Within the space of ten
days his leadership had secured the adhesion of fourteen provinces
to the Republican cause; and though confronted by grave
difficulties owing to insufficiency of equipment and military
supplies, he fought the Northern soldiery for two months around
Wuchang with varying success. He it was, when the Republic had
been formally established and the Manchu regime made a thing of
the past, who worked earnestly to bring about better relations
between the armies of North and South China which had been arrayed
against one another during many bitter weeks. It was he, also, who
was the first to advocate the complete separation of the civil and
military administration--the administrative powers in the early
days of the Republic being entirely in the hands of the military
governors of the provinces who recruited soldiery in total
disregard to the wishes of the Central Government. Although this
reform has even today only been partially successful, there is no
reason to doubt that before the Republic is many years older the
idea of the military dictating the policy and administration of
the country will pass away. The so-called Second Revolution of
1913 awakened no sympathy in General Li Yuan-hung, because he was
opposed to internal strife and held that all Chinese should work
for unity and concerted reform rather than indulge in fruitless
dissensions. His disapproval of the monarchy movement had been
equally emphatic in the face of an ugly outlook.
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