On March 10, 1912, Yuan Shikai became the provisional president of the Republic of China in Beijing. In July 1913, he defeated the Southern Revolutionary Party clique led by Sun Yat-sen and Huang Xing. There is no one in the world who can compete with him.
After that, he began to continuously expand the power of his great president. He amended the Presidential Election Act to be re-elected for life and to appoint heirs, whose power was close to that of the emperor. By the end of 1915, he simply claimed the title of emperor.
Why did so many people oppose Yuan Shikai as soon as he became emperor? In fact, at that time, the monarchy was very common in the world, such as Britain, Russia, Germany, Japan, etc. there were emperors or kings, and it was not too much to be an emperor. In particular, the Chinese monarchy has been in force for two thousand years, and the republic has only been in force for four years. During the French Revolution, Napoleon was also proclaimed emperor, but he was supported. Why did Yuan Shikai fail? This is because he has made several serious mistakes before and offended a lot of people.
In the early years of the Republic of China, there were three major forces in China, namely the Beiyang faction, the revolutionary party, and the progressive party.
The Beiyang department is the Beiyang clique led by Yuan Shikai, and the revolutionary party is the Kuomintang led by Sun Yat-sen and Huang Xing. The Progressive Party developed from the constitutionalists of the late Qing Dynasty, and its representative figures include Liang Qichao, Li Yuanhong, Cai Yi and others.
But Yuan Shikai offended these three forces! In this case, how can he become emperor?
Through the 1913 war, Yuan Shikai defeated Sun Yat-sen, Huang Xing and other revolutionary party groups. In the course of the struggle against the Kuomintang, the Progressives supported Yuan Shikai and contributed a lot.
On July 31, 1913, Yuan Shikai appointed Progressive Party leader Xiong Xiling as prime minister. Of the nine cabinet ministers, the Progressives held four seats and the Beiyang Department held five seats. Leung Kei-chao served as Chief Justice.
But Yuan Shikai actually did not really want to reuse Xiong Xiling, Liang Qichao, etc., just used them. After using it, he continued to exclude the Progressives. These people had no real power and were ostracized, and a few months later, Xiong Xiling, Liang Qichao and others resigned. Yuan Shikai and the Progressives had a break.
How did Yuan Shikai offend the Beiyang clan? In fact, he did not offend all the Beiyang clans, but Duan Qirui, Feng Guozhang, and other Beiyang elders who held military power.
Duan Qirui can be said to be Yuan Shikai's number one heart, and he served as the chief of the army and held the military power. In 1913, Yuan Shikai defeated the Kuomintang, the so-called "flying birds exhausted, good bows hidden, cunning rabbits dead, running dogs cooking", Yuan began to weaken Duan Qirui's military power. Of course, Duan Qirui was not an honest person, and when he was the commander-in-chief of the army, he did not form a party for personal gain. Yuan Shikai also set up a command office to weaken the authority of the War Department and concentrate military power in his own hands.
Yuan Shikai also began to focus on cultivating his son Yuan Keding to control the army. Yuan Shikai organized and trained the Model Army, and formed three new divisions, with Yuan Keding's cronies serving as division commanders.
Duan Qirui and other Beiyang generals had fierce conflicts with their brother Yuan Keding. In the end, Duan called the illness convalescence, and Wang Shizhen served as the minister of war. Yuan Shikai also sent people to investigate the corruption of Army Vice Minister Xu Shuzheng and remove him from office in order to completely purge Duan Qirui's forces.
For another confidant, Feng Guozhang, Yuan Shikai also began to alienate and be defensive. For such a major event as being called emperor, Yuan Shikai did not tell Feng at all in the early stage. Yuan Shikai has begun to establish a new core team, such as Duan Qirui and Feng Guozhang, all of which are to be excluded. On December 18, 1915, Yuan Shikai appointed Feng Guozhang as chief of staff, tried to transfer him out of Jiangsu, and sent his henchmen to Nanjing to monitor Feng Guozhang. But Feng Guozhang had long since joined forces with Liang Qichao and other progressive parties to prepare to oppose Yuan together.
In 1915, Yuan Shikai began to plot to become emperor. On the surface, the revolutionary party has been defeated, Duan Qirui, Feng Guozhang and other Beiyang elders have been subdued, and Liang Qichao, Cai Yi and other progressives have been excluded, but they are actually extremely dissatisfied with Yuan Shikai.
In the end, when he became emperor, internal and external enemies united to bring Yuan Shikai down.
The Yunnan Patriotic War at the end of 1915 was jointly initiated by progressives such as Cai Yi and Liang Qichao, as well as revolutionary parties such as Li Liejun. This is an external opponent. Within the Beiyang Department, Feng Guozhang secretly communicated with Liang Qichao and the Revolutionary Party to prepare to cooperate with the action. Duan Qirui took advantage of Yuan Shikai's crisis and forced him to surrender power.
In the end, Yuan Shikai gave up his claim to the throne and died in pain after the constant betrayal of his subordinates.
Yuan Shikai made a serious mistake, that is, his position was not so stable, he prematurely squeezed out the Constitutionalists and beiyang elders, and cultivated his own new private forces (Yuan Keding, Wang Shizhen, Xu Shichang, etc.), but instead put himself in danger. The matter of finally claiming the title of emperor gave all kinds of political enemies an excuse to raise troops. Even if he is not emperor, his rule will not be stable.