On Christmas morning, John's family got up early because they were going to attend Mass at a nearby church. www.biquge.info Little Ella happily jumped on her parents' bed happily holding the Snow White dress she took out of her Christmas stockings, urging Adele to help her change it on. Thanks to the warmth of Florida, John wouldn't have dared to let her wear it out in Detroit. After wearing this dress, little Ella worked hard to play the role of Snow White all day long. I have to say that the little guy really matches this dress, and even his behavior has begun to become dignified and elegant, and his posture is like a real princess.

By the time they returned from their visit to Hemingway's house, the family members had already arrived. With 13 children and generations of children, Vanderbilt is now a large family. Although several tribes had long since ceased to interact with John's family due to the original inheritance dispute, there were nearly 200 people who came to the party, making the spacious villa banquet hall suddenly crowded. Because many of the fifth generation of Vanderbilt were older than John, he was used to the fact that he was promoted to his grandfather early. However, little Ella was very surprised that she suddenly had so many nephews and nieces, and she pretended to be an elder in a serious manner, which made everyone laugh.

The annual family gathering is a good opportunity for family members to exchange feelings, shorten the distance and enhance family cohesion. In the past ten years, John's team has had a talent gap and a weak successor. (That's why John's family has been so supportive this year.) The upper echelons of the family also began to pay more and more attention to the side members.

In this regard, John is fully supportive, hello everyone is really good. If you don't believe it, look at the DuPont family, 50 big DuPont, more than 200 small DuPont are all over the world, and even the Rockefeller family dare not provoke them. The wealthy Morgan family can only pinch their noses and honestly share control of GM with them. In turn, let's take a look at the leaders of the East Coast rich circle back then, the Astor family, known as the "New York landlords" and "the first aristocracy in the United States". Because of the excessive concentration of wealth and power, Jacob, the head of the wealthy family, sank to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean with the Titanic, and the family has not been able to stand up again for more than 20 years, and can only live on the rent of Manhattan, New York.

Throughout the evening, John was led by William and Harold to form relationships with many family members. In the past, John was not a central figure in the family, and he did not communicate much with other family members. Because he is a typical junior with a high rank, it is more or less embarrassing to deal with him, both the other party and John himself. Now that he has one foot in the door of the family's decision-making level, he naturally doesn't have to worry too much about this aspect. The family members were also happy to be familiar with this "upstart", and after a while, he received a lot of business cards, and by the way, he also brought a lot of business for FedEx. Although none of these family members are very rich, most of them still have some industry. Knowing that John is engaged in logistics and transportation, it is normal to give a favor, anyway, who will transport those goods.

After the party, everyone went to have fun in groups. John had wanted to go to the famous "Sloppy Joe" bar with a few new "friends", but Harold got addicted to cards and dragged him to the game room on the second floor to play bridge.

"It's called self-touching, I'm!" As soon as he entered the playroom, John heard a Chinese accent with a TJ accent. When he looked closely, the scene in front of him almost made him laugh. A big, bearded man is teaching a group of Yankees to play Chinese mahjong. This bearded John knew his aunt's child, six years older than him, and everyone called him Reilly. Reilly previously served in the U.S. Army's 15th Infantry Regiment and is stationed in the U.S. Concession in TJ, China. After retiring from the army, Reilly started an arms business in China and was a well-known foreign comprador whose clients were Zhang Xueliang and Feng Yuxiang.

"Reilly, long time no see. Why are you willing to leave your little Chinese lover back to the United States this year? John knew that Reilly had fallen in love with a girl from a church school in China, and if it weren't for the staunch opposition of both families, he would have almost married the Chinese girl the year before.

"Don't mention it, China and RB are fighting. The family moved to Xi'an. ”

"What's going on over there?"

"The German government intervened, and they had a good relationship with Chiang over the years. But RB has a tough attitude, and it is estimated that it will have to fight for a while. Now Congress is asking us to remain neutral, and not only me, but also the 15th Regiment will be withdrawn next year. "Reilly has made a lot of money in China in the past two years, and is obviously a little unwilling to give up the business there.

John saw someone at the table get up, so he sat down and began to shuffle the cards. In his previous life, when he was celebrating the New Year's holidays, he also played cards with the elders in the family. "What's the way to play?" John asked as he stacked the cards.

"Guoshi Wushuang (the predecessor of the Thirteen Units), I can't do it if it's too complicated." Reilly came to the spirit.

"You just said that the Dragon Banner Legion is also going to be withdrawn?" The 15th Infantry Regiment of the U.S. Army has been stationed in TJ since 1912, and is nicknamed the Dragon Banner Regiment because of the yellow dragon on a blue background on the team badge and regimental flag. This regiment has been stationed in China for 25 years, and many big figures in the US military circles are from this regiment. These include a five-star general (U.S. Army Chief of Staff Marshall), four four-star generals (Stilwell and Weidemeyer, two successive Chinese theater chiefs of staff during World War II, and two U.S. Eighth Army commanders during the Korean War, Walker and Ridgway). Among them, Walker was posthumously awarded the rank of general after he died in a car accident on the battlefield, and Ridgway was promoted to general after succeeding MacArthur as commander-in-chief of the US forces in the Far East), as well as a large number of generals such as Magrud, head of the US military delegation to China, and Connor, president of the West Point Military Academy. In military circles, they are known as the hateful "China Gang."

"Before I returned home, I met the vinegar man Joe (Stilwell's nickname) in Hankow, and he said that now the RB is very arrogant, and it is becoming more and more difficult for the United States to maintain neutrality between China and Japan. The 15th Regiment was effectively no longer able to fulfill its duty to defend the railway line between Peking and TJ, and the Congress considered having them withdraw early next year. ”

Then, Reilly began to tell John about what he had seen and heard in Peking over the past few years, especially the battle that took place on the outskirts of Peking on July 7 this year. "Those Chinese boys are very brave and their morale is very high, but the weapons and equipment are terrible. Some of the rifles were Russian from the First World War, and the chambers were almost worn out. Although there were quite a few of them, there were no heavy weapons, only a small number of machine guns, and there were not many bullets. Generally, the grenade is thrown first, and then it rushes into hand-to-hand combat. Reilly sighed and poured down a glass of tequila, "What a bunch of great boys, it's a pity." I could have sold them a couple of infantry guns, but it wasn't allowed above, Congress demanded that we remain damn neutral! ”

That night, John had been playing two eight-laps with Reilly. But not because he thought about mahjong addiction, but because he wanted to hear more about China from Reilly. From the first day he crossed over, he had been thinking about that distant land. He knew that his "hometown" was going through the most tragic ordeal in history, and that his hometown fathers were groaning in pain under the iron hooves of the invaders. However, John could not find a solution to this problem, and a deep sense of powerlessness tormented his heart.

Now the appearance of Reilly has given him a glimmer of hope. Maybe he can use this line to establish some kind of connection with China. Chennault should have helped Song Meiling set up an aviation school in Kunming at this time, in which year was the Flying Tigers founded? In 1941? Or 1942? Lying in bed at night, John's brain was unusually excited. He felt that he should be able to use the investment in the California aviation industry to promote the establishment of the "American Volunteer Air Force for China" one step earlier. It may not be easy to get a large number of P-38 and P-40, which are standard fighters equipped in the US Army Air Fleet, but Hughes Aircraft Company still has an H1 fighter that has not been adopted by the military. Later generations often say that RB Mitsubishi Heavy Industries' Zero fighter is a steal of the design of the Hughes H1 aircraft, how can this aircraft be said to be stronger than the current Chinese Air Force outdated P-35.

Although sponsoring an airplane was more troublesome than donating money directly, John couldn't trust the Nationalist government. The legend of the sensational Nanchang Airport fire in 1934 is that a high-level person embezzled the donations raised by the private sector to buy a plane, bought a bunch of rags that could not fly, and then set fire to cover up the crime. John's money didn't blow in the wind, and he couldn't say anything cheaper than the silverfish.