One of the two new political forces in the Qing court was the upstart faction, represented by the Prince of Alcohol Zaifeng, who was also Guangxu's younger brother. Now Zaifeng has been in the military aircraft department for nearly two years, because of the support of Cixi, and Zaifeng's own performance is also remarkable, although there is no big outstanding, but he has not made any mistakes, and Dan has now established a team based on the relatives of Prince Alcohol.

Of course, Zaifeng was able to be chosen by Cixi, not because he had any outstanding abilities, mainly because his mother-in-law was Cixi's sister, and his wife was Ronglu's daughter. Therefore, there are also rumors in private that Cixi is preparing Guangxu's heir. Although after the Gengzi State Change, Cixi has given up the plan to abolish Guangxu, but Guangxu has never had an heir, although he is still young, but his body has been sick, and it is completely appropriate to prepare an heir, and Guangxu inherited the throne of Tongzhi back then, and also took the younger brother and brother, and now the situation is complicated, although the Qing court has stabilized, but the country needs an adult monarch, Zaifeng is Guangxu's own brother, and it is reasonable to choose him as Guangxu's heir.

The other force is the Qing school, represented by Qu Hongzhen and Cen Chunxuan. In fact, the Qing school has always been an important political force in the Qing court during the Tongguang period, and it boasted of itself with "the courage to speak and do things, flaunt the style and integrity, and pass through the world", and when the imperial court mainly used the Qing school to check and balance the Westerners, Zhang Zhidong and Zhang Peilun were important cadres of the Qing school. However, most of the Qing school are people who are good at empty words, do not know current affairs, and have low eyes, so they either turn to the Westernists like Zhang Zhidong, or bid farewell to officialdom completely like Zhang Peilun.

In fact, Qu Hongzhen has nothing to do with the original Qing school, he fled west with the Empress Dowager Cixi when the Gengzi Kingdom changed, he was loyal, and assumed the responsibility of writing the decree, so he won the appreciation of the Empress Dowager Cixi, and soon entered the military plane after returning to Beijing. However, Qu Hongzhen was a very rare honest and honest official in the Qing court at this time, and his personal ethics could be compared with Bao Zheng and Hai Rui, but such people often boasted of being upright and high, and had a sense of mission, and would speak out and admonish things they were not used to, and they were not merciless at all, and there were indeed some similarities with the Qing school in the early years.

Cixi also intends to make Qu Hongzhen the new leader of the Qingliu, because although this group of people is not good at doing things, they are good at scolding, so they are really useful when necessary.

This time there was no loss from these two factions, and one person from each was in the military aircraft department, so for a period of time in the future, it was an important force that Cixi relied on to balance the government.

There is also a faction that is the neutral faction, which is represented by Li Hongzhang and Zhang Zhidong, as well as Wang Wenshao, who withdrew from the military aircraft one step earlier. The characteristic of this faction is that they are all old fritters in the officialdom, and they have been officials for many years, and their prestige is well-known, and they are extremely influential. Of course, they will not easily favor a certain faction, but are consistent with the imperial court, because they are all old and sophisticated, and proficient in the way of officials, so the prediction of the trend of the imperial court is very accurate, and often become the vane that drives the tendency of most officials.

Cixi's technique is also simple to say, that is, to use the real power faction to do things, and use other factions to contain the real power faction and restrain each other. And the simpler the truth, the more it shows that Cixi has played political power to the realm of supernatural power.

After the formation of the new military aircraft team, Yuan Shikai, who had just entered the military aircraft department, immediately went to the imperial court and asked to send officials abroad to inspect the constitutionalism of other countries and prepare for the constitutionalization of China.

It turned out that although the Russo-Japanese War had not yet ended, Japan had already gained absolute superiority and won a rather brilliant victory on the battlefield.

However, summing up the reasons why Japan was able to defeat Russia, Chinese public opinion basically boils down to the victory of the constitutional government over the autocracy, because Japan is a constitutional country, Russia is an autocratic state, and the constitutional state must be better than the autocratic state in the war between the constitutional state and the autocratic state, so if China wants to become rich and strong, it must establish a constitution. Some media also brought in the East China government, saying that the East China government also implemented a constitutional system in order to defeat the Eight-Nation Coalition during the Gengzi National Revolution, which shows that constitutionalism is stronger than autocracy.

In fact, at this time, few Chinese have been able to figure out the essence of the constitutional form of government, let alone the fundamental reasons for Japan's victory over Russia, Japan's victory over Russia has little to do with the political systems of the two countries, at least not the main reason, and strictly speaking, Japan cannot be regarded as a standard constitutional state, and Russia's degree of autocracy is actually much better than that of the Qing court, and the system of the East China government is even more incompatible with the constitutional government, but the East China government has not explained.

As a result, from the beginning of 1905, a wave of public opinion was formed in China calling for the imperial court to follow the system of Britain, Germany, and Japan and designate it as a country with a constitutional form of government. Yuan Shikai's suggestion was put forward in this context.

And Yuan Shikai's suggestion also caused great controversy in the Qing court, first of all, in the military aircraft department, except for Prince Qing's support for Yuan Shikai, Zhang Zhidong was noncommittal, and the other 5 people were all opposed, and he was Shixu, and Natong directly quarreled with Yuan Shikai. Although the Chinese at this time did not figure out the constitutional form of government, they still understood that the biggest difference between the constitution and the original Chinese political system was that it limited the power of the monarch. But for a country like China, which has been in place for thousands of years of highly authoritarian power, it is undoubtedly a subversive change, and it is sure to cause great controversy. In the eyes of some officials, who were Manchu officials, this was simply a great rebellion, enough to raid their homes and lose their homes.

In fact, Yuan Shikai put forward this suggestion with his own considerations. Yuan Shikai was able to make a fortune, and the Wuxu coup d'état was a key construction point, and at the moment of the construction of Wuxu, Yuan Shikai chose to take refuge in Cixi's side, laying a solid foundation for his future take-off. However, when Yuan Shikai flew to the emperor's throne, he also left a huge hidden danger for himself, that is, he offended the reformists and Guangxu, and the reformers who fled overseas regarded Yuan Shikai as a traitor to the reform and the culprit of the failure of the reform.

Of course, at that time, this hidden danger was not serious, because the reformists had gone into exile overseas, and they couldn't turn over more big waves, and Guangxu was just a puppet emperor, and the real power was in the hands of Cixi, so what could Yuan Shikai do, not to mention that Cixi had planned to abolish Guangxu at that time, and Yuan Shikai had nothing to worry about.

But the development of the situation was much beyond Yuan Shikai's expectations, and after the great toss of the Gengzi Kingdom, Cixi failed to abolish Guangxu. Although Guangxu is still a puppet emperor, the throne seems to be as stable as Mount Tai. And Cixi is already a 70-year-old man, there are still a few days, although Guangxu is frail and sickly, but after all, he is not yet 40 years old, and he will live longer than Cixi, there is a great chance, once Cixi dies before Guangxu, then Guangxu will really be pro-government. At this time, Cixi selected Zaifeng into the military aircraft department, which had the momentum of cultivating him as the heir of Guangxu.

Yuan Shikai also suddenly became nervous, because Zaifeng is Guangxu's own brother, he may not dare to resent Cixi, but he has no scruples about himself, so in the future, whether it is Guangxu's pro-Mei or Zaifeng's ascendancy, I am afraid that he will not have good results, and this is almost a dead end, there is no way to solve it.

However, the wave of public opinion demanding the constitution made Yuan Shikai see the hope of cracking, Yuan Shikai had some research on the constitution, knowing that the constitution was to limit the power of the monarch and frame the power of the monarch within a range, so Yuan Shikai also immediately realized that if the Qing Dynasty turned into a constitutional government and limited the power of the emperor, then his future peace would be guaranteed, so Yuan Shikai took advantage of the boiling public opinion to ask the court to establish a constitution.

The military aircraft department was already in chaos, and Prince Qing couldn't control the situation, so he had to decide to ask Cixi and Guangxu to adjudicate. In fact, in the face of surging public opinion, Cixi can not be unmoved, after all, she has extremely high political wisdom, not as ignorant as the Manchu magnates, the current court is still very fragile, and the public opinion of the people can not be completely indifferent, because there is a big tiger squatting in the East China government on the side of the Qing court, and if you are not careful, you will be used by overseas Chinese, they are quite good at using public opinion, maybe it will not be good.

Yuan Shikai said that the constitution would make the Qing court rich and strong, while the constitution of Shixu and Natong would only make the Qing Dynasty ruin, but they did not make it clear what the constitution was.

Of course, Yuan Shikai can't say that the constitution is to limit the power of the monarch, but Yuan Shikai reacted quickly after all, and immediately asked Shixu, Natong, Britain, Germany, and Japan are all constitutional countries, but not only did the country not perish, but the monarchy was not hollowed out, but it became more powerful, which shows that the constitution will not perish. And the world continues、Natong can't answer.。 So this time the answer between the emperor ended in a daze.

At this time, the governor of Hunan, Duanfang, entered the court and was summoned by Cixi. It turned out that during the Gengzi State Change, Cixi fled to Xi'an, and Duanfang, who was the governor of Shaanxi at that time, was meritorious, so he was reused by the Empress Dowager Cixi. Although Duanfang is a Manchurian, but it is a reformist, he actively participated in the reform of the law during the Wuxu period, and made quite a difference, and after the Gengzi State changed the Qing court to implement a new policy, Duanfang successively served as the governor of Hubei, Jiangsu, and Hunan.

Cixi was worried that no one would explain to her in detail what constitutionalism was, and she didn't believe in Yuan Shikai, so she happened to enter the court, and he advocated constitutionalism, so she summoned him to see him so that he could ask for an understanding.

Duan Fang not only advocated the reform and the implementation of constitutionalism, but also was a family with Yuan Shikai, so he naturally wanted to help Yuan Shikai. Therefore, Duanfang talked about the advantages of constitutionalism in front of Cixi, the biggest advantage of which was that "after the constitution is established, the position of the emperor can be hereditary." He also cited Japan's Meiji Constitution, which clearly stipulates that Japan is ruled by the emperor of the same lineage, that the imperial throne is inherited by the descendants of the male line of the imperial family, that the emperor is sacrosanct, that he has the right to rule, that he exercises legislative power, and so on. In this way, the legitimacy of the Qing rule could be guaranteed in the form of law.

After hearing this, Cixi was also quite moved, although Cixi did not read much, but she had a natural talent for political power, and the legitimacy that Duanfang said was replaced by the traditional Chinese Chinese language, that is, the great name. Of course, Cixi knows that in Chinese politics, the big name is very important, and the reason why she can listen to the government through the two generations of Tongzhi and Guangxu is that Tongzhi and Guangxu are both young children when they ascend the throne, and Cixi can interfere in politics in the name of the empress dowager, which is in line with the big name in Chinese history.

In the past, Chinese dynasties all took the "Mandate of Heaven" as the legitimate premise of their rule, but in modern society, natural science knowledge was introduced from Western countries, and the so-called Mandate of Heaven could no longer fool people, and it was a feasible strategy to ensure the legitimacy of the Qing court's rule in the form of law.

So the next day, Cixi finally issued an edict to accept Yuan Shikai's suggestion and send officials abroad for inspection, of course, the scope of the examination is not only limited to the national political system, but also includes politics, economy, culture, education and many other aspects, in order to win the parents.

He also ordered the Military Aircraft Department to draw up a list of ministers who would go abroad for examination.