Master Yuan, start!

Let’s go back a little bit in time, to before the republican decree to change customs and habits was issued.

Haidong Governor Jin Bingshi was the first to reply to Yuan Shikai's telegram announcing the founding of the country.

He said that from today on, the 3,000 miles of Korean land would break away from Qing China and join Republican China.

The generals of the National Revolutionary Army stationed in Fengtian, Jilin, Anhui, Jiangsu and other places also sent telegrams to the whole country, expressing their support for the President's resolution and joining the new republic with all the military and civilians in their provinces.

They tore down the yellow dragon flag hanging in front of the government office and replaced it with the brand new red flag of the Republic of China with a yellow sun and twelve stars.

British Minister to China, Sir Claude MacDonald, also sent his congratulations in a personal capacity, expressing his personal support for Yuan Shikai's order.

Students, workers, and businessmen in Shanghai took to the streets, chanting "Long live the Republic, long live Yuan Shikai," and issued a "Joint Telegram from All Walks of Life in Shanghai."

The telegram expressed absolute support for the Republic of China and requested Yuan Shikai to send someone as soon as possible to manage all affairs in Shanghai.

From the Northeast to North China and then to the south of the Yangtze River, after the founding of the Republic of China, the provinces within the influence of the National Revolutionary Army basically expressed their attitudes and stood on the side of the new regime.

The governors and governors-general in other places outside their sphere of influence each had their own plans.

Lu Chuanlin from Shaanxi was the closest and reacted the fastest.

The moment he received the call, he knew that the trend was irreversible and the court he had placed his hopes on was gone. Now, he could only choose a side.

Compared with Yuan Xiangcheng in the east and Yang Changjun in the west, he would rather switch to the Yuan family.

However, Lu Chuanlin was afraid of angering the nearby Chu army, so he did not reply in a big way.

Instead, he immediately secretly sent people to the capital, intending to surrender to Yuan Xiangcheng in order to preserve his title as the governor of Shaanxi and resist the continuous encroachment of the Chu army.

Yang Changjun of the Chu faction, who was in charge of the northwest, and Zhang Zhidong of the Hubei faction, who had just cleaned up the small court in Wuchang, issued telegrams with similar meanings.

They applauded Yuan Shikai's abolition of the Manchu Emperor and the liquidation of the Eight Banners, saying, "This is a great evil removed from the world!"

Apart from this, there was no further response, as if ignoring the newly established republican government.

Li Hongzhang, who was entrenched in Sichuan, Guizhou, Guangdong and Guangxi, did not issue a telegram immediately and remained silent, which was unusual.

However, the central Fujian region was leaderless and had no unified message. The governors of various prefectures and cities expressed their support for Yuan Shikai in the name of their local governments.

However, although they supported it, they did not claim to join the new Chinese Republic.

...

The people all walked on the streets in great joy, bowed to each other and shared their happiness.

Some young scholars are eager to wear "Han clothes"

But firstly, they did not receive the blueprints for the "Republican costumes", and secondly, they did not have costumes from the Tang, Song, Ming and other dynasties at home.

So they tore off their jackets and asked the tailor to make them a long robe with a right lapel that looked very incongruous. They put it on and walked on the street with their heads held high.

Their robes were crude and had no aesthetic appeal, but their faces were filled with happy smiles.

The happy people and the worried governor.

Where is China heading in the future?

Chapter 311: Yuan does not declare himself emperor, Li is in a difficult situation and receives the red envelope first!

Guangzhou and Xinghan Military Governor's Office.

Li Hongzhang, the Grand Commander-in-Chief of Lingnan Xinghan, held a few newspapers in his hand and remained silent.

Li Jingfang, Zhang Peilun, Ding Ruchang, Wang Xiaoqi and others sat on both sides, frowning as they looked at the five big words "** Republic" clearly written on the newspaper.

The joy brought by the establishment of the Xinghan Military Governor's Office was wiped out by Yuan Shikai's telegram.

The fact that he founded a country but did not declare himself emperor was really beyond their expectations.

At the very least, he should be called a king.

Yuan Shikai rose to prominence in Korea and took charge of the three northeastern provinces.

Zhu Yuanzhang once named King of Han in Liaodong, and Korea was also called the Three Han in ancient times. Yuan Xiangcheng could have used this as a basis to name himself King of Han.

In their view, as long as Yuan Shikai raised the banner to proclaim himself king or emperor, Li Hongzhang could also take the opportunity to proclaim himself king.

Li Hongzhang may not have intended to become emperor, but the Huai faction in Guangdong, led by Li Hongzhang, always wanted to go further.

The reason is simple: they have been local tyrants for too long, and everyone in the Huai faction has developed some unreasonable desires.

In their view, both the left and the right have become so "independent" that they only need to raise the banner.

As long as Yuan Shikai proclaimed himself the Five Emperors in the capital, they would support General Quan Six to proclaim himself the emperor in Guangdong.

If Yuan Shikai proclaimed himself king, they would also push General Quan to become king in Guangdong.

After all, the land of abundance that produces rice is under the control of the Xinghan Military Governor's Office in Sichuan.

Guangdong, one of China's two traditional commercial centers, was also controlled by the Lingnan Xinghan Governor's Office.

The Huai faction is now united under the banner of "Xinghan Military Governor's Office".

From Sichuan to Guangdong, the Huai faction had money, food, and guns, which were the basic configuration for an imperial ambition.

In addition, after accepting Lingnan gentry represented by new scholars a few days ago, the problem of the lack of young talents in the Huai faction was initially solved.

No matter how you look at it, anyone will feel that the Huai faction has the ability to compete for the world.

Although Yuan Shikai was powerful, he still had to face the Russians, and the Huai faction could completely repeat the story of the late Yuan Dynasty.

Let Yuan Shikai, the first "Red Turban Army" to start the rebellion, take the lead and fight the Russians to the death.

The Huai faction followed Zhu Yuanzhang's example and "built high walls and stored up grain" in Lingnan and Sichuan.

It was precisely because of this that Li Hongzhang did not take the lead in raising the banner of independence, nor did he proclaim himself king or emperor.

What they wanted was nothing more than to make Yuan Shikai enter the capital, so that he could attract the attention of the people of the world and also attract all the firepower.

But no one expected that Yuan Xiangcheng actually resisted the temptation to become king and emperor, and gave himself the inappropriate title of "President".

This move disrupted all the plans made by the Huai faction.

Because in this way, Yuan Xiangcheng would have a great cause.

If he chose to be emperor, then others could also become emperor. After all, the Qing Dynasty lost its power and the whole world was chasing it.

But he was the president, so what was the reason for others to rise up against Yuan Shikai?

Because he overthrew the Qing Dynasty?

Are there any loyal ministers of the Qing Dynasty left in this world?

Li Hongzhang's actions proved that he was not a loyal minister, so he could not mobilize the army.

Now the people of the whole country are all loyal to Yuan Shikai and praise him as a hero of the Republic and the Washington of China.

If the Huai Army had launched a surprise attack when Yuan Shikai was fighting against Russia, it would probably have been recorded in history books and criticized.

Seeing that no one spoke, Zhang Peilun, the ambassador of Guangdong Shipbuilding Administration, could not help but speak angrily.

"General Quan, Yuan Shikai is truly cunning. He even deceived the world and sought fame by not proclaiming himself emperor.

I think we don't need to bother with him, we should just raise the banner and claim the throne!"

Zhang Peilun’s previous official position was Minister of Guangdong Shipbuilding.

After the establishment of the Xinghan Military Governor's Office, the word "minister" was changed to "ambassador".

Zhang Peilun was not only the ambassador of Guangdong Shipbuilding, but also Li Hongzhang's son-in-law.

Seeing that the Li family would become king and emperor, he could also become a royal relative.

But he was forced to stop by Yuan Shikai's word "republic", so he didn't care about anything and planned to go straight ahead.

"No!"

Navy Ambassador Ding Ruchang quickly spoke out to stop it.

"Marshal Quan, we have already offended the British in order to build this Governor's Office.

If I rashly declare myself king or emperor again, and invite opposition from the people of the world, I’m afraid... I’m afraid...”

Ding Ruchang didn't continue speaking, but everyone present understood that it was inappropriate to claim the throne at this time.

Hearing this, Li Hongzhang put down the newspaper in his hand and couldn't help sighing:

"The British are truly insatiable and greedy. I should have sent troops directly to the plateau to exploit their weaknesses.

What a pity, what a pity."

Li Hongzhang offended Britain, which involved the Huai Army in Sichuan and had to start with the Anti-Curtain Campaign.

When the emperor and empress were fighting, Sichuan Governor Liu Bingzhang followed Guangdong Governor Li Hongzhang in issuing the Southeast Mutual Protection Telegram.

However, after the North and the South split in disguise and local governors and governors-general exercised autonomy.

There was some friction between the Sichuan-Huaihe forces headed by Liu Bingzhang and the Guangdong-Huaihe forces headed by Li Hongzhang.

The cause of the friction lies in the character of Sichuan Governor Liu Bingzhang and Sichuan's special geographical location.

Liu Bingzhang came from Li Hongzhang's court, and both of them were from Hefei.

Therefore, after the Anti-Curtain Campaign, Sichuan Governor Liu Bingzhang, at the suggestion of Li Hongzhang, also trained a group of Sichuan New Army according to the method of Lingnan New Army.

But later, Liu Bingzhang was quite dissatisfied with Li Hongzhang's advice to him to make concessions to the British on the Sichuan-Tibet issue.

...Wu

This governor of Sichuan was one of the few frontier officials in the late Qing Dynasty who was extremely unfriendly to foreigners.

There were many patriotic officials in the late Qing Dynasty, and many of them advocated not giving special treatment to foreigners and favoring the Chinese people.

However, most of them are low-ranking middle and lower-level officials and have not yet become slaves to power.

Once they were promoted to the level of provincial governors, facing the questioning of foreigners, they cared too much about their official titles and whether the matter would be used by their political opponents to make a fuss.

Therefore, they often choose to sacrifice the interests of ordinary people to satisfy foreigners.

This was true for Zeng Guofan, and also for Liu Kunyi and Li Hongzhang in history.

Liu Bingzhang is different. The head of the British church believes that "Liu Bingzhang has always held anti-Christian and anti-Western views."

In history, when Liu Bingzhang was the governor of Sichuan, he was even dismissed by the Qing court because he firmly supported the people in destroying churches during the Chengdu Church Incident and ignored the protests of foreigners.

After being dismissed from office, the Qing government could not withstand the pressure from the British and announced that he would never be employed again as a warning.

In this time and space, without the control of the Qing court, Liu Bingzhang's administration in Sichuan was more straightforward.