In June 1916, after Yuan Shikai died of illness after the failure of the restoration, in order to ease relations with the south, Duan Qirui, who was ordered to clean up the mess, decided that Li Yuanhong would succeed him as president in accordance with the provisions of the Covenant Law, and he himself would become the premier of the state and hold real power.
Duan Qirui was originally an arrogant person, and at this time, he regarded himself as the leader of the Beiyang Group, and no one paid attention to him. Although Li Yuanhong is the president, Duan Qirui believes that he has no soldiers and no strength, and does not take him seriously at all. Of course, this made Li Yuanhong very dissatisfied, he was not willing to make a rubber stamp, so he also seized every opportunity to compete with Duan Qirui, and the two became inseparable.
In particular, the controversy over whether to participate in the First World War made the two people even more tit-for-tat and tear their faces. Finally, on May 21, 1917, Li Yuanhong seized that Duan Qirui had privately borrowed money from Japan and dismissed him, which could infuriate Duan Qirui, and in order to force Li Yuanhong to submit, he instigated the Overseers of the Beiyang Group to put pressure on Li Yuanhong.
Li Yuanhong did not have a single soldier in his hands, and he was a little anxious in the face of the pressure of the Overseer Corps. Ill and chaotic, Li Yuanhong saw that Zhang Xun, who was stationed in Xuzhou, had not been making trouble with the Overseer, so he asked him to mediate. Duan Qirui knew that Zhang Xun had always intended to restore the Qing court, but he also intended to use Zhang Xun's hand to confuse the situation, and then come out to clean up the mess himself, so he ordered his confidant Xu Shuzheng to meet Zhang Xun, pretending that as long as he could expel Li Yuanhong, everything else was easy to say.
Zhang Xun had also hinted many times that he wanted to restore the Qing court, and seeing Xu Shuzheng's statement, he naturally thought that Duan Qirui also supported his own ideas, so he entered Beijing with a braided army and officially announced the restoration on July 1. Li Yuanhong knew that he had been deceived, and while he fled to the Japanese embassy in Dongjiaomin Lane, he drafted an order to reactivate Duan Qirui and let him lead troops to rebel.
Duan Qirui saw that his goal had been achieved, so he decided to go out of the mountain to clean up the mess. He first sent Duan Zhigui to zhu jiabao, the governor of the province, and Yang Yide, the head of the Tianjin police department, and asked them to mobilize troops to rebel. They did not think that these two people thought that the Qing Room had been restored, and Duan Qirui had no name and refused to obey.
Duan Qirui was a bit dumbfounded at this time, although using Zhang Xun to confuse the situation was something he had originally discussed with his subordinates, but they did not take Zhang Xun seriously at all, thinking that it could be easily handled, and did not consider that they would encounter obstacles. What was worse was that although Duan Qirui was highly positioned in the Beiyang Clique, after all, he had not personally led the troops for many years, and he had no actual military power, and after Zhu Jiabao and Yang Yide refused to obey the order, he could not find an army that could be dispatched for a while.
Duan Qirui had no choice but to go to Nanjing to find Feng Guozhang to help and fight Zhang Xun. Xu Shuzheng and others thought it was inappropriate, they were worried that the longer the time dragged on, in case other provinces also participated in the restoration, things would not be cleaned up, and secondly, Feng Guozhang's attitude was unclear, if he also supported the restoration, then it would be dangerous to go south, third, even if Feng Guozhang was willing to help, then the credit was also Feng Guozhang's, and Duan Qirui's position would be greatly affected.
In the end, after duan Qirui consulted with the people around him, he decided to use local materials and find someone to cooperate with near Gyeonggi.
The first target that Duan Qirui was looking for was the Eighth Division stationed at the Horse Factory.
The relationship between the division commander Li Changtai and Duan Qirui was actually only average, but Li Changtai was afraid of his wife, and Duan Qirui sent someone to bribe his wife, and Li Changtai naturally obeyed the order.
In addition, Ran Fanrui, commander of the Artillery Regiment of the Eighth Division, and Ran Fanmin, commander of the infantry battalion, were Duan Qirui's guards in his early years, and he became an official by relying on his connections. The Ran brothers had Duan Qirui as a backstage, and the other officers in the Eighth Division were willing to make friends with them, and everyone had a good relationship, so that Duan Qirui controlled the Eighth Division.
This was followed by Cao Kun, the overseer directly subordinate to him.
Cao Kun was a directly subordinate overseer, with the Third Division and other units in his hands, and was the largest military group in the directly subordinate area, which could be described as pivotal. Duan Qirui sent someone to tell Cao Kun that as long as he supported himself, then afterwards he would make his brother Cao Rui the governor of zhili province, and allowed him to expand his army by three brigades, and later elect him as vice president.
Cao Kun was dissatisfied because Zhang Xun only appointed him as a directly subordinate inspector, and seeing that Duan Qirui's conditions were so favorable, he was naturally willing to help.
The third was Feng Yuxiang, who delivered it himself.
Feng Yuxiang was originally the brigade commander of the 16th Mixed Brigade, but was dismissed because of his bad relationship with Duan Qirui. However, Feng Yuxiang and the officers and men of the Sixteenth Mixed Brigade had always been in contact. After Zhang Xun's restoration, Yang Guitang, a brigade commander appointed by Duan Qirui, went to Beijing to meet Zhang Xun. Many officers of the 16th Mixed Brigade, such as Qiu Bin, Zhang Zhijiang, Lu Zhonglin, Li Mingzhong, and others, took the opportunity to take Feng Yuxiang back to the army and asked him to preside over the overall situation and discuss Zhang Xun together.
Feng Yuxiang participated in the Xinhai Revolution and had always had no good feelings for the Qing court, and after regaining control of the troops, he saw Duan Qirui organize the troops to rebel, so he came with the 16th Mixed Brigade to defect.
Duan Qirui was just the time to employ people, of course, he would not mention the entanglement between the two at the beginning, and immediately let Feng Yuxiang official reinstate himself and coordinate his battles.
In this way, Duan Qirui finally gathered the force needed to fight against Zhang Xun, and finally completed the "three creation of the republic", and used this as capital to re-enter the stage, without messing with this matter.