As Kupensky protested against the government of the Republic of China, the news that Sun Yuanqi sent troops to conquer Mongolia and bombed the city of Kobdo and Uriya Sutai gradually became well-known to the people of the whole country. Newspapers from all over the country also flocked to the top, but the information was limited, so they had to perfunctory a magnificent story based on the rumors of a scale and half a claw, such as "Lord Sun conquered the north on three routes, and the two cities of Outer Mongolia returned to the west", "The rebels stationed in Majiangbei, and the planes burned down the company camp", and "The bombers showed their might, and the city of Kulen was just around the corner", which directly teased the people of the whole country. And China Broadcasting and "Political and Economic Daily", which know the situation best, remained a rare silence at this time.

The national public opinion is one-sided support for the Northern Expedition, and all kinds of solidarity are flying to Sun Yuanqi's hands like snowflakes - of course, it is limited to support, and the visible benefits are not at all - all of them are not hesitant to praise, and often compare Sun Yuanqi to Ban Chao, Fu Jiezi, or Pei Xingjian, Wang Zhonghe, and high hats such as "Meritorious Super Dingyuan" and "Qingshi Zaixun" are even given away in batches.

The governors of Hunan, Guangdong, Jiangxi and other provinces also stood and spoke without backache, and even sent a joint telegram to the whole country, asking Sun Yuanqi to make persistent efforts to put down the Outer Mongolian bandits in one fell swoop. The message abbreviated that:

Xue Chan Khan is only as promised, and the king of Kaiping is here today! Jinglu North Finger, Yi Di restraining his hands; The book came from the south, and the gentry were open. However, although the grass of the three winters is dead, it can still nourish the vines in spring; The hundred-legged insect is not stiff, and it can still be revived after the calamity. Mr. Fu Wang can plough the court and sweep the acupoints with Yu Yong, and eliminate the evil. The rank will be strong, Keri will go north, and Mr. will hunt in the wolf, and the credit will be given to Yanran.

It can be seen from the words in the article that this should be the bold and generous work of Vice President Lebanese Hanxiang. Sun Yuanqi couldn't help but sneer a few times after reading it: These people will sing high-profile and take advantage of it! Now seeing that he has destroyed the bandits on the banks of the Bulgan River with a devastating force, and easily blew up the city of Kobdo and Uriya Sutai, Kulen seems to be just around the corner, and they are all thinking about it one by one, and they all jump out to win the position. If they are transferred north to Mongolia alone, see how many of them dare to take the initiative?

Don't look at them dancing happily now, as long as there is a slight defeat in the battle between Zhengmeng, ensure that their mouths are closed tighter than the yellow flower girl who has not come out of the cabinet. I didn't dare to talk about sending troops anymore. If Sun Yuanqi's troops suffered heavy losses and were chased and beaten by Tsarist Russia, unable to protect themselves, even the governors of the surrounding provinces would take the opportunity to take a bite!

Seeing that Sun Yuanqi was so aggressive, the Russian government soon signed the Russian-Mongolian Brigade Agreement with the Kulen authorities, stipulating that the Russian government would equip the Kulen authorities with a brigade, including two cavalry regiments, a machine gun team, and an artillery corps with 1,900 soldiers. The instructors of the brigade are all Russian military officers. The Kulen authorities were to pay the Russian government 350,000 rubles for the full cost of equipping and training the brigade.

Originally, after completing the scheduled combat mission, the three troops of Jin, Shaanxi, and Gansu should have quickly withdrawn to their original station, but who knew that Jebu Tsundamba was so ignorant of elevation, Sun Yuanqi had to make a slight adjustment and take further punishment measures against the Kulen authorities. Subsequently, he ordered the 47th Mixed Brigade of the Army, in addition to Shanxi, to return to Datong. The rest of the troops were reorganized into the First Division of the Outer Mongolian Army, with Feng Jishan as the acting division commander, to maintain strong military pressure on Outer Mongolia, and to bomb the Outer Mongolian government garrisons and rebel camps from time to time, so that the Kulen authorities would never have peace!

Just when the affairs of Outer Mongolia were in an uproar, other borders were also showing signs of instability. Sun Yuanqi didn't know if there were so many disasters and difficulties in the early years of the Republic of China in real history, or if his butterfly wings were flapped too hard. Even the government of the Republic of China was crumbling by itself. For example, after knowing that Sun Yuanqi sent troops into Tibet by two routes, the British government was afraid that the troops escorting Thubten Gyatso back to Tibet would not be enough, so it added more than 5,000 troops to ** at the beginning of this year. It is conceivable that in the summer and autumn of the second year of the Republic of China, a fierce war will inevitably break out!

There is also Yunnan, since the signing of the "Russian-Mongolian Entente", the British have increased a large number of troops and transported grain in the area of Pianma and Manyun (now Manyun Street) in Yunnan, and built camps and fortifications. and transported a large number of weapons and ammunition to Tajia (now called Jiaxiang in Lushui County). At this time, the governor of Yunnan, who was known as "fighting for the personality of 40,000 people by force," was helpless in the face of the British army, so he could only urgently telegraph the cabinet to inquire about the countermeasures, and asked the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to make serious representations with the British minister in China.

All these disturbances on the frontier did not affect the re-election of the Senate and House of Representatives in Beijing on February 10, which was the highest part of the entire congressional election.

According to the "Decree on the Date of Election of Members" issued by the Grand Presidential Office, members of the Senate and the House of Representatives must complete their re-election on February 10. However, parliamentarians from some sectors, such as the Central Society and Mongolian, **, and overseas Chinese, are either long distances, inconvenient transportation, or complicated procedures, and it is not easy to elect. The election date could be postponed a little later, as long as the members of parliament are elected before the official opening of parliament in April this year. Of course, the number of legislators in these sectors is not very large, and the impact on the overall situation is almost negligible. So. Although the re-election in February was not the only election of members of the Senate and the House of Representatives, it was the most important one, and all parties did not dare to take it lightly.

The competition starts at Qianmen Railway Station.

The staff of various political parties set up a large banner in front of the railway station, which resembled a hexagram booth on an overpass. Whenever the candidates for the provincial legislature walked out of the station, everyone flocked to the station and tried their best to pull the candidates who had just gotten off the train to live in the guest house arranged by their party, which was almost exactly the same as the black rentals and small hotels in front of the railway station in later generations. - Of course, at that time, there was no such thing as "black rental", but there were small hotels, and the guest houses of various parties were actually hotels. However, in the eyes of the people in the early years of the Republic of China, this kind of solicitation was more like female workers doing business on the streets in Bada Hutong.

There are so many parties vying in front of the train station that business is very difficult, and some clever people have begun to think about "moving the gate forward". At first, some people got on the train in Fengtai and went to the train to solicit candidates for the legislature, but by the time they arrived at the Qianmen Railway Station, they were basically already in a boat. Soon some people realized that since they were on the bus in Fengtai, why not just intercept the candidate for parliament in Fengtai?

As soon as this head opened, a vicious circle soon formed. Did you go to Fengtai to intercept people? Then I'll go to Langfang, Zhili! Are you going to Langfang to intercept? Then I'll go to Tianjin Wei Railway Station to intercept it. …… In the end, even as soon as the candidate left his house, he was accompanied by the functionaries of certain political parties and began to do ideological work. On the "Declaration", some people changed the verses of Li Bai's "Long Dry Journey" to satirize this ridiculous behavior, calling it "not far from each other, until the parliamentarian's house".

Pulling the candidates for parliament is only the first step in the competition, and the next thing depends on the hardware and software conditions of each guest house.

The so-called hardware means that the house of the guest house should be spacious and exquisite, the dishes should be rich and fine, and the wine should be mellow and exquisite. A supreme treat for the residents. It is precisely in view of this that the various parties have long selected the best and most spacious houses near Capitol Street, and in front of the door there are the words "XX Party Party Member Guest House" in large cloth banners, which contain wine and food for food and drink; There are beds and quilts for sleeping; There are even girls in green buildings and child prostitutes for different tastes of parliamentary candidates to play with.

And the so-called software. It depends on the amount of money given by each guest house. If you send money directly, it is easy for other parties to seize the handle and frame it, so everyone is trying to make a name for it. For example, the banquet in the guest house is obviously full of dignity and land, but he is ashamed of his poor hospitality, which makes the candidates for parliament feel wronged, so there is a "catering supplement"; The guest house is clearly only a stone's throw away from the Parliament building. However, they were worried that the candidates for the parliament would be inconvenient to travel and delay the voting, so they gave away a sum of money, which was called "boat fare...... There are countless other names and so on.

Knowing that they had no hope of being shortlisted, some candidates simply took the opportunity to make a fortune and first went to live in Party A's guest house. After receiving various benefits and red envelopes, he agreed to vote for the party. After going out, he went to live in the guest house of Party B, and he also received a benefit fee, and then patted his chest and agreed to vote for the party. After going out, I will find the next one, anyway, the streets are full of banners set up by various political parties, and I am afraid that I will not find the wronged leader. After getting all the benefits, in the end, according to his original mind, how to vote or how to vote.

In this chaotic situation. Only the New China Party seems to be much calmer. The reason is very simple: New China Party members who can endure the strict restrictions that are not allowed to cross the party and have gone through various tests in the election campaign will naturally not waver on the current issue, and the New China Party is no worse than other parties in its own party members.

The guest house of the New China Party and the headquarters of the New China Party are adjacent to each other, both of which are located on the side of the road leading to Jingshi University outside the Desheng Gate. Because of the low price of land outside the city, both buildings occupy an extremely large area. Everything is in accordance with the combination of star-rated hotels and private gardens, and there are more elements of modern technology. For example, just after the Spring Festival at this time, Beijing in Youyan is still freezing and biting, and people shiver inside and outside the house. The New China Party's guest house was heated. It's really "warm as spring", so party members from both the south and the north fell in love with it immediately after moving in.

In order to facilitate the commuting of parliamentarians, candidates for parliamentary purposes of the New China Party can travel free of charge on China Airlines planes. If you're heading to the city for a meeting, there's a special limousine to keep you from freezing in the freezing wind.

It is precisely because of the above-mentioned reasons that as soon as the political party functionaries who intercepted people in various localities heard that the other party was from the New China Party, they basically immediately gave up completely. As for how to deal with the congressional candidates of other parties, Sun Yuanqi's principle is to do what should be done and take the initiative when it should be done, but not to coerce, not to force, not to induce, and everything to go with the flow.

I don't know whether it was the quiet and indifferent attitude of the New China Party that made the harassed parliamentarians feel comfortable, or whether the conditions of the New China Party's guest house were far better than in other places, but in short, after entering February, the rooms in the New China Party's guest house were full every day, and even Sun Yuanqi himself had to move out of the guest house to make room for the congressional candidates of other political parties.

On February 10, 1913, the re-election of members of the Senate and House of Representatives was officially held, and the votes of each party were quickly counted, and out of the 870 votes decided:

With 296 seats, the KMT remains at the top of the table, but its share has fallen from 36 percent in the primary election to 34 percent.

Affected by the war in Mongolia, the New China Party's vote rate rose instead of falling, reaching an astonishing 30%, approaching the Kuomintang in first place;

Republicans won 175 seats, barely more than 20 percent of the vote;

The remaining 137 seats were won by other parties and those whose party membership is unknown.

After the election, China's political situation became more and more unclear, not to mention Song Jiaoren, Yuan Shikai, and even Sun Yuanqi could not understand it. (To be continued.)