Weng Wenhao, the fourth prime minister of the Great China State who stood on the warship and listened to the salute, did not care what kind of comments would be brought by the eyes painted on the warship, in fact, even if he knew, he could not do anything - originally he wanted to visit the United States on an aircraft carrier with a displacement of 27,000 tons, but the navy obviously did not give face, and they only sent three Hongyuan-class heavy cruisers as the ships for this trip on the grounds of military secrets, although the number was more than the number required by the Prime Minister's Office, but this still made the people on this trip dissatisfied.

"......, the New York Overseas Chinese will write and ......feast at the New York Overseas Chinese Meeting, and the New York Police Department is preparing to revoke the license of the Overseas Chinese Laundry due to the investigation of illegal immigrants, so it is best to ......," Zhang Xianglin, the consul general of the New York People's Republic of China, reported on the current situation of overseas Chinese in New York, which is precisely the reason why Weng Wenhao did not go ashore in San Francisco, where a serious anti-Chinese incident occurred last month, and more than a dozen overseas Chinese were killed and injured.

"Hey!" The issue of overseas Chinese is the crux of Sino-US diplomacy. As soon as Weng Wenhaofu took office, he had a general understanding of the current situation of overseas Chinese in the United States. According to the Sino-US Treaty of Paris, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs only issued a bride visa (the wives of legal expatriates can go to the United States to take care of their husbands in accordance with the treaty), and at the same time, in order not to make expatriates unemployed, Chinese-funded companies in the United States gave priority to recruiting overseas Chinese, but thanks to the corrupt American legal system, illegal smuggling could not be prohibited, and overseas Chinese were decreasing in numbers, but in fact they were increasing significantly.

The U.S. economy is booming, but as soon as the economic crisis occurs, with the spread of the **** theory, overseas Chinese have become a punching bag for the unemployed in the United States. This is what happened to overseas Chinese. The Japanese are no better, and they are more than 100,000 in number.

"It's still gone." On the one hand, Gu Weijun, the new diplomatic secretary, suggested. "The most important thing about this trip to the United States is the Naval Treaty and the Peace in the Pacific. We can make concessions on the issue of overseas Chinese. ”

"This ...... Is it appropriate? Zhang Xianglin asked, and when he boarded the ship, the leading figure of overseas Chinese was already waiting on the pier.

"The book of 10,000 words can also be accepted. But the meeting banquet is still waived, and we don't want to stay too long in New York, let's go straight to Washington. Gu Weijun said. What he fears most is that before a problem is solved, another trouble will be involved.

On the crowded docks of New York, the military band was preparing to play, and in anticipation, the premier of the Greater China State, Weng Wenhao, finally stepped out of the cabin of the cruiser Mingyuan and appeared on the deck, and the Chinese in the crowd immediately cheered and applauded. And the military band began to play unfamiliar movements.

"It's coming, it's coming!" Several deacons of the New York Federation of Laundry Houses were extremely excited, and when they were notified by the New York City Board of Supervisors for the second time that "those who do not have American citizenship cannot apply for a laundry license", the old relationship of the last time was useless, and once the bill was reviewed and passed by the New York Welfare Committee, all the 8,000 overseas Chinese laundry houses in the city would be closed, and all 17,000 laundry workers (80 percent of whom were stowaways) would be unemployed; and New York's approach was likely to become a model for other cities, and once this happened, tens of thousands of laundry houses in the United States would be destroyed in one fell swoop. Tens of thousands of laundry workers have been displaced.

It is not pleasant in the Yellow River meander. Representatives of New York City welcomed Weng Wenhao and his entourage on the pier, and Weng Wenhao also expressed his gratitude and praise for this great port city. But then things went a little out of order, and several deacons of the Federation heard that the prime minister did not receive them, and they were soon leaving New York. They did not hand over the letter of 10,000 words to the prime minister's entourage, but directly stepped forward to block the car.

"Please make the decision for our grass people!" The deacons stopped the prime minister's motorcade in the street and stood in the middle of the road with a deep bow; And on both sides of the road, they were encouraged to come, 'If you don't have a job, you will cry.' Most of the laundry workers who have to cry when they have work to do (too hard and tired) are kneeling and kowtowing - the vast majority of the more than 10,000 people who come to the dock to welcome them are laundry workers. When they knelt, it was like a rice field suddenly falling down on the rice, and the scene was very spectacular.

"What's going on?" Weng Wenhao saw that the car in front of him suddenly stopped. Seeing the overseas Chinese kneeling on both sides of the road, he suddenly had a creepy feeling, he hadn't seen anyone kneeling for many years, let alone tens of thousands of people.

"Yes......" Secretary General Wu Jingchao, who was sitting in front of the car, looked ahead and saw several Chinese people wearing Chinese clothes standing in the middle of the road, and guessed what was going on at the moment. It should be the one who washes the laundry. He added, "Commander Zhang has gone to persuade him." ”

Hearing that Consul General Zhang Xianglin had gone to persuade him, Weng Wenhao breathed a sigh of relief, but when he saw some American reporters taking pictures of overseas Chinese kneeling along the road, he felt numb all over his body -- after the founding of the People's Republic of China, the kneeling salute in the officialdom had been abolished, but the kneeling ceremony appeared on the other side of the ocean, the most prosperous city in the world, how ironic it was. Is this a civilized country?!

"Aren't you alright?" After waiting in the car for a while, Weng Wenhao finally couldn't help but want to get out of the car.

"It's almost there." Wu Jingchao saw that Zhang Xianglin had already received the letter of 10,000 words, and persuaded several overseas Chinese who were blocking the road to the side of the road.

Weng Wenhao didn't dare to look at both sides of the road, only stared ahead, and when the convoy drove out of the dock area, he took off his monocle and sighed to Gu Weijun next to him: "Shaochuan, when will the Chinese people be able to respect themselves and love themselves?" ”

Why overseas Chinese kneel Gu Weijun is very clear, but he has always been sensible and reasonable, he knows what to say and what not to say, only said: "This is still the old habit of the former Qing Dynasty has not gone, and it will ...... in time."

"In time? What a time! Weng Wenhao remembered all the things since he took office, and suppressed the atmosphere and said: "I used to think that Yang Jingcheng was an enemy, but when I came up, I realized that Yang Jingcheng had long been out of business, and our real enemies were clans and religions, and with these two sects, it would be impossible for the people to have real freedom, and the country would not be able to completely modernize ......."

"Prime Minister ......" Weng Wenhao vented his complaints, and suddenly Wu Jingchao in the front row called him, and then said: "Outside the window!" ”

"Outside the window?" Weng Wenhao thought that he was still a kneeling overseas Chinese, but when he turned his head, he saw a more spectacular scene than the overseas Chinese kneeling just now - a slum that stretched for more than ten miles. He looked at Gu Weijun and watched, and with excellent English, he also saw the words written on those tattered signs: Dawes Village, Roosevelt Street......

Hindered by the houses on both sides of the road, the slum is fleeting. But this made Weng Wenhao forget his previous complaints in an instant. New York is the world's largest city and the world's largest port, but its depression can be seen in the rusty merchant ships moored in the docklands. But I didn't expect the actual situation to be even worse. Roosevelt's New Deal did not, and could not, employ all of the more than 10 million unemployed workers in the United States, according to the CIA report. The New Deal's economic stimulus is failing, and both rich and poor are grumbling. The former are dissatisfied with the rising tax burden, while the latter are angry at the longer queues and fewer handouts.

-- Rising taxes have discouraged the rich from investing, capital flight, and job creation has plummeted, while a large-scale New Deal that cannot be supported by taxes can only be achieved through deficit finance, but the additional issuance of currency to support the deficit has depreciated the dollar and caused prices to rise sharply, making it difficult for households that could barely support themselves to wait for relief. At this time, Roosevelt, who won the election last year by a large vote, had to abandon the unemployed voters who had high hopes for him, fearing that it would cause worse inflation. The tightening of the budget for this year has drastically reduced the size of the number of unemployed workers employed by the New Deal, resulting in the further expansion of slums. And the people have hung on the New Deal, and even if they complain, they have to support the New Deal, which is their only way to live.

In the past few years, there were many articles on Roosevelt's New Deal in China, and the so-called economists in the United States all shouted Long live Roosevelt's New Deal. The Cabinet was almost unanimously rejected by the Cabinet of Governors, which was running a deficit finance, but was dominated by the propertied and wealthy gentry, and the contradictions between the two sides were less intense than the cabinet collapsed. Later, Song Jiaoren was assassinated, and the newly appointed Mu cabinet did the opposite. Implement a tax reduction strategy and make every effort to reduce government spending, ordering government officials to stop raising salaries for three years (5% per year as is customary), banning the recruitment of new staff for three years, and stopping the construction of all government-funded public facilities and government facilities for three years. In addition, at that time, the working meals of government civil servants were all replaced with sweet potatoes (cheap) and soybean products (unsalable), so that officials had to fart routinely every day.

Such an act naturally angered the domestic public opinion, which was full of justice and love. Economists studying in the United States are even more scolding, believing that the new cabinet is a careless disregard for human life and a lackey for the rich. It is a complete disregard for the lives of unemployed workers. But the press could not influence the government's decision, and then the economy gradually improved, and these scolds disappeared completely.

As an intellectual and scientist, Weng Wenhao of course also firmly stood on the side of economists studying in the United States, and wrote an article to support the ideas of Ma Yinchu and others, believing that the Mu cabinet is a representative of a backward and **** group. But now, compared with the United States, which is still in deep economic crisis, he recalls what he did a few years ago, was he wrong?

Of course not! If you are wrong, then justice is wrong, mercy is wrong, and justice and mercy will never be wrong.

On the way to Washington, although he saw more and more beggars and wanderers, as well as more Dawes Village and Roosevelt Town, Weng Wenhao still believed that Roosevelt's New Deal was just. He and his entourage often lamented that without Roosevelt's New Deal, the situation in the United States would have been much worse.

The rose garden at the White House is still beautiful, and President Roosevelt, accompanied by his wife, is listening to a report from Hopkins about the Chinese premier's delegation.

Chinese Premier Weng Weng, although he passed through Yokohama on this trip, did not accept the Japanese government's request and stay, but visited the United States alone. This is very representative of his attitude towards the Japanese government and toward Sino-Japanese relations. The purpose of his visit, based on a briefing by Chinese Ambassador to China Shi, is mainly for peace. When he first campaigned, he advocated the dissolution of the East Asian Alliance, the renegotiation of naval treaties with China and Britain, and the cessation of the arms race......"

"Harry, did the Chinese choose him to come to power just so that he could negotiate?" Roosevelt was using flower scissors to cut the roses lying horizontally on his legs, and when he heard Hopkins talk about the purpose of the Chinese premier's trip, he put down the scissors.

"Yes, sir, the general view of public opinion in China is that the arms race with us must be ended so as not to provoke a large-scale war, and the majority of the representatives of the Chinese National Assembly also hold the view that China will suffer heavy losses in the event of a war." Hopkins Road. "So they elected Weng as the new prime minister instead of the previous Mu, even though he had brought the whole country out of the depression."

Roosevelt felt very uncomfortable at the mention of the depression, he felt that those economists should be shot, and the economy had not only improved in the four years since the New Deal was implemented, but also suffered from New Deal dependence. As a result of three Navy Acts and one Army Bill. This year's national debt will exceed 40 billion yuan and reach 45.3 billion yuan. If this continues, it is estimated that the current term of office will not end. The government would then go bankrupt if it was unable to pay interest on those debts.

"To my surprise, Yang didn't intervene to stop this." Roosevelt, who didn't want to think much about the national debt, mentioned Yang Rui, and if he looked deeper, he still had a relationship with the entire family. "Is he really out of politics and not interfering? If that was the case, then why did he go to Moscow to meet the Bolsheviks? ”

"Sir, it is said that Yang only went to Moscow because of the Eurasian Canal, and he contributed a lot when the canal was able to raise enough funds to start construction." "And he's traveling in a private capacity. During the talks with Stalin, Italy's aggression was mentioned by chance, and the anti-aggression mutual assistance pact appeared. ”

"We don't welcome this treaty." Roosevelt said immediately. "You have to make this clear in the outline of my meeting with Chinese Premier Weng. The Bolsheviks were an evil country, and it would be very uncivilized for China to sign a treaty of mutual assistance with such an evil country. And their signing with the Bolsheviks is very alarming, if China wants to form an alliance with the Bolsheviks against the entire civilized world, or if it wants to stabilize the Western Front and start a war with us in the Pacific. ”

"Yes, sir." Hopkins recorded that he did not dare to mention the failure of the previous US-Soviet alliance proposal.

"Is it possible to know what concessions the Chinese will make in order to sign a naval treaty?" Roosevelt asked again.

"According to Chinese sources, Weng is ready to make concessions on the issue of overseas Chinese, and he is also prepared to make concessions on bilateral trade and quotas for European agricultural products." Hopkins read the news from Beijing. He has almost a complete outline of the Chinese premier's negotiations, and the problems and the bottom line of concessions are all in his eyes.

"It's not enough." Roosevelt took off his glasses and lit a Camel cigarette. "Maybe that's enough for Mr. Dawes, but it's not enough right now. Have you prepared the requirements for me when I talk to the Chinese? Harry? ”

"Yes, sir." Harry Hopkins nodded, "We will ask China to cancel the customs union zone." Tariffs on goods imported from the United States are adjusted to be equal to those of other countries, and are not based on import tariffs on imports into China; They want to abolish the Bank of Asia. Cancellation of the current year's Asian dollar issuance ......; In addition, we also demand that the Chinese government completely lift restrictions on foreign investment in China. Removing democratic restrictions in the country, forming trade unions, enforcing ****, abolishing the state religion, dissolving clans, restricting chaebols, and promising to protect oppressed minorities and recognize their right to establish their own state in due course......

Mr. President, I think the previous ones are enough, and the Chinese will not agree. Hopkins took these requirements prepared by the ****** Office of Asian Affairs, and the more he thought about it, the more he didn't want to read it. Even fools know that it is impossible for the Chinese to agree to these conditions, especially the latter ones.

"No, we have to let the Chinese know from the beginning that we have to pay a heavy price if we want to sign a naval treaty." Roosevelt smoked a cigarette vigorously, and the smoke filled the air, "and it is in line with President Wilson's Fourteen Points of Peace." ”

"Yes, sir." Seeing that the president insisted, Hopkins had to nod. Soon after, the outline of the negotiations was handed over to the Chinese delegation, which had already stayed at the hotel, in accordance with diplomatic practice.

“…… and declared its commitment to protect oppressed minorities and recognize their right to establish their own State in due course. In the hotel where he stayed, Gu Weijun stubbornly read the documents submitted by the perfect party, and his whole body stiffened, which was completely different from the talks between China and the United States in Beijing beforehand, especially the last one, which was simply to split the country of Greater China.

"Are these really the conditions?!" Weng Wenhao was still stunned, and he didn't fully hear the last ones.

"Yes, Prime Minister." Gu Weijun handed over the document. He thought it was very difficult for him to do it, but he didn't expect it to be so difficult. In terms of the above conditions, whoever agrees is a traitor.

Weng Wenhao finally saw the above conditions clearly, his hands trembled, and Secretary General Wu Jingchao's face was bloodless after reading it, and his lips moved several times before he said: "The Americans are not joking, right?" ”

"It's not." Gu Weijun said. "It was personally handed over by Mr. Hopkins, the secretary general of the White House, and there should be no mistakes."

"It seems that the peace talks will not come to fruition." Weng Wenhao's heart was even colder, and any of the things said at the back of the document were enough to make him step down. The joy that lingered after being elected prime minister suddenly disappeared without a trace.

"Prime Minister, do you want to refuse?" Gu Weijun does not provide any advice. He didn't make any comments on it, he didn't want to put the blame on himself. He couldn't afford it.

"I don't know." Weng Wenhao's face was black, and now it finally turned white. But it's bleak. For him, to refuse is to step down, and the peace speech he delivered at the Inspectorate two months ago is still loud in his ears, in which he described the United States as a peaceful and civilized country, and that the only obstacle between China and the United States is the East Asian alliance, but according to this negotiating platform, his reputation and political future will be ruined.

"Don't say no yet, let's draw up a targeted response first." Weng Wenhao said, "There are some things that we can agree to immediately, and some things can be agreed to first but implemented slowly. And then there ......" he thought of 'minorities...... have the right to establish their own state in due course', "can only be agreed to verbally, but not in writing." ”

"Prime Minister ......" Hearing that Weng Wenhao was going to verbally agree to the last one, Wu Jingchao immediately stopped it, "President Wilson's 14-point peace principle was aimed at the defeated country. Even if we say yes, it's not appropriate and we should avoid talking about it. ”

Wu Jingchao is a native of She County, Anhui Province. Dr. of the University of Chicago, although he also hopes that the negotiations between China and the United States will go smoothly, and hopes to use the pressure of the US government to help China achieve democracy, but promising that ethnic minorities have the right to establish their own states would be unconstitutional and tantamount to treason. If this is the case, as long as the slightest rumor leaks out, the current cabinet will not only collapse. And everyone will spit on it.

"yes, avoid it. Avoided. Weng Wenhao glanced at Wu Jingchao gratefully and wiped his sweat. He turned his head to Gu Weijun. "Just draft a targeted response as said, and answer according to the reply during the meeting."

After Gu Weijun left, he invited Xu Xinliu, Song Ziwen, and Zhang Jiaxuan, who were visiting the United States together. Looking at the requirements of the perfect side, Xu Xinliu and Zhang Jiajiao did not say a word, but Song Ziwen, who was one level lower than them, said: "Prime Minister, this is the US side deliberately making things difficult. ”

"So how do we deal with it?" Although Song Ziwen was a lower rank, he was born into a missionary family and had a close relationship with the Presbyterian Church in the North and South of the United States; And the Western-style education made him free from the submissiveness of the Chinese-style bureaucracy, and since the prime minister summoned him to ask for advice, he told the truth.

"These requests can be selectively disclosed to the U.S. press." Song Ziwen's answer surprised everyone present, these requirements were really going to leak out, and they could only go home.

"Tell me a little bit about it, Paul." Seeing that everyone was surprised, Wu Jingchao spoke first - among the cabinet officials, his favorite is Song Ziwen, he can't find the slightest habit of the old bureaucracy and the old literati, and he is a bold, decent, and proper political rookie.

"Okay." Song Ziwen agreed in a deep voice. Although Hopkins is known as the shadow president in Washington, he is only the president's personal secretary and has no official position. Even if this document fully represents President Roosevelt's intentions, but it was not submitted by Secretary of State Mr. Hull himself, this can be regarded as an informal paper, and we can do not respond at all. ”

The phrase of the 'non-paper' finally made Weng Wenhao regain some energy, and he nodded, "Okay, that's good, go on." ”

"But why did President Roosevelt have his private secretary submit it instead of Mr. Hull?" Song Ziwen asked the key to the problem, and he asked himself: "Because the above question reveals a meaning, I don't want to talk about it."

Although the US Congress has passed three Navy bills and one Army bill in succession, and the voices of domestic isolationists on the China issue are decreasing day by day, there are still many people in China and Congress who hope that China and the United States can resolve disputes and avoid war through negotiations, so President Roosevelt is reluctant to express his unwillingness to talk in the form of a formal official document, and he hopes that the reason for the failure of the negotiations is on our side, so as to avoid being pressured by public opinion.

So we should make some of these conditions public that are clearly favorable to the United States. If we don't want to upset President Roosevelt, we're going to present this as our own outline for the talks. For example, the issue of tariff treatment of imported goods in the United States, the issue of overseas Chinese in the United States, and so on, these provisions that are of vital interest to the American people will make public opinion support the negotiations, and then put pressure on the US government to persist in the negotiations. ”

Song Ziwen finished his opinion in one breath, and finally said: "Prime Minister, in the United States, we must pay attention to the power of the people and public opinion, and we can even regard the negotiation opponents as those journalists rather than President Roosevelt, as long as they approve, the negotiations will be successful." At this time, the United States was full of famine, and the people didn't care about whether we were ****, whether we were religious, whether the minorities could be independent, they only cared about their jobs and jobs. As long as we make concessions where the vital interests of the American people are at stake, those who want to go to war will not have a pretext for war and will eventually have to sign a naval treaty. (To be continued.) )