In late September, Mr. Chen boarded a train to Nanjing.

The Fifth National Games of Old China was held in Nanjing, the capital of the Republic of China.

As early as the end of the Hangzhou National Games, the government of the Republic of China had decided to hold the Fifth National Games in Nanjing on the 10th of the month.

However, in the first half of 1931, a nationwide flood broke the original plan of the Republic of China government, and the city of Nanjing was flooded, so how to hold the National Games. As a result, the date of the Fifth National Games was postponed to May 1932.

However, the house leak happened to rain overnight, and the "918" incident launched by the Japanese conspiracy, and then the troops entered Shanghai, and the government made every effort to deal with the Songhu Campaign, and will temporarily move the capital to Luoyang.

In 1933, the Japanese in Tohoku had ceased to exist a little, and the holding of the National Games was once again on the agenda.

At that time, when there were many soldiers, the Nanjing government still insisted on hosting the National Games, and did not hesitate to spend a lot of money to build a huge central stadium, not necessarily because it really hoped that Chinese sports could develop, but the main purpose was to stabilize its domestic political rule and establish the prestige of the Nanjing government. In addition, Nanjing's bigwigs also hope to use this athlete to enhance the cohesion of the nation and promote the spirit of unity.

When Chen Qiang arrived in Nanjing, he bought a newspaper, the content of which happened to be the news of the troops sent to Jiangxi and Fujian. This time, Nanjing claimed to have mobilized 1 million troops, which can be described as the largest in the past. As a matter of fact, in the summer, Nanjing borrowed a large amount of money from the United States, Britain, Germany, Italy, and other countries to purchase munitions, and at the same time opened an officer training regiment in Lushan.

Nanjing's newspapers naturally touted all kinds of Nanjing bigwigs, talking about all kinds of wisdom and martial arts. Chen Qiang looked at the newspaper in his hand, but he kept sighing.

Borrowing money to buy weapons to fight the civil war, if the Nanjing bigwigs had this kind of strength in dealing with the Japanese, the Great Wall would not have been lost.

Crossing the Yangtze River by boat and arriving in Nanjing, there were already people from travel agencies waiting at the Nanjing wharf.

This time, the organizers of the National Games in Nanjing reached an agreement with a travel agency to be responsible for welcoming and sending off the athletes and referees participating in the Games.

During the Republic of China, there were already travel agencies in China, in fact, the first travel agency in China was established in the 19th century, and the owner at that time was an Englishman, and the main business was to collect train and ferry tickets. In the thirties, the business development of travel agencies has been very extensive, both passenger and freight, such as guest houses, hotels, restaurants, catering on the train, domestic and foreign sightseeing, going abroad procedures to be done, and even direct investment in the development of scenic spots, are the business scope of travel agencies.

The tour operator has a roster of players with a list of all referees and athletes, arranged by last name strokes, making it easy for receptionists to find. However, Chen Qiang is so famous that when he reported to his home, the receptionist of the travel agency did not need to check the list of athletes, and directly picked up Chen Qiang in the car.

The travel agency directly took Chen Qiang to the Central Stadium in Nanjing, the venue of the competition, and constantly introduced scenic spots to Chen Qiang along the way.

The receptionist of the travel agency felt that it was an honor to be able to give Chen Qiang a tour guide.

"General Chen, do you think our stadium in Nanjing is big enough, it shouldn't be worse than the stadium in the United States, right? Our stadium in Nanjing was built with more than 1.4 million yuan! The receptionist of the travel agency said.

Chen Qiang just smiled and nodded, but did not respond, although the central stadium is very large, it is really much worse than the Los Angeles stadium.

And when Chen Qiang heard the cost of more than 1.4 million, he had a ridiculous feeling in his heart.

Because the stadium in Qingdao cost less than 200,000 yuan in total.

In terms of land area, Nanjing Central Stadium is 1,000 acres, Qingdao Stadium is 760 acres, in this regard, Nanjing Central Stadium is larger, but at that time, the cost of land acquisition was almost zero, negligible.

Qingdao's stadium can only accommodate more than 15,000 spectators because it only has east-west facing seats, while Nanjing's Central Stadium has more seats and can accommodate 35,000 spectators.

In terms of other facilities, Qingdao Stadium has dedicated volleyball courts, tennis courts, basketball courts, and Nanjing's Central Stadium has an additional swimming pool, a racetrack and a baseball field than Qingdao Stadium.

The central stadium has two more stands, and then there is a swimming pool, a baseball field and a racetrack, of which the cost of the pool will be higher, and like the racetrack, there is only a row of simple stands, and the rest is flat.

As a result, the cost of Nanjing Stadium is more than seven times that of Qingdao Stadium.

At that time, Qingdao was a first-tier city, although Nanjing was the capital, but it could only be regarded as a second-tier city, Chen Qiang did not think that Nanjing's prices and labor prices were more expensive than Qingdao, it was obvious that the real fraud of this central stadium was not even 400,000, and the remaining more than one million did not know how many dignitaries and nobles had gone into their pockets.

The receptionist of the travel agency led Chen Qiang to the dormitory assigned to the Shandong team.

This time, the accommodation for the National Games was also arranged by the organizers.

All the track and field referees live in the Central Hotel, but the Central Hotel originally had one bed per room, and now two beds have been temporarily added, that is, three beds per room. The other referees are the school buildings of the New Village Cooperative and the School for the Bereaved Families.

The athletes live in dormitories under the stands of the Central Stadium. There are a total of 72 dormitories under the grandstand of the Central Stadium, each with a capacity of about 30 beds.

Chen Qiang is not used to this kind of situation where many people live in one house, and when he encounters the kind of unhygienic, sleep-talking, and grinding his teeth in the middle of the night, his sleep quality is particularly affected. The most annoying thing is the kind of snoring, and there are often several people snoring, as if they are competing, one snoring louder than the other, and the others can't sleep at all.

After a night's rest, the next morning, Chen Qiang came to the restaurant for dinner.

The restaurant in the Central Gymnasium is large, but it has also been contracted to businessmen. There are a number of square tables in the restaurant, each table can make eight people, and the restaurant serves food according to one table, all of which are clearly priced.

There are two grades of breakfast, one yuan per table and one yuan per table, the quality of breakfast is much better than that of one, but in Chen Qiang's opinion, this breakfast is definitely not worth one piece of four.

Lunch and dinner are all four standards, ten dishes and one soup for five yuan, eight dishes and one soup for four yuan, six dishes and one soup for three yuan, and four dishes and one soup for two yuan and four. It's all a combination of meat and vegetables. For example, there are six meat dishes in ten dishes and one soup, which also includes "big pieces", that is, roast chicken, and hard dishes within the elbow.

But at the time, it was still quite expensive. If you usually invite eight people to eat in a restaurant, it won't cost you five yuan under normal circumstances. The contractor of this restaurant also knew that it was a monopoly, so he deliberately raised the price a little and clearly marked the price.

The cost of the contestants' meals is borne by the participating groups of each province and city, and the meals are all paid first and then eaten. The Shandong team in which Chen Qiang is in is more atmospheric, and he directly chose the highest standard of food.

Shandong people have always had a good face. When the big guy eats in the cafeteria, there are teams from all provinces, and if the food is worse than others, it is not quite embarrassing to see that there is not even a meat on the table!

Moreover, the Shandong team's participation funds are also relatively sufficient, and Chairman Han of Shandong withheld the tax that should have been handed over to Nanjing, and he has money in his hands, and he can still afford the participation funds of several thousand oceans. Therefore, in terms of funding, Chairman Han was not stingy. Chen Qiang followed the Shandong team to compete, at least in terms of eating, he will not be disadvantaged.

The more bleak is Liaoning, Jilin, Heilongjiang, Rehe these four teams, the four teams are less than 100 people, but due to the destruction of the province, no one paid for them to participate in the competition, relying on donations to get a quarter of the participation funds, and finally relying on the Executive Yuan, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Education and the Nanjing Municipal Government to donate, to come to Nanjing to compete.

……

After breakfast, Chen Qiang came to the south side of the Central Stadium, where nearly 100 oil-paper roofed shacks had already been temporarily built as temporary shops for merchants.

Because the Central Stadium was far away from the city of Nanjing at that time, it was inconvenient for spectators to come and go, so many of these temporary shops sold food, the first was to sell health care products, books and newspapers, and there were also tea shops, vegetable and fruit stores, candy stores, grocery stores, silk shops, shoe stores, photo studios, etc.

"Where is the shop of the Bright Bookstore?" Chen Qiang found a store and asked.

"Guangming Bookstore, it seems to be in the middle row." The shopkeeper pointed out the way to Chen Qiang, and Chen Qiang quickly found the temporary store of Guangming Bookstore according to the direction pointed by the store.

Chen Qiang walked into the store, only to see the guy busy putting the books on the shelves.

"Is Boss Liu here?" Chen Qiang asked.

A middle-aged man raised his head, looked at Chen Qiang, and then asked with a look of surprise: "You must be Chen Jianjiang!" ”

"Boss Liu, hello, I'm Chen Qiang, I've kept you waiting." Chen Qiang replied.

"Where the words! Chen Jianjiang here, please, your book, we have already printed it, you can take a look, the printing is still satisfied. Boss Liu said, took a copy of Chen Qiang's autobiography from the shelf and passed it over.

"Thank you, Boss Liu." Chen Qiang took the book, flipped through it carefully, and felt that the quality of the printing was quite good.

Among the historical materials that Chen Qiang has seen, the fifth national athlete in old China in 1933 was the largest national games in the entire Republic of China period, it is said that 400,000 tickets were printed for a single day alone, in addition to double-day tickets and multi-day tickets, conservative estimates, at least 670,000 people watched the games of this National Games, which can be described as unprecedented.

For Chen Qiang, hundreds of thousands of people came to watch the game, this is a good opportunity to sell books, how can he miss it!

Chen Qiang's autobiography was originally printed by the Nankai University Book Company, but it also costs a lot of money to transport the books from Tianjin to Nanjing, and the main place to sell books this time is around the central stadium, and Chen Qiang cannot rent a booth in order to sell his autobiography, which is too costly. So Chen Qiang simply found a local bookstore in Nanjing, reprinted 10,000 copies of his autobiography, and borrowed a stall rented by others to sell it, which also killed two birds with one stone.

Chen Qiang discussed with Boss Liu of Guangming Bookstore, saying that he would come here to sign and sell books at the end of the competition every day, and Boss Liu was naturally very happy when he heard about it. With Chen Qiang in charge, his shop will definitely be crowded and business will be prosperous.

……

On October 10, the Fifth National Games of Old China officially opened.

The day happened to be the National Day of the Republic of China, the national holiday, so from six o'clock in the morning, the traffic of the whole city of Nanjing began to appear congested, the various organs, schools, people from all walks of life in Nanjing City have gone out of the city to visit the National Games, the scene is really crowded, the central stadium is surrounded by traffic, crowded, and Nanjing City seems to be empty for more than half, instantly quiet.

In that era, ordinary people basically didn't have any nightlife, basically they got up at dawn and went to bed when it was dark, so they got up at six o'clock in the morning and went out, but it was a very normal thing, unlike today's people, who don't sleep at twelve o'clock at night, and don't think about it at ** o'clock in the morning.

The Central Stadium was about 20 miles away from the center of Nanjing at that time, and on this day, at least 300,000 people gathered near the Central Stadium. Fortunately, Nanjing in October has the coolness of autumn, otherwise I don't know how many people will fall to the ground due to heat stroke.

The opening ceremony will be held at 10 a.m., and most of the bigwigs of the government will be in attendance. In addition, ministers from various countries in China were invited to attend the opening ceremony. U.S. Minister Jensen, British Minister Lampson, French Consensus Willid, German Minister Todman, and Japanese Minister Ariyoshiaki were also present at the scene.

After the athletes' team entered, several government bigwigs began to speak one by one, saying that one was better than the other. For example, "the rise and fall of personal physical strength is really related to the rise and fall of the Republic of China, and it is especially necessary to exercise diligently", "a sound spirit must be contained in a sound body", "promote sports, revitalize the national spirit, and achieve the goal of strengthening the country and the species" and so on.

In general, the speeches of these high-ranking officials and dignitaries all expressed the importance they attached to sports, and at that time, the Chinese people did regard the revitalization of sports as an important measure for national self-improvement and international status, and the speeches of government dignitaries also reflected the expectations of this era.

This was followed by various performances at the opening ceremony, with more than a dozen planes sent by the Aviation Administration distributing leaflets celebrating the opening of the conference in the sky, and more than 2,000 students from Nanjing performing Tai Chi in the venue.

After the opening ceremony was finally over, Nanjing also prepared a luncheon, inviting ministers and other guests to attend.

……

U.S. Minister Nelson Jensen stood up and asked the Nanjing official in charge of the reception: "Where is the athletes' lounge?" ”

"Minister Jensen, what are you looking for in the athletes' lounge?" The receptionist immediately asked.

"I want to meet an athlete from your country, his name is Chen Qiang, you should know him, right?" Jensen spoke.

The receptionist was shocked, he didn't understand why Jensen wanted to see Chen Qiang, and he didn't dare to ask.

The receptionist did not dare to directly refuse the request of the American minister, he could only report the matter, and his boss could not make a decision, so he could only continue to report.

Diplomacy is no trivial matter, and the US minister named someone to find someone, which was enough to alarm several bigwigs at the highest level.

"Why did Minister Jensen see Chen Qiang? Could it be that Chen Qiang offended the Americans? So Jensen is here for revenge! Big Guy A said.

"Chen Qiang's identity is a bit special after all, he is the best athlete in our China, if Chen Qiang offends the Americans, should we protect him?" Big guy B said.

"For the sake of an athlete, offending the Americans, it's not worth it! We need the support of the United States very much right now. Big guy C said.

"But now it's the National Games, at this juncture, you still have to protect Chen Qiang, after all, it involves the face of the national government." Big guy Ding said.

Finally, the big guy spoke: "Since Minister Jensen wants to see Chen Qiang by name, we can't refuse, send someone to follow, and if the matter is not serious, we will make peace with it." If the Americans can agree, we will try our best to agree. Those who should admit their mistakes admit their mistakes, those who should make amends, the game must continue. If Minister Jensen really came to ask for the crime, he could admit the punishment and don't cause trouble. ”

……

After the opening ceremony, Chen Qiang was about to go to lunch when an official who claimed to be Director Lin came to his door.

"Chen Qiang, do you know the American Minister Nelson Jensen?" Director Lin asked directly.

"I don't know." Chen Qiang shook his head.

"Don't recognize?" Director Lin obviously didn't believe Chen Qiang's statement, he continued: "Chen Qiang, I'm here to rescue you, you tell the truth!" ”

"Rescue me?" Chen Qiang was confused.

Director Lin continued: "Minister Jensen of the United States wants to see you by name, think about it carefully, did you offend Minister Jensen?" ”

"I really haven't seen this Minister Jensen." Chen Qiang paused, and then said: "I have always been in Tianjin, and it is impossible for me to see the American minister!" ”

"Then when you participated in the Olympics in the United States before, did you offend Minister Jensen?" Director Lin then asked.

"When I'm in the U.S. for the Olympics, this Minister Jensen should be in China, right? We can't see it either. Chen Qiang said.

Director Lin nodded helplessly, he sighed lightly, and said, "I'm going to take you to see Minister Jensen now, whatever he says, you promise me." Don't care what is right or wrong, let you apologize, you apologize, let you apologize, you will apologize, in short, admit punishment and admit punishment, do you understand? ”

"What happened? Why did you apologize and make amends? Why did you admit punishment and admit punishment? Chen Qiang became more and more unsure.

"Don't you understand? You offended the American Minister Jensen! But the above wants to protect you, so I'm here to give you a peacemaker! If it weren't for the high-level personal speech, you would have offended the Americans, and ten lives would not be enough to pay for! So when you see Minister Jensen later, you must listen to me, if you cause a diplomatic dispute, you are the only one who asks! Director Lin said half-intimidating, half-frightened.

……

At this time, in a certain break room, Minister Song of the Ministry of Finance was accompanying Jensen.

Minister Song is one of the members of the Preparatory Committee for the National Games, and has also been named as the honorary vice chairman of the National Games. Although Minister Song is the Minister of Finance, he has been studying in the United States for many years and has always been in the core group of the diplomacy of the Republic of China. Moreover, Minister Song and the American Minister Jensen also had some personal relations, so the big guy sent him to be a peacemaker.

Minister Song chatted with the American Minister Jensen, and he wanted to ask Jensen why he wanted to see Chen Qiang, but every time the words came to his lips, he retracted again.

Minister Song knew that this was a matter involving diplomacy, and he must not lose the first move, and he had to brake quietly and strike later, so Jensen didn't say it, and he simply didn't ask. Wait for Jensen to make a move, and then take it yourself.

Not long after, Director Lin walked in with Chen Qiang.

When Chen Qiang was giving speeches and selling books in Nanjing, he had seen many high-ranking officials and tycoons, including the famous Minister Song. However, Minister Song didn't seem to remember Chen Qiang's appearance, and he was stunned for two seconds before he recognized Chen Qiang.

"Chen Qiang, this is Mr. Nelson Jensen, the U.S. Minister." Minister Song introduced.

Then he made a special mention to Jensen, wanting to say a few words such as "If Chen Qiang has any offense, I hope to forgive me".

However, Jensen stood up, walked directly to Chen Qiang, and stretched out his right hand with a friendly face.

"Hello Mr. Chen, I'm very happy to meet you, I've heard of your outstanding performance in the Los Angeles Olympics!" Jensen said directly in Chinese.

Minister Song glared in surprise, and secretly said in his heart that Jensen's performance didn't look like he was here to seek revenge!

Chen Qiang also greeted Jensen, and he also underestimated in his heart, he was indeed the first time to meet this American, what was going on with this apology and reparation?

I only heard Jensen continue: "Not long ago, I just returned to China to report to Mr. President, Mr. President mentioned you, and he asked me to convey my sincere greetings to you, and Mr. President also said that if Mr. Chen is free, he is welcome to visit the United States, and Mr. President will wait for Mr. Chen's arrival at the White House." ”

Next to him, Minister Song and Director Lin all showed shocked expressions.

It turned out that the American minister Jensen did not come to seek revenge, but made a special trip to greet Chen Qiang!

More crucially, Jensen conveyed the greetings of the President of the United States!

Chen Qiang actually knows the President of the United States!

And the relationship seems to be very good, and the president of the United States will give special greetings!

Minister Song's eyes were instantly different when he looked at Chen Qiang!

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