The days of treachery and double-
dealing and cowardly revenge were indeed passing away and the new
regime was committed to decency and fairplay. The task of the new
President was no mean one, and in all the circumstances if he
managed to steer a safe middle course and avoid both Caesarism and
complete effacement, that is a tribute to his training. Born in
1864 in Hupeh, one of the most important mid-Yangtsze provinces,
President Li Yuan-hung was now fifty-two years old, and in the
prime of life; but although he had been accustomed to a military
atmosphere from his earliest youth his policy had never been
militaristic. His father having been in command of a force in
North China for many years, rising from the ranks to the post of
tsan chiang (Lieutenant-Colonel), had been constrained to give him
the advantage of a thoroughly modern training. At the age of 20 he
had entered the Naval School at Tientsin; whence six years later
he had graduated, seeing service in the navy as an engineer
officer during the Chino-Japanese war of 1894. After that campaign
he had been invited by Viceroy Chang Chih-tung, then one of the
most distinguished of the older viceroys, to join his staff at
Nanking, and had been entrusted with the supervision of the
construction of the modern forts at the old Southern capital,
which played such a notable part in the Revolution. When Chang
Chih-tung was transferred to the Wuchang viceroyalty, General Li
Yuan-hung had accompanied him, actively participating in the
training of the new Hupeh army, and being assisted in that work by
German instructors.
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