Stepping through the dazzling sky of history, looking at the mottled light shining in the starlight, thousands of years of wind and frost have frozen many heroic legends. The long line of heaven and earth that traverses ancient and modern times connects the original power of life

Step through the dazzling sky of history and look at the mottled light shining in the starlight. Thousands of years of wind and frost have frozen many heroic legends. The long line of heaven and earth that traverses ancient and modern times connects the original power of life, bringing people surprise and remembrance. The vast scrolls of history are the spiritual universe that will never grow old!

On May 29, 1913, Liang Qichao and Tang Hualong united the Republican Party, the Democratic Party, and the United Party to form the Progressive Party with the purpose of opposing the Kuomintang's majority in Congress. Seats, support the Yuan Shikai dictatorship.

Liang Qichao played an important role in the merger of the three parties. After the outbreak of the Wuchang Uprising, Liang Qichao still insisted on the idea of ​​a constitutional monarchy and proposed the so-called "virtual monarch and republic" system. However, his idea lost its market as soon as it came out, and republican democracy became an unstoppable torrent. Liang Qichao actively sought to form an alliance with Yuan Shikai "in order to form a big party" to fight against the Chinese Communist Party. In February 1912, Liang wrote to Yuan Shikai, offering advice: "Since a republic is the political system, it cannot become a powerful party without the support of the majority of public opinion." "Politicians" and asked Yuan to "seek political thinkers from the Constitutional Party and the Old Revolutionary Party" to build a big party. Yuan wrote back and said, "All the strategies are indeed difficult to achieve. I hide them in my heart and never forget them."

Subsequently, Liang Qichao directed domestic believers Tang Hualong , Sun Hongyi and others to actively contact each other in Japan, hoping to merge the constitutionalist political parties into a major party, and at the same time, he directed all parties involved in the activities to prepare for his return to the country. Due to the deep sectarian stereotypes among the constitutionalists, the desire to merge into a large party failed, and Liang's preparations for returning to China were progressing smoothly. The Governor of Yunnan, Cai E, and the Vice President, Li Yuanhong, successively sent messages to welcome Liang back to China. Under the guidance of Wang Jingwei, important figures of the Tongmenghui, Zhang Ji and Liu Kui, sent a message to invite Liang to return to the country to "help each other during the difficult times." Yuan Shikai also sent a telegram inviting Liang to return to China. So Liang set off from Japan and arrived in Tianjin on October 8.

After Liang returned to China, he began to organize the merger of the Republican Party and the soon-to-be-formed Democratic Party. In mid-to-late October, Liang traveled between Beijing and Tianjin, holding secret talks with Yuan Shikai and negotiating with dignitaries from both parties. At the welcome meeting held by the Democratic Party, Liang Yan said: "At the time of the French Revolution, there were two factions: radical and progressive. The radical faction was divided into three factions based on people, and the progressive faction was also divided into two factions. The radical faction They were killing each other, so no matter what, the two factions of the progressive faction refused to unite. They were used by the radical faction to sow discord and make them at odds with each other to kill their power. After the congressional elections, the radical faction eliminated them one by one. , so that important people from the two factions of the progressive faction were guillotined... Isn't it possible to think deeply about this?" It reveals that Liang's real purpose of eager to merge the constitutionalist parties was to fight against the so-called radical Kuomintang.

Liang’s activities were a dream come true for Yuan Shikai, who was eager to use the Republican Party, the Democratic Party and other constitutional parties to deal with the Kuomintang. As soon as Liang arrived in Tianjin, Yuan Shikai "made an appointment to come to Beijing early." After Liang entered Beijing, Yuan paid Liang "three thousand yuan a month" and gave him a house. He also promised to provide 200,000 yuan in funding after joining the party. With Liang's efforts, the Republican and Democratic parties quickly negotiated a merger and decided to make Li Yuanhong the prime minister of the new party, Liang Qichao as the associate prime minister, and Zhang Jian, Wu Tingfang, and Na Yantu as officers. In this regard, Liang proudly said: "The Republican and Democratic parties were jointly established about 20 years ago. Members of both parties have the intention of 'wailing and thinking of fighting, standing in the sky', and the election victory is expected. However, from now on, there should be no If we don't meet the enemy on horseback, we must take the lead."

However, the merger of the two parties did not come about as smoothly as Liang imagined, but there were many twists and turns. On the one hand, the historical grievances between the constitutionalists of the two parties are difficult to eliminate. On the other hand, the congressional elections are approaching. Both parties are trying to use the elections to expand their party power in order to gain an advantage in the merger, and the enthusiasm for mergers has weakened. The Democratic Party is even more negative and even publicly denies the merger, calling the merger "all nonsense." In March 1913, after the parliamentary election was announced, the Kuomintang gained a majority of seats, and the issue of merger was raised again. At Liang Qichao's initiative, the United Party was absorbed, turning the two parties into three. As a result of the agreement, it was decided to appoint Yuan Shikai as prime minister, Li Yuanhong and Liang Qichao as associate prime ministers, and a preliminary political platform was drawn up.But the merger failed to pan out. After the Song case, both Yuan Shikai and Liang Qichao were suspected by the Kuomintang. Therefore, Yuan Shikai was worried that having him as party leader would be detrimental to the merger of the three parties, and proposed that he "do not hold the position of prime minister." The merger was shelved again because of differences between the Democratic and Republican parties over the candidates for post-merger cadres.

After the opening of the National Assembly on April 8, 1913, a confrontation between the two armies was immediately formed with the three parties of the Republic, Democracy, and Unity on one side and the Kuomintang on the other. At the preparatory meeting between the two houses of Congress on April 12 to discuss the details of the election of the speaker, the Kuomintang had the upper hand, causing the three parties to believe that "the separation of the three parties is not the reason to win over the parliament." Yuan Shikai also urgently needed to merge the three parties to resist the Kuomintang because the truth of the Song case was increasingly exposed. As a result, the pace of the merger of the three parties accelerated. On April 16, at the "Friendship Meeting" held by the three parties, Liang Qichao made a speech: "The three parties are still in the minority in the Congress. This phenomenon is extremely dangerous. Regardless of external reasons, internal unity has not been consolidated. . Therefore, the failure in the academy is primarily due to the separation of the three parties... The doctrines held by the three parties are enough to save the country, and it is almost universally acknowledged. Why are signs of danger and defeat so common? This is actually because the unity of the three parties is close to the coalition. "Also." After consultations, the three parties, represented by Sun Wu, Ding Shiduo, Lin Changmin, and Wang Geng, formally signed a party merger agreement. During the negotiations, the Democratic Party proposed to appoint Tang Hualong as the speaker of the House of Representatives and add Pu Dianjun as a director. The United Party proposed Wang Yinchuan as a director, which caused dissatisfaction among the Republicans. On May 15, members and staff of the three parties held a meeting to discuss the charter and preparations for the founding meeting. On the 28th, the staff of the new party headquarters were elected. On the 29th, a formal founding meeting was held to announce the establishment of the Progressive Party.

The Progressive Party has Li Yuanhong as its chairman, Liang Qichao, Zhang Jian, Wu Tingfang, Sun Wu, Nayantu , Tang Hualong, Wang Geng, Pu Dianjun, and Wang Yinchuan as directors. It also has more than 20 honorary directors, most of whom are governors of various provinces. Its headquarters is located in Beijing is divided into two departments: Government Affairs and Party Affairs, with Lin Changmin and Ding Shiduo as ministers respectively. After the establishment of the Progressive Party, the branches of the original Republican, Democratic and Fine Gael parties in various places were also merged into one. The newspapers of the three parties, such as Tianmin Daily, Dagonghe Daily, Yongyan, Current Affairs Newspaper, and Tianduo Daily, have become the propaganda mouthpieces of the Progressive Party.

The Progressive Party’s political platform is: adopt nationalism, build a strong and good government, respect the public will of the people, support legal freedoms, conform to the general trend of the world, and promote peace and practical benefits. The Progressive Party believes that "the reason why our country's politics is not on the right track has its own reasons. First, the corrupt bureaucrats cannot be on the political track. Second, there are a few thugs among the people who cannot be on the political track... That is why we On the one hand, we should try to exclude thugs, and on the other hand, we should especially try to exclude corrupt bureaucrats." Between the "thugs" and corrupt bureaucrats, the Progressive Party believes that the "thugs" are "the faction that is most responsible for the harm to the country," and must "focus all their efforts to resist," while the corrupt bureaucrats "have to make a temporary pretense." This is the wrong political strategy of the Progressive Party. Although the Progressive Party also advocated party politics and a responsible cabinet, and stated that it would supervise Yuan Shikai, its wrong political strategy made it a tool for Yuan Shikai to attack democratic forces and promote dictatorship. The "Shengjing Daily" at that time pointed out that the "nationalism" advocated by the Progressive Party "has always been the political opinion of President Yuan, and it has been repeatedly exposed in the press, and my wife knows it. In other words, the so-called president has the privilege to appoint cabinet members at will. , which does not require the approval of parliament in order to organize a strong government."

After the three parties merged into the Progressive Party, the party’s power expanded. Especially in the House of Representatives, it is almost on par with the Kuomintang. However, the Progressive Party was not as consolidated as Liang Qichao and others expected. While preparing for the merger, Li Qingfang of the Democratic Party and others established a separate branch on the grounds that "the merger of the three parties cannot achieve what they want" and initiated the organization of a comradeship meeting for members of the two houses. After the merger, some people in the original Unionist Party believed that "the Unionist Party was sold by Wang and signed secretly", and they were planning to resurrect the Unionist Party. However, the bigger crisis is the re-independence of some Republicans.

During the three-party merger, the Democratic Party repeatedly overturned the proposal and added conditions, which aroused the dissatisfaction of some people in the Republican Party. Zhang Bolie, Zheng Wanzhan, Hu Zushun and others were particularly disgusted. After the Progressive Party's manifesto and charter were announced, the Democratic Party proposed adding Pu Dianjun as a director. Zhang Bolie and others strongly opposed it, but the Republican Party headquarters still agreed to the Democratic Party's conditions. So 11 people including Zhang Bolie, Zheng Wanzhan, and Hu Zushun issued a notice announcing that they would not recognize the merger. There were three reasons: (1) The Democratic Party defaulted on the contract and had the ambition of the small party to absorb the big party and the minority to absorb the majority; (2) The Republican Party’s final meeting to discuss the merger There were only about 50 people present, less than half, and the vote was invalid. Forcibly passing the resolution to merge the party is "the dictatorship of the political party and contempt for party members." (3) Li Yuanhong and the Hubei branch of the Republican Party called the Beijing headquarters successively, asking for the merger according to the original terms, but the headquarters withheld the call. Soon, Chamberlain and others issued another declaration, declaring that the newly independent Republican Party was in the status of a "third party" and would neither overthrow the government nor support the government. "For society, it still stands for peace and stability. For Congress, It is the neutrality between the two extremes."

The re-independence of some Republicans is not a change of purpose, but an uneven distribution of spoils. The New Republican Party, like the Progressive Party, supported Yuan Shikai and resisted the Kuomintang, and was also appreciated by Yuan. Party fees In addition to being allocated by Yuan, Li Yuanhong, Hu Jingyi and others also provided financial support. Han Yuchen, a congressman in the early Republic of China, once said that the New Republican Party "has no party platform, supports Yuan to the end, and works harder than the Progressive Party in the activities of the two houses, making the leaders of the Progressive Party, Tang and Liang, laugh and cry."

In the second revolution, the Progressive Party actively supported Yuan and helped him. After Jiangxi became independent, the Progressive Party held a meeting and decided that "such actions are a chaotic party that is destroying the country and should be quelled by the power of the state." It also sent a message to the whole country: " The central government is publicly elected by the whole country, and the interim president is elected by the people." "The traitors' resistance is not against one or two individuals, but against our country, the Republic of China... We should beg the public and the gentlemen at home to distinguish right from wrong, and try to calm people's hearts in advance, and those who are ineffective should be killed together," said a Congressman from the Progressive Party. Wang Rongbao , Wang Jingfang and others called the Kuomintang's military rebellion against Yuan "a betrayal of the Republic of China and a public enemy of the 40 million people" and demanded that Yuan "be punished in the most severe way". On the one hand, the Progressive Party actively cooperated with Yuan Shikai to suppress the second revolution, and on the other hand, it actively made suggestions for Yuan to steal the official presidential position. After the outbreak of the second revolution, some Kuomintang congressmen responded to Sun Yat-sen's call and left Beijing to go south. On July 23, under Yuan's instruction, the Beiyang military police arrested several congressmen at a public club, causing panic among the Kuomintang congressmen in Beijing. Many of them prepared to leave Beijing. After this incident, Liang Qichao was killed twice. He wrote a letter to Yuan Shikai, warning him that "in ancient times, great entrepreneurs used the emperor to control the princes. Today, if we want to put an end to chaos and bring order, we can only use the National Assembly to call on the world. This is the right thing to do." "The most important thing today is to seize this opportunity to have the cabinet pass the constitution. It is formulated, the president is elected, and then the country's foundation is consolidated. To achieve this goal, the first priority is to maintain more than two-thirds of the members. Now the Progressive Party has tried its best in all aspects, and it is especially hoped that the president will respect the Congress. The first intention is to express it, either by order or by consulting the speakers of the two houses to clarify the intention." Yuan understood Liang's suggestion and quickly released the arrested members. He said that "it only asks about obedience and disobedience, regardless of party affiliation. Although it is under martial law, indiscriminate arrests are not allowed." This trick does work. "The Kuomintang's moderate faction still holds the main assembly and will not leave Beijing." At the same time, the Progressive Party divided and collapsed against the Kuomintang, "either absorbing it into the party, or building a small group to accommodate it." Facts show that when Yuan Shikai suppressed the second revolution, In the process, the Progressive Party was of great help. After Yuan Shikai dissolved the Kuomintang and Congress, the Progressive Party's role disappeared and it was abandoned.

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