We read all the lead to present a different history.
As we all know, Yuan Shikai trained a Beiyang army in his early years, and in this army, Wang Shizhen, Duan Qirui and Feng Guozhang were outstanding in talent, and won the reputation of "Three Masters of Beiyang", of which Wang Shizhen was the most talented. However, in the history of the Republic of China, Wang Shizhen was worse than the other two, and when the other two became warlords, he was even slapped by a small soldier.
▲ Wang Shizhen old photo
Wang Shizhen, Zi Pingqing, Xianfeng eleventh year (1861 AD) was born in Zhengding, the great-grandfather dynasty is the famous medical holy hand, grandfather Wang Luan Kao Zhongxiucai, but also good at medicine, martial arts, has the "Rong Ma Shusheng" known as . Due to the early death of both his father and uncle, Wang Shizhen lived with his widowed mother from an early age, and under such difficult conditions, his mother still sent him to a private school. In the second year of Guangxu (1876 AD), Ye Zhichao of Zhengding Town saw Wang Shizhen by chance, and felt that the child was quite clever, so he accepted him as a service soldier. Two years later, Wang Shizhen was admitted to the Zhengding Town General Soldier Cadet Corps, and was immediately transferred to Shanhaiguan with Ye Zhichao. In the 20th year of Guangxu (1894 AD), Wang Shizhen went to Pyongyang, Korea to participate in the "Sino-Japanese Sino-Japanese War", and led the artillery team to attack the Japanese army, causing large-scale casualties, and Wang Shizhen's ring finger was unfortunately destroyed in this battle.
▲Small station training garden
The fiasco of the Sino-Japanese War made the government and the public feel humiliated, realizing that if they did not train a few new-style armies, they would be divided up by the great powers sooner or later. In November of the same year, the Qing government set up the "Supervision and 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, Yuan Shikai was ordered to supervise the training of the new army. However, Yuan Shikai also knew very well that he would not be able to rely on himself alone, so on the recommendation of his friend Yin Chang, Yuan Shikai invited Wang Shizhen to help.
▲ Small station new army recruitment notice
Therefore, Wang Shizhen actively helped Yuan Shikai to prepare for the beiyang new army, responsible for recruiting and training. Wang Shizhen's talent was fully displayed, and the new army won praise from all sides under his training, and Rong Lu praised it: "This person is responsible for the ability to govern the country, and he is not the first to be better than the military." In October of the 32nd year of Guangxu (1906 AD), Empress Dowager Cixi and ministers from various countries visited the Autumn Exercise of the Beiyang Army in Zhangde, Hebei Province, and everyone was amazed by the temperament of the new army. Empress Dowager Cixi summoned Wang Shizhen afterwards, praised him greatly, and even said, "How nice it would be if I had a son like you." Wang Shizhen was touched by the words, prostrated his head in thanksgiving, and from then on strengthened his determination to swear allegiance to Daqing to the death. In the same year, the Military Department and the Training Department were merged into the War Department, and Wang Shizhen was appointed as the Right Attendant of the War Department.
▲ During the Zhangde Autumn Exercise, the Qing army talked with foreign officers
However, Wang Shizhen's boss Yuan Shikai did not think so. In the third year of Xuantong (1912 AD), Yuan Shikai forced Emperor Xuantong to abdicate, and the Qing Dynasty fell from then on. Wang Shizhen, who suffered this drastic change, resigned his official position in anger and directly returned to his hometown to live in seclusion. During the period of seclusion, Wang Shizhen dressed in Qing Dynasty official clothes every day, and her hairstyle did not change at all. It can be said that Wang Shizhen always misses the Qing Dynasty in his heart, but the Qing Dynasty is dead, and he can only choose to live in seclusion. During the Republic of China period, Duan Qirui and Feng Guozhang, who had been with his colleagues for many years, had long become great warlords, calling the wind and rain in the political arena, and he was just an ordinary person who was idle at home. One day, Wang Shizhen was walking near the city wall of the Zhengding Line, and when he encountered soldiers tearing down the wall, he went forward to inquire. However, these soldiers belonged to the Feng Army, did not know Wang Shizhen at all, and saw that he was dressed in ordinary clothes, and did not pay any attention to him at all. Seeing Wang Shizhen repeatedly persuading him not to tear down the wall, the soldiers felt upset, and one of them even gave him a direct slap.
▲ Edict of Abdication of Emperor Xuantong
After being humiliated, Wang Shizhen returned home and directly took out a pen and paper to write a letter to the local officer, explaining the importance of the city wall in flood control and military, and explicitly stating that the wall could not be demolished. The commander of the garrison heard that Wang Shizhen's prestige was great, so he withdrew the soldiers who had demolished the wall, but Wang Shizhen was slapped and slapped. During the Republic of China period, due to Feng Guozhang's request, Wang Shizhen also served as an official several times, and even served as the prime minister of the cabinet, but each time he resigned and returned to his hometown within three months. At that time, the Beiyang warlords had been fighting for a long time, and successively broke out the Zhiwan War and the Zhifeng War, and the city of Beijing often faced the threat of war. Wang Shizhen used his prestige to mediate and mediate, and twice organized law and order maintenance meetings to avoid war in Beijing.
▲Wang Shizhen's former residence
In his later years, Wang Shizhen lived in Beijing and devoted himself to academic research. In the nineteenth year of the Republic of China (1930 AD), Wang Shizhen was born with liver cancer at the age of 70. Although Wang Shizhen was the head of the "Three Masters of Beiyang", what he did was completely different from the other two warlords, indifferent to fame and fortune, not loving power, and also bringing peace and tranquility to the people of his hometown and Beijing City, which won high praise from the people at that time, and the evaluation of him by later historians was mostly positive.
bibliography:
"Biography of The Characters of the Republic of China, Volume 7, Wang Shizhen"