Wang Shizhen was born on August 19, 1861, and finally on July 1, 1930, he was a native of Niujiazhuang ,present-day Zhengding, Hebei. Modern politician, the first of the three masters of Beiyang.
Yes, the first of the three masters of Beiyang. Which three are the Beiyang Sanjie? Wang Shizhen, Feng Guozhang, Duan Qirui. These are all hot figures on the political stage of the Republic of China. But are you wondering why you have never heard of this name, or why you have no impression of the name Wang Shizhen? It's okay, listen to me bragging to you.
Wang Shizhen
First, join the army since childhood and show talent
Wang Shizhen's great-grandfather Wang Zheng, proficient in medicine, good at calligraphy, grandfather Wang Lu'an is a talent, in addition to the doctor, good at martial arts, known as Rong Ma Shusheng, Wang Shizhen's father and uncle died early, he and his widowed mother depended on each other, living in the zhengding city XimenLi aunt's mother's home, relying on his mother to do needlework for people to live a difficult life.
Wang Shizhen also overlooked two rooms, at the age of 9, he entered a private school to study poetry, because of his intelligence and studiousness, in the second year of Guangxu (1876 AD), when Wang Shizhen was 15 years old, he was favored by Ye Zhichao of Zhengding Zhentai and accepted as a servant under his subordinates. At the age of 17, he was admitted to the Zhengding Town General Soldier Cadet Corps, and was immediately transferred to Shanhaiguan with Ye Zhichao.
In the eleventh year of Guangxu (1885), he entered the Tianjin Wubei Academy, studied in the artillery department for 3 years, and returned to Shanhaiguan to teach in the artillery team after graduation. He used Western methods to teach, applied what he had learned, and was praised by his superiors.
Second, go to the DPRK to fight, the first appearance of sharp edge
First of all, Wang Shizhen's going to fight in Korea is not the same thing as Yuan Shikai's. Yuan Shikai's campaign to Korea took place in 1882 and 1884. At that time, Wang Shizhen had not yet entered the Tianjin Wubei Academy.
In the twentieth year of Guangxu (1894), the Dongxue Party uprising broke out in Korea. The North Korean government asked the Qing government to send troops to assist in the crackdown. In order to speed up the pace of aggression, the Japanese Government is looking for opportunities and excuses to launch a war, and it has also vigorously encouraged the Qing Government to send troops.
In June 1894, Ye Zhichao was ordered to go to Korea to assist in the war, and Wang Shizhen led the officers and soldiers of the artillery to garrison Asan. Unexpectedly, Japan also dispatched a brigade of Oshima Yoshimasa, far exceeding the Qing army stationed in Korea. On July 25, the Japanese Navy declared war and the Battle of Toshima broke out, and the Qing army suffered heavy losses.
After the Battle of Toshima, Wang Shizhen withdrew to Pyongyang with Ye Zhichao, who was appointed commander-in-chief of the Qing army in Pyongyang. On September 12, 20,000 soldiers of the First Army of the Japanese Army's Yamagata Company came to the city, and Wang Shizhen's Asan Army defended the positions from the Great West Gate to the Seven Star Gate. After observing the terrain, he strongly suggested that "it is advisable to set up a strange defense outside the city and on the mountain, so that the enemy can cope with the battle." Ye Zhichao rejected Wang Shizhen's lack of practical combat experience on the grounds that he was young.
Duan Qirui
On September 15, the invading Japanese army attacked the Chinese garrison in Pyongyang in four ways. Chinese officers and soldiers and North Korean soldiers and civilians fought bravely. Wang Shizhen led the artillery cadets to stubbornly fight in the city, inflicting heavy casualties on the Japanese army.
When Wang Shizhen learned of Zuo's precious sacrifice, he personally operated the cannon and bombarded the Japanese army, and during the battle, Wang Shizhen's left ring finger was blown off, and the upper left part of his forehead was injured by shrapnel, leaving a wound of more than an inch long. The enemy army was surrounded on all sides, and the artillery cadets held Wang Shizhen hostage and broke through to kill. After the fall of Pyongyang, the Qing army collapsed.
Wang Shizhen followed Ye Zhichao overnight. The night is dark, north and south are not divided, and they do not know where to go. Fortunately, Wang Shizhen carried a map with him, so he guided the remnants of the army to travel in the night and arrive in Yizhou.
At this time, the officers and men of the artillery team were very hungry and thirsty, and when they were resting in a village, they found two large vats under the firewood, which contained clothes and wheat flour, and Wang Shizhen only allowed the officers and men to fill their hunger with wheat flour. After returning to China, Wang Shizhen still commanded the Yutai Artillery And stationed at Shanhaiguan. After the signing of the Treaty of Maguan, Wang Shizhen moved to Lutai with nie Shicheng, the new directly subordinate governor.
The war also happened to be a year before Yuan Shikai became the superintendent of the "New Army." Wang Shizhen's performance in this battle has long been widely spread in the army, and his superiors have already attached importance to Wang Shizhen, and he has also gained fame.
Yuan Shikai
Third, small stations train troops, and jackdaws turn into phoenixes
The Qing government's fiasco in the Sino-Japanese War was extremely humiliating to both the government and the public, but it also stimulated their self-help. They believe that the reason why the Japanese defeated them was that since the Meiji period, Japan had vigorously studied Western law and trained a sophisticated army. However, the main forces of the Qing army, the Xiang and Huai armies, were in a state of exhaustion in training and tactical clogging, and they had no combat effectiveness. They felt that if they did not train a few new armies capable of fighting good, their rule would be unsustainable. In November 1894, the Qing government established the "Supervision and Administration Military Affairs Office" and began to train the new army at the Tianjin Station. Under the joint sponsorship of Rong Lu, Li Hongzhang, and Weng Tonggong, ministers of the "Military Affairs Office", in December, the Qing government appointed Yuan Shikai to supervise the training of a new type of army.
In order to avoid the suspicion of the Manchu nobles in the DPRK and China, Yuan Shikai asked Yin Chang, the minister of war of the flag nationality who had served as the general office of the Beiyang Martial Arts Academy, to recommend the backbone of the new army. Yin Chang recommended Wang Shizhen, Duan Qirui, Feng Guozhang, and Liang Huadian to Yuan Shikai. Of the four, except for Liang Huadian, who fell into the river and drowned in a night exercise, the other three all became Yuan Shikai's capable generals in the military field.
Fourth, the Boxer Rebellion achieved the position of "the head of the three oceans"
In the autumn of 1899, the Boxer Rebellion was raging in the area of present-day Hebei. Yuan Shikai acted as the inspector of Shandong, and Wang Shizhen served as a military staff officer. At that time, the Boxer Rebellion in dozens of prefectures and counties such as Jinan, Tai'an, Dongchang, and Caozhou was in full swing. Wang Shizhen proposed a set of strategies for Yuan Shikai to suppress the Boxers: first to persuade and then to intimidate them by force. If they still do not comply, they will hunt down and kill the first offender and disband the coercion. Yuan took Wang's advice and asked Wang Shizhen to serve as a staff officer for military affairs throughout Shandong Province, resulting in heavy casualties among the regimental people.
Yuan and Wang's suppression of the Boxers provoked the displeasure of the Qing dynasty nobles Duanjun Wang Zaiyi and Zhuang Wang Zaixun because they hindered their attempts to use the Boxers for personal gain.
In June 1900, The Second King of Duan and Zhuang sent a master brother of the Boxers to find Yuan Shikai with the Qing government's order and arrow, saying that the Duan King ordered Yuan Shikai to appease the Boxers and allow the altar to continue the exercises. Yuan was very surprised and immediately summoned a meeting of his subordinates to discuss.
At this time, Wang Shizhen stood up and said, "Please leave it to me for interrogation!" "Immediately behead the boxer leader for stealing the arrows of the second king of Duan and Zhuang. At this time, the meeting convened by Yuan had not yet dispersed, and Yuan Shikai asked Wang Shizhen: "How was the interrogation?" The king replied, "It has already been executed, so you can seal the arrow and send it back to the second king of Duan and Zhuang." Yuan Shikai suddenly woke up and admired Wang Shizhen's clear decision.
During the Boxer Rebellion, Wang Shizhen made great contributions to Yuan Shikai's further rise to prominence, and he himself rose in the water, and his career was smooth. During the rainy season of that year, when the Yellow River was at the mouth of the Yellow River, he personally engineered the battalion to the mouth of the duel and fought day and night to make the dam close in advance. Thus alleviating the disaster.
During this period, Yuan Shikai invited the German governor in Jiaozhou to Jinan to read exercises. The German governor saw that the new army trained by Yuan Shikai was indeed more refined than the old army, and praised Wang Shizhen, Duan Qirui, and Feng Guozhang, who presided over the exercise, as the "Three Masters of Beiyang". These "three masters" are also referred to as Yuan Shikai's "dragon, tiger, and leopard". Since then, Wang Shizhen has been pushed as the "Crown of the Three Masters" and was originally called the "Dragon of the Three Masters" in Beiyang. (There is also the saying that Feng Dog)
Fifth, do not understand the law of change, indifferent to the beginning of the people
In 1911, the Wuchang Uprising broke out, Yuan Shikai came back, the first request was to let Wang Shizhen run the Hubei military affairs, after Yuan Shikai became the premier, Wang Shizhen became the minister of war. He opposed Duan Qirui's republican proclamation, and on February 12, 1912, Puyi abdicated. Wang Shizhen fought hard for the preferential treatment of the Qing dynasty, and finally in order to show loyalty to the Qing court, he did not want to sub-sign the abdication edict, resigned his official position and retired to his hometown of Zhengding City.
In fact, in my opinion, it is because the trend of history has abandoned him, and he does not know how to be flexible.
Feng Guozhang
6. Seniority and Prime Minister (actually a puppet)
On September 1, 1917, Sun Yat-sen was inaugurated as the Grand Marshal of the Military Government of the Protector of the French in Guangzhou, declaring Duan Qirui a rebel of the Republic of China, sending troops to the Northern Expedition and beginning the War of Defending france. Duan Qirui was fiercely trying to unify the south by force, while Feng Guozhang advocated a peaceful settlement, proposing "peaceful reunification" to exclude Duan Qirui, and the contradictions between the two gradually intensified, and by mid-November, Duan and Feng had become intolerable, and Wang Shizhen had no choice but to sigh at people for the infighting between the "tiger" and "dog" families. On November 20, Feng Guozhang dismissed Duan Qirui from his post as prime minister and asked Wang Shizhen to form a cabinet. But Wang Shizhen was tired of political life and refused Feng Guozhang's request. Therefore, Feng Guozhang asked people to petition in front of Wang Shizhen's door and shouted: "Please hire the old man to form a cabinet to consolidate the Beiyang group." Wang Shizhen had no choice but to become the prime minister of the cabinet, but declared: "The premier will come alone today, and will go alone in the future, and he will never change a person in the cabinet." ”
In October 1920, after the death of Li Chun, the overseer of Jiangsu, President Xu Shichang appointed him as an envoy to the Inspectorate of Su Wangan, and he resigned on the grounds of old illness, and the following year he was specially appointed as a General of Dewei to manage the affairs of the General's Palace. Before he could reach it, Wang Shizhen withdrew from the military and political circles.
On July 10, 1930, he died of bowel cancer in Beijing at the age of 70 (at the age of 68). On his deathbed, he wrote a will expressing his wishes.