Chapter 28 Section five

Sun Yat-sen began to fade out of politics and devoted himself to people's livelihood and industry. Now the most active and practical work in the Tongmenghui is Song Jiaoren, a talented politician who is only 30 years old. Unlike Yuan Shikai, who was half-new and half-old, whose ideological roots were in feudalism, the young Song Jiaoren was a "new person" deeply bathed in modern European and American constitutional thoughts; The difference is that Song Jiaoren has both rich theoretical literacy and outstanding organizational skills, and is a down-to-earth activist.Many fundamental laws in the early Republic of China were written by Song Jiaoren. The most important achievement of the legal system of the Republic of China, the extremely far-reaching "Interim Constitution of the Republic of China", was successfully drafted overnight by Song Jiaoren with a few people.

After taking over the actual work of the Tongmenghui, Song Jiaoren first united with several larger domestic political parties at that time, expanded the Tongmenghui, and formed the Kuomintang. As soon as the Republic of China was established, the history of Chinese people worshiping their masters and calling them slaves ended. They themselves became the masters of the country, and their enthusiasm for participating in politics was high, which set off a climax of organizing political parties. From February to August 1912, there were 85 political parties registered in the provisional government alone. Including unregistered parties, it is estimated that more than 300 political parties were formed nationwide that year.These political parties, divided and combined, one established and the other dispersed, and their activities were frequent, became a major political landscape in the early years of the Republic of China.

The first taste of party politics is naturally immature in its vigorous development.More than 300 political parties emerged in one night, ranging in size from hundreds of thousands of people to dozens of people; everyone advertised the republic, and there was no difference in purpose; the parties were loosely organized, and their access was like child's play, and cross-party phenomenon It is very common: Huang Xing has 11 party memberships, Li Yuanhong has 9, Xiong Xiling has 8, Tang Shaoyi has 7, Wang Jingwei has 5, Liang Qichao has 3... Each party only cares about attracting famous people to join the party to support the appearance, and there is no organizational principle at all.

Although there are political parties established and active in every province, most of them are concentrated in cities. There are 82 political parties in Beijing, 80 in Shanghai, 25 in Guangzhou, 16 in Nanjing, and 10 in other cities. the following. Among these political parties, the most worth mentioning is the Socialist Party of China.This was the first political party in Shanghai established on the second day of Shanghai's recovery (November 4, 1911). It was also the first political organization in the country to use the name "party" and the first political party in China to call itself socialist.At its peak, the party had hundreds of thousands of members.

Those with a large scale and strong influence include the Kuomintang, which is being formed by Song Jiaoren, the Republican Party with Li Yuanhong as the chairman, and the Democratic Party with Tang Hualong as the secretary-general and Liang Qichao as the leader. When Song Jiaoren reorganized the Tongmenghui, many small parties came to join him, hoping to merge. However, Song Jiaoren considered the value of the Tongmenghui, and only selected the United Republican Party, the National Gongjin Association, the Guomin Gong Party, and the Republican Real Progressive Association. party cooperation.

On August 25, 1912, the founding meeting of the Kuomintang was held in the Huguang Guild Hall in Beijing.Sun Yat-sen was elected chairman of the board with a majority of 1,130 votes.Sun Yat-sen refused to accept his resignation, so the Central Committee of the Kuomintang decided to appoint Song Jiaoren as the acting chairman. Just when everyone was worried about Yuan Shikai's monopoly power, Song Jiaoren believed that Yuan Shikai could control the government now, but the Kuomintang could control the Congress; according to the "Provisional Constitution", the Congress has great power. As long as it has a majority of seats in the Congress, let alone restrict Yuan Shikai Even the prime minister is at your fingertips.

His ideal is the "party cabinet", that is, the government is taken over by a party that wins the general election. In this way, the situation of Yuan Shikai's government with both former Qing bureaucrats and revolutionaries involved with each other can be changed.The significance of the party cabinet is that it can be elected to protect civil rights and efficiently operate and govern the country. Yuan Shikai is a master when it comes to playing traditional tricks and conspiracies, but Song Jiaoren is much more expert than Yuan Shikai when it comes to modern democratic politics.Song Jiaoren did a lot of solid organizational work, and the KMT’s organizational structure quickly covered all provinces in the country. Young students, rude warriors, peddlers and market philistines were all welcome to join; The organization first writes the accession document, and then asks it to sign it.The Kuomintang became the largest party in the country.

On February 4, 1913, the Senate and the House of Representatives were re-elected. Under Song Jiaoren's planning and leadership, the KMT won 392 seats, an absolute majority. In April 1913, the first National Congress of the Republic of China will be held.After completing the establishment of the Kuomintang, the ambitious Song Jiaoren traveled all over the country, determined to win the post of prime minister in the congressional election. Song Jiaoren's extraordinary talent has already attracted Yuan Shikai's great attention.Yuan Shikai admired his talent very much and hoped very much to get him and use him, so he tried his best to get close to Song Jiaoren.

He saw that Song Jiaoren was always dressed in shabby clothes, so he gave him a suit - this is not an ordinary suit, Song Jiaoren put it on behind him, and found that the size of his body was all appropriate!It can be seen that Yuan Shikai's intentions are cut. Yuan Shikai also gave Song Jiaoren a check for 500,000 yuan from the Bank of Communications.Song Jiaoren took two or three hundred yuan, and then asked Zhao Bingjun to return it, and wrote to Yuan Shikai: I dare not refuse the gift from my elders, but I really don't need much money, so after using what I need, I put the rest Return you.

Yuan Shikai simply asked Song Jiaoren to be the Prime Minister of the cabinet.However, Song Jiaoren had to elect the prime minister according to the Provisional Constitution of the Republic of China; moreover, according to the provisions of the cabinet system, the prime minister was responsible to the Congress, not to the president, who could only be a virtual head of state. Song Jiaoren didn't get in, the more talented he was, the more he became Yuan Shikai's confidant.Tan Renfeng said: "In the Kuomintang, Yuan Zhi is most jealous of Song Jiaoren." In the early spring of 1913, before the convening of the National Congress, Song Jiaoren set off from his hometown Taoyuan, Hunan, passed through Changsha and Wuhan and went east along the river, and then inspected party affairs in Shanghai, Hangzhou, Nanjing and other places.At that time, the Kuomintang won a big victory in the election campaign, and the morale of party members was high. Wherever Song Jiaoren went, there were crowds of people at the welcome meeting. Song Jiaoren made speeches everywhere, showing his sharpness and aggressiveness.He criticized the current government for nothing, and even said that Yuan Shikai "dig his own grave and bring about his own destruction."

"If you can't get it and use it, get rid of it!" This is the traditional wisdom of political struggle in China.Just as Song Jiaoren was running around for the prime minister election of the Congress, Yuan Shikai deeply felt that this person was too threatening, and he could not stop the prime ministership from falling into Song Jiaoren's hands in the election. It is not known whether Yuan Shikai's murderous intention had already been taken, but the next vicious incident that shocked both at home and abroad killed the germination of democratic politics in the Republic of China. While Song Jiaoren was running around to promote, he received a telegram from Yuan Shikai asking him to return to Beijing to discuss important government affairs.Song Jiaoren went to Beijing by train in Shanghai. Death was approaching the young statesman. On March 20, 1913, Song Jiaoren got on the train at Shanghai Railway Station with Huang Xing, Yu Youren and others seeing him off.Just as he was reaching out to pick up the cut ticket at the ticket gate, a gunshot rang out, and Song Jiaoren was shocked. Then he put his hand on his right waist and shouted: "There is an assassin! I was shot!" Disorder at the station.Everyone hurriedly supported him and looked around, only to see a short man running away desperately. Suddenly there was a big change, the senders were divided into two groups, one group called the police to pursue the murderer, and the other group called a car to send Song Jiaoren to Shanghai-Nanjing Railway Hospital on Target Road. The hospital invited two foreign doctors, Galben and Billinghas, to consult, and they believed that the injury was serious and surgery was necessary.The operation used forceps to remove the bullet from the lower abdomen and found that the bullet was poisonous! At 2 o'clock in the middle of the night, five surgeons operated for the second time. The intestines were stitched and washed, food and blood were removed, and the mouth was closed.Song Jiaoren was in great pain, moaning and tossing, fainted several times, and his miserable feelings were too horrible to bear. When Song Jiaoren was conscious, he pulled Yu Youren's head to his chest with his hands, gasped heavily, and struggled to say, "I'm in great pain, and I'm afraid I won't be able to live any longer. Now I have three requests: first , all my books are donated to the Nanjing Library; second, my family is very poor and my mother is still alive, please take care of me after my death; finally, please continue to fight to save the country, and don’t give up your responsibilities because of me.” Yu Youren and the caregiver who came to see her burst into tears and nodded desperately. In the early morning of March 22, Song Jiaoren's condition worsened, his hands became cold, and his eyes turned upwards; at 4 o'clock in the morning, he could no longer speak, and only looked around with dim eyes, full of reluctance. Huang Xing, Yu Youren, Chen Qimei, Fan Hexian and others surrounded the sick bed.Huang Xing endured his grief and said loudly in Song Jiaoren's ear, "Du Chu, we will take care of everything for you, so don't worry!" Song Jiaoren forcefully opened his eyes, a layer of tears welled up in his eyes, and he slowly stopped breathing. A great revolutionary, an outstanding statesman, a pioneer of China's democratic constitutionalism, a pillar of the Kuomintang, and a 31-year-old handsome man of the generation, Song Jiaoren, passed away without knowing why. Huang Xing, Yu Youren, etc. caressed the corpse and wept bitterly; Chen Qimei beat her chest and stamped her feet: "I'm not reconciled, this matter is really reconciled!" Chen Qimei spent 200 silver dollars to buy a high-quality coffin for her deceased friend, and at the same time invited someone from the photo studio to take pictures of the body.When taking pictures, Huang Xing advocated that Song Jiaoren should be neatly dressed to reflect the integrity of his life; Fan Hexian believed that the Song family had to take a historic photo after being murdered.So today we can still see photos of Song Jiaoren with his wounds exposed. After the news that Song Jiaoren was assassinated and dying spread, the whole society was shocked, and a large number of strangers came to the hospital to visit; when his body was moved to the Huguang Guild Hall, there were huge crowds of people seeing him off.Everyone was furious and strongly demanded a thorough investigation of the truth and severe punishment for the murderer. Song Jiaoren was assassinated and reported to Beijing. Yuan Shikai was having dinner. He heard the news: "It's a pity to be blunt at the beginning. If I knew it earlier, why bother?" Then he guessed the murderer. Want to be prime minister, so the Kuomintang rushed.Zhang Shizhao who was present couldn't stand listening, and left the meeting angrily. Cabinet Prime Minister Zhao Bingjun was presiding over a regular cabinet meeting. When he heard the news, his face was full of shock, and he kept circling around the table while talking to himself: "If people say that I killed Song Jiaoren, wouldn't it be that I betrayed my friends? How can I be regarded as a human being?" ?" Yuan Shikai issued an announcement, strongly condemning the assassination and ordering an immediate investigation. The investigation went very well.Two students came to report that a man named Wu Shiying, who lived with them in the Luming Hotel, borrowed money from them and said that he would pay it back immediately after he killed someone and got the reward.Chen Qimei immediately reported to the patrol room in the concession to arrest Samurai Ying at the Luming Hotel. He did not see Samurai Ying, but found the business card of a person named Ying Guixin, and arrested Ying Guixin, and copied a large number of original documents.The document revealed Ying Guixin's instigator and source of funds, which came from Hong Shuzu, secretary of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the State Council in Beijing. The confiscated documents showed that Hong Shuzu's order was precisely Zhao Bingjun, the Prime Minister who was afraid of being "not counted as a human being"! Zhao Bingjun is also Yuan Shikai's confidant.At this point, it is too difficult for people not to doubt Yuan Shikai.In three or four days, the truth about the assassination of Song Dynasty was basically revealed. As for who killed Song Jiaoren, there is still no consensus that everyone agrees with.In addition to Yuan Shikai, some people think that it may have come from the hands of Zhao Bingjun. Getting closer is also a threat to him who is the prime minister. The judiciary began an in-depth investigation.The Shanghai District Prosecutor's Office summoned Prime Minister Zhao Bingjun, Zhao Bingjun asked for leave and shirked it, and at the same time released rumors that Huang Xing was seriously suspected;Next, strange things happened frequently in this case: On April 24, Samurai Ying died suddenly in prison; on January 19 of the following year, Ying Guixin was killed on the train; After being forced to resign, Zhao Bingjun, a well-known intellectual, was poisoned in the Tianjin Superintendent’s Office, bleeding to death from his seven orifices; His son, Song Zhenlu, and his secretary were entangled. On April 5th, he was sentenced to be hanged for the crime of master homicide, but his head was beheaded during the execution...