The Propaganda Bureau's plan for convening the first session of the National Assembly was finally submitted to the Military Commission for approval before the Spring Festival, and then publicized to the whole country. The plan clarifies the method of electing provincial councillors, and particularly emphasizes the political conditions that must be met by the councillors elected by each province. After that, the election of the first members of parliament in each province and the formation of provincial assemblies began in full swing.

From the establishment of the Propaganda Bureau of the Military Commission in October 1909 to the end of December 1909, it is unjustifiable to do such a thing for three whole months, in fact, the Propaganda Bureau has done much more than that, such as drafting the constitution and designing the political system, which are all very heavy work, because Hong Yuecheng's team has too few people, and people who know business, such as Song Jiaoren and Yang Du, are often self-righteous and do not follow the "routine" explained by Hong Yuecheng at all. Long Qian, who had to be explained, was "stubborn and self-serving", and he had already made up plans on many major policies, but he did not use administrative orders to reflect his will, but let the Propaganda Bureau unify the way he set by discussion within the Propaganda Bureau, so Hong Yuecheng was miserable and inefficient at the same time.

Fortunately, there is no delay in political affairs, and some government agencies have been formed and begun to operate, such as the General Administration of State Security, the General Administration of Ordnance Industry, the Ministry of Education, and the Ministry of National Defense. A number of decrees have been promulgated in the form of interim measures, and the following has already been moved and has brought great repercussions. In any case, before the formal establishment of the government, it was a model of military control, and it was the army that managed the provinces, cities, and counties, and the orders of the Military Commission were very easy to use. This situation made Song Jiaoren and others who were ready to use the parliamentary government to reflect their concept of governing the country very anxious, and they even thought that this was a power trick played by Long Qian. He just deliberately hit this time difference. When the parliament and the government are formally formed, it will be a mess below. Compulsory education doesn't matter, it's good governance, but the agrarian revolution is not a trivial matter, although the Kuomintang has always shouted "equal land rights", but the key members of the Kuomintang are often from rich families, and they have extremely complicated feelings about the agrarian revolution. So, the faster the steps of the Military Commission. made the Propaganda Bureau's forces restraining Hong Yuecheng more and more anxious. I had to give in so that I would have already convened a congress to "make a big deal".

However, Long Qian also opposed the method of forming the National Assembly proposed by the Propaganda Bureau. He believes that the mission of the first Congress should be relatively simple. It is impossible to do it all in one step. For example, it is not necessary to form the Senate and the House of Representatives, not because the bicameral system is unreasonable, but because it does not suit our current situation. What did the first Congress do? Now the country's major policies are decided! Even the constitution can be uncertain. It is said that the constitution is important, and you are doing it in such a hurry. Will it change in the future? If you keep revising. Where is the strict sù sex? Again, that's true.

According to Long Qian's opinion. The mission of the first National Assembly is fourfold, the first is of course to determine the form of government, the name of the country, the capital, and other important matters; the second is to elect a head of state and entrust him with the formation of a central government; The third is to establish and improve the parliamentary system; The fourth is to organize the formulation of the country's first constitution.

Song Jiaoren admitted that Long Qian's idea was correct, and he was a little pedantic.

The reason for the need to "establish and improve the parliamentary system". This is because the method for the composition of the first National Assembly, approved by the Military Commission, has defects. Its composition reflects the will of the de facto ruler, the Mengshan Military Commission, since the seven military regions are responsible for the determination, nomination, and approval of the number of members of the provincial parliament. The first National Assembly was more of a transitional body than a parliamentary body under a republican system. This is a bit like the chicken-and-egg issue, which is in line with the current reality, and although there are different voices in public opinion, the mainstream still affirms this approach.

This plan fundamentally negates the suspicion of a partisan candidacy.

After the plan was decided, the work of the Propaganda Bureau was finally on the fast track. The first is to determine the allocation of seats for the first Diet members. This quarrel lasted for another seven or eight days, and although the Propaganda Bureau was a temporary institution, everyone knew that it was the embodiment of the Congress, and in the future, the Congress would not be a deaf person's ear, and the number of members of the National Assembly would directly affect the interests of the localities, and it could not be left behind from the beginning. All provinces are active, hoping for a few more places.

Annex I of the plan for the formation of the National Assembly approved by the Central Military Commission is the distribution of the number of deputies in each province, which is as follows: 9 in Shandong, 7 in Guangdong, Jilin, Guangxi, Fengtian, and Zhili (including Beijing), 5 in Hubei, Hunan, Yunnan, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, and Heilongjiang, and 4 in other provinces. A total of 130 people.

Shandong, as the base camp of the Mengshan Army, was obviously taken care of, and Guangdong and other four provinces were the second-class base areas of the Mengshan Army, and Beijing was the intended capital and a place for celebrities to gather, and they were also given preferential treatment in terms of quotas. The next third type of provinces are the provinces that "surrendered" to the Mengshan Army earlier, and they also have preferential treatment.

In response to questions about the quota allocation, the royalist and KMT newspapers immediately accused the Mengshan army of dictatorship. This is an indistinguishable fact, because the decision power of the first National Assembly members is handed over to the major military regions, and the decision power is undoubtedly in the hands of the supreme commander of the Mengshan Army.

To this end, the Propaganda Bureau of the Military Commission issued a document explaining the principle of determining the number of deputies in each province -- in view of the decisive role played by the political faction dominated by the Mengshan Army in the process of overthrowing the Manchu Qing Dynasty and establishing a republic, special attention should be paid to the provinces and regions that made heavy contributions and sacrifices in the process of establishing and growing the Mengshan Army. The final decision of the parliamentarians was handed over to the armed forces because the current situation in the country did not yet meet the conditions for universal suffrage. The Central Military Commission promised that after the formal establishment of the National Assembly, it would redefine the method of electing the composition of the National Assembly in accordance with the principle that all provinces are equal and all citizens are equal.

To this end, according to the Propaganda Bureau's Jianyi, Long Qian gave an exclusive interview to the Ta Kung Pao reporter on February 13 about the convening of the first National Assembly, and once again conveyed to the whole country and the world China's firm determination and steps to completely break the remnants of feudalism and implement democratic government, as well as the necessity of implementing the current measures.

Ta Kung Pao was chosen because it has always adhered to an impartial journalistic stance. Of course, justice is relative, since the Mengshan army raised troops against the Qing Dynasty, all the reports of the civil war in Ta Kung Pao are fair in Long Qian's opinion, such as the Changsha fire. Except for the media accused by the Mengshan Army, almost all of them accused and denounced the heinous crime of the Southern Army in burning down the famous city. Only Ta Kung Pao held that it was an undeniable fact that the Mengshan Army troops were fighting fires and providing disaster relief, and that it should be investigated in detail as to who set the fire, whether it was caused by the bomb or by the people. The report made an excellent impression on Long Qian, who praised Ta Kung Pao several times at the Propaganda Bureau's internal meetings on news control and asked newspapers such as Shandong News to learn from Ta Kung Pao's journalistic stance. Do not decorate evil, do not overflow beauty, and report a qiē news objectively and fairly.

Ta Kung Pao devoted two pages to an exclusive interview with General Long Qian, chairman of the Central Military Commission, and wrote a commentary, arguing that the de facto supreme authority of the state was sincere in implementing a democratic form of government, and acknowledged that the construction of a democratic government on the basis of thousands of years of authoritarian rule would require a process. Commented: The former Qing government had been preparing for a constitution for several years, but to no avail. Less than half a year after the Mengshan Army took power, it was a great step forward to prepare for the convening of the National Assembly to determine the state and the form of government.

This article has had a good effect and has given a strong impetus to the formation of provincial assemblies and the election of members. Liang Qichao, who had finally returned to China after several iterations and had not yet gone to Beijing, published an article in the "Declaration" expressing support for the convening of the National Assembly by the Mengshan Military Government (this is the name given by the Liang family to the Military Commission), but criticized the formation of the National Assembly. He said again in the article. It's good that everything starts hard. However, there are many examples of dog meat sold on the head of a sheep. What exactly did the Mengshan military junta do? We might as well listen to his words and watch his deeds.

So reporters in Shanghai flocked to interview Mr. Liang and asked a crucial question. If Mr. is elected to the National Assembly, will he go to Beijing to attend the National Assembly? Liang replied definitely that he would go! But he said he had zero chance of being elected. Because Jiangsu Province is an important political and military town in the country, the center only gives only 5 places. Therefore, Liang Qichao bitterly criticized the allocation of seats in the military government's parliament, and ridiculed Long for his modesty and modesty, since he showed justice, the fairest way was to equalize the provinces, instead of obviously taking care of the "nests" of the Mengshan army in Shandong, Guangdong, Jilin, and other places.

Liang Qichao didn't expect that he would really be elected. But not in Jiangsu, but in Zhejiang! Tang Shouqian, the chief of civil affairs of Zhejiang, approached him and hoped that he would run on behalf of Zhejiang, but Liang Qichao was naturally willing, so he took up a "target" in Zhejiang and became the first member of the National Assembly.

In late February, the election of provincial legislators officially began. The Propaganda Bureau sent a telegram in the form of a secret telegram to the major military regions, proposing candidates who should be guaranteed by the provinces. The top-secret list was made of opponents of the Mengshan Army—the Manchu elders, the Kuomintang, the Beiyang Elderly, the Late Qing Constitutionalists, and members of the Royalist Party. A secret telegram issued in the name of Long Qian demanded that the political departments of the major military regions ensure that the personnel on the list were elected and escorted them safely to Beijing.

In this list, Huang Xing, Song Jiaoren, and Zhang Binglin of the Kuomintang Department, Liang Qichao of the Royalist Party, Yuan Shikai, Xu Shichang, Duan Qirui of the Beiyang Department, Zhang Jian of the Constitutionalists, and Duanfang, Liangbi, and Shanqi of the Manchu Qing Dynasty are prominently listed.

After a month and a half of nomination and examination, at the end of March, the names of the provincial legislators were submitted to the Propaganda Bureau of the Central Military Commission, but two provinces were completely absent, Tibet was cut off from communications, the Mengshan military forces had not yet entered, and Outer Mongolia was in the midst of war. The remaining provinces, thanks to the effective efforts of the political departments of the seven military regions (including the capital garrison), submitted their lists according to the quota given by the Propaganda Bureau.

After studying and approving the meeting, the Military Commission considered the transportation issue and decided that the first session of the National Assembly would be convened on April 16.

The Secretariat of the Central Military Commission immediately entered the stage of intense preparations for the meeting, and except for the security issues, which were handled by the Beijing Police Department and the State Security Bureau, all matters such as transportation, accommodation, meeting venues, and documents were put on the secretariat, keeping Deng Qinghua and Ouyang Zhong busy with their feet.

Among the 124 members of the National Assembly, Han nationality accounts for the vast majority of the total number of members of the National Assembly, with 113 members registered as Han nationality, and 3 of the remaining 11 members are of Mongolian nationality, 3 are of Manchu nationality, and 5 are of Hui nationality.

In terms of status, there were 39 military representatives, accounting for 31.4 percent of the total number of deputies, 29 politicians, accounting for 23.3 percent, 21 business figures, accounting for 16.9 percent, celebrities accounting for 18 people, accounting for 14.5 percent, and the remaining 17 people, accounting for 13.4 percent.

The "remaining" 17 deputies were elected from Shandong, Guangdong, Qinghai, Gansu, and Inner Mongolia. Among them, there were 6 peasant representatives, 5 workers' representatives, and 6 religious figures.

In terms of gender, there are only three female deputies in the current parliamentary session. In addition to Qiu Jin, Shandong and Guangdong each produced a female parliamentarian.

This is an unprecedented event, and it is an excellent news gimmick, which was immediately caught by the media, "digging deep" into the background of these three female parliamentarians, Qiu Jin is a celebrity, and the focus of the media is more focused on the other two female parliamentarians, Shandong recommended a female teacher from the Women's College of a Normal University, and Guangdong is a female military doctor named Fu Yuzhu. Fu Yuzhu joined the Mengshan Army at the end of 1908, a woman from a family of traditional Chinese medicine and a keen lover of medicine, but her father was confined to tradition and was unwilling to teach her family knowledge, let alone allow her to show her head. I accidentally learned that there were a large number of female soldiers in the fifth town, especially in its hospital system, there were many female soldiers, nineteen-year-old Fu Yuzhu "eloped", it turned out that this woman's medical skills were extremely exquisite, and soon became one of the few famous doctors in the traditional Chinese medicine of Mengshan Military General Hospital. In this way, he became Qiu Jin's friend. Influenced by Qiu Jin's feminism, Fu Yuzhu became a contributor to the supplement (literary edition) of the "National Defense Daily" (formerly the Fifth Town Newsletter), and contributed more than 40 articles during 1909, and there were various genres of poetry and novel reviews, even during the Northern Expedition of the Southern Army. Moreover, the "marching dispersion" created by her to prevent heatstroke and relieve fever has become an essential medicine for the Southern Army, for which she was awarded the Order of Merit of Service of the First Class. Hu Zongyu, who was the commander of the Southern Army, elected Fu Yuzhu after consulting the center, making her famous overnight, not only one of the three female parliamentarians, but also the youngest of all the councillors, only 21 years old.

Ma Junwu is a member of the Guangxi legislature. He spoke highly of the female elected members of Parliament. Ma Junwu was originally a pioneer of feminism, as early as 1903 published a series of articles in the "Xinmin Series", advocating the emancipation of women's rights, Ma Junwu believed that women's rights should include five aspects, education rights, marriage rights, economic rights, political rights and citizenship rights. The Mengshan military junta's decision to allow women to enter the National Assembly is an affirmation of women's political and civil rights, and with these two articles, the remaining three are no problem. For this reason, Ma sang a hymn to the junta.

If the parliamentarians are drawn a line, the 80 members of the Mengshan Army system (including local celebrities loyal to the Mengshan Army), 14 are originally constitutional, and the remaining 20 or so are from the Beiyang, the Kuomintang and the Manchu Qing Dynasty. It is worth mentioning that Shang Shu Duanfang, the former Manchu Army Ministry, Lang Liangbi, the War Department, and the former Ili General Zhirui are all among the 124 parliamentarians, and they are also figures of great interest to reporters. Because of the overall loss of sincerity in Beiyang, the Manchu nobles who returned to Beijing generally refused to cooperate with the new dynasty (Shanqi refused to serve as a member of parliament), let alone accept interviews with reporters. Duanfang was born in Jiangsu, Liangbi was born in Zhili, and Zhirui was born in Xinjiang, which became the most important news. As Zhonghua Bao, which replaced Shandong News and became the mouthpiece of the Central Military Commission, said in a series of comments on the first National Assembly, "The appointment of Messrs. Duanfang, Liangbi and Zhiruisan as members of the National Assembly has made the representation of the members of the National Assembly more comprehensive and realized the national unity that Chairman Long Qian has always advocated." ”

More media outlets saw the trio's appointment as a sign of a split in the Manchu aristocracy and a significant reduction in the power of the long-rumored Zong Socialist Party.

Because Huang Xing, who was elected in Jiangsu, and Yuan Shikai, who was elected in Henan, did not arrive due to illness, a total of 122 parliamentarians actually attended the meeting. Huang Xing and Yuan, two big men who had been in the opposing camp, seemed to have made up their minds to retire. Although Yuan Shikai is listed as vice chairman of the Central Military Commission, since Long Qian entered Beijing last year, Yuan Shikai has not publicly made a public voice in the newspapers, let alone coming to Beijing. However, his eldest son Yuan Keding was elected in Henan, and whether he can represent the former political and strongman, the media is generally not optimistic about Yuan Dagongzi. And his second son Yuan Kewen, who never cared about politics and a famous person, settled in Beijing last year, and had a hot fight with Beijing's cultural circles, and was even invited by Long Qian to have dinner in Xiyuan.

In early April, provincial legislators arrived in Beijing one after another under the escort of troops. Long Qian, Fang Shengyuan, Hong Yuecheng, and others respectively visited the delegations of parliamentarians from various provinces, and the eyes of the whole country and even the world were focused on Beijing, paying close attention to the convening of the first National Assembly of the People's Republic of China. (To be continued......)