young marshal spring and autumn

Under Sun Yat-sen's persistent refusal, Zhang Zuolin was re-elected as the chairman of the "National Unification Committee" of the Republic of China without any doubt, and was re-elected.The "Planning Committee" headed by Zhang Hanqing did a lot of work to design the country's state system and political system, and basically reached an agreement with all parties to convene the election of the Legislative Yuan, that is, the National Assembly, half a year later.As for the political system, there is still no specific conclusion. During this period, Duan Qirui continued to be in power temporarily, exercising power on behalf of the country, but the actual administrative, military, diplomatic, personnel and economic power were all concentrated in the hands of the People's Party.During this period, the local organizations of the People's Party have taken root in various places, becoming a formal force and gradually playing a role in the non-traditional local administration of the Feng Dynasty, causing dissatisfaction and vigilance of other local power factions.

However, Sun Yat-sen, the only prime minister of the Kuomintang who had the potential to resist the status of the People's Party, originally believed that a weak China should follow a three-step process of military administration, political training, and constitutional government, and he suppressed the opposing voices of the opposition parties and the Kuomintang.As he said in his congratulatory speech at the inauguration ceremony of Zhang Zuolin's "National Unification Committee":

"The road China is taking should be a unified, powerful, and democratic road, but democracy does not happen overnight. The presidential election bribery that happened some time ago is a good footnote. In the first 10 years when there were many warlords, we I have always hoped to establish a military-controlled government and a strong leader. Only in this way can China's political stability and national unity be guaranteed. This is called the military-political period. During the military-political period, the priority was to eliminate warlords and bandits, and military control should be implemented. Now this step has been basically completed Yes. During the political training period, priority should be given to infrastructure construction and preliminary civil rights training, and one-party rule should be implemented. Only a strong political power can guarantee the implementation of this premise, and the People’s Party undoubtedly represents the foundation of this political power. Conditions for the implementation of constitutionalism It means that more than half of the counties and cities in the country have the conditions for electing and recalling local chiefs, and citizens have the conditions for initiating a referendum, so they can elect a national assembly to formulate a constitution, return power to the people, and implement a modern political system of multi-party competition.”

Zhang Hanqing published an article in "People's Daily", explaining whether the People's Party will voluntarily hand over power and implement multi-party competition in the constitutional stage, saying: "First of all, we must declare that the People's Party is the leader of the country, but the power of the country lies with the people. When a When a political party cannot meet the needs of the people, it will naturally be eliminated. In order to prevent the death of the government, we will introduce the election system within the party and the country at an appropriate time. That is, the party committees at all levels are elected by the party's grassroots committees, and the implementation of The party's democratic centralism is to limit individual power and gather collective wisdom. After the country is completely unified, a new national congress system will be established, and the people will exercise the right to manage the country and supervise government agencies in accordance with the law. We will set up under the legislative department An administrative inspection committee to impeach administrative deviations at all levels. In addition, an evaluation agency for government officials, the Examination Committee, will be established. Both agencies are affiliated to Congress and are not subject to any party. In the administration, In addition to the legislative branch, an independent judiciary system that is not controlled by any party will be established. This is the separation of powers among the legislative, judicial, and executive branches that Mr. Sun preached, and the five-house system with the Board of Control and the Examination Yuan.”

Now the supreme power of the country is concentrated in the "National Unification Committee", and its first important mission at the beginning of its establishment is to establish the state system and political system.We must know that after a long period of war, the system of the Republic of China has been riddled with holes. What kind of country the People's Party will build is a big issue that needs to be taken seriously by all factions.Although the voices of democracy can be heard endlessly, but just experienced a bribery election and a war, what the people urgently need is tranquility, and what the factions need is the distribution of power.Once again, Zhang Hanqing used the means of long-distance friendship and short-term attack to make the Feng faction completely control the government not only militarily, but also politically and economically.

The vassals with vested interests have no objections to the handing over of power to the "National Unification Committee". They prefer to establish a country that is lazy rather than centralized.This tradition began with the rise of the Hunan Army Group that wiped out the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. As the governors gradually took military power, financial power, and human rights into their own hands, the local government became stronger and the central government declined.

The crisis of centralization had already been foreseen by the Qing government.What shocked the Qing government in particular was the "Southeast Mutual Protection" in 1900.At that time, the Qing government "declared war" on the foreign powers because of the outbreak of the Boxer Movement to "support the Qing Dynasty and destroy the foreigners".However, the governors of the provinces in the southeast ignored the orders of the Qing government at all. Instead, they made a partial truce with the big powers and mutually protected the southeast.

This incident gave the Chinese an important revelation. In 1901, Liang Qichao introduced the Swiss federal system to the Chinese, saying that China has a tradition of local autonomy since ancient times. If the federal system can be adopted, many problems in China will be easily resolved.Therefore, the Qing government was also thinking about how to establish a new model of centralization and decentralization. In 1906, the Qing government announced that it was preparing to establish a constitution. One of the important contents was to refer to the constitutional experience of Eastern and Western countries, take the reform of the official system as a breakthrough, and rebuild the central and local decentralization model.

However, the Qing government was not a modern government in the true sense after all. Hundreds of years of "family world" thought had been deeply rooted in the bone marrow, and it was difficult to truly share power.So imitating the principle of constitutionalism, it became "the great power is unified in the imperial court, and the general government is public opinion", that is to say, the central government still holds the real power, but only allows the people to participate in the discussion of politics.But even with such a limited concession, the Qing government actually failed to achieve it. Its real thinking or "inertial thinking" was to weaken the current governor's authority. It is all brought back to the central government, but it is to strengthen the power of the central government.

The decision of the Qing government caused serious dissatisfaction among local forces.Yuan Shikai, governor of Zhili and minister of Beiyang, publicly opposed it, saying that it was difficult to do so. The governors of various provinces also expressed their dissatisfaction one after another, so the case was only temporarily shelved.The Qing government imitated the constitution and declared that it would solve the problem of central and local authority, but the result was very different, which was far from ideal.

What really counted as the starting point of modern Chinese localism was the "Hunan New Deal" led by Chen Baozhen, Huang Zunxian and others.The Hunan New Deal occurred after the Sino-Japanese War was defeated.Due to the defeat in the war, the Chinese people went to review the problems in the development of the past few decades. The basic consensus inside and outside the government is that there was too much social control in the past. China has no civil society, no "self-organization", no news media, and no modern state. The social management style owned by them.

This special opportunity was keenly grasped by Chen Baozhen, Huang Zunxian and others, and the reason why they conducted experiments in Hunan and succeeded was mainly because of the uniqueness of Hunan itself—extreme radicalism and extreme conservatism coexist at the same time.

In terms of location, Hunan has a special window-Guangdong.People from Hunan still prefer Guangdong when they go out to work.Guangdong is the earliest and most contacted area in modern China with foreigners.Through the window of Guangdong, Hunan people saw the advantages and disadvantages of Western civilization. Therefore, there are a large number of Hunan people who strongly advocate learning from the West, such as Zeng Guofan, Guo Songtao, Tan Sitong, and Mao Zedong.On the other hand, Hunan's position in China, as the hub of the north and the south, and the gateway to the southwest, is the focus of competition among various forces.Perhaps because of this reason, the Hunan people have a particularly strong idea of ​​xenophobia and resistance.When Germany sent troops to occupy Jiaozhou Bay in Shandong in 1897, setting off a frenzy to carve up China, Hunanese were preparing for independence based on two years of self-government experience.Of course, this is not a split, but preparations, as Liang Qichao and others expected, to use Hunan's independence to accumulate strength for China's future reconstruction and reunification, and to retain a revival base.

Hunan's independence did not become a reality in 1897, because the Qing government, in view of the huge impact of the Jiaozhou Bay incident, began political reforms in the second year for the Reform Movement of 1898.The Reform Movement of [-] added impetus to Hunan's local autonomy. The South Society in Hunan Province is a political organization that advocates local autonomy.Regrettably, Hunan local self-government has not come to fruition.The Reform Movement of [-] was reversed in the autumn of [-], and the Hunan local autonomy experiment disappeared with the dismissal of Chen Baozhen and Huang Zunxian.

In the early 20s, the past pioneer of local self-government became the leader of the "inter-provincial self-government" movement.Hunan was the first to announce self-government in November 20 when Governor Tan Tingkai and Division Commander Zhao Hengti issued a telegram, and Hunan’s Constitution was officially promulgated on New Year’s Day in 1920.Inspired by Hunan Province, Liu Xiang from Sichuan Province, Lu Tao from Guizhou Province, Chen Jiongming from Guangdong Province, Chen Guangyuan from Jiangxi Province, Lu Yongxiang from Zhejiang Province, Chen Shufan from Shaanxi Province, Zhang Zuolin from Northeast China, Wu Peifu from North China, etc. They have tried various methods to try to be self-governing.

However, we have seen a rather strange phenomenon, that is, in China in the early 20s, the autonomy movements in various places were surging, but after several years of tossing, in the end it was China that had achieved a new unification, and the provinces were still within the scope of the unification of China. In China, no province has really been separated from China.

This is actually very normal, because Chinese people have had a regional "loyalty stratification" problem since ancient times. Hunan people are loyal to Hunan, but they will not forget their love for China. After all, there are only a few who really want a province to become independent and permanently separate from China.China's self-government since ancient times has been an adjustment of governance methods under unified conditions relative to the greater China. Therefore, the self-government movement has developed to a certain stage, which is the opening chapter of "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms".According to the political logic of the 20s, the self-government of each province will inevitably gradually enter the joint governance of several provinces.The rise of the Feng faction is a natural example. Zhang Hanqing's role is actually to grasp this trend and make the "inter-provincial self-government" move faster and more steadily.

Until the People's Party headed by Zhang Hanqing proposed "China's reunification and return to the three stages of military administration, political training, and constitutional administration", the Three People's Principles became the guiding ideology of the country, and local autonomy and localism were reintroduced into Zhang Hanqing's ideological framework.In this framework, China still needs to implement local autonomy, but outside the central level, it directly enters the counties, and no longer makes the provinces a self-governing body.This is obviously to prevent the provinces from becoming big, and local autonomy from evolving into local separatist regimes.For Zhang Hanqing, a superficial unification is absolutely not allowed under the circumstances of occupying the right time, location, and harmony of people. The original military power factions in all places are absolutely not allowed to hold local power.It's just that they no longer openly declare that they want to implement a federal system, but are carefully developing local forces under the framework of nationalism.

From the perspective of China's most direct and realistic predicament at that time, the political system of federalism, inter-provincial autonomy, and one country with multiple systems can at least to a certain extent curb the arbitrary behavior of various political careerists.In a negative sense, this was also a "relatively peaceful method" for China, which was actually in a divided state at the time, to reunite.This form of complex state system may be in line with China's national conditions, and the actual situation in China may indeed be as analyzed by many scholars.But on the other hand, it actually fell into a theoretical misunderstanding.Therefore, almost exactly the same opponents base their argument on China's national conditions.

One of the biggest peculiarities of China's national conditions is that in theory no one is firmly opposed to autonomy and joint governance, but deep down in their hearts they think about "government by themselves" rather than "governance by others."Those small warlords who are unable to expand their territory are more willing to cling to the signboard of "autonomy".In other words, "self-government" is actually likely to be manipulated as "rule by the government" or "rule by the military" rather than "rule by the people."What's more, the people in China at that time did not have the corresponding ability to self-govern, and they needed long-term training.This inevitably creates a problem. Once interests conflict, powerful people or groups will not easily give up their vested interests, let alone help the people to participate in politics and restrain themselves.

The Feng family is the representative, and Zhang Hanqing is one of the outstanding representatives.

When the Feng family was still very weak, he also opposed "unification by force", but that was because he was fledgling. Once he thought that his strength was about the same, he, like other warlords, wanted to establish the so-called "unification of the whole country". legitimate government".The so-called "National Conference" held in a pioneering manner this time, to initiate the National Assembly, restore the old legal system, abolish the northern and southern governments, and achieve national unification is actually for this purpose.

It is not surprising at all that in the newly formed cabinet, the Feng faction has won all six seats except the chairman of the transportation, education, and judicial committees, which is a big piece of cake.

The list of cabinet members for this term is as follows: Wang Yongjiang, Chairman of the Administrative Committee, Pan Fu, Chairman of the Finance and Economics Committee, Mo Dehui, Chairman of the Agricultural Committee, Liu Shangqing, Chairman of the Industrial Committee, Ma Yinchu, Chairman of the Education Committee (non-partisan), Sun Yat-sen, Chairman of the Transportation Committee (KMT), National Defense Committee Chairman Zhang Zuolin (concurrently), Planning Committee Chairman Zhang Hanqing, Judicial Committee Chairman Lin Xiang (no party affiliation, descendant of Lin Zexu).

The National Defense Committee has a total of 17 members. The list is as follows: Chairman Zhang Zuolin, Vice Chairman Sun Liechen, Wu Junsheng, Zhang Hanqing (also Chief of Staff of the People's Army), Yan Xishan, Li Zongren, Feng Yuxiang, and Sun Yat-sen. Only powerful factions with military power have entered.Members from the Feng Faction (People's Army) are:

Zhang Zuoxiang (commander of the reorganized Shenyang Military Region), Han Linchun (commander of the Lanzhou Military Region), Ji Yiqiao (commander of the Wuhan Military Region), Yu Xuezhong (commander of the Guangzhou Military Region), Jiang Baili (commander of the Nanjing Military Region under preparation), Ji Jinchun (Jinan Military Region Commander) Commander of the Military Region), Jiang Dengxuan (Commander of the Central Garrison Military Region, and Director of the General Political Department), Yang Yuting (Chief of the General Armament, and Supervisor of the Shenyang Arsenal), Guo Songling (Deputy Chief of the General Staff and Chief of the General Logistics Department).Because these sites are all occupied by the People's Army, there is almost no controversy about the "enfeoffment" of the various factions of the People's Party on these sites.

There are 4 from other factions:

Yan Xishan (commander-in-chief of the Shanxi Revolutionary Army, governing 5 divisions and 2 mixed brigades, with a total of 11 people), stationed in Shanxi;

Feng Yuxiang (commander of the 1st Army of the National Revolutionary Army, a total of 3 divisions and 1 mixed brigade, more than 6 people) stationed in Langfang, Hebei;

Sun Yue (Commander of the 2nd Army of the National Revolutionary Army, with 2 divisions and more than 3 people), stationed in Tongzhou, Beijing;

Sun Yat-sen (the prime minister of the Kuomintang, the largest participating party in China at the time. Only this man has no soldiers and no power, but he deserves to be a member of it).