Chapter 55: The National Assembly Election Draws Near

  In August 1912, Yuan Shikai promulgated the "Organic Law of the National Assembly of the Republic of China", "Law on the Election of Senators" and "Law on the Election of Members of the House of Representatives". The whole country immediately began preparations for the election of members of parliament.

  The first year of the Republic of China is about to pass, and the Beiyang government has begun to prepare for the establishment of the National Assembly in a hurry. After the completion of the National Assembly, the president will be formally elected.

  Yuan Shikai was at this time still only provisional president and not yet formally elected president.

  The "National Assembly Organization Law" stipulates that the National Assembly consists of the Senate and the House of Representatives. Specifically: Senators are elected by provincial councils; Members of the House of Representatives, first directly elected by voters in each province as "preliminary winners" (50 times the number of seats), then elected by "preliminary winners" to produce "final winners" (i.e., members).

  This election, however, has introduced some variables due to the Sino-Russian War, and suddenly there is a nationwide call for Jiang Yu to become the President of the Republic of China.

  This made Yuan Shikai very nervous for a time, leading the Chinese provincial coalition forces to win against Russia's Jiangsu and at that time had extremely high prestige in China.

  If Jiang Yu also participates in the election, then it is still unknown who will be killed by whom.

  Within the National Defense Forces, the top leaders also hoped that Jiang Yu would participate in the general election, and even Chiang Fangzhen hoped that Jiang Yu would participate in the general election.

  "If we can seize the presidency, we will inevitably be in a dominant position politically, and then we can better develop China." Jiang Yu smiled wryly and said to them: "You don't understand, being the president of this Republic of China is not that easy. Just remember one sentence, if you want to harm someone, let him become the president."

  Everyone who heard Jiang Yu's words was shocked and couldn't understand why Jiang Yu had such a view.

  "Nowadays, China is like a mess, not only are the systems chaotic, but people's minds are also in disarray. Moreover, there are external forces such as Japan inciting students to go on strike and so on. Currently, governing Huadong and Xibei is already feeling somewhat overwhelming, truly becoming the Grand President would be purely seeking death, so don't mention participating in the Grand Presidential election again."

  "Yes." Everyone hastily responded, and the fact proved that the commander's vision was always very unique. Since the commander thought it shouldn't participate in the presidential election, they didn't mention it again.

  "But what about the election of senators and representatives?" Jiang Fangzhen asked again, "We must obtain some discourse power in the central government."

  "This is natural, since the central government wants to elect senators and representatives, we naturally want to actively participate, immediately contact various provincial connections and propaganda agencies, and create momentum for our non-partisan people and Kuomintang members to participate in the election." Jiang Yu naturally wanted to control the National Assembly, so first, try to elect senators and representatives who listen to his orders. Second, buy off the remaining party's senators and representatives.

  Of course, Jiang Yu also has some detached views on this National Assembly election, because the Second Revolution in history broke out during this period.

  The spark was Song Jiaoren's assassination!

  As for the murderer, textbooks have identified him as Yuan Shikai, but after coming to this era, Jiang Yu began to have some doubts. Because Song Jiaoren was pro-Yuan and had a "bad record" in several anti-Sun Yat-sen activities, Song Jiaoren had also been beaten up by someone in front of Sun Yat-sen because of his pro-Yuan stance.

  Wu Shiying, Ying Guixin, both of them are members of the Tongmenghui like Chen Qimei, and are also pure Kuomintang members. Chen Qimei is a master of assassination within the Kuomintang. Ying Guixin was a close friend of Chen Qimei during the anti-Qing era. After the Xinhai Revolution, Ying Guixin served as the head of Chen Qimei's intelligence department. Ying Guixin also served as Sun Yat-sen's bodyguard.

  Sun Dapao, who seemed the least suspicious, was actually the most suspicious. He yielded to Yuan Shikai, originally intending to bide his time and wait for an opportunity.

  However, Song Jiaoren led the party to victory in the parliamentary elections and became a rising political star. Once Song Jiaoren took office as Premier, Sun Yat-sen's political life would come to an end. If he wanted to preserve his own political life, he had to get rid of Song Jiaoren.

  The Northern warlord leadership, led by Yuan Shikai, grew up under the influence of Confucianism. They can be said to be the most cultured and humane rulers in Chinese history. The China ruled by the Northern government was the freest period in Chinese history. During this period, the Northern government was a government that dared to admit its mistakes to the people.

  Moreover, in the political struggles of the Beiyang government, it has always been a matter of leaving a way out for others. Those who failed could return home and live as recluses, without any danger to their lives.

  The Beiyang government is relatively open and aboveboard in its actions, and the possibility of assassination is small.

  Yuan Shikai was indeed involved in assassinations, but his target was Chen Qimei, who was most skilled at assassination. Chen's assassinations had made Yuan bear the blame and after the Second Revolution, he continued to assassinate high-ranking officials of the Beiyang government, which thoroughly infuriated Yuan. So, Yuan spent tens of thousands of taels of silver to buy Chen's life.

  Should they stand by and watch Song Jiaoren be assassinated or should they save him?

  This became the issue that Jiang Yu had to think about when facing this National Assembly election, and in Jiang Yu's thinking, the National Assembly election has already started vigorously across the country.

  This election was relatively democratized, with the number of citizens participating in the election reaching around 30 million, accounting for 10%, which is not low compared to Western countries at the same time.

  Only in major cities, a passionate atmosphere prevails on streets and alleys.

  In terms of senatorial elections, Shandong, Anhui, Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces are not a problem, as the assemblies in these four provinces are all under the control of the Chiang-Kung and Kuang-fu cliques.

  Guangfu Hui established the Unity Party in response to this election.

  Li Yuanhong established the Republican Party in Hubei, while Tang Hualong and other constitutionalists formed the Democratic Party. In addition, there was also the Nationalist Party, which had the deepest roots among all parties.

  These four parties all have deep roots, while Yuan Shikai and Jiang Yiwu do not have established political parties (the main content of the independent party has been deleted), but the two control China's current two major military groups.

  However, Yuan Shikai had the support of Kuomintang's new star Song Jiaoren and the Democratic Party's Tang Hualong, while Jiangsu and Sichuan had the support of the Tongmenghui-established Unity Party.

  From the situation, Jiang Yu is at a disadvantage in terms of political parties.

  In fact, the senators of Shandong, Anhui and Jiangsu provinces were all controlled by Jiang Yu, and the senator of Zhejiang province was also a follower of Jiang Yu, so out of 10 senators in each province, Jiang Yu controlled 40 people.

  In the northwest provinces, Jiang Yu controlled only the Mongolian region, Inner Mongolia's Yanwei and Chahar, plus Outer Mongolia, and Jiang Yu could add 30 more senators.

  Adding them together, conservatively estimated there are already 70 people.

  However, Shaanxi, Gansu, Xinjiang, Qinghai and Tibet, these five provinces are not under Jiang's control. Among them, there are only 3 representatives from Qinghai, adding up to a total of 43 people in this region, Jiang does not control the provincial People's Congress.

  However, with Jiang Yu intervening in the northwest as the Governor-general of Shaanxi and Gansu provinces, the future Senate of these several provinces will be controlled by Jiang Yu.

  In the next session two years later, taking only the current base as an example, Jiangsu and Hubei can occupy 113 seats in the Senate, accounting for 41.2% of the Northern Senate, and will become the strongest faction.

  For this session, Jiang Yu controlled 70 senators, plus bribery and intimidation, and could also win over a batch of non-partisan senators, reaching over a hundred should be no problem. At the same time, some parties can be directly won over, such as Li Yuanhong's Republican Party and Tang Hualong's Democratic Party, which can be won over entirely because the Huadong Chamber of Commerce itself is not a party, but it can buy out various parties.

  If either the Democratic or Republican Party leans towards Chiang and suppresses the Nationalist Party, it will not be a problem at all, and Chiang's plan to manipulate the Senate will be implemented.

  The congressman is even simpler, and the congressional election is divided into two stages: primary and final elections.

  The primary election is held in townships with polling stations, while the runoff election is held in urban areas. Jiang Yu controls a powerful media propaganda channel, which can create public opinion for its supported candidates and spend money on their publicity.

  And Jiang Yu can also secretly manipulate votes.

  This is the first time electing members of parliament, and previously, the East China Chamber of Commerce also had no such experience. It's still uncertain how many members of parliament can be elected.

  But at least in the four provinces of Shandong, Anhui, Jiangsu and Zhejiang, the results will not be bad. In addition, there is also a strong force in the three provinces of Jiangxi, Hubei and Hunan, and it is easy to manipulate in the northwest provinces. It is still possible to take most of the seats.

  In order to cope with this National Assembly election, Jiang Yu took out 8 million yuan in expenses and let the newspaper he controlled fire at full force, while actively intervening in various provinces in the northwest.

  Sun Zhendong was sent by Jiang Yu to oversee the matter, and Zhou Ziyue also mobilized the Huadong Chamber of Commerce, asking members of various commercial associations to cooperate with this election.

  Other parties also began actively preparing for this election, a new struggle is about to come.

  ————

  The first update is here!

  Strive for 2nd update before 11 points!

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