After the end of the Xinhai Revolution, Yuan Shikai stole the fruits of the revolution's victory and took office as the president of the Republic of China. In view of Yuan Shikai's strong army and strong army and the great power of the Republic of China government, local warlords rushed to Beijing to show their submission to Yuan Shikai, including the northeastern warlord Zhang Zuolin.
In order to receive these warlord forces, Yuan Shikai specially set up a banquet at home. After three rounds of drinking, Yuan Shikai inadvertently asked Zhang Zuolin:
"General Zhang is already a feudal official in a province, do you want more troops or bigger territory in the future?"
After listening to Yuan Shikai's words, Zhang Zuolin's wine was immediately awakened, and the seemingly bland inquiry actually contained Yuan Shikai's temptation of Zhang Zuolin's ambitions, if this question is not answered well, Zhang Zuolin may be in danger.
In this critical situation, Zhang Zuolin cleverly moved and cleverly replied to Yuan Shikai with a sentence, which caused everyone in the audience to laugh. A month later, Zhang Zuolin returned safely to the northeast region, and gradually gained the trust of Yuan Shikai, becoming the warlord leader of the three northeastern provinces.
So, how did Zhang Zuolin reply to Yuan Shikai, and how did he dispel Yuan Shikai's guard and gradually gain trust?
Zhang Zuolin
Born as a bandit, they divide one side
In 1875, Zhang Zuolin was born in a small mountain village in Haicheng County, Fengtian, due to the early death of his father, Zhang Zuolin grew up in his grandfather's house since he was a child, and his childhood life under the fence created Zhang Zuolin's uncomplicated life.
When he was a teenager, in order to make a living, Zhang Zuolin successively sold burnt cakes, studied carpentry, and worked as a veterinarian, but these occupations were not what Zhang Zuolin wanted to do. After the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War, Zhang Zuolin threw himself into the army, but found nothing. However, with the fiasco of the Qing army, Zhang Zuolin also broke away from the team and returned to his hometown to continue the veterinary business.
In the same year, Zhang Zuolin met the landlord's lady Zhao Chungui and successfully married her into the family.
Four years later, Tsarist Russia invaded and occupied the three northeastern provinces of our country, and the weak and incompetent Qing government did not dare to resist at all, and the entire northeast region fell into chaos. At that time, Zhang Zuolin, with the financial support of lao zhangren, set up a security team to be responsible for the security work of several villages such as Zhao Jiamiao.
Zhang Zuolin in his youth
Because Zhang Zuolin's security regiment strictly abided by discipline and did not harass the common people, it was unanimously praised by everyone, and he himself became famous, and more villages joined Zhang Zuolin's jurisdiction, and Zhang Zuolin used this to pull up an armed team.
Zhang Zuolin, who has been a bandit for many years, knows that this is not a long-term solution, and he must "correct" his own team, and only by becoming the official armed force of the government can he survive for a long time.
So Zhang Zuolin set up a plan, robbed all the families of the Shengjing general Zengqi, and then fed them with good food and drink, inadvertently showing that he was forced to join the bandits at the dinner table, which attracted the attention of Zengqi's family. Zeng Qi's wife saw that Zhang Zuolin was respectful and reasonable, and then she persuaded him to accept the idea of Zhao'an, and Zhang Zuolin also agreed to it, and eventually became the patrol camp pipe belt of the Qing Dynasty.
In the next five years, Zhang Zuolin met the first nobleman in his life
"Xu Shichang"
And under the leadership of Xu Shichang, he stepped into the ranks of the Beiyang New Army.
Xu Shichang
In 1911, the revolutionaries revolted in the Wuchang area, which quickly swept through the southern provinces, forming an uprising and determined to overthrow the corrupt and incompetent Qing government. At that time, the Qing army was unable to suppress it at all, but was beaten by the revolutionaries.
In this case, the Qing government thought of Yuan Shikai, who was good at using soldiers, and appointed him as the prime minister of the cabinet, responsible for suppressing the Wuchang uprising. However, no one expected that after Yuan Shikai took office, he would use his relatives and friends to quickly control the Beiyang New Army and confront the rebel army in the Hankou area.
At this time, Yuan Shikai held the Beiyang New Army in his hands, on the one hand, he wanted to blackmail the revolutionaries, and on the other hand, he threatened the Qing Emperor to abdicate, thus stealing the fruits of the revolution's victory. Since then, Yuan Shikai has ascended to heaven step by step, transforming from a Manchu courtier to a great president of the Republic of China.
Yuan Shikai
Because Yuan Shikai himself came to power by relying on the army, he was also full of doubts about the warlord forces in various places, and repeatedly tested the ideas of local warlords. However, because Yuan Shikai was the leader of the largest warlords in The country and held the status of nominal national leader, many local warlords bowed to Yuan Shikai and claimed to him.
This included the northeastern warlord Zhang Zuolin, who at that time had only a few thousand men under his command, while Yuan Shikai controlled the Beiyang New Army of 150,000 people, and in the name of the President of the Republic of China, he constantly expanded the Beiyang New Army.
In 1912, Zhang Zuolin expelled the revolutionaries in Fengtian, suppressed the revolutionary uprising movement in Fengtian Province, won the appreciation of the Qing government, and became the 24th town of the Qing Dynasty, and from then on monopolized the military and political power of Fengtian Province. In the same year, the Xinhai Revolution broke out, and on the recommendation of Xu Shichang, Zhang Zuolin was appointed commander of the 27th Division of the Republic of China and awarded the rank of lieutenant general.
Yuan Shikai and the Beiyang warlords
In the face of temptation, be resourceful and adaptable
After Yuan Shikai became president of the Republic of China, Zhang Zuolin personally went to Beijing to meet him.
When the two first met, Yuan Shikai was still very satisfied with Zhang Zuolin. From the moment he entered the door, Zhang Zuolin began to perform live, he first bowed to Yuan Shikai, and then shouted:
"Long live the Great President, long live the Great President!"
This move made Yuan Shikai, who was very nostalgic for feudal customs, very happy, but due to the actual situation, Yuan Shikai still stretched his face and said to Zhang Zuolin: "Master Zhang, you are not right, now that you have entered the Republic of China, you are not happy to kneel and worship." ”
Yuan Shikai's paragraph not only pointed out the current situation of the Republic of China, but also did not accuse Zhang Zuolin of the mistake of shouting long live, so that Zhang Zuolin immediately understood the preferences of the president of the Republic of China.
Zhang Zuolin responded with a smile: "Old Zhang is a rough man, he doesn't understand why the Republic of China is not the Republic of China, I only know that I want to be loyal to the president." ”
After hearing this, Yuan Shikai instantly laughed, and then hurriedly asked someone to prepare a dinner party, leaving Zhang Zuolin to eat at the palace.
During the dinner, Yuan Shikai summoned a group of senior officials of the Beiyang government to accompany him, most of whom were his henchmen. Zhang Zuolin knew from a glance at this situation that Yuan Shikai still had a very heavy factional concept, and if he could not gain Yuan Shikai's trust during his visit to Beijing this time, it would be equivalent to coming in vain.
At the dinner table, Zhang Zuolin frequently toasted to Yuan Shikai, and presented himself as a subordinate to show his submission to Yuan Shikai, and Yuan Shikai was both happy and helpless for Zhang Zuolin's move. Happy is that Zhang Zuolin, a warlord in the northeast, easily surrendered to himself, but helplessly, this person is not from his own concubine, if he is accepted, then what the future situation will be, no one can say.
After drinking and eating, Yuan Shikai took advantage of Zhang Zuolin's drunkenness and asked:
"Commander Zhang, you see that you have now become a feudal official in a province, and in the future, do you want more troops?" Or do you want a bigger footprint? ”
After hearing Yuan Shikai's question, Zhang Zuolin's brain also instantly cleared up, which was obviously testing himself, and no matter which of these two options he chose, they were wrong. If you answer that you want more troops, you will prove that you have great ambitions, otherwise why would you want so many troops?
However, if he chooses a larger territory, Yuan Shikai must think that he has the idea of annexing the other two northeastern provinces, one Fengtian province is not enough, if he continues to annex it himself, the next step will be to point directly to the Hebei region ruled by Yuan Shikai. In this way, in order to prevent himself from becoming bigger and stronger and maintaining the interests of the Beiyang warlords, Yuan Shikai was bound to choose to eliminate himself first.
Just when Zhang Zuolin was struggling with how to answer this question, a shining thing flashed in front of his eyes and fixed his eyes on a gold watch that Yuan Shikai was carrying in his hand.
Seeing this gold watch, Zhang Zuolin had an idea,
He pretended to be drunk and said, "I don't want anything, if the president has to reward me with something, then give me this gold watch, I like this thing more."
He said that he was going to go to Yuan Shikai's hand to get the gold watch.
After listening to Zhang Zuolin's words, everyone laughed and laughed, laughing at Zhang Zuolin for having no ambition, no ambition, and only loving money. And Yuan Shikai also put down his doubts about Zhang Zuolin because of this matter, such a guy without ambition, don't worry about him being unfavorable to himself.
In the following period of time, Yuan Shikai arranged for Zhang Zuolin to play around in Beijing and gave him a lot of gold and silver treasures, and a month later, Zhang Zuolin took the initiative to bid farewell to Yuan Shikai, saying that he would return to Fengtian to deal with military affairs.
Yuan Shikai personally went to the station to send Zhang Zuolin off and said to him: "Master Zhang, do a good job, as long as you are loyal to the country and loyal to me, then your future is immeasurable." ”
Looking at Yuan Shikai, who had made a wish for himself as an official, Zhang Zuolin also swore an oath: "Old Zhang will definitely be loyal to the great president and handle the affairs of Fengtian Province beautifully." Yuan Shikai smiled and patted Zhang Zuolin's back and sent him to the train to the northeast.
Many plans, tigers in the northeast
After returning to Fengtian, Zhang Zuolin expanded his army in a big way, and in the name of President Yuan Da, he easily fooled his rival Feng Delin and drove him out of Fengtian City. A year later, in view of Zhang Zuolin's continuous expansion, Yuan Shikai sent Zhang Xiluan to Fengtian as a garrison general to restrain all the troops in the three eastern provinces, in order to curb Zhang Zuolin's momentum of development.
And Zhang Zuolin did not stop there, he took advantage of the internal contradictions of the Beiyang government, repeatedly sent people to Beijing secretly, bribed the top brass of the Beiyang government, and transferred Zhang Xiluan away from the northeast region. Soon news came from Beijing that Zhang Xiluan was about to be transferred, and that the position of general of Fengtian would be vacated and handed over to Yuan Shikai for re-appointment.
Just when Zhang Zuolin thought that the new Fengtian general was none other than himself, Zhang Xiluan was really transferred, but Yuan Shikai appointed Duan Zhigui as an envoy to Fengtian to take over the military affairs of the three eastern provinces, and all of Zhang Zuolin's plans were frustrated.
At the end of the same year, Yuan Shikai summoned Zhang Zuolin to Beijing, and Zhang Zuolin was panicked, thinking that the things he had planned had been known to Yuan Shikai, so he delayed it again and again. It wasn't until there was really no way out that Zhang Zuolin went to Beijing with a nervous mentality.
After arriving in Beijing, Zhang Zuolin learned that Yuan Shikai summoned himself this time to ask for his opinion on the restoration of the imperial system, and for Zhang Zuolin, who knew Yuan Shikai's preferences, he was of course what he sounded like, and he said something.
When Yuan Shikai asked, "General Zhang, recently the people of the country have been talking about whether to restore the national imperial system, I don't know what your opinion is?" ”
Zhang Zuolin stills
Zhang Zuolin replied with a smile: "The republic has the benefits of republicanism, and the imperial system also has the benefits of the imperial system, and since the chinese people want to restore the imperial system, the country is not good to go against the will of the people. ”
Yuan Shikai pretended to be embarrassed and said, "This is not good, after all, it is already the Republic of China, and it is really unreasonable for me to restore the imperial system now." ”
Zhang Zuolin continued to exhort: "The great president should not hesitate any longer, please ascend the throne as soon as possible, so as to show that the great position has been decided." ”
Yuan Shikai ascended the throne
Hearing this, Yuan Shikai smiled and patted Zhang Zuolin, saying that he would consider it. Soon after, Yuan Shikai openly reversed the course of history, brazenly proclaimed himself emperor, and named his supporting henchmen as founding heroes, and even Zhang Zuolin was rewarded with a second-class viscount.
With Yuan Shikai's perverse actions, the generals Cai Yi and Tang Jiyao, who ostensibly supported the imperial system, successively declared uprisings in Yunnan and launched a vigorous patriotic war, and Guizhou and Guangxi also responded to this war, and finally Yuan Shikai, under pressure from all sides, was forced to announce the abolition of the imperial system, and died of anger.
Stills based on Zhang Zuolin
After Yuan Shikai's death, the Beiyang warlords split, and Zhang Zuolin no longer pretended. He successively used the public opinion of "Fengren autonomy" to force Duan Zhigui away, and then annexed the Heilongjiang province through marriage, and finally in the eighth year of the Republic of China, he expelled Meng Enyuan, the overseer of Jilin Province, firmly grasped the three northeastern provinces in his own hands, and then became the leader of the three major warlords of the Republic of China
There is an old Chinese saying called "a big husband can bend and stretch", Zhang Zuolin's deeds fully prove this sentence, in the face of the enemy's strength and weakness, Zhang Zuolin cleverly chose to bow his head and submit, painstakingly managed his own power, strengthened himself, and finally became a veritable "king of the northeast".