On the morning of June 6, 1916, Yuan Shikai summoned Xu Shichang, Duan Qirui, Wang Shizhen, Zhang Zhenfang, and others to discuss state affairs at his sickbed. However, it is not so much to discuss state affairs as to explain the aftermath.
At that time, after the crowd arrived, Yuan Shikai looked at Xu Shichang and said weakly, "About the law." ”
When Xu Shichang wanted to ask clearly, Yuan Shikai closed his eyes, and since then, this generation of tyrants who have been in the limelight has died like this, the time is 10:40 a.m. on the 6th, at the age of 57.
When Yuan Shikai was dying, there were two kinds of "covenant law": one was the "Provisional Covenant Law" formulated by Sun Yat-sen, called the Old Testament Law, which had been abolished by Yuan Shikai; the other was the "New Testament Law" formulated by Yuan Shikai, but it also accompanied his abolition of the imperial system, and the existence of the covenant law also became dispensable.
The two laws have some different provisions on the succession of the president, and whether Yuan Shikai refers to the Old Testament law or the New Testament law is not clear to several people around him.
If, according to the provisions of the New Testament law, the heir to the presidency is nominated by the current president, written on the "Jiahe Golden Jane" and hidden in the "Golden Stone Room".
In fact, this method of selecting heirs is still modeled after the Yongzheng Emperor, since the establishment of the Qing Dynasty, it has been continuously explored in the inheritance of the imperial throne, and the experience of the previous dynasty can be learned, but the drawbacks are also obvious: the concubine system can avoid the dispute between brothers, but it cannot guarantee the selection of the best; The prince system is easy to cause internal turmoil in the royal family, and the flesh and bones are fratricidal. Therefore, how to establish a reserve and how to pass the throne is quite a brainstorm. Even a wise emperor like Kangxi was overwhelmed by the "Nine Sons and Concubines".
In order to avoid the recurrence of the phenomenon of "nine sons and nine concubines", the Yongzheng Emperor created a secret reserve system, the specific method is: the emperor himself wrote the edict of the reserve in two copies, sealed and stored in a special box, one part placed behind the Qianqing Palace "Zhengda Guangming" plaque, the other copy of the emperor himself to preserve. After the emperor's death, the former imperial chancellor took out the two copies of the will, unsealed them together, and publicly announced who would succeed to the throne after the proof was correct.
The "Golden Stone Room" is in the Zhongnanhai Ten Thousand Character Corridor, which contains a yellow cloth package, which contains a piece of gold paper more than a foot long, on which are written the four characters of "Zhaomin Dragging His Life", below which are written the four characters of "Ten Thousand Years of the Republic of China", and in the middle are written the personnel who inherit the president, and the three names on the top are listed, namely: Li Yuanhong, Xu Shichang, and Duan Qirui.
It is said that this list was replaced after Yuan Shikai abolished the imperial system, and originally only had a name on it, Yuan Keding, the eldest son of Yuan Shikai, and later changed to Li Yuanhong, Xu Shichang, and Yuan Keding. When Yuan Shikai was seriously ill, he changed Yuan Keding to Duan Qirui. And these times the name change, Yuan Keding was kept in the dark.
In fact, whether it is the New Testament law or the Old Testament law, Li Yuanhong is the preferred successor (Li Yuanhong was the vice president of the Republic of China at the time). Therefore, whether it is Xu Shichang or Duan Qirui, they all think that it is better for the president or Li Yuanhong to take office.
If Xu Shichang, Duan Qirui, and even Feng Guozhang were elected president, first, it would go against Yuan Shikai's wishes, second, the nationalist military government in the south would not agree, and third, it would cause divisions within the Beiyang faction. After all, Li Yuanhong is not only the first in the list of successors, he is himself a vice president, and it is reasonable to become the president.
On June 28, 1916, the "Times" and Li Jiannong's "Chinese Politics in the Thirty Years After The End of the PengHu" recorded that after Duan Qirui learned that Li Yuanhong was unwilling to take over the presidency, he took the initiative to say to Li Yuanhong that "Gong is vice president, of course, he will succeed", "Gong is out, Beijing order, Qirui is responsible alone.".
Why didn't the powerful Duan Qirui succeed to the throne, but instead persuaded Li Yuanhong to succeed when Li Yuanhong was unwilling to succeed him?
It is said that a group of senior military officers in Beiyang at that time, when they learned that the presidential position had fallen into the hands of Li Yuanhong, who had an empty shelf, protested one after another in the prime minister's office (Duan Qirui), some people proposed Duan Qirui, some proposed Xu Shichang, and some mentioned Feng Guozhang.
In short, no matter who succeeds to the presidency, the presidency must not fall into the hands of people other than the Beiyang warlords. So Duan Qirui said to them: "This is just a stopgap measure, and the power is still in our hands." After repeated explanations, the group was stabilized.
So why was Yuan Keding, the eldest son of Yuan Shikai, excluded again?
On the day of the removal of the gold paper, Yuan Keding was also present, and it is said that he wiped his eyes several times at that time, and finally could only accept the paper that should have been "Yuan Keding" on it, but three names that had nothing to do with him appeared.
Regarding Yuan Shikai's change of name, no one can say why he came. Perhaps he knew that after his death, there was no one to assist a "crown prince" who lacked ability; perhaps he wanted to wash his face at the time of his death, and did not want to leave the handle of "family world" to posterity to spit on; or perhaps he really saw right and wrong and did not want to let future generations continue to be involved in this struggle.
In short, with Yuan Keding's ability, even if he barely became the president, he was just another "Qin II". And Duan Qirui wanted to be the president, otherwise there would be no later dispute between the government and the court, but he could not be, otherwise it would cause warlord struggles.
Therefore, it was not Yuan Shikai who made Li Yuanhong the president, but Li Yuanhong had to be the president at that time. What's more, this big president has come to such a righteous name!