The Rise of the Writers of the Republic of China

Kang Youwei was 68 years old at the time, with silver hair and good health. It was hard to see that he would die next year.

According to the mainstream theory, Kang Youwei died of food poisoning after drinking a cup of lemon black tea at a friend's house, but his daughter Kang Tongbi believed that it was caused by the poisoning of the Kuomintang.

There are different opinions about this from the outside world. Some say that the Japanese poisoned it, some say that Cixi's remnant party conspired, and some say that the food in the restaurant went bad.

As for the most outrageous and the most widely spread, it is "the theory of death by transplanting testicles (harmony) pills": Kang Youwei was not good at sex, so he asked a German doctor to perform an operation on a male ape's testicles (harmony) ) Pill transplanted to himself, and died not long after.

This statement is obviously a rumor, but it is not completely groundless. At the age of 62, Kang Youwei still married a 19-year-old concubine, and he did ask a German doctor to give him an injection. At that time, a rejuvenation technique was popular in Europe, that is, to inject people with animal testicle (harmony) extracts, so as to maintain youth. effect.

These days, even Western medicine is unreliable!

Well, no matter how Kang Youwei died, he could only live for a year at most anyway.

Duan Hongye originally wanted to play polo, but Kang Youwei was old after all, so everyone could only go to the club next to the racecourse to play billiards. As for the money used for eating, drinking and having fun, it was naturally Pu Yi who paid for it. Although the emperor was in a state of embarrassment when he was kicked out of the palace, he also brought out a lot of top-quality antiques, and selling one or two of them would be enough to cost.

Today is not the weekend, there are not many guests in the club, but there are still a few foreign devils, they greeted Zhou Hexuan one after another:

"Hey Charles, playing again?"

"Charles, I read your article on English, it's really good!"

"Charles, I'm throwing a birthday party next week, and you should come to it then."

"..."

Kang Youwei was surprised to find that Zhou Hexuan was actually more popular with foreigners than Puyi, and he had become a big hit in the club.

In fact, this is easy to understand. After all, Puyi has lived in Tianjin for more than a year. At the beginning, everyone looked at him differently because of his status as the deposed emperor, but when this novelty wore off and Pu Yi was mediocre, the foreigners naturally lost interest.

On the contrary, Zhou Hexuan has recently become a frequent visitor to the home of the British and French consul generals. He has a wealth of knowledge and knowledge, and he often makes amazing remarks, which makes him a big hit in the foreign circle.

When he came to the billiards room, Duan Hongye immediately pulled Puyi and said, "Let's play a few rounds of snooker, add some prizes, and win 10 yuan per point."

Zhou Hexuan couldn't help laughing when he heard this, this Mr. Duan is really a second person. Knowing that Pu Yi has no athletic ability, he still insists on pulling others to gamble, obviously for the purpose of winning money.

Puyi glanced at Kang Youwei, who nodded without any trace, and he immediately smiled and said, "Okay, just play a few rounds today, and I'm sure I can beat you."

One wanted to win Kaizi's money, and the other wanted to make friends deliberately. As the saying goes, Zhou Yu beat Huang Gai, and the two soon fought around the table.

Kang Youwei also set up a table with Zhou Hexuan. The old man seemed to be good at this, and directly drove the white ball into the pile, making it really difficult for Zhou Hexuan to make a move.

"boom!"

Zhou Hexuan hit the ball slightly with a shot, and the white ball was hidden behind the black ball.

Kang Youwei observed the ball repeatedly, walked back and forth and asked, "Does Hexuan have a sign?"

"Not yet, I grew up in Nanyang, so I don't care about this." Zhou Hexuan said.

Kang Youwei said: "If you don't think I rely on the old and sell the old, I will give you a word."

Zhou Hexuan smiled and said, "Please tell me."

"Ruoyu." Kang Youwei hit the ball fiercely, but unfortunately missed.

Zhou Hexuan pondered for a while, and said, "Zhou Ruoyu, hehe, good words, thank you Mr. Nanhai, the younger generation would like to follow your instruction."

"Children can be taught." Kang Youwei nodded and smiled.

Zhou Hexuan's name has the taste of "Xuanhe moment", which is not a good word. Kang Youwei gave Zhou Hexuan the word "great wisdom is like a fool", naturally hoping that he would hide his strength and bide his time, so as not to cause disasters because of being too prominent.

Dealing with an old guy like Kang Youwei is not comfortable, not only his thoughts, words and deeds are old-fashioned, but also full of twists and turns, unwilling to speak clearly at once. Zhou Hexuan liked Marshal Chu more. Although he was simple and rude, he put everything directly on the table.

"boom!"

Zhou Hexuan scored the first goal and set the goal on the pink ball.

Kang Youwei stood beside him with a stick in his hand and said, "Your articles are wonderful, especially the ones on Britain."

"It's just a game, so it's easy to laugh." Zhou Hexuan scored the pink ball and continued to score.

Kang Youwei ignored Zhou Hexuan's modesty and asked, "What do you think of the situation in China?"

Zhou Hexuan said: "It's a mess, just waiting for a pair of skillful hands to sort it out."

Kang Youwei asked again: "Seeing that you have praised Britain a lot in your article, do you agree with a constitutional monarchy?"

Zhou Hexuan did not answer directly, but turned his head to look at Puyi and Duan Hongye next to him, and said with a smile: "You guys are so befriending Mr. Duan, don't you want to win over Duan Qirui?"

Kang Youwei raised his eyebrows, stared at Zhou Hexuan and said, "You really have a thoughtful mind, you are a young man with exquisite clarity."

Zhou Hexuan hit the ball wrongly, he stopped and held up the cue and said, "Let me guess. Now that there is a disagreement, you won Duan Qirui, don't you want to encourage Duan Qirui to play forward, you are taking advantage behind the scenes , and then join forces to restore the monarchy and realize the constitutional monarchy?"

"Oh," Kang Youwei was a little startled, because his thinking was completely seen through, and he asked immediately, "How much hope do you think there is?"

"Not even half a floor." Zhou Hexuan said with a smile.

Kang Youwei was not angry, but asked instead, "Why do you say that?"

Zhou Hexuan now reads the newspaper every day. He analyzed the situation and said: "The current situation in the capital is that Zhang Zuolin and Wu Peifu are fighting against each other. Whether it is the prime minister, the president, or the restoration of the emperor, they are all products of their compromise. Are you right? ?”

"Yes." Kang Youwei nodded.

"The conflict between them made you and Puyi see the possibility of restoration. Because Wu Peifu is weaker, you want to join forces with Wu Peifu, and then bring in Duan Qirui to maintain balance with Zhang Zuolin, and finally profit from it, right or wrong? ?” Zhou Hexuan asked again.

"Yes." Kang Youwei continued to nod.

"Don't stare at the one-third of an acre of land in the north! It depends on the general trend of the world." Zhou Hexuan said with a little contempt.

Kang Youwei suddenly woke up and asked, "You mean the revolutionary army in the south?"

Zhou Hexuan analyzed: "Wu Peifu is now fighting a bad battle with the revolutionary army in Hunan, and the situation is precarious. At this time, he must stabilize the rear and choose to compromise with Zhang Zuolin on the issue of the president and the cabinet."

"Do you think the southern government will win?" Kang Youwei is obviously more optimistic about the Beiyang forces, and said with a smile, "They can't beat Wu Peifu, at most it will be a stalemate between the North and the South. At that time, all parties will be afraid of each other, and Beiyang will no longer be the only one. It is a great opportunity for the restoration of the emperor and the realization of a constitutional monarchy."

Zhou Hexuan asserted: "On the surface, Wu Peifu's army is stronger, but he will definitely lose."

"You, you are still too young," Kang Youwei said with a smile, "The warlords of Beiyang were all killed by mountains of corpses and seas of blood. Wu Peifu sits in several provinces and has hundreds of thousands of troops under his command. The mere southern government also wants to defeat him?"

What Kang Youwei said represented the views of the vast majority of Chinese people at this time.

Just two years ago, Wu Peifu appeared in the American "Time" magazine and was called "the person most likely to unify China". At that time, he drove Zhang Zuolin back to his hometown in Northeast China. Although Wu Peifu is not so strong now, his strength is still among the best. On the surface, the southern government really has no hope of winning.

Zhou Hexuan analyzed: "Jin Yun'e is the number one general under Wu Peifu. He once advocated joining forces with Feng and joining Lu to attack Zhang Zongchang. Wu Peifu in turn joined forces with Zhang Zuolin, causing Jin Yun'e to give up his territory in Shandong. At this point, the generals are at odds. Jin Yune also took down Henan's territory. Wu Peifu was afraid that his subordinates would become bigger, so he handed Henan over to Kou Yingjie, who had no military exploits. Jin Yune must be resentful. Feng Yuxiang attacked Datong recently. To stand still in Baoding and not rush to help Shanxi shows that the generals are about to tear each other apart. Such internal instability and Feng Yuxiang stabbing him behind his back, how do you think Wu Peifu should deal with the revolutionary army in the south? He can only compromise with Zhang Zuolin, I will not support your restoration proposal at all. Because once Wu Peifu turns against Zhang Zuolin, he will be besieged from all directions!"

"This..." Kang Youwei was dumbfounded, because Zhou Hexuan had never thought about what Zhou Hexuan said, and it seemed very reasonable.

Zhou Hexuan sighed: "Playing politics is after all a small way, the general trend of the world is the fundamental."

The more Kang Youwei thought about it, the more something went wrong, Zhou Hexuan completely denied all his plans, and he was so anxious that his forehead began to sweat. He no longer displayed the genealogy of senior celebrities, bowed and said: "Hexuan is a great talent, I don't know how we can break the situation?"

"Hehe." Zhou Hexuan smiled without saying a word.

Kang Youwei was in a state of confusion, he felt his chest was extremely stuffy, he wiped off his sweat and said, "I'm not feeling well, let's go inside and rest for a while."

"You can do whatever you want." Zhou Hexuan said cheerfully.

Seeing Kang Youwei walking towards the lounge, Puyi asked curiously, "What's wrong with Master Kang?"

Zhou Hexuan said: "He said he was a little tired and wanted to rest for a while."

Puyi was being pestered by Mr. Duan to play, and seeing that Zhou Hexuan was empty, he said to the queen who was watching the match: "Wanrong, go and play two rounds with Mr. Zhou."