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Chapter 250 The shattering of the emperor’s dream
The feudal monarchy was overthrown, and the Chinese nation officially entered a republican form of government.

This exciting news made countless people in the late Qing Dynasty cheer and cheer. Many people cried with joy and were so excited that they couldn't help themselves.

The decadent Qing government signed a large number of unequal treaties with Western powers, which caused great harm to their people.

In their eyes, the reason why their lives were miserable was because of the bullying of the great powers and the incompetence of the Qing government.

Now that the Qing government has been completely overthrown, Yuan Shikai has taken office as the president of the Republic of China, and the Chinese nation has entered a new era.

This also means that their people are completely liberated and no longer have to bear the heavy burden brought to them by those unequal treaties.

Although the Republic of China has not yet been established, the eyes of its people are full of expectations and they are always looking forward to the arrival of this day.

They, the common people, hope that Yuan Shikai will lead the Beiyang Army to quickly end this chaotic land of China, lead them to the Republic, and usher in a new life.

The common people in the Beiyang era shook their heads and sighed, and cursed Yuan Shikai's rebellious behavior.

The common people in the late Qing Dynasty were puzzled by the behavior of criticizing Yuan Shikai on the barrage, and Su Chen quickly solved the answer for them.

"After the fall of the Qing Dynasty, China entered the Beiyang era."

"Beiyang lasted for a total of 16 years, starting from 1912 and ending in 1928. It was divided into 4 stages, each stage lasted exactly 4 years."

"The first stage is the Yuan Shikai period, and the second stage is the Anhui clique period."

"The third stage is the Zhili period, and the fourth stage is the Fengli period."

"On February 1912, 2, the day after the Qing emperor abdicated, Yuan Shikai declared in favor of a republic."

"Sun Yat-sen announced his resignation as interim president as agreed, and invited Yuan Shikai to Nanjing to take office as president."

"Yuan Shikai is not stupid. What if he is put under house arrest in the south?"

"After much thought, Yuan Shikai decided not to go."

"When Sun Yat-sen saw that Yuan Shikai was not coming, he said it didn't matter. Anyway, the capital of the Republic of China has been settled in Nanjing. When will you, Yuan Shikai, come to Nanjing, and when will I leave?"

"If you don't come, I won't leave. If you can, just stay away for the rest of your life. Let's see who of us gives in first."

"Yuan Shikai and Sun Yat-sen did not regress, so they just wasted their time."

"After a few days of stalemate, Yuan Shikai decided to take the first move."

"Yuan Shikai created public opinion that Beijing is the traditional political center and the most prosperous area, while Nanjing is located in the south of the Yangtze River and is inferior to Beijing in all aspects."

"Those who plan for state affairs should determine the pros and cons and keep an eye on the situation. How can they argue with their own will?"

"Seeing Yuan Shikai's momentum, Sun Yat-sen also used his trump card and sent Cai Yuanpei to form a welcoming group to Beijing to invite Yuan Shikai to take office in the south."

"Representatives from the south are here. Do you, Yuan Shikai, have the nerve to stay still?"

Yuan Shikai: I am not a three-year-old child. How could I give up my great advantages and go to Nanjing to take up the post?
His sphere of influence is in the north, especially the capital city which is his base.

Only by taking office as the President of the Republic of China in the capital can he feel at ease and not have to worry about Sun Yat-sen's little tricks.

If he foolishly ran to Nanjing, he would be constrained in Sun Yat-sen's base camp.

Even if the situation is worse, he is likely to be ousted by a coup launched by Sun Yat-sen.

By that time, it was too late for him to regret it.

It's not that he was unfounded, but that Sun Yat-sen's move had the intention of ousting him from power.

Otherwise, why would Sun Yat-sen let him go to Nanjing to take office as president when he knew the capital was in Beijing?
Therefore, facing Sun Yat-sen's conspiracy, he had no choice but to take the initiative and demand that the capital of the Republic of China should still be designated as Beijing.

Even though Sun Yat-sen used his trump card, he also had countermeasures.

As long as Sun Yat-sen's people come to Beijing, the trap he laid can be closed.

In short, he adheres to one principle and wants to take office as president in Beijing.

"But on the night of Cai Yuanpei's meeting with Yuan Shikai, a mutiny broke out in Beijing."

"The soldiers of the Third Beiyang Town commanded by Cao Kun blew open the Chaoyang Gate and set fire to and looted the city of Beijing."

"A few soldiers even broke into where Cai Yuanpei and others were staying and threatened them with swords and guns."

"The representatives from the south are all cultural people. I have never seen such a formation. I was so frightened that I broke into a cold sweat and wanted to leave immediately."

"When the embassies of various countries saw the situation, they also imposed martial law and said that Yuan Shikai could not go to Nanjing and must stay in Beijing to control the situation."

"If not, Western governments will not recognize the legitimacy of the Republic of China government."

"Seeing that the matter was getting serious, Yuan Shikai stepped in to suppress it."

"Then, the mutiny was quickly resolved by Yuan Shikai, and peace returned to the streets of Beijing."

"After the incident was calmed down, Yuan Shikai said, it's not that I don't want to go south, it's just that you have seen the current situation and there is really no way."

"At the same time, the Beiyang generals also sent a joint message to the whole country, saying that if Yuan Shikai left, they could not guarantee that there would not be another similar mutiny in Beijing."

"It is currently unknown who was behind the mutiny."

"According to the revolutionaries, Yuan Shikai is the mastermind behind the scenes."

"But there are also revolutionaries who think otherwise. For example, Xu Yongchang's memoirs said that this matter had nothing to do with Yuan Shikai."

"No matter who is in charge, since foreigners are opposed, social media is opposed, local officials are opposed, even the special envoys sent have backed down."

"Even if Sun Yat-sen was a hundred unwilling, he had to admit that he lost again this time."

"On March 3, Yuan Shikai was sworn in as president in Beijing."

Ying Zheng: The man behind the scenes is obvious. It is clearly Yuan Shikai who instigated this. There is no doubt about this.

The whole matter was very clear. In order to compete for power, Yuan Shikai and Sun Yat-sen each used their own methods to actively respond.

As soon as Sun Yat-sen sent an envoy to Beijing, Yuan Shikai's Beiyang Army launched a mutiny.

The identity of the mastermind behind the scenes is clear. No one else would do this except Yuan Shikai's instigation.

After the fall of the Qing government, Yuan Shikai's Beiyang Army and Sun Yat-sen's Revolutionary Party entered into a fierce competition for power.

In his view, although Yuan Shikai gained the upper hand in the first round of the struggle, it did not mean the end of the power struggle.

There is no doubt that both Yuan Shikai and Sun Yat-sen were eyeing the power of the Republic of China, and further conflicts between the two would certainly not be avoided in the end.

Moreover, this kind of struggle is extremely fierce, otherwise there would not be four stages in the Beiyang period.

The first stage is the Yuan Shikai period, which is enough to show that Yuan Shikai finally lost in the struggle with Sun Yat-sen.

"Of course, Sun Yat-sen is not a character who gives up so easily."

"On the second day after Yuan Shikai was sworn in, he threw out the long-drafted "Provisional Constitution of the Republic of China."

"This temporary agreement stipulates that the government system of the Republic of China is a responsible cabinet system."

"The so-called cabinet system means that the prime minister has the power and the president has no power."

"In fact, the revolutionary party's original idea was to follow the example of the United States in establishing a presidential system. However, in the face of the current situation, if the presidential system continues to be implemented, Yuan Shikai will definitely take over the power alone, so Sun Yat-sen can only make this decision."

"In Sun Yat-sen's view, it doesn't matter even if Yuan Shikai becomes president in Beijing. As long as the cabinet system is used to control the parliament, he will be just a puppet."

"Facing Sun Yat-sen's move, Yuan Shikai did not respond immediately."

"Yuan Shikai knew that the constitution could be changed, but the key to power lies in military power."

"So Yuan Shikai did not immediately start a quarrel with Sun Yat-sen and debate whether it was reasonable to change the order at night. Instead, he focused his work on rectifying the army."

"At that time, there were quite a lot of troops in the north, but the factions were complicated. Yuan Shikai couldn't figure out who supported him."

"In order to clarify the basic situation and defeat dissidents, Yuan Shikai renamed the original Beiyang First to Sixth Towns as the Army's First to Sixth Divisions."

"In addition, Yuan Shikai organized several troops that were clearly loyal to him into six divisions."

"Most of these twelve division commanders are old friends of Beiyang or affiliated with Beiyang. They are opposed to the revolution and belong to Yuan Shikai's base."

"After clarifying his basic situation, Yuan Shikai immediately promoted all the generals of the Beiyang Department in the name of interim president."

"Among them, Zhao Bingjun was appointed as the Prime Minister of the Cabinet. This was a confidant promoted by Yuan Shikai."

"Duan Zhigui is appointed as the commander-in-chief of the Imperial Guard Army and controls the garrison of the capital."

"Duan Qirui, one of the Three Great Heroes of Beiyang, serves as the Army Chief to control the nation's Army."

"Feng Guozhang serves as the director of the Military Department and takes charge of the Imperial Guard."

"Beiyang Dragon King Shizhen belonged to the royalist faction. After the Qing emperor abdicated, in order to show his loyalty to the Qing government, he voluntarily resigned and went home to rest."

"After stabilizing the rear, Yuan Shikai asked Liang Qichao to form a Democratic Party to take charge of the upcoming general election."

Sun Yat-sen: My introduction of the responsible cabinet system means that I have full confidence in controlling the parliament.

Since it was inevitable that Yuan Shikai would take office as interim president in Beijing, he could only seek breakthroughs from other aspects.

What can effectively prevent Yuan Shikai from monopolizing power is a political system that implements the responsible cabinet system.

Once Yuan Shikai is elected president, the implementation of the American presidential system will only increase Yuan Shikai's power to an unprecedented level.

Therefore, in order to contain Yuan Shikai's power, we can only settle for the next best thing and choose the responsible cabinet system to limit Yuan Shikai's power.

He is fully confident about this and believes that his many years of management can suppress Yuan Shikai.

Whether it is the number of votes in the Senate or the House of Representatives, he is confident that he can win the support of others.

As long as he controls the Senate and the House of Representatives, President Yuan Shikai will be insignificant.

But the only thing that worried him was that Yuan Shikai controlled the powerful Beiyang Army.

He was worried that if Yuan Shikai was dissatisfied with the vote, he would directly use force.

At that time, the revolutionaries might not be able to match Yuan Shikai, so they would have no choice but to surrender.

"According to Yuan Shikai's idea, the one who submits the letter first wins the election, and that's it."

"Don't be afraid if you fail. Anyway, we have soldiers on hand, and we will solve the problem by force when the time comes."

"Seeing that Yuan Shikai is making adjustments, the revolutionary party is also making adjustments."

"In August 1912, Song Jiaoren reorganized the disorganized China Alliance into the Kuomintang."

"After that, Song Jiaoren personally gave speeches in Anhui, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and other places to build momentum for the general election."

"On December 1912, 12, the primary election began."

"I have to admit that Song Jiaoren is still more skilled than Liang Qichao in terms of elections."

"In January 1913, the provinces opened their votes one after another. Of the 1 seats in the House of Representatives, the Kuomintang occupied 596."

"Of the 274 seats in the Senate, the KMT holds 123."

"The Kuomintang holds a total of 870 seats among the 392 seats in the House of Representatives and the Senate, although it does not have a majority."

"But the combined seats of the Democratic Party, the Republican Party, and the Unionist Party controlled by Yuan Shikai only have 223 seats, which is far lower than the Kuomintang."

"The Kuomintang can still rely on its absolute advantage to influence and control the Senate and the House of Representatives. Therefore, it is a foregone conclusion that the Kuomintang will win and form a cabinet."

"Seeing this result, Yuan Shikai is still not in a hurry. The capital is in Beijing anyway, and Song Jiaoren is going to Beijing to form a cabinet."

"And Beijing is our own territory, so we are not afraid that the Kuomintang will overturn the situation."

"However, it was such a coincidence that on the evening of March 1913, 3, Song Jiaoren left for the north to form a cabinet, but was unexpectedly assassinated at Shanghai North Railway Station."

"A few days later, the murderer was arrested, and the police found irrefutable evidence of electrical communication between him and Zhao Bingjun from his home."

"The Kuomintang people suddenly became excited and said that this was definitely ordered by Yuan Shikai!"

"Seeing that the Kuomintang was targeting him, Yuan Shikai responded publicly."

"I didn't know it. Even if it was done by the Beiyang Department, it was the people below who made their own decisions. I am very innocent."

"Actually, was the assassination of Song Jiaoren ordered by Yuan Shikai, or was it Zhao Bingjun who made his own decisions based on his own intentions?"

"Or maybe it was done by the Kuomintang's own people, with the intention of putting the blame on Yuan Shikai. This cannot be verified."

Liu Che: No matter when, having force in hand is the most important thing.

He was quite confused. He didn't expect that the number of people who supported Yuan Shikai was far less than those who supported the Kuomintang.

Logically speaking, Yuan Shikai finally overthrew the Qing government and won the praise of thousands of people.

With such huge political assets, there should be more people supporting Yuan Shikai.

But the final result was beyond his expectation and left him greatly puzzled.

This can only show that the Kuomintang led by Sun Yat-sen is more deeply rooted in the hearts of the people and has won the support of more people.

He was very curious about how Sun Yat-sen's revolutionary party won people's hearts.

In addition to being curious about Sun Yat-sen, he was also deeply interested in the government system of responsible cabinet system.

The responsible cabinet system is completely different from the imperial power system of the Han Dynasty. There is a world of difference between the two.

The imperial power system is that the emperor alone has the final say, while the responsible cabinet system is completely different, with the minority obeying and the majority losing.

For some reason, he seems to be born with resistance to the responsible cabinet system.

But having said that, whether it is the imperial power system or the responsible cabinet system, military power must be firmly controlled.

After all, no political system will work without force to protect it. "But Song Jiaoren's death became a point of vent for the Kuomintang's dissatisfaction with Yuan Shikai's various suppression of dissent over the past year after the fall of the Qing Dynasty."

"In anger, some Kuomintang people represented by Sun Yat-sen behaved extremely irrationally, saying that they could no longer tolerate this matter and that they must go to war with Yuan Shikai this time."

"There were also clear-headed people in the Kuomintang at that time, such as Huang Xing."

"Huang Xing advised Sun Yat-sen, we have no soldiers now, what are you going to do to fight the Beiyang Army?"

"When we were negotiating last year, we still had a few guns in our hands, but you didn't use them at that time."

"Now that you have no gun but you still want to fight, isn't that going to death? It's better to sit down and go through the judicial process honestly."

"Sun Yat-sen calmed down after being persuaded by Huang Xing and decided to go through judicial procedures."

"But at this moment, Yuan Shikai did something that made the Kuomintang extremely angry. He used national tariffs and salt taxes to borrow 2500 million pounds from a consortium of banks from Britain, France, Germany, Russia, and Japan."

"When the Kuomintang saw this situation, they once again made a fuss."

"Because according to the provisions of the provisional agreement, the Republic of China government's borrowing must be approved by the Congress before it can be signed."

"The National Assembly was controlled by the Kuomintang at the time, and Yuan Shikai bypassed the National Assembly in order to borrow money. This is tantamount to treating the temporary agreement as a piece of paper."

"And Yuan Shikai's intention to borrow money at this time is also very obvious. He must be thinking of recruiting troops to deal with the Kuomintang after borrowing the money."

"As a result, war is inevitable and the second revolution breaks out."

As the people of the late Qing Dynasty slowly came to their senses, Yuan Shikai's actions seemed to be different from what they imagined.

Originally, in their view, Yuan Shikai overthrew the Qing government and implemented a republican system.

But now it seems that is not the case.

The Republic of China is said to be a republic, but it is more like the dictatorship of Yuan Shikai.

Obviously, they have adopted the responsible cabinet system of government and held elections with great fanfare.

According to the election results, the Kuomintang received more votes and should control Congress.

Now Yuan Shikai's borrowing money from the Western powers should have required the approval of Congress, but Yuan Shikai completely ignored the role of Congress and directly bypassed Congress to borrow money from the great powers.

If that's the case, what's the use of going through all the effort to form a cabinet?

Yuan Shikai directly ignored the temporary agreement and became a dictator, which caused the people's perception of Yuan Shikai to plummet.

Originally, when they learned that Yuan Shikai had overthrown the Qing government, they praised Yuan Shikai for his great deeds and did not hesitate to praise him for doing a great thing for the people of China.

But now it seems that they have completely misjudged Yuan Shikai, and his hypocrisy makes them sick.

To overthrow a dictator and then become a dictator yourself is obviously not what they want to see.

"Before this war started, the domestic situation was roughly like this."

"Most areas in the north are controlled by the Beiyang Army. The Kuomintang controls Jiangxi, Anhui, Guangdong, Yunnan-Guizhou, Guangxi, and Sichuan. Although these places do not support the Beiyang faction, they have a normal relationship with the Kuomintang."

"The remaining places such as Xinjiang, Qinghai, and Gansu are sparsely populated and far away from the central government. They are basically just soy sauce."

“The only provinces the Kuomintang could win over in its haste were Hunan, Fujian, Zhejiang and other provinces.”

"The strength gap between the two sides is so obvious, so the defeat of the Kuomintang is naturally reasonable."

"In June 1913, Yuan Shikai dismissed the Kuomintang governors of Jiangxi, Guangdong and Anhui provinces on the pretext of the Kuomintang rebellion, and then the Beiyang Army marched southward."

"With no other options left, the Kuomintang can only bite the bullet and fight."

"In September, the Beiyang Army captured Nanjing."

"The second revolution failed, and the main leaders of the Kuomintang went into exile overseas."

"After the war, the Republic of China government controlled by the Beiyang faction designated the Kuomintang as a rebel party and permanently banned it."

"After the failure of the second revolution, Sun Yat-sen deeply felt that, not because of Yuan's strong military strength, but because of the dispersion of people's hearts among his colleagues, they were no longer able to lead the revolution forward."

"So, Sun Yat-sen was determined to start by rectifying party affairs, reorganize the new party, and save the revolution."

"On September 1913, 9, Sun Yat-sen personally drew up an oath to join the Party."

"It is stipulated that those who join the party must absolutely obey its leadership. No matter how senior they are, they must renew their oath and have their fingerprints stamped."

"Huang Xing is very dissatisfied with this. He does not agree to obey the party leader alone."

"Furthermore, Huang Xing believes that the practice of party members using their middle fingers to press their fingerprints on the oath to pledge loyalty is primitive and backward, and is not conducive to the development of the revolutionary cause."

"At that time, there were many people who held the same views as Huang Xing, such as Li Liejun, Hu Hanmin, etc."

"The opponents tried to persuade Sun Yat-sen many times, but Sun Yat-sen refused to listen."

"As a result, the Kuomintang, which was already greatly weakened, once again split."

Li Shimin: The Kuomintang was originally much weaker than Yuan Shikai, and coupled with the disunity of its people, its defeat was reasonable. It was not too late for Sun Yat-sen to realize this.

He understood very well that Sun Yat-sen wanted to centralize power and twist the Kuomintang in all provinces into one.

After all, the fact of defeat has shown that it is not feasible for the Kuomintang in each province to govern independently, and they will only be defeated one by one by Yuan Shikai's Beiyang Army.

If the Kuomintang could focus its efforts, it might still have a chance of winning against the Beiyang Army, and it would not lose so miserably.

However, although Sun Yat-sen wanted to consolidate the power of the Kuomintang, it was not easy to do so.

After all, after Sun Yat-sen took over the power, someone else's power was bound to be swallowed up.

He understood very well that the reason why Huang Xing was so fiercely opposed to Sun Yat-sen's centralization of power was due to such considerations.

If Huang Xing were to hand over the power, he would naturally be opposed by Huang Xing.

"Without the checks and balances of the Kuomintang, Yuan Shikai immediately began to take over power."

"Yuan Shikai first announced changes to the "Provisional Constitution" and changed the government system from a cabinet system back to a presidential system."

"Then a new Constitution was promulgated and the presidential term was revised twice."

"The first time he changed the presidential term to ten years, and the second time he directly canceled the presidential term limit and declared himself president for life."

“Furthermore, he has strengthened the power of the president and included in his pocket the power to declare war and sign contracts, which originally required the approval of Congress to take effect.”

"After this series of operations, there is no difference between Yuan Shikai and the emperor."

"But although Yuan Shikai's status at this time is almost the same as that of the emperor, the president is not the emperor after all."

"As a person from the old times, Yuan Shikai still had some thoughts about being an emperor."

"Moreover, when Yuan Shikai was president, he did not go well."

"On the one hand, in order to dominate China, Japan forced him to sign the Twenty-One."

"On the other hand, Yunnan, Guizhou and Guangxi in the south are still in the hands of local warlords."

"These local forces support their own troops and do not obey the central government."

"In order to strengthen the power of the central government and truly unify the country."

"Yuan Shikai thought of many ways, but with little success."

"Under such circumstances, Yuan Shikai made an extremely stupid decision to proclaim himself emperor."

"Thinking of establishing a constitutional monarchy and using the name of the emperor to suppress local powerful factions."

Sun Yat-sen: Yuan Shikai was a wise man in vain. He did not expect that he would do such a stupid thing, and he was destined to end up in infamy for eternity.

Ever since Yuan Shikai defeated the Kuomintang, he was always looking for opportunities to counterattack Yuan Shikai.

Despite all calculations, Yuan Shikai committed suicide and personally offered this golden opportunity.

When the Qing government was pinned down and rubbed by the Western powers, the hearts of the people across the country gradually began to no longer side with the Qing government.

As the situation slowly evolved, people all over the world had completely abandoned the imperial system, and everyone was thinking about the republican system.

The feudal imperial system is no longer appropriate, and everyone is looking forward to the arrival of a republic.

But Yuan Shikai wanted to commit suicide and actually dreamed of restoring the imperial system and becoming the emperor who ruled the world.

Originally, the people all over the world still had a good impression of Yuan Shikai's overthrow of the Qing government's rule. But now, his perverse behavior has completely angered the people all over the world.

With such an excellent opportunity, he naturally had to seize it and raise the banner of anti-Yuan resolutely.

"On December 1915, 12, Yuan Shikai announced his acceptance of the throne, overthrew the Republic, restored the monarchy, and changed the Republic of China into the Chinese Empire. He also ordered the abolition of the Republic of China era and designated 12 as the first year of Hongxian."

"Before he became emperor, Yuan Shikai was criticized a lot due to the Sino-Japanese Twenty-One Incident."

"People generally believe that this is the Republic of China, so why are they still signing unequal treaties? It seems that there is no difference between the Republic of China and the Qing Dynasty."

"With such public opinion, if we continue to reverse the course of history, it will be obviously inappropriate and will be criticized by thousands of people."

"At that time, Duan Qirui was thinking of Yuan Shikai and visited him five times to warn him, asking Yuan Shikai not to do anything stupid!"

"In order to show his attitude, Duan Qirui even resigned from his post."

"However, it is probably because people tend to become confused as they get older. Yuan Shikai was deceived by his son Yuan Keding and Beiyang veterans Yang Du, Yan Fu, and Zhang Xun, and he actually thought that public opinion supported him in proclaiming the emperor."

"As a result, he stepped into the abyss, completely lost his position, and ruined the reputation he had accumulated over decades."

"I heard that Yuan Shikai's proclaimed emperor was criticized by the whole country, and the southern warlords and the Kuomintang suddenly became energetic."

"After being suppressed by the Beiyang faction for five years, we can finally settle old and new accounts together this time."

"In December 1915, Sun Yat-sen issued the "Declaration Against Yuan"."

"In the same month, Cai E, Tang Jiyao and others sent telegrams to all provinces, declaring Yunnan's independence, denounced Yuan Shikai, and the war to protect the country began."

Zhu Di: Although the temptation of the emperor is indeed great, it depends on when it is! It can only be said that Yuan Shikai has been dazzled by the desire for power.

It is indeed tempting to become an emperor and rule the world. It is understandable that Yuan Shikai cannot help but be moved, but it is Yuan Shikai's stupidity to be blinded by power.

With the strong desire of the people all over the world for a republic, it is obviously inappropriate to pursue an imperial system at this time.

Being an emperor also depends on the situation in the world at that time, and it requires the soil of imperialism.

What's even more outrageous is that the old Yuan Shikai was too dim and took the wrong path one after another.

He remembered clearly that the Sino-Japanese Sino-Japanese War of 1898-1898 had not long passed, and the Chinese people still deeply remembered the humiliation they suffered.

The unequal Twenty-One Agreement signed by Yuan Shikai and Japan will only make the people dissatisfied with Yuan Shikai.

When the public opinion in the world is not good, instead of thinking about how to repair it, we make bigger mistakes and choose to become emperor in a perverse way. Isn't this asking for death?
The external environment was originally unstable, and now it is doing stupid things. This is simply handing a knife to the opponent.

"In fact, given the strength gap between the Beiyang faction and the local warlords and the Kuomintang, even if proclaiming emperor is unpopular, Yuan Shikai may not lose the war."

"However, the terrible thing is that Yuan Shikai has no money at this time, and the foreign debt he borrowed from the five-nation banking group has already been spent."

"And now Europe is fighting a world war, and landlords are also short of money."

"As the saying goes, when a cannon goes off, you get ten thousand taels of gold. If you don't have silver, how can you fight a war?"

"For a time, the people within the Beiyang Department were disorganized. Except for a few people from Cao Kun who also swore allegiance to Yuan Shikai, the rest of the big bosses such as Feng Guozhang all jumped out to sing the opposite."

"Feng Guozhang even reached a private agreement with the National Protective Army, stating that he would strictly maintain neutrality and would never go to war with the National Protective Army."

"Seeing that the Beiyang faction was showing signs of splitting, the Japanese government, which originally supported Yuan Shikai, began to bet on both ends."

"On the surface, Japan still supports Yuan Shikai, but privately it funds the National Defense Army and the Kuomintang."

"There is trouble outside, and there is no peace at home. Yuan Shikai's sons are jealous every day at home because of who will be the prince, and they engage in palace fights."

"Amid internal and external troubles, Yuan Shikai couldn't afford to fall ill, so he had no choice but to announce the abolition of the imperial system and become the president again."

"However, the Protectorate Army and the anti-Yuan faction in the Beiyang faction have already fallen out with Yuan Shikai, so how can they let it go?"

"They insisted that Yuan Shikai give up the throne and not even be the president."

"In the end, Yuan Shikai died of uremia at the age of 57 amidst a lot of scolding."

Ancient people from all dynasties lamented Yuan Shikai's rebellious behavior. What's the point of losing his great reputation in his old age?

If Yuan Shikai had not proclaimed himself emperor in the end, he would have overthrown the Qing government and led the people of the country towards republic. This achievement would have made him immortal.

But it happened that Yuan Shikai became dim and stupid in his later years, and he carried out this perverse act, and in the end he could only end up with an infamy that would last forever.

To say that the person with the most complicated emotions has to be Yuan Shikai himself.

The reason why he chose to proclaim himself emperor was to strengthen the power of the central government so that he could suppress local warlords with the title of emperor.

And he also carefully asked the people around him to confirm that public opinion across the country supported him, and then he chose to proclaim himself emperor.

But how could he have imagined that even though he has been famous all his life, he would also be deceived sometimes.

When he thought about his stupid decision, he couldn't help but feel extremely upset and regretted that he had made the wrong decision because of his obsession.

But things have happened, and it is useless to complain about it now.

The current situation is becoming more and more serious and has reached a critical juncture of life and death.

But he was powerless to stop all this from happening, and could only watch things develop in an uncontrollable direction.

He sighed deeply in his heart, making one wrong step after another, so that his old age was ruined and his reputation was ruined in one fell swoop.

(End of this chapter)