The fact that Da Zhang and Xiao Zhang were able to work hard and quickly in Fengtian and completely ignored the attitude of the central government and the counterattack of some forces whose interests were affected had to do was related to their very strong strength, especially their heavy troops.

It sounds incredible, but in fact, when you understand the changes in Beijing during this period, you can understand how the timing chosen by Zhang Zuolin and Zhang Hanqing is just right, not just shit luck.

Because of the chaos in the central government now, no one can take care of the corner outside the border.

Before Yuan Shikai died, he held his hands to Xu Shichang and Duan Qirui and whimpered: "According to the "Covenant Law", Li Qing (Li Yuanhong) will succeed him as president, and you must assist him well. Perhaps because of this, when Zhang Jingyao and other generals who fought in Sichuan called to express their willingness to nominate Duan Qirui as president, Duan Qirui categorically refused. After this incident was known to outsiders, the whole country was amazed.

At that time, Yuan Shikai violated the law, dissolved the Congress, the Republic of China has been seriously damaged, and now there is a generous and prudent Li Yuanhong as the ****, there is an upright Duan Qirui presiding over the cabinet, and the Kuomintang and the Progressive Party coexist in the Congress, the realization of the constitution has been in sight, and the whole country has expressed unanimous optimism about this.

Since the old Yuan Futian, the former vice president Li Yuanhong succeeded to the throne. Since the day he ascended the throne, he and Premier Duan Qirui have had a very unpleasant quarrel. History records that Duan Qirui's process of inviting Li Yuanhong back to be president is like this, which is very comedic, comparable to the later American actor Chaplin's pantomime, which is not too many, as evidenced by history:

Duan Qirui came in without saying a word, sat down, saluted, and bowed three times in a row. Li Yuanhong saw it and hurriedly returned the salute. The two sat and drank tea, and neither of them said a word for a long time.

Li Yuanhong figured out that Duan Qirui must have asked him to go back to be president, but Duan Qirui didn't say anything, so he sat here relatively speechless, and it would take half an hour to say it now. Duan Qirui stood up and said goodbye, Li Yuanhong sent it to the door of the mansion, Duan Qirui turned around, "You are looking for me about the vice president."

What does that mean? It means that I'm here to ask you to be president, you just need to be president, and you don't have to worry about the vice president.

Li Yuanhong immediately asked, 'Why?' This is not just a matter for the presidential palace, but also for the State Council. What about the State Department? ’

Duan Qirui raised his eyebrows, 'With me', he turned around and left.

Li Yuanhong also understands that this is asking me to come out as a puppet! But this situation can't help him, and he has to send an arrow on the string. In this way, Li Yuanhong was invited out by Duan Qirui in a daze and became the president of the Republic of China. The inauguration ceremony was very simple, at his home in Dongchang Hutong, Duan Qirui took a few of his subordinates and drove a few cars to pick up Li Yuanhong. ”

It is conceivable that Li Yuanhong, who is the president, must have a hard time. Sure enough, Duan Qirui implemented a cabinet system, and the president was a fictitious title. In Li Yuanhong's mind, the president should be like Lao Yuan, a "presidential system" similar to that of the United States, and he does not accept "hypocrisy".

Li Yuanhong served as the governor of Hubei Military and Political Affairs, and he also felt that he was a coward, and people also laughed at him as "the governor under the bed", and sarcastically ridiculed him as the governor of Hubei in the Qing court during the Wuchang Uprising. But he reacted very quickly, and when the dragons were leaderless, he became the "Shouyi Governor" who held power in Hubei after the uprising. This is both his shame and his qualifications.

Then he really became the president of the Republic of China, and he also wanted to make a difference. What do you want to do? The Republic of China was built in accordance with the legal system of government. He advocated expanding the powers of Congress to resist Duan Qirui's arbitrariness.

Duan Qirui commanded the research department under his command to oppose the inclusion of the provincial system in the constitution, and advocated reducing the power of the National Assembly and changing the two houses into one house to cater to the selfish interests of the autocratic Anhui warlords.

The growing differences between the two sides over issues such as the constitution of the National Assembly led to a quick political contest between the two men. Because one side is the presidential palace and the other side is the State Council, the battle between them is called the "government dispute".

The first thing, after Li Yuanhong became president, the Southern Protector Army said, why did Yuan Shikai restore? He had the "Thirteen Taibao" under him to support his restoration, and he had to severely punish the "Thirteen Taibao".

Li Yuanhong was just about to punish the "Thirteen Taibao", but he didn't expect the State Council to intercede: You can spare this Zhigui; Li Hongzhang and his nephew also came to intercede: You can spare Yan Fu and Liu Shipei; The Kuomintang also came to intercede: Excuse yourself from the two on our side, they don't really support the restoration, they are all undercover agents arranged...

Zhang Zuolin, the only one outside the border who couldn't get together with others, was also successfully "whitewashed" by Zhang Hanqing's performance, and all political factions came to intercede, and in the end, these people, including Yang Du, could not be punished, which means that this matter is over. Only then did Li Yuanhong realize that it was too difficult to deal with various complex political factions at that time, and he had no military power in his hands, so he had no real power.

In whose hands is the real power? In the hands of Premier Duan Qirui. Duan Qirui invited Li Yuanhong out to let him be a puppet, Li Yuanhong is unwilling to be a puppet, do you think the two can not have contradictions? So there are a lot of interesting things.

First of all, on the issue of the selection of the secretary general of the State Council, Li Yuanhong and Duan Qirui had a dispute, because Duan Qirui mainly chose Xu Shuzheng to serve as the post.

It stands to reason that the Secretary-General of the State Council and the Prime Minister have the greatest overlap, so even if Duan Qirui chooses his confidant Xu Shuzheng, it is nothing. But Xu Shuzheng is a proud figure, he runs between the palaces and courtyards, and he is disgusted by Yuan Shikai before. However, no matter how dissatisfied Li Yuanhong is and how domineering Xu Shuzheng is, Duan Qirui just likes and always trusts him, which is also an outlier in the officialdom of the Republic of China.

Li Yuanhong, who was forced to succeed the president, heard that Xu Shuzheng was still appointed secretary general of the State Council, and immediately said: "I am afraid of this person, the president can not do it, but he will never work with others!" He asked Zhang Guogan, secretary general of the presidential office, who took the speech, and said: "Please tell the prime minister that I will depend on him for 10,000 things, and only this one thing cannot be done!" Zhang Guogan couldn't answer honestly, and turned to Xu Shichang, another veteran of Beiyang, who intended to turn around, so Xu Shichang persuaded him: "I thought that 10,000 things could not be obeyed by him, only this one thing must be done." Don't be afraid to be domineering again, Zhiquan is already domineering enough, and one more domineering one is not necessarily worse. ”

Well, Xu Shuzheng is in charge of the affairs of the State Council, and since Zhang Guogan, as the secretary general of the presidential office who has the most "close" contact with him, has no opinion, then forget about this matter. It's good that I'm the president, and I don't have much intersection with the secretary general of the State Council, right?

However, Duan Qirui is not a very diligent prime minister, and most of the affairs are entrusted to Secretary-General Xu Shuzheng. This gave Li Yuanhong, who had always hated Xu Shuzheng, more "opportunities" to make enemies with him. Once, Xu Shuzheng took a letter of appointment and asked Li Yuanhong to stamp the presidential seal, and when Li asked about his resume, Xu actually replied: "Now that the cabinet system is implemented, why should you ask more, president!" I'm busy, so hurry up and get stamped! Li was very angry and said to the left and right: "I didn't want to be a president, you see where they have me in their eyes!" ”

And Duan Qirui always connived at Xu, once Xu resigned to threaten Li Yuanhong, Duan Qirui actually interceded for him, saying that he was "a man and disdainful of nonsense", and even said that "I am willing to take responsibility for everything Xu does." When Li Yuanhong and the others heard this, they all felt cold. Therefore, the initial dispute between the government and the court has a lot to do with Xu Shuzheng.

In addition, Duan Qirui stipulated that all kinds of letters from the presidential palace, including the president's personal letters, must be sent to the State Council first, and then brought to Li Yuanhong, which means that he will check them first. Li Yuanhong was very annoyed when he found out, but he was helpless. Li Yuanhong also wants to recruit talents and elite generals, for example, he wants to ask Liang Qichao to be the secretary general of the presidential office. Liang Qichao is very famous, and he gives 2,000 yuan a month, which is a large amount of money. As a result, Liang Qichao saw that Li Yuanhong was a puppet, and I didn't have anything to do with you, so I dragged it out again and again. When Duan Qirui came forward to invite Liang Qichao to the State Council, Liang Qichao readily agreed, making Li Yuanhong angry. There is no way, I have no real power.

In order to confront Xu Shuzheng, Li Yuanhong hired the equally domineering Ding Foyan as the secretary general of the government. Ding Foyan, Huang Yuansheng, and Liu Shaoshao are also known as the "Three Heroes of the Press", with a sharp pen and a happy fight, and now they use the newspaper to open their eyes for Li Yuanhong. Xu Shuzheng retaliated with a tooth for a tooth and founded "Gongyan Daily" to compete with it. As a result, the dispute between the government and the court turned out to be a lace news in the newspapers, and it became known to the world. And Li Duan and the two of them were increasingly trapped in it and couldn't extricate themselves, and later they turned everything against each other and fought for it. The controversy over Zhang Hanqing's promotion to major general is that Li Yuanhong disgusted Zhang Zuolin who tried to rely on Duan Qirui within the scope of his authority.

Sooner or later, the contradiction is stimulated, and an introduction is missing, which appears quickly.

When World War I broke out, should China declare war on Germany? Initially, Li Yuanhong advocated the severance of diplomatic relations with Germany, because his old friend the United States had participated in the war against Germany, demanded that China take concerted action with it to declare war on Germany, and promised to lend military funds, and Li Yuanhong agreed.

Duan Qirui was convinced of Germany's victory at first, but later, under the persuasion of Zhang Guogan, Duan Qirui became an extreme anti-German faction and strongly advocated declaring war on Germany. Japan supported Duan Qirui's entry into the war and promised to lend Duan Qirui a huge amount of money to expand his power.

In this way, if China entered the war, it would be beneficial for Japan, and the United States instructed Li Yuanhong to join forces with the Congress to oppose the war. In order to be contrary to Duan Qirui, Li Yuanhong forcibly transformed into a pro-German faction and tried his best to oppose the declaration of war.

Any political concept is child's play in their eyes!

Li Yuanhong has a reason not to declare war, he thinks that with our national strength and military strength, what can we do to fight others? Duan Qirui advocated a declaration of war, why? He holds the power of the army, and as soon as he declares war, the status of the troops will definitely improve in the future. At that time, Li Yuanhong did not agree, and he was very tough, and my president did not agree.

There is no way around it, and if we compromise now, the situation will only worsen, and there is little power to turn the tables around. So even if Duan Qirui wanted to suppress him in the name of the Congress, Li Yuanhong did not agree. Joke, the Kuomintang and the local forces in the south are the support of Li Yuanhong, the Kuomintang parliamentarians are numerous and have an absolute majority in the National Assembly, and they rely on voting to win or lose, Duan Qirui is determined to lose!

At this time, Duan Qirui thought of a way, he recruited all the overseers from all provinces, that is, the military leaders of the provinces, to form a superintendent corps to enter Beijing, wanting to use external forces to put pressure on President Li. There is no way, the Research Department, the Progressive Party, and the Beiyang Overseer are the foundation of Duan Qirui. Due to the repeated rejection of the Progressive Party's bills in the National Assembly, Lao Duan had to work the barrel of a gun.

Now I can use Lao Zhang!