Chapter 816 815【July】

Kong Xiangxi has gained a lot in the UK. The British financial department and the Bank of England are interested in reaching further cooperation with China. There are two aspects of cooperation between the two parties. One is that the UK provides loans to China to build railways, and the other is that China issues bonds in the UK.

After staying in London for about a month, Kong Xiangxi finalized the general cooperation framework, and only the specific details were left. Kong Xiangxi did not need to personally intervene in these matters. He left behind a few negotiators from the Ministry of Railways and the Ministry of Commerce, and then took his wife and children to the United States - and still had to find a way to fight with Roosevelt.

While Kong Xiangxi was working hard, Zhou Hexuan was not idle either. While narrating the "I Ching" to Pound, he was invited to participate in various lectures and speech activities, repeatedly reminding the British that Japan was destroying world peace and destroying British interests in Asia.

As for how effective it will be, Zhou Hexuan doesn't know. Anyway, through his speeches and propaganda, many ordinary British people know that there is a country called Japan in the Far East, which only cares about foreign aggression and expansion all day long.

At this time, the whole of Europe was in a period of widespread peace thoughts. Japan, which is keen on destroying peace, has given the British people an extremely bad impression. At least British public opinion is on China's side.

This is important because British politicians need votes and they more or less listen to public opinion.

In early June, Zhou Hexuan left London with his wife and daughter and sailed to Italy.

Mr. Pound, who became obsessed with practicing the "Book of Changes", actually had the idea of ​​settling in China. This time he returned to Italy and planned to move with his wife. As for the two mistresses, they can get together and get away easily, give them some money for alimony, and there is no need to worry about the rest.

For Pound, moving was normal.

He was an American. Because he admired Fenollosa's literary ideas, he moved to England to settle down, and by the way he became Yeats's student. After living in England for more than ten years, I yearned for French literature and art, so I moved to France to settle down. After living in Paris for three years, he disliked the materialism here and instead appreciated Mussolini's fascist ideas, so he moved to Italy and has settled there until now.

Now, Pound is obsessed with the "Book of Changes" and Chinese culture, so he simply took his wife to live in China for a few years.

When Wanrong arrived from Germany to join them, everyone finally set off, and it was already early July when they arrived in Shanghai.

Many major events happened this month, and the biggest event was the launch of the Lushan negotiations between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party.

Duke Zhou personally took the anti-Japanese program of cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party to Lushan to hold talks with Chang Kaishen. Chang Kaishen opened his mouth and proposed: First, establish the National Revolutionary League, which will be composed of cadres selected by the Kuomintang and the Communist Party, with Chiang Kai-shek as the chairman and have the final decision-making power; second, comprehensively reorganize the Red Army, with the Communist Party as division commander and the Kuomintang as division commander. For deputy positions, Zhu and Mao must go abroad to study abroad; thirdly, for the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region Government, the Nanjing government appoints full-time officials.

The Communist Party responded: The Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region will implement democratic elections. It will recommend Zhang Ji, Song Ziwen, and Yu You, and choose one of them to serve as the chief executive of the border region. At the same time, it will not abandon the basic principle of democratic elections for the National Assembly. The Red Army can be reorganized and I hope that Chiang Kai-shek will establish a military headquarters. The reorganized Red Army must be commanded by Mr. Zhu. Mao Zu expressed his willingness to go abroad, but must wait for the right time before leaving.

To facilitate negotiations, radio stations were opened in Nanjing and Yan'an.

The two sides went back and forth, but Chiang Kai-shek refused to let go. The Communist Party could only give in step by step. That is, the Communist Party used the name of the political training agency to command the Red Army. Mr. Zhu could not be the military commander, but he must serve as the director of the Political Training Department of the Red Army. . This is the final bottom line. If Mr. Zhu cannot serve as the director of political training, the Red Army will bypass the Nanjing government and reorganize itself.

Negotiations failed and ended.

As far away as North China, the Japanese army conducted many exercises at Marco Polo Bridge and Wanping Hetao, with their troops directed towards Peiping. The headquarters of the Kwantung Army, the Governor-General's Office of North Korea, the headquarters of the Chinese Garrison Army, and the president of the Manchurian Railway held a meeting in Dalian. The situation of invading China was becoming increasingly serious.

Such a violent action by the Japanese army made Song Zheyuan and Han Fuju immediately nervous, but they each took a chance and believed that the Japanese army would not take action easily, and at most it would be a threat of force as before.

Shanghai, dock.

There is a group of intellectuals who are waiting hard for Zhou Hexuan to return to China, including Xu Zhimo, Lu Xiaoman, Chen Mengjia, Sun Dayu, Lin Yutang, Shao Xunmei, Xiang Meili and so on.

Xu Zhimo is still so indecisive. His marriage to Lu Xiaoman is in name only, but they still live together. But it was better than before. He occasionally went home to visit his father, ex-wife and son.

I don’t know what he is worried about, but Xu Zhimo is unwilling to remarry Zhang Youyi, even though the two are getting along very harmoniously now.

Let’s talk about the pair of Shao Xunmei and Xiang Meili. Standing on the pier, they are more eye-catching than Xu Zhimo and Lu Xiaoman. One is a prodigal son of a wealthy family and a great poet, and the other is a glamorous and beautiful woman, who happens to be having an extramarital affair. This combination is quite rare even in the 21st century.

Shao Xunmei's reputation in Shanghai is not much inferior to that of Xu Zhimo. Even Lu Xun wrote an article during his lifetime: "Shao Xunmei has a rich family and a wealthy wife. He uses his dowry money to make literary capital."

Shao Xunmei's first wife, Sheng Peiyu, was Sheng Xuanhuai's granddaughter, and he himself was Sheng Xuanhuai's grandson. When cousins ​​get married, they become closer to each other. This is where Lu Xun’s saying that “there is a rich wife from a wealthy family” comes from.

(Hey, why are they descendants of Sheng Xuanhuai again...)

In fact, Mr. Lu Xun did not hit the mark this time because Shao Xunmei himself is a third-generation official. His grandfather reached the first rank of government and served successively as governor of Hunan and Taiwan. His father also served as the supervisor of the Steamship Merchants Bureau. The family was so rich that there was no need to spend his wife's dowry money.

This guy is particularly good at gambling, and he often wins or loses tens of thousands. But he also looked down on gamblers in the market and liked "elegant gambling". The more he lost, the better the poems he wrote. He was known as the "Poet of Gambling Country".

Shao Xunmei can be described by four characters: handsome man, libertine, rich man, and talented man.

The hooligans are not to be feared, but the hooligans are literate.

The prodigal son is not to be feared. I am afraid that the prodigal son is handsome, rich and talented.

For people like Shao Xunmei, having everything at their fingertips is really boring. The entire Shanghai cultural and art circle, except for left-wing literati, were all his friends. Even the former mayor of Nanjing was his friend, and he was specially invited to be the secretary to the mayor of the capital. However, Mr. Shao quit the job after three months. He felt that being an official was really boring.

"Coming, coming!" Chen Mengjia pointed forward and said.

Xu Zhimo immediately said happily: "Let's go and greet him quickly. We must surround Mingcheng to prevent Xiaoxiao from assassinating him, and don't let him be harmed by Japanese agents."

Sun Dayu laughed loudly and said: "Haha, today we are all joining the army as bodyguards!"

The assassination of Zhou Hexuan a few months ago was really a big deal. Almost regardless of left or right, the entire Chinese literary world at that time was spontaneously criticizing the shameless behavior of the Japanese.

Zhou Hexuan himself is also regarded as an idol in the literary world, with a heroic aura of "Thousands of people will leave me". Nowadays, I don’t know how many passionate young people are willing to stand up and sacrifice their lives to block the gun for Mr. Zhou.

When Zhou Hexuan was assassinated, Xu Zhimo was giving lectures in Peking and often regretted that he was not in Nanjing at that time. Now that school was on summer vacation, Xu Zhimo gathered a group of friends and rushed to the dock to pick up Zhou Hexuan's boat.

"Mingcheng!" Xu Zhimo waved excitedly.

Zhou Hexuan cupped his fists and said with a smile: "Brother Zhimo, Brother Nanzai, Brother Mingchuan, Cousin Yu... Long time no see, everyone!"

Xu Zhimo said happily: "Mingcheng, let me introduce you. This is the poet Mr. Shao Xunmei, and this is the American writer Miss Xiang Meili."

"I am a poet of the country. I have admired his name for a long time," Zhou Hexuan said with a smile, "Hello, Miss Xiang!"

"Hello Mr. Zhou!"

Shao Xunmei and Xiang Meili both stepped forward to shake hands.

Vivien Leigh and Wan Rong were following behind, and everyone quickly greeted them, finally focusing on the Pounds.

Zhou Hexuan introduced: "This is Mr. Ezra Pound and his wife..."

"Pound!"

"Elliot's best friend Pound?"

Before Zhou Hexuan could finish speaking, the group of literati had already exclaimed.

Eliot has become very famous in Chinese poetry circles in recent years. Take Xu Zhimo, for example. He used to admire Tagore the most, but now he highly respects Eliot. Eliot's greatest poem was clearly given to his close friend Pound, who is also very famous in China.

Even without Eliot, Xu Zhimo still knew Pound.

When Xu Zhimo was studying in England, Pound was a dazzling figure in the British poetry circle, and he often wished he could meet him in person.

While studying the "Book of Changes", Pound was also practicing Chinese. At this moment, he smiled and said hello in Chinese: "Hello everyone, I am Pound. I am very happy to meet my Chinese friends."

I have seen many big figures in foreign literature, but not many who can speak Chinese. Pound's current performance made Chinese poets overjoyed, and they gathered around to communicate.

Pang De feels very happy, they are all his Chinese speaking partners...

Everyone laughed for a moment and took a car to Xu Zhimo's house. They encountered a crazy crowd of demonstrators on the way.

Pang De was a little curious and asked: "Zhou, why are they marching?"

Zhou Hexuan looked at the various slogans in the crowd and replied: "Last year, seven famous patriots were arrested and imprisoned by the Chinese government. The parade in front of us is asking the authorities to release them."

"So that's it." Pang De nodded.

The "Seven Gentlemen Incident" has been going on for more than a year. Demonstrations are held every now and then across the country, and the number of demonstrations has been increasing recently.

Because just half a month ago, the Kuomintang authorities publicly tried the case of Seven Gentlemen, and the charges were full of loopholes. One of the most outrageous charges was that the Seven Gentlemen conspired to contact Zhang Xueliang to initiate the Xi'an Incident.

This is really hell. When the Xi'an Incident happened, the Seven Gentlemen had been arrested for half a year. How could they have the ability to contact Zhang Xueliang in prison?

The trial was supposed to be held in secret, but because there were too many protesters, the court had no choice but to allow family members of the Seven Gentlemen and reporters to observe. Many newspapers reported the trial in detail. As soon as the news was released, the whole country was in an uproar, which led to the current parade.

Arriving at Xu Zhimo's home, Lu Xiaoman greeted the servants and entertained the distinguished guests.

Xu Zhimo said excitedly: "Today, Mingcheng returns to China and Mr. Pound is here. Why don't we hold a grand poetry salon!"

Zhou Hexuan suddenly smiled and said: "In my name, I summon all poets in Shanghai, regardless of left or right, and let's discuss poetry creation together."

Xu Zhimo was stunned for a moment, then nodded: "Okay!"

The July 7th Incident was about to break out, and Zhou Hexuan decided to do something to prevent poets like Xu Zhimo and Shao Xunmei from not knowing what to do.

What should I do?

Of course, write patriotic poems, anti-Japanese poems, and national salvation poems!