That night, Xiao Zhenlei stayed at the Presidential Palace and held a dinner to entertain representatives of the Senate provinces, celebrities from all walks of life, foreign ministers, and senior military generals. At the beginning of the dinner, Xiao Zhenlei and his two ladies attended, and the two ladies wore beautiful cheongsams to attract bursts of applause from all the guests.

In the following period, Xiao Zhenlei was busy disbanding the troops participating in the Northern Expedition back to his hometown, and eliminating the old and weak Beiyang Army that had been gathered, leaving the strong and strong for reorganization, and busy with the formation of a new government.

The affairs of the army were the top priority, and Xiao Zhenlei summoned Cai Guodong, Jiang Fangzhen, Cai Yi, Xu Shaozhen, Zhang Xiaozhun, Wu Shiyou, Chen Jizu, Zhou Chuandong, Ma Hanlong, Sa Zhenbing, Cheng Bikuan, and other senior generals in the army to hold a meeting.

In the meeting, he said: "Ladies and gentlemen, the army is a weapon for the state to ensure local tranquility, prevent foreign invasion, guard the security of the homeland, and let the people live and work in peace and contentment. We cannot but reorganize the armed forces throughout the country, and I would like to emphasize here the following points: First, the local armed forces in all localities must be brought under the center, and it is strictly forbidden for any private person to control the armed forces. Second, it is necessary to establish a sound national defense force system and unify and strictly reorganize the armed forces throughout the country. Eliminate the old, weak, sick and disabled, leave only the elite and then conduct unified training, and then give the number to the army that is reorganized and trained to be qualified. Only the national defense forces have the financial support of the state, and there must be strict systems and procedures for the recruitment of soldiers, the appointment of officers and generals, and the evaluation of military ranks. No child's play!

The national defense force is composed of the army, navy, air force, and local armed police forces, and for the time being, the number of soldiers is mainly obtained through the compulsory military system; now the army of the whole country has been reorganized, reorganized, and abolished, leaving behind the size of 60 divisions, up to 800,000 people, and if there is a war, they can be recruited and increased separately, and the navy is still vigorously developing, and the scale of 100,000 is temporarily stipulated. The Air Force is still being developed, and it is also limited to 100,000 troops.

The General Staff will be responsible for the reorganization of the armed forces throughout the country, and you will be responsible for assisting you in coming up with a plan for the reorganization and the establishment, size, and number of the national defense forces, and will strive to come up with a concrete plan before the establishment of the new government, and will begin to implement it as soon as the new government is established."

Everyone nodded after listening to Xiao Zhenlei's words, these people are all senior generals with formal military education, and they all know the importance of the army to the country. Only by bringing the command of the armed forces under the central authority can national security be guaranteed and civil strife prevented.

At this time, Jiang Baili asked: "President, just now you said that you want to set up a Supreme Military Council to manage and command the National Defense Force, so what is the composition of the members of the Supreme Military Council?" What are the departments? ”

Xiao Zhenlei nodded and said: "Chief of Staff Jiang asked this question well, the General Staff Department, the General Political Department, the General Logistics Department, the General Armament Department and some other departments directly under the Supreme Military Commission. According to the names of these departments, you should know what the responsibilities of these departments are, and what units they have under their jurisdiction. After you have discussed it and have a detailed organizational structure plan. Let's talk about tong guò again, what do you think? ”

Everyone in the room agreed. From now on, we will begin to discuss and strive to come up with a plan as soon as possible to put up the shelves of the Supreme Military Council.

Xiao Zhenlei said again: "I propose that Jiang Fangzhen will be the chief of the General Staff, Fan Zhiyong will be the head of the General Political Department, Cai Guodong will be the head of the General Armament Department, Xu Shaozhen will be the head of the General Logistics Department, Sa Zhenbing will be the commander of the Navy, and Cai Ye will be the commander of the Air Force!" ”

As soon as Cai Ye heard that Xiao Zhenlei had asked him to be the commander of the Air Force, he hurriedly refused: "Thank you to the commander-in-chief for lifting up, I don't know anything about the Air Force, I am purely a layman, how can a layman command an insider?" No, no, no, this will delay the country's air force construction process! ”

Seeing this, everyone couldn't express their position, and they didn't know if Cai Ye really felt that he was incompetent, or if he had any other ideas, so it was hard to say anything, but Jiang Fangzhen said: "In this case, then I propose that the commander-in-chief should be the president of the Military Commission, Cai Ye should be the vice president, and Ma Hanlong would be the commander of the Air Force!" ”

Xiao Zhenlei nodded and said: "Okay, I'll do it, General Cai shouldn't shirk, now the country needs talents, and it's time to employ people, so you can reluctantly become vice president!" ”

A few days later, after deliberations and deliberations among these high-ranking generals, the detailed composition structure of the Supreme Military Council was finally perfected, and many local army generals were requisitioned and transferred to serve in the constituent bodies under the Supreme Military Council, and many local military generals will also hold posts in the Ministry of National Defense of the new government that will soon be established.

Xiao Zhenlei's purpose in doing this is mainly due to several aspects, the first is that there are still many provinces that are in charge of the government, such as Lu Rongting in Guangxi, Tang Jiyao in Guizhou, Zhang Xiluan in the three eastern provinces, and Suiyuan and Chahar provinces in the northwest and north are all ruled by soldiers, and these local warlords cannot stay in the local area for a long time, so as not to create obstacles to the reorganization of the national army in the future, and the second reason is that since a new government has been established, the local generals or governors of the provinces who have participated in the Northern Expedition must also leave their places in the center. So as not to gossip.

In the process of forming a new government, Xiao Zhenlei will attend a meeting of the National Assembly and make a speech at the meeting, expounding his views on the issue of forming a new government.

Xiao Zhenlei stood on the stage and looked at the hundreds of parliamentarians from various political forces in the audience and asked into the microphone: "Colleagues, I respect the provisional covenant law formulated by Mr. Sun during the period of the Nanjing Provisional Government, but according to the provisional covenant formulated by Mr. Sun at that time, the law greatly restricts the president's exercise of power, and the power of the congress is too great. Congress can impeach the president at any time, so what's the point of doing it?

You must know that China is a country that has experienced more than 2,000 years of feudal dynasties, and the common people don't even know why the emperor is suddenly gone. If the president does not have enough power, how can he unite the already divided country in a real sense? How can we raise our national strength in the shortest possible time and catch up with and surpass the Western powers?

If you insist that I be the president, I must clarify my demands and views, and I will first talk about my political proposition, that the new government has not yet been formed, and many places throughout the country are in a state of chaos, bandits and robbers are rampant everywhere, the people are in a precarious situation, the warlords in various places are divided, they do not listen to the orders of the center, they do not pay attention to the financial and tax transfer to the center, and if we want to end this state of chaos, the only way to end this state of chaos is to concentrate power and force, and I divide my administration into three periods;

First, during the period of military administration, it refers to the current state of society, and only by using the military and political system to govern the country can the whole country be unified in a real sense, and the one qiē system needs to be subordinate to the military and political government. On the one hand, the government uses military force to remove obstacles in the country; On the one hand, we will strengthen propaganda to enlighten the hearts and minds of the people of the whole country, so as to promote the unity of the country."

Second, during the period of political training, when all provinces in the country are completely determined, it is the time when the training and administration begins, and on the day when the military and political affairs are stopped, after entering the period of political training, the government should send personnel who have passed the training and examination to the counties to manage and help the people improve their living standards and prepare for the election system. and its people, who have been trained in the use of the four powers, and have fulfilled their civil duties to carry out the affairs of a county, may elect county councillors to establish the local laws of a county. When the province reaches the above conditions, the provincial councillors can be elected to formulate local laws in the province.

Thirdly, during the constitutional period, when all provinces and localities of the country have accomplished the above conditions, the Senate may promulgate it by consultation on the drafting of a constitution. The whole country takes the constitution as the highest legal criterion, and when there is a conflict between the constitution and various localities, the constitution shall prevail!

Now, I ask the Senate to amend the Provisional Statute and increase the powers of the President, otherwise it will be difficult for the Centre to govern the localities."

Hundreds of members of the National Assembly immediately made a commotion after listening to Xiao Zhenlei's speech, the temporary covenant law was originally formulated by Sun Wen to restrain Yuan Shikai, Xiao Zhenlei of course did not want to become the second Yuan Shikai, he will not use force or ignore the rules to force the presidential power according to his own wishes, this will only cause opposition from some people, only let the Congress revise the provisional covenant law, he can justifiably expand the use of presidential power, and now except for a large number of Kuomintang people who oppose him as president, constitutionalists, Both the Predator and the minority Nationalists want him to come out as president to stabilize the overall situation, and he has no need to worry about whether the Diet will amend the temporary law.

Finally, after three days of discussion, negotiation and compromise, Congress finally agreed to increase some of the president's powers while limiting its own powers. After half a month of discussion and detailed consultations, a new constitution was born, which was a radical overhaul of the provisional constitution and changed the cabinet system provided for in the provisional constitution to a presidential system.

The Provisional Constitution has the drawbacks of excessive legislative power and excessive restrictions on the government's exercise of its functions and powers, which is not conducive to the governance of the country. The New Testament corrects it to a certain extent, which is in line with the reality of the present. However, it is not the same as in the previous history, when Yuan Shikai placed the Legislative Yuan as a vassal of the executive power. (To be continued......) R1292