The Republic is so violent

Chapter 158 The Enemy of Beiyang (3)
Even if you don't die of anger, you will inevitably die of jealousy.For Duan Qirui, there are only three beautiful concubines. Although capable men in those days always liked to marry more gentle girls, it can be regarded as helping girls solve their livelihood problems.But it can be seen from this that Duan Qirui is not so devoted to Miss Xu.

Let's not mention this matter.

But life is like a play, and the roles alternate.There is an objective law on the issue of playing a good guy and a bad guy. This law is: the character of the people around you is inversely proportional to your own character.

To put it simply: if you think it's good to play the bad guy, you will find yourself unfortunately falling into the crowd of good guys, accused by everyone, and scolded to death.If you find that bad people are not easy to do, then change careers and become a good person, but when you play the role of a good person full-time, you will find that you are surrounded by bad people, thinking about bullying you, a good person with a solid heart.

This law is vividly reflected here by Duan Qirui.To be clear, when he was a bad guy and secretly added to the chaos of the military strategist Jiang Fangzhen, everyone was a good guy and reprimanded him with righteous indignation.But when Duan Qirui slammed the steering wheel and drove on the bright road of the good man, he was surprised to find that everyone had already squeezed into the green passage of the bad man, and they were still working together to fix him persistently.

What I'm talking about here is the story of Xu Shuzheng, a talented Beiyang scholar.

10 child prodigies born without reading

Speaking of Xu Shuzheng, among the dark generals in Beiyang, he was extremely eye-catching.

Xu Shuzheng, a native of Xiaoxian County, Jiangsu Province, has been farming for generations. The most culturally important job in his family is to carry a dung basket and go out to pick up dung.But in the generation of Xu Shuzheng's father, Xu Shidao, the literary stars came to the fore. After Xu Shidao was born, he danced and danced when he saw the paper with words. Rural primary school teacher.

It is said that after Xu Shidao became the queen of children, he devoted himself to studying children's learning psychology, and applied all his research results to his son Xu Shuzheng.The book said that when his father was teaching him, he would try his best to lure his son to study at any time and place, regardless of shit or fart.Once he helped his son ride a donkey, saying "the donkey's ears stand up", and asked his son to immediately read the next couplet. Little Xu Shuzheng was in a hurry, and blurted out "a dog pissed a hoof", after his father heard it, he almost didn't cry out.

After this joke was made, the villagers were amazed and called him the little child prodigy of the Xu family, capable of poetry at the age of seven.As a result, an old man who was studying was annoyed, and he traveled tirelessly across mountains and rivers to find trouble for the seven-year-old child Xu Shuzheng.

After the old man came, he set up a challenge, and he published the first couplet: push the window and look at the moon.See how little Xu Shuzheng responds to the second line.

At that time, Xu Shuzheng came out and said to him: pull out the mountain and surpass the sea.Hearing this couplet, the old man turned pale with shock, turned around and left.

A seven-year-old boy defeated an old man in a row.After Xu Shuzheng won, he was proud of himself, so he found a fun game, went out to find the most arrogant person, and made a fuss out of nothing to provoke him. This kind of life can be called a legend.So he inquired here and there, and finally found out that there was an old man who claimed to be invincible in chess. handsome.

Xu Shuzheng was furious when he heard this, so he went all the way to find him, and started a game with the old man.At the end of the battle, the old man was so angry that he suddenly raised the claw hammer, and with a click, he took the old man off, and then moved the old man to scurry around to avoid Xu Shuzheng's pursuit.

From then on, Xu Shuzheng became more and more famous. When he was 13 years old, he won the No. 1 provincial examination, and became a scholar who was subsidized by the imperial court.After that, he became more and more arrogant, wishing to grow his eyes on the top of his head.So all the bearded people in the countryside came to Xu Shuzheng's house, persuading his father to discipline Xu Shuzheng, this child has to be taken care of, no matter what?He is too smart, if he doesn't care about it, he will become a disaster in the future.

At the beginning, Xu Shuzheng's father just laughed and didn't answer, but more and more people came to persuade him, and it gradually became a trend. If the bearded old man from three villages and five miles didn't come to Xu's house to persuade and discipline Xu Shuzheng, he would feel very tasteless , not keeping up with the times.At this time, Xu Shuzheng's father had no choice but to speak.

He said: What is there to manage?Think about when we were young, we behaved only worse than this child, not better than this child.You are a stupid person, why should you discipline a smart person?Let the child realize it by himself, he will understand more truths than us, and the effect of his discipline will be better than ours.

Xu Shuzheng said in his own words that when he heard his father's words, he was like a thunderbolt, with all thoughts rising and falling, and his mind suddenly lost his support.

It was night, Xu Shuzheng was lying on the bed, eyes wide open, and began the first serious thought in his life: Why should I study?why?Why?

After thinking for a whole night, I finally came up with an idea: Woohoo, I study for the rise of China.

But after reading the thick Four Books and Five Classics, not only did the Chinese not rise up, but it got worse and worse. It can be seen that this book cannot be read.Coupled with the fact that he once failed the examination, his belief was further strengthened at this time.

So if you don’t study, how can you serve the country?

On the same day, he stole the family's money and left home on foot to enroll in the army.

11 My brain is really flooded

It was the first time he ran away from home, and before reaching Jiangpu, Xu Shuzheng was arrested and taken back home by the troops sent by his mother.When I went home and entered the door, hey, what a gentle and beautiful little daughter-in-law, she was sitting on the kang waiting for me.

It turned out that in order to tie the son's heart, the mother specially married the son to a beautiful daughter-in-law.

Hello beautiful wife, Xu Shuzheng happily enters the bridal chamber.

A few days later, he came out of the bridal chamber, found his father and said: Dad, after thinking about it, I think I should join the army and serve the country.I don't want to die old in the countryside and become a pedantic old master, which is of no benefit to the country or to myself.

Father asked: Have you discussed this matter with your wife?
Xu Shuzheng said: After discussing it, she gave me all the dowry she brought over.Said that I was away from home, so I couldn't afford to lose money.

The father said: "In this case, then you wait until I take out all the savings of the family over the years and give it to you."I don't care about the distance of your trip, but no matter what, you have to make a name for yourself, and you can't let your daughter-in-law keep the empty house for nothing.

So Xu Shuzheng bid farewell to his wife and took the road to Shandong to find Yuan Shikai, the governor of Shandong at that time.When he arrived in Jinan, he wrote a letter to Yuan Shikai, in which he said: The failure of the state affairs is defeated by the generals.If you want to rectify the economy, there is no urgent task to give up economics and military affairs.It means: the most urgent task of the country at present is to strengthen the military.Yuan Shikai was overjoyed when he saw the letter, so he called Zhu Zhongqi from Daotai, and said, "Little Zhu, take a look at this letter. This must be a talent. You can interview me for me."

Zhu Zhongqi said: Why do you want me to interview?Why don't you interview yourself?

Yuan Shikai explained: Look, my mother just died, and I am mourning for the old man. It is inconvenient.

So Daoist Zhu Zhongqi came out to interview Xu Shuzheng, but he didn't want the two to have different values, and the conversation was not speculative, so the result of the interview was that they broke up unhappy.After Xu Shuzheng, who was extremely sad and indignant, came out, he wrote a poem, saying:
It's too hard to stay in leisure time if you are rough and arrogant!
An Neng turned into hundreds of billions, and went to restaurants facing the wind everywhere.

The poem spread quickly and soon reached his hometown.The father knew that his son had written this bad poem, so he wrote a letter to Xu Shuzheng, to the effect: My son, when you come out of the mountain, you just want to find a way to let others use you.Others refuse to use you, it is because your vision is too high, you always want to ride on the neck of the person who uses you, this is not good, no one in this world uses you for the purpose of letting you ride on his neck to play prestige Woolen cloth?

As the saying goes, there is no better way to know a son than a father, and what his father said was referring to the weakness of Xu Shuzheng's character.But even though this old man has read thousands of volumes, he never imagined that there are all kinds of strange people in this world, and there is such a weird person who is willing to let Xu Shuzheng ride on his neck.

In the blink of an eye, it was winter, and Xu Shuzheng was trapped in the Gaosheng store in Jinan. He had nothing to do, so he wore a jacket and wrote couplets in the lobby.I just want to ride, I want to ride... Just as I was muttering, an officer stood beside me and greeted him: "Friend, your handwriting is good, do you have time?"How about we chat?
They just chatted, so the two sat down and talked about it. After Xu Shuzheng finished talking about his situation, the officer said: So that's how it is. Since you want to join the army, why don't you come to my barracks?

Xu Shuzheng asked: Which garlic are you?
The other party replied: I am Duan Qirui.

From then on, Xu Shuzheng followed Duan Qirui.

He first worked as a scribe who copied and wrote, and occasionally practiced martial arts with soldiers, and then he was sent to the Japanese Non-commissioned Officer Academy. After returning, he still hung out with Duan Qirui.In the year of [-], during the First Uprising in Wuchang, Xu Shuzheng followed Duan Qirui to the battlefield to beat up the fat revolutionary leader Li Yuanhong. At this time, something happened, which immediately highlighted his value.

At that time, the Beiyang Army fought fiercely in the three towns of Wuhan. The battle was in full swing, and Duan Qirui's troops set Hankou on fire.So the reporter flew over and asked: Why did you set the fire on?

Duan Qirui gave a very thoughtless answer: arson is the art of war.Don't you hear that Sun Tzu said that there are five people who attack with fire. The enemy army is scattered in the street and hides in the dark, while our army is in the open. If we don't attack with fire, our army will inevitably suffer heavy casualties.

The reporter was so happy that he was going crazy, he wrote quickly, Duan Qirui's answer is enough for him to die a hundred times, ruining his reputation is a must.After recording it, the reporter rushed to the newspaper office to make Duan Qirui die in an ugly way.Just as he was running, a group of people suddenly rushed out in front of him and stopped the way. Looking closely, it turned out to be Xu Shuzheng.

Xu Shuzheng told the reporter: That's what happened. Duan Juntong drank too much just now, and his mind was flooded for a while, and he answered indiscriminately.In fact, that is not the case. The burning of Hankou was not an order of Duan Juntong. This incident caused the death of the people. Duan Juntong was extremely sad and indignant.It is also necessary to carefully investigate the loss of life and property of the people and compensate them.The battle in Hankou caused harm to innocent people. Duan Juntong expressed his deep sorrow. He has said that he will do his best to maintain the truce and avoid another war, so that our innocent people will suffer from military disasters... Hurry up and write, just like what I just said Write.

The reporter shook his head: I'm sorry, but I still want to deliver what Duan Juntong said just now. What you said is not funny, it has no news selling point, and it does not meet the standards of news reports.

Xu Shuzheng turned around and brought over two wads of money: Let's discuss it again, Duan Juntong really lost his mind just now, let's publish this paragraph, okay?
The reporter got up angrily: Do you want to buy me with money?Don't think about it, you are humiliating my personality!

Xu Shuzheng: Look at you... Come here, someone, cut off the head of this guy who spread rumors and confuse the public, hmph, you saved me money, no wonder me.

The swordsman rushed forward, and if he dragged the reporter, he would chop off his head.The reporter was in a hurry: Don't cut it, don't cut it, give me the money, can I publish the paragraph you just said?
12 Take the blame for the boss

Beiyang commented on Duan Qirui's behavior, saying that he was headstrong.The "he" here refers to Xu Shuzheng.This is because Xu Shuzheng took too many risks for Duan Qirui and wiped too many buttocks. To put it bluntly, Xu Shuzheng played the role of covering Duan Qirui from the wind and offending others for Duan Qirui.

The most well-known incident is that in the Beiyang Army, an officer surnamed Li was dismissed and had no place to eat, so he came to Duan Qirui. Duan Qirui agreed and transferred Xu Shuzheng to handle it.But Xu Shuzheng criticized a sentence: It is useless to check the person, criticize and check.Called back Duan Qirui's order.

So the officer surnamed Li didn't find a job in the end, so he had to leave in despair.Don't blame Duan Qirui when it's over, just blame Xu Shuzheng for not being a thing.

So this Xu Shuzheng was an eyesore in the army chief's mansion, and was hated by countless people.At that time, there was a saying that what Duan Qirui said didn't count, but what Xu Shuzheng said counted. In short, Xu Shuzheng was Duan Qirui's home and Duan Qirui's boss.

In addition, Xu Shuzheng also did a shocking deed, which could scare Duan Qirui and Yuan Shikai to death.

When the First World War broke out and the Japanese landed in Qingdao to snatch the German concession, Xu Shuzheng secretly recruited Jin Yunpeng, the governor of Shandong, to send a train of munitions to the Germans via Shandong.Hearing the news, Jin Yunpeng was so frightened that he was almost stupid, and asked: Old Xu, is this wrong?We all know that you are a famous pro-Japanese faction, how can you send arms to the Germans?

Xu Shuzheng replied: Japan is China's strongest neighbor. It is arrogant by nature and extremely domineering.Anything in China, if Japan doesn't agree, you can't do it, so I was forced to be pro-Japanese.But Japan is China's great enemy, and it will never watch China become stronger and not interfere. In the future, only the United States and Germany can truly become friends of the Chinese. If you say that I don't help the Germans, can I help the Japanese?

Jin Yunpeng asked: Even so, now that Germany and Japan are at war, China is in a neutral state. If you help the Germans so much, what if the Japanese find out?

Xu Shuzheng replied: So this matter was neither ordered by the President nor arranged by Chief Lu, it was all my own idea.Whether things are successful or not, they cannot be publicized after all.It's just that once the incident happens and the Japanese pursue it, at most I will be responsible alone, and it will definitely not affect the country's major affairs.

This matter went smoothly, and the arms were smuggled into the German Concession. The Japanese never dreamed that the Chinese would dare to trick them, but Germany was too weak, and they were beaten honestly by the Japanese within a few days.But the Germans were very grateful for China's help, and even Duan Qirui thought it was a good job when he learned about it later.

Logically speaking, Xu Shuzheng worked so hard, Yuan Shikai should know his difficulties, but it was strange, but Yuan Shikai hated Xu Shuzheng very much, so he named him Little Fan.It means that Xu Shuzheng is Duan Qirui's dog-headed military adviser.

Every once in a while, Yuan Shikai would come to trouble Xu Shuzheng and issue official documents to transfer Xu Shuzheng away.Duan Qirui stopped him every time.This kind of thing happened too many times, Yuan Shikai became a little impatient, so he called Duan Qirui over, and said: "Who is that, by the way, it is Xu Shuzheng, please move him quickly, as soon as I see this People are annoying.

Duan Qirui replied: Please the president remove me first, and then you can do whatever you want.

Duan Qirui's actions made Yuan Shikai very angry.Immediately afterwards, the Spring Festival door-knocking incident broke out, which made the conflict between Duan Qirui and Yuan Shikai completely public.

It is said that in 1915, the restoration of the government and the opposition became more and more powerful. The Beiyang soldiers did not know who took the lead, and took the lead in restoring the kneeling ceremony.Only Duan Qirui insisted on raising the bar to the end, refusing to kneel down desperately. You must know that he raised his head and made the Chinese soldiers stand up after the Gengzi Kingdom Revolution, but these soldiers all knelt down again. Duan Qirui was so angry that he was half dead, of course he was not willing to kneel down.

At this time, old partner Feng Guozhang came to round up the field and said to Duan Qirui: Xiao Duan, I know you have a stiff neck. We have been together for so many years, and I still don’t know you?But you made a mistake. We kowtow to the President this time, not to restore the ceremony of kneeling. Isn’t this the Chinese New Year?In any case, the president has cultivated us, even if the younger generation kowtows to the elders, you don't have to raise an argument, do you?

To put it bluntly, Feng Guozhang forced Duan Qirui to meet Yuan Shikai, and then the two knelt down and kowtowed to each other.Yuan Shikai was surprised and delighted at the time. You must know that these two people have already developed influence in Beiyang, and they will not lose their tails.Yuan Shikai's biggest headache was the two of them. Now that these two were willing to kowtow to him, why didn't Yuan Shikai like it?Immediately ordered his sons to come and kowtow to the two in return.

Several sons of the Yuan family came over and knelt down to kowtow to Duan Qirui and Feng Guozhang.Only the eldest son Yuan Keding remained unmoved, and stood aside arrogantly.

Duan Qirui was furious, and Feng Guozhang was so angry that his hands trembled. When the two went out, Duan Qirui said: "The old man is still humble, but the young master is full of airs. How can we be treated as human beings!"We have been dogs in the previous life, and we will be dogs in the next life!

Feng Guozhang said: Zhiquan, don't say that you are angry, I can't bear it either, I will follow you from now on, we can no longer be dogs for the rest of our lives.

Seeing the two go out angrily, Yuan Shikai scolded Yuan Keding for causing trouble.But Yuan Keding also had something to say.

He said: These two people were raised by you, if you don't break their arrogance, how will you manage them in the future?

Uncontrollable, this is Yuan Shikai's emotion when facing Beiyang's old-fashioned chariot.

13 Beiyang Breaks
After that, it was Yuan Keding who organized the princelings to seize military power.Yuan Shikai came forward and asked to be the head of the model group. He didn't want Duan Qirui to put on a stepmother face and disagree with anything, so Yuan Shikai was so angry that he said: "You see, I will be the head of the group, okay?"

This was originally an angry remark, but no one expected that it would turn out to be true in the end, and Yuan Shikai actually became the leader of the first phase of the model group.

At this point, the relationship between Yuan Shikai and Duan Qirui has completely froze.

At this juncture, Yang Du came and offered a plan to get rid of Duan Qirui.

Yang Du's approach is to first set up a national army and navy general command office, and use this department to take over Duan Qirui's army department.This new department will be headed by Cai E, China's best military genius, and Duan Qirui's department has become just for business.

This is a good move, sorry for Duan Qirui's inability to resist.

If he is unable to fight, he will not fight. Duan Qirui simply did not come to work, and passively slowed down his work as a protest.While protesting, Yuan Shikai suddenly called him to the Presidential Palace and asked him something.Duan Qirui replied: I don't know about this, wait for me to go back to the Ministry of Army and ask Xu Shizheng.

It turned out that Duan Qirui didn't come to work anymore, and Xu Shuzheng dominated the Army Department, and when he caught official documents, he was so angry that he didn't say hello to Duan Qirui at all.

Seeing this, Yuan Shikai became confused again, sighed and said: In our group, ah, it is becoming more and more outrageous, ah, Zhiquan is the chief executive at home, ah, always not coming to work, ah, not going to work ...

At this point, there should be a sensible person to mediate. They are all old people from Beiyang, so why make them so nervous?

(End of this chapter)