Weidemeyer's status was much higher than Chennault's, who was not made a lieutenant general until his death, while Elbert Weidemeyer had already been promoted to lieutenant general in January 1945 and even to general in 1954. From 1944 to 1946, he was the commander of the U.S. forces in the Chinese theater and chief of the general staff of Chairman Chiang. At this time, he was the commander of the US Second Army.

During the month from July 22 to August 24, 1947, Weidemeyer was ordered by Marshall to conduct a "fact-finding" investigation in China, which served as the basis for the formulation of Far East policy (see Compendium of Materials on Sino-American Relations, 1st Edition, 1957 edition, World Knowledge Publishing House).

When Downing came to Los Angeles, he had just finished his debriefing to Marshall and resigned as commander of the Second Army to become chief of the Planning and Operations Department of the U.S. Army Staff.

Although Downing's uncle William was a little surprised why Downing insisted on visiting such a big man, although Weidemeyer was in a high position, he should not be of any help to Tangning's career, and it seemed that Tangning had no intention of returning to China for development, so there should be no need to visit Weidemeyer, but Tangning insisted again and again, and privately gave himself a generous gift, so it was difficult for him to refuse such a small request.

Wedemeyer was very pleased with the visit of his old friend, who had rarely seen his friends in China or Europe over the years, so he received Wilhelm very warmly. But after chatting for a while, he found out that the main purpose of old William today was to introduce himself to his nephew Downing, originally Weidemeyer didn't like this kind of thing, but found that the development direction and development area of this young man had nothing to do with him, and today it seemed that he really just came to visit and get to know an elder, so he relaxed his mood, just to know a young junior, and by the way, he also wanted to understand the views of young people on the current situation.

So Weidemeyer asked, "Little Tony, do you know anything about China?" What are your thoughts on the current situation in China? "Wedemeyer has been in China for four or five years, and he has just finished his investigation of China. Moreover, this investigation only found problems, but did not find solutions to them, so he wanted to hear more voices to open up his own thinking.

Downing was a little entangled in this question. He believed that no one in the world would know better about China's situation and future development, but unfortunately he couldn't say anything about it, so he could only pretend to think about it for a while, and then replied: "Although I have never been to China." However, I have come into contact with some soldiers and businessmen who have been to Japan, and I have also talked to some Chinese students (Han Xuewei) and retired military officers (Yan Zhen), and my personal feeling is that with the current situation, it will be difficult for the Kuomintang troops to hold on, and the formation of Red China will be unstoppable. ”

Wei Demaier nodded, Tang Ning's conclusion was very consistent with his investigation, he also thought that it would be difficult to stop the formation of Red China with the current state of the Kuomintang, but what he wanted to know more now was the solution, so he continued to ask: "Then do you think there is any way to solve this situation?" For example, increase funding for the Kuomintang army. ”

Tang Ning shook his head: "Personally, I don't think even increasing funding for the Kuomintang army will not make much difference. What the KMT needs most most is not external arming but internal reform, and now the phenomenon of corruption in their party is too serious, and if this situation is not eradicated, it is useless to invest no amount of support. But I do have a way to make amends, and that is that even if Red China is formed, we can increase the vigilance and defense forces around it, and impose dual sanctions both economically and militarily. For example, it is necessary to increase control over South Korea and Japan and improve the defense chain in Asia. ”

Downing said this very cautiously, although he knew that what he said Weidemeyer was only used as a reference, and had no practical significance. But he still hopes that the United States can stop funding the Kuomintang so that the civil war can end as soon as possible, and as for economic sanctions, even if he doesn't say anything about it. The United States will do the same, and will only do it much more ruthlessly than he says after the McCarthyism is introduced, and his last sentence is the point, he does not want the United States to withdraw its troops from Japan so early, and to spoil Japan as much as possible.

Although Weidemeyer didn't know that there were so many thoughts behind Downing's words, he also guessed some. So he smiled and said: "Cunning little Tony, you are afraid that after the United States relaxes its control over Japan, you will not be able to do your own business, right?" ”

Tang Ning grabbed his hair and replied with some embarrassment: "I don't hide that you do have this consideration, but it is more for the sake of safety." First, if Red China is formed, then the United States must not lose the two defensive zones of South Korea and Japan; Second, Japan's militarism is really too terrifying, and although General MacArthur is now very effective in managing Japan, after all, the time is still too short, and it is difficult to completely eradicate militarism and fascism in just two years. ”

Wei Demaier nodded: "What you said is also a little reasonable, but have you thought about one thing, Japan's population has exceeded 100 million, and now many Japanese people can't eat enough, if we continue to suppress Japan, then we have to continue to help Japan with food, there can be no starvation under the rule of the United States, but this will be too much pressure on us, the Marshall Plan itself has a lot of aid to Europe, and it is really not good news to add another Japan." ”

After listening to Weidemeyer's words, Tang Ning slandered in his heart, do you think there is no starvation in Japan now? It's just that you don't know, but he is still prepared for this problem, so he replied: "Actually, this problem is very simple to solve, the Japanese can't eat enough now because most of them are unemployed, then we can put those labor-intensive industries in Japan, let the Japanese do it, but don't pay them too much, as long as they can eat enough, I believe there will be many Japanese people rushing to work, the most obvious example is the few factories I opened in Japan, the salaries I pay to those employees, If I were in the United States, not only would I have no one to work at all, but I would have to be scolded to death, but in Japan, I was regarded as a great good person! (To be continued.) )