Chapter 9 Chapter VII Solidarity Club

At six o'clock in the afternoon of this day, Nobuyuki Doi came to the "Phoenix" banquet hall of Hotel O in Akasaka.About ten men and women wearing the "House of Representatives Kawamura Masaki-kun Support Association" ribbon on their chests lined up behind the reception desk at the entrance of the banquet hall.Those who attend the meeting come here to sign in first, and take out the party ticket to exchange for the party badge.Those who have signed have formed a long line before the entrance of the "Phoenix Hall".Most of the participants were business people, but there were also quite a few women.The flow of people is slowly entering.

Doi was at the back of the line.Although he received a free "entertainment ticket", he had to queue up to sign as usual.Across the hall there was another group of people who appeared to be attending a wedding feast.Doi found a familiar face in the crowd, it was Takuro Waipu.I haven't seen each other for more than ten years, but his appearance has not changed much. The passage of time and changes have only added majesty to his appearance and posture.Doi gazed at Waipu with longing.At this time, the eyes of the two people met inadvertently.Takuro Waipu first made a familiar expression, then approached Doi with a smile and greeted Doi happily, and Doi also bowed to Waipu.

"Ah, I haven't seen you for a long time!" "It's been a long time!" Doi smiled happily. People around Doi looked at Waipu, who nodded slightly to them, and then turned to Doi. "I haven't seen you for a few years?" "Thirteen or four years, it's been a long time!" "Has it been that long! You haven't changed!" "Mr. Waipu is exactly the same as before, and he recognized you immediately." "You look in good health." Gaipu looked at Doi who was standing in the ranks of the "Kawamura Masakiaki Support Association" with a surprised look, as if wondering how Doi could start working for the First Conservative Party and Constitutional Party.

"Mr. Waipu seems to be fatter than before." Unexpectedly, Pu's body has become dignified and dignified. "It's better to be thinner, or it will become bulky." Waipu smiled. "Did you attend a relative's wedding feast?" "can say that." There are three wedding banquet receptions in the hall, I don't know which one Waipu attended.Doi stood in line and walked forward. "Let's catch up on the old days sometime!" Waipu said with emotion, missing the past. "Mr. Waipa is busy, right?" Doi said in the words, and Waipa took up the post of Teranishi Masaki's secretary.

"No, I'm not busy, you can call." Waipu hinted that he could call Sixi's office. "goodbye!" "goodbye!" On the right side of the entrance of the "Phoenix Hall", six hosts lined up to welcome the guests, and the line of guests walked up to them step by step.Camera flashes flicked on and off, and a few hired photographers huddled around waiting for their opportunity.Standing at the front of the line of hosts is the person with a larger than others golden flower on his chest and a "Kawamura Masaaki" ribbon under it. He is tall, contrasting the shortness of Itakura Taisuke standing beside him.Regardless of age and demeanor Kamikawa village down Itakura retreat.On this point, the leader of the "Renovation Club" standing behind, Kamiyama Zhuanghei, is the same as the former Minister of Health and Welfare and the former Minister of Justice behind him.The president of the support club standing at the end of the line, the president of a certain company, looked even shorter due to his age.Tonight, the young Masaaki Kawamura stood out against the supporters of these short statures.If there were a reporter here who covered the Constitutional Party and Itakura's withdrawal, this is how they would describe tonight's gathering.

"Kawamura Masaki is equal to Kamiyama Shohei's brother, and Kamiyama's 'Innovation Club' belongs to the Itakura faction. Therefore, the head of the 'Solidarity Club' today, Itakura Tusuke, stood on the master's seat. It was reported in newspapers that Kamiyama's 'Innovation Club' The club' is a new force. For this reason, Shangshan has strengthened his confidence and is preparing to split from the Itakura faction to form another faction. Itakura will use tonight's gathering to stop this attempt of Shangshan, and at the same time strengthen the unity of the faction, so as to To show off the strength of the faction. Itakura led the former cabinet members of the faction to participate in tonight's gathering out of this motive.

"On the surface, it seems that Itakura's move is to support Masaaki Kawamura and take care of the face of Shangshan Zhuohei. In fact, Itakura uses the "renovation club" to stabilize the strength of the faction. Rider of the Reins of the Reform Club's Seven Senators!" Among tonight's guests will be experts who can see these problems, but most of them are entrepreneurs who have bought party tickets allocated 20,000 yuan apiece.Doi was caught among these people.Nabeya, standing behind Kawamura Masaki, recognized Doi, and quickly leaned into Kawamura's ear and said something.Maybe tell Kawamura that this person is your "ghostwriter".Kawamura glanced at Doi, and then showed an expression of "So it's such a guy!"

There were about 2,000 people in the venue, and 20% of them were women.People wearing parliamentary badges, people from the financial world, and white-haired and bald old men occupied the guest table near the podium.Ordinary visitors without titles are gathered on both sides of the hall door and the walls of the seats, with very little space in the middle. On the temporarily arranged podium, a large horizontal frame bordered with rose paper flowers was hung, and "House of Representatives Member Kawamura Masaki-kun Support Association" was written in ink.The table in the center of the hall is decorated with a large ice table decoration of a crane spreading its wings on the rocks. Tables are arranged on all sides, and sushi, fried shrimp, five-spice skewers, grilled chicken skewers and other food are placed.

When the main figures in the financial world entered the banquet hall, Cangban Tuijie and the main backbone of the faction who were waiting at the door personally led the guests to the guest table, leaving Kawamura aside.It's meeting time.The host announced the opening of the meeting, and the audience applauded.Amid the applause, Itakura Tuisuke walked to the podium decorated with large pine bonsai in front of the golden screen.The camera's flash was focused on his flat face.Masaaki Kawamura, wearing a large flower on his chest, stood on the right side under the podium, and seemed a little nervous. His straight oval face and tall figure were the same as Itakura's flat face on the podium, with sleepy eyes. The round bulbous nose and short stature form a wonderful contrast.

"I'm Itakura Tsukasa. Everyone! Everyone who came to the meeting tonight is Masaki-kun Kawamura who fully supports us. Thank you!" Itakura bowed deeply. "I thought, I shouldn't be standing at such a high place, I should invite everyone to this podium, and I should bow down to you three times and nine times in the audience!" People laughed happily. "Kawamura-san is a talent who will continue our party in the future. Of course, he is also a well-known person now, but he is still young and his talent has not yet been fully utilized. Kawamura-san is a wise and enthusiastic politician. The future Japan must be based on Kawamura It is not a matter of the distant future for someone like you to be the protagonist, and I, Itakura, can predict it from this podium, there is no doubt about it!"

There was laughter at first, and then applause that shook the venue.Kawamura under the podium bowed embarrassingly. "I would like to express my deepest respect to everyone who supports Kawamura! At the same time, please give him full support for his success. This is why I want to pay my respects to everyone!" Doi stood in the corner and observed the venue.There are about two thousand people in tonight's meeting.About 3,000 party tickets worth 20,000 yuan were sold.Sales of party tickets, ostensibly the "Kawamura Fan Club", are actually hosted by Kawamura Representative Office.Kawamura and his secretaries each distributed 3,000 party tickets to relevant businesses and groups.Although there were a thousand absentees, there was no loss to the organizers.The total amount of party tickets sold this time was 60 million yuan, of which 20 million yuan was handed over to the hotel, and the remaining 40 million yuan fell into Kawamura's hands. Political fundraising rallies have become popular recently.One is to show off one's power through gatherings, and the other is to get a sum of money.This evening's plan also adopted the prevailing techniques. It is estimated that Kawamura and his secretary Kenzo Nabeya jointly designed it. Nabeya is probably the main salesman and must have benefited a lot from it. Masaaki Kawamura has only four years of seniority as a member of parliament and has little power.Moreover, he belongs to the Itakura faction, which occupies the third place in the party. He does not have the grandeur and influence of the big factions, and he has not served as a permanent chairman so far.For this reason, he flaunted the power of youth and organized the "Reform Club" under the plan of Ueyama Zhuohei in an attempt to split from the Itakura faction and form another faction.This might be Nabeya's idea.If the "Renovation Club" expands its influence within the party, Kawamura may become the permanent chairman.From deputy minister to permanent chairman, from permanent chairman to minister, this is the promotion map for members of the National Assembly.When Kawamura was promoted, Nabeya's handling fee increased.As Tesuke Itakura said, once "Prime Minister Kawamura" is realized, it will be the most beautiful thing.But these are just moons in the water.The purpose of Itakura's high praise of Kawamura is to control the "renovation club" in his own hands.If Itakura has such an intention, it is not impossible for Kawamura to join the cabinet.Mediocre people can become ministers because of deals between factions within the party. The former Minister of Health and Welfare, the backbone of the Itakura faction, came to the podium, and the people applauded enthusiastically. "Mr. Masaaki Kawamura is the hope of our party, and he is the one who will be the prime minister in the near future." Already sixty-three or four years old, the former minister with gray hair actually called his descendant Kawamura "Sir". "Mr. Kawamura's brilliant ideas often impress me. He is worthy of the title of politician of the new era. Mr. Itakura just said..." The venue was very quiet when Itakura Tusuke gave a speech, but when the former cabinet member spoke, the audience began to whisper in the audience, and later even his voice could not be heard clearly.After he finished speaking, the host invited the president of a certain company to speak on stage, but the venue was still not quiet.Masaaki Kawamura stood there motionless.There were 2,000 visitors, including 400 women who were Kawamura's supporters. "Ah, Mr. Doi!" Nabeya called him in his ear. "Kawamura will give a speech later!" Nabeya said with a smile. Nabeya patted Doi on the shoulder, and then walked into the crowd of participants like a big man.He nodded and greeted each other in the crowd, playing the role of Kawamura Masaaki's staff. Kawamura's first secretary is an old man left behind by his predecessor.Although he is very loyal, he can't accept new things.The second secretary is still young and inexperienced, so he can only do errands, so Kawamura mainly relies on Nabeya, going around to gather information, inquire about information, negotiate with other faction members, and so on.Nabeya also gets various handling fees from it.If the first secretary was a capable person, Guoya would be under his control and would not be able to capture the money. Nabeya walked up to the woman who was standing in front of the sushi table, wearing a black suit and a triple pearl necklace.Since the room is very large, and there are many people coming and going in the room, so I can't tell her age clearly, but she is about thirty-five or sixteen years old, with a slightly elongated chin, and her beauty is still very moving from a distance. .She listened to Nabeya, smiling and nodding.Her teeth look extraordinarily white from a distance.She wore a pristine black western dress shirt with a triple pearl necklace and a party badge on her chest.Her standing posture has graceful lines, showing her usual habit of paying attention to posture and demeanor.The way she talks to Nabeya is also elegant.It can be said that she has a charm that ordinary housewives do not have.There are no bartenders and waitresses at the party tonight, the waiters here are all hotel girls.Doi couldn't guess her identity. After the old president finished talking, a man with thick shoulders like a worker, with a big paper flower of white roses hanging on his chest, stood sullenly in front of the microphone.He is the leader of the "Reform Club", and the deputy protagonist of the "Support Club" tonight is Shangshan Zhuangping.His applause is no less than Itakura's retirement. "Everyone, I am Shangshan Zhuangping. Thank you! Thank you!" He bowed several times. "In order to support Comrade Masaaki Kawamura tonight, I don't know how to express my enthusiasm for attending the meeting. I can only thank you very much. Thank you!" Shangshan has campaign experience, and it would have been a no-brainer to say these words, but tonight was different.He called Kawamura "Comrade Kawamura" to express his close relationship with Kawamura.He leaned back and said: "Japanese politics is now on the brink of collapse..." Shangshan Zhuangping looked around the venue with his big eyes as if to warn people.As expected, the voice emanating from his box-like body was rough and loud. "Japanese politics is in a crisis. You seem to think that this is the cliché of politicians, alarmists, and find it meaningless. I would like to tell you about the main problems that currently exist. It can be summed up in one sentence: 'Old people Conservative politics centered on politicians'. If the current politics without ideals, without goals, and without assertiveness continues, Japan will lead to tragedy. There are already signs of this. Is there any way to avoid it? ? This requires the replacement of the old with the new. The fate of the country is in the hands of old politicians. This is a time bomb to destroy Japan. It is more powerful than nuclear bombs. We should immediately eliminate the old and stubborn forces!" Suddenly, someone laughed loudly. He was the fifty-nine-year-old Sakakura retired at the guest table... Prime Minister Katsura Shigenobu was seventy-three years old, and Masaki Teranishi was seventy years old... "I've heard..." Shangshan Zhuangping continued in a hoarse voice: "Our party's presidential election scheduled to be held this autumn has been decided. Premier Gui gave up the president's throne to Mr. Terashi. What is abdication? This sentence comes from an ancient Chinese story. People or wise people are elected as the next emperor, and the current emperor will take the initiative to give up his seat. This is a well-known fact. The president of our party is not the emperor. Maybe the current president of our party misunderstood himself as the emperor Now! Prime ministers are not emperors, only those who conform to the will of heaven can be emperors. The people are heaven, and the will of the people is the will of heaven. This is easy to understand, but some people just can’t understand this truth. The president gave in. The election of the president is just a formality, it is an arbitrary act, and it is an audacious act that ignores the people!" The audience in the arena erupted.Because the head of the "Reform Club", the young activist faction of the Constitutional Party, the mainstream of the Conservative Party, openly opposed the president's "abdication" this fall.Shangshan Zhuangping borrowed the podium of solidarity with "comrades", and took the opportunity to give a speech to give a speech against the president's decision made by the Constitutional Party.The journalists present rushed to record. Itakura Taisuke listened to Kamiyama Zhuohei's speech, and laughed out loud with joy.Many believe that the seven members of the "Reform Club" are not closely related to the Itakura faction, and say they will break away from the Itakura faction and form a separate faction.However, the purpose of Kamiyama Shohei's "speech" is to change the already-determined "abdication" for a presidential election, so that Itakura, who occupies the position of the third force in the party, will withdraw from the election.From this point of view, it can be said that the "Renovation Club" is still loyal to Itakura's withdrawal.But the real intention of going up the mountain is that he wants to bring out the leader of the faction, Itakura, and at the same time, he wants to promote the strength of the "renovation club". The 20-minute explosive speech by Shangshan Zhuangping caused a sensation in the venue. "Everyone! Mr. Masaaki Kawamura, member of the House of Representatives, is now giving a speech of thanks."The host of the meeting announced loudly. Masaaki Kawamura stepped onto the podium amid warm applause.His posture and actions all appear swift and vigorous.He made a deep bow to the audience, and the atmosphere in the room became a little solemn, as the sound of sobbing came from the microphone.After a minute, Kawamura raised his head slowly, took out a handkerchief from his coat pocket, wiped away his tears, twitched his nose, and his face turned red. "...I'm sorry." Kawamura said nasally. He put the handkerchief back in his pocket and stood silent.The people present at the meeting were dumbfounded, and they all looked at Masaaki Kawamura who stood silently on the podium with his head bowed.The venue was silent and completely silent. "Everyone! Thank you! Thank you!" He put his hands on the table, bowed his head again, and said in a very moving voice: "You guys have supported and encouraged me so much, I was so touched that I couldn't control my emotions. I would like to express my gratitude to you all from the bottom of my heart!" There was loud applause in the arena.Doi Nobuyuki stood in a corner of the venue, feeling a little strange.Because I didn't write such lines in the manuscript.Kawamura was moved to tears, is this the director of Kenzo Nabeya? "Everyone!" Kawamura returned a smile on his face. "My thoughts are the same as what Shangshanzhuang Pingjun said just now. He made it very clear. I would like to share my thoughts. I came to today's gathering specially to support my gentlemen, especially the fan club. Gentlemen, it is the honor of my life to give me this opportunity to state my humble opinion." Doi seems to have heard what Nabeya said, "Kawamura is a mindless person."Doi looked at the "director" Nabeya, who was talking to the woman. "Everyone!" Kawamura's eyes lit up, and his voice grew louder.This is completely different from just now. "What kind of people are leading Japanese politics today?" After asking this question, he looked around the venue. "That's a few old people in a trance." The audience roared with laughter. "The trance of the elderly is a phenomenon of encephalomalacia caused by debility! Trance is also manifested as blind conceit and self-indulgence. I have little knowledge of medicine. It is said that the desire for survival, possession and self-display is concentrated in the front lobe of the brain, In the parietal lobe and the back lobe of the brain, there are functions such as perception, understanding and recognition, and vision. The desire to survive refers to the desire to occupy the political circle; Desire, the desire to be king in the political world and to compete for social status." The audience burst into laughter. "With the atrophied vision in the back lobe of their brains, not only can't see, but they can't understand the world situation and the current situation in Japan." The audience elicited applause and laughter. "A specter haunts Europe, the specter of communism ... This is what the 'Marx Brothers' said at the beginning of the famous Communist Manifesto. I think, now change it to, A specter haunts Japan, that is Veteran politician." Doi stood in a corner, wondering for a moment that he had heard wrong.He thought, "Max Brothers" isn't the name of a group of actors who specialize in making fools of themselves in funny movies?What did Masaaki Kawamura say wrong?It is estimated that Kawamura regarded Marx and Engels as brothers and confused them with the "Four Marx Brothers" he heard from somewhere.Of course, this is the line that Kawamura improvised when he left the script.Doi recalled what Nabeya once said, "Kawamura is a mindless person".The audience didn't catch that Kawamura was saying the wrong thing. Kawamura's speech was "eloquent" and powerful. "Everyone!" Kawamura continued without wiping the sweat off his face: "Right now, Japan is led by a few old men like this. They follow the old ways and engage in backroom politics for their own vested interests. In their eyes, there is no Japan and the Japanese people, only their own interests. This kind of corrupt politics has reached an unprecedented level. Where are these old politicians who hold the highest power in the country leading Japan?" He said emphatically. "Can we hand over Japan to these people? Absolutely not! Although they are the veterans of our party, we have to ask them to step down immediately, realize the replacement of the old and the new, and renew the party. Reform is the most urgent task at present! The election of the president is not an election that conforms to the will of the people, it is a regression, a regression to 3,000 years ago, and the emperor who conspired similarly to the Chinese court gave way! We must shout, stop fooling the people!" applause. "After applauding a few times at the meeting, the position of prime minister was transferred from Mr. Gui to Mr. Terai. This is exactly like inheriting the leader of a gang. However, no one in the party raised any objections to this phenomenon, which is incredible. , It shows that our party is suffering from an incurable disease. In order to save the party, it is time for our young activists to rise up and carry out reforms. What is needed now is not to procrastinate reforms, but to take revolutionary decisive surgery!" There was a small fluctuation in the field.Kawamura stopped the noise of the audience with gestures, and quieted the venue.He did such an action very beautifully. "Our 'Reform Club' is neither the left wing nor the new right wing misrepresented by some people in society. We are a thorough nationalism for the sake of the people. What we call nationalism may be misunderstood as nationalism, but Nationalism is different from nationalism. We are advancing together with hundreds of millions of people for the sake of Japan. However, only our conservative and orthodox constitutional party supports Japan, not those opposition parties. Some people may call our "Reform Club" If we are regarded as leftists in the party, we will not be said to be rightists. It doesn’t matter if we are regarded as leftists. We don’t care about these. For the sake of the people, we are determined to carry out party reforms, no! For revolution, we are ready to be expelled from the party Prepare your mind!" This time there was a sensation in the arena. "Everyone!" His flushed cheeks were as pure and handsome as a boy's. "There have been some criticisms of our approach. One criticism is that none of the members of the 'Renovation Club' are bureaucrats and do not understand administrative matters. It is true. What is administration? Administration is an adjunct to politics, and politics comes first. But recently there has been a phenomenon of putting the cart before the horse. After the war, there have been bureaucratic prime ministers one after another. This is probably because the United States has implemented an occupation policy against Japan, so many Japanese bureaucrats who are familiar with administration have been hired. They are good at administrative techniques and are also shrewd and capable. , but their eyes are like peas, and they only see what is in front of them. In a turbulent world, if Japan does not get lost, it must look forward to the future of 30 to 50 years. This is absolutely necessary for short-sighted bureaucrats. Impossible." Someone in the audience shouted: "That's right!" "Look, Prime Minister Katsura and Mr. Terasai Masaki are both bureaucrats. Prime Minister Katsura is a bureaucrat from the Ministry of Finance, and Mr. Terasai is also a bureaucrat from the Ministry of Finance. They are short-sighted, narrowing Japanese politics, and turning our party into a conservative party. Party, for this reason our concern for the country is even stronger!" Masaaki Kawamura shouted "heart of worrying about the country" and slapped the table, which won warm applause from the audience.Doi stood behind the audience, observing the effect of the manuscript.In Kawamura's speech, except for the slip of the tongue "Brother Max", everything else was correct.It seems that although he lacks creativity, he has a good memory. The woman in the black suit, looking at Kawamura's face, was moved by his passionate speech from time to time, nodded slightly, and Nabeya standing behind her seemed to be explaining Kawamura's speech to her. "The second criticism of us is that we are not intellectuals because we are not law graduates of the University of Tokyo. We acknowledge this fact. In the government office, only graduates of the University of Tokyo are treated favorably. Because from the Meiji era, Tokyo Imperial University has become a training center for officials to cultivate important talents for the country. But they can’t get enough of it in the private business world that pays attention to real talents and practical learning.” There was another burst of laughter. "We are young and energetic, we don't consider our own interests, we don't know how to speculate and trade, and we don't have handicraft-style administrative knowledge, but we have romanticism in politics. It is the local low-level samurai who completed the Meiji Restoration. They are full of Romanticism. Romanticism was also the one who completed the Chinese revolution. I believe that Romanticism is the driving force and source of reform.” The audience responded with warm applause.Kawamura got off the podium amid applause.Someone moved the microphone to the president of the support club at the guest table. "To wish Mr. Masaaki Kawamura great success in his great career and his health, and to congratulate today's event!" The president of the support club raised his wine glass, and everyone followed suit and shouted "Cheers!" Kawamura made a deep bow to everyone, and the audience applauded.A backbone of the Itakura faction also came to the podium and said to everyone: "In order to wish Mr. Masaaki Kawamura a successful career, I want to shout three times long live, please shout together," he coughed, "Long live Mr. Masaaki Kawamura!" Members of Parliament are the favorite to cheer "Long live".After everyone shouted "Long Live", they applauded again, and then walked to the front of the banquet, the venue was full of noise and laughter.A lively circle formed around Kawamura at the guest table, but the central characters here were Itakura Taisuke and Tsuchiyama Shohei of the "Renovation Club," and Kawamura was just one of these crowds.The woman in the black suit was gone.Nabeya came to the table where fried shrimp rice noodles were placed.In front of this table stood a forty-year-old woman in a gray suit, staring at Masaaki Kawamura at the guest table not far from her.Nabeya came to her, pretended to be nonchalant, said a few words with a smile, and then quickly stuffed the folded note into her hand.