The Rise of the Writers of the Republic of China - Chapter 1022

  Song Meiling handed out cigarettes to the three guests present, and lit one for herself, which made Chang Kaishen frown slightly. She didn’t care, and asked, “What do Americans think about China’s resistance to Japan?”

   Mike Cowles said: “Thanks to Mr. Zhou and Mr. Hu Shi’s propaganda in the United States, the American people responded with sympathy and support to China’s war of resistance.”

   “I’m asking American officials and businessmen, what do they think?” Soong Meiling said.

   Wilkie laughed: “Businessmen only care about interests, while officials serve votes.”

  Song Meiling said: “In other words, American officials and businessmen don’t care about China’s war of resistance, they only care if their interests are damaged?”

“Yes, most American officials and businessmen don’t care about the war in Asia, their focus is in Europe,” Wilkie said with a smile, “If Mrs. Chiang wants to change this situation, I think you should go there in person. The United States, speaking to Congress as the first lady of China.”

   “Can I?” Song Meiling was at a loss.

   Wilkie said, “Of course, I think President Roosevelt would support it.”

   Soong Meiling’s trip to the United States was facilitated by this, and she immediately gained enormous international fame after her speech in the US Congress next year. Of course, there was also the scandal between her and Wilkie, which became a household name in the United States. Soong Meiling was so angry that she took a bunch of newspapers to court, and the lawsuit took many years to settle out of court.

  In the eyes of American politicians, Soong Meiling is charming, smart, fascinating, and has all the advantages of an oriental woman.

However, Roosevelt’s wife did not have a good impression of Soong Meiling. She recalled: “Lewis (the union leader) was making trouble at the time, and Franklin (Roosevelt) asked Mrs. Jiang: In China, how would you deal with people like Lewis? Mrs. Jiang did not speak. , but quietly stroked her throat with her beautiful little hand.”

   This made Roosevelt’s wife feel cruel, even creepy.

   After chatting with Wilkie about her visit to the United States, Song Meiling relayed it to Chang Kaishen in Chinese and asked her husband for advice.

  Chang Kaishen thought for a while, then nodded in agreement: “This is a good thing, you can go there.”

  Song Meiling immediately said to Wilkie: “I am willing to visit the United States and ask Mr. Wilkie to help contact President Roosevelt.”

   “Of course, I’ll make arrangements,” Wilkie said.

   Everyone chatted until the evening, Song Meiling left everyone for dinner again, and ran to the air-raid shelter in the middle.

   After nine o’clock in the evening, the two Yankees said goodbye and left. Chang Kaishen called Zhou Hexuan to the study and asked, “What is Mingcheng doing with me?”

   Zhou Hexuan put more than 20 photos of the disaster on his desk: “About the famine in Henan.”

  Chang Kaishen said with a smile: “The Henan famine is purely a rumor, Mingcheng, don’t be deceived by some people with ulterior motives.”

   Zhou Hexuan said: “Ta Kung Pao has reporters in Henan, and there are more than one reporters. Those reporters all said that there was a major disaster in Henan, and the disaster was very serious!”

“Reporters are unavoidably exaggerating in order to make a name for themselves,” Chang Kaishen said. “I know there are disasters in Henan, but they are only minor ones. Last month, I ordered Li Peiji to do disaster relief, and established the Henan Disaster Relief Committee. Henan’s military ration quota has been met, and now disaster relief food has begun to be transported from Shaanxi to Henan.”

  Historically, the 1942 Henan famine did indeed start from September. However, local officials were afraid of losing food and they concealed reports of the disaster, which resulted in the central government not paying enough attention to it.

Until the end of October, Guo Zhongwei, who asked Zhou Hexuan for help in the previous chapter, broke out completely. He took out the food eaten by the victims such as elm bark, Guanyin soil, and wild goose dung at the National Political Consultative Conference. He cried, scolded and begged. Big trouble.

  Old Jiang has allocated three consecutive disaster relief funds to Henan, but the phenomenon of greed and deduction is too serious. Local officials still do not report the disaster situation.

   In 1943, the disaster in Henan was published in Time magazine, which made Soong Meiling who was visiting the United States embarrassed and angry, and the disaster relief operation in Henan was really on the right track.

   Zhou Hexuan sighed: “Chairman, you were deceived by Li Peiji.”

   “He doesn’t have the guts yet!” Chang Kaishen said.

   Zhou Hexuan said: “It’s because he was timid that he lied to you. Do you recall under what circumstances did he report the disaster to you?”

  Chang Kaishen immediately fell into memory, with a gloomy expression on his face.

   From the summer of 1942, Chang Kaishen ordered the local tyrants to levy grain. He also detested those big landlords, believing that whether it was conscription for army or food, most of them were still poor people with a lot of households. On the contrary, the rich and gentry landlords managed to avoid them, and the tandem Baojia chief refused to apply.

   So, at the Xi’an Military Conference, Lao Jiang kept stressing the need to increase control over the rich and gentry landlords, and at the same time listed the issue of Henan’s military rations as an important topic of discussion, and by the way, he scolded Henan Province Chairman Li Peiji, who was unfavorable in collecting grain.

  Li Peiji was timid and was afraid of taking off his black gauze cap. He originally wanted to report the disaster, but after being reprimanded by Lao Jiang, he immediately denied that there was a major disaster in Henan, and promised to complete the task of collecting grain in Henan in full.

  Because of this, although the military generals and wealthy gentry in Henan kept reporting disasters, they were all considered by Chang Kaishen to be making a big fuss, and even took the opportunity to avoid the suspicion of grain levy. After all, there are disasters in China every year these days, and it is a rare thing to have no years.

   Then many newspapers began to report on the disaster. Chang Kaishen also realized that there might be a disaster, but he did not think it was a major disaster. He also asked He Yingqin to inquire about the situation, and He Yingqin contacted the provincial chairman Li Peiji. Li Peiji denied it from beginning to end, and continued to promise to complete the task of collecting grain.

Here we have to wash for Chang Kaishen. Later generations said that the government did not requisition food without disaster relief, most of which were quoted from Feng Yuxiang’s recollections: “There are countless people who died of starvation in the severe drought in Henan. Under such misery, Chang Kaishen still called Henan. Requisitioning food. Chairman Henan had no choice but to say to Chang Kaishen, “The drought is too severe.” Knowing that the whole province of Henan is a good harvest, but you say there is a drought!”

   Feng Yuxiang’s statement is pure nonsense, and he said it after he turned to the Communist Party, which is politically correct.

  Henan Province Chairman Li Peiji not only did not say “the drought is too severe”, but he was the most active in concealing the disaster situation and the most active in collecting grain, all for the purpose of accomplishing the tasks assigned by Lao Jiang.

   Lao Jiang was really deceived by the local officials this time, or he would rather believe that Henan had a good harvest and selectively ignore the disaster reported by the generals and gentry.

Zhou Hexuan said: “The detailed disaster situation that the reporter from Ta Kung Pao sent back from Henan has already been sent back to Chongqing. Judging from the content of their telegrams, this year’s famine in Henan may be no less than the 36-year disaster in Sichuan, and it was affected by the war. , the damage is more serious than the Sichuan disaster. The grain expropriation task in Henan must be stopped immediately, otherwise it may affect the war situation in the Central Plains.”

   “You can summarize the news sent by the reporter from Henan to me as soon as possible. “Ta Kung Pao” can resume publication tomorrow, but it is temporarily not allowed to report on the disaster.”

   After Chang Kaishen finished speaking, he sent Zhou Hexuan away, and then immediately called He Yingqin, scolded his head and said, “Send a commissioner to Henan to investigate immediately, and there must be no delay or concealment!”