Chapter 279 278 [Wedding Date Is Approaching]

Beiping, Dongjiaomin Lane, in the guest room of Liuguo Hotel.

"Dong dong dong!" There was a knock on the door.

The beautiful secretary (assistant) Veronica opened the door and said with a smile, "Hello."

"Miss, your coffee." The hotel waiter said respectfully.

"Give it to me, this is your tip." Veronica took out a silver dollar, and without waiting for the waiter to thank, she turned back to the room with the coffee.

Toynbee is reading the French version of "Guns, Germs and Steel", looking at it and turning back to the previous chapters from time to time, thinking over and reminiscing about certain points in the book.

Veronica said, "Sir, have some coffee."

After shouting twice in a row, Toynbee suddenly raised his head and said, "Put it on the coffee table."

Although Veronica is young and beautiful, she is not a woman with big breasts and no brains. She also has research on the history and culture of various countries, otherwise she would not be qualified to become Toynbee's assistant secretary. She asked curiously, "What is this book about?"

"The origin and development of all nations, or civilizations in the world," Toynbee said with great emotion, "this is a great book, which is more rational and systematic than my theory of civilization development. It is unbelievable that someone can write it." Such a work is enough to cause a sensation in the entire history circle."

"So powerful?" Veronica couldn't believe it.

Toynbee said with a wry smile: "As for the development of civilization, I have always believed that there must be challenges. It is impossible for a comfortable group without challenges to grow into a powerful civilization. But after reading this book, I realized that my point of view is too much. It is too one-sided. Only challenges cannot form a strong civilization, and there must be environmental factors suitable for development. In Mr. Zhou Hexuan’s book, he explained the root cause of the backwardness of America and Africa, which I think is very reasonable.”

"I can't wait to read this book," Veronica said with a smile.

"After reading this book, I think I have to revise my thesis, and some of the ideas are indeed flawed." Toynbee said.

Veronica took out an invitation and said with a smile: "This is from Mr. Zhou in the afternoon. He is getting married soon, and the wedding will be held in Shanghai."

"Really?" Toynbee said, "It seems that we are going to leave early, and Zhou's wedding cannot be missed. I just want to ask him some questions about Chinese civilization."

Veronica drank coffee, sat beside Toynbee and read a book for a while, then suddenly blinked and said, "I'm going to take a shower first."

"Well, okay." Toynbee was immersed in the joy of reading, and had no interest in sex at all.

By the way, Toynbee had a wife at this time.

But well, everyone knows this kind of thing. If the upper-class men in Europe and America do not have a lover, it is a very low performance.

It was not easy for Veronica. She admired Toynbee's talent and worked as a secretary for more than 20 years in obscurity. It was not until the end of World War II that she finally succeeded as a junior.

Two days later, Toynbee took the beautiful secretary to the south and took the same boat as Zhou Hexuan.

This guy pestered Zhou Hexuan all day long, asking for advice and discussing issues about China, so as to accumulate information for his academic works.

As a result, Toynbee was very depressed to find that the thoughts and views he wanted to express had already been written into the teaching content by Zhou Hexuan, and this stupid academic research was actually truncated.

how to say?

Just like one night, someone became very poetic and wrote "the moonlight in front of the bed is suspected to be frost on the ground". A famous sentence that has been passed down through the ages, and then suddenly found out, shit, that guy Li Bai actually robbed my poem!

This is not the first time Toynbee has encountered this kind of thing. Eight years ago, he witnessed the tragic situation in Europe after World War I, and he wanted to write a thesis on Western civilization. When he had considered many issues maturely and was about to start writing, he suddenly read Spengler's "The Decline of the West"-everything he wanted to write had already been written and published.

The great work "Historical Research" in the field of history is actually the inheritance and development of Spengler's cultural formation history theory. However, now Zhou Hexuan is the first to write the latter part of "Historical Research", while Toynbee only wrote the introduction...

so awkward.

When discussing academics on the boat, Toynbee had a heated argument with Zhou Hexuan, because although their views were generally consistent, they differed in many details.

Thinking of the "Cambridge" series of works, Zhou Hexuan suggested with a smile: "Mr. Toynbee, why not do this. We each write our own, organize them into articles, and then publish them together. The same parts are signed together, and the different parts are divided into chapters." Individually signed, and then jointly signed and published. What do you think?"

Toynbee thought for a while: "It's a good suggestion. We express our respective opinions. As for how readers understand it, it depends on who they choose to believe."

"Then it's a deal." Zhou Hexuan said happily. After all, he plagiarized Toynbee's great work, and if he could co-sign it, it would more or less be considered as compensation to the original author.

Just as they sailed south, the focus of public opinion across the country was on Chang Kaishen's large-scale disarmament.

In fact, as early as half a year ago, when several major military leaders held a spoils sharing meeting in Tangshan, Chang Kaishen proposed a disarmament plan, and even listed in detail how many military regions the country was divided into.

Li Zongren expressed his opposition on the spot, and said that disarmament is naturally possible, because he was afraid that someone would have selfish intentions.

Feng Yuxiang cheerfully agreed to disarmament, but he wanted to revise Chang Kaishen's disarmament plan. According to Feng Yuxiang's idea, after the disarmament, half of China's army would be the Northwest Army.

Yan Xishan, on the other hand, was in harmony with each other, neither agreeing nor opposing, he was good to both sides, and no one could be offended.

The matter of disarmament was put on hold due to serious disagreements among the four major military leaders.

Whether it was Yan Xishan, or Feng Yuxiang, Li Zongren, and Bai Chongxi, they all believed that Chang Kaishen did not dare to disarm and was just talking.

But what I didn't expect was that since November, Chang Kaishen suddenly began to create public opinion wantonly, and also published the government's annual fiscal revenue and annual military expenditure in newspapers. Now that the people all over the country know the need to disarm, whether they are gentry, celebrities, merchants or scholars, they all expressed their support for the government's disarmament plan, and Chang Kaishen's prestige rose again.

After grasping public opinion and popular support, Chang Kaishen sent a telegram inviting Feng Yuxiang, Yan Xishan and others to Nanjing for a meeting to discuss in detail disarmament.

Several warlords were so angry that their lungs exploded, because Chang Kaishen played too much, this is to kidnap public opinion and force them to surrender military power.

If Chang Kaishen's disarmament is out of public interest, maybe these warlords will support it. But the problem is that Chang Kaishen does not disarm himself. He cuts most of other people's armies, but his own army only cuts some random troops of cats and dogs.

It's too ugly to eat!

In mid-December, Feng Yuxiang, Li Zongren, and Bai Chongxi ignored Chang Kaishen, but Yan Xishan happily ran to Nanjing.

This year, the Nanjing Nationalist Government had just established the China Central Radio Station. Yan Xishan personally spoke on the radio station, expressing his support for the government's disarmament plan and his willingness to put aside personal gains and losses and contribute to the prosperity of China.

For a time, Yan Xishan became famous, even overshadowing Chang Kaishen, and everyone praised him as a patriotic warlord.

Well, no matter how the disarmament is, anyway, Yan Xishan has established a positive image, and this wave of business is not a loss.

Waiting left and right, Yan Xishan waited from mid-December to the end of December, and Feng Yuxiang and others have not yet come to Nanjing for the meeting. Yan Xishan was not in a hurry, and said to his wife: "Mr. Zhou will get married in a few days, let's go to Shanghai and come back."

By the way, you can also go to Shanghai to give a patriotic speech. Yan Laoxi doesn't want to lose money. In order for Chang Kaishen to disarm smoothly, he must help Yan Xishan with publicity. Our Minister Yan came to the south to invite his name.