This year, Henan suffered a major drought that had not been encountered in many years. The whole province was full of hunger and wailing, and there was a tragic scene of cannibalism.

Great droughts are generally accompanied by locust plagues, and in Yuan Shikai's hometown of Xiangcheng, locusts have eaten up almost all the crops.

Li Qingao, the governor of Henan, who was ordered to handle the disaster relief, was ineffective and was removed from his post by the imperial court.

Changed to the era of Li He, the director of the river. He also ordered Yuan Baoheng to go to Henan to help with relief work.

When Yuan Baoheng went to Kaifeng to take office, he also took Yuan Shikai with him, on the one hand, he was a helper, and on the other hand, he also wanted him to learn some skills as an official.

Yuan Shikai also wanted to take advantage of this to find a position for himself, and he studied very hard and seriously. Participating in this disaster relief effort had a significant impact on his life.

When he arrived in the disaster area, he first saw how much damage had been done to the territory under his jurisdiction due to the inaction of officials. In a letter to his family, he wrote: "Banditry is rampant,...... Some people said from Michi, Luoyang and other places that the Yidi people's meat was sold for 28 wen a catty, Sun killed his grandmother and sold it, and his brother killed his brother and sold it, all kinds of unheard of wonders, all kinds of unheard of wonders, all of them. …… A few months later, there were thieves everywhere! ”

The peasant stratum under the feudal system has two more prominent characteristics: one is dispersed, and the other is prone to extremes. The so-called going to extremes means that as long as there is food to eat, as long as there is a way to live, they can all be obedient and obedient.

But if you can't survive, it's easy to get up. If the famine gathers the scattered peasants who have no way to survive because of the famine, it is very easy for an accident to happen. This is how many peasant uprisings have occurred in history.

Therefore, Yuan Shikai's words are not alarmist.

While following his uncle in disaster relief, Yuan Shikai saw two very typical officials and their styles. One is the justice of the peace, who is accustomed to being high, and in ordinary days, life runs according to the normal track, and it is difficult to find out how he is an official?

And sometimes, such a person may not even be greedy because he is obedient. On weekdays, he is decent and good at greeting, and his career is often very smooth.

The other kind of person is not only an official, but also a manager and an officer. They are sensitive to the people's feelings, have the courage to take responsibility, and are good at finding problems and working hard to solve them. No one is perfect, and such people are not easy to use because they are assertive, and they do not follow the crowd. It's hard to get promoted on weekdays.

In the special period of disaster and famine, those peace officials, those good officials who are often called good on weekdays, are not only useless at this time, but even misguided.

And the latter can show their skills and make great achievements.

Yuan Shikai helped his uncle run errands during disaster relief, and sometimes went down to convey his uncle's orders, which made him have a special penchant and desire for power. Enjoying the pleasure of giving orders, I feel that it is really good to be an official and have great power.

At the beginning of the summer of the following year, Yuan Shikai's heir, the cow, fell ill, and he went home to visit.

Taking care of his mother's bedside, asking for warmth, and filial piety made Niu very moved.

In May of this year, Kaifeng sent an urgent letter, and Yuan Shikai's uncle Yuan Baoheng, whom Yuan Shikai particularly respected, unfortunately contracted an infectious disease. Yuan Shikai rushed over, but he still couldn't see Yuan Baoheng when he was alive.

and Yuan Baoling, Yuan Baoheng's son, etc., escorted Yuan Baoheng's coffin back to Chenzhou. After asking someone to see feng shui, choosing a cemetery, and burying his uncle, he took his wife to live in Chenzhou because his family had a property in Chenzhou.

If you are united for a long time, you will be divided, and a large feudal family of several generations will always disintegrate when the scale reaches a certain level; People call it separation. At this time, the Yuan family was also like this, the four generations were in the same house, there were many contradictions, gangs and factions, and there were many mountains, each doing its own thing. I really can't sustain it anymore, so I can only take the road of separation.

Because of the branch belonging to Yuan Baoqing, Yuan Shikai got considerable assets from the division. His strict discipline of his heir Yuan Baoqing and uncle Yuan Baoheng are gone, and he has become the head of the family.

Liberated, free, and have the final say. He is like a wild horse without a knot, swinging more and more. After eating, drinking, and having fun for a while, I thought that my uncle Yuan Baoheng was gone, and there was no ladder to climb up.

Thinking that if he wanted to enter the officialdom, he could only take the road of the imperial examination, in order to make more friends who wrote poems and paintings, he initiated the organization of two literary societies, Lize Mountain House and Don't Bully Mountain House.

Because of the money in hand and the generosity of the money, such a person is welcome in any group; He soon became a leading figure among the local literati. Although the poems are written very ordinary, it is not a problem to eat other people's short mouths, stare at the eyes and say nonsense, and shout a few times? The emperor's new clothes, eating other people's clothes all day long, who thinks that it is true? After a long time, Yuan Shikai gradually became famous.

The scenery in the three ancestral halls of Yuan Jia is very beautiful and unique, and people often go to play and watch it. One day in April 1879, Xu Shichang, who was handling documents in Huaining County, visited here, and it happened that Yuan Shikai was also in the garden.

"Bashan Shushui is desolate, and it has been abandoned for twenty-three years. The nostalgic empty chant hears the flute, and the countryside turns over like a rotten Ke person. ”

Xu Shichang was in front of a pavilion, looking at the scenery in the distance, touching the scene, reciting the poem of the great poet Liu Yuxi of the Tang Dynasty to reward Lotte Yangzhou at the first meeting.

"Thousands of sails pass by the side of the sinking boat, and ten thousand trees spring in front of the sick tree. Listen to the song of Jun today, and temporarily rely on the spirit of a glass of wine. ”

Hearing someone pick up the last four lines of the poem, Xu Shichang turned around.

This is the first meeting between Yuan Shikai and Xu Shichang.

There is fate between people, who said that only lovers can fall in love at first sight? The meeting of these two people has laid the foundation for the lifelong cooperation and friendship of these two influential figures in the Republic of China. (Xu Shichang is the third president of the Republic of China, and the third part of this book will be dedicated to him.) ）

When Yuan Shikai inadvertently learned that Xu Shichang wanted to go to Beijing to catch the exam and was suffering from insufficient entanglement, he generously donated money without saying a word.

In the autumn of 1879, at the age of 20, Yuan Shikai took the second and last township examination in his life. In order to meet this township examination, he made serious preparations and made a lot of hard work, and he also had great hopes.

Friends from the literary club practiced for him and a few students who participated in the township examination, and everyone said good things about him, saying that Yuan Shikai must be successful, and he himself felt good.

However, the final result did not work out. The higher the expectation, the bigger the blow, especially what he can't stand is that the two people in the same company as him usually look very ordinary, and they are not favored by everyone in the literary club at all. This time he was able to go to high school in one fell swoop, so how could he, the leader of the literary society, be embarrassed?

In the face of such a blow, he was completely crushed. He burned all his manuscripts and poems, and swore a heavy oath that he would never participate in the imperial examination again in this life.

From then on, if anyone mentioned the imperial examination in front of him again, he gritted his teeth with hatred.

Many years later, when he was the governor of Zhili, he united with Zhang Zhidong, the governor of Huguang, Cen Chunxuan, the governor of Liangguang, and Zhou Fuhui, the governor of Liangjiang, to ask for the cessation of the imperial examination, so as to abolish this harmful system forever in the land of Shenzhou.

Every time he talked about it, he was very proud and thought it was the proudest thing in his life. also boasted that he hated this imperial examination system since he was a child, and the implication was that he himself failed twice, which is the proper meaning of the question, and a person like him, if he can pass the exam, is it a strange thing?

Actually, we know that this is not true, but it is just that if you can't eat grapes, you say that grapes are sour.

What should I do if I still want to be an official if the road of the imperial examination is impassable? There is no endless road, and Yuan Shikai really found a way for himself.

At this time, the Qing Dynasty has always been bullied by foreign powers, weak countries have no diplomacy, and they always cede land and pay reparations when dealing with foreigners.

The treasury has long been empty of indemnities, such a large country, how can it be done without money, all the places that can be looted have been looted, and there is nothing to sell, and the only way to sell it is to sell officials.

It's not sneaky, it's not a backdoor, it's justifiable, and the price is clearly marked.

People can see it when they are in a hurry, and the country can see it when they are in a hurry.

If you spend money to buy an official, you have to get back the money you buy when you become an official, and buying an official and a corrupt official should be equated.

When the family was divided, it was divided a lot, but no matter how much it was, it couldn't withstand Master Yuan's spending! Can you buy this thing with less money? There is no way, in order to support his son's future, his biological mother Liu and Hei Niu took out all the private money.

With the love and ardent hope of the two mothers, Yuan Shikai came to the capital again. Revisiting the old place, thinking of his cousin Yuan Baoheng's love and care for him, and remembering the bits and pieces with his beloved cousin, Yuan Shikai sighed and was also very sad.