I rely on talking to brush the copy

Chapter 31 Writing in the Republic of China (30)

If there were Weibo in the Republic of China, then the most searched news these days must be the night watchman being imprisoned, and there must be a word "explosive" after it.

To be honest, although the night watchman was famous before, he was only a little famous among the readers of "Literary Newspaper". This time, the article "The Last Person Who Doesn't Take Drugs" became the fuse for the confrontation between the anti-smoking faction and the smoking faction by coincidence, and the author Night Watchman also caught the eyes of many people. Many bigwigs learned belatedly: Oh, recently a writer named Night Watchman is quite famous, and his article advocating anti-smoking has caused a lot of controversy. Before the bigwigs had a deeper understanding of this person's works and propositions, a message came from the editorial department of the Literary Newspaper: The night watchman was arrested by the police for advocating anti-smoking!

The editor-in-charge of the night watchman, an editor named Yang Jinglun, wrote articles in the newspaper for several days in a row to accuse this matter.

"It's the Republic of China now. Are we still going to use the literary inquisition of the Qing Dynasty?"

"The government advocates freedom of speech and says that people should not be convicted for their words. But now the police have put an innocent person in jail and tortured him for a little dissent. How is this dictatorship different from the Qing Dynasty?"

"Today, the police arrested someone for advocating a ban on smoking. In the future, they can arrest someone for criticizing the darkness of society or even commenting on the president's clothes! Where will freedom, democracy and the rule of law be by then? Is this a country of the people or a country of the police?"

"If you want to live in a silent country where no one dares to speak, then just keep silent this time and acquiesce to all this! Just don't regret it when those people's butcher knives are pointed at your necks!"

Perhaps because Le Jing's imprisonment brought such a great blow and shock to Yang Jinglun, Yang Jinglun, who has always been mediocre in literary talent, performed exceptionally well and wrote several sharp and incisive articles to attack the police.

Yang Jinglun was smart because he directed all his attacks on the police and never mentioned the warlords and some sensitive politicians. Although he understood that Mr. Li surrendered just to make things worse, he was also afraid that things would get too bad and Mr. Li might die quietly in prison, which he did not want to see.

Yang Jinglun's articles really attracted a lot of responses. Some literati who had chosen to fight with the night watchman for hundreds of rounds because of his anti-smoking proposals changed their ways this time and began to run around and shout for this matter. They are not without moral integrity, but their butts determine their heads.

They wrote articles to scold the night watchman before because the night watchman's anti-smoking proposals violated the interests of the interest groups behind them. Now they speak for the night watchman because of their own literary attributes.

Since ancient times, scholars have had high demands for freedom of speech. Many of the wise kings recorded in history books have an important basis for "opening up the channels for speech". The Ming Dynasty censors even took pride in receiving the emperor's caning. In the final analysis, the so-called "freedom of speech" is nothing more than the result of a game between those in power and scholars.

The arrest of the night watchman this time undoubtedly touched their sensitive nerves, just like what Yang Jinglun wrote in the article: "Today, the police arrested and imprisoned people because they advocated a ban on smoking. In the future, they can arrest and imprison people for criticizing the darkness of society or even commenting on the president's clothes! Where will freedom, democracy and the rule of law be by then? Is this a country of the people or a country of the police?" So this time they not only spoke for the night watchman, but also for the interests of the literati group.

For a time, articles in major newspapers speaking for the night watchman emerged like a spring forest after rain, and the whole story of this incident spread farther and farther through these articles, and finally even Fengtian, thousands of miles away, learned the news.

Li Tingfang put down the newspaper and frowned into a dead knot.

Old friend Wang Zhengbai asked anxiously: "What does the newspaper say?"

Li Tingfang shook his head, "It's still the same old thing. Some people call on the police to release him, and some people say that traitors like the night watchman should be arrested."

Wang Zhengbai was so angry that he laughed, "They are crying thief! It's just that your nephew wrote an article that exposed their lies!"

Li Tingfang looked solemn: "I don't know how Jingran is now? We still have to find someone to bail him out as soon as possible." It has been four or five days since Li Jingran went to jail. The longer the night, the more dreams there are!

Wang Zhengbai asked: "I remember you have an old friend in Beiping? Can you ask him to think of a solution?"

Li Tingfang was worried: "I have sent him a telegram, I hope it will be useful."

Wang Zhengbai comforted: "I also have a few acquaintances in Beiping, I will send them a telegram later, there is strength in numbers, we will definitely rescue Li Jingran."

That afternoon, the worried Li Tingfang received a telegram from his friend, saying that Li Jingran had been bailed out, but he was particularly shocked by the person who bailed him out.

How did his nephew know this big shot?

Let's go back in time to the fourth day of Le Jing's imprisonment.

Prison life is not as hard as Le Jing imagined, because his food these days is unexpectedly good?

At first glance, his food is steamed bread and porridge, but there is meat in the steamed bread, and there is a poached egg under the porridge. Yesterday at noon, the jailer gave him a bowl of mixed grain rice that looked similar to pig food. He used chopsticks to dig it and found the braised pork hidden in it. It has come to this point. If Le Jing still can't see that someone is taking special care of him, he will lose his mind. In this way, the clean and fluffy straw that was newly replaced on his bed is probably the work of that person.

So who is this person?

Life in prison is boring, so Le Jing treats this matter as a rare guessing activity to pass the time.

After careful observation, he felt that the jailer who delivered his meals every day was very suspicious. Even if that person was not him, the jailer was also an insider.

But before he could talk to the jailer who delivered the meals, the jailer took the initiative to talk to him while delivering the meals.

The jailer was a middle-aged man who looked fierce and fierce. In addition, he was strong, so people would believe that he was a butcher.

At this time, the middle-aged man opened the prison door, gently placed the food on the bedside of Le Jing, and then whispered in a low voice: "Don't be afraid, sir, someone will come to bail you out soon."

Le Jing observed the expression of the middle-aged jailer calmly, and naturally asked the question of the past few days: "Why do you help me?"

The jailer was silent for a while and replied: "Because you are a good man, what you do is a righteous act."

So... is that so?

There is no one behind the scenes at all.

This ordinary, ugly jailer actually took care of him as much as possible out of pure justice.

Le Jing didn't know what to say, and in the end he could only say dryly: "Thank you."

The jailer waved his hand shyly, got up and left.

Looking at his back, Le Jing suddenly remembered a little man sleeping under the rolling waves of history.

The little man's name is Wei Shun. He is really a little man, with an unknown birth and death year, never studied, never went to the battlefield, and was just an unknown jailer in Lin'an, Southern Song Dynasty.

If nothing unexpected happened, he would have lived his life in obscurity like most ordinary people in the world, and would not splash any waves in the long river of history.

But it was such a small person. When Yue Fei died unjustly and his body rotted in prison but no one dared to collect the body, he silently carried Yue Fei's body out of the city overnight and buried his body carefully. In order to make it easier to identify in the future, he planted two trees in front of the grave.

Then he kept this secret for the rest of his life. Before he died, he told his son that Marshal Yue was buried in this place by me. Marshal Yue was devoted to the country. There will always be a day when his injustice will be redressed in the future. You must remember that you must rebury Marshal Yue's body in the future.

Then twenty years later, the new emperor registered and issued an edict to rectify Yue Fei's name, and offered a reward to the world to find Yue Fei's remains. Wei Shun's son found the government and provided the burial site of the year. More than 20 years after his humiliating death, Yue Fei finally had a decent funeral. The small person Wei Shun thus left his name in history.

Yue Fei lived a glorious life, but in the end only a small person helped him to save his dignity.

When Le Jing finished reading this history, a sentence suddenly came to his mind: Most of the people who are righteous are butchers, and most of the people who are unfaithful are scholars.

The sense of justice and kindness, two beautiful aspects of human nature, have nothing to do with how much reading there is. There are many scholars who do some petty things, and there are also many blind people who can't read a few words and jump out of danger, bursting out the light of humanity that can illuminate the dark times.

Therefore, Le Jing has always sneered at the heroic view of history. He always believes that history is the history of the people and the history driven by small people.

The jailer's words are not wrong. Not long after Le Jing had his meal, he heard a noise from the direction of the prison gate. With his keen hearing and the fact that the prison is not soundproof like a school dormitory, Le Jing can easily hear the flattery of the police chief, which made him think carefully.

He frowned. From the noise, could it be that some big shot came to bail him out? He had been prepared for a long battle. Being bailed out so early was not conducive to the further development of the subsequent situation.

He and Li Shuran went to Beijing alone, and they probably hadn't met any big shots.

Soon, the huge group of people stopped in front of his prison gate. Le Jing squinted his eyes. With the weak light, he could only barely see that the man standing in the front was of medium height and looked very powerful.

"Sir, you have suffered this time. I have bailed you out. You can go home." The big shot ordered in a low voice: "Open the door."

Le Jing's eyebrows jumped. Why did this voice sound so familiar?

With a crisp unlocking sound, Le Jing finally ended his four-day prison life.

He finally saw who came to bail him out. It was Xue Dashuai, who had met him once in the hotel that day.

Le Jing's mind raced and he immediately thought of Bai Shaoyao. Could it be that this young lady's pillow talk had brought Xue Dashuai here? This was the most reasonable explanation, after all, he and Xue Dashuai had no friendship.

Le Jing asked tentatively, "Forgive me for my poor eyesight, who is this gentleman?"

Xue Dashuai smiled heartily, "Sir, you probably haven't seen me, but I've heard of your great name for a long time. I'm Xue Meng - my third wife is a fan of your books and often asks me to read your articles to her."

Le Jing quickly bowed and said, "It's Marshal Xue. Thank you for saving me this time. Thank you for your kindness. I will come to your house to thank you again someday."

Xue Meng smiled and said, "Don't wait until tomorrow. It just so happens that my husband has arranged a play with the same name as your article, and he needs you, the original author, to come and give us some advice."

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