The Rise of the Writers of the Republic of China - Chapter 1058

   Back in Chongqing again, Zhou Hexuan had only one intuitive feeling—the traffic was too congested!

  Especially the Chaotianmen Wharf, which is densely packed with black human heads. Countless government officials and ordinary people are planning to return to their places of origin, not to mention the crowded passenger ships on the river, and even fishing boats have become means of transportation. This situation has been going on for two months, including the war refugees from Chengdu, who are gathering in Chongqing, because the Yangtze River is the most convenient way to get out of Sichuan.

  Many people who came from other cities and counties in Sichuan lived at Chaotianmen Pier for half a month. They ate and slept in the open air, standing in line every day before dawn, working so hard just to get a ticket.

  Although life is hard, there is a little more joy and hope on everyone’s face. They are delighted by the victory of the Anti-Japanese War and look forward to returning home.

   The day Japan announced its unconditional surrender was undoubtedly the most glorious moment in Chang Kaishen’s life. When he made his way to the Victory Building to deliver the victory broadcast, the road was packed with people celebrating the victory. When people saw Chang Kaishen appear, they immediately cheered and scrambled to shake hands with him.

   At that moment, people supported Chang Kaishen from the bottom of their hearts, and his personal prestige reached its peak.

  The common people are so happy, not only the war of resistance against Japan was won, but also the prices in Chongqing plummeted by 50% in one day. In fact, prices plummeted on that day, and quickly rose back the next day, but overall prices are still falling.

  Chang Kaishen’s splendid image did not last long, and the civil war quickly made him fall from the altar.

   Especially in the recent “121 Massacre”, 30,000 Kunming students went on strike and marched against the civil war. As a result, 4 teachers were killed and more than 60 students were injured by military agents. The news spread all over the country, and students from Chongqing, Chengdu, Shanghai, Yan’an, Zunyi and other places organized spontaneously to show solidarity with the students in Kunming through parades, and the voices of all walks of life against the civil war also grew louder.

   Now Chang Kaishen is taking Song Meiling to inspect in Peiping, and his portrait is hung on the Tiananmen gate tower. When Lao Jiang returns to Chongqing, he will accept the mediation of the US special envoy.

  Marshall has personally come to Chongqing, his task is to mediate the civil war between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party, and help China establish a democratic coalition government.

   A few years later, both the Kuomintang and the Communist Party cursed Marshall.

The Communist Party believes that Marshall’s military mediation is just a pretense. The real purpose is to help Chang Kaishen prepare for the civil war, assist the Kuomintang troops to invade the liberated areas, actively train and equip the Kuomintang troops, and supply Chang Kaishen with a large amount of arms and strategic materials. .

  The Kuomintang believed that the government mistrusted Marshall’s mediation and sent the most elite national army to the northeast, so that the interior was empty and the troops were weak in each battlefield, giving the Communist army an opportunity to take advantage.

   (Marshall: Is it all my fault?)

  …

   Zhou Hexuan did not go home by boat, but went to the city along Chaotianmen Pier. He walked around looking around, came to a rice shop and asked casually, “How much is a pound of polished rice here?”

  The shop assistant didn’t recognize Zhou Shenxian, so he replied, “Four pieces of polished rice and one kilogram, how much do you want sir?”

   “I’ll just ask.” Zhou Hexuan left the rice shop with a smile.

  The situation of price recovery is still very good. When Zhou Hexuan left Chongqing six months ago, the price of rice had risen to more than five yuan per pound, and fell by one-fifth in a few months. (By the way, when the requisition policy during the Anti-Japanese War was the most terrifying, the government purchased rice from the landlords and farmers at the price of 1 cent, and it became 5 yuan per pound of rice in the market. The reason why the land was returned to Zhou Hexuan.)

  If the National Government does not fail, the fiat currency can slowly regain its purchasing power. At the beginning of the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, the national government had 6 million ounces of gold, 900 million US dollars in French currency, 10 trillion yuan in legal currency from the Japanese and pseudo-industry, and the remaining US aid to China was worth about 2 billion US dollars.

   These money can be used to rectify taxes, balance income and expenditure, and curb inflation.

   But what did the Nationalist government do?

First of all, the government set the exchange ratio of the Central Reserve Notes issued by the Wang puppet regime to fiat currency at 200:1, which means that 200 Chinese Reserve Notes can only be exchanged for 1 French currency. The assets of ordinary people have shrunk by 200 times.

   The common people in the occupied areas looked forward to the stars and the moon, and finally hoped for the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, and then suddenly found themselves poor.

   As a result, the central bank coupons became waste paper, people queued to exchange fiat currency, and the fiat currency in the rear of the Anti-Japanese War madly flowed into the occupied area, resulting in the shortage of fiat currency in the rear.

  The National Government found that the fiat currency was insufficient, and was immediately overjoyed. It worked overtime to print fiat currency, and a large amount of fiat currency filled the market, causing prices to soar again. During the Anti-Japanese War, the fiat currency that did not completely collapse, actually collapsed directly after the victory of the Anti-Japanese War. Take Nanjing, the capital, for example, the price of rice has soared by more than 500 times within eight months, and the fiat currency has become waste paper.

Later, Chen Lifu summed up the reasons for the failure of the Kuomintang and put the blame on Song Ziwen. He said: “After Japan surrendered, the people in the recovered areas naturally welcomed the use of fiat currency, but the financial authority Song Ziwen actually stipulated that 200 yuan of counterfeit currency should be exchanged for 1 yuan of fiat currency… A rich man went through this war, his property depreciated hundreds of times, isn’t this paving the way for the Communist Party? We have turned the people into the proletariat for the Communist Party.”

  No one knows what Song Ziwen was thinking at the time.

   Zhou Hexuan wandered around the streets of Chongqing leisurely, and only returned to Zhou Mansion in the evening.

   “Brother Mingcheng!” Liang Sicheng and Lin Huiyin lived in Zhou Mansion.

  The two came to Chongqing last fall, and Liang Sicheng specially sent Lin Huiyin to the hospital for treatment. Historically, doctors’ judgment on Lin Huiyin’s condition is that he can live for five years at most, and it is almost impossible to see the establishment of new China.

  After two years, Lin Huiyin received the special medicine for the treatment of tuberculosis, which gave him the opportunity to participate in the design of the national emblem and the Monument to the People’s Heroes.

   Thanks to the help of sulfanilamide provided by Zhou Hexuan, Lin Huiyin’s condition is better than in history, but not much better, she is already too thin.

   Seeing the couple, Zhou Hexuan smiled and took out a box of medicines and said, “Streptomycin, the latest special drug developed in the UK.”

   “A special medicine for tuberculosis?” Liang Sicheng was surprised and delighted.

   “That’s right,” Zhou Hexuan took out the syringe again and said, “Intramuscular injection, you should give Huiyin an injection first.”

  Streptomycin was discovered by Waxman and Satz, a student of Waxman and the principal discoverer of streptomycin. Waxman fooled the student Sazi to hand over the patent to the school, and then left Sazi to find the school to share the patent rights, and then contacted the pharmaceutical company to develop the drug.

   Historically, this new drug passed clinical trials in 1944 and was officially released in 1945.

   But things are a little different now. After knowing that he had been fooled, Satz immediately contacted Zhou Hexuan’s Royal Pharmaceutical Company and authorized the Royal Pharmaceutical Factory to produce as long as he helped him win the lawsuit. The wrangling lawsuit lasted for more than half a year. Due to the unknown ownership of the patent rights, streptomycin was also ordered by the court to temporarily prohibit production.

   In desperation, everyone could only reconcile in private, and the two pharmaceutical companies jointly obtained the patent authorization, while Waxman and Satz each owned 20% of the patents, and the remaining 60% of the patents belonged to the school.

   Until Zhou Hexuan left the UK, streptomycin had not passed the clinical trial. After waiting in Hong Kong for more than two months, officials from the British military government in Hong Kong finally brought the medicine.

  Now streptomycin is not popular in the UK, and the Chinese have never heard of it. Lin Huiyin is estimated to live several years longer by taking the drug two years in advance.