When Wang Hengyue set out to Guizhou, Duan Qirui also swore to send troops as the commander-in-chief of the rebel army on July 4!

On July 2, Premier Li Jingxi, who had been in office for less than 10 days, disguised himself as a coal transporter and fled from Yanjing to Tianjin.

On July 3, Cheng Biguang and Lu Yongxiang, the envoy of the Songhu Protectors, jointly telegraphed to crusade against the restoration.

Same as said. Feng Guozhang convened a military conference in Nanjing, and as Zhang Guogan expected, he seized the opportunity to lead the restoration of the mainstream of the Republic of China and oppose the restoration, but unfortunately Nanjing was too far away from Yanjing and the geographical conditions were not as good as Tianjin. At the same time, he sent a telegram to Duan Qirui, listing Zhang Xun's eight major crimes, and asked to apply jointly with Duan. Feng and Duan then jointly issued the following telegram:

Since the powerful factions in Nanjing and Shanghai both expressed their opposition to the restoration, Yang Shande, the overseer of Zhejiang, also issued a telegram opposing the restoration on the 3rd.

On this day, Yang Du, the culprit of the Hongxian Empire, also sent a telegram to oppose the restoration. But his argument was unusual, opposing only the Qing restoration and not the imperial system in general.

Sun Yuyun, another culprit of the Hongxian Empire, also telegraphed against the restoration.

During the period of restoration and change, many warlords did not express an attitude of opposition to restoration or an attitude of approval of restoration. They try to see which way the wind is blowing before they show their attitude. For example, when Wang Zhanyuan, the overseer of Hubei, and Zhao Wei, the overseer of Henan, received the false edict from Yanjing, they both instructed the telecommunications bureau not to make it public for the time being, so as not to make it difficult for others to answer questions about his attitude. Zhang Zuolin pretended to say, "Fengtian's status is special, and it is inconvenient to express his attitude." Someone asked the attitude of Tan Yanhong, the overseer of Hunan, and Tan only replied with the word "funny".

The military operation against the rebellion began on July 7 of the 6th year of the Republic of China and ended on the 12th, with a total of only six days before and after, and four days in the middle of which the troops did not advance, and the real war was only two days.

6 It was said that the west road of the rebel army was concentrated at Lugou Bridge, and the east road was driven to Langfang to Huangcun, and the pigtailed army in Fengtai fell into a situation of being attacked on its back. Zhang Xun ordered the Braided Army to destroy the Fengtai Railway to stop the advance of the rebel army, which caused protests from the diplomatic corps, who sent foreign troops to protect the Beijing-Tianjin Railway and restore the rails and reopen to traffic on the grounds that "the Beijing-Tianjin Railway shall not be interrupted" in the Treaty of Xincho. This is very bad for the pigtail army.

When Zhang Xun resisted the rebel army, he knew that his strength was weak, and he only led 5,000 pigtailed troops to the north, which was only used for symbolic and threatening surnames, and once the official battle was made, it was too insufficient. In order to hide his vulnerability, he had to take the lead with the non-pigtailed army, and the pigtail army postponed the battle. 7 He sent Wu Changzhi's 1st Brigade and Tian Wang's 1st Regiment to Fengtai to help, but the 2nd Battalion of the Braided Army was delayed. As a result, Wu and Tian's troops had not yet reached their destination, so they turned against each other, and the 11th Division Li Kuiyuan Brigade and the 12th Division Liu Peirong Brigade stationed in Nanyuan also took advantage of the situation to point their guns at the pigtailed army. Under such circumstances, the pigtailed army scattered in all directions, and fled.

Chen Guangyuan, the commander of the 12th Division, rushed to Fengtai from Nanyuan, and the rebel armies from the east and west met at Fengtai. The pigtailed army retreated from the front line to the Yongding Gate of Yanjing, Jiang Chaozong ordered the city gate to be closed, and no stragglers were allowed to enter the city.

This was the first battle of the rebels, but it was only a small contact, and there was no big battle at all, because under artillery fire, the train was still running. In this war, the Braided Army was defeated by the Beiyang Army, and turned against him, so it was defeated without a formal battle.

Zhang Xun panicked at this time, and he hurriedly sent a telegram to the provincial warlords attending the Xuzhou Conference, asking them to fulfill their promises, sponsor the restoration, and stop the attack.

But who cares about him now?

The rebel army effortlessly, the first battle and the Langfang, the second battle and the division of Fengtai, the third battle and the army under the Yanjing City. Duan Zhigui, the commander-in-chief of the rebel army on the East Road, reported that "the rebel military committee abandoned braided hair and opium smoking guns a lot. ”

The battle of Langfang was actually not fired, the local defense army was the 16th mixed brigade of the army, Duan Qirui used the former brigade commander Feng Yuxiang, and Langfang went down without a fight. At this time, another brigade commander, Wu Peifu, served as the commander of the 6th Brigade of the 3rd Division under Cao Kun. Wu and Feng fought against Hu [***] in Sichuan, and now the two are participating in the war against rebellion.

On July 8, the pigtail army was ordered by Zhang Xun to retreat into the inner city of Yanjing, concentrating on the Temple of Heaven, the Forbidden City, and the three areas of Zhangzhai along the Nanhe River. Ordered the infantry commander Jiang Chaozong to send troops to defend the city gates, and Zhang Xiyuan, the first brigade of the first division originally stationed outside Yanjing City, took advantage of the situation to attack Chaoyangmen.

This time, street fighting may break out in Yanjing City, and the situation will suddenly become tense. Wu Bingxiang, the commander of the Yanjing police, hurriedly visited Brigade Commander Zhang and asked Brigade Zhang to withdraw, on the grounds that the gates of Yanjing had been taken over by the commander of the neutral infantry army!

After the pigtail army originally from Zhang Xun retreated into the inner city, Yanjing became a triple sphere of influence, and the pigtailed soldiers stationed in the inner city were still flying the five-clawed yellow dragon flag. In the middle is a "neutral zone" without flags, and Jiang Chaozong's troops are stationed at each city gate, and Jiang Chaozong still uses the pseudonym of the post-restoration Jiumen Admiral to issue a proclamation to the people. It is neither called the "Republic of China" nor the "Qing Empire", and the proclamation is followed by a yin and yang calendar. Outside the city is the rebel army, they fluttering the five-color flag Zhang Xun saw that the general trend had gone, he couldn't help but panic, he sent the puppet foreign minister Liang Dunyan to the legation to ask the envoy to protect the "emperor", but he could not get the essentials; At this time, Li Yuanhong was still living in the embassy, and Liang saw Li and asked Li for his guilt. Zhang Xun wanted to imitate the old wisdom of Li Dao and Guo Yan, set fire to the palace, and coerced the "young master" to go out of Qihuamen to "hunt in the west" Rehe, of course, this did not work.

At this time, the gates of Yanjing were covered with half-moon-shaped sandbags, machine guns were set up outside the gate of Zhang's house in Nanchizi, shops in the urban area were closed, and the common people were panicked, because they were afraid that the braided soldiers would repeat the scene of the sacking of Nanjing in the second year of the Republic of China.

However, this time Zhang Xun was very smart, he knew that the foreigners in Yanjing were very harmful, so the pigtailed soldiers were not at all like they did in Nanjing, and they did not take a single grass or tree from the people.

The rebel army did not actively attack Yanjing because they were afraid that the ancient city would be destroyed by artillery fire after the street battle, so Duan Qirui planned to solve everything through diplomatic channels. On July 8, Duan Qirui sent Wang Daxie and Liu Chongjie into the city to contact the ministers of various countries, asking them to convey Zhang Xun and propose the following four armistice treaties:

(1) Abolish the imperial system, (2) disarm the Braided Army, (3) Preserve Zhang Xun's life, and (4) maintain the preferential conditions for the Qing Dynasty. At the same time, Fu Liangzuo and Qu Tongfeng were sent into the city to handle the dismissal of the pigtail army.

The ministers of various countries pushed the Dutch minister as a representative, conveyed the conditions of the rebel army to Zhang Xun's puppet Ministry of Foreign Affairs, strongly persuaded Zhang Xun to accept it, and expressed the willingness of all countries to recognize Zhang Xun as a state criminal and protect him.

Zhang Xun saw that the general trend had gone, made a wishful calculation, he wanted to lead the pigtail army to safely withdraw from Yanjing through diplomatic relations, and return to Xuzhou's lair, at the same time he and Lei Zhenchun, Zhang Zhenfang jointly submitted his resignation to Puyi, Puyi's little puppet emperor of course approved, and issued a false edict to Xu Shichang to form a cabinet, before Xu Shichang arrived in Beijing, Wang Shizhen was the agent.

Zhang Xun never dreamed that his dream of restoration would be short-lived, and the overseers who "only the handsome horse is the guts" at the Xuzhou Conference would now use the attitude of "dragging" and "waiting and seeing" to watch him sing a one-legged show. With the tide gone, he wanted to leave. He wanted to learn from Yuan Shikai, Yuan staged Hongxian to be the emperor, the emperor couldn't do it, so he turned back to be the president, Zhang Xun can't be restored now, and he also wants to go back to Xuzhou to be a marshal.

When Duan Qirui proposed four ways to solve the current situation to Zhang Xun through the diplomatic corps, Zhang replied with four ballads, saying: "I will not leave the army, the soldiers will not leave the weapon, where I come from, where I am going." ”

At this time, he had forgotten the little emperor he had set up, and someone asked him how to give an explanation to the Qing family, and he said loudly: "I am so stupid, everyone is very smart, restoration is not my own idea, nor is it my own wish, everyone is happy when the restoration is successful, and now I am guilty of it." This matter had nothing to do with the Qing Dynasty, but it was done, and the little emperor sat in the Dragon Court, failed, and I suffered alone. ”

Zhang Xun wanted to completely blame the matter of Yanjing on Xu Shichang and Wang Shizhen, he thought that these two people, one was the patriarch of the Beiyang faction, and the other was the important minister of the Beiyang faction, and with them in charge, the people of the Beiyang faction would feel more comfortable. At the same time, he intuitively believed that the Beiyang faction was not against the restoration, but against him alone, and now he handed over the aftermath of Yanjing to Xu He Wang, and the people of the Beiyang faction would not kill them all, and of course they would let him live and let him go back to Xuzhou. He was indeed very sad, and deeply felt that he was betrayed by some warlords, so he felt that whether it was to maintain the "Qing Empire" or restore the Republic of China, let Xu Shichang and his ilk do it, and the sooner he broke away from Yanjing, the better.

At this time, all parts of the country scolded Zhang Xun for betraying the Republic of China, and none of the people who participated in the Xuzhou Conference in the past came forward to speak for Zhang Braidshuai.

From July 9th, the rebel army united with the Beiyang Army in and approached Yanjing. The 1st Division was outside Andingmen, Guangqumen, and Chaoyangmen, the 13th Division was outside Xizhimen, part of the 11th Division was outside Yongdingmen, one part of the 3rd and 12th Divisions was outside Zhangyimen, and the other part of the 11th and 12th Divisions was in Xiyuan.

The situation of the restoration was completely disintegrated, and on the 9th, Feng Delin, the commander of the 28th Division in Fengtian, defected to Zhang Xun and supported the restoration.

10 Lei Zhenchun, Zhang Zhenfang, and Liang Dunyan also escaped from Yanjing and were arrested at Fengtai Station. Lei Zhenchun and Zhang Zhenfang were both favored by Yuan Shikai when he was called emperor, and now they are participating in the restoration, and they are called "double imperial criminals".

They asked for a telegram to be sent to Ni Sichong in Xuzhou, but the telegram was also withheld.

Only Kang Youwei, who is good at masquerade and known as Wensheng, abandoned his head and hat, disguised himself as an old peasant in the quaint countryside, and secretly escaped the military and police surveillance posts along the way.

The farce of the short-lived Restoration ended in such a comical form.

However, in the direction of Guizhou, the military operation of Wang Hengyue, the overseer of Sichuan, is still going on!

(To be continued)