Challenge again, and the book will be released at 12 noon in the future, and I hope readers will not stay up late to read.

In mid-April 1909, the People's Party officially responded to the political claims of the Qing court, which set off a huge wave in the Chinese political arena. The BJP's attitude remained firmly in demand for the overthrow of the Qing Dynasty, a basic proposition that was clearly demonstrated in a short and forceful proclamation.

Politics will never be superficial, and the reason why the People's Party insists on overthrowing the Manchus is because of its firm support for the Restoration. In this era, the Restoration has become a trend, a fashion. Even among the Manchu conservatives, there was no shortage of pro-Restorationists. The various political forces only positioned their own interests differently in the Restoration, but the Restoration itself has become an irreversible consensus.

In the eyes of various political factions and political groups, since the People's Party has clearly stated that it agrees with the reform, the People's Party has not detached itself from the political trend that has dominated China. As for the "overthrow of the Manchus" advocated by the People's Party, or the "people's revolution" shouted earlier, that is the "political interest positioning" of the People's Party itself.

At a time when the People's Party's ideas were spreading throughout the country, Yuan Shikai was holding a cabinet meeting in Beijing, the country's political center. Although he is only the deputy prime minister of the cabinet, no one in the entire cabinet will regard Yuan Shikai as a deputy. Even the Prime Minister, Prince Qing, would not be stupid. Yixuan is 71 years old this year, no matter how tough his body is, it is impossible for him to really preside over government affairs like Yuan Shikai. He always attended every cabinet meeting, but when it came to discussing specific matters, he quickly handed over the work to Yuan Shikai and went home to rest. The same is true for this meeting.

As soon as Yixuan left, the atmosphere in the cabinet became much more lively. The main content of this discussion was the division of the autonomy of the provinces in the future. Yuan Shikai is not a person who is too authoritarian, although he must have the highest decision-making power, but in practice, Yuan Shikai still advocates working together.

In Chen Ke's plan for Yuan Shikai, inter-provincial autonomy was only a programmatic model. What Chen Ke wants is the autonomy of the four provinces of the People's Party, and the other specific parts Chen Ke has neither reason nor need to spend huge efforts to plan for Yuan Shikai. Of course, Yuan Shikai didn't want to hand over this important task to Chen Ke to plan.

The Beiyang Cabinet is not equal to the Beiyang Group, and these days the internal discussion of the Beiyang Group is also in full swing. Before Yuan Shikai returned to Beijing to seize power, the initial completion of the national layout of the Beiyang Group, Henan, Hebei, Shandong, Shanxi, and the four northeastern provinces have been clearly owned by Beiyang. To Beiyang's dissatisfaction, Anhui, which was originally a member of the Beiyang family, was taken away by the People's Party. Duanfang, the governor of Liangjiang, could probably be regarded as a person from Beiyang, but now Jiangsu is in the hands of Zhang Xun and Wang Youhong, who are loyal to Cixi. The governors of Sichuan and Ganxi were also loyal to the Qing court. The Qingliu generation of Yungui was more influential. Therefore, although the Beiyang Group has great strength, there is still a long way to go before the situation is completely resolved.

Chen Ke's statement is issued at this time, which is particularly important. Yuan Shikai's recently proposed program contains three main points: "constitutionalization," "reform," and "inter-provincial autonomy." This was a political re-establishment of the Chinese system, and the survival of the Qing court was not considered at all. Once the powerful armed force of the People's Party was included in this framework, the "Beiyang-People's Party axis" would reach South China from North China. No local political force in China dares to directly confront this force. This is also the fundamental reason why Yuan Shikai agreed with the People's Party in the four provinces.

"How is the Outline of the Constitution prepared?" Yuan Shikai asked Justice Minister Shen Jiaben.

"It has been drafted and is now in the process of being finalized. You can take a look at the draft before this revision. Shen Jiaben said as he handed out a stack of documents to the cabinet members.

This Outline of the Constitution was not so much a blueprint for the final constitution as a declaration of the complete legal deprivation of all powers of the Manchu imperial family.

"It is not easy for the Qing Empire to reign for eternity. The emperor is sacrosanct. The power of the Emperor shall be limited to what is stipulated in the Constitution. The order of succession of emperors is stipulated in the Constitution. "The first four articles are nothing more than a copy of the code of a constitutional monarchy, and the cabinet members just glance at it and stop looking at it.

All other articles are the full scope of power of the National Assembly and the Cabinet. The cabinet members didn't look much at it, and their eyes swept over the contents related to the royal family.

Article 5 The Constitution shall be drafted and decided by the Senate and promulgated by the Emperor.

Article 8 The Prime Minister shall be appointed by the National Assembly (Parliament) and appointed by the Emperor; Other Ministers of State shall be nominated by the Prime Minister and appointed by the Emperor, and the Imperial Family shall not be Prime Ministers or other Ministers of State or the Governors of the provinces.

Article 10 The army and navy shall be under the direct command of the emperor, but when used internally, it shall be subject to special conditions decided by the National Assembly (Parliament), and shall not be dispatched.

Article 15 The formulation, increase or decrease of the royal family's funds shall be decided by the National Assembly (Parliament).

Article 16 The royal ceremony shall not contradict the Constitution.

Article 18 Matters decided by the National Assembly (Parliament) shall be promulgated by the Emperor. ”

These articles seem to confirm the emperor's status as the representative of China, but in fact they ruthlessly make the imperial power a mere face. Article 8, in particular, fully establishes the powers of the Prime Minister. and deprived the royal family of all power by legal means. After reading this, almost all the cabinet members breathed a sigh of relief.

"I don't think there's any need to modify anything, just issue it." After all, Yang Du was young and couldn't hold his breath. He said hurriedly.

As a newcomer to Beiyang Group, Yang Du's attitude made many people very disgusted. But Yuan Shikai personally promoted Yang Du, and his attitude can't be said to be wrong. The cabinet members just kept silent coldly and refused to echo Yang Du's personal statement.

After being silent for a while, Wang Shizhen suddenly asked: "Duke Yuan, what if all provinces agree to the "Outline of the Constitution and Law", but the People's Party must abdicate the royal family?" ”

As soon as these words came out, they immediately aroused everyone's nervousness. Chen Ke's recent statement was only a vague expression of support for Yuan Shikai's reform direction, but it was absolutely impossible for Chen Ke to express his agreement with the Qing court. If the provinces agreed to the plan of inter-provincial autonomy and constitutional monarchy, and the Qing court still nominally existed, then the People's Party would never give up.

This question is indeed a very tricky one, and all the cabinet members looked at Yuan Shikai. Beiyang reached an agreement with the People's Party, and they did not care about the abdication of the Qing emperor. But the other governors were not so easy to talk to.

Yuan Shikai was silent for a while, and then said slowly: "The constitution of the reform is the foundation of the country, can we talk about this foundation." Although Chen Ke is a bit stubborn, he is still a child. The age of the governor of the world is not young, and I don't think the elders need to be like the younger children. ”

This seemingly soft speech made many cabinet members laugh. What do you mean by "not being knowledgeable"? Yuan Shikai made it clear that Chen Ke would never be the slightest polite to those diehards. The shrewd ones are already thinking about which provincial capital is unlucky. And those who know more about it have already guessed who is going to be unlucky. Although Hubei has not yet fully occupied the territory of the four provinces enclosed by the People's Party in those years, after the People's Party troops left Jiangsu, they already have at least three provinces. The rest is Jiangxi, and Wu Xun, the governor of Jiangxi, is a die-hard royalist. When Yuan Shikai seized power in Beijing, most of the provincial governors supported Yuan Shikai. Only a few governors remained silent until the end of the seizure of power. Wu Xun is one of them. Yuan Shikai's plan to kill people with a knife is shrewd.

Once the People's Party captures Jiangxi, it will be equivalent to the direct arrival of troops in Liangguang. In order to avoid being attacked by the People's Party, the governors of the provinces must ask the Beiyang central government for help. At that time, as long as Yuan Shikai could hold Chen Ke's reins. Other political forces no longer dared to disobey Beiyang's command, so they could only choose to bow their knees to Yuan Shikai. So the People's Party's attack on the neighborhood seems to be undermining the prestige of the Beiyang government. But in fact, this is all working for Yuan Shikai in disguise.

Everyone understands people, and naturally refuses to brag about their "cleverness" in such trivial matters. Saying too much will not get everyone's approval, on the contrary, it can only prove that your city is too shallow.

Yuan Shikai saw that everyone agreed with his judgment, and he said: "I don't think I need to revise this "Outline of the Constitution Law", it is also an outline anyway, and it will be too late to revise it when the situation changes in the future." ”

Hearing Yuan Shikai say this, Justice Minister Shen Jiaben nodded in response.

Yuan Shikai continued: "Then since it is the autonomy of the provinces, now the provinces must have an arrangement. We can't control what the provinces do by themselves, but the cabinet can't help but talk about who the provinces let them do. Let's circle this candidate first. ”

That's the main thing. The current personnel arrangements for the autonomy of the provinces determine who will be the highest authority in the provinces for the next few years. Even the Beiyang Group and the provinces controlled by the Beiyang Group are still Yuan Shikai who has the final say. But the advantage of being a first-mover should not be underestimated. Immediately, some people began to recommend people they were familiar with. Beiyang is not monolithic, although the interests of all parties are temporarily united under the banner of Yuan Shikai. But when it comes to specific interests, everyone is unwilling to let them go.

Yuan Shikai listened silently and watched the competition of interests in front of him, and couldn't help but think of Chen Ke in Anhui. I don't know if Chen Ke's People's Party is like the current situation in Beiyang. Due to Yuan Shikai's recent extremely good grasp of the grand strategy, Beiyang has obtained unprecedented benefits in one fell swoop. On the other hand, Yuan Shikai no longer dared to confront anyone in the Beiyang Group. And Chen Ke has always been the pillar of the People's Party, and the same is true.

But the situation Chen Ke is facing is the same as the situation that Yuan Shikai is facing now. Yuan Shikai already has the direct appointment and dismissal power of officials in nine provinces, plus Inner and Outer Mongolia, and has the territory of eleven provinces. Beiyang has begun to fight for the territory of these eleven provinces. The People's Party now has three provinces, and in the future there will be four provinces. With the large number of troops of the People's Party, I am afraid that it will fall into a situation of "more wolves and less meat." I'm afraid that the internal competition among them will become more intense. Thinking of this, Yuan Shikai sincerely hoped that the People's Party would fall into a fierce competition for interests. The BJP is already strong, and there is no need to be any stronger. Let the members of all parties within the BJP fight for the sake of interests! Yuan Shikai prayed silently in his heart.

As soon as the "Outline of the Constitution and Law" was released, it was natural for the whole country to shake. Local governments, which had many doubts about Yuan Shikai's cabinet, have received accurate answers. Not to mention that the local government controlled by the Beiyang system immediately telegraphed to express their support, and all the clans in the capital were fried.

Since Zaifeng's last fight and the forcible order of Yuan Shikai to "return to his hometown", the princes and nobles in Beijing were immediately besieged by the "people". During this siege, which lasted for a full twenty days, the palace of the kings could not get out at all. The water source is better to say, and many palaces have their own wells. Even if you don't, you can endure your thirst. But no one digs manure for the palace, and all the manure tanks and toilets in the palace are full, but fortunately it is winter, and the smell can be tolerated. If it's summer, I'm afraid that there won't be people in the palace.

Not long after this terrible day ended, the clan still had some memory, and this time finally stopped a lot. But when they saw the "Outline of the Constitution", that idea was thrown out of the clouds.

The change in the situation was completely beyond the imagination of the clan, and as soon as Yuan Shikai's statement of the autonomy of the Beiyang United Province came out, not only Beiyang, but also the governors of the provinces immediately agreed. To everyone's surprise, the first country to express support for electrification was not the controlled area of Beiyang, but Jiangsu. Wang Youhong, governor of Jiangsu, not only expressed support for the autonomy of the provinces, but also suggested that parliaments should be formed in each province immediately to prepare for the provisional parliament.

The clans scolded Wang Youhong, the governor of Zhejiang, for not knowing how to repay Jun'en. can be scolded and scolded, and it has no impact on reality. And even if Governor Wang Youhong knew that the clan hated him to the core, he would not change in the slightest.

After Chen Ke's negotiations, Wang Youhong finally understood that it was precisely because the People's Party had no intention of competing with Beiyang in the near future that Chen Ke so firmly supported the autonomy of the provinces. After the autonomy of the provinces, neither the central government nor the other provinces could interfere in the internal affairs of the BJP. Wang Youhong doesn't care what Chen Ke wants to do at all, as long as the People's Party does not come to attack Jiangsu, Wang Youhong will not blame the People's Party unhappily. As for northern Jiangsu, if you lose it, you will lose it, as long as you can keep southern Jiangsu, under the pressure of the People's Party, Wang Youhong is afraid that his position will be more stable.

The Manchu Qing Dynasty established a total of 23 provinces, plus Inner and Outer Mongolia, which is considered 25 provinces. However, Taiwan Province was taken away by Japan. There are only twenty-four left.

The four northeastern provinces are Zhili, Fengtian, Jilin, Heilongjiang, Shandong, Shanxi, Henan, Hebei, Zhejiang, and Inner and Outer Mongolia. These eleven provinces have all fallen into the hands of Yuan Shikai.

The People's Party controlled Anhui, Hubei, and northern Jiangsu.

The two together have a total of thirteen and a half provinces, more than half. Moreover, these thirteen provinces have a large population, are still relatively economically developed, and have a considerable part of industrial construction. As for the two armies that can fight in other provinces combined, they far exceed the sum of the other forces. Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, where Wang Youhong is located, claims to have 50,000 troops. It's okay for these troops to defend Nanjing, and when they go out to fight, they just send meat to others.

Beiyang and other regions outside the People's Party, Shaanxi, Gansu, Jiangxi, Hunan, Sichuan, Fujian, Xinjiang, Guangdong, Guangxi, Yunnan, and Guizhou, a total of 11 provinces, many provinces are poor and poor. Even in these areas, the forces of Beiyang have not penetrated into them.

With such a disparity in power, it is not clear which side Wang Youhong chooses. Even if the clan hates Wang Youhong to the core, Wang Youhong can only take care of himself first.

Wang Youhong thinks about himself, and the clan thinks more about himself. In the increasingly narrow spiritual vision of these people, everyone is a traitor, what's wrong with serving the emperor and the royal family honestly? These clans could not understand why they had been abandoned by the whole country.

The former regent Zaifeng Du Men did not come out. Without Zaifeng's leader, the clans had to do it themselves. Liang Bi, Yu Lang, Pu Wei, Zaitao, Zai Ze, and Tie Liang, who were considered to be Manchu cadres, held a secret meeting of the clan members and nobles. The meeting worked hard to sort out the development of the situation, from the rise of the People's Party to the seizure of power by Yuan Shikai. It is very strange that the clan does not hate the People's Party, and all their hatred is concentrated on Yuan Shikai. The clans agreed that as long as Yuan Shikai could be killed, all the problems could be solved. The clan will regain power.

How to kill Yuan Shikai has become the focus of discussion. Some people in the clan proposed a way of assassination, not only to assassinate Yuan Shikai, but also to carry out a comprehensive assassination of the Beiyang cabinet, and then establish a new cabinet with the clan as the core.

This plan is correct in theory, but in practice the biggest problem is "how to gather enough troops to assassinate so many cabinet ministers and deputy ministers". The armed forces of the Manchurians are now gone, and let these princes do it themselves, and they are unwilling to sacrifice their lives for the Qing Dynasty. The princes' daughters are used to hold power and rule the world. How can you die in vain in an assassination?

The princes think that they have to rely on the banner people of Beijing City, how can there be no gentlemen who are willing to serve the imperial court among so many banner people? Some princes and nobles put this idea into practice.

Yuan Shikai's intelligence system was soon comprehensively reported and exposed from the Manchu princes to the ordinary bannermen. Yuan Datou was able to calm down until the Manchu princes' efforts to seize power reached their peak, "That is, the money was spent, the people were found, and a verbal agreement was reached." But no one of the bannermen who got the money was really willing to sell their lives, and they saw that this armed operation was about to end without a hitch. ”

The police immediately made a big arrest of these people according to the information they knew, and Liangbi, Yulang, Pu Wei, Zaitao, Zai Ze, Tieliang and others were "invited" to the headquarters of the police station. The other princes were interrogated separately, but they were casually tied, hanged, and slapped a few times. Pepper water, tiger chairs, soldering irons, and clamps have not yet been used, and the princes have all poured bean-like confessions from bamboo tubes.

The thick stacks of confessions were brought by Yuan Shikai to the Empress Dowager Yulong, and Yuan Shikai and others asked the Empress Dowager to call the shots with snot and tears. Empress Dowager Yulon, a young daughter-in-law, where does she know what to do. After listening to Yuan Shikai's cry, the Queen Mother was also scared to cry. The prince failed to rebel, which was originally a crime of killing his head. The Queen Mother naturally refused to let these princes be killed. The problem is that if these people are not killed, Yuan Shikai is only afraid that he will kill the heads of the Empress Dowager Yulong and the little emperor Xuantong in the Forbidden City.

How did the crying Empress Dowager Yulong know how to solve the problem in front of her. In the end, it was Yuan Shikai who suggested, "The princes are purely making trouble with too much money." simply set up a royal bank in the name of the queen mother and deposited the prince's family's money in the bank. The accounts are kept by the Queen Mother, and the prince's family provides monthly money on a capitation basis. This money can be used to lend money and still earn interest. ”

Empress Dowager Yulong didn't understand what kind of disposition this was at all, and was forced to agree under the pressure of Yuan Shikai and others.

As soon as the Empress Dowager's edict was issued, the Beiyang Army and the police, who had already been strictly selected, rushed into various palaces with the edicts in hand and raided the major palaces. The commander-in-chief behind the raid is Yang Du, a new cadre in Beiyang, who has used all kinds of means. The prince's family members were separated and taken away, and his servants were severely tortured. This torture was not so polite, these carefully selected raiders held the tenet of "as long as the result, regardless of the cost", from the tent to the small house, each person first came to kill the powerful rod with 20 sticks, and then began to ask where the money was hidden. Yang Du received guidance from "certain ways", the Beiyang Army had field telephones, and hand-cranked generators soon came in handy. The electric shock effect is good, and many people recruit it.

For those hard bones who refused to succumb to the electric shock, Yang Du had no choice but to use traditional chili water, tiger chairs, soldering irons, and clamping sticks to serve. If there are still those who are too loyal, they will nail their fingers with bamboo sticks, or brutally torture their families in front of these loyal slaves.

Even so, the tent in Prince Gong's mansion is really a hard bone, and he refuses to reveal his property. As a last resort, Yang Du had no choice but to order someone to let this tent see a scene, and Prince Gong's entire family was stripped naked and passed through various waterboards. In the pain and despair of suffocation, Prince Gong scolded the tent and told him to hand over all the accounts quickly. The tent, which had already opened its skin and flesh and blood, was completely desperate for such a master's family, and committed suicide by biting his tongue.

The choice of the tent is very smart, Beiyang will not leak this kind of torture. Regardless of whether they recruited or not, the subordinates of the princes were all executed on the charge of "stealing the owner of the family and colluding with the horse bandits during the raging horse bandits".

This is Chen Ke's strategy for Yuan Shikai, Beiyang needs money, a lot of money. In Beijing, these princes have money, and the Anglo-French alliance and the Eight-Nation Alliance have robbed them twice but failed to rob all of them. The confession of the royal palace is certainly one of the channels for obtaining information.

Yuan Shikai contacted the Shanxi ticket number, and on the condition that the Beiyang government guaranteed the rights and interests of the Shanxi ticket number in various places, coupled with the confession of the royal government, the assets of the princes in the ticket number were basically sorted out and controlled in their own hands.

In addition to these two channels, Chen Ke also provided metal detectors. This thing has very limited technology, but it is just the induction of the solenoid coil to the metal. The point is that this theoretical concept was not yet proposed in 1909. Yuan Shikai was originally skeptical of this thing, and it was not until the prototype provided by Chen Ke showed considerable effect that he used a large number of telegraph lines to exchange a large batch of metal detectors with Chen Ke. The Beiyang Army, armed with a long-pole probe, conducted a thorough inspection of the palace and the information obtained from the treasury, and discovered several gold and silver hiding places one after another.

Since then, the property of the palace has been deprived, and Yuan Shikai has opened a "Royal Bank Account" with the Bank of Communications in Beiyang as the background, and sixty percent of the confiscated property has been transferred to the bank, and forty percent has fallen into Yuan Shikai's own account. The account books of the royal palaces were respectfully handed over to the Empress Dowager Yulong for safekeeping.

In this process, Yuan Shikai fulfilled his promise to Chen Ke, and a large number of books and documents in the palace were placed in a special warehouse and sealed and strictly guarded. I make important materials for the National Library and the National Archives in the future.

The landing phoenix is not as good as a chicken, first losing power, and then losing money. And the Empress Dowager Yulong issued another edict under Yuan Shikai's flickering, "Banner people can fend for themselves." At the same time, the "hardcore crops" of the Eight Banners were canceled.

The Eight Banners system has long existed in name only, and the only thing that sustains it is the supply of "grain, rice, and silver money" for the bannermen. As soon as this "hardcore crop" was abolished, there was no basis for the maintenance of the banner man system. The bannermen in Beijing fled in a hurry, either to Tianjin or to the Guanwai. Beijing, which used to be the base camp of the flag people, except for the princes who were imprisoned in the empty palace, there were few banner people left in the capital.

After this blow, the Manchus no longer had the slightest possibility of turning over. In June 1909, the governors of various regions began to proclaim "constitutionalism, reform, and inter-provincial autonomy."

On July 1, 1909, the People's Party left Jiangxi on the grounds that Wu Xun, the governor of Jiangxi, was "a royalist and a diehard lackey of the Manchu Qing Dynasty".

Also in July 1909, another flood broke out in Hubei. This time, the People's Party government led the masses to go all out to provide disaster relief.

By mid-August, the People's Party had conquered Jiangxi and the entire territory of Hubei, and the disaster in Hubei had ended.

On September 1, 1909, Yuan Shikai announced the "maintenance list" of each province, and the former governors of each province became "transitional leaders of the provinces for a term of three years". The provinces themselves sent delegates to Beijing to convene the "Constituent Assembly" according to the Manchu estimates of the population and according to the ratio of one person per 100,000 people.

Yuan Shikai invited representatives from the four provinces controlled by the People's Party to attend the meeting. The People's Party stated that it would "never participate in any official meeting of the Manchu Qing Dynasty as an official representative." But the BJP will send observers to participate in this Constituent Assembly. ”

On October 5, 1909, the First National Constituent Assembly was officially convened in Beijing.