It was President Li who precipitated the final collapse by summoning to Beijing one of the most reactionary of the warlords, Zhang Xun, who he apparently believed could serve as a counterweight to the two major militarist groupings that had emerged from Yuan Shi-kai’s power bloc: Prime Minister Duan’s Anhui clique and General Feng’s Zhili power base. Zhang, however, had his own ideas. He occupied the imperial palace and proclaimed the restoration of the Ch’ing dynasty.
