The discussion which raged was suddenly terminated on the night of the 29th February (1912) when without any warning there occurred the extraordinary revolt of the 3rd Division, a picked Northern corps who for forty-eight hours plundered and burnt portions of the capital without any attempts at interference, there being little doubt to-day that this manoeuvre was deliberately arranged as a means of intimidation by Yuan Shih-kai himself.  Although the disorders assumed such dimensions that foreign intervention was narrowly escaped, the upshot was that the Nanking Delegates were completely cowed and willing to forget all about forcing the despot of Peking to proceed to the Southern capital.  Yuan Shih-kai as the man of the hour was enabled on the 10th March, 1912, to take his oath in Peking as he had wished thus securing full freedom of action during the succeeding years.[6]

[Illustration:  An Encampment of “The Punitive Expedition” of 1910 on the Upper Yangtsze.

By courtesy of Major Isaac Newell, U.S.  Military Attache.]

[Illustration:  Revival of the Imperialistic Worship of Heaven by Yuan Shih-kai in 1914:  Scene on the Altar of Heaven, with Sacrificial Officers clothed in costumes dating from 2,000 years ago.]

[Illustration:  A Manchu Country Fair:  The figures in the foreground are all Manchu women and girls.]

[Illustration:  A Manchu Woman grinding Grain.]

It was on this astounding basis—­by means of an organized revolt—­that the Central Government was reorganized; and every act that followed bears the mark of its tainted parentage.  Accepting readily as his Ministers in the more unimportant government Departments the nominees of the Southern Confederacy (which was now formally dissolved), Yuan Shih-kai was careful to reserve for his own men everything that concerned the control of the army and the police, as well as the all-important ministry of finance.  The framework having been thus erected, attention was almost immediately concentrated on the problem of finding money, an amazing matter which would weary the stoutest reader if given in all its detail but which being part and parcel of the general problem must be referred to.

Certain essential features can be very rapidly exposed.  We have already made clear the purely economic nature of the forces which had sapped the foundations of Chinese society.  Primarily it had been the disastrous nature of Chinese gold-indebtedness which had given the new ideas the force they required to work their will on the nation.  And just because the question of this gold-indebtedness had become so serious and such a drain on the nation, some months before the outbreak of the Revolution an arrangement had been entered into with the bankers of four nations for a Currency Loan of L10,000,000 with which to make an organized effort to re-establish internal credit.  But this loan had never actually been floated, as a six months’ safety clause had permitted a delay during which the Revolution had come.  It was therefore necessary to begin the negotiations anew; and as the rich prizes to be won in the Chinese lottery had attracted general attention in the European financial world through the advertisement which the Revolution had given the country, a host of alternative loan proposals now lay at the disposal of Peking.