It is first necessary to say a word about the troops of his command, since this has a bearing on present-day politics.  The bulk of the soldiery were so-called Huai Chun—­i.e., nominally troops from the Huai districts, just south of Li Hung Chang’s native province Anhui.  These Kiangu men, mixed with Shantung recruits, had earned a historic place in the favour of the Manchus owing to the part they had played in the suppression of the Taiping Rebellion, in which great event General Gordon and Li Hung Chang had been so closely associated.  They and the troops of Hunan province, led by the celebrated Marquis Tseng Kuo-fan, were “the loyal troops,” resembling the Sikhs during the Indian Mutiny; they were supposed to be true to their salt to the last man.  Certainly they gave proofs of uncustomary fidelity.

In those military days of twenty years ago Yuan Shih-kai and his henchmen were, however, concerned with simpler problems.  It was then a question of drill and nothing but drill.  In his camp near Tientsin the future President of the Chinese Republic succeeded in reorganizing his troops so well that in a very short time the Hsiaochan Division became known as a corps d’elite.  The discipline was so stern that there were said to be only two ways of noticing subordinates, either by promoting or beheading them.  Devoting himself to his task Yuan Shih-kai gave promise of being able to handle much bigger problems.

His zeal soon attracted the attention of the Manchu Court.  The circumstances in Peking at that time were peculiar.  The famous old Empress Dowager, Tzu-Hsi, after the Japanese war, had greatly relaxed her hold on the Emperor Kwanghsu, who though still in subjection to her, nominally governed the empire.  A well-intentioned but weak man, he had surrounded himself with advanced scholars, led by the celebrated Kang Yu Wei, who daily studied with him and filled him with new doctrines, teaching him to believe that if he would only exert his power he might rescue the nation from international ignominy and make for himself an imperishable name.

The sequel was inevitable.  In 1898 the oriental world was electrified by the so-called Reform Edicts, in which the Emperor undertook to modernize China, and in which he exhorted the nation to obey him.  The greatest alarm was created in Court circles by this action; the whole vast body of Metropolitan officialdom, seeing its future threatened, flooded the Palace of the Empress Dowager with Secret Memorials praying her to resume power.  Flattered, she gave her secret assent.

Things marched quickly after that.  The Empress, nothing loth, began making certain dispositions.  Troops were moved, men were shifted here and there in a way that presaged action; and the Emperor, now thoroughly alarmed and yielding to the entreaties of his followers, sent two members of the Reform Party to Yuan Shih-kai bearing an alleged autograph order for him to advance instantly on Peking with all his