted a report to the executive government, asking what to do about their preferential treatment, and the executive government quickly replied that it would remain unchanged.The backs of the princes and ministers also stiffened, and they refused to attend the meeting of the "Clearing the Aftermath Committee".This newly established committee is composed of Li Shizeng (chairman), Yi Peiji (representing Wang Jingwei), Yu Tongkui, Shen Jianshi, Fan Yuanlian, Lu Zhonglin, Zhang Bi representing the Republic of China, and Shaoying and Zai representing the Qing Dynasty. Run, Qiling, Baoxi, etc., and Luo Zhenyu was invited to attend.The committee wanted to count property and divide public property and private property to decide how to deal with it. Not only did Shaoying and the other four not participate, they declared to the authorities again that they would not recognize this organization.Later, Baoxi got more than a dozen boxes of things from the palace through his disciples and shipped them to the Japanese embassy. Luo Zhenyu immediately objected, "Isn't this asking for alms from the robbers? If you want it, you need it all, otherwise you don't want it at all!" He had other plans, and wanted to get the things in the palace where he could control them.I didn't know the details at the time, but I thought what he said was reasonable and had integrity.As for whether it was done later or what was done, I don't know at all.
Those who express their integrity, those who ask for peace, those who are sent to the embassy, those who secretly report various "ZTE plans", and those who dare to question the ruling government aggressively, come and go to the Japanese embassy more and more every day.On New Year's Day in the old calendar, my small living room was suddenly full of braids.I sat on a throne facing north and south, replaced by Western-style chairs, and received the congratulations.
Many survivors are grateful to the owner of the embassy.They saw hope from the reception at the embassy, and at least got some kind of psychological satisfaction.Wang Guowei said in the memorial: "The Japanese envoy... not only regards the emperor as the emperor in the past, but also regards it as the future co-lord of China. Who is not lucky if he is among the officials?"
On the Lunar New Year's Day, the small living room was full of happy faces.One episode from that day is worth mentioning.Just as the third group of officials knelt down three times and kowtowed nine times to salute, there was a sudden dry howl in the ranks, which startled everyone. Then, a man covering his face with his sleeves pushed away from the left and right, howling and walking, Go out the door.At that time, I thought someone had blinded my eyes, and everyone was stunned and at a loss.Someone recognized that this was Jin Liang, the former Minister of Internal Affairs. No one knew what he was crying about.It wasn't until the next day that the poem he wrote was published in the "Suntian Times", and people suddenly realized that the strange drama yesterday was the result of painstaking preparations for writing this poem.The poem says:
Greet each other from below; join hands and point to the east, as if seeing Pengying; how rough the waves are, the wind and the sun have calmed down.It's like a dream, the sun is fading and the light is coming back, Xu Sheng is only breathing, knocking on the pillow and wailing.
After the Lunar New Year's Day, it seems that my birthday is coming again, and it's my 20th (empty) birthday.I didn't intend to celebrate my birthday at someone else's house, but unexpectedly, the owner wanted to make fun of it and insisted on giving up the auditorium in the embassy for the purpose of receiving court congratulations.The auditorium was set up, the floor was covered with luxurious carpets, the throne chair was covered with yellow satin cushions, a glass screen behind the chair was pasted with yellow paper, and the servants were all red-tasseled caps from the Qing Dynasty.On the day of the birthday, more than 100 elders came from Tianjin, Shanghai, Guangdong, Fujian and other places. Staff from embassies in Dongjiaomin Lane also participated. Including princes, ministers, and local elders, there were as many as 500 to 600 people.Because of the large number of people, I had to write out the order list as usual and congratulate them in shifts.Here is the gift list at that time:
That day I was wearing a blue silk gown and a black satin mandarin jacket, which is also the same attire for princes, ministers and elders from all over the world.Apart from this point, there is not much difference between rituals and palaces.The atmosphere of bright yellow, braids, three kneeling and nine knockings made me very sad and full of sorrow.After the ceremony, under some impulse, I gave an extemporaneous speech to the five or six hundred people in the courtyard.This speech was published in Shanghai newspapers at the time, and it was not entirely correct, but this passage is roughly correct:
Around my birthday, many newspapers published public opinion criticizing my group, reflecting the righteous indignation of the majority of people in society.This kind of righteous indignation was undoubtedly stimulated by my defection to the Japanese, and by the arrogance of the small court under the appeasement of the authorities and the protection of outsiders.At this time, the "Clear House Rehabilitation Committee" found some materials when checking the property in the palace, such as Yuan Shikai's autographed postscript written on the conditions of preferential treatment when he was emperor, and the documents of the Ministry of Internal Affairs' mortgage, sale, and foreign transport of antiquities, etc., and published them. It came out, and public opinion was uproarious.Of course, the most indignant thing is the relationship between the small imperial court and the Japanese and the campaign launched by the elders to restore the preferential treatment conditions (when I celebrated my birthday, there were more than 300 people from 15 provinces published in the newspaper 13 joint petition).In order to deal with the small imperial court, a group called the "Great League Against Preferential Treatment of Qing Dynasty" appeared in Beijing and launched tit-for-tat activities.These social indignations were expressed in the newspapers, ranging from satirical sketches of "trivial stories from other museums" to serious and passionate positive accusations; there were well-meaning advice to me, and there were also words of warning to the Japanese embassy and the authorities of the Republic of China.It seems today that even if I took one opinion from these articles, it would not have made the first half of my life that way.I remember that there were a few articles that exposed the conspiracy of the Japanese, and now I have found it.This is a news from the "News Compilation Agency" published in the "Beijing News". There is a paragraph in it that talks about the Japanese plan for me. It is so consistent with what happened later that I am very surprised:
Later in this article it said: "Puyi's panic and exodus this time were deliberately intimidated by someone, and he was a trap, that is, he had a far-reaching plan." , everyone in a certain country buys their favor, and they don’t know that they have already been favored by him, and they are the machines of the future.”In my eyes at the time, these truthful words all became slander and frame-up, a conspiracy to lure me back and persecute me.At that time, some articles were obviously written by neither the Communists nor the Kuomintang, such as the following short commentary in the Beijing News, or it was written by a man who paid attention to feudal loyalty. is true:
After reading such an article, I no longer feel that the people of the Ministry of Internal Affairs cannot be trusted as I did when I was in the palace. I only regard this "Beijing News" and the author of the short commentary as my enemy.As for those articles of accusation, let alone, the only reaction that aroused in my heart was hatred.
I lived in the Japanese embassy, and a few times out of curiosity, I took one or two entourages and went out by bicycle in the middle of the night (later the embassy locked the gate and did not allow me to go out).Once I rode on the Tongzi River outside the Forbidden City, looking at the outlines of the turrets and the battlements, I thought of the Hall of Mental Cultivation and the Palace of Qianqing that I had just left, my throne and everything in bright yellow, revenge and restoration All the desires rushed into my heart, and I couldn't help feeling like a fire in my heart.With tears in my eyes, I vowed in my heart that I will return here in the future as a victorious king, just like my first generation ancestors. "Goodbye!" I whispered these two words with puns, then jumped into the car and drove away...
During the three months in the embassy, what I encountered every day was the attentive care of the Japanese host, the loyalty vows of the elders, and the protests from the society.My ambition and hatred grew day and night under these three different influences.I thought it was impossible to stay like this, I should prepare for my future, and the original plan came back to my mind——I must go abroad to Japan.
The embassy expressed support for my idea.The envoy did not express anything positively, but Secretary Gong of Chibu publicly showed great enthusiasm.Luo Zhenyu mentioned this Chibu in his autobiography "Jiliao Bian". He said: "After I have been with the embassy, I saw that Mr. Chibu was a man of strength and could assert that he was sincere and accepted him. , Because of secrets and merchants going up and down, Master Chibu said: In the future, the chaos in China will not be determined by the top, and he should go early to achieve the grand plan, so the two have a deep bond. …”
Regarding the two "favorite ministers" Zheng Xiaoxu and Luo Zhenyu, here is a supplementary account.At this time, the battle with me as the target entered a new stage in the Japanese embassy. This time it ended with the defeat of Zheng Xiaoxu and the victory of Luo Zhenyu.
Zheng Xiaoxu once patted his chest, saying that based on his relationship with Duan, he would definitely be able to restore the preferential treatment conditions. Duan's cronies and aides, Zeng Yujun and Liang Hongzhi, were all from his hometown. Wang Yitang and others were half teachers and half friends with him. , not to mention.Later, Duan Qirui's empty wish could not be fulfilled, which made Zheng Xiaoxu very embarrassed.Complaints about Zheng Xiaoxu came to my ears.Sheng Yun, a former official from Tianjin, first expressed his dissatisfaction with Zheng. He told me a lot of things that Zheng Xiaoxu said about "talking wrongly to harm the country", "talking in vain", "having ulterior motives", and "covering the sky with one hand".At that time, I didn't know what Luo Zhenyu, who lost in the previous round, had anything to do with these anti-Zheng arguments.After the publicity of Sheng Yun, a veteran of the previous court, I became indifferent to Zheng Xiaoxu, but I grew more fond of Luo Zhenyu.
Luo Zhenyu didn't attack Zheng Xiaoxu very fiercely in front of me, he talked about himself most of the time, and doing so was more effective than attacking others.The impression I got from his self-confession was that not only was he a major contributor to the rescue from this risk, but in contrast, Zheng Xiaoxu became a villain who took meritorious deeds.According to Luo Zhenyu himself, Duan Qirui's telegram from Tianjin opposing Feng Yuxiang's expulsion of me from the palace was one of the results of his activities.He returned to Beijing and found his good friend Takemoto Osamu, so he was ready to welcome me to the Japanese barracks.According to him, the withdrawal of the national army in front of Beifu Gate was also the result of his negotiations with the executive government.Even before I went to Dongjiaomin Lane, he gave Chen Baochen the strategy of "going in and out casually first, showing others that there is no one else".
Later, in Luo Zhenyu's "Jijiabian", about my entry into the Japanese embassy, he didn't mention Zheng Xiaoxu a word, but when describing my situation after entering the Japanese embassy, he said: "I claim to be able to make Duan Qirui Those who restore preferential treatment can’t tell the truth, and don’t tell me, so I went back to the south!” In fact, at that time, I wanted to go abroad, Zheng Xiaoxu did not support me, and under the circumstances that Johnston no longer advertised to go to London as a guest, he advocated “the East "Lucky" Luo Zhenyu is naturally more valued by me, so I am no longer interested in Zheng Xiaoxu.So Zheng Xiaoxu finally asked me for leave one day, saying he was going back to Shanghai to take care of his private affairs. I didn't understand what he meant at the time, so I didn't keep him, and he ran away in a fit of anger.
Not many days after my birthday, Luo Zhenyu came to tell me: He and Chibu had already discussed that they should go to Tianjin to make preparations for going abroad. A house, the house I bought earlier was in the British Concession, and the location was very inappropriate.I heard what he said was reasonable, and I really wanted to see the metropolis of Tianjin. His idea was exactly what I wanted, so I immediately agreed.I sent Zhu Ruzhen, "Walking in the South Study Room", to look for a house in the Japanese Concession in Tianjin, but I fell in love with Zhang Yuan.Not many days later, Luo Zhenyu said that Zhang Yuan was ready. Now that the national army was changing defenses, and there were only a few Fengjun troops on the railway line, it was a good opportunity to leave immediately.I talked to Minister Fangze, and he agreed with me to go to Tianjin.For my transfer this time, he sent someone to notify Duan Qirui.Duan agreed and sent troops to escort him.Fangze did not accept his kindness. He decided that the police chief and plainclothes police officers from the Japanese Consulate General in Tianjin would come to Beijing.And so it was settled.
At 7:00 p.m. on February 23, the 14th year of the Republic of China, I bid farewell to Minister Fangze and his wife.We took pictures, and I thanked them. They wished me a safe journey. Then, accompanied by Ikebu and plainclothes Japanese policemen, I walked out the back door of the Japanese Legation and walked to Beijing Qianmen Station.I found Luo Zhenyu and his son on the train.Along the way, when the train stopped at a station, a few Japanese policemen and secret agents in black plain clothes came up. When the train arrived in Tianjin, most of the compartments were occupied by such people.Shigeru Yoshida, the Japanese Consul General in Tianjin, and dozens of officers and soldiers from the garrison took me out of the car.
On the third day, a statement from the Japanese embassy appeared in the Suncheon Times:
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