Returning to Chongqing again, Zhou Hexuan had only one intuitive feeling - the traffic was too congested!
Especially the Chaotianmen Pier is densely packed with people. Countless government officials and ordinary people are planning to return to their places of origin. Not to mention the crowded passenger ships on the river, even fishing boats have become a means of transportation. This situation has been going on for two months.
War refugees, including those from Chengdu, are converging on Chongqing because the Yangtze River is the most convenient way out of Sichuan.
Many people who came from other cities and counties in Sichuan lived at Chaotianmen Pier for more than half a month. They slept in the open air and got up before dawn every day to queue up, working so hard just to get a boat ticket.
Although life is difficult, everyone's face is full of joy and expectation. They are happy because of the victory in the Anti-Japanese War and look forward to returning home.
The day Japan announced its unconditional surrender was undoubtedly the most glorious moment in Chang Kaishen's life. When he went to the Victory Building to deliver the victory broadcast, the route was crowded with people celebrating the victory. When people saw Chang Kaishen appearing, they immediately burst into cheers and cheers.
Shake hands with him.
At that moment, people supported Chang Kaishen from the bottom of their hearts, and his personal prestige reached its peak.
The people were so happy. Not only had the Anti-Japanese War been won, but prices in Chongqing plummeted by 50% in one day. It seemed that they would usher in a happy life if we drove away Little Japan. In fact, prices plummeted on that day and rose rapidly the next day.
I went back, but overall prices are still going down.
Chang Kaishen's glorious and majestic image did not last long, and the civil war quickly caused him to fall from the altar.
Especially the recent "121 Massacre", when 30,000 Kunming students went on strike and marched against the civil war. As a result, four teachers were killed and more than 60 students were injured by military special agents. The news spread throughout the country, including Chongqing, Chengdu, Shanghai, Yan'an,
Students in Zunyi and other places organized spontaneously to support Kunming students through demonstrations, and the voices from all walks of life against the civil war became even louder.
Now Chang Kaishen is inspecting Peking with Soong Meiling, and his portrait is hung on the Tiananmen Gate. When Chiang Kai-shek returns to Chongqing, he will accept the mediation of the American special envoy.
Marshall has come to Chongqing in person. His mission is to mediate the civil war between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party and help China establish a democratic coalition government.
A few years later, both the Kuomintang and the Communist Party cursed Marshall.
The Communist Party believes that Marshall's military mediation is just a cover. The real purpose is to help Chang Kaishen prepare for the civil war, assist the Kuomintang army in invading the liberated areas, actively train and equip the Kuomintang troops, and supply Chang Kaishen with a large amount of arms and strategic materials.
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The Kuomintang believed that the Kuomintang government mistrusted Marshall's mediation and sent its most elite troops to the northeast, leaving the interior empty and weak in all battlefields, giving the Communists an opportunity to take advantage.
(Marshall: Is it all my fault?)
…
Zhou Hexuan did not go home directly by boat, but went to the city along Chaotianmen Pier. He walked around and looked around, and when he came to a rice shop, he casually asked: "How much does a pound of polished rice cost here?"
The shop assistant didn't recognize Zhou Shenxian and responded: "Polished rice is four yuan and twenty cents per catty. How much do you want, sir?"
"I'll just ask." Zhou Hexuan smiled and left the rice shop.
Price recovery is pretty good. When Zhou Hexuan left Chongqing half a year ago, the price of rice had risen to a maximum of more than five yuan a pound, and fell by one-fifth in a few months. (By the way, the purchase policy during the Anti-Japanese War was the most
During the period of terror, the government purchased rice from landlords and farmers at a price of 1 cent, but it became 5 yuan per pound in the market. This is why farmers returned their land to Zhou Hexuan one after another.)
If the National Government does not make any mistakes, the legal currency can slowly regain its purchasing power. At the beginning of the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, the national government had 6 million ounces of gold, 900 million US dollars in legal currency, and received 10 trillion yuan in legal currency from Japanese and puppet industries, as well as the United States
The remaining aid supplies to China are approximately US$2 billion.
This money can be used to rectify taxes, balance revenue and expenditure, and curb inflation.
But what did the Nationalist Government do?
First of all, the national government set the exchange ratio of the China Reserve Bonds issued by the Wang Puppet Regime to legal currency at 200:1, which means that 200 China Reserve Bonds can only be exchanged for 1 French currency. This seriously underestimated the purchasing power of the China Reserve Bonds, which directly affected the people in the occupied areas.
People's assets have shrunk 200 times.
The people in the occupied areas looked forward to the stars and the moon, and finally hoped for victory in the Anti-Japanese War, and then suddenly found themselves paupers.
As a result, the China Reserve Bonds became waste paper, people queued up to exchange for legal tender, and legal tender from the rear area of the Anti-Japanese War flowed crazily into the occupied areas, resulting in a shortage of legal tender in the rear area.
When the National Government discovered that there was a shortage of legal currency, it was immediately overjoyed and worked overtime to print legal currency. A large amount of legal currency flooded the market, causing prices to skyrocket again. The legal currency that did not completely collapse during the Anti-Japanese War actually collapsed after the victory of the Anti-Japanese War. Take the capital Nanjing.
He said that the price of rice has soared more than 500 times in eight months, and legal currency has become useless paper.
Later, Chen Lifu summarized the reasons for the failure of the Kuomintang and put the blame on Song Ziwen. He said: "After Japan surrendered, the people in the recovered areas naturally welcomed the use of legal currency, but the financial authority Song Ziwen actually stipulated that 200 yuan of counterfeit currency could be exchanged for 1 yuan of legal currency...
After a rich man went through this war, his property devalued hundreds of times. Didn't this pave the way for the Communist Party? We have turned the people into the proletariat for the Communist Party."
No one knows what Song Ziwen was thinking at that time.
Zhou Hexuan wandered the streets of Chongqing leisurely and returned to Zhou's residence near evening.
"Brother Mingcheng!" Liang Sicheng and Lin Huiyin lived in the Zhou Mansion.
The two came to Chongqing last fall, and Liang Sicheng specially sent Lin Huiyin to a large hospital for treatment. Historically, doctors' judgment of Lin Huiyin's condition was that he could live for up to five years, and it was almost impossible to see the founding of New China.
As a result, two years later, Lin Huiyin took a special medicine to treat tuberculosis, and then he had the opportunity to participate in the design of the national emblem and the Monument to the People's Heroes.
Thanks to the help of sulfonamide provided by Zhou Hexuan, Lin Huiyin's condition is better than in history, but not much better. She has lost weight.
Seeing the couple, Zhou Hexuan smiled and took out a box of medicines and said: "Streptomycin, the latest special drug developed in the UK."
"A specific drug for treating tuberculosis?" Liang Sicheng was surprised and delighted.
"That's right," Zhou Hexuan took out the syringe again and said, "for intramuscular injection, you should give Huiyin an injection first."
Streptomycin was discovered by Waxman and Satz. Satz was Waksman's student and the main discoverer of streptomycin. Waxman tricked his student Satz into handing over the patent to the school and then put it aside
Saci approached the school to share the patent rights, and then contacted pharmaceutical companies to develop drugs.
Historically, this new drug passed clinical trials in 1944 and was officially launched in 1945.
But now there is something different. After Saci knew that he had been deceived, he immediately contacted Zhou Hexuan's Royal Pharmaceutical Company and authorized the Royal Pharmaceutical Company to produce as long as he helped him win the lawsuit. The lawsuit lasted for more than half a year. Because the patent rights were unclear,
Streptomycin was also temporarily banned from production by the court.
In desperation, everyone could only settle privately, and the two pharmaceutical companies jointly obtained the patent authorization, while Waxman and Saci each owned 20% of the patent, and the remaining 60% of the patent belonged to the school.
Until Zhou Hexuan left the UK, streptomycin had not yet passed clinical trials. After waiting in Hong Kong for more than two months, officials from the British Hong Kong military government finally brought the drug.
Streptomycin is not widely available in the UK now, and the Chinese have never heard of it. Lin Huiyin is expected to live several years longer if he takes the drug two years in advance.
