Yang Yongtai hurriedly took out a few pages from his body: "I was about to report to the adults!" Thanks to the Hui Zheng of the people who used to be in Hubei, since the New China Party established the Hubei Provincial General Branch in Wuchang at the beginning of the year, the number of branches and the number of party members have made gratifying development. At present, our party has set up branches in all provinces of Hubei and small groups in all counties, and the number of party members has exceeded 3,000.

"The party members are mainly school students, young soldiers, gentry and officials, and are concentrated in Wuchang Mansion, where schools are dense and there are many troops. The most exciting thing is that Wu Tongjia, director of the Hubei Education Department, and Li Zhonghua, director of the Department of Industry, have also joined our New China Party." It is believed that with the recovery of Xiangyang, Yunyang, Yichang, Shinan, Jingmen and other state capitals, more officials and gentry will join our party. ”

Chen Xunen said: "According to the newly promulgated Organic Law of the National Assembly and the Law on the Election of Members of the Senate and the House of Representatives, Hubei Province should elect 10 senators and 26 members of the House of Representatives in the congressional election at the end of the year. I wonder if our New China Party can make some gains in Hubei? ”

Yang Yongtai replied: "Although Hubei is the stronghold of the Republican Party, we have taken the lead in organizing the party, and now that Li Huangpi has been transferred from the mountain, the League will be busy reorganizing, and the Beiyang Department will not be able to insert it for a while and a half, and only we are making great progress in Hubei." If we keep the momentum going, we can definitely win more than a third of the seats, or even a half. ”

Chen Xunen said: "Song Dunchu strongly advocated the reorganization of the League this time, and its fundamental purpose was to win a majority of seats in the parliamentary election. He made it clear in private. After a successful reshuffle, it is necessary to stop all activities and focus on elections, strive to win more than half of the seats in the National Assembly, and then form a purely party cabinet in the government. We, the New China Party, have exclusivity. There is never allowed to be a cross-party. If the alliance succeeds, we will lose ground in the central government. So we have to plan ahead and start preparing as early as possible! ”

Yang Yongtai said: "As early as the beginning of the year, we have listed the congressional election as the most important matter in the near future, and actively deployed to try to occupy a dominant position in the congress, but we didn't expect the alliance to actually play the hand of combining vertical and horizontal. The situation suddenly turned bad. As soon as this is over, Yang will go to all parts of the country to lobby and give speeches, and go all out to campaign. No matter what means are used, the alliance will not be able to win. ”

Sun Yuan nodded: "A pure political party cabinet is originally a good form of government, and the long-term goal of the New China Party is also to form a pure political party cabinet; Song Dunchu was promoted by Zhang Taiyan as a talent of Zaifu, thinking that he was more intelligent and cautious. I can know the general situation of political affairs. It is not unavoidable that he will be the prime minister. But now is the wrong time to impose a purely party system. Because foreign countries implement a purely political party cabinet, usually the party is mature, and it is strictly forbidden for military personnel to interfere in politics, and the president is in a weak position, but what about our country?

"Needless to say, the president has the most powerful army in the country, and at the slightest disobedience, he will use force to threaten him. At present, a mixed party cabinet is implemented, and Premier Tang Shaochuan is the deceased of Yuan Xiangcheng. is also a member of the Alliance, and there is still a lot of trouble between the government and the court. If the young and vigorous Song Dunchu implements a purely party responsibility cabinet. In the face of Yuan Xiangcheng, who is scheming and has a strong army, what will be the final result? So we had to make a slight reduction to frustrate the spirit of the Alliance and Song Dunchu. ”

Yang Yongtai said: "It's not difficult for adults to frustrate the spirit of the Alliance and Song Dunchu. According to a poll conducted by China Broadcasting a few days ago, the reshuffled League is expected to be able to get 35 percent of the seats in the Senate and House of Representatives, the Republican Party is expected to be 26 percent, and the New China Party is expected to be 22 percent. As long as we join forces with the Republicans, we can completely prevent the League from forming a government. ”

Chen Xunen said: "I'm afraid the situation is not so optimistic!" This is the Zhang Zhenwu case, we have a bad relationship with Li Huangpi and some Republicans, how easy is it to join forces again? Moreover, once Lai Huangpi leaves office, the Republican Party will soon face the danger of disintegration, and its influence will decline rapidly. Even if we join forces with the Republican Party, it will be difficult to control the overall situation. ”

Seeing that the two were arguing, Sun Yuanqi waved his hand: "Who can say clearly in the future?" The election will be discussed later, but now let's continue to talk about the situation in Hubei and Beijing after Li Huangpi came to Beijing! ”

Yang Jie said: "Generally speaking, because Li Huangpi went north and the Beiyang system became the master, the situation in Hubei will be chaotic for a while, and we have a good public opinion, military and political party base in Hubei Province, so we might as well take the opportunity to take advantage of some more practical benefits; In Beijing, Sun Yat-sen was in the limelight for a while, and Yuan Xiangcheng also put on the pomp of Corporal Lixian, but it is estimated that it will be difficult to achieve substantive results, and adults only need to accompany them to sing this play well and not let themselves suffer. ”

Sun Yuanqi said: "Okay, we will take an offensive in Hubei and a defensive position in Beijing, not seeking merit between offense and defense, but hoping to curb the expansion of the Beiyang system and the alliance, so that they can be stable for a while." ”

As expected, before Li Yuanhong's northbound train arrived at Zhengding Mansion, the Presidential Office issued a message, saying that although Li Yuanhong and Duan Qirui were not at fault in the Zhang Zhenwu case, there were inevitably minor flaws in the procedures and evidence, and they should be punished lightly to set an example for future generations. In view of the fact that Li Yuanhong had previously announced that he had voluntarily resigned from the posts of vice president, governor of Hubei, and chief of staff, he was now retained in the post of vice president, and the chief of staff was temporarily led by Huang Xing; Duan Qirui was dismissed from the post of army chief, and the right to act as the governor of Hubei, and the army chief was temporarily deputized by Duan Zhigui.

As soon as the order was announced, it caused a national shock.

First of all, I don't know whether Yuan Shikai was in a hurry or deliberately, this order was not countersigned by the Senate and the State Council before it was promulgated. Although the order is sufflitated with the sentence "All appointments will be submitted to the Senate and the State Council for posthumous approval," everyone knows that once the order is issued, it will be a complete deal, and it will be impossible for the Senate and the State Department to slap the president in the face, right?

Tang Shaoyi was also stubborn, and immediately left a resignation letter after hearing the news, and quickly left Beijing for Shanghai. However, Tang Shaoyi has worked with Yuan Shikai for many years and knows that he is acting viciously, so he only euphemistically said that he was unwell in his resignation, and begged to leave Beijing for 5 days to adjust, but the prime minister's position is very important, and he cannot be left without one for a day, so he asked the president to appoint a temporary agent from the state minister.

But who will act or succeed the prime minister? It caused a lot of discussion. Judging from the current composition of the cabinet, there are four people who are most likely: Lu Zhengxiang, the chief foreign affairs minister representing the transcendent cabinet, Zhao Bingjun, the chief of internal affairs representing the hardcore Yuan family, Sun Yuanqi, the chief of education representing the New China Party, and Song Jiaoren, the chief minister of agriculture and forestry representing the League. In fact, in addition to Sun Yuanqi, who appeared out of thin air, in real history, Lu Zhengxiang and Zhao Bingjun both served as state premiers, and even Song Jiaoren, who died young, was only one step away from the state premier before he was killed.

Yuan Shikai naturally hopes that his cronie Zhao Bingjun will be the prime minister of the cabinet, so that he can truly achieve the "government yiti", but he is afraid that he will not be able to pass in the Senate, after all, the Senate has just been placed before this. Therefore, on the one hand, I had to make a gesture of looking for candidates and reshuffling the cabinet, and on the other hand, I claimed that the prime minister of the cabinet would wait for Sun Yat-sen, Li Yuanhong, and Huang Keqiang to negotiate a settlement after Beijing.

Second, not long after the order was issued, Duan Qirui announced that he would accept the appointment and dismissal of the presidential palace in Xinyang, at the junction of Henan and Hubei, and then took the train south to Wuchang, and the center of gravity of the various units of the Beiyang Army originally stationed in Henan also moved southward, showing a semi-encirclement of Hubei, and was ready to enter Hubei at any time. The situation between Henan and Hubei suddenly became tense, and a major war seemed to be about to break out.

Since Xiangyang and Yunyang both bordered Henan, Fang Wei, Jiang Zuobin and others did not dare to take it lightly, and hurriedly transferred the Hubei First Mixed Brigade that was attacking Jingzhou Prefecture to Zaoyang and Guanghua to monitor and defend the Beiyang Army in Henan Province. The originally opposing Hubei army not only did not take this opportunity to launch a large-scale counterattack, but also gradually withdrew to its original garrison, heightened its vigilance, and closely watched the changes in the political situation after Duan Qirui went south.

Li Yuanhong, who was the core figure of the incident, thought about it after hearing the news, and thought about it, and the road to return to the south had been blocked, and there was little hope of returning to Hubei, but he was unwilling to go to Beijing and took the initiative to jump into the cage, and was played by Yuan Shikai, so he stopped in Zhengding Mansion, and then telegraphed the whole country, saying that he was willing to accept the punishment of the Great Presidential Palace and resigned from the post of governor of Hubei; However, his own guilt was too heavy to be relieved by his resignation, and he was willing to travel around the world in the name of vice president to persuade other countries to recognize the long-established Republic of China, so as to atone for his mistakes.

Yuan Shikai was afraid that he would collude with Sun Yat-sen, Huang Keqiang, etc. after he went overseas, or slander himself in front of the heads of the great powers, so how could he agree to let him go abroad? At present, he frequently sent messages to praise his meritorious deeds, and persuaded him to go north as soon as possible to discuss the country's affairs; At the same time, he also ordered the Zhili garrison to strictly defend around Zhengding, and never let Li Yuanhong's golden cicada come out of its shell, and at the right time, Li Yuanhong could even be hugged on the train and sent directly to Beijing.

As for Huang Xing, he didn't plan to come to Beijing to join in the fun, but Sun Yat-sen was so confused by Yuan Shikai that he was fascinated, and a telegram a day urged him to go north. Huang Xing couldn't resist Sun Yat-sen's hospitality, so he had to take Li Shucheng, Zhang Xiaozhun and other cronies to leave Shanghai and go north. While he was still on the way, he received an order from Yuan Shikai to appoint him as temporary chief of staff.

In the letter of appointment, Yuan Shikai did his best to praise Huang Xing for "running for 20 years in the country, advocating a republic, reforming the political system, enthusiasm and perseverance, being born and dying with great hardships, and all the experiences are well known at home and abroad, and the famous champion is widely discussed", which almost lifted Huang Xing to the sky. However, Huang Xing had already seen through Yuan Shikai's heart, liver, spleen, lungs, and kidneys, and was insensitive to the matter of temporarily leading the chief of staff.

Maybe this is also the result that Yuan Shikai wants, right? (To be continued......)