In 1905, constitutionalism became one of the hottest words in Jinan, and even rickshaw drivers in uniforms were arguing about the benefits of constitutionalism while resting in the shade of a tree.

After all, the constitution is less jealous of the government than the revolution, and it doesn't matter if you talk about it.

A hundred years later, it is difficult for the Chinese people to imagine that a hundred years ago, when China was under authoritarian rule, there was a situation where public opinion was opened. The Manchu court, which was firmly at the head of the "literary prison" of the previous dynasties, became tolerant and generous after the implementation of the new policy after the Gengzi year. With the acquiescence of the imperial court, more and more private newspapers have sprung up in major cities, and newspapers have become the main channel for citizens to obtain news. Citizens are a class with relatively high Chinese literacy, high literacy rate, and high political sensitivity. Coupled with the opening of a large number of new-style schools, the enthusiasm of citizens to pay attention to the state of the country is unprecedented.

From 1904 onwards, newspapers became more and more bold and commented on state affairs with almost impunity.

By 1905, Shandong Province, which had avoided talking about constitutionalism, finally joined the "chorus".

Shandong was the first province to implement press control, and Yang Shixiang set up a press office in the governor's yamen to manage newspapers and periodicals in the province. This organization was established at the end of 1904, and was severely reprimanded by the newly established "Lu Bao", but in exchange for the punishment of Zhang Shizhao, the chief writer of the "Lu Bao", was fined 100 silver dollars and the "Lu Bao" was suspended for three days. The Information Department requires newspapers and periodicals in the province to submit articles on current affairs for review, otherwise they will face fines, suspension of publication and even seizure.

Thanks to the emergence of the press office, Shandong became one of the most conservative coastal provinces. Jinan, the capital of Shandong Province, is not only unable to compare with Shanghai and Guangzhou, but also inferior to the openness of public opinion in Tianjin and even Beijing.

This is not to say that Jinan is conservative in all aspects, and in terms of cultural construction, Shandong has been at the forefront of the country. There were already three large-scale universities in Shandong, except for the Shandong University Hall (renamed Shandong University in January 1905), which was opened in the year of Gengzi. In 1904, Shandong Normal School (renamed Shandong Normal University in January 1905) and Shandong University of Technology were opened. Around the Spring Festival, nine secondary professional schools were opened, four in Jinan, Jinan Construction Engineering School, Jinan Fine Arts College, Jinan Foreign Chinese Language School and Jinan Normal College. In addition, Lunan Machinery College and Shandong Mining and Metallurgical School were opened in Yizhou, and Shandong Chemical School and Lunan Agronomy College were opened in Yanzhou. Shandong Textile College was opened in Qingzhou. Each of the nine secondary colleges has a two-year duration and is open to students from all over the country.

In addition to these schools, the construction of intermediate ordinary schools and rural primary schools in the province was also carried out in an all-round way, and the plan for 1905 was to build 30 secondary schools (including 15 prepared last year) and 105 rural primary schools (most of which were converted from private schools).

This is not counting the Shandong Martial Arts Academy, which ordinary people don't care much about. In fact, the Wubei Academy also recruits students from outside. It's not just recruiting soldiers in the army. But. The number of students enrolled in this specialized school for training officers is small and the conditions are harsh. Not much attention paid to the general public.

It is worth mentioning that the generous treatment of school teachers in Shandong is remarkable, attracting a large number of cultural people from other provinces to come to Shandong to make a living. Not only that, under the leadership of Huamei Machinery. A large number of Americans traveled across the ocean to Shandong to work as teachers at universities and secondary colleges.

Foreign teachers are another standard, which is naturally surprisingly high. It is a teacher in China, and the salary is extremely rich. The monthly salary of professors at Shandong University is 200 silver yuan, and the teaching assistant also has 100 yuan. Professors at technical universities and normal universities are slightly lower, around 180 yuan. The teachers of junior colleges are between 100~150 yuan. Intermediate schools are between 80~120 yuan, the lowest for primary school teachers is 50 yuan, and the highest is 100 yuan.

The average worker in Huayuan's factory has a monthly salary of 5~10 silver dollars, and the maximum salary of senior skilled workers is no more than 30 silver dollars. The rickshaw driver who runs a foreign car on the street, it is not easy to earn 5 yuan in the wind and rain for a month.

Such a comparison shows the degree to which Shandong attaches importance to education.

What is the purchasing power of silver dollars? Let's talk about eating first, the people take food as the sky, and eating is the most important thing. Taking rice as an example, the market price of one stone (178 catties) of rice is 6 silver dollars, and 1 silver yuan can buy 8 catties of pork. In other words, a professor at Shandong University can buy 6,000 catties of rice or 1,600 catties of pork with a month's salary. Amazing enough, right?

As for housing, the price of housing in Jinan Mansion is relatively high, which is the conclusion that Zhang Shizhao came to after coming to Quancheng. There are two kinds of newly built houses in the new city, one is the old-style courtyard house model, and a medium-sized house generally costs about 400~500 silver dollars. And that Western-style three-room house costs about 300~350 silver dollars. If you buy an old house with seven or eight houses in the old city, it will be 300 yuan.

The situation is also very cheap, a piece of silver can buy 10 feet of cotton cloth, if it is a ready-to-wear garment, about two yuan can buy a decent shirt. The kind of blue cloth or gray cloth caftan that cultural people like, the price of ready-to-wear stores is two yuan. Professors can buy a hundred sets for a month's salary. However, if you buy a fashionable suit or cheongsam, it will be much more expensive.

The situation of the line is more special. Due to the emergence of a large number of various factories and schools in Jinan, especially the increasing number of foreigners, the car began to emerge in large numbers, and at the end of 1904, the first car rental company appeared in Jinan Prefecture, which was exclusively rented by the wealthy. There are two calculation methods, one is timing, half a day of one yuan. The other is based on the mileage agreement, generally from the city to the Huayuan company factory outside the city, about 10 copper plates are needed.

However, there are still very few people who rent cars. Most of them are rented rickshaws, which are commonly known as foreign cars. It is to charter a foreign car, which is enough for five to six yuan a month. The price of buying a foreign car is only about 20 yuan.

With such a high salary for teachers, schools in Shandong quickly attracted a large number of talents from all over the country, and even became attractive overseas.

When it comes to foreign teachers, we can't fail to talk about Shandong's "moving against the current". Because since last year, a movement to exclude American goods has originated in Guangdong. Outbreak in Shanghai. For a time, Americans and American goods turned out to be street rats that everyone shouted and beaten.

The movement originated from the Chinese Exclusion Movement in the United States. Chinese have been working in the United States since the middle of the last century, and when the American economy was developing rapidly, they urgently needed a large number of cheap Chinese laborers. When there is a cyclical crisis in the economy, Chinese workers become the "main culprit" of the crisis. The American bourgeoisie attributed the cause of the economic crisis to too many Chinese workers and instigated the anti-Chinese movement. At the behest of the big capitalists, the U.S. government signed a ten-year treaty with the Manchu government in 1894 prohibiting Chinese from working in the United States. By 1904, the treaty expired. The U.S. government wanted to renew its contract with the Manchus and continue to limit the influx of Chinese laborers. Overseas Chinese organizations in San Francisco, USA, took the lead in initiating a petition to abrogate the treaty. Demand that the United States absolve the treaty. Improve the treatment of Chinese workers. This movement has received a domestic response.

The Chinese workers who went to the United States were mainly Cantonese, and the movement first broke out in Guangdong and moved to Shanghai. The general meeting of the Shanghai Chamber of Commerce convened a meeting and made a decision not to use American goods. The decision not to order from the United States. Leaders of the iron industry, machinery industry, flour industry, oil industry, foreign cloth industry and other industries signed to acknowledge this decision. Under the propaganda of the newspaper industry. The movement quickly spread throughout the country. Students from Nanjing, Beijing, Tianjin, Baoding and other places have rallied to respond, and the momentum is huge.

Naturally, it is not in the interests of the United States to boycott American goods. They already see China as Asia's most emerging market. Therefore, the United States was shocked and demanded through diplomatic channels that the Qing government ban the movement. The Qing court wrote all over the country. Asking local governors to prohibit boycotts of the United States has not been effective. Only Shandong Province has become a special case, and American capital has not only not been boycotted, but has a rapid expansion, and even the famous American DuPont Company has gone to Shandong to set up factories. In addition, through the established industrial circles and diplomatic relations in Shandong, Shandong has recruited a large number of American teachers to teach in Shandong, and in order to break China's anti-American movement, the Americans have expressed strong support for Shandong's "pro-American" movement; for a time, the number of Americans in Jinan and even in the whole province has more than tripled in a few months, and most of them are teachers, engineers, and technical workers, and they are well paid and their lives are guaranteed, and the US Government is deeply satisfied. However, Shandong became a "traitorous" province, and Governor Yang Shixiang and Admiral Long Qian were named and scolded by Shanghai newspapers.

Back to the point. The proliferation of schools has led to the flourishing of culture. According to statistics at the end of 1904, there were as many as 100 newspapers in Shandong Province, and in Jinan alone, there were at least 30 kinds of newspapers, ranging from daily newspapers published daily to weekly magazines published every seven days.

In the past, newspapers in Shandong basically did not publish political articles, and the newspapers mainly focused on business, life, opera and novels. When it comes to political news, the most important thing to do is to introduce personnel changes in officialdom and important international news, such as the war between Japan and Russia outside the Kansai area. But it also mainly reports the facts, and rarely shows the attitude of the media itself. This point is said to have been appreciated by the Queen Mother Lafayette, saying that Yang Shixiang has a good way of governing Lu and is old and serious.

However, after entering 1905, the press office of Shandong, which suppressed public opinion, obviously relaxed the censorship scale. All of a sudden, articles discussing the constitution poured out all over the place. Needless to say, the private "Lu Bao" has articles in this regard in almost every issue. The Information Service was not allowed to publish revolutionary rhetoric, but it did allow the discussion of the constitution. After the Spring Festival, even the Shandong News, a traditionally conservative and low-key government-run newspaper, began to publish articles advocating the benefits of constitutionalism.

This change surprised Shandong officialdom. Of course, without the approval of Governor Yang Shixiang, "Shandong News" would not have made a change in attitude. And the change in Yang Shixiang's attitude comes from the change in the attitude of his benefactor Yuan Shikai.

The south, especially in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, was the stronghold of the constitutionalists. Zhang Jian can be regarded as one of the leaders of the constitutionalists. This champion duke, who has always been extremely enthusiastic about politics, once lobbied Yuan Shikai, who was already the head of the Xinjiang ministers, but was given a cold reception by Yuan Shikai, and came to Jinan to lobby Yang Shixiang in the name of participating in the Shandong Merchants Association. Yang Shixiang succumbed to Long Qian in the economic policy of governing Lu, but he always followed Yuan Shikai politically, Yuan Shikai did not move, and he did not move. This attitude brought him benefits, and the imperial court was extremely satisfied with Shandong, because Shandong had always adopted a conservative political attitude, and some of its economic measures were ignored by the imperial court.

Yang Shixiang actually discussed the constitutional issue with Long Qian. Long Qian, who has always been economically radical, made it clear that he did not approve of it. and told Yang Shixiang that he was the empress dowager who opposed the constitutionalism and could not go back on his word. Moreover, at present, few people understand what constitutionalism is, if you go and ask, even those people who clamor for constitutionalism to save the country every day can clearly explain what is going on with constitutionalism, and out of ten, I am afraid that not even one can be found!

Long Qian's always conservative attitude in politics made Yang Shixiang feel relieved. At the very least, this young admiral, who was keen on industrial education and training strong soldiers to defend against foreign insults, had nothing to do with the revolutionary party. Cixi once secretly told Yang Shixiang about his political attitude towards Long Qian. Although Yang Shixiang wanted to drive Long Qian away, he honestly replied that Long Qian had nothing to do with the revolutionary party, and that he did not approve of any political changes.

Long Qian's attitude does not determine Yang Shixiang's political choice. He has to look at Yuan Shikai's attitude. In 1904, Yuan Shikai, who was resolutely opposed to the constitution, why did he suddenly become fond of the constitution?

Yuan Shikai's previous attitude was somewhat the same as that of Liang Qichao, who replaced his teacher Liang Qichao as the main general of the trend. That is, constitutionalism is not for China. Yuan Shikai once told his cronies that what he was considering was not whether he "should" establish a constitution, but whether he "could" do so. "Education is not universal, the degree is naïve, if it is easy to be governed by autocracy, and the power lies with the people after the constitution is established, I am afraid that it will not succeed, but all kinds of abuses will occur."

This is similar to Liang Qichao. For a time, Liang was in favor of "full revolution", and later enthusiastically praised the constitutional monarchy as a good way to save the country. However, just after the constitutional debate was set off in China, Liang reversed his own ideas, once again denied himself, and resolutely opposed the constitution.

Liang Qichao's new proposition is "enlightened autocracy".

Liang Qichao's change of attitude was that he went to the United States and stayed there for seven months. He examined the economy of the United States, and more importantly, the politics of the United States. A large number of Chinese groups in the United States have come to their own conclusions: low-quality Chinese can only accept autocracy and cannot enjoy freedom. Liang Qichao has no subtlety in declaring that any attempt to implement democracy in China is as anachronistic as wearing a leather coat in summer and a tulle in winter. If you want to enjoy democracy and freedom, you must first have thirty or fifty years of democratic education, otherwise there will be chaos.

The reason why Yuan Shikai switched to the camp of supporting constitutionalism was puzzled by Yang Shixiang, and many people were also puzzled. In fact, the reason is extremely simple, that is, Yuan Shikai is a politician, and he is a politician who is very good at speculation. His whole life was all about speculation. Because he saw that the constitutionalists were becoming more and more powerful, they categorically supported the constitution.

In fact, before Yuan Shikai changed his position, a group of Manchu nobles who held real power had approved of his constitution after a fierce "ideological struggle". The root cause of this was the revolutionary wave that increasingly threatened the Manchu regime. Zai Ze believed that constitutionalism could "eliminate civil strife," and Duan Fang, who had been abroad, described Sun Wen's influence overseas. The revolutionary party newspaper was circulated and subscribed to tens of thousands. People's minds change, and they are extreme. Only by politically "leading to new hopes" can we achieve the goal of dissolving the chaotic party! (To be continued......)