Military Governors and Central Control

Once Yuan abandoned the idea of eliminating provinces altogether, the success of his centralizing plans depended not only on the extension of central military power but on the subordination of military governors to his authority. One factor aiding this was that the new governors of Hubei and Hunan, unlike Li Yuanhong and Tan Yankai, only gained their positions as a result of Yuan's favor. Of equal significance was Yuan's success in limiting the personal military power of his appointees. The new military governors were, of course, military men. Tang Xiangming was a naval officer, and both Duan Qirui and Duan Zhigui had served as Beiyang Army commanders. Upon assuming their posts, however, none of these men had direct personal command over significant military forces; rather, they had general jurisdiction over military forces in their provinces. The most important of these forces were "national" armies that owed their ultimate loyalty, not to the military governors, but to the central government. Thus, although the military governors could deploy these forces as agents of the central government, they were less able to use them as power bases against the central government. Just as these military governors' central appointments distinguished them from their immediate predecessors, their weaker relationship to military power distinguished them from their warlord successors.

The military governors appointed by Yuan were not indifferent to their own power interests. In assuming their offices, Yuan's military governors became heirs to an established institutional tradition of strong provincial executives. These new governors were hardly reluc-

tant to take advantage of this tradition to expand their powers at every opportunity. The result was a continuing tension between the aggrandizing efforts of the military governors and Yuan's centralizing goals. This tension was mainly visible in two areas. The first was in the realm of military power. Both Duan Zhigui in Hubei and Tang Xiangming in Hunan were acutely aware of the increased power they could wield by establishing their own military bases. Although he made some concessions in this regard, there was a limit to how much military power Yuan would permit them. The second area of tension was civil administration. Here Yuan's efforts to enforce a separation of civil and military powers ran into the military governors' attempts to maintain the supremacy of their offices over both areas.

Seeking to increase his own military power, Duan Zhigui made several attempts to bring the existing forces in Hubei more under his direct control or to create new forces to the same end. In mid 1914, Duan complained to the Ministry of War that the disbandment of Hubei troops had put the province in a weak military position. He also expressed concern that national armies in Hubei could be called away at any time. He therefore proposed that a supplemental brigade within the 2d Division be transformed into a "Hubei" mixed brigade under provincial authority.^[83] Although this request was denied, Duan was allowed to recruit a new independent Hubei regiment. Duan increased his personal control over this regiment by placing it under the command of a young protégé, Lü Jinshan, a Zhili native and graduate of Japan's Army Officers' Academy. Significantly, Lü recruited this new "Hubei" unit in Henan.^[84] This repeated the pattern seen before of using non-native soldiers to assure greater political reliability. Because of their lack of local ties, these soldiers could be expected to be more loyal to the military governors or commanders who supported them. Not satisfied with this one regiment, in early 1915 Duan gained permission to establish a second regiment, recruited from Jiangsu and Anhui. These two regiments were then combined to form a new Hubei 3d Infantry Brigade, with Lü Jinshan as brigade commander.^[85] Duan also made further efforts to have Wang Zhanyuan's 2d Division and Li Tiancai's Jiangnan Division officially reclassified as Hubei forces. Yuan would not, however, agree to the provincialization of central military forces. Indeed, not only was Duan's proposal to remove the 2d Division's national designation denied, but the Jiangnan Division was reclassified as a national unit.^[86] Thus the creation of the Hubei brigade did not upset the balance of military power in the province in Duan's favor.

In Hunan, Tang Xiangming also tried to create military forces that would be more directly under his personal control. In early 1915, Tang received permission from Yuan to recruit a new regular Hunan army, and by the middle of this year he had established the Hunan 1st Brigade. As might be expected, this brigade was again an "outside" force recruited in Hubei, Tang's home province. Eventually the brigade was further expanded into a mixed brigade, with three infantry regiments as well as artillery, engineering, and cavalry components.^[87] In order to build a strong relationship with this force, Tang frequently visited its soldiers in their barracks and kept them well and regularly paid.^[88] This was a particularly good example of the increasing use of personalism to assert the primacy of one loyalty (to Tang) over another (to the central government). Nonetheless, as in the case of Duan Zhigui in Hubei, the establishment of this brigade did not raise Tang to a predominant military position over other military forces in Hunan.

Beyond his attention to the military balance of power in the provinces, Yuan sought to limit the authority of the military governors by appointing civil governors to each province. In Hubei, Yuan simply followed the precedent already established by Li Yuanhong. When Li was removed from his post, the current civil governor, Li's protégacute; Rao Hanxiang, gave up his post to follow Li to Beijing. Yuan immediately replaced him with Lü Diaoyuan, an Anhui jinshi whose prior official career had culminated in a circuit intendancy. Lü was also related to Yuan by marriage.^[89] Similarly, in Hunan, Tang Xiangming's appointment as military governor was accompanied by orders naming another former Qing official, Wang Hu, as civil governor, instituting this post in Hunan for the first time.^[90]

Yuan took a number of measures to emphasize the separation of powers he sought through the appointment of civil governors and in so doing revealed his intention of establishing civilian primacy. First, in mid 1914 the civil governor's title was changed from minzhengzhang , literally "head of civil government," to a vaguer and hence actually more encompassing term, xun'anshi . At the same time, the original broader term for military governor, dudu , was abolished and replaced by the more specific military title of "general" (jiangjun ) or, in the case of Hubei and other provinces that had had governors-general in the late Qing era, "high general" (shangjiangjun ). The administrative system behind these new titles purposefully emphasized the power of the civil governors at the expense of the military governors. The civil governor was given official precedence in his rank. A

clear delineation of civil and military affairs was ordered, and the military governor was strictly enjoined from interference in civil administration. The civil governor was even granted a degree of military power by being assigned authority over police, local self-defense forces, and any remaining old-style troops. The central appointment of civil governors was thus clearly intended to undermine the strong military governorships that had come to represent the growth of provincial autonomy since the 1911 Revolution.^[91]

The reversal of the established prerogatives of the military governors was not, however, a process that could be achieved by simple fiat. Yuan's own recognition of the need to tread carefully was revealed in the selection of civil governors believed amenable to the military governors. For example, besides his relationship with Yuan, Lü Diaoyuan was Duan Qirui's close friend and a fellow Anhui provincial, and Duan personally recommended him for the Hubei civil post.^[92] Although Hubei's next military governor, Duan Zhigui, was also from Anhui, he had no close ties to Lü. The two men's relationship quickly soured. Therefore, in October 1914, Lü was replaced with Duan Shuyun, a Jiangsu jinshi with a record of previous provincial and central posts. Not coincidentally, Duan Shuyun had a close acquaintance with Duan Zhigui, solidified by a clansmen's pledge.^[93] Wang Hu's appointment as Hunan civil governor was primarily owing to the influence of Xiong Xiling, a prominent politician from western Hunan who was Yuan's premier at this time. This appointment did not, however, meet with Tang Xiangming's approval. As a result, Wang delayed proceeding to Hunan and finally resigned in April 1914.^[94] In July 1914, Yuan appointed Liu Xinyuan, the former Hubei civil governor, to take Wang's place.^[95] As an important member of the Hubei gentry and a long-time associate of Tang Xiangming's brother, Liu was an appointee Tang could hardly refuse. The influence of such considerations in the selection of civil governors shows that they did not enter their offices with the primacy Yuan was attempting to assign to them.

In the end, the authority of civil governors over provincial administration remained dependent to a large degree on the acquiescence and cooperation of military governors. The separation of military and civil administration came closest to actualization during Duan Qirui's short term as Hubei military governor. Duan, after all, had only taken the Hubei post as a temporary assignment before returning to Beijing as minister of war. He could therefore be expected to promote Yuan's centralizing efforts. Duan drew a clear line between areas of military

and civil authority, and there was reportedly very little communication between Duan's office and civil departments. Only when Lü Diaoyuan met with special difficulties would Duan take a hand in assisting him, and then only "from behind the scenes." Nonetheless, Duan's role here appears very similar to Li Yuanhong's. Good intentions aside, Duan still acted as the Hubei government's final arbiter and thus was recognized as the greater authority. As in Li's case, this allowed Duan to exert considerable influence when he desired, as in the selection of civil personnel. Therefore, although some progress was made in building the civil governor's position under Duan Qirui, a complete separation of powers was not achieved.^[96]

Neither Duan Zhigui nor Tang Xiangming was as committed to the principle of the separation of military and civil administration. These two men, unlike Duan Qirui, saw the province as the arena in which to increase their political influence. Thus they were less willing to yield power to civil governors. Tang Xiangming had been appointed acting Hunan civil governor pending Wang Hu's arrival. Wang's timidity essentially left Hunan's civil administration in Tang's hands.^[97] By the time Liu Xinyuan took office, Tang had had time to consolidate his own ascendancy in the Hunan government. In Hubei, Duan Zhigui's arrival reversed the steady accumulation of power Lü Diaoyuan had enjoyed under Duan Qirui. Regulations and policies that by right should have been initiated by the civil governor were soon being drafted in Duan Zhigui's office for Lü's co-signature. Duan Zhigui also increased his influence over important civil appointments.^[98] Neither the mid-1914 attempt to reemphasize the separation of military and civil powers nor the appointment of the more amenable Duan Shuyun appears to have had much effect. After a special visit to Yuan in early 1915 to plead Hubei's strategic importance, Duan Zhigui received permission to continue to "assist" the civil governor in all important matters.^[99] Most contemporary accounts leave little doubt that the military governor continued to be the dominant partner in the provincial governments of both Hubei and Hunan.

Yuan Shikai's appointment of civil governors at the least asserted the principle of the separation of military and civil administration. His efforts to this end were not a complete failure. The civil governors were never totally subordinated to the military governors. They continued to be centrally appointed, ultimately responsible to the central government, and active in implementing central policies. Nonetheless, the establishment of civilian primacy in provincial administration remained one of Yuan's goals rather than one of his accomplishments.

In attempting to control his military governors, Yuan faced a basic dilemma. On the one hand, overly strong military governors could be potential threats to central power. On the other hand, Yuan relied on strong military governors to ensure that his will was enforced in the provinces. Ultimately, the goal of civilian primacy gave way to this later concern. By the same token, Yuan's failure to achieve this particular goal did not necessarily mean failure for his broader program of administrative centralization. Despite the tension between Yuan and his military governors, considerable progress toward increased central control over provincial administration was evident in a number of areas.