Cao Kun
Among the Beiyang warlords, Cao Kun is a relatively special figure, simply put, "only unworthy of the position", with his talent, he can actually ascend to the top of the position of the head of the direct line, and even in the end can covet the presidency of the Republic of China, it is really a tragedy of the direct family, his "bribery" of the authenticity is not to say, the direct family can make him the leader, the end is already doomed.
Cao Kun, born in 1862 in Dagu, Tianjin, his father Cao Bensheng was a poor shipbuilder, but he still had some vision, tightened his pants and belt and let his sons attend private school for several years. Therefore, the "three fools of Cao" are still quite literate in a few words, which is simply a standout in the case of the Chinese blindness of the late Qing Dynasty, and can also be said to lay the basic foundation for the rise of Cao Kun later.
The children of the poor family will have to make a living when they are teenagers, and Cao Kun and his father have also found a few livelihoods for Cao Kun, but building ships and farming land, Cao Kun does not want to do it, and finally has to do small business and sell cloth.
As for why Cao Kun did not go down the promising road of doing business in the end, there are different opinions, some say that Cao Kun is not good at doing a good job, selling cloth to get money to drink and gamble to discount the cost, some say that Cao San was insulted by the soldiers when he entered the city to sell cloth, beaten, robbed of cloth, in short, Cao San was angry, and joined the old Song Qing's Yi army.
Although Cao San's fool is not very clever, but he is tall, he is also a good hand when he is a soldier, not to mention that his family is not completely rooted in the Qing army, he has a family of Cao Kezhong, who started with the Xiang Army, followed Duolong'a and Zuo Zongtang all the way to make great achievements, and finally became the commander-in-chief. It is difficult to say how far away he and Cao Kun's family are, but they can't write two Cao characters in one stroke, and they are both Tianjin people, and they want to come to say a few words, probably for this reason, Cao Kun went to the Tianjin Wubei Academy after joining the army, and after he came out, he was a petty officer.
Officer at the end of the Qing Dynasty
Cao Kun later followed the Yi army into korea to participate in the Battle of Jiawu, and the next year, he arrived at Xiaozhan and joined Yuan Shikai's Beiyang Army. There is also a small relationship here, his grandfather, Cao Kezhong above, and Yuan Shikai's uncle Yuan Jiasan had a friendship when he was in the Ping Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and Pingtuo, and it is said that he and Yuan Shikai are family friends, and he can go to the Beiyang Army, which may also be Cao Kezhong's care. Therefore, Cao Kun's rise in the Beiyang Army was very stable. By the time of the Later Xinhai Revolution, Yuan Gongbao's clouds and rains, turning the world of the Qing Dynasty into his own business, Cao Kun had been steadily promoted to the commander of the Beiyang Third Division of Yuan Shikai's concubine.
At that time, Cao Kun's chief of staff was Xiao Yaonan, a Hubei native, and Xiao Kun was not good at fighting and strategizing, but he had a characteristic, high emotional intelligence, up and down, the relationship between the left and right was very good, and the relationship with Cao Kun was particularly good, and he said anything Cao Kun also liked to listen.
But Cao Kun also had a person with a super low emotional intelligence, a Shandong native, although he and Xiao Yaonan were from the same Xiucai background, but his temper was smelly and hard, and Cao Kun hated him very much and once wanted to drive him away.
But Xiao Xiucai, who has a super high emotional intelligence, attaches great importance to this Shandong person with ultra-low emotional intelligence, and often says to Cao Kun: "Wu Peifu is a talent, we are not as good as him, we must reuse it!" ”
Wu Peifu was a deputy officer at the time, saying that he was taking a "chief", in fact, people did not love the main child, the deputies of the division headquarters meeting could go, Wu this deputy commander did not have to go, it was Xiao Yaonan's push, Cao Kun began to slowly reuse Wu Peifu. Soon after, Wu was promoted to brigade commander.
Wu Peifu quickly used both "Wen" and "Wu" to prove Xiao Yaonan's vision and Cao Kun's blessing.