In the last month of 1909, the ancient city of Beijing was often covered in snow, and the heavy city under the heavy snow became the most indelible scene in Ye Kai's mind, and the cold air seemed to make the people at the end of the year much more lazy, so that they were unaware of the coming new era.

In addition to a few things worth mentioning, the stormy Qing Kingdom seems to be about to enter the new year silently.

Duan Fang was deposed, the diplomatic work was completely unsuccessful, and there was no more hole cards to play in his hand, so he decided to retreat as advance and avoid the edge for the time being. Within a few days, he successively resigned from his posts as Premier Wang of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Minister Wang of the Ministry of War, and these official posts had become a drag on him.

Maybe it was to show favor to Zaifeng, or maybe it was just some kind of strategy, except for the positions of the Minister of Military Aircraft and the Minister of Political Affairs, he took the initiative to hand over all power in one go, and things developed too suddenly, so that Zaifeng who got the news was also a little too surprised.

Immediately afterwards, Yi Liang took a long vacation, closed the door, hid at home, and declared to the public that he was ill, did not leave the bed, and was dying, barely surviving on drugs.

Of course, this set of rhetoric can fool others, but he can't deceive Ye Kai, not to mention that Yi-Liang has a great body and more than ten years of life, in terms of his political temperament, I am afraid he doesn't want to lose his hard-earned honor in vain.

In addition to the hibernating wild bears that can escape the harsh winter, there are also turtles that are retracted into their shells, Yi-Xuan has always been sleek, this time he doesn't mind recognizing a planting, being a turtle with a shrunken head, anyway, politics is originally thirty years in Hedong, thirty years in Hexi, as long as you are still sitting on the playing field, you have a chance to turn over.

Facts have proved that Yi-Liang is really a veteran of playing politics, and within ten days of living at home, he has sensed something strange with his keen sense of smell, and is gradually approaching the heart of the empire.

Yi-劇 chooses patience, and endures with undivided attention.

As his invisible opponent, Ye Kai is also ready to fight, and from the perspective of future generations, he can even see farther and see more clearly than Yi-Xuan. In the first month of the new year, a small chaos occurred at the feet of the Son of Heaven, and from that moment to the end of the year, the capital of the capital, which had been enveloped by the imperial spirit for five hundred years, would be involved in an unprecedented frenzy.

With this frenzy, a new era has arrived, and if the winner of the previous game is Ye Kai, then at the beginning of the new game, everyone will usher in a strong opponent.

gentry

On the banner they held high, two words were written, constitutional!

With the fiasco of the First Sino-Japanese War, the Qing court cut off the platform, and then the Hundred Days Restoration ended in blood, and the constitutional trend of thought began to sprout quietly, of course, the subsequent events greatly contributed to this trend, the Russo-Japanese War Japan overthrew the Russian old woolly bear with a small country, and the rulers of the empire realized that only the constitution was the panacea to save China. Just announced that Kang Liang is a heretical doctrine, this set of practices is tantamount to slapping himself in the face.

Liang Qichao replaced Kang Youwei and became one of the leaders of the constitutionalist faction, and his shouting in the wind overseas has also become a major reason for the rampant trend of constitutional thought.

As early as a year earlier, in August 1908, the Qing court, amid the clamor of the constitutionalists, promulgated the "Outline of the King James Constitution", the "Essentials of the Election Law of the House of Representatives" and the "List of Preparatory Matters for Each Year Before the Opening of the House of Representatives", and declared that "from the court to the courtiers, they all abide by the King James Constitution, with a view to always following it and not exceeding it." ”

A top-down constitutional movement was born, which wanted to overturn China's **** system that lasted for more than 2,000 years, a super-stable social system under agricultural civilization.

The Qing court's practice of formally promulgating the outline of the constitution and engaging in open politics was unprecedented in Chinese history. According to the "List of Preparatory Matters," China's constitutional thinking is modeled on Japan's, with a nine-year limit and a gradual transition, and a detailed list of major events and timetables for the preparation of these nine years.

In the first year (1908), the Advisory Council was organized, the regulations for local autonomy in towns and townships were promulgated, education for the people was popularized, and important legal codes were compiled.

In the following year (1909), an election was held for the Advisory Council, the statutes of the Advisory Council were promulgated, a census was conducted, and courts at all levels were established.

In the third year (1910), the Institute of Information and Administration was opened, and the local government of prefectures and counties was organized, and the civil service examination system was promulgated.

In the fourth year (1911), local self-government at all levels was renewed, and local tax regulations were promulgated.

In the fifth year (1912), local self-government at all levels began to take shape

From the point of view of planning and timetable, the establishment of parliamentarians, the census, the reduction of illiteracy, local self-government, the convening of the National Assembly and other 92 major reforms, each of which is a fresh and extremely important event, for an old China that has transformed into a modern country, its difficulty can be imagined, is consciously or unconsciously advancing towards a modern country, with the constitutionalization, the traditional country is gradually disintegrating, especially to prepare for the constitution, more deeply touching the most conservative and core component of the traditional political system - **** imperial power. At a time when structural change is on the horizon, any recklessness and rashness will bring disaster to China's future.

For the majority of the people, the future of the constitution is bright, but in the cheers of the court, there is a little hidden danger that people cannot see, just as Japanese Prime Minister Katsura Taro coldly watched, "The constitution and the Diet and other systems are good, but it takes a long time to prepare, and China is moving too fast now, and there will definitely be problems."

Katsura Taro's prophecy was extremely accurate, and if the distribution of power was not carefully and precisely, it would inevitably bury the great situation, and in the second year of the preparation for the constitution, great events happened one after another.

The people who single-handedly created these great things had a common attribute, the gentry class.

As the vanguard of the constitutionalists, the mainstay of Chinese society, the gentry group, stepped into the forefront of the historical stage at the last moment of the lonely feudal dynasty.

Their arrival is not good news, except for the full mouth of constitutional ideas, and the heart of a heart that cannot wait.

According to the 1908 road map for the preparation of the constitution, the Qing court had to carry out nine years of preparatory work before the parliament could be convened and the constitution could be promulgated. However, once the power of the people is mobilized, the process and the outcome are beyond the control and prediction of the designers of the reform, and with the sudden death of the Empress Dowager Cixi, the central authority is gone, the reform process can no longer proceed as planned, and a politically divided country is tantamount to death to undergo a super-surgery to continue the life of the bone.

"Nine years is too long to make a constitution, preferably three years, or just this year!"

The constitutionalists clamored that they were eager to take power away from the feudal rulers, and once the desire for power swelled, it would inevitably run counter to the original intention.

From the autumn of 1907, the constitutionalists in various localities wrote to the Qing court, demanding that the congress be convened quickly, and in October 1909, when the provincial consultative bureaus met for the first time, Zhang Jian, chairman of the Jiangsu consultative bureau, telegraphed the provincial consultative bureaus, suggesting the organization of a parliamentary petition comrade meeting. After more than a month of multi-party contacts, representatives from various provinces arrived in Shanghai on 18 December to discuss the matter of petitioning for the speedy opening of the National Assembly.

Of course, the outcome of the deliberations is well known: step by step? Sorry, we can't wait, hurry, hurry, it's better to do it in one step, the world? Hehe, now it's the world of gentlemen.

"If the Congress is expected to be convened within a year, the world will be very fortunate!"

With such an idea, the councillors with the gentry as the main body resolutely stepped on the train to Beijing, "shorten the number of years and open the parliament as soon as possible", and then followed by the phrase "super-Britain catches up with the United States." In short, they want to transmit such a voice to the ears of the supreme ruler.

As a result, in the first month of 1909, Zaifeng, Ye Kai, and all the important ministers of the Qing court could hear the same voice.

A large wave of constitutionalists is approaching the capital