After the break, Trotsky spoke. He spoke for an hour and a half in German, an hour and a half in French, and an hour and a half in Russian. The delegates, who knew only one of the three languages, visited the palace when Trotsky spoke in the other two. After watching his spectacular performances for a while, I went to visit the lavish residences of the Tsar and Empress. The queen's furniture and throne were covered with a burlap cover. In the corner, there is a French journalist who prints his own newsletter on a 'Crown' brand typewriter. Sitting Bella on the couch? Kuhn, who returned to Moscow after the Hungarian and German revolutions. In the adjoining room, which had once been the Tsar's bedroom, two delegates, presumably weary from the long debates in a committee, slept on a particularly large bed, which was also covered with burlap. All these rooms are very luxuriously equipped. In a gold tray is a large light blue Sèvres vase. Door handles are either made of gold or malachite. The door itself is 12 feet high, and it is adorned with the emperor's coat of arms and small round polychrome paintings covered with pearls. The walls in the bathroom are all mirrors. The floors are parquet and the equipment is made in Glasgow. ”

"When I returned to the Kluang Temple, Trotsky was speaking in Russian. At the exit I saw Zinoviev, Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Third International, talking to the Swiss representative, Rams, as I prepared to return to my lodgings. Zinoviev put his arms around Rams and asked him in German: 'Hey, when will the world revolution come to Switzerland?' ’”

"It is difficult to imagine that Zinoviev was serious in what he said to this Swiss, and it is difficult to imagine that Comrade Lenin really thought that the future of the world revolution was 'very good'. In 1922, wherever the communitarian revolution took place, there was a danger of a new armed intervention in Russia, or at least a great difficulty in Russia's economic and foreign policy. It was good to carry out world revolutionary propaganda against the foreign communists, and this propaganda also encouraged the Russian visionaries. But in reality the world revolution would not have served the interests of Soviet Russia. ”

"When Comrade Lenin reported to the Third International, it was already clear that his country could not count on help either from foreign capitalists or from foreign communists. Russia is in a state of isolation. It was destined to pay dearly for decades for the agrarian policy hated by the peasants, for the developed and inapplicable bureaucratic apparatus. The representatives of this bureaucracy, although superficially different from the bureaucracy of the tsarist era, in fact have extremely disgusting resemblances between the two. ”

"I haven't seen Comrade Lenin for a long time since that day. When I saw him again and we shook hands, my first impression was that he hadn't changed at all. When we started talking, my second impression was that he was unusually tired. His physical appearance and charming attitude are still the same as before, but something has changed in him. I've never seen him so tired before. He used to answer my questions so quickly that I could barely get into a sentence and could barely understand his opinion on the subject of my interest. He was always busy, but if he was interested, he could talk for half an hour, an hour, two hours at a time, making jokes, laughing at each other, and asking them all kinds of questions. He caused a lot of great difficulties for journalists, because he always wanted to turn the interviewee into an interviewer. Now that the excitement he used to have in him was gone, I felt a sadness in him, and I saw that what he had done with great ease in the past now he had to work very hard to do. ”

"When our conversation comes to the fascists (he thought Mussolini's rule of Rome was 'a delight!' He laughed and tilted his head back; He was very interested when it came to the question of the British elections, and in these performances I saw some of the characteristics of Comrade Lenin in old age. But until this time I had not received an answer to my question from Comrade Lenin. ”

"The first question I asked Comrade Lenin was: 'I see that the economy is very active, everyone is busy buying and selling, and a new business class is clearly emerging. Excuse me, how do you say that they are not a political force and do not show signs of demanding to be one? ”

Answering this question, Comrade Lenin said that she remembered the scene on the streets of London on a Saturday night 20 years ago. At that time, everyone on the streets was busy buying and selling things, but they were still quite far from being a 'political force', or even a political force. ”

"The second question I asked was that the merchants were making a profit, and 'loss-making production' was in the hands of the state. Excuse me, does this mean that the merchants are growing stronger economically and the state is weakening? ”

Comrade Lenin's answer was no. He said that the peasants were paying their grain taxes 'quickly and easily', that light industry was active, that the ruble was stable, and that only heavy industry was losing money. In response to my third question, Comrade Lenin explained that heavy industry would be financed by taxation of merchants. ”

"I then asked: Is Russia retreating into the era of 'feudal dictatorship'? Because capitalism is thriving, agricultural production is developing, and heavy industry is declining. ”

"Comrade Lenin replied: "This will not be in any case, because we are climbing slowly, sometimes paused, sometimes a few steps back, we are climbing along the line of state capitalism, which is a line that leads us forward towards socialism and communalism (the highest stage of socialism), because state power is in the hands of the working class."

“…… What is certain is that Comrade Lenin occupies a very high position among the state activists of the 20th century and plays an outstanding historical role. His countenance indicates that he has strength, wit, willpower, and premature aging. His small collar is often buttoned. I noticed his hands, which were aristocratic hands. There was a gaze in his eyes that could shoot through people, and his eyes shone with a sneering light and a glint of hatred. He was a great hateful man and a great activist. He is the Pugachev of the contemporary proletariat. He was a man armed with a lot of sarcasm and a man of incredible administrative skills. He had the mind of an intellectual leader, a sharp gaze and the physical ...... of a farmer on the Volga River"

Just as the young man was writing about the phrase "sharp eyes and the body of a farmer on the Volga", he suddenly felt something, he turned sharply and looked up, and saw two men standing there outside the iron fence gate, looking at him. A jailer followed them with a lantern.

Seeing that the man in a black suit had eyes that seemed to have a faint red tinge, radiating the kind of "gaze that can shoot people through" that he had just described, the young man couldn't help but shudder.

"Xiaobai!" The scholar-looking man next to this person had already recognized the identity of the young man in prison, and he couldn't help but let out a cry of surprise, he rushed to the iron fence and stretched out his hands to him, "How are you?" Howling white? You okay? ”

"It's very quiet here, I'm fine here, Brother Zhonghua doesn't have to worry." The young man in prison, Qu Shuang, smiled, stood up, took Chen Qiansheng's hand, and glanced at the person beside him again, "No, you didn't shackle me." ”

Chen Qiansheng smiled bitterly and didn't say anything more, just looked at Qu Shuang with a concerned gaze to make sure that he was not injured, and then let out a sigh of relief.

"This is the world-famous General Xiao Yang, right?" Qu Shuang looked at Yang Shuoming, who was standing behind his friend Chen Qiansheng, and asked calmly, "Although I don't wear a military uniform today, I can still feel the demeanor of this 'high-tech warlord', hehe." ”

Listening to Qu Shuang's slightly sarcastic words, Yang Shuoming just smiled and did not speak, just carefully looked at this famous "scholar revolutionary" in another historical time and space.

"Is General Xiao Yang here to accompany Brother Zhonghua to see me off?" Qu Shuang couldn't help but sneer when he saw Yang Shuoming staring at him.

"What nonsense are you talking about! Howling white! Chen Qiansheng said loudly, and glanced at Yang Shuoming, "How could Hanzhi do that?" ”

"If Xiaobai is willing, can you let me see the words I wrote just now?" Yang Shuoming smiled, and there was gentleness in his voice.

"It's too dark outside, how about Hanzhi take a look inside?" Qu Shuang heard that there seemed to be no malice in Yang Shuoming's words, and his words involuntarily slowed down a little, "I have written some other things here, Hanzhi may be interested." ”

"Okay." Yang Shuoming smiled and nodded, the jailer stepped forward to open the iron fence door, and Yang Shuoming and Chen Qiansheng entered the small cell together.

The three of them sat down around the small wooden table, and Qu Shuang handed the things he had written to Yang Shuoming, who looked at them seriously. Chen Qiansheng chatted with Qu Shuang.

"After a long time in Shanghai, it is really like a world away to meet here." Chen Qiansheng sighed.

"Although I haven't seen him for many years, Brother Zhonghua is the same." Qu Shuang said with a smile, "If I can see Brother Zhonghua today, even if it is death, it will not be in vain." ”

"Don't say that, Xiaobai." Chen Qiansheng said, "You won't die." ”

"There are small breaks and big breaks in life, and I will take a big break in the future." Qu Shuang smiled bitterly, "I always fantasize: I am willing to go to any small town to be a teacher, not to develop any education, but to get a good meal." In the rest of the time, isn't it very leisurely to read the books, literature, novels, poems, songs, etc. that you love to read? But I didn't expect ......"

"Then why are you ......" Chen Qiansheng looked at him, then at Yang Shuoming, and stopped talking.

"I think to myself, with my surname, talent, and knowledge, being the leader of the Chinese party is indeed a 'historical misunderstanding'. I was originally a half-hung 'literati', and in the end, I was still 'literati who have not been eliminated'. As for politics, there has been a gradual decline in interest since a few years ago. In the last year, there has been no interest at all. The work is a 'but no fault' attitude, and the political situation in the whole country is too lazy to ask. On the one hand, it is true that the body is weak, the energy is short, and the state of fatigue is 12 points; In other aspects, it is also the result of decades of reluctant responsibility for political translation and political work in order to 'take care of the overall situation', and it has been delayed, which is really contrary to my interests and surname. This is really a misunderstanding and a nightmare for more than ten years. ”

"Every time I go to a political meeting, I 'just take things as they are,' put aside my own 'feelings,' and focus on what little theory I know to deduce an issue, decide a policy, and so on. However, I always felt that this work was done for someone else. Every time I have a meeting or make an article, I feel very troublesome, and I am always in a hurry to finish it so that I can go back to my place to rest. Qu Shuang's voice was heavy and helpless, "It is precisely because of my political fatigue and fatigue that the inner ideological struggle can no longer continue. To be honest, since the last plenum, I have become a complete philistine - I have tried to avoid expressing my opinion on political issues. I said whatever the Central Committee said, and when I thought I was wrong, I immediately admitted my mistake and had no heart to defend it. To say that I am an opportunist is to be opportunistic, and all the work needs to be explained to the past. I really have no interest in paying attention to and studying all kinds of political and party issues. ”

"But I think if you ask me to be a 'play' -- an actor on stage, I will be very successful, because I have always felt that I have been playing a certain role all these years. Pretending to be a university professor or a politician will really forget about yourself and become a 'drama person' completely. Although, it was painful for me, and I had to look forward to the end of the meeting every day, and hope that my friends who were talking about politics would go away, and that I would take off my costume and return to my true self -- to lie down on the bed, and to say with great weariness: 'Go home, go home!' It's really hard -- but on stage, it's usually pretty good, like it's a matter of fact. ”

"Xiaobai finally said what was in his heart." Yang Shuoming had already finished reading the words written by Qu Shuang at this time, and when he heard Qu Shuang's words, he nodded on the side, "What else does Xiaobai want to say, just speak freely, I want to hear it." ”

"So what do you want to hear from me?" Qu Shuang couldn't help but smile when he saw Yang Shuoming's focused expression, "I have lost confidence in politics, and military strategy is not my forte, what does Hanzhi want to know?" ”

"Then Xiaobai can say whatever he thinks in his heart." Yang Shuoming smiled slightly and said.

"When I was thirteen or fourteen years old, my family was very poor, but my family was a gentleman's class of so-called 'clothing, rent, and food tax' for generations, studying for generations and being an official for generations. When I was five or six years old, my uncle Qu Gengshao was still serving as a political envoy in Hubei. At the time of his death, he was acting governor of Hubei. Therefore, although my family's land and house were completely sold out decades ago, when I was a child, I lived as a young master for several years on the official income of my uncle and uncle. The decency of a gentleman must be maintained. My mother would rather commit suicide in order to make it possible for our brother to continue his education; And when my mother committed suicide because she was poor, when there was often no rice to cook at home, we used a servant woman - and we owed her several months' wages, which she still hasn't paid off. We never washed our clothes or cooked a meal with our own hands. So, maybe that's the reason why I'm politically 'congenitally deficient'. ”

Qu Shuang said, tears seemed to flicker in the corners of her eyes.

"Until then, in order to wear a long gown, after the death of my mother, there was still a tailor's debt of more than 40 yuan, which had to be paid off with the remnants of wood. My gentlemanly consciousness, even if it lurks deep and is not easy to detect on the surface, has never been shed. ”

"At the same time, I was in the period when my so-called outlook on life was being formed, and intellectually I quickly switched from Tolstoyian apolitical axeism to Marxism. The outlook on life or ism, which is a method of thinking -- the so-called way of thinking; Since we have embarked on this path, it is not easy to change. And what is Marxism? It is the proletarian outlook on the universe and life. This is completely hostile to my latent gentlemanly consciousness, the Chinese-style scholarly consciousness, and the petty-bourgeois or philistine consciousness that later degenerated. There are some such elements in the declining class consciousness of the Chinese gentry: for example, false benevolence and courtesy, avoiding struggle...... so parasitic hermit thoughts. Completely bankrupt gentlemen often turn into high-class nomads of the city, decadent, vulnerable, romantic, and even arrogant characters. To put it bluntly, it's rubbish. I think that the constant struggle between these two consciousnesses in my heart has eroded a very large part of my energy. I had to suppress my gentlemanly and nomadic emotions all the time, and I was very reluctant to use the Marxist intellect I had learned to create new emotions, new ways of feeling. But the proletarian consciousness has never won a real victory in my heart. ”

"According to my surname, what has been formed is not so much a revolutionary ideology as a rationalization of misanthropy. So when my friends first organized the magazine New Society, I was an apolitical axeist close to the Tolstoyists, and I was not a 'political animal' at all. ”

"Alas, O fragile man! Do the revolutionary ranks of the so-called proletariat need such a thing?! I suppose I have saved this extra life for some time, and I have another way of refusing to use my brain, and I will only do some unauthorised writing work for the rest of my life. However, in the end, it should be over as soon as possible. ”

Listening to Qu Shuang's heartfelt words, Yang Shuoming also sighed.

(To be continued)