Hu Zhengzhi walked quickly into the editor-in-chief's office and said to Wang Yunsheng: "Editor-in-chief Wang, I'm afraid this news cannot be reported, as it will easily have a negative impact on the overall situation of the war. Please withdraw the manuscript first, and I will go to see Mr. Jiang immediately.
"
"Is it useful to meet Chairman Chiang? Mr. Zhou has met him several times." Wang Yunsheng said angrily.
Hu Zhengzhi said: "It is always useful. The central government not only reduced Henan's grain requisition quota by 20%, but also brought the county magistrate of Xuchang to justice. A few days ago, an additional 200 million yuan was allocated for disaster relief."
"What I want to expose is the embezzlement of disaster relief funds!" Wang Yunsheng slammed the pen in his hand, "The 200 million disaster relief funds were not enough for Henan victims to buy a kilogram of rice each. With this corruption, only 80 million was left by the time we arrived in Henan.
Some people actually embezzled the 80 million yuan. Wang Rupan, as the deputy director of the Henan Disaster Investigation Committee and the director of the Henan Branch of the Three Youth League, actually embezzled the disaster relief funds and returned to his hometown to purchase land! Is this intolerable? If this news cannot be published, then I will resign.
The post of editor-in-chief of Ta Kung Pao!"
"Oh," Hu Zhengzhi said, "I'll give Mr. Zhou a call."
"Please!" Wang Yunsheng sneered.
Hu Zhengzhi called Zhou's residence, told the whole situation, and said: "Mingcheng, Editor-in-Chief Wang insisted on publishing this news, but I can't persuade him anymore. I will only say two consequences. First, it is inevitable.
The overall situation of the war is unfavorable. Secondly, Ta Kung Pao will inevitably be suspended again."
"Then prepare to stop publishing." Zhou Hexuan said.
Hu Zhengzhi slowly put down the phone and said to Wang Yunsheng: "Send it!"
…
"Asshole!"
Chang Kaishen threw the newspaper angrily and shouted: "Check it for me, check it thoroughly for me!"
Zhang Daofan stood aside with a low eyebrow and did not dare to express his anger. When Chiang Kai-shek's breathing slowed down, he asked: "Chief, is Ta Kung Pao going to be banned?"
Chang Kaishen thought for a while and said: "We ordered the museum to be closed for a month for rectification."
Chiang Kai-shek was really angry. In order to calm public opinion, he allocated an additional 200 million yuan in disaster relief funds. As a result, only 80 million yuan was left before it was distributed to Henan. After arriving in Henan, corruption continued. These worms simply regarded the important affairs of the party and state as child's play.
What's even more annoying is that Wang Rupan is the director of the Henan branch of the Three Youth League and has great trust from Chiang Kai-shek. Therefore, he was specially appointed as the deputy director of the Henan Disaster Investigation Committee. He actually embezzled the disaster relief funds to go back to his hometown in Xuchang to buy land for a total of 500 yuan.
Mu, in addition to the amount of corruption it is difficult to know.
The "Ta Kung Pao" reporter originally went to Xuchang to report on the disaster. After all, Xuchang County had the largest number of people dying of starvation. However, they accidentally discovered that someone was buying land at a low price. After a little investigation, they found that the land purchaser was someone from the Henan branch of the Three Youth League.
He followed the clues and dug out Wang Rupan.
At the end of the article, the reporter also asked: "The deputy director of the Henan Disaster Investigation Committee misappropriated disaster relief funds to buy land. Did the director of the committee know about it? Not reporting the knowledge is cover-up, and not knowing is stupid! The deputy director is corrupt, then the director
Are there also suspicions of corruption? Since then, the disaster relief funds have been sent to the Henan Disaster Relief Committee. Can the Disaster Relief Committee announce the whereabouts of the funds? Is there anyone else in the Disaster Relief Committee who is embezzling?"
As soon as the news came out, the whole country was in an uproar.
People have called for Wang Rupan to be punished and all officials who handled disaster relief funds to be investigated.
After Xuchang County Magistrate Wang Hengwu was shot, Wang Rupan, who was also from Xuchang, was also taken to the execution ground. Wang Rupan died very quickly. Before the central investigation commissioner took action, Henan directly took Wang Rupan to death.
I knew that someone wanted to cover up more crimes. This thing cannot be investigated, and there will be a long list of them.
Because the corruption incident was too involved, it could not be investigated for a while. In order to quell public anger, Chiang Kai-shek had no choice but to allocate another 300 million in disaster relief funds.
This time, the 300 million disaster relief fund was sent directly to the Henan Industrial and Agricultural Bank, and then the bank transferred it to the Henan Provincial Government. Because Chiang Kai-shek was watching too closely, no one in the central government dared to take bribes, and the Henan Disaster Investigation Committee and the Disaster Relief Committee were unable to handle it.
Logically speaking, it should be safe this time, but Chiang Kai-shek still underestimated the courage of corrupt officials.
Li Guozhen, president of the Henan Industrial and Agricultural Bank of China, directly colluded with Ma Guolin, secretary-general of the Henan Provincial Government, to misappropriate more than half of the 300 million disaster relief funds for speculation. In their words, 300 million French currency is too small to provide disaster relief. It is worse than
Use it to do business and make more money. With more money, more victims can be helped.
However, by the time they withdraw funds and buy grain for disaster relief, millions of people in Henan have died of hunger, and the harvest of the next year's new wheat has already begun.
These are the three disaster relief funds that Chiang Kai-shek allocated to Henan in succession. The first was a loan to the Henan Provincial Government, the second was embezzled by more than 70%, and the third was misappropriated for speculation.
After Ta Kung Pao was forced to suspend publication again, two foreigners came to the Zhou Mansion.
One is called Xiude Bai, a special correspondent for the American "Time" magazine. The other is called Harrison Forman, a special correspondent (photographer) for the British "Times".
"Hello Mr. Zhou!"
Bai Xiude's Chinese was very standard, while Forman's was a bit lame.
Zhou Hexuan shook hands with them respectively and said, "Do you two have anything to do with me?"
Bai Xiude said: "Ta Kung Pao was forced to suspend publication, leaving Western reporters in Chongqing with a thorn in their backs. Now no newspaper dares to report on the famine in Henan. Harrison and I were about to go to Henan for field investigation. I heard that reporters from Ta Kung Pao had already
I have a lot of first-hand information, so I wanted to borrow it to read and prepare.”
Zhou Hexuan returned to the study, brought a stack of written materials and said: "These are photocopies of the interview transcripts. The photos need to be retrieved from the "Ta Kung Pao" newspaper office."
"Thank you." Bai Xiude carefully put the photocopy away.
Zhou Hexuan said: "I should thank you. I hope you two can report the disaster truthfully."
"Definitely." Bai Xiude did not mention the famine in Henan again, but started chatting, "Mr. Zhou, when I was in college, I often heard my tutor mention you. The tutor said that you are the most sober person he has ever seen.
He is a Chinese person, and his communication with you is always so pleasant."
Zhou Hexuan smiled and asked: "Who is your mentor?"
"Mr. Fairbank." Bai Xiude said.
"Haha, it turns out to be Lao Fei. He was very strict when he was teaching at Tsinghua University. You suffered a lot under his hands, right?" Zhou Hexuan laughed.
Bai Xiude said with great pride: "Of course I suffered a lot. The tutor thought that Chinese was too difficult and was afraid that students would waste their energy, so he put forward the unwritten rule that 'undergraduate students are not suitable for learning Chinese'. At that time, there were only two undergraduate students studying Chinese.
One, the tutor always made the test papers very difficult, trying to make us retreat. So another classmate gave up, and I became the first undergraduate student in Harvard history to study Chinese and pass the exam."
"It seems that you have a good talent for languages." Zhou Hexuan said.
Bai Xiude said: "Before learning Chinese, I had already mastered Hebrew, Latin, German, French and Yiddish. The first time I became interested in Chinese was at the Harvard-Yenching Institute Library
In the museum, I saw those Chinese calligraphy works on the wall. They were so beautiful that they were beyond the scope of words. Every calligraphy was a delicate work of art. By the way, Mr. Zhou, before I leave Chongqing, can I ask you for anything?
Do you want a piece of calligraphy?"
"Of course." Zhou Hexuan often asks for words from others, but not many people come to him for words.
Zhou Hexuan wrote a short piece of "Friendship lasts forever" and signed it with a seal. Bai Xiude took it and framed it before setting off for Henan.