Weng Wenhao, who came out of the U.S. Embassy, did not go home directly, he and his secretary Wu Jingchao went to Xu Xinliu's sheltered residence in Qianliang Hutong, but what he never expected was that Xu Xinliu was living here with a woman.

Since Hu Shi returned to China, he and Cai Yuanpei and others published an article on "Our Political Proposition" in the Weekly Endeavour, proposing to be a 'good person', and believing that only when good people are in politics can they be clear and the country can have hope. At that time, the Inspectorate was investigating and dealing with the corruption nest case in Shanghai, and this statement was immediately sought after by public opinion, and its insinuation to the Revival Association was extremely obvious. However, after Fei Yugui, a student of Yang Rui, was sentenced to death, this wave of public opinion will pass. But after that, the people who signed the article began to be a 'good person'. Who would have thought that Xu Xinliu, the Chinese saint who was most praised by public opinion among these people, actually raised an outer room.

"Prime Minister ......" Xu Xinliu came to the living room in his pajamas to talk to Weng Wenhao, knowing that there must be something wrong with him coming here so late.

"I'm a little annoying, so I'll come up to you and sit down." It was late at night, and Weng Wenhao wanted to convene everyone for a meeting again, but when he saw Xu Xinliu with a woman here, he was worried that his move would make Xu Xinliu lose face.

"Oh." Xu Xinliu helped his glasses, he could probably guess something, so he said, "It's Yang Jingcheng who refuses to cooperate." In that case, I'll find them here right now to discuss. ”

"Oh, is it convenient?" Weng Wenhao couldn't help but ask. He felt that he had come by accident and punctured Xu Xinliu's privacy.

"What's inconvenient." Xu Xinliu was a little embarrassed, and he turned to say, "I'll call right away." ”

Weng Wenhao went to the Guogong Mansion in the afternoon to negotiate with Yang Rui about the parade of students. It's just that he left the Guogong Mansion and did not return to the mansion and went to the US Embassy. During this time, more than a dozen phone calls were made to his apartment looking for someone. Now that everyone heard that he was in Xu Xinliu's private house, a group of people came over soon. Wait for Wu Jingchao to talk about the situation in the afternoon. They were all silent. 'Hanging on a telephone pole, dead with no place to be buried' - this is the most direct threat to Yang Jingcheng. Everyone thought that he would take care of some face, but they didn't think that this person was like a knife that had just been slaughtered, and he was awe-inspiring and murderous.

"When will negotiations with the United States resume?" Hu Shi didn't speak, but Wu Mi asked, he was a waiter in the Ministry of Rites, in charge of Wenxuan, and he knew best how lethal the king was.

"We just passed the withdrawal proposal today. Shaochuan and Ziwen should always have some time to move. In Gu Weijun's absence, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs relied entirely on Jiang Tinghuang's support, and today there were two vicious incidents in Beijing and Hong Kong in a row, and he was forced to be anxious and embarrassed by the ambassadors of the two countries, especially the ambassadors of Soviet Russia.

"Do Americans really have the sincerity to negotiate?" Seeing Jiang Tinghuang pushing the time, Ding Wenjiang, the secretary of the Ministry of Soil, asked Weng Wenhao's heart. "Under the pretext of looking for female pilots, they forcibly landed on the main island of Marshall and killed so many Japanese, which is really uncivilized."

"Don't be deceived by Japanese newspapers. Before the landing, the Americans had informed the Japanese side that they would enter peacefully, but neither the Japanese Government nor the Japanese troops stationed on the island would accept it, and this led to a large-scale fighting. According to the American side: Japanese soldiers and nationals on the island were so brutal that they even forced women to kill their own children and then commit suicide. The Christian Monitor says: 'I have never seen such a barbarous people!' See Ding Wenjiang questioning the justice of the United States landing on the island. Hu immediately explained in a loud voice, and also quoted the US media's evaluation of the Japanese stationed on the island.

"No matter how barbaric the Japanese are, they cannot change the fact that the United States has landed on the island this time as an act of aggression. The Japanese military and civilians defended their own land and fought to the best of the best. Not only is it duty-bound, but it is also admirable! Ding Wenjiang, who was born as a science student, loves to admit death. With one sentence, he ruined the image of American justice and Japanese barbarism created by Hu Shih's nonsense.

"How can this be called aggression?" Hu Shi was a little excited, and his voice became louder. "Humanitarianism knows no borders, and the barbarism of the Japanese is a sign that they may well have killed Miss Emilia. I have always believed that tyranny over the people is not only dictators, but also estrangement and discrimination between countries. For example, this time, it was obviously just a humanitarian rescue, but more than 5,000 people died because of the estrangement and discrimination between countries, which should not have happened. ”

The meeting was not meant to discuss who was right and who was wrong between Japan and the United States, but it was crooked by Ding Wenjiang and Hu Shi, Wu Jingchao coughed when he saw this and said: "Okay, what we are discussing now is how to deal with Yang Jingcheng's threat, with his usual style, this is by no means a joke." The next time Fuxing will come to power and form a cabinet, they will definitely put forward the slogan of respecting the king. ”

"I still say the same thing: Humanitarianism knows no borders, and if Revival does it, it will definitely cause condemnation and protests from all over the world!" was indeed hit by Ding Wenjiang, Hu Shi's mood has been excited, and he can't stop now.

"What's the use of condemnation and protest?" Kong Xiangxi, who had just taken his daughter to surrender and resolved the prison of the whole family, spoke up. "When the world newspapers denounced Yang Jingcheng, we were already hanging on a telephone pole. Can countries around the world eat Yang Jingcheng? ”

"How dare Yang Jingcheng ignore the civilized countries of the world?" Hu Shi Wenqing, Jiang Menglin, the secretary of the Ministry of Culture and Culture who was more literate than Hu Shi, stood up. "How could the Inspectorate and the people of the whole country let him do whatever he wanted!"

"When Shenwu killed the landlord in five years, when the Kunming rebellion was suppressed, what happened to the people of the whole country?" Kong Xiangxi asked rhetorically. "I'm not worried about myself, I'm just worried about the progressive youth all over the country. Once Yang Jingcheng raises the banner of respecting the king, what should they do? ”

Kong Xiangxi is a descendant of Confucius, in addition to believing in religion, his usual style is quite centristic, worshipping his ancestors, and never talking about freedom and democracy, human rights and fraternity. He believed that revival would not do it on its own, but it was difficult for those of you here to say.

"We ......" Seeing that everyone was at a loss, Wu Mi had no choice but to pin his hopes on the United States, he said, "Since it is appropriate to say that humanitarianism knows no borders, then if there is a massacre in our country at that time, will the United States send a fleet to rescue us?" ”

The mention of Wu Mi's naïve question made everyone even more disappointed, even Hu Shi. It is also very clear that the United States will never send troops for its own people, which is not at all in line with the isolationist tradition of the United States. In the silence, Weng Wenhao immediately knew that this meeting was convened in vain, and he immediately coughed. took Wu Jingchao and disappeared into the twilight, and he didn't look back.

In the following days, more and more soldiers went to Beijing, and the hotels in the capital were crowded with them. Fortunately, the summer vacation had already begun at this time, and some departments of the Army University that had completed the examination first began to take vacation, and many officers and veterans were arranged in the dormitories of the Army University. It's just surprising that these students who are on vacation are not going home, they live on the campus lawn - all the students think they will not go home until they attend the funeral of Admiral Seo Kyung-hee.

Considering that the midyear festival was imminent, they didn't have to wait long. On June 12, the 26th year of Shenwu, the grand state funeral began. On that day, all embassies, including the Soviet and Russian embassies, which had new ambassadors, lowered their flags at half-mast to mourn, and the entire capital was completely turned into a black and white world, with residents of the inner and outer cities and retired soldiers and students from all over the country, totaling about two million people mourning Admiral Seo Kyung-hee. Looking at this black and white world, including Weng Wenhao, everyone in the new cabinet was once again panicked.

They knew that the funeral was not a demonstration. On the contrary, he telegraphed to the outside world that the capital could not accommodate more people, and constantly asked for remote sacrifices in various places, but this obviously could not stop the Chinese people who came to mourn. If the capital can't live, they live in Tianjin, Tongzhou and other places, or simply sleep in the wild. Especially those young students from all over the country did not even sleep, and had to keep a vigil for the general.

And that's why. It was the Imperial Daily that changed the obscurity of domestic public opinion about the early revolutionary history of the Renaissance Association, and directly announced Xu Jingxi's revolutionary experience before the founding of the People's Republic of China. Even if it's just a word in the newspaper. For the simple and fierce young students, it is enough to arouse their indignation. After determining the time of Xu Jingxi's funeral. These people are free of charge through the summer student train (after the resumption of the national railway right of way, the Yangtze River and other waterway navigation rights, Yang Rui personally decided: during the summer vacation, students of colleges and universities can be exempted from the third-class ticket price of state-run trains and ships with their student ID cards, so as to enjoy the mountains and rivers of the motherland; After the restructuring, this money was included in the national education budget and paid by the state treasury), and the tide poured into the capital, and they gathered on the side of the road to go out of the city to send the funeral if they could not enter the inner and outer cities.

The enthusiasm of the people at the funeral made the Westernizers, including Stuart, extremely worried about the trial the next day, but on the day of the trial, something unexpected happened.

The military tribunal was set up in the large auditorium of the Army University, which can accommodate more than 3,000 people, and the judge was General Fan Guo, the former minister of general affairs, and before he was about to announce the verdict, Xu Congyun, the father of Xu Jingxi, asked to speak. As soon as the old man opened his mouth, he pleaded: "Your Excellency, although the old man is shallow, he also knows that the students are just being instructed by others. Although they are adults, they are so young that they will inevitably be bewitched, and they are asked to remember their youth and give them a light sentence. ”

After Xu Congyun pleaded, the clerk announced the last procedure before the trial, "The courtroom debate is over, and the defendant will make the final statement." The accused are invited to take their floors in turn. ”

Because of the large number of people involved, this trial was an assassination trial, and the defendants were not only six students, five suspects in the out-of-town bombing, but also Yu Dawei, Li Shenghuan, and several others. With the help of the bailiffs, the first to stand up was Yu Dawei, general secretary of Doshisha Beijing. He stood up, and the children of the Yu family who were implicated behind him also stood up, Yu Dawei looked at the judges and the public council sitting on the high platform with evasion in his eyes, and after a while, he said in a dumb voice: "Everyone... My lord, the fathers and elders of the council, Dawei is actually guilty! As soon as Yu Dawei said that he was guilty, he couldn't cry, and he shouted: "...... I really shouldn't be greedy for money and be caught by Doshisha, and finally be coerced by them to do those things that hurt nature and reason......"

Unexpectedly, the top boss betrayed the previous ideals, and the people of Doshisha, who were still tough, immediately changed color, only Wang Yongqi, the head of the Yan University group who carried out the assassination mission, stood up and scolded: "Defect! You traitor who broke your original oath, I will not let you go as a ghost......

Wang Yongqi is a lecturer who has just graduated from Yan University this year and is ready to stay in school, and it is he who is responsible for carrying out the assassination mission, as a middle-level backbone of the Doshisha from a poor family, he is a hundred times stronger than the rich children of the upper class who play with tickets, at this time, seeing Yu Dawei confessing in public in court and betraying his ideals, he immediately couldn't help but stand up and scold.

"Silence!" General Fan knocked on the gavel, and the bailiff beside Wang Yongqi immediately pressed him back to his seat, but at this time Yu Dawei had already finished repenting in tears. And Li Shenghuan, the second to get up and make a final statement, is also repentant. Although there were no tears, Wang Yongqi was violently stimulated again - Li Shenghuan was one of his introducers. This time he was unable to stand up, and his face was spread out on his seat as if he were dead.

"Defendant Wang Yongqi will make his final statement below." The clerk waited for Li Shenghuan to finish speaking. Read the name of the third offender.

With the help of the lawyer, Wang Yongqi probably prepared his final statement a long time ago, but because of the betrayal of the first two superiors, his voice was weak at first, but after a few words, his voice returned to normal, but most of the people present could not understand what he said, but when he used the Bolshevik Manifesto as the final end of his speech, the whole auditorium became silent. There is only one madman left in hysteria:

“…… Doshisha people everywhere support all revolutionary movements against the existing social and political system. In all these movements, they placed special emphasis on the question of ownership, making it the fundamental question of the movement, regardless of the degree of development of the question at that time. Finally, Doshisha people everywhere strive for unity and harmony among democratic parties around the world.

Doshisha people disdain to conceal their views and intentions. They openly declared that their aim could only be achieved by the violent overthrow of the entire existing social system. Let the ruling class tremble under the anarcho-Doshisha revolution. What the proletarians lose in this revolution is only chains, and what they gain will be the whole world.

Proletarians of the whole world, unite! Wang Yongqi finally shouted with all his strength, but because of the Petersburg Peace Treaty, he did not dare to say the words 'Long live the Bolsheviks' directly.

Perhaps it was Wang Yongqi's excitement that stimulated several other people. Four of the 10 people involved in the assassination and bombing also pleaded not guilty, and the student named Mai Zeng shouted: 'I am not guilty, you are guilty, you have been kidnapped and manipulated by the ruling class.' Look at it. One day you will be judged by the people...... The truth can't be killed, kill me Mai Zeng, and future generations! ’

More than an hour of time. After the presentation of the fifteen principal and accessory offenders, the court adjourned. Fifteen minutes later, the court reopened. After reading through the articles as usual, Fan An began to read out the verdict: "This court believes that the defendants Yu Dawei, Li Shenghuan, Wang Yongqi, Mai Zheng, Gu Dehuang, Zhang Dehua, Du Hanying, and Niu Wenyin...... and fifteen others, for the purpose of assassinating Admiral Xu Jingxi, Lei Yizhen General, and former Prime Minister Yang Rui, colluding with party henchmen and using firearms privately, and their actions constituted murder; and inciting hatred and rebellion and creating political conspiracies for the purpose of overthrowing the existing political system of Greater China, all of which constitute the crime of treason......"

In the newly revised Chinese law, rebellion is the first of the ten evils, and this crime is full of anger in the audience. Fan Guo continued: "In accordance with Article 3, Article 14, Paragraph 1, Article 53, and Article 130 of the Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China, the judgment is as follows:

1. Defendant Yu Dawei committed the crimes of murder and treason, but he was sentenced to 50 years imprisonment and was exempted from the crime by considering that he was coerced by Doshisha, confessed clearly to the crime, pleaded guilty and submitted to the law, and also remembered Yu's achievements in the past.

2. Defendant Li Shenghuan committed the crimes of murder and treason, but read that he had clearly confessed to the crime and pleaded guilty and accepted the law, so he was sentenced to 40 years imprisonment; Their parents, brothers, and children over the age of 14 shall be sentenced to exile in the Western Regions.

3. Defendant Wang Yongqi committed the crimes of murder and treason, and refused to commit the crime in court and bewitched the public, so he was sentenced to death; Parents, brothers, and children over the age of fourteen ......"

Fan Guo deliberately looked up at Wang Yongqi when he read this, and saw that his body was standing proudly but his body trembled, and he immediately lowered his head and said again: "His parents, brothers, and children who are over the age of 14 will be deprived of the nationality of the Great China State and deported within a limited time!"

4. Defendant Mai Zeng committed the crimes of murder and treason, and refused to commit the crime in court and bewitched the public, so he was sentenced to death; Their parents, brothers, and children over the age of 14 shall be deprived of the nationality of the Great Chinese State and deported within a limited time......"

The hukou system may seem terrible, but it is generally only punished by exile or fines, and only those who actually enjoy the proceeds of crime in their families are sentenced to prison. However, I did not expect that this military court would deprive the defendant's family of their nationality and deport them from the country, which immediately caused a loud uproar among reporters and observers at the scene. The sentence of deprivation of nationality had also been used against Sun Wen's Chinese Revolutionary Party before, and I didn't want to involve the defendant's family even more this time.

The reporters were about to ask questions, but the citizens present applauded fiercely, and as military and martyr families, they fully agreed with the court's sentence.

"This judgment is final and will be delivered within three days. Closed! Fan Guo finally slammed the gavel and immediately announced the closure of the courtroom, leaving only a group of defendants shouting disobedience and thunderous applause from the audience.

The next day, in the trial of the Anarchic Doshisha Beijing Branch, most of the 181 defendants, except for five Americans, pleaded guilty and were sentenced lightly, and their families were spared exile. In the trials of the other 2,169 students after the festival, the vast majority of the students were exempted from punishment, and the most serious cases were only detained for 15 days.

In such a verdict, public opinion has no harsh words to criticize it, and it is anti-praising the military tribunal for having a benevolent heart. Only independent commentators have argued that the court imposed too harsh sentences on students who believed in anarchism and failed to plead guilty in court – the 17 students and their families were all stripped of their nationality and deported. The rabbit died and the fox was sad, which made Hu Shi and others see the end of their future struggle. As a stateless person, although he holds a Nansen passport issued by the League of Nations, he can't go anywhere except to Nanyang with this passport, but what about going to Nanyang? As soon as this kind of passport is taken out, those who understand it will know at a glance that this person has committed a major crime of rebellion, and it is too late to avoid it, let alone help.

It's just that even if they know that this trial is extremely vicious, they can't say anything before the trial of the more than 2,000 students. By the time more than 2,000 people were acquitted, the previous trial was already outdated. At this time, the League of Nations formally accepted Japan's complaint and planned to send a team of investigators to the Marshall Islands to investigate the real cause and course of the conflict. At the same time, the long-interrupted negotiations on the Washington Navy resumed, but this time only on behalf of the Chinese side. After the Marshallese exchange of fire, all the Japanese representatives had returned home, and diplomatic relations between the two countries had been downgraded from the ambassadorial level to the chargé d'affaires level, and newspapers around the world judged that if the League of Nations failed to mediate, the United States and Japan would immediately fall into a state of war.

*

It was almost August, and the mountains and forests in Tonghua were getting cooler and cooler. After a day of walking around the old forest with Yang Rui, on the way back home on horseback in the sunset, Wang Jitong remembered the international situation during this period of time, and still insisted: "War is really inevitable?" ”

"yes!" Yang Rui smoked a cigarette and said with some melancholy: "I didn't expect it to come so quickly." ”

"We're going to North America?" Wang Jitong asked again, as if the old man was nagging.

"yes!" Yang Rui smoked a cigarette and said melancholy again: "If you don't fight until the North American war, you can't completely end it." ”

"Can we win?" Wang Jitong asked again, this is no longer nagging. "Time is so tight that many projects cannot be completed before the war."

"At least I won't lose." Yang Rui put down the cigarette and looked up to the sky and took a long puff. "After all, everything that should be arranged has been arranged."

"What about the Kuomintang?" Wang Jitong still asked, endlessly. "Don't forget that we have withdrawn from the East Asian alliance, on what grounds do we declare war on the United States?"

"The Americans will declare war on us." Yang Rui threw away the cigarette, reined in his horse and pointed to the road one kilometer ahead and said to Wang Jitong: "Xiao Xu, do you see that big red pine?" ”

"See," Wang Jitong didn't know why, "What do you want to do?" ”

"It's a game." Yang Rui smiled, "If you keep thinking about those messy things, your brain will be broken." We compete, and whoever gets to the big red pine first wins. Let's not talk about the winners, and if you lose, go back and pour a bottle of two pots in the evening, how about it? ”

Yang Rui's face was full of smiles, Wang Jitong felt that he was indeed in the picture after hearing it, and then thinking of Yang Rui's poor riding skills, he immediately said, "Okay." But you will definitely lose. ”

"Come on, then." Yang Rui glanced at the captain of the guard, Xu Caigen, and said, "You come to give the order." ”

I didn't want him to ask Xu Caigen to give an order, but Wang Jitong smiled over there: "Don't give an order, start!" Then he whipped the horse's ass hard, and actually ran away in advance.

"Your mother!" Yang Rui, who was one step behind, was furious, he hurriedly slapped his horse forward, and then scolded as he ran: "The surname is Wang, bastard." If you don't run a hero, you won't count! His shouting and scolding followed the hurried horses' hooves and went all the way away.

*

*

The end of the volume. (To be continued.) )