If Yuan Shikai's proclamation of the emperor is a complete tragedy for the whole country and Yuan Shikai personally, then this restoration directed by Zhang Xun is an out-and-out light comedy, and this comedy has been staged since the beginning of June.

On June 8, 1917, Zhang Xun led an army of 5,000 pigtails to Tianjin, and after arriving in Tianjin, Zhang Xun suddenly proposed to Xia Shoukang, secretary general of the presidential office sent by President Li Da to Tianjin to welcome him, asking the president to order the dissolution of the National Assembly, which will be implemented within three days from the 8th to the 10th, otherwise he will not be responsible for mediation. Xia Shoukang hurriedly relayed the news to Lai, who felt that this transfer was more fierce than the rebellion, and the dissolution of the National Assembly was originally a condition for independent provinces. If you had accepted this condition, you would not have had to ask a mediator to mediate.

President Lê asked Zhang Xun to serve as a transferor in order to satisfy the demands of the independent provinces as much as possible, without dissolving the National Assembly. Unexpectedly, this transfer was not to find a mutually acceptable solution on the basis of mutual concessions between the president and the rebel governor, but to pressure the president to surrender unconditionally to the rebel governor. Hence the appearance of Zhang Xun. It did not relieve the president's difficulties, but deepened the crisis of the current situation. What's especially bad is that "it's easy to invite ghosts and it's hard to send ghosts." At this time, if Zhang Xun's mediation is refused, he is afraid of driving the mediator to the hostile side.

On the 9th, Zhang Xun did not wait for President Li Da's reply, so he sent the vanguard of the Braided Army to Beijing and stationed them at the Temple of Heaven and the Xiannongtan. This was a step in a public demonstration to President Lê, who had taken Li Ching-xi's suggestion to use Zhang Xun to retire the soldiers of the Commanding Corps, and at this time the most urgent thing was to withdraw Zhang Xun's soldiers. Therefore, President Li Da hurriedly telegraphed Xia Shoukang, who was in Tianjin, to find Li Jingxi and ask him to advise Zhang Xun not to act rashly.

On the 13th, Li Yuanhong, under the countersignature of Jiang Chaozong, the commander of the infantry army, ordered the dissolution of the parliament and announced his bitterness by telegram.

At 3 p.m. on the 14th, Zhang Xun, together with Li Jingxi, Zhang Zhenfang, Duan Zhigui, and Lei Zhenchun, took a special bus to Beijing. President Li Da sent Ding Huai, Niu Chuanshan, and Fang Shu as representatives, and those who arrived at the station to welcome the Beijing military and police chiefs Jiang Chaozong, Chen Guangyuan, and Wu Bingxiang.

From Qianmen Station to Nanhe along the Zhang House, along the way with loess paved on the ground, the military and police guarded the road, and arranged the sentry posts and posts of the braided army in sections, and there were fully armed soldiers standing on the city tower and on the wall. This is the style of the emperor who went out on patrol in the past. Zhang Xun's car first sent a horse team to drive pedestrians along the route, and the traffic between Dongcheng and Xicheng was cut off for four hours. Within the cordon. Pedestrians are not allowed to pass, but this is not the case for all foreigners. Li had already ordered the opening of the Zhonghua Gate to welcome Zhang Xun. Since the founding of the Republic of China, the Zhonghua Gate has only been opened three times to welcome VIPs: the first time Yuan Shikai greeted Song Jiaoren and other five special envoys sent by the Nanjing government, and the second time to welcome Sun Yat-sen, which was the third time. Beijing citizens peeked at "Zhang Dashuai" from the corner of the door, only to see that he was wearing a small melon skin hat, a gemstone embedded in the center of the hat, a big braid hanging from the back of his head, wearing a gauze robe, a black coat with gold trim of the Buddha, and black satin shoes on his feet.

On the 16th, Zhang Xun wore a red-topped flower feather, and together with the four commanders of the Dingwu Army, he took a car to Shenwu Gate, and transferred to the Qing Palace. Zhang Xun knelt down and bowed, claiming to be a servant and bowing to the Holy Ann. Pu Yi gave him a seat, rewarded him with riding a horse in the Forbidden City, and the four imperial concubines also came to the Heart Cultivation Hall to talk to him. Pu Yi gave a banquet and rewarded many pieces of ancient magnets and famous paintings. Then he went to Dongjiaomin Lane to visit the ministers of various countries, and the Japanese minister Lin held a banquet to entertain them.

In the following two weeks, Zhang Xun has been in contact with all parties in the capital, and discussed with President Li Yuanhong about the new cabinet candidates, without the slightest sign of restoration, which really paralyzed many people, even Tang Zhidao, who was far away in Xuanhua, was a little puzzled, he only knew that there was such a thing, and he couldn't remember the specific date at all, so he had to prepare early. …,

Fortunately, the wait was not too long, on the evening of the 30th, Zhang Xun and the restoration sent Chen Baochen and Liu Yanchen sneaked into the Qing Palace, and held a "pre-imperial meeting", after the meeting, Zhang Xun calmly went to participate in the banquet of the State Guest House, and then went to the hall of the Jiangxi Hall, which was a Jiangxi fellow villager in order to welcome the general of the township, invited the famous singers of Beijing to the conference, Zhang arrived at 11 o'clock in the evening, he took the time to ask Mei Lanfang's play when it would be played, the host asked the usher, the usher said that he wanted to play at 4 o'clock in the morning, Zhang was ordered to stage at 12 o'clock in advance. After Mei's play was finished, Zhang stood up, said goodbye, and drove back to the apartment. When he returned to Zhang's house, he immediately ordered people to invite Wang Shizhen, Jiang Chaozong, Chen Guangyuan and Wu Bingxiang to come to the apartment to discuss the business.

That night, Jiang Chaozong, the commander of the infantry army, received calls from the soldiers guarding the city at Andingmen and Xizhimen one after another, reporting that the pigtailed soldiers were calling for the city to open. Jiang Chaozong felt a little bad and ordered the defenders not to open the door. When the phone hung up, he wanted to ask Wang Shizhen for instructions, but how did he know that Wang Shizhen had come to visit late at night, this ordinary and very cultivated Beiyang general also panicked tonight, and only said: "Restoration is in an instant".

Jiang Chaozong advocated to report to Li Yuanhong immediately, but before he could leave, a car came, and a person who looked like an adjutant walked out of the car, took the business cards of Lei Zhenchun and Zhang Zhenfang, "Please Lord Wang and Lord Jiang to the Dashuai Mansion, there is urgent business to be discussed." ”

Coincidentally, Chen Guangyuan, commander of the 12th Division, and Li Jincai, commander of the 13th Division, also came with panicked steps, and before they could speak, they were invited into the car together.

The two cars galloped to Zhang Xun's apartment, only to see the brilliant lights, and the front and back of the house were full of heavily armed and murderous pigtail soldiers, all of them looked like fierce and vicious door gods, and it was completely a Hongmen banquet on the stage. The four adults, Wang, Jiang, Chen, and Li, were invited in in a daze.

Wang Shizhen and the others entered the inner room of Zhang's house, only to see Zhang Xun, Wan Shenyan, Lei Zhenchun, Zhang Zhenfang, and the two commanders of the braided soldiers Wu and Liu all sitting inside. When Zhang Xun saw the visitors, he only waved lightly and invited them to take a seat, his face was ugly, he looked at Jiang Chaozong with disdain, and said sharply: "Why don't you open the city gate?" Jiang Chaozong replied tremblingly: "Without the order of the army commander, the city cannot be opened when the time comes." Zhang immediately turned his head and asked Wang Shizhen: "Then what should I do if I hire an old man?" Wang Shizhen ordered Jiang Chaozong to immediately notify the city defenders to open the city gate by phone, so the pigtailed soldiers poured into the city like a tide.

At this moment, Li Jingxi rushed to Zhang's house to see the marshal, Zhang shook his head and said that he didn't have time, so he wouldn't let him in, and then said loudly: "Today is about to welcome the emperor's reinstatement, and if you don't approve of it, you are not allowed to leave." ”

No one dared to disapprove, and no one spoke, so Zhang Xun pulled Wang Shizhen and Jiang Chaozong to sit in the same car with him, and the rest of the people took several cars and galloped into the Qing Palace, which was about 3 o'clock in the morning on July 1. Pu Yi ascended to the palace, Zhang Xun knelt in front of him and muttered that he didn't know what to say, so he stood up, Pu Yi didn't know if there was a response, and the rest of the people followed Zhang Dashuai and retreated.

At 4 o'clock in the morning, Zhang Xun designated Wang Shizhen and Jiang Chaozong as the representatives of the Republic of China, Liang Dingfen as the representative of the Qing court, and Li Qingzhang as his representative. At this time, our President Li once again carried forward his mud bodhisattva spirit and sat there in a daze, he glanced at Wang Shizhen contemptuously, Wang Shizhen immediately lowered his head, not daring to look at him with his eyes. Liang Dingfen said a lot of threatening and tempting words before President Li Da spoke: "Who are you, I won't talk to you!" After that, he simply closed his eyes. …,

However, this could not stop the process of Zhang Xun's restoration, at nine o'clock in the morning, Zhang Xun and Kang Youwei came to the Qing Palace again, and covered a series of false edicts with the "imperial seal", which were countersigned and issued by Zhang Xun, the first of which was the false edict announcing the restoration. After the restoration was announced, the five-color flag was changed to the Yellow Dragon Flag. The official system is still the same as the official system of the first year of Xuantong. On the same day, Li Yuanhong was awarded the title of first-class duke. Zhang Xun, Wang Shizhen, Chen Baochen, Liang Dunyan, Yuan Dahua, and Zhang Zhenfang were appointed as cabinet ministers. Wan Chengtong and Hu Siyu were cabinet ministers, Liang Dunyan was the secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Zhang Zhenfangdu branch was secretary, Zhu Jiabao was the secretary of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, Lei Zhenchun was the secretary of the War Department, Wang Shizhen was the minister of the General Staff, Xu Shichang was the president of the Bide Academy, and Kang Youwei was the vice president.

The restoration was originally the predetermined plan of the Xuzhou Conference, so Zhang Xun naively thought that if this telegram was issued, the Overseers who participated in the Xuzhou Conference would respond to the call of the alliance leader, obey Zhengshuo, and hang the dragon flag. Zhang Xun believed that the Beiyang warlords had no intention of dealing with Yuan or Duan, the parliamentary issue, or foreign affairs, and as long as their power and status were guaranteed, they would not fail to follow the alliance leader.

However, he guessed correctly, and there were indeed many unsightly local warlords who gladly accepted the new official positions of the puppet imperial court. On July 2, Zhu Jiabao, the governor of Zhili Province, who was appointed Minister of Civil Affairs, wrote a "Thanksgiving Fold" and said: "The way of heaven is endless, and people's hearts are in turmoil for a long time and they are at peace." Zhang Jingyao, the commander of the Seventh Division, who was falsely appointed as the commander of the Yangtze River Naval Division, went to the Qing Palace to thank the Holy Grace and handed a protégé post to Zhang Xun, the "prime minister of the dynasty".

On the first day of the restoration telegram, except for several southern provinces and some social groups, the local powerful factions fell into silence, and everyone was surprised, watched, and hesitated, but the restoration of the Qing court was only sent out less than half an hour, and a telegram from the northwest of the capital resounded like lightning across the north and south of the river