The Rise of the Writers of the Republic of China - Chapter 1021

   The National Government is not only facing the problem of economic collapse, but also the catastrophe this year.

   In 1942, the Great Famine in Henan came.

   It may be inaccurate to say that the Henan famine should be called the Central Plains famine, including Henan, Hebei, Shandong, and Shanxi. Gansu and other provinces in the northwest have long-term need to purchase grain from Henan due to the lack of their own grain production, which also led to the occurrence of famine.

   The main reason for the famine was prolonged drought without rain, of which Henan Province was the most serious. In more than ten counties, from spring tillage to autumn harvest, no rain fell for more than eight months, followed by the overwhelming plague of locusts.

  Lao Jiang also made a great contribution to the famine in Henan. The Huayuankou **** burst seriously damaged the agricultural area of ​​Henan, and many water conservancy facilities were destroyed as a result, so that the farmers were even more unable to cope with the drought. Coupled with the central government’s expropriation and purchase of grain from Henan, people’s rations were drained, which made the situation worse.

   The disaster situation in the occupied areas was equally serious. In order to prevent the stability from being affected, the Japanese army imposed military blockades on all the main roads, which made it impossible for the victims of the occupied areas to flow to the occupied areas. At the same time, the Japanese army also drove the victims of the occupied areas to the Kuomintang-controlled areas and base areas, and more than 3 million victims were driven into the areas controlled by the Kuomintang and the Communist Party.

   Mid-October.

Guo Zhongwei, a national political suffragette from Henan, came to Zhou’s mansion and said the first sentence: “Mr. Zhou, you are a popular person in front of the president. Please report the disaster in Henan this time! I really have no choice. Those central officials ignored me at all!”

   “Mr. Guo, even if you don’t come, I’ll go to Yunxiu Tower.” Zhou Hexuan said with a burning heart.

   The current general manager of Ta Kung Pao is Hu Zhengzhi, while Wang Yunsheng has officially become the editor-in-chief.

   As early as August, Wang Yunsheng wrote an editorial titled “Look at Chongqing, read the Central Plains”, and because he accused the government of ineffective disaster relief, Ta Kung Pao was ordered to suspend publication for three days.

   It was said to be three days, but after half a month, Zhou Hexuan came forward in person to resume the publication. And just yesterday, Ta Kung Pao was forced to suspend publication again, still because it reported the disaster in Henan.

The reasons for    being suspended are as follows: fabricating facts, creating panic, disrupting order, and detrimental to unity.

   Historically, Ta Kung Pao was suspended for four months because of its coverage of the famine in Henan.

   Zhou Hexuan took Guo Zhongwei by boat to Yunxiu Tower. He was authorized by Lao Jiang to enter without notice. This is not a unique treatment. During the Anti-Japanese War, there were about 20 or 30 people like this, and there were several in the education and academic circles alone.

   However, Guo Zhongxuan was blocked by the guards. He handed over the photos of the famine he collected to Zhou Hexuan and said, “Mr. Zhou, I’ll be waiting outside. Please give the photos to President Jiang.”

   “Definitely.” Zhou Hexuan nodded.

   Zhou Hexuan was invited directly into the reception room, and the attendant adjutant brought tea and said, “Mr. Zhou, the boss and his wife are receiving the American envoy. Please wait a moment, I will report it right away.”

  In the garden, Soong Meiling was making lemon tea to entertain the distinguished guests.

   Today’s guests are Wilkie, the leader of the American Republican Internationalist faction, and Mike Cowles, the American publisher and journalist.

   Years later, Mike Cowles wrote a book called Mike Looking Back.

   He said in the book that Wilkie was so fascinated by Song Meiling that he asked him to hold Chang Kaishen for an hour during the banquet, but he went to have a tryst with Song Meiling. As a result, in less than an hour, Lao Jiang took the guards to look for people everywhere, and he searched Yunxiu Tower and found no trace of Song Meiling.

   And Cowles was sent back to Song Ziwen’s residence, so scared that he couldn’t sleep all night. It wasn’t until four in the morning that Wilkie came back, as happy as a college student who had just spent the night with his girlfriend. Even Cowles said that Wilkie planned to elope back to the United States with Song Meiling, but fortunately he ruined the matter. But because of this, his face was scratched by the angry Song Meiling, and the claw marks were left on his face for a week before disappearing.

  Cowles also wrote in the book that Soong Meiling persuaded him to give up journalism and fully assist Wilkie to run for president of the United States in 1944. He recounted Soong Meiling’s original words: “If Wendell (Wilkie) is elected, he and I will rule the whole world. I rule the East, and Wendell rules the West.”

  It is hard to say whether there is a tryst, but the elopement is definitely fake.

   Mike Cowles is a publisher who can write anything for sales. He even remembered the time wrong. The story in the book took place in August, but Wilkie’s visit to China was from September to October, and he hadn’t arrived in China at all in August.

  Song Meiling was chatting with two Americans in English at this time, helping Chang Kaishen to translate a sentence or two from time to time.

  Chang Kaishen listened more and said less. He caught sight of the adjutant standing at the gate of the garden and asked, “What’s the matter?”

Adjutant    replied, “Boss, Mr. Zhou is here.”

  Chang Kaishen suddenly laughed: “Just in time, there are two American friends at home, please call Mingcheng too.”

   Wilkie asked: “Mr. Jiang, do you have any official business to deal with?”

  Chang Kaishen smiled and said, “Mr. Zhou Hexuan is here, I’ll let him come in and have a chat.”

“Is it Zhou?” Mike Cowles said. “He is a legend in the American publishing world. His book company has published a series of bestsellers. By the way, his partner is also named Mike, and he has the same name as me. .”

  Song Meiling asked curiously, “Is Mr. Zhou’s book company in the United States very large?”

“Of course,” Mike Cowles said of the publishing industry, “that book company was on the verge of bankruptcy during the economic crisis, but since it was acquired by Zhou, it has quickly turned losses into profits. The Titanic, The Talmud – Why Jews Are Monopoly, The People of Naresa, The Grapes of Wrath, and most recently, The Little Prince, along with a slew of best-selling pocket books. Zhou’s book company has been ranked fourth in the US publishing industry, and I heard that it plans to go public next year.”

   “It’s actually the fourth in the United States, is it that powerful?” Song Meiling was quite surprised by this.

   These conversations were not translated by Song Meiling. Naturally, Chang Kaishen could not understand, but he didn’t say anything. He just sat on a chair and slowly sipped lemon tea.

   A minute later, Zhou Hexuan came to the garden.

  The two Yankees immediately stood up to greet them, and Soong Meiling introduced: “Ming Cheng, this is Mr. Wendell Wilkie, the leader of the American Republican international faction, and this is Mr. Mike Cowles, the founder of the American “Prospect” magazine.”

   “Welcome you two to visit China.” Zhou Hexuan smiled.

   As for Wilkie’s name, Zhou Hexuan is like thunder. When he went to the United States last time, Wilkie’s name was everywhere in the newspapers. This guy was the super dark horse of the 1940 US election. He killed a bunch of opponents to become the Republican candidate, and he didn’t lose until he ran into Roosevelt.

   Wilkie, a former Democrat, represented the interests of Wall Street, and the congressmen in tandem rejected many of Roosevelt’s proposals. In order to run for president, he simply jumped to the Republican Party, belonging to the kind of 100% politicians, not politicians.

  Chang Kaishen didn’t ask Zhou Hexuan what he was doing, and Zhou Hexuan didn’t mention the Henan disaster in front of the Yankees.

  The crowd drank lemon tea and chatted and laughed, as if war and famine did not exist.

  PS: I originally wanted to write until 1949, but I couldn’t write many things, and the more I wrote, the less passionate I became. This book may end early, probably until 1945, and the aforementioned Li Xianglan will not appear.