Chapter 20 3. The Empire Falls and the Sky Is Doomed

As the Qing Dynasty almost collapsed in the Boxer Rebellion and the Eight-Power Allied Forces' invasion of China, Empress Dowager Cixi and Emperor Guangxu fled Beijing in haste.The corruption of the Qing court reached the point where it would be hard to return. Empress Dowager Cixi and her party who fled the capital slept on earthen kangs and ate coarse grains.Sometimes three meals a day cannot be guaranteed, and people have to beg for corn to satisfy their hunger and chew straw to quench their thirst.Once this group of people escaped and arrived in Taiyuan, they forgot their pain and enjoyed the palace of their ancestors, and ordered the provinces to send money and food for them to squander.After arriving in Xi'an, it was even more extravagant.Returning to Beijing in the second year, overhauling roads, palaces, and post stations, and searching for private materials, there are countless rare treasures in various provinces to honor Cixi.

In order to continue to maintain her rule, the Empress Dowager Cixi had to do some introspection while she was in exile in Xi'an. Guangxu issued a "crime decree" and a reform decree, requiring officials to report on the reform within a time limit.No one had hoped for some of the Qing government's New Deal measures. In April 1901, the Qing government established the Supervising Government Office as an institution for planning the New Deal, and gradually introduced various New Deals.The content covers several fields such as politics, military affairs, culture and education, economy and society.

Politically, the Qing government abolished the Prime Minister's Yamen and re-established the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, ranking first among the six ministries.The Ministry of Commerce (later merged with the Ministry of Industry and changed to the Ministry of Agriculture, Industry and Commerce), and the Military Training Department (later merged with the Ministry of War and changed to the Ministry of Army) were newly established. In 1905, the Patrol Department (later changed to the Ministry of Civil Affairs) and the Department of Education were added.Redundant government offices were abolished, and subordinate officials and servants were eliminated.

The defeat of China in 1895 made the Qing Dynasty soberly aware of the need for a well-trained and Western-equipped army.After Li Hongzhang, Yuan Shikai, who commanded the Beiyang army, set out to organize a "New Road Army" in North China, and Zhang Zhidong also organized his "Self-Strengthening Army" in the Yangtze River area. Both armies were Western-style.The Qing government's military reforms were to stop military exercises and order the provinces to prepare for the establishment of military schools, and their graduates could be appointed as officers of the new army, the green battalion was eliminated, and the new army was trained.

The reform of the academic system means the cessation of science.The Qing government ordered to stop all science examinations from 1906, and set up a department and a school in December of that year.As early as 1902, the Qing government reorganized the academies in various provinces, prefectures, prefectures, and counties into colleges, middle schools, and primary schools, and promulgated the "Imperial School Regulations". In 1904, the school regulations were revised, using Japanese education as a model, and rewarding study tours.Students are selected to study abroad, and after graduation, they are rewarded as Jinshi Juren, and the same is true for self-financed students.It was indeed an epoch-making event when science, the imperial examination system that had lasted for about 1,300 years, was completely abolished.Since then, the graduates of the new-style schools have occupied important positions in the government, replacing the traditional people with fame. Moreover, students who graduated from schools above the level of foreign institutions of higher learning are also eligible to obtain the honor of Jinshi or Juren.The Qing government promulgated the first legal school system with a complete system and put it into practice. Education was divided horizontally, including general education, teacher education, and industrial education; vertically, the entire school system was divided into primary education, secondary education, and higher education stage.Western courses include literature, arithmetic, history, geography, physics, chemistry, drawing, gymnastics, foreign languages, legal system, and middle schools have "Four Books" and "Five Classics". The reform of the school system still has a positive effect.

The Qing government encouraged the development of industry and commerce, formulated and improved economic laws.After the establishment of the Ministry of Commerce, laws and regulations such as "Commercial Law", "Company Registration Trial Articles", "Concise Articles of Association of Chamber of Commerce", "Rewarding Company Articles", "Mineral Articles", "Pilot Bank Articles of Association" and other laws and regulations were successively announced to reward businesses . Bad habits.Ban footbinding; ban opium; abolish torture; allow Manchu-Han intermarriage.

The New Deal promoted the further development of Chinese national capitalism and further strengthened the power of the bourgeoisie.Western thought has been further disseminated, and modern education has been greatly developed.It is a top-down reform movement of a capitalist nature that lacks the leadership and active participation of the democratic bourgeoisie.However, it has increased the burden on the people, making the lives of the working people in China more impoverished and social contradictions more acute.In order to implement the New Deal, the Qing government had to find ways to raise funds and had to apportion downwards, which was the main source of funds for the New Deal in the late Qing Dynasty.

In order to cope with the serious domestic crisis, the Qing government decided to establish a constitution. At that time, only China and Russia were autocratic among the major countries in the world. In the Russo-Japanese War in 1905, Japan defeated Russia, which gave some powerful people in the ruling group of the Qing Dynasty a shot in the arm.Yuan Shikai, governor of Zhili, and Zhang Zhidong, governor of Huguang, wrote to the imperial court that a constitutional state would definitely defeat an autocratic state, so a constitution must be established.The imperial court sent five ministers to Europe, America, and Japan to investigate. The inspection period lasted for one year, and the inspection was detailed and in-depth, even the zoo was inspected.The Beijing Zoo is obviously a Western-style building, which is the product of the inspection that year.

At that time, it was really a real investigation. After the five ministers came back, they told the court that there were three major benefits of establishing a constitution: "the throne will last forever", "foreign troubles will be lessened", and "internal strife can be eliminated".But Zhen Guogong Zaize knew the Empress Dowager Cixi's thoughts very well, and he would harass the Empress Dowager.What the queen mother values ​​most is the power in her hands. What if the queen mother has no power after the constitutional monarchy is established?That's why Zai Ze said that the Chinese people are stupid, and that constitutionalism cannot be done right away, it takes time to train them, how many years? For more than 20 years, 20 years of preparation for the establishment of a constitution. The old lady thought that I am 70 this year, and it is unlikely that I will live another 20 years. Emperor Qianlong did not live past 90. Therefore, the old lady readily promised that I can make a constitution, but it will take 20 years of preparation. .Later, it was reduced to 15 years, 12 years, and 9 years. In fact, Sun Yat-sen was in an uprising at this time. It was too late for you to make a constitution immediately. You dare to come up with a preparatory constitution. It will take so many years to make a constitution, so this matter It's too late.

In 1908, the Qing government promulgated the "Imperial Constitution Outline", a constitution with 23 articles, the first 14 articles are the supreme power of the emperor, and the last 9 articles are the obligations of subjects.The outline was formulated by the Constitutional and Political Compilation Office with reference to the 1889 "Constitution of the Empire of Japan", and the relevant clauses restricting the monarchy in the Japanese Constitution were deleted, fully reflecting the legislative purpose of "unity of power in the imperial court".The emperor has the right to promulgate laws, issue proposals, convene and dissolve parliament, establish officials and salaries, depose hundreds of divisions, compile military systems, command the army and navy, declare war and conclude peace and conclude treaties, declare martial law, reward benevolence and amnesty, take over judicial power and To issue decrees on behalf of the law in emergency situations.Moreover, "the right to employ people", "state affairs", and "all military affairs" are not subject to resolution by the House of Representatives, and the emperor can take over.In addition, it also stipulates in the form of supplementary rules that subjects have the obligation to pay taxes, serve as soldiers, and abide by the law.Within the scope of the law, enjoy the rights and freedoms of speech, writing, publication, assembly, association, and holding public office. The "Imperial Constitutional Outline" confirmed the political reform direction of the constitutional monarchy, but due to the powerful monarchy, the legislative power and supervisory power of the House of Representatives are very limited, and the freedom rights of subjects are negligible and lack effective protection.The first article of the constitution is "The emperor of the Qing Dynasty ruled the Qing Empire, and the lineage will last forever."The second article is "the sacred dignity of the king is inviolable".Incorporating the god-given power of the monarch into the constitution cannot even be overturned.The constitutionalists have been looking forward to the establishment of a constitution by the court, but in the end the monarchy is still supreme, so they are particularly disappointed with the court.

In 1908, Emperor Guangxu and Empress Dowager Cixi died one after another. Now the latest research says that they were poisoned to death by arsenic.This question can be understood by the toes. The emperor was 38 years old when he died, and the queen mother was 73 years old. How good is it? The difference between the two deaths was less than 24 hours.It is said that Guangxu knew it was unavoidable. Before he died, he met Cixi and said that if I establish an emperor after my death, I must establish a long emperor, and choose the elder who is closest to the king of Zhi to take the throne.As a result, when he died, the queen mother decreed that the two-and-a-half-year-old Pu Yi would inherit the Datong, and the queen of Guangxu would listen to the government behind the curtain.Puyi's father, Prince Chun Zaifeng, was the regent.A 30-something-year-old woman with a two-and-a-half-year-old child in her arms governs the majestic Chixian Shenzhou with 450 million people.It's a joke in the world. The empress of Emperor Guangxu became another empress dowager after Cixi. According to Cixi's will, the regent of Jianguo must be a minister before the empress dowager, and he must ask her for instructions when encountering major events.But the Empress Dowager Longyu was not satisfied, and there were many conflicts with the regent. In 1911, the imperial court abolished the Military Aircraft Department and set up a responsible cabinet.On May 8 of the same year, under the pressure of the constitutionalist Congress petition movement, the Qing government promulgated the "New Cabinet Official System", implemented the responsible cabinet system, and established a new cabinet composed of thirteen ministers of state.With Qing Prince Yikuang (clan) as the prime minister, Natong (Manchu) and Xu Shichang (Han) as the associate ministers, it has the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Civil Affairs, the Ministry of Military Affairs, the Ministry of the Navy, the Ministry of Law, and the Ministry of Agriculture, Industry and Commerce , the Department of Posts and Communications, and the Ten Departments of the Lifan Department, Liang Dunyan (Han), Shanqi (clan), Zaize (clan), Tang Jingchong (Han), Yinchang (Man), Zai Xun (clan), Shaochang (clan) Clan), Pu Lun (clan), Sheng Xuanhuai (Han), and Shouqi (clan) served as ministers of various ministries.Among the thirteen people, nine were Manchu nobles, only four were Han bureaucrats, and among the Manchu nobles, seven were from the royal family.This is a cabinet centered on the royal family, which is called the royal cabinet.The Qing government had no intention of implementing a constitutional monarchy at all, but only used the name of constitutionalism to centralize the royal family and resist revolution. Is Zaixun, the Minister of the Navy, the emperor's uncle? He was only 25 years old at the time, and the leading cadres of the cabinet in the late Qing Dynasty were really young.In this way, the Han officials were renounced, and the Qing Dynasty could be said to be over, just like a rickety house that collapsed as soon as someone kicked on the door frame.In fact, the regent has long been exhausted, and has repeatedly asked the Queen Mother Longyu to resign, and is no longer interfering in political affairs.At this time, the Qing Dynasty could not afford to offend anyone, but it offended everyone who could.If you engage in the New Deal, the people will quit, you will engage in preparatory constitutionalism, and the constitutionalists will quit. If you come to the royal cabinet, the Han bureaucrats will be separated, and the Han bureaucrats will no longer play with you. Fighting birds, ticketing opera, nothing can be done.Therefore, when the Wuchang Revolution broke out, it succeeded accidentally, and then quickly swept across the country. The three towns of Wuhan are Wuchang, Hankou and Hanyang.Why can the uprising break out here?First of all, the three towns of Wuhan were reduced to treaty ports very early, the capitalist economy developed and the bourgeoisie grew stronger.Second, Wuhan has a good mass base.Moreover, there were two revolutionary groups, the Literature Society and the Gongjin Society, which went deep into the Hubei New Army and promoted the organization.The new army trained completely according to Western training methods, and the textbooks were all directly translated from foreign languages. Therefore, when recruiting soldiers, the new army should not be illiterate.Most of the officers came back from studying in the Japanese Army Non-commissioned Officer Academy, and they could become brigade commanders at the young age of twenty-five or sixteen. Japan is the headquarters of the Tongmenghui. Once this group of people arrived in Japan, except for the Manchu and Mongolian nobles, the Han people were basically assimilated. They came back to serve as officials at all levels of the new army.The imperial court trained such an army to protect themselves, and did not think of digging their own graves.In particular, the Eighth Town of the New Army in Hubei, where the town is the division, has more than 10,000 people, one-third of whom are revolutionaries.There were more than 400 engineering battalions in the Eighth Town of the New Army that fired the first shot of the uprising, and more than 300 revolutionary parties. The engineering battalion before the uprising was basically controlled by the revolutionary party. The first ten uprisings were unsuccessful. The participants were There are a small number of overseas students, overseas Chinese, and members of the party.Who did this uprising?What the army did was within the Qing army, so it was tantamount to a mutiny by the Qing army. On October 10, 1911, the revolutionaries rose up without a leader.According to the original plan, the revolutionaries planned to deal a fatal blow to the Qing court on the 13th, but they went back to make bombs by themselves, and the bombs exploded while doing so, alarming the authorities.The revolutionaries fled in all directions, but left the list at the place where the explosion occurred. All the revolutionaries were on the list. The Qing court arrested people according to the list, and those who were not caught ran away.The time of the uprising was leaked, and the uprising was about to abort. So the new army revolted on its own. The leaders were Xiong Bingkun and Jin Zhaolong. Xiong Bingkun was Zhengmu, equivalent to the squad leader in today's army.The formation of the new army is town, association, standard, battalion, team, platoon, and shed. The town is the division, the association is the brigade, the standard is the regiment, the battalion is the battalion, the team is the company, the platoon is the platoon, the shed is the squad, and the shed is the squad. There is one head, one deputy, four main soldiers, and six deputy soldiers, a total of 12.Xiong Bingkun was a squad leader, and Jin Zhaolong was a regular soldier. A squad leader and a senior soldier led the uprising, and they succeeded without paying attention.Moreover, the largest of the leaders of the uprising was a team officer, the company commander.So after success, they were stupid. How this was done, they haven't thought of it yet. After the success of the uprising, the military government of Hubei was established, Li Yuanhong served as the governor, and the country was named the Republic of China.Li Yuanhong was the commander of the 21st Mixed Association of the New Army, equivalent to a brigade commander. The Mixed Association was a miniature division. If his troops were not enough to form a division, he organized a mixed association with infantry, artillery, and cavalry. Li Yuanhong originally did not approve of the revolution, but if you do not agree, you have to agree!Because the biggest member of our group is the company commander, no one will recognize our notices.Li Yuanhong is a well-educated Hubei native, and everyone recognizes it. Even Li Xietong participated in the revolution, which proves that this revolution has appeal.The revolutionaries were very unconfident, and gave Li Yuanhong the rights they bought through shopping. The Wuchang Uprising, which was decided temporarily, was extremely dramatic. After the revolutionary army occupied Chuwangtai, it was like a broken bamboo, and soon won the three towns of Wuchang, Hankou, and Hanyang. Unexpectedly, the uprising succeeded.What was even more unexpected was that the impact was still so great. After the Wuchang Uprising, the provinces responded, and the Qing Dynasty ruled in disintegration. How could the court be over so quickly?Because the provincial constitutionalists and the old bureaucrats speculated on the revolution, they controlled most of the local government.It seems that 15 provinces are independent, and many of them are constitutionalists and old bureaucrats speculating on the revolution. The Han bureaucrats have been completely disappointed with the court. Besides, you can't play anymore.The wall fell down and everyone pushed it, and the drum broke and the drum was hammered by thousands of people, so this group of people changed from governor to governor, and became officials in the Republic of China. They were officials in the Qing Dynasty and were still officials in the Republic of China.More than a dozen provinces have declared independence from the rule of the Qing Dynasty, and the establishment of the Republic of China has been put on the agenda. After the outbreak of the Wuchang Uprising, the imperialist countries prepared to intervene armedly, and the master would be sad if the lackey died. The imperialists originally intended to prevent the revolution from spreading.The rapid development of revolutionary forces was the result of the imperialists seeing that open armed intervention would be difficult to achieve their goals. Under the guise of strictly maintaining neutrality, they decided to support a new agent, Yuan Shikai, the leader of the Beiyang warlords. The cunning imperialists saw that the Qing Dynasty was in danger, and they secretly made big calculations, and decided not to stand in the wrong team and not to sink with this ship.However, at this time, even if the imperialists want to intervene armedly, there is no possibility of organizing the Eight-Power Allied Forces. At this time, it is already 1911, and it is on the eve of the outbreak of the World War in 1914. You can do it.Unlike the time of the Eight-Power Allied Forces, the Allied Powers did not exist yet, only the Allies.It is impossible for the two imperialist military blocs to join hands to suppress the Chinese revolution, so they had to find another agent. Since the Qing Dynasty was not working well, they turned to Yuan Shikai. Why did they turn to Yuan Shikai? Yuan Shikai had soldiers. He was the Governor of Zhili and the Minister of Beiyang Commerce, so his troops were called the Beiyang Army.On the eve of the fall of the Qing Dynasty, a new army was organized across the country, with 200,000 people in 14 towns. The most elite was Yuan Shikai's Beiyang six towns with 80,000 people. They were well-equipped and well-trained.Every morning when the Beiyang Army went out for exercises, the team officers stood in front, and the officers and soldiers of the entire company asked us whose clothes to wear, who gave us food, whose guns to carry, and who worked for whom. The Beiyang officers and soldiers answered "Yuan Gongbao" in unison! Later, someone made a small report to the old lady. The Beiyang soldiers only knew that there was a military order, but not the imperial decree; they only knew that there was Yuan Gongbao, but they didn’t know that there was the Qing Dynasty. Add equipment.So Yuan Shikai was transferred to the Minister of Military Affairs and Minister of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and he was promoted secretly. In fact, Yuan Shikai left the post of Governor of Zhili and did not control the army.However, the troops in the six towns of Beiyang were all trained and promoted by Yuan Shikai, and the civilian and military generals at all levels were deployed by his cronies.It is said that Emperor Guangxu once left a will to kill Yuan Shikai, and Zaifeng wanted to avenge his brother and also wanted to get rid of Yuan Shikai.Zhang Zhidong hurriedly stopped Yuan Shikai, as soon as Yuan Shikai killed the Beiyang army, he should turn back.The court had no choice but to give up.But didn't you, Yuan Shikai, sprain your ankle once when you were a child?Not good yet?Go home and recuperate, and come back when you recover. In this way, Yuan Shikai stayed at home for three years, and every move of the court could not escape his eyes.There is a telegraph room in their home, which is probably the busiest telegraph room in China.The chiefs of the six towns of Beiyang are all his people, you can't even change the squad leader for him, can you?Unless these six towns are disbanded and recruited again.The Wuchang Uprising broke out, and the imperial court hurriedly transferred the six towns of Beiyang to the south to suppress it.The Queen Mother melted tens of thousands of taels of gold into gold plates, gold bowls, gold chopsticks, and gold urine basins, and gave them to the six towns of Beiyang.Is it time to call?Liuzhen dawdled, walked two steps and took one step back, never left when it rained, never walked when the wind was blowing, and never left when the sun shone.The ministers who commanded the six towns of Beiyang quit, and the six towns only listened to Yuan Shikai.So the imperial decree came to Yuan Shikai's hometown, appointing Yuan Shikai as the governor of Huguang to control the six towns.Yuan Shikai said that I had sprained my ankle and I was still not healed, so the imperial court dismissed the royal cabinet and appointed Yuan Shikai as the prime minister of the cabinet.In this way, Yuan Shikai mastered the power of the Qing Dynasty. Sure enough, the Beiyang Army was not a vegetarian, and soon captured Hankou, Hanyang, and Wuchang within easy reach.At this time, Yuan Shikai braked and shouted to stop. While showing off his force to the revolutionaries and clamoring that Wuchang was in my pocket, he told the court that the revolutionaries were too powerful, and I suffered heavy casualties and had no money.The Queen Mother issued patriotic bonds and raised another 6 million taels of silver from the princes and nobles.Frightened by cannons and Mauser guns, the Revolutionary Party negotiated with Yuan Shikai that if the Qing emperor could be abdicated, he would elect Yuan Shikai as the president of the Republic of China, "as China's Napoleon and Washington." In this way, the two sides negotiated a truce.