A large amount of rolling-stock on the main railways was
seized with this object, the confusion being made worse confounded
by the fierce denunciations which now came from the southernmost
provinces, coupled with their threats to attack the Northern
troops all along the line as soon as they could mobilize.
The month of June opened with the situation more threatening than
it had been for years. Emissaries of the recalcitrant Military
Governors, together with all sorts of "politicals" and disgruntled
generals, gathered in Tientsin--which is 80 miles from Peking--and
openly established a Military Headquarters which they declared
would be converted into a Provisional Government which would seek
the recognition of the Powers. Troops were moved and concentrated
against Peking; fresh demands were made that the President should
dissolve Parliament; whilst the Metropolitan press was suddenly
filled with seditious articles. The President, seeing that the
situation was becoming cataclysmic, was induced, through what
influences is not known, to issue a mandate summoning General
Chang Hsun to Peking to act as a mediator, which was another fatal
move. He arrived in Tientsin with many troops on the 7th June
where he halted and was speedily brought under subversive
influences, sending at once up to Peking a sort of ultimatum which
was simply the old demand for the dissolution of Parliament.
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