From the murder of Zhang Zhenwu, it should be seen that both Yuan Shikai and Li Yuanhong are old people, and they are deeply branded with autocracy. Compared with democracy, they are more proficient in autocracy, and compared with the rule of law, they are more comfortable with the rule of man.

A great man once said that under the feudal system, there can also be a kind of equality, that is, everyone is nothing, everyone is equal to zero, zero and zero are equal. Under feudal rule, it is not often said that the people are grass people, and human life is like grass mustard. Yuan Shikai and Li Yuanhong were both born in feudal high-ranking officials, and in their eyes, they didn't take human life seriously at all. After all, Zhang Zhenwu was "a primary school teacher who approved of the revolution", and in the final analysis, he was also a grass citizen.

This may also be the historical limitation of Yuan Shikai and Li Yuanhong. From the old style of centralized dictatorship. Government to Democratic Republican. In the process of government transformation, all kinds of people are struggling to turn around and adapt.

It's not that if you oust the Qing Emperor from power, you can easily enter the republic, no. Not to mention the establishment of a full-fledged republic, even if it is to get started, there is also a long way to go. This has been verified by later history.

Yuan Shikai should have realized that the deeper the Zhang Zhenwu incident goes, the more unfavorable it will be to himself, and he must divert people's attention. As a master of intrigues, he soon had a new plan. Sun Yat-sen, Huang Xing, and Li Yuanhong were invited to Beijing for a meeting, and they were discussed with them on important matters.

At this time, Li Yuanhong had already learned the methods of President Yuan. I will never rush to it.

Yuan Shikai judged according to his own land that Sun Yat-sen and Huang Xing would not come to Beijing.

To Yuan Shikai's surprise, Sun Yat-sen soon set off for Beijing regardless of his personal safety. Before leaving, he told people from all walks of life that his wish for this trip was to persuade Yuan Shikai to move the capital to Nanjing in order to get rid of the old forces in the north. Achieve sincere cooperation with the Alliance.

At that time, Yuan Shikai had just killed Zhang Zhenwu, one of the leaders of the Wuchang Uprising, in Beijing. For the revolutionaries, Sun Yat-sen's visit to Beijing was undoubtedly risky. On August 18, 1912, Sun Yat-sen boarded a ship in Shanghai and headed for Beijing. On the ship, a lady suddenly broke into the cabin and took out a weapon, she wanted to die against Sun Yat-sen's trip to Beijing.

Sun Yat-sen said: "It is my duty to go. Because Zhang Zhenwu was killed for no reason, a civil war may have started as a result. We must strive to maintain the unity of the Republic of China. If I don't go to Beijing, the people will think that I am afraid of Yuan Shikai. If I go, the people should think that I am protecting their interests. Sun Yat-sen said good words and persuaded the lady to go ashore.

At 5:30 p.m. on 24 August, Sun Yat-sen arrived at Beijing's Zhengyangmen Railway Station via Tianjin. There was a welcoming crowd on the platform, and there were many people chanting their hats on the road. Sun Yat-sen took the vermilion lacquer golden wheel carriage prepared by Yuan Shikai and entered the city from Zhengyang Gate. In order to show courtesy, Yuan Shikai gave up his presidential palace in Shida Hutong to Sun Yat-sen as a palace, and he moved to the War Department in Tieshi Hutong to work.

That night, Yuan Shikai held a banquet to welcome Sun Yat-sen at the Provisional Presidential Palace in Tieshi Hutong.

During the banquet, Sun Yuan and the two talked happily.

Sun Yat-sen highly praised Yuan in his reply to Yuan Shikai: "The founding of the Republic of China has a solid foundation, and there are a lot of problems in construction.

"There are a small number of unconscious people, saying that China has the name of a republic, but there is no republic, and they are very dissatisfied. As everyone knows, the Republic of China was established, and all kinds of ruins are waiting to be lifted, and it is impossible to change from thousands of years of autocracy to a republic. Therefore, if you want to reap the true republican effect, you can do it with your private opinion, and it will not be done for ten years.

"Today, President Yuan is rich in political experience and holds the position of state affairs, which can be celebrated." After speaking, Sun Yat-sen raised his glass and shouted: "Long live President Yuan!" Long live the Republic of China! Long live the five nations! ”

The whole banquet reached the top in the praise of the two major political giants of the North and the South.

Sun Yat-sen stayed in Beijing for 25 days, from 24 August to 17 September, during which he met with Yuan 13 times. And most of them are secret talks between the two, and sometimes Sun Yat-sen's Guangdong compatriot and secretary general of the presidential office Liang Shiyi is present.

According to the "Annals of the Founding Fathers" compiled by the Kuomintang, "My husband stayed in Beijing for about a month and met with Yuan 13 times, and each conversation lasted from 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. or 12 p.m., and some talked until 2 a.m. the next morning. At each meeting, Mr. Zhi, Yuan Shikai and Liang Shiyi retired from the attendants. The discussions are all major national affairs, and the situation at home and abroad, including railways, industry, diplomacy, and military issues, is very smooth on the surface. ”

Yuan Shikai invited Sun Yat-sen to go north, first, to test Sun Yat-sen. After the success of the Xinhai Revolution, the North and the South compromised and reached the reunification of the Republic of China, but the North and the South still distrusted each other and were suspicious of each other. Yuan Shikai's control south of the Yangtze River was limited. He found out the strength of the Wuhan Revolutionary Army through actual combat, but he had no bottom about the strength of the revolutionary army in other places, especially the Ninghu Revolutionary Army, and he did not know what the southern revolutionaries would do next. As Tang Zaili, a senator of the Military Department of the Presidential Palace, said in his recollections, one of the purposes of Yuan Shikai's invitation to Sun Yat-sen to Beijing was to "find out what Sun Yat-sen's plans were."

The second is to envelop Sun Yat-sen. According to Tang Zaili's recollections, another purpose of Yuan Shikai's invitation to Sun Yat-sen to Beijing was to "win over Sun Yat-sen. Mr. Shan is in his own hands". There are two things that Yuan Shikai did to Sun Yat-sen's satisfaction. One is for the construction of railways. After Sun Yat-sen left office, he changed from a politician to an industrialist, and planned to build 200,000 miles of railways within 10 years. Yuan Shikai knew that Sun Yat-sen's plan to build a railway could not be realized, but he met his requirements in order to win over Sun Yat-sen and find something to do for Sun Yat-sen's unemployed revolutionary party, so as not to cause trouble.

On 11 September, Yuan Shikai appointed Sun Yat-sen as the manager of the China Railway Corporation, allocated the small train dedicated to Cixi to Sun Yat-sen and his entourage, and managed enough funds for the parade, and informed the officials in various places of their hospitality.

The other is that Sun Yat-sen's three children (Sun Ke, Sun Wei, and Sun Wan) are studying abroad. Due to lack of money, he wanted to apply for public funds for his children, but he was not qualified according to the study abroad regulations. Sun Yat-sen then walked through the back door and asked Yuan Shikai to come forward to allocate official funds for funding, but of course Yuan Shikai couldn't ask for it. In this way, Sun Yat-sen received Yuan Shikai's favor in both public and private affairs and big and small things.

The third is to use Sun Yat-sen. After Yuan Shikai became the provisional president, he wanted to show at home and abroad that he had the unanimous support and support of all parties and strata across the country. Therefore, he invited not only Sun, Huang and other leaders of the revolutionary party to Beijing, but also invited Kang Youwei, Liang Qichao and other royalist leaders to return to China. If Sun Yat-sen goes north, it shows that the southern revolutionaries recognize and obey Yuan Shikai's leadership position, and it is more logical for Yuan to become a country; At the same time, it can also solve many problems such as party politics for Yuan Shikai.

In Yuan Shikai's view, his president is very unsatisfactory, and the Senate and the cabinet always can't get along with him, and they are bent on sharing the power of the president. Tang Shaoyi and Lu Zhengxiang resigned one after another, and Yuan Shikai nominated Zhao Bingjun, the police chief, as the premier of the cabinet, but the Senate rejected it. When he heard that the Kuomintang was about to be established and wanted to invite Sun Yat-sen to be its leader, he wanted to use Sun Yat-sen's prestige to suppress the members of the Senate League.

Grandchild. Middle. Shan was in Beijing for a month, and in the talks with Yuan, there were many suggestions. Whenever Sun raised a question, Yuan Shikai always said that it was good and agreed very much. Once Sun. Middle. Shan once again expressed his willingness to build 200,000 kilometers of railways within 10 years, and asked Yuan to train 1 million troops during the same period. Yuan Shikai would not take the other so-called "questions" raised by Sun Yat-sen to heart, and this time he asked him to train 1 million soldiers. is talking about Yuan's heart. He was excited for a moment, stood up coldly, raised his arm and shouted, "Sun. Middle. Long live Mr. Mountain! ”

Grandchild. Middle. After Shan arrived in Beijing, in his relationship with Yuan Shikai, he should have been deceived by Yuan's superficial "enthusiasm", thinking that Yuan Shikai was not as bad as rumored. So he strongly persuaded Huang Xing to come north.

Grandchild. Middle. Shan called Huang Xing and said: "As my brother can see, Xiang Cheng is really in a sad situation. And there is absolutely no room for suspicion, the Zhenwu case is really forced by Li Zhi's urgent telegram, and it is not necessary to follow his wishes, and there is no way to meet Li's hope. Since the younger brother arrived, the opinions of the north have been greatly eliminated. If the brother comes quickly, the southern trend can also be stopped. Reunification should have a successful result. ”

After that, in response to the distrust of some revolutionaries towards Yuan Shikai, Sun ... In an interview with the Beijing media, Zhongshan openly said: "President Yuan can be good, and there is absolutely no disloyalty to the Republic of China, and the people must not be suspicious of President Yuan, wantonly attack, so that each other's sincerity is not reconciled, nothing can be done, and President Yuan is turned to evil." ”

Sun Yat-sen said to Congressman Tang Yi: "President Yuan is very talented, and he is very much looking forward to being president for ten years, and he will be able to train millions of soldiers, and at that time, he will run 200,000 miles of railways, and his income will be 80,000 yuan a year, so that he can meet with other countries."

"You can do good deeds with President Yuan...... President Yuan has no intention of being disloyal to the Republic of China... The people must not be suspicious of President Yuan...... We must not arbitrarily expose President Yuan's selfishness, criticize President Yuan, make each other distrustful, and cannot do anything...... It also stimulated and forced President Yuan to do bad things.

"President Yuan is a great talent, and he is very much looking forward to being president for ten years, and he will be able to train millions of soldiers, and at that time, he will run 200,000 li of railways, and his income will be 80,000 yuan a year, so that he can meet with other countries: at that time, we can almost be on an equal footing with all countries in the world."

On the 28th, Yuan Shikai formally invited Sun Yat-sen, ministers, senior military officers, the president of the Senate, the secretary general, etc., and the princes of Manchu and Mongolia to accompany him. Sun Yat-sen also shouted Long live President Yuan......

Sun Yat-sen's reply at the banquet was even more highly respectful of Yuan Shikai: "The brothers worship President Yuan the most, and there is one thing that people believe in the most: China has always been known for its weakness, because the army is not strong, when the former President Yuan was in Beiyang, he trained soldiers and was extremely successful, and the soldiers of Beiyang became the whole country. The current republic is built roughly, and it must be guaranteed by military strength.