There was a low "hum" in the auditorium of the Constituent Assembly. Although Huang Xing and Tan Renfeng were standing under the rostrum and whispering, the two obviously did not have the heart to go up to the rostrum and ring the bronze bell, so that the auditorium, which was as lively as a vegetable market, was quiet.

There was no way to be quiet, after all, this meeting was extraordinary, it was about a political assassination, and because it was an emergency meeting. It is impossible for the Constitutional Commissioners to be on call, and many of them cannot be contacted in other places, and even local members cannot be gathered in a short period of time, and many of them are still pulled to the venue from the banquet.

The assassination of Tao Chengzhang, the premier of the Kuomintang Party, in the French Concession Bureau was enough to make people stunned, and most people could not even believe that the news was true at first, until they rushed to the Constituent Assembly Auditorium one after another, and then realized how rampant the assassins of this era were.

This political assassination incident is not an uncommon occurrence in this year, when the Manchu Qing Dynasty did not fall, the revolutionaries repeatedly planned and carried out assassination operations against Qing court dignitaries. The former governor of Liangguang, Deshou, the former governor of Guangxi, Wang Zhi, the former governor of Guangxi, Tieliang, the former head of the household department, and Li Zhun, the former admiral of the Guangdong navy, these powerful figures were all targets under the guns or bombs of the revolutionary party, and the most famous of these assassinations was the assassination of the five ministers of the "Northern Assassination Group" Wu Yue who went abroad to investigate the constitution. The assassination was carried out using a powerful bomb, and the assassination took place at the Běijīng Daqianmen railway station, the same train station where the president of the Privy Council, Hirobumi Ito, was assassinated the day before.

Obviously, it was not only the Chinese Assassins who were crazy these years, but also the foreign Assassins.

In particular, it is worth mentioning the identity of the assassin Wu Yue, who went abroad to investigate the five constitutional ministers, although he was not a full member of the Liberation Society, but after the revolution, the Liberation Society has been promoting his deeds. The line he organized, the "Northern Assassination Group", was classified as a peripheral organization of the Restoration Society, and the bomb used by Wu Yue back then was provided by the Liberation Society. ** Starter, hand. Beat**

Now, Tao Chengzhang, who was assassinated in the French Concession, was the president of the Liberation Association before!

Cause and effect

More than one member of the Constitutional Councillors present pondered that when it came to assassination, the revolutionary party in the south was really the best in the Far East, and they were fanatical believers in the Russian "nihilistic party."

However, none of the members of the Constituent Assembly dared to express this idea, after all, Tao Chengzhang is now the leader of the "largest party in China," and this coalition party has clearly announced that it will seize power through parliamentary politics.

This is the second time that the Constituent Assembly has met to discuss the political assassination incident, the last time it was to discuss the attempted assassination of Zhao Bei, the commander-in-chief of the Republican Army, by the "International Conspiracy Group", but later because the assassins were "missing" in the fire in Huayang County Prison or said that they died in prison, or they escaped from prison, in short, after the Constituent Assembly issued the general order, the attempted assassination case was shelved.

Compared with the Nashli murder case, Tao Chengzhang's assassination case was more tricky because the assassin was not caught at all. Not even a suspect.

The Assassin was in the back garden of the Ministry of Industry in the Concession. At that time, Premier Tao was sitting in the gazebo with the French Consul General in Shanghai to cool off, and when he got up to go to the banquet hall to attend the dinner, the assassin who had been lurking nearby suddenly fired two shots from behind the bushes, and after hitting Tao Chengzhang, he fled, leaving no clues, although the French Concession patrol blocked the scene in a short period of time and searched closely, but found nothing, and did not even know how the assassin infiltrated the Ministry of Industry, and because of the dim light at that time, no one could see the assassin's face clearly, and even the assassin was tall or short.

In the words of the French governor of the French Concession. This is a "headless case", and unless the Assassin surrenders himself, the chances of solving it are slim to none. And the French jǐng chief also said; It is likely that there were accomplices of the Assassins in the Ministry of Works. Otherwise, it is not enough to explain why the Assassins were able to infiltrate and escape quietly, and perhaps the French Concession Ministry of Industry would carry out a thorough "clean-up" of the case, as the French consul feared that he himself might be targeted by the Assassins.

How the French Concession "cleaned up" the disloyal elements was a matter for the French Concession and had nothing to do with the Constituent Assembly, and now the only concern of the Constituent Commissioners was how to deal with the aftermath.

Now that the National Assembly election and the official presidential election are about to be held, the Kuomintang has suddenly lost its political leader, which is undoubtedly a heavy blow to them, and if the question of the successor of the party leader cannot be resolved, then this coalition party may face the danger of dissolution as soon as it is formed.

More importantly, there are only a few days left before the parliamentary election, and if the new party leader cannot be determined as quickly as possible, then the KMT will not have full confidence in winning the county capital election.

Therefore, whether it is Huang Xing or Tan Renfeng, their main concern now is not how to track down the mastermind, but to choose a new party leader with prestige to continue to lead this complex coalition party and avoid splitting.

Just after the assassination, Huang Xing and Tan Renfeng were not in the French Concession, and they were kept by Tao Changzhang in the list of the first party meeting of the Nanshi Feng" Yibu United Political Party, so they did not know the details of the assassination. It was only through the attaché sent back by Song Jiaoren that they learned of Tao Chengzhang's death, but after all, the two of them handled things safely, although they notified the party cadres and the constitutional commissioners, but they have not yet leaked the news to the press, and the French Concession is currently implementing a blockade, so the news of Tao Chengzhang's assassination has not yet been made public, and this meeting is a secret meeting.

Since the Kuomintang was formed by the alliance of the League and the Liberation Society, and there were differences between the two revolutionary organizations, they were united only with the support of the local powerful factions in the revolutionary camp. and elected Tao Chengzhang as the party leader, it can be said that Tao Chengzhang's position as party premier itself is not very stable, and now Tao Chengzhang has died. The question of this succession stumped everyone at once.

Although not many people know about the assassination now. But some people have already started talking about it privately. Speculation is as to whether the assassination was a struggle for power within the KMT, after all, the League and the Wufu Society have been at a stalemate for a long time over the issue of the party leader. If it weren't for the national telegram and newspaper statement from Zhao Bei, commander-in-chief of the Republican Army, Tao Chengzhang would have almost impossible to become the leader of the party, and Zhao Bei himself was a cadre of the Liberation Society, so it was difficult to convince some of the people of the League in this matter.

Of course, there is another possibility in this assassination incident, perhaps Tao Chengzhang died not at the hands of the opposition within the party, but at the hands of a presidential contender, after all, the Kuomintang is known as "the largest party in China." "Tao Chengzhang's call for being elected as the official president is very high, and it is difficult to guarantee that he will not be regarded as a thorn in the side.

As of yesterday, only four people have announced their participation in the official presidential election, and Interim President Yuan Shikai has the highest chance of being elected. Tao Chengxing came second, and as for the remaining two, one was Zhang Renjun, the governor of Guangdong, who was the candidate nominated by the Guangdong constitutionalists, but the probability of being elected was the lowest, and the other was Xu Shichang, the governor of the three eastern provinces. He was jointly elected by the Beiyang generals, but in fact it came from Yuan Shikai's planning, which can also be regarded as the contingency plan of the Beiyang Group. Using the method of apportioning votes to gradually increase the chances of the Beiyang Group winning must have been guided by a high-ranking person, and Zhang Renjun's candidacy is likely to go out of the same purpose.

Analyzed in this way, if Tao Chengzhang really died at the hands of his presidential opponent, then. The possibility that the Beiyang Group is the mastermind behind the scenes is the largest, and the spearhead of suspicion can even be directly pointed at Yuan Shikai.

But all this is speculation, there is no evidence, however, no matter who Zego assassinated Tao Chengzhang. He put himself in the position that Wanfu had pointed to, and now that the revolution had succeeded and the republic had come to an end, everyone was looking forward to a swift stabilization of the situation in the country. In order to quickly stabilize the situation in the country, it is necessary to first resolve the differences between the North and the South in accordance with the ideal state. If Tao Chengzhang wins the presidential election and becomes the official president, then there is a good premise for the unification of the North-South decrees, and even if he cannot be elected as the official president, the Kuomintang can guarantee to control the majority of seats in the National Assembly, so it can also lay the foundation for the unification of the North-South decrees.

But now, the man behind the assassination is not only trying to nullify the efforts of the decree of peaceful reunification, but has also put the differences between the North and the South from the bottom of the table to the top of the table, and has used brutal and barbaric means to stimulate the nerves of the powerful faction in the South.

In the face of Dow's assassination, the Constitutional Commissioners behaved in a variety of ways, and some were heartbroken. There are those who gloat, those who sit on the wall, and those who are duplicitous, but after everyone has calmed down, they are equally concerned about the question of the succession of the party leader, and the Kuomintang people in particular regard this matter as the party's top priority at present.

While! While! ，

The bronze bell on the rostrum rang twice, and the members of the Constitutional Committee who were talking to each other quieted down and looked up at the rostrum, where they saw Huang Xing, one of the "ten secretaries general" of the Kuomintang, already standing there.

"Everyone, be quiet!"

Huang Xing stood up straight, looked solemn, glanced at the constituent councilors, and then said word by word: "The unfortunate murder of the leader of this party is really a sad thing. Just now, the French Concession has moved Premier Tao's coffin to Nanshi, and after intra-party consultations, a mourning hall has been set up in front of the main entrance of the Constituent Assembly to receive condolences from people from all walks of life. Just now, the cadres of this party have also rushed back to Nanshi one after another, and now, I would like to ask Mr. Song Yuchu to read to you the will dictated by Premier Tao on the occasion of his death. ”

As soon as Huang Xing's voice fell, there was suddenly another "buzzing" sound in the auditorium.

It's so surprising that Tao Chengzhang actually left a will? Everyone turned their eyes to the entrance of the auditorium, eager to know what Tao Chengzhang's will said.

Some people walked into the entrance of the auditorium, and Song Jiaoren and Li Suhe walked in the front, but the two did not immediately walk on the rostrum, but stood under the rostrum and discussed with Huang Xing and Tan Renfeng in a low voice.

The members of the Constituent Assembly and the delegation of the political party stood up one after another, looking up, but they saw that the people under the rostrum were all solemn, whether they were from the League or the Liberation Association, everyone had their eyes on Song Jiaoren.

Obviously, after Tao Chengzhang's death, Song Jiaoren has become the backbone of everyone.