Chapter 207 206. Congress Extends Term on Its Own

Before leaving Beijing, Li Yuanhong declared that he would go to the House of Representatives to report in person, and that he would hand over the presidential seal to the Congress for safekeeping. Therefore, members of the House of Representatives waited in the House of Representatives until 1:30 in the afternoon, but Li Lai was not seen. The president has left Beijing for Tianjin.So Wu Jinglian, the speaker of the House of Representatives, and Wang Jiaxiang, the former speaker of the Senate, invited dozens of members of the two houses to hold an impromptu meeting in the fifth lounge of the House of Representatives. People invited the military and police authorities to the court, and agreed on two things: (1) The military and police authorities will be responsible for maintaining law and order in the capital. (2) The military and police authorities are responsible for protecting the members of both houses.After Li left, there were rumors that Zhili would use various methods to force the Congress to elect a successor president within a day or two, and had illegal actions against the members. Therefore, it was decided to hold a talk meeting between the members of the two chambers on the next day to discuss the method together.

On June 14th, the National Assembly held a joint talk between the two chambers, with Wu Jinglian as the chairman. He first reported that he and Wang Jiaxiang had invited the military and police authorities to the House of Representatives for discussions the previous afternoon.It is also reported that President Li Da went out of Beijing yesterday, and there was an official letter sent to the two houses, saying that he could not exercise his powers in Beijing, and he had gone to Tianjin on the 13th.Today there is another call requesting resignation, please discuss this.Congressman Wu Zongci, who supports the Cao faction, then spoke, briefly saying that the current situation is extremely serious. Now the only legal authority is the Congress. At this time, colleagues in the two houses have to make a solemn statement. I think the most urgent thing is: (a) ) should hold a meeting of the two chambers on a regular basis to resolve the resignation of President Le Da, and the date should be the 16th. (2) Before the election of the President, his duties shall be performed by the State Council. (3) Once the order is fully restored, a presidential election meeting will be organized to elect the successor president.The current situation is special, and this kind of major issue, I think it is not appropriate to have too much discussion, and it must be dealt with quickly.Song Rumei, a member of the pro-Cao faction, echoed it, while other pro-Cao factions applauded and clamored to pass.Chu Fucheng, a member of the Kuomintang, took the stage to speak. He said loudly: This coup was forced by the military and police hooligans to force the president away. The Congress should have a legitimate expression in order to maintain the country’s discipline... Chu Fucheng’s words have not yet been finished. The councilors shouted and shouted, and the order was chaotic, and Chu was not allowed to continue speaking.Chairman Wu Jinglian took the opportunity to announce the adjournment of the meeting, and the members of the support Cao faction dispersed in a crowd.

That night, Wu Jinglian, Zhang Bolie, Yuan Naikuan, Liu Menggeng, Gao Lingyu and others met in the Yuanjia Garden, and decided to send 500 yuan to each member of the councilors first, and more than 400 councilors to receive the festival money the next day. sent to the House of Representatives.Some members of the opposition refused to accept it, and some accepted it as travel expenses and left Beijing to go south. At 2:00 p.m. on June 16, the two chambers of the Congress met. The resolutions of the Congress can be divided into two parts: (1) In accordance with Article 5, Paragraph 2 of the Presidential Election Act, if the President is unable to perform his duties for any reason, the Cabinet shall perform his functions and powers;

(2) From June 13, no order issued by Le will take effect. It can be seen from this resolution that it is entirely the resolution of the Cao Cao faction.Because the cabinet had already announced the general resignation, which was approved by Li on June 13, but the Congress cited Li's cold telegram (the telegram that Li was coerced by Wang Chengbin on the 14th) as the basis for reinstating the regent, only in terms of time, Also after Le Telegram on the 13th; according to the second resolution of the National Assembly, the orders issued by President Le Grande after the 13th are completely invalid, so why did Le’s orders on the 14th be used as the basis for the State Council’s regency.At the same time, the so-called cabinet at this time did not have a prime minister (the resigned prime minister Zhang Shao was in Tianjin, and the pro-Cao faction did not allow him to return to Beijing), nor did he have the chief ministers of foreign affairs, agriculture, commerce, education, and the army, so it was not a cabinet at all.Not from the theory of fact, but from the theory of law, this so-called cabinet is not qualified to exercise the power of the president for any reason.

These two illegal resolutions of the Congress naturally aroused national resentment. The Kuomintang members in the Congress sent a special telegram to declare that the vote of the meeting of the two houses on June 16 should be invalid.Electric cloud: "Regarding from the newspapers, the two houses received a notice the day before yesterday that a meeting of the two houses will be held at 2:00 pm on the 16th to resolve the resignation of President Li. Members will be present at the meeting. Chairman Wu Jinglian reports that there are more than 400 people present. According to the law, more than two-thirds of the number of people in the meeting can be held before the meeting can be held. The dispute is unresolved, and it has passed 3:40. The meeting of the public is changed to a talk meeting. Chen Mingjian and other nine people should be pushed to each lounge to invite those who did not attend Chen and others called for a talk meeting, and more than ten people continued to enter the venue. According to two-thirds of the number, there were still more than 180 people. It was Luo Jihan's motion to ask for more than half of the number, and still change it to a meeting. The chairman hastily consulted Suddenly, Ma Xiang proposed a telegram, saying that President Li had resigned his post and went to Zimbabwe, and the provisions of Article 5, Item 2 of the "Presidential Election Law" should be applied. All orders after 13 days are invalid. Please pay the chairman Vote. The result of the vote was passed without reporting the number of people. This was the real situation at the venue. The investigation and resolution of the president's resignation should be done according to the number of people in the presidential election meeting. On August 8 last year, the House of Representatives voted to return the president to the president. The resignation address is based on the reason that "the president is elected by the presidential election, and the resignation address cannot be accepted by one house." There is no doubt that such a meeting must have more than two-thirds of the number. Article 21 of the "Organization Law of the National Assembly" also requires more than three-fifths of the number of people. How dare more than half of the non-voting members vote hastily on the extraordinary events of the country. Is the result valid? It is not clear that this kind of meeting will , I don’t know what the basis is? What is the reason? It is illegal. First, the meeting will be held and the announcement will be made to resolve the resignation of President Le Da. For this issue, only votes should be voted on, and it should not involve other issues. It should be Rejection of his resignation is not a single word, but involves other issues, without going through the procedure of changing the agenda, the announcement and the vote are so irrelevant. 2. Article 6 of the constitutional meeting rules, if the number of members present is not enough for the quorum, the speaker may extend the time. Announcing the adjournment meeting, it was changed to a talk meeting, and the spectators remained the same, and changed from a talk meeting to a rendezvous meeting again. They did not follow the legal time and procedures, did whatever they wanted, changed their minds, and regarded the parliament as a trifling matter. Illegal 3. Members, etc., based on the judgment of conscience and justice, dare to declare on the basis of the above-mentioned reasons that all the votes of the meeting of the two chambers on the 16th should be invalid. "

Although the Congress at that time was despised by the people of the country, it still had its existence value and also had certain legal functions. The South stretched out its warm hand to invite the members. Sun Yat-sen sent Liu Chengyu to Beijing to invite the members to go south. Lu Yongxiang also sent a telegram asking them to go to Shanghai to continue the constitution-making work.Wu Jinglian was afraid that the members would leave at the same time, and he would become the bare speaker, so he advised Cao Kun not to hold the presidential election for the time being, and declared to the outside world that the constitution should be drafted first to ease the resentment of the members, lest they really rush him to go.

At this time, the congressmen who stayed in Beijing and the congressmen who left Beijing were fighting with each other.Wu Jinglian summoned a group of parliamentarians staying in Beijing to advise them not to be used by ambitious people in the south, and not to sacrifice the Congress because of Li Yuanhong's advance and retreat. If Beijing is under the rule of warlords and cannot make a constitution with peace of mind, where is there no warlords in the country?Where can the constitution be made?When will the constitution be completed? The congressmen who left Beijing accused the warlords of expelling the president and buying congressmen as their tools. There is also "a festival of 500 yuan, a ticket price of 5,000 yuan, and it is distributed by name, which is like a salary." Ambition ruined Congress.

When members of the Congress leave Beijing, the first stop is Tianjin. There is an office in Tianjin to receive the members who come to Tianjin. Yang Yongtai is in charge. Yang is a member of Cantonese nationality.The office of the National Congress in Tianjin is a transshipment and reception agency. Members of Congress who leave Beijing for Tianjin will be received by the office, and then they will be paid 500 yuan for travel and transportation.As of September 15th, 503 people went to Tianjin to collect travel expenses, and 385 people went to Shanghai to register.Because there are many people who received travel expenses in Tianjin but did not go to Shanghai.

Members of the Congress moved to Shanghai to draft the constitution, recommended Senators Zhang Shizhao and Lu Zhiyi, and members of the House of Representatives Chu Fucheng and Tian Tong to Shanghai for preparations, and rented the Hubei Guild Hall outside Xicheng, Shanghai County as the meeting place for both houses. On July 14th, a meeting for the transfer of the Congress to Shanghai was held. About 200 members of the two houses attended, and the elderly Congressman Ling Hongshou was elected as the chairman. Since Li Yuanhong's restoration, there has been a dispute between the "Eight Members of the People" and the "Six Members of the People" in the Congress.The so-called "National Eighth Councilor" is an extraordinary member of the National Assembly in Guangzhou. Beijing has been unwilling to admit it. After Li Yuanhong was expelled, the National Assembly planned to move south, fearing that there would not be enough quorum for the south. They are also all entertained to the south, but they are required to serve as a reserve team and not to attend the meeting, but all the treatment is exactly the same as that of the councilors. During the rally on July 14, dozens of people from the "Minba Councilors" attended the meeting, a dispute broke out, and they broke up unhappy.

After the split of the National Assembly, the remaining members of Beijing have become a minority, and not all members of the remaining members of Beijing agree with the Zhili pro-Cao faction, so the pro-Cao faction is really a minority group.It is impossible for them to achieve their goals through legal elections, so it is even more impossible to achieve their goals through the constitutional meeting, so they plan to (1) falsify the number of attendees; (2) use non-members as impostors; Members enter the venue, or force members to attend by kidnapping. According to the "Grand Presidential Election Law", two-thirds of all the members of the presidential election must be present at the meeting. At that time, there were 870 members of the two houses, and the number of two-thirds was 580.The number of parliamentarians staying in Beijing cannot make up this number. Not only the presidential election meeting cannot be held, but also the constitutional meeting (which requires three-fifths of the attendance) cannot be held.

Of course, the pro-Cao faction MPs who stayed in Beijing also had to struggle, but parliamentary issues required "money". Li Yuanhong caused a political upheaval because he decided to give congressional funds and congressional attendance fees on his own. Now that Li has stepped down, congressional issues still exist.Therefore, on August 24, 2012, Wu Jinglian invited 152 members of the House of Representatives to talk at Xiangfang Bridge, and Wu proposed three methods for temporary payment: (1) When the two houses hold regular meetings every week, all members present are provided by Congress 100 yuan will be paid in the reserve fee. (2) Every time a meeting is held, the number of people will be counted at the venue, and attendance cards will be issued. When the meeting ends, the attending members will exchange their attendance cards for payment cards. (3) Members of the two houses will pay to the accounting department on the following Monday with the payment card.The proposal passed with 77 votes. Wu Jinglian’s decision was disapproved even by most of the members in Beijing. Wang Jiaxiang, Ji Zhongyin, Li Guozhen, Wang Kan, etc. all sent letters to Wu expressing their opposition. Zhang Hu and others damage state property. The pro-Cao faction hoped that the MPs who stayed in Beijing would not be separated, and at the same time strived for the MPs who went south to return to Beijing. In addition to the 100 yuan attendance fee, another plan was arranged at the same time.It turns out that the term of office of members of Congress will expire on October 10, 2012, and now it is July and August. The Congress is divided, and the number of people in Shanghai or Beijing is not less than the statutory number, so it is impossible to hold a meeting. The expiration of October will come soon. .Wu Jinglian took action to address this weakness, and Congressman Wang Maocai proposed to amend the National Congress Organization Act, adding a clause in Article 7 under the three-year term of the House of Representatives: "The duties of the members of the House of Representatives should be completed after the next election according to law, and the day before the meeting. .” That’s the indefinite extension.Because the next term of parliamentarians are not elected, the current term of parliamentarians can continue to serve.Taking this as a bait, Wu Jinglian sent Congressman Zhang Luquan and others to go south to persuade all congressmen to return to Beijing, and gave each of them 400 yuan for travel expenses. According to the statistics at the end of August, there were 385 MPs who left Beijing to the south. However, the members of the MPs were complex. Among the 385 people who left Beijing to the south, they did not have the same opinion. The attitude of the party can change from south to north, so Congress itself is not healthy. At 8:00 pm on September 2, the important people in the direct line, Xiong Bingqi, Governor of Shandong Province, Gao Lingyu, Chief of Internal Affairs, Wu Yulin, Chief of Transportation, Cheng Ke, Chief of Justice, Wang Yuzhi, Supervisor of the Tobacco Public Sales Bureau and Secretary-General of the Zhiluyu Tour Envoy, Provincial Speaker Bian Shoujing, Jing Zhaoyin Liu Menggeng and other well-known officials invited the Speakers and Deputy Speakers of the two houses and all members of the House of Representatives to a banquet at No. 114 Club in Ganshiqiao, Beijing. More than 200 people attended the banquet.It was the custom in Beijing at that time to treat guests at 8 o'clock and arrive at 10 o'clock when all parties were present, and this banquet was no exception. At 10:10, the guests and hosts arrived, and the host pushed Xiong Bingqi to speak. Xiong said: "Today we invite the gentlemen of the two academies to come, and everyone participated enthusiastically. We feel inexplicably honored. I can represent my colleagues and give a brief introduction. Since June The coup d'état occurred on the 13th, and it has been nearly three months so far. The current situation has no clue. Generally speaking, the organization, executive and legislature of the country bear the same responsibility. Whenever the country is fundamentally shaken, both parties should be held accountable. Maintenance cannot be resolved by one or two executives. Now that domestic affairs are in turmoil, diplomacy is pressing, and the future of the country is in great danger, we must try to remedy it immediately. Today, the core members of the legislative and administrative organs shake hands together, hoping to be open and honest, and work together Study a way to maintain the current situation." As for the guest, Councilor Wang Jingfang replied, briefly saying: "It is an honor for me to accept the favor of the authorities today. I would like to express my gratitude on behalf of you. Now to solve the two major problems of the current situation, one is the constitution and the other is the general election. In terms of weight, constitution-making is more important than general elections; in terms of the current situation, general elections are more urgent than constitution-making. Both issues should be resolved as soon as possible. Tonight, the Mongolian government should be open and honest, discuss with my colleagues, and I should also discuss it earnestly. You don’t need to cover your head and cover your face.” Then, Congressman Luo Jihan made a speech, briefly saying: “It is natural for the legislative and executive organs to be responsible for maintaining the current situation. However, to maintain the current situation, the legislature must be able to maintain the current situation. The term of the members of the House of Representatives is about to expire, and they will not be able to exercise their powers. Representatives of various political groups asked the authorities to extend their terms of office, but the authorities regretted it. I don’t know why? We think this is an important key to maintaining the current situation, and we hope that the authorities will give a real answer .” Xiong Bingqi discussed with Gao Lingxuan and Wang Yuzhi in a low voice for a while, and then he got up and replied: "The question asked by Congressman Luo, according to the government authorities, is that the extension of the term of office of representatives is a bill, should the government propose it?" Come out, or let the parliament itself solve it? It still needs some consideration.” Regarding the extension of the term of the members of the House of Representatives, some advocated that the government should propose it, some advocated the self-determination of the parliament, and some objected to the method of paying attendance fees for regular meetings.In the end, Councilor Ng Lian-ku said: "I think everyone's opinions are not thorough. The current situation is so urgent. Don't focus on digging into the topic. What is the real purpose of today's banquet? We should discuss it nakedly. The general election is a law-mandated decision." How can we evade our obligation? The government should not be shy and afraid to promote general elections for the sake of maintaining the country!" Everyone applauded Wu's words.But the host and guest could not make a decision on this, and the banquet ended at 12 o'clock. Although the Congress in the 12th year of the Republic of China was an important institution, it was also the place with the most disputes.At that time, the Speaker of the Senate Wang Jiaxiang resigned, but the successor speaker was not elected, so the Speaker of the House of Representatives Wu Jinglian became the most important key figure in the current situation.Although Wu Jinglian is important, the role he plays is not flattering. The anti-Cao faction thinks that he is attached to Cao Kun and despises him, while the pro-Cao faction thinks that what he did after the June 13 coup was extremely incompetent and messed things up. It was very complicated, and the time dragged on for a long time, so he was also heavily criticized. Since June 13, the regular meeting of the two chambers of Congress and the constitutional meeting have not been held due to insufficient quorum. Since more than 30 members of the south have returned to Beijing, the regular meeting of the House of Representatives on September 7 was successfully held. There are 302 members of parliament, and the main topic is the extension of the term of office of members.Ma Xiang said that the case was important and asked the speaker to appoint an examiner on the spot.Wu Jinglian then designated Mou Lin, Ma Xiang, Hu Zushun, Xu Fulin, and Wang Jingfang as examiners, and immediately held an examination meeting. After the examination, Hu Zushun reported to the regular meeting.Nonsense: The Review Committee believes that the five-member amendment can be established. The reasons are: (1) The term of the House of Representatives is about to expire, and Congress must not be interrupted. (2) There is no hope of unification in the national political struggle, and there must be a unified parliament to maintain it.However, the original amendment is for the House of Representatives, and the Congress of the Republic of China is established by the Senate and the House of Representatives, so the term of office of senators must also be taken into account.It is hereby amended as follows: one article is added under Article 7, "The first two posts of members shall be dismissed one day before the next election is completed and the meeting is held according to law."The House of Representatives often applauds the examiner's report, and Chairman Wu Jinglian puts the amendment to a vote. There are 308 people present and 261 people standing up, and it is passed by a majority.The third reading meeting will be held on the same day, and the consultation will be sent to the Senate after the meeting. The House of Representatives passed the Members’ Extension bill, and public opinion was uproarious, thinking that this was the prelude to election bribery; the opposition was pinning their hopes on the Senate, hoping that the Senate could correct it and not pass the bill to maintain the credibility and prestige of Congress. Members of the Senate who stayed in Beijing heard that the House of Representatives had passed the Congressional Term Extension Bill and asked the Senate to pass it, so some members issued a public letter expressing their opposition. Although the members of justice were so opposed, the Senate still held a regular meeting on September 26, with 138 people present. Chairman Gu Jiayin and Congressman Zhao Lianqi proposed to change the agenda. And some MPs advocated that there is no need to discuss it, that is to hold a review meeting and review it on the spot.Five people, Song Zhen, Namotu, Wang Xiang, Chen Mingjian, and Lou Yuxiong, were designated by the chairman as examiners.After the examination was completed, Chen Mingjian reported the examination results, and within ten minutes, the third reading meeting was held quickly, and it was passed without discussion. After the two houses passed the proposal to extend the term of office of members on their own, they sent a message to the Regent Cabinet. The Regent Cabinet dared not announce this important event, especially Wu Peifu in Luoyang was particularly opposed.However, Wu Jinglian and the members of the two houses used this incident as a condition for agreeing to the general election. After repeated arguments, the Regent Cabinet had no choice but to announce the extension of the term of Congress and the re-election order of members of the House of Representatives on October 4 at the same time. Since Wu Jinglian did not forgive the anti-Cao faction, and at the same time he was in fact inclined to support the Cao faction, when he was fiercely attacked by the Zhili Jinbao faction who supported Cao, he felt that he was already in an extremely disadvantaged position, so he had to do something for him. If you want to plan for yourself, you have to actively plan for the election.He gritted his teeth and went down the road of election bribery. He ordered the Secretariat of the House of Representatives to issue an agenda to hold a preparatory meeting for the presidential election on September 9 (2012). There is an attendance fee of 200 yuan, and additional medical expenses will be paid to attendees who are ill and physically ill.Even so, the preparatory meeting could not be held due to insufficient number of people.It opened again the next day, but there were still not enough people.Wu Jinglian felt that if he waited for a sufficient number of people, there might be no hope of success, so he ordered Secretary-General Zheng Lingao to send many staff representatives to sign and report the number of people present. Only in this way could the presidential primary election be held. Of course, this kind of deception cannot cover up everything, so on the second day of the primary election, many MPs questioned Wu. The most embarrassing thing for Wu Jinglian was that Sun Yao, who was sent by the Secretary of the House of Representatives to serve in the Discussion Section, also sent a telegram to expose the truth about the falsification of the number of people reported by the "preparatory meeting for the general election".According to today's legal terms, Wu Jinglian committed the crime of forging documents.Sun Yao powers on as follows: "On the 10th of this month, Yao submitted a paper from the Speaker of the House of Representatives. The paper said: I sincerely submit that Yao, who was appointed as the secretary of this court, has been vigilant all day and night since he took office, lest he will not do his job well and be tired. For the discussion department Within the scope of statutory duties, never dare to be careless, and should be inspected. Today's general election preparatory meeting, Yao attended the meeting, audited the number of members, and checked the number of people present on that day. According to the report of the branch checker, the total number is actually four One hundred and thirty-one people, the results of the three inspections at that time were not inaccurate. However, the secretary-general ordered repeatedly to send letters to four hundred and thirty-six people. The secretary made up the meeting for the day. The actual situation of the day. The chief of the department witnessed it and can testify. The Fusi Congress is the legislature, and the staff are legally responsible. They are doing this in a solemn place in the meeting place. Dao, the preparatory meeting is like this, and the official election can be known. Looking forward to the future, I shudder. Yao, a scholar, only knows how to abide by the law. He has served in the parliament for more than ten years, and has never seen such a bad example. If you always agree with this, there is a negative speaker Knowing people's knowledge will also degrade one's own personality. I would like to present the real situation of that day as a warning. If you don't understand and forgive me, and think that you are stupid and can't be tolerated, you will know the crime. That's all, it's up to you to advance or retreat. I would like to present it to Jun Jian, Secretary-General of the Speaker. Sun Yao, Secretary of the Discussion Section. September 16th." Representative Zhang Jinwen sent a letter to Wu Jinglian for the second time because Wu Jinglian ignored the questioning of the members, requesting an official statement to correct the number of people. The congressmen who left Beijing would not even recognize the illegal "presidential primary election" in Beijing, so they sent a telegram to firmly oppose it.