Chapter 1025 1024【Corruption】

"Ta Kung Pao", Chongqing headquarters.

Hu Zhengzhi walked into the editor-in-chief's room quickly and said to Wang Yunsheng: "Editor-in-chief Wang, I'm afraid this news cannot be reported, and it will easily affect the overall situation of the war of resistance. You first withdraw the manuscript, and I will go to see Mr. Jiang immediately. "

"Is meeting Chairman Jiang useful? Mr. Zhou has seen him several times." Wang Yunsheng said angrily.

Hu Zhengzhi said: "It is always useful. The central government not only reduced the amount of grain requisition in Henan by 20%, but also punished the county magistrate of Xuchang, and allocated 200 million in disaster relief funds a few days ago."

"What I want to expose is the embezzlement of disaster relief funds!" Wang Yunsheng dropped the pen in his hand, "The 200 million disaster relief funds are not enough to buy a catty of rice for each of the disaster victims in Henan. If we continue to embezzle like this, only 80 million will be left in Henan. The 80 million yuan is still corrupted. As the deputy director of the Henan Disaster Investigation Committee and the director of the Henan Branch of the Three Youth League, Wang Rupan embezzled disaster relief funds and went back to his hometown to buy land! Is it tolerable, which is unbearable? If this news cannot be published in the newspaper, then I resign The post of editor-in-chief of Ta Kung Pao!"

"Oh," Hu Zhengzhi said, "I'll give Mr. Zhou a call."

"Please!" Wang Yunsheng sneered.

Hu Zhengzhi dialed the phone number of Zhou Mansion, explained the situation, and said, "Mingcheng, Editor-in-Chief Wang insists on publishing this news, and I can't persuade him anymore. I just want to say two consequences. First, it will inevitably The general situation of the confrontation is not good, and second, "Ta Kung Pao" will inevitably be suspended again."

"Then prepare to stop publication." Zhou Hexuan said.

Hu Zhengzhi put down the phone slowly, and said to Wang Yunsheng, "Send!"

...

"Bastard!"

Chang Kaishen threw the newspaper angrily and shouted, "Check it out, check it out!"

Zhang Daofan stood aside with lowered eyebrows, not daring to show his air. When Lao Jiang's breathing slowed down, he asked, "President, should the Ta Kung Pao be banned?"

Chang Kaishen thought for a while and said, "The museum is ordered to be closed for rectification for a month."

Lao Jiang was really angry. In order to calm public opinion, he allocated 200 million disaster relief funds. As a result, there were only 80 million yuan left before it was sent to Henan, and they were continued to be embezzled when they arrived in Henan. These moths simply took the party and state affairs as a trifling matter.

What's even more exasperating is that Wang Rupan was the director of the Henan Branch of the Three Youth League, and he was extremely trusted by Lao Jiang, so he was specially appointed as the deputy director of the Henan Disaster Investigation Committee. He actually embezzled the disaster relief funds to go back to his hometown in Xuchang to buy land, and he bought a full 500 mu. It is hard to know how much he has embezzled.

The "Ta Kung Pao" reporter originally went to Xuchang to report on the disaster situation. After all, Xuchang County suffered the most starvation deaths. As a result, it was accidentally discovered that someone was buying land at a low price. After a little investigation, it was found that the person who came forward to buy the land was a member of the Henan branch of the Sanqing League.

At the end of the article, the reporter also raised a question: "The deputy director of the Henan Disaster Investigation Committee misappropriated disaster relief funds to buy land, so does the director of the committee know about it? Not reporting it is a cover-up, and not knowing is stupid! The deputy director is corrupt, then the director Is there any suspicion of corruption? Since then, the disaster relief funds have been sent to the Henan Disaster Relief Committee, can the Disaster Relief Committee announce the whereabouts of the funds, and is there anyone in the Disaster Relief Committee who is corrupt again?"

As soon as the news came out, the whole country was in an uproar.

People demanded that Wang Rupan be punished, and that all officials who handled disaster relief funds be investigated.

Following the execution of Xuchang county magistrate Wang Hengwu, Wang Rupan, who was also from Xuchang, was also taken to the execution ground. Wang Rupan died very quickly. Before the central investigators could do anything, the Henan side directly dragged Wang Rupan to death. It was obvious at a glance that someone was trying to cover up more crimes.

Because the corruption incident involved too much, it was impossible to find out for a while. In order to quell public anger, Lao Jiang had to allocate another 300 million disaster relief funds.

This time, the 300 million disaster relief funds were sent directly to the Henan Industrial and Agricultural Bank, and then transferred to the Henan Provincial Government by the bank. Because Lao Jiang watched too closely, no one in the central government dared to corrupt, and the Henan Disaster Investigation Committee and Disaster Relief Committee could not handle it.

It stands to reason that this time it should be safe, but Lao Jiang still underestimated the courage of corrupt officials.

Li Guozhen, the president of the Henan Industrial and Agricultural Bank, directly colluded with Ma Guolin, the Secretary-General of the Henan Provincial Government, and embezzled more than half of the 300 million disaster relief funds for speculation. In their words, 300 million French currency is too little to provide disaster relief, so it is better to use it to do business and earn more money. With more money, more victims can be relieved.

However, by the time they returned the funds and bought grain for disaster relief, millions of people in Henan had starved to death, and the next year's new wheat had already begun to be harvested.

These are the three disaster relief funds that Lao Jiang allocated to Henan in a row. The first was a loan to the Henan Provincial Government, the second was embezzled by more than 70%, and the third was embezzled for speculation.

After the "Ta Kung Pao" was forced to suspend publication again, two foreigners came to the Zhou Mansion.

One is Bai Xiude, a special correspondent for the American "Time" magazine. The other is Harrison Foreman, a special correspondent (photographer) for The Times.

"Mr. Zhou, hello!"

Bai Xiude's Chinese is very standard, while Forman's Chinese is a bit lame.

Zhou Hexuan shook hands with them respectively, and said, "What do you two want me to do?"

Bai Xiude said: "Ta Kung Pao was forced to suspend publication, which made Western reporters in Chongqing feel anxious. Now no newspaper dares to report on the famine in Henan. Harrison and I are going to Henan for field investigation. I heard that the reporter of "Ta Kung Pao" has I have a lot of first-hand materials, so I want to borrow them to read and prepare."

Zhou Hexuan returned to the study, brought a stack of written materials and said, "These are photocopies of the interview draft, and the photos need to be picked up at the newspaper office of "Ta Kung Pao."

"Thank you." Bai Xiude carefully put away the photocopy.

Zhou Hexuan said: "It is I who should thank you, I hope the two of you can report the disaster truthfully."

"Definitely." Bai Xiude didn't mention the famine in Henan anymore, but chatted, "Mr. Zhou, when I was in college, I often heard my tutor mention you. The tutor said that you are the most sober he has ever seen. Chinese people, he always communicates with you so pleasantly."

Zhou Hexuan asked with a smile, "Who is your mentor?"

"Mr. Fairbank." Bai Xiude said.

"Haha, it turned out to be Lao Fei. He was very strict when he was teaching at Tsinghua University. You have suffered under his hands, right?" Zhou Hexuan laughed.

Bai Xiude said proudly: "Of course I have suffered a lot. The tutor thinks Chinese is too difficult and is afraid that students will waste their energy, so he puts forward the unwritten rule that 'undergraduates are not suitable for learning Chinese'. At that time, there were only two undergraduates learning Chinese. One, the tutor always gave the test papers very difficult and tried to make us retreat. So another classmate gave up, and I was the first undergraduate student in Harvard history to learn Chinese and pass the test.”

"It seems that you have a good language talent." Zhou Hexuan said.

Bai Xiude said: "Before learning Chinese, I had already mastered Hebrew, Latin, German, French and Yiddish. The first time I became interested in Chinese was in the Harvard-Yenching Institute book In the museum, I saw those Chinese calligraphy works on the wall. They are so beautiful, they have already broken away from the category of characters, and each brush character is an exquisite work of art. By the way, Mr. Zhou, before I leave Chongqing, can I discuss with you Do you want a calligraphy work?"

"Of course." Zhou Hexuan often asked others for words, but not many people asked him for words.

Zhou Hexuan wrote a short "Friendship Forever" and signed it with a seal. Bai Xiude took it for mounting and then set off for Henan.