Chapter 29 Six Ideals of Zheng Xiaoxu

After Zheng Xiaoxu was run away by Luo Zhenyu in Beijing, he returned to me in the spring of the next year.At this time, Luo Zhenyu gradually came under suspicion and indifference, and the number of hostile people gradually increased, while Zheng Xiaoxu received my welcome and growing trust.Chen Baochen and Hu Siyuan also had a good relationship with him.In 1925, I appointed him to be in charge of the General Affairs Office, and in 1928, I also appointed him to be in charge of the foreign affairs, and his son Zheng Chui to take charge of the foreign affairs and to be my representative in foreign liaison activities.Later, the relationship between him and me can be said to have reached the level between Ronglu and Cixi.

He is more easygoing with me than Chen Baochen.When I met Zhang Zuolin that time, both he and Chen Baochen expressed objection beforehand, but afterwards, Chen Baochen puffed up his mouth and said nothing, but he said: "Zhang Zuolin expressed his sincerity, and it's nice to see it." Both he and Hu Siyuan were good at arguing, but Hu Siyuan For export or writing, he only uses some old classics, but he can use some foreign knowledge, such as what fascism Mussolini created, how Japan had the Meiji Restoration, how the British "Times" commented on the situation in China, etc. , this is beyond Hu Siyuan's reach.Chen Baochen is the most loyal person in my opinion, but when it comes to my future, there is no such thing as Zheng Xiaoxu's impassioned enthusiasm, his enthusiasm, and his frequent tears.Once when he was telling me about "Tongjian", the topic suddenly turned to my future "empire":

"The territory of the empire will exceed the size of Emperor Sheng Zuren's reign. At that time, there will be three capitals, one in Beijing, one in Nanjing, and one on the Pamirs..." When he spoke, his bald head shook, and his saliva splashed all over the place, until his limbs trembled and he burst into tears. Sometimes, a few words on the same matter made me feel the difference between Chen Baochen and Zheng Xiaoxu.On the issue of Kang Youwei's posthumous posthumous title, both of them opposed it. Chen Baochen, in addition to objecting, also said that it would be appropriate to grant less posthumous posthumous titles in the future, and after expressing his objection, he added this sentence: "The prison of the 1898-1898 Reform Movement will not be released in the future." Naturally, it will be decided at the court council." It seems that I will be able to return to the Forbidden City soon.

Both Zheng Xiaoxu and Luo Zhenyu actively campaigned for the restoration, but Zheng Xiaoxu's proposition moved me even more.Although he also repeatedly opposed my plan to go abroad and move to Lushun and Dalian. Zheng Xiaoxu objected to me leaving Tianjin to go anywhere, which has been consistent for seven years.Even when the "September 18th" Incident happened and Luo Zhenyu came to me with the plan of the Kwantung Army, he still disapproved of my departure.In addition to the confrontation between him and Luo Zhenyu, his unwillingness to be monopolized by Luo, and his being a little more cautious than Luo slightly, there is another reason that has been overlooked, which is: he did not regard Japan as the only country at that time. Rely on; what he pursues is "co-management by great powers".

In the Tianjin era, Zheng Xiaoxu had a famous "Three Common Theories".He often said: "The Qing Dynasty died in the Republic, the Republic will die in communism, and communism will inevitably die in communism." He regarded the Northern Expedition as the implementation of "communism."After the defeat of the Revolutionary War, he still couldn't stop talking.He said: "There is another strike and school strike. Foreigners' business has suffered losses. How can we not take care of it?" On the surface, his "Three Commons Theory" seems to be his emotion, but in fact it is his ideal. his wish.

If we examine the history of Zheng and Luo's acquaintance with the Japanese, Zheng went to Japan to serve as the secretary of the Chinese Embassy in 1891. Luo sold antiques, calligraphy and paintings, and ran the Shanghai "Nong Bao". The Japanese, Fujita Jianfeng, translated the book in 1896, and Zheng made friends with the Japanese five years earlier than Luo.However, ever since Luo Zhenyu got acquainted with Japanese friends, he only had Japanese in his eyes. After 1911, he put all his hopes for restoration on the Japanese, but Zheng Xiaoxu saw the "big powers" in Japan. From then on, he thought that Needless to say, ordinary Chinese people, even officials are incompetent and useless. This area of ​​China should be developed and managed by the "big powers".He went a step further than Zhang Zhidong's "Chinese learning as the body, Western learning as application", not only required Western technology and Western capital, but also advocated that Westerners should be officials, and even the imperial guards should be trained and commanded by guest officials. .Otherwise, China will always be a mess, and China's resources are hidden in the ground for nothing. Sooner or later, "the country I own" will be snatched away by the "rogue party" and "rogue people", and even destroyed.After the Revolution of 1911, he believed that the restoration must be successful without the help of the foreign powers.How can this help be achieved?He pinned his hopes on "co-management".

At that time, the idea of ​​"big powers" co-administering China can often be seen in foreign language newspapers in Tianjin.Zheng Xiaoxu paid great attention to such remarks, and carefully copied them into his diary and notes, and at the same time asked his son Zheng Chui to translate them to me.This is an article published in the Japanese newspaper "Tianjin Daily News" on June 9, 1927: Zheng Xiaoxu believes that if this kind of plan can be realized, the time for my restoration will come. That summer, I listened to Luo Zhenyu's persuasion and planned to go to Japan. Based on the fantasy aroused by that article, Zheng Xiaoxu advised me to "stay in Tianjin and wait for co-management".This is what he wrote in his diary:

He proposed a lot of ways to make the "Holy Virtue Orders famous at home and abroad", such as using my name to donate money for relief, using my name to compile "Political Leaders of the Qing Dynasty", and using my name to propose the convening of a conference on the removal of soldiers from all over the world, etc. Wait.Some of them I complied with, and others I could not do, and I also expressed my approval and agreement. I appointed Baron Akdi, an exiled aristocrat from Austria, to go to Europe to lobby for me. Before leaving, Zheng Xiaoxu personally explained to him that in the future, if all countries in Mongolia support the "restoration of the country", these four policies should be implemented immediately: "1. Set up responsibilities The cabinet, the cabinet members participate in the use of guest ministers; second, the imperial guards are commanded by guest generals and coaches; third, the Zhangjiakou-Ili railway is quickly implemented, using loans to contract labor; fourth, government-run commercial enterprises established in the country must be established within five years. "

Zheng Xiaoxu's thoughts became more and more systematic in the future.Once, he said: "Imperial railways will extend in all directions, mines will be opened everywhere, and school education will be based on Confucianism...." I asked him: "Will the great powers really invest?" He said: "They want to make money , must be scrambling to be the first. This is how the ministers undertook the Aihui Railway back then, and invested and contracted. Unfortunately, the court suppressed it, and some conservative ministers could not see that this was a great deal.” At that time, I didn’t know that as the fuse of the 1911 Revolution Zheng Xiaoxu's policy of nationalizing railways was originally the idea of ​​Zheng Xiaoxu when he served as the shogunate for Sheng Xuanhuai.Had I known it then, I would never have trusted him like that again.At that time, when I heard him talking about building a railway, I only thought of this question: "But the Xinhai National Revolution was caused by the incidents of roads and mines in Sichuan and Hunan?" He echoed, "Yes, so there are some There are government offices and commercial ones. But the Chinese are poor, they have less money, and the foreigners are rich, and they invest more, which is fair and reasonable." I asked him again: "Will those foreigners be willing to work?" As a distinguished guest, there is absolutely no reason why you should be given preferential treatment and privileges.” I asked him again: “Many foreigners come to invest, what if they fight?” He said with confidence: “It’s only because of this , they must respect the emperor."

This is Zheng Xiaoxu's increasingly systematic policy derived from the co-management theory, and it is also a policy that I approve of.He and I believe that only in this way can I regain my throne, continue the spirit of the Qing Dynasty, and restore the old conditions of the clan Jueluo, civil and military officials, scholar-bureaucrats, etc. After I left the palace, Zheng Xiaoxu once campaigned for Duan Qirui to "restore the palace". After I arrived in Tianjin, he supported my activities to win over warlords and politicians, but he never forgot this ideal in his heart.His desire in this regard is particularly fervent, especially when other activities have repeatedly failed.This can be especially seen in the use of Seminov, a guest minister.

When I brought up the question of meeting Seminov, Chen Baochen was worried that this matter would cause criticism from the outside world, while Zheng Xiaoxu was worried because he was afraid that I would carry out this matter behind his and Luo Zhenyu's backs.He said to Chen Baochen: "I oppose the summoning, but the emperor will avoid consulting. It is better to make a proper and careful plan for the emperor and summon him once." As a result, Seminov's relationship was drawn into his hands. What interested him most about Seminov was his relationship with the great powers.When Seminov bragged about how the big powers supported him, and the voices of foreign countries interfering in China's political situation were rampant, Zheng Xiaoxu thought that the time had come, and happily matched Zhang Zongchang and Seminov, so that Seminov's party members would be more Buduan went to Mongolia to raise his troops and went to Shanghai and Qingdao himself.What specific activities he carried out, I can't remember clearly now, I only remember that he wrote a lot of poems very proudly.There is such a self-appreciative description in his diary: "When I wake up in the morning, I suddenly think about recent events, and then I go back to the extreme. It's a whirlwind of things. It's not enough to deal with it unless it's a talent that can create and change." For example, Yuan Shikai's conspiracy to usurp and Zhang Xun's restoration have already been accomplished but failed, so what? If there is no awareness of reform and innovation, there will be no agreement!" (November 1925) "Everyone is extremely afraid of things, and they are stubborn This should be the case!" "Ye and Seminov. Bao Wenyuan, Bi Hanzhang, and Liu Fengchi went to the National Hotel together,... Everyone was happy, about being comrades, and Tuiyu being the elder brother." (May 1926) Ross, a British liar, defrauded me of a sum of money in the name of running a newspaper to help me recover, and later asked Zheng Xiaoxu to introduce a bank loan. Because Luo was a friend of Seminov and Dobduan, Zheng Xiaoxu used his own passbook as a pledge. Borrowed him 4,000 yuan from the bank.Zheng Chui felt that Ross was unreliable, so he wrote to ask his father to be careful, and he wrote back to reprimand his son, saying: "You can't take risks, how can you make trouble?" Later, as his son expected, Ross didn't pay back the money when it was due, and the bank withdrew Zheng Chui. The deposit was offset.Even so, when the people under Ross came to borrow money from Zheng again, because of Seminov's relationship, after Dubuduan's intercession, he took out another thousand yuan to the liar.Of course, if my money was sent out by him, it would be more.Chen Baochen, who was ridiculed by him as "he is extremely fearful of things, should be like this", later sighed "Su Kan (Zheng Yu), Su Kan, it is really negligent!" The generosity of others!" Later, he changed from expecting all countries to support Seminov to hoping that Japan would do more to help Seminov, and from expecting co-management by all countries to hoping that Japan would accelerate its intervention in China first.When his route changed to follow Luo Zhenyu's footsteps, his vision was much higher than Luo Zhenyu's. Sanye Mansion, Tianjin Japanese Army Headquarters and Consulate were not in his eyes; the object of his activities was to go directly to Tokyo.However, he still did not forget about co-management. He did not regard Japan as the only foreign aid, but the first foreign aid. The first "guest". He put forward a proposal to go to Tokyo for activities, which was approved by me and agreed by Minister Yoshizawa.Going with him was Yoshio Ota, a Japanese who had a "hands-on" between the ruling and opposition parties in Japan.Through the arrangement of this ronin, he had contact with the military and the Black Dragon Association. Later, he told me with satisfaction that most of the Japanese government and the opposition expressed "concern" and "sympathy" for my restoration. Interested in the future open door policy.In short, as soon as the time comes, we can make a request for support. I don't remember the details of his activities in Japan.Here are some excerpts from his diary, from which we can see some clues of his extensive activities in Japan: Koji Morita, Ota's friend, Ashikaga Yoshihiro from the newspaper office, and Iwata's friend Koyamauchi Dailiu worked for the Kokuzasha.Went with Iwata, Fukuda, and Ota to the Shandong Pavilion for lunch.Yefu Benduoji visited and talked for a long time.Qu Yun: Come back at ten o'clock, wait until twelve o'clock, but it doesn't come. Let's talk and persuade Fengtian to be the foundation of recovery. ... In Japan, he was received as my representative by various people who were enthusiastic about restoring the Qing Dynasty.Many of them were my old friends. For example, Takada Toyomura was the former commander of the Tianjin Garrison, Arita Hachiro and Yoshida Shigeru were consul generals in Tianjin, Shirai was the vice consul, and Takemoto Takishi took me into the Japanese barracks when he was in Beijing. That big man.Iwata Ainosuke is the member of the Black Dragon Association who shot the gun outside my window, and Nobuo Tsukuda is the important figure of the Black Dragon Association who refuses to talk about "secret" in front of Consul General Arita.No matter how discord they were in China, at this time they received "Minister Zheng" together in harmony with each other.In addition to those who have directly appeared in the past, those big figures who originally lived behind the scenes, such as Konoe (Wenkou), Ugaki (Issei), Minai (Mitsumasa), Hiranuma (Kiichiro), Suzuki (Kantaro), Minami (Jiro), Shigeru Yoshida, who came to power after World War II, and others, as well as some famous politicians and chaebols, all appeared at this time.Perhaps when Zheng Xiaoxu met with these people, he was too happy with the reaction to his "policy of opening up the country", so after the establishment of the Puppet Manchukuo, the first batch of "guests" had already walked into the opened "gate", and he still The ideal of co-management has not been forgotten, and whenever there is an opportunity, it will publicize "open doors, equal opportunities".This is like a servant who is the bottom line for the robbers. He opened the door of his master’s house and let in a gang of robbers. Solicit.This naturally annoyed the robber who had already entered the door, and kicked him aside.