The Civic Party has a big appetite and wants to swallow all these fragrant dumplings in one gulp. Fastest update 78 // Although the New China Party participates in the competition on the principle of the more the merrier, it will not easily give up one city and one place, and will send the right-hand man of the headquarters to contact and negotiate with each congressman, strive to bring a few more to its own camp, and expand the dominant position of the New China Party in the Congress.

When the New China Party first put forward the bill to expel some unconstitutional legislators, the Kuomintang legislators were panicked like lost dogs, and they almost regarded the olive branches extended by various parties as life-saving straws, and even put down their bodies and took the initiative to stick to them. During that time, there were many speculative politicians gathered at the gate of the New China Party headquarters outside the city.

However, as the Civic Party erected the banner of recruitment, the Kuomintang legislators soon realized that they had changed from a lost dog to a key figure in all parties, and all of them seemed to be young women who had successfully escaped from Dongguan and returned to their hometowns. In fact, the purpose of their pinching is nothing more than to sell it at a good price.

Of course, their reserve is not without reward, at least the price at which the parliamentarians sell their bodies has soared. In less than a month since the founding of the Civic Party, the subsidy for the carriage and horse expenses of lawmakers who vote once in the Diet has risen to 200 yuan, and it may be even higher at critical moments such as voting on the constitution and electing the president.

Sun Yuanqi privately calculated that according to the provisions of the "Provisional Covenant Law," the election of the president requires the presence of more than three-quarters of the members of the Senate and the House of Representatives, and more than two-thirds of the total number of votes can be elected. Now with 596 seats in the House of Representatives and 274 seats in the Senate, a presidential election requires at least 653 people present and 436 in favor to be effective. Even if the price is calculated according to the price of 200 yuan for attendance and 500 yuan for voting in favor, it will cost more than 350,000 yuan to vote in just one presidential election!

If you continue to squander like this, not to mention that a tyrant like himself with a lot of money can't support it even if he has gold and silver, not to mention that Yuan Shikai lives on foreign debt? Obviously, Liang Shiyi's accusation that the formation of the Civic Party was a one-shot deal, and the purpose was to elect the president. I'm afraid of the day when a full president is elected. It's time for Congress to die!

Although Sun Yuanqi also hopes to recruit more parliamentarians and make the New China Party dominant in the Congress, he also has his own principles, such as the treatment of new parliamentarians cannot exceed the original members of the New China Party, at most equal; Another example is that a new legislator can give a certain amount of financial assistance, but cannot make non-subordinate demands such as interfering with the judiciary or violating regulations.

In contrast, the Civic Party has no bottom line at all. From the litigation to the arrangement of positions, from the encirclement of fertile land to the gift of famous prostitutes, it is simply omnipotent.

Civic Party's money offensive soon paid off. At the end of November 1913, when the National Assembly voted on the draft constitution prepared by the Constitutional Drafting Committee, the Civic Party easily rejected the proposal. This success has further stimulated the arrogance of the Civic Party, which not only vigorously solicited legislators from other small parties, but even dug into the corners of the New China Party legislators! Fortunately, the New China Party has done a solid job in the early stage of its work. Sun Yuanqi also cared for the members of his party, which made Liang Shiyi and others return.

By December, the battle for members of Congress had finally settled. Because of its scruples, the New China Party only gained more than 30 people in this feast, and although the results were far less than those of the Civic Party, it also secured the throne of the largest party in the National Assembly by virtue of this achievement. With more than 350 seats in the National Assembly, Yuan Shikai should let Sun Yuan start by three points. Because Sun Yuanqi may not dare to say who the future president will definitely be, but he has the confidence to say that the future president will definitely not be!

There is no doubt that the Civic Party is the biggest winner in this battle, with more than 100 KMT legislators before and after, in addition to dozens of legislators from other small political parties, and with the old team, the number of members of the Senate and the House of Representatives has exceeded 200, making it the second largest party in the Congress after the New China Party. Although it did not achieve its original goal of taking control of Parliament, the Civic Party has become a political force to be reckoned with. It plays an important role in vetoing the constitution that restricts the power of the president and proposing to elect the president as soon as possible.

As for the Kuomintang, there is no doubt that it is the saddest loser, not only has the status of the largest party in the National Assembly been handed over, but even the members of the parliament who have worked hard to elect have been carved up by others, and only thirty or forty die-hard members are left to support them, which can be regarded as barely preserving the name and glory of the former League. It's really a loss of bottoms!

With the end of the battle for parliamentarians, because the other side has the right of veto. Therefore, both the New China Party and the Civic Party have maintained relative restraint and calmness, and do not dare to easily submit major and sensitive issues such as the draft constitution and the presidential election to the National Assembly for a vote. It shows that the upper state is calming, but everyone knows that there is a volcano that is about to erupt underneath, and the situation in the Republic of China, which was founded less than two years ago, suddenly becomes delicate.

The newly arrived U.S. minister to China and former professor of political science at the University of Wisconsin, Reinsch, is keenly aware of the strange sight in China's Congress. Writing in the American Political Science Review, the journal of the American Political Science Association, it is pointed out:

"In the last year or two, the largest empire in the Far East has undergone numerous changes in political figures, institutions, laws and politics, as a result of the drastic changes in the state system, which have dazzled even the most familiar critics with the situation in the Far East. And at this moment, it suddenly becomes quiet, as if the opera is about to climax and suddenly falls silent, and the story is getting better, and at the same time, it makes people can't help but turn to the reason behind it.

"On the surface, the main factors in the calm are the two major parties in Congress: the New China Party, led by Prime Minister Sun Yuanqi (his other name, Dr. Johnson, perhaps better known to us), who advocates the constitution first; and the Civic Party, which is controlled by the provisional president and the supreme leader of the Beiyang Army, the most powerful military faction, and advocates the election of the president first, each has the power to veto the other, so each side maintains relative restraint, which calms down the situation for the time being. Just as in a duel, when both sides point their swords at each other's throats, the most sensible thing for both sides to do is to take a step back and look for a good opportunity, rather than foolishly choosing to die together.

"For the past two or three thousand years, this ancient empire has been ruled by autocracy until the end of 1911, when the former provisional president, Mr. Sun Wen, led a group of enthusiastic students, young soldiers, and mobs who did not know what a democratic republic was. Mr. Sun Wen, who had lived in exile in the United States for many years, hastily borrowed from the American political system and planned the initial democratic republican system for the newly established country, including the presidential system and the separation of powers, but not the cabinet and the prime minister.

In order to avoid a humanitarian crisis in the Far East, Mr. Sun Wen reached a peace agreement with Mr. Yuan Shikai, who was in a militarily superior position in the north, and promised to relinquish the post of provisional president. However, in order to limit Mr. Yuan Shikai's power and protect the fruits of the revolutionaries, Mr. Sun Wen abruptly changed the presidential responsibility system to a responsible cabinet system before leaving office. From that moment on, the bane had been planted, and the conflict between the courts became inevitable, and the key was only when it broke out.

"In the original design of the system, the Diet existed as a tool to check the power of the government and the struggle between the government, but now this role is very weak. At this time, the Congress was more like a place of struggle between the Grand Presidential Office and the State Department, a place of relatively peaceful fighting that could avoid resorting to force. But Congress's means of restraint are so limited that the losing side could ignore Congressional rulings and resort to force, triggering a nationwide war and a serious humanitarian crisis. This is well worth our attention!

These are only very superficial descriptions, and there are deeper reasons behind the struggle, which can be analyzed from multiple angles, such as the institutional struggle between the presidential system and the cabinet system, the power struggle between the presidential office and the State Council, the factional struggle between the military faction and the educational community, and so on. If we want to try to explore the deepest causes in a clear and concise way through the complex and troubled political situation, the author prefers to boil it down to the ideological dispute between traditional Chinese Confucianism and modern Western democratic and liberal thought.

"As we all know, Mr. Yuan Shikai was born into a traditional Chinese bureaucratic family, and the influence of traditional Confucianism and autocratic rule was deeply rooted in him, which made him extremely obsessed with power, especially the indulgent, supreme and unfettered imperial power; Mr. Sun Yuanqi grew up in the United States since he was a child, and the concepts of democracy and the rule of law have become an integral part of his thinking along with scientific knowledge. When they work together, like fire and sea, life and death, the fiercest conflict erupts.

Although Mr. Yuan Shikai was denounced by the revolutionaries as a conservative and a thief, he also actively advocated learning from the West in the self-improvement movement in the late Qing Dynasty, such as the German army, the British navy, and the American parliament. Behind Mr. Sun Yuanqi's modern ideas of democracy and freedom, there are also thoughts of pursuing power, excluding dissidents, and intending to dictatorship. This is one of the reasons why China's political situation is becoming increasingly complex.

"Although the situation in China is becoming increasingly tense, and the conflict may break out from the National Assembly at any time, and then turn into an armed conflict that spreads to the whole country, in the author's opinion, it is not without a solution to China's current predicament, because Mr. Yuan Shikai and Mr. Sun Yuanqi's thinking has been intertwined and there is a basis for mutual understanding. They only need to take a step back like duelists pointing their swords at each other's throats, and then divide the division of power, God's to God and Caesar's to Caesar, and all disputes will naturally be resolved. This is also where the experience of the political struggle in the West over the past 300 years lies! (To be continued.) If you like this work, you are welcome to come to the starting point (qidian.) to vote for recommendation, monthly pass, your support, is my biggest motivation. For mobile phone users, please go to m.qidian. )