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Chapter 5 The Great Election: The Emperor¡¯s Armored Face 276 The Temple of War

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    276 War Temple

    In January 1872, the parliamentary renovation project of the "Sacred Royal Cathedral of the Song Dynasty" was completed.

    This magnificent Gothic building located opposite the former Governor's Palace was originally built by the Poseidon who captured the city of Guangzhou to commemorate the friendship provided by Napoleon III of France to the brothers in the church; but Napoleon III was no longer the French emperor, so this  A church was transformed into a parliament by Poseidon, who sought to give his actions a sense of history.

    But this does not reduce the sanctity and importance of this building: royal coronations, marriages, and baptisms of children will also be held in this sacred place. Transforming it and adding parliamentary functions will increase the sanctity of this building.

    Minister of Industry Xu Chuanchuan suffered a big loss in the Iron River Great Leap Forward plan. Anyway, he suffered heavy casualties. In order to increase his influence and attract favors, he asked to build a huge and magnificent parliament building, like the United Kingdom, the United States and other countries, but it was very difficult to  Unfortunately, it was vetoed by the emperor again - the emperor spoke very grandly: "The spirit of the parliament lies in faith and culture, not in the brilliance of its external buildings." Of course, the essence is that the emperor thinks: Doesn't this need money?  How can I afford such a big project?  Can Parliament do it?  Okay, of course there are big buildings, but if you don¡¯t put them in my palace, they are just a bunch of troublemakers, just like those prodigal things in the Republic of China.

    Under the emperor's vigorous and resolute style, the "Holy Song Empire Constitution (Preparatory)" was officially promulgated in June 1872, and the first Imperial Parliament was convened in September 1872.

    It was announced that Haisong became the first constitutional monarchy in the entire Far East, and once again became the forerunner of the Far Eastern countries to lead the trend. Haisong was always one step ahead, but he never took more than two steps.

    The constitution still follows the German line: the emperor enjoys absolute power and has the power to approve laws, issue legally binding edicts, appoint and dismiss ministers, convene and dissolve parliament, declare war, make peace and command the army;

    But the emperor made it clear to the great powers Britain, France and the United States that this was only a preliminary stage. Once civil rights with a Christian faith were cultivated, the constitution would develop in the direction of the United Kingdom and the United States.

    For this reason, the emperor left a special backdoor. For the imperial parliament he established, the political power was divided into two categories: decree type and remonstrance type.

    Government decrees refer to the resolutions that the court must follow up and implement after the parliament makes a resolution. On these resolutions, the court must listen to the parliament; remonstrances refer to those parts where the parliament has no power to order the court, such as diplomacy, declaration of war, major taxes, etc., but  The parliament can still discuss and make resolutions, just like remonstrances, which are submitted to the emperor for reference. If the emperor agrees, the remonstrance-type resolution will be upgraded to a decree-type resolution, and the court must implement it.

    It is conceivable that in the 1872 Constitution, the scope of parliamentary decrees was pitiful. They could only talk about injustices for the people, question part of the budget, and discuss whether to allocate budgets to infrastructure such as sewers.

    But they have a back door to compete with the imperial power and the court for territory and expand their power, because the back door to the remonstrance category allows them to discuss any national policy except military, diplomacy, and religion, and the debate is open to the press. If the remonstrance category is special  If it is wonderful and particularly inciting public opinion, the emperor may also agree. Therefore, how powerful the parliament can be and whether it can continue to expand its sphere of influence actually depends on how determined and powerful the representatives of the parliamentarians themselves are.

    Moreover, the first "September Parliament" of the Song Dynasty, which is famous in history, did not have an upper house because the emperor believed that this culture was not popular enough and hastily followed the example of the United Kingdom and the United States in setting up a Senate or a House of Lords. In fact, it was asking for trouble. Who knows about parliament?  ?

    Therefore, the "September Parliament" is also called the "Administrative Training Parliament" or the "Preparatory Parliament". It took two years to elect the private members of the Haisong Dynasty who had a staggering start. They all participated, and the emperor appointed a large number of nobles and officials.  Directly enter the parliament, as members of the two parties, directly discuss matters, and prepare for two years. After two years of preparation, the fully trained and experienced senior politicians and the emperor's confidants are promoted to the House of Nobles or called the Senate.

    In order to enhance the prestige and power of the parliament, the emperor appointed Minister Song Deling, who volunteered to join the Liberal Party, to become the first prime minister under the constitutional monarchy. He was responsible for forming the cabinet and appointing ministers;

    Prime Minister Song Deling is responsible to the parliament for decree-type resolutions and to the emperor for remonstrance-type resolutions, so he is mostly responsible to the emperor.

    This is why the emperor appointed the Liberal Party to form a cabinet. This was because the international environment at that time was due to the failure of France and the rise of Germany. The original balance of power in the Far East was broken. The diplomatic environment of the Song Dynasty was much more favorable, and there was no need for the Democratic Party to be pro-foreign. The emperor was eager to join here  Within the time window, domestic conservative forces rise and are used for self-improvement to protect themselves from being drained by more powerful forces;

    Opposition leader Xu Chuanchuan did not enter the parliament voluntarily, but because he fell out of favor on issues such as the Iron River Great Leap Forward and the construction of the Capitol Building, he was defeated by Song Deling and lost the prospect of being elected prime minister, so he was appointed by the emperor as a people's leader.?.  The Huai army sent an inside line to the Song Dynasty to express its neutrality and would not move.

    The much-anticipated parliamentary debate immediately spread to the people. For a time, opium cultivation in the Qing Dynasty and smuggled into the Song Dynasty became the talk of the streets. Elites such as arms dealers, opium dealers, and the military in the empire united to control the press to incite hatred among the people.  Cigarette smuggling was accused of "the braided monster sucking the blood of the Song people", "every scum who smokes Qing cigarettes is making bullets for the Qing army", "the devil poisons the souls of our young people through the Qing Dynasty", and the emperor who served in the army  The second son's appearance in newspapers was so high that it was unbelievable, which made the people think that this prince was an invincible general like Li Yuanba. They began to look forward to whether this general's maiden appearance in battle would be as brave and invincible as his father, the God Emperor.

    On November 20, 1872, the emperor once again visited the parliament hall. He pointed at the dense enemy flags above his head and shouted coldly: "Warriors, bring me the flag of the Yunnan-Guizhou Governor of the Qing Dynasty and hang it here."

    The parliament cheered loudly. Zhong Jialiang and Xu Chuanchuo burst into tears. Then the people waiting for reporters outside the parliament also cheered. The entire capital slowly became commotion, and roars echoed over the huge city: "War, war, war.  "

    A week later, the Song Dynasty declared war on the Qing Dynasty, which was known as the Song-Qing Opium War in history.

    Since then, the "September Parliament" has no longer been ridiculed by foreigners as the "Lottery Parliament" and has been replaced by another big name: "Yellow Crusader Parliament"
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