Why did Yuan Shikai send someone to look at Li Yuanhong's face?

When the Xinhai Revolution succeeded, Mr. Sun Yat-sen was still in Europe. At that time, the army revolted in Wuchang, and made Wuchang the central military government of the revolutionary army, and elected Li Yuanhong as the governor. This happened on August 19, 1911 in the lunar calendar.

On the ninth day of the ninth lunar month, Emperor Xuantong issued an edict to repent for his crimes. On the eleventh day, he replaced Yixin with Yuan Shikai as Prime Minister. On the twelfth day, he promulgated a constitutional monarchy. On the sixteenth day, he ordered the release of Wang Jingwei, who had attempted to assassinate the Regent. This series of earth-shaking events shocked the Chinese people. What people talked about more on the streets of Beijing was the appearance of Wang Jingwei and Yuan Shikai.

It was said that the Prince Regent asked a fortune teller to look at Wang Jingwei's face, and the fortune teller said that Wang would be the emperor of the south in the future, so the Prince Regent wanted to make use of Wang Jingwei. As for Yuan Shikai, he had long been used for advertising by fortune tellers and physiognomists in Beijing, who said that he had a great appearance and was not only a high-ranking official in the Beiyang government, but was now the first Han Chinese prime minister of a constitutional monarchy.

Yuan Shikai was a person who believed in numerology and even more in physiognomy, so he sent people everywhere to look for Li Yuanhong's horoscope, and sent two masters who were good at observing complexion to Wuchang to try to see Li Yuanhong's face and complexion. Let us talk about the story of looking at Li Yuanhong’s face.

After the fortune teller arrived in Wuchang, there was a section chief in the Governor-General Li Yuanhong's office who was a friend of one of the fortune tellers' friends. Who was Li Yuanhong? Li Yuanhong was a person who believed in fate very much, because when he was young, he heard from adults that on the first anniversary of his birth, a monk came to his house to read his fortune. Among three babies, the monk pointed at him and said, "This child has a flat forehead, a moist forehead and a full forehead. He will become a prime minister or a general in the future, and will undoubtedly be of high rank."

The day after the fortune teller arrived in Wuchang, the section chief reported to Governor Li that two fortune tellers had come to visit and wanted to meet the governor to admire their majesty. Li agreed happily, and on the third day the section chief brought his master to the inner living room of the Wuchang Military Government. After meeting Li, the fortune teller made four new predictions about Li on the spot: first, Li would give up military affairs and pursue literature, and would no longer hold military orders; second, within thirty days, Li's post horse would go east (meaning Li would go east within thirty days), instead of north; third, within these five years, his position would be higher than power, and in terms of status, he would be higher than the prime minister of the cabinet, but he would have no real power; fourth, starting from the fifth year, he would encounter great changes in fortunes and would enjoy both power and status.

At that time, in order to maintain the dignity of the head of the military government, Li Yuanhong did not ask the fortune teller any questions, but just smiled and nodded.

A few days later, the two masters took the Beijing-Hankou Railway train back to Beijing and reported to Yuan Shikai that based on Li Yuanhong's appearance and complexion, he would definitely not go north in the next three months. However, this man had a great and loyal spirit and a bright future, so he should be a friend rather than an enemy. As to whether the revolutionary army would take advantage of the victory and march northward, this question does not lie with Li Yuanhong.

In fact, about twenty days later, Li Yuanhong arrived in Nanjing to meet Sun Yat-sen. This confirmed what the fortune teller said: I should go east instead of north within the next thirty days. On January 1, 1912, the Provisional Government of the Republic of China was established and Sun Yat-sen took office as the provisional president. On January 3, representatives from various provinces elected Li Yuanhong as Vice President. From then on, Li served as Vice President until Yuan Shikai's death in 1916, when he took over the presidency. This confirmed what the fortune teller had said about Li, that position was higher than power (because the fortune teller did not know at that time that in the future political system, the position of Vice President would be higher than that of the Prime Minister but the power would be lower than that of the Prime Minister), and also confirmed that Li Yuanhong would have both position and power five years later.

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