To say that although Duan Qirui is strong, compared to Yuan Shikai, it is not a level.

At least the provincial overseers he wanted to take advantage of were not as powerful as he thought. These Overseers were also vague at first, why? As soon as war was declared and asked them to go to war, they were afraid of death and did not dare to go!

Duan Qirui had no choice but to say no, after we declared war, we only need to send some migrant workers to Europe to support, and you all listen to me. Seeing that Duan Qirui was in power, these people all agreed, and collectively announced that they would put pressure on Li Yuanhong and agree to declare war. But Li Yuanhong maintained a rare toughness at this time, so he disagreed.

On 1 May, the Cabinet discussed the issue of declaring war on Germany. Anhui thugs Ni Sichong, Zhang Huaizhi, Meng Enyuan, Li Houji and other overseers broke into the venue. Ni Sichong also said in the name of the head of the military circles, "The provincial overseers unanimously support the policy of estimating the prime minister's approach to Germany, and the government should immediately declare war on Germany!" Some people say that soldiers interfere in politics, but Fu Liangzuo defended: "Soldiers are also members of the people, and how can they be said to be involved in politics when they express their opinions on state affairs?" The president is so afraid of the opinions of the soldiers, is it because he has a ghost in his heart? ”

There were only three cabinet members who attended the cabinet meeting: Cheng Biguang, chief of the navy, Zhang Yaozeng, chief of justice, and Gu Zhongxiu, chief of agriculture and commerce.

Under the coercion of the Overseers, the cabinet hastily passed the declaration of war on Germany, and Duan Qirui wanted to strike while the iron was hot and use the Overseers to bring the Congress and the president to their knees. On the same day, the Japanese Minister to China, Hayashi Quansuke, visited Li Yuanhong and threatened: "If the Diet vetoes the bill to participate in the war, the political situation will be disturbed!" ”

Li Yuanhong finally passed it here, but there was a problem in Congress. Originally, it was not a big problem for the Congress to pass the declaration of war, Tang Hualong and Liang Qichao had long been active among the parliamentarians to support Duan Qirui, but Fu Liangzuo helped in the Congress.

A week later, Duan Qirui went to Congress to explain his policy toward Germany and was questioned, and he flatly denied that China's entry into the war was behind the backroom dealings between China and Japan, claiming that the declaration of war was based on the need for justice. When the two procuratorates were about to discuss the declaration of war, people's organizations in various localities called one after another to support the declaration of war, and there were also some "spontaneous" representatives of the masses in Beijing who strongly demanded a declaration of war against Germany. In fact, the telegrams sent by some non-local people's organizations were sent by Fu Liangzuo from the Beijing Telegraph Office.

On the afternoon of May 10, crowds of "spontaneous citizens" surrounded the House of Representatives building, waving flags and shouting slogans, distributing "petitions," and some even breaking into the Speaker's office to demand that Tang Hualong allow the citizens' representatives to attend the discussion.

The actions of the "citizens' group" aroused the outrage of the members of the House of Representatives, and everyone went on strike in protest and prepared to leave the venue, and a riot broke out. Fu Liangzuo was in a hurry, but it turned out to be self-defeating, but Duan Qirui's declaration of war collapsed halfway, and the cabinet chiefs resigned one after another, leaving only a prime minister.

Duan Qirui decided to persevere, and at this time he was desperate to strengthen his strength, so he decided to go his own way and ignore the opposition. While he was brewing new cabinet members, he instructed some of the overseers and delegates who were stranded in Beijing to continue to put pressure on Congress in an attempt to reconvene the parliament and pass a declaration of war.

When President Lebanon was unable to support him, an incident occurred.

The British newspaper (actually the English "Beijing Daily") revealed a secret, saying that Duan Qirui had signed an agreement with the Japanese military government to borrow 100 million yuan in military loans. Isn't this tantamount to colluding with Japan without this matter going through the National Assembly at all, and the premier of the State Council daring to sign this agreement with Japan without permission? This incident was revealed, and Duan Qiruiwei was discredited.

Duan Qirui's testimony in the Diet that there is no secret diplomacy between China and Japan is a complete lie! At this time, Li Yuanhong seized the opportunity, he changed his previous image of being weak and bulliable, took advantage of people's anti-Duan demands, and with the support of Congress and the US minister's "permission to back", he suddenly straightened his waist and slapped the table, do you have this? In the name of the President, I remove you from the posts of Premier of the State Council and Chief of the Army!

On May 23, Li Yuanhong dictated a presidential decree to remove Duan Qirui from the post of prime minister, and Wu Tingfang acted as his deputy. Zhang Guogan, who was the secretary general of the presidential office at the time, heard that Li Yuanhong wanted to be exempted, and just wanted to open his mouth to persuade him, Jin Shuiyan, who was standing next to him, rushed over, pulled out a pistol and pointed it at Zhang Guogan: "Don't open your mouth!" I'll kill you if you open your mouth! ”

Jin Shuiyan is the deputy commander of the army, Li Yuanhong's ironcore. Needless to say, Lao Li was determined to tear his face, and Duan Qirui was so angry that his nose was crooked again. Since the local forces in Beijing and Hebei were inclined to Li Yuanhong, Duan Qirui ran to Tianjin for the sake of safety, which was to split with Li Yuanhong.

Zhang Zuolin seized the power during the trial and issued a "telegram" in this regard, criticizing Li Yuanhong, praising Duan Qirui, demanding that Li Yuanhong "dissolve the National Assembly, reappoint Premier Duan to organize the cabinet", and threatened to "sever relations" with the Central Committee.

It's still Zhang Zuolin's righteousness! Don't look at it as a bandit, but "every time you slaughter dogs, you are all scholars", and the original little bit of mustard for Zhang Zuolin has disappeared. Not only that, Premier Duan also felt that his previous mentality of sitting on the mountain and watching the tiger fight in the dispute between Feng and Zhang was very improper, and he was very grateful for Zhang Zuolin's gesture of throwing himself into his arms, although he did not lack Zhang Zuolin's power at present. However, Zhang Zuolin has a heart!

The Presidential Law of the Republic of China stipulates that your president has no power to dismiss the premier of the State Council, so I will do it against you! With Zhang Zuolin's support behind him, Duan Qirui was not ambiguous, and angrily took his troops to Tianjin, claiming that he wanted to fight in Beijing.

According to the provisional law, the president has no right to remove the prime minister, Duan Qirui does not recognize Li Yuanhong's dismissal order, and President Li is helpless, and he is frightened by this matter, why? He doesn't have an army in his hands, and he has to finish fighting a war.

President Lebanon, who was under threat, had no choice but to come up with the idea of borrowing troops to "quell the chaos." It just so happened that Zhang Xun, who was in Xuzhou, claimed to mediate the conflict between the two, which made Li Yuanhong, who was in trouble, overjoyed, so he agreed to Zhang Xun's "pigtail army" to enter Beijing. He didn't expect that this was the front foot to resist the wolf, and the back foot to welcome the tiger.

Zhang Xun is his old man, and he is currently the Yangtze River patrol envoy and Anhui overseer. As the only local warlord in post-Xinhai China who was still loyal to the royal family on the surface, Zhang Xun, a Manchu widow, still wore braids on the back of his head after entering the Republic of China. Not only that, but he commanded 5,000 soldiers, all of whom had braids, so his troops were called "Braided Army", and he was also respectfully called "Braided Shuai".

"Braided handsome" wore braids to show his loyalty to the Qing Dynasty. But Zhang Xun is a general of the Republic of China, and his subordinates are soldiers of the Republic of China, and the Republic of China explicitly ordered to cut braids, but they insisted on not complying, strictly speaking, this is an illegal act. Yuan Shikai was the president of the Republic of China, and he cut his braids, but he just didn't have a way to take Zhang Xun, without the slightest punishment, and he didn't even say a hard word.

Zhang Xun's station, first Yanzhou, and then Xuzhou, his subordinate soldiers were all peasants from southern Lunan and northern Jiangsu, tall and large. The local area is poor, and it is a good place to go as a soldier to eat food. However, such a soldier has a conservative concept. I heard that when Zhang Xun's soldiers could not cut their braids, they were all happy. The pigtail soldiers look like monsters to outsiders, but they are all loyal to Zhang Xun.

His popularity is also very good, as early as when he was the overseer of Anhui, he established the Beiyang Thirteen Provinces Alliance in Xuzhou and served as the leader of the alliance. The warlords like to go to Xuzhou for meetings, not because of the good scenery in Xuzhou, nor because the prostitutes in Xuzhou are beautiful, but because Zhang Xun has to pay for it. Good food, good drink and good hospitality, even if you spend a lot of money to find a chef from Shanghai and invite a troupe from Beijing, you must let everyone eat and have fun. Although the warlords are not short of money, there are also many people who pick the door, and when they encounter such a big head, everyone is happy to flatter, and Zhang Xun also eats this flattery.

Literate people, especially old-fashioned literate people, also like him. Zhang Xun's three generations of poor hired peasants, with no education, learned a few words when he mixed with society, and it is said that he reached the level where he could read the Analects and write big characters. He had great respect for cultured people. Famous literati in the late Qing Dynasty, such as Shen Zengzhi, Zheng Xiaoxu, Liu Tingchen, and Zhao Erxun, were all his predecessors of courtesy. Zhang Xun especially likes to ask these people for advice, and when they have difficulties with him, they will definitely help solve them. Poetry and wine are not sung, but there is absolutely no problem with wine and meat. These people often lose their temper with Zhang Xun, but Zhang Xun has no temper. Of course, these people are all nostalgic for the remnants of the Qing family, and it is inevitable that they will have a subtle impact on his behavior.

Duan Qirui is fully capable of defeating Li Yuanhong, but that would cement his reputation as a domineering man. Feng Guozhang and others only verbally expressed support, but actually took the opportunity to consolidate the territory with "independence", and after calculation, only Zhang Xun was the most enthusiastic about driving Li Yuanhong away. So he sent his henchman Xu Shuzheng to Xuzhou to negotiate conditions.

Feng Guozhang's representative Hu Siyu, Duan Qirui's representative Zeng Yujun, Cao Kun's representative, and Zhang Zuolin's representative also arrived, and they persuaded Zhang Xun to send troops to overthrow Li Yuanhong, support Feng Guozhang as president, and restore Duan Qirui to the post of premier. Zhang Xun's secretary general, Wan Shenyan, put forward conditions: he could send troops to overthrow Li Yuanhong, but asked to support the restoration of the former Qing emperor Puyi.

This question is more principled, everyone didn't think about it, didn't make a sound, who would have thought that it was this condition? However, Zhang Zuolin's representative, Zhang Huilin, pulled Xu Shuzheng and Hu Siyu out: "In a hurry, follow the power, promise first, won't there be 5,000 people?" ”

This is Zhang Zuolin's instructions to him according to Zhang Hanqing's intentions. Without Zhang Xun's restoration, there would have been no Feng Delin losing power, and there would have been no unified Fengtian and the future Fengtian. When it's time to "help", Zhang Hanqing will not be unpopular.

Zhang Xun has been obsessed with the restoration of the Qing Dynasty for a long time. The Daotai Yamen was the source of the restoration, and gathered a large number of figures, such as Kang Youwei, the leader of the royalist party, Tanaka Yoshiichi, the deputy chief of staff of the Japanese military department, and members of the Black Dragon Society, as well as the commander of the Japanese army stationed in Tianjin, Shi Guang Zhenchen. It's just that the Beiyang government headed by Yuan Shikai is super strong, and it was built by Yuan into an iron bucket and couldn't get involved.

Everyone can hear the meaning of this sentence, let Zhang Xun, the praying mantis, catch the cicada first, and then let the yellow finch eat it.

So everyone happily agreed and signed the yellow satin that Zhang Xun took out. The naïve Lao Zhang thought that by doing so, he would be able to insure the restoration.

The "Braided Army" sailed smoothly to Beijing.