Luo Guanzhong once said in the first chapter of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms": "When talking about the general trend of the world, long-term division will lead to unity, and long-term integration will lead to unity." The development trend of Chinese history has indeed confirmed this point. So far, the last historical period of constant disputes in Chinese history is undoubtedly the Beiyang period from 1912 to 1928. At that time, warlords were everywhere in China and wars were endless. Among them, the three most famous warlords were the Zhili, Fengtian and Anhui.
Today we will talk about the story of the fifth president of the Republic of China and the Zhili warlord Cao Kun .
In October 1862, Cao Kun was born in Dagu, Tianjin. His father was a shipbuilder. A family of ten people relied on his father's meager salary to make a living. Although his family was financially financially, Cao Kun's father tried his best to get his children to study in a private school, and Cao Kun also had a certain cultural foundation.
When Cao Kun was 16 years old, his father hoped that he could inherit his father's business and become a shipbuilder. However, when Cao Kun saw that his father was exhausted and had only a little salary every day, he immediately refused. But people always have to make a living, so Cao Kun became a hawker selling floral cloth at the suggestion of his mother.
If there were no subsequent encounters, Cao Kun might have been just an honest and honest little vendor throughout his life. In 1882, 20-year-old Cao Kun came to Baoding to do business, but he was stopped by soldiers guarding the city when he entered the city.
Cao Kun, who looks honest and honest, not only failed to go to the city to do business, but was humiliated by these two soldiers. This deeply stimulated Cao Kun. He thought to himself that he would be insulted by honest business, but he would be insulted. It would be better to abandon business and join the army and become a soldier.
So this year Cao Kun was recruited into the army . Because Cao Kun studied in a private school when he was a child, he was able to read and write, and he was a businessman and was good at speaking, he quickly attracted the attention of his boss Zheng Qian. Later, Cao Kun simply recognized Zheng Qian as his godfather.
With Zheng Qian's promotion, Cao Kun entered Tianjin Wubei Academy to study. Here he met Yuan Shikai , who was training recruits in Tianjin Xiaozhan .
Cao Kun is tall and strong, loyal and good at work, so he is deeply loved by Yuan Shikai. In 1907, he was promoted to the control of the third town in Beiyang by Yuan Shikai. During this period, Cao Kun also discovered the Wu Peifu that would help him command his troops to win the battles in the future.
1916, Yuan Shikai passed away after getting addicted to the emperor. The generals of the towns under his command fell apart, and warlord forces such as the Zhili and Anhui clans were born. Cao Kun, who took office as the governor of Zhili in September 1916, was the representative of the Zhili warlords. Although his power at that time was far inferior to that of the real leader of the Zhili warlords, Feng Guozhang died of illness only three years later, Cao Kun naturally became the leader of the Zhili warlords.
And the reason why Cao Kun was able to firmly take the top spot in the straightforward line is due to Wu Peifu who was promoted by him. Under the leadership of Wu Peifu, the Zhili army first joined forces with the Zhang Zuolin 's Northeast Army to drive away the Anhui warlord headed by Duan Qirui , and then defeated Zhang Zuolin's Northeast Army in the later First Zhi-Feng War and drove him out of Shanhaiguan. After winning military victory, Cao Kun wanted to take over the throne of president, but because the northern warlords fought with each other, the members of Congress at that time fled south one after another. So in order to get these parliamentarians to return to Beijing to participate in the general election, Cao Kun ordered subsidies to be issued to these parliamentarians. Generally, parliamentarians can receive 200 oceans by attending a meeting.
People died for money, birds died for food, and a large number of lawmakers returned to Beijing under the temptation of money, and the presidential election work began. In order to ensure that he can be elected, Cao Kun re-used the same trick and clearly marked the price of these congressmen. He could get 5,000 to 10,000 oceans by just choosing one vote.
Finally, with the help of money, Cao Kun was elected president as he wished in 1923. Because he blatantly bribed elections, he was called the piglet president, and the parliament at that time was also called the piglet parliament.
Cao Kun doesn't care about these infamous names, it's enough for him to be president. However, the good times did not last long. Zhang Zuolin outside Shanhaiguan began to prepare for the new army after the defeat of the first Zhifeng War and soon made a comeback. This was the second Zhifeng War.
In the Second Zhi-Feng War, the Zhi-Team army retreated step by step, and the war ended with the failure of the Zhi-Team army. In 1924, the Zhili general Feng Yuxiang launched a coup in Beijing, and Cao Kun lost his power and stepped down.
Finally, Cao Kun went back to Tianjin to spend his old age. After the breaking out in 1931, in order to implement the policy of using China to control China, Cao Kun became the target of the Japanese.
Although Beiyang warlords mostly do evil, there is one thing they still deserves to be affirmed, that is, their national integrity. Faced with the Japanese's encouraging efforts, Cao Kun chose to refuse, and even Kenji Doihara, who came to visit him in person, was driven out.
Finally, on May 17, 1938, Cao Kun died of pneumonia and died of at the age of 76. In December of the same year, the National Government was posthumously named Cao Kun as a first-class general of the Kuomintang Army because he was moved by Cao Kun to maintain his national integrity and refused to cooperate with the Japanese.
