The Morality of the Beiyang Era (65): Those who talk about the pleasure of the mountains and forests may not really have the interest of the mountains and forests. Those who are tired of fame and fortune may not forget the feelings of fame and fortune.
In the fifth year of the Republic of China, Zhu Jiabao, an envoy directly subordinate to the Ministry of Inspection, presented the "Five Generals Secret Telegram", and in addition to the fact that a province in Guangxi also turned against the enemy, the momentum of the "national protection army" in the two Guangdong provinces suddenly arose, and Yuan Shikai realized that he had fallen into a situation of rebellion and separation and embattled. However, this eunuch was not willing to sit still, and he tried in vain to turn the tide and began to clean up the mess, so he did not hesitate to restore the life of "fishing on Huanshang". Yuan Shikai did not take into account his own face, but personally wrote several secret letters, and on March 21 of that year, he sent special personnel to Duan Qirui, Li Yuanhong, and Xu Shichang to send to Duan Qirui, Li Yuanhong, and Xu Shichang, and at the same time carried a message: "Please look at the old friendship for many years, and you must send a driver today." The three great names of the temple invited by Yuan Shikai remained silent at the following meeting. Yuan Shikai offered to abdicate, and Duan and Xu said that "there is no other way."
Later, Yuan Shikai pointed out to the point: "Their purpose has been achieved, if they still refuse to strike the army, it is a straight face, and they are not afraid of them continuing to make trouble." Seeing that the late lord was so depressed, He could not help but stand up and loudly express his opposition, saying that he was "willing to lead his troops to fight in the southwest." Yuan Shikai handed him the telegram of the five generals who Zhu Jiabao had informed him and said: "Dan Chen, you see." Ni Sichong also had nothing to say. Under Yuan Shikai's set of "old friends are not willing to help who will help", for Yuan Shikai's vain attempt to turn the tide, compared with Ni Sichong's recklessness, the performance of the former confidant Beiyang Sanjie is very different. Duan Qirui, who was reinstated as the head of the cabinet and chief of the army, this "Tiger of the Beiyang", who had only been the head of Yuan Ma, was grumpy about Yuan's reluctance to hand over his military power.
However, Yuan Shikai found that if he wanted to turn the tide, naturally he could not do without the help of these old men, so it was not appropriate to use the majesty of the past, so as not to anger everyone, he first moved out of Wang Shizhen to Duan Qirui as a lobbyist, this "Dragon of the Beiyang" is a "Yellow Old" vein that has read the world very deeply, and knows that Xu Shuzheng is the gap between Yuan and Duan, so he pursues a dragging trick. Yuan Shikai then instructed Zhang Guogan: "You go and tell Zhiquan that Xu Shuzheng is a military talent, so let him become the deputy commander of the army again." Zhang Guogan peeked at Wang Shizhen sitting in the same room, "without opening his mouth to say a word, and there was no expression on his face that was different from usual", and he couldn't help but admire the way this Beiyang Dragon behaved in the world. When Zhang Guogan came to report: "The president wants to use Youzheng to serve as the army deputy commander again", Duan Qirui was so angry that he threw the pipe in his mouth on the floor of Lao Yuan, and said with his teeth: "He is still unwilling to let go today." "Here he naturally refers to Yuan Shikai.
Although he had prejudices against Yuan, Duan Qirui still believed that Yuan had the grace of knowing him, and would definitely not come forward to overthrow Yuan, let alone allow the southwestern warlords to fight Gyeonggi to "overthrow Yuan", and Feng Guozhang, a subordinate of the Beiyang Three Jies, was the greatest threat to Yuan Shikai. Zhang Guogan once said to Yuan: "The situation is not in the southwest, but in the southeast. As the head of the "Three Governors of the Yangtze River" in the southeast, Feng Guozhang had already seen that Yuan Shikai's end was approaching. As early as March 9, before Yuan Shikai's action, Feng Guozhang, who had been pretending to be ill for many days, suddenly "put an end to false things" and secretly strengthened contacts with the warlords of the Beiyang provinces, hoping to create another camp between Yuan and the southwest. This attitude was entirely done by Yuan after the Wuchang Uprising, who wanted to use the southwest warlords to overthrow Yuan while at the same time using the Beiyang warlords to hunt the southwest, so that he could take Yuan's place and not end up in the name of ingratitude. When the "Three Masters of Beiyang" all began to look at each other, Yuan Shikai began to understand that trying to turn the tide was nothing more than wishful thinking and self-escape.