In the previous article, we said that Li Yuanhong had to dissolve the National Assembly under the threat of Zhang Xun. At 3 p.m. on June 14, the day after the dissolution of the National Assembly, Zhang Xun, together with Li Jingxi, Zhang Zhenfang, Duan Zhigui, Lei Zhenchun, and others, took a special bus to Beijing. From Qianmen Station to The South River along the ZhangZhai, along the way with loess paved on the ground, the military and police are guarded, and the sentries and posts of the braided army are arranged in sections, and there are heavily armed soldiers standing on the city towers and walls. This is the style of the former emperor's tour. The route of Zhang Xun's car was first sent by a horse team to expel pedestrians, and the traffic in the East and West Cities was cut off for 4 hours.
As soon as Zhang Xun entered Beijing, he proposed five ways to solve the situation outside the dissolution of the National Assembly:
1. Organize a responsible cabinet, with Li Jingxi as prime minister;
(b) Convene the Constitutional Assembly;
(3) Reform the regulation of the National Assembly and reduce the number of members;
(4) Pardon of political offenders;
5. Retire the Gongfu Youren.
Zhang Xun film and television image
At this time, Li Yuanhong had completely lost his resistance and could only personally approve on the article: "Submit to the court to handle it separately." Zhang Xun was not satisfied, and proposed to expand the 20 battalions of the Braid army to increase his own military strength, and President Li Da could only follow suit. Li Yuanhong is also a smart person, he can play with people like Duan Qirui, because he knows that Duan wants face and will not do anything out of character, but he really does not dare to provoke Zhang Xun, because this braided handsome man can do anything.
On the 16th, Zhang Xun wore a red-topped flower plume on his head, accompanied by four commanders of the Dingwu Army to the Shenwu Gate by car, changed shoulders to the Qing Palace, and was introduced into the Yangxin Hall by Shi Continued, the general manager of the Qing Interior Affairs Office, to see Puyi. Zhang Xunxing knelt down to pay homage to the great salute and called himself "a slave to prostrate Saint Ann". Puyi gave him a seat and rewarded him with a horseback riding in the Forbidden City, and the four imperial concubines also came to the Yangxin Hall to talk to him. Puyi gave a feast and rewarded many ancient magnetic and famous paintings. Then he went to Dongjiaomin Lane to visit the ministers of various countries, and the Japanese minister Lin set up a banquet to entertain them.
Although the Overseers opposed Zhang Xun on the issue of the cabinet, the conditions for abolishing independence were finally fulfilled. Ni Sichong, Zhao Qian, Cao Kun, Chen Shufan, and Li Changtai announced the cancellation of independence on 19 July; Zhang Zuolin, Yang Shande, Yan Xishan, and Zhang Huaizhi canceled independence on 20 July; Xu Lanzhou and Zhang Jingyao canceled independence on 21 July; Li Houji and Zhang Guangjian canceled independence on 22 July; and the Tianjin General Staff Office announced their abolition on 21 July.
Soon, Zhang Xun exposed his political insanity. In a political situation in which the preparations were very inadequate, the opinions of all sides were not yet unified, and the political situation was in disarray, a restoration was openly held. On the evening of the 30th, Zhang Xun and the restorationists Chen Baochen and Liu Yanchen sneaked into the Qing Palace and held a "pre-imperial meeting" to prepare for the restoration.
On the morning of July 1, 1917, the most comical drama in the history of the Republic of China was staged. Zhang Xun, Kang Youwei, Qu Hongyu, Wang Shizhen, Jiang Chaozong, Wu Bingxiang, Chen Guangyuan, Liu Tingchen, Shen Zengzhi, Lao Naixuan, Ruan Zhongshu, Gu Yan, Wan Shengyu and dozens of other people joined the speech to invite Emperor Puyi of the Qing Dynasty to restore and ascend the throne. Puyi summoned people in the Yangxin Hall, and these people crawled to the ground and performed three prayers and nine prostrations. After Zhang Xun went down, there were successive groups of people who came to kowtow to Puyi, some xie en, and some even asked An to bring xie en. Later, the eunuch took a bunch of written "upper edicts", and Puyi issued seven "upper edicts" in one breath.
After the restoration was announced, the five-color flag was changed to the Yellow Dragon Banner, and the official system was still the official system in the first year of reunification. On the same day, Li Yuanhong was appointed as a first-class duke; Zhang Xun, Wang Shizhen, Chen Baochen, Liang Dunyan, Yuan Dahua, and Zhang Zhenfang were appointed ministers of cabinet deliberation; Wan Shengyu and Hu Siyi were made cabinet ministers; Liang Dunyan was made Shangshu of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Zhang Zhenfangdu branch Shangshu was made Shangshu of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, Lei Zhenchun was made Shangshu of the Ministry of War, Wang Shizhen was made minister of staff, Xu Shichang was the president of the Bide Academy, and Kang Youwei was the vice president. Zhang Xun was awarded the title of Viceroy of Beiyang and stayed in Beijing to do business. On the evening of July 1, the Presidential Palace still flies the five-color flag (the flag of the Republic of China at that time), the only national flag in Beijing at that time.
After Li Yuanhong was expelled from Beijing by Zhang Xun, he immediately sent a secret envoy, Qin Shouheng, to Tianjin to meet Duan Qirui and express his willingness to reconcile with Lao Duan and jointly oppose and crusade against Zhang Xun's restoration. Duan Qirui was also dissatisfied with Zhang Xun at first; second, he really did not support the imperial system; third, considering that Li Yuanhong was still the president after all, this banner was still useful. Therefore, he received Li's secret envoys and accepted Li's orders.
Duan Qirui who recreated the republic
After Duan was ordered to leave the mountain, he immediately deployed everything and decided to take materials from the vicinity of Gyeonggi in Hebei Province to find troops, targeting Li Changtai, commander of the 8th Division in Machang, and Feng Yuxiang of the 16th Mixed Brigade stationed in Langfang, using these two units as the basic force of the rebel army. At the same time, Duan Qirui also contacted Cao Kun, a directly subordinate overseer in Baoding, and promised Cao Kun a future vice president. Cao Kun was greatly displeased because After the restoration, Zhang Xun demoted him to the position of Directly Subordinate Inspector and Zhang Xun made himself the Minister of Beiyang and the Governor of Zhili, so he also agreed to participate in the crusade against Zhang Xun.
While military operations were being prepared, national condemnation of restoration rose and fell. On July 2, Prime Minister Li Jingxi, who had been in office for less than 10 days, disguised himself as a coal worker, fled from Beijing to Tianjin, unwilling to contribute to the restoration of the government. It should be known that Premier Li is Li Hongzhang's nephew, and his escape has a great impact on Zhang Xun. On July 3, Cheng Biguang and the Songhu Protector Lu Yongxiang jointly sent a telegram in Shanghai to fight for restoration. Same. Feng Guozhang convened a military conference in Nanjing, mobilized troops, and opposed restoration. Zhang Xun's old colleague Lu Rongting, an old colleague of liangguang, also issued a telegram on July 4, clearly opposing the restoration, opposing the imperial system, and opposing Zhang Xun.
Runaway Prime Minister Li Jingxi
The military campaign to rebel began on July 7, 1917, and ended on the 12th, with a total of only 6 days, and there were 4 days in between, that is to say, there were only 2 days of real knives and guns.
On the 6th, the units of Cao Kun's 3rd Division on the West Road of the Rebel Army concentrated on Lugou Bridge, Zhigui led Li Changtai's 8th Division in the East Road, and Feng Yuxiang's 16th Mixed Brigade drove from Langfang to Huangcun. The Braided Army in Fengtai was trapped in a situation of being attacked on its stomach and back, and Zhang Xun ordered the Braided Army to destroy the Fengtai Railway to stop the rebel army from advancing. But this move annoyed the foreigners, who did not allow Zhang Xun to do so, and sent troops to protect the railway, and Zhang Xun had to give up.
Zhang Xun led the braid army into Beijing with only more than 5,000 people, and it was enough to intimidate the president, but it was not enough to really fight. In order to hide his vulnerability, Zhang Xun had to let the non-braided army take the lead, and the braided army was postponed to supervise the battle. As a result, these armies, which originally belonged to the Beiyang system, encountered old comrades-in-arms and old robes, and collectively rebelled against the water and fell to Duan Qirui's rebellious army. Li Kuiyuan's brigade of the 11th Division stationed in Nanyuan and Liu Peirong's brigade of the 12th division also took advantage of the situation to aim their guns at the braided army. The subsequent war can basically be described as "destroying the decay and breaking the bamboo", Zhang Xun and his braided army, in the face of the offensive of the rebel army, had no power to fight back.
By this time, Zhang Xun also knew that the restoration had actually failed, but he hoped that through diplomatic negotiations, he could return to xuzhou with the braid army and continue to serve as a parade envoy on the Yangtze River. When Duan Qirui proposed to Zhang Xun through the diplomatic corps four ways to solve the situation, Zhang actually replied with four songs: "I do not leave the army, the soldiers do not leave the weapons, where I come from, where I go." ”
Seeing that Zhang Xun was so obstinate, from July 9, the rebel army joined forces with the Beiyang Army in and approached the city of Beijing. The 1st Division was outside the Anding Gate, Guangqu Gate, and Chaoyang Gate, the 13th Division was outside xizhimen, part of the 11th division was outside the Yongding Gate, one part of the 3rd Division and the 12th Division was outside the Zhangyi Gate, and the other part of the 11th and 12th Divisions was in Xiyuan, and a large siege of Beijing was adopted.
At this moment, the news of the old lair of Xuzhou of the Braided Army came again: Zhang Xun's general Zhang Wensheng, who remained in Xuzhou, led the 64th battalion of the Dingwu Army to surrender by telegram and yielded without a fight. Zhang Wensheng was a native of Pei County, and together with Li Houji of FengShi, he was a Beiyang warlord of northern Jiangsu. After the surrender of the Dingwu army in Xuzhou, the braids on their heads were completely cut, and their surrender made the braided army in Beijing feel even more desperate.
At this time, Zhang Xun truly realized what it meant to be rebellious. In order to avoid the embarrassing situation of being captured, he had to flee to the Dutch embassy and temporarily evaded the rebel army.
After Puyi abdicated, Zhang Xun was wanted by the Republic of China government, fled to the Tianjin Concession to become a Yugong, officially withdrew from the historical stage, and the ugly drama of restoration that he directed also ended in the final comprehensive failure.
Resources:
1. Dong Yao: "Zhang Xun of the Beiyang Heroes"
2. "Xuzhou Literature and History Materials"
3. Cai Dongfan: "Beiyang Popular Interpretation"
Zha Jiafeng, a core member of "XuShu Studio", is the main writer