Beiping, No. 30 Chunshu Hutong. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ

A simple courtyard house, this is where Gu Hongming lived in his later years.

The French doctor took off the needle of the syringe, carefully put it in the iron box, and said regretfully: "Mr. Gu, there is really nothing I can do, this is the last injection." ”

"Doctor, what's wrong with my father?" Gu Shouyong asked worriedly.

The French doctor said: "At first, it was just a common cold, but now it has turned into pneumonia. ”

Gu Shouyong was immediately extremely angry and asked, "What kind of quack doctor are you?" After taking your medicine and taking your injection, not only did the person not get better, but the condition became more and more serious! ”

"Mr. Koo is too old and his physical functions have deteriorated. Even if I didn't have this cold, I'm afraid it would ......" The French doctor didn't finish his words, but the meaning was already clear.

Gu Shouyong seemed to have no strength in his body, and said in a low voice: "There is really no way? ”

"Ahem, ahem, ahem......"

Gu Hongming on the bed coughed repeatedly, opened his eyes and said: "People will die eventually, and they will die early and late, so why cry and mourn?" Come on, good boy, give your dad a smile! ”

Gu Shouyong grinned, but that smile was more ugly than crying.

"It's not promising," Gu Hongming said, "Get out of your way, what should you do, Lao Tzu won't die for a while!" ”

Gu Shouyong dared to leave half a step, and was reprimanded by his father a few more words before he said: "I'll go and shoot a telegram and call Nengyi and Wenjin back." ”

Gu Hongming immediately stopped: "Don't go, they all have their own business." When I die, I will die, don't delay my children and grandchildren. ”

"Then I'll help you decoct Chinese medicine."

Gu Shouyong found an excuse and immediately went to the telegraph office to inform his children and asked them to come to Peking to laugh one last time.

When Gu Shouyong came back from outside, he saw his father lying on the bed struggling to read, so he called the servant and scolded him loudly: "My lord is sick like this, and you still let him read?" Who took the book? ”

"Yes...... He is a professor at Peking University. The servant replied.

"Ahem," Gu Hongming said weakly, "Shouyong, come here, help me read it." I was dizzy and couldn't really see. ”

Gu Shouyong was about to cry, and persuaded: "Father, you can recuperate with peace of mind, and then read when you are well." ”

Gu Hongming said: "For me, books are good medicine. Read! ”

Gu Shouyong wiped his tears and took the book from his father's hand, only to see that the book was called "Guns, Bacteria and Steel", and he immediately opened it and read it aloud: "Preface - Mr. Gu's problem. For the peoples of different parts of the world......"

Gu Hongming had been suffering from a fever and a dizzy head. But at this moment, he instantly regained his clarity, he closed his eyes, listened carefully to his son's reading, and did not cough for several hours in a row.

Gu Shouyong's throat was dry, he looked at the sky outside and said, "Father, let's eat first, I'll help you serve a bowl of porridge." ”

"Well, go ahead. cough cough cough cough ......"

Gu Hongming coughed loudly again, coughing endlessly, and spit out a few mouthfuls of bloodshot thick phlegm from time to time.

Father and son listened to each other, read one by one, and read repeatedly in some key places.

Three full days passed, and when Gu Shouyong finished reading the book, Gu Hongming suddenly hissed and laughed: "Hahaha, good book, good book!" Ahem......"

Coughing and coughing, suddenly there was no sound.

……

Liang Qichao's health is also not good, he has suffered from uremia for many years, and he has to run to Union Hospital several times a month.

Tianjin Concession, the Italian style street of later generations, there is a small white western-style building, Liang Qichao gave this building a nice name - ice room.

Liang Qichao had resigned from his professorship at Tsinghua University, because his body could not support it, so he simply retired to Tianjin to recuperate with peace of mind, and at the same time wrote the last book of his life, "Xin Jiaxuan Annals".

One morning, Liang Qichao took the train to Beiping, and after a routine examination at Union Hospital, he went to Tsinghua Garden to meet his old friends.

"Ren Gong, I'm here early today!" Wang Guowei clenched his fists and smiled.

Wang Guowei should have committed suicide by diving last year, but the appearance of Zhou Hexuan brought changes. His son did not die of illness, his daughter-in-law was not picked up by his in-laws, and Wang Guowei did not completely fall out with his in-laws Luo Zhenyu because of this.

So, he was still alive and well, without the slightest thought of suicide.

Liang Qichao sat down and drank tea and said: "Yesterday I finished reading Mingcheng's new work, and I was quite insightful." ”

Wang Guowei shook his head and smiled bitterly: "That book "Guns, Bacteria and Steel" is even more bizarre than "The Rise of a Great Power", it is actually talking about the evolution of human society, which seems to be history rather than history, I don't understand it very well. ”

"It's not that you don't understand, but you're not interested," Liang Qichao said with a smile, "The brilliance of Mingcheng's professional treatise lies in standing on a high vantage point, standing above the clouds and overlooking the earth." The books you and I write are the ones who look at the leopard, and his books are in control. Mingcheng's talent is rare in the world and has to be admired. ”

Wang Guowei waved his hand and said: "Anyway, I can read the clouds and mountains and fog covers, and there are all kinds of foreign names in it, names of people, places, countries, and clans...... And one by one they are so long that they make me dizzy. ”

"Hahaha, when I studied oracle bone inscriptions before, I never saw you dizzy," Liang Qichao said with a smile, "What I appreciate most about Mingcheng's book is that he gives a long chain of explanations from geography, ecology, production, medicine, to system, culture and technology for the highly complex civilization evolved by human beings in Eurasia." In the final chapter of the book, he analyzes and predicts China's future. ”

"Oh?" Wang Guowei was surprised, "I didn't see what he wrote at the end?" ”

Liang Qichao said: "I talked about China's future system, one-party dictatorship, and democratic centralism. He said that China is too big, has too many people, and is too backward in economy, military, science and technology, and education, and that if China wants to develop rapidly, it must have a strong centralized government. But centralization is not the same as dictatorship, but there must be a ...... How to put it, it's like the center of power like the Ming Dynasty cabinet. ”

Wang Guowei frowned and said, "Why can't it be a multi-party republic like the United States?" ”

Liang Qichao said: "In the book, he analyzed the current situation of the United States, saying that the United States is actually a deformed oligarchy, and no matter how many political parties there are, they will serve a few capitalists. However, if China implements a multi-party system, it will inevitably have endless disputes and cause serious internal friction. As for the specific arguments, you can read the book yourself, and you can't say it in a few words. ”

"In this way, it sounds like he is bragging for the Kuomintang in the south, and it won't cause Zhang Zuolin's dissatisfaction, right?" Wang Guowei worried.

"That's not all, it's just a purely academic point of view," Liang Qichao said with a smile, "There is not only the political system in it, but also the economic aspect." He proposed that the liberal capitalism of Europe and the United States had serious loopholes, and that the Soviet model would eventually collapse, and that it was the best choice to take the best of the two...... Haha, anyway, the whole absurd statement is absolutely difficult to achieve in the current situation. ”

"I'm afraid this book will cause a lot of controversy." Wang Guowei said.

Not to mention the controversy, as soon as "Guns, Bacteria and Steel" was published, Zhou Hexuan was sprayed with blood by countless scholars, and the reason is the final chapter on China's future.