Yuan Shikai was a prominent figure in the late Qing Dynasty, and the Beiyang Army he established once became the only reliance of the Manchu Qing court. In the Xinhai Revolution, he even turned the muzzle of the gun and forced the emperor to abdicate. However, objectively speaking, even without Yuan Shikai, it would be sooner or later for the revolutionaries to overthrow the Qing Dynasty, and even if the time would be delayed a little, the result would not change in any way.
However, if there is no strong Yuan Shikai, then even if the Qing Dynasty is overthrown, there may not be a unified government, and it can only be a warlord melee, depending on whose strength is strong.
Since the Opium War, the Manchu Qing government has been almost stripped out, and its strength is so great. Although through the Western affairs movement and the study of the West, the military system has been reformed several times, but it has not made the Qing Dynasty strong.
On the one hand, in addition to the incompetence of the imperial court, the huge expenditure made the imperial court have no money to do anything, and the reparations in the frequent unequal treaties alone had overwhelmed the imperial court.
With the awakening of the nation, the control of the imperial court over the whole country was gradually weakening, especially when the Gengzi state was in trouble, and the southeastern provinces even stayed out of the matter, seeing that Cixi was being driven away, and they could not even say a word of support.
This would not have been possible in the past, which is enough to show that the imperial court is no longer able to control the situation.
Before the Wuchang Uprising, various social contradictions were constantly intensifying, the revolts of the masses of the people were not uncommon, and the revolutionary party repeatedly launched revolutionary uprisings, which dealt a great blow to the local rule of the Qing court.
After the Wuchang uprising itself, the whole country responded positively, and in just two months, fifteen provinces became independent. These provinces wiped out a large number of living forces of the Qing army.
It can be seen that the Xinhai Revolution is completely different from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and it is absolutely not the same. Why Yuan Shikai turned the gun at that time to force the Qing Emperor to abdicate, was to see that the momentum of the revolutionary party was too strong.
Let's think about it, if there was no Yuan Shikai, even if there was a Beiyang Army, the Qing court would not have changed anything. After all, the Beiyang Army is a new type of army, and it is only a matter of time before it is infiltrated by the revolutionary party.
At this time, who would still be willing to fight for this decadent imperial court, not to mention that most of the Beiyang Army was Han Chinese. And without a strong leadership, the final outcome of the Beiyang Army would only be melted into a vigorous revolution.
But what is a little deficient is that the revolutionary party also has this problem. That is, there is no strong leadership core. Although Sun Yat-sen had a great influence, after all, there were not many factions in the revolutionary party, and there were many problems.
Therefore, in the process of establishing a unified government, many stories of intrigue have emerged. At that time, the Republic of China was only a formality, and many provinces did not carry out their orders.
Therefore, it is very likely that after the overthrow of the Qing court, the Republic of China will fall into chaos, but it is undeniable that it is only a matter of time before the Republic of China replaces the feudal Qing Dynasty.