"In that case, what does Hanzhi want to do?" Chen Qiansheng asked.

"The Drafting Committee gave me the draft for review, so that this is actually the case." Yang Shuoming smiled and said, "In order to make the people of Hunan live a good life, I will reluctantly make it difficult." ”

Hearing that Yang Shuoming promised to contribute to the adoption and implementation of the Hunan Provincial Constitution, tears flashed in Chen Qiansheng's eyes.

"Since Xinhai, 'revolution' has become absolutely politically correct, and later the term 'counter-revolutionary' was coined. Since then, the 'inter-provincial autonomy' has been inseparable from the 'counter-revolution' in the mainstream narrative. The so-called great men have consciously or unintentionally ignored that behind the fig leaf of 'warlord secession', there are the bitter cries of hundreds of millions of people who have suffered from war......" Yang Shuoming seemed to be answering Chen Qiansheng, and as if he was telling some past events that had been sealed for a long time, "Their great men and celebrities each have their own brilliant ways of 'saving the country and saving the people', and the small efforts of the ants and small people to try to save themselves seem to be not worth mentioning in their eyes." Under the torrent of the so-called 'revolution', the people's livelihood is like a mustard! ”

At this time, Yang Shuoming's voice gradually turned high-pitched, and Chen Qiansheng heard the long-suppressed grief and indignation in this young man's heart, and couldn't help but look at him in surprise, as if he wanted to get to know him again.

"I hope this 1919 year will be meaningful." Yang Shuoming quickly regained his composure, looked at Chen Qiansheng, and smiled again.

On March 15, 1919, under the appeal of the Hunan intellectuals and the pressure of the Liangguang Patrol Embassy, the articles concerned about the rights of the people at the bottom of the population, such as the right to subsistence, the right to education, and the right to labor, were officially written into the "Hunan Provincial Constitution". On April 2, after several amendments, the "Hunan Provincial Constitution" was formally examined and adopted by the review committee.

After drafting, revising and reviewing, the final procedure for obtaining a full legal surname in the Constitution of Hunan Province - the "general referendum" began. On May 1, 1919, the voting work ended, and after the counting of votes, the final voting result was: in addition to the invalid votes and abstentions, the total number of votes for the word "may" in the province was 18158875, and the number of votes for the word "no" was 575,230.

"Hunan autonomy" can be said to be a major event in China's modern history, which created a precedent for China's constitutional politics and laid a good foundation for the establishment of federalism in China in the future.

In terms of voting figures alone, the Hunan Provincial Constitution can be said to have won the support of the overwhelming majority of the provincial people. But these votes are obviously not real. At that time, Hunan's "Ta Kung Pao" described this: "Since the provincial constitution was examined and passed, there have been so many days, and the formalities for the speech have been carried out with all their might. Try to take one or two people at random on the avenue today, and ask what is the provincial constitution? There are people who know, and those who don't know are probably 10 out of 10, which does not need to be covered. ”

But while criticizing, Ta Kung Pao also admitted, "It is clear that these votes were largely fabricated." However, there was a practical necessity in this kind of reckless work -- at that time, Hunan was obviously unable to complete the popularization of the "Hunan Provincial Constitution" and the referendum. In the end, the people who can be covered are necessarily limited to the intellectual class. But it cannot be said that there is no real public opinion behind this, because the 30 million people of Hunan really want to rely on this constitution to save themselves from the quagmire of warlord warfare. ”

After that, according to the epoch-making "Hunan Provincial Constitution", in 1919, Hunan implemented the first "direct election" in history, and a total of 2,761 county councilors were elected. In the same year, the provincial governor was elected, the directors of the seven divisions of the political axe, the head of the High Public Prosecutor's Office, the head of the High Court of Justice, and the president of the Court of Auditors. Through these elections, the first "elected Hunan Provincial Political Axe" was formed.

Subsequently, according to this constitution, the Hunan people laid off the extremely poor quality troops of the local warlords in Hunan, and the total number accounted for about one-third of the total strength of the Hunan army. In addition, in accordance with this constitution, the people in Hunan's educational circles have also realized the reading power of education funds in the form and ensured that the education funds are not misappropriated by the warlords, and Hunan's education has developed greatly, which is very different from other provinces. In accordance with this Constitution, people in Hunan's legal circles have always been persevering in promoting Hunan's judicial reading; Although there were many problems in the process of the Hunan Provincial Council's release, some statistics show that in less than three years since the second half of 1919, the Hunan Provincial Assembly passed a total of 73 cases of prohibiting illegal plundering by the army, 68 cases of reducing or exempting exorbitant taxes and miscellaneous taxes and land taxes, 73 cases of impeachment and investigation of officials, and 12 cases of restricting the cancellation of loans or the suspension of the issuance of public bonds. According to this constitution, the county magistrate examination was also held throughout the province, and it can be said that it is unique in Hunan that Hunan has been able to clarify the rule of officials through the examination in an era when the appointment of private individuals is commonplace. These miracles have been achieved because of the "autonomy of Hunan" and the "Hunan Provincial Constitution" on which it depends.

Someone once commented: "After the promulgation and implementation of the Hunan Provincial Constitution in 1919, the door to the union of China has been opened. ”

1919 was an unquiet year for China and the world.

At a time when China's domestic turmoil is turbulent, the battlefield in Europe is also undergoing drastic changes.

At the beginning of 1919, when the Germans looked at the war situation, they found themselves at the pinnacle of history: Russia had fallen, most of France had been occupied by Germany, the French were on the verge of collapse not only in action but also mentally, the British had lost their most proud and powerful navy and were beginning to become exhausted, and Italy had de facto cederated hostel.

But after the glory of this victory, the darkness is still growing rapidly.

With the continuous attrition of the German army and the longer and longer battle front, the offensive capability of the German army has reached its peak, coupled with the defeat of the German Navy in the second battle of the Helgoland Bay, the German Emperor Wilhelm II pinned his hopes on unlimited submarine warfare to destroy the war potential of the Entente, but because the Entente Navy strengthened the escort force after regaining sea supremacy, the results achieved by German submarines began to decline, and a large number of merchant ships produced by China timely and effectively supplemented the losses of Allied ships, Germany was forced to switch from strategic offensive to strategic defense. The Entente, on the other hand, began a major counteroffensive.

In order to strengthen the offensive force, the American political axe, the French political axe, and the British political axe repeatedly exerted pressure on China and the Japanese government, demanding that China and the Chinese political axe send additional troops to fully cooperate with the counteroffensive of the Entente [***] forces in the European naval and land theaters.

In the face of the tremendous pressure from Britain, France, and the United States, he maintained his usual "cautious" attitude, and instead proposed that the following conditions should be met before the deployment of additional troops could be considered.

1. Provide 1,000 new fighters and 500 bombers, as well as 300 heavy bombers, to help him build an air force. 500 large trucks were provided to increase their transport capacity.

2. Provide fuel to the Navy and Air Force so that the Navy and Air Force can build up sufficient fuel reserves to meet operational needs.

3. Provide all the equipment of the 20 divisions, including tanks and heavy artillery.

4. To provide all the raw materials, especially rare metals, needed to maintain the production of arms in the local area.

5. Directly provide a military loan of 2 billion US dollars.

6. Transfer the advanced military and industrial technologies required for this project.

In response to the exorbitant demand, both the United States and Britain demanded that they first send additional land forces to Europe to fight against Germany before they would provide assistance, but they refused to "take the liberty of fighting the Germans again before the safety of their troops in Europe was guaranteed."

Unlike the previous version, although China, like Russia, had a sudden change of regime, the Chinese political axe told Britain, France, and the United States that "China will not withdraw from the cause of the Entente" and promised to continue to participate in the war.

Despite the pressure and restraint at home, the cautious Chinese political axe still insisted on assuming the international responsibilities left by the "Hongxian Empire", and at the same time hoped to continue to receive military and economic assistance from the United States. The United States and China also reached a secret agreement that China would provide personnel and the United States would equip, train, and resupply, and 10 nationally armed infantry divisions would soon be formed on Chinese soil for a future counteroffensive against Germany. In addition, the United States has helped China train engineers and technicians in various specialized arms.

After receiving these news, they were extremely disturbed by this, and they were very afraid that the continuous expansion and strengthening of the [***] squadron would "cause adverse effects to the interests of the empire", but because the United States insisted on its strategy of allowing China to play an important role in this war, they had no choice but to give in, although they were still secretly causing trouble, and forbade the ships loaded with the [***] squadron to stop on the mainland.

The Chinese political axe then expressed its willingness to provide another 500,000 people to the United States -- China has the richest human resources in the world. This time, the personnel sent were mainly from the Jiangnan area, and many of them were bandit-born veterans who had been laid off, and their combat effectiveness was quite strong. Both the Americans and the British were very satisfied with the actions of the Chinese political axe.

After negotiations and consultations, it was finally decided to send all 500,000 people to the Middle East and North Africa for training. Moreover, this time, all officers below the rank of general are no longer held by the US military, but the US military still retains complete personnel appointment and dismissal rights over this unit, and can directly shoot officers and men below the rank of major. The Americans intend to use these squadrons to participate in the offensive on the European continent. The British [***] side also agreed with the American proposal, and after many battles, they had come to believe in the combat effectiveness of the [***] squadron trained by the Europeans, and the British were also worried that so many Chinese would come to the colonies of the British Empire to stir up "dangerous nationalist sentiments" in the local area. (It wasn't until the beginning of the counteroffensive that the Americans discovered that the British corps in the Middle East were purely empty shelves, and that the real strength of each corps was only one brigade -- a reflection of the British Yankees' consistent principle that if you want to deceive the enemy, you must first deceive your own people.) ）

The first squadron to participate in the counteroffensive was sent to the stalemate of the Italian peninsula, in which the five infantry divisions, which had just completed reorganization, won more trust from the American and British armies with their outstanding performance. The second group of 4 Chinese divisions took part in the "Triumphant" landing operation in southern France. Due to the heavy casualties of the squadron fighting in Italy, the US and Chinese political axes agreed to adopt a rotation system for the follow-up troops, and rotate the front-line troops on a six-month cycle to retain the experienced combat backbone.

Chinese troops fighting in Europe were generally heavily used, and the Chinese [***] team defending in south-central France was caught up in a major German counterattack. The American troops on the left flank were crushed by the Germans, and the two regiments of the 106th Division of the American Army on the right flank surrendered, and the division commander was also unknown (they were captured by German tanks on the front line), the two Chinese divisions still unexpectedly held on to the offensive junction of the German 5th Army and the 6th Army, effectively holding back the German attack. Enraged, the Germans were forced to redirect the sharp spearheads that had been bypassed, and a large number of tanks rumbled in and pressed down on the Chinese divisions, which were effectively surrounded and unable to be backed up. But what was striking was that the Chinese infantry, taking advantage of the favorable terrain defense, withstood the German onslaught with almost no support, and took advantage of the cover of night to successfully drill out of the loose defensive line of the two German divisions. When the squadrons reported back to their American commanders, the American general and his staff were stunned - they had already reported to their superiors two days earlier that the two Chinese divisions had been "completely annihilated" by the Germans.

The embarrassed Americans, who did not have time to explain, immediately sent these squadrons back to the battlefield, and in the new battlefield, the Chinese fighters once again bravely faced the German attack and put up a brave resistance, once again achieving a brilliant victory. However, after the end of the battle, the US side did not change its word, still claiming in the report that the two Chinese divisions were "routed" by the powerful German army, and some US officers even claimed that the Chinese [***] team "abandoned its position without permission, and some units broke through sporadically and were promptly absorbed by the US army." Interestingly, the German war report also unashamedly mentions that they successfully "annihilated" two stubborn Chinese infantry divisions and captured the American commander of a Chinese division; Although "these cunning Orientals threw away their weapons and scattered into the jungle and escaped the German round-up, they ceased to exist as a combat force". It was only after the war that the American division commander who was released from the German prisoner of war camp was indignant and started a pen and ink lawsuit with the United States for his own reputation, and of course claimed to outsiders that he wanted to rehabilitate his "heroic Chinese subordinates". The division commander later wrote a memoir that focused on the heroic exploits of the Chinese [***] team on the European battlefield. However, he attributed everything to the American-style training and leadership of the Chinese [***] team, as well as his own "wise teaching" and "strict tempering" of his Chinese subordinates. This reminiscence was later listed at the Paris Peace Conference as one of the important evidences of China's contribution to the cause of the Entente.

In addition to the fighters, the Chinese political axe also provided a large amount of labor to Europe. Millions of hard-working and humiliating Chinese laborers made tremendous contributions to the cause of the Entente countries. These laborers not only provided logistical support for the Entente [***] team, and built and excavated fortifications, but also a considerable number of them entered the factories of England and France, and with their Chinese characteristic intelligence and great receptivity, they soon became skilled workers who were not inferior to the whites, and these laborers who became industrial workers greatly strengthened the industrial production of Britain and France, which was dysfunctional due to "blood loss". In addition, a considerable number of Chinese laborers are employed in agricultural production.

With the continuous counteroffensive of the Entente [***] team with the Chinese and American armies as the backbone, and the destruction of the German army in the Second Battle of the Somme, the wind of war quickly turned. When the news of Italy's withdrawal from the war reached Libhon, it immediately caused a political earthquake in Libhon. The opposition parties have launched a strong challenge to the ruling "feudal cabinet," taking advantage of the resurging anti-Chinese sentiment in the country and the people's dissatisfaction with the political axe, and they have co-opted some small and medium-sized parties who are indignant at the "weakness" of the political axe, and threatened to put forward a motion of no confidence in the political axe in the parliament. Under internal and external pressure, Prime Minister Masashi Terauchi announced to his cabinet members: "We must go to war, gentlemen!" The Cabinet immediately approved an additional military budget and a general mobilization order for the entire country, and formally sought a $2 billion war loan from the United States.

In exchange, and also in order to better "go down the mountain to pick peaches," he agreed to provide 10 divisions of troops to the European theater, and the US military was completely responsible for training and supply, personnel appointments and dismissals, and operational command, and that they would be directly transferred to Europe to participate in the battle as a participating unit. However, the War Department did not agree to hand over the 10 divisions to the Americans in this way, and many people in the political axe were afraid that the United States would use these 10 divisions as cannon fodder and exchange their own blood for the valuable lives of American GIs. For this reason, the military has been reluctant to give in and insisted on getting a loan first and then letting it go.

(To be continued)