Back to the Republic of China as a commander

The venue of the five-party talks was finally set at No. 2, Changjiang Road, Nanjing, which is also the famous place of kings and hegemons in history-Nanjing Presidential Palace.In the early years of the Ming Dynasty, it was the Mansion of Guidehou and the Mansion of the King of Han.In the Qing Dynasty, it was the Jiangning Weaving Department, the Jiangnan Governor's Department, and the Liangjiang Governor's Department.Emperor Kangxi and Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty used it as a "palace" when they went to the south of the Yangtze River. In March 1853, the Taiping Army occupied Nanjing and established its capital in Tianjing, where Hong Xiuquan built a large-scale Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Celestial Palace (Tianwangfu).After the Qing army captured Nanjing, they burned down the palace buildings, and rebuilt the Liangjiang Governor's Office in the ninth year of Tongzhi (3).Lin Zexu, Zeng Guofan, Li Hongzhang, Liu Kunyi, Shen Baozhen, Zuo Zongtang, Zhang Zhidong, Duanfang, etc. all served as governors of Liangjiang.

After the outbreak of the Revolution of 1911 in October 10, Sun Yat-sen was sworn in here as the interim president of the Republic of China on January 1912, 1, and established the first republican state power in Chinese history—the Provisional Government of the Republic of China. In April 1, the provisional government ended, and the Nanjing Left-behind Mansion with Huang Xing as the left-behind was established here; during the "Second Revolution" in 1912, it became the general headquarters of the Yuan Army, with Huang Xing and He Haiming successively serving as commanders.

From 1913 to 1916, it successively became the Office of the Governor of Jiangsu, the Office of the Governor of Jiangsu, the Mansion of the General of Jiangsu, the Office of the Supervisor of Jiangsu, and the last name was the Office of the Inspection Envoy of the Five Provinces.Speaking of which, this place is really a treasure land of geomantic omen, everyone wants to come and live here, but no one can live there for long.

According to the No. 21 order of the Supreme Command, military management committees were established in [-] designated central cities, including Nanjing, Shanghai, Wuhan, Changsha, Jiujiang, Nanchang, Anqing, Hefei, Yuezhou, Hengyang, Guangzhou, and Shaoguan, of which Nanjing , Shanghai, and Wuhan are first-tier cities.

The director of the Nanjing Military Control Committee is concurrently held by Ma Xicheng, the minister of the Ministry of Armaments. The office of the Military Control Committee is located in the Office of the Patrol Envoy of the Five Provinces, so the current public name here is the Nanjing Military Control Committee of the National Socialist Party.The nine representatives who participated in the talks directly stayed here. Although Ma Xicheng has been busy taking over the Jinling Arsenal and other units recently, he was not sloppy with the reception work at all.

In Wuhan, the first stop Wang Zhenyu visited was not the Hanyang Iron and Steel Works or the Hanyang Arsenal, but the National Wuhan Higher Normal School.It was formerly the Self-improvement School founded by Zhang Zhidong, governor of Huguang in the late Qing Dynasty in 1893. In 1902, it was renamed Dialect School.After the Revolution of 1913, the Beiyang government established the National Wuchang Higher Normal School in [-] based on the dialect school.

It is close to East Lake and Luojia Mountain. It is a typical place with mountains and water, and the scenery is still very good.Here, Wang Zhenyu made a speech that had a profound impact on the Chinese education community to the school's faculty and staff: "Everyone, it is a great honor to stand here and meet you who determine the future of China. I know that in the eyes of many intellectuals, I, Wang Zhenyu It is probably a warlord or something like that, nothing more than relying on the army to grab a few more provinces. I also know that in the eyes of others, I, as one of the current five forces in China, may have decided the situation in China The ability to move towards the future. So some people praise me, and some people scold me, but I don’t care about these now, what I care about is you, the students sitting in front of me, in my opinion, you are the ones who decide the future of China people."

As soon as this remark came out, the teachers and students of Wuhan Higher Normal School, who originally looked down upon Wang Zhenyu, a warlord who entered Wuhan with a big stick, burst into warm applause like a spring breeze.

"A nation wants to rejuvenate and rise among the nations of the world. Such a great goal cannot be achieved by having a huge army or a powerful political party, let alone a hero. Powerful It is not an improvement of one level, but an improvement of the whole level. For example, a strong military cannot be achieved by going to foreigners to buy a batch of arms. He needs a strong industrial base. And what does an industrial base need? ?It is talents, technical talents. If we leave talents and focus on equipment, we are following the old path of the Westernization Movement, but this path has been proved to be unworkable. So where do our talents come from? Not from nepotism, but from school."

In line with the last sentence, Wang Zhenyu made a gesture of waving his hands vigorously, and the audience applauded once again.

"Since the Opium War, China has suffered all kinds of humiliation from the outside world, and in the Sino-Japanese War and the Gengzi Rebellion, this humiliation has become a shame. Why is this happening, what is the problem, and how to solve it, that person Can a classmate tell me?"

After only a few seconds of communication, the students' interactive emotions were immediately ignited. A tall boy stood up bravely and said, "It's because the foreign powers are too bad and too strong. We can't win. So we have to unite, Only by defeating the great powers can we wash away our shame."

Wang Zhenyu shook his head with a smile and said: "If a lion shows off its muscles, it means that it is strong. If a pig shows off its meat, it means that it should be killed. We are bullied by foreign powers. We should not blame other barbarians. On the contrary, we We should also be grateful and thank others. It is they who opened the windows of the world for us. They let us know what it means to look at the sky from a well, what it means to be complacent, and what it means to be beaten when you are backward? So I am most grateful to the British. These bandits from Europe let us open our eyes to see the world, otherwise we would still be hungry, dragging our braids in naked clothes, believing in the prosperity of Kangxi and Qianlong described by those shameless literati of Ji Xiaolan, indulging in the self-good feeling of the heaven and the kingdom .”

After Wang Zhenyu finished speaking, he paused and looked at the audience. The teachers and students were silent, and they couldn't turn their heads around. Why should their motherland thank the Western powers after enduring so much humiliation?

At the same time, nine representatives representing the five forces stepped into the venue specially set up by the Nanjing Military Management Committee and started a difficult but not long negotiation.

Although the Beiyang government still controls half of the country, but because they lost the war, they have now become a relatively weak party among the five parties, and in name, they are now negotiating with the other four parties.

As negotiators of the Beiyang government, Xu Shichang and Cao Rulin felt a lot of pressure on their shoulders, so they didn't talk nonsense when they came up, and directly proposed the negotiation plan selected by Duan Qirui.

Naturally, Cao Rulin's qualifications cannot be compared with Xu Shichang's, so this proposal was read by him:

"First, the central government in Beijing recognizes the War to Protect the Nation as a legitimate war, and will not hold the participants accountable.

Second, Wang Zhenyu was appointed as the patrol envoy of Huguang and Liangjiang, Cai E was appointed as the patrol envoy of Southwest China, and Sun Yat-sen was appointed as the patrol envoy of Fujian and Zhejiang.

Third, the provinces in the south that declare independence can cancel their independence and return to the central government. "

Duan Qirui's conditions were not too much, but obviously they could not meet the requirements of the other four parties. On the first night, led by Yang Yongtai and Zhao Hengti, the four parties had already reached a basic agreement.

Now Tang Hualong, the representative of Vice President Li Yuanhong, proposed on behalf of everyone:

"First, according to the provisions of the Constitution, Li Yuanhong is currently the legal head of state of China;

Second, the former First Division, Second Division, and Third Division of the Hubei Army were reorganized into the First Division to the Third Division of the Chinese Guards, and they were stationed in Beijing with President Li Yuanhong;

Third, the establishment of a regional government in the south, except that diplomatic power still belongs to the central government, other aspects are implemented in accordance with the regional military and political autonomy measures, so foreign-related clauses involving the area under the jurisdiction of the local government are considered illegal and invalid without the recognition of the regional government.

Fourth, the taxes in the southern region are directly handed over to the Revenue and Expenditure Office of the Presidential Office, which is at the disposal of the President.

Fifth, establish the State Council, appoint Xiong Xiling as Prime Minister, Liang Qichao as Chief of Finance, Duan Qirui as Chief of Army, and the rest of the cabinet members are appointed after consultation between the President and the Prime Minister.

Sixth, hold accountable those responsible for the restoration incident, and reward all those who participated in the war to protect the country. "

Cao Rulin and the others couldn't help but gasp when they saw the six proposals put forward by Tang Hualong. This is a disguised north-south divide.

In Wuhan Higher Normal School, Wang Zhenyu is trying to explain his point of view to the students: "Many times when others bully you, it is not because you are strong, but because you are too weak. Why do Japanese dare not bully other countries? Do you dare to bully us? In the final analysis, we are too weak. But we are such a big country, accounting for [-]% of the world economy, with a population of [-] million, but we are still a weak country? What is the problem? In fact, it is not a There is a problem in one place, one point leads to another, and there are problems everywhere. We don’t care whether Confucian culture is right or wrong, but the idea of ​​official standard for thousands of years has led us to insist on the so-called scholars, farmers, businessmen, and emphasize the so-called fundamentals. Putting business at the bottom is really putting the cart before the horse. The development of business can promote our economic development, and economic development can make our industry stronger. Look at the rising United States of America, their businessmen can even choose President, in the past we always emphasized that there is no business without adultery, but why do businessmen commit adultery? In the final analysis, they have no political status, and the value of their existence is the money bag of the government office. Like pigs, they will be killed when they are fattened. Firstly, merchants do not cheat and survive, but what about our scholar-bureaucrat class? They don’t talk about taking what they give, and they continue to incite the hatred of the rich among farmers and workers. What kind of behavior is this, shameless. A nation must be strong and develop It doesn’t mean that the nation is divided into opposing classes according to occupation and income, and then one class can kill the other class. Such an idea is lazy, but in fact it is devoid of conscience under the guise of robbing the rich and helping the poor. There is no difference between the bandits who work. We must love our fellow citizens, we must love our compatriots, regardless of class or status, and the gap between the rich and the poor should be regulated by the government..."