Beiping, Dongjiaomin Lane, in the room of the Six Nations Hotel. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

"Knock knock!" There was a knock on the door.

Veronica, the beautiful secretary (assistant), opened the door and smiled, "Hello." ”

"Miss, your coffee." The hotel waiter said respectfully.

"Leave it to me, it's your tip." Veronica took out a silver dollar, and without waiting for the waiter to thank her, she turned back to her room with her coffee.

Toynbee was reading the French version of Guns, Germs, and Steel, looking at it and turning back to the previous chapters from time to time, thinking about and revisiting some of the ideas in the book.

Veronica said, "Sir, have some coffee." ”

After shouting twice in a row, Toynbee looked up sharply, and then said, "Put it on the coffee table." ”

Although Veronica is young and beautiful, she is not a big-chested woman, and she also has a study of the history and culture of various countries, otherwise she would not be qualified to be Toynbee's assistant secretary. Curious, she asked, "What is this book about?" ”

"The origin and development of the peoples of the world, or of civilizations," Toynbee said with emotion, "is a great book, more rational and systematic than my theory of the development of civilization." It's unbelievable that someone could write something like this, and it could make a splash in the entire world of history. ”

"So powerful?" Veronica couldn't believe it.

Toynbee smiled bitterly: "Regarding the development of civilization, I have always believed that there must be challenges, and it is impossible for a comfortable race without challenges to grow into a strong civilization. But after reading this book, I realized that my view was too one-sided. Challenges alone do not lead to a strong civilization, there must also be environmental factors that are appropriate for development. In the book, Mr. Zhou Hexuan explained the root causes of the backwardness of the Americas and Africa, which I think is very reasonable. ”

Veronica laughs and says, "I can't wait to read this book." ”

"By the time I finished reading the book, I thought I would have to revise my paper, and some of the ideas were really flawed." Toynbee said.

Veronica took out an invitation card and said with a smile: "This is sent by Mr. Zhou in the afternoon, he is about to get married, and the wedding will be held in Shanghai." ”

"Really?" Toynbee said, "It seems that we are going to leave early, and Zhou's wedding cannot be missed." It just so happened that I had to ask him some questions about Chinese civilization. ”

Veronica drank coffee, sat next to Toynbee and read for a while, then suddenly blinked and said, "I'll go take a shower first." ”

"yes, okay." Toynbee was immersed in the joy of reading, and there was no interest in it at all.

By the way, Toynbee had a wife at this time.

However, everyone understands this kind of thing, and European and American upper-class men who do not have a lover are very LOW performance.

This Veronica is not easy, she admired Toynbee's talent, and worked as a secretary in obscurity for more than 20 years, until the end of World War II, when she finally succeeded in becoming a junior.

Two days later, Toynbee took the beautiful secretary south, and he was in the same boat as Zhou Hexuan.

This guy pestered Zhou Hexuan all day long, asking for advice and discussing issues about China, so as to accumulate materials for his academic works.

As a result, Toynbee was very depressed to find that the ideas and opinions he wanted to express had been compiled into teaching content by Zhou Hexuan, and this Nima academic research was actually cut off.

How so?

Just like one night, someone wrote "The bright moonlight in front of the bed is suspected to be frost on the ground". A famous sentence that has been passed down through the ages, and then I suddenly discovered, damn, that guy Li Bai actually robbed me of my poems!

This was not the first time Toynbee had encountered such a thing, and eight years ago, after witnessing the devastation of post-World War I Europe, he wanted to write a paper on Western civilization. When he had considered many of the issues and was about to put pen to paper, he suddenly read Spengler's "The Decline of the West" - everything he wanted to write had already been written and published.

The great work of historiography, "Historical Research", is actually the inheritance and development of Spengler's historiography theory of cultural form. It's just that now Zhou Hexuan preemptively wrote the latter part of "Historical Research", while Toynbee only wrote the introduction......

It's embarrassing.

During the discussion on the ship, Toynbee and Zhou Hexuan had a heated argument, because although their views were broadly identical, they differed greatly in details.

Zhou Hexuan thought of the "Cambridge" series of books, and suggested with a smile: "Mr. Toynbee, it is better to do this." We write our own articles, organize them separately, and publish them together. The same part is signed together, and different parts are signed separately in chapters, and then jointly signed and published. What do you think? ”

Toynbee thought for a moment: "Nice advice. We tell each other's opinions, and how the reader understands them depends on who they choose to believe. ”

"Then it's a deal." Zhou Hexuan said happily. After all, it was he who plagiarized Toynbee's great works, and if he could co-sign it, it would more or less compensate the original author.

Just as they were heading south by boat, the focus of public opinion in the whole country was on Chang Kaishen's great disarmament.

As a matter of fact, as early as half a year ago, when several major military leaders held a meeting in Tangshan to divide the spoils, Chang Kaishen put forward a disarmament plan, and even listed in detail how many military regions the country was divided into.

Li Zongren objected on the spot, and bluntly said that disarmament is certainly possible, but he is afraid that someone will have selfish motives.

Feng Yuxiang happily agreed to disarmament, but he wanted to revise Chang Kaishen's disarmament plan, according to Feng Yuxiang's idea, after disarmament, half of China's army will be the Northwest Army.

Yan Xishan was all at the scene, neither agreeing nor opposing, and no one should be offended if they were good friends on either side.

The matter of disarmament was put on hold because of serious differences among the four major military leaders.

Whether it is Yan Xishan, Feng Yuxiang, Li Zongren and Bai Chongxi, they all think that Chang Kaishen does not dare to disarm, and they are just talking.

But what he didn't expect was that since November, Chang Kaishen suddenly began to create public opinion on a large scale, and also published the government's annual financial revenue and annual military expenditure in newspapers. Now that the whole Chinese people know that they want to disarm, whether they are gentry and celebrities, or businessmen and scholars, they all support the government's disarmament plan, and Chang Kaishen's prestige has risen again.

After holding public opinion and popular sentiment in his hands, Chang Kaishen sent a telegram inviting Feng Yuxiang, Yan Xishan, and others to Nanjing for a meeting to discuss disarmament matters in detail.

Several major warlords were so angry that their lungs exploded, because Chang Kaishen played too much, and this was to kidnap public opinion and force them to hand over military power.

If Chang Kaishen's disarmament is okay out of public interest, perhaps these warlords will support it. But the problem is that Chang Kaishen does not cut himself in disarmament, he cuts most of other people's armies, but his own army only cuts some miscellaneous armies of cats and dogs.

It's too ugly to eat!

In mid-December, Feng Yuxiang, Li Zongren, and Bai Chongxi ignored Chang Kaishen, but Yan Xishan happily ran to Nanjing.

Yan Xishan personally went to the radio station this year when the Nanjing Nationalist Government had just founded the Central Radio Station, expressing his support for the government's disarmament plan and his willingness to put aside his personal gains and losses and contribute to China's prosperity and strength.

For a time, Yan Xishan's reputation was greatly enhanced, and the limelight even overshadowed Chang Kaishen, and everyone praised him as a patriotic warlord.

Well, no matter how the disarmament is cut, Yan Xishan has established a positive image anyway, and this wave of trading will not be a loss.

Waiting left and right, Yan Xishan waited from mid-December to the end of December, and Feng Yuxiang and the others had not yet come to Nanjing for a meeting. Yan Xishan was not in a hurry, and said to his wife: "Mr. Zhou will get married in a few days, and we will go to Shanghai and come back." ”

By the way, you can also go to Shanghai to give a patriotic speech, and Yan Laoxi doesn't have to do a loss-making business. In order to achieve a smooth disarmament, Chang Kaishen must help Yan Xishan carry out propaganda, and our Minister Yan is here to invite his name in the south.