Chapter 210 209 [Distorted Report]

After the interview, the axle has not been repaired.

Hallet Aban pointed to the bare hillsides around him, helped his eyes and said, "Zhou, I finally knew what famine is when I arrived in Shandong. Famine is when people eat everything they can eat and eat what they can't eat." I stuffed it into my mouth. I once saw with my own eyes that a Shandong victim ate mud cakes and died of abdominal distension.”

Zhou Hexuan couldn't help smiling wryly, it's May, when the plants are lush and lush. But the hillside in front of me was not green at all, not to mention the grass and leaves, even the bark of many trees had been picked up and eaten by the hungry people.

Compared with the current situation, the famine scenes in the film and television dramas of later generations are just like a joke-but I have never seen any director pull out the grass and strip the bark when filming.

Zhou Hexuan didn't want to talk about the famine topic, it was too heavy, so he asked instead: "Why did you come to China?"

"Of course it's for the risk," Hallett Abban said with a smile. "I've had enough of sitting in an office in the United States and reporting the same news every day, repeating those boring and boring articles. China will not Same, magical things happen every day, this is a paradise for adventurers.”

Zhou Hexuan said bluntly: "I don't agree with your report on the 'Jinan Massacre'. It is too biased. The Chinese will be very angry after reading it."

Hallet Aban was the first in the world to report on the Jinan tragedy, faster than Chinese reporters.

Relying on his identity as an American reporter, he first went to Qingdao to interview the spokespersons of the Japanese Consulate General, the Army Headquarters, and the Navy Headquarters. Those people told him that there was a battle on May 3, the telegraph line was interrupted due to the war, and the train from Qingdao to Jinan was also suspended. They did not know the specific situation ahead.

Hallett Abban thought the Japanese were lying and insisted on going to Jinan, so the Japanese had to agree to take him to go in a troop carrier.

After arriving in Jinan, Aban interviewed the head of the Sixth Division of the Japanese Army and his assistants, as well as the Japanese consul in Jinan, consuls and missionaries from Britain, the United States and Germany. Only the citizens of Jinan and the soldiers of the Northern Expeditionary Army were not interviewed, because there were no Chinese in Jinan, and those who survived either fled or hid.

Generally speaking, Hallet Aban's report was relatively objective and fair, without taking sides, and described in detail the tragic situation after the massacre.

However, due to the relatively one-sided interviewees, he was greatly misled by the Japanese, and finally came to such a conclusion: "From the detailed evidence, the cause of the conflict should be blamed on the Chinese side."

Faced with Zhou Hexuan's accusation, Aban felt that he was right. He said: "Zhou, I admit that the Japanese are very cruel, but the conflict was really caused by the Chinese side. When traveling from Qingdao to Jinan, I saw the Chinese ambushing Japan with my own eyes. The troop carrier, because it was attacked again and again, the Japanese army had to stop repeatedly. It passed five walled towns on the way, and there were burning and explosions everywhere. It was either destroyed by the retreating Beiyang soldiers, or it was bombarded by the southern army. There were everywhere inside and outside the city. They are all corpses. And according to the information I collected during my interview, the Chinese army was the first to shoot at the Japanese on May 3. In addition to the subsequent ambushes along the way, the massacre on May 11 was actually the Japanese army being angered by the Chinese. subsequent retaliation."

Zhou Hexuan asked amusedly, "Which day did you go to Jinan from Qingdao in an army vehicle?"

"I departed from Qingdao on the afternoon of May 9, and when I arrived in Jinan, the tragedy had just ended," Aban said.

"If my guess is correct, you have been tricked by the Japanese," Zhou Hexuan said. "Those troops who ambushed your troop carrier were pretended by the Japanese themselves, just to play the victim in front of American reporters. They Having troops stationed right along the railway line is perfectly capable of doing that."

Aban still refused to believe it, he said: "Impossible, the two sides are exchanging fire with real guns. And I'm just a reporter, so they wasted marching speed and gun bullets just to play in front of me?"

"The Japanese can do this kind of thing," Zhou Hexuan asked with a smile, "Have you seen the Chinese army with your own eyes?"

Aban thought for a while and said, "Because it's night, I can't see clearly."

"Let's take a step back," Zhou Hexuan said, "Even if the Chinese army attacked the Japanese army, it is a normal behavior. Because the two sides are fighting in Jinan, it is natural to send troops to intercept the other side's support troops. Don't you think so?"

Aban nodded and said: "That's right. In the news report, I also pointed out the brutal behavior of the Japanese army. They really shouldn't hurt civilians. I just want to say that the cause of the conflict was caused by the Chinese. The Northern Expedition took the lead in attacking the Japanese army. The foreigners opened fire, and the Japanese army was forced to fight back, and a battle broke out. There was a precedent for this situation in Nanjing. The soldiers of the Northern Expedition were all revolutionaries. They were very agitated, and they would rob and kill foreigners when they saw them.”

"Mr. Aban, I also run a newspaper. According to the information I got, the Japanese killed the soldiers of the Northern Expedition Army for no reason as early as May 1. They were deliberately provoking trouble," Zhou Hexuan said sarcastically, "while the Northern Expedition Mr. Chang Kaishen, the leader of the army, ordered his subordinates to endure humiliation and not fight back, which is exactly the opposite of what you said."

Hallet Aban frowned and thought, if it was true what Zhou Hexuan said, what he saw was all illusions deliberately created by the Japanese army, and what he heard were all lies fabricated by the Japanese side, then it would be a big joke. As a reporter, he was tricked into reporting fake news, which made Aban extremely angry.

Zhou Hexuan pointed to the victims on the way in the distance, and said: "Perhaps, you can interview the refugees who escaped from Jinan City. Or, you should interview the soldiers of the Northern Expedition who experienced the incident and see what they said. .”

"I will," Haret Abban said solemnly.

The axle of the car in front had been repaired, Zhou Hexuan got up and patted the dust off his buttocks, returned to the carriage to fetch the manuscript of "The Chrysanthemum and the Sword", handed it to Aban and said: "This is the book I am writing, you can read it, It will be convenient for you to interview Japanese people in the future.”

"Thank you," Hallet Aban said with a smile as he took the manuscript, "but my Chinese is not very good, so it may be a bit difficult to read."

"This book is written in a superficial way, and you must be able to understand it." Zhou Hexuan said.

The two returned to their cars and continued towards Shanghe County.

Haret Abban opened the manuscript and read it carefully. He was a little surprised by the content. It was actually a work that analyzed and explained the Japanese national character. However, the analysis in it is very reasonable, and it solved many of his doubts about the Japanese, such as why the Japanese, who are polite and polite in daily communication, can commit such atrocities as the massacre.

"This book "The Chrysanthemum and the Sword" should be shown to those guys in the White House." Haret Abban thought to himself, he knew that the United States had been competing with Japan in East Asia.