The regent of the Qing Empire, Zaifeng, did not wait for the answer he was expecting, but what he waited for was a round of more intense artillery bombardment, the indiscriminate shelling almost destroyed the entire city wall from Dongbianmen to Dongzhimen, more than 30,000 soldiers of the Northeast Revolutionary Army stormed the outer city before 9 o'clock in the morning, and the heavy artillery fire covered the front, and continued to attack the inner city.

The first town of the Beiyang Army under the temporary command of Tie Liang suffered heavy damage in the area of Dongbianmen, and most of it was scattered before it even waited for the Northeast Army to attack, and even the Manchurian troops could not continue to hold on.

The soldiers of the sixth town of the Beiyang Army were also routed all the way, and the soldiers of the two towns who returned to the inner city were less than 4,000 soldiers, and as the artillery fire of the Northeast Army continued to extend to Chongwenmen, the soldiers fled one after another, and could no longer stop the momentum of this strong attack.

For the escape and dispersal, the Qing army has already repeated it again and again, so that the Second Infantry Division of the Northeast Army easily crossed the Chongwen Gate and the army entered the inner city.

The initially expected street fighting did not break out in a tragic way, although the Qing army set up obstacles everywhere, and after a burst of gunfire and a few mortar shots, they would flee in disarray, throw away their guns, take off their military uniforms and flee into the alleys.

The fiercest resistance was the Praetorian Guards, who had retreated and held on outside the Forbidden City, ultimately unable to hold off the onslaught of the 3rd Infantry Division.

There was a bloodbath in the Forbidden City.

The regent Zaifeng, Emperor Xuantong and the Empress Dowager Longyu are all missing, and Liangbi is also missing, and the eunuchs want to set the palace on fire, but the soldiers of the Northeast Army are responsible for putting out the fire.

Before 7 o'clock in the evening, before 4 o'clock in the afternoon, the Northeast Army had already controlled the entire Beijing Division, and searched a wide range of cities in the city, and all the money bank ticket numbers were temporarily supervised, and not a single tael of silver was allowed to be transferred out of the Beijing Division.

After confirming that the Northeast Army had taken control of the Beijing Division, Song Biao formally signed the "Martial Law Order" and the "Manchu Property Investigation and Punishment Order", confiscating all the property of the Manchu princes and nobles in the name of the Northeast Revolutionary Army, and detaining all the money houses, ticket numbers, and pawnshops that assisted in the transfer of these properties as capital crimes.

In this tense atmosphere, Song Biao did not personally enter Yanjing City, and the Northeast Revolutionary Army continued to establish the general headquarters of the Chinese Revolutionary Army with the national surname in Tongzhou.

July 30, 1910.

The Qing Dynasty ended.

That night, at the General Headquarters of the Northeast Revolutionary Army in Tongzhou, everyone began to collectively persuade Song Biao to officially claim the title of emperor, since he wanted to be called emperor, he must be quick to force the provinces to recognize, if the provinces did not recognize, then continue to wave his army to the south to attack, and fight the provinces in the north and on both sides of the Yangtze River first, and take the opportunity to eliminate dissidents.

The revolution was victorious, and everyone had paid so much, but the first thing was, of course, to defend the fruits of victory belonging to the Northeast Army and the Liberation Society.

Another heavy rainstorm fell during the night.

The thunderclouds rolled, as if there was a kind of lamentation and mourning power in the dark.

Tongzhou this place since the Manchu Qing Dynasty into the customs is the Manchurian enclosure of the important area, the kings and heroes here enclosure painting garden is very much, the garden is naturally many, even the Caoyun Yamen here has a North Garden, the first town of the Beiyang Army was also stationed here in the early days, and later moved to the Chaoyangmen area.

The general headquarters of the Northeast Revolutionary Army was in this Beiyuan, and it was raining heavily outside, thunder was roaring, and Song Biao was smoking in the corridor of the temporary commander-in-chief's office.

He threw the cigarette out of the pool in front of him, patted the raindrops on his shoulder, and walked back to the flower hall.

This is the waterfront pavilion of Beiyuan Garden, surrounded by water on three sides, only the east side is connected to the main road, and the two-storey pavilion looks hazy and delicate in the rain.

Song Biao works here and lives here temporarily.

The collective exhortation of his subordinates, Song Biao listened very carefully, he is not a person who will hesitate, he also knows that the speed of the emperor is the most important thing at present, there has been intelligence from the south, Sun Wen has rushed back from the United States urgently, and it is expected to arrive in Hong Kong in a few days, Huang Xing presided over the Guangzhou revolutionary political axe in Liangguang, and other places are fighting for control of the revolutionary political axe.

In the coming week, China will see more complex variables.

The Manchus perished, but this was only the beginning of an even more chaotic process.

There was also a circle of people in the office who continued to wait, Jiang Fangzhen, Zhang Yahu, Zhao Tingzhu, Jiang Yanxing and Shu Fangde, who rushed over, were all urging Song Biao to hurry up and claim the emperor, no matter what, either the emperor would be called the emperor quickly and eliminate dissidents, or he could only suffer with the alliance for a long time.

Song Biao returned to the flower hall, Zhang Yahu couldn't wait to stand up again, and asked Song Biao: "Boss, what are you waiting for, now is the best opportunity!" If the others don't agree, we'll fight all the way and get them all out. ”

Shu Fangde also said: "General seat, be sure to hurry up, it is the best choice to quickly become the emperor, if you wait for the alliance to contact each other and jointly implement the republican system, our side will fall behind, and it will be difficult to compete for the nominal high point." ”

Song Biao bowed slightly, he actually agreed, but after considering the specific time, he had already thought about it very clearly outside, and when he returned to his desk, he said to you: "July 31 is a very strange day, only once in four years. Therefore, tomorrow is certainly not a good choice, since you want to be the emperor, you can't be too hasty, but you don't need to be too prepared, you can send a telegram to the provinces and the Guangfu Association organizations on August 1, publish the newspaper on the establishment of the Chinese Empire, and publish the eight-point principle, first, adhere to the constitutional monarchy, first establish a provisional constitution, convene a parliament, and elect a cabinet premier; second, insist on inheriting all the territory and territorial rights of the Qing Dynasty; Third, adhere to the rule of law, respect the law and love the people, break the law in the world, and commit the same crime as the common people; Fourth, we should insist on renegotiating new treaties with foreign countries and pursue peaceful and reciprocal diplomatic relations. Fifth, adhere to the principle of openness and freedom of capital; Sixth, adhere to the policy of light taxation, ban the tax on gold and miscellaneous taxes throughout the country, and ban the tax on ding, and exempt all disaster-stricken areas from grain tax for one year; Seventh, establish a public examination system for administrative officials, recruit administrative officials according to the public examination, hire them in accordance with the law, conduct regular examinations, put an end to corruption and bribery, and strictly prohibit the granting and accepting of official positions for private purposes; Eighth, to restore the Chinese nation, cut braids all over the country, go to full costumes, and restore Han rites and Hanfu. ”

Hearing this, Shu Fangde and the others applauded repeatedly, Zhang Yahu and Zhao Tingzhu couldn't wait, and immediately stepped forward to bow down to the emperor, shouting "Long live the emperor."

Song Biao wanted to be the emperor, but he didn't care about these complicated details, he asked everyone to get up first, and said: "Calling the emperor is calling the emperor, these details and etiquette will be reconsidered later, and when we meet, we can still call me the general seat, and when we sit on the dragon chair in the future, let's talk about it." ”

Jiang Fangzhen said with a smile: "You don't have to worry about these things, as long as you start to ascend the throne and become emperor, leave the rest to us, I'm afraid that there is no reason to settle accounts with the alliance, now as long as they oppose it, we can fight one by one after our provinces are cleared, and all the dissident armies in the provinces will be eradicated, so as to ensure that there is only one army and one voice in the country." ”

Song Biao agreed: "That's the idea. The army is too chaotic, and sooner or later something will go wrong. ”

The matter of being called the emperor is easy to say, but it is difficult to do, but fortunately, the Restoration Conference has been preparing for a long time, Zhang Binglin is in charge of the enthronement ceremony, although he has not been to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, has not worked in the Ministry of Rites, and the ability to test the scriptures is still very strong.

Song Biao saw his plan and felt that it was not very suitable for his appetite.

Song Biao's own idea is to hold a ceremony in the Forbidden City, set up several different sets of dragon robes, called dragon robes in the past, and now renamed the emperor's dress, a set of oriental style, a set of western style, and the oriental style can be modified on the basis of the dragon robe of the Ming Dynasty.

He himself estimated that although the emperor was forcibly rushed forward in the near future, others did not agree to directly send troops to attack, and the provinces could only agree to it, and the work of claiming the emperor on his side was almost ready, and he was afraid that it would take until next year to officially ascend the throne and become the emperor.

In other words, there must be a lot of work to prepare, just Yanjing City is in such a broken state, it will take several months to clean up, and it will take time to grasp the other details even if they are very effective.

The matter of being called the emperor, at the moment, only needs to be hard, it is easy to go up, the key is how to deal with those who do not agree, now that the general situation has been decided, the follow-up is to draw patrol troops from the Kwantung region on a large scale to form a regular army, and fight in the north and south together with the main force.

The new army in Jiangsu and Zhejiang is generally not a problem, and the other provinces are also okay, but the biggest problem now is Liangguang, Hubei and Sichuan, and the other problem is that the whereabouts of Emperor Zaifeng and Xuantong are still unknown.

Catch, you have to catch it.

On August 1, Zaifeng, Longyu, and Xuantong were still not caught, and the large-scale search and arrest inside and outside the city of Manyan City was not caught, and the secret service arrested the eunuchs and palace maids and tortured them one by one, and tortured them to extract confessions, and finally found out that Zaifeng and others had left the Forbidden City on July 27, and their whereabouts were unknown.

Song Biao thought that on the morning of the 30th, Zaifeng also asked the British Minister Zhu Erdian for help, so it was likely that he would ask Shu Fangde to negotiate with Zhu Erdian at the British Legation.

Whether Emperor Zaifeng and Emperor Xuantong could be caught, Song Biao still officially announced the establishment of the Chinese Empire in the whole country on this day, announced the establishment of the Chinese Revolutionary Army at the same time as the eight principles, and demanded that all revolutionary armies be reorganized.

Look, I have begun to frantically snatch the fruits of the victory of the revolution, and I have not been lying in the Northeast for five years, but now where is this strength to command the world.

The Northeast Revolutionary Army and the Northeast Patrol Army were rapidly reorganized into the First Army and the Tenth Army of the Chinese Revolutionary Army, with six infantry divisions, three cavalry divisions, three artillery brigades, three cavalry brigades, and two baggage brigades of the First Army, and the Tenth Army directly reorganized into three infantry divisions, two cavalry brigades, two artillery brigades, one baggage brigade, and one railway brigade.

Seeing that Song Biao had such a strong strength in his hand, the other heroes could only stare dryly, either bow down to their subordinates or wait to be destroyed.

The Beiyang Army ran all the way very happily, fled to Anyang to seek Yuan Shikai's comeback, Yuan Shikai of course wanted to make a comeback, and when he saw this posture, he knew that something was wrong, and immediately asked Duan Qirui to declare an uprising, and first took the opportunity to use the troops in his hand to occupy Henan and Shandong provinces to sit and watch the situation change.

As soon as they announced the uprising, the problem was troublesome, Cai Ye just chased to Anyang with the First Cavalry Division, and the second town, the remnants of the third town, the fourth town and the fifth town of the Beiyang Army declared an uprising, because only the second town was in Anyang, Cai Ye sent troops to surround Anyang.

Yuan Shikai personally sent a telegram to Song Biao, the first telegram was to hope that Song Biao's subordinates would show mercy and leave a way for the Beiyang Army to live, and the second telegram was very simple to congratulate Song Biao on being the emperor and calling Song Biao the emperor.

At this time, Yuan Shikai was not really in a hurry to make a comeback, and continued to hide behind Duan Qirui to control the remaining three towns and half of the Beiyang Army.

August 1910 is destined to be the most chaotic year in Chinese history, there are still some provinces in various places that have not announced uprisings, and there is no unified recognition of the new political axe, Song Biao's self-built Chinese empire in Tongzhou temporarily controlled the three eastern provinces, Zhili, Shanxi, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Hunan, Jiangxi, although the rest of the provinces announced an uprising, but have not yet recognized him as the emperor and the Chinese Empire, everyone has established the revolutionary military and political axes of the provinces, the revolutionary military and political axes are staggered, the League, the Guangfu Society, the local squires, The old bureaucrats competed with each other for power.

The characteristics of the Restoration Society are that it is distributed throughout the country, and at this time it is naturally expanding rapidly, and all local forces are mixed to join, and Song Biao, who is eager to stabilize the new empire, can only let it go, but he understands that he must absorb the lessons of two people, one is Yuan Shikai, and the other is Sun Yat-sen.

Cheng Biguang of the Navy rebelled and was slow to recognize the new deal.

The League occupied Wuchang, Liangguang and Fujian, the old forces of the Qing Dynasty controlled Sichuan, Guizhou, Shaanxi, Gansu and Ningbo, and the Beiyang Army controlled Henan and Shandong.

The British Legation in China really admitted that it had taken in the regent Zaifeng, but did not admit that it had sheltered Empress Longyu and Emperor Xuantong, and at the same time asked for political asylum for Zaifeng, and the two sides were also arguing over this.

In the midst of all kinds of entanglements, there is no so-called central government in August for a long time, and it is a chaotic mess.

Under such circumstances, Song Biao himself was embarrassed to truly ascend the throne and claim the throne, so he could only persuade some of them through the liaison office to win the recognition of the Chinese Empire by the new army, and on the other hand, he actively prepared for war.

Song Biao's first thing to do must be to organize the Tenth Army as much as possible to maintain the defense of the three eastern provinces and the Zhili region, appoint Jiang Zunwei as the overseer of the Second Army of the Chinese Revolutionary Army, and provide supplies to the Second Army by sea, so that the Second Army can stabilize the three provinces of Jiangsu and Zhejiang as soon as possible, and the Third Revolutionary Army of Hunan, Hubei and Jiangxi will be supervised by Zhang Xianren.

At this time, Sun Wen had already returned to Hong Kong, from Hong Kong to Guangzhou, to serve as the provisional governor of the Guangdong Revolutionary Political Axe, and actively contacted the members of the local League to try to prepare for the establishment of a new Southern Revolutionary Political Axe.

At the end of August, Song Biao summoned Tang Shaoyi and others to Beijing to establish a new temporary political axe in Tongzhou, with Tang Shaoyi serving as the temporary prime minister of the Chinese Empire, and Ouyang Geng returning from San Francisco to serve as foreign minister.

Song Biao didn't plan to wait any longer at this time, and after sending Zhao Tingzhu's First Infantry Division to Anyang to reinforce the First Cavalry Division, he sent a telegram to Duan Qirui and Yuan Shikai, giving them two ways, either to join the imperial political axe, give up control of the Jinghan Railway, and relocate to Dezhou to accept the reorganization of the Fourth Army, or start a war now.

Under this strong pressure, Duan Qirui was forced to agree to accept the reorganization, the whole army gave up its ordnance and evacuated Anyang, and Duan Qirui himself went to Tongzhou in person to meet Song Biao.

Duan Qirui arrived in Tongzhou on September 4, and in the past few days, Song Biao was stepping up the mobilization of troops to the south, and at the same time, he was intensively discussing the work of forming the Chinese Revolutionary Party with Cai Yuanpei, Tao Chengzhang and others.

With the support of abundant funds, the Restoration Society has 23 branches and organizations across the country, all of which have been unified and merged into the Liberation Society, plus the active addition of new members from the provincial advisory bureaus and constitutionalists, the total number of members in the country has surged to 645,700, and Song Biao was elected as the new president, and Cai Yuanpei, Tao Chengzhang, Tang Shaoyi, Zhang Binglin, Qiu Jin, and Shu Fangde served as executive vice presidents.

Song Biao knew very well at this time that he must learn the lessons of Yuan Shikai and Sun Yat-sen, after Yuan Shikai became the president of the Republic of China, because of his lack of understanding of Mingzhuo politics, he has not actively installed his own parliamentarians in the Congress, nor has he launched his own political party institutions, blindly believing in his own military strength, which led to a complete split between Yuan Shikai's political axe and the Congress; After the success of the revolution, Sun Yat-sen's alliance swelled in membership, and although it took control of the National Assembly through the members of the United Provincial Consultative Bureau, established a provisional constitution, and restrained Yuan Shikai's political axe, it was also plagued by internal strife.

The political defeat of the two people had a serious consequence, that is, the two chose the most radical means at the same time, the former chose to be enlightened [***], trying to establish a constitutional monarchy and directly control more state power, and the latter chose to assassinate those who disagreed with the political views, and launched the second movement to protect the law, leading to the hard-won Republic of China completely moving towards the era of warlords.

Drawing lessons from the two of them, Song Biao chose a new path, and he still agreed to the expansion of the Restoration Society, at least to ensure that the members of the National Assembly and most of the provincial councilors were within the Liberation Association, so as to preserve the fruits of the victory of the revolution, and at the same time to prepare for the establishment of a new Chinese Revolutionary Party, select qualified party members in the Liberation Association, maintain the political quality of the party, and gradually pass the replacement law, from the Guangfu Society controlling the National Assembly to the Chinese Revolutionary Party controlling the National Assembly.

In the afternoon of that day, Song Biao summoned Tao Chengzhang, Cai Yuanpei, and other six vice presidents to the West Flower Hall of the General Office to discuss the establishment of the Chinese Revolutionary Party, and to discuss the specific party constitution and the party's governing principles and paths.

At this moment, Jiang Zhengyuan hurriedly walked into the West Flower Hall from the secretariat and reported to Song Biao: "General seat, Duan Qirui has arrived at the headquarters. ”

Song Biao and Jiang Zhengyuan asked, "When will Cheng Biguang arrive?" ”

Jiang Zhengyuan said: "I also arrived at the train station, and I have already sent a car to pick him up." ”

Song Biao picked up the pocket watch on the table and glanced at it, and ordered: "When Cheng Biguang arrives, let them come over." ”

"Yes!"

Jiang Zhengyuan agreed, and then hurriedly walked out of the West Flower Hall.

Song Biao turned around and continued to say to Tao Chengzhang and a few people: "The contradiction between the Liberation Society and the Alliance has been very intensified, in fact, the question is to put it bluntly, that is, to support or not support me as the emperor, or to support who to manage the country and control the army. In the past, although the contradiction between us and the alliance was big, after all, it was an alliance in the trenches, and we could still endure each other a little, and now it is already a big fight. At present, the fiercest fighting is in Fujian and Hubei, and among the new troops and politicians in these two places, the strength of our and the League is about the same, and together they account for half of the constitutionalists, reformers, and localists. Yesterday, there was a big fight in the Eighth Town of the Hubei New Army, in which more than a dozen people died, and there was also an endless struggle between the Fujian New Army and the local revolutionary army. The League is very insidious, they call for the end of the civil war and the reunification of the country, and they are actively engaged in sabotage everywhere, and they say that we are the culprit. We have a numerical advantage in the whole country, and we control a large number of media and newspapers, so we must actively fight back, and we must not be afraid to intensify the contradictions. They shouted loudly at Sanming Cooking, but all the dirty things under their hands were because they were the deepest in connection with the Hongmen Hui Party, and we had to actively report on these things, and don't be afraid of the Hui Party. ”

Everyone nodded silently, but Tang Shaoyi was silent thinking about something.

Shu Fangde said: "The current situation is like this, the struggle of doctrines is secondary, it is just a lip service, and now the struggle is for the control of the provinces and the control of the Congress. As soon as our eight principles were promulgated, they said that they wanted to hold a congress to determine the state system and constitution, and if they really wanted to hold a congress, they said that they would re-elect members, in fact, they wanted to use the parliament to steal all the fruits of victory. Everyone thinks that they are right, that the other party is wrong, and that the other party is misleading the country. ”

Song Biao saw that Tang Shaoyi didn't speak, and asked, "What do you think, our prime minister?" ”

Tang Shaoyi hurriedly said: "What the general seat said is right, and what Director Shu said is also right. I think about it this way, we currently have a big advantage, and naturally hope that the country will have a smooth transition and implement effective governance, including the problem of Shanghai's financial turmoil, which also needs to be dealt with as soon as possible, and the domestic free trade and trade will be restored, but they may not think so. If we start a war of public opinion, and they do the same, I am afraid that the country will be completely divided. ”

Song Biao had a tough attitude and said: "Split will split, then I will fight it in one go." It is not necessary to fight a war of public opinion, but they have already begun to fight, do not underestimate them, our war of public opinion must be accelerated, and at the same time, we must continue to strengthen the work of maintaining ties with the constitutionalists and reformists and unite the front. If China wants to become strong and prosperous as soon as possible, it must first ensure the stability of the country, and the foundation of national stability lies in military stability. If we tolerate it for the sake of the country's great interests for a while, we will have to suffer from this entanglement in the next 20 or even 50 years, just as the so-called long pain is better than short pain, and I would rather fight a civil war this year and next year, and I will also ensure China's great stability in the next 50 years. There is no room for controversy at this point. ”

In the face of Song Biao's tough attitude, everyone has nothing to say, in fact, everyone here still wants to avoid a civil war, except for Song Biao and Shu Fangde.

The League is now seizing public opinion, actively demanding the avoidance of civil war, and demanding that the fate of the country be decided in the form of the Congress, and if they are reversed by various means, the hundreds of thousands of members on the side of the Liberation Society will directly withdraw from the political arena and give up the big stage of the Congress to the League.

The beauty of thinking.

Song Biao's side is determined to fight a civil war, and he is actively preparing for war.

Among the six vice presidents, Cai Yuanpei and Tang Shaoyi were the weakest in their positions, Zhang Binglin, Tao Chengzhang, and Qiu Jin were in the middle, and they did not want to fight a civil war with revolutionary parties, but they also did not want the achievements of the revolution to be occupied by the League, and Shu Fangde resolutely supported fighting a civil war and first eliminating military dissidents before talking about the National Assembly.

Song Biao chose to arrange Tang Shaoyi to be the president, in fact, he only valued Tang Shaoyi's relatively rich experience in administrative management, and in terms of major policies, he had no intention of letting Tang Shaoyi control them, and this person was not suitable for controlling major policies.

After the meeting, Song Biao left Zhang Binglin and Tao Chengzhang alone, and asked them to organize a counterattack of the public opinion war as soon as possible, transfer Wang Zhaoming, a pen stick, from the book to China, and exert efforts at the same time through the Propaganda Bureau of the Chinese Revolutionary Army and the Propaganda Department of the Liberation Association to fight a public opinion war to smear their opponents.

Even though Zhang Binglin and Tao Chengzhang supported Song Biao in the war of public opinion, these vice presidents still disappointed Song Biao overall, and he had decided to pull Wang Zhaoming out and push him up to fight a political war with the Alliance.

The Manchu Qing Dynasty was overthrown, and the fierce split between the Liberation Society and the League became a new general trend, which could not be stopped at all.

(To be continued)