In his camp near
Tientsin the future President of the Chinese Republic succeeded in
reorganizing his troops so well that in a very short time the
Hsiaochan Division became known as a corps d'elite. The discipline
was so stern that there were said to be only two ways of noticing
subordinates, either by promoting or beheading them. Devoting
himself to his task Yuan Shih-kai gave promise of being able to
handle much bigger problems.
His zeal soon attracted the attention of the Manchu Court. The
circumstances in Peking at that time were peculiar. The famous old
Empress Dowager, Tzu-Hsi, after the Japanese war, had greatly
relaxed her hold on the Emperor Kwanghsu, who though still in
subjection to her, nominally governed the empire. A well-
intentioned but weak man, he had surrounded himself with advanced
scholars, led by the celebrated Kang Yu Wei, who daily studied
with him and filled him with new doctrines, teaching him to
believe that if he would only exert his power he might rescue the
nation from international ignominy and make for himself an
imperishable name.
The sequel was inevitable. In 1898 the oriental world was
electrified by the so-called Reform Edicts, in which the Emperor
undertook to modernize China, and in which he exhorted the nation
to obey him. The greatest alarm was created in Court circles by
this action; the whole vast body of Metropolitan officialdom,
seeing its future threatened, flooded the Palace of the Empress
Dowager with Secret Memorials praying her to resume power.
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