The Rise of the Writers of the Republic of China

"Brother Zhou, do you want to bring this?" Zhang Leyi asked with a windbreaker in her hand.

Zhou Hexuan smiled wryly: "Sister, it's summer now."

Zhang Leyi said in a serious tone: "But I heard that the Northeast is very cold, and the temperature at night in summer is also very low. What if we go out at night?"

"Buy it when it's cold, we have money." Zhou Hexuan joked.

"Not serious." Zhang Leyi rolled his eyes at him, and put the windbreaker back.

It is now the beginning of August, and they are about to leave for Fengtian to attend the opening ceremony of Fengyong University.

Zhang Leyi was wearing a floral dress, her brows were like daisy, her eyes were like autumn water, her hair was tied behind her head, and she had a ladylike temperament. She walked into the station with a handbag, and immediately attracted the attention of many men.

No way, Zhang Leyi's breasts are bigger than Meng Xiaodong's.

Now that northern women don't show their breasts, wherever Zhang Leyi goes, she stands out from the crowd, and the men in Tianjin are so shocked that their eyeballs bulge out.

"Unsightly, unsightly!" An old pedant leaning on a cane shook his head repeatedly.

Zhang Leyi couldn't help but blushed under the crowd's spectating, and asked in a low voice, "Should I also corset my chest?"

"What bundle? Let them see." Zhou Hexuan didn't care.

Zhang Leyi smiled and said, "Hee hee, I was afraid you would be jealous."

The two took the Sun brothers into the carriage. They bought first-class tickets and even brought their own toilets. They could go to the high-end dining car to eat, or the flight attendants could deliver meals to their door.

"Dirty~~~~~"

The train gradually left the station, and after traveling for about a few hundred meters, a large crowd suddenly appeared on both sides of the railway.

Those people were ragged and unkempt, and all of them were sallow and emaciated from hunger, but at this moment they turned into athletes, rushing desperately towards the train.

"San'er, come up quickly!"

"Mother, where are you, mother?"

"Ah, my legs!"

"Don't pull, let go!"

"My son, you died a terrible death!"

"..."

There were chaotic shouts from all around. The young and strong quickly climbed onto the train, while the old, weak, sick and disabled could do nothing. Some people climbed halfway and were squeezed down. If they were lucky, they just fell and were injured. If they were unlucky, they were directly crushed by the wheels.

There were also those who were separated from their relatives, squatting in twos and threes by the side of the road, wailing and crying helplessly.

"ah!"

Zhang Leyi exclaimed.

But someone climbed up from outside their car window, climbing up extremely dangerously, and soon the upper body of that person climbed to the roof of the car, and only two feet could be seen kicking around from the car window.

One goes up, followed by the next. Occasionally, people who climbed on the roof would reach out to help, and within a short while the top of the train was densely packed.

Zhang Leyi panicked and asked, "Why are there so many people climbing the train?"

Zhou Hexuan said with a solemn expression: "They are all disaster victims who broke through the Guandong."

Heavy rains caused disasters in Shandong at the beginning of the year, followed by severe droughts in summer, followed by locust swarms, interspersed with various wind disasters and rain disasters. Summer wheat and autumn crops were undoubtedly exhausted, and more than 10 million people were affected. In the hardest-hit areas, there was no harvest, and the roads were blocked by starvation. In places where the disaster was more serious, "grass roots were eaten up and people were cut off."

Zhou Hexuan still remembers a report in Ta Kung Pao: "Farmers in the disaster-stricken areas of Lu eat more broken felt, cotton, and leather, or commit suicide or starve to death. Five copper dollars can buy a daughter."

Five copper dollars can buy a woman, five copper dollars!

Even if it is a large copper coin of 20 liters, five copper coins are only more than 3 cents, which is only enough to buy a newspaper.

It is said that life is cheap in troubled times, but now that a catastrophe has struck, human life is only worth the price of a newspaper.

Now the major newspapers in the north are reporting the disaster situation in Shandong and Hebei, among which Shandong is the most miserable.

Even foreign newspapers joined in, reporting as follows: "Refugees in Lu province are on par with the situation of refugees in Europe after the war. According to surveys, the most difficult victims in Shandong totaled more than ten million. It accounts for about a quarter of the population in the whole province...if there is no effective large-scale relief, there will inevitably be two to three million people who are afraid of starving to death."

A foreign reporter went deep into the disaster area and described the famine in this way: "The suffering of the victims is shocking. People in the refugee camps are generally infected with diseases, such as measles, chickenpox, pneumonia, and scarlet fever. Many people died in the streets and alleys. Even after exposing Chen for many days, he will not be buried..."

And what about Zhang Zongchang, the governor of Shandong?

He didn't intend to do disaster relief.

When Zhang Zongchang returned to Shandong from the front line, Harrett Aban, a reporter from the New York Times who had lived in China for more than 20 years, immediately visited his home, hoping to make an appointment for disaster relief.

Zhang Zongchang entertained Hallett with good wine and good food. Hallett described the dinner in this way: "The table is full of priceless mountain and sea delicacies, plus French champagne and high-end brandy, which is so rich that it is sinful... He (Zhang Zongchang) showed off to me with great ambition. A set of western tableware custom-made from Belgium can serve forty people to eat at the same time. Every piece of tableware, including coffee cups, is all cut glass. He boasted that the price of the complete tableware would be $55,000."

Hallett wrote in a report to the headquarters of the "New York Times": "Shandong's problems are man-made disasters, which are directly caused by the skilful robbery of Zhang Zongchang, the governor of Shandong. Using American money to relieve the famine in Shandong is tantamount to funding this villain .If the disaster is not resolved, the people of Shandong may rise up and drive him away."

The "New York Times" originally planned to raise millions of dollars in donations to help Shandong disaster relief, but after Hallett's report was sent back, the US side immediately abandoned the fundraising plan.

As Harrett said, "If the disaster is not saved, the people of Shandong are likely to rise up and drive him (Zhang Zongchang) away." Since the famine, the Red Spear Society has revolted everywhere in Shandong, not only resisting rent and donations, but also attacking the government and evil gentry.

Among them, our party is naturally present. Our party took advantage of the famine to develop a lot of early-stage armed forces in Shandong. Some troops even survived to the period of the Anti-Japanese War and became the backbone of the anti-Japanese forces in the enemy's rear—except for the Northeast, Shandong fought the worst in the enemy's anti-Japanese war.

Shandong not only had an uprising, but also countless bandits who robbed houses and houses. Some places even became a world of bandits, and wealthy families hid in Qingdao for refuge.

Zhang Zongchang didn't care about this, he still levied heavy taxes, and even transferred troops from the front line to suppress the uprising. Some soldiers turned into bandits because they were red-eyed. They even robbed the rations of ordinary victims, which made the situation even worse.

Zhou Hexuan was going to the Northeast happily, but now he lost all interest and fell asleep on the bunk all day long.

Waking up in the morning, Zhang Leyi opened the curtains and said, "I'm almost there...Oh my god! Brother Zhou, look quickly."

Zhou Hexuan lay on the back of the window and looked out, only to see several fallen corpses appearing along the railway from time to time. These people all came to cross the Guandong, but they died of illness and starvation on the way, and some of them were not even dead, lying on the ground and struggling, with their eyes wide open and helpless looking at the sky.

"Fuck Zhang Zongchang!" Zhou Hexuan couldn't help but swear.