After the death of the leader Yuan Shikai, the Beiyang warlords were leaderless and split into factions such as the direct line headed by Cao Kun and Wu Peifu and the Anhui faction headed by Duan Qirui, although they fought fierce armed struggles between Zhiwan and Anhui in order to compete for power and profit, but in their later years they all understood the national righteousness and were ashamed to cooperate with the Japanese.
If we pull the bottom line of the Beiyang era very low, Cao Kun's bribery election also has some "shining" points, such as at least he still respects the rules of the game, and also treats the votes and parliament as a number, and does not directly use the barrel of a gun to force people to vote. This also shows that the concept of bourgeois democracy has indeed penetrated the hearts of the people at some times and in certain places.
Cao Kunrong costume
Cao Kun zi Zhongshan, who entered a private school for several years at an early age, pushed a cart to the countryside to retail cloth at the age of sixteen. At the age of twenty, yuan shikai recruited new soldiers at the small station, so he enlisted in the army. Cao Kun, with his burly physique and rough writing, was soon selected to be sent to the second phase of the Wubei Academy, and after graduation, he served as a sentinel officer. Cao Kun was good at drilling camps, and was promoted to the third town commander of the army in 1906 after Cao Kezhong's aunt asked Yuan Shikai for help.
In 1912, the Republic of China was founded, the third town was changed to the third division, and Cao Kun succeeded him as the commander of the division, and since then he has become Yuan's right-hand man. In 1915, Yuan Shikai conspired to claim the title of emperor and made Cao Kun the "General of Huwei". Cai Yi and others revolted in Yunnan to woo Yuan, and Yuan sent Cao to lead troops into Sichuan to suppress the rebellion. Yuan claimed that the emperor had failed, and Cao led his troops back to Hubei and garrisoned Wuhan.
In 1916, Cao Kunyin sent his brother Cao Kun to Beijing with a large amount of money, bribed Jin Yunpeng and others, and suggested to Duan Qirui that Cao Kun be appointed as the governor of the province directly subordinate to him, which laid the foundation for him to become a hegemon in the later warlord chaos era. In 1917, Zhang Xun was restored, and Duan Qirui appointed Cao as the commander-in-chief of the Western Road Rebel Army. Zhang Xun failed, Duan planned to unify China by force, appointed Cao and Lianghu Xuanfu envoy, led his troops south to capture Hunan, and then promoted the four provinces to the post of envoy with battle merit. After the Zhiwan War and the First Zhifeng War, Cao became the head of the Beiyang warlords, soaring upwards, and in 1919 he was appointed as the inspector of the three provinces of Zhilu and Yu.
On October 5, 1923, Cao Kun was elected as the fifth president of the Republic of China by bribing parliamentarians with heavy money and bribing the election. Cao Kun's bribery was the culmination of the expansion of the direct forces and the turning point of his decline. Because just when the direct family was trying to engage in these dark smoke miasma things, Guan wai, Zhang Zuolin sharpened his knife and wanted to repay the revenge of the first direct war, Guan Nei, Feng Yuxiang was also considered to be a minister from the dragon, but there was no reward, very dissatisfied.
Congress of the Republic of China
A year later, in October 1924, the Second Zhifeng War broke out, Feng Yuxiang defected, and the direct warlord Cao Kun spent more than 10 million bribes to elect the president.
On November 2, Cao Kun had been under house arrest by the Nationalist army for ten days, and under the attack of Zhang Zuolin and Feng Yuxiang, the direct line was gone, and Wu Peifu did not know where to go. Cao Kun was more concerned about the safety of himself and his family than those who had gone to the imperial court, because Feng Yuxiang's brother, Sun Yue, the commander of the Third Army of the Nationalist Army, stood in front of him, asked him for the seal of the President, and advised him to abdicate.
Feng Yuxiang
Cao Kun looked at the person in front of him who had been pulled up by his own hand and had been the captain of his own guard, and had mixed feelings. He had only been in the presidency for a year. A year ago, he also sent people to force the then President Li Yuanhong to hand over the Letter of the President and resign, so as to make room for himself to ascend to the throne. Afterwards, Cao Kun became the president as he wished through bribery.
Cao Kun may not have thought that he would be the last president of the Beiyang era, nor would he have thought that the stories of Cao Wei Daihan and Sima Dai Cao would be staged on him.
Because Cao Kun "bribed" the president, Wu Peifu was the main target of the Northern Expedition of the National Revolutionary Army, and their original reputation was not glorious. Cao Kun was ousted by Feng Yuxiang and lived in Tianjin, and Wu Peifu settled in Beijing after being defeated by the Northern Expeditionary Army, so the Japanese invaders tried to co-opt them to form a so-called "North China Autonomous" government that split China after occupying North China. However, no matter how much the Japanese coerced and seduced them, they refused to cooperate, maintained the late festival, and successfully won back an important round in order to save their image.
Cao Kun in his later years
After their deaths, Wu Peifu received the state funeral treatment of the Nationalist government, and Cao Kun was also commended by the Nationalist government's special order and posthumously awarded the rank of general of the Army.