Episode 83 Assassination of the Prince of Siam

At eight o'clock in the morning of June 5, 1936, Siam.

The luxury train is ready to go, the locomotive at the front has burned enough steam, and the chimney is wafting white gas, ready to sound the whistle and run north. On the platform, Prince Ananta Mahidol of Siam, the young prince of Siam and the future Rama VIII, was heavily guarded by the royal palace guards and gave an impromptu speech to foreign journalists on the periphery.

There were hundreds of reporters, half of whom were Caucasian faces, usually yellow faces, all in suits and waistcoats, holding notebooks, carrying magnesium lamps, holding cameras, and some carrying hand-cranked cameras.

The dazzling magnesium light and white smoke flashed from time to time, but the prince was not affected in the slightest, and still talked eloquently.

His Royal Highness the Prince is clearly a brilliant politician of the future, and he is very eloquent. is not only eloquent, but his foreign language skills are obviously very good, not even under Zhu Yourong. His speeches are mainly in Chinese, punctuated by fluent English or French, but Siamese is rarely used. Siam is bordered by the Ming Dynasty to the north, French Indochina to the east, and British Burma to the west. His Royal Highness the Prince clearly has a good grasp of the languages of the powerful neighbors around him.

“…… Siam, which I am about to take over, is still a country that is very backward in all aspects...... Because of the efforts of my ancestors and the protection of the Ming Empire, Siam was very fortunate to maintain ** when the kingdoms of Southeast Asia were reduced to white colonies...... For this, I would like to thank my ancestors again, as well as the Ming Empire to the north...... But I'm not satisfied with that......

"When I was a teenager, I was educated in Daming. There, for the first time in my life, I saw a different kind of monarchy. I saw an enlightened, democratic, rule-of-law monarchy, where the people were happy, prosperous, and loved their royal family from the bottom of their hearts...... There, when the subjects saw the king, they only had to bow and salute, and they did not prostrate themselves on the ground like us...... For the first time, I knew that a monarchy could be like this...... I have learned that if the king can make the people live with dignity, then the people will love their king from the bottom of their hearts......"

The white reporters were the first to applaud. Immediately afterwards, all the reporters, regardless of whether they were yellow or white, applauded in different languages.

The prince smiled and waved his hand, and when the applause subsided, he continued:

"So from the time I was a teenager, I was determined to turn Siam into a country like the Ming Dynasty. After 10 years of study, research, and reflection, I can now say that backward Siam can fully embrace the 20th century ...... of democracy, the rule of law, constitutionalism, and open civilization like the Ming Dynasty."

The foreign journalists around him were once again infected by him and spontaneously applauded.

The prince smiled and continued:

"Today, I am going to embark on the train to Daming again, and I am bringing with me the loyal friendship of the Kingdom of Siam, as well as a warm heart...... What you bring back will be the future of Siam! ”

With that, he excitedly raised his arms and looked at the sky. The applause and cheers around reached **, flashing lights came and went, and clouds of white smoke rose into the sky.

……

Suddenly, an Asian reporter in the group threw away his camera, pushed aside the person next to him, and rushed forward desperately, rushing through the cordon.

Before they could exclaim, he pulled a pistol from his bosom and pulled the trigger on the prince.

"Click! Click! ”

The pistol is jammed.

The man immediately pulled the bolt of the gun and tried to withdraw the dud, but the palace guards on both sides had already swarmed him and pushed him to the ground. At the same time, several other guards immediately surrounded the prince and boarded the train car.

Only then did the hundreds of reporters around him start to exclaim, and at the same time, all the cameras and video cameras were shooting frantically, and they all squeezed towards the side of the assassin who had been pressed down.

On the Assassin's body, at least five or six guards held him down, forming a human heap, and the Assassin himself was not visible at all. Suddenly, the bottom guard shouted something, and several guards shouted and got up, leaving only the last two to hold the assassin down.

One of the guards looked up and said a word.

Many reporters who knew Siamese around "boomed", and they knew that the guards were saying "he is dead". The assassin died.

The guards shouted, and the captain ran to the train to report. A moment later, several guards came over surrounded by an old foreign man. This is the doctor of His Royal Highness the Prince.

The Medic crouched down beside the Assassin and saw that the Assassin was pale and his lips were blue, so he opened both of his eyelids, examined his pupils, and then opened the medical kit, took out his stethoscope, and listened to the Assassin's chest.

"He's dead."

The doctor looked up and affirmed in Siamese.

He then took out a small flashlight from the box, opened the Assassin's mouth, and shone it inside. Then he took out another pair of tweezers, put it down the corpse's throat, and pulled out a small ruptured capsule.

The doctor used tweezers to tweezer the small capsule, looked at the light, took out a small bottle, put it in, and put it away.

Although he didn't say anything, now fools know what the assassins were eating.

……

The body was carried away. The pistols and cameras that the Assassin had thrown away were also carefully wrapped and removed.

The reporters present were as excited as if they had been beaten with chicken blood. They had only come here to interview the prince of Siam, and although it was not boring, it was not exciting. But now that such an assassination incident has broken out, it has become world-class news. The reporters frantically pressed the shutter, tore open their throats and shouted, asking questions to every officer and soldier of the palace guards present, and many reporters had already written scripts on other people's backs, and then ran out to grab the first news by grabbing the script.

I don't know how long it took for the radio horn on the platform to sound. A voice said:

"Gentlemen, His Royal Highness the Prince is very indignant at what has just happened, and he will not be intimidated...... Now His Royal Highness the Prince has decided to postpone the departure by half an hour and give you an interview on the spot. ”

The reporters gradually fell silent. Many people have come to understand that this bloody "royal reformer" is going to seize this assassination incident to say something, and maybe he will take the opportunity to eradicate dissidents.

They found that several guards had dragged several wires out of the train car, with a horn on the platform at one end and a microphone at the other. A guard officer with a microphone shouted to the reporters:

"If you want to ask questions to His Royal Highness the Prince, use this ......"

Before the words were finished, the platform was boiling again, hundreds of people were grabbing the microphone, and the last tall white reporter grabbed it first, holding the microphone and saying in French:

"Your Royal Highness, I am Le Figaro's correspondent in Bangkok...... May I ask your Highness, what do you think of this attempted assassination? Who do you think could have done it? Of course, the assassin committed suicide, the evidence is gone, and you can't pronounce the sentence as a judge, but you can guess as a victim......"

The prince's voice appeared on the loudspeaker on the platform, and it was calm, but anger was clearly audible. He also said in French:

"Sir, you are right, of course I can guess! And I'm willing to guess! Let me start by saying that my guess will scare some people! …… When a crime is committed, the oldest and most effective way to find the killer is to see who is the beneficiary of the crime...... Obviously, I am about to travel to the Ming Dynasty, and in Nanjing, I will join forces with Her Majesty the Empress to facilitate a sincere cooperation between the Ming Dynasty and Siam......

"When I come back, I will bring back the constitution, the democratic, the rule of law, and the top-down reform for Siam! So, who is most afraid of all this? Undoubtedly, we are part of the conservative forces in Siam! They are afraid that Siam will become like the Ming Dynasty, and they are afraid that there is also a constitution to bind their rights......"

The French reporter struck while the iron was hot and asked again:

"Your Royal Highness the Prince, who do you think this conservative force is?"

"This ...... I do not know! "But I'll find out!" said the prince excitedly. And I can say that I already have some suspicions now, but as I said earlier, I am just guessing, not pronouncing. Now that their names are spoken, it is tantamount to a sentence. But none of this can intimidate me or stop me! I still want to go to Daming and do what history has given me to do! ”

The French reporter wanted to ask again, but a vigorous and clever Japanese reporter next to him saw the opportunity, grabbed the microphone, hugged it tightly, and said directly in Siamese:

"Your Royal Highness, I'm the Yomiuri Shimbun correspondent in Bangkok! Your Royal Highness the Prince, what do you think of Her Majesty Zhu Yourong, the current Empress of the Ming Dynasty? ”

The reporters on the platform were all strange and turned their faces to look at him. Of course, they all understood what was going on with the Prince of Siam and the Empress of Daming. Without this assassination, this would certainly be a big news. But everyone doesn't understand how this little Japan still has the heart to ask this at this time.

The prince was silent for a moment, and his voice became much softer. Slowly, with admiration, he said:

"How so...... I...... I've been with her for a while...... When I was a middle school student, I was educated in Daming...... At that time, Her Majesty the Empress was still very young, and she was still Princess Yong'an...... Suffice it to say, both of us are children...... We used to have a lot of fun together...... At that time, Her Royal Highness was younger than me, but she seemed to know much more than me...... Looking back now, many new things were taught to me by Her Royal Highness Princess Yong'an......

"Later, Her Royal Highness Princess Yongan also went to high school, but I returned to China...... Later, I went back to Daming to go to university, and Princess Yongan also went to the UK to study...... Looking back now, when we were together, it seems like we were when we were kids...... However, it is very precious......"

The Japanese reporter didn't wait for him to continue to be stupid, and asked decisively:

"Your Royal Highness the Prince, I take the liberty of asking, do you love Her Majesty the Empress of Daming?"

The "buzzing" of the crowd suddenly rose an octave, and the reporters were excitedly guessing, waiting for His Royal Highness's answer.

The prince was silent for a while, and then suddenly said excitedly in an almost out-of-tune voice:

"Okay, that's a good question...... In normal times, I would avoid answering...... Not because of hypocrisy, but for the sake of Her Majesty's reputation...... But now, I've just brushed shoulders with death and I'm on the brink of death...... I'm not sure this is the last time...... I can hide this time, I don't know if I can hide next time, just in case...... Then there will be no chance to say it again...... I'll regret it...... So, I decided to speak out......"

He took a deep breath and said affectionately, gently, and excitedly:

"Yes, I love Her Majesty the Empress of the Ming Dynasty, I love her...... This time I went to Daming, I want to tell her about my love......"

The reporters on the platform were all fried. They were so excited that they couldn't hold back their excitement, and the assassination just now didn't seem to be news compared to what it was now.

His Royal Highness the Prince finally said it himself.

……

But the cold voice of the Japanese reporter sounded again through the loudspeaker on the platform, and the voices of the reporters were silenced:

"Then Your Royal Highness, you probably don't know that you are not the only one who loves Her Majesty the Empress."

As soon as the words came out, the platform slowly fell silent, and soon fell silent.

Many well-informed reporters also thought of something.

The prince's voice asked in surprise:

"You...... What do you mean? ”

The voice of the Japanese journalist sneered and said:

"Your Royal Highness, I mean, things may not be as complicated as you guessed, and there may not be anything about the conservative forces in Siam at all...... There is also a force in the Ming Empire, and I am very reluctant to see you and Her Majesty the Empress come together...... The leader of that force is said to love Her Majesty the Empress as much as you do...... Your Royal Highness, I don't know what you think? ”

Hundreds of reporters exploded again. Countless mouths are speculating and discussing. They are all repeating the same name:

"Xiang Xiaoqiang...... ...... to Xiaoqiang"