On the fifth day of the Lunar New Year, Liu Xiang's body was transported back to Sichuan.

On the sixth day of the Lunar New Year, the central government and Sichuan military and political dignitaries held a public memorial ceremony for Liu Xiang in Chengdu.

Zhou Hexuan also took his wife and presented a handwritten elegy to express his deep condolences to Liu Xiang's family.

The atmosphere of the public memorial ceremony was solemn and sad, especially the military and political personnel in Sichuan, who wept bitterly, and Wang Zhanxu, who had a deep contradiction with Liu Xiang, also shed a few tears. When these Sichuan officials returned home, they immediately began to discuss in private, and rumors about the mystery of Liu Xiang's death spread all over the world.

The rumors are roughly as follows: Lao Chiang wants to use the anti-Japanese resistance to weaken the Sichuan army and eliminate the local forces in Sichuan. Liu Xiang felt bad, so he conspired with Han Fuqu against Jiang. When Han Fuyu was ensnared by Lao Jiang, Liu Xiang was frightened and designed to use fake death to return to Sichuan, but Lao Jiang saw through it. Under the pretext of solemn condolences, Lao Jiang ordered the coffin to be repainted, and Liu Xiang was suffocated to death in the coffin.

After these words spread to the people, various versions were immediately derived, and even the details of Lao Jiang's suffocation of Liu Xiang were completed by the good deeds. That is: Liu Xiang took Western medicine and faked his death and went to the coffin, and Lao Jiang pretended to be confused with a sad face. Seeing that there was still a crack in the coffin, Lao Jiang immediately threw himself on the coffin and cried bitterly, blocking the gap to death. After crying for two hours, Lao Jiang finally suffocated Liu Xiang to death.

Not only that, but the rumors have become even more varied. For example, Liu Xiang was not sick at all, but pretended to be sick and wanted to go back to Sichuan. And Lao Jiang sent Dai Li to buy off the nurse and replace the life-saving medicine with poison, so that Liu Xiang was blocked in a daze.

Anyway, everything is changing, and the core of these rumors is: Lao Jiang killed Liu Xiang!

Sichuan people believe these rumors nine times out of ten, after all, there is always a market for conspiracy theories. Lao Jiang was very passive, and specially called Wang Lingji, the general of the Sichuan army, saying that "the traitor Hinayana is making rumors to confuse the facts", hoping that Wang Lingji can help explain and dispel the Sichuan army's misunderstanding of the central government.

Whether Liu Xiang was killed or not is a mystery, and no one can tell.

Judging from the secret documents made public in later generations, Chang Kaishen and Dai Li did have a conspiracy. The original text of Dai Li's telegram is as follows: "I will immediately go to the Nanjing Military Commission, Secretary Mao (head of the old Jiang attendant's office), Brother Qingxiang, to translate it personally. Dense. I would like to request to forward it to the Chairman of the Committee. Yesterday, he came to Han from Changsha to wait for Yang (Yang Hucheng). It is reported that Liu Xiang has arrived in Hantuo today and returned to Sichuan with illness. If Liu returns to Sichuan, it will not be conducive to the long-term war of resistance of the central government in the future...... The telegram requested that it be forwarded by the chief of the inspection department of the Hankow Garrison Command. ”

This telegram was sent by Dai Li to Mao Qingxiang, the leader of the fourth group of Chang Kaishen's chamberlain, saying that when he was waiting in Changsha to transfer Yang Hucheng, he received the news that Liu Xiang wanted to return to Sichuan under the pretext of illness, and that Liu Xiang's return to Sichuan would not be conducive to the War of Resistance Against Japan, and asked Chang Kaishen to give instructions as soon as possible.

On the third day after the telegram was sent, Chang Kaishen convened his staff to discuss and decide on a strategy to solve the problem of Liu Xiang and Sichuan. As for the exact content of the strategy, it remains a mystery and has not been announced decades later.

Therefore, it is possible that Chang Kaishen killed Liu Xiang.

But Liu Xiang was indeed seriously ill and vomited blood at that time, according to Liu Xiang's henchman Liu Hangchen, Liu Xiang had "a stomach problem and vomited blood badly" when he was in Nanjing, so Liu Xiang himself was also very likely to die.

Regardless of the cause of Liu Xiang's death, the Sichuan warlords must be suspicious in order to have an excuse to resist the central government's control of Sichuan affairs.

Even, these guys came to find Zhou Hexuan, such as Chongqing Mayor Li Hongkun......

When Li Hongkun met, he said: "Mr. Zhou, Commander Liu died unjustly!" You and Commander Liu are old friends, you have to stand up and speak for him, you can't let Commander Liu die in vain...... I also asked Mr. Zhou to write an article to seek justice for Commander Liu! ”

Zhou Hexuan could only shake his head and smile bitterly, and said some perfunctory words to send Li Hongkun away.

Chang Kaishen still has a way, and all kinds of official wishes have blocked the mouths of the Sichuan warlords. For example, Li Hongkun was appointed by Lao Chiang as the chief of staff of the 21st Army, and he was actually promoted, which is equivalent to the third person in the main force of the Sichuan Army.

The Sichuan warlords complained much less about Lao Jiang, and began to target Wang Zhanxu, a high-ranking official, so that Lao Jiang could reap the benefits of the fisherman in vain.

As for our head of state, President Lin, since he visited Zhou Hexuan that day, he has to come to the Zhou Mansion every once in a while to sit down. He likes the tea leaves of Zhoufu very much, and he also likes the erhu of the blind man A Bing, and sits under the tree in the afternoon to drink tea and listen to the piano, Lin Sen enjoys this life very much.

Of course, Zhou Hexuan's private collection room is often visited by Lin Sen. The "Han Xizai's Night Banquet", which was identified as genuine in the early Northern Song Dynasty, was even more appreciated by Lin Sen over and over again, and this little old man couldn't wait to take the painting home.

It was a sunny day, sweeping away the dampness brought by the continuous spring rains.

Lin Sen volunteered as a coolie to help take Zhou Hexuan's collection to dry in the courtyard. He carefully spread out the calligraphy and paintings, admired them while drying them, and suddenly exclaimed: "Mingcheng, you actually have Su Dongpo's "Cold Food Post"! ”

"It's just a copy of the Ming Dynasty, and the real thing is in Japan." Zhou Hexuan shook his head and said.

Su Dongpo's "Cold Food Post", together with Wang Xizhi's "Orchid Pavilion Preface" and Yan Zhenqing's "Manuscript for Nephews", are known as "the three major books in the world". Hearing that the real product of "Cold Food Post" was actually in Japan, Lin Sen suddenly said depressedly: "How could it fall into the hands of the Japanese invaders?" ”

Zhou Hexuan was very clear about this, and said: "When the Old Summer Palace was fired, "Cold Food Post" was obtained by Feng Zhanyun in the people, and later changed three collectors. ”

Lin Sen nodded and said: "I know about this, in the sixth year of the Republic of China, "Cold Food Post" was also exhibited at the calligraphy and painting exhibition, how did you cross the ocean to Japan?" ”

Zhou Hexuan sneered: "Because the Japanese bid high, Yan Yunbo sold "Cold Food Post" to the Japanese. ”

"Yan's confusion!" Lin Sen was heartbroken by this.

Zhou Hexuan doesn't care, anyway, after the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, "Cold Food Post" will also be bought back by the Chinese people, and finally treasured in the National Palace Museum in Taipei.

Lin Sen admired the antiques, sat down and asked, "Mingcheng, you are leaving tomorrow, how sure are you going to the United States to seek a loan?" ”

Zhou Hexuan shook his head and said, "I went to the United States, and I didn't have a point." If I were to go to the Soviet Union, I would be 100 percent sure that I would be able to get the funds for the war of resistance. ”

"Then you will go to the Soviet Union!" Lin Sen said happily.

"Whoever goes to the Soviet Union is the same, I don't have to worry about it." Zhou Hexuan refused.

In fact, in the early days of China's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the Soviet Union not only sent volunteers to participate in the war, but also successively gave large amounts of financial support. Within a few days of the outbreak of the July 7 Incident, the Soviet Union provided China with a loan of $50 million, and in the following three years, it provided two large loans, with a total of $250 million in aid to China.

The Soviet Union had only one purpose in this move, and that was to let China hold Japan back so that Japan would not have the energy to attack the Soviet Union.

Lin Sen nodded and sighed: "Ten years ago, I thought that the Soviet Union was China's number one enemy, and I strongly opposed the first KMT-CCP cooperation. Who would have thought that now the Soviet Union has become China's number one ally, unpredictable and fickle! ”

"It's just a profit." Zhou Hexuan said.

"Boom! Rumble! Rumble! ”

As soon as Zhou Hexuan's words fell, he heard a series of explosions suddenly coming from the north.

Lin Sen stood up abruptly and asked in surprise: "It's like an airplane bomb!" ”

Zhou Hexuan added: "Jiangbei County (later Yubei District) direction. ”

"Suffer, the Japanese are bombing the factory!"

Lin Sen was anxious and said to Zhou Hexuan: "Mingcheng, I will leave first, you quickly send a ship to send me to Chongqing to camp." ”

This was the first bombing of Chongqing by the Japanese invaders, not only the factories in Jiangbei County, but also the airfield in Guangyangba. It's just that Guangyangba is too far away from the Zhou Mansion to hear the sound, and I only found out when I read the newspaper the next day.

There were not many casualties in the bombing, but the damage was great, and the Guangyangba airfield was blown to pieces.

As early as a month ago, Zhou Hexuan told Li Gengu to guard against bombing, and the airport was the top priority. However, Li Gengu was busy with the political struggle after Liu Xiang's death, and did not seriously implement it at all, so that more than half of the planes of the Sichuan army were now bombed.

Well, in fact, it's nothing, those planes are outdated and tatters......

However, it is a pity that there are two factories in Jiangbei, both of which produce civilian materials, and now they have been bombed into ruins by the Japanese invaders.

For the time being, Japanese planes will not bomb the main city of Chongqing - after all, the flight is too long for bombs to be cost-effective to drop on the heads of civilians.