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Volume 2 Beijing Story Chapter 141 Dizzying Changes

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    Update time: 2012-08-05

    With Japan as a breakthrough, Britain, France, Japan and the United States finally reached an agreement on the four conditions for China's participation in the war after three days of negotiation. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed the following terms of participation in the war through a formal exchange of letters with the ministers of the four countries:

    Article 1. If the Chinese government declares war on Germany and Austria before the end of April, the Boxer Indemnity payments to Germany and Austria will be permanently waived, and the Boxer Indemnity payments to the United States, Britain, France, Japan, and Russia will be suspended for ten years.

    Article 2: Acknowledge that China can selectively increase import tariffs to 10%.

    Article 3, the Xinchou Treaty and its annexes, such as the prohibition of stationing squadrons within 20 miles around Tianjin, etc., are removed!  The Chinese ** troops can be stationed in any Chinese territory except the concession!

    Article 4. After China joins the war, its responsibility to the Allied Powers is to provide raw materials and labor based on the average international market price and no lower than the average income of labor in the Allied Powers.

    Once these four terms of participation in the war were officially confirmed by the exchange of letters between the two sides, it was like a stone that stirred up a thousand waves, causing huge waves in the Chinese government and the public. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Deputy Minister Xia Yiting became national heroes, and the reputation of Duan Qirui's cabinet increased dramatically.  Everyone can see the rise. Just the ten-year postponement of the first Boxer Indemnity will bring much buffer and comfort to China's finances!

    Xu Shuzheng and Anhui politicians mobilized the media in Beijing, Tianjin and Shanghai to launch a massive news and public opinion offensive. On the premise of praising the current cabinet and Prime Minister Duan Qirui as unprecedented national heroes who defended the dignity and sovereignty of the Republic of China, they criticized  Even with such favorable conditions, the Congress and the President were still at odds with each other and were unwilling to pass the cabinet's motion to declare war on Germany and Austria. They verbally criticized the move!

    Once the payment of the Boxer Indemnity is stopped, the government will have an additional 38 million yuan in budget funds every year. The ministries of education, internal affairs, agriculture, industry and commerce will all be able to live a good life, especially education, which has serious salary arrears.  Ministry of Finance, cultural elites criticized Li Yuanhong and the Congress for their inaction and perverse actions!

    At Wang Geng's prompting, Xu Shuzheng simply did not stop, and mobilized professors and students from major schools around them through Liang Qichao and Tang Hualong, members of the research department in the Congress, and launched a mighty demonstration.  The team directly surrounded the Presidential Palace and the Congress, and held rallies and marches in these two places every day to shout slogans!

    The Beiyang Governor's Corps of the Thirteen Provinces sent out a series of messages, firmly supporting the correct ideas of professors and students, and firmly supporting the four conditions for participating in the war negotiated by the Prime Minister and the Cabinet and the great powers. Damn, under Wang Geng's instigation, Xu Shuzheng directly  A secret telegram was sent from the Ministry of War to the governors of each province. If entry into the war was approved, while the Boxer Indemnity would be deferred, the central government would return the nominal regular taxes that each province had to pay for five years, and the funds would be earmarked for the fiscal budget of each province.

    Even in the Congress where the Southern Party was dominant, the Southern Party itself split into two factions. No matter how ambitious the Beiyang and Duan cabinets were, at least their judgment on the prospects of the European War was absolutely correct, that is, with the United States' entry into the war,  The German-Austrian Allies were bound to lose. Under such circumstances, the huge benefits China gained by participating in the war were absolutely not to be missed.

    The Duan Cabinet obtained generous conditions for participating in the war from the great powers through diplomacy. If anyone refuses, he will be a national sinner!  This is not a dispute between doctrines and beliefs. This is the best time for national rejuvenation. Any prevarication and far-fetched excuses cannot be used as excuses!

    As for President Li Yuanhong, he received tough notes one after another from the British and American ministers. In particular, Feng Guozhang, who had originally secretly supported him, under pressure from the United States, finally made a clear statement in support of Duan Qirui's cabinet's proposal to participate in the war.  Four conditions for joining the war!

    Finally, under the pressure of the Japanese government, Sun Dapao, the leader of the Southern Party who was in Shanghai, also sent an ambiguous message, claiming that whether to participate in the war or not depends on the decision of the President and Congress!  He himself reserves his own opinions and does not use this to impose demands on the Southerners!

    For a time, Li Yuanhong rebelled against his relatives and retreated. As the situation further developed, under the ulterior motives of Wang Geng and Xu Shuzheng, Li Yuanhong's presidential palace guards and troops besieged the presidential palace for more than a week. They had been chanting slogans in demonstrations and rallies demanding that President Li step down.  Bloody clashes broke out among students.

    The Guards of the Presidential Palace, who had their heads hit by bricks and were bleeding, accidentally opened fire. Although no one was directly shot and killed by the shots fired into the air, the sudden gunfire disturbed the protesting students who panicked and trampled on each other, resulting in the death of one person and five people.  A tragedy in which 17 people were seriously injured and 17 others were slightly injured.

    The whole thing unexpectedly came to an end. On the morning of April 18, 1917, President Li Yuanhong resigned from office because of the bloodshed at the entrance to the presidential palace the day before. He left Beijing for Tianjin on the same day.  On the same day, the House of Representatives and the Senate overwhelmingly passed the cabinet's motion to declare war on the German and Austrian Allies!

    China officially joins the war!

    Li Yuanhong¡¯s accusationAs a result, Vice President Feng Guozhang, in accordance with the provisional agreement in the first year of the Republic of China, assumed the position of vice president to act as president. Regardless of whether he was willing or not, the leader of the Beiyang direct line had to go to Beijing to act as president. As Feng Guozhang  In exchange for going north to fulfill his duties, Duan Qirui agreed to take over the position of Jiangsu Governor-General vacated by Lao Feng, and let Li Chun, the Jiangxi Governor-General, a direct descendant of Feng Guozhang, take over!

    Li Chun's Jiangxi governor was replaced by Chen Guangyuan, another direct descendant of Feng Guozhang, the commander of the 12th Beiyang Division. In exchange, Duan Qirui appointed Wu Guangxin as Wu Guangxin's commander-in-chief of the upper Yangtze River garrison and Sichuan investigation envoy, and Fu Liangzuo as the Hunan governor.

    Feng Guozhang, a greedy and timid fellow, has always regarded Nanjing as his home base and base, while Beijing and Tianjin belong to the Duan Qirui and Anhui clique. Therefore, in addition to the above conditions, this guy actually asked to mix Nanjing's Beiyang Fifth  The brigade was upgraded to the 15th Division, and together with the 16th Division adapted from the original Guards, they became the Presidential Guard, escorting him to Beijing to report on his duties!

    With Xu Shuzheng and Wang Geng as his right-hand men, Duan Qirui didn't take Feng Guozhang seriously, who was as timid as a mouse and greedy for money. After some discussion with Wang Geng and Xu Shuzheng, Duan Qirui agreed to Feng Guozhang's request.

    Wang Geng's training of the model army in Nanyuan is progressing rapidly. In just half a month, small teams sent to 22 provinces and cities to accept recruited laborers and recruits have already screened and shipped back 18,000 soldiers through the railway train and ship system.  There are strong men who meet the conditions for joining the army, and recruits are still getting off the train from Fengtai every day to join the ranks of the Nanyuan Model Army. Together with the original 16 mixed brigade, no wonder Prime Minister Duan Qirui has enough confidence.

    The recruit training for 18,000 strong men after joining the army was a purgatory. Wang Geng issued them not weapons, but pickaxes and shovels. The training ground was not Nanyuan Barracks, but the embankments on both sides of the Yongding River. In addition to the queue training every morning  Unstoppable, the 18,000 recruits spent the first month sweating like rain dredging the Yongding River and strengthening the dams on both sides. Wang Geng even asked these recruits, who were mainly landless farmers, to dig a moat along the Nanyuan Barracks!

    Also benefiting the farmers near Nanyuan and the people of planting land. With this irrigation water network that has begun to take shape, the floods this summer will lose the raging stage, and countless dry land will become a paddy field.  Although each of the 18,000 recruits has shed a layer of skin from exhaustion, their physical fitness has been honed through the physical work at the water conservancy construction site and the three meals a day that provide nutritious meat and vegetables!

    Of course, there was more than that. Wang Geng's grand plan to build Yixiangyuan into a sauna and entertainment club was terminated by the sudden intervention of the Prime Minister. The reason was very simple. The rising star under Duan Qirui was gradually under the influence of  It attracted the attention of the press, especially when recruitment advertisements for the Model Army were plastered all over the streets and inside and outside universities.

    War Supervisor Wang Geng, who graduated from West Point Military Academy, is a young and handsome newly appointed lieutenant general and commander of the First Division of the Model Army. He has become and increasingly will become an idol in the hearts of the news media and young people, especially when his beloved daughter wears those clothes at home.  After wearing the tight-fitting but beautiful cheongsam, especially when Erya and Lu Mei eagerly look forward to Wang Geng accompanying them every weekend, it is obvious that her confidant can no longer have such a deep relationship with the brothel!

    "Don't care if you call it a sauna, a club, or a bathhouse, if it's opened in Bada Hutong, it's a brothel!"  In the end, the old man just said, you can marry ten or eight girls from the Bada Hutong home as concubines, but you cannot be the boss of a certain brothel in the Bada Hutong!  I just can¡¯t allow it!  You have to learn and be brave, you are young and you have to cherish your feathers!  The Prime Minister hates the fact that iron cannot become steel!

    What else can you say?  Wang Geng honestly dismissed the girls in Yixiangyuan who had never been with him, and he directly transferred the yard to Feng Gengguang, the president of the Bank of China. Together with the marriage contracts of the two girls Lao Feng was interested in, he took Xiaoyu with him.  Xian, Xiaohong and Xiaocui, as well as their respective maids and aunts, and a whole room of women returned to live in the big house on Prince Consort Street.

    Chunni, Xiacao, Xiaohong, Xiaocui and Yuxian all became concubines who participated in the war. In terms of age, Yuxian was the oldest at 18!  It stands to reason that she is the aunt who does her duty, but Wang Geng has also been vaccinated in advance. All five women are treated equally, regardless of their size!
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