At several imperial councils, the courtiers were divided into two factions and heated arguments ensued.

However, the focus of the debate is not whether or not to enact a constitution, but whether to immediately implement a preparatory constitution or to delay the implementation of a preparatory constitution.

Yixuan, Yuan Shikai, Xu Shichang, and others advocated that the constitution is beneficial and harmless, conforms to the will of the people, and should be implemented as soon as possible.

Sun Jiading, Tie Liang, Zhai Hongji, and others believe that China's national conditions are different, and the implementation of the constitution will inevitably lead to the ruling party having no power, and if they cannot do whatever they want, they will bring harm to the country.

Sun Jiading and others believe that the people don't understand anything, and they don't know how to use power when they are given it. Give them power, and they will instead become a burden. If local autonomy is implemented, once the local government is controlled by the bad guys, it will lead to resentment among the people, and they will blame the supreme ruler, and the supreme ruler will not be able to do anything about the bad guy. It takes time to enlighten the people's wisdom and wait for the people to come to their senses.

However, those who advocate starting immediately believe that the quality of the people lies in the guidance of the people, and if they sit and wait for improvement, they will never be able to establish a constitution. Only by enacting the constitution first can we guide and improve the quality of the people. It is precisely because of the differences in the national conditions of China and foreign countries that the preparatory constitution is practiced, rather than the constitution being made immediately.

The matter always became clearer and clearer, and there was no fundamental analysis, but in the end it was agreed that the constitution should be prepared immediately.

Next, "Face the Second Palace, please make a constitution".

On August 29, Cixi convened a pre-imperial meeting to further listen to everyone's opinions.

On 1 September, the imperial court issued an edict imitating the constitutionalism and preparing the foundation for the constitution by reforming the official system.

In this way, the country officially began to prepare for the constitution.

The Empress Dowager's decree issued by the imperial court was drafted by Yuan Shikai, which shows how important his role was in the constitutional movement.

The Empress Dowager wrote: "Now the traffic and political laws of various countries have a tendency to cause each other, and our country's government decrees are still dealing with each other day by day, and the crisis is urgent.

"Now Zaize and others have returned to China to Chen Song, all of them are in a sluggish state, but because of the upper and lower levels, internal and external estrangement, the officials do not know so they protect the people, and the people do not know so they defend the country. And the countries that are so rich and strong are actually because of the implementation of constitutional government, the integration of the military and the people, the communication of breathing and learning from the strengths of others, the clear authority, and the preparation of financial use, and the drawing of government affairs, all of which are unfair to Li Shu.

|“ It also teaches each other the law, adapts to the best of the benefits, and has a history of political communication. Today, the only way to do this is to conduct timely and detailed screening, imitate the constitutionalism, unify the power in the imperial court, and make public opinion in the government, so as to establish the foundation of the country's people for thousands of years. However, at present, the regulations are not prepared, and the people's wisdom has not been opened.

Therefore, it is imperative to first negotiate the official system separately, change the order in order, and carefully determine the courts of various countries, and promote education, clean up finances, reorganize armaments, and set up patrol police, so that the gentry know the state politics and prepare the basis for the constitution.

"With the internal and external ministers, we should earnestly revitalize and strive for results, and after a few years the scale will begin to take shape, check the situation, refer to the laws of various countries, properly discuss the time limit for the implementation of the constitution, and then proclaim the world, depending on the speed of progress, and set the time limit. The generals of the provinces, the governors and the people of the Yu Shishu, etc., were angry to learn, and each showed the righteousness of loyalty and patriotism, and the principle of gregarious evolution.

"Don't harm the interests of the people with private opinions, don't defeat big plans with petty anger, respect order, keep it peaceful, and have high hopes for the qualifications of constitutional citizens."

The Qing court acted quickly, preparing to establish a constitution, following Yuan Shikai's advice and starting with reforming the bureaucratic system.

On September 2, 1906, the day after the imperial court issued an edict imitating the constitution, the Qing court announced that it would be headed by Zai Ze and with the participation of 14 important officials of the imperial court, including Yuan Shikai, to "jointly take charge of the official system of compiling seals," that is, to carry out a plan for institutional reform.

The constitution was led by Yuan Shikai, and the preparation for the constitution was also proposed by Yuan Shikai to start with the reform of the official system. The so-called headed by Zai Ze, that is, just a name, and the one who really presided over this matter naturally became Yuan Shikai.

On 4 September, the Establishment Hall was set up and a drafting committee for the compilation of official seals was formed, with Yang Shiqi and Sun Baoqi in charge and Jin Bangping, Zhang Yilin, Wang Rongbao, and Cao Rulin as members.

Soon Zhang Zongshen and Lu Zongyu also participated.

The office is located in Langyu Garden, Haidian, Beijing. In addition to Yuan Shikai's staff, the above people are international students who have returned from abroad.

These people are avant-garde, broad-minded, and dare to think and do.

Four of them, namely Wang Rongbao, Cao Rulin, Zhang Zongshen, and Lu Zongyu, were called the "Four King Kongs" of official reform by the people at that time.

Yuan Shikai has been there almost all the time in person, and he is also very excited to be with these young people. I feel like I'm back to when I was younger.

A month later, a plan for the reform of the bureaucracy was formulated.

In addition to abolishing the Military Aircraft Department, the Ministry of Officials, the Ministry of Rites, and the Metropolitan Procuratorate, and merging and streamlining some institutions, the Auditing Yuan, the Information Administration Yuan, the Dali Yuan, and the Administrative Adjudication Yuan have been added.

According to the cabinet system, the Minister of State in the Cabinet is composed of one Prime Minister, one Deputy Minister on the left and one Vice-Minister, and 11 secretaries of each ministry. The emperor issued an edict that all ministers of the cabinet "shall be responsible for signing their secrets, and that confidential emergencies shall be signed by the prime minister and the deputy ministers of the left and right".

The establishment of a responsible cabinet is undoubtedly a step forward from the military aircraft department, which did not have political responsibilities in the past. But is such a cabinet a real responsible cabinet of the bourgeois constitutional state? Apparently not.

From a formal point of view, there was only one prime minister in a constitutional monarchy, and two additional vice ministers were added to this plan, believing that "at the beginning of the Restoration, there was a lot of work, and it was not the right time to do without a person to serve as a counselor, and to cite the example of one person to assist the first and second assistant of a constitutional country."

Judging from the content, the responsible cabinet of a general constitutional monarchy is responsible to the National Assembly, which is the main embodiment of bourgeois democracy in the form of political organization. Although Yuan Shikai believes that the current conditions are not ripe and it will be difficult for the National Assembly to be established for the time being, as a comprehensive reform plan for the preparation of the constitution, the nature of the National Assembly, its powers, and its relationship with the responsible cabinet should also be clearly stipulated, so as to advance toward this goal and embody the basic spirit of the constitution.

The core content of this draft is the establishment of a responsible cabinet to take charge of state administrative affairs. After taking out this plan, Yuan Shikai can be described as proud and proud.

What he didn't expect was that he suffered a series of blows.

As we said, generally speaking, if a person works hard and has made outstanding achievements, generally speaking, he will be affirmed by the above, and Yuan Shikai is no exception.

His achievements in Zhili are obvious to all, so there is a voice of praise for him in the court.

However, since Yuan Shikai was enthusiastic about the affairs of the imperial court, the situation has changed.

Especially after 1906, revolutionaries often used the slogan of opposing Manchuria. For example, in . Mr. Shan proposed to expel the Tartars and return China. In this way, among the Manchus of the Qing court, there was also a trend of anti-Han thought.

Suspicious and distrustful of the Han people everywhere, especially the princes of the military power like Yuan Shikai.

In other words, in the imperial court, there are already many people who don't like Yuan Shikai, but they have nowhere to start and can't find an opportunity.

Now the opportunity has come, and there is a place to start, which is the plan for the reform of the official system that Yuan Shikai came up with.

In fact, all reforms are also the redistribution of interests, and other things may be easy to do, but when personal interests are involved, things will definitely be troublesome.

And can the reform of the bureaucratic system not involve personal interests?

Many of them were active supporters of the constitution, perhaps they all felt that they would gain from the bureaucratic reform, because people almost all had a weakness, a lack of self-knowledge. As people often say, the parties are confused, and the bystanders are clear.

However, when people see the plan for reforming the bureaucratic system, most people see that their own interests have been harmed.

For example, the New Deal's plan for bureaucratic reform stipulates that officials are not allowed to work part-time.

Tie Liang, who served as the secretary of the Ministry of Finance and the head of the training department, could only serve as the deputy general manager of the cabinet. reason, how can he stand the loss of financial power and military power.

During this period, Tie Liang and Yuan Shikai, as ministers of military parades sent by the imperial court, participated in the autumn exercise of the new army of the north and south held in Zhangde, Henan.

The Northern Army participating in the autumn exercise was under the command of Yuan Shikai, a mixed town and a mixed association in the first, fourth, fifth, and sixth towns of the Beiyang Army, and Duan Qirui was the president.

The Southern Army is the Eighth Town of Hubei and the 29th Mixed Association of Henan, and Zhang Biao is the president.

During the exercise, Tie Liang and Liang Bi saw the military appearance and military appearance of the Northern Army, as well as their performance in the autumn exercises, and their suspicion of Yuan Shikai's heavy troops increased sharply, and the desire to oppose Yuan became stronger and stronger.

As a result, the official reform plan that these enthusiastic people spent more than a month and painstakingly came up with became the target of public criticism.

Needless to say, people who have been touched on their personal interests have long seen that Yuan Shikai is not pleasing to the eye and take the opportunity to follow the coaxing, they don't care whether the plan for the reform of the official system is good or not, because Yuan Shikai is opposed to it, and he is opposed for the sake of opposition.

As a result, Yuan Shikai almost became a street rat that everyone shouted and beaten, and became everyone's public enemy.