Chapter 87 This Xiangshuai is a bit divine

In addition to Cixi, there are two people who performed particularly well in the New Deal in the late Qing Dynasty, one is Yuan Shikai and the other is Zhang Zhidong. Everyone is already familiar with Yuan Shikai, so here we will focus on introducing Zhang Zhidong. Zhang Zhidong, the "second generation of officials", won the first place in the Hebei Provincial College Entrance Examination (township examination) at the age of 16. At the age of 26, he was admitted to Tanhua, that is to say, he won the third place in the country in the civil service examination hosted by the emperor. !

He is very fond of smug beauty, so he named himself "Xiang Shuai". I wonder if Chu Liuxiang, the famous character "Xiang Shuai" in Gu Long's works, borrowed the idea from Zhang Zhidong. A young man with a good fortune, good academic performance, and good looks, so Zhang Xiangshuai was inevitably supercilious and talkative, and he was the representative of Qingliu at that time.But the greatness of this man lies in the fact that he can do some practical things in addition to talking. When Zhang Zhidong served as the governor of Huguang, he founded the Hanyang Iron and Steel Works and the Arsenal in accordance with the eight-character principle of "Chinese learning for the body and Western learning for application" invented by him. into a heavy industrial city.To be precise, when the national government moved from Guangzhou to Hankou in 1927, the three towns of Wuchang, Hankou and Hanyang were named "Wuhan".

After Yuan Shikai and Zhang Zhidong received the highest instructions from Cixi, they both mobilized their subordinates to rack their brains to find constructive suggestions. The hero sees the same thing, and both of them have one item in the work report they handed over to Cixi: saving the country through industry and rejuvenating the country through education. I won’t say much about the industry here. Their main innovation point is education: new schools and compulsory education.Education starts from childhood, and on the basis of completing compulsory education, general education and specialized education are carried out according to needs.This is more than that, we must also select outstanding students to send abroad to cultivate modern talents.

Cixi was kind, and called back to the two of them, saying: I have read it, and your idea is good, let's do it! As a result, Yuan Shikai set up new schools in various places in Shandong, including primary schools with compulsory education—four-year free compulsory education, and the first local university in the country—Shandong University Hall, now Shandong University. Zhang Zhidong's approach is similar, but his task is mainly to reform. For example, he changed the self-improvement school he previously ran into a dialect school (Wuhan University), what happened to this handsome man?Everyone is in line with international standards, so he wants to use dialects?This is mainly because Zhang Xiangshuai is a god-man with an out-of-the-box thinking. In his eyes, foreign languages ​​are dialects!Great, right?It is estimated that if Zhang Xiangshuai is to name Beijing Foreign Studies University, he must call it Beijing Dialect School.Then Zhang Zhidong changed Lianghu Academy into Lianghu University Hall.

The two schools of Xiangshuai not only sent the highest number of students studying in Japan in the same period in the country, but also unintentionally provided many future rebel leaders for the great cause of the anti-Qing Dynasty, such as Huang Xing, Song Jiaoren and others all came from these two schools. schools.If Cixi was still alive at that time, Zhang Zhidong would have been dragged out and beaten with 10,000 sticks! Zhang Zhidong can be regarded as a powerful figure, but compared with Yuan Shikai, his courage and courage are still a little bit worse. Although Comrade Yuan Shikai was not a man of high morals and was a bit unscrupulous for the sake of power, he dared to reform, innovate, and was not afraid of risks. He was definitely a great reformer.The reformer Yuan Shikai is now going to make a very creative and forward-looking reform: the reform of officials' wages and salaries.

Speaking of all dynasties, not only the Qing Dynasty, it was popular to raise corruption with a basic salary.The basic wages of civil servants are astonishingly low, but each of them has their own way of earning gray income, and those who have no way know how to create a way to make money. When the income is revealed at the end of the year, all of them are rich. Yuan Shikai knew this very well, because he himself was a master of bribery.Although Yuan Shikai always paid bribes, bribery was not his hobby, but "people are in the Jianghu, and they can't help themselves." In the corrupt official circles of the late Qing Dynasty, it was popular to say hello, hello, hello, everyone.If you are a clean alien, you can't do anything practical.

But Yuan Shikai intends to eliminate this kind of unhealthy officialdom in his own territory: he clearly counts the unspoken rules of making money for officials in the past, converts it into a certain amount, and uses it as the public income of officials at all levels, and distributes it legally on a monthly basis. Just like our "sunshine wages" today.If anyone dares to embezzle again, once they are discovered, they will take off their official clothes and go home to take their children ("Yuan Shikai Memorial")! Of course, Yuan Shikai did not do this to send money to the officials, he wanted a high salary to support his honesty.His plan is this: Use sufficient material rewards as a positive force to prevent officials from being corrupt, and then use strong supervisory and law enforcement agencies as a negative force to prevent officials from being corrupt.Under the "objective" conditions of pros and cons, "faith" and "morality" have the opportunity to play a role, making officials "subjectively" disdain corruption.

Although Yuan Shikai's plan is good, it seems that this plan still lacks a very important link: a strong supervisory organization. Don't worry, Yuan Shikai has already thought about it. He thinks the democratic constitutional system of "separation of powers" is a better solution.He firmly believes that constitutionalism will be realized, and that day will not be too far away! This innovation of Yuan Shikai was appreciated by Cixi: all the governors imitated Yuan Shikai to play out the regulations and push them to the whole country. On the surface, it looks like "10,000 years is too long, just seize the day and night".

It is a pity that Cixi is almost seventy at this time, and she is getting older.People cannot grow old, especially those in power under the feudal system like Cixi, when they get old, they will play with the political concept of "power and position over everything else", firmly grasping the position of power and never letting go of it for a moment. However, as long as you don't threaten her position, she is not useless.Like this time, Cixi was invited to be the spokesperson of the train. This matter has to start with Yuan Shikai's succession.