A small western-style building on Racecourse Road in the British Concession in Tianjin was bustling with activity.
Li Shoumin's colleagues in "New Tianjin News", "Ta Kung Pao", Tianjin Telephone Bureau, Tianjin Police Headquarters Secretariat, as well as his relatives and friends in Tianjin, plus many guests invited by the woman, sat at the banquet for nearly 50 tables
.
Since "The Legend of Shushan Swordsman" sold well, Li Shoumin also had some savings, about more than 10,000 yuan. This money was more than enough for a wedding banquet, but it was definitely not enough to buy a garden house in the British Concession.
Sun Zhongshan was more concerned about face, so he had to force his son-in-law to prepare a wedding house, and the house should not be too shabby. Li Shoumin really couldn't afford so much money, so Sun Zhongshan simply bought a house by himself, but the owner's name was his daughter's.
Li Shoumin felt humiliated by this, as if he was relying on someone else. He would rather rent a house with his own money.
The wedding, originally scheduled for early May, was postponed until the end of May because they could not reach an agreement on the house. Sun Zhongshan allowed Li Shoumin's mother to move into the new house, but Li Shoumin's two younger brothers could only continue to rent a house.
"Worship heaven and earth!"
"Two thanks to Gaotang!"
"Bow down as husband and wife!"
"Let's go into the bridal chamber together!"
The wedding was a traditional Chinese ceremony because neither the Li family nor the Sun family believe in religion.
To be honest, traditional weddings have developed into the Republic of China and have been very simplified. There are not so many red tapes. In addition, the bride and groom are both from Sichuan, and rituals such as worshiping ancestors in ancestral temples are completely omitted.
During the "Bowing to the High Hall", the newlyweds serve tea and kneel down to their parents. The parents-in-law say some blessings and give the bride jewelry gifts (family heirloom bracelets and the like). The bride must wear them immediately after receiving the gifts, and then the newlyweds say some blessings to the bride.
Other relatives and elders serve tea.
After the "husband and wife worship" was over, the newlyweds were sent directly to the bridal chamber and did not come out to accompany them to toast.
Li Shoumin was wearing a red silk jacket and a red skirt. He led the bride up to the second floor surrounded by a group of young people having a wedding ceremony.
"Fu Gan, why don't you go up and make some noise?" Zhou Hexuan asked with a smile.
"I'll forget it, I'm not familiar with the bride and groom. Cough cough cough..." Ba Jin suddenly coughed loudly as he spoke, causing his whole face to turn red.
Zhou Hexuan asked: "What's wrong?"
"It's okay, the old problem has improved a lot now." Ba Jin waved his hand.
Ba Jin was frail and sickly since he was a child, so much so that he never even went to elementary school, so he had to ask his husband to teach at home. At the age of 14, he was finally admitted to an English cram school, but dropped out of school due to illness after only one month. At the age of 17, he finally regained his health.
After studying in middle school for two years, I applied for Peking University. As a result, I was diagnosed with lung disease during a physical examination.
With all his plans in mind, Ba Jin only attended school for three and a half years, two of which were in middle school, and the remaining one and a half years were spent studying abroad in France.
But it was such a frail, self-taught man who actually became one of China's greatest writers and lived to be 101 years old.
Zhou Hexuan said: "I know a famous doctor in Tianjin. I will ask him to help you some other time."
"No need, I can only get rid of this problem slowly." Ba Jin was quite tolerant.
In fact, Ba Jin was tortured very painfully by lung disease. In his novels, the protagonists often suffered from lung disease or other diseases. For example, Du Daxin, the protagonist of "Destruction", had the idea of assassinating the warlord because of his lung disease, hoping to use this to
Relieve the pain of illness.
Zhou Hexuan knew something about Ba Jin's condition, so he insisted: "We still need to ask Dr. Ding to come and take a look and help you prescribe some medicine for recovery."
"Thank you." Ba Jin felt that Zhou Hexuan was really good to his friends.
The banquet had already begun, and from time to time people came to toast Zhou Hexuan, as if he was the groom.
Hu Zhengzhi sat aside and watched the show for a while, then smiled and said: "Mingcheng, I'm going to Shenyang next month to open the Shenyang branch of Ta Kung Pao."
"Don't worry, let's open the Wuhan branch first." Zhou Hexuan said.
Hu Zhengzhi said puzzledly: "With Commander Zhang covering Shenyang, it will be much easier to run a newspaper. There will be a war in Wuhan soon, and it will be very troublesome to run it. Why do you want to sacrifice the easy for the difficult?"
Of course it was impossible for Zhou Hexuan to say that Little Japan would occupy the Northeast next year. He made an excuse and said: "Wuhan is located in a strategic location. Building the Wuhan branch will be conducive to the distribution of newspapers in the middle and upper reaches of the Yangtze River. And there are also advantages to fighting a war. It happens to be nearby. Interviewing the war situation."
Hu Zhengzhi thought hard, and he felt that what Zhou Hexuan said made sense, so he nodded and agreed: "Okay, let's open the Wuhan branch first."
"Has the amount of Yan Xishan's apportioned money been determined?" Zhou Hexuan asked again.
"It's confirmed, 100 yuan of military expenses will be allocated every month," Hu Zhengzhi smiled helplessly, "it's actually cheaper than when Chu Yupu was the commander-in-chief."
As long as you are born in China, no one can have an easy time fighting the war.
Although Shanxi's civil affairs construction has been very good, primary school education has been popularized, and various factories have been established, the financial situation of the Jin army is actually extremely bad. Because Yan Xishan controls the territory of six northern provinces (cities), his stalls are very large. , military expenditures were huge, and the newly occupied provinces such as Hebei were extremely poor. The Jin army, whether directly related or not, was seriously short of pay.
This time there was going to be a war, and the first thing Yan Xishan's generals did was to send telegrams complaining about the lack of military spending.
Yan Xishan could only raise food and wages from everywhere. Some of the Jin army's miscellaneous troops were so poor that each soldier could only be allocated 5 rounds of ammunition. What the hell?
What makes Yan Xishan even more troublesome is that before the war has officially started, the value of Shanxi banknotes has been devalued by one-third. When the war really starts, it will be good if the value of 2 yuan of Shanxi banknotes can be reduced by 1 yuan.
The depreciation of Jin banknotes has also brought about skyrocketing prices. Grain and rice have become more expensive every day, and people in Shanxi have complained endlessly.
In order to solve the financial dilemma, Yan Xishan decided to issue military coupons in Taiyuan and increase special military donations. These taxes and donations (mainly grain and rice) were difficult to apportion for the time being, and could only be raised directly in rural areas.
It’s good for poor families to fill their stomachs, but where can they get it? This will bring about a series of serious consequences. For example, the poor will ask the rich to borrow food and pay donations. If they can’t repay the interest with compound interest, they can only sell their land. Those who don’t have land will sell their children. The sale of women and land annexation became more and more serious, making farmers' lives even more difficult.
Yan Xishan also targeted wealthy businessmen. Take Tianjin as an example. The Tianjin General Chamber of Commerce was helping the Jin army raise funds, otherwise everyone would not be able to do business.
In addition, Yan Xishan also wants to mortgage the Tongcheng and Cangshi railways to the United States and Japan to borrow 20 million yuan, and mortgage Shanxi tax revenue to borrow 20 million yuan from the United States. Unfortunately, the United States and Japan are leaning towards the Nanjing government, and these loans No deal was reached.
Even the Tianjin Customs and Changlu Salt Bureau were occupied by Yan Xishan, who wanted to withhold customs duties and salt tax money. Bell, the tax director of Tianjin Customs, firmly opposed Yan Xishan's approach and collected the taxes himself and deposited them in Britain and the United States. Bank of China.
In the following months, due to the struggle between the Nanjing government and Yan Xishan, the Tianjin Customs and Salt Administration almost stopped operating. It is unknown how much national tax revenue was lost. Even if the tax was collected, it was all transferred to foreign banks. Later, the Nanjing government took back the customs
During the war with the Salt Administration, a lot of this money disappeared, because it was up to the foreigners to tell themselves how much tax they collected.
This was how the warlords fought in the Republic of China. Once they started fighting, they betrayed national interests in every possible way. The people became increasingly impoverished. How could the country develop its power?
Northeast China, which was originally wealthy, has been impoverished by Zhang Zuolin, and Shanxi, which was originally wealthy, will soon be impoverished by Yan Xishan.
As for Sichuan, Shandong, Hebei, Henan and other provinces, they are areas hardest hit by war, and selling children and girls is not uncommon.
