During the Beiyang period, the throne of the president of the Republic of China was like a marquee, but after all, they were all "temporary workers", so there were many jokes. However, Feng Guozhang, a "temporary worker", left the biggest laughing stock for the Beiyang government. At that time, Feng Guozhang had just entered Zhongnanhai on behalf of the President of the Republic of China, and saw that there were many fish with gold circles hanging in the Jinshui River, so he casually asked: "What kind of fish are these?" The attendant quickly replied, "These are all stocked by the Lord of the Forbidden City in all dynasties, and the oldest fish has been for hundreds of years." The emperors of the past dynasties also put gold rings on the big fish and hung gold medals. "Oh? If you sell all these fish, it should be worth a lot of money, right? Feng Guozhang seemed to ask inadvertently, and the followers were speechless and right, thinking that he did not take it seriously on a whim. But no one expected that the next day Feng Guozhang really sent someone to catch all the fish in the Jinshui River and sell them along the street. For a time, "presidential fish" was sold everywhere in Beijing, and in a few days, the fish in the Jinshui River were snapped up, and all the money from the sale of fish also fell into Feng Guozhang's pocket. Nowadays, some people jokingly say: "Prime Minister Tanglin logging, Fuehrer South China Sea selling fish", "fish selling incident" has also become a historical joke, see here everyone must think that Feng Guozhang is an unlearned, money-hungry and greedy bastard, right? However, the historical Feng Guozhang was not only known as one of the "Three Masters of Beiyang", but also became the vice president and acting president of the Republic of China. He also vigorously opposed Yuan Shikai's claim to the throne and eventually persuaded Yuan to abdicate.
Feng Guozhang (1859-1919) was a native of Xishijing Village, Hejian County, Hebei Province, and a descendant of Feng Sheng, the founding minister of the Ming Dynasty. Feng Guozhang's grandfather was a rich man on the rich side, but when he came to Feng Guozhang, he fell into the middle of the family, and when he was 25 years old, he was introduced by his cousin to Go to Dagukou to join the Huai Army and start his military career. Perhaps even Feng Guozhang himself did not expect that from this time until his death, he was almost involved in the major historical events that took place in China. In his first year, he took part in the Sino-Japanese Sino-Japanese Naval Battle, and after the war he was ordered to go to Japan to investigate, thus gaining access to modern army knowledge. After returning to China, he did not get it for a while, until Yuan Shikai's small station training he met Yuan Shikai under the recommendation of his teacher. Yuan Shikai, after reading Feng Guozhang's "Book of Soldiers", immediately recruited Feng Guozhang into the small station, and duan Qirui and Wang Shizhen were also recruited into the small station. Feng Guozhang was deeply supported and loved by the students in his teaching. Soon he was promoted to the general office of the Camp Governor's Office. Feng Guozhang, together with Wang Shizhen, Duan Qirui, and others, also worked together to compile 22 volumes of "Detailed Illustrations of Training Exercises", which became the standard textbook for the accompanying camp schools and the main teaching materials for China's military schools and the preparation and training of the new army at the end of the Qing Dynasty. It is said that once Yuan Shikai invited the German governor to watch the exercises of the new army together, only to hear Feng Guozhang's password under the stage, "one move is ten thousand feet, one gun is ten thousand guns in unison, and the line is like running waves, standing like a straight log." Yuan Shikai praised Feng Guozhang, Duan Qirui, and Wang Shizhen as the "Three Masters of Beiyang". Since then, Feng Guozhang has also begun a political career inseparable from Yuan Shikai, and because he overly obeys Yuan Shikai's intentions, the original "Leopard of Beiyang" has also been changed to "Dog of Beiyang" by posterity.
When the "Xinhai Revolution" broke out in 1911, Yuan Shikai used the revolutionary army to force the Qing Emperor to abdicate, and on the other hand, he used his heavy army and was in Gyeonggi to negotiate peace with the revolutionary army. During this period, Feng Guozhang did his best to finally help Yuan Shikai sit in the position of president of the Republic of China. Yuan Shikai also repaid Li, and in September 1912, Feng Guozhang was appointed as the governor and civil administrator of the province directly under his jurisdiction. He was promoted to general in 1914. Since then, he has become Yuan Shikai's right and left arm. After Yuan Shikai climbed to the position of president, he gradually developed the idea of being called emperor. When Feng Guozhang learned the news that Yuan's father and son were planning the imperial system in Beijing, he was very surprised. So after entering Beijing to understand the inside story, after getting Yuan Shikai's promise that "if the people of the country force him to become emperor, he will go to England to become a Duke of Yu", Feng Guozhang returned to Nanjing, who knew that Feng Guozhang had just left on the front foot, and the back foot in the capital began to prepare for the imperial system in a hurry. When the news came, Feng Guozhang immediately went to the secret telegram to question Zhang Yimo, director of the Confidential Bureau of the Presidential Office, and got a reply that "there is a reason for the incident." Feng Guozhang deeply felt deceived and indignantly said: "Why does he regard us as his own people?" His work is really not bad! Since then, the contradiction between Feng Guozhang and Yuan Has gradually sharpened. On March 9, 1916, Feng Guozhang sent a telegram to Yuan Shikai to fake the matter, and from then on, he openly opposed the imperial system, and became "the first central figure in the Beiyang faction to oppose Emperor Hongxian". On the one hand, he contacted all parties in beiyang to oppose the imperial system, and on the other hand, he demanded that the southern army "abolish independence, withdraw from the theater of war, and protect the people.", which is the content of the famous "five generals secret telegram". After Yuan Shikai received the contents of the secret telegram, he knew that the major event had gone and announced the abolition of the imperial system on March 22, 1916, and Yuan Shikai died of illness in June of the same year. After Yuan Shikai's death, Feng Guozhang became vice president, and a year later, due to Zhang Xun's restoration of Li Yuanhong, he hid in the Japanese legation. Feng Guozhang once again came forward to oppose the restoration, and after the farce, Feng Guozhang was inaugurated as acting president. Because Feng Guozhang was not willing to be a "stamping machine for activities", the "dispute between the government and the court" between Him and Duan Qirui became more and more intense, and finally Feng Guozhang had to give up the throne of "president" after the War of Protection of France. In October 1919, Feng Guozhang arrived in Beijing via Tianjin, and he wanted to unite the direct family to fight against the Anhui clan and wait for the opportunity to make a comeback, but everything failed, that is, he died suddenly on December 28 at the age of 62.
Feng Guozhang's life is wonderful and helpless. His character of cherishing money may be because his family was too poor when he was a child, but after his death, he only left an inheritance of 3 million yuan, which also shows that although he loved money, he was not greedy. When revising the family tree, he revised the ranking of the Feng family tree, and formulated the cross ranking order of "the country is forbidden to open the sea, and the major events in the East" for future generations, which also shows his foresight. When it came to his great-grandson, the famous cross-talk actor Feng Gong, he did not dare to use the word "forbidden" anymore, because of the Cultural Revolution, Feng Gong had to change his name to express his break with the "reactionary" family. However, later Feng Gong's son still used the word "kai". It can be seen that the good and bad, wrong and right of historical figures will not be conclusive in a moment. Whether Feng Guozhang is a "leopard" or a "dog" must also be left to history to comment