Text/Fu Huaxuan
On June 7, the fifth year of the Republic of China (1916), the day after Yuan Shikai's death, Li Yuanhong took office as president of the Republic of China at the Dongchang Hutong mansion. After Li Yuanhong took office as President, all parties called to request the restoration of the "Minyuan Covenant Law" (the First Year of the Republic of China) and the "Second National Assembly of the Republic of China" (the Second Year of the Republic of China) enacted the Great Presidential Election Law, convene the National Assembly, speed up the constitution, organize the responsible cabinet, abolish the Yuan clan pseudo-system after November 4, 1913, the second year of the Republic of China (1913), and punish the culprits. All measures must be taken in accordance with the Provisional Covenant Law in order to solve the scourge of the current situation, comfort the people's desire for governance, and consolidate the foundation of the Republic of China.
In fact, Li Yuanhong's succession to the presidency is inseparable from duan Qirui's support and support. Duan Qirui's support for Li Yuanhong's inauguration was also forced by the needs of the political situation at that time. In order to maintain various interdependent relations, Li Yuanhong appointed Duan Qirui as the prime minister of the state and organized a responsible cabinet. Because Duan Qirui had a powerful Beiyang Army and the support of the overseers and governors of the provinces who held real military and political power, Duan Qirui did not pay attention to Li Yuanhong, who had no armed strength and only depended on the National Assembly, and continued to promote his warlord style. On issues such as participation in the war against Germany, the struggle and contradictions between the two sides escalated sharply, triggering a fierce "dispute between the government and the court", with the result that Li Yuanhong ordered Duan Qirui to be removed from his post. Duan Qirui angrily left Beijing for Tianjin and planned to arm li. The Lebanese cooperation has been less than a year.
Li Yuanhong panicked when he heard the wind, what to do? Looking for a person with soldiers in his hands to protect himself, he suddenly remembered Zhang Xun, who had heavy soldiers in his hands, and like grasping a life-saving straw, he urgently ordered Zhang Xun to enter Beijing for "discussion" and immediately sent a telegram asking him to "come to Beijing quickly." On June 6, 1917, Zhang Xun sent a telegram to the whole country, claiming to be "ordered to go to Beijing to mediate state affairs." On the 7th, Zhang Xun led about 5,000 people from 10 battalions of braided infantry, horses, and artillery from xuzhou to the north and entered Beijing from Tianjin.
Zhang Xun marched into Beijing, and at that time the political circles doubted that he was going to carry out restoration. Also, this famous braided marshal army, in the Republic of China for so long, all officers and men still drag a braid behind their heads, so Zhang Xun and his braid army has become a scene of the Republic of China. Zhang Xun's intention to enter Beijing, even the street street vendors selling fritter bean juice can see that he Li Yuanhong is not an idiot, afraid that Zhang Xun does not have good intentions, so he advised Zhang Xun to "reduce his obedience to Beijing, so as not to panic in the hearts of the people of Beijing", which means to let him not bring too many people into Beijing. Unexpectedly, Zhang Xun was more anxious than him, and his suggestion had not yet been delivered, and Zhang Xun was already fierce.
Zhang Xun proposed to Xia Shoukang, who had been sent by Li Yuanhong to Tianjin to greet him, that the mediation should grant him two conditions: First, to drive out the four major accomplices, that is, Li Yuanhong's main staff and think tanks Ha Hanzhang, Jin Yongyan, Jiang Zuobin, and Rao Hanxiang; the second was to dissolve the National Assembly. Zhang Xun said very directly: If you do not follow the action, you will use force to deal with it, and Li Yuanhong will agree within 3 days. At this moment, Li Yuanhong completely realized that he was driving away wolves and tigers, and this "mediator" was more dangerous than Duan Qirui.
Li Yuanhong was like a needle felt, while Duan Qirui was watching the fire across the bank in Tianjin.
At 3 p.m. on June 14, Zhang Xun arrived in Beijing by special car. Leaving Li Yuanhong aside, the first thing he did was to go to the Forbidden City to visit Puyi, and to discuss the restoration with the qing widows and youngsters, and also brought Kang Youwei, who had always been firmly supportive of the imperial system and had considerable prestige, to Beijing.
In the early morning of July 1. Immediately, Zhang Xun, dressed as a former Qing official, led Wang Shizhen, Kang Youwei, and others to the Qing officials by car, and performed a three-kneeling and nine-kowtowing ceremony to Puyi at the Yangxin Hall, asking him to reinstate him. Puyi, who was 12 years old, was instructed in advance to say, "Since this is the case, I will reluctantly make it difficult!" "Announcing his re-ascension to the throne, the restoration farce officially began.
According to some records of zhengshi or wild history, in the morning, a large number of policemen suddenly appeared on the streets of Beijing, banging gongs and drums to inform residents to hang dragon flags from house to house.
What is more interesting is that those who have left the old and the young have appeared on the scene and put on the Qing Dynasty robes of the Qing Dynasty. The intention of making a fake is booming, and everyone has asked to make a fake braid for themselves.
On July 1, Zhang Xun and Kang Youwei supported Puyi's restoration and re-established the imperial government. Zhang Xun was appointed by Puyi as the Minister of Parliament and the Viceroy of Directly Subordinate to the Government, and the Minister of Beiyang, and the restoration drama was carried out lively at the Beijing Imperial Palace.
As soon as the restoration was launched, Li Yuanhong already knew the news and knew that he had made a big mistake, but he refused to give in to it, and sternly refused Liang Dingfen and others to ask him to sign the "return of the great government". Fearing that Zhang Xun would assassinate him, Li Yuanhong quickly hid in the Japanese embassy and issued two orders, one was to entrust Vice President Feng Guozhang in Nanjing to act as president, and the other was to re-appoint Duan Qirui as prime minister to preside over the overall situation.
Receiving the order, Duan Qirui felt a little surprised. Although he saw that Zhang Xun was not a good bird, Zhang Xun was weak after all, and Duan Qirui always felt that Zhang Xun would not and did not dare to really restore. At this point, Duan Qirui felt that he could not watch Zhang Xun make such a fool of himself no matter what, so he accepted the appointment.
Duan Qirui, who accepted the plenipotentiary entrustment, knew that this was equivalent to Li Yuanhong handing over the surrender table to himself, and the dispute between the government and the court was thus over. Duan Qirui, who returned to work in the government, finally waited for what he wanted most - power. From the beginning of issuing a presidential order to recall Duan Qirui to resume his post, Li Yuanhong himself also understood that this was equivalent to admitting defeat to Duan Qirui and surrendering his weapons, and he lost all his face.
Duan Qirui, who was proud of the spring breeze, once again sat at his former desk. Now that the president is no longer an obstacle, a declaration of war on Germany will naturally come to fruition. Soon, Congress unanimously decided that China would declare war on Germany. In fact, the so-called declaration of war is just a declaration of attitude, and China has not really sent its armed forces.
Then it's Zhang Xun's turn. Zhang Xun's thousands of braided troops had all changed into yellow coats, a bit like the Royal Forest Army. Dealing with Zhang Xun, Duan Qirui had no worries, his five thousand braided army was not a climate, and sooner or later it was his own appetizer. Duan Qirui, who was proud of himself, was ready to dispatch troops and generals to once again show his prestige on the battlefield, so he decided to instigate Li Changtai, commander of the Eighth Division stationed in Tianjin Machang, Feng Yuxiang, commander of the 16th Mixed Brigade in Langfang, and Cao Kun in Baoding to form a rebel army.
Fortunately, the restoration is contrary to the trend of history, and the people's will is all republican, so people who oppose Zhang Xun's restoration abound, and rebel armies are soon formed. On the morning of July 3, Duan Qirui was publicly promoted as the commander-in-chief of the rebel army, swore an oath at the headquarters of Li Changtai's Eighth Division, and issued a telegram opposing the restoration. By telegraphing that the crime of "restoration" was not in the Qing Chamber, but that they were only being used by the "bandits," this clearly showed that it was to excuse the Qing Chamber, and showed that the policy of the "rebel army" was: Only Zhang Xun was attacked, and the rest were not to blame; the preferential conditions for the Qing Chamber were not changed; and those who cooperated with the rebels were not held accountable. At the same time, he also praised Li Yuanhong's behavior of "never following the rebellion" despite being in a dangerous situation.
Soon, the rebel army achieved a preliminary victory, the east road rebel army occupied Huangcun, the west road rebel army leader Wu Peifu occupied the Lugou Bridge, and the braid army was defeated and retreated until it retreated to the inner city.
In order to avoid the destruction of the thousand-year-old city of Beijing from artillery fire, Duan Qirui ordered the suspension of the attack and decided to negotiate with Zhang Xun, and the Dutch minister, as an intermediary representative, submitted to Zhang Xun the conditions for the rebel army.
At this time, Zhang Xun was already at the end of the crossbow, only the merit of parry had no ability to fight back, some of the warlords who had originally verbally pledged to support him in advance all of a sudden learned the Sichuan stunt to change their faces, in the face of Zhang Xun's telegram for help, they pretended to be deaf and dumb one by one, in short, no one gave him actual support, it was basically watching him sing a monologue.
Zhang Xun's power is actually quite impressive, and the base camp Xuzhou has enough food under his long-term operation, and it is said that he can at least hold out for a period of time.
But what is fatal is that Zhang Xun's most trusted and relied on the number one general, Zhang Wensheng, actually gave him a knife from behind at this time.
Before Zhang Xun left for Beijing, in order to stabilize his backyard, he handed over the strength of the base camp to Zhang Wensheng, and in order to speed up the march, he only took 5,000 braided troops to the capital. Before leaving, he agreed with Zhang Wensheng that once he was successful in his restoration, he would immediately send a telegram to Zhang to "quickly transport 40 pots of flowers to Beijing", which is a code word, meaning the strength of 40 battalions, Zhang Wensheng saw the secret telegram, and should mobilize the 40 battalions of Xuzhou to Beijing as quickly as possible.
Zhang Xun's wishful thinking cannot be described as exquisite, but he never expected that at his moment of crisis, Zhang Wensheng actually took 40 pots of flowers from the back garden after receiving the telegram, and sent someone to Beijing to hand them over to Zhang Xun. Seeing Zhang Xun in the flower pot, he was angry and smoky, and his body trembled, and he immediately understood that Zhang Wensheng had betrayed himself, and even said: "Broken, broken, let this boy smoke a ladder!" "
But Zhang Xun, who was not willing to lose, still had his own plans, he knew that the restoration had failed, but after receiving Duan Qirui's truce, he replied with four ballads, "I do not leave the army, the soldiers do not leave the weapons; where I come from, where I go." "The intention is obvious, that is, the restoration will not succeed, and he still wants to return to Xuzhou to be his grand marshal."
However, the rebel army did not listen to his set and decided to directly attack the city, and Zhang Xun had no way to escape.
From July 6 to 12, in just six days, Zhang Xun's braid army was defeated. On the morning of July 12, the rebels fired a shell at Zhang Xun's residence, which was the only live ammunition, and it hit Zhang Xun's residence with a divine accuracy, and Zhang Xun fled into the Dutch embassy to seek refuge. Zhang Xun lost a lot this time, the restoration did not succeed in the second place, and now even his old nest Xuzhou and the braid army have been lost, and since then he has become a complete commander of the light pole.
In this restoration farce, there is only one big winner, that is, Duan Qirui, who has regained real power in the Beijing government.
Of course, from a legal point of view, the great president at this time is still Li Yuanhong, but after this toss, Li Yuanhong's old face has been lost, and he knows that when he sends a telegram to Duan Qirui, it is equivalent to surrendering his weapons to Duan Qirui and the Anhui warlords he represents. Therefore, even if he was picked up from the Japanese embassy, he resolutely refused to reinstate him, and sent a telegram ordering Feng Guozhang to succeed him as president.
Zhang Xun, the dog in the water, is now hiding in the Dutch embassy, and after Duan Qirui regained his authority, he proposed to the Dutch minister to extradite Zhang Xun. However, although the extradition was successful later, Duan Qirui did not seem to intend to seriously pursue his responsibility. Therefore, not long after Zhang Xun was detained, he gained a certain degree of freedom of action, and for his movements, Duan Qirui also turned a blind eye, anyway, he had become a tiger without claws, and he couldn't do anything. A few years later, Xu Shichang became president and immediately ordered an amnesty for Zhang Xun.