Chapter 21 Section VII

The earth-shattering sound of guns in Wuchang reached Beijing on the 11th, and the Qing government urgently ordered Yin Chang, Minister of the Ministry of War, to lead troops south to suppress it.At this time, in a manor in Huanshang Village, Zhangde Prefecture, Henan Province (now Anyang City), a half-centenarian man with short stature and lightning eyes was sitting by the autumn rainy pond in a coir raincoat and holding a fishing rod, with the corner of his mouth slightly exposed. A smile. This person is Yuan Shikai who had a huge impact on the history of the Republic of China. In 1881, the 22-year-old Yuan Shikai failed the imperial examination, abandoned literature and took up martial arts, and embarked on a road to success with his extraordinary ability. In 1895, under the recommendation of Li Hongzhang, he went to Tianjin to supervise the training of the new army.The training site is somewhere between Tanggu and Tianjin, because there is a small train station there, so the famous "small station training" got its name.

Yuan Shikai was a rare talent in the military and political circles in the late Qing Dynasty. He knew all the affairs in the army well, even the most grassroots officers could recognize them all.While working hard, he often said: "After all, this is much easier than reading and making a fuss!" The results of Yuan Shikai's military training at Xiaozhan can be seen from the evaluations of two big figures, one inside and one outside. In 1896, Rong Lu, Minister of Supervising Military Affairs, went to Xiaozhan to inspect the newly-built army. After returning to Beijing, he said in a report to the emperor: "There is no other army that has been seen in recent years." In 1898, the commander of the British Navy After Bei Sifu visited Yuan Shikai's new army at Xiaozhan, he gave a very high evaluation and praised Yuan Shikai.

However, Yuan Shikai's ideal is not only to be a competent officer, but also to have the traditional glory of commanding the world's soldiers and horses.In the chaotic times of the late Qing Dynasty, his vision was much farther than that of ordinary civil and military officials.Of course, he doesn't know what will happen in the world, but he is already preparing for the future. When training soldiers at the small station, there was such a procedure: the instructor shouted to the soldiers and asked, "Whose food are we eating?" Whose clothes is it?" Then he answered loudly: "It is Yuan Gongbao's clothes!" Finally asked: "Who do you want to serve?" The soldiers answered firmly: "I am willing to work for Yuan Gongbao!"

The control and infective effect of language on human consciousness should not be underestimated.The ancients studied, shaking their heads and memorizing the Four Books and Five Classics every day, without teaching any teaching methods. As a result, the Confucian classics took root in people’s minds more deeply than anything else. Drilling deeper, nature rules the action.The soldiers of the new army shouted and yelled so desperately, day after day, the soldiers who originally wondered "how did the army of the Qing Dynasty become your Yuan Shikai's family" gradually agreed that they were benevolent by someone Yuan and should be old Yuan's family slave.

In 1901, Yuan Shikai served as the Governor of Zhili and the Minister of Beiyang, and started to build the Beiyang Standing Army (referred to as the Beiyang Army) based on the new army he had compiled and trained in Tianjin Xiaozhan.By 1904, it had been compiled into three towns. In May 1905, based on the Beiyang Standing Army, the Beijing Banner Standing Army, the former Wuwei Youjun, and the First Division of the Ziqiang Army, Beiyang Six Towns were established in Beijing, Tianjin, and Shandong. The "Beiyang warlords" who controlled China's political situation for 16 years after the founding of the Republic of China originated here.

Under Yuan Shikai's painstaking management, the Beiyang Army was a modern elite army, unlike those loose and decayed armies; unlike those armies deeply influenced by revolutionary thoughts, the Beiyang Army was not infiltrated by revolutionaries, and was loyal to Yuan Shikai. Beginning in 1902, Yuan Shikai successively served as Minister of Political Affairs, Minister of Supervision and Administration of Commerce, Minister of Electricity, and Minister of Railways. The Han official who was the best in the Qing Dynasty became the most powerful figure in the Qing court. So, how did this most powerful figure go fishing in the countryside of Henan during the upheaval in 1911?

With the violent expansion of Yuan Shikai's power, the Qing court felt more and more that this person was a hidden danger. While the princes and nobles wanted to use his talents, they were also worried that he would become a tail.Before the death of Empress Dowager Cixi, Yuan Shikai was the secret object of the Qing court. But Yuan Shikai is definitely not a person with conservative thinking. He actually supports constitutionalism. When the Qing court made progress in constitutionalism, he took advantage of the trend to propose that the royal family and nobles should not interfere in political affairs. , this proposal made the eunuchs in the palace explode. When Yuan Shikai retreated from the court, more than a hundred eunuchs surrounded him, accusing him of abuse, and roaring. .

Yuan Shikai's power and vigor have made him a public enemy of the Forbidden City, and Empress Dowager Cixi is suspicious of him. In 1907, Yuan Shikai was transferred from the Beiyang Army by the method of "surreptitious promotion and secret surrender", and returned to Beijing to serve as Minister of Military Aircraft and Minister of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, trying to cut off his connections in the army. Before Cixi's death, three-year-old Pu Yi, the son of Prince Dingchun Zaifeng, took over the Qing Dynasty, and Zaifeng was regent before Puyi came of age.This news made Yuan Shikai gasp even more--Zaifeng was Guangxu's younger brother, and during the Reform Movement of 1898, Guangxu relied heavily on Yuan Shikai; Therefore, after planning, he plunged into Cixi's arms; in the contest between the emperor and the queen mother, because of Yuan Shikai's rebellion against Guangxu, the reformists were defeated in an instant.

And Guangxu died suddenly the day before Cixi's death. In addition to the conjecture that he was assassinated by Cixi, another legend is that he died at the hands of Yuan Shikai! Not to mention that Yuan Shikai has become a confidant of the court, but now that Guangxu's younger brother Zaifeng is regent and has become the de facto emperor, can Yuan Shikai still have good fruit to eat? Yuan Shikai tried to improve the situation. He flattered Zaifeng and suggested that Zaifeng should be emperor himself on the grounds that the country needed a king. Zaifeng not only refused to obey, but also gave him a good reprimand.

Zaifeng was similar to his elder brother Guangxu, with a cowardly temperament and limited talents, but when he was in charge of the country and regent, he still really wanted to set fire to it: Get rid of Yuan Shikai. After this intention was revealed, the Qing court competed for a while. Those who hated Yuan Shikai (including Zaifeng himself) wished to do it sooner; It cannot be killed.But Zhang Zhidong, an old statesman who hurt his kind, said clearly: "The emperor is too young, what kind of speculation will be aroused by killing ministers casually at this time?" Zaifeng did not take action for a long time, the real reason was what Yikuang said - "If you kill Yuan Shikai, what will happen if the Beiyang Army rebels?"

Yuan Shikai felt that his situation was extremely dangerous. Although the six Beiyang towns he had worked so hard to build were not bought by anyone except him, but in this capital palace, at a certain moment, Zaifeng gave an order, and a few soldiers came If you caught him and chopped off his head with a knife, what could Yuan Shikai do? In panic all day long, the Qing court made a decision on him. On January 2, 1909, Zaifeng issued an imperial edict in the name of the emperor, claiming that the imperial court wanted to continue to reuse Yuan Shikai, but he did not expect that your feet were so sick that you could not walk or be qualified for any job, so now you Yuan Shikai is ordered to return to your hometown to take care of you. Get rid of foot disease to show the court's sympathy for you. Yuan Shikai's foot was injured in North Korea when he was young, but he couldn't see it at all, only when he was walking briskly, he seemed a little inflexible.The Qing court just wanted to find an excuse to dismiss him, regardless of whether it was neither fish nor fowl. His life was saved, and the official status was fine. Yuan Gongbao, who was in power for a while, became a bereaved dog in a blink of an eye. Yuan Shikai thanked the emperor for caring about his feet, and went back to his hometown, Xiangcheng, Henan to live for a while. Five months later, he bought Tianjin salt merchant He Bingying to live in a large manor in Huanshang Village, Zhangde, Henan.This manor covers an area of ​​more than 200 mu, but Yuan Shikai expanded it to 400 mu when he came here, diverted water to form a lake, planted trees to form a forest, built pavilions and attics, and created "Eight Great Scenery"... He knows how suspicious the Qing court is of him, and if he wants to save his life, he has to let the Qing court see that you have been intimidated, and you only want to do gardening and don't want to ask about political affairs anymore.He named this manor, which later became a famous garden in the Northland, "Yangshou Garden"--now I am spending my old age in fishing here. Behind this leisurely life of "raising longevity", Yuan Shikai never closed his police dog-like eyes for a moment.Although he was kicked out of the capital, he was already full-fledged.A group of old subordinates sent him the latest internal news at any time; newspapers from all over the world were subscribed in his study, and there was a special telegraph room in the Yangshou Garden.The situation in the world can be seen in the eyes of Yuan Shikai who is surrounded by landscapes and gardens.