It was not until May 31, the fourth year of the Republic of China, that Yuan Shikai made it clear that Wang Shizhen was acting as the chief of the army, and issued an order to Duan Qirui. He was on sick leave for two months, four taels of ginseng, and 5,000 yuan in medical expenses.

The command is as follows:

According to the former army chief Duan Qirui, he was ill last winter, his diet was reduced, and he couldn't sleep at night, and until this spring, he caused hemoptysis, and he was diagnosed and treated in many ways, sometimes mild and sometimes severe. The doctor said that the blood is deficient and the qi is depressed, the spleen is weak and the lungs are hot, and it is urgent to recuperate, and the medicine can be effective.

"Now that the overall situation is calming down a little, I plan to ask for a shortage, so that I can recuperate with peace of mind, and hope to get a quick recovery. When the herald is given less vacation recuperation. According to the report, I would like to continue to open up all the shortcomings, so that I can recuperate with peace of mind and be cured.

"Since the reform of Xinhai, the chief has worked hard and prepared for hardships and dangers. At the time of the meeting, the chief was instructed to go to Xishan and other quiet places to recuperate and rest, in order to regain his strength, and the chief minister attached great importance to state affairs, and still refused to take a moment to relax and do his best to do his best to deserve state affairs.

"According to the petition, the president cherishes talents for the country, and does not listen to his overwork, which has increased his illness, so he specially gives him a leave of absence for two months, and awards him four taels of ginseng and five thousand yuan for medical expenses, so as to pay for the regent. Mindful of the difficulties of the current situation, the chief should cherish himself, and prudently postpone famous doctors, carefully investigate the source of the disease, and treat it in various ways, hoping that he will be cured as soon as possible and immediately cancel his leave. If there is an important military event during the holidays, he will still enter the meeting at any time to express his gratitude and benefit the country. This order! ”

Duan Qirui was officially relieved of his post as army chief on August 29 of that year, and at the same time as this order, Wang Shizhen officially took over the post of army chief.

Soon after Duan Qirui resigned, Yuan Shikai instructed the Su Zheng Department to impeach Xu Shuzheng and report 400,000 yuan on foreign arms, remove him from the post of deputy commander of the army, and succeed him with Tanakayu.

Between Yuan Shikai and Duan Duan Qirui, due to Duan's sick leave, Yuan's explicit order caused many rumors. It is rumored that the two have officially broken up, and many signs also indicate that this is not groundless, and the problems between the two have long been laid out. The more pretentious Yuan Shikai became, the more suspicious he became. There are no contradictions and entanglements between the Beiyang generals, but the rabbit dies and the fox is sad, especially Xu Shuzheng's punishment, and everyone in Duan Qirui's faction is in danger.

There is no silver here, and on August 3, Duan Qirui issued a telegram to refute the rumors:

"Twenty years ago, when the president was training in a small station, Qi Rui used a military student to fill the subordinate military rank, which has nothing to do with the president. And the president made a comeback, Qirui reinstated his position as the governor of Huguang and the commander-in-chief of the Sixth Army.

"It is to be grateful to the confidant, for decades like a glance, although the subordinates are divided, the love is more than flesh and blood. In recent years, Qi Rui has suffered from insomnia due to vomiting blood, and he has been a newspaper in a certain country that harbors evil intentions, and has tried to slander Qi Rui as an ungrateful person in order to sow discord, and even forged rumors that he was assassinated. ”

Many times, officialdom is a rumor that becomes more and more true. Duan Qirui's so-called assassination and a certain national newspaper turned out to be like this: There was a case of tea service stealing ** in the War Department, and the Japanese newspaper deliberately provoked it, saying that this was a political conspiracy by Yuan Shikai to murder Duan Qirui.

The Beiyang soldiers all believed that the fuse of Yuan Shikai and Duan Qirui's separation was triggered by Yuan Keding's training of the "model regiment".

Yuan Shikai has always held military power in his hands since he was a child. But since he became president, he has had a heart but is powerless. Over time, Yuan Shikai felt that he had lost control of the Beiyang Army.

In addition, some people often whispered in his ears that all aspects of the Beiyang Army were outdated, and China urgently needed to create a new type of army, just like Yuan Shikai trained in a small station back then, the so-called starting from scratch.

At first, Yuan Shikai didn't think much about it, but the three of them became tigers, and after talking a lot for a long time, Yuan Shikai couldn't help but pay attention to it.

Before the Generalissimo's Office was established, Yuan Keding often discussed military science and training of the new army with Major Dinkman of Germany and Lieutenant Colonel Bai Lisu of France.

In order to build a new and updated army, Yuan Ke suggested to Yuan Shikai that a model army be established under the command office. Consisting of a generalissimo and commander of the model army, this plan is the same as that of the regent Zaifeng in the late Qing Dynasty, when he concentrated his military power in the center of the imperial family and organized the Praetorian Guard and became his own commander. The model army is scheduled to set up two model divisions first, with middle-level officers using international students as much as possible, and junior officers using officer cadets and accelerated students.

It turned out that most of the officers of the Beiyang Army were graduates of the Tianjin Military Academy and the Beiyang Military Academy, and these two schools have always been in the hands of Duan Qirui.

In Yuan Keding's plan to organize the new army, the source of officers was changed to graduates of the Baoding Military Academy and the Army Accelerated School. The Baoding Military Academy, like the Tianjin Wubei School, was founded in the late Qing Dynasty. In order to contain Duan Qirui, Yuan Shikai deliberately did not adopt Duan Qirui's opinion when agreeing on the principal of the Baoding Military Academy, nor did he discuss with Duan Qirui, and sent Jiang Fangzhen, who was not on good terms with Duan Qirui, as the principal. Duan Qirui also used color to make it difficult for the War Department to fund the Baoding Military Academy.

Of course, Jiang Fangzhen knew the reason, this person was not very open-minded, and he couldn't stand such grievances, so he committed suicide during the principal's tenure, but fortunately he was rescued but resolutely begged to go.

Yuan Shikai reappointed Jiang Fangzhen as a military senator of the presidential office. Duan Qirui was also the military director of the presidential office at this time, but he still refused to let go, and even refused to issue a letter of appointment, which made Jiang Fangzhen unable to arrive.

The scheming Yuan Shikai didn't want to stimulate Duan Qirui and the old Beiyang people too much, so he reduced the newly built model army to a model regiment. The nature and size of the Model Regiment are different from those of the Model Army, and it is more like an officer training regiment.

Wang Shizhen was appointed as the director of the preparatory department of the model regiment, directly subordinate to the command office. Yuan Shikai knew very well that by using the northerners and the future preparations of the Beiyang Su, he could avoid arousing the disgust of the old Beiyang people.

On October 23, the third year of the Republic of China, the model regiment was formally established, and the site of the regiment was located in Zhantan Temple in Xicheng.

Yuan Shikai wanted Yuan Keding to be the head of this model regiment at the beginning. When he asked for the opinion of Duan Qirui, the Minister of War at the time, he was denied by Duan Yikou, saying how could Yuan Keding have the ability to be the commander of this regiment?

Yuan Shikai was very faceless and unhappy, but he couldn't refute Duan's words, because what Duan said was the truth.

There is no way, Yuan Shikai said: "He is not capable, I have this ability, right?" Then I'll be the head of the regiment. ”

Duan Qirui naturally had nothing to say after hearing this, so Yuan Shikai became the head of the model regiment.

Chen Guangyuan, who had served as the envoy of Chifeng Town, was the deputy of the regiment, and Wang Shizhen, Yuan Keding, Zhang Jingyao, and Chen Guangyuan were clerks, and the headquarters of the regiment was located in Beihai.

Yuan Shikai, a big president, how could he have the energy to manage the affairs of the model regiment, and entrusted everything to his son Yuan Keding, so Yuan Keding became the head of the regiment who was not the head of the regiment.

After the establishment of the model regiment, both the treatment and equipment were far superior to those of other units, and this will inevitably cause comparison and eye fever among other units of the Beiyang Army. I often hear people in the Beiyang Army say: It's okay now, if there is a war and a model regiment, there is no more business for us.

What's worse is that it attracted the displeasure of Duan Qirui and other generals of the Beiyang Army, which obviously showed that the father and son of the Yuan family no longer believed in them all, and set up a new army to replace the Beiyang Army.

Yuan Shikai started with the Beiyang Army as the capital, and he was able to sit firmly on the throne of the president, but also because the Beiyang Army was powerful in all directions. What can a model regiment accomplish? The so-called want to kill the donkey without waiting for the mill to be unloaded, the world has not yet been completely decided, that is, it wants to replace the Beiyang Army; This is undoubtedly another big failure in Yuan Shikai's life.

After the establishment of the model regiment, the soldiers were drawn from the junior officers of each division of the Beiyang Army. The Fourth Division, stationed in Shanghai alone, was drawn 490 men; In addition, 280 people from Zhizhi, Henan, Jiji, and Feng provinces were selected from Baoding by Yin Chang as middle and junior corporals, and the senior officers of each division of the Beiyang Army were the junior officers of the regiment.

Yuan Shikai planned that the model regiment would be divided into five phases of training, each of which would be half a year, and each period would produce officers of the new army of the four brigades, with the goal of training model officers of the 10th Division for the time being.

After the first phase of training matured, Yuan Shikai set up a special "new army supervision and training office" and established the fourth infantry brigade of the Gong Guard Army, the first artillery regiment, the first cavalry regiment, the first machine gun battalion, and the first baggage battalion. The arms of the Model Regiment were the finest weapons and ammunition purchased from Germany.

The second phase is justifiable, with Yuan Keding as the head of the regiment and Lu Jin as the deputy of the regiment.

Yuan Keding pretended to be clever, and specially selected a group of students at or above the middle school level to cooperate with the junior officers of each division for training, but after graduation, because of the insufficient degree, he was only able to set up two brigades.

The first phase was later organized into the 11th and 12th divisions, with Li Kuiyuan and Chen Guangyuan as division commanders. The second phase of personnel was later only organized into the first division of the ninth division, with Lu Jin as the division commander.

In order to show the importance attached to the Baoding Military Academy, on October 27, the third year of the Republic of China, when the students of the Baoding Military Academy held a graduation ceremony, Yuan Shikai sent the army general and the chief military attache of the presidential palace to the school to present the graduation certificate on his behalf. Each person was presented with a saber, and it was not the principal of the school who signed the graduation diploma, but President Yuan Da.

Yuan Shikai must ride a horse to the model regiment once a week to observe the exercise, and during the exercise, he must call the officers to give lectures, and when the officers at all levels are promoted, they must go to the presidential palace to kowtow to Yuan to thank him.

All officers and men trained in the model regiment must take an oath of allegiance, which has eight articles: "Obey orders, serve the country loyally, defend the people with sincerity, respect superiors, spare their lives, be faithful in their words and deeds, be diligent and hard-working, and do not join the party association." Oath eight articles, willingly abide by them, and violate one of them, God will punish the law. ”

On January 13, the fourth year of the Republic of China, all the members of the first phase went to the Guanyue Temple to take the oath, Yuan sent Yin Chang to supervise the oath, and Chen Guangyuan, the deputy of the model league, read the oath.