Gold is a hard currency, there is a saying called "gold in the prosperous era of antiques", in times of turmoil, gold is destined to be the best property savings.

At that time, gold bars, also commonly known as "yellow croaker", have always been the strongest and most recognized equivalent among the people. The raw material for the yellow croaker is gold bricks imported from the United States, which are cut by the Central Mint of the National Government at that time, and then used a semi-automatic gold bar rolling machine to form gold bars of different weights.

Gold bars are based on "taels" as the basic unit of weight, and generally speaking, there are three types of gold bars, which are ten taels, five taels and one tael. Of course, there are also other specifications such as half volume. For ordinary people, one or two gold bars are generally called small yellow croaker, and 10 taels are naturally big yellow croaker. Gold bars made by the Central Mint will be stamped with the words "Central Mint", "Date", etc.

However, the Republic of China implements "one catty and sixteen taels", that is to say, one tael of "small yellow croaker", in fact, the weight is not 50 grams, but 31.25 grams, and the actual weight of 10 taels of "big yellow croaker" is 312.5 grams.

The 31.25-gram "small yellow croaker" is about the same size as a fingernail, and the "big yellow croaker" is roughly the size of a Snickers bar. The long and thick gold bars in later TV dramas are basically deceiving, and it is impossible to carry dozens of gold bricks in a sack. With the quality of gold, it is difficult to hold a gold brick, and a sack cannot be carried at all.

At the time of the dollar, an ounce of gold was worth about $35. Under the troy system, 1 ounce is equal to 31.103 grams, so 1 ounce of gold is slightly lighter than a "small yellow croaker", a difference of only 0.15 grams. At that time, a "small yellow croaker" could also be seen as an ounce of gold, worth $35.

If you calculate it this way, a "big yellow croaker" is equivalent to 350 US dollars, and the two gold bars that Wu Youyuan gave to Chen Qiang are worth 700 US dollars!

According to the exchange rate of the dollar to the silver dollar in 1932, one dollar could be exchanged for about 2.84 silver dollars, and 700 dollars could be exchanged for at least 2,000 silver dollars on the black market. The U.S. dollar is stronger than the silver dollar, and there is a premium when it is exchanged.

Chen Qiang originally had a funding gap of 1,900 oceans, but now with these two "big yellow croakers", the funding gap is gone in an instant.

Now Chen Qiang has scraped together enough 6,000 oceans, and with this fund, it should be more than enough to go to the United States to participate in the Olympic Games.

Next, Chen Qiang did not need to go to Hangzhou and Guangzhou, he decided to return to Tianjin for the time being, and made the final pre-match preparations.

The next day, Chen Qiang went to the telegraph office and told Zhang Boling the good news.

……

Japan Sports Association.

Kenjiro Nakano hurried into Kishi Kishi's office.

"President, this is a telegram from the Consulate General in Tianjin, Chen Qiang has returned to Tianjin." Kenjiro Nakano presented the telegram to Kishi Seiichi.

An Qingyi flipped through the calendar book and looked at the date before he spoke: "If you calculate the time, Chen Qiang should have returned to Tianjin directly from Shanghai, and he didn't go to other cities to raise donations. It seems that he has realized that it is impossible to raise funds to go to the United States to compete, so he gave up this method! ”

A few days ago, Kian Qingyi learned that Chen Qiang's fundraising in Nanjing was very unsuccessful, and he ran several universities in a row, but there were few people willing to donate.

At that time, Kishi Qingyi was still lamenting that the public opinion war launched this time was very effective, and to propagate the theory that "the Olympics are useless," the Chinese actually believed it.

"What an ignorant people, everyone only cares about immediate interests, but does not understand the meaning of honor! They will surely say, honor cannot be eaten, so what is the use of coming? But they don't know what the difference between human beings and animals is if they live without a purpose, without faith, just to feed themselves! How can a country, a nation, be great if it only looks at the present and does not look at the future! Kishi Kiyoshi said.

"President, do we still have to pay attention to Chen Qiang next?" Kenjiro Nakano asked.

"Chen Qiang is the world's top athlete, but what is the value of a 'world's top athlete' who can't participate in the Olympics?" Kishi Kiyoi said with a smile.

Kenjiro Nakano nodded: "What the chairman said is that if I were Chen Qiang, I would be very disappointed now!" The Chinese government did not allocate funds for him to participate in the competition, and if he went to the private sector to raise donations, the Chinese people would not support him. What he did, what he put in, in the eyes of others, was all meaningless. It's really sad......"

……

Kian Qingyi obviously made a wrong judgment, he never imagined that there would be a gambling king of the Republic of China, and directly gave Chen Qiang two gold bars, so that Chen Qiang did not have to continue to raise donations and could return to Tianjin in advance to prepare for the competition.

This time for the Los Angeles Olympics, Chen Qiang signed up for five events, namely the sprint 100 meters, 200 meters, 400 meters, long jump and triple jump, although the number is a bit much, but it is not an exaggeration. After all, it is common for athletes in this era to be multi-functional, and some decathlon athletes, in addition to signing up for the decathlon, will also sign up for two more events that they are good at.

Jesse Owens, a legendary American track and field athlete, registered for four events at the 1936 Berlin Olympics and won Olympic gold medals in all four events.

In the three sprint events, Chen Qiang has shown his strength, and in the long jump and triple jump two events, Chen Qiang has never appeared in the competition, if in the future, an athlete has not participated in a certain event competition, to participate in the Olympic competition of this project, this is simply an incredible thing.

But in the thirties, there were not so many rules and regulations for participation in the Olympic Games, and there was no Olympic A standard or B standard, as long as you registered, you were basically allowed to participate.

Moreover, in this era, there are many people who do not come to participate in the Olympic competitions after registration, and some unpopular competitions may only barely make up the minimum number of participants. Therefore, every athlete who really stands on the Olympic stage is very precious, if an athlete wants to try a few more sports and provide more popularity for the competition, the organizers will definitely not stop it, but will give it convenience.

Therefore, even if Chen Qiang has not participated in the long jump and triple jump competitions, it will not affect his participation in the long jump and triple jump events of the Olympic Games.

After Chen Qiang returned to Tianjin, he told Zhang Boling about the fundraising experience and Wu Youyuan's donation of two gold bars.

Zhang Boling was also surprised, he didn't expect Chen Qiang to finally raise enough funds for the competition in such a dramatic way.

In fact, these days, Zhang Boling is also helping Chen Qiang to raise funds, and the process of raising funds is similar to what Chen Qiang expected, it is very unsmooth, and there are not many people who are willing to support Chen Qiang to participate in the United States.

If you donate money to build a school, those rich people are still very enthusiastic, but donating money to athletes to compete abroad, everyone is not happy, Zhang Boling has repeatedly hit a wall in the process of fundraising, and has eaten a lot of soft nails.

Later, many literati and scholars published articles in newspapers, advocating the "theory that the Olympics are useless" and calling on everyone not to donate money to Chen Qiang, but to donate all the money to the disaster area or the army. With such a rhythm of public opinion, Zhang Boling's fundraising work has become more difficult, and some people even say that Zhang Boling does not distinguish between public and private, and only cares about whether his students can go to the United States to compete, and cares about the safety of the country in vain.

Zhang Boling is not afraid of shadows, although he is not afraid of these rumors, but this wave of rhythm has seriously affected the effect of fundraising, not many people are willing to invest money in Chen Qiang, and even less afterwards.

couldn't find the money, Zhang Boling was also anxious, and couldn't sleep at night. Fortunately, there was good news from Chen Qiang's side, and Zhang Boling could also sleep peacefully.

……

Tianjin Shoe Factory.

Manager Zhang of the shoe factory pushed several shoeboxes in front of Chen Qiang.

"Chen Jianjiang, this is your customized nail running shoes, made exactly according to your drawings, can you see if you are satisfied?" Manager Zhang of the shoe factory said.

"I want to give it a try first, if there is something inappropriate, I still need to bother your master to help me modify it." Chen Qiang said.

"No problem. If there is any discomfort, General Chen Jian will just say that we will revise it as soon as possible. Manager Zhang said.

Chen Qiang personally tried every pair of nail running shoes, and then nodded with satisfaction, these specially customized running shoes are much more comfortable than the previous ones.

For the Los Angeles Olympics, Chen Qiang went to a shoe factory in Tianjin to customize a few pairs of nail running shoes.

Chen Qiang's customized nail running shoes are different from the nail running shoes of this era, he designed them according to the appearance of the nail running shoes of later generations.

Later generations of nail running shoes are scientifically designed, more in line with the principle of ergonomics, and will also help athletes achieve better results. The running shoes of those world's top athletes, from materials to design to production, are full of high-tech elements, and there are even many black technology applications.

The shoe factory in the thirties could not make any high-tech elements, nor could there be black technology, and even many of the design requirements put forward by Chen Qiang could not be met in this era, so the batch of running shoes ordered by Chen Qiang was far inferior to the running shoes of later generations. However, compared to those running shoes imported from the United States, it is already much stronger.

Now these specially made running shoes are lighter than those running shoes imported from the United States, and the design of the shoes is more in line with the ergonomics of running, and even the arrangement of the nails on the soles is more reasonable.

Chen Qiang is not worried that the shoe factory in Tianjin will copy his own design and then produce this advanced spiked running shoe to sell, because there is no market for spiked running shoes in China.

There are hundreds of athletes engaged in sprinting in China, and for the sake of a market of hundreds of people, it is obviously not worth the loss to produce a nail running shoe. What's more, this kind of nail running shoes are all handmade, and the spikes have to be wear-resistant steel nails imported from the United States, and the cost of production is very high.

If he didn't want to participate in the Olympics, Chen Qiang would definitely be reluctant to spend a lot of money to customize running shoes.

Chen Qiang tried every pair of running shoes, and after finding that there was no problem, he received the goods and paid the balance to Manager Zhang, after all, this is a running shoe used to participate in the Olympic Games, and there is absolutely no room for loss.

After taking the running shoes, Chen Qiang went to the tailor shop owned by the Italians and took the suit that had been customized, as well as the tuxedo and leather shoes used in the banquet.

At this point, Chen Qiang's equipment for the Los Angeles Olympics is neatly prepared.

……

At the end of June, Chen Qiang and Zhang Boling arrived in Shanghai, and then met Liu Changchun, who had arrived in Shanghai a day earlier, coach Song Junfu, and Hao Gengsheng, president of the Chinese Sports Association.

The last time Chen Qiang saw Liu Changchun was at the North China Games last year. Now, after a year, it has long been a matter of fact, the Northeast has fallen, Liu Changchun has become an exiled student, in recent months, the training conditions have dropped significantly, and even the monthly allowance is gone.

However, Liu Changchun's mental state is still very good, with a high-spirited look, and it seems that he is very eager to win glory for the country in the Olympic arena.

After meeting Chen Qiang, Liu Changchun's first words were, "You have grown taller again!" ”

Chen Qiang has indeed grown taller and stronger than last year's North China Games, he has just turned eighteen years old, and when he reaches the age of adulthood, in addition to his face is still a little immature, the whole person looks extraordinarily tall and burly.

Today's Chen Qiang, whose height has reached 1.78 meters, can only be regarded as a normal male height in later generations, and in China in the thirties, this is definitely the height that stands out from the crowd. At that time, the Chinese were generally malnourished, and the height naturally could not grow, and the male could be more than 1.7 meters, which was a big man in the eyes of people.

Chen Qiang spends a lot of money every year on supplementing nutrition, which is still very effective, and his current physical fitness has been able to meet the standards of future generations of athletes, and Chen Qiang estimates that if he continues to train scientifically, he should be able to grow a little taller.

Liu Changchun introduced his recent situation to Chen Qiang, and then said: "Zhang Shaoshuai gave us 8,000 oceans, originally let me and Yu Xiwei compete, Yu Xiwei is still in Dalian, our Northeastern University sent someone to sneak back to the Northeast secretly, contacted Yu Xiwei, hoping that he could come to Shanghai from Dalian to meet us, but he shirked a lot, one moment said that the Japanese were spying on him, and another time said that the transportation was inconvenient, hey......"

Liu Changchun sighed in disappointment, of course he knew what Yu Xiwei's shirk meant. Liu Changchun once regarded Yu Xiwei as a friend, but he didn't expect that in the face of the country's righteousness, Yu Xiwei did not make the right choice.

"In fact, after the 918 incident, Yu Xiwei did not follow Northeastern University to Beiping, but chose to stay in the Northeast. Chen Qiang said.

Liu Changchun nodded silently, and then said: "Yu Xiwei can't go to the United States, so our Northeastern University decided to let my coach Song Junfu accompany me to the United States. When you arrive in the United States, if you encounter something that you can't understand, you can go to him. ”

Coach Song Junfu is a well-known physical educator in modern Chinese history, he participated in the 1932 Los Angeles Olympic Games, the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games, and the 1948 London Olympic Games.

"Thank you!" After Chen Qiang thanked Liu Changchun, he continued: "Actually, I can also speak English!" ”

Liu Changchun looked at Chen Qiang with some surprise, and then sighed: "It seems that the teaching level of Nankai University is really extraordinary. ”

Chen Qiang didn't explain much about his ability to speak English, since Liu Changchun felt that he knew English because Nankai University taught well, then it should be regarded as a credit to Nankai University!

……

On the same day, various newspapers in Shanghai published news about the upcoming Olympic Games for Chinese athletes in the United States, which caused a sensation throughout Shanghai for a while. Shanghai's sports press circles held a banquet to wash the dust of Chen Qiang and Liu Changchun. The next day, the Chinese Sports Association and 24 groups in Shanghai held a reception at the East Asia Hotel to practice for Chinese athletes.

The Ministry of Education did not send people to practice for the participating athletes, and the Ministry of Education did not think that it would eventually be successful.

However, Wang Zhengting personally came to Shanghai to see off the athletes.

Although Wang Zhengting lost power because of the September 18 incident, he is still a member of the International Olympic Committee and the chairman of the National Sports Association, which can be regarded as the most powerful figure in the sports world in the government. His arrival can be regarded as a kind of support from the Nanjing government for participating in the Olympic Games.

The Chinese Sports Association also found a tailor and rushed to make a new set of clothes overnight, a flannel blazer, white pants, and a pair of patent leather shoes, for the athletes to participate in the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games.

……

Xinguan Wharf on the bank of the Huangpu River was crowded and lively, with hundreds of people gathered here to see off Chen Qiang and Liu Changchun.

Chen Qiang and Liu Changchun were surrounded by many reporters.

"Chen Qiang, you are about to go to the United States to compete, do you have anything to say to your compatriots?"

"Liu Changchun, say a few words!

Chen Qiang and Liu Changchun had to stop.

"Say it." Chen Qiang said to Liu Changchun.

"You say it anyway." Liu Changchun also humbled up.

"Okay then." Chen Qiang turned his head, looked at the eager eyes of the reporters, and said: "I am attending the World Games this time, I am entrusted by the compatriots of the whole country, I feel a great responsibility, I should do my instinct, work hard in the conference, vow to win the gold medal, in order to meet the expectations of 40,000 compatriots." ”

"Good!"

"Well said!"

"Chen Qiang, come on!"

"Liu Changchun, come on!"

The surrounding reporters immediately applauded thunderously, and applauded one after another.

……

The boat had started, and Chen Qiang was on the deck, looking at the Xinguan Pier getting farther and farther away from him.

Gradually, the figures of Zhang Boling, Hao Gengsheng and others were blurred and finally disappeared.

Chen Qiang turned his head and looked to the east.

"A new journey begins! Los Angeles Olympics, I'm coming! ”

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The second update is delivered, more than 10,000 words in two chapters today, asking for monthly ticket support!