The Rise of the Writers of the Republic of China

Zhou Hexuan came to the city for a meeting - the Chongqing Senate Election Conference.

As soon as he arrived at the door of the venue, a handsome young man with a slicked back hair came forward to greet him enthusiastically: "Mr. Zhou, I, Ke Dajing, Secretary-General of the Chongqing Chamber of Commerce, with the cursive character Yao Fang, warmly welcome Mr. Zhou!"

Ke Yaofang was a literary man through and through, a leftist member of the Kuomintang Party. His former boss was Yang Anggong of the Communist Party. During the Northern Expedition, Ke Yaofang was keen on organizing workers and student movements, which aroused the dissatisfaction of the Chongqing authorities and was forced to flee to Guizhou.

In the Chongqing Senate, Ke Yaofang, like Zhou Hexuan, is a young newcomer. He was recommended by Gao Yunbin, general manager of Business Daily, six months ago. He entered the Chongqing industrial and commercial community as a cultural person, served as the Secretary-General of the Chongqing Chamber of Commerce, and joined the Chongqing Municipal Council as a business person.

Why did Ke Yaofang rush over to meet Zhou Hexuan?

Zhou Hexuan's fame is only one aspect. The more important reason is that in this general election of the Senate, Zhou Hexuan has been informally elected as the Senate President, and Ke Yaofang has been informally appointed as the Secretary-General of the Senate.

In other words, the two will be working partners from now on, Zhou Hexuan will nominally belong to the leader of the Senate, and Ke Yaofang will be responsible for the daily work of the Senate.

"Secretary-General Ke, hello!" Zhou Hexuan smiled and shook hands.

Zhou Hexuan was not familiar with Ke Yaofang. He only knew that he was one of the four major poets in Chongqing. During this time, he had seen Ke Yaofang's poems in newspapers. This gentleman specializes in ancient poetry and probably has nothing in common with Zhou Hexuan, a vernacular poet, but his poetic talent is still very high. We can record two of them for a look.

Let me start with a farewell poem by Ke Yaofang: "My family is worried about my country and my country is hateful for a long time. I hug my arm and talk about the temple building. The flowers have tears after parting like this, and I am worried about who is losing weight. Every time the mandarin duck couple suffers in the world, the gulls and herons on the river should pity them. Huan. When I go to Meitan, the smoke and water are vast. I know that you are looking at Yuzhou with melancholy."

Here is another poem by Ke Yaofang about his grief and indignation after hearing about the fire in Changsha: "The enemy's cavalry moved with lightning speed, and the beacon smoke was everywhere. I was sad that Guangdong and Han were reduced to scorched earth, and I cried that Changsha was reduced to ashes. I killed a few thieves, and abandoned the city. He will be half mediocre. The rivers and mountains are bleak and colorless, and the death of the heart is always a great sorrow."

By the way, when the People's Liberation Army advanced into the southwest in 1949, Ke Yaofang made great contributions to the peaceful liberation of Chongqing.

The two stood at the door of the venue chatting for a while, and suddenly another old man came over.

Ke Yaofang immediately introduced: "Mr. Zhou, this is Mr. Tang Zijing, general manager of Sichuan Commercial Bank."

"It turns out to be Tang Bancheng," Zhou Hexuan clasped his fists and said with a smile, "I have admired Mr. Tang's name for a long time. I am so polite to you!"

Zhou Hexuan really admired Tang Zi's name for a long time. The wealth accumulated by this old guy once accounted for one-third of Chongqing's total. His properties were spread all over the streets and alleys of Chongqing, known as "Tang Half City". As early as ten years ago, Tang Zijing's business reached the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River. However, during the Northern Expedition, Tang Shengzhi forcibly allocated treasury bonds. Not only did he lose more than 3 million yuan, but he also closed seven of his banks due to the break in the capital chain.

In 1928, Tang Zijing ushered in the second glory in his life. He invested huge sums of money to assist Liu Xiang, transforming Chongqing Town into Chongqing City, and made a lot of money while participating in municipal construction.

Just two months ago, Tang Zijing and Fan Haer co-founded Sichuan Commercial Bank. This guy is busy getting involved in the local coinage business at this time, and wants to dominate the Chongqing Copper Coin Bureau, and he doesn't mind that his money is hot.

It can be said that Tang Zijing is the richest man in Chongqing today.

But Tang Zijing does not have much say in the Chongqing Senate because he is from Jiangxi. In his early years, his hometown was destroyed by the Taiping Army. Tang Zijing took 600 copper coins, an egg, an umbrella and a pair of cloth shoes in his arms, and moved to Chongqing as an apprentice at the age of 14. Because of his intelligence, he was appreciated by his boss, and he even married the boss's daughter, and he embarked on a counterattack from then on.

If you just look at these, everyone will think that Tang Zijing is very inspiring. But he was very stingy and suspicious of his employees, and even forced several company executives to resign en masse. He had already made enough money from real estate and banking, and he also secretly sold opium and arms, and all kinds of speculations drove up prices.

It is precisely because this old guy behaves poorly and is a foreigner that he has been collectively ostracized by local merchants in Sichuan, so much so that he cannot even get the position of president of the Chamber of Commerce.

Building bridges and paving roads, donating food for disaster relief, etc. have nothing to do with Tang Zijing. They are a typical example of being rich and unkind.

Ke Yaofang introduced Tang Zijing again: "Boss Tang, this is the great writer Mr. Zhou Hexuan."

Tang Zijing looked at Zhou Hexuan and smiled coldly: "Are you Zhang Mouzhi's son-in-law?"

"Exactly," Zhou Hexuan asked, "Boss Tang knows Jia Yue?"

"Humph! Of course we know each other." Tang Zijing spoke without any clue, snorted and walked away without giving Zhou Hexuan a good look at all.

Zhou Hexuan was a little confused. He couldn't remember when he offended the richest man in Chongqing.

In fact, the reason for the matter is very simple. Zhang Mouzhi has been engaged in real estate in Chongqing in the past two years and stole Tang Zijing's business.

Tang Zijing originally spent a huge sum of money to help Liu Xiang develop Chongqing and gained Liu Xiang's respect. However, this guy had dirty tricks and secretly colluded with Liu Xiang's enemies to do business and make money, and even secretly sold arms to Liu Wenhui.

Liu Xiang hated Tang Zijing with itch, but he didn't dare to take action easily. It happened that Zhang Mouzhi came to Chongqing to engage in real estate under Zhou Hexuan's name, and Liu Xiang conveniently granted several pieces of good land to Zhang Mouzhi.

Tang Zijing did not have the strength to go against Liu Xiang, so he directed all his resentment against Zhang Mouzhi, and even secretly used many tricks to cause trouble, which once made Zhang Mouzhi unable to resist. As Zhang Mouzhi's son-in-law, Zhou Hexuan naturally became Tang Zijing's enemy, and there was no possibility of reconciliation between them.

Zhou Hexuan said speechlessly: "It seems that Boss Tang has a bad impression of me. He won't mess around in this general election, right?"

Ke Yaofang said nonchalantly: "Mr. Zhou, don't worry. Although Tang Zijing is the richest man in Chongqing, he has a very bad reputation in Chongqing's business community. The more he opposes you being the speaker, the more others will support you."

"Haha, interesting." Zhou Hexuan couldn't help laughing, thinking: This kind of person must be a villain in the novel.

Ke Yaofang took Zhou Hexuan's hand and said, "Mr. Zhou, let's go in first, and I will introduce you to some friends."

Zhou Hexuan asked as he walked: "I am a foreigner and now I want to be the chairman of the Chongqing Senate. What is everyone's attitude and reaction?"

Ke Yaofang gave a thumbs up and said: "Donate money to buy grain and go to Sichuan to help the victims. You shot Qin Fenlu regardless of offending the central government. Mr. Zhou, everyone says you are like this. To use a Sichuan dialect: Mr. Zhou insists on getting it! You are now a member of Parliament The prestige in our hearts is no lower than that of Mr. Wang Yunsong. Even if Mayor Li does not recommend you to be the speaker, we will take the initiative to invite you to be a council member."