In 1915, the second year of World War I, Japan stepped up its aggression against China, taking advantage of Germany’s lack of skills in the European battlefield. The second revolution failed, Sun Yat-sen and others went into exile abroad, the domestic political situation was chaotic, and China once again entered a precarious era. In Beijing, the Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of China Cao Rulin told Yuan Shikai anxiously that the Japanese minister sent an ultimatum asking the government of the Republic of China to accept 21 Articles within 48 hours, otherwise it would directly take over Shandong.
There are signs of the Japanese naval formation heading to the East China Sea, and the Japanese heart is not dead, Yuan Shikai cried out. But Japan is tough. The treaty must be signed immediately. Yuan Shikai asked the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Cao Rulin hurriedly bowed his head and said what a slippery reply that only the president is looking forward. Yuan Shikai agreed to sign a treaty with Japan, but he couldn’t agree to the fifth part. This is his bottom line, and he will tell Japan on the 9th, the last time given by Japan.
Street performers talked about Allegro and denounced Yuan Shikai’s despicable traitorous behavior. The rituals of the big family who went on funerals and happy events staggered past. The white account and the red sail were shaken together, as if they were mocking the cowardice and incompetence of the Republic of China government. The future is uncertain. On May 9, 1915, the Beiyang government signed 21 Articles, allowing Japan to inherit all German rights in Shandong.
The traitorous behavior of the Beiyang government caused dissatisfaction among the people of the whole country. The masses staged demonstrations. Workers in Hankou, Changsha and other places even went on strike. Protest, refuse to acknowledge Article 21, swear blood and national shame. Sun Yat-sen, Huang Xing and others who were in exile also appealed to people with lofty ideals overseas to return to their homeland.
On the campus of Waseda University in Japan, a group of international students are holding newspapers with indignation over the domestic situation written on it. Li Dazhao, who was then a student of Waseda University, and Gao Yihan of Meiji University, hated the Beiyang government’s actions of berefting power and humiliating the country, and were so angry that they couldn’t even eat.
Li Dazhao resolutely stood up and appealed to the students studying in Japan that the country has reached such a situation, and there is no need to cast a rat avoidance device anymore, and the determination should be made. The country thief Yuan Shikai wants to be emperor by himself. The Chinese nation is in danger, and the republic is about to die. The sentiment of the overseas students enthusiastically shouted to return to the country and pour Yuan.
Sitting by and looking at the newspaper, Zhang Fengzai poured cold water on them. He believed that China was in such a situation because the democratic people had to establish a democratic republic, and it was clear that a constitutional monarchy was the right way to save China. Li Dazhao refutes that his thinking is extremely absurd. Although revolution will bleed, constitutional monarchy will still bleed. Since the Revolution of 1911, national thinking has been turned upside down, and the so-called undeveloped wisdom of the people is even more nonsense. It is absolutely impossible to go against the trend of the times. For the sake of the Chinese nation, they must defeat Yuan to save the country.
The social activist Zhang Shizhao, who was forced to go into exile in Japan, walked with his hands behind his back to listen to the dispute between the two students. He praised Li Dazhao’s words with jewels, impassioned, and shouted at the unkempt man in the distance for him to comment. This character Zhong Fu refers to Chen Duxiu who went into exile in Japan with Zhang Shizhao. Chen Duxiu ate the food in his hands and commented without expression that Li Dazhao was indeed a very knowledgeable young man.
The students asked Chen Duxiu to talk about how to save the country, and Chen Duxiu said flatly that such a country is hopeless. Without waiting for him to continue, the student indignantly stepped forward and threw the food in his hand and spurned him. Zhang Fengzai even said that Chen Duxiu’s speech that he would not regret the subjugation of the country, denounced them that these revolutionary parties were the slaves of the subjugation.
Angrily the students stepped forward to beat and insult Chen Duxiu, only Li Dazhao understood that this gentleman had real talent. He pushed aside everyone to protect Chen Duxiu and left. When he was under the shade of a tree, Li Dazhao humbly asked Chen Duxiu about the thoughts in his article. Chen Duxiu told him that China’s problems have accumulated so many times that they cannot be solved by replacing the government. They must overthrow the old way of rebuilding the court if they want to save the country. They need aspiring young people like Li Dazhao to find a new way.
Chen Duxiu was finally able to return to China again. He read the article published by Li Dazhao and deliberately came to him today. Yi Baisha sent him a certificate, jokes that he made himself a beggar in order to write an article and asked him to take a bath and change his clothes before returning home. But Chen Duxiu only had this outfit. Li Dazhao took up his coat and gave it to him. Li Dazhao told him that he owed him three favors today, one to help him get out of trouble, second to lend him clothes, and third, it was him that he just rubbed. Li Dazhao’s meal. In the future, if necessary, he can come to himself to pay these three favors.
Chen Duxiu, who had been cleansed, sat on the boat returning home and looked at Shandong passing by, feeling very angry. It has been seventy-five years since the Opium War. Countless people have searched for a way to save the country, but now even the Republican system “introduced” by Sun Yat-sen is in jeopardy. Liang Shiyi and others are jumping up and down in series, they are a group of political hooligans with no moral bottom line.
Chen Duxiu called this group of people “proprietary, righteous and honest,” Yi Baisha didn’t know why, in fact, it was Chen Duxiu who was calling them shameless. Chen Duxiu sighed with emotion that she has been rushing around for nine years, but as a result, nothing has been achieved yet. China’s problems cannot be solved by revolution alone. He has made up his mind that he will not talk about politics after returning to China for 20 years, and will change his mind completely.
In the second-class cabin, Zhang Fengzai was painting the facial makeup of Peking Opera. Amid the praise of his classmates, he admitted frankly that if Yuan Shikai became the president, his second uncle would be the chief executive of the big house. Several students who played cards claimed that they had given up their places to study abroad in order to help Yuan Shikai, and Zhang Fengzai promised that they would go to Peking University as long as things were done.
General Zou Yongcheng, commander of the Third Army of the Xiangyu Coalition, the veteran of the Tongmenghui, was playing Tai Chi on the deck, and when he saw Chen Duxiu came over, he made way for him. But Chen Duxiu simply ignored him, saying that he was not interested in bureaucratic politicians. Zou Yongcheng didn’t care much about taking the initiative to talk to him. Song Jiaoren was killed. He felt that the revolution had no hope of leaving a desperate poem and committed suicide in the Huangpu River. Fortunately, the fishermen survived. Chen Duxiu said frankly that this act was really muddled.
Revolutionary people cannot easily give up their lives, and he will never do stupid things that would deny himself to revolution in this life. Yi Baisha was very dissatisfied with his gaffe, Chen Duxiu expressed apologize, but he was really in a bad mood. His wife Junman had been coughing up blood from tuberculosis, and his two children, Yannian and Qiaonian, also ran to Shanghai. Yi Baisha accused him of being too harsh on his two sons, and that he had to be self-reliant at a young age, but Chen Duxiu wanted them to endure hardship, and he really had no money to support them.
Chen Duxiu’s eldest son Chen Yannian and his second son Chen Qiaonian carried large packages of grain as porters in the transfer station in the French Concession in Shanghai. Lao Jia, an old worker, had blood on his legs and couldn’t support it, and dropped two large packets of bean grains on the ground. The supervisor stepped forward to beat Lao Jia with a whip, but Yannian Qiao Nian couldn’t see it stepped forward to stop him. Obviously this was not the first time they made such a righteous action.
The supervisor asked them to do Lao Jia’s work, otherwise he would even fight with them. Yannian Qiao Nian decisively carried the big bag, but Qiao Nian’s trouser pocket broke but dragged his shoes and walked up barefoot, without putting down the big bag on his shoulders.
On the ship, two Japanese crew members dragged a man and a woman with two students on the deck, beating and insulting, and even dragging the girl’s clothes. Zhang Fengzai and others took out the mahjong and hit the Japanese crew member but didn’t have the courage to stand up. Fortunately, Zou Yongcheng came to help. Two students received this treatment because their tickets were stolen. Zou Yongcheng offered to make up for them, and Chen Duxiu suggested that this is the open sea and the Japanese crew must apologize for their actions.
Faced with the Japanese crew members who left after apologizing, Zhang Fengzai brazenly clamored that they would continue to fight if they wanted to fight in order to show their patriotism. Chen Duxiu stepped on their mahjong tiles that were still on the ground and denounced that the reason why the country had not prospered was because of people like them who had not yet developed their wisdom.
Chen Duxiu apologized to Zou Yongcheng, and the male student who was beaten was named Xin Gang. He bowed to Chen Duxiu and thanked him for his disregarding. It turned out that he was the student who rejected Chen Duxiu’s food and spurned him. Chen Duxiu told him that the battle could not be finished just by blood. He invited Xin Gang to go to his cabin to discuss with him the way to save the country.
Yannian and Qiaonian deducted the mold on the food with their hands, and ate them with water. Looking at the ant climbing up the bowl, Yannian smiled and released it from life. This is an admiration for the tenaciousness of life. The younger sister Chen Zimei came to find two brothers, and the stepmother Gao Junman brought buns and egg soup to the brothers, but the two brothers knew that the aunt’s house was also poor, and they couldn’t bear to make the aunt and sisters spend more.
Knowing that Chen Duxiu was about to return to China, Yannian claimed that they would not go back and had nothing to do with Chen Duxiu. Before she left, Zimei asked Yannian to remember to send her grasshopper. Yannian gnawed on the hard tortillas from her mobile phone, and promised to give it to her.
