After Zaifeng received the petition to "open the parliament quickly", at the same time, the governors of various places began to call the central government one after another, asking the central court to open the congress in accordance with public opinion.

Zaifeng, who got the news, couldn't help but be annoyed, although he did not oppose the constitution, and at the beginning of his coming to power, he repeatedly announced that he would abide by the nine-year constitution and implement the constitutional state system, and he did not oppose the establishment of a cabinet in the opening of the National Assembly, but he had a natural antipathy to the overstepping of the authority of the governors.

Since the pacification of the Taiping Rebellion, the Han bureaucracy replaced the Manchus and began to rise day by day, the Xianghuai group, which made its fortune by military merits, controlled the governors of the southern provinces for a long time, and formed a huge interest group through the love of the robe, although Cixi took a series of divisive measures, but still could not curb the centrifugal force of the country's increasing division, coupled with the foreigners from time to time to get involved, these Xinjiang ministers were even more fearless, especially after the Gengzi Fist Rebellion, Li Hongzhang, Liu Kun and other governors implemented the southeast mutual protection, The authority of the central government has plummeted, and the localities have seized the opportunity to become bigger, and this kind of reality is undoubtedly a huge problem for the successors.

Therefore, just a few days after Zaifeng came to power, he issued an order to deprive the governor of the honorary title of the secretary of the military department and the squire, in an attempt to suppress the military power of the Xinjiang ministers in this way, but from the actual effect, this practice is not painful, and the central financial reform led by the branch for a period of time ago is almost bankrupt, and the implementation of the policy has encountered huge resistance in the locality, and the local officials are in disobedience, and once the chain of interests is formed, it is difficult to get rid of it. This time, the supervisors united to put pressure on the central government, which made Zaifeng see this sense of crisis again.

Only in this way can we break the shackles of interest groups, but the problem is that in the eyes of the people, your centralization of power is autocratic, a cancer, and a stubborn one, and in the eyes of the revolutionary party, it is against the trend of the world, perverse, and hopeless. In this way, Zaifeng suddenly stood on the opposite side of public opinion, and became an endorser of a corrupt and declining dynasty.

In the end, the power was not integrated, because he did not have the skill and authority of Cixi at all, and the constitution was not completed, because everyone did not go through a period of foreshadowing and necessary ideological preparation, only the local forces under the representatives of the Xinjiang ministers laughed secretly, and the country was lost in vain, and their power was no longer restrained, and they used the army and financial power in their hands to form themselves, and then in just a few decades, there were countless large and small warlords, central and local, public opinion and government policies, these two contradictions, It's a dilemma that Zaifeng can't get out of.

Holding these telegrams, Zaifeng's nerves couldn't relax for a moment, and the name of a person in the list of these calls made his heart tremble suddenly.

Cen Chunxuan, the governor of Zhili.

According to Ye Kai's idea, the new person chose to be Cen Chunxuan, because after Ding You's political tide, Cen Chunxuan was defeated and driven out of the capital, so this famous "official slaughter" became a political enemy with Yi-Xuan and Yuan Shikai, so this time Cen Chunxuan was transferred to Tianjin purely disgusting Yi-Xuan, and he borrowed his hand to purge the Beiyang Group remaining in Zhili Mansion.

The task assigned to Cen Chunxuan was handled very smoothly, the Beiyang Army has either been assimilated by Ye Kai's military advisory system, or has been transferred to the Northeast and Mongolia, without the soil on which the Beiyang Group depends, Cen Chunxuan has no scruples in doing things, and after taking office, he gave full play to the essence of "official slaughter" and impeached more than 70 officials in one go.

This errand is done well, it does not mean that Cen Chunxuan has completely fallen to Zaifeng, Cen Chunxuan has a bullish temper, I'm afraid no one doesn't know, he can make Cixi love and hate, and can also make Cixi ruthlessly abandon it, in the final analysis, it is because Cen Chunxuan has his own political opinions, and on the issue of the petition group, this "official slaughter" obviously has a major disagreement with Zaifeng.

Cen Chunxuan echoed with the constitutionalists inside and outside, conformed to the people's feelings, quickly opened the parliament, and sternly reminded the imperial court that "the overall situation is at stake", once "the decision of annihilation is decided, it will be defeated for thousands of miles", and called for the implementation of the constitution as soon as possible, and the regent should not delay and wait and see.

When he saw this sentence, how could Zaifeng not be angry, and read these telegrams all over the place, what was written in them was nothing more than one meaning, please ask the regent to judge the situation and conform to public opinion, so as not to commit public anger, as if he is the only one who obstructs the reform, staring at these words alluded to, Zaifeng almost said that this king is bitter in his heart, you have to scold others.

The situation that he had tried so hard to figure out was deeply troubling this young man, who was only twenty-six years old.

He sighed, looked up at the window, there was only a small piece of the Forbidden City above the high wall, and the sight was at the end, and under that same sky, in that wider place, was the scene of a large crowd of people petitioning, and they were shouting hoarsely what Zaifeng couldn't give them.

Should the leadership of reform be in the hands of the government, or should it be in the hands of the petition group? It may seem like an answer to this question today, but at the time, it was a political dead end.

The opposite of Zaifeng is the huge gentry, as a group that communicates the upper class and the toiling masses at the bottom, it is a unique class in China, both at the lowest end of the ruling class, but also the best of the ruled class, can go up through the imperial examination system, or go downhill with poor management, the special background and identity of the times led them to the stage of history, and played a vanguard role in this feast of the national constitution, once the country is constitutional, they are the biggest beneficiaries, and the exploitation of the ruling class has disappeared since then, And they can also become the masters of the country through the Congressional Party, which is why they are so eager to create petition activities one after another.

In addition to the governors of various places, under the mediation of Zhang Jian, the initiator of the petition group, the provinces set up a federation of advisory bureaus, and in the name of the federation, they demanded that the imperial court respect the will of the people and quickly open the parliament. At the same time, the non-governmental petition activities have also intensified, not only within the scope of the capital, but also the chambers of commerce, societies, and peasant associations in various provinces have also voiced their voices.

Everyone is waiting for Zaifeng's choice.

With pressure from the governor from outside, a petition group from within, and the situation becoming more and more unfavorable to the government, it was impossible for Zaifeng to turn a blind eye, and an emergency discussion meeting involving the members of the highest echelons of the Qing court was launched against this background.