The society of the late Qing Dynasty was an era in which rituals collapsed and music was destroyed. The modern legal system and regulations were not established, and the Confucian morality that had been in existence for more than two thousand years was also shattered. During this period, selling officials, offering bribes, and accepting bribes were commonplace. Paving the way with silver has become the only magic weapon for enterprising officials. In this regard, Yuan Shikai is well versed in it and has the most experience.
Throughout Yuan Shikai’s career, he quickly became the governor and even the president of Zhili from an unknown "Wen Chudao". It took only ten years, which is nothing less than that of his predecessor, Li Hongzhang. . In fact, Yuan Shikai had already mastered the survival skills of silver paving in his early practice. He is well aware that power is often linked with interests. Power means money, and money can be used in exchange for greater power.
During the small station training period, Yuan Shikai used money to open the way and was promoted and protected by Rong Lu. At the same time, he took a monetary offensive against Qing prince Yiqiu, making it an important backstage for the Beiyang Group. Even for the Empress Dowager Cixi, Yuan Shikai was also meticulous. When the Gengzi Incident and the two palaces fled westward, Yuan Shikai took the lead in transporting silver liang and was the most governor of the provinces.
It can be said that almost none of the officials of the imperial court were not corrupted by Yuan Shikai. In order to get through the upper and lower joints, he also set up an organization called "Linji Foreign Trade", which is engaged in trading activities on the surface, but behind the scenes it is to contact the powerful and powerful organizations in Beijing to offer bribes.
It was through silver paving that Yuan Shikai quickly incorporated important roles in the Qing court, such as Yiqiu, Natong, Shixu, Yinchang, Li Lianying, Cui Yugui, and Zhang Lande, into his own group, forming the "Queen Dowager" The abnormal situation of "friendship and exchange". After the Revolution of 1911, Yuan Shikai performed the same trick again, using money to buy off the revolutionaries and other forces.
How much money did Yuan Shikai bribe the imperial dignitaries? I'm afraid this is impossible to count, but the number is huge. So where did Yuan Shikai get the money to open up the joints and the sports dignitaries?
The Governor of Zhili Province, as the head of the Xinjiang ministers, has unique geographical and political conditions. Yuan Shikai's funds are derived from the special funds for military training, the handling of Beiyang Industrial, the increase in taxes, the issuance of public bonds, and the use of local finances. .But this part of the funding is also limited after all, and the expenditure of the Beiyang army is also extremely large, so he should have other sources.
According to Liang Shiyi, one of the Beiyang God of Wealth, Yuan Shikai received two windfalls after he became the governor of Zhili. One of the sums was left by Li Hongzhang for him, amounting to more than 8 million taels. So where does this money come from?
When Liang Shiyi first arrived at the governor’s office in Zhili, he heard Wang Wenshao talk about Li Hongzhang’s loyalty to the country, and Lian Jie was very popular. He said: "After the Sino-Japanese War of 1894, Li Wenzhong went to Japan to negotiate an appointment and left the Beiyang minister, and I (Wang Wenshao) replaced him. The list explains that there are more than eight million taels of silver deposited by the'Huaijun Money and Banking Institute'. This system has been loyal to the army for decades and has been accumulated by'cutting open' and'detaining construction'."
Wang Wenshao's "cutting off" and "detaining construction" were technical terms in the Qing army. The army was vacant and needed to be recruited as substitutes. It was called "the top-ranked food", but the dates of the top-ups did not coincide. The military pay must be deducted daily. The deducted military pay is "cut-off"; the lunar calendar prevailed in the Qing Dynasty, and the monthly pay for soldiers was calculated as 30 days. ".
Li Hongzhang served as governor of Zhili and minister of Beiyang for more than 20 years. He accumulated a small amount of money, so he had savings of more than 8 million taels. According to the official practice of the Qing Dynasty, these eight million taels of silver can be taken as their own in the form of shabby rules, and most officials did so. What is commendable is that when Li Hongzhang left his post, he regarded this huge sum of money as public expenditure and handed over all of it to his successor. No wonder Wang Wenshao praised Li Hongzhang for “being loyal to the country, and honest and good”.
This legacy of Li Hongzhang has always existed in foreign banks, and the interest rate is considerable. Calculated at the lowest five percent, it is roughly 400,000 taels per year. In this way, when Yuan Shikai took over, at least 12 million taels.
In addition to Li Hongzhang’s inheritance, Yuan Shikai’s other windfall was to receive customs duties and miscellaneous taxes that were handled by the great powers during the occupation of Tianjin. The amount is also considerable, at least two to three million taels a year.
is a huge amount of 156 million taels in his hand, so Yuan Shikai was able to have a lot of money and pave the way to bring the powerful in Beijing into the scope of the Beiyang Group.In addition, Yuan Shikai has a rare advantage. Although he is rich and enemies, he is not a miser, and he always implements the principle of gathering wealth and gathering people.
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