"The first agenda of the meeting is to discuss the "Constitutional Reform of the Local Political System" proposed by Shandong, Jiangsu, Anhui, and Zhejiang Provinces" In the large conference hall of the Chamber of Commerce Building on Twelve Roads, Shandong, Jiangsu, Anhui, and Zhejiang provinces have all established constitutional associations, and have constantly put forward the idea of constitutional reform.

Although Wei Yuan, Hong Renji, Wang Tao, Zheng Guanying, Kang Youwei and others proposed constitutionalism as early as during and before the Wuxu Reform, it was still in the early 20th century that the constitution really attracted the attention of the Chinese bureaucracy and gentry. In 1901, Liang Qichao, the former leader of the Restorationists and later the leader of the Constitutionalists, published an article entitled "Constitutional Proposal", advocating a constitutional monarchy. When Wu Chenxuan had not returned to China after going abroad to inspect the constitution, the Shandong Chamber of Commerce launched a provincial gentry rally in Jinan to advocate "not opening the National Assembly and not recognizing new donations". After the Constitutional Reform Conference of the four provinces of Jinan, the petitioning delegations of the four provincial congresses submitted letters to the Senate and the Regent. Under the pressure of the vigorous petition movement of the four provinces, the 18 governors, generals, and capitals, led by the governor of the three eastern provinces, Xiliang, jointly issued a petition to immediately organize a cabinet and convene a parliament the following year. The Qing court was so shocked that a month later it had to announce a shortening of the period for the preparation of the constitution to five years, and that a responsible cabinet would be set up before the National Assembly could be opened. Of course, the essence of this "imperial cabinet", which was later ridiculed as the "imperial cabinet", will not change, but this is exactly the effect that Wu Chenxuan wants, so that the gentry who are used to being obedient to the people can see the Manchu Qing face clearly, and they can be more moved than revolutionary propaganda.

In fact, in the Gengzi Rebellion, which was first followed by the invasion of the Eight-Nation Alliance, the stubborn conservative forces within the imperial court had been severely hit. In 1905, after the end of the Russo-Japanese War, domestic public opinion was unanimous that "this war was a pioneering act, and I don't know whether Japan is a constitutional state, a Russian autocracy, and an autocracy and a constitutional state are at war, and the constitutional state is invincible, and the autocracy is invincible." "Demand that the Qing government implement constitutional government. Constitutionalists actively campaigned, and constitutionalism developed into a national trend of thought.

In order to eliminate the revolution and win over the industrial and commercial gentry, Cixi Lafayette was forced to make some enlightened gestures. Only then did Dai Hongci, Wu Chenxuan and other five ministers go abroad to investigate politics. When Wu Chenxuan returned to China, the Qing court also officially promulgated the edict of "preparing to imitate the constitution". Before the death of Cixi Guangxu, the Qing court also issued an edict to set up a senior administration yuan and a consultative bureau, allowing the industrial and commercial gentry to obtain some powers such as making recommendations to the Qing government through elections. At that time, the Jiangsu-Zhejiang Chamber of Commerce and other large bourgeoisie of industry and commerce saw hope in this, and they set up various constitutional organizations one after another, engaged in constitutional monarchy activities, and prepared to participate in the political power. Shandong Chamber of Commerce because of its own close organization, self-contained system, not many people to care about the constitution, the chamber of commerce internal implementation of the director system, externally is almost to replace the function of the governor of Shandong, the local government without the Chamber of Commerce without the permission of the chamber of commerce at all dare not implement the imperial decrees.

Last year, the Qing government promulgated the "Outline of the King James Constitution," stipulating that the Qing Empire would have one line for all generations, and at the same time announcing that the preparatory constitution would last for nine years, which on the contrary greatly increased the confidence of the capitalists in the southeastern provinces in the constitutional monarchy. However, although the Outline of the Constitution was modeled after the constitution promulgated during the Meiji Restoration, it removed the provisions of the Japanese constitution that limited the power of the emperor. In the first year of Emperor Guangxu and Empress Dowager Cixi, 3-year-old Pu Yi inherited the throne and changed the Yuan Xuantong, and the preparation for the constitution also entered the second stage. After the regency of Zaifeng Jianguo, he twice reaffirmed the unshakability of continuing to prepare for the constitution and constitution-making as a national policy. For the time being, it has gained international recognition. In this year, except for Xinjiang, all provinces successively announced the establishment of advisory bureaus, but the decrees were still in the hands of officials at all levels of the imperial court, and the advisory bureaus became official teahouses, and there was no way to participate in politics and discussion at all.

The regent Zaifeng was still not at ease, and actively pursued the policy of having the imperial family monopolize the power of the country, and wantonly promoted the official positions of Manchu relatives and nobles such as Zaitao and Zaixuan, and Prince Qing Yixuan, who was the chief of the government, was old and bribed. A year after Zaifeng became regent, the Western media, which had been quite optimistic about his prospects in power, changed their judgment, and the contradictions between the Manchurian nobles and the Han Chinese bureaucracy deepened. Wu Chenxuan's return to Shandong to take up his post also became a move by Zaifeng to try to bridge the contradiction between the Manchus and Hans, but Zaifeng's experience was obviously not rich enough, and the consequence of letting the tiger return to the mountains was the incident of the petition delegation of the four provincial congresses.

Wu Chenxuan, in the name of the governor of Shandong, the governor of Shandong and the general office of the Liangjiang Suppression of Bandits, announced that the local advisory bureaus would become legislative and political organs, that the administrative affairs of the provincial capitals and counties must be reported to the advisory bureau, that government decrees involving the people's livelihood must be passed by a two-thirds majority of the advisory bureau before they can be implemented, and that the advisory bureau can legislate to bind the government at its own level, and if the government violates the resolution of the advisory bureau, it will be illegal, and the advisory bureau can report to Wu Chenxuan for dismissal of the other party through an impeachment motion. The garrisons in various localities also received a military order from Wu Chenxuan, strictly prohibiting officials from using armed force to suppress the speech of the Consultative Bureau, on the contrary, if the impeachment of the officials by the Advisory Bureau is passed, the army will remove the other party from his post and send him out of the country.

Of course, Wu Chenxuan knew that these industrial and commercial gentry would come up with a lot of strange proposals, but if they were not allowed to try how to use the double-edged sword of power, this class would always speculate about the political system of Europe, the United States and Japan. Wu Chenxuan, who was in control of the army, was not afraid at all that careerists would usurp power to commit perverse acts, let alone the interference of external hostile forces.

As the chief speaker of the advisory bureau of the four provinces, Xiong Bingsan was busy with his feet not touching the ground, and even Cai Heqing and Tao Huanqing of the Guangfu Society also put down their work to devote themselves to the organization of the parliament, plus Meng Luochuan served as the chief picket chief of the advisory bureau of the four provinces, and several talents finally set up the advisory bureaus at the provincial and provincial levels, and nearly two-thirds of them were members of the chamber of commerce or enlightened gentry who were connected with the chamber of commerce, leaving more than twenty percent of the traditional scribes and representatives of large landowners. Most of the people in the market and the villagers don't care about the things these old men are tinkering with, so the representation of democracy is still quite limited.

In terms of industry and commerce, Shandong already accounts for 60% of the country's share, and policies to encourage industry and commerce abound, and the super trust of the Shandong Chamber of Commerce has occupied a near-monopoly position. Although there are more than a dozen large and small enterprise groups in the Shandong Chamber of Commerce, Wu Chenxuan's standard enterprises still occupy an absolute advantage. This time the four provinces were united, Wu Chenxuan took the opportunity to promote Shandong's policy to Anhui, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang, and as soon as Lu Yongxiang of Shanghai announced his defection, Shanghai also joined in, but at this time Shanghai was still a prefecture in Jiangsu.

Lusu, Anhui and Zhejiang were originally a prosperous place for business, and now the policy is on the right path, and the four major banking systems composed of Shandong Industrial and Commercial Bank, Shandong Construction Bank, Jiangsu and Zhejiang Industrial Bank and Jiangsu and Zhejiang Commercial Bank respectively established by the Shandong Chamber of Commerce and the Jiangsu and Zhejiang Chamber of Commerce have provided loan financing services for the vast majority of industrial and commercial enterprises. The listing of the Shandong Stock Exchange and the Jiangsu-Zhejiang Stock Exchange has made you invest in the trading of stocks and futures, and even several major Japanese consortia and banks in Britain, France, the United States and Germany have also invested in the trading of the Lu and Suzhou markets. However, after the introduction of the suspension and price limit system, the two markets began to return to the Western capital, which was accustomed to the sharp rise and fall, but the relatively moderate stock market allowed Japan and some risk-averse Western assets to find a suitable safe haven, coupled with the rapid development of industry and commerce in the four provinces, so the two cities of Lusu have become the most important stock and futures trading markets in the Far East.

Culturally, when Wu Chenxuan was the political envoy, Shandong's basic education and technical education were at the forefront of the whole of East Asia. With the efforts of Cai Heqing and others, Shandong University, Jinan University, Shandong University of Technology, and Shandong University of Finance and Economics have become well-known universities in China, and only the American-funded Tsinghua University in Beijing, the Beiyang University in Tianjin, and Fudan University in Shanghai can be compared. With the relocation of Shandong Institute of Technology to Yizhou and the relocation of Shandong Finance and Economics to Qingdao, Jinan has ended the five-year-long situation of "half of the world's famous schools".

In terms of basic education, with the establishment of two universities, Shandong Normal University and Qufu Normal University, the teacher resources that have been cultivated by modern education have allowed Shandong's basic education to quickly cover the county, and the rural areas have gradually inserted new teaching content into private schools. Basic education in various places is generally donated by the local chamber of commerce, of course, there are also local chambers of commerce are too weak, there is no money to support education, so they have to be responsible for several major businesses in Jinan, fortunately, the standard department bears most of it, and the rest has the Meng family, the Miao family, the Wang family, and the Lejia four major families have undertaken it, and other business donations are mainly used as scholarships. Shandong as the hometown of Confucius and Mencius, there is a tradition of respecting teachers and valuing education, the new education can be full of five years, get the primary school graduation certificate, find a job in the chamber of commerce is not a problem, the most poor can also go to the free normal preparatory school, excellent grades into the two normal studies, the general two years of graduation are also assigned to teach in various schools, the salary is not inferior to the county master (of course, it is the standard announced by the imperial court, there is no gray and black income). The three years of secondary education are basically supported by the wealthy class with surplus money, and the fees are not too high, and one or two guys in the family who work in the chamber of commerce can support a child to go to secondary school. After graduating from secondary school, you can be regarded as an intellectual, not to mention that there are various technical short courses run by chambers of commerce and enterprises, and you can become a clerk or technician who can get three or four people's wages after taking a license or the like. In addition, the secondary school graduation certificate is also a stepping stone to apply for various preparatory schools, the preparatory school basically has one or two in each prefecture, and it can be graduated in two years, and the graduates are all allocated by the Chamber of Commerce, and the outstanding students are directly enrolled by various universities, and other students can also participate in the joint examination in January every year. Zaolin Military Academy and Standard Aviation School are large recruiters of preparatory students, the vast majority of preparatory students through these paths, other preparatory students can also find suitable jobs, basically as long as they have a preparatory academic experience, work diligently for three or five years, settle in Jinan Prefecture, and feed their families of ten or eight is not a problem. Let families see that education changes their children's future, and let education in Shandong become the choice of the whole people. As for the night school for employees run within the Chamber of Commerce, it has become the choice of young and middle-aged workers, even if it is no longer a worker, but also to enter the night school to study, if a worker does not have a degree and does not enter the night school, then basically by the family and surrounding relatives and friends think that the mud can not support the wall, I am afraid that I will be blinded all day long.

Now the experience of Shandong has also been spread to Jiangsu and Zhejiang by the people of the Liberation Society, and the ability of Jiangsu and Zhejiang, which is originally a gathering of humanities and treasures, to accept education is also amazing. Soon, the education level of Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces caught up sharply, and the gap with Shandong continued to narrow. Although Anhui is barren and poor, the prefectures and counties of the northern Anhui Plain have also begun to implement basic education, but there are no teachers in schools above the preparatory department, so they have to ask for help from Shandong, Jiangsu and other places, or simply go to Shandong and Jiangsu to study. Because the Taizhou rebel army was originally close to Zhang Shaozeng under the leadership of Li Jin and Wu Shigu, as soon as Wu Chenxuan returned to Shandong and presided over the military affairs of the four provinces, he simply announced that he would accept the recruitment of Wu Chenxuan, the commander-in-chief of the four provinces, and become the southern Anhui independent detachment of the Wuyi New Army. In the past few years, southern Anhui and western Zhejiang have had more contacts, and the educational resources of the two places have also been well exchanged, so in terms of education, southern Anhui is not lagging behind northern Anhui, which has just joined the alliance of four provinces with Ni Sichong's defection.

With the smooth passage of one agenda item after another, it is finally time to discuss military affairs. The deputies also did not expect that Wu Chenxuan and Lord Wu would actually take the military affairs of the provincial feudal officials to the advisory bureau for discussion, and when the deputies of the advisory bureau heard that the meeting was going to discuss the new phase of the military expansion and military spending plan of the new armed forces, they were all stunned. After a short one-minute cold session, the delegates spontaneously gave a standing ovation. As for the attitude of the head of the general office to respect the Advisory Bureau, although the deputies are not familiar with Wu Chenxuan himself, judging from the fact that he can bring the army and military expenses to the meeting for discussion, he is still very worthy of everyone's respect.

"The last item on the agenda of the conference is the expansion of the field army and the construction of the reserve army of the new army of the armed wing, as well as the military expenditure for the next year. Delegates should note that this topic involves military secrets, please do not record it, and it is strictly forbidden to spread the contents, otherwise you may be held legally responsible. Xiong Bingsan's words instantly cooled down the lively Consultative Bureau, no matter how democratic everyone is, they all understand how serious the crime of leaking military aircraft is. The deputies listened to General Staff Officer Duan's report with rare rigor and even some restraint.

At the time when the first joint meeting of the Consultative Bureaus of the four provinces was successfully concluded, a great and heroic revolution was staged in advance in the three towns of Wuhan, the thoroughfare of the nine provinces, and the demolition order of the dilapidated house of the Manchu Qing Dynasty was carried out ahead of schedule.