Master Yuan, start!

Since Zaixun was dead, there was no need for the four ministers to stay any longer, so they all stood up and returned to the palace to report.

Under the scorching sun, some of the people who came to join in the fun could not hold on any longer, and some of those who were weak were helped to rest in the shade.

After the executioners and the executioners had dispersed, the people, who had been somewhat exhausted by the sun, finally came to their senses.

They rushed to the execution platform in a hurry and tried their best to stain the steamed buns and biscuits in their hands with bloody soil.

I've waited so long just for this piece of human blood steamed bun.

"Hey, I ate it, I ate it!"

“Great tonic, great tonic!”

After someone took a big bite of the blood-soaked bun, with blood at the corner of his mouth, a smile appeared on his face, and he danced and cheered, as if he could live forever and be immune to all poisons.

Yuan Xiangcheng, Ming Ye and his group stood at the entrance of an alley in the distance, quietly watching this somewhat ironic scene, with uncontrollable disgust in their eyes.

"Stupid, ignorant, and ridiculous!"

How long will it take for the Chinese people to truly get rid of the influence of these feudal superstitions?

Thinking of this, Yuan Xiangcheng closed his eyes and said silently: "Mingye, drive these people away and collect their bodies.

"Yes!"

Ming Ye, with some National Defense Force guards behind him, immediately stepped forward to drive them away.

"Let's go." Yuan Xiangcheng turned his head and stopped thinking about the scene just now. "Let's go back to the capital to report on our work. It's time to go to the palace."

Chapter 268 Preparation for constitutionalism, start!

After Zaixun's death, the situation in the capital returned to normal.

The news of the Iron Hat King being executed at Caishikou quickly spread throughout the capital through the booming newspaper industry and continued to spread outward.

The punishment for Prince Zhuang Zaixun and Tieliang and others who conspired to assassinate the emperor and rebel was limited to "a small group of Manchu and Mongolian elements" and did not affect the vast majority of the Eight Banners people.

The value of the united front is ultimately fought for.

Without the "Eight Banners Anti-Rebellion Army", these Eight Banners, whose identities as foes and friends were unclear, would inevitably be blamed on the furious interim regent Yi Xin.

However, although the swords hanging over the heads of the bannermen in the capital disappeared, they still could not be happy.

As a result of Gongji City changing hands repeatedly, most of the bannermen were killed in battle. After their bodies were sent to the open space in front of Fucheng Gate in the west of the city, their families came to claim the bodies in an endless stream.

Almost every household in the inner city of Beijing held up white banners and wore mourning bands.

The customs of Manchus and Han people are different. Although they both wear mourning clothes when someone dies, Han people wear "sackclothes" while Manchus tie white mourning belts around their waists, and only immediate family members wear mourning hats.

However, the situation in Beijing's outer city, where the majority of Han people lived, was quite different. While people in the inner city were crying, the people in the outer city seemed relieved and started chatting with everyone they met.

Although with the death of Zaixun, the assassination of Guangxu, which was called the "Emperor Assassination Case" by people at the time, was declared closed, the files in the yamen were sealed and stamped, and the matter was completely settled.

However, these are just official statements, and some people still feel that there is something else going on privately.

After all, Su Shun's "falsified imperial edict" was intended to be a rebellion, but in the end he was only beheaded and his family was not harmed.

It was the first time since the founding of the Qing Dynasty that Zaixun, a royal prince, had his entire family killed in public.

How could such a thrilling event, experienced by the whole nation, not spark discussions in teahouses, restaurants, and brothels?

This is inevitable, as assassinations are inherently bizarre.

The emperor, who had been shot in the head and whose name was already registered in the Book of Life and Death, was pulled back from the underworld. How many Chinese people in the 19th century could believe it?

For a time, the rumor in Beijing was that Guangxu saved his life by taking a magic elixir.

It is said that this is an elixir given to Huang Taiji by an old immortal from the Northeast who cultivated a tiger. It has been treasured in the palace for more than two hundred years, just for this moment.

In addition to the elixir that can bring the dead back to life, there are also rumors that there are one million taels of silver buried in the house of Prince Zhuang Zaixun; Tie Liang set up a formation in Gongji City and used human blood to refine medicine, etc., which are spread with details and are very serious.

After all, in ancient times when information and medical skills were not well developed, vegetative states were rare. There may have been people who became vegetative states in history, but most of them were not recorded as medical cases. Instead, they were circulated as folk tales.

As for the emperor becoming a vegetable, that is even rarer than the others. No wonder it is regarded as an unusual event by the people of the capital.

In addition, there is too much to talk about in this assassination and rebellion case, whether it is the vegetative emperor; the massacre in Gongji City; or Prince Zhuang whose entire family was killed; any one of them alone makes people want to find out the truth.

The "Assassination of the Emperor Case" was later called one of the four strange cases of the late Qing Dynasty, along with the "Yang Naiwu and Xiao Baicai Case", the "Assassination of Ma Case" and the "Yang Yuelou Case", which attracted debates from countless celebrities and scholars in later generations.

However, future generations belong to future generations, and the people belong to the people.

At this moment, in Beijing after the war, the court still had a lot of things to do.

After Tie Liang's rebel army was defeated, some changes were inevitable in the court. First of all, the bannermen army that guarded the capital was gone. Who would protect the capital's safety?

Then there is the issue of constitutionalism. Yuan Shikai only mentioned the need for a constitution and the establishment of a cabinet, but what exactly are these things and how should they be implemented?

These are just issues of filling official positions. It is always easy to find people to be officials. The key is the foundation of the country. How should the foundation of the country be established?

The emperor is in a coma. Although no one can seize his throne, the emperor has no children. In this case, wouldn’t it be more appropriate to appoint a crown prince?

Whether it is to pick a "Pu" generation from the royal family to recognize Guangxu as his father, so that "the son will inherit the throne after the father dies"; or to pick a "Zai" generation from the brothers to "the younger brother will inherit the throne after the elder brother dies".

At worst, it is not impossible for "the son to die and the father to take over". Who says that the regent Yi X cannot be the emperor?

All the officials were eager to try their best to succeed the emperor, and began to frequently petition the regent, requesting that the foundation of the country be established as soon as possible.

Although Yixin felt sorry for Guangxu regarding the first two proposals, he also knew that the general trend was such that he had no choice but to do so. However, due to his excessive grief, Yixin had not yet figured out what to do and had to decide to keep them in his pocket.

But when Yi X saw the memorial with the third proposal, he immediately flew into a rage. He didn't care about being dizzy, and shouted, "A father is taking away his son's business. Do you think I am a beast?!" and threw the memorial out.

The next day, the censor who submitted the memorial was accused of "sowing discord among the royal family", stripped of his official position, and imprisoned.

When the ministers saw this, they also knew what Yi X was thinking. They never mentioned the "son's death takes over the father's position" issue, but kept submitting proposals on the "father's death takes over the son's position" and "brother's death takes over the younger brother's position", saying that it would be better to establish the foundation of the country as soon as possible.

With such a consensus, and the fact that it was indeed time to appoint a crown prince, the temporary regent Yi Xin finally decided to choose the "brother succeeds the younger brother" plan, making his fifth son "Zaifeng" the eldest prince and treating him with the etiquette of a crown prince in front of all the ministers.

Of course, Yi Xin still loved Guangxu, but he also knew that although he was willing to protect his son, it did not mean that others were willing to do so.

Moreover, Yi X knew that he was weak and sickly, and his health was getting worse day by day, so he had to have an insurance policy.

So in the Hall of Supreme Harmony, Yixuan asked Zaifeng to swear an oath in front of all the ministers.

It was guaranteed that after a hundred years of Emperor Guangxu's death, the eldest prince Zaifeng could temporarily manage the government affairs, but if one day Emperor Guangxu woke up, Zaifeng would have to resign from the position of eldest prince on his own and could not ascend the throne. The tragedy of the Jingtai period of the previous Ming Dynasty must not happen again.

It was said that "after the Prince Regent's death, the eldest prince might be able to temporarily take over government affairs. However, if the emperor recovers, Zaifeng should ask to abdicate the throne and give up the thought of ascending the throne. He should be careful not to repeat the mistakes of the Jingtai Emperor of the previous Ming Dynasty."

Yi X's deep love for his son was clearly revealed in these words. All the court officials in the Hall of Supreme Harmony were heartbroken and shed tears. A large number of them immediately knelt down and shouted, "The Regent is so kind-hearted. The Emperor will surely be blessed with good health."

The most important thing was solved just like that.

Next is the question of how to establish a constitution.

Yi X heard Yuan Xiangcheng say that after the British constitution was established, the king could sit on the throne for his entire life even if he did not understand his own language.

This sentence left a deep impression on Yixuan. The reason why he attached so much importance to constitutionalism was because he wanted to retain the throne of Emperor Guangxu as much as possible after his death, so as to provide another insurance for his son.

The oath he made with the court officials could only guarantee that he would remain the emperor until Guangxu's death, but what if someone deliberately wanted to kill the unconscious Guangxu?

After all, human hearts are unpredictable. Who can guarantee that the emperor on his deathbed will not encounter any danger in the future?

How many young emperors of the Ming Dynasty died of illness or drowned? Now there is an unconscious emperor, isn’t it difficult to control him?

However, when Yi Jiu heard that some of the senior officials in the court who knew little about Western politics were discussing the need to first establish a constitution and then establish a responsible cabinet, he was overwhelmed.

We need to amend a "law" before we can establish a constitution. How long will it take to compile it?

In Yixin's mind, the "Constitution" was something like the "Yongle Encyclopedia", "Siku Quanshu" or "Da Qing Code" that required the whole country's efforts to compile.

Each of these three books took a long time to be completed. Yi X couldn't wait, nor did he want to wait.

So he asked Yuan Xiangcheng if there was any way to move faster.

"Naturally there is."

In the Grand Council, Yuan Xiangcheng faced Yi Xin and loudly replied, "Your Highness, the Japanese court also promulgated the Constitution of the Empire of Japan after nearly 20 years of power. It's okay for us to promulgate the constitution later, but..."

"Just what, Weiting?" YiX asked anxiously.

"But I think we should set a time." Yuan Xiangcheng slowly introduced Yi X to the set topic.

"Otherwise, if someone in the future uses the excuse that it's not in line with our ancestral system, wouldn't this constitutional plan be scrapped at any time?"

"Then according to what you said, what should we do?" Yi X's original intention was to set up the framework as soon as possible and then deal with the constitutional issues slowly.

"First, we can raise the slogan of preparing for constitutionalism, establish a responsible cabinet, transform the six ministries and nine officials into cabinet ministers, and select one person as the prime minister to oversee court affairs on behalf of the future emperor." Yuan Xiangcheng paused and said slowly:

"Of course, now that the Regent is in power, the Prime Minister's overall responsibility for government affairs still needs to be handled by the Regent himself."

"Go on." Yi X's eyes lit up, thinking this was a good idea.

Regardless of the legal troubles, just do it first and come back to it slowly later. It took three dynasties to complete the Qing Dynasty laws, so the Constitution will naturally be able to do the same.

"Secondly, we can swear an oath to the people of the world to show that there is no turning back on the issue of establishing a constitution. We are preparing for the day when it will be implemented." Yuan Xiangcheng said softly.

Upon hearing this, Yi Xin had an idea in his heart. It was indeed true. If he swore an oath in front of the people of the world, it would at least guarantee that no matter who became the Prime Minister, he would do his utmost to protect the safety of his son Guangxu.

Otherwise, once the old emperor died and the new emperor ascended the throne, how could he tolerate a minister who monopolized power?

After Yixuan's death, a delicate balance would be formed in the court among the Prime Minister, Guangxu, and the eldest prince. Only under the mutual restraint would Guangxu have the possibility to recuperate.

"Okay, Wei Ting, just as you said!"

Yi X waved his hand and stamped the imperial seal, a symbol of authority, on the imperial edict of "Preparing for Constitutionalism".

Chapter 269 Six Oaths, Cabinet Members

The shocking impact of the assassination case is spreading.

The officials in the capital had no time to digest this matter amidst the confusing rumors.

At today's court meeting, the imperial edict issued by the Regent, ordering the whole country to prepare for the six oaths of constitutionalism, once again set off a huge earthquake in the officialdom.

"The reason why all countries are stable, prosperous and strong is that they implement the constitution and rely on public opinion. The ruler and the people are one and the same, breathing and communicating with each other. Therefore, the authority is clearly defined, the financial resources are planned, and the government affairs are planned, all of which are fair to the people.

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At this moment, the only way to establish a long-term foundation for the country is to conduct a thorough and timely review, eliminate the accumulated problems, clearly define the responsibilities, and start with the official system to imitate constitutional government, with the supreme power in the court and the common affairs open to public opinion.

...We should promote education, clean up finances, strengthen military preparations, establish a police force, and make the gentry and the people understand the politics of the country, thus laying the foundation for constitutionalism.

Therefore, I now agree with the people of the world on six oaths.

One is to establish a wide range of consultation and discussion centers, so that all matters can be decided through public discussion;

Second, the north and the south must be unified;

The third is to change the official system and promote Westernization;