Later that day, the draft of Sun Yat-sen's speech at the farewell meeting was sent to Sun Yuanqi's desk by Chen Xunen.

After reading it, Sun Yuanqi flicked the pages: "When it comes to borrowing foreign debts, others may not know what he means; But when it comes to the biggest capitalist in China today, who better than me? Mr. Zhongshan's speech, I'm afraid that Xiang Zhuang's sword dance is intended for Pei Gong! ”

Chen Xunen nodded: "What the adults said is extremely true! The power of the alliance in the cabinet is not as strong as that of our New China Party, and as the leader of the party, Sun Yat-sen will inevitably have resentment." But then again, Premier Tang Shaochuan is not only a relative and friend of Yuan Xiangcheng, an adult college alumnus, but also a member of their alliance. ”

Sun Yuanqi said: "Now that the peace agreement between the north and the south has just been reached, Mr. Zhongshan took the initiative to let the virtuous people, which attracted praise from all over the country, and the league also became famous. This time the alliance will suffer a loss in the cabinet, even if they want to find trouble with Yuan Xiangcheng, it is impossible to choose this time, so as not to make people suspect that they are begging for retribution, but they always have to find someone to vent to. Not long after the reorganization of the New China Party, we sprung up in the cabinet and occupied three seats in one fell swoop. Moreover, our people, Zhang Siweng, Tang Yuweng, and others all served in the Qing government, and they were the targets of their revolution. Thinking about it this way, it makes sense for them to point the finger at us. ”

Chen Xunen asked, "My lord, what should we do?" ”

Sun Yuanqi shook his head slightly: "We don't have to do anything!" ”

Chen Xunen hesitated for a moment and then asked, "Don't do anything?" Shall we allow the Alliance to slander and slander us? My lord, we are more than ever! Don't talk about making a little move in the cabinet. There is no need to spread the news in the radio newspapers, we just need to pinch the alliance on arms and medicines, and it will be enough for them to drink a good pot! ”

Sun Yuanqi said: "The reason why we want to let the alliance go. First of all, we can't turn against the Alliance, it's not that we are inferior to the Alliance, or we don't dare to make enemies with the Alliance, but because Yuan Xiangcheng is eyeing the side! I have always suspected that our New China Party won three seats in the cabinet and the League only occupied two, at the behest of Yuan Xiangcheng. The purpose is to provoke conflict between us and the Alliance, so that he can benefit from it. That being the case. Naturally, we can't let Yuan Xiangcheng be satisfied.

"Actually, we don't have to turn against the Alliance, because in my opinion, the Alliance may not be able to do anything to us!"

"Oh? Why do you say that? Chen Xunen asked curiously.

"Take a good look at the content of Mr. Nakayama's speech." Sun Yuanqi handed the pages back to Chen Xunen. Then he continued, "In this speech, Mr. Nakayama put forward the idea of 'social revolution.' The so-called 'social revolution' is in addition to reaffirming the 'equal land rights' in the League's 16-character program. It is to call on the League to carry out the spiritual enlightenment movement and vigorously build industry materially. Why did he mention that all of a sudden? No doubt. He noticed the development process of our people in the past ten years, and believed that the fundamental reason why I have achieved what I am today is because of the promotion of education and the establishment of industry. "Poetry" cloud: 'Vakovake, it is not far away. Now that they have found the secret of success, they must follow the example and prepare to teach their disciples to starve their masters. ”

Chen Xunen suddenly nodded: "Not bad, not bad, what the adults said is very true!" Fortunately, we have seen everything, so we can't let them do whatever they want. What do adults think we should do? ”

Sun Yuanqi said: "We respond to all changes with the same. ”

Chen Xunen thought for a while and said, "It's too! Adults founded Jingsei University. It is said that tens of millions of taels of silver were invested in the early stage, and the alliance wanted to set up a school. How can there be so much money for them to squander? The industry established by the adults is not only technically sophisticated, but also has patent protection, and even if the alliance wants to imitate it, it cannot imitate it. If they don't do what they can, I'm afraid they will end up stealing chickens and rice. ”

Sun Yuanqi said: "If Mr. Zhongshan is really interested in devoting himself to education and industry, there are not many difficulties, and he may not be able to make great achievements!" For example, the funding problem you just mentioned is actually very easy to solve. In order to appease him, Yuan Xiangcheng specially granted him the title of 'National Railway Supervisor', and he could ask Yuan Xiangcheng for money in the name of building railways, or he could set up a railway company to raise shares from the domestic gentry, and he could also use the right of way to mortgage and borrow money from foreign banks.

"After we have the money, we will set up some industrial companies with quick results, high returns, and low technology content, and then use the surplus to expand production, set up education, and develop people's livelihood. In three or five years, you can achieve impressive results; Ten years later, it will definitely be able to enrich the southeast. It's just that Mr. Zhongshan and the alliance may not have such good perseverance, and they can do it in obscurity and steadfastness for so long. Even they don't have the patience to wait for three or five months! ”

Most of the leaders of the League represented by Sun Yat-sen are giants in language and dwarfs in action. For example, Huang Xing, who talked endlessly about the art of war before the Wuchang Uprising, was considered by his peers to be the first military general in the League; As a result, in the Battle of Hanyang, he was defeated by the Beiyang Army and almost burst out. Most of the other members are also more words than deeds, blood over talent, good at destruction rather than construction. Counting on them to be able to do education and industry in a down-to-earth manner, it is better to believe that sows can go up trees!

In real history, Sun Yat-sen once asked Yuan Shikai for a lot of money in the name of building a railway, but the railway was not built for a kilometer, and those public funds were nowhere to be found.

Sun Yuanqi also said: "Compared with investing in industry, it takes more courage to set up education. After all, the industry can be seen and touched, and this year's investment may be profitable next year. And what about education? As the saying goes: 'Ten years of trees, 100 years of people.' 100 years may be an exaggeration, but 10 years is always needed. For example, if you set up basic education in primary and secondary schools, you may not even be able to make a profit for the rest of your life, and you have to keep pouring money into it. But no one can deny the importance of education, especially for the country and the nation! ”

In Asia, the economic development of several exemplary Western-style democracies such as the Philippines and India has been relatively sluggish, while many Eastern-style countries ruled by powers, such as Japan, South Korea, and China, have rapidly become rich and powerful. However, one of the important reasons cannot be ignored, that is, the rapid improvement of the national cultural level in the early stage of economic development.

As Kido Takayoshi (whose real name is "Katsura Kogoro", one of the three masters of Japan's Meiji Restoration, may be better known to Chinese), said: "The people of our country (referring to Japan) are no different from Americans and Europeans, the difference is whether they are educated or not. So after the Meiji Restoration in 1868, Japan advocated education for all, creating a society free of illiteracy in a few decades. Japan's economy also developed rapidly, and it soon became a capitalist powerhouse.

The subsequent Asian tigers (Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan) and Chinese mainland also followed this paradigm, popularizing education on a large scale before the economic take-off, improving the cultural level of the people, and laying a solid foundation for later development. In contrast, the quality and level of compulsory education in the Philippines, India and other countries are very low, and many poor children and adolescents do not have access to formal education, cannot change their fate through knowledge, and can only be reduced to servants and untouchables from generation to generation, and the country's economic development can be imagined.

"In spite of the far-reaching and meritorious merits of the establishment of education, the cost is enormous, the return is small, and any achievements are attributed to me, the chief of education, and it is clear that Mr. Nakayama and the League are not willing to do this kind of work of making wedding clothes for others. So they replaced 'education' with 'enlightenment'. Sun Yuanqi then explained: "The 'enlightenment' mentioned here is not the enlightenment of our traditional Chinese education of young children and imparting basic introductory knowledge, but the 'enlightenment' of the West to make society accept new things through propaganda and education." Compared with education, the implementers of education are generally ordinary teachers, while the implementers of enlightenment are the ideological elite and public intellectuals; The content of education is generally what is already in books, and the content of enlightenment propaganda is what is lacking in the current society; Education is generally biased towards knowledge and skills, and enlightenment is biased towards the idea of consciousness...... From these perspectives, 'enlightenment' is obviously more advanced and greater than 'education'! ”

Chen Xunen said: "In the eyes of his subordinates, enlightenment and education are both to allow people to accept new knowledge and make new progress, and there is not much difference between the two in essence. ”

Sun Yuan laughed and said: "It's really the same, but the subtleties are enough to make people feel that 'enlightenment' is more advanced and great than 'education', and that's enough!" But having said that, China really needs a real enlightenment movement to open up people's wisdom, disseminate science, cleanse ignorance, restore humanity, advocate humanitarianism, and improve national quality, so as to adapt to the new situation of the social, economic, and political development of the Republic of China, rather than blindly demanding national reform. However, we are quite skeptical that the League will be able to shoulder the heavy responsibility of the Enlightenment! ”

Chen Xunen said: "My subordinates feel that since the Guangxu period, the establishment of the Jingshi University and the compilation of a full set of teaching materials have opened up the people's wisdom, disseminated science, purified ignorance, and improved the national quality in a silent situation, which is itself a part of the Enlightenment. Why wait for the League to advocate the banner of 'enlightenment' again at this time? ”

Sun Yuanqi shook his head and said with some shame: "Although we have made some achievements in disseminating science, science is only a very narrow aspect of the Enlightenment, and more important is the idea of freedom, the idea of democracy, the republican form of government, the parliamentary system, etc., but these people have never touched on them, and they are also ignorant of them. ”

Immediately, Sun Yuanqi was a little complacent: "Although I don't know much, the people of the Alliance may not be smarter than me." This is the fundamental reason why I doubt that the League will be able to shoulder the responsibility of the Enlightenment! (To be continued.) )