Episode 65 Shang Xiaojun vs Qiu Laohu

Since the establishment of the Ming Imperial Parliament, from late November to the end of December, the parliament has been holding a "constitutional revision conference". Amend the Imperial Constitution and formulate a "Ming Empire Election Law" to prepare the law for the election era of the Ming Dynasty. The parliamentarians had heated discussions, quarreled fiercely, and were red-faced, and almost staged an "all-out military act" over some of the most basic issues.

For example, should the people of the northern provinces also have the right to vote and to be elected? Should women have the right to vote and to be elected? Do the indigenous Malays of Sumatra have the right to vote and to stand for election? Do those "alien citizens" of the two territories, Us-Tibet, Siberia, and the new territories of Central Asia have the right to vote and to be elected? Do members of the royal family (including clans and relatives) have the right to vote and to be elected? Did the bannermen and nobles of the former Qing Dynasty enjoy the right to vote and be elected?

For another example, how old should the Ming voters be? Should the term of office of the Cabinet and the First and Auxiliary Ministers be prescribed? Should there be a limit on individual political contributions to prevent electoral rigging by conglomerates? If so, how much? In addition, there are many related crimes to be added to the "Criminal Punishment", such as fraud, bribery, illegal donations, etc., how to define them? How is the sentence sentent? Wait a minute......

Moreover, the parliamentarians generally agreed that the governors and parliaments of the provinces were not appointed by the central government, but were elected by the people of the provinces. In other words, in addition to the "Imperial Parliament" in the Ming Dynasty, the provinces also had "Provincial Parliaments". Matters involving national defense, foreign affairs, finance, national security, etc., are legislated by the Imperial Diet and implemented by the Cabinet Government. Matters related to local finance, taxation, education, medical care and other livelihood issues shall be legislated by the provincial councils and implemented by the provincial governments.

In this way, "federalism" was basically established as the basic tone of the future empire. This will not only avoid the disadvantages of excessive concentration of power, but also ensure that this is a strong unified state. From the perspective of the people, they can enjoy the happiness of a small country and the widows, and from the perspective of the country, they have the strength of a centralized empire.

Men are political creatures. Xiang Xiaoqiang was very hot at the beginning, staring at the newspaper every day, listening to the radio with his arms, and sending people to the parliament to observe and report the latest developments to him at any time. But as the lawmakers quarreled day after day, Xiang Xiaoqiang eventually lost patience. He planned to take advantage of the fact that the relevant laws had not yet been enacted at this time, and play politics first. God knows if the new law prohibits royalty from doing this.

Now there are three largest "parties" in the Ming Dynasty: the first is the "Donglin Party"; The second largest is the "Basic People's Party", which is generally referred to as the "CDU"; The third largest is the "Democratic Constitutional Party", or "Democratic Constitutional Party" for short.

When Xiang Xiaoqiang first heard the name of "CDU", he spewed out on the spot. Moreover, the party's emblem is printed with a big "base" character. Xiang Xiaoqiang didn't know if they would want to find a piece of tofu and kill him if they knew what the "base" meant in the later generations.

Both the Donglin Party and the Democratic Constitutional Party can be said to be "elite parties". The Donglin Party is the oldest, most traditional and most orthodox political class in the Ming Dynasty, representing the concepts and interests of literati, doctors, intellectuals, and old-school aristocrats. The Democratic Constitutional Party emerged in the second half of the 19th century, mainly represented by the emerging bourgeoisie, or the "industrial and commercial owner class", and played a key role in the process of reform and democratic constitutionalism in the Ming Dynasty.

In the previous two generations of the Great Tomorrow Era, they both used and supported this "democratic constitutionalism" and used it to check and balance the old-fashioned "Donglin faction" in the DPRK and China. Later, in the twentieth century, both political forces slowly evolved into political parties. However, with the continuous opening up of the Ming Dynasty, the scholar class, the aristocratic class, and the industrial and commercial owner class are constantly integrated, and it has gradually become that you will have me, and I will have you, which is no longer so distinct. For example, Zheng Gongyin, he is not only an aristocratic class, but also a business owner class. He owns the "Zheng Consortium", which is one of the largest industrial and commercial owners in the country.

The rise of the Basic People's Party was the latest in the early 20th century. This is a grassroots, a popular party, which relies mainly on the lower strata of the people, and advocates heavy taxation of the rich, tax exemption of the poor, and higher welfare. The speeches of political leaders are also simple and radical, and they cater to the tastes of the lower classes. The supporters of this party, although they are all poor, are in no way poorer than the first two parties. Unlike the Donglin Party and the Democratic Constitutional Party, which often receive large amounts of private donations, it mainly relies on "retail investors", and the donations it receives are only a few cents, a few cents, or a few yuan at most. But there are a lot of them.

Moreover, the CDU controls more than 50% of the trade unions in the country, and often organizes workers' strikes, fights for rights, raises wages, and so on.

Now, there are two people in Xiang Xiaoqiang's family who have a strong interest in politics, one is Shang Xiaojun and the other is Qiu Laohu. Both of them wanted to run for the Nanjing City Council and live a political addiction.

Shang Xiaojun and Qiu Laohu both belong to one constituency, and this constituency has a relatively small population, and according to the proportion, only four places have been allocated. However, now more than a dozen "bulls" have come forward and plan to compete for these four seats. The competition is very fierce, Shang Xiaojun and Qiu Laohu are both Xiang Xiaoqiang's family, and the possibility of occupying two seats at the same time is almost none. Therefore, either neither of them can choose, or they can only choose one.

According to the political faction, Shang Xiaojun belongs to the Donglin Party, while Qiu Laohu has a lot of influence in the local trade union and belongs to the CDP. The two also happen to belong to "rival parties" respectively. This is lively, Xiang Xiaoqiang naturally has a headache, but in addition to the headache, he also feels a kind of stimulation that he has never felt before. He solemnly warned Qiu Yu and Xiuxiu respectively that they should stay out of the matter, and not let the affairs of the elders affect the stability and unity of the family, let alone blow the pillow wind on him.

Xiang Xiaoqiang knew that in terms of knowledge, conversation, brain, and political level, Qiu Laohu was far from Shang Xiaojun's opponent. However, Qiu Laohu is powerful, as a gang boss, and his brothers have many subordinates, if they all vote for him, then just a steady and steady "iron ticket" can mobilize thousands of votes in Nanjing. In addition, gangs and trade unions generally use each other, and Qiu Lao also has a lot of prestige among local trade unions. The union has successfully gone on strike and pacified the boss many times, all with the help of his influence. Therefore, Qiu Laohu will definitely still get a large number of workers' votes.

If in a mature democratic society, Shang Xiaojun is simply the most ideal candidate, and with a slight movement of his fingers, he can kick out a vulgar black boss like Qiu Laohu. However, in the early stage of every democracy, it is inevitable to go through a stage of "black gold politics" and "gang election", and Qiu Laohu took advantage of this and became a strong opponent.

Moreover, the autumn tiger is very rich, and campaign funding is not a problem. But Shang Xiaojun didn't have much money. Her in-laws, Daming Ford's chairman, Frank Bradley, were wealthy, but Frank Bradley intended to support another candidate, who was from the Constitutional Party and was in line with Badley's wishes. Bai Deli did not support Shang Xiaojun as a woman, nor did he support the Donglin Party. Therefore, Shang Xiaojun can only rely on Xiang Xiaoqiang's funding.

Of course, Xiang Xiaoqiang also wanted to help, because he really felt that Qiu Laohu was really not that material, and Shang Xiaojun was much more suitable. But Qiu Laohu is really hot, and every day he calls and calls Xiang Xiaoqiang to go over for dinner, and he shouts and asks Xiang Xiaoqiang to give him this face. The reason why he can get on the stage the most is that Shang Xiaojun is a woman, and women in politics will always mess up the country. Let's look at the world today, which country has female parliamentarians?

This, Xiang Xiaoqiang is very speechless. No matter how vulgar and unlayered Qiu Laohu is, he has an advantage that Shang Xiaojun can't compare with - gender. Oh, yes. Looking at the world today, is there any country with women politicians? Even if there are more women than men in the Ming Dynasty, and there has always been a tradition of women participating in social affairs, it is limited to the middle and low levels! Parliamentarians, this is an absolute "politician", a "high-level" who is really involved in political affairs.

At this time, the Imperial Diet was still arguing about whether women had the right to vote and the right to be elected, but it was generally believed that the "right to vote" was not in suspense, but the "right to be elected" was difficult to say. "Female politicians" are indeed too avant-garde for this era. However, Daming has a strong force that supports women's candidacy, that is, a group of middle- and upper-class women with Empress Zhu Yourong as the "spiritual leader". Many of them hold real power and have great power and influence. The upper level is such as Zhu Yourong himself, such as Fourteen Gege, such as Xiuxiu, and the middle level is such as Jiang Meilu, such as Wei Zijin, and so on. Except for Zhu Yourong, these women can be said to all have political **, and they are extremely eager to realize the right of women to be elected. Their influence looms like an undercurrent in Parliament.

It just so happened that Xiang Xiaoqiang had just taken Zheng Yuxuan to Yanping Palace for dinner a few days ago, and when he came, he brought back the money he had won - the $5 million he won on the "Soviet Gambling Board" in Las Vegas was 7.15 million after being converted into Mingyang. Xiang Xiaoqiang took out 1 million and put it with Shang Xiaojun and asked her to use it casually, and said that it was sponsored by Princess Liaoyang.

In this era, 1 million Mingyang is more than enough to run for president and not to mention running for a city councilor. Shang Xiaojun was grateful, and Xiuxiu was even more moved. Qiu Yu is not interested in politics, she also feels that her father's virtue is really inappropriate to run for parliament, and she also thinks that Aunt Shang is much more suitable than her father, so she hid from her father and secretly followed Xiuxiu to help Shang Xiaojun's "campaign team", and she was very happy.

With huge financial support, the campaign team is operational. Writing speeches, organizing momentum, buying space from newspapers, buying time slots with broadcasters, hiring detectives to spy on the situation on Qiu Laohu's side, and hiring writers to dig up Qiu Laohu's stains and expose the news.

Xiang Xiaoqiang knew that in the next few months, his family would not be able to live in peace. Therefore, he began to pry Zhu Yourong and should go out to visit. Russia and the governments of the three Central Asian countries have all sent invitations before, but the war against the Soviet Union has not ended, Zhu Yourong has not gone, and now that the war is over, it is the empress who will personally visit these new hardcore allies.

Xiang Xiaoqiang plans to go out with Zhu Yourong to "hide" for a while, and then throw it to them at home to make trouble.