At that time, most of the community wanted to maintain stability. For example, if the Shanghai General Chamber of Commerce calls for peace, whoever "starts the army first" is "regarded as an enemy of the people and a chaotic party." The gentry of Jiangsu and Zhejiang, as well as Kuomintang celebrities Wang Zhaoming and Cai Yuanpei, also ran to mediate.

Liang Qichao, leader of the Progressive Party, declared: "The disaster of mob politics is worse than that of a flood of beasts. ”

In just one year, the situation has completely changed, and the internal and external situations are very unfavorable to the Kuomintang.

In order to isolate the Kuomintang against the Yuan faction, Yuan Shikai catered to the people's psychology and made a variety of propaganda. In view of the "dislike" mentality of some people, he deliberately made all kinds of "tolerant" and "tolerant" postures, and issued a series of proclamations, accusing the Yuan faction of "plotting civil strife" and "sabotaging the Republic of China," and vigorously saying that he would not use force unless it was absolutely necessary. Moreover, he particularly emphasized that the reason why he "endured humiliation and humiliation and sought perfection" and "refused to use force against the emperor" and "was not powerless to put an end to violence" but "hoped that he would repent" was because "financial resources were exhausted and the people could not make a living" and "the country could no longer be disturbed."

Yuan Shikai hurriedly issued a proclamation on 13 May in response to the situation of the Yuan faction in Shanghai for "rectifying the second revolution of the movement" and "urging merchants to help raise money and wages," ordering civil and military officials in various localities to "defend the merchants and the people."

He said: "If there are bandits who take advantage of the situation to disturb and harm the merchants, only the governor and the chief of civil affairs should ask." The President has vowed to sacrifice everything to defend my innocent people. ”

On 13 July, he issued a proclamation on "Promoting Industry," in which he talked about "freedom of business, which is enshrined in the Constitution of the People's Republic of China and should be particularly respected." Yuan's practices cater to the wishes of businessmen and people everywhere.

During the Xinhai Revolution, they enthusiastically donated military salaries to support the revolution; Today, with the exception of a few radicals, most of them are indifferent to the "courting of Yuan" and even resist it.

Later, Yuan Shikai also issued an order to reward local chambers of commerce for "meritorious personnel who have resisted chaos".

In order to dispel fears that he would return to feudal autocracy after his defeat of the democrats, he also repeatedly and publicly pledged his allegiance to the Republic. To a large extent, this pacified and won over the constitutionalists and the centrist forces.

What the fierce faction in the Kuomintang never expected was that their actions would be opposed by so many people. Some people even directly accused them of using anti-Yuan as an excuse, which was essentially a struggle for power. Some people even scolded them for kidnapping the people of the whole country in the name of revolution, and the so-called "second revolution" is not worthy of being called revolution at all.

Even within the Kuomintang, there were many people who objected to the use of force to resolve the "Song case." After the League was reorganized into the Kuomintang, due to the participation of some miscellaneous small parties, although the momentum was great, its composition was already very complicated.

Moreover, many veteran comrades of the League also believed that the revolution had been accomplished, and there were not a few people who had learned from their careers, for example, many of the elected members of the National Assembly did not support the "second revolution."

In a word, the situation at that time was very different from that of the Xinhai Revolution. What's more, Yuan Shikai's power was stronger than during the Xinhai Revolution, and most of the Kuomintang had no confidence in the second revolution. Huang Xing, the party's military leader, said goodbye even while the war in Nanjing was still going on.

At the beginning of the outbreak of the "Second Revolution," officials, chambers of commerce, and their organizations in many localities sent messages opposing the use of force. Because this revolution did not have the support of many powerful factions in the country, it naturally failed quickly.

On the other hand, the war launched by the Kuomintang did not achieve the goal of overthrowing Yuan, but gave Yuan Shikai a good opportunity to establish his authority.

After the Xinhai Revolution, although Yuan Shikai was the president, he actually had no control over many places. As Tang Degang, a historian in the United States, said: "At that time, all provinces in the country were basically seized by the local local military leaders, and all kinds of local taxes payable to the central government were withheld under the pretext. Yuan's Central Government. The government can be said to have no way to deal with them, neither can they write nor use force, and as a result, the central government is defeated. The government has no name, and can only live on debt."

What's worse is that local politicians, party leaders, and warlords are also fighting with each other. There is a lot of trouble, and naturally there is no shortage of knives and guns, blood flowing, and even life and death, and the people have no complaints. For example, Vice President Li Yuanhong is in Hubei, and there are almost hundreds of revolutionaries and rebels who died at his hands.

Because the revolutionaries recruited too many leaders of the Hui Party when they were making revolutions, and these people were often scum hooligans (such as Ying Guixin and others) who were despised by society, these people actually had no revolutionary convictions, and once they came to power, they would inevitably harm the localities and make the people's livelihood miserable.

Many people in officialdom know that it is not easy to be in charge, it is difficult to manage things, and it is even more difficult to manage things well. On the contrary, some revolutionaries, once in power, get carried away. I think it's good to have the right, and I have the right not to be invalid and mess around; What's more, because of the power in their hands, they quickly become corrupt and degenerate.

Many people complained that the nascent but chaotic Republic of China was not as good as the rotten and stable Qing Dynasty, and Yuan Shikai's Beijing government. At that time, there was no way to deal with these people.

The so-called "rather be a peaceful dog than a troubled person", social turmoil has made people expect a strong leader and central government. House appeared. As a result, Yuan Shikai has just become the power of stability and a symbol of peace that the people of the whole country are looking forward to. The common people in the market did not take the initiative to accept any revolutionary righteousness, and what they hoped most at that time was that Yuan Shikai could put things right, restore order as soon as possible, and continue to live a peaceful life. Therefore, it is not surprising that the "second revolution" did not receive a response from the people.

The development of the democratic trend in the early Republic of China also concealed to a certain extent the confrontation between the two camps that actually existed. After the Wuchang Uprising and before the Second Revolution, it was a special period for the Republic of China. During this period, the revolutionaries possessed considerable military and political strength and revolutionary momentum, and they worked hard to pursue the goals of "freedom," "equality," "democracy," and "civilization," thus enabling China to advance toward the road of realizing a republic.

Yuan Shikai could not help but support democracy on the surface, and for a time, the atmosphere of democracy was relatively strong. Hundreds of social associations and dozens of political parties have sprung up in the land of China.

The League, as the main representative of the revolutionary party, was declared an open party in March 1912 and reorganized into the Kuomintang in August. The constitutionalists controlled the United Party, the Republican Party, and the Democratic Party. The Socialist Party and the Labour Party were also allowed to register and carry out their activities.

Even like Chen Yilong, those who advocated socialism and attacked Yuan Shikai's government. Sincere Socialists in the government can also openly express their views.

According to statistics, by the time of the Second Revolution, there were nearly 500 newspapers in the country, and 42 million copies were sold. Among them, there are about 50 kinds of newly founded newspapers in Beijing, which is the largest, followed by Shanghai with more than 40 kinds, and Tianjin and Guangzhou with 35 and 30 kinds respectively. Not only the newspapers and periodicals that supported Yuan, but also the newspapers and periodicals that produced Yuan and opposed Yuan could also be published and distributed publicly. Yes. Host. Righteousness, Total. Give birth. Host. Righteousness and horses. Gram. The doctrine of thought is also allowed to be published in newspapers or public speeches. Newspapers funded by the Kuomintang, such as Shanghai's Minquan Daily, were not subject to the scourge of being hunted down at that time.

The establishment of enterprises is another craze that has emerged during this special period. It is related to democratic ideas and moves forward concurrently.

During this period, it should be said that Yuan Zheng. The government is also commendable in grasping the economy, and has formulated a series of laws and policies conducive to the development of national capitalism; Vigorously advocate the development of industry.

People's enthusiasm for building the motherland has been greatly aroused, and all this has promoted the development of national industry.

Various industrial organizations have been established, such as the Republic of China Industrial Association, the Republic of China Industrial Construction Association, the China Industrial Group, the Republic of China Railway Association, etc., with more than 70 of them, almost all over the provinces and regions.

The number of new private factories and mining enterprises has skyrocketed. Between 1912 and 1914, a total of 3,937 factories were set up in the country, with an average of 1,312 factories per year, nearly double the number of factories set up each year from 1904 to 1911.

With the development of the economy and the strong democratic atmosphere, cultural and educational undertakings have also flourished. The number of primary and secondary schools has increased significantly, and the total number of students in the first year of the Republic of China has exceeded twice that of the first year of Xuantong (1909), and the number of female students has increased particularly rapidly.

The political democratic atmosphere, the economic development momentum, and the prosperity of cultural and educational undertakings are of course related to the overthrow of the Qing government by the Xinhai Revolution. The great influence of the autocratic rule of the government is inextricably linked, but at the same time, the development of the democratic trend seems to provide people with a picture of the "peaceful and prosperous era" after the revolution.

It is obviously inappropriate to launch a "second revolution" under such circumstances, and it is difficult not to go against the will of the people.

History is always full of irony, after the Xinhai Revolution, the truly unified Republic of China was the two years after the "Second Revolution" and under the rule of Yuan Shikai. In the treacherous situation of being surrounded by foreign powers and the country being weak and the people poor, centralization can indeed bring efficient administration to the country, and this requirement seems to meet the actual needs.

As a result, Yuan Shikai won the support of the people during the "Second Revolution", and his status of justice and legitimacy was not accidental, but was expected by all.

After suppressing the Second Revolution, Yuan Shikai saw that the cabinet was criticized from all sides. In order to ease the contradictions and balance the relations between all parties, it was decided to reorganize the cabinet.

At the beginning, he wanted his most trusted Xu Shichang to come forward to form a cabinet, but the scheming Xu Shichang saw the chaos he was facing and did not accept it.

Yuan Shikai looked for Zhang Jian separately, but Zhang Jian didn't accept it, he insisted again and again, Zhang Jian recommended Xiong Xiling, which was very kind of Yuan Shikai's thoughts.

Xiong Xiling, who was the chief financial officer in the Tang cabinet at that time, was discovered by Yuan Shikai for his outstanding ability. For Yuan, it cannot be too fast to move from autocracy to republic, and then from republic to autocracy. Xiong Xiling is a moderate and easy to control, so it is more appropriate to invite him to form a cabinet.