Chapter 9 Chapter 9 A slap in the face for the Kuomintang, the general election of the Congress is not as good as the election of the village head

As the government of the Republic of China becomes stable, will other people have nothing to do and focus on mountains and rivers? No and no.The revolutionaries have other ideas, especially those passionate revolutionary middle-aged people, such as Song Jiaoren. Speaking of Song Jiaoren, I haven't seriously introduced it yet, so let me briefly mention a few words here. Song Jiaoren, courtesy name Dunchu, nicknamed Yufu.Born in Taoyuan, Hunan, in 1882, he was born in the 1980s in the 19th century. His family background is very good, and his ancestors have at least two generations of poor peasants.

I have talked about how Song Jiaoren met Huang Xing and how he failed to rebel and fled to Japan to become a veteran of the League, so I won’t repeat it here. This man is quite different from others. During his stay in Japan, he did not devote his main energy to engaging in politics, but has been studying hard.Interested people often see this man on the campuses of Hosei University and Waseda University in Japan. If you think that Song Jiaoren is a nerd based on this, you are very wrong. He is not aimlessly studying, but to study constitutionalism and law.Moreover, proficiency in the law is not Song Jiaoren's only skill.This person is agile, flexible in mind, firm in will, and very talented as an agent.

In 1907, the year before Cixi and Guangxu's pigtails, Song Jiaoren showed his face once. It is said that in the southeast of Changbai Mountain in China, there is a land of 100,000 square kilometers, which is equivalent to a quarter of Japan's land. The Japanese call it "Jiandao". The Japanese say that "Jiandao" has been their inalienable territory since ancient times.No one believes this, just like today's Koreans say that Confucius belongs to them. The so-called guilty conscience, some people who have committed crimes run away when they see someone in uniform on the street, regardless of whether the person is a security guard, a police officer, or an urban management officer. The reason is nothing but a guilty conscience.The Japanese are also guilty.

Therefore, the Japanese military organization "Changbai Mountain Association" intends to forge a piece of evidence to prove that "Jiandao" is just the land they deposited in China a long, long time ago. I don't know where Song Jiaoren got the inside information, broke into the "Changbai Mountain Club" alone under a pseudonym, and successfully stole the fake evidence of the Japanese forged "Jiandao" destination. Of course, these few understatements are really not enough to describe the thrilling scene at that time. You can refer to the Hong Kong movie "Infernal Affairs" for the specific scene.

After obtaining the evidence, Song Jiaoren escaped from the "Changbai Mountain Society", worked day and night, and finally published a book called "Jiandao Issue" before Japan threw out false evidence. With rigorous logic and convincing evidence, the book demonstrates that the "Jiandao" area has been an inalienable territory of China since the Zhou and Qin Dynasties, and successfully resolved the Japanese conspiracy. The 25-year-old lonely scholar successfully defended the country's territorial sovereignty, which immediately made Song Jiaoren a well-known national hero and an inspirational model at the time.If the Qing Dynasty also had awards such as "Moving the Top Ten Figures of the Qing Dynasty in 1907", Song Jiaoren would easily be elected with a high number of votes.

Later, Comrade Yuan Shikai reported Song Jiaoren's heroic deeds to Cixi, the supreme leader of the country who was seriously ill.After hearing this, Cixi was also very moved, and immediately issued the highest order to cancel the arrest warrant for Song Jiaoren.Therefore, Song Jiaoren became the only person who was recognized by Cixi as a chaotic party but rehabilitated. However, Song Jiaoren was not moved by Cixi. He continued to persist in the rebellion, and made a lot of contributions to the revolutionary party's cause of overthrowing the Qing Dynasty. After the end of the Qing Dynasty, Song Jiaoren did not relax.Because expelling the Tartars is only his primary ideal, he still has the ultimate ideal - say no to the rule of man, realize the rule of law, and realize democratic constitutionalism.This ultimate ideal was the fundamental driving force for his intensive study of constitutionalism and law in Japan, and it was also the reason why he was obsessed with forming the Kuomintang.

Before continuing to tell the story of Song Jiaoren, this boring political term "democratic constitutionalism" must be explained, because it will appear repeatedly in the future. Democratic constitutionalism roughly refers to the establishment of a complete constitution-based legal system and related political systems to limit government abuse of power, regulate citizen behavior, protect human rights and democracy, and achieve social justice. If the above paragraph is difficult to understand, please use the United States, Britain, and France, which are examples of democratic constitutionalism, as references to help you understand.

If you still can’t figure it out, just remember this sentence: Separation of powers and checks and balances are the core, rule of law is the means, and freedom and democracy is the goal. Well, I have mentioned Song Jiaoren's formation of the Kuomintang many times before, so let's talk about the Kuomintang that Song Jiaoren spent a lot of energy and effort on. In the "Temporary Agreement", there is an agreement that is beneficial to everyone other than Yuan Shikai.The original text is as follows: "Within ten months after the implementation of this Act, the Interim President shall convene the National Assembly. The organization and election laws of the National Assembly shall be determined by the Senate..."

In other words, at the latest in February 1913, Yuan Shikai must hold parliamentary elections.The party that gets the most votes in the election is the ruling party, responsible for forming the cabinet and serving as the prime minister.After the congressional elections are over, the words in front of the interim government and the interim president can be officially removed. Therefore, all comrades with ambition, prestige, and strength have organized political parties and marched into the congressional elections.As a result, vigorous party-forming movements began to be staged in major cities across the country.

After a rough calculation, there are nearly 300 political parties, large and small, across the country. At that time, the threshold for joining the party was relatively low. As long as you were a person, you could join multiple parties at the same time and become a cross-party person.If you have not crossed the party, you are embarrassed to go out and say hello to others.So some fierce men are members of a dozen parties at the same time. Like Prime Minister Zhao Bingjun, he doesn't know how many parties he has joined, which is very maddening. Fortunately, there are not many decent parties, so let's briefly talk about the important ones.

Jiang Kanghu's "Chinese Socialist Party" was the first established party. Although the "Chinese Socialist Party" is a small party, it has its own characteristics. They are the first political party organization to carry the banner of "socialism" in Chinese history.A brief mention, Comrade Li Dazhao is the secretary of the Tianjin branch of the party. Then there are the United Party of Zhang Jian, Zhang Taiyan and others, the "Republican Party" of Li Yuanhong, and the "Democratic Party" of Tang Hualong. These three parties basically belong to the stronghold of the constitutionalists and are very powerful. Next is the legendary Kuomintang. Since resigning from the cabinet, Song Jiaoren started the most glorious journey in his life. With his erudition, eloquence and hard work, as well as his reputation as the League and the Revolutionary Party, he quickly merged several small political parties. In August 1998, the largest political party in China, the Kuomintang, was established in Beijing, and the Tongmenghui withdrew from the stage of history. In name, Sun Yat-sen was the chairman of the Kuomintang, but Song Jiaoren was actually in power.At the moment Sun Yat-sen is obsessed with his railway industry plan, so he doesn't have the mind to meddle in party affairs. Compared with Sun Yat-sen, Huang Xing and others, Song Jiaoren, who was proficient in constitutionalism and law, obviously had a deeper understanding of modern political systems.He really understood the true meaning of "legislative power supremacy, power checks and balances" in democratic politics, and his idea of ​​trying to lead the Kuomintang to victory in the congressional elections and organize a complete party cabinet can be regarded as a classic textbook example. However, Comrade Song Jiaoren, who set a classic example, also made a classic mistake. It is said that before accepting the merger of the Kuomintang, several parties made a request: the merger is possible, but the original "equality between men and women" of your League cannot be written into the party platform, and women are not allowed to join the Kuomintang. After thinking about it, Song Jiaoren felt that he had made a profit, so he agreed. Although the starting point of Song Jiaoren's reversing behavior of history is not bad, although there is not one more Song Jiaoren who discriminates against women, such as Chinese characters entertainment, playing, greed, envy, jealousy, dislike, sycophant, arrogance, demon, slave, prostitute , prostitute, rape, concubine, whore and prostitute, which one does not discriminate against women?But Song Jiaoren's behavior still offended Tang Qunying, the "big sister" of the Tongmenghui (Zeng Guofan's sister-in-law and Qiu Jin's neighbor).Sister Tang didn't care what Song Jiaoren's motives were, she decided that it was wrong for him to discriminate against women.With a fiery temper, she responded quickly——slapped Song Jiaoren loudly across the face.Song Jiaoren was very depressed. Alright, let Comrade Song Jiaoren, who made a mistake, cool off for a while, let's greet our acquaintance Liang Qichao first. The day of the final election of the government is getting closer. The gathering of heroes is full of wind and clouds.Liang Qichao, who had been in exile overseas for more than ten years, also returned to China. Liang Qichao came back with the excitement of a big fight and his latest theoretical research results. He felt that the new National Congress of the Republic of China was a good stage for him to realize his political ambitions. Liang Qichao came to Beijing with excitement, he was going to see Yuan Shikai. Yuan Shikai was also very excited when he learned that Liang Qichao, who had scolded him for many years, now wanted to join him. He met this former friend and enemy with a high standard and a low profile. After the two met, they didn't mention much about the past, and entered the theme after the politeness. Liang Qichao showed his research results to Yuan Shikai.He said that the political power of the Republic of China can be divided into three factions.The first faction is Yuan Shikai's military and political power faction, the second faction is the constitutional faction, and the third faction is the revolutionary faction.The first faction does not need to form a political party, the second faction needs to form a political party, and the third faction is transformed into a political party.The military and political power faction holds the actual administrative power, while the constitutional faction and the revolutionary faction form a political party to compete for legislative power in the parliament. The constitutional faction and the military and political power faction should unite against the revolutionaries.In this way, the smooth transition of the Republic of China can be successfully completed. After listening to Yuan Shikai, he felt that Liang Qichao's theory not only captured the essence of the separation of powers, but also greatly reduced the risk of the revolutionary party's rebellion, so he told him affirmatively: "I support your plan, and you can rest assured that I will handle things." The two hit it off.President Yuan Da contributed money, Liang Qichao out of his mouth, the country's second largest party - the "Progressive Party" emerged from the merger of the "Republican Party", "United Party" and "Democratic Party". The program of the Progressive Party is "nationalism," which probably means that they believe that the people's wisdom is not yet mature, and they should follow the line of elite governance and strengthen centralization, which is conducive to national stability and the efficiency of national construction.It seems that they want to wrestle with the "democracy" of the Kuomintang. Now that the political parties have arrived, the next thing is naturally to win votes. For Chinese people, political elections are a new thing, but there is a classic example of a democratic republic in the United States, so it won't be so dark. The most important thing in the congressional election is how to choose the right voters. Meals have to be eaten bite by bite, and democracy has to be implemented step by step. With the quality of the people at that time, it was impossible to implement universal suffrage in the true sense.Therefore, the government’s requirements for voters at that time were quite high: 1. Age limit: over 21 years old; 2. Restriction on place of residence: living in the electoral district for more than two years; 3. Property restrictions: the annual tax payment is more than two yuan, and the value of real estate is more than five hundred yuan; 4. Restrictions on academic qualifications: Primary school graduates or above or equivalent academic qualifications; 5. Men only (still discriminates against women). As a result, the number of registered voters in each province is more than 40 million, accounting for about 10% of the total population of the country. Realistically speaking, this progress should not be small. In February 1913, nearly a year after Yuan Shikai took office as interim president, China held its first congressional election in history. Everyone is campaigning hard to win the congressional election. As the actual leader of China's largest political party at the time, 31-year-old Song Jiaoren was of course busy making speeches across the country to win votes. His slogans "governing the country by law, democratic constitutionalism" and the concept of "party cabinet" are more marketable than the "nationalism" of the constitutionalists. His speeches are also very provocative and won the support of the general public for the Kuomintang. Song Jiaoren is working hard for his ideal republic. Success seemed very close to him. Democracy is gradually becoming popular, and ambitious politicians are working hard to run for office. This is much better than copying guys and fighting wars in order to fight for power. However, success seems to be far away from him. During the campaign, the Eight Immortals of all parties and parties in various places showed their talents and did everything they could. Few people followed the rules.Such as canvassing, robbing, destroying votes, bribery with money, and even violent threats and coercion. If you just talk about what they did, everyone would never have thought that it was a congressional election, and they would have thought it was the current village chief election.To put it a little bit honestly, the chaos in the first election is really not news.Even now, election scandals continue to emerge in many countries and regions, not to mention China, which first tasted a democratic republic a hundred years ago.If you want to blame, you can only blame that votes are a good thing. There is no doubt that this is a chaotic era. But it is undeniable that this is also an era of freedom, an era of vitality. Perhaps, they are too young or even impulsive to have the ability to control China. But it is precisely because they are young that they are full of passion. They are making unremitting efforts for ideals rather than money. Therefore, we should admire them, admire their passion and dedication to serve the country, admire their ability to dedicate their youth to the age of change, and admire their ability to dedicate their blood to the age of sacrifice. Song Jiaoren's efforts were very fruitful. The Kuomintang won a majority of seats in the general election. According to the Provisional Constitution, Song Jiaoren, the chairman of the Kuomintang, should be the prime minister of the cabinet. The victory of the Kuomintang in the election not only made the whole party happy, but also made Song Jiaoren full of spirits and thoughts: forming a cabinet is just around the corner, and China is in sight. Maybe it won’t be long before I can realize my self in the ancient land of China. The great ideal of serving the country and saving the people that he has fought for all his life-to realize democratic constitutionalism and rule the country by law.Looking back on the first half of my life, although I have gone through ups and downs, I have turned dangers out of danger many times and made it to the next level. Now I am even more fortunate to be a member leading the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. What more can I ask for in this life! But he never imagined that the danger was slowly approaching him.