Iron Fist Sheng Xuanhuai became a scapegoat for the Qing court

Sheng Xuanhuai fled, and this incident quickly caused a sensation in the whole world. The 67-year-old ministerial-level cadre of the Qing Dynasty has become the focus of coverage in major newspapers around the world.

It was October 27, 1911, just 17 days after the uprising that would later become known as the "Xinhai Revolution." It is no less concerned than the bloody war that is taking place in the far reaches of central China.

Pioneer of reform

This "escape" incident was obviously greatly anticipated by everyone, including Sheng Xuanhuai himself.

At this time, it was only 10 months since Sheng Xuanhuai became the minister of the Ministry of Posts and Communications. The Ministry of Posts and Communications is a large department, integrating the four major functions of the Ministry of Railways, the Ministry of Communications, the Ministry of Telecommunications, and the Ministry of Posts, and especially the railway, Sheng Xuanhuai has been a "brother" within the jurisdiction of this ministry since he took charge of the Railway Corporation in 1896.

However, when this super ministry was officially listed, Sheng Xuanhuai was defeated in the internal power struggle and was sent to Shanghai to negotiate a foreign trade treaty as a vice minister ("Shilang").

He did not return to Beijing until August 1910, but remained a vice minister. What is even more embarrassing is that the minister ("Shangshu") is actually his former subordinate Tang Shaoyi. So both had to call them sick.

After several twists and turns, Tang Shaoyi reluctantly worked for several months and finally left her post. And Sheng Xuanhuai was able to sit in the post of Minister of Posts and Communications in January 1911, a position that should have belonged to him long ago.

This person, who has a very high self-esteem and has been suppressed for a long time, finally grasped the long-awaited seal handle, and then carried out his work with thunderous means, and the first point of the blade was the railway that he was most familiar with and the most invested in national strategic resources.

At that time, there were 17 "commercially-run" railway companies in the country, each of which was full of corruption and problems, and the construction of the railway was not promoted at all, and the huge amount of funds disappeared without a trace, and the people's resentment boiled over.

The central authorities are anxious to save this passive situation, and Sheng Xuanhuai, who is anxious to do things and make meritorious contributions, is just the right person. Under his auspices, the Central Committee declared in May 1911 that all railways would be nationalized. This "railway state-owned policy" has won the applause of the vast majority of provinces that are trapped by the road and eagerly hope that the central government will "rescue the city." However, commercial railway companies in Guangdong, Hunan and Hubei provinces have made huge interests in the completion of the fundraising. Once the state is state-owned, its interests will be damaged, and the previous spending, bad debts, and bad debts will also be exposed in the audit, so it is vigorously opposed.

The sichuan-han railway sichuan company ("Chuanlu Company"), whose executives, whose most serious losses, while cheering the state ownership, made a side request: they hoped that the central finance department would pay for the 3.5 million taels of silver they lost in Shanghai's illegal stock trading, which Sheng Xuanhuai strongly refused. Frustrated and angry, the executives of Chuanlu Company joined the ranks of vested interests in commercial railways in Guangdong, Hunan and Hubei provinces, and began to storm the state-owned policies of the railways and attack Sheng Xuanhuai himself.

However, just to fill its own financial holes against the central authorities, it is obvious that there is no name for it. Soon, an excellent "grasp" appeared: 11 days after the issuance of the state-owned edict, the central government signed a loan contract with the banks of the United States, Britain, France and Germany, introducing a huge amount of foreign capital of 10 million pounds and investing in railway construction. The executives of several commercial railway companies were ecstatic: this could rise to the level of "patriotism" or "traitor."

Sheng Xuanhuai is a strong person both internally and externally. Under his auspices, the loan negotiations with the four syndicates of countries, the terms of the loan contracts continued to develop in favor of China. Not only is the annual interest rate still maintained at 5%, less than half of the interest rate of domestic money banks and coupon loans, but also half of the loans can exist in the Bank of Communications and the Great Qing Bank, which is equivalent to increasing the position of these two state-owned banks, while the original contract stipulates that only four countries can exist. At the same time, the contract also deleted the original clause that the four countries had the right to participate in the construction of a number of branch roads, and stipulated that the railways used must use the domestic products of the Hanyang Iron Works, and other raw materials were subject to international bidding and were no longer designated by foreign parties.

However, this loan agreement, which was signed on a completely equal footing, was accused of being a "traitor".

More importantly, as a concubine of Li Hongzhang, 10 years after Li Hongzhang's death, Sheng Xuanhuai did not have any strong political backing. Obviously, Sheng Xuanhuai, who does not belong to any faction, "oversees the major policies of steamship, banking, iron administration, smelting, coal mining, and textiles", and naturally becomes a popular target of everyone. In addition, when it was implementing the nationalization of the railway, it was rigid in its work, and in fact it was not shallow for itself.

With the efforts of the central authorities to defuse it, the "road protection movement" in Hunan, Hubei, and Guangdong provinces was put to rest as soon as it saw good, and the banner was quickly put to rest. However, Sichuan is too large because the stock speculation losses are too large, and can only choose to fight with the central government, and it is becoming more and more intense. Sheng Xuanhuai became the origin and focus of the contradiction.

Sheng Xuanhuai maintained full self-awareness of this. On September 30, in a telegram sent to Cen Chunxuan explaining the state-owned compensation plan for Chuanlu, he said that he "has been targeted by the public in this matter, that is, sacrificing his life. ”

Act as a scapegoat

Sheng Xuanhuai was a staunch hawk in the road protection movement against Sichuan, while the central government, with the 28-year-old regent Zaifeng as the core, also tried to cheer up, firmly believing that they occupied the situation, reason, and law, and fought against the "road protection movement".

Duan Fang was ordered to lead the Hubei New Army into Sichuan to quell the rebellion, resulting in the emptiness of Wuchang. On October 10, the Wuchang rebellion was successful. The situation deteriorated further.

After the Wuchang rebellion, Sheng Xuanhuai drafted three "face-to-face abridgements" (the main points of the conversation with the central core) for Zai Zedai, a close confidant of the regent and minister of the Du branch, within one day:

First, "An Outline of the Reasons for Dai Zaize's Delayed Advance of Troops", which holds that the chaotic army is lonely and the military operation of "quelling the chaos" must be carried out quickly; second, "Yin Wu Lou Yi Telegram Urges Him to Personally Supervise the Introduction of troops.", Yin Wu Lou is the commander-in-chief of the former enemy, Yin Chang, Sheng Xuanhuai accuses him of blindly waiting and watching, missing a good opportunity, and suggests that the central authorities immediately remove and replace him; third, "Yuan Shikai Yiming's Decree Urges Him to Go to Hubei Abridgement", and Sheng Xuanhuai suggested that the central authorities use Yuan Shikai to replace Yin Chang.

These three abridgements made Sheng Xuanhuai even more isolated: First, he offended Yin Chang, who had a high self-esteem and returned from studying military affairs in Germany, and behind Yin Chang was a large group of "princelings" of the Great Qing Dynasty; second, Yuan Shikai, who he recommended, was originally his political enemy, of course, he would not accept his affection; third, he recommended Yuan Yuan's move, which made those "princelings" who deeply hated Yuan Shikai even more angry.

On October 23, Sheng Xuanhuai personally played the song again, asking the central government to surrender Yan Yuyinchang to his former enemy and send Yuan Shikai as the minister of Chincha.

At this time, Sheng Xuanhuai, who has actually become a lonely person, has also been "held accountable" by others.

On October 16, YuShishi impeached Sheng Xuanhuai, acknowledging on the one hand that there were a large number of problems in the railway commercial office, and on the other hand, believing that Sheng Xuanhuai's state-owned plan was only to satisfy his purpose of "monopolizing the rights and transferring private individuals" and was "not discussed by the cabinet".

On October 26, another Yushi Fan Zhijie played the game, accusing Sheng Xuanhuai of taking different compensation methods for railway state-owned countries in different regions in order to conduct insider trading in the stock market. Of course, this is just another rumor.

This Yushi proposed that Sheng Xuanhuai was only a minister at present, and if he was in the position of vice premier, "What can not be done to steal jade and steal jun?" "Fang Jin lord is less suspicious of the country, but some ministers are so adulterous, they do not declare a crime, they are punished by the Ming Dynasty, and they are afraid of the king's power and succession, and the consequences are even more imaginable." The question of Sheng Xuanhuai will be put on the line to the height of usurping power.

The danger was gradually pressing against Sheng Xuanhuai, and finally reached its peak at the October 25 meeting of the "Senior Council" of the national parliament: the Senior Council passed a resolution asking the government to remove Sheng Xuanhuai from all positions.

Sheng Xuanhuai actually showed his childish side at this critical moment. That night, Sheng Xuanhuai was still writing a long defense statement, refuting the accusations of the parliamentarians article by article, and "asking for dismissal to avoid suspicion." Sure enough, Sheng Xuanhuai's request to resign and withdraw from the scene with dignity was ignored, and the central authorities did not hesitate to throw him out: dismissed from his post and never used him. The members of the House of Elders still did not spare him, and directly resorted to the most severe punishment: the death penalty.

At this point, Sheng Xuanhuai completely entered the "pig eight precepts dilemma" that was not human inside and outside: in the eyes of the "revolutionaries", he was the fiercest and firmest counter-revolutionary, even more fierce and firm than the nobles of the imperial family such as Yin Chang and Zai Ze; and the regime he did not hesitate to bow down and try to save, but he ignored and cold-bloodedly threw him out as a scapegoat, and Shitu used this to slow down the collapse of the edifice.

The Road to Escape

The national legislature, in the name of "the people" and "constitutionalism", without trial procedures, demanded the execution of a senior government leader by more than 100 votes, provided that the evidence was scarce. This is undoubtedly a spectacle in the history of the world parliaments.

The world's media have followed up on this. The Washington Post sent a cable on the 27th (seen on the 28th), in the newspaper, the newspaper used a long subtitle: "Shimono's cabinet minister Sheng Xuanhuai, has fled Beijing to avoid assassination, and he is believed to have been granted asylum from foreign diplomatic agencies." ”

The Washington Post report went on to say that Sheng Xuanhuai was rumored to have fled into the U.S. Embassy and was escorted by 10 foreign soldiers to Tianjin. However, when the newspaper checked with the U.S. Embassy, Embassy Counsellor Edward denied it.

The reporter continued to excavate that on the same day, a follower of Sheng Xuanhuai made an emergency visit to the US Embassy. Subsequently, the U.S. and British envoys held consultations and convened a joint meeting of the envoys of the United States, Britain, France, and Germany. Immediately after the meeting, he met with Chinese Premier Prince Qing and expressed strong concern about Sheng Xuanhuai's safety. The report said that the four countries came forward because Sheng Xuanhuai was a major participant in the railway loan negotiations with the four syndicates. Sheng Xuan's current situation is very relevant to this negotiation, and countries have a moral responsibility to protect him.

The Washington Post report proved to be true afterwards. In a more detailed postal report (arrived in London on 17 November), British Minister Juldian reported more details.

The report said that after Sheng Xuanhuai learned of the movements of the Senior Cabinet, he immediately sought the help of the US Embassy, which in turn informed the British Embassy and decided to take joint action by the four countries.

At the U.S. Embassy, Sheng Xuanhuai expressed to the ministers of various countries that he was extremely worried about the safety of his life and hoped to take refuge in Shanghai via Tianjin. The ministers of various countries decided that each embassy would send 2 soldiers, a total of 8 people, fully armed, accompanied by Ding Jiali and Patton, Secretaries of the Chinese language of the British and American Embassies, to escort Sheng Xuanhuai to the Tianjin Concession.

That night (27th), Sheng Xuanhuai left Beijing under the close protection of the "multinational forces" of the United States, Britain, Germany and France.