1981, night of December 19.

Capital.

In mid-to-late December, the capital has entered a bleak winter, and it will be the winter solstice in three days.

It was especially dark early in the north, and it was completely dark at 4 p.m. that day. The street lights that are turned on regularly have not yet been turned on, and the street is dark for a while. By 7 p.m., there was almost no one on the road.

Because of the time difference, the Middle East is four hours behind the capital, so 7 o'clock in the evening on this side of the capital is equivalent to 3 o'clock in the afternoon on that side.

Pitch black, gloomy wind like a knife, seems to indicate an ominous and conspiracy.

However, on the campus of the Foreign Affairs University on the bank of Yuyuan Lake, there are still a few self-study classrooms in the teaching building that are brightly lit, and a few diligent and studious students are rushing to work there to make research and analysis reports, and they are not affected by the gloom of the winter night in the slightest.

Among them was Madilina Isminaya, who sat there with another girl and was writing a book.

However, the other girl is obviously not as distracted as Mina. After checking the information for a while, she pouted and proposed:

"Mina, why don't we disperse too, it's just the two of us on a cold day, and no one discusses it. It's better to watch the ball like Yang Xin and Xiaohai. It's rare for CCTV to broadcast foreign football matches in the first year, even if you don't know how to play ball, it's good to have fun. ”

"Go ahead, I'll wait for the Chinese team to play and then be optimistic. Mina smiled softly, very sunny and heartwarming. That kind of grooming and posture is enough to make girls can't help but shake their hearts, and I feel pity.

Just as they were talking, there was a rush of messy footsteps in the corridor, from far and near, and then "whirred" opened the door of the study room, and the cold wind poured in at once.

Mina and the other girl couldn't help but shiver subconsciously.

"Principal Liu, what's wrong, is there anything we need help with?" Mina straightened her clothes and stood up dignifiedly.

It turned out that the person who came was actually the president of the Foreign Affairs Academy.

As mentioned earlier, the president of the Foreign Affairs University is himself an expert professor in international relations and is a graduate student. He once personally took Gu Biao and Ye Kun their 77-level graduate graduation research group (Mina also participated, but not as a graduation project), and now he is also taking Mina, Yang Xin and other 78-level best students to the graduation research group.

Therefore, recently, Mina will meet Principal Liu once every three or five days.

However, it was only the end of the first semester of '81, and the project had not yet reached the critical juncture of the final conclusion, and Mina did not understand why Principal Liu was in a hurry to find someone at night.

Fortunately, the mystery was quickly solved.

Principal Liu announced with a pale face: "There is an emergency call in the ministry, you know the situation best, I will drive you to the ministry once, and say the rest of the way." Whoever it is, you can follow along, you can fight. ”

The last half of the sentence was said to the middle-looking girl next to her.

The two girls hurriedly agreed, simply packed up the materials at hand, and immediately followed Principal Liu into the car. Then the headmaster kicked the accelerator and killed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the middle of the night.

As soon as he sat down, the principal spoke: "You didn't watch the game tonight, did you?" Heh, I also have a lot to ask, of course you won't watch the game in the study room. ”

These words were a bit like talking to himself, and it seemed that the principal was in a hurry.

Then he didn't wait for Mina to answer, and immediately continued to say to himself: "I'll just say it straight, the situation is urgent - at present, the final round of the World Cup qualifiers between Saudi Arabia and New Zealand is at halftime. The Saudis really let go of the water in the first half and lost to the New Zealanders by 5 goals!

Originally, the national team was calculated, as long as New Zealand didn't win by 5 goals, we could qualify directly. New Zealand win by five goals and we have to play the play-offs. If New Zealand wins by more than 5 goals, that is, at least 6 goals, then we will not even have a chance to play in the play-offs!

Principal Liu couldn't help but scold as he spoke.

As a person in the diplomatic system, self-cultivation is very important, and President Liu has almost never spoken anything for many years, and belongs to the kind of person who wants to scold people and will overwhelm the other party with a kind momentum similar to caring for the mentally handicapped. At this moment, he actually burst into foul language, which shows that he was also angry.

On the other hand, it also shows that he is talking to his proud protégé in private at the moment, and he doesn't have to worry too much about the influence. At the same time, the Saudis' self-abandonment apparently caused him a lot of trouble.

"Ah...... Isn't that ......" Mina herself had forgotten that she had written a series of articles four months earlier that had been submitted to the Internal Review and published in the Foreign Affairs Review three months earlier.

Because she wrote those articles under the instruction and guidance of Gu Ao, she herself was not very attentive at all, and she didn't think it was anything powerful, so she was not very impressed.

It wasn't until Principal Liu mentioned it at this moment that she realized that there was such a deep foreshadowing, or coincidence and destiny here.

Principal Liu didn't know that there were so many deep meanings in Mina's exclamation, he just continued: "That's right! Mina, everything has been guessed by your analysis! You commented on the internal reference a few months ago, telling the domestic media to be a little more restrained and not to provoke the other party in terms of football public opinion, so as not to adversely affect the foreign economic and trade cooperation negotiations, and also brought a note that in view of the current competition system, because the Chinese team had a bye in the last round, if the public opinion offends other countries in the same group too much, it may be calculated......

I didn't expect your final essay as an unfolding essay to be so accurate and proverbial. The relevant departments now regret that they should not have strengthened their control and did everything you said!"

As Principal Liu spoke, he patted the steering wheel with regret.

"Now that things are like this, what are we going to do?" Mina asked constructively.

President Liu said categorically: "First of all, you are the person in the school who knows the Middle East issue and the international relations of the Middle East the most, and the ministry wants to send an urgent and secret note to the Saudi side. The key is to urge the Saudi side to pay attention to sportsmanship and absolutely not release water in the second half. Now they have lost five, and if they only lose five in the second half, the Chinese team still has hope of playing the play-offs. If we lose even one more, we won't even have a chance to play in the play-offs. ”

This is really not an exaggeration, because in history, after the Chinese team was tragically harmed by a suspected water puddle, it finally asked the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to send a "solemn protest" to the Saudis.

(There is also a saying that he gave up on himself after being humiliated, but because the Saudis didn't put 6 after all, there is no legal argument for this, because there is no evidence to prove what people's inner subjective mentality thinks.) ）

It's just that the protest in history was only issued after the Chinese team also lost to New Zealand in the play-offs and was completely out, which was completely cathartic.

But in any case, this also proves that this incident was really very influential at that time. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has to send an official letter of protest.

You must know that the great man at that time was a football lover himself, which is obvious to history.

When the Chinese team is downwind, maybe not so many people pay attention.

But once the wind is headwinded, it will immediately reach the heavens, and all the forces below will be mobilized.

This is no exaggeration.

For example, history is proven: in 519 in 85 years later, the reason why Coach Zeng Xuelin was under so much psychological pressure was because the messenger distorted and exaggerated the great man's concern, forcing Zeng Xuelin to attack in an all-round way. As a result, the Xiangjiang people stubbornly defended and counterattacked and picked up a loophole, and the Chinese team finally lost the game with the advantage of all data of full-court control and passing. (Similar to Germany vs. South Stick 0:2)

And to be honest, the great man is right in these things, he just cares about football and doesn't say any instructions, but the people who pass the message below have increased the conditions one by one.

Just like the political tradition of Chinese, if the central government issues a document, there will be a "Notice on Studying a Certain Document" in the province, and there will be a "Notice on Studying the "Notice on the Study of the Provincial Study of the Central XXX" in the city...... Finally, it is nested into "About Learning...... Notice of notice of notice of notice also gradually raised、Outrageously high and unable to operate。

For example, the example said by Luo Fatzi, a CCTV over-fire witness in 09: after the fire, the original order of the new station director was "strictly investigate the hidden dangers of fire", and when the layers were increased to the final execution layer, it had become "even the drinking fountain with electric heating function is not allowed, only the single cooling type is allowed".

In any case, each level of messenger should raise the requirements as a gesture of loyalty to the superior.

The concern of the head of state will evolve into the "must win" of the members of the Science, Education, Culture, and Health, the "must win two" of the director of the General Administration, the "must win three" of the Football Association, and the "must win five" of the team leader...... When it was finally conveyed to the head coach and the players, these people were already overwhelmed and were shocked to death by the "lion roar" blessed by the five-level amplifier.

……

I can't finish talking about the disadvantages of the chief's will to engage in football, so I won't talk about it, and I'll go back to Mina's encounter.

At this moment, Mina seemed to be pushed into the eye of the typhoon in this whirlpool.

When the Chinese team was going well, the warning words she once said that looked like an "afterthought" were taken as deaf ears by the sports and propaganda departments, or only the propaganda department implemented it slightly, but it was not thorough.

Only the Ministry of Foreign Affairs took her as her own daughter and supported it, but other departments did not cooperate, and there was no way.

Now, the Chinese team is headwinded.

The three major ministerial-level units have begun to pass the buck to each other.

A certain general bureau in charge of sports began to say that "the foreign ministry did not negotiate well, which led to the enemy team being bribed and released"/"the press department's mouth was too stinky, which led to the anger of the Saudis", and wanted to throw the pot out to explain the great man's accountability.

In fact, several ministries and bureaus in history were really so eager to shake off the pot, otherwise how could the Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemn and protest against Saudi Arabia on the matter of releasing water. (The Saudis also officially replied to the protest, admitting that the team had no hope of qualifying at the time, so they gave up on themselves.) But it's not deliberate, if it's deliberately released, they'll put six, and you don't even have a play-off chance. Of course, these are all diplomatic rhetoric of the Saudi Foreign Ministry, but because there is no logical flaw, there is no way to refute it. ）

So far, everything seems to be no different from history.

But after Mina's point, it was clear that there was a fork in the matter.

Now, in this parallel world, in the face of the accusations of the General Administration, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has "snapped" a copy of the internal reference and an academic journal "Foreign Affairs Review" on the table.

"Our Ministry of Foreign Affairs has long reminded relevant departments to pay attention to the risks, not to make enemies, and to do a good job in risk control. You're not listening! Chief, look. ”

HUANG BU RESPECTFULLY TURNED THE INTERNAL REFERENCE AND TURNED TO THE "DIPLOMATIC REVIEW" ON THE PAGE OF MINA'S PAPER, AND HANDED HIS HANDS TO AN OLD MAN WHO HAD JUST SULKED.