young marshal spring and autumn

There are various indications that the presidential election held in 12 was very abnormal.Members of Congress, who were usually sparsely populated, suddenly felt that their fortunes were changing and they were getting the attention of all parties.

Since the beginning of the Republic of China, democracy has been devastated in China. The Congress has been in turmoil.Originally, during the period of the Republic of China, the warlords separatist regimes, whoever controlled the military power would sit firmly on the top of the mountain. These congressmen were just a decoration for peace and democracy, which is better than nothing.However, parliamentarians are also a machine for electing the president. If all parties want to legally obtain votes, this level is indispensable.

However, the current political situation in Beijing has attracted the attention of many people in China and foreign observers. Countries such as Britain, France, the United States, Japan, etc. have speculated about where China will go in the future and are working behind the scenes. Interests.

The outside world has been optimistic about Sun Yat-sen.After all, the leader of the Chinese democracy movement enjoys high prestige at home and abroad: he is upright and selfless, and he is backed by a powerful Kuomintang (although the current military strength of the Kuomintang is not strong enough to occupy a dominant position, but as an advanced party, it can organize It has a strong advantage in the public and publicity), and it has the full support of the Feng Faction, which has the highest voice.

The direct line elected the spiritual leader Cao Kun as the presidential candidate, and set up a parliamentarian club in Ganshiqiao, Beijing, as an activity organization for elections.Cao Kun has self-knowledge. In terms of military and political talents, there are no less than a dozen people who are more suitable to be president than himself. If it is a fair election, he will not win no matter what. He is just making wedding clothes for others.His confidant, Zhili governor Wang Chengbin suggested that bribery should be used.

Regarding election bribery, at first Cao Kun was shy and tried to cover it up, but his subordinate Wang Tan comforted him and said: "It is much better to spend money to buy the president than to ask for money to get a reputation for corruption, and it is also better than taking a gun. Whoever orders the elections is much stronger."

So Cao Kun sent his relatives and friends to offer a "high price" of at least 5000 yuan for each vote to the members of the various parties (5000 yuan was not a small amount in the period of the Republic of China, it was worth the salary of an ordinary congressman for nearly ten years at that time) .Members of Parliament were spending their time in the Qingshui Yamen, so they were cold.The method Cao Kun used was dipping cotton in candy, which was gentle and sweet, which just hit their weakness.People often say that "a good man eats soft but not hard", so there is an endless stream of congressmen returning to Beijing from other places. The congressmen just want to take advantage of this ready-made advantage. Willing to take any responsibility.

When the issue of the general election was in hand-to-hand combat, many MPs showed their ugly faces.Since the extension of the term of office of the so-called councilors and the imminence of the general election, everyone is elated and beaming with joy.And their only concern and concern is centered on the fare of the ballots.The method of payment is related to the ticket price, because the ticket sellers are afraid that they will not get the money if they vote, and the ticket buyers are afraid that the congressmen will not vote for Cao Kun after paying the money; It varies from case to case, the same congressman and the same ticket, but the asking price is different, the selling price is different, and the transaction is also different.As for whether the payment is cash or check, whether the check is at sight or on delivery, who draws the drawer, and which bank is it, all are issues of debate.

For members who attended the meeting but were unwilling to bribe elections, they sent their family members and friends to persuade them. As a result, dozens of members were accompanied by their wives, concubines or friends to attend the meeting.There are other ways to deal with members who are unwilling to sell themselves for a mere few thousand dollars.The Ganshiqiao Club replaces money bribes with the actual award of official positions. Some councilors even repented after accepting official positions, so they came back to accept bribes.Only Mongolian parliamentarians are mostly princes and nobles, who despise money and value official positions, and their attitude is the most resolute.However, the number of votes in a province of Mongolia is limited, and it has little effect.

The National Congress naturally needs to win over, and Wu Jinglian, the speaker of the House of Representatives and member of the Kuomintang, is a key figure in it.Cao Kun promised that as long as he is elected, he will appoint Wu Jinglian as the Prime Minister of Cao Kun's government.To take a step back, Cao Kun will also give him a considerable reward in case he fails to be the Prime Minister due to an accident.The supporters of Cao thought that the conditions offered were too generous, but Cao Kun was determined to win the president, because in the general election work, Wu Jinglian had to rely on Wu Jinglian's status and influence in Congress. For the overall situation, he didn't care about the check How thick it is.

On October 10, the first election meeting was held, which was aborted due to insufficient numbers.Therefore, the Jin faction, the protection faction and the general election faction in the Congress who served Cao Kun's election all panicked and were in a hurry, not knowing what to do.That night, in the exquisite residence in Xiaomaxian Hutong, members of the General Election Party held an emergency meeting to discuss how to promote the general election. At that time, several measures were agreed upon:

([-]) Send people to separate the members of the council, and the election date will be re-set by the regular meeting;

([-]) Call the governors of each province to presume that one or two members of the parliament of each province will be representatives, and be responsible for attracting the representatives of each province to attend;

([-]) The attendance fee will be paid only when the decision is made to attend;

([-]) The various political groups contacted by the two factions of Jinbao should adopt a combination of toughness and softness;

([-]) The conditions for assigning representatives to go south secretly, and for the core figures of the anti-straight faction of the movement, to be given special treatment. In addition to monetary promises, political advantages and disadvantages are also promised;

([-]) If the above points are invalid, prepare for the last resort and amend the "Presidential Election Law".

At the same time, the Tianjin faction and the Bao faction also held a secret meeting at the No. 114 club in Ganshiqiao to discuss the method of paying fares to voting members.In order to deal with some congressmen’s inability to take money, most advocated paying in the morning of the general election meeting. After receiving the bills, the congressmen gathered together in one place and went directly to Congress to vote by car in the afternoon.

It is planned to instigate 480 senators to accept bribes from Cao Kun. Although the principle is 5000 yuan per person, in fact, depending on the status or role of the person, the high one can reach 1 yuan.The entire bribery election includes subsidies for political parties, special fares, ordinary fares, constitutional meeting attendance fees, regular meeting attendance fees, special remuneration fees, "ice respect", "charcoal respect" and husband horse fees, temporary fees for guest houses, secret Fees, etc. Anyway, there are many tricks and each has its own name. It can be regarded as the first of its kind in modern China's administrative corruption, and it also requires a considerable amount of expenditure.

Cao Kun originally had a net worth of 5000 million, ranking first among Beiyang military and political figures.But this election bribery did not come from his private pocket.Zhili Governor Wang Chengbin arrested a group of profiteers who manufacture and sell drugs in order to raise funds for the general election, and ordered them to redeem themselves with money. They obtained millions of dollars, and forced loans totaling millions of dollars from 170 counties in Zhili.In addition, most of the provincial governors and governors "served", with the largest number being Yan Xishan, the immediate governor of Shanxi, and Qi Xieyuan, the governor of Jiangsu, with 50 yuan each.

The three branches of the "Fengqing Bureau" in charge of North China affairs have already detected such a big movement.When it reached Zhang Zuolin's ears, Zhang Zuolin was furious and said, "Mum Labazi, Cao Kun is a clown and a clown. We Northeast people will never praise him." He also ordered Zhang Hanqing to immediately announce in Beijing that if the congressman could not accept Cao Kun You can receive the same amount of bribes from yourself, which is called "anti-bribery".

Zhang Hanqing urgently telegraphed Zhang Zuolin: "Although this is a great scandal in the Republic of China, it is better to keep calm. It will be in my interest to give a thunderous blow once the result is out: if Cao bribes the election successfully, it will be a big blow to the Kuomintang, and then I can Take the opportunity to crusade, the public opinion is in me. If Cao bribes the election and fails, he will not give up. Then Mr. Sun will also need his father's help, and his father can take advantage of the gap to enter Beijing. The outcome will be determined in a few days, and there will be a battle in the pass , The battle will determine the outcome, I hope my father will make preparations early."

In the early morning of October 10th, many military police with live ammunition appeared in the Congress Street area. There were many watchmen on the city wall, and there were five or six hundred plainclothes cruising among the crowd. Xue Zhiheng, Che Qingyun, etc. were personally on the scene directing, ready to fight.One of its purposes is to monitor the masses, and the other is to prevent congressmen from leaving Beijing secretly.The east and west stations and all important passages are equipped with military police to prevent the members from escaping.When a congressman fled, the plainclothes grabbed him and loudly accused him of evading debts. Then the military and police would intervene, claiming to take them back for questioning, but in fact they were taking them back to the meeting place.

Although the general election time was set at 10:1 am, in fact, the quorum had not yet been assembled before 20:5000 pm, so Cao Kun’s election team, Gan Shiqiao Club, secretly promised some congressmen that they only had to attend the meeting, even if Cao Kun was not elected. You can receive [-] yuan.This trick really worked. By noon, Yuan Zhenhuang and other ten congressmen arrived by car, ready to vote cleanly—take money—and leave.But even so, there was still a shortage of people in the end, so the club went to the hospital to bring some sick MPs on soft beds, so as to make up the quorum.

Of course, there are not no MPs with backbone.When Cao Kun personally supervised the election, when he walked up to Lu Fu, a member of the Kuomintang in Beijing, he found that he had not elected him. With rebellious bones, he crossed his fingers and shouted angrily: "If you can be the president, everyone in the world can be the president. If you become the president, the president will not be the president." After finishing speaking, he picked up the inkstone on the table and asked Cao Kun toss.

Cao Kun dodged it, but the fresh ink from the inkstone splashed all over him.It is also thanks to his quick mind and quick response that he is not inferior to his "skills". Under the harmony of everyone, although he was embarrassed, he showed great generosity. Facing the foreign visiting group, he talked eloquently: "Everyone must think that Cao He would become angry, and he would throw it back like what Mr. Lu did. In fact, at this moment, Cao was thinking about another thing: Since the founding of the Republic of China, few congressmen have expressed their behavior so violently. Why? The trend of democracy It is true. Mr. Lu is dissatisfied with Mr. Cao, so he naturally has the right to splash ink, which also shows that this election is indeed a fair, open, and fair event.” He was confident about this election, so he naturally took advantage of the situation and put on his hat first.

Not long ago, Cao Kun publicly said to the members: "Whoever is famous and rich can be the president." Looks like he can be president." Yi Yi laughed.The president of the Senate, Wang Jiaxiang, was dissatisfied with Cao Kun's election bribery behavior, and he was powerless, so he resigned angrily before the general election.

Due to the deliberate procrastination of members of Congress, the presidential election meeting originally scheduled for 10 am was postponed until around 12 am.There were 152 senators and 441 representatives who signed in, a total of 593 people, and 585 people actually attended, which just reached the quorum of attendance (583 people).At that time, the President of the Senate, Wang Jiaxiang, had just resigned, so the President of the House of Representatives, Wu Jinglian, presided over the meeting, and publicly nominated 16 people as ticket inspectors. Voting began at 2:4 p.m. and ended at 590:480 p.m.Immediately, the votes were counted in public, and the total number of votes was 2, Cao Kun got 33 votes, No.26 Sun Wen got 77 votes.There are a total of [-] candidates remaining, and they received the remaining [-] votes.Cao Kun won the post of President with an absolute majority.

In the early morning of the next day, a big news broke out in Beijing: Yiyuan Shao Ruipeng (Cigong), a native of Zhejiang Province, published the 5000 yuan check he had received by photographing and publishing, and reported Gao Lingyu, Wang Yuzhi, and Bian Shoujing to the Beijing District Prosecutor's Office. , Wu Jinglian bribed, and accused Cao Kun of "harassing the capital and praising Hongxian", "controlling the center at a distance, linking up with officials in Xinjiang", "not restraining himself, wanting to be respected", "colluding with the military and police, and expelling the head of state (former President Feng Guozhang)" , "Buying congressmen, undermining the Constitution", "searching from multiple parties, raising election fees" and other major crimes.There was an uproar in the public opinion, and all walks of life protested against the election results.

The next day, the "Beijing News" received an anonymous submission: "When I see Jin, I don't have a senator. I send people to pull people from the south, and with the assistance of the Soviet governor. Of course, most of the senators go north. The ticket price is 5000 Yuan, but it is the minimum number, there are 8000, and there are 1. The checks signed by Shao Ruipeng are from Dayou Bank, which has salt industry, has Quanye, and has heard that there are special ones. It is Huiye Mecca. Lee's check. Besides Jieji (Bian Jieqing), there are also Lanji (Wang Lanting), Qiuji (Wu Qiufang), and Xiaoji (Wang Xiaobo). The check to the bank was sent by Shao Ruipeng, and on the night of three or four days, Gan Shiqiao (the head office of the bribery election) was in a hurry to take back the previous check and exchange it for another type of check, so as not to show it to others The condition is not to leak, and the date has been written."

However, Western media, such as "Time" magazine, out of the standard that "the person on the cover should be a news maker", followed and reported Cao Kun's election quite devotedly.On the second day after the primary election, the magazine released a special topic on Cao Kun's election bribery, accompanied by his photo, but the title was "Still No President".

The excited Cao Kun would not let these noises affect his celebration of being elected president, and also arranged a special "awarding ceremony" in order to let the raw rice be cooked as soon as possible. On the "Double Ten Day" in 1923, Wu Jinglian took the new president's election certificate and rushed to Baoding to meet Cao Kun by special train.At that time, the whole city of Baoding celebrated, every family hung five-color flags, and cheers were endless.When Wu Jinglian saw Cao Kun, as usual, he said the nonsense of "what everyone expects, what the hearts of the people want", and Cao Kun also said in a high-sounding manner that he thanked the people for their love and respect and gratitude. Afterwards, Cao Kun stepped on a special train and sailed to Beijing. Palace, also sailed to the highest peak of his political career.