Chapter 9 democratic world

one The "world" we are talking about here is actually just a small town. Before the war, there were only a few dozen families in the town; its "airspace" is not easy for crows to fly through because There are few people here, and naturally there is no extra waste on the ground for the crows to enjoy. However, from the second year of the Anti-Japanese War until now, this small town has been expanding every day, as if the dough is leavening, and it is expanding outwards. Its postal agency has been changed to a post office, and its small land temple has been changed. As a middle school, its dandan noodles and Chaoshou stalls have been replaced by restaurants with noisy pots and spoons. It has new streets and new mud-painted western-style buildings.There are crows on its old trees.Most of its residents no longer wear white cloth on their heads and straw sandals on their bare feet, but put on fedora hats and leather shoes, because the new residents have brought the culture of Hong Kong and Shanghai to it.Among the new residents, some are managers of large companies, some are members of the Legislative Yuan or the Supervisory Yuan, some have unusual jobs but are quite rich, and the old ones who are evergreen in winter and summer clatter in western clothes.

Let's call this town Jinguang Town.Its location is on the outskirts of Chongqing.But put it near Chengdu, Leshan, or Hechuan, and there is nothing wrong with it.We don't need to check maps and ancient books for it, because it is neither an important military site, nor does it have any Qin bricks, Han tiles or any historical sites.Its interest seems to lie in the "new" rather than in the "old".If you mention "old", the small land shrine may be the only historic site, and it has been converted into a middle school, and even the left, right and back of the shrine are posted with wall posters?

Therefore, it seems that we should pay more attention to its personnel.As for whether it is twenty or fifty miles away from Chongqing, whether it is on the north bank or the south bank of the river, it doesn't matter much. Well, let's slowly set up a Longmen formation, and talk about its personnel.When it comes to personnel, we first pay attention to the democratic spirit of the people here.The future world is said to be a democratic world.Well, the people in Jinguang Town are not only good citizens, but also hiding here to participate in the battle between democracy and fascism, and they are the pillars of world peace. Naturally, we can't help but take a closer look at their democratic spirit.

We say what comes to mind, and it doesn't matter what order it is in; isn't everyone equal in a democratic world? Let us first tell a little story about Narcissus Pavilion. The Narcissus Museum was established in the fourth year of the Anti-Japanese War.This is an institution for academic research as well as experimentation and practicality.There are chief and deputy directors, and four departments, each with a section chief and several staff members; in addition, there are many officers, secretaries, and workers.The four departments are the General Affairs Department, the Human Resources Department, the Graduate School, and the Promotion Department.There is no need to talk about the affairs of the general affairs department and the personnel department, because every organization has such two departments.The research department is dedicated to the study of how to make the narcissus flowers with one package and one stem in the wild in Sichuan into the large and multi-stem narcissus flowers in Fujian, and collect records about narcissus in Chinese and foreign books to make a big dictionary of narcissus .There are two or three times more staff members, officers, secretaries and workers in this department than other departments, because the work is heavy and urgent.The members of this department, and even the officers, are all scholars.The purpose of their work is twofold.First, it is research for the sake of research; studying daffodils is like studying apples, wheat, and comets in the sky; research is for the promotion of truth, and truth is everywhere.The second is to improve the narcissus seeds, which can be sold to various provinces and even abroad, so as to enrich the country and the people.If they can find a vitamin in the narcissus bag, maybe it can do the same thing as the potato and lily, and increase the agricultural production.

The results of the research will be publicized and marketed by the promotion department, and sage seeds will be exchanged with narcissus experts all over the world. Since the establishment of the Narcissus Hall, no narcissus has been found yet.The curator is Mongolian, and he has never seen narcissus. The specimens found by the researchers were signed and submitted, but the curator criticized them: "It is shaped like garlic, so it must not be narcissus. We should pay more attention to collecting and identifying it." The deputy curator is from Shandong. Although he knows Narcissus, the phrase "it looks like garlic" hurt his heart.Shandong people like to eat garlic, so he thought that the research on things similar to garlic was to satirize him.Therefore, he didn't come to the restaurant often, but only brought the cheap rice home, and secretly ate a few cloves of garlic while picking the weeds.

Since there is not even a single specimen in the museum, everyone's work is naturally to be signed in twice a day, and apart from receiving salary and rice every month, they have to be idle.When we are bored, we hold a meeting; when the meeting is over, we all feel excited and tired, and feel that cheap rice really lacks vitamins. However, no matter how you say it, this institution, compared with other institutions in Jinguang Town, is the most democratic, because first, there are many scholars here, and scholars always support freedom and equality; second, the museum In the past three or four years, the director and the deputy director have only hit the workers on the head with a cane when they lost their temper, but never hit the section chief or staff member. This spirit is very admirable.

In the last two meetings, everyone's democratic spirit was particularly evident.At the first meeting, the chief of the graduate school proposed: "In the future, workers must call their employees masters instead of superiors, and rectify their titles." As soon as the proposal was put forward, it won the enthusiastic support of all the attendees.Everyone applauded and cheered for a minute.The motion passed. In the second meeting, the curator proposed to add guards outside the gate.His reasons are sufficient, which shows that the wording of the proposal is also very beautiful and appropriate: "My fellow officials, this senior official has lived in Jinguang Town for several years. In terms of status, official rank, and knowledge, this senior official is no better than anyone else." But, look, the captain of the police detachment, the captain of the gendarmerie, the chief of the checkpoint, when they come in and out of the salute, they are all saluted. Watching, put your right hand next to your eyebrows. (This is a kind of knowledge, I'm afraid you don't know it, so I will explain it a little bit.) Even Baochang Jiachang, when he goes out, he also has followers. This senior official said, " The chief raised his voice, and said very emotionally: "In order to fight for the dignity of the museum, I have to add a museum police; with the museum police, when I go in and out, I will have the heels of my shoes touch each other, and my hands will cover my eyebrows." It is necessary, necessary, necessary!" The head of the curator was sweating; he sat down and kept wiping his forehead with a handkerchief .

As usual, after the curator speaks, others are silent for a few minutes.The democratic spirit of Narcissus Hall (and Jinguang Township as well) is that high-ranking officials express their opinions, while junior officials can only bow their heads and remain silent. The deputy curator stood up slowly: "Curator, may I ask: Should the curator only salute the curator alone, or everyone?" The deputy curator's question made everyone look up. He is from Shandong, dare to speak, and he is from the same town as the gendarmerie captain in this town, so he is justified, and even the curator is afraid of him.

"This..." The curator thought for a while. "It's easy to handle! The police have to touch the heels twice and cover the eyebrows twice when the curator enters and exits the gate. When the deputy curator enters and exits, he only touches and covers once, so that there is a difference." The deputy curator didn't say anything, quite satisfied with this method. Everyone bowed their heads in silence again. "This case is passed!" The curator issued an order. Everyone still bowed their heads in silence, and the motion was passed. This caused a storm.After the meeting was adjourned, the scholars of the Graduate School were all resigned under the leadership of the section chief.They were all scholars, and none of them would speak in front of the curator, but they decided not to sacrifice the dignity of enjoying the salute, so they all resigned.They also know that if the resignation is really approved, they will submit the letter of repentance again.

The curator is quite capable and handled this matter very well.He keeps everyone.And gave the section chief a note.At the same time, he revoked the resolution to add guards, and ordered the staff in the curator's office: "Every day when I don't come, you have to wait outside the gate; when I slide down the pole, you have to salute, and then shout loudly. Shout: Master curator is here! When I want to go out, you must first run out of the gate. As soon as I go out, you have to salute and shout loudly: Master curator, go! Depending on the situation, if there are many passers-by outside the door People, you just shout one or two more times!"

Workmates nodded again and again. "But, Master Curator, don't I have too many things to do?" "Then, I'll ask the General Affairs Section to send another worker to help you!" In this way, a small storm will be calm and nothing will happen.In it, the spirit of democracy is fully displayed, and there is also a bit of humanitarianism outside. two In our democratic world—Jinguang Town—Commissioner Qiu is the most democratic.Whether he is a member of the Central Committee, a member of the Supervisory Committee, or a member of the Legislative Council, no one can tell.We only know that he is a committee member, and we must call him committee member Qiu loudly when we meet; we know that several ignorant people have slapped him because they did not call him committee member loudly. Commissioner Qiu is very knowledgeable.It is said that he has been to the democratic countries of Britain and the United States to investigate politics; now, whenever he goes to the market (Jinguang Town has a "market" every 147), he buys some things like sweet potatoes and sweet potatoes, and often tells the countrymen Say one or two English words to make them baffled. However, it is still a small person who jumps out foreign characters from time to time.The true knowledge of Commissioner Qiu lies in his understanding of the law and the rule of law. "Without the spirit of the rule of law, China will not become strong!" This sentence is almost always on his lips.He talks about "law" everywhere.In his room, except for the pots and jars, there are law books piled up to the ceiling.Those books full of Articles and Paragraphs that make others feel a headache after reading them seem to be more interesting than swordsman novels in the eyes of Commissioner Qiu.He not only reads those "books from heaven", but also always strives to practice them.There is nothing illegal about his conduct.His family is very small, with a wife, an aunt and two sons.His wife is fat.Probably because of the emphasis on muscle development, she has no hair.Commissioner Qiu ordered her to wear a wig—in the West, judges are required to wear hairnets, he said.According to the law, he should not marry his aunt.So he made a few laws himself, wrote them in Gong Kai, and pasted them on the wall in order to give her a legal status.His two young masters are very naughty and dare not discipline them.Commissioner Qiu's knowledge enabled him to deal with Yuru without difficulty.He quoted the law of the Qing Dynasty, as long as children look sideways at him, they will be tied twenty times.In this way, the children became more and more mischievous, and wrote the slogan "Down with the committee member's father" with chalk everywhere.For this, Commissioner Qiu prepares a set of sticks, and often reads: "Look at the big punishment!" to demonstrate to his sons. Commissioner Qiu's spirit of knowing the law and loving the law won the admiration of the whole town.If someone wants to marry a concubine, he must first invite him to drink, and copy a copy of the concubine's law that he made himself, and post it outside the door, so as to obtain a legal basis.Some people's children are too naughty, and they will go to the committee member's house to get the Qing law, or even borrow his set of sticks to threaten the children. In this way, Commissioner Qiu became the most popular person in the town.If somebody didn't buy his shit, he'd cite a couple of laws and send that guy to jail.His legal knowledge and zeal for protecting the law made him an unpaid judge.His legal clauses and the solar terms in the constitution (according to: referring to the twenty-four sections in the almanac) have become indispensable things in Jinguang Town. Although Commissioner Qiu's prestige is so great, he also suffered a lot of grievances during the war of resistance.look!Committee Member Qiu's meals were cooked with cheap rice, and there was not a shred of pork in the meals every seven or eight days.Eggs are considered a luxury, only he himself eats two every morning, and the rest of the people can only look at the egg skins and swallow.When it comes to clothes, he always wears that gray cloth Chinese tunic suit in both winter and summer; if he didn't have the badge on his chest, he would most likely be regarded as a worker in the agency.This, he thought, was all due to our lack of perfect laws.If it is stipulated by law that committee members must receive five chickens, fifty catties of pork, three bolts of Sichuan silk, and a few pairs of leather shoes every month according to the seal, he will definitely not embarrass the country. What particularly distressed him was the lodging.We have already said: Jinguang Town was originally a small town, but it suddenly grew in size during the Anti-Japanese War.There are not enough houses in the town.According to Commissioner Qiu's wishes, no matter how poor the country is, no matter whether the soldiers on the front line have straw sandals or not, a huge sum of money should be allocated to build some decent small bungalows for the committee members, and no rent will be charged.However, the government did not do this, so he had to rent a house like everyone else. Based on his power and connections, he found two houses in a large courtyard with bamboo walls and thatched roofs. It is cold in winter and hot in summer. It will leak when it rains, and it will shake when it encounters wind.If there is injustice, there will be a cry, and the dignified committee members live in such a shabby room like a pigsty. After the committee member Qiu moved in, he yelled for three days.Shouting out his anger, he began to arrange everything in the room.He asked everyone to share one room so that the other could be used as a living room and study.He is a committee member and must receive guests, so he must have a living room.Then, outside the door of the guest room, he hung up a small wooden sign and wrote "Officer on Duty XX".The officers on duty are his two wives and two young masters.They take turns on duty, receiving letters, and delivering messages.Whenever a guest comes to visit, he will hide in the bedroom, and wait for the official on duty to bring in the business card, and then he will say "pass" or "please" loudly; out to meet guests.This is called "decency", and decency is the basis of the rule of law. He decided not to pay rent.He himself formulated several laws, the first one being: "Committees are not allowed to pay rent if they live in a miscellaneous courtyard." There are seven or eight families living in the courtyard, including small civil servants, small businessmen, and small hooligans—there are quite a few hooligans in our democratic world, and their democratic spirit is to oppress the good. As soon as Commissioner Qiu moved in, he became inseparable with the hooligans.He carefully found a legal basis for their actions.He also taught them not to pay rent, so that there would be a large number of people, so that the landlords would obey the majority.This is the spirit of democracy. The landlord runs a small cigarette shop in the town, and he is very honest.He has a slightly older wife, a thirteen-year-old boy, who is also very honest.They escaped from Hebei.Hebei was the first to be ravaged by the enemy, so they were the first to flee.At that time, Jinguang Town hadn't become popular yet, and the houses and land were very cheap, so they scraped together and opened a small shop, and bought such a crooked house.Jinguang Town developed slowly, his business was getting better day by day, and the house, even though it was so dilapidated, was worth money.This made Commissioner Qiu angry.He called the landlord a profiteer and insisted on denouncing him.The landlord is an honest person, but also considers that the tenant is a member of the committee, so he has to bow his head and swallow his anger, not daring to ask for rent.Even when the other tenants stopped paying the rent, he still didn't dare to speak out.In his heart, he thought that since the family of three could escape with their lives, and they were not hungry even thousands of miles away from home, he had to thank the heavens, and it was nothing to suffer a little. Committee Member Qiu understood what the landlord wanted, and immediately sent a hooligan: "Go and tell the landlord: The house must be renovated quickly, the bamboo strips should be replaced with whole bricks, and the land should be replaced with floors. I am a committee member and cannot live in a kennel! If He will be punished for harming my health because of living here! These are all based on the law! Besides, he should send two Huafu cigarettes every month. He makes money, so he should provide me with cigarettes. Besides, This is also clearly stated in the law book! If he does not agree, please tell him that the powerful people here are either my colleagues or my friends. Whether it is public opinion or private judgment, it is of no benefit to him. We are a democratic era , I can’t punish him without teaching, so please go and tell him first.” The landlord was notified and decided to sell the house, so as not to be angry all day long. Commissioner Qiu invited several "plain clothes".The so-called "plainclothes" people are not gendarmes, police officers, or secret agents, but a special kind of character in our small democratic world.They enforce those private laws on behalf of Commissioner Qiu and other powerful people. The landlord lives in a small cigarette shop, and only his wife and thirteen-year-old boy are left at home.The plainclothes beat the landlady—a man beating a woman is the most reasonable thing to do in our little democracy.They fought, and Commissioner Qiu roared angrily: "You bastard! Go and find out, how many committee members are there in the world! How dare you sell the house? Do you know the law or not? You bastard!" After beating the landlady, the plainclothes officers took his thirteen-year-old boy away. "Send him to be a strong man!" Commissioner Qiu shouted. "Bastard!" The landlord hurried back.He was an honest man, so he didn't dare to reason with the committee members, so he knelt down to the committee members as soon as he entered the door. "Do you know that I am a committee member?" Commissioner Qiu asked angrily. "I know!" The landlord replied with tears in his eyes. "What is a committee member? Say!" "The committee member is a high official! A high official who is older than the county magistrate!" "Do you still dare to sell the house?" "Damn the little one! Don't dare!" "Okay, send your wife to the hospital, and give me a share of the medical expenses. She only hurt a little skin, but I am heartbroken, and I need medical expenses too!" "Definitely send it! Qiu The committee members let my child go, he is only thirteen years old, not old enough to be a man!" the landlord begged bitterly. "You don't understand military service law, you bastard!" "I don't understand! I just ask the committee to forgive me!" "Take my film and lead him out!—Wait!" The landlord fell to his knees again. "From now on, you are not allowed to sell the house, you are not allowed to ask for rent, and you have to renovate the house and change the floor for me immediately!" "It must be done!" "You have to sign; empty words have no evidence, and words are evidence!" "I sign!" In this way, a dispute between the committee member and the landlord was resolved according to law.This can also prove that our Jinguang Town is indeed a democratic world. three In this little democratic world of ours, the situation is small, but the grandeur is great.As long as there is an opportunity, whether it is a family or an institution, it must always put on its greatest pomp and ostentation.Only in this way can this family or institution arouse the admiration of the whole town.The size of the style is the size of the power, and the most powerful is always the most reasonable.This is the unique spirit of our democratic world, and some people call it the quintessence of the country. The high-profile gentlemen and Baojia chiefs in our town often "do errands".There is no need to talk about weddings and funerals, even adding a doll, or getting engaged to a child, it must be earth-shattering.If unfortunately, they have no wedding or funeral, and no baby is born, they will also find the problem of holding a banquet.They celebrate birthdays to their parents and themselves.If the parents are dead, it will be Mingshou.If Mingshou is not enough, they will congratulate the little boy or girl on their fifth or tenth birthday. No matter what kind of thing you do, you have to pay attention to how many pigs, hundreds or thousands of chickens and ducks to kill, and how many scorpions to dry wine.The more chickens, ducks, pigs and sheep are killed, the more they seem to be able to invite the blessings of the heavens, and the days increase and the people live longer.If it has nothing to do with heaven, the competition between everyone may be one of the important reasons why the chickens and ducks are unlucky.If the Zhang family has fifty tables, the Li family must have more than fifty tables; even if there is only one more table, it is decent.Therefore, every business and banquet must be placed on the street. Firstly, there are too many guests for the family to accommodate, and secondly, it is also a demonstration to other houses.In this way, if one family does business, the town will have to cut off traffic.Our democratic spirit is to only care about our own momentum, regardless of the convenience of others.Therefore, according to the research results of scholars, this is the best kind of democratic spirit in the world, because it contains extremely high cultural factors.If there is a funeral, not only will the traffic be cut off, but the gongs and drums will be beating for three days and three nights, so loud that even the dead can't sleep, and the living have to stay up all night with them.In addition to gongs and drums, there are firecrackers.Although the power of firecrackers is far less than that of atomic bombs, it is very possible to frighten babies into convulsions. The problem is not only that simple.They talk about ostentation, but it hurts the poor.Whether it's the gentry's food or the affairs of the Baojia elders' family, if the poor don't give gifts, they will definitely offend the upper class; and if they offend the upper class, in this small democratic world, it is almost tantamount to self-destruction.The poor, no matter how difficult they were, were obliged to send presents or gifts of money.For them, this is not a gift, but a miscellaneous tax.However, they dare not refuse; this kind of exorbitant taxes is in the name of weddings and funerals, and there seems to be some human affection in it, and human affection seems to be connected with the spirit of democracy.The poor give gifts, and the rich receive gifts, so the rich don't lose money for setting up hundreds of wine tables—the purpose, it is said, is to make money—but the poor can't even wear a new blue cloth coat. The local gentry are like this, and the foreigners are not far behind.We have a lot of farewell and welcome parties in our town.In the democratic world of Britain and the United States, if a sheriff or postmaster goes to a small town or is transferred from a small town, they probably only care about receiving or explaining, and have nothing else to say.At the same time, the people in that town may not have the obligation to welcome and send them off.They do things well, as they should; they are paid, so they should work hard.If they can't do it well, they will be punished, and the people don't need to give them a bluff.This is not the case in our Jinguang Town, as long as a small official comes, the citizens of the town must welcome it, as if the officials who come to Jinguang Town are all great sages and sages.When they leave their posts, the citizens must go to see them off again, regardless of whether the resigned people have brought blessings to the local government or committed crimes.This is not only true for officials coming and going, but also for the bosses of any silver bank when they take office, because from the standards of Jinguang Town, the people who are buried in the pile of banknotes every day are as important as the officials.This again is the peculiar spirit of our democratic world, and perhaps the best spirit in the whole world. In this spirit, it is easy to imagine how our town treats a visitor who passes by by chance or on purpose.Ordinarily, there should be no fuss about a guest coming.If he passed by by chance, then let him go his way.If he came on purpose, for example, to investigate education, then just ask him to visit the school; if he is an inspector of the police headquarters, let him investigate police administration; what does it have to do with others? No, no, we in Jinguang Town have our own method in Jinguang Town.As long as he is a rich man, no matter what he is here for, we must welcome him with all the manpower and material resources of the whole town.It was very tense: the old slogans had to be torn off everywhere in the town, and the dirty ones had to be washed with water, and then pasted with new slogans on various colored papers.The streets of the whole town (perhaps not swept in over a month) must be swept clean at once.The wild dogs were no longer allowed to walk up and down the road, and they were all caught and put away.Children, even chickens and ducks, are not allowed to come out of the house.Sellers of peanuts and oranges are not allowed to set up stalls by the roadside.In the school, the ink spots on the desks had to be rubbed off with bricks and water, so that every elementary school student was covered in mud.After two or three days of tossing like this, the big shot arrived.Maybe there's something wrong with him, maybe there's nothing wrong with him.He may walk a few steps on the street, or he may run across in a car.He may notice the cleanliness of the street, or he may not notice it at all, but whatever he does, we have to know and keep busy.After we were all packed, we had to line up outside the street to meet him.Middle school students and primary school students, no matter how cold or hot the weather is, they have to stand outside the street early and wait.If he did not come by noon, the children had to stand until noon; if he did not come by noon, they had to stand until the afternoon.They're thirsty, hungry, cold or hot, it doesn't matter.They can't just leave the team to drink water or buy a biscuit to eat; good guy, if the nobleman arrives when the team is not neat, that's okay!The spirit of democracy in our town is to give 100 points to the nobles and 0 points to the students.As with children, so with us adults.We also had to be led by the Baojia chief to the station shift.Even if we don't have new blue cloth coats, we have to wash the old coats overnight to make them look smooth.We were not allowed to wear straw sandals, and we were not allowed to carry pipes.We were dizzy from the sun, and we still had to stand there. The students were late for a day or two of study, and we were exhausted. As a result, the nobleman either drove by or didn't come at all.Even so, none of us dare to complain. It is our unique spirit to sacrifice our lives to accompany a gentleman.This spirit makes us not afraid of cold, heat, hunger and thirst, but only "fear adults". (unfinished) Issues 1 to 5 of the first volume of "Minxin Bimonthly" from September to December 1945