On April 12, 1917, the area of Yuelu Mountain in Changsha City, Hunan Province was surrounded by countless citizens.
The reason why Mount Yuelu is so lively on this day is that it is here that the first state funeral after China's journey to the republic is being held.
Thousands of citizens rushed to the funeral, and even if it rained heavily, people had no intention of leaving.
Beijing, as well as Hunan, Guangdong and many other domestic provinces, have sent representatives to attend the funeral.
In the afternoon, the coffin escorted by a special person arrived at Yuelu Mountain, Tan Yanmin, who was the overseer of Hunan at the time, and the provincial **at all levels** and military generals.
Everyone personally led the army and escorted the coffin up the mountain in heavy rain all the way, and at the same time, a grand public sacrifice was also held in ** Park in Beijing.
The leaders represented by Sun Yat-sen, Li Yuanhong, Duan Qirui, Feng Guozhang and others have participated in the memorial, and countless people from all walks of life have also participated in the memorial.
The person who was able to enjoy such treatment in China and became the first state funeral was the famous protector general Cai Yi.
Cai Ye was born in a peasant family in Hunan in his early years, and his parents attached great importance to the cultivation of their children and did their best to provide for him to go to private school. Since he was a child, he was very intelligent, familiar with the Four Books and Five Classics, and later passed the Xiucai examination.
It's just that the period when he grew up was an important stage of social change in the late Qing Dynasty, and Cai Ye met Liang Qichao in the process of studying. He was attracted by Liang Qichao's doctrine, and then worshiped Liang Qichao's disciples.
But with the failure of the reform, his teacher Liang Qichao went into exile, but fortunately, Cai Yi was funded by Tang Caichang and was able to study in Japan smoothly.
In Japan, he and many like-minded friends were determined to save the country, and then he joined the Self-Reliance Army organized by Tang Caichang.
Unfortunately, the self-reliance army uprising failed, Tang Caichang was also unfortunately killed, after Cai Ye returned to Japan, realized that if you want to save the country, you must start with a gun, since then he decided to join the army, with his own efforts, at his own expense admitted to the famous Japanese Army non-commissioned officer school.
During his time at school, he studied military affairs while actively assisting Huang Xing and others. And his performance in Japan has also attracted the attention of many people in China, especially after Cai Ye graduated, his grades were very good, which made him and Jiang Baili and others rated as the three outstanding non-commissioned officers.
At that time, all parts of the country began to drill the new army, and Cai Ye was immediately contested after returning to China, and he also trained the new army in Guangxi, Yunnan and other places.
In 1911, when the Xinhai Revolution broke out, Cai immediately met with the members of the Yunnan Provincial League to discuss the revolution.
On October 30, under the command of Cai Ng, the revolutionary army successfully revolted in Kunming, and soon recovered Yunnan and established the Yunnan Provincial Military Governor's Office, officially getting rid of the rule of the Qing court.
After the success of the uprising, Cai Ye actively supported the revolution in Guizhou, Sichuan and other places, and began to rectify the military and government in Yunnan.
The corrupt rule of the Qing court caused too many problems in Yunnan, and during his tenure, Cai Ye vigorously reformed and reformed internal affairs, especially focusing on the construction of Yunnan's new army.
After years of development, the Yunnan New Army already has a good strength, which is the famous Yunnan Army in the future, and Cai Ye has become one of the founders of the Yunnan Army.
The Xinhai Revolution finally ended with the abdication of the Qing court and the peace between the north and the south, Cai Yi initially opposed the peace with Yuan Shikai, but he saw that the revolution really overthrew the Qing court and the country had the possibility of peaceful reunification, so he also changed his position and supported Yuan Shikai instead.
However, Yuan Shikai has always been uneasy about powerful generals like Cai Yi, even if Cai Yi supports him to be the big **, he also deliberately transferred Cai Ye to Beijing.
Cai Ye knew very well that Yuan Shikai wanted to completely empty himself, but he would not really raise troops to fight against **, but came to Beijing to take up his post.
After arriving in Beijing, he became aware of Yuan Shikai's ambitions, and Cai was deeply worried about the activities of the Yuan family's father and son and their cronies. He secretly began to prepare for the anti-Yuan, but on the surface, in order to paralyze Yuan Shikai, he lingered in the Qinglou.
Yuan Shikai was also very busy in order to be the emperor at that time, and when he saw Cai Yi greedy and lustful, he relaxed his vigilance.
Cai Ye took the opportunity to propose to go to Tianjin to recuperate, Yuan Shikai did not object, but he did not expect that after Cai Ye went to Tianjin, he quickly proposed that his condition was serious and he needed to go to Japan**.
Yuan Shikai didn't realize that this was Cai Yi's way to get out, and he was confident enough that he could settle Yunnan, so he easily let Cai Yi go.
Unexpectedly, after Cai Ye went abroad, he immediately returned to Yunnan from Japan.
Before Cai Ye returned to China, Yuan Shikai's move to proclaim himself emperor had caused dissatisfaction from all walks of life, especially all walks of life in Yunnan. Big.
The family wanted to rise up against Yuan, but Tang Jiyao, who was in charge of Yunnan, had been hesitant, and at this critical moment, Cai Ye came back.
On December 25, 1915, Cai Yi and other high-level military and political leaders in Yunnan jointly issued an ultimatum to Yuan Shikai.
After not receiving a reply from Yuan Shikai, the Yunnan Protectorate War led by Cai Yi officially began, they declared the independence of Yunnan and organized the Northern Expedition to defeat Yuan Shikai.
Yunnan Hu ** immediately caused a chain reaction in the country, and the provinces organized Hu ** to start begging Yuan, Yuan Shikai was annoyed and ashamed, and sent Cao Kun Wu Peifu and other Beiyang main forces into Sichuan to fight against the troops led by Cai Yi.
Unexpectedly, Cai Yi led the protection ** to fight more and more bravely, and firmly contained the main force of the Beiyang Army in Sichuan.
In this way, the national defense movement continued to win, and Yuan Shikai had gone to the general trend, and under the pressure of all walks of life, he had to give up the throne.
With the death of Yuan Shikai in June 1916, the Patriotic Movement was victorious.
Cai Ye has a high reputation in China because of his leadership of the National Defense Movement, and he is known as the National Protector General.
It's a pity that Cai Ye proposed to recuperate at the beginning, and he really didn't lie, his health has not been very good.
During the National Defense Movement, Cai Ye was busy with military affairs every day, which made his condition worsen. He still held on to his body and accepted the appointment of ** to preside over military affairs in Sichuan. But his condition became more and more serious, and Cai Ye had to give up state affairs and go to Japan for treatment. However, Cai Yi's illness has been difficult**, and long-term fatigue has made his health extremely poor.
On November 8, 1916, Cai Yi, who had worked for the country all his life, died of illness in Japan at the age of 34.
It is really embarrassing that this famous general who rebuilt the republic passed away prematurely in such a way.