From February 1904 to May 1905, Russia and Japan clashed sharply over territory in Northeast China, fighting for more than a year on Chinese territory.

In order to prevent Japan and Russia from expanding the war to other parts of China, the Qing Dynasty strictly ordered the border areas of Mukden and Zhili to be defended by Beiyang; The coastal ports are prepared by the corresponding superintendents.

Yuan Shikai took the opportunity to greatly expand the armament war, so his Wuwei Right Army was expanded into the Beiyang Army. Perhaps, how crucial this Beiyang Army is to Yuan Shikai's future life, Yuan Shikai at this time may not be able to clearly know.

Fourth, crack down on corruption.

The corruption of officials in the late Qing Dynasty had reached an unprecedented level.

The country is poor and weak, and the salaries of officials are extremely low. Relying on that little bit of official income, the family life is carefully maintained. However, despite the fact that there is not much money in the salary, almost everyone in the official system has money.

In this regard, Yuan Shikai has a deep experience.

After returning to the palace, Cixi, who had fled abroad, saw that the palace facilities had been greatly damaged, and most of the furnishings had been robbed or destroyed.

Where did this great sum come from?

Because of the repayment of Gengzi's indemnity, Qing Zheng. The government has increased all kinds of taxes, which has caused public resentment to boil. After Yuan Shikai arrived in Zhili, because the burden was too heavy, the anti-donation struggle led by Jing Yanbin in Guangzong County, Zhili had already broken out.

Although the uprising has been suppressed, the anger in the hearts of the people has not subsided, and if it is apportioned, it will inevitably provoke a popular uprising.

If the common people are not offended, will Lafayette be offended? In any case, the money has to be obtained.

Yuan Shikai summoned his officials such as the feudal domain, the clan, the secretary, and the Taoist to discuss, and wanted to borrow privately from all of them, and he would definitely repay the full amount afterwards.

He knew that these officials had money in their hands.

But these people have one mouth, and one will cry poorer than the other. Someone also calculated the account for Yuan Shikai. How much is your monthly salary, how much food and vegetables does your family have to eat in a month? How much is a pound of grain, how much is a pound of vegetables, it is not enough to calculate it, so you can only cut back on food and clothing.

When Yuan Shikai saw this, he could only give up.

Next, Yuan Shikai quietly sent people to contact the major ticket numbers in Tianjin, falsely claiming that he wanted to deposit a sum of public funds into the ticket number, and asked them how much profit they could give?

They say it's eight cents at most. This person said no, but he had heard that other people had deposited money here, and the profit was not this amount.

The ticket number didn't want to let go of this opportunity, so he flatly denied it, but this person didn't believe anything.

In order to convince this person, he took out the account books and reported to him the personal savings figures and profits of a certain official of a certain government office.

This person wrote down these people and the number of deposits and reported them to Yuan Shikai.

A few days later, Yuan Shikai invited those people and told them about the general situation.

The conversation changed and said: "The shopkeepers of these ticket numbers are so hateful that they dare to deceive in the name of the princes." In order to punish them, I have temporarily borrowed these imposter deposits. ”

Those people, you look at me, I look at you, you have suffered a dumb loss.

Regarding the corruption of officialdom, Yuan Shikai knows very well that if it is allowed to develop, it will be difficult to maintain any rule.

And more importantly, he, the new governor of Zhili, has to burn three fires when he takes office, and he needs political achievements.

When he was the governor of Shandong, he also arrested several corrupt officials.

For example, there was a subordinate named Wang Zhixin, who sent him on a business trip to the Northeast, and he took the opportunity to be greedy.

After being discovered by Yuan Shikai, he was originally going to cut off this person's head, but later Yuan Shikai couldn't help but give face to come out and intercede, so he spared him from dying.

It was this Wang Zhixin who later followed Yuan Shikai's Beiyang descendant Zhao Bingjun.

In 1913, when Zhao Bingjun was the premier of the Republic of China, Wang Zhixin became the mayor of Beijing.

The official is bigger, and the greed is even greater, and he was caught by the "Suppression Hall" presided over by President Yuan Shikai, and was finally executed by Yuan Shikai.

Of course, that's an afterthought.

However, on the one hand, Yuan Shikai has limited time and power in Shandong, and there are so many major events that he is riddled with difficulties. As for tackling corruption, we can only have more than enough heart but not enough power.

When he became the governor of Zhili and the minister of Beiyang, he was determined to make a big move and do a big job.

In terms of rectifying the rule of officials, the first measure Yuan Shikai took was to break the bad rules.

The so-called bad rules, also called "rules and etiquette" or "routines", are the money and gifts that officials openly solicit from their subordinate organs and personnel on time, according to the festival, and according to the things in their hands.

Because of the government at all levels, the office expenses allocated by the higher levels are seriously insufficient, and they can only be collected from their subordinates. In this regard, the above also knows in his heart, not with one eye open and one eye closed, but with his eyes open and nothing can be seen.

Because there is a necessary cost in this, it is reasonable to reach out to the bottom and have no fear.

This also opens the door to the use of bad rules to steal and grab.

Yuan Shikai believes that the biggest problem in the rule of officials is "nothing more than accepting bad rules".

His practice is to reimburse the necessary office expenses and necessary expenses as much as they should be, and to separate the use of bad rules and regulations to solicit bribes and necessary expenses from normal expenditures.

In order to combat corruption, it is first necessary to clearly define what kind of behavior is "greed", and breaking bad rules is of course of great significance for the fight against corruption.

After Yuan Shikai's financial situation in Zhili improved to a certain extent, he also took out a part of the funds to give certain subsidies to officials. Alleviate the problem of low salaries of officials, and take out money to support the honest.

The second measure taken by Yuan Shikai to rectify the administration of officials was to set up an official examination department to evaluate officials at all levels.

In the appointment of officials, except for the senior officials of the province and the government, he personally interrogated them, and the appointment of other officials was mainly carried out by the official examination and examination department, and only after approval could they enter the examination and approval procedure.

The third measure taken by Yuan Shikai to rectify the rule of officials was to set up an investigation department. The work of the Investigation Branch is divided into regular and ad hoc.

In normal times, the main purpose is to compare the performance of officials, understand and track public opinion and public reactions, and find problems and carry out investigations.

Temporarily it is to undertake the participation issues issued by the imperial court, the cases assigned by the governor, the problems of officials exposing each other, and the gentry telling the incidents. The target is limited to people below the provincial and prefectural levels.

We are committed to ensuring that corruption problems can be discovered and punished in a timely manner, so that those who engage in corruption will pay the corresponding price.

The fourth measure to rectify the rule of officials is to "open up the wisdom of officials," that is, to accompany and support officials and improve the quality of officials.

In order to expose officials to new knowledge, Yuan Shikai first set up a hall for officials, which was soon changed to the Zhili School of Law and Politics.

Specially recruited candidates to study, attached to the staff academy to teach staff learning. The School of Law and Politics enrolls 120 students every year, divided into preparatory department (half a year), main course (one and a half years), and the duration of study is two years.

Most of the lectures are taught by Japanese instructors.

The courses include: Qing Dynasty Statutes, Qing Dynasty Regulations, Negotiation Charters, Political Science, Constitutional Law, Administrative Law, Criminal Law, Civil Law, Commercial Law, International Conventions, Private International Law, Criminal Procedure Law, Civil Procedure Law, Constitutive Law of the Courts, Applied Economics, Public Finance, Police Science, Prison Studies, Statistics, Sino-Foreign Trade History, Japanese, and Exercise Adjudication.

After graduation, there are advantages and disadvantages, and assignment is different.

Second, Yuan Shikai also ordered the officials of the prefectures and counties who had not yet taken up their posts to travel to Japan for three months to visit the administration, justice, various official families, schools, and industries, and then go to the new post after returning.