Valley dragooned into sullen submission, Yuan Shih-kai's task
had become so vastly simplified that he held the moment to have arrived
when he could openly turn his hand to the problem of making himself
absolutely supreme, _de jure_ as well as _de facto_. But there was one
remaining thing to be done. To drive the last nail into the coffin of
the Republic it was necessary to discredit and virtually imprison the
man who was Vice-President.

It is highly characteristic that although he had received from the hero
of the Wuchang Rising the most loyal co-operation--a co-operation of a
very arduous character since the Commander of the Middle Yangtsze had
had to resist the most desperate attempt? to force him over to the side
of the rebellion in July, 1913, nevertheless, Yuan Shih-kai was
determined to bring this man to Peking as a prisoner of state.

It was just the fact that General Li Yuan-hung was a national hero which
impelled the Dictator to action. In the election which had been carried
out in October, 1913, by the National Assembly sitting as a National
Convention, in spite of every effort to destroy his influence, the
personal popularity of the Vice-President had been such that he had
received a large number of votes for the office of full President--which
had necessitated not one but three ballots being taken, making most
people declare that had there been no bribery or intimidation he would
have probably been elected to the supreme office in the land, and
ousted the ambitious usurper. In such circumstances his complete
elimination was deemed an elementary necessity. To secure that end Yuan
Shih-kai suddenly dispatched to Wuchang--where the Vice-President had
resided without break since 1911--the Minister of War, General Tuan
Chi-jui, with implicit instructions to deal with the problem in any way
he deemed satisfactory, stopping short of nothing should his victim
prove recalcitrant.

Fortunately General Tuan Chi-jui did not belong to the ugly breed of men
Yuan Shih-kai loved to surround himself with; and although he was a
loyal and efficient officer the politics of the assassin were unknown to
him. He was therefore able to convince the Vice-President after a brief
discussion that the easiest way out of the ring of intriguers and
plotters in which Yuan Shih-kai was rapidly surrounding him in Wuchang
was to go voluntarily to the capital. There at least he would be in
daily touch with developments and able to fight his