In the short 16 years of the Beiyang government, the political situation has changed dramatically, and the prime minister has changed frequently. 31 people have served as prime ministers. The length of their terms of office varies from just over a year to a few months, and even w

Beiyang Government (1912-1928) In just 16 years, the political situation changed rapidly and the prime minister changed frequently. 31 people have served as prime ministers. Among them: there are well-known Tang Shaoyi , Xu Shichang , Duan Qirui , etc.; there are also little-known Gong Xinzhan , Jia Deryao , Hu Weide , etc. The length of their terms of office varied. The longer term was just over a year, the shorter term was several months, and even worse, it was just a few days, like a flash in the pan (the shortest one, Zhu Qiqian, only served two days, the longest one, Duan Qirui, served four terms). Prime Minister).

Li Jingxi (1860-1925) was born in Hefei, Anhui. The courtesy name is Zhongshan and the name is Hui'an. He came from a well-known family (Li family in Hefei) and became the governor of Yunnan and Guizhou in the late Qing Dynasty. His greatest contribution was to run the Yunnan Army Lecture Hall and cultivate a large number of military talents (Zhu De, Marshal Ye Jianying, etc.). In 1917, he served as Prime Minister of the Cabinet. Due to Zhang Xun's restoration, he resigned after only seven days. He died of illness in Shanghai in 1925.

Time of office: 1917.6.24 - 1917.7.1

A prominent family

Li Jingxi was born in 1860. At this time, his father's generation became prosperous by suppressing the Taiping Rebellion. The Hefei Li family was a prominent family in the late Qing Dynasty. The eldest uncle, Li Hanzhang, once served as the governor of Huguang and Guangdong and Guangxi; the second uncle Li Hongzhang was even more incredible. He served as the governor of Liangjiang, Guangdong and Zhili , and was the most important minister in the late Qing Dynasty; his father Li Hezhang was the governor of the late Qing Dynasty. Doctor Guanglu.

Li Jingxi attended a private school since he was a child and received orthodox Confucianism education. Due to his family relationship, Li Jingxi entered an official career very early. In 1879, Li Jingxi passed the Jimao Ke Yougong examination from Linshan, and won first place in the Han Dynasty imperial examination, so he became a Taoist priest as a Han Dynasty Gongsheng student and was appointed as the county magistrate.

In 1887, he was appointed as Yongning Dao in Sichuan. During this term, Li Jingxi was awarded the second rank for his contribution in suppressing the Yi uprising in Mabian, Pingshan and other places in Sichuan. Later, he served as the envoy of Yanliang Road in Hunan, the chief envoy of Fujian, and the chief envoy of Yunnan.

Li Jingxi's second uncle - Li Hongzhang, an important official in the late Qing Dynasty. In 1901, after Li Hongzhang's activities in the military aircraft department, the Qing government appointed Li Jingxi as governor of Guangxi, and one month later he was transferred to governor of Yunnan. After Li Hongzhang's death, he was appointed governor of Guizhou in December 1902, and in May 1904, he was transferred to governor of Guangxi. In the winter of 1905, he was appointed Prime Minister of Anhui Railway and Mining Affairs. He resigned due to illness in 1907.

In February 1909, after his second comeback, he was promoted to governor of Yunnan and Guizhou. This is the third feudal official of the Li family.

2 Governance of Yunnan and Yunnan Lecture Hall

In 1909, the standard of the Guangxi New Army was Cai E, who was known as the "Three Elite Non-commissioned Officers". Cai E took control of the New Army in Guangxi as a Hunan native, so local people launched a wave of expelling Cai E.

Cai E

Li Jingxi had long heard that Cai E had military management talents, so he took the opportunity to hire Cai E to go to Yunnan and appointed him as the co-commander of the New Army (equivalent to the current brigade commander). At this time, Cai E was only 27 years old. Yunnan is an important national defense town and is home to the 19th New Army Town (one division and two brigades). At that time, there were 36 New Army towns across the country.

During his tenure as governor of Yunnan and Guizhou, Li Jingxi advocated starting mining, building railways, and starting industries to enrich the border areas. He put forward: "The way to achieve success lies in people, and the way to gather people depends on wealth. If there are no people, the edge will be empty. If there is no money, people will be scattered. The best way to gather people to strengthen the edge is to build industry. Using industry to save the edge is the basis of curing diseases." . "

In order to open new schools, Li Jingxi requested that the province be divided into five districts and establish model middle schools and junior normal schools respectively. To be honest, Li Jingxi did his best for the development of Yunnan during his tenure.

Another major contribution of Li Jingxi was the opening of the Yunnan Army Lecture Hall. In 1908, Shen Bingjing, the previous governor of Yunnan and Guizhou and the vassal of Yunnan, wrote to the Qing court requesting the establishment of the Yunnan Army Lecture Hall. It was not until September 26, 1909 that the school officially opened when Li Jingxi took office.

Li Jingxi has made great contributions to the development and growth of Yunnan Lecture Hall . Li Jingxi personally served as the general office (principal) of the Martial Arts Hall.He once declared to the students: "The Governor of Yunnan and Guizhou does not need to be a governor, but the Martial Arts Hall has to be run!" , 2 hours of gymnastics and running in the morning, self-study in the evening, and emergency assembly training at night.

With this complete curriculum, strict teaching, and high standards of discipline, the quality of graduates from the Yunnan Army Lecture Hall was much higher than that of other military schools at that time.

In addition to classes, instructors such as Tongmenghui members Li Genyuan (associate director of the Jiangwu Hall), Cai E, Tang Jiyao who had returned from Japan also promoted revolutionary ideas among students, and progressive books and periodicals were widely circulated in the Jiangwu Hall. Li Jingxi just "opened one eye and closed one eye" and didn't ask any questions.

When Cai E was the chief instructor of Yunnan Lecture Hall, a spy reported to Li Jingxi that Cai E was a revolutionary. Li Jingxi knew this, but pretended to be confused. He not only showed Cai E the secret letter from the spies reporting Cai E, but also advised him to be cautious. When Cai E was in trouble, he donated 500 taels of silver as a financial aid.

Marshal Zhu De came from a poor family in his early years. When he applied for the martial arts school at the age of 23, he walked from Sichuan to Kunming because he had no Sichuan qualifications. When he arrived, the registration time for the martial arts hall had passed, and the guard refused to let him in. Zhu De argued loudly with the guard.

It happened that Li Jingxi was inspecting the martial arts hall that day, and he heard his voice and sent someone to check. When he learned that this person was walking from Sichuan to Kunming to study, he admired his perseverance and immediately decided to make an exception.

In August 1911, after Zhu De graduated from the Yunnan Army Lecture Hall, he was assigned to the 2nd Battalion (Company) of the 2nd Battalion (Company) of the 74th Biao (Regiment) of the 19th Town (Division) of the New Army led by Cai E as the Division Chief. ended his life-long military career. Later, Mr. Zhu mentioned this experience many times and expressed his gratitude to Li Jingxi.

As a famous military academy in modern China, Yunnan Military Academy has successively produced a large number of extremely outstanding military generals, including two founding marshals (Zhu De and Ye Jianying) and more than 20 generals. There are also leaders of Vietnam , North Korea, South Korea, Myanmar and other countries.

Three New Army Uprising Yunnan Independence

On October 10, 1911, the outbreak of Wuchang Uprising inspired the Yunnan revolutionaries who were preparing for the uprising. Everyone elected Cai E as the commander-in-chief and decided to hold an armed uprising on October 30.

Cai E

Li Jingxi got the news and organized officers and soldiers to resist. However, the rebel army was extremely fierce and attacked the Governor's Mansion that day. Commander Zhong Lin and (division commander) were killed, and counselor Jin Yunpeng escaped. Li Jingxi escaped by digging a hole in the wall of the Governor's Mansion and hid in Inspector Xiao's home on Ruyi Lane. He was captured by Zhu De and his troops. Zhu De respected Li Jingxi very much and asked him to sit on a chair and told him not to be afraid.

Before attacking the Governor's Mansion, Cai E repeatedly warned the officers and soldiers: "Be sure to protect Governor Li and his family." Therefore, Li Jingxi was captured, and Cai E sent someone to take him to the French Consulate in Kunming for shelter.

After the success of the Kunming Uprising, Cai E was elected governor of Yunnan. He and Li Genyuan went to the French consulate and asked Li Jingxi to come out and take charge of the overall situation. Li Jingxi refused. He said: "As an official of the imperial court, how can I commit the following crimes?"

Later, Li Jingxi wrote to Cai E, the governor of Yunnan, and the Military Affairs Department of the Yunnan Military Government. Director Li Genyuan made a three-pronged agreement: first, he can be killed but not humiliated; second, he will protect his family members and return home; third, he is willing to do his best for him.

Because Li Jingxi sent a letter to persuade more than 40 patrol battalions of Qing soldiers from all over Yunnan, totaling more than 10,000 people, within a few days, the entire province of Yunnan changed the republican flag without any blood.

Cai E, Li Genyuan and others were Li Jingxi's old subordinates, so they always treated Li Jingxi with courtesy. Li Jingxi thought of the imperial court's kindness to the Li family for generations, and would rather die than commit the crime. Cai E and others had no choice but to give Li Jingxi travel expenses as a "gift out of the country."

Li Jingxi's long-term kindness to Cai E and others has finally been rewarded. Although he is foolishly loyal to the court, his spirit of preferring death to surrender is still worthy of encouragement.

Four Li Jingxi, who contributed to Yuan's proclaimed emperor

, returned to Shanghai. Seeing that the situation in Shanghai was not safe, he imitated many old people from the former Qing Dynasty and moved to Qingdao .

After the founding of the Republic of China, Yuan Shikai stole the position of president. He sent people to Qingdao many times to recruit elders from the former Qing Dynasty to serve him. He was granted official appointments, made wishes, and received financial support.

In November 1913, Yuan Shikai established a political conference. In view of his close relationship with the Li family in Hefei, he appointed Li Jingxi as the speaker of the political conference. There are a total of 80 members, most of whom are old bureaucrats or feudal celebrities, and there are also traitors from the Revolutionary Party. The purpose is to cheer for him and compete with Congress that does not listen to his instructions.

On January 10, 1914, Yuan Shikai announced the suspension of members of the Senate and House of Representatives, dissolved Congress, used political conferences to represent public opinion, and petitioned a special legislative body to re-contract the law.

In May 1914, Yuan Shikai canceled the political meeting and established the Political Council Yuan, with Li Yuanhong and Wang Daxie serving as president and vice president respectively. Li Jingxi was elected to participate in the political affairs of the Political Council Yuan and served as the president of the Audit Yuan.

At the end of 1915, Yuan Shikai proclaimed himself emperor . Listing Li Jingxi, Xu Shichang, Zhao Erxun, Zhang Jian as the "Four Friends of Songshan", they can avoid professing ministers, kneeling and worshiping, and ride on the court carriage. When entering the palace, they can exchange shoulder carriages. When the emperor comes to court, he will be given a low table to sit on, and Enjoy wearing special court clothes.

Special court service

On March 22, 1916, Yuan Shikai announced the abolition of the imperial system and the return to the republic amid a wave of opposition. On June 6 of the same year, Yuan Shikai died of depression.

On the issue of punishing the culprits of the imperial system, the Yunnan National Guard Army proposed a list of the so-called "Thirteen Taibao". Although Li Jingxi was among the "Four Friends of Songshan", he was not implicated and escaped again.

Five Seven Days Prime Minister died of illness in Shanghai

After Yuan Shikai's death, although Li Yuanhong was the president, the real power was in the hands of Anhui warlord Duan Qirui.

In the spring of 1917, a "dispute between the government and the academy" broke out. Li Yuanhong ordered Duan Qirui to be removed from the post of prime minister, and he first appointed Wu Tingfang as acting prime minister, and later Jiang Chaozong succeeded him as acting prime minister.

On June 24, Li Yuanhong voted in Congress to appoint Li Jingxi as Prime Minister. He mainly wanted to use his connections to stabilize the Beiyang faction and win over Zhang Xun.

However, Zhang Xun's real intention was to support the restoration of the Qing emperor. At midnight on June 30, Zhang Xun entered the palace and kowtowed to Puyi in the Yangxin Hall of the Forbidden City. On July 1, Zhang Xun and others restored the imperial title across the country and hoisted the Huanglong flag, staging a farce of restoration. .

Li Yuanhong fled to the Dutch Embassy for refuge, and called Vice President Feng Guozhang to assume the powers of the president. A few days later, Duan Qirui swore an oath at the Machang near Tianjin to attack Zhang Xun.