The Victoria was a new type of clipper ship, and the envoys departed from Shanghai and traveled through Hong Kong, Manila, Singapore, Columbo, Mumbai, Port Sète and finally the Mediterranean to Italy, which took about 16 days and was extremely fast.

Then Zhou Hexuan met Mussolini......

In fact, Kong Xiangxi had some resentment towards Mussolini, because he was deceived by the Italians in the first place.

After Chang Kaishen's comeback in 1932, due to the government's financial difficulties, Kong Xiangxi was responsible for borrowing money abroad and purchasing military equipment. His first stop was the United States, and as a result, Time magazine published an article about the marriage of Chiang, Song, and Kong families and the implementation of family rule in China, which quickly spread in the United States. With such a scandal, Kong Xiangxi was in an embarrassing situation in the United States and ran to Europe in disgrace.

When he arrived in Italy, Minister Kong seemed to be extremely denied, and Mussolini received Kong Xiangxi with the etiquette of the head of state, and sold him a batch of bombers and some military supplies at a low price.

After returning to China, Kong Xiangxi felt that he had made a great contribution and tried his best to persuade Lao Chiang to carry out the "Great Air Force Plan". When the Italian bombers arrived in China, Kong Xiangxi no longer mentioned any big air force strategy, because the goods received were a pile of scrap metal. Those planes are so dilapidated that they can't be repaired, but they can fly, but the back and forth lines in the barrels of the planes have been polished.

This deception made Kong Xiangxi lose face, and the elders of the Kuomintang demanded that he be held accountable. As a result, Kong Xiangxi was difficult to be promoted in the next two years, and it was not until Song Ziwen resigned from the post of Minister of Finance that Minister Kong had his first day.

Of course, Kong Xiangxi did not lose money, and the price of those antique bombers was very cheap, which was enough for him to make a lot of money from them. And suffering a loss is a blessing, Kong Xiangxi took this opportunity to make friends with Mussolini, and China and Italy have since entered a diplomatic honeymoon period.

On the contrary, Hitler was very uneasy, and when Kong Xiangxi visited Germany, Hitler sold $25 million in military supplies to China. Although the quality of the German goods is good, the Germans' brains are also leveraged, and they refuse to reduce the price, so Kong Xiangxi does not get any kickbacks.

Before leaving Germany, Hitler unleashed the greatest kindness - he took his signed photo as a gift and asked Kong Xiangxi to pass it on to Chang Kaishen.

In Hitler's view, he was the greatest man on earth, and it was a precious and glorious gift to be able to get his own autographed photograph and anyone in the world to be dizzy with happiness. But the Führer's flattering eyes were thrown to the blind man, Kong Xiangxi got the photo, and when he went out, he muttered angrily: This thing is also a gift?

On the evening of the second day after arriving in Italy, Mussolini personally met with Kong Xiangxi, Chen Shaokuan, and Zhou Hexuan, and prepared a dinner at his official residence.

Don't believe the lie that Mussolini and Hitler were vegetarians –

Hitler's favorite food was roasting a pigeon, and he also had the chef put the tongue and liver in the pigeon's belly. Even in his later years, Hitler suffered from a serious stomach ailment, and he still liked to drink stewed meat soup, and animal liver made it difficult for him to give up.

As for Mussolini, he especially liked chicken and rabbits, and in his later years, he became a person with high blood pressure, high blood lipids, and high blood sugar, and even his intestines were deformed, and he had to learn from Hitler's eating habits.

"Hello Mr. Prime Minister!"

"Hello Dr. Kong!"

Kong Xiangxi and Mussolini shook hands warmly, and seemed to have forgotten the experience of being deceived when they bought a dilapidated plane.

Kong Xiangxi introduced Zhou Hexuan and Chen Shaokuan again, Mursoni first shook hands with Chen Shaokuan, and when he faced Zhou Hexuan, he suddenly opened his arms and hugged and laughed: "Haha, Mr. Zhou, I like your works, please visit my study after dinner!" ”

"It is a great honor, Your Excellency, Prime Minister." Zhou Hexuan said with a smile.

Mussolini was always seen as rude and irascible, like a reckless man who rose to the top by luck.

Obviously, this can't be!

Among all the heads of state of the world in the 30s, Mussolini was the favorite subject of journalists, because he respected knowledge, culture, and even more so those who possessed knowledge and culture. But if you really have something in your head, you will definitely be regarded as a guest by Mussoni, and when your knowledge impresses him, he will treat you as a teacher and be ashamed to ask questions.

In fact, if you take a closer look at Mussolini's life experience, you will know that this guy is a very knowledgeable person. Between the ages of 19 and 21, Mussolini lived a life of wandering, often without food, but he continued to read theoretical books every evening, including those of Marx, Hegel, Lassalle, Nietzsche, and Maledau.

In order to study Marx's original works, Mussolini taught himself German - he was a fan of Marx when he was young, and he always had a portrait of Marx in his pocket; In order to read the original Times, Mussolini began learning English at the age of 42 and developed an authentic London accent. He was very fond of literature, especially poetry, and if he met an erudite visitor, he would put a table full of famous poems to show his cultivation in the field of poetry.

This guy was a journalist when he was young, made a living from writing, and also wrote celebrity biographies and scripts, and his later two autobiographies were also written by himself, and he never hired someone to write them.

Now you know why Mussolini failed, right?

It's very simple, this guy is a Wenqing (squinting smile).

Of course, no matter how literate he was, Mussolini's taste could not be concealed, as can be seen from the food he feasted his guests.

At this moment, Mussolini pointed to the appetizer on his plate and said: "Italian cuisine is the wealth of the whole of Europe, and the so-called French cuisine is nothing more than a barbarian thing." And to enjoy Italian food, we have to say that one of the appetizers is this kind of food in front of you. It stimulates the appetite, clears the mind and makes it easy to fall asleep, a pleasure that the French simply do not understand. ”

Zhou Hexuan looked down at the contents of the plate, and instantly lost his appetite, he would rather eat the fried fish and potatoes of the British.

Oh my God, how can there be such an anti-human dark cuisine in the world?

A plate full of raw garlic with olive oil and lemon juice added to it, Zhou Hexuan couldn't imagine the taste at all.

This is what Mussolini must eat every night, without which he will not be able to sleep at all. He also likes to eat cakes and puddings, well, with raw garlic instead of creamy cakes and puddings. Raw garlic cake......

No wonder Mussolini had a bad temper, no wonder his stomach was deformed in his later years, and he had to declare himself a vegetarian.

Scientific studies have shown that eating too much raw garlic can easily cause gastrointestinal discomfort, irritability, and affect vision.

Chen Shaokuan endured the nausea, scooped a small half spoon and put it to his mouth, licked it gently, and immediately smiled and put back the raw garlic secretly made with olive oil and lemon juice.

Kong Xiangxi has a fearless spirit, he not only ate a big spoonful, but also chewed the comment deliciously: "Very distinctive Italian food, let me feel the heritage of the ancient Roman country." China, like Italy, has a long history, culture, and cuisine. This is what our two countries have in common, and it is also the cultural cornerstone of our exchanges, and I believe that the friendship between our two countries will last as long as food. If you have the opportunity, I hope to invite Your Excellency the Prime Minister to taste Chinese cuisine. ”

Mussolini suddenly became happy, clapped his hands and smiled: "Dr. Kong, you are a rare gourmet, and we have a common language. After speaking, he asked Zhou Hexuan again, "Mr. Zhou, don't you like it?" ”

"Of course, it's interesting food." Zhou Hexuan suppressed the nausea and swallowed it in one gulp, swallowed it to his throat, and almost vomited out his lunch.

After the appetizer of olive oil mixed with lemon juice and secret raw garlic, the food on the table finally became normal, and Mussolini's conversation became more and more enthusiastic. He speaks with great grace and clarity, often with literary allusions, and this image is highly respected by literati.

It is no wonder that before the Italian invasion of Ethiopia, Mussolini had a large number of celebrity fans, such as Eliot, Pound, Yeats, George Bernard Shaw, Rabindranath Tagore, Churchill and Gandhi, all of whom once expressed admiration for Mussolini.

After meeting Mussolini twice, Tagore complimented: "His Excellency Mussolini seems to have been mastered by Michelangelo, and his every move shines with wisdom and strength." ”

Mussolini talked about sculpture to painting, from politics to literature, and there seemed to be no field that he was not good at, which fooled Kong Xiangxi and Chen Shaokuan into a daze. Suddenly, he talked about poetry again and asked Zhou Hexuan: "Does Mr. Zhou know Pound?" ”

"Ezra Pound?" Zhou Hexuan confirmed.

"Of course, it's him," Mussolini laughs, "and he lives in Italy, and we always have a correspondence with me, and every year we get together to talk about poetry and literature." Mr. Pound was very interested in your poems, and he commented: In the modern Far East, there are two real poets, one is Tagore and the other is Zhou Hexuan. ”

Zhou Hexuan smiled: "That's really my honor." ”

Ezra Pound, the poet who was second only to Eliot in the limelight in the 30s, was a super comic who liked oriental culture, and a Bole who promoted many literary scholars.

He encouraged penniless young writers to keep writing, helping them find publications, write book reviews, and even help pay rent. Among them were two young people who were sponsored by him and later became Nobel laureates in literature - Eliot and Hemingway.

Eliot's "The Waste Land" has been hailed as a milestone in modern Anglo-American poetry and the most representative work of symbolist literature. The original manuscript of "The Waste Land" was sent to Ezra Pound, and Pound deleted one-third of it before publishing it.

In addition, Pound was particularly fond of Oriental culture, researching and translating ancient Chinese poetry and Japanese haiku. In his later years, he spent 13 years in a psychiatric hospital, where he wrote 25 poems while suffering from mental illness, and translated the Book of Songs, the University, The Mean, The Analects, and Mencius into Italian, and by the way, won the Boringen Poetry Prize, making great contributions to the development of modern poetry.

This guy was a die-hard Mussolini loyalist and often made bizarre political statements, hoping to solve all kinds of problems for all mankind.

Faced with traffic congestion, Pound suggested the construction of roundabout streets; Faced with a shortage of food in Italy, Pound suggested that Mussolini grow peanuts; On the issue of Asian geopolitics, Pound believes that Chinese and the Japanese should join forces to drive the Australians out of Australia......

Mussolini laughed and talked about Pound's anecdotes, and then invited: "Monsieur Pound will come to Rome in the fourth week of every month, and I can introduce you to you." The two great writers from the East and the West must have had a good conversation. ”

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