I'm Tang Tang, a history buff. Welcome everyone to [follow] me, talk about the past and the present, and discuss the general trend of the world. Gentleman I, just to learn and make friends!
Following the national vote of the National Congress on November 25, 1915, on December 11, the Senate of the Beiyang Government issued the first recommendation to Yuan Shikai in the name of the "General Representative of the People", "unanimously recommending President Dai as emperor", which was "persuaded by Yuan".
It is interesting to note that in this message, which is only more than 1,000 words long, declaring that it does not recognize the imperial throne, Yuan Shikai did not express any objection to the section on changing the national system and implementing a constitutional monarchy in the Tui Dai book, but only stated:
"A king who is born by the people is not easy to live in, and only those who have great merit and virtue can live in it", and he "asks about his own merits, but he has not said enough", so he hopes that the general deputies of the National Congress will "be familiar with the deliberations and recommend them separately".
This kind of method of pushing back as you want is obviously an imitation of the old trick of the usurping emperors in history. Of course, it was also creating an excuse for the "national representatives" to further publicize the "merits" of the new emperor.
1. The "farce" of the emperor
Sure enough, only 15 minutes later, another letter of more than 2,000 words was submitted to the political hall again, which listed Yuan Shikai's "Jingwu", "Kuangguo", "Kaihua" (New Deal), "Jing Chao", "Ding Chao", "Neighborly" and other six "meritorious deeds", and asked Yuan to "urgently issue a clear edict, declare the world, and ascend the throne to comfort the aspirations of Bohai's subjects."
Tui Dai Shu also emphasized that "the times are two changes, and the stars and frosts are four changes", and "the rise and fall have their own fortunes". Urge:
"My emperor is wise and martial, the head of the heart of hundreds of millions of people, and he is willing to look up to the emperor's family, bow down to the mysteries, ascend to the great treasure and the herd herds, and perform the supreme and economic Lun Liuhe."
At this time, Yuan Shikai finally felt that the time was ripe for the imperial system. The next day (December 12, 1915), he officially issued a decree accepting the imperial throne, claiming that he would accept the "will of the people" and change the national system, and especially emphasized that he would punish those who opposed the imperial system.
On December 13, 1915, Yuan Shikai wore a generalissimo uniform and received congratulations from hundreds of officials in Jurentang, Zhongnanhai, and officially ascended the throne of the emperor of the Chinese Empire.
Subsequently, Yuan Shikai ordered the establishment of the preparatory office for the imperial ceremony, carved jade seats, woven dragon robes, minted silver coins for the founding of the country, and reopened the Forbidden City; On the one hand, it strengthened the functions and powers of the military and police law enforcement departments, banned opposition activities, and searched for and arrested anti-imperial figures. And officially announced to the world, from January 1, the fifth year of the Republic of China (1916), the Republic of China will be changed to the Chinese Empire, the year name Hongxian, and the new emperor will officially hold the coronation ceremony on New Year's Day of that year.
In the subsequent canonization of meritorious heroes, a large number of powerful elements who participated in the imperial movement and powerful figures in Beiyang were knighted, including Long Jiguang and the following first-class and second-class dukes; First Class; First Class Uncle; first-class, second-class; There are a total of 128 first-class men, second-class men, and third-class men, and Xu Shichang, Zhao Erxun, Li Jingxi, Zhang Jian, and other four people were named the "Four Friends of Songshan" for "virtue and honor, and long-term burden".
Zhao Bingjun, the former governor of Zhili and the direct murderer of Song Jiaoren's assassination in the second year of the Republic of China, was posthumously awarded the title of "first-class loyal Xianggong"; Vice President of the Republic of China, Li Yuanhong, was canonized as "Prince Wuyi".
Corresponding to the change in the state system are the changes in the structure and functions of the Presidential Office and the institutions at all levels directly under it.
After the change of the national body, the Taihe Hall was changed to the Carrier Palace; The middle hall was changed to the body yuan hall; The Baohe Hall was changed to the Jianji Hall; The original presidential palace was changed to Xinhua Palace; The former Office of the Presidential Office was changed to the "Office of Affairs"; The Command Office of the Public Government was changed to the "Ouchi General Command Office"; The Secretary of State of the Government Hall has changed from "supervising the affairs of the Government Hall under the orders of the President" to "supervising the administration and being responsible to the President"; The original decree issued by the President was countersigned by the Secretary of State to "The Decree issued by the President shall be sealed by the Government Council and countersigned by the Secretary of State", and it is stipulated that "all those who use the President's order and the presidential seal shall be changed to the Government Council to follow the decree or apply for the decree."
2. The extravagant "enthronement ceremony"
The catastrophe inflicted by the monarchy at home was extremely severe. The financial expenditure of the preparations for the imperial system alone imposed a huge burden on the country and the people.
The Gazette of December 27, 1915 disclosed for the first time the budget for the enthronement of the imperial event:
The total amount of the draft budget for the gift fee has been set at more than $5.9 million.
The various budgets are as follows:
the festival fee is 2619,540,000 yuan; The project cost is $1,57,810,000; dispatch fee of 1786.53 million yuan; $221,800 for the banquet; reception expenses of $515,230,000; $197,340; The gift fee is $1,61,122.
It is important to note that the list here is only an estimate of the imperial gift.
Later facts showed that this was only a fraction of the total actual cost of imperial activity.
On September 6, 1916, the "Declaration" contained a telegram stating that the Ministry of Finance had investigated the cost of the imperial system, and the actual amount was 60,000 yuan.
The imperial system was financed mainly by foreign loans, the basic funds and patriotic reserves of the banks of China and the Bank of Communications, domestic public bonds, railway revenues, and the sale of official property. In any case, in the end, this huge financial expenditure can only come from the blood and sweat of the people, "setting up cards everywhere, collecting taxes every step, and being as dense as a spider's web."
Among them, the Reserve Bank of China allocated funds for the imperial system and military reserve funds, resulting in "insufficient turnover and discounted paper money," which caused a huge disaster to the people and caused the Chinese people to experience another new financial catastrophe in addition to the Jiawu indemnity and Gengzi indemnity. And these people's fat and people's ointment eventually fell into the private pockets of large and small imperial figures.
Yuan Shikai's cronies, Yuan Naikuan, who was known as one of the "Thirteen Taibao" of the imperial system, was in charge of the repair projects in the central, northern, and southern seas, and "arbitrarily floated the price of ICBC to more than 500,000 yuan." "That is, a water pavilion in Fengze Garden, which can be full of 256000 gold", and the pavilion "can be rejuvenated with a salary of only 1200 gold at most." ”
At the same time, Yuan Naikuan took the opportunity of the repair of the three seas to wantonly steal the cultural relics and national treasures out of the palace. It is said that one of them took advantage of the repair project to bring out a "green chicken pot", inlaid with gold and silver sheets, the shape is ancient, the value is invaluable, after being stolen by Yuan, it was sold to a jeweler with "three thousand gold", and this national treasure was lost abroad, and a British company "but redeemed this item, it amounted to three million gold..."
In the imperial activities of 1915, Yuan Naikuan was not a particularly important figure, and he was not in charge of major projects and expenses, but he was able to "suddenly become rich" in such a short period of time, relying on such a few small projects, and we can fully imagine the benefits that other people who played a more important role in this activity, or played a more crucial role, from the Hongxian Empire.
They became the first beneficiaries of this imperial activity. Of course, these people also included some people who had considerable strength, and Yuan Shikai had to buy and co-opt them with a lot of money in order to seek his support for the imperial system.
3. Strong opposition
The unanimous opposition to the imperial system from both China and abroad was unexpected by Yuan Shikai.
At the end of December 1915, the imperial decree aroused a strong reaction from all walks of life throughout the country. Workers, peasants, national industrialists and businessmen, and overseas students took active action, writing articles and publishing telegrams one after another, strongly protesting against Yuan Shikai's perverse behavior in restoring the imperial system.
As soon as the news of the imperial system came out, some people in Shanghai's industrial and commercial circles made a clear statement:
"The president of the Republic of China cannot become the emperor, otherwise he will lose his credibility both internally and externally."
In a telegram sent by Yang Shande, the envoy of the Songhu Protector Army, to the office under the command of the commander of the Songhu army at the same time, it was reported that after the reform of Hong Xian, all the newspapers in Shanghai, except for the "Asia Daily", wrote the five years of the Republic of China, but refused to use the name of Hong Xian. Moreover, Shanghai's Shishi Xinbao, which was banned in 1915 because of its strong opposition to the imperial system, was restored after the imperial system was made public, and "after the ban on delivery and sales, it was still secretly circulating in the mainland." "Post offices all over Shanghai were able to deliver the newspaper to a large extent, so that soon after the resumption of publication, the newspaper was sold in various parts of Nanjing and Wuhan, as well as on trains and transportation routes."
At the same time as Shanghai, businessmen in Sichuan, Guangdong, Hunan, Hubei, Fujian and other provinces issued declarations one after another, denouncing Yuan Shikai's imperial system and plotting rebellion against the Republic of China, and calling on all walks of life across the country: "Recognize the situation, force Yuan to abdicate, and return our republic." ”
In order to suppress the overwhelming rebellion against the imperial system from all over the country, the Beiyang government issued a telegram on the same day that Yuan Shikai officially ascended the throne, urging the police in all localities to "improve police power, strengthen law and discipline, and strive to protect public security", and instructed them to "punish according to law without leniency" for all acts of resistance to the imperial system.
In the nationwide tide of opposition to Yuan Shikai's imperial system, the vast number of overseas Chinese and overseas students enthusiastically moved to the forefront.
In February 1916, the overseas Chinese in Mexico called on all overseas Chinese to act in unison, "not afraid of sacrifice, oppose the imperial system, and maintain the republican system."
Li Dazhao, a student representative in Japan, spoke out in his article "Minyi and Politics":
The people and the monarch do not coexist, freedom and autocracy do not coexist, so the monarch lives and the people die, and the autocracy lives and dies freely... Nowadays, there are still those who dare to sow the embers of autocracy and raise the bonfire of the monarch, regardless of whether they are the disciples of peace and restoration, all of them think that the rebellion of the country, the public enemy of the people, the fire of their books, the destruction of their ugly kinds, the push and pull of their roots, nothing to tolerate, not a little preferential, never to sprout, do not let the vines, and then rebuild the great task of China, there is a profit, the fate of the Chinese Restoration, there is no hope of success.
The imperial system also made more and more people who had illusions with Yuan Shi begin to be disillusioned, and gradually joined the ranks of breaking with Yuan and opposing Yuan and anti-imperialism.
4. Liang Qichao's opposition
Until the imperial system was made public, Liang Qichao was a representative figure of Yuan Yongyuan in the Beiyang government. In April 1913, Liang and Tang Hualong, a well-known figure of the old constitutionalists, and other constitutionalist forces organized the Progressive Party, which vigorously advocated the establishment of a centralized "republican form of government", which created public opinion for Yuan Shikai's autocratic dictatorship, and realized a new alliance between the three major political factions of the bourgeois reformists, the forces of the Beiyang military clique, and the old bureaucracy.
During the period of the "Second Revolution", Yuan Shikai relied on the support of imperialism and the support of the Progressive Party internally, and obtained two important weapons against Sun Yat-sen's revolutionaries. At the same time, in order to achieve the good political desire of "taking Yuan Shikai onto the political track and doing some construction for the country", Liang Qichao's progressives not only compromised and accommodated Yuan Shikai's act of "first raising the president, then formulating the constitution", which seriously trampled on the country's laws; Moreover, Liang himself personally served as the chief justice of Xiong Xiling's "first-rate talent cabinet" that was established later, and once again joined forces to cooperate with Yuan to conspire with state affairs.
The grim reality of the imperial system finally made Liang Qichao see the true face of Yuan Shikai and parted ways with Yuan.
In August 1915, Liang risked his life to publish "The So-called Problem of the National System". After the article was issued, various newspapers in Beijing and Tianjin rushed to reprint it, shaking China and foreign countries.
Cai said that the article:
"What Mr. said, everyone in the country wants to say, and everyone in the country dare not say, or what Mr. said, it is not enough to move the world."
In November, as the imperial movement in Beijing had entered the stage of public preparations, Liang and his disciple Cai Yi "discussed a great plan" and established the policy of armed resistance against Yuan.
With the help of Liang Qichao, Cai Gong, who had been imprisoned by Yuan at the time, successfully escaped from Beijing, passed through Japan, and sneaked back to Yunnan, unveiling the banner of opposing Yuan's protectorate. After the outbreak of the National Defense Movement, Liang himself risked his life and went to Liangguang to plot against Yuan's independence. He wrote a letter calling on the Progressives who were serving in Yun and Gui to mobilize them to take action "without hesitation" to oppose Yuan's restoration, and personally traveled around the country to deploy the Progressives and Revolutionaries to jointly fight against Yuan, and finally contributed to the momentum of the Movement to Defend the Country.
In the article "After the Yuan Government Forged the Secret Telegram of Public Opinion" published in May 1916, Liang Qichao ruthlessly exposed and criticized Yuan Shikai's imperial behavior, and attacked Yuan Shikai's imperial ambitions with superb words and extraordinary courage, and depicted a "picture of the restoration of the ugly group" under the banner of Hong Xian:
Since the occurrence of the national system issue, the so-called discussants have all discussed themselves; The so-called people who are in favor of it are all self-praised; The so-called petitioners are all voluntary; The so-called voters are all self-determined; The so-called pushers are all self-pushing... In essence, the production of the emperor this time is nothing more than a sharp blade in his right hand and money in his left hand. The most lowly and shameless few people in the country of Xiaoju, such as puppeteers. One person is pulling the line in the curtain, and several people on his left and right are wriggling and moving. These dozens of people are involved in the second line, and the provincial governors, and even the Senate, are glutinous and moving. Those who are drawn to the third line by the governor, and more than 1,700 people who do not know the integrity and shame, pretend to be the representatives of the people, and their ugly and filthy voices are broadcast in society, what a million things! ”
In his later article, "The Anatomy of Yuan Shikai", Liang Qichao further asserted that Yuan Shikai "can only be described as a strange figure in the dark ages of the Middle Ages, and by no means a valuable figure in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries"; "The seeds of China's troubles were all sown by the Yuan clan, and the more the Yuan clan ruled, the more the degree of the chaos deepened."
Liang claimed that Yuan was the worst ruler that China could find at the time. "Anyone who is extremely evil in the country cannot be inflicted on the Yuan clan, so no matter how unsuitable it is to rule China, the degree of its discomfort must not be inflicted on the Yuan clan."
Liang Qichao is known as the "pride of public opinion" in domestic politics. For a long time, he and the Progressive Party under his leadership had a close relationship with Yuan Shikai and the Beixiang faction. Therefore, the impact of these articles on the Hongxian Empire cannot be underestimated.
5. The attitude of Xu Shichang and Li Yuanhong
Xu Shichang is the most influential figure to Yuan Shikai since the late Qing Dynasty, Xu and Yuan Jieyi had a huge influence on the politics, military, economy, education, culture and diplomacy of the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China, and their role is incomparable. After the Yuan family came to power, thanks to Xu Zhizan's support. Yuan not only respects and admires Xu, but even reaches the point of obeying his words. Xu couldn't dissuade the imperial system, and seeing that Yuan was completely moved, he decided to resign and retire and let himself go.
Before leaving, he wrote to Yuan Shikai:
"The matter of being called the emperor, regardless of its rights and wrongs for the time being. As far as the stakes are concerned, it is difficult to predict success if we look at the current situation, but if we give up halfway, how will we be able to maneuver? ”
At the same time, he issued a warning to Yuan Shikai:
"People have their own aspirations, and those who are immortals and Buddhas measure the weakness of the country: those who are sages and sages measure the country's governance, and those who are emperors are more likely to be in turmoil."
Li Yuanhong was another of the most influential figures in the early days of the Beiyang government. During the "Second Revolution", Li Zeng, as the vice president of the Republic of China, repeatedly telegraphed to support Yuan Shikai, and actively searched for revolutionaries in Hubei to cooperate with military operations in Beiyang. After the end of the "Second Revolution", Li was invited by Yuan Zhi to enter Beijing, and soon after, Li joined Liang Qichao's Progressive Party, became an important supporting force for Yuan Shikai's political centralization, and personally served as the president of the Senate during the "New Testament" period, consciously acting as an accomplice to Yuan's political dictatorship. Therefore.
After the imperial system occurred, Yuan Shikai immediately gave Li Yuanhong considerable preferential treatment.
However, after the imperial system was made public, Li Yuanhong resolutely expressed his attitude of breaking with Yuan.
On December 15, 1915, Yuan Shikai announced the first order after the imperial system:
With the comment of "hard work, trying to protect the overall situation, never turning back, and making great contributions", Li Yuanhong was specially canonized as the "Prince of Wuyi" to show respect. Unexpectedly, after the news of the canonization came out, Li immediately said: "I have made up my mind, (Prince Wuyi) will never accept it, even if I sacrifice myself, I will not hesitate to do it." ”
December 15 is the canonization day of Li Yuanhong's "Prince Wuyi". Yuan Shikai ordered the officials above the civil and military positions in Beijing to go to the Li Di in Dongchang Hutong to congratulate them.
Starting from 7 o'clock in the morning of the same day, hundreds of civil and military officials flocked to Dongchang Hutong, east to Fulong Temple, west to Huangchenggen, south to Dong'an Market, north to Andingmen Street, crowded and congested, the road was congested. Lu Zhengxiang, secretary of state of the new dynasty, read out the canonization of Yuan Shikai, the "Great Emperor of Hongxian", to Li and congratulated him on behalf of the civil and military officials.
Lai immediately replied:
"Although the president made a clear decree, we did not dare to accept it. President Gaida was given a commendation for the help of the first righteousness of Xinhai and Wuchang. However, the Xinhai Uprising was the result of the public will of the people of the whole country, and countless revolutionary aspirants shed blood and struggled, and was presided over by the president. Personally, I am just indiscriminate, because people have made things, there is no merit at all, and I will never dare to take the Chongfeng, so I can't live against the people, and I can't die against the martyrs. Congratulations to everyone, I dare not take it seriously. ”
After finishing speaking, he turned back and entered, and everyone had to disperse silently.
After that, Yuan Shikai ordered to send Yongzeng Jun's garment maker to Li Mansion to measure the "prince's clothes" for him, but Li refused again, and said, "I am not a prince, why do I need a uniform." Hou Zheng Shi Tang delivered an official document to Li Di, and the cover book "Prince Wuyi Personally Demolished", which was mistakenly cut by the recipient, and when it was submitted, Li Ji was furious, saying: "I am not Prince Wuyi, how can I receive the official document opened by Prince Wuyi?" The order was returned, so that "the recipient was embarrassed, and tried to change the seal in many ways before it could be returned."
Li and Yuan were originally sons and daughters-in-law. To the annual festival, both parties have gifts. At the end of 1915, Yuan sent Li Li, with the words "Reward Prince Wuyi" in a red post, and asked the four officials to wear red belts and ride horses, and sent them to the "Wuyi Prince's Mansion" in Dongchang Hutong. Li was furious and refused, until two days later, Yuan changed to the words "in-law foolish brother Yuan Shikai", and Li Shi accepted the New Year's gift from this in-law.
Regarding Li Yuanhong's stubborn attitude of resisting the imperial system, Yuan Shikai was helpless. The guards stationed in Li Yuanhong's residence "all hated Huangpi (that is, Li Yuanhong, Li was from Huangpi, Hubei), and they were loudly discouraged all day long, so Huangpi heard about it."
The scene in which Li Yuanhong refused to accept the title of "Prince Wuyi" vividly reflected Yuan Shikai's resistance within the upper echelons of the Beiyang government because of the Hongxian imperial system.
6. Those who oppose the emperor within Beiyang
Judging from the later facts, even among the core figures within the Beiyang system, there is a general tendency to oppose the imperial system, here let us take a look at the attitude of Wang Shizhen, Duan Qirui, and Feng Guozhang, who are known as the three heroes of the Beiyang Dragon, Tiger, and Leopard (one is called the Beiyang Dragon, Tiger, and Dog), towards the imperial system.
At the beginning of the brewing of the imperial system, Wang Shizhen was jealous and angry by Yuan Keding because he "did not learn from the imperial system". The matter was leaked by others, so Shizhen begged for leave to watch the movement. Yuan Ling lives at the foot of the West Mountain, and spies into it, and Shizhen is in great difficulty."
Another figure who retired to Xishan during the same period was Duan Qirui. In the big knighthood on December 21, we found that 128 people were awarded from Long Jiguang and Zhang Xun, including almost all the backbone figures in the Beiyang system, such as Feng Guozhang, Cao Kun, Wu Peifu, etc., as well as many small people who are not known in the scriptures.
Only did not mention Duan Qirui, the most influential commander of the Beiyang Army at that time. In fact, after the imperial system was revealed in May 1915, Duan immediately retired to Xishan in Beijing, regardless of political affairs, and was soon officially dismissed.
After that, in order to express their dissatisfaction with the imperial system, Zhang Yilu, Yan Xiu and others also "resigned at the same time"; Before Xu Shichang was allowed to resign, he moved out of the public mansion and moved to Butterfly Hutong; Tang Hualong, the chief of education, Luo Wengan, the chief procurator, and Xiong Xiling, who participated in politics, resigned one after another, or asked for leave of absence to leave Beijing. For a time, "resignation or leave of absence from politicians became a common practice in Russia before the new emperor ascended the throne."
Feng Guozhang was the most influential representative of the local power faction in Beiyang during the Hongxian period. Its clutch back is also an important force directly related to the success or failure of Emperor Yuan Shikai, so at that time people called it "the left side wins, and the right side wins the right side".
But as soon as the imperial system was made public, Feng expressed his dissatisfaction with Yuan:
"After so many years with the old man, he sacrificed his own ideas and helped him to become the head of state, but he still didn't say a word of truth to us, and the result was that the emperor was still self-righteous, and the son was not passed on to the virtuous. How can Cao Pi (referring to Yuan Keding) like this be able to wait together in the future, in vain will call us not enough people on both sides."
After the outbreak of the Protectorate War, in order to suppress the anti-Yuan forces in the southwest, Yuan urgently transferred Feng to Beijing and appointed him as chief of staff and commander-in-chief of the Yunnan army. Feng pretended to be ill, refused to go north, and after the outbreak of war, quickly fell to the southwest and fought back.
We should not simply look at the balance of power between the imperialists and the anti-imperialists within the Beiyang system in the Hongxian period from the perspective of numbers.
It should be noted that Wang, Feng, Duan and others are the most powerful and influential backbone in the Beiyang system, and they represent a fairly powerful force in the Beiyang system. Within the Beiyang system, their status is different from that of Duan Zhigui, Chen Eun and others, and their attitudes towards the imperial system are naturally different. Due to their status, they did not need to "climb the dragon and attach the phoenix" through the imperial system.
On the contrary, the resurrection of the imperial system not only cut off their last hope of being the successor to the presidency, but also, in turn, they had to bow down to Yuan Keding, whom they despised the most, which was obviously unacceptable to them.
When the Protectorate War broke out, their apathy and passivity towards the imperial system inevitably had a huge impact on the war at the front.
From the very beginning of the war, a considerable number of direct generals, including Cao Kun and Wu Peifu, had to worry about their own return in case of Yuan's defeat. Before the north and the south came into contact, Wu Peifu, a front-line warrior, told Cao Kun that he should secretly contact the provinces, and if Xiangcheng failed in the future, he could avoid the suspicion of favoring the imperial system, and if the Protector Army failed, the friendship with Xiangcheng would still be there, which was a strategy to kill two birds with one stone.
Sure enough, as soon as the northern and southern armies came into contact, Cao Kun, the main force of the northern army, adopted a two-sided policy of light and darkness according to the plan, on the one hand, he continued to report the situation on the front line to Yuan Shikai and perfunctory Yuan Shikai; On the one hand, it is in contact with various provinces and regions, and secretly communicates with each other.
However, Yuan Shikai did not give due vigilance to these anti-imperialist tendencies within the Beiyang system. At that time, the desire for power and greed were uncontrollable under the clamor and impetus of the restoration of China and foreign countries, but the result was a blind eye.
(End of text)
If you have other topics or opinions about the field of history, you can [follow] me for a private chat, or you can leave a message in the comment area below and reply as soon as possible.