For a time during the Hundred Days’Reform, Yuan Shikai Kaned foward the reformers, maintaining Confact through Xu Shichang. At the crucial moment, though, he shrank from the dangerous steps of executing Ronglv, besieging the Summer palace, and seizing fhe Empress Dowager Cixi. Yuan had still not disclosed the conspiracy when be returned to Tianjin on Septembe 20, but on learning of the coup from Yang Chongyi the next evening, he believed that the secret was out, To save himself, he revealed the entire plot, with the result that a great many reformers were arrested or dismissed from office.
