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On the morning of October 1, 1895, there was a lot of laughter in the Qinzheng Auditorium next to the Beihai, in the courtyard outside the main hall, a bright red carpet was laid, and at one end of the carpet, a ceremonial tree tied with cypress was built, and a five-color flag fluttered next to it, and a neat and mighty Beiyang army stood up.

More than 800 members of the National Council, heads of nine ministries, chairmen of various provinces, and high-ranking generals of the Beiyang New Army all gathered together to attend Song Xiaofei's inauguration ceremony, as well as ministers from more than 20 countries who were invited to watch the ceremony, and representatives of the Manchu, Mongolian, Hui, and Tibetan nationalities, who had basically cut their braids and wore top hats.

At the beginning of the inauguration ceremony, the military band played the national anthem of the Republic, and Li Jingfang handed the presidential oath to Song Xiaofei with both hands.

Song Xiaofei took the oath and walked to the front of the stage. He was dressed in a military uniform that day, with a saber at his waist, a straight upper body, his braids were cut, his eyes were bright, and he had a short beard like the German Emperor Wilhelm on his lips, which made people awe-inspiring. Parliamentarians and military and political representatives stood in a semicircle around him.

After the salute sounded 108 times, Song Xiaofei held the oath in both hands and began to read: "The construction of the Republic of China is the beginning, and everything needs to be governed, I am deeply willing to do my best to carry forward the spirit of the republic, cleanse the flaws of the first place, abide by the Constitution, and reach the country in a safe and strong domain according to the wishes of the people. ”

After reading it, Song Xiaofei was not satisfied with reading from the script, and said off the script: "The republic is the most good national body and is recognized by the world. Now from the imperial government to the leap to the top, the hard work of the princes for many years, but also the boundless happiness of the republic. All facilities thereafter. We should act in accordance with the law, take the rule of law as the foundation, and abide by the law as the top priority, so as to make China a strong country. Seek infinite happiness for 40,000 compatriots. ”

There was warm applause in the courtyard, and two loudspeakers stepped forward to present a white hata. After Song Xiaofei put it on, he continued: "I do not deny that our China is now in many troubles, and I do not deny that the future of our founding is very arduous. The basic conditions for democracy are still weak. However, the power of the times has enabled us to take the first step towards the milestone of the future of democratic constitutionalism, and although there are still turbulent waves ahead, we must move forward without any difficulties hindering us. ”

The applause sounded again, Song Xiaofei's face was heavy, and he continued: "I don't deny that every place, everyone has their own interests. However, the country is now like a big ship sailing in stormy seas, and everyone must work together to avoid the ship running aground. I know that many people are not satisfied with the current military administration, but democracy does not happen overnight. Especially in republican democracy, the United States has been a republic for more than 100 years, blacks and natives have not yet had the right to vote, and the Chinese Exclusion Act still exists. The transition from military administration to training administration and then to constitutional government is determined by China's national conditions. Fiscal, agrarian, economic, educational, and military reforms must all be carried out step by step. I also hope that China will suddenly become a democratic, prosperous, and civilized country, but the lessons of blood and tears tell us that we still have to take the road step by step. I hope that you will be more patient, and then China will definitely move towards a constitutional government, if anyone has selfish interests, advocates violence, and undermines the overall situation. No matter what the name, it will be the enemy of the people! After the inauguration ceremony, I would like to ask you to do your part and tide over the difficulties together to build China into the largest power in Asia. ”

After the speech, the parliamentarians, the heads of various ministries, and the chairmen and deputies of the provinces applauded again, and Song Xiaofei bowed and thanked him. The military music sounded again, the ceremony ended, and a welcome banquet was held, and Song Xiaofei walked down to celebrate with them.

China signed memorandums of cooperation with the United States, Britain and other countries, and brought in a large number of foreign experts, especially American experts, at this time, the United States had no territorial ambitions for China, nor did it have much colonial interests, on the contrary, it was very friendly to this new republic, not only loaning China $5 million at low interest rates, but also sending a large number of experts, including economic experts and agricultural experts, to China to guide China's reforms.

In less than three months, the "National Currency Regulations" were promulgated, and the currency system was unified throughout the country, and the silver dollar was used uniformly throughout the country, with the front of the silver dollar being the portrait of Song Xiaofei, President of the Republic, and the five-color flag of the Republic on the back.

Originally, Song Xiaofei prepared to print Li Hongzhang's portrait on the front of the silver dollar, but Rong Hong and other congressmen believed that Li Hongzhang's claim that the emperor had already had a bad influence on the republic, and that printing President Song Xiaofei's portrait was of great significance to China's reunification, because every Chinese spent money, knew what the republic was, knew who the president was, and was more effective than any propaganda.

The government required that the old money and banknotes in circulation in the provinces be exchanged in proportion to one silver dollar per person, and that about 40,000,000 silver dollars were issued in the whole country, and this work was completed by January 1, 1896. Although the government recovered many old currencies from many places, such as silver taels, were in insufficient fineness, and some were short of two catties, because of Japan's war reparations of 33 million taels of silver, the Xi family persuaded the financial circles in Shanghai and the support of foreign banks from various countries, and Xi Jiadong also issued five-year and ten-year treasury bonds with the help of the established State Bank, raising 200 million yuan.

In some places, the money village and the ticket number did not obey the reform, and the military government came forward to shoot the boss of the money bank, for example, Feng Guozhang shot the owners of the two money houses in Shanxi and confiscated their property. ”

** At this time, the system showed the superiority of concentrating on major tasks, and by March 1896, China's currency reform was successfully completed. Then, the government overhauled the monopoly system of pig iron, including seven trunk lines, the construction of railways with a total length of more than seven thousand miles began, the government also created incentives for mineral development, and the Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce established standardized farms, which were implemented on a large scale in the country's major industries, such as tea and silk, for the benefit of exports.

In 1896, the government also promoted the modernization of the silk and cotton spinning industry, and established more than 30 modern cotton mills in six provinces: Shanghai, Jiangsu, Shandong, Shanxi, Hebei and Zhejiang. Hubei, Hebei and other places have also introduced blast furnaces and modern iron-making technology, and China's pig iron output has reached 300,000 tons, which is basically self-sufficient. The Republic's ocean-going freighters depart from Hong Kong and go straight to Seattle.

The central government has also set up new reclamation areas in northeast China and Inner Mongolia, where 2 million people have migrated and vigorously cleared the land, which will produce enough food to feed 300 million people a year. The central government also used national debt to buy land from some big landlords and distribute it to landless peasants.

By the end of 1896, China's trade volume had reached a record of $400 million, and the central government's revenue had reached 270 million yuan, including 80 million yuan from land revenues, 40 million yuan from cents of gold and miscellaneous donations, 30 million yuan from customs duties, 80 million yuan from salt taxes, 40 million yuan from tobacco and alcohol taxes, and 6 million yuan from stamp duties, doubling from 1895, and achieving the goals set by Premier Sheng Xuanhuai and Finance Minister Xi Jiadong. Seeing this, tens of thousands of overseas Chinese returned to China one after another to do business, bringing back as much as $100 million in funds.

At the same time, new schools, especially normal schools, have sprung up all over the country, because China already has a fine tradition of respecting teachers and valuing education, more than 140 normal schools have been established across the country, and 12,000 students have participated in the new schools, and more than 1,000 international students have returned to China to take up their jobs. The walls of the Imperial Examination Courtyard were torn down and the university was rebuilt, and a Western-style medical school was established.

Yan Fu also promoted the vernacular literature created by Liang Qichao and others in schools across the country to develop people's wisdom. There are more than 10 kinds of vernacular newspapers, more than 50 kinds of vernacular textbooks, and more than 1,500 kinds of vernacular novels.

These changes have made the United States, Britain, and other countries look at China with admiration, and many businessmen who have invested in Japan have invested in China one after another; after all, Japan's small market is not worthy of being compared with China's huge market with a population of 40,000.

At the end of 1896, the 24th President of the United States, Grover Brown. Cleveland was also invited to visit China, becoming the first foreign head of state to visit China, and he gave President Song Xiaofei a black "four-wheeler" as a gift. This two-cylinder, four-wheeled car with an internal combustion engine was the work of an American man named Henry. Ford engineers invented it in the spring of 1896, the car could reach speeds of up to 10 kilometers per hour, and the US president hoped that the car could also be accepted by the Chinese.

Song Xiaofei, who was born as an artilleryman, liked this gift very much, and his eyes lit up at the first sight of this car, and he thought, if this car is equipped with a machine gun or heavy artillery, is it a primitive tank? He was especially happy to accept the gift and kindly returned the gift to Grover. A fine set of Cleveland porcelain!