Chapter 77 Eight Hundred Arhats: The First Congress

The first Chinese National Congress was elected in 1912, the first year of the Republic of China, and formally established in 1913.Before that, the Qing Dynasty set up a government office called Zizhengyuan, and the people in it thought they were sitting in the National Assembly, but legally speaking, they were not.Before the Congress of the Qing Dynasty had time to open, the revolution came.In the first parliamentary election, the Kuomintang, which had just been reorganized by the Tongmenghui, won a big victory.The reason for the big victory is not necessarily that everyone supported the Kuomintang, but that the gentry in charge of the local affairs were not sure about what this member of Congress was doing, and secondly, they were kind-hearted, thinking that since it was the Republic of China, things would be fine. The revolutionaries of this family will do it.Voters at that time were restricted not only by gender, women did not have the right to vote, but also by property restrictions. The annual tax was two yuan, and the real estate was five hundred yuan (at that time, it was not a small number).Therefore, there are not many voters, and even fewer people actually stand for election.According to the memory of people at the time, there were not many campaign activities in the election. It was nothing more than candidates running to teahouses to give speeches, and it was fine if no one listened.Therefore, there are vote bribes, but not many.It's not that people's democratic qualities are high, but that people don't quite understand it.

In the first Congress, there were more than 800 members of the Senate and the House of Representatives, known as the Eight Hundred Arhats. The Congress opened on April 8, 1913. It is said that at the opening ceremony, the most eye-catching person was not the president, let alone a congressman, but the man who directed the military band. He was so energetic, tall, confident, and brightly dressed.The first thing that Eight Hundred Arhats did was to set a salary for themselves.Not to mention, some people really suggested that it should be less, saying that the country is in financial difficulties, and members of parliament should lead by example.Of course, there is nothing less, two or three thousand yuan a year, and about two hundred yuan a month, which is already equivalent to the salary of a government-recommended official or a university professor.However, some people disagree, advocating "a high salary to support honesty", and the annual fee is 5,000 oceans.As soon as the result was voted, the five thousand yuan plan was passed—even if it is a member of parliament, who would think that the money is too little?In this way, members of Congress are just like short-term government officials. That is to say, the salary of members of Congress is equivalent to that of the deputy ministers of various ministries of the central government.In that year, the central government had only nine ministries, each with only one deputy minister.At that time, prices were low. Eight yuan a month could support a family of five or six, and one thousand yuan could buy a courtyard house.With an annual salary of 5,000 yuan, the councilor has definitely become the top high-paying class in the capital.In addition, when they first came to Beijing, most of the members did not bring their families, so the members of the two houses became frequent visitors to the Bada Hutong.According to the saying at the time, in the Eight Great Hutongs, the two courtyards and one hall had the most people.Needless to say, the salary of the professor is high, and most of the students at that time were masters with Jinshi background and rich families.Due to the high salaries of parliamentarians, a small number of parliamentary seats that can be controlled by the government, such as Mongolian senators, have become gifts for Yuan Shikai.After Cao Rulin entered the Republic of China, Yuan Shikai rewarded him with the title of Mongolian parliamentarian when he did not enter the government for a while.However, being the Eight Hundred Arhats of the Congress is not without some risks.In principle, members of Congress cannot be arrested without the consent of the Congress, but in the early Republic of China, members of Congress were often arrested by the Military Law Office of the Beijing Normal University. The Congress protested, released them, and then arrested them again.

Members of Parliament with rich pockets, but the level of governance is not very good.When there was a disagreement, the ink cartridges flew around at every turn, and even twisted together. The congressional staff later simply embedded the ink cartridges in the table.Members are critical of the government's administration at the meeting. During the meeting, they are always at war, and they can't talk about it. Everything can only be coordinated behind the scenes.In the eyes of Jing Meijiu, a member of the old alliance who is a member of Congress, Congress is all a kind of boring comedy. The gist.” Conversely, the government doesn’t know how to deal with the parliament.Once Lu Zhengxiang, the foreign minister who also served as the prime minister, went to the parliament to preach the policy plan. When Lu came to power, he talked about diplomatic etiquette, saying how much the Russian tsar valued etiquette, even the menu was so particular.In the end, he was interrupted by a member of the parliament and asked him to get down to business, but Acting Prime Minister Lu still rambled on in a leisurely manner. In the end, the parliament was in chaos, and in the end, the member did not understand what was going on with the policy plan.Not long after Yuan Shikai came to power, he borrowed a large sum of money from the West, which is known as "a big loan for aftermath".It is reasonable to pass the parliamentary deliberation in advance, but Yuan Shikai signed it first, and the matter is over.The parliament raised questions, and Yuan Sui sent Duan Qirui, the acting prime minister at the time, the chief of the army, to the parliament to answer.No matter how the members of the Kuomintang yell and scold, Duan Qirui has only one sentence: the loan case is now sent to Congress for ratification.In the end, this large loan was actually negotiated privately, and the Senate and the House of Representatives also passed it.Because if it is not passed, the president is bound to be impeached, and the congressmen have thought about it, but they don't have the guts.

The large loan was used by Yuan Shikai to use force against the Kuomintang forces in the south. Of course, it is not ruled out that there is a small fraction of it, which was given to the congressmen as annual fees.Yuan Shikai cut off the Kuomintang in the south and forced Sun Yat-sen and Huang Xing to go into exile, but the leader of the Kuomintang fled, and most of the Kuomintang members in the Congress did not leave. They did not want to leave, and Yuan Shikai did not want them to leave either, because he still had one The big thing has not been done - the hat of his own president is still temporary.According to the rules, the official president must be elected after the constitution is agreed.The draft constitution has not yet been drawn up, how can the president be elected first?However, Yuan Shikai couldn't wait any longer, and first forced the Congress to revise the procedures, first to elect the president and then formulate the constitution, and then to force the Congress to hold a presidential election immediately, and replace Yuan Shikai's interim president's hat with a formal one.Before the election, most of the members actually intended to submit. If Yuan Shikai treated him with courtesy, he would be elected without any problem.However, Yuan Shikai was not at ease, or his son, the eldest son Yuan Keding, was not at ease. He sent a group of citizens disguised as military police to surround the Congress, declaring that if the congressmen did not elect the president they approved, they would not be allowed to come out. No saliva was given to drink.The councilors were starving and hadn't had any soup all day. At midnight, President Yuan was finally elected.As soon as he turned around, Yuan Shikai killed the donkey, ordered the confiscation of the credentials of the KMT members, and drove them out of Beijing.Without the Kuomintang members, the Congress could not reach a quorum, and it has been rested ever since.The members of the Progressive Party, who are obsessed with parliamentary politics, suddenly realized at this time, but it was too late.The parliament met again and had to wait three years later, when Yuan Shikai died.But by this time, the country is torn apart, and Congress has long since changed its taste.