In the life of Yuan Shikai, the president of the Republic of China and the Hongxian Emperor, there were many hostile people, such as Zaifeng, Sun Yat-sen, Cai Yi, and so on, but if you really want to talk about who makes Yuan Shikai hate the most, it is Chen Mi. If you only talk about identity and influence, Chen Mi does not say Sun Yat-sen, Cai Yi, even Feng Guozhang is not comparable, the reason why Yuan Shikai hates him so much is because he trusts Chen Mi too much.
Chen Mi was originally from Anlu, Hubei Province, and his father died early since he was a child, relying on his mother to pull the two brothers together. Chen Mi's brother had never read a book, but was just a farmer who farmed the land. Because Chen Mi was obsessed with reading, in the eyes of his brother, he felt that he was just a nerd, and he would not do anything else, and he had to provide for himself, and he beat Chen Mi in one breath. Chen Mi couldn't stand this idleness, and in a fit of anger, ran to Wuchang to be admitted to the Self-Improvement Academy, and soon after transferred to the Hubei Wubei Academy, hoping to be able to get a meritorious name for the eldest brother to see.
Chen Mi
Unfortunately, Chen Mi finally fell off the list, he had nowhere to go for a while, and he was embarrassed to go home, and he could only fool around in the capital. Fortunately, at that time, Chen Mi had a distant uncle named Chen Xuedi, who was serving as the Shangshu of the Ministry of Works at that time. At his recommendation, Chen Mi was able to enter the Beijing Normal University Hall to continue his studies. Unfortunately, Chen Mi never had the luck of being admitted to the imperial examination, and in the end he still got nothing, and it was very difficult to make a living. In the end, Lin Kaimo, who was still Chen Xuedi's student and then the political director of Henan, asked Chen Mi to help read the papers, and only then did he temporarily settle down.
However, the work of reading the file was only available after the examination was completed, and soon Chen Mi was unemployed again. Before the paper reading work was 16 taels of silver a month, Chen Mi soon ran out of money, and he was embarrassed to go home, so he could only hide in the temple and eat. It just so happened that xi liang, the governor of Sichuan, was looking for talents all over the world, and Lin Kaimo did a good job to the end, so he recommended Chen Mi to the past. Seeing that the opportunity had come, Chen Mi certainly would not miss it, and immediately took a boat carrying fish to Chengdu and went all the way along the river to Chengdu.
The trip to Chengdu was indeed the beginning of Chen Mi's good fortune, and he and Xi Liang saw each other as they were, and were soon promoted to the Sichuan Army Armed Forces Academy, responsible for cultivating officers of the New Army. Later, Xi Liang became the governor of Yungui and took Chen Mi to Yunnan to take charge of the Yunnan Gongwu Hall. It was also during this period that Chen Mi laid a solid foundation in the southwest region, and the future Yin Changheng, Liu Cunhou, Liu Chengxun, and Marshal Zhu De, the founding father of our country, can be regarded as his students. When Xi Liang went to serve as the governor of the three eastern provinces, he still took Chen Mi with him, and this time Chen Mi was not only in charge of the Northeast Lecture Hall, but also took charge of the new army in the twentieth town. Originally, it was impossible for Chen Mi to serve as a ruler with his seniority and official position, or Xi Liang secretly donated money to him to donate a four-pin official to be promoted. It was at this time that Chen Mi became famous and became the "Three Masters of Hubei" with two other Hubei generals, Wu Luzhen and Lan Tianwei.
After the victory of the Xinhai Revolution, Xi Liang retreated, and Chen Mi leaned on Yuan Shikai again. At that time, Chen Mi was not only famous in the world, but also had extensive contacts in the southwest, which was exactly the talent that Yuan Shikai needed to fight for. Soon after, Chen Mi was appointed deputy chief of staff by Yuan Shikai, and the chief of staff at that time, Li Yuanhong, was not only far away in Wuhan, but also did not care about specific affairs at all, in fact, the staff headquarters was Chen Mi's decision alone. As Yuan Shikai's most important aide, during the second revolution, Chen Mi offered advice and suggestions, and through various methods such as bribery, co-optation, and persuasion, he made great contributions to Yuan Shikai's defeat of the Kuomintang overseers in the southern provinces, and he was more and more valued.
In 1915, Yuan Shikai decided to transfer Chen Mi to Sichuan as an overseer in order to make Sichuan a strategic location for himself through the southwest. At that time, Yuan Shikai was already determined to become emperor, and he was still undecided about the future "crown prince", and his requirement for Chen Mi was to run Sichuan well, so that in the future he might seal his eldest son Yuan Keding to Sichuan as the king of Shu. Before leaving, Yuan Shikai also deliberately asked Chen Mi and Yuan Keding to exchange Gengtei to worship as brothers with different surnames, so that they could cooperate and work together in the future.
Yuan Keding
Chen Mi suddenly served as a party member, his heart was abnormal, and he deliberately returned to his hometown of Hubei to circle around, and came to a good play of returning home before going west into Sichuan. In order for Chen Mi to smoothly control Sichuan, Yuan Shikai also specially sent him three mixed brigades of the Beiyang Army. In fact, Yuan Shikai was worried, the Sichuan overseer at that time was Hu Jingyi, and it can be said that there was no resistance at all in front of Chen Mi. Hu Jingyi was able to drive out Yin Changheng and defeat Xiong Kewu in large part because he worshiped under Chen Mi. Hu Jingyi had previously taught at the Wubei Academy, and he happened to be Chen Mi's subordinate, and even if he dared to resist, he had to go to Beijing to become an idle general himself, ceding Sichuan to Chen Mi.
After Chen Mi arrived in Sichuan, he mainly did two things, one was to eliminate the remaining revolutionary parties in various parts of Sichuan, and the other was to rebuild the Shu Palace in Chengdu according to the appearance of the Beijing Palace. The people around Chen Mi were very strange: "After you arrived in Sichuan as an overseer, you didn't do anything else, so why did you focus on repairing the palace?" Chen Mi replied, "I am working for the eldest Yuan Keding, and he may be crowned the King of Shu in the future, so I have to repair the palace for him first." The bystander wondered, "Isn't he the eldest son, then how could someone who will be the prince run to Sichuan to become the king of the clan?" Chen Mi sighed: "I don't think the prince may have the turn to get him, the great president has the meaning of standing up for love and not standing up for a long time, I feel that the old fifth Yuan Kequan is more likely to be the prince." ”
Chen Mi repaired the palace in Sichuan, but did not wait for Yuan Keding, but waited for Cai Yi's protectorate army. Chen Mi and Cai Yi are also old friends, after Cai Yi was transferred to Beijing, because both of them had served in the Yunnan DaowuTang, they had some origins, and they became friends after coming and going, and the general of the Xiang Army, Zhao Hengti, and others were rescued by Chen Mi for Cai Yi. Seeing that Cai Yi was leading the army to come, Chen Mi's first reaction was not to send an army to resist, but to panic himself first. Because Chen Mi had heard Yuan Shikai's evaluation of Cai Yi, he thought that Cai Yi was a person who could accomplish things once he started, and he was afraid that it would be difficult to resist.
Before this could start fighting, Chen Mi first frightened himself, and if he could win the battle, there would be a ghost. At that time, Chen Mi had three divisions of the Sichuan Army under his command, plus three brigades of the Beiyang Army, but he did not trust much. Chen Mi once privately told his secretary Hu Egong: "You don't look at the fact that I have so many people under me, but in fact only Wu Xiangzhen can be trusted, and no one else can be trusted." ”
Chen Mi first sent the Sichuan army to meet the defending army. In fact, at that time, the defending army was only a few thousand people, and although the number of Sichuan troops was large, because Chen Mi wanted to reduce the Sichuan army before, it was completely demoralized. The sichuan army general Liu Cunhou was Cai Yi's former subordinate, who had participated in the Yunnan uprising in his early years, and he himself was somewhat dissatisfied with Chen Mi, so he simply revolted directly before the battle and appointed himself as the commander of the Sichuan Protectorate Army. Under such circumstances, the Sichuan army could still fight, and was soon defeated by the defending army, so it had to retreat in a daze, and for a while the patriotic army actually attacked the important town of Xuzhou in southern Sichuan.
Xuzhou is now Yibin, and Zigong was an important well salt producing area in Sichuan at that time, providing a large part of the tax revenue for Sichuan, Chen Mi of course could not sit and watch Xuzhou be beaten, and quickly sent the Beiyang Army. In addition to staying with Li Bing's brigade, Wu Xiangzhen and Feng Yuxiang personally led the Beiyang Brigade and the various units of the Sichuan Army to rescue Xuzhou in four ways. In the Battle of Xuzhou, all the defenders of the country bravely advanced, and even defeated Wu Xiangzhen and others again with fewer victories, and even Feng Yuxiang was injured. Seeing that Xuzhou was about to be lost, fortunately, Cao Kun and others finally arrived.
After Yunnan declared independence, Yuan Shikai soon ordered Cao Kun's Third Division, Zhang Jingyao's Seventh Division, and Li Changtai's Eighth Division to enter Sichuan and prepare to attack Yunnan directly. After Cao Kun and the others arrived, it was too late to fight Yunnan, and they first had to confront the defending army in the direction of Luzhou. Although Chen Mi was relieved, he was also dissatisfied with Yuan Shikai in his heart, because Yuan Shikai did not greet him in advance because of the matter of letting Cao Kun and others enter Sichuan. Coupled with the fact that Yuan Shikai had suddenly asked Zhang Liandi to come to Sichuan to replace Chen Mi's confidant Liu Yiqing as chief of staff, Chen Mi's first reaction was that Yuan Shikai no longer trusted him.
Although Chen Mi was deeply trusted by Yuan Shikai at that time, he also had his own troubles, that is, he was not from the Beiyang lineage, and he could not get along with Duan Qirui, Feng Guozhang and others, and later the Six Gentlemen and others that Yuan Shikai reused when he engaged in the imperial system were not involved in the preparatory meeting because Chen Mi did not participate in the preparatory meeting, and he was not a fellow traveler. In Chen Mi's view, he was isolated and helpless, and now that he had lost Yuan Shikai's trust, even if he repelled the defending army, it would be difficult for him to keep his position. Under this idea, Chen Mi began to ride the wall, he perfunctorily looked at Yuan Shikai, and on the other hand, he let his confidant Deng Hanxiang contact Liu Cunhou and let him switch to himself to contact Cai Yi.
In fact, the situation of the defending army at that time was also very difficult, not only to face Cao Kun on the Luzhou side, but also to face Chen Mi on the Xuzhou side. Chen Mi's letter made Cai Yi very happy, and the two began to exchange information. Although there was no truce on the Xuzhou side, it was almost the same, both sides were shouting and shooting indiscriminately, only hearing a loud noise on the position, but there was no one charging, and the two sides actually did not fight at all, which also allowed Cai Yi to concentrate on dealing with Cao Kun.
Cai Yi
Cai Yi originally wanted to ask Chen Mi to declare independence, but Chen Mi refused to do so. Cai Yi also knew that Chen Mi would certainly not jump out against Yuan in the face of an unclear situation, so he only asked Chen Mi for some military salaries and other support. Chen Mi only wanted to please both sides, but he was also happy to do these things to build a good relationship with the National Protector Army. In fact, at that time, because Yunnan did not give support, the Defending Army was already difficult to support, and with the support of Chen Mi, the Protectorate Army was able to defeat the Beiyang Army in Luzhou again.
When the Protectorate Army was fighting for the Beiyang Army, Chen Mi was not doing nothing, he was busy gathering his subordinates to discuss what to do next. Hu Egong was already a revolutionary, so he took the opportunity to persuade Chen Mi to become independent. Chen Mi was still hesitant, he had a total of three ways to go in his heart, one was to directly declare independence, the other was to first win over Zhou Jun, commander of the First Division of the Sichuan Army, and then to pull Liu Cunhou back, and then declare independence when there were more troops, and the third was to first see the ideas of other overseers. In the end, Chen Mi chose the third way in order to be safe, and asked Hu Egong to listen to the meaning of Feng Guozhang, the overseer of Jiangsu, and Tang Qianming, the overseer of Hunan.
After Hu Egong arrived in Wuhan, he first contacted other revolutionaries to go to Hunan to inquire about Tang Qianming's meaning. Although Tang Qianming did not directly express his meaning, he asked them to go to Shanghai to ask their eldest brother Tang Hualong's thoughts. Tang Hualong was originally opposed to Yuan Shikai's imperial system, and Tang Qianming's idea was already obvious, but because he killed too many people in Hunan, he was afraid of not getting support, and did not dare to stand up and respond to the protection of the country. Hu Egong then rushed to Nanjing to see Feng Guozhang, who, although he did not show any thoughts, often complained about Yuan Shikai's distrust of him. At this moment, Hu Egong's heart was big stone, and he hurried to Shanghai to meet Tang Hualong and hurried back to Chengdu to return to Chen Mi.
After Chen Mi got the reward, he still couldn't make up his mind, he felt that after all, he was deeply used by Yuan Shikai, and he was Yuan Keding's brother-in-law, and if he jumped out of independence, it would be a bit ungrateful. However, if he was not independent, Chen Mi was afraid of being crushed and killed by Yuan Shikai like he had dealt with Tang Shaoyi and Zhao Bingjun. After thinking about it, Chen Mi still couldn't make up his mind, so he simply decided to wait for Feng Guozhang and others to come out first.
Soon after, Feng Guozhang's telegram "Five Generals Electrified" was reported to Yuan Shikai by Zhu Jiabao, who realized that the general trend was gone and finally ordered the abolition of the imperial system. At this time, Chen Mi still did not move at all. In fact, Chen Mi was a little worried, Yuan Shikai still trusted him very much, and even regarded him as the "Southwest Pillar", believing that he and the "Southeast Pillar" Zheng Rucheng were a major support for protecting his own Country. Even after the abolition of the imperial system, Yuan Shikai still did not know that Chen Mi was playing a duplicitous faction, and deliberately put Chen Mi in charge of peace talks with Cai Yi and others to discuss how to truce the war.
On May 22, under the repeated urging of Cai Yi, Feng Guozhang, and others, Chen Mi felt that Yuan Shikai's general trend had gone, so he took the opportunity to officially issue a telegram, appointing himself as the governor of Sichuan, and declaring the official independence of Sichuan.
Jiangdian
It should be pointed out in particular that although this telegram was not written by Chen Mi, the sentence "From today onwards, Sichuan Province will sever ties with Yuan Shi personally" was added by himself, which meant that he wanted to completely sever relations with Yuan Shikai.
Yuan Shikai never dreamed that Chen Mi, who he regarded as a pillar, would actually be so reversed, which was far greater than Feng Guozhang and others. After all, Yuan Shikai had long been suspicious of Feng Guozhang and others, but he had always trusted Chen Mi as a confidant. And now even Cai Yi and others are only asking him to abdicate, and Chen Mi, a close confidant who was pulled by his hand, not only wants him to abdicate, but also breaks off personal relations, which is really too infuriating. After Yuan Shikai read the telegram, he was fainted on the spot. After Yuan Shikai woke up, his illness became more and more serious, and he kept saying that it was now "a great change in people's hearts". He couldn't help but tell his confidant Liang Shiyi, "You see that even Chen Er'an (i.e., Chen Er'an) has done this to me, what else can I say?" At this point, I will abdicate as president. ”
Although there was nothing to say, Yuan Shikai could not swallow this breath after all, and he quickly sent a telegram, specifically scolding Chen Mi for eating inside and outside. In the end, Yuan Shikai also made a cruel move, that is, to remove Chen Mi from his post as the governor of Sichuan and replace him with Zhou Jun. Yuan Shikai saw at a glance the death pit of Chen Mi, although he seemed to be pulling between the two sides now, but in fact relied on the position of sichuan overseer. Once he was not the Sichuan Overseer, Chen Mi was neither a revolutionary party nor a Beiyang clique, and it would be too difficult to make a comeback. A few days after the telegram was sent, Yuan Shikai died, and Chen Mi's political life was almost over.
After Chen Mi declared independence, he had already leaned toward the Defending Army, but when Yuan Shikai died, his old problems were committed again, and he felt that the Beiyang Army was powerful and that the Defending Army would have to compromise sooner or later, so he simply canceled independence first. At that time, the peace talks between the north and the south had not yet been discussed, but Chen Mi jumped out first and canceled independence, which seemed to Cai Yi and other defending troops to be tantamount to betrayal. On the other hand, Zhou Jun also began to act. Yuan Shikai not only appointed Zhou Jun as the overseer of Sichuan, but also specially instructed Cao Kun and others in Sichuan to assist Zhou Jun in ascending to the throne. However, because Yuan Shikai died soon after, and the defending army was close at hand, Cao Kun was only one of Li Bing's brigades in Chongqing, the Beiyang Army, and the rest was left to Zhou Jun to deal with.
Duan Qirui
Zhou Jun did not realize that the Sichuan overseer was a hot potato, and thought that his opportunity for promotion had arrived, so he took the First Division of the Sichuan Army all the way to Chengdu. At that time, although Chen Mi had two Beiyang brigades under him, Wu Xiangzhen and Feng Yuxiang, neither of them was willing to block the enemy for him. In fact, not only Wu Xiangzhen and Feng Yuxiang, but also Duan Qirui and other Beiyang people and horses had opinions on Chen Mi. The biggest problem was that Chen Mi himself drew a snake on Jiangdian and added a personal relationship with Yuan Shikai. In the eyes of the Beiyang generals, although Yuan Shikai called the emperor unpopular, after all, he was their former leader, and they all had the grace of promotion, and even Feng Guozhang and others did not say that they would sever personal relations with Yuan Shikai. Chen Mi, who had also received yuan shikai's great favor, had to sever his personal relationship, so that all the beiyang generals felt that Chen Mi was ungrateful and an authentic villain.
Seeing that the Beiyang Army did not help, Chen Mi had to turn to Cai Yi for help. At this time, Chen Mi had already defected from the camp of the Defending Army, and Cai Yi was originally reluctant to send troops, but he could not resist Chen Mi's repeated requests, plus the two had a good relationship, so they still sent rescue troops. It was too late for this rescue soldier, and Chen Mi could not resist Zhou Jun, so he had to announce that he had left the wilderness and left Chengdu on his own. Only Zhou Jun, who had just entered Chengdu, had arrived, and he himself had to follow in Chen Mi's footsteps and run to Beijing to become an idle general.
After leaving Chengdu, Chen Mi's political career was also over. Duan Qirui, who was in control of the Beiyang government at that time, even wanted to find trouble for Chen Mi, on the one hand, he felt that Chen Mi was ungrateful and too cruel to Yuan Shikai, on the other hand, because he was fighting with Feng Guozhang for the boss of the Beiyang department, and Chen Mi was close to Feng Guozhang. Later, although under the persuasion of others, Duan Qirui did not trouble Chen Mi, but it was impossible to reuse Chen Mi again. Chen Mi, a well-known "Hubei Sanjie" in the early days of the Republic of China, left the political stage.