On the occasion of the Sichuan disaster, the Nanjing government not only did not pay for the disaster, but demanded compensation from the Sichuan provincial government.

The cause is - the Chengdu incident!

In early August, Foreign Minister Zhang Qun informed Liu Xiang that the Japanese wanted to restore the consulate in Chengdu. At the end of that month, four Japanese diplomats arrived in Chengdu, and after hearing about it, citizens began to demonstrate, and more than 10,000 people blocked the four Japanese diplomats in the hotel.

Chengdu Police Chief Fan Chongshi was unable to stop him, and the angry crowd killed two of the four Japanese diplomats and wounded two.

Chang Kaishen, a cadre of the Fuxing Society and the CC Department in Chengdu, said that Liu Xiang secretly sent people to kill the Japanese in an attempt to increase the difficulties of the central government's diplomacy with Japan, suggested that Liu Xiang be removed from the post of provincial chairman in order to comfort Japan, and recommended that Kang Ze, the head of the Fuxing Society, take over Liu Xiang's post.

Liu Xiang's statement was completely different, he sent a telegram to Lao Jiang to complain, saying that Kang Ze instructed patriotic students to kill the Japanese in order to seize power in Sichuan, and all this was a conspiracy of the Fuxing Society and the CC Department.

The demonstrations of more than 10,000 people must have been secretly organized, but it is difficult to say who is behind the scenes.

It stands to reason that Liu Xiang had agreed that Lao Jiang would send people into Sichuan, and Kang Ze's special forces were stationed at the main transportation roads in Sichuan at this time. There is no need for him to provoke the Japanese again, after all, he is just setting up a local consulate, and although Liu Xiang is nicknamed Liu Mangzi, he is not a real mangzi.

However, Kang Ze and the CC people are more suspicious, they were assigned by Chang Kaishen to Sichuan, and the ultimate goal is to encroach on the local power in Sichuan.

When Zhou Hexuan and Liu Xiang discussed the disaster relief plan, the Nanjing government also made a decision on the Chengdu incident: first, the Chengdu garrison commander and police chief should be removed from their posts and investigated; Second, 30,000 taels of silver were compensated for the bereavement of the deceased and 3,100 taels of silver for the injured, which was to be paid in advance by the Nanjing government, and the Sichuan Provincial Treasury was ordered to immediately remit the money to Nanjing; Third, the Nanjing government and the Sichuan provincial government apologized to the Japanese government and promised that no similar incidents would occur again; Fourth, the Sichuan Provincial Government was required to ban anti-Japanese publications and prohibit boycotts of Japanese goods.

Liu Xiang received the results of the Nanjing government, and was so angry that he shouted again that his mother sold the batch.

A total of 66,200 taels of silver were compensated to the Japanese, equivalent to 100,000 oceans, and the Sichuan Civil Affairs Department only managed to get 100,000 oceans for disaster relief, and the rest could only borrow from local banks.

Japanese people are worth so much? Two dead and two injured actually have to pay 100,000 yuan, how many victims can be saved by using this money to buy food!

What's the most infuriating?

The Nanjing Government has just convened the 288th meeting of the Executive Yuan to discuss relief for floods, droughts and bandits in eight provinces. These eight provinces are Gansu, Henan, Qingkang, Guizhou, Hebei, Jinning, and even Song Zheyuan's territory is the target of relief, but Sichuan, which is the most severely affected, has been deliberately omitted.

Not only that, but the Kuomintang newspapers across the country avoided the drought in Sichuan and did not mention it. Non-governmental charities such as the Red Cross and the Red Swastika Society have also been misled by the central government's information (there are rumors that there is no famine in Sichuan), resulting in charitable donations from various provinces to Sichuan totaling less than 2,000 yuan.

It was not until 1937, when millions of Sichuan people starved to death, that the Nanjing government began to discuss the issue of disaster relief in Sichuan.

Why is this happening?

caused by the power struggle between the central and local governments.

After Lao Jiang solved Guangdong and subdued Guangxi, he set his sights on Sichuan. He first set up party headquarters in various cities and counties in Sichuan, and then sent the Blue Coat Society into Sichuan to monitor, and the Blue Coat Society Special Brigade still controls the main road into Sichuan, and also bribed some small Sichuan warlords, including Fan Ha'er.

Chang Kaishen's meaning is very clear, that is, to let Liu Xiang hand over the local military and political power. In the face of the disaster in Sichuan, Lao Jiang's original words are as follows: "The central government has to provide money for floods and droughts. ”

From Chang Kaishen's standpoint, his approach seems to be excusable, and everything is blamed on Liu Xiang's local warlord's greed for power. The local government did not pay taxes to the central government, and only after the disaster did he remember to ask the central government for money, Liu Xiang was indeed very unreasonable.

However, the central government discussed relief to the eight provinces in Jinan and the north, but only left out Sichuan, which was the most severely affected by the disaster, and also controlled public opinion to prevent non-governmental donations, which went too far!

Lao Jiang just wanted to think that the more chaotic Sichuan was, the better, and it was best to kill more people, so that Liu Xiang, the king of Sichuan, would lose his prestige. When the time comes, if Liu Xiang is forced to go into the wilderness, the central government will be able to control the military and government of Sichuan without bloodshed.

Faced with this situation, Zhou Hexuan must first let the people know that Sichuan has really suffered a disaster.

After returning to Chongqing, the first thing Zhou Hexuan did was to send the Sichuan disaster situation collected by "Libao", including the content of cannibalism, to the major newspapers in the north and south by air. Nationalist newspapers are certainly not able to publish it, but non-governmental newspapers and periodicals such as "Declaration", "News", and "Yishi Bao" are willing to help publish such news.

Not only that, after learning of the tragic situation of the disaster, some reporters from foreign newspapers were even willing to raise their own travel expenses to come to Sichuan for interviews.

The latest issue of the "Non-Offensive" magazine, whose headquarters was relocated to Wuhan, devoted 12 pages to reporting on the disaster situation, leaving the address of the magazine, and soliciting donations from the people in the name of "Zhou Hexuan".

At the same time, Zhou Hexuan contacted the Red Cross Societies of Jiangxi, Hunan, and Hubei provinces in his personal name, and set up Sichuan disaster relief points in cities along the river in the three provinces. Zhou Hexuan took out 500,000 personal donations, and cooperated with private donations to buy grain, and transported grain from other provinces into Sichuan by water.

After all, the United States has a long way to go, and the victims of Sichuan can't wait.

Next, Zhou Hexuan began to travel to various counties and cities in eastern Sichuan to inspect and determine the purchase of land and houses.

Due to the continuous wars and famines in Sichuan, more and more wasteland has been vacated, and even the local rich gentry are too lazy to reclaim the borderless land, because the warlords are too terrible to collect taxes, and one or two decades of taxes are collected, and the most outrageous ones have been received 80 years later.

Under such circumstances, the rich peasants, small landlords, and even middle-class landlords in Sichuan had a very difficult time.

To paraphrase a line in "Party A and Party B": The landlord's family has no surplus grain!

There is a very important reason why Liu Xiang was able to rise from the many warlords in Sichuan, that is, his taxes were lower than others. Especially in the late 20s, Liu Xiang ran Chongqing as his old nest, and Mayor Pan Wenhua abolished dozens or hundreds of harsh taxes in one go, so that Liu Xiang's base camp quickly became stable and rich.

By the beginning of October, Zhou Hexuan had selected more than 30 wastelands in the surrounding counties of Chongqing, totaling more than 80,000 mu, all of which were bought at the price of cabbage.

Even, when the local people heard that Zhou Hexuan wanted to buy land, they came one by one and were willing to sell their farmland at a low price. Due to excessive drought, all the cultivated land has been hardened and cannot be cultivated at all, so it is better to exchange it for some money.

Cultivated land naturally did not dare to buy, and there were too many troubles in the follow-up.

Just when Zhou Hexuan determined the address and was about to invite the Zhang family's construction company to build a house, the first batch of 60 tons of relief grain bought from the Lianghu area arrived in Chongqing - although the Lianghu area encountered floods this year, it had no impact on the summer grain harvest.

Zhou Hexuan was very happy to get the news, but he was not happy soon.

In the middle of the night, Liang Xuzan, a cadre of the Sichuan Disaster Relief Association, hurriedly ran to knock on the door of Zhou's house, and said: "Mr. Zhou, it's not good, our disaster relief food has been detained!" ”

"In this Sichuan, which bear-hearted leopard dares to withhold disaster relief food?" Zhou Hexuan was inexplicably furious.

Liang Xuzan hurriedly said: "It's Kangze's turtle son who said that there is opium in our relief food." I have sent a telegram to Chairman Liu, and Chairman Liu is sending someone over to solve the problem. ”

"Kangze!"

Zhou Hexuan gritted his teeth, went back to the room and took a flashlight imported from the United States, and went to the house of Li Gengu, the commander of the Chongqing garrison next door, and said when they met: "Brother Li, quickly bring someone to grab food with me!" If it's a few minutes slower, I don't know how much Kang Ze will swallow that dogged day! ”