When he received Sun Yuanqi's telegram, Song Jiaoren had already returned to Shanghai. Prior to that, he had traveled to Hunan, Hubei, Jiangxi and other places to make a last-ditch effort for the congressional election.

Soong's initial goal was to unite with the old League members of the Republican Party to win more votes for the Kuomintang, to reduce the living space of the New China Party and the Republican Party as much as possible, and to increase the KMT's share in the Congress from 36 percent in the primary election to more than 40 percent. If it can exceed the sum of the shares of the New China Party and the Republican Party, that is the best! Even if it cannot, it is necessary to create conditions for the Kuomintang to form a cabinet on its own.

However, the reality is brutal.

After the re-election of members of the National Assembly, the KMT's share not only did not rise, but fell by two percentage points; By contrast, the second-largest party, the New China Party, bucked the trend, rising by two percentage points, and the gap between the two has narrowed to 34 seats. This is still a situation in which the candidates for parliament in several sectors, such as the Central Society, Mongolia, Tibet, and overseas Chinese, have not yet been decided. Who doesn't know that the New China Party has an absolute advantage in these sectors? If all of them are decided, I am afraid that the gap between the two will be narrowed, and it is not impossible to even surpass.

Song Jiaoren had no choice but to return to Shanghai and stay at the Huizhong Hotel on Huangpu Road.

Later that day, his best friend Qiu Liang visited. Seeing that Song Jiaoren had some expressions of disagreement, after greeting him, Qiu Liang asked with concern: "Why is Brother Dunchu so depressed?" ”

Song Jiaoren didn't hide much: "In this congressional election, our party was defeated, Song is really ashamed of Jiangdong's father, how can he be happy?" ”

Qiu Liang comforted: "You don't have to mind too much at the beginning! Our party lost the election this time. Who would have thought that Sun Yuanqi would be so bold and dare to ignore the possible intervention of Tsarist Russia. On the eve of the congressional election, a large number of troops marched north to conquer Mongolia? - Of course, we only suffered a slight defeat, and it didn't affect the overall situation, after all, we are still the largest party in Congress! ”

Song Jiaoren shook his head: "Although we are still the largest party, our influence in the Congress is not as great as before. After a pause, he continued: "Last year, the League was reorganized and the Kuomintang was founded, and Brother Yun Cun was also a personal participant, so you should know that there were many people in the party who were strongly opposed at that time. Song emphasized again. The purpose of the reshuffle was to convince the people simply out of the need to win a majority in the National Assembly and to compete for a cabinet. As for the United Republican Party, the National People's Party, the National Progressive Association, and the Republican Practical Advancement Association, to a large extent, they also see that we will be able to join the cabinet. Only then did he degrade the noble and merge with us to form the party.

"If we can get a majority in the parliamentary elections this time and form a purely party cabinet, all the doubts and complaints that we have had before will be gone. But now we have lost the election, even though we have barely retained our position as the largest party in Congress. But there is very little hope of forming a purely party cabinet. In this case. It's hard to guarantee that there won't be other voices inside and outside the party! ”

Qiu Liang said: "At the beginning of the retreat, wasn't it just to clean up the flaws and adapt to the development of the times? It was only at that time that in order to gain momentum in response to the congressional election, it was inevitable that some mud and sand would fall, so that the Kuomintang, which has more than one million members, will be roughly equal to the 100,000-member New China Party. The so-called 'the wind knows the strength of the grass, and the board knows the honest ministers', perhaps through the defeat of this election, we can just eliminate those snobbs who seek fame and fortune and enhance the combat effectiveness of our party! ”

Song Jiaoren sighed for a long time and said slowly: "I'm afraid of Ji Sun's worries. Not in the middle of nowhere, but within the walls. ”

I heard Song Jiaoren say this sentence from the Analects. Qiu Liang's heart suddenly beat wildly a few times, but on the surface, he still asked calmly, "Why did you say this?" ”

Song Jiaoren said: "After the founding of the Republic of China, Mr. Zhongshan believed that both nationality and civil rights had been achieved, but only people's livelihood had not yet begun, so he advocated that the League should not participate in politics and engage in industrial construction as an opposition party; Mr. Keqiang also believes that the alliance should take construction as its top priority and work hard in industry. However, Song did not agree with the views of Mr. Sun and Mr. Huang, believing that a new political party should be established on the basis of the League, and a purely political party cabinet should be formed through the election of legislators, so as to realize the people's livelihood and maintain the democratic republic system. Mr. Sun and Mr. Huang were not dissatisfied, thought about it again and again, and finally agreed with Song's opinion.

"As for the reorganization of the League, many old members at that time were strongly opposed, believing that the League was formed by the blood and sacrifice of our party comrades for decades, and that today we should protect the glory with our lives, how can we easily change its name? After the name change, there were many people who wept bitterly when they heard the news, such as the Guangdong League, which had just changed its name until a month ago. Now that the name of the League has been changed, and the ruling party has not yet been found, if the comrades in the party are enthusiastic and submit a petition, how do you think the council will deal with me? ”

Qiu Liang's throat was a little dry, and he said astringently: "You are now the acting chairman, how dare the council deal with you?" ”

Song Jiaoren did not answer Qiu Liang's question, but asked himself: "I'm afraid that someone will inevitably want to borrow Song Ming's head, right?" Anyway, there are still many people who covet my position as acting chairman! ”

Qiu Liang wanted to ask who dared to borrow his head, but in the end he didn't dare to ask.

From that day on, although Song Jiaoren was still giving speeches in various parts of Nanjing and Shanghai, his tone changed, and in addition to continuing to talk about the pure party cabinet, he began to vigorously criticize the governments of Yuan Shikai and Zhao Bingjun. For example, at the welcome meeting of the Nanjing branch of the Kuomintang, he sharply pointed out:

"It has been two years since the founding of the Republic of China, but looking at what the government has done, there is hardly any good governance other than compulsory education. In some areas, not only is there no good governance, but even inaction, harming the country and the people, and it is even more powerful than the former corrupt and deaf Qing government, such as financial problems.

"Suffice it to say, the government has no plan for spending or budgeting. Nowadays, domestic military spending is rising day by day, and foreign reparations are heavy, resulting in an empty treasury and financial constraints. However, the finance minister only knows how to borrow 5 million from banks in various countries and 10 million tomorrow, so as to barely keep the government running. The great powers are now aware of China's predicament, and often use borrowing as a condition to blackmail the government in every possible way to achieve the goal of ceding power and land.

"Why would the government turn a deaf ear to such an important issue? The reason is that they know that their time is short, and they will soon abdicate power, so they are perfunctory about any issue. In the end, they handed over the unmanageable situation to the next government, leaving a legacy for generations to come. If we criticize them now, they will still call it 'status quo'.

"What does it mean to maintain the status quo? For example, when a patient is dying, a passing doctor refuses to prescribe the right medicine after seeing it, and only prescribes a dose of ginseng decoction to barely maintain the patient's life and maintain the patient's current symptoms. Can we say that this doctor has fulfilled his duty as a healer? Apparently not! Therefore, maintaining the status quo is the most culpable thing about today's government! ”

Many people thought that the purpose of his vigorous criticism of the old government was to create a public opinion foundation for his future cabinet formation and clear the obstacles to ruling the country. But at the same time, it also aroused the suspicion of many people, including Sun Yuanqi: Although the Kuomintang is the largest party in the National Assembly, it only won 34 percent of the seats in the Senate and the House of Representatives, far from reaching a simple majority.

Although Sun Yuanqi was puzzled, in order to draw up the work plan for the coming year before the second party congress, he still politely called Song Jiaoren and vaguely expressed his desire for cooperation. The letter reads:

"Dajian, chairman of the board of directors at the beginning of the retreat: Jinghua violated the teachings, and for a few months, the sincerity of looking forward is increasing day by day. The official congress is about to be convened, rumors are spreading in the capital, people's hearts are shaken, and current affairs cannot be kept all day long. When this is the last moment, the power of Kuang Fu is all dependent on the virtuous brother. The national construction plan also needs to be discussed urgently, and Wan Cheng will come to Beijing immediately to preside over everything in order to save the peril. Pray but hope! Sun Yuan paused. ”

As the old leader of Song Jiaoren, Sun Yuanqi felt that his posture was low enough, and he should give some face. Who knew that after three or four days, Song Jiaoren reluctantly replied, and there were only a few dry sentences on it: "The high sense of friendship is inexplicable, but the affairs in Shanghai are complicated, and the political situation in Beijing is obscure. If you are offended, please also ask Haihan. Praise to my father! Such a stylized reply made it difficult for Sun Yuanqi to find out the specific meaning, and it was difficult for Yang Jie, Chen Xunen and others to say what was wrong, and Yang Yongtai even doubted whether the Kuomintang had hooked up with the Republican Party.

It is estimated that in this world, only Qiu Liang knows the true intention of Song Jiaoren's move:

On the one hand, he was bluffing and suppressing the split momentum and opposition within the party with the posture of preparing to form a cabinet to govern; On the other hand, it is to pull hatred, hoping to find a reasonable excuse for the failure of forming a cabinet by provoking the anger of Yuan Shikai and Zhao Bingjun, and also hoping that through the anger of Yuan Shikai and Zhao Bingjun, the Kuomintang can feel strong pressure, so as to eliminate differences and unite with the outside world all the time.

As for not daring to go to Beijing to meet with Sun Yuanqi, the reason is simpler. Now Song Jiaoren is blowing soap bubbles, a little stab, the flashing colorful bubbles will burst, where dare to fight with Sun Yuanqi face to face with the gong? - Of course, even if Sun Yuanqi doesn't poke it, the soap bubble will burst on its own, because the official parliament will be officially convened in April, and it will only be two months away at most.

For the sake of his friends, as well as for himself and the political party, Qiu Liang decided to help his friends.

As the acting chairman of the Kuomintang, Song Jiaoren was originally located at the top of the pyramid, and there are not many people who can really save him. Among these few people, the first place is undoubtedly Sun Yat-sen, the chairman of the Kuomintang.

But where is Sun Yat-sen now? (To be continued.) )