On January 1, 1927, the new year arrived.

This day is a statutory holiday of the Republic of China.

Most of the establishments in the concession are on holiday, and the factory workers also have a rare time to rest.

Large families in Shanghai wake up in the morning and are accustomed to reading the newspaper before breakfast to see what interesting news is available.

Citizens would buy newspapers at newsstands on the street or in the hands of newsboys, but they would not spend money until they had to confirm the value of the news.

People at the bottom who have no purchasing power want to know the news, they will go to small restaurants or tea stalls on the street, and some people will discuss with each other when they read the newspaper, and listen to them.

Newspapers are the most important way to disseminate news in this era.

Generally speaking, the first day of the new year is not much to look at, and most of it is about politics.

Speeches by national leaders will occupy a large space, the Beiyang government and the Guangzhou Nationalist government, and other political factions, etc.

It's all clichés, nothing more than a review of the past year, a vision for the new year.

However, no one expected that on the first day of the new year, a big news suddenly popped up.

Shanghai's largest circulation newspapers, Bao Bao and Xin Bao simultaneously published news of the Lushun massacre.

The difference is that the "Declaration" is placed on the third page and the "News" is placed on the fourth page, and the two major newspapers are quite cautious and do not put such controversial stories on the front page.

The front page of the "Declaration" reads that the Shanghai Public Concession will be reorganized into the Shanghai Public Concession Provisional Court.

This means that from this day on, civil and criminal cases involving Chinese in the concession will be heard by the Chinese side.

This is a follow-up to the May Day tragedy. After difficult negotiations, the Chinese were given the right to judge in the concession.

The front page of the newspaper was given to the Nationalist Government in Guangzhou. On this day, the Nationalist Government of Guangzhou moved from Guangzhou to Wuhan, marking a phased victory in the Northern Expedition.

Unlike the cautious attitude of these two major newspapers. Small newspapers gave the front page to the Lushun Massacre for the sake of sales and gimmicks.

Some newspapers that were not published on this day also came out to report the news of the screening of "Jiawu Fengyun" last night.

The confrontation between the two films "Jiawu Fengyun" and "Sino-Japanese Naval Battle" was originally a hot topic of public opinion, and now the news of the Lushun Massacre has been released, which is the beginning of a public opinion war for sensitive press.

It is conceivable that this will be the focus of public opinion in the coming period.

The average reader doesn't know what happened last night, how many newspapers have changed their layouts on the fly, and how many behind-the-scenes deals there are.

Some people watched "The Battle of the Sino-Japanese Sea" at the Carlton Theater in the Public Concession last night.

According to the later generations. This is a movie that washes the floor in Japan.

In the movie, the reason why the Sino-Japanese War happened was that the Qing government was pressing on Korea step by step, and Japan sent troops to help Korea gain independence out of morality, and declared war on China when it was forced to do so.

The insatiable greed of the Qing government contrasted sharply with Japan's insistence on justice, which disguised itself as a weakling.

This is an inspirational story of the weak who finally triumphs over the strong through unyielding efforts.

The naval battle scenes in the film are indeed thrilling and grandiose.

For those who don't know that period of history, watching "The Sino-Japanese Naval War" may sympathize with Japan.

That's the propaganda role of the movie. When the audience watches too many of these kinds of movies, they forget the real history.

These viewers got up early in the morning and flipped through the newspapers, wanting to see what the newspapers had to say about "The First Sino-Japanese Naval War." But I didn't expect to see the news of the Lushun massacre.

They even wonder if the two films are about the same history?

What baffled them even more was that the newspaper reports were equally confusing.

Some newspapers said that there was no massacre at all, but only casualties caused by the fighting between the Japanese and Qing soldiers.

Some newspapers gave evidence, swearing that Japan had carried out a massacre of humanity in Lushun.

Who's telling the truth?

Lin Zixuan had the staff of Vientiane Books buy most of the newspapers in Shanghai. Keep track of which newspapers are leaning towards Japan and which are neutral. Which newspapers support themselves.

This is the easiest way to distinguish between camps.

He didn't sleep well last night, and he has been receiving a lot of phone calls since the end of the movie screening.

Most of them are exhortational. persuaded him not to mess with the Japanese, and there were still those who cared, asked him if he needed help, and even had a threatening phone call, and when he heard it, the Japanese called.

In the morning, he received a call from the U.S. Embassy, followed by a call from the French Concession Board of Directors.

It can be seen that the Japanese are moving very quickly, but Lin Zixuan does not plan to stop showing movies.

The reason why he chose to screen "The First Sino-Japanese Storm" on the last day of 1926 was a deliberate decision.

New Year's Day is equivalent to the New Year of Westerners, and Westerners in the concession generally give themselves a long vacation to have a good rest, and no one will work in any department, especially the high-level people in the concession.

This is the habit of life in the West.

Even if the Japanese let the French Concession ban the screening of "Jiawu Fengyun", they can't find anyone who can call the shots, only some minions on duty.

The phone call Lin Zixuan received was from those little minions, so he naturally didn't need to take it seriously.

Therefore, in many luxury theaters in the concession today, "Jiawu Fengyun" will be screened as usual.

According to his speculation, it would be five days before the French Concession authorities and the U.S. Embassy took action.

The film "The First Afternoon" barely involves Western countries, and they will not be so attentive to solving this matter, unless the Japanese pay a lot of money.

These five days are enough time for more people to understand the truth of history, and it can also set off a wave of public opinion.

For Lin Zixuan, this has served its purpose.

As he had predicted, the Japanese were in trouble, and they contacted the newspapers overnight to withdraw their coverage of the Lushun Massacre.

Some newspapers directly refused, some newspapers took the opportunity to ask for benefits, and some people opened their mouths and wanted to slaughter the Japanese.

There was also a problem with the contact with the U.S. Embassy, which was on holiday and could not find anyone at all.

The same is true of the top leaders in the French Concession and the Public Concession, where Chinese do not attach much importance to New Year's Day, and Westerners pay special attention to it.

You called me back for a movie to deal with it for the Chinese New Year, you have a brain disease.

Even if the high-level officials of the concession agreed, there was no way to deal with it immediately, and the staff below were on vacation, and he had to call the people under him back, which was too troublesome.

It's just a movie, how much impact can it have, can't it be delayed for a few days?

The Japanese are anxious, but the Westerners are not, unless the Japanese come up with benefits that appeal to them.

Through the hype of the newspapers, the Lushun Massacre became the focus of public opinion in Shanghai.

On New Year's Day, many people chose to go to the theater to watch "Jiawu Fengyun" in order to understand the truth of the matter.

Correspondingly, the audience watching "Sino-Japanese Naval Battle" is much smaller, and most of them are Japanese.

Faced with this situation, the Japanese felt more and more that Lin Zixuan was insidious, and even Westerners took advantage of the festival. (To be continued.) )