Chapter 642 Reactions from all parties
According to this Xingyan, the salt sold in Zhili now is all processed fine salt, and coarse salt has disappeared from the salt sold in Zhili.
Although the cost of fine salt is much higher than that of coarse salt, Teng Yuzao believes that salt is a major issue related to the national economy and people's livelihood, and does not allow the price of fine salt to increase. It is only allowed to be sold at a price slightly higher than the previous price of coarse salt.
The losses were made up by the soda ash produced by the Salt Company, which resulted in the Salt Company to which the Beiyang Soda Factory belonged becoming the only enterprise that made almost no money since the implementation of Westernization in Zhili and Shan provinces.
The high-quality and low-priced Zhili fine salt is now sold in almost all provinces in the country.
Even the Japanese fine salt that was originally shipped into the country by the Japanese to monopolize the fine salt market has completely disappeared.
The fine salt sold in Zhili was entirely for the sake of the people's livelihood, which made Duan Qirui feel deeply moved.
Although Duan Qirui already knew that the salt he ate now was fine salt, and he also knew that this fine salt was produced in Zhili, but before he read this article, he really didn't know that Teng Yuzhao was selling at a loss.
Duan Qirui believed that this incident alone would greatly increase Teng Yuzhao's image and reputation in the hearts of the Chinese people.
In addition, there are now more than a thousand new-style factories opened in Zhishan Province and Zhishan Province, of which more than sixty are Aurora-based new-style factories.
What excited Duan Qirui the most was that under the leadership of Teng Yuzhao, Zhili not only had the largest steel plant in the country, the Dagu and Weihai shipyards capable of building warships of less than 4,000 tons, but also the largest machinery factory, textile factory, fertilizer factory, the largest arsenal and the only electronics company in the country that could produce engines, electric lights, telegraphs and telephones.
In addition, there are a series of large enterprises such as oil refineries, Asia's largest automobile factory, the largest locomotive factory, Asia's largest flour processing plant, the world's largest alkali plant, etc.
As for the series of new factories such as bicycle factories, canning factories, etc., there are too many to list.
Many of the products produced by these companies are exported on a large scale to European and American powers, such as Red Triangle brand soda ash, Red Triangle series fertilizers, refined flour, new bicycles and other products, which are all exported in large quantities.
Even the refined flour produced was mostly snapped up by merchants from European and American powers.
It's really true that you don't know until you tell it. Once you tell it, you will be shocked. All of this made Duan Qirui feel very excited. He couldn't help but gradually develop admiration for this junior who was once stubborn and almost inhuman!
Due to the substantial increase in imports and exports, customs tax revenue also soared. Not only did the import tax more than double, but the export tax increased significantly as well, more than the total of other coastal provinces.
Another thing that surprised Duan Qirui was that in military affairs, Teng Yuzhao also performed eye-popping feats!
Duan Qirui never expected that the current Zhi army would have reached more than 700,000 troops, which was completely different from his long-held belief that the Zhi army had only 400,000 to 500,000 troops.
What shocked Duan Qirui even more was that the Beiyang Fleet, which had almost disappeared, now had giant all-steel cruisers comparable to the Dingyuan and Zhenyuan of the past, and the navy already had an astonishing number of ten fast ironclad ships of more than 3,000 tons, with more than twenty of them.
According to the article, eight new ships will join the navy before March next year, and by then, the total number of ironclad ships over 3,000 tons will reach 40.
Looking at these numbers that shocked Duan Qirui beyond words, he couldn't help feeling a little sad, because he suddenly thought of Li Hongzhang who had been so kind to him.
Back then, his benefactor Li Hongzhang went through great pains to raise money, but he could only barely put together twelve ironclad ships, and there were only six large ships comparable to those in the navy at that time.
But it took Teng Yuzhao only four short years, less than five years by March next year, to have forty large ships. If Li Zhongtang knew about this, he would certainly be deeply moved!
Although Britain, Germany, the United States and France all participated in the manufacture of these warships, the blueprints were the same, and the guns and torpedoes on the ships were all of unified metric caliber. They were all large-caliber rapid-fire guns produced by Krupp in Germany, so there would be no problem of inconsistent standard models during combat.
The construction of roads and railways has also achieved remarkable results.
Under the leadership of Teng Yuzhao, not only the Lu-Han Railway was built, but also the Lu-Zhang Railway. According to reports, the Jinpu Railway, which started construction the latest, has been built to Xuzhou, and will reach Pukou by the end of next year at the latest.
There are also the planned Zhangsui Railway and the railway from Zhangjiakou to Yilinyi. It is said that this railway will eventually be built to Kulun.
However, these two railways on the grasslands and Gobi Desert outside the border pass through sparsely populated areas, and the railways cannot make any money at all, which makes Duan Qirui somewhat confused.
Also, unlike the delayed reconstruction of the eastern part of the outer city of Beijing, which was presided over by Yikuang, the destroyed Tianjin City and the western part of the outer city of Beijing, which was in charge of the Tianjin Construction Company, had already been completed.
In terms of education, after several years of unremitting planning and construction under the leadership of Teng Yuzhao, each county in Zhishan Province now has a middle school and elementary school teaching Western-style teaching, and there are normal schools in Jinan and Tianjin to train teachers for primary and secondary schools.
Even the original Beiyang University and Shandong University have been expanded on a large scale and have established teaching relationships with famous universities in the United States and Germany respectively. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University, Royal Institute of Technology in Munich, and Humboldt University of Berlin in the United States and Germany have sent dozens of professors and scholars to Beiyang University and Shandong University.
Moreover, Teng Yuzao is also planning to establish Beiyang University of Technology to train engineering and technical talents.
What's more, Teng Yuzhao doesn't just see what's in front of him, he also has a far-sighted vision.
Although he was in charge of Zhishan Province for only a few years, he had sent two groups of students to Germany and the United States, with a total of 500 people, which was more than the total number of children sent to the United States by Li Hongzhang in four batches.
In time, these people will return to their country after completing their studies and will become a large number of pillars of society.
Duan Qirui knew very well that both Teng Yuzao and Yuan Shikai attached great importance to these overseas students, and most of those former Chinese students who had studied in the United States were now in the Beiyang faction, and were all valued by Teng Yuzao to varying degrees.
Even those who worked as engineers were well paid, with monthly salaries of several hundred dollars, far exceeding the level of county magistrates and not much less than that of local prefects.
After reading this series of articles that seemed to praise Teng Yuzao, Duan Qirui remained silent for a long time.
Duan Qirui did not doubt the authenticity of the contents of these articles. In Duan Qirui's view, all of these achievements under the leadership of Teng Yuzhao far exceeded all the achievements of this court in the past hundred years, and were unprecedented and unparalleled.
It is not wrong to say that Teng Yuzao is a saint who appears once every five hundred years. It is just incredible that the ruler of any dynasty has achieved such remarkable results in such a short period of time!
The most important thing is that all these great achievements were made under the leadership of Teng Yuzhao.
Those new factories and universities were almost all built with academic and technical support from foreign professors and engineers, and were mainly built by Chinese engineers, Chinese students studying in the United States, and workers. The most rare thing is that in the past few years, Teng Yuzao did not ask the court for a single tael of silver, nor did he increase any taxes in Zhishan Province. All the silver was raised by Teng Yuzao.
Even as stated in the article, Teng Yuzhao abolished most of the complicated taxes and levies in the two provinces, greatly alleviating the burden on ordinary people.
Not only that, Teng Yuzao even promised the Chinese people at a press conference that once he became the prime minister, he would also abolish the agricultural tax for self-cultivating farmers and reduce all land taxes.
This made Duan Qirui surprised and amazed, and he had to admit that Teng Yuzao was not only a genius in commanding battles, but also had the ability to turn stones into gold when it came to local governance. If the position of prime minister was given to Teng Yuzao, it would definitely be the best outcome.
Duan Qirui even believed that if it wasn't Teng Yuzao, no one else could have done as well as Teng Yuzao!
Duan Qirui also believed that anyone who knew the contents of these articles would have the same idea as him. In his opinion, there was no need to nominate a prime minister.
Because these days, the Ta Kung Pao has been reporting repeatedly that people from all over the country have taken to the streets to protest in support of Teng Yuzao becoming the first prime minister of the cabinet, which shows what the people want.
Literati, scholars and businessmen from all over the country also jointly launched a petition in newspapers, strongly demanding that the court appoint Teng Yuzhao as prime minister.
Even the ministers from Germany and the United States, two of the great powers, expressed their views on behalf of their respective countries. They made it clear without any reservation that both William II and the 26th President of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt, supported Teng Yuzao to be the first prime minister.
They all believed that Teng Yuzao's appointment as Prime Minister would bring the most positive changes to this ancient empire.
Although Duan Qirui was very disgusted with foreigners interfering in domestic affairs, as far as their views on Teng Yuzao were concerned, Duan Qirui actually agreed with their views.
But what worried Duan Qirui was that the imperial court did not respond to these calls, and officials at all levels in the capital remained silent, even officials from all over the country.
Only the Sichuan Governor Xiliang submitted a memorial expressing his support for Teng Yuzao to become the first prime minister of the cabinet.
As for the strong calls from people across the country for Teng Yuzao to serve as the first prime minister of the cabinet, no newspapers in the capital reported anything.
However, yesterday, the "Beijing Times" published in a prominent position a statement issued by the ministers of Britain, France, Russia and Japan. Although the envoys of these powerful countries used different wordings in their respective statements, the meanings were almost the same, including the two countries, Japan and Russia, which are now fighting a life-and-death battle outside the Great Wall.
Their statements all express one meaning, or it can be said that they have two meanings.
First, without exception, they all expressed their great appreciation for the court's move to implement constitutional reform; second, they all believed that, based on national conditions and for the sake of safety, they suggested that the court should first reform the Zongli Yamen and change the Prime Minister to the first Prime Minister of the Cabinet, and then gradually implement constitutionalism from top to bottom under the auspices of this cabinet.
Although the imperial court remained silent on the statement issued by the four envoys, someone published an article in the Capital Times strongly agreeing with the remarks made by the four envoys.
Although Duan Qirui was not a powerful politician, he could see that the four ministers, each with their own thoughts, were so united this time that there must be someone secretly colluding with them.
Duan Qirui could even almost conclude that the idea of these countries to replace the constitutional cabinet with the Zongli Yamen was because they wanted the current regime to remain unchanged. To put it bluntly, no one wanted Teng Yuzao, who could enrich the country and strengthen the military, to come to power.
In addition, with the exception of Sichuan Governor Xiliang, almost all governors and governors-general from all over the country sent telegrams to the court, all of them urging the reform of the Zongli Yamen first in order to implement constitutional government.
In addition, the Governor-General of Liangjiang Duan Fang and the Governor-General of Guangdong and Guangxi Cen Chunxuan clearly stated that there was no need to re-elect the first Prime Minister of the Cabinet for the time being. To be safe, the current Prime Minister Yixin could be transferred to the position of the first Prime Minister of the Cabinet.
Cixi remained silent about the statements made by envoys from various countries, as well as the memorials and statements from governors-general from all over the country, including Xi Liang, who supported Teng Yuzhao. She even kept all memorials concerning constitutional reform without sending them out.
However, although Cixi did not express her opinion, Duan Qirui believed that all this showed that the court obviously had other plans for who would serve as the prime minister, or at least did not want Teng Yuzhao to do it.
While sighing and lamenting, there was another thing that puzzled Duan Qirui.
What puzzled Duan Qirui was that the court had not responded to Teng Yuzao's memorial to resign from the post of president of the Zhi Army for several days. It was not until four days ago that the imperial decree was finally issued after Teng Yuzao had repeatedly resigned.
In the imperial edict, Teng Yuzao was allowed to resign from the post of President of the Zhili Army, but he would retain the post of Minister of Beiyang and command the navy.
The Tianjin Customs allocates six million yuan every year to supplement the navy's military expenses.
The Ministry of the Army was ordered to immediately send personnel to take over the various Zhili army towns and coordinate matters related to the downsizing and reorganization of the Zhili army.
At the same time, after Teng Yuzhao was awarded the title of Grand Secretary of Baohe Hall and Grand Tutor of the Crown Prince, he was also awarded the title of First-Class Chengjiayiyong Duke, the highest title that a Han Chinese could enjoy.
However, there was no mention of Teng Yuzao's willingness to serve as the first prime minister.
The Zhi army responded that night after the imperial edict was issued.
First, the Chief of Staff of the Zhili Army Wei Jinghai and two deputy chiefs of staff Liu Changfa and Sun Shijun jointly issued a letter of resignation, not only resigning from all their current and concurrent positions in the Zhili Army, but also expressing the hope that the Ministry of the Army would properly deal with the personnel of the departments directly under the Zhili Army General Staff.
As for the reasons for resigning from their current and concurrent positions, the three people made it clear that they had been following Teng Yuzao in fighting against foreign humiliation and resisting the powers since the Gengzi Year, and they had great respect for Teng Yuzao.
Now that Teng Yuzao is no longer in the army, they have no intention of staying in the army. They are deeply worried about the court allowing Teng Yuzao to resign as the president of the Zhi Army, so they want to retire to the countryside from now on.
Then, led by Liu Shijiu, except for Hu Dianjia, the commander of the Sixth Regiment in Fujian, the commanders of the remaining eight infantry regiments, three artillery regiments and one cavalry regiment of the Zhili Army jointly signed a petition, stating that they were willing to obey the imperial court's will under certain conditions and accept the army's reorganization and reorganization as long as their conditions were met.
(End of this chapter)
According to this Xingyan, the salt sold in Zhili now is all processed fine salt, and coarse salt has disappeared from the salt sold in Zhili.
Although the cost of fine salt is much higher than that of coarse salt, Teng Yuzao believes that salt is a major issue related to the national economy and people's livelihood, and does not allow the price of fine salt to increase. It is only allowed to be sold at a price slightly higher than the previous price of coarse salt.
The losses were made up by the soda ash produced by the Salt Company, which resulted in the Salt Company to which the Beiyang Soda Factory belonged becoming the only enterprise that made almost no money since the implementation of Westernization in Zhili and Shan provinces.
The high-quality and low-priced Zhili fine salt is now sold in almost all provinces in the country.
Even the Japanese fine salt that was originally shipped into the country by the Japanese to monopolize the fine salt market has completely disappeared.
The fine salt sold in Zhili was entirely for the sake of the people's livelihood, which made Duan Qirui feel deeply moved.
Although Duan Qirui already knew that the salt he ate now was fine salt, and he also knew that this fine salt was produced in Zhili, but before he read this article, he really didn't know that Teng Yuzhao was selling at a loss.
Duan Qirui believed that this incident alone would greatly increase Teng Yuzhao's image and reputation in the hearts of the Chinese people.
In addition, there are now more than a thousand new-style factories opened in Zhishan Province and Zhishan Province, of which more than sixty are Aurora-based new-style factories.
What excited Duan Qirui the most was that under the leadership of Teng Yuzhao, Zhili not only had the largest steel plant in the country, the Dagu and Weihai shipyards capable of building warships of less than 4,000 tons, but also the largest machinery factory, textile factory, fertilizer factory, the largest arsenal and the only electronics company in the country that could produce engines, electric lights, telegraphs and telephones.
In addition, there are a series of large enterprises such as oil refineries, Asia's largest automobile factory, the largest locomotive factory, Asia's largest flour processing plant, the world's largest alkali plant, etc.
As for the series of new factories such as bicycle factories, canning factories, etc., there are too many to list.
Many of the products produced by these companies are exported on a large scale to European and American powers, such as Red Triangle brand soda ash, Red Triangle series fertilizers, refined flour, new bicycles and other products, which are all exported in large quantities.
Even the refined flour produced was mostly snapped up by merchants from European and American powers.
It's really true that you don't know until you tell it. Once you tell it, you will be shocked. All of this made Duan Qirui feel very excited. He couldn't help but gradually develop admiration for this junior who was once stubborn and almost inhuman!
Due to the substantial increase in imports and exports, customs tax revenue also soared. Not only did the import tax more than double, but the export tax increased significantly as well, more than the total of other coastal provinces.
Another thing that surprised Duan Qirui was that in military affairs, Teng Yuzhao also performed eye-popping feats!
Duan Qirui never expected that the current Zhi army would have reached more than 700,000 troops, which was completely different from his long-held belief that the Zhi army had only 400,000 to 500,000 troops.
What shocked Duan Qirui even more was that the Beiyang Fleet, which had almost disappeared, now had giant all-steel cruisers comparable to the Dingyuan and Zhenyuan of the past, and the navy already had an astonishing number of ten fast ironclad ships of more than 3,000 tons, with more than twenty of them.
According to the article, eight new ships will join the navy before March next year, and by then, the total number of ironclad ships over 3,000 tons will reach 40.
Looking at these numbers that shocked Duan Qirui beyond words, he couldn't help feeling a little sad, because he suddenly thought of Li Hongzhang who had been so kind to him.
Back then, his benefactor Li Hongzhang went through great pains to raise money, but he could only barely put together twelve ironclad ships, and there were only six large ships comparable to those in the navy at that time.
But it took Teng Yuzhao only four short years, less than five years by March next year, to have forty large ships. If Li Zhongtang knew about this, he would certainly be deeply moved!
Although Britain, Germany, the United States and France all participated in the manufacture of these warships, the blueprints were the same, and the guns and torpedoes on the ships were all of unified metric caliber. They were all large-caliber rapid-fire guns produced by Krupp in Germany, so there would be no problem of inconsistent standard models during combat.
The construction of roads and railways has also achieved remarkable results.
Under the leadership of Teng Yuzhao, not only the Lu-Han Railway was built, but also the Lu-Zhang Railway. According to reports, the Jinpu Railway, which started construction the latest, has been built to Xuzhou, and will reach Pukou by the end of next year at the latest.
There are also the planned Zhangsui Railway and the railway from Zhangjiakou to Yilinyi. It is said that this railway will eventually be built to Kulun.
However, these two railways on the grasslands and Gobi Desert outside the border pass through sparsely populated areas, and the railways cannot make any money at all, which makes Duan Qirui somewhat confused.
Also, unlike the delayed reconstruction of the eastern part of the outer city of Beijing, which was presided over by Yikuang, the destroyed Tianjin City and the western part of the outer city of Beijing, which was in charge of the Tianjin Construction Company, had already been completed.
In terms of education, after several years of unremitting planning and construction under the leadership of Teng Yuzhao, each county in Zhishan Province now has a middle school and elementary school teaching Western-style teaching, and there are normal schools in Jinan and Tianjin to train teachers for primary and secondary schools.
Even the original Beiyang University and Shandong University have been expanded on a large scale and have established teaching relationships with famous universities in the United States and Germany respectively. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University, Royal Institute of Technology in Munich, and Humboldt University of Berlin in the United States and Germany have sent dozens of professors and scholars to Beiyang University and Shandong University.
Moreover, Teng Yuzao is also planning to establish Beiyang University of Technology to train engineering and technical talents.
What's more, Teng Yuzhao doesn't just see what's in front of him, he also has a far-sighted vision.
Although he was in charge of Zhishan Province for only a few years, he had sent two groups of students to Germany and the United States, with a total of 500 people, which was more than the total number of children sent to the United States by Li Hongzhang in four batches.
In time, these people will return to their country after completing their studies and will become a large number of pillars of society.
Duan Qirui knew very well that both Teng Yuzao and Yuan Shikai attached great importance to these overseas students, and most of those former Chinese students who had studied in the United States were now in the Beiyang faction, and were all valued by Teng Yuzao to varying degrees.
Even those who worked as engineers were well paid, with monthly salaries of several hundred dollars, far exceeding the level of county magistrates and not much less than that of local prefects.
After reading this series of articles that seemed to praise Teng Yuzao, Duan Qirui remained silent for a long time.
Duan Qirui did not doubt the authenticity of the contents of these articles. In Duan Qirui's view, all of these achievements under the leadership of Teng Yuzhao far exceeded all the achievements of this court in the past hundred years, and were unprecedented and unparalleled.
It is not wrong to say that Teng Yuzao is a saint who appears once every five hundred years. It is just incredible that the ruler of any dynasty has achieved such remarkable results in such a short period of time!
The most important thing is that all these great achievements were made under the leadership of Teng Yuzhao.
Those new factories and universities were almost all built with academic and technical support from foreign professors and engineers, and were mainly built by Chinese engineers, Chinese students studying in the United States, and workers. The most rare thing is that in the past few years, Teng Yuzao did not ask the court for a single tael of silver, nor did he increase any taxes in Zhishan Province. All the silver was raised by Teng Yuzao.
Even as stated in the article, Teng Yuzhao abolished most of the complicated taxes and levies in the two provinces, greatly alleviating the burden on ordinary people.
Not only that, Teng Yuzao even promised the Chinese people at a press conference that once he became the prime minister, he would also abolish the agricultural tax for self-cultivating farmers and reduce all land taxes.
This made Duan Qirui surprised and amazed, and he had to admit that Teng Yuzao was not only a genius in commanding battles, but also had the ability to turn stones into gold when it came to local governance. If the position of prime minister was given to Teng Yuzao, it would definitely be the best outcome.
Duan Qirui even believed that if it wasn't Teng Yuzao, no one else could have done as well as Teng Yuzao!
Duan Qirui also believed that anyone who knew the contents of these articles would have the same idea as him. In his opinion, there was no need to nominate a prime minister.
Because these days, the Ta Kung Pao has been reporting repeatedly that people from all over the country have taken to the streets to protest in support of Teng Yuzao becoming the first prime minister of the cabinet, which shows what the people want.
Literati, scholars and businessmen from all over the country also jointly launched a petition in newspapers, strongly demanding that the court appoint Teng Yuzhao as prime minister.
Even the ministers from Germany and the United States, two of the great powers, expressed their views on behalf of their respective countries. They made it clear without any reservation that both William II and the 26th President of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt, supported Teng Yuzao to be the first prime minister.
They all believed that Teng Yuzao's appointment as Prime Minister would bring the most positive changes to this ancient empire.
Although Duan Qirui was very disgusted with foreigners interfering in domestic affairs, as far as their views on Teng Yuzao were concerned, Duan Qirui actually agreed with their views.
But what worried Duan Qirui was that the imperial court did not respond to these calls, and officials at all levels in the capital remained silent, even officials from all over the country.
Only the Sichuan Governor Xiliang submitted a memorial expressing his support for Teng Yuzao to become the first prime minister of the cabinet.
As for the strong calls from people across the country for Teng Yuzao to serve as the first prime minister of the cabinet, no newspapers in the capital reported anything.
However, yesterday, the "Beijing Times" published in a prominent position a statement issued by the ministers of Britain, France, Russia and Japan. Although the envoys of these powerful countries used different wordings in their respective statements, the meanings were almost the same, including the two countries, Japan and Russia, which are now fighting a life-and-death battle outside the Great Wall.
Their statements all express one meaning, or it can be said that they have two meanings.
First, without exception, they all expressed their great appreciation for the court's move to implement constitutional reform; second, they all believed that, based on national conditions and for the sake of safety, they suggested that the court should first reform the Zongli Yamen and change the Prime Minister to the first Prime Minister of the Cabinet, and then gradually implement constitutionalism from top to bottom under the auspices of this cabinet.
Although the imperial court remained silent on the statement issued by the four envoys, someone published an article in the Capital Times strongly agreeing with the remarks made by the four envoys.
Although Duan Qirui was not a powerful politician, he could see that the four ministers, each with their own thoughts, were so united this time that there must be someone secretly colluding with them.
Duan Qirui could even almost conclude that the idea of these countries to replace the constitutional cabinet with the Zongli Yamen was because they wanted the current regime to remain unchanged. To put it bluntly, no one wanted Teng Yuzao, who could enrich the country and strengthen the military, to come to power.
In addition, with the exception of Sichuan Governor Xiliang, almost all governors and governors-general from all over the country sent telegrams to the court, all of them urging the reform of the Zongli Yamen first in order to implement constitutional government.
In addition, the Governor-General of Liangjiang Duan Fang and the Governor-General of Guangdong and Guangxi Cen Chunxuan clearly stated that there was no need to re-elect the first Prime Minister of the Cabinet for the time being. To be safe, the current Prime Minister Yixin could be transferred to the position of the first Prime Minister of the Cabinet.
Cixi remained silent about the statements made by envoys from various countries, as well as the memorials and statements from governors-general from all over the country, including Xi Liang, who supported Teng Yuzhao. She even kept all memorials concerning constitutional reform without sending them out.
However, although Cixi did not express her opinion, Duan Qirui believed that all this showed that the court obviously had other plans for who would serve as the prime minister, or at least did not want Teng Yuzhao to do it.
While sighing and lamenting, there was another thing that puzzled Duan Qirui.
What puzzled Duan Qirui was that the court had not responded to Teng Yuzao's memorial to resign from the post of president of the Zhi Army for several days. It was not until four days ago that the imperial decree was finally issued after Teng Yuzao had repeatedly resigned.
In the imperial edict, Teng Yuzao was allowed to resign from the post of President of the Zhili Army, but he would retain the post of Minister of Beiyang and command the navy.
The Tianjin Customs allocates six million yuan every year to supplement the navy's military expenses.
The Ministry of the Army was ordered to immediately send personnel to take over the various Zhili army towns and coordinate matters related to the downsizing and reorganization of the Zhili army.
At the same time, after Teng Yuzhao was awarded the title of Grand Secretary of Baohe Hall and Grand Tutor of the Crown Prince, he was also awarded the title of First-Class Chengjiayiyong Duke, the highest title that a Han Chinese could enjoy.
However, there was no mention of Teng Yuzao's willingness to serve as the first prime minister.
The Zhi army responded that night after the imperial edict was issued.
First, the Chief of Staff of the Zhili Army Wei Jinghai and two deputy chiefs of staff Liu Changfa and Sun Shijun jointly issued a letter of resignation, not only resigning from all their current and concurrent positions in the Zhili Army, but also expressing the hope that the Ministry of the Army would properly deal with the personnel of the departments directly under the Zhili Army General Staff.
As for the reasons for resigning from their current and concurrent positions, the three people made it clear that they had been following Teng Yuzao in fighting against foreign humiliation and resisting the powers since the Gengzi Year, and they had great respect for Teng Yuzao.
Now that Teng Yuzao is no longer in the army, they have no intention of staying in the army. They are deeply worried about the court allowing Teng Yuzao to resign as the president of the Zhi Army, so they want to retire to the countryside from now on.
Then, led by Liu Shijiu, except for Hu Dianjia, the commander of the Sixth Regiment in Fujian, the commanders of the remaining eight infantry regiments, three artillery regiments and one cavalry regiment of the Zhili Army jointly signed a petition, stating that they were willing to obey the imperial court's will under certain conditions and accept the army's reorganization and reorganization as long as their conditions were met.
(End of this chapter)
