It was just the fact that General Li Yuan-hung was a national hero
which impelled the Dictator to action. In the election which had
been carried out in October, 1913, by the National Assembly
sitting as a National Convention, in spite of every effort to
destroy his influence, the personal popularity of the Vice-
President had been such that he had received a large number of
votes for the office of full President--which had necessitated not
one but three ballots being taken, making most people declare that
had there been no bribery or intimidation he would have probably
been elected to the supreme office in the land, and ousted the
ambitious usurper. In such circumstances his complete elimination
was deemed an elementary necessity. To secure that end Yuan Shih-
kai suddenly dispatched to Wuchang--where the Vice-President had
resided without break since 1911--the Minister of War, General
Tuan Chi-jui, with implicit instructions to deal with the problem
in any way he deemed satisfactory, stopping short of nothing
should his victim prove recalcitrant.
Fortunately General Tuan Chi-jui did not belong to the ugly breed
of men Yuan Shih-kai loved to surround himself with; and although
he was a loyal and efficient officer the politics of the assassin
were unknown to him. He was therefore able to convince the Vice-
President after a brief discussion that the easiest way out of the
ring of intriguers and plotters in which Yuan Shih-kai was rapidly
surrounding him in Wuchang was to go voluntarily to the capital.
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