On October 24, 1912, martial law was imposed in the daylight of the city of Beijing. The shops were closed, and the only patrolling Beiyang soldiers and policemen standing guard on the road were the abandoned corpses, and the foreign soldiers were marching back and forth. Occasionally, foreign reporters take pictures along the road, and the depression is like a dead market. It's hard to imagine that this is Beijing, the capital of the Republic of China, which was prosperous not so long ago.

The closer you get to Dongjiaomin Lane, the more foreign soldiers there are. Most of the foreign soldiers were cavalry, and tall horses patrolled the streets, which was particularly intimidating visually. The embassies of various countries are heavily guarded, and the soldiers with loaded guns and ammunition are tightly guarding the embassies. In the embassy, the ministers instructed the counsellors to gather information, send people to report to the country, or consult with more core members about countermeasures.

The British minister was perhaps the most anxious of all the ministers in China. As the hegemon of the world, as the leading country of the current world order, Britain is at least nominally the leading country. There are many issues that cannot be considered simply.

The ambassador and the first counsellor sat in a small conference room, and the topic of discussion was not Yuan Shikai's Beiyang government, which was close at hand, but the local government of the People's Party, thousands of miles away, and a war thousands of miles away.

On 9 October 1912, the Balkan League, formed by Bulgaria, Serbia, Greece and Montenegro, declared war on Turkey with the support of Tsarist Russia after its request to the Ottoman Empire for autonomy to Macedonia and Thrace was rejected. After fierce fighting, the Serbian and Menese armies entered and occupied Macedonia and the Adriatic coast; The Bulgarian forces control the area west of Istanbul; Greek troops occupied the islands of the Aegean Sea; The Turkish army was defeated and retreated to Edirne, Ioannina, and Shkodrë.

The Balkans are known as the powder keg of Europe, and this region is involved in too many entanglements of the interests of the European powers, and at a time when the contradictions between the European powers are intensifying, the powers can barely maintain basic autonomy and do not openly fight. The Germans proposed the "3B railway" plan, the Berlin, Istanbul, Baghdad railway. Even if the British felt that the railway was undermining geopolitics, at the insistence of Kaiser Wilhelm II, Britain had to hold its nose and admit it in 1912. Germany was allowed to begin construction of the railway.

The British built dreadnoughts, and the Germans followed. In the context of the naval race, Britain is at least to maintain the peace of the moment until there is a winner in the naval race. In this regard, Germany, as a challenger, also needs a temporary peace. The British Minister and First Counsellor in China did not need to discuss these basic political common senses too much. They were faced with the situation that in order to meet the German challenge, Britain had to stabilize the situation in various regions so that it could not be disrupted by unexpected circumstances in time of war. The Beiyang government undoubtedly brought the situation in the Far East, which had been stabilized with great difficulty, into turmoil again.

"I met Yuan Shikai today, and Yuan Shikai was very confident." The British minister said. He just wanted to say so much, in fact, if these words were explained in diplomatic terms, it could be said that it was the British minister's description of the British Yuan Shikai, or it could also be said that the British minister's negation of Yuan Shikai. Because Yuan Shikai only "showed great confidence".

The British minister was reluctant to say so much nonsense, Yuan Shikai not only showed great confidence, Yuan Shikai simply emphasized the strength of Beiyang with a posture of blowing a conch, thinking that the mutinous soldiers were only a small number of people, which was a trivial matter. However, the British received information that this was not the case at all, and the mutiny was by no means confined to Beijing.

On October 19th, the Dongyue Temple outside the Chaoyang Gate mutinied, first looted the fruit stall outside the Chaoyang Gate, and then joined the mutineers in the Chaoyang Gate, and looted separately, all the gold and silver money shops, jewelry stores, restaurants and foreign grocery stores were all looted, and burned Dong'an Market, East Fourth Archway and other places, which lasted for three days.

At 4 p.m. on October 20, Yuan Shikai convened a meeting of senior military and political leaders in Beijing at the State Guest House, and decided to take immediate action to stop the spread of the chaos. After Jiang Guidi, the commander of the Yi Army, was ordered, he personally led the guards to shoot bullets in all directions, and when he encountered the random looters of the rebels, he immediately killed them.

Beijing seems to have stopped the mutiny, but it then spread from Beijing to Tianjin, Baoding, and Fengtai, with the looting of Tianjin being more severe than Beijing's. On October 21, the guards of the Tianjin Zhili Governor's Office and the patrol police of the northern section, as well as the patrol battalion led by Zhang Huaizhi, staged a mutiny. At 8 o'clock in the evening, when the Beijing train arrived, 40 or 50 soldiers jumped out of the car, and as soon as they got off the train, a row of guns was set off indiscriminately, and the new railway station caught fire, and then the big alley, the old foreign money factory, and the mint were on fire at the same time, and the gunfire rang out in all directions, and the rich merchants and big men in the prosperous street and the old and new foreign money factories were all burned and plundered, first by soldiers, then by bandits, and with a small number of patrol police, they looted from house to house along the streets. The Beijing rebels arrived in Tianjin one after another, totaling more than 2,000 people, and they were officially looted and quite organized. On the night of 22 October, the hijacking train was heading for the three eastern provinces. At midnight on the 22nd, the patrol police who maintained order captured more than 400 rebels and bandits, beheaded them at the east road on the morning of the 23rd, and proposed to behead 12 robbers at the north gate on the afternoon of the 23rd.

When Yuan Shikai founded the police system in Tianjin, he was once praised by various countries, believing that Yuan Shikai was a talent capable of governing China. Therefore, in the process of Yuan Shikai's seizure of power, various countries did not suppress Yuan Shikai. Now, Tianjin, which is the place where Yuan Shikai started, has also been affected by the mutiny, and the mutiny is not a troublemaker by external forces, but is completely the result of Yuan Shikai's inability to restrain his subordinates. This could not but make the British minister, who had strongly advocated supporting Yuan Shikai, feel extremely disappointed.

The counselor did not go with the minister to see Yuan Shikai, but he went to see Tang Shaoyi, the foreign minister of the Beiyang government. Tang Shaoyi has returned from Germany, and in the face of the British minister, although he is also official, but he is engaged in diplomacy, Tang Shaoyi said very implicitly, "The Beiyang government has the ability to deal with domestic problems, but if the British government can give the Beiyang government some economic support, the Beiyang government can solve the problem better." ”

After exchanging information, coupled with the information collected by the British side itself, both the ambassador and the counsellor believed that the Beiyang government was simply incapable of solving the current problem. This mutiny was not an end, but a beginning. In charge of China's customs, the British are only afraid that Beiyang's financial situation is better than Beiyang's. The current situation can be summed up in one sentence, the Beiyang government has no money.

The counselor said with a little regret: "For now, our judgment of the People's Party is not correct. It would have been nice if Yuan Shikai had been forced to form a coalition government at that time. ”

European and American countries have always held that Beiyang and the People's Party are two factions of the same political force. In terms of the origins of these two political forces and their relationship with each other, this view is not outrageous. When Yuan Shikai appointed Yan Fu as the premier of the Beiyang cabinet, various countries even thought that Beiyang and the People's Party had already taken a cooperative stance on the issue of a coalition government.

The British minister did not answer immediately, he took a sip of black tea from his teacup, but asked: "Is it possible for the People's Party to financially support Beiyang?" "The People's Party is the initiator of the quota trade agreement, and the British know very well that with the current financial resources of the People's Party, there is no pressure to support the Beiyang government.

The counselor smiled bitterly: "I talked to Tang Shaoyi about this, and Tang Shaoyi was very surprised. In my opinion, the Beiyang government clearly regards the People's Party as its worst enemy. The People's Party has never asked to join the Beiyang government, and theoretically they are still rebels. If they ask to join the Beiyang government, they will definitely demand to hold a certain amount of real power in the Beiyang government. In terms of the balance of power between the two sides, the BJP was even able to obtain the vast majority of ministers' posts. The Beiyang government will not agree. ”

The British minister fully agreed with the words of the counselor, so he was silent. After a long time, the British minister said: "If Yuan Shikai can't get rid of the financial problems, the best way is to give Yuan Shikai a loan." Do you think the BJP will agree? ”

Whether Britain would agree to Yuan Shikai's loan to Yuan Shikai or not, this seems to be a completely unrelated issue, but the counsellor fully understands it. Now what China can mortgage is customs duties, salt taxes. The BJP has only a very short stretch of coastline, and the location of such a short stretch of coastline is not suitable for salt drying. Originally, the British thought that the People's Party would be constrained by the salt-producing regions. However, the People's Party developed salt mines in Dingyuan County, which is based in the base area, and all that was produced was fine salt. The salt is of such high quality that even the cooks at the legations in Beijing choose to use the salt of the People's Party. Not only did the salt producing areas in various places fail to get stuck with the People's Party's neck, but the People's Party's salt was dumped at low prices in the surrounding areas, and even counterattacked the salt producing areas. The Beiyang government's salt tax has been hit like never before, and the value of the collateral has been greatly reduced.

As for tariffs, the Yuan Shikai government, which accounts for less than half of the import and export volume of the entire quota trade agreement, will definitely use the entire tariff amount as collateral. The BJP, which accounts for more than 60 percent of the import and export quota of the quota trade agreement, will definitely not agree to it. Unless the British government provides a separate loan to Yuan Shikai's Beiyang government, with the current economic level of Yuan Shikai's government, they will not even have the ability to repay the loan in the normal loan contract.

"Can't you convince Yuan Shikai to form a coalition government?" Counselor asked, "Even if the People's Party holds some of the power of the central government, Yuan Shikai himself is still the president." I don't think the People's Party has any intention of overthrowing Yuan Shikai himself. ”

The British minister smiled: "It seems that the Orientals like absolute monarchy, only a false name, no corresponding power, will make these Orientals think it is an insult." The higher the status, the greater the insult. Yuan Shikai should be like this, and the People's Party has always been reluctant to seek a position in the central government, but I am afraid that there are also such considerations. ”

"What a strange idea." The counselor said stupidly. It was not that he could not understand this mentality, but in the face of such a dangerous situation, Yuan Shikai still clung to power and did not let go, which caused great damage to the interests of Britain.

The British minister said slowly: "Yuan Shikai's government will not last long, and if the current situation develops, the balance of power between the Beiyang government and the People's Party government will become more and more disparity." Sooner or later, the balance that the Far East has managed to build will be shattered. If war breaks out, we may well lose control of the situation in the Far East. ”

The counselor did not answer immediately, he looked at the medal on the minister's chest. It was a medal that had not been promulgated long ago, as a reward for the signing of a quota trade agreement with China, and with this medal, His Excellency the Minister was a knight and officially entered the ranks of nobility. And the counselor himself had such a medal on his chest. Three members of the British Embassy in China were awarded medals for their role in bringing about the quota trade agreement.

Therefore, the counselor knew better than anyone what the minister was thinking, and the development of Yuan Shikai's regime was not actually the most important, but the interests of the British Empire in China were the only core. It is not only the Yuan Shikai regime that can defend this core at the moment, but the local government of the People's Party plays a greater role in safeguarding the interests of the British Empire in China. However, the performance of the BJP so far has proved that the BJP will never take the initiative to defect to Britain. If the People's Party had defected to the British, the British would have fostered the People's Party regime and become the ruler of China.

"If it doesn't work, let me go to Wuhan, right?" The counselor finally spoke his mind. According to British intelligence, Chen Ke, chairman of the People's Party, left Xuzhou for Wuhan in July 1912. The Central Committee of the People's Party, which had always been on the move, immediately moved to Wuhan.

The British minister pondered for a moment and shook his head slightly, "Don't worry about it now, we might as well negotiate with Yuan Shikai first." Let's see what he is going to do to solve the current situation. If he really can't solve it, it's too late for you to go to Wuhan again. Between Yuan Shikai and Chen Ke, I still advocate maintaining a balance. ”

Playing the balance of power on the mainland is Britain's best trick, and if there is a more dangerous situation than the collapse of Yuan Shikai's Beiyang government and the great damage to British interests in China, it is that China, a huge country, has fallen into the hands of a powerful force. Britain has faced the European continent for hundreds of years, and what British politicians fear most is a unified Europe. A united and powerful continental European country is definitely a sworn enemy of Britain. It's not about personal likes or dislikes, it's a necessary fact.

So Britain fought against the HRE, against Napoleon, against Tsarist Russia. Any country that has the potential to become a regional hegemon is an enemy of Britain. Even if this force was an ally of Britain not long ago, Britain would not hesitate to strike at this emerging power. For example, Germany and the United States today. For such countries, there is only the question of whether Britain is capable of fighting, and there is no consideration of whether Britain will fight or not.

In the face of the current Far East, the attitude of Britain is the same. He entered into a military alliance with Japan with the aim of limiting Russian expansion in China. Despite the suppression of Russia in the Far East, in Europe Britain tried to co-opt Russia to suppress Germany. In the face of China's two most powerful political and military forces at the moment, the British also upheld this attitude, trying to maintain the balance between the two forces as much as possible.

Of course, the Counsellor supported this line of thinking, but he frowned slightly, "Your Excellency, I have always had a very bad feeling, will the People's Party have taken our ideas into account in its foreign strategy?" ”

"Huh? Why? The minister was stunned.

The counselor sorted out his thoughts and said slowly, "Looking at it now, the People's Party has made great adjustments to the current balance situation. If Yuan Shikai did not appear, we would definitely be satisfied with the current Chinese pattern. The People's Party can then continue to avoid conflict with our British Empire. In the event of a conflict with our British Empire, the People's Party is doomed to no victory. If the BJP had been prepared for this diplomatically from the beginning......"

It's not uncommon for him to think about it, but he only thinks about it occasionally. Chen Ke is said to have studied in Europe and the United States, and it turns out that Chen Ke himself is indeed quite an excellent scientist. The fact that a scientist has the ability to organize politics and military is in itself very surprising. If such a person also possesses a deep understanding of the political relations of countries around the world, it can only be described as terrifying. The crown princes of various countries will receive such rigorous training from an early age. And no crown prince can show Chen Ke's ability.

Not to mention whether there will be such a terrible character, even if there is, it is impossible for the upper echelons of Europe and the United States not to have an impression of such a person. However, in the investigation of intelligence agencies in various countries, including the United Kingdom, there is absolutely no such person as Chen Ke among the students studying in China and even in Asia. It was not until the Counsellor made this point so clearly that the British Minister had to face this possibility.

After a while, the minister replied: "There is no time to make such assumptions now, whether Chen Ke thinks this way or not, it is necessary for us to try to maintain Yuan Shikai's regime." At this stage, let's take providing loans to Yuan Shikai as the main means. ”

While the British minister analyzed the situation in China, Yuan Shikai also discussed with Xu Shichang, Wang Shizhen, Duan Qirui and others about the current countermeasures. This Beiyang mutiny really annoyed Yuan Shikai. Behind the annoyance is a deep panic. The Beiyang Army was Yuan Shikai's only reliable force, and he never imagined that it was the Beiyang Army that was the first to rebel.

"Pingqing, have all those rebels been caught now?" Yuan Shikai asked Wang Shizhen viciously, because of anger, Yuan Shikai's fat face was also covered with red light.

Minister of War Wang Shizhen's expression was full of exhaustion, and he had not rested well at all in the past few days. On the one hand, Wang Shizhen was responsible for keeping all the Beiyang departments in the barracks to prevent the expansion of the riots. On the other hand, he also had to mobilize the reliable troops in the hands of Beiyang, as well as the reliable troops in the place where the mutiny took place, to suppress the mutiny and search for the mutinous soldiers who were wandering in the local area. Thousands of tasks are pressed on Wang Shizhen's shoulders, even with Duan Qirui's help, it can't make Wang Shizhen much easier. Because the reason for this mutiny was very simple, the Beiyang Army's military pay could not be opened.

Since the establishment of the Beiyang Army, especially in the pre-Qing era, there has never been any problem with military salaries. Yuan Shikai himself said, "The way I govern the army is to take money in one hand and a knife in the other." This is indeed true.

However, in the face of pressure from the People's Party, Yuan Shikai first encountered the problem of insufficient troops. The BJP had 400,000 troops in 1911, and by 1912 it had a full 600,000 troops. The traditional six towns of Beiyang are simply powerless to fight. Yuan Shikai was forced to pick up the military plan set in the former Qing Dynasty, to establish 36 towns and a total strength of 600,000 Beiyang Army. So far, only 18 towns have just been built, and the 12 new towns are all new troops.

Originally, there was a huge financial problem in Beiyang, and the new 12 town troops needed a lot of investment, so they could only temporarily "reduce a little" the treatment of the original Beiyang Army. It is easy to go from thrift to luxury, and it is difficult to go from luxury to thrift. Where can the old Beiyang Army, which has long been fed with high salaries and become a habit, accept such treatment, and the military spirit is greatly fluctuating. There are even rumors that the Beiyang Army will be dismantled and many units will be cut down. The reduction of military salaries originally gave these Beiyang soldiers a great stimulus. Since May 1912, the Beiyang Army has replaced a part of the original silver dollar with "banknotes" as pay. These banknotes could not be circulated outside, and could only be used in shops related to the army. This made the soldiers even more confused. In August 1912, the Beiyang Army began to underpay salaries for the first time. This completely aroused the uneasiness of the soldiers.

This is only a superficial problem, Wang Shizhen sees more deep problems. He has always opposed Yuan Shikai's "usurpation", and Wang Shizhen always thought that if he was really no match for Chen Ke, then it would be better to die in battle and be loyal to the Manchus. Even if Chen Ke was temporarily beaten as a lackey of the previous dynasty, Wang Shizhen always believed that any dynasty would agree with "loyalty". After he and Yuan Shikai were loyal to the Manchu Qing Dynasty, they could still be called "former Qing loyal ministers" in the history books. This alone is enough.

However, Yuan Shikai thought that in the face of an unprecedented good opportunity, he carried out "usurpation" at the instigation of Chen Ke. Now the consequences of this "usurpation" are finally beginning to be revealed. Although the Manchu government has been overthrown and the golden sign of the Republic of China has been hung up, the substance and political structure of the whole society have not changed. In the minds of ordinary people, there is still an idol of an emperor firmly kept. Especially in the army, the soldiers received a political education, but they were loyal to the royal family and rebelled against the revolution. Yuan Shikai and his left and right, not long ago, still educated the soldiers in this way, and suppressed the revolution everywhere, hunting down the revolutionary party. Suddenly, he became a great president and the head of a revolutionary country. Yuan Shikai did this, how to maintain the morale of the army?

After Yuan Shikai became the president, Wang Shizhen's eyes and ears in the army often reported to him, and he often saw and heard many officers and soldiers cursing Yuan Shikai behind his back, saying that he was a traitor who usurped the throne, and his anger reached the extreme. The 8th Town of the mutiny was reorganized from the original local troops in Changchun, and they came to Beijing to receive military training and distribute weapons. The military discipline of this unit is quite corrupt in normal times. After arriving in Beijing, the depravity was even worse. Officials and soldiers, openly gambling, drinking and prostitution, doing everything, training and education are completely abolished. This is the case with the Eighth Town, as well as with the rest of the garrisons in the Gyeonggi area. The absurdity of leading the troops, the soldiers will follow suit, and the commander will let it go. It's as if they thought that the emperor had fallen, the world had changed, and everything could be done without restraint.

As the Minister of the Army, Wang Shizhen knows a lot about this kind of news, but he can't do anything about it. Out of repayment for Yuan Shikai's kindness, Wang Shizhen had to come out and become the Minister of the War Department. Seeing that the current situation is constantly deteriorating, Wang Shizhen is anxious.

Facing Yuan Shikai's almost gritted teeth to ask the rebels, Wang Shizhen replied slowly: "Except for a few rebels who fled to the northeast on foot, the others have all been arrested. ”

Hearing this answer, Yuan Shikai's fat face finally showed a look of relaxation, and he replied: "Very good, order the cavalry troops to search along the road out of the pass, and if you encounter anyone wearing military uniforms, you don't need to ask the reason for arresting immediately." The arrestees were summarily executed. ”

Wang Shizhen is very familiar with this kind of order, and when he was killing boxers and bandits in Shandong, the Beiyang Army was in this style. Don't say that there are actually boxing bandits, as long as they are considered to be suspected of boxing bandits, the Beiyang Army will strike first. Perhaps it was such a strong measure that provoked more resistance in Hebei and Shandong. Shandong Zhao Sanduo took the slogan of "helping the Qing Dynasty to extinguish the foreigners" and pulled up 50,000 or 60,000 people. attacked the church several times, and then fought fiercely with Yuan Shikai's Beiyang army. Not long after, Jing Tingbin in Hebei Province raised more than 100,000 people to rebel in the name of "anti-foreign donation". The two forces immediately combined, played the slogan of "sweeping away and destroying the ocean", and fought hundreds of battles with the Beiyang Army, until the Beiyang Army killed the rebel army all over the field, Zhao Sanduo committed suicide by hunger strike after being captured, Jing Tingbin was captured and was executed by the Beiyang Army Ling Chi, and finally extinguished the boxers.

Even at that time, Yuan Shikai did not show such a hateful look on his face. In the face of the rebels in Beiyang, Yuan Shikai had the strong urge to personally execute him. Wang Shizhen suddenly felt an inexplicable chill.