It is always slow at the beginning, but it becomes very fast at the end, which is Yang Rui's feeling before he left office. In the New Year of the sixteenth year of Shenwu, he felt that after a few meals, it would pass, and as soon as the Lantern Festival passed, it would soon be the day of the transfer of power, because the Qingming Festival was on February 14, so the last day was routinely set on February 13, which was the last day of his term, and after the Qingming holiday, the fourth cabinet premier Song Jiaoren would officially work.

In the morning, when Cheng Ying helped pack his official uniform, Yang Rui thought for some reason that the Kuomintang in history also succeeded in the Northern Expedition in 27 and 28 years, and then symbolically obtained national power, and did not want history to repeat itself now, so he still had to hand over power to the Kuomintang at this time.

Yang Rui wanted to laugh when he thought of this, but Cheng Ying, who helped him tidy up his official uniform, thought of another thing, and glared at him and scolded: "I'm thinking about your sassy fox again." ”

"Nothing." Yang Rui looked stunned and quickly denied it. At this time, it was almost over, Yang Wuming also came over in a dress, and he said with a smile: "Nameless is here, in front of the child, you can save a few decent copies." ”

Yang Wuming finally grew up, good nutrition, strict education, and prominent family background made him a handsome son. It's a pity that he's a cripple, and it's because of this that family affairs become quite a headache.

"You are disrespectful to the old, and you are still ......decent" Cheng Ying finally finished her official uniform, even so, she had to complain again before letting go. She is also starting to get old, the crow's feet at the corners of her eyes and the folds on her abdomen, only her temperament is still luxurious.

glanced at his wife, then at Yang Wuming, and finally found that useless and unregrettable with his little daughter Wuhua was standing at the top of the stairs, Yang Rui smiled: "What do you see?" As a father, he resigned and retired today. There will be time to teach you a lesson. ”

A big family! A real family! Yang Rui, who was born as an only child, used to think of this word often indescribable, but now he has a large family (this does not include Lu Mei. Her solution to the matter is to take advantage of the loopholes in the law and register her marriage on Sakhalin Island in the northeast after her term of office ends). The sense of responsibility and warmth is intoxicating. After scaring the three small ones, Yang Rui went to the Wenhua Hall accompanied by Yang Wuming, where there will be a farewell press conference, followed by a royal banquet, after the resignation of His Majesty, he will no longer be an official, except for the name of the Duke of Zhenguo, he is just a representative of the Li Fan Yuan.

All the roads in the capital were cleaned today, and people walking birds for morning exercise gathered in front of the radio in the teahouse. Everyone knows that today is the last day of the Prime Minister's term and that the Prime Minister will have a farewell speech in the morning. Although everyone is reluctant to do this, the prime minister is setting rules for future generations and setting the foundation for China for all eternity.

Damucang Hutong is not far from the Forbidden City, and the Huangqi official car passed by slowly, and it took less than 20 minutes to reach Donghua Gate. The journey is not special, but as soon as you get out of the Damucang Hutong, the road is full of people, standing on the side of the road and watching the car go to the Forbidden City. This couldn't help but make Yang Rui's heart hot, now that the people are on the streets, I am afraid that there will be a sea of people after leaving His Majesty at noon.

"Prime Minister......" Yang Rui can think of this. Secretary Li Zilong could also think that he was worried that there were too many people and there were hidden dangers to Yang Rui's safety.

"Don't be afraid." Yang Rui didn't care about the safety when he returned home at noon, and whoever dared to do it in this situation at this time would only arouse the anger of the people across the country. Chen Qimei and others, Du Wen and others, there are still some brains.

After the car entered the Donghua Gate, it stopped steadily in the Huangji Palace Square. The delegations of the Inspector's Court and the Lifan Yuan surrounded the car, and Zhang Jian opened the car door amid the applause of everyone. The next premier, Song Jiaoren, helped Yang Rui get out of the car. He only stood firm on his side, and as soon as he became an ambassador to China, he was attacked. The British ambassador, Sir Eston, congratulated him in English. Yang Rui listened to it but was a little funny, what is there to congratulate when he stepped down, it should be Song Jiaoren who wants to be congratulated today.

I thought there would be a short break, but I didn't want everything to be arranged under the preparation of the new cabinet. The seats have been lined up outside the Imperial Palace, and the radio broadcast is ready, and the reporters who have been waiting for a long time have taken pictures of Yang Rui who is surrounded by everyone, and then the Praetorian Guard soldiers who are maintaining order are anxiously questioned, but Yang Rui has no intention of answering this. After everyone settled, Wang Jitong, the speaker of the House of Lords of the United Kingdom, who was the host of the press conference, began to speak.

"Distinguished ambassadors and gentlemen, distinguished deputies, journalists, and people: Today is the day when you leave office, and you can think of the ragged days of the founding of the People's Republic of China and look at the majesty of China today. Huang Jun Yuanyong, the chief writer of the Imperial Daily, lamented that a glorious era was about to pass, but Yu believed that this was only the beginning of a glorious era. (Applause) Okay. The protagonist of today's press conference is Jingcheng, and Yu will not be noisy, and I will invite Jingcheng to make the last speech during the premiership's tenure. ”

I didn't expect Wang Jitong to stay in the Li Fan Yuan for a long time, and his agitation ability was so strong. When he said this, the hundreds of witnesses in the audience applauded enthusiastically. Although the press conference was outside the Imperial Palace, only the rostrum was set up in the corridor, but the applause still caused bursts of echoes in the hall.

The bright sun of early spring shone on Yang Rui's face, and he stood in the corridor of the Imperial Palace, outside which were foreign envoys listening intently, representatives of the Imperial Court of Justice, and Chinese and foreign reporters holding paper, pens and cameras. This situation suddenly reminded him of a dream he had a long, long time ago, that dream was vague, and he remembered it vaguely for more than twenty years, but it was certain that although the environment he was in now was somewhat similar to that dream, the scene was completely different.

Why is this happening? Yang Rui was uncertain. With his future arrangements, he will stay in Tonghua for the rest of his life, and once the domestic political situation is properly arranged, it will operate according to the existing procedures, and there is no need for him to go out again. Now that he can't confirm that dream more than 20 years ago, does that mean that he will go out of the mountain in the future? Or maybe the dream was just a dream, and there was no question of corroboration......

Yang Rui was serious when he was thinking, but under the gaze of hundreds of eyes, his seriousness made the smiles on everyone's faces retract. It was only when he opened his mouth to speak that everyone's expressions relaxed a little.

"Since the establishment of the Revival Association in Shanghai Ruyi in the first nine years of Shenwu, every Revival member will ask a question before joining the Association: What is the Revival Society reviving? At that time, the Manchu dictatorship, the interpretation at that time was to revive the country; Then, China was founded, the war was won, and the economy developed. The people's food and clothing cannot be said to be worry-free, but at least many people are well fed and warm. And there will be more and more such people, more and more common, at this point. Does this mean that the mission of the Revival Society is over?

I said, 'No! Far from it, the Revival Society's mission is far from over. ’

The country is only a manifestation of human civilization, and there have been so many dynasties for thousands of years, but China is still China. Therefore, standing at the height of civilization, what is happening in the land of China at present is insignificant and not worth mentioning. The ancient Egyptians also had a prosperous era when everyone had enough food and clothing, and the ancient Greeks once galloped the Aegean Sea and were invincible. The ancient Babylonians were rich in oil and built amazing hanging gardens, and the ancient Romans ruled all of Europe, and the Mediterranean Sea was just his inner lake. But when their civilization weakened, they all disappeared, leaving behind huge pyramids, countless stone temple walls, and a thick collection of splendid texts.

There is life and there is death, and there is a beginning and an end. Seventeen years ago, I said that Western civilization was weakening, but I did not dare to say so. In fact, Chinese civilization is on the verge of death......"

There has long been a consensus at the top of the Revival Society that Chinese civilization is on the verge of dying or has long since died, but Yang Rui said this to many representatives of the two houses, Chinese and foreign envoys, and reporters at this time, and even to the telecasts with countless listeners, which is really chilling. As soon as he spoke, the audience was shocked, and Wang Jitong, who was as steady as Wang Jitong, also looked at him with his mouth open. Be terrified by his words.

"Yes, that's right, it's a near-death experience." Yang Rui repeated with certainty. He raised his hands to suppress everyone's doubts, and then said, "And." It's not the first time, it's the second time. ”

Look at the crowd that is gradually settling down. Yang Ruicai said: "No matter how objective, no matter how out of the matter, no matter how much the heart is like water, I have to marvel: how much God favors China!" Because no civilization has a chance to be reborn after the catastrophe, they, the ancient Egyptians, the ancient Babylonians, the ancient Greeks, the ancient Romans, when the civilization weakened, they all disappeared in the long river of history, and we alone survived!

I once said that there are five eras in any civilization, starting with the feudal era, then the Spring and Autumn era, the Warring States era, then the imperial era, and finally the declining era. In terms of cultural theory, it can be called: the age of religion, the age of philosophy, the age of philosophical factions, the age of philosophical extinction or academicization, and finally the era of civilization rupture.

These five eras will be completed, and from the perspective of Chinese and foreign civilizations, it will be about 1,600 to 2,000 years. For example, the Western Ocean we see now is a civilization rebuilt after the barbarian invasion of Rome, and ancient Rome has disappeared and has been replaced by new populations. If we count from the fall of the Roman Empire, Western civilization has been around for 1,500 years, and they are now in the Warring States period, which is also the era of philosophical schooling.

The Sengoku period was characterized by the fact that all people were soldiers, but correspondingly, another kind of thinking was also being nurtured - that is, why can't the world be at peace forever? The ultimate answer to the question of how to make the world permanently peaceful is to build a unified empire. I can assert here that, despite the great animosity between France and Germany, if another world war breaks out, France and Germany will eventually be reconciled, the European continent will evolve into an alliance, and the disputes between countries will be resolved by vote in the European Parliament.

Only in this way can the wars between nations be averted, but this is tantamount to pushing Western civilization in the direction of death, because the alliance will eventually evolve into an empire, and the empire will eventually decline like ancient Rome. It is not difficult to imagine that the submissive subjects of the empire, who have no idea how to fight, will be ruled by tribes from Africa and the Middle East that were temporarily regarded as backward peoples by the civilized world, just as the decaying Roman Empire was destroyed by barbarians 1,500 years ago.

That's it, this is the cycle of life and death of civilization. If the Western nations did not abandon their prejudices and did not do their best to stop the Second World War, then post-war Europe would inevitably move towards a de facto unification, because the people were tired of the war, and in this unification it would eventually enter the age of empires until its eventual demise.

Such a result would be a sorrow for all mankind, for it was the West that led the whole world when the civilization of the East was in decline, and they created a splendid civilization, but all this is as Lord Grey said before the Great War in Europe: 'The lights of the whole of Europe are extinguished, and we will not see them again in our lives.' ’

Like other civilizations, our first civilization began with tribes, and our ancestors used stone tools at the beginning. After the use of bronze, to be moved to the pan Geng. Fang entered the feudal era, which was more than 3,200 years ago; Then came the Spring and Autumn Period, which was also the philosophical era from 2,600 years ago to 2,300 years ago. During this period, although there were wars, they were all battles for hegemony, not battles for the destruction of the country, until the destruction of the Wu State by Goujian, the king of Yue, officially entered the Warring States Period, and more and more factions began to appear in philosophy, and the war became life-and-death, equivalent to the European war a few years ago.

The public opinion at that time was also the same as it is now. We hate war and advocate peace, but in the end the only way to achieve real peace is reunification. Two thousand one hundred and forty-eight years ago, in the twenty-sixth year of the reign of King Qin, King Jian of Qi surrendered without a fight, and since then the six kingdoms have been destroyed, the world has been unified, and the era of empire has begun. The Qin Dynasty was destroyed, followed by the Han Dynasty, and there was no need for a new philosophy during this period. What is wanted is the art of domination, so the hundred schools of thought are silent, leaving only Confucianism, Taoism, and Yin and Yang, and the Confucian students of the Han Dynasty can only learn and teach. Nothing was created.

By the time of the Han and Emperor He, the empire had begun to decline: internal politics were corrupted, foreign nations were growing, and northern Xinjiang had become a Hu colony. The martial spirit of the nation disappeared, and the army was basically dominated by Hu people. Forced by internal and external forces. The Qiang Rebellion, the Disaster of the Party, the Yellow Turban Rebellion, the Rebellion of the Ten Standing Servants, the Rebellion of Dong Zhuo, and the Rebellion of Li Dao Guo Yan were devastated by these turmoil. The world was divided, the empire existed in name only, and finally the Western Jin Dynasty was barely unified, but civil strife continued, a hundred years later, the Hu people occupied the Central Plains, and the scholars crossed to the south.

At that time, the Chinese civilization was only in the Central Plains of the Yellow River, and the south was still Baiyue had not yet been sinicized, if the Hu people crossed to the south, then China would have disappeared like ancient Egypt and ancient Rome, but in the battle of Weishui, which decided the fate of civilization, we won.

The starting point of the second round of Chinese civilization was the Battle of Weishui, and it was the Eastern Jin Dynasty that was preserved and the civilization was preserved. After the religious era, that is, the Buddhist era of the Sui and Tang dynasties of the Northern and Southern Dynasties, the philosophical era of the Song Dynasty, and the era of philosophical schools that continued until the end of the Ming Dynasty, to the academic era of the former Qing Dynasty, and finally to the era of westerly wind and civilization rupture that began in the 20th year of Daoguang, this round has come for nearly 1,500 years.

Gentlemen, don't be fooled by the prosperity of the country, from a historical point of view, even the most powerful dynasty has a lifespan of only three hundred years, but the lifespan of a civilization is one or two thousand years. And the era we are in at this time, the node of civilization we are in, should be between the Eastern Jin Dynasty and the Northern and Southern Dynasties. If you ask me, have we won the Second Battle of the Rivers? I can't answer. Maybe we are already in the Northern and Southern Dynasties at this time, maybe we are still in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, but in either case, there will be an answer in the next few decades.

But no matter what state of affairs we are in, we have to introduce new elements into civilization, and we have to enter a long and dark religious age. Don't listen to the lies of those Westernizers, this is not superstition, this is the only way for civilization to be born. These people who preach lies for their own fame and profit do not know that Europe would not have the glorious civilization it has today without the long and dark Middle Ages; And if we did not have Buddhism, which flourished in the Northern and Southern Dynasties, we would not have the great Sui and Tang dynasties and the Neo-Confucianism that originated in the Song Dynasty.

These are the fruits of the introduction of elements of civilization and the long-term breeding and contact. Unfortunately, the Northern and Southern Dynasties only lasted for a short period of two hundred years, which made our civilization begin to decline after five generations. Today, we are no longer introducing Buddhism, we are introducing the rational thinking of ancient Greece and the science that developed from rational thinking. Instead of fearing that it will upend our civilization, or rushing to dominate our civilization, we must remember that if we profligate too soon, we will die as quickly as the second round of civilization.

What is the revival going to revivenation? It is not only the country that is being revived, but also our civilization, and that is our ultimate mission.

Therefore, we must beware of those Westernizers, who are either mere utilitarians or blind to civilization, and who cannot see the direction of history at all. They praise the West from the bottom of their hearts, hoping that we will become the West, but they are completely unaware that the splendid civilization is like a beautiful firework, and at this time the West is burning the fuel it has accumulated in the long Middle Ages, and once the fuel is burned, it will leave behind nothing but huge pyramid-like buildings;

We also need to beware of those who are in a hurry. There is nothing more stupid than the cultivation of civilization for thousands of years, and before it is fully conceived, it is necessary to compete for the hegemony of the world in Asia, and to show off its military power in the international arena. We can indeed fight for hegemony, to declare that it is our colony, that it is our sphere of influence, but soon, the price of hegemony will follow, and when the energy of civilization is exhausted, not only the whole country, but also the entire civilization will also die;

In order to revive civilization, we must pay attention to many, many things, and we must warn for a long, long time, if we want to put it simply, it is only one sentence: externally, we should not do anything except protect ourselves; Internally, really go to faith and live a steady life.

Ladies and gentlemen, respectable and poor citizens of Great China: please cherish everything you have now, please be grateful to those who have sacrificed for this, and even more so please get rid of vanity and cowardice, love what you cherish, and protect what you have. Well, that's it, the ancestors bless China! Thank you! ”

'Smack... Applause ...... first sporadically, then fierce applause – no one thought that Yang Rui's farewell speech would resemble an academic lecture, and the thoughts it provoked made everyone not realize that the lecture was over. Only the British ambassador, Sir Eston, was the first to applaud after Yang Rui said thank you, and his favorite sentence in the whole speech was 'We should not do anything to the outside world except to protect ourselves', which is equivalent to saying that although Yang Rui has stepped down, China's foreign policy remains the same, and Asia will be a stable Asia, and the British colonies in the Far East and India will be safe and sound.

France and Germany are indeed very hostile as Yang Rui said, but if they really want to fight a war as tragic as before, the people may really think about reconciliation between the two countries. Will Europe really be united? That's what they think about afterward.

Among the ambassadors, the only ones who were uncomfortable with Yang Rui's speech were Japanese Ambassador Kenkichi Yoshizawa and U.S. Ambassador Ma Murui, the former was worried that this was Yang Rui's truth, China and Japan had intended to open up the South Seas before, and if they really wanted to do nothing to the outside world, how could they open up? And the American thug you Ma Murui is worried that 500 million Chinese will all become infidels, so that the Lamb of the Lord will become fewer and fewer, until it disappears completely.

The ambassadors had different thoughts, but most of the representatives of the Mystery Academy and the Rifan Yuan were happy. For these representatives who have families and businesses, fighting every day and fighting for hegemony every year is the most annoying thing, but now they can do nothing but protect themselves, that is, they can live a good life and do business well. (To be continued.) )