Chapter 152 republic

After the five ministers in the late Qing Dynasty inspected Western constitutionalism, they knew little about constitutionalism, so they could only seek advice from Liang Qichao, who was still a wanted criminal at the time.For the next twenty days or so, Liang hid in a ship on the sea, fought hard all day long, and wrote memorials such as "Comparison of Constitutional Governments in Eastern and Western Countries".He was on a lone boat, like an eminent monk sitting in meditation, completely concentrating on the memorial, and for more than 20 days he didn't even know the beautiful scenery of the bay around him.His representative drafted memorials, drafts, etc., totaling more than 200,000 words.Some scholars said: For the founding of the Republic of China, "in a sense, the edict of 1906 is more decisive than the Revolution of 1911".

After the founding of the Republic of China, Liang Qichao joined the cabinet twice, successively serving as the Chief Justice, the President of the Currency Bureau, and the Chief Financial Officer. Each term was only a few months due to political cliques.Under the political conditions of darkness and embarrassment, with a lot of waste waiting to be done, he made a thorough and rigorous plan, and left many proposals and writings on the major policies of the Republic of China and innovations in judicial, fiscal, currency, and banking systems. Liang Qichao did a lot of research on finance.When he took office as Chief Financial Officer, he hoped to establish a modern national financial system. He tried to use the postponed boxer indemnity and currency loans to completely reform the currency system and organize finance. The first step was to completely reform the currency system, and the second step was to unify paper money. The virtual gold standard was introduced from the silver standard.Later, the legal currency policy of the Kuomintang period was basically consistent with Liang Qichao's financial proposition.

Zhou Shanpei believed that Liang Qichao only had political theory, but no political methods, especially no politician's courage.Zhou's younger brother, Zhou Zhujun, served as Zhenjiang Customs and Yang Youguan supervised. At that time, Zhenjiang Customs income was only 1,000 yuan per month, while Yang Youguan claimed to earn 100,000 yuan a month.After Zhou Zhujun took office, he found out that Yang Youguan's income was all obtained from private pockets. On the one hand, he strictly refused and did not take a penny privately;However, Yangyouguan officials, who lived on their own food, colluded with the upstream and downstream tax bureaus.Zhou Zhujun proposed to the Ministry of Finance that he only served as the supervisor of Zhenjiang Customs, and asked the Ministry of Finance to assign Yang Youguan to supervise.Liang Qichao, who was the Chief Financial Officer at the time, sent someone to ask Zhou Zhujun why he gave up one thousand instead of 100,000. Zhou Zhujun was in a hurry and wrote a letter to reprimand Liang Dao: "How can you say such things to your subordinates when you are a minister? Are you publicly persuading your subordinates to be full?" At the same time, he also proposed a method for reforming the national Changguan, and drafted dozens of rewards and punishments for strictly prohibiting full-time rewards, and sent them to Liang to ask him to carry out reforms.Zhou Shanpei encouraged him from the sidelines several times, but Liang looked left and right, and the matter was put on hold.

After Yuan Shikai revealed his idea of ​​becoming emperor, Liang Qichao and Feng Guozhang went to the presidential palace to persuade him. Liang recorded this wonderful story: "The two came to Xinhua Palace together. Xiang Cheng heard that I was waiting, and he was excited and drunk. Yu Zheng wanted to stand up and make a statement. Xiang Cheng first smiled and said: "Your lord is here. I know it very well, but I want to remonstrate with me. To be an emperor. I asked Ergong, if Yuan wants to be an emperor, do he want to be an emperor for one generation and become extinct? Do he think about being an emperor for ten thousand generations? Is there no end to it?' Naturally, I want to be the son of heaven for all generations!" Nai sighed and said: "I have more than twenty porpoise dogs, and I will breathe out all of them and stand in front of the second lord. Ren Gong! You are the best at knowing people, so I will entrust Ren Gong to choose one for me. My son, whoever can be established as the emperor can not defeat my emperor's career, and won't implicate those who dig my ancestral grave. Ren Gong, after the king is elected, I will decide to be the emperor. If so, I may be called the second generation of emperor!' Yu and Feng The four eyes met, stunned like a wound, and there were thousands of words in the book in his arms, but he couldn't say a single word. Yuan's sons stood around to serve the banquet, and the young ones, nurses, and swaddled babies served him. Yuan suddenly changed into a sad face and said: "I am like a porcupine dog, There is no kershaw, no one is cowardly and dandy, but the father and the son do not love each other. Although I am angry at this generation's unworthiness, I still don't want to commit crimes because of me. I will cook fish and meat for others in the future. After a hundred years, I will I respectfully entrust the two gentlemen to protect it.' Yu and Feng Zhi resigned, but they couldn't even mention the word 'monarchy'."

After Liang Qichao discovered Yuan Shikai's ambition to proclaim himself emperor, he resolutely wrote the article "The So-Called State System Problem", slamming Yuan Shikai's restoration attempt.When Yuan Shikai learned about it, he panicked and sent someone to give Liang Qichao a silver note of 200,000 yuan (called 100,000 yuan in Liang's text), saying it was to celebrate Liang Qichao's father's birthday, and asked Liang Qichao not to publish this article.It is said that this price is twice the reward for hiring someone to assassinate Sun Yat-sen.Liang Qichao returned the banknote and copied a copy of this article for someone to bring to Yuan Shikai.

Yuan Shikai failed to bribe him, so he sent someone to tell Liang Qichao that Mr. Liang had also been in exile overseas for more than ten years.Liang replied, I have enough experience in running for my life, and I would rather choose to escape than live in dirty air. Liang Qichao and his student Cai E decided to flee to Beijing, raise troops against Yuan, and rebuild the Republic.Before leaving, the two agreed: "If things don't help, we will die, and we will never flee; if it is good, we will retire, and we will never be in court." When Liang Qichao left Beijing, he said goodbye to his wife and explained the reason. The wife said: "I have already seen it, because if you don't tell me, of course I won't ask you." She encouraged Liang with heroic deeds.Every time Liang went out, his wife would not see him off. This night at three o'clock in the evening, she sent Liang to the gate, as if there would be no future.

During the War to Protect the Nation, Liang Qichao went to Long Jiguang alone in order to gain the support of the Guangdong warlord Long Jiguang.Tang Juedun, Tan Xuekui and others sent by Liang before were shot dead by Long Jiguang's subordinates. This trip is really no different from going to Hongmen Banquet.During the dinner, Long's subordinate Hu Lingxuan uttered nonsense, insulting the National Guard Army, Cai E, etc., and turned his eyebrows coldly at Liang Qichao.Liang Qichao was angry and scolded the other party. He slammed the table while talking, and the glasses that were full of seats jingled.Hu Lingxuan was frightened by Liang's aura and ran away quietly. The rest of the people were quite moved and came to shake hands with Liang to apologize after the banquet was over.

After the victory of the War to Protect the Nation, Liang Qichao issued a list of culprits, including Yang Du, Sun Yuyun, Yan Fu, Liu Shipei, Duan Zhigui, Liang Shiyi and other thirteen people, and demanded that they be punished to thank the world.After the promulgation of the order to punish the culprit of the imperial system, none of the parties were caught because they had heard the news in advance and hid in the concessions in Tianjin or Shanghai. On the first National Day after the reconstruction of the Republic of China, Li Yuanhong ordered the National Day ceremony to be held in the first year of the Republic of China, and awarded medals to those who have made contributions since the founding of the Republic of China, including those who have rebuilt the Republic of China.President Li Yuanhong issued an order: "Sun Wen is specially awarded the title of Grand Honor, and Huang Xingxun is awarded one. Cai E, Tang Jiyao, Liang Qichao, Cen Chunxuan, and Lu Rongting will each be awarded one honor in the Republic of China."

Zhang Junmai believes that in modern Chinese politics, if Sun Yat-sen and Liang Qichao can change their discord and hatred into sincere cooperation, it will definitely change the status quo of China.