“A.king.does.not.kiss.a.king。” Mo Lixun stood on the city wall near Zhengyangmen in the embassy area, looking at the funeral procession below and muttering to himself.

What happened in the past month made him feel that the chaotic situation because of the revolution was improving: at first, Zhili sent representatives to attend the Provisional Congress held in Beijing, which made most of the hostility between Beijing and Zhili dissipate in an instant, Zhirui, the governor of Zhili, had no authority to stop it, the patrolmen and soldiers did not listen to him, and the bureaucrats and gentry only wanted to negotiate peace with Beijing;

Then, disappeared for hundreds of years, since birth has been adrift overseas His Royal Highness King Min of the Ming Dynasty returned to the capital, after he worshiped his ancestors, the first holy decree was to lift the house arrest of the Manchu nobles, and then announced the preparation of the funeral of the Guangxu Emperor;

On the second day of the decree, large-scale floods broke out in the middle and lower reaches of the Liao River and Taizi River, and the three railways of Nanmanchu, Jingbong, and Anbong were all flooded. The defeat in the Tohoku War affected the political situation in Japan, and on the ninth day of the defeat in the Mukden War, the cabinet of Katsura Taro collapsed.

With the feeling of a journalist, Morrison did not care about the war between China and Japan in the northeast, and in his opinion, it was nothing more than a robbery by Japan, which did not have much impact on the political situation in China. It was not Mukden or Shanghai that really affected the direction of this ancient country, but between Beijing and Tianjin.

Beijing is a gathering place of new forces, a new army, a new government, a new dynasty; And Tianjin. It is the concentration of the old forces, the nobles who fled in the wilderness, the Qing army who had no will to fight, and the gentry who were wise enough to protect themselves. Morrison always believed that with Yang Jingcheng's toughness, there was no way to occupy Tianjin without interference from other countries. But he never expected that a grand funeral would disintegrate the hatred between the two sides.

The king can't kill the king! This was one of the most basic aristocratic laws in Europe, and the same was true in the ancient East, where the kings of the Ming Dynasty now pardoned the kings of the Qing Dynasty and buried the Qing emperors who committed suicide. Under this ancient set of rules, people from Tianjin came to Beijing to attend the emperor's funeral, and the separation between the two places was broken. The whole country is coming back together.

"What the war could not do, the funeral did; What can't be done by fighting, forgiveness is done. Merciful God. The Almighty Lord ......" stood next to Morisson, and the Counselor of the Embassy, Mamule, who was also watching the funeral, prayed and muttered to himself.

"George, I heard that His Royal Highness King Min received you yesterday?" Pray to God after that. Mamulle asked Morrison. He knew that he was very close to the people of the new dynasty.

"Yes! I am very honored! "He is a very young king, although he has been overseas for many years, he has a good upbringing, and it is a pity that he will not ascend the throne as emperor." ”

"Really? George, is that really what Your Highness said? Are you sure?! Mamuller asked hurriedly. Now the Revival Society is completely out of the control of the Legation, and news of the Provisional Congress can only be known through the spies. As far as political standpoints are concerned, Great Britain wants China to remain a constitutional monarchy. But in diplomatic terms, China is better off being a republic in turmoil. Just like Portugal.

"His Royal Highness King Min said it to me personally. The demise of the Qing Dynasty lies in the dictatorship of the imperial family, and His Royal Highness does not want the imperial family to get involved in the power again, which of course also includes His Royal Highness himself, so he is not ready to ascend the throne as emperor. Morrison recalled yesterday's visit, those dozens of minutes were the most exciting moments of his life, and he remembered every word he said clearly.

"What a merciful king!" "I just hope that the country is getting better and better." ”

"Mr. Mamuller, are the Japanese ready to negotiate?" Morrison asked, he was worthy of being a reporter, and when he revealed a piece of news, he wanted to get something back.

Ma Mule said with a smile: "The Japanese can't fight anymore, and peace talks are the final choice." Guangxu's coffin has passed, and he wants to leave the city wall and return to the embassy at this time.

"And what conditions will they offer?" Seeing that Ma Mule wanted to leave, Morrison hurriedly said.

"I'm not Japanese, and only they know what conditions they will propose, or you can go to the Chinese and ask." I've heard that they all like you very much. With that, Mamulle took off his top hat and said goodbye to Morrison, leaving him alone on the wall.

'They all like me?' As he thought of Mamuller's last words, he suddenly had some realization, but when he thought that every one of his articles was based on the principles of justice and humanity, he felt that there was nothing to worry about.

The conversation between Ma Mueller and Morrison on the wall of the embassy district is not known to others, and those spies in the embassy district who only accept the military intelligence bureau allowance do not know foreign languages, they are just low-level cooks and subordinates. However, even if there is no detailed information, when all the information is summarized to the Military Intelligence Bureau, Liu Boyuan can still see the attitude of the foreigners: they are all shocked by the grandeur of the funeral, and most of them think that this funeral is a manifestation of civilization.

It's just that when Liu Boyuan happily told Yang Rui about this result, he only let him criticize it for a while. Guangxu's funeral was actually an extremely expensive affair, and he did not build a mausoleum for himself for the thirty-five years that he was under Cixi's control and the five years when he was in power. Since it is the king's funeral, it is natural to have the king's mausoleum, before the mausoleum is built, Guangxu's coffin will be transferred from Beijing to the Lianggezhuang Palace of the Qingxi Mausoleum in Baoding, and after the mausoleum is repaired, it can be buried in the scenery.

Carrying the coffin from Beijing to Baoding, more than 100 kilometers away can not take the train, can only walk, the budget spent during the period is as high as 400,000 taels, and to build the emperor's mausoleum, even with reference to the previous Qing Dynasty emperors, the cost is more than two million taels, roughly calculated, it takes three million taels to arrange this dead man properly.

Yang Rui only thought about the cost of the funeral before, thinking that two or three hundred thousand taels would be done, but he didn't expect that the cost of really doing it would increase more than ten times, and this kind of thing can't reduce the cost and cut corners.

"What a fucking self-inflicted hardship!" Yang Rui scolded angrily, he now regrets that he was fooled by Zhang Taiyan, Xu Huafeng, and Yu Huizu. Although treating Guangxu favorably will let the world know that revival will be merciful, and thus the people's hearts will be settled, the price is really too great. Three million taels is enough to arm three divisions.

"Sir, the news is coming from everywhere that this move has made the people stable, and the trade industry in various places has become prosperous, and everyone's braids have been gone. It's a lot of money, but it's worth it. Liu Boyuan defended that he thought the money should be spent.

"Don't have any braids?" Yang Rui was a little surprised, the problem of braids is not easy to solve with brute force. "What do they keep without braids?"

"Young students are generally all cut and have all short haircuts; The older ones had their braids torn apart and their hair pulled up. I got back to the way I was before. Liu Boyuan said.

"Ah, why did you go again?" Yang Rui laughed angrily, "Don't these people know that long hair is dirty? ”

"Sir, the body is skinny. Recipient of the parents. Ordinary people would not dare to destroy it. If you really want everyone to cut all the braids, it may not be what the people want. Liu Boyuan said. Like Sun Wen of the League, who advocated that everyone should wear Western clothes, use the solar calendar, and advocate democracy, few people would pay attention to it. ”

"Hehe, Sun Wen, Sun Cannon......" Yang Rui laughed as soon as he said Sun Wen, and only forgot about the loss of three million.

Now that the world is decided, the people of the Alliance have also entered Beijing, but in addition to taking 300,000 yuan privately awarded by Yu Zixun in the big move. Nothing else has been gained. The 100,000 mountain base areas that were originally occupied were also evacuated because they wanted to attack Guangzhou. The attack on Guangzhou was defeated by Li Zhun's sailors and the independent brigade with the signboard of the Furen Cultural Society. Wang Zhaoming went to the capital to file a complaint earlier, but Liangguang did not nominally belong to the Revival Association, so there was no way to ask for help.

The League sued the Furen Cultural Society for killing the revolutionary army, and the Furen Cultural Society sued Sun Wen for killing the revolutionary leader Yang Quyun. Meritorious heroes are indeed meritorious heroes, but in the 18 provinces of the country, the three provinces outside the Guanwai, plus Mongolia, Tibet, and Xinjiang, except for Song Jiaoren who became one of the representatives of Zhili, none of the members of the alliance participated in the provisional congress.

The Provisional Congress is composed of three representatives from each province, a total of 75 deputies to discuss the Provisional Constitution and the procedures for the convening of the Formal Congress, among which, except for Zhili, Liangguang and Yunnan, the other 66 deputies are appointed by the Renaissance Association, and the speaker Yang Du is Yang Rui's cronies, so it can be said that the entire Provisional Congress is the puppet of the Renaissance Association, but because the procedure is legal, and the representatives sent by each province are one person from the Renaissance Association, one from the Provincial Council, and one from the Peasant Association, only people can't pick out the tricks.

Under the arrangement of the British, Sun Wen was not only propagandized by the Beijing-Tianjin Times, but also advocated everywhere in the circle of foreigners, but he was too ignorant of China's current situation, and the 200,000 kilometers of railways he preached, and the words such as catching up with Britain and France in ten years were ridiculed by foreigners, so as soon as Yang Rui said Sun Wen, he couldn't help but talk about Sun Cannon.

"What is Sun Wen doing now?" Yang Rui smiled, and couldn't help but want to know what activities the alliance had recently.

"According to what we have discussed, the Forbidden City has given a sum of money to those who have died in the war over the years. Now they are in the throes of the war, and some people who don't know the details really think that they are revolutionary heroes, and many students have even joined the League. Liu Boyuan didn't understand why he wanted to give bereavement pensions to the people of the League, but this was the decision of the committee, and he had nothing to say.

Sensing Liu Boyuan's incomprehension, Yang Rui said, "If you spend three million taels on a dead person, you can't give thirty thousand taels to a real revolutionary?" We can't favor one over the other. It's normal for someone to join the alliance, and now as soon as everyone hears that the National Assembly will open to lift the ban on the party, and political parties are being established all over the country, you can do the math, how many of those chaotic parties are there now? ”

"The number counted the day before yesterday was four hundred and eighty-three." Liu Boyuan recalled that number, and he still feels exaggerated.

"That's right. According to the 5 percent clause that we negotiated a few days ago, as long as the number of seats in the National Assembly is less than four, then this party will not be represented in the National Assembly, and its seats will only be given to other parties. The League was a revolutionary party before, but now it represents no one, so it is nothing. The big words that Sun Wen said sounded very enjoyable. But how, he himself did not know, except for a few students. I'm afraid that no one will be seduced by it. Yang Rui said very easily, now that the internal and external troubles have been lifted, the opponent Yuan Shikai who he thought before is very practical, so he is now very confident in mastering this country.

"But sir, now that the foreigners and Liang Qichao are close to Sun Wen, Yunnan is very unstable. If Liang Qichao and Sun Wen come together like this, things will be unpredictable. Liu Boyuan said worriedly. Even Liangguang, which nominally belonged to the Furen Literary Society, was firmly controlled by the Fuxing Society. But Yunnan is really remote, and Luo Peijin and Li Gengen trust Cai Ye very much, and they may even want to become the king of Yunnan, and they have always disobeyed Beijing's orders. This time, they will not come to Beijing. If this continues, I am afraid that we will have to break away from the central government.

"Hey! Yunnan, "Yang Rui also has a headache in that place, the most important thing is that Luo Peijin and Li Gengen are both from Yunnan, "Let this go first, now what we have to do is to lay a solid foundation in various places, as long as the foundation is firmly established in various places, it is ......" Speaking of this, Yang Rui couldn't go on, he originally wanted to attack Yunnan after the land reform. However, even if the land reform is over, the most important task at present is economic construction to catch up with the dividends of the previous war. Mukden has already spent more than 30 million. This is still a defense on the spot, mainly ammunition money, if it is really an attack on Yunnan, Britain and France from Vietnam and Burma to intervene, the money spent will be astronomical. "As long as they don't raise the flag to rebel, then it's better to slow down for a while, and the Military Intelligence Bureau will keep an eye on it, I don't believe that this Yunnan can still fly to the sky." He finally said helplessly.

When the Zhengqing Mansion was discussing Yunnan, at No. 8 Taijichang Street, Beijing Embassy District, Sun Wen and Liang Qichao met again in the International Club, looking at Liang Qichao, who was still braided, Sun Wen squinted and smiled, "Zhuo Ru has not seen him for many years, but it is still the same as back then." ”

Liang Qichao was arrested in Beijing two months ago, and it was only when Zhu Kuanji ordered that he be released from house arrest, but although he was free, his money was searched.

"Yat-sen is also unharmed." Liang Qichao said politely.

"I, I've been running for the revolution for more than ten years, but I'm getting old." Sun Wen said with a smile, and then pointed to Huang Xing next to him and said: "This is Huang Xing Huang Keqiangjun of the Alliance, he and you have both studied in Tokyo, you should know each other." ”

"Know, know." Liang Qichao nodded and said, "When we were discussing in the newspaper before, I had learned all the talents of the Alliance, and Brother Keqiang's name had long been like thunder." ”

Liang Qichao only said that the previous scolding was a discussion, and Huang Xing did not break it, but only followed him politely. Everyone is an acquaintance, and after a while, the conversation will get to the point, Sun Wen Zhengse said: "I made an appointment to see Zhuoru today, and it was for the restoration of the former Ming Dynasty. The Qing Dynasty is dead, according to reason, the emperor should be gone, and it is only right for China to take the republic as the national system, but Yang Jingcheng has to carry this out to the former Ming Min King, and now he is sent to the Forbidden City, he is to restore feudalism and restore the imperial system. I, the 40,000,000 people in China, have been enslaved for thousands of years, and we will never allow the imperial system to be practiced again, so I am looking for Zhuo Ru this time, I want to join hands with you to stop the restoration of the imperial system and establish the republic, and I also ask Zhuo Ru to remember the well-being of 40,000 compatriots and help me! ”

"Yat-sen, it's hard for me to help you with this. Besides, Yang Jingcheng didn't want to say that he wanted to restore the imperial system? At present, the representatives of the provinces are deliberating on the procedure for convening the formal National Assembly, and I am afraid that the national system will not be settled until the formal National Assembly convenes. Liang Qichao had already known that there would be no good meeting, and the royalist alliance would have a long history of grievances, and it would be difficult to cooperate even if the goal was the same, so he pushed his words out from the beginning.

"Zhuo Ru, this provisional congress is also illegal, it has not gone through the democratic election process at all, and what is even more infuriating is that the former king of Ming Min actually issued a holy decree to this provisional congress, what kind of parliament is this? There is also Yang Huizi, he is a fan of constitutional monarchy, and now he is following Yang Jingcheng to the death, do you say that this national system will not be a constitutional monarchy? Sun Wen said angrily, he got a lot of news before he asked Liang Qichao, and what he said was not unreasonable.

"Yat-sen, in all fairness, as long as the power is in the parliament, there is no difference between whether the national system is a monarch constitution or a civil constitution, and now that the overall situation of the whole country has been decided, except for the two Guangxi Zhili, all other places are controlled by the Renaissance Society, whether it is the provisional parliament or the formal parliament, if you really choose the monarch constitution, what can you do?" Liang Qichao couldn't understand Sun Wen's fame, so he had to analyze it theoretically. "If you want to establish the state according to your wishes, you have to convince the members of Congress, but can you do it? I don't think I can do it with the two of us. ”

"If you can't do it, then destroy it!" Sun Wen's eyes were blazing, and he only looked at Liang Qichao and felt a chill in his heart. "Zhuoru, don't get me wrong, I'm not talking about sabotage to throw bombs. I mean, we can not recognize the Provisional Congress as the legitimate Congress, and force Yang to become the new election of the provincial representatives. ”

"That can't be done, Yatsen. Even if you destroy this extraordinary congressional re-election, the people elected are still members of the Revival Society, so what's the point of you? "Seeing the meeting is for this matter, Liang Qichao wants to leave, "There is no evidence now that a republic is better than a constitutional monarchy." There is also no evidence that the people prefer a republic, and it is difficult for a strong man to establish a republic. It's like using the lunar calendar or using the Gregorian calendar, everyone is used to using the lunar calendar. Then use the lunar calendar, it is not necessary to change it to the Gregorian calendar. ”

"But this ......" Sun Wen's voice suddenly became louder, but Liang Qichao was an outsider after all, so he shouted and lowered his voice. The people only knew how to choose according to their old habits. As for those of us, we should show them the best path, and that's our responsibility. If the imperial system is not removed, then feudalism will not be removed, and if feudalism is not removed, ignorance will not go, and ignorance will not be eliminated, and civilization will not be achieved. Zhuo Ru, earlier you advocated the wisdom of the people. Now Yang Jingcheng still wants to use the feudal thing to bewitch the people, we must not sit idly by! ”

looked at Sun Wen, who was a little crazy. Liang Qichao took retreat as advance, and asked carefully, "That Yixian, you sue me, what do you want to do?" If he can help, Qichao will definitely do his best to help. ”

Seeing that Liang Qichao began to cooperate, Sun Wen was happy, and his voice became louder, "First of all, the current provisional congress will be recognized as illegal, and then the provinces will be newly discharged; Second, the deputies sent by the provinces must be elected within the province, and no military personnel can participate in politics, and the proportion, according to the previous rules set by the Manchu Qing Dynasty, is that a total of more than 500 deputies from 800,000 voters will be elected to form a provisional congress, and the congress must establish a republican system and elect a provisional president......

Sun Wen talked eloquently, but Liang Qichao didn't hear anything new, he just waited for Sun Wen to finish this bunch of words, and then asked: "Yixian, the revival will fight the world, it is impossible for him not to sit in the world, it may be possible for you to ask the military not to participate in politics, but the revival will not only be a soldier; In addition, it is not a formal Diet to convene an extraordinary Congress, and if you want to elect more than 500 people, not to mention that time does not allow it, it is actually impossible. Let me ask you, according to what regulations are the election of this councilor, is it according to the method of the Manchu Qing Dynasty or according to the method of the United States? ”

"Of course, it is to be elected according to the method of the United States, and since it is to establish a republican form of government, the election method should refer to the United States." Sun Wen interjected.

"Then why should we follow the method of the United States and not other methods?" Liang Qichao smiled bitterly in his heart, but he had to sort out the logic.

"In today's world, only the republic is the most advanced, so if China wants to strengthen the country and enrich the people, it must use the republican system." Sun Wen circled back again, only to be so angry that Liang Qichao had a toothache.

"Whether the republic is good or not, it's all up to you. The parliamentarians are not in favor of a republic, and the voters are not saying that they will be elected according to the United States, so how can you call the shots for them first? Liang Qichao asked rhetorically, he was in a relationship with Sun Wenqiang.

"That's our responsibility! Zhuo Ru, they haven't been to the United States and don't understand the benefits of a republic, so we have to sue them, and the most important thing is to help them choose a republic, because this is the most advanced! Sun Wen said loudly.

"Yat-sen," Liang Qichao stood up, "we can tell the people what is best, but we have no right to make choices for them, this is the principle of democracy." Now that Zhili and Beijing have reconciled, and there has been a truce on the side of Mukden, this situation has not come easily. Whatever Congress chooses, that's it, and besides, the Chinese are used to having an emperor above their heads, so why do you have to ask them to choose an unfamiliar republic? ”

"But once there is an emperor, then when will China have democracy?!" Sun Wen said excitedly. "When will 40,000,000 people not be enslaved?! This national system must be a republic in order to realize the ownership of the people, the rule of the people, and the enjoyment of the people. Zhuoru, you have to help me! ”

Seeing that Sun Wen was a little hysterical, Liang Qichao smiled bitterly, "Yixian, then you can overthrow the Renaissance Society, and then occupy the whole of China, if you want a republic, you will be a republic, and if you want to be president, you will be president." Qichao was really powerless in this matter, and he couldn't help, so he took his leave. (To be continued......)