Originally, Yuan Shikai's request to Tang Shaoyi, the northern representative in charge of the negotiations, was to hope that Tang Shaoyi would drag Sun Yat-sen and others through negotiations and buy buffer time for the Beiyang Army. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info But what Yuan Shikai never expected was that due to the capture of Nanjing, the contradictions within the Southern Revolutionary Party suddenly came to the fore, Nanjing and Wuhan were preparing to establish the Republic of China almost at the same time, and Sun Yat-sen, the leader of the Revolutionary Party Alliance, even skipped Li Yuanhong, the leader of the anti-Qing uprising, and held a public promotion meeting of 18 provinces, which was voted by a show of hands by representatives from 18 provinces, Sun Yat-sen got 17 of them, and on the third day of Nanjing's conquest, he telegraphed the Liangjiang Governor's Mansion in Nanjing to announce the establishment of the Republic of China. And he was elected as the provisional president of the Republic of China.

The combination of punches of the Southern Revolutionary Party caught Yuan Shikai off guard, and also caught Li Yuanhong off guard, and the two old foxes were preempted by Sun Yat-sen because they calculated too much.

Yuan Shikai sent Tang Shaoyi to secretly reach a verbal agreement with Li Yuanhong, Huang Xing and others, once Yuan Shikai forced the Qing family to abdicate and make way for Xian, the Southern Revolutionary Government could allow Yuan Shikai to serve as the President of the Republic of China, but he did not expect Sun Yat-sen to announce his inauguration as the provisional president of the Republic of China as soon as Nanjing was conquered, and officially announced the establishment of the Southern Revolutionary Government, which suddenly forced Yuan Shikai to a situation where there was no way out.

But Yuan Shikai calmed down very openly, and immediately sent a secret telegram to Tang Shaoyi, telling him that although the Republic of China was established and Sun Yat-sen became the interim president, after all, this president was still temporary. Sun Yat-sen's self-directed and self-acted presidential campaign farce, he is the only candidate, and becoming the president in this way is obviously not really convincing. There must have been many opponents in the southern provinces, such as revolutionary party veterans Tan Renfeng, Li Yuanhong, Li Liejun, and Song Jiaoren, so the negotiations must continue.

At the same time, Zhang Xun had already sent a telegram that when Zhang Xun left Nanjing, he had emptied all the silver taels in the treasury, and Nanjing City was an empty city with a population of 900,000 waiting to be fed but not a penny, and Sun Yat-sen's trouble was not small. Don't look at him now as the interim president, soon he will realize the embarrassment of having no money in his pocket but having to give money and food to his subordinates.

Tang Shaoyi replied by secret telegram that according to the news they inquired in Nanjing, Sun Yat-sen received part of the military salary from Shanghi Chen Qimei, which temporarily alleviated the problem of salary and silver in Nanjing, but this problem always existed, except for Shanghi, the southern provinces were unwilling to pay taxes to the Nanjing government of the Republic of China.

Yuan Shikai relieved his mind at this time, and sent a secret telegram to Tang Shaoyi, asking him to negotiate with Sun Yat-sen, and he was willing to overthrow the Manchu Qing, but now the biggest obstacle between the two sides is Jiangbei, and Jiangbei's attitude is not clear, so before the peace talks between the north and the south, the two sides should conduct further consultations to solve the problem in the Jiangbei region between the north and the south.

At this time in the Jiangbei region, in the yamen of the Yangzhou Jiangbei Protector Army, Wang Yongan took the telegram sent by Sun Yat-sen to the establishment of the Republic of China to the whole world, looked at the adjutant Li Yao who brought the telegram with a smile, and asked: "Lao Li, looking at you, it seems that you have a strange look?" What's so strange that my eldest brother Sun can do such a thing. ”

"Isn't it strange?" Li Yao said, "And what is the president?" ”

"Mountain artillery." Wang Yongan scolded with a smile, "I don't even know the president, the president is the emperor." ”

"My grandmother, Sun Yat-sen is going to be the emperor." Li Yao jumped to his feet and scolded, he pointed at Wang Yongan and said: "Otherwise, you will also be called the emperor, at least the people of Yangzhou will support you as the emperor." ”

"Of course, I am from Yangzhou, and the people of Yangzhou will definitely support me, but is this useful?" Wang Yongan said, "In addition to being scolded by others for being a nervous disorder, is it useful for me to be the emperor?" It's better to be my little warlord honestly. ”

"Isn't everyone a slow king? Sun Yat-sen is in such a hurry, and you don't persuade your brother-in-law. Li Yao complained.

Wang Yongan laughed and said, "I think I can guess a little reason why he is in such a hurry to become president." ”

The reason why Sun Yat-sen is so anxious to serve as the provisional president is, on the one hand, that he himself is an idealist, not a qualified and experienced politician, and does not know how to play political games, he thinks that if he serves as the president, he can organize the southern army to go on a northern expedition to eliminate the Qing court and restore the Han dynasty, but he did not expect that his army painstakingly defeated Zhang Xun, a third-class army in the Beiyang Army, which is not the real strength of the Beiyang Army at all.

On the other hand, there are now two voices in the revolutionary party, one is that Li Yuanhong, as a leader recognized by both the north and the south, can be the first president in the future, and the other voice is the recent rise, that is, some Jiangxi people call for Li Liejun, commander-in-chief of the allied forces of the four provinces, to be the future president. No matter which voice it is, it makes Sun Yat-sen anxious in his heart, as a spiritual leader without the support of the army, he can only choose to preemptively announce it to prevent others from becoming the president.

Liu Tong privately sent a secret letter to Wang Yongan, saying that Sun Yat-sen had very strong and crazy ideas about becoming the first president of China, he would look at the map of China from time to time, and at the same time negotiate with foreign representatives, as if he had already regarded himself as the future leader of China's country, so Sun Yat-sen suddenly organized a meeting of the revolutionary party and voted for himself to be elected as the provisional president of the Republic of China in only one night.

Wang Yongan immediately convened a military and political conference in Jiangbei, and all the principal responsible persons in the Jiangbei region gathered to discuss how to deal with the impact on Jiangbei of Sun Yat-sen's resolute announcement of the establishment of the Southern Revolutionary Government and the provisional president of the Republic of China in spite of Yuan Shikai's feelings.

"There are two possibilities." Wang Yongan said to everyone, "Either the Beiyang Army will go south regardless of peace, or Yuan Shikai will give in to real negotiations with the revolutionary government in the south, and the north and the south will be republic." Previously, Yuan Shikai had been using negotiations as an excuse to drag out time, in anticipation of the idea of being able to eliminate the southern troops, and was defeated by Sun Yat-sen's announcement of his inauguration as interim president, and I have to say that Sun Yat-sen's move was very beautiful. ”

Chen Zhaotang sneered: "Sun Yat-sen may not be really smart, maybe this Chinese president is too tempting, he is reluctant to give it to Yuan Shikai." ”

Everyone couldn't help laughing, Chen Zhaotang's evaluation of Sun Yat-sen was very polite, and directly said that Sun Yat-sen's fame and fortune far exceeded the spirit of dedication to the country, and he was a greedy and vain person in disguise.