Yanjing, Chengtianmen Square.

At this time, Yang Shuoming was sitting leisurely on a bench, flipping through the newspaper he had just bought.

“…… Exhaust the country's wealth and the strength of the people to support most of the patrols and overseers, and all of them support troops for self-defense, and are known as a number of strong divisions. Unable to be external and responsible, but not to ensure the security of the localities, so that the rebellion of the party spreads throughout the country, then what is the use of asking you to have many overseers and patrols? Who should be held responsible for such an unprecedented tragedy? We cannot afford to sit idly by and ignore the serious blame for the people who have made offerings to the people! ”

"The reason why the party has been repeatedly banned is because there is a local warlord as a protective umbrella, and this time there are many local party strife in the party, and some local warlords have sent troops to show their eyes, how can it be strange! We in China are really not a country anymore! To those who still have the strength to save the people from fire and water, you must do it! ”

Yang Shuoming closed the newspaper in his hand, raised his head, and looked around. Probably because of the cold weather, the streets of Yanjing seem a little deserted, but there are still many pedestrians and vehicles.

A young woman in a black trench coat came to Yang Shuoming and sat down beside him, Yang Shuoming handed her the newspaper in her hand, she only glanced at it slightly, and then looked at him fixedly, as if waiting for something.

"If you want to scold me, you can scold me, 'Yunxia'." Yang Shuoming looked at her pale face, smiled, and said, "Don't hold it in your heart, it's not good for your health." ”

After listening to Yang Shuoming's words, Jiang Xueying's face still looked flat, but the imperceptible smile on the corner of her mouth revealed the secret in her heart.

"I don't dare to scold you 'Poplar', I can't bear it if you give me such a hand when I can save it." Jiang Xueying said, "You are a rare big conspirator in the world, if anyone offends you, it will be considered eight lifetimes of mold." ”

"How am I a conspirator?" An innocent smile appeared on Yang Shuoming's face, he spread his hands and said with a smile, "I didn't do anything." ”

"Come on, there's no point in talking about that now." Jiang Xueying patted the newspaper with her hand, "Just tell me, what are you going to do now." You tell me how to make this ridiculous campaign end. ”

"Since the local overseers can't handle it well, they can only be handled by the central government." Yang Shuoming said calmly, "I believe that Premier Liang and General Cai will handle it." ”

"Your plan of killing two birds with one stone is really seamless," which not only achieves the goal of eradicating the Cloth Party, but also eliminates the separatist forces of local warlords, and can even help General Cai Da complete the plan of 'nationalizing the army'. Jiang Xueying said a little angrily, "But do you know that how many innocent young people and people across the country died this time?" ”

"It shouldn't be more than 50,000." Yang Shuoming looked at the eyes that looked a little angry, and said lightly.

"Tens of thousands of surnames, it doesn't seem to be anything in your eyes, right?" Jiang Xueying irritated him with his nonchalant appearance and asked loudly.

"No, the surname of every Chinese is very important to me." A hint of pain suddenly flashed in Yang Shuoming's eyes, "It's just that this is a simple addition and subtraction, and I have to do it." ”

The pain and loneliness in Yang Shuoming's eyes made Jiang Xueying feel a burst of heartache for no reason, and she suddenly felt that the man in front of her seemed to have great pain hidden in her heart.

"What addition and subtraction?"

"If the sacrifice of 50,000 people can be exchanged for the lives of 45 million people, what will you choose?" Yang Shuoming looked at Jiang Xueying and asked.

Jiang Xueying was suffocated by his question, she thought for a while, and asked rhetorically: "How do you know that the sacrifice of these 50,000 people will be exchanged for the lives of 45 million people?" ”

"If they are really in power," Yang Shuoming pointed to the Chengtianmen Tower not far away, "Have you ever thought about how many people will die in the whole of China?" ”

"Do you know what kind of terror they will create if they come to power? How many people will they kill? How many people will starve to death? And how many people will die in the infighting? ”

"There, the head of a tyrant who has never been seen before in Chinese history will be hung, and his body may be mummified and placed in a memorial hall for people to pay their respects, attracting thousands of people to come and pay their respects, and countless people will shout his name and the slogan of long live and die tragically."

After listening to Yang Shuoming's description, Jiang Xueying couldn't help but fight a cold war.

At this time, she didn't know that the hellish scenes that Yang Shuoming described to her were real. It's nothing more than a future in another historical time and space.

"U.S. President Jefferson once said: The boiled flower is watered by the blood of tyrants and patriots. All I can do is let the tyrants bleed more, the patriots bleed less, and that's it. Yang Shuoming said.

"The reality is so cruel, and we are all in it, and we can't help ourselves." Jiang Xueying sighed and said.

"Let's go." Yang Shuoming smiled, got up and said, "It's time to 'close the net'." ”

January 11, 1923, New York, USA, Rockefeller Company Headquarters.

"China's 'Red Terror' is over, Dad." Babs handed a newspaper to Rockefeller, who took it and read it carefully.

The newspaper headline reads, "The Flower of Boiling Blossoms Blooms Hard, China Is Undergoing Painful Change"

"For an ancient country like China, the opening of the prologue in 1923 was full of tragedy. The Great Rebellion, which had begun in the second half of 1922, came to an end on 10 January, when the Bolshevik riots that swept through China were quelled with an iron fist by the Chinese political axe. Although this riot brought great suffering to the minds and minds of the Chinese, it promoted the process of China's political enlightenment. At the same time as the riots ended, many observers believed that many of China's previously powerful warlords and political strongmen had stepped down in disgrace, and the posts of overseers in China's provinces that had been in place for many years were abolished, and the power of China's political axe was greatly strengthened. ”

"Amid popular protests, the warlord regimes in Sichuan, Zhejiang, Henan, Jiangsu, Qinghai and Shandong collapsed, and the era of China's 'warlord separatism' came to an end. The Chinese started the process of boiling in the most drastic way. Premier Liang Qichao said: "Welcome to witness this historic moment, and I would like to announce to our people and the world that we have finally driven out the 'Red Terror', the tyranny of the warlords and the rule of the Bolsheviks. They have come to the same fate as all tyrants and [***] people, and I declare to the world that we have put an end to this with our own hands and saved our country and our people from a state of peril. Premier Liang also announced that the era of Mingzhuo constitutionalism in China has arrived. ”

"So, what exactly ignited this fire? Dr. Goodnow, an expert on modern international relations and an expert on China, believes that this is actually the general outbreak of various political, economic, and social contradictions in China that have accumulated over time to a certain extent. ”

Dr. Goodnow said: First of all, you can see that China's domestic politics are extremely rigid, and the political system is basically a strong man who reads talents for a long time, and the son inherits the father's business, and the family rules or the monarchy is hereditary; Economically, China's economic structure is very deformed, and the degree of industrialization is even more backward than that of the original. China's social problems are piled up, the birth rate is extremely high, corruption is serious, and the wealth and the poor are extremely divided. So it is the accumulation of these contradictions that has led to this general outbreak. ”

"This political change has also led to a phenomenon that everyone is concerned about, and that is the rise of party politics in China. China's parliament was originally contested by a few moderate parties; The Progressive Party maintained its lead in the congressional elections. On the one hand, these political parties have made a solid foundation of public opinion in areas that are closely related to the lives of ordinary people, such as bailouts, rescues, and relief, which is reflected in the election, which is the high support rate of the people. On the other hand, and more importantly, these forces have adapted their policies in line with the times in the course of this change, and have worked hard to become political parties. They have changed their previous style and made many adjustments in their domestic and foreign policies, such as opposing radicalism and emphasizing the need to integrate modern, secular, and religious things to build a just, fair, open-boiled, and multi-party state and society. These adjustments have allowed them to win as much popular support as possible in China's domestic elections. ”

"In addition, it is worth noting that although there is no regime change in China this time, and there are elections in the open boil, the situation of 'open boil, freedom, peace, and stability' that the people longed for has not yet arrived. The struggle between various political forces in the country over issues such as elections, the formation of a government, and the creation of a new constitution has led to new demonstrations; The competition for the interests of some local forces and interest groups has made the road to Ming Cook very difficult; And we all know that the Bolsheviks were not willing to be defeated, so the situation in China could hardly be stabilized in the short term......"

So where will China's politics go in the future? Is stability a distant dream or a near-sighted reality for the Chinese people? In this regard, according to Dr. Goodnow, it depends on the size of the external intervention and the degree of internal compromise. These are two important reasons. If there is less involvement from the outside, they may be able to achieve stability by finding solutions internally; The second is whether or not the political forces within China can put the overall situation of the country first as soon as possible, not out of the consideration of their own faction, but out of the consideration of the interests of the entire country. We are now seeing that whoever can make faster strides on these two fronts will be able to move faster towards détente and stability. ”

"In the context of the end of the war in Europe and the uncertain global economy, the continued turmoil in China and the Far East will have a considerable negative impact on economic activity in the region. According to statistics, the riots have caused at least $50 million in economic losses to China, and China's economic development will face greater pressure in the next two years. At present, reconstruction work has begun in some of the severely damaged provinces. Stabilizing the regional political situation and restoring economic growth as soon as possible has become an urgent task for China's economic development. It remains to be seen whether China's political transformation will inevitably bring about an effective economic development model and economic development strategy, and whether China, which has gone through the pains of transformation, can truly get out of its predicament and find a path of economic revitalization suitable for its own national conditions......

"That said, the situation in China is actually much better than we expected." Rockefeller showed a pleased smile, "Actually, I have always believed that Mr. Treasury Secretary will control the political situation in China." ”

"However, I hope that China under his auspices will have fewer such things." Babs handed another newspaper to her father, and Rockefeller took it and opened it on the table, looking at the large black-and-white photo on the newspaper, and took a coffee cup and drank it.

In the photo, there are corpses hanging from the gallows, surrounded by clapping and cheering crowds.

This is how much of the bloody news about China is delivered to Westerners' breakfast tables, and Westerners seem to be accustomed to it. Because at this moment, Babs was surprised that her father could still drink coffee after watching such news.

"The article is very well written, and it quotes President Jefferson." Rockefeller pointed to the newspaper article, and his eyes flashed with approval, "This is written by a Chinese, and he can write such an article, which proves that China is moving towards a civilized country." ”

Babs took the newspaper curiously, avoiding the photos that frightened her and reading the text.

The title of this article is, "Do boiled flowers have to be watered with blood?" "The author's name is juyuan (i.e., Juyuan).

"I have just learned that the leaders of the party and their sons have not escaped death. As soon as the news was released, cheers resounded throughout China. ”

"I can understand the cheers. These people are indeed political hooligans, and their hands are indeed stained with the blood of their compatriots. But understanding is not the same as consent. Even though these people deserve death, I still don't think it's the best option to put them to death now. If they are executed while they are tyrannical, or if they are executed while they are arrested, I will also celebrate them. But the problem is that they don't die like this, some of them are already dying, some are still young, and they are in prison, completely incapacitated, and it is impossible to harm anyone anymore. In other words, they have been reduced to a de facto ordinary person, unarmed, and no threat to the real world. As ordinary people, their lives should be respected. It is true that they have committed heinous crimes, and it is not enough to say justice without reckoning. But the loss of power and imprisonment for life is already a great humiliation for them, and it is already the best retribution, so why should it cost them their lives? ”

"Putting old people and young children on the gallows, such a scene is inhumane and unacceptable to me in any case. Although many of their friends defended it, believing that their hangings would be a nightmare for other one-man thieves and would make them jealous, their hangings might speed up the boiling process; In other words, the boiled flower needs to be watered with the blood of the lone thief. This logic seems tight, but I always think it's paradoxical. ”

"Why do we need open cooking? In other words, why is Ming Cook better than Reading Cai [***]? There are many reasons for this, but the most important reason is that the reading of talents [***] (whether feudal [***] or the so-called 'proletarians' [***]') will destroy people's surnames, and will turn the ruler from a human into a beast. Therefore, under the rule of [***], everyone is not safe, everyone can become a prey to the ruler at any time, and everyone lives in fear. This is not the case with the Ming Cook, which is a person's surname, because under the Ming Cook system, life itself will become the highest value of society, and illegally depriving others of their lives will become the greatest evil and be prohibited, and everyone's life will be protected by the strictest legal procedures. ”

"Reading is bloodthirsty, and Ming Cook is the opposite, Ming Cook cherishes every drop of blood. This is the biggest difference between cooking and reading. Of course, there have been times in history when blood is not cherished, such as the French Revolution, such as the Russian Revolution. But all those who do not cherish every drop of blood, but all those who despise people's lives, but all those who are characterized by violence, are actually not far from reading [***], but from one person's reading talent or oligarchic reading to the reading talent of the majority. Such a so-called boil cannot be stable, and it is impossible not to fail, and history has made the best confirmation of this. ”

"It's not bad to kill a good person, it's not bad to kill a bad person, this is a basic principle of modern civilization. Only when even the right to life of the bad people is protected to the strictest extent can the institutional framework in which life itself become the highest value can be established, and everyone will be safe. Taking the life of a bad person lightly will undoubtedly be the beginning of the nightmare of all good people. Of course, the leaders of the Cloth Party who instigated evil are bad people, but they are now some bad people who have lost all their ability to resist, and some bad people who can no longer do evil, so they have the conditions to ask for the forgiveness of the Ming Cook system, and they are conditionally demanding that the Ming Cook system give them a way out, a way out. ”

"Boiling is not blood for blood, revenge must be avenged. The poor will be chased, and the evil will be eliminated. Far from bringing true fairness and justice, this will only lead to the reading of moral ideals, to the countering of violence with violence, and to all-out civil war. Cooking is about humanity, and cooking is also about forgiveness and compromise. Sins must be reckoned, but reckoning is not the same as bloodlust. ”

(To be continued)