Expedition to Europe

In mid-May, the Royal Mail Ship "Black Swan" sailing on the Indian Ocean received a telegram from the Lanfang Embassy in the Republic of China.

As in the original history, on May 4, students in the capital of the Republic of China held a large-scale parade.

Like the last "Tianjin Wharf Incident", this parade was once again used by some people with ulterior motives, causing conflicts during the parade and eventually causing serious consequences.

In fact, as early as a month ago, the situation had signs of getting out of control, but it did not arouse any vigilance from the Beiyang government.

The delegation sent by the Republic of China to Europe to participate in the Paris Peace Conference was actually a hodgepodge, with representatives of both the Beiyang government and the Southern Military Government.

You must know that the Beiyang Government and the Southern Military Government were actually still in a state of war at this time. It would be strange for such a delegation to work together.

So almost from the beginning of the conference, all kinds of news were constantly sent back to the Republic of China.

The most influential of these was the part of the Boxer Indemnity to Japan and the Netherlands.

As mentioned earlier, the Japanese and the Dutch insisted on not giving up the remaining part of the Boxer Indemnity. The amount owed to the Dutch is not so bad, after all, the amount is small, but the amount owed to the Japanese is large, and the Japanese attitude is extremely firm, so the public resentment is growing.

In fact, at the official level of the Beiyang government, they have almost no say in the Paris Peace Conference, because whether it is Clemenceau, Lloyd George, or even Wilson, they all believe that the contribution of the Republic of China in the First World War is not as much as it seems.

If the Foreign Legion is counted as a force deployed by the Republic of China, then the Republic of China has indeed made a huge contribution, but the fact is that the Republic of China has abandoned the Foreign Legion, and the Foreign Legion has also established its own country, so how much contribution the Republic of China has made is a big question mark.

And because of the appearance of the Foreign Legion, the Japanese also sent the Sixth Division to Europe, and ended up with a complete annihilation.

Although the reason for the complete annihilation of the Sixth Division remains to be verified, after all, the ending cannot be changed, so it seems that the Japanese contribution to the world war is greater than that of the Republic of China.

In fact, just before the "Tianjin Wharf Incident", Clemenceau and Lloyd George's attitudes were biased towards the Republic of China.

But after the "Tianjin Wharf Incident", Clemenceau and his people also had a subtle change in their attitude on how to treat the Republic of China and Japan.

But the Beiyang government had no way to explain this change to the people.

You can't just say: Because of your impulsiveness, the Foreign Legion has been driven away by you, and then our country is not welcome at the Paris Peace Conference, so now the negotiation process is not favorable to us...

This is not to appease the people's grievances, but to add fuel to the fire.

On May 1, Gu Weijun, the negotiating representative and head of the delegation of the Republic of China, telegraphed the Beiyang government, saying that if the contract is not signed, it will be disadvantageous to the abolition of consular jurisdiction, tariff autonomy and compensation for losses, etc.

On May 2, the Beiyang government telegraphed the delegation and said that it could sign the contract.

The reasons why the Beiyang government agreed to sign the contract are as follows: If it is not signed, it is just an emotional expression, which is of no use to the national interests. If it is not signed, it will not be able to join the League of Nations. If it is bullied in the future, it can still call on such a large group of people to speak for itself, which is very serious.

Moreover, if it is not signed, it will have to pay the money of the Boxer Protocol to Germany in the future, and Germany's compensation will not be received.

If it is signed: the indemnity to Japan will continue to be paid.

Comparing the two, the conclusion of whether to sign or not is obvious.

But these reasons cannot be made public either.

On the same day, Lin Changmin, the director of the Foreign Affairs Committee, the director of the National Diplomatic Association, and Lin Huiyin's father, wrote in the Morning Post and the National Gazette: "Even if we win, we will lose. We are willing to unite 400 million people to fight to the death."

So on May 3, the Beijing National Diplomatic Association headed by Lin Changmin held a meeting and decided to stop the government from signing the contract. Cai Yuanpei, the director of the National Diplomatic Association, reported the diplomatic failure to the students.

So the whole situation was completely out of control.

On May 4, the students wanted to leave the school, but they were blocked by the military and police who had known about this in advance.

At this time, the military and police had no advantage over the students. Even if they were wearing weapons, they did not dare to act rashly.

The military and police even joked: We are soldiers, you are soldiers, you are older than us!

Seniority is very important among Chinese people, and they consider themselves to be a generation younger than them. This shows how weak the military and police are in front of the students.

When the students asked to leave the campus, some military and police even knelt down and begged the students not to be impulsive.

But it didn't work.

The students finally walked out of the school gate. They submitted "petitions" to the embassies of Britain, France, the United States, and Italy. Except for the US Embassy, ​​which accepted the "petition" and agreed to consider it, the other three countries refused to accept it.

Don't blame Britain, France, and Italy. They have the right not to accept such "petitions" because the common way of submission at that time is that if necessary, they can ask the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of China to forward it.

As an embassy of a country stationed abroad, the "direct acceptance" method of the US Embassy is inappropriate.

But the students don't think so. They think that Britain, France, and Italy are ignoring these future "prodigies of heaven", so they took to the streets angrily, broke into Zhaojialou and set it on fire, and beat Zhang Zongxiang.

It is worth mentioning that when Zhang Zongxiang was severely beaten and injured in more than 50 places on his body, no one of the dozens of heavily armed military police nearby dared to stop him. Even if someone asked them for help, their answer was "No way to the top." Instructions, don’t dare to control..."

It is also worth mentioning that in the original history, when the Japanese invaded China in a large scale in the future, Cao Rulin, the traitor among the people today and the owner of Zhaojialou, did not accept any false posts during the Anti-Japanese War and maintained his position in the face of the great rights and wrongs of the nation. In the evening, one of the "patriots" who took the lead in burning Zhao's building that day, named Mei Siping, became a nationally known traitor and was eventually executed.

On May 4th, after the "Zhaojia Building was burned down", in order to prevent the situation from escalating, the Beiyang government arrested 32 "activists".

Then how to send these "big men" away has become a matter of concern to the whole society.

First, President Xu Shichang sent officials to apologize, but the "big men" did not accept it.

The next day, the infantry commander's office and the police station sent people to apologize again, and the "big men" finally agreed to "get out of jail."

But how to get out has become a problem.

So the Beiyang government prepared cars to take these "big men" out of the "prison", and promised to set off firecrackers when they left, so as to remove bad luck for the "big men".

Read the original article in Liu#9@书/吧!

But it feels like "big men" are not enough.

Finally, the director of the General Affairs Department bowed to the "big men" and begged: "Gentlemen, you have become famous, hurry up and get on the bus!"

So the "big men" chose to walk out of prison and enjoy the glory of heroes.

The above matter basically has nothing to do with Lan Fang, because Lan Fang’s embassy in Beijing is in the embassy area, and the uncles can’t get in. For some unknown reason, when facing the “third brother” policeman with a turban on his head, the uncle We don’t have the same impulse as when facing the military and police of the Republic of China...

It had something to do with it. The Beiyang government didn't have enough cars to pick up and drop off the "gentlemen", so they borrowed two cars from the Lanfang Embassy in the Republic of China.

Not a truck, of course, but a car.

It's impossible for old men to make trucks. Only people "a generation shorter" than them would ride in that kind of car.

Tang Xinzhi's telegram was explained very carefully, just like documentary literature. Qin Zhiyuan couldn't laugh or cry while reading it, while Julie read it with gusto.

"These people, ah, are so cool!" Julie thought for a long time before finding such an adjective.

"It's just the second grade disease. It's something the Beiyang government is used to. It's also something the whole society is used to. It's your own fault." Qin Zhiyuan was noncommittal and wanted to explain to Julie what "second grade disease" was.

"Wow, it's such a blessing to study in the Republic of China. You can become an official after graduation!" What Julie saw was obviously different from Qin Zhiyuan.

"Not all of them are officials, they can also teach, but no matter what, they are sure to have enough food and clothing. You can't imagine the Chinese people's worship of culture." Qin Zhiyuan sighed.

"Don't use 'you', now it's 'we', and I don't like you excluding me." Julie was dissatisfied.

"Ah, I was wrong..." Qin Zhiyuan had a good attitude.

Julie was satisfied, and with just one look, Qin Zhiyuan thoughtfully poured a glass of water over.

"You can't do this in Lanfang, absolutely not!" Julie, who was drinking water, suddenly turned 180 degrees. You must know that just a minute ago, Julie was still expressing her admiration and envy.

"Of course not. Lanfang's school only trains professional and technical talents. It only has cultural appreciation classes and does not train literary masters." Qin Zhiyuan had already decided.

"Literary master" is a very magical thing. For example, Cao Xueqin, who devotes all his energy and emotion to only one work in his life, is of course worthy of admiration and commendation, because this kind of concentration and precipitation, no matter in It is worth promoting at any time.

But if you are eating from the government, receiving a salary from the government, and enjoying the benefits provided by the government, and still have nothing to do but criticize the government and the country as your own responsibility, then you are a collective sinner of the whole society, and you don't need to be a master like that.

Anyway, Lanfang has no history, so Qin Zhiyuan doesn't want to overdo it.

There are indeed many schools in Lanfang that favor liberal arts, but they are all in the direction of basic education, and at a deeper level, they are secretarial in nature. They are more practical and never engage in theoretical research.

At the same time, there are more schools that favor science and engineering, and there are a large number of technical schools. These schools are the place to cultivate talents. Whether they are engineers, technicians, even medical workers, or agricultural and forestry workers, they are all urgently needed in Lanfang. of.

Of course, Qin Zhiyuan has not given up on the field of thought. In the current plan, various museums, music festivals, cultural promotion weeks, and even film companies have already formed plans.

Qin Zhiyuan believes that these are more conducive to the popularization of culture rather than attracting attention in newspapers.