The Qing Dynasty

Chapter 605 It’s a pity that Yuan Shikai didn’t leave

In Duolun City, in Li Jinyu's Eighth Town Command, Teng Yuzhao was pacing aimlessly on the floor with his hands behind his back and a frown on his face in the spacious room.

Wu Peifu and Li Jinyu were quietly drinking tea in the mahogany chairs on both sides of a coffee table by the wall.

The two of them occasionally looked up at Teng Yuzao who was spinning around, and occasionally looked at each other and smiled bitterly.

Wu Peifu received a telegram from Wei Jinghai last night and rushed to Duolun from Zhangjiakou by airship at midnight last night.

Although Wu Peifu and Li Jinyu received a situation report from Wei Jinghai to each town last night, asking each town to withdraw its troops.

The two even received secret telegrams that Wei Jinghai sent individually to the leaders of the Progress Association in each town.

He also gave a detailed introduction to the Ministry of Revenue Bank and the news that the court was going to remove Teng Yuzao from his current post and improve the Grand Council, and told the two to be prepared for contingencies.

Although the core of the current Endeavor Society is composed of Liu Yuzhi, Li Xianze, Liu Shijiu, Wu Peifu, Wei Jinghai, and Li Jinyu, Wei Jinghai is always by Teng Yuzao's side, so he is now the Secretary-General.

Even last night, Wu Peifu received a secret telegram from Li Xianze and Liu Shijiu, in which they had already made the proposal.

Once the court removed Teng Yuzao from his posts as Governor-General of Zhishan and Minister of Beiyang, and Teng Yuzao was unwilling to launch an uprising, Liu Shijiu would leave Cao Futian's Seventh Regiment outside the Great Wall to guard against the Russian army, while he himself would lead his troops into the Great Wall.

At the same time, Li Xianze would forcibly disarm Ma Yukun's troops and then lead them into the capital.

Liu Bingyi's Ninth Town and Jinan Pan Jinshan's Third Town will also occupy important areas in southern Henan.

The two men asked Wu Peifu to lead the three towns outside the pass to control the Beijing-Zhangjiakou line and march south to the capital. One part of the army would cooperate with Liu Shijiu and Li Xianze to defeat Tie Liang's Shuntianfu army, which had been expanded to two towns. Another part would continue south to Baoding to block Yuan Shikai's Henan army that might come to support.

Even Liu Yuzhi in Liangjiang would not only command his own troops to control Liangjiang, but would also secretly order the members of the Endeavor Society under Hu Dianjia in Fujian to take drastic measures to seize the military power of the Sixth Regiment if Hu Dianjia was unwilling to support Teng Yuzao.

After receiving the telegram, Wu Peifu was extremely excited. Before leaving, he ordered the troops of the Fifth Regiment to gather in the suburbs of Zhangjiakou and be ready to board the train at any time.

But this morning, after listening to Teng Yuzao's introduction and seeing that he looked very confident, the two of them couldn't help but hesitate.

He had no choice but to accompany Teng Yuzhao and wait for news from Wei Jinghai and Yang Shixiang.

Although Teng Yuzao was very sure that Cixi would not dare to do anything too harsh to him, he was not sure about some things because of his mortal enemy Yixin. So after breakfast, Teng Yuzao stayed in Li Jinyu's headquarters waiting for news.

At first it was fine, he could still chat and laugh with Wu Peifu and Li Jinyu, but as time went on, seeing Wu Peifu and Li Jinyu exchanging glances from time to time, Teng Yuzhao gradually became a little uneasy.

He was not worried that Cixi would dare to do anything to him, but he was now somewhat worried about the people under his command, the Endeavor Society.

Teng Yuzhao was not very clear about what was discussed privately among his generals, but he knew all the actions of the Endeavor Society through Li Yaoting.

During the past two years, most of the students from the Beiyang Military Academy and the subsequent Camp Academy who had been in the Zhi Army during the fight against the Eight-Nation Alliance joined the Endeavor Society. The nearly 100 students who were rescued that year all joined the Endeavor Society, and even his younger brother joined.

Except for the Third Town, the Endeavor Society was very active in other troops, especially in Liu Shijiu's Fourth Town, where they almost became a semi-open and semi-hidden blocking organization.

Only the Third Town developed a little slowly because of Hu Dianjia, but members of the Endeavor Society also accounted for nearly half of the middle and low-level officers.

This is also one of the reasons why Teng Yuzhao swapped Hu Dianjia and Pan Jinshan.

The Third Town is also his main force, and he will not allow any situation that will undermine his control over this town.

The development of the Endeavor Society made Teng Yuzhao happy but also a little worried.

Teng Yuzao is now very worried that the generals under him will not be able to stand the loneliness and push him to the forefront now. This will disrupt his plans and cause large-scale chaos in the country. It will take up a lot of his time and financial resources to quell the chaos.

"Report." A report came from outside the door.

"Come in."

While shouting, Li Jinyu jumped up from his chair and headed towards the door.

The person who came in was Li Jinyu, the confidential staff officer of the Eighth Regiment, who was holding a cowhide folder. "Town Commander, Chief of Staff of Tianjin Guard, Lord Yang, and Director Li of the Security Department jointly sent an urgent telegram to the Marshal."

The staff officer quickly took out three translated telegram drafts from his wallet and handed them to Li Jinyu.

Li Jinyu took the telegram, glanced at it quickly and handed it to Teng Yuzhao.

The telegram header has two capital A's, and then the body of the telegram is below.

There are relevant regulations within the Zhili Army. All telegrams with the letter A are urgent and must not be delayed and must be kept confidential.

One letter is a classified urgent telegram, two letters are an absolutely confidential urgent telegram, and three letters are a top secret urgent telegram. This type of telegram usually concerns urgent military intelligence.

The telegram was sent jointly by Wei Jinghai, Yang Shixiang and Li Yaoting. Teng Yuzhao, who was anxious to know the situation in Tianjin and the outside world, took the draft telegram and began to read it quickly.

After quickly reading the three telegram drafts, Teng Yuzhao thought for a moment and began to read the telegram again. After reading each paragraph, he would frown and think for a while, sometimes even paced on the ground for a while, and then read the content of the telegram again.

Teng Yuzhao's actions made Wu Peifu and Li Jinyu look at him anxiously. They were also eager to know the situation in Tianjin.

After a long time, Teng Yuzao handed the telegram to the two of them. After taking the telegram, the two of them immediately read it together.

The telegram contains a lot of content, which can be summarized as follows.

When the imperial edict from the court was delivered to Governor-General Teng Yuzhao's residence last night, Teng Yuzhao had already driven to the airship base of the Ordnance Department located in Xiaozhan, where he boarded the airship Yunying No. 1 belonging to the Zhili Army General Staff, and even had dinner on the airship.

Therefore, the imperial edict to Teng Yuzhao could not be sent out.

Although Teng Yuzhao did not receive the imperial edict asking him to take office in the Grand Council, the imperial edict appointing Yang Shixiang as the successor to the Governor-General of Zhishan was still handed to Yang Shixiang. Yang Shixiang also readily accepted the imperial edict, which made the eunuch in the inner court who came to deliver the edict secretly relieved.

Along with the imperial edict came 10 million banknotes escorted by the Ministry of Revenue Bank staff and 300 police officers from the Beijing Police Department. However, Xi Ligong claimed that the "Aurora Bank" was Teng Yuzao's private property and that everything had to be decided by Teng Yuzao, and he had no say.

Therefore, not only did Xi Ligong refuse to accept the treasure notes, he was also unwilling to hand over the gold and silver in stock to the officials of the Ministry of Revenue to take them back to the Ministry, so the exchange of treasure notes could not be carried out.

After consulting the Ministry of Revenue Bank in the capital via telegram, officials of the Ministry of Revenue Bank requested that the treasure notes be transported into the bank and that their staff be responsible for exchanging them at the counter the next day, but Xi Ligong also refused.

Having received instructions, the officials of the Ministry of Revenue Bank were very arrogant and even asked the police from the Beijing Police Department to arrest Xi Ligong. However, they were stopped by hundreds of guards from the Aurora Bank who were armed with long and short guns.

They were eventually pulled away and stopped by the first battalion of the Ninth Regiment of Liu Bingyi who arrived in time. Even the leading official from the Ministry of Revenue was hit by several soldiers with rifle butts. After controlling the situation, the direct troops from that battalion drove them to Laolongtou Railway Station in a very rude manner, where they escorted the officials from the Ministry of Revenue Bank, the police and the treasure banknotes onto the train back to the capital and expelled them from the country.

The stalemate between the two sides in front of the Aurora Bank had already attracted a large number of people to watch. The news that the court was going to ban the banknotes issued by the Aurora Bank spread to every corner of Tianjin overnight.

Therefore, early this morning, Yang Shixiang not only published the imperial edict of appointment and dismissal, as well as the Ministry of Revenue's announcement prohibiting the issuance and exchange of banknotes by the Aurora Bank and the continued circulation of Aurora Bank's banknotes, in newspapers, but also immediately issued an order to reassure the people in his capacity as the new Governor-General of Zhishan.

He told the gentry and people of Tianjin about the contents of the imperial edict dismissing Governor Teng Yuzhao Zhishan, and told the people of Tianjin that he had declared to the court that the banknotes of the Aurora Bank would be allowed to continue to circulate, and that the issue of the court exchanging the imperial treasure notes would be temporarily shelved, and asked the people of Tianjin not to panic.

As for exchanging for treasure notes, or even for gold and silver, the general manager of Aurora Bank has already stated that the bank has sufficient gold coins and silver dollars to ensure that the people who hold banknotes and are willing to exchange them can do so. However, they need to wait until Teng Yuzhao returns before they can start.

Although there were reassurances from the new governor, Yang Shixiang, and a large number of patrol police on duty at the junction, nothing serious happened, but the citizens were still in a panic.

Even some factories and businesses have refused to accept banknotes issued by Aurora Bank.

Tianjin newspapers, led by the Ta Kung Pao, also published large amounts of related content on the same day. The articles published in these newspapers almost unanimously criticized the court's ban on the circulation of the original banknotes in Zhishan Province and its forced requirement that the Aurora Bank hand over its principal to the Ministry of Revenue Bank.

There are even articles that believe that the court was seizing power by force.

Moreover, news later came that all Beiyang and Aurora factories would still only accept banknotes from Aurora Bank. This finally made the merchants from other provinces and foreign companies who held large sums of money breathe a sigh of relief. They immediately ran to the Beiyang and Aurora factories, demanding all kinds of goods. As long as they could spend their banknotes, everything would be fine. They were all worried that things would get worse.

Although these factories have repeatedly raised prices, they still cannot control the buying spree of merchants.

In a short period of time, all the goods in the factory warehouses of the Beiyang and Aurora companies were sold out.

But this still could not use up all the paper money in the hands of the merchants. Fortunately, all these companies announced that they would still accept reservations and that paper money could also be used. This finally allowed the merchants and nearly a hundred foreign companies to use up all the paper money in their hands.

However, bad news came later that the stock exchange had to temporarily close due to the cessation of operations of Aurora Bank, which caused people to panic again.

Many people who had already decided to exchange their banknotes for stocks began to panic.

Then, word spread that the Tianjin Patrol Police Headquarters and officials from various government offices in Tianjin had jointly written to the imperial court, asking it to cancel its ban on the circulation of Aurora Bank banknotes or to give them compensation.

As soon as this news spread, some people began to incite the people to submit a letter to the court with their names on the letter, otherwise the people would suffer.

Naturally, the next ones to come were businessmen, scholars, and many ordinary people who eagerly requested to sign their names.

They even nominated dozens of people to follow the patrol officers and officials to the capital to petition, and they were expected to set off in the evening.

At the same time, a unit of the Ninth Town will prohibit any personnel from the Ministry of Revenue Bank from entering Zhili because it is stationed in Langfang.

Yang Shixiang will also submit a memorial to the court tomorrow, suggesting that the imperial decree that almost forcibly banned the Aurora Bank be withdrawn.

The telegram also said that petitions asking the court to revoke its order would soon appear in Shanghai, the three towns of Wuchang, and Taiyuan.

In addition, Pan Jinshan's Third Town has begun to move towards southern Henan. Except for Hu Dianjia in Fujian who has not expressed his attitude, town commanders Liu Shijiu, Liu Yuzhi, Li Xianze, Pan Jinshan, Cao Futian and others have agreed that Wei Jinghai should take the lead in issuing an open telegram to the court, demanding that the court immediately pay this month's military pay, otherwise unexpected incidents may occur.

Wei Jinghai also informed Wu Peifu, Li Jinyu and Su Xilin in the telegram that their names would also appear in the telegram.

In addition, Yang Shixiang also told Teng Yuzhao that the imperial edicts regarding the appointment and removal of Zhou Fu, Zhang Zhidong and Yuan Shikai had also been issued, and Zhang Zhidong, Zhou Fu and Yuan Shikai had all expressed their willingness to accept the edict.

The court appointed Duan Fang, the former governor of Jiangsu, as acting governor-general of Liangjiang, Chen Kuilong succeeded Zhang Zhidong as governor-general of Liangjiang, and Duan Liang, the governor of Henan, was appointed governor of Henan.

Teng Yuzhao knew some of this, but was confused about some of it. According to his estimation, Yang Shiqi, who was eager to create chaos in the world, was probably involved in all of this.

Wu Peifu and Li Jinyu looked at the telegram with excitement in their eyes, and even became eager to try.

Although the reactions of Wei Jinghai and others were somewhat beyond Teng Yuzhao's expectations, after careful consideration, he couldn't help but agree with the handling of the matter by Wei Jinghai, Yang Shixiang and others, and even had some expectations in his heart.

Teng Yuzhao really wanted to see how people in the world would react when his subordinates took some actions against the imperial court this time.

"Teacher." Wu Peifu suddenly frowned and looked at Teng Yuzhao.

Wu Peifu pondered and said, “Students think that it is inappropriate for Panjinshan’s Third Town to move towards southern Henan at this time!”

Teng Yuzao smiled bitterly and said, "You mean, this will probably give Yuan Shikai an excuse to stay in Henan?"

Wu Peifu nodded and said, "Teacher, this is what I meant."

"Moreover, this not only gives Yuan Shikai an excuse, but the imperial court is probably also worried about us, so it is very likely that they will no longer insist on Yuan Shikai taking up his post at the Grand Council."

Teng Yuzao smiled bitterly and said, "I guess this is what the Lotus Mansion wants to see."

Li Jinyu was a little surprised by Teng Yuzhao’s words, and couldn’t help asking.

"Once Yuan Shikai leaves the Henan Army, the Henan Army will no longer be a concern. Why would Lord Yang be unwilling to let Yuan Shikai go?"

Teng Yuzao said helplessly, "I guess they are worried that the court will force me to leave the post of Beiyang Minister and Zhijun President. In order to prevent me from disobeying the order, they resorted to this desperate measure, asking Yuan Shikai not to leave either, so that I will be less criticized."

Teng Yuzao sighed and said, "It's a pity that Yuan Shikai didn't leave."

(End of this chapter)