The End Of Imperial China

"The 300-year-old Qing Dynasty ended yesterday:
Yesterday at 12 a.m., Feng Yuxiang sent Lu Zhonglin together with five hundred armed soldiers and many policemen into the Forbidden City through Shenwumen Gate. Lu told the emperor that by the order of the government and the Commander-in-chief Feng Yuxiang, he had come to alter the “Preferential Treatment of the Qing Royal Family”. There were five terms and the emperor was told that he must agree to them before 3 p.m.
The five terms are as follows:
1. Rescind the title of Emperor Xuantong of the Great Qing;
2. Reduce the preferential fund from four million silver dollars to half a million every year, and the requirement that the emperor donate two million silver dollars to set up factories for the poor banner people to work in;
3. The emperor must move out from the palace today, but he can freely choose where to live;
4. The ancestral temples and imperial tombs of the Qing royal family will be enshrined forever and protected by the army of Republic;
5. The private properties of the Qing royal family will be distinguished from the public properties. If it is a public property then it belongs to the government while the private ones still belong to the Qing royal family.
By 2 p.m. the emperor had no choice but to concede to all the terms and left the palace with the empress and concubine in three cars. Lu asked him where he wanted to go, the emperor said “to Prince Chun’s Palace”. Lu then sent fifty soldiers to go with the emperor. Feng Yuxiang also ordered the phone lines of Prince Chun’s Palace be cut and sent soldiers to guard the gate not allowing anyone to enter."

- Shuntian Shibao Nov 6 1924