The Fourteenth Chapter: Family Banquet

  Due to the tight accommodation at the Whampoa Military Academy, Chiang Kai-shek did not settle his family within the academy but instead placed them in a two-story villa-style building on the west side of the Changzhou fortress, just 7 or 8 minutes' walk from the academy. The next day before lunch, Zhuang Jihua came to Chiang's home, and the female servant Wu Sao, who opened the door for him, was a local person whom Chiang had hired after settling his family here. When Wu Sao led Zhuang in, Chiang was reading the newspaper on a canvas recliner in front of the living room. Seeing Zhuang arrive, Chiang put down the newspaper and stood up. Zhuang hastily came forward to pay his respects. Chiang, who was not wearing his military uniform today but instead wore a long blue shirt, said as soon as he saw Zhuang: "You, Zhuang Wengui, have timed your visit accurately, arriving just in time for lunch. Come on in."

  Zhuang Jihua is intentionally like this, he's now somewhat disheartened, or perhaps it's because he can't find a solution and has lost heart. Chiang Kai-shek inviting him to dinner is for what reason, he's already guessed eight or nine out of ten, but he doesn't want to discuss this topic, even if the military school gives him a penalty, or even expels him, it doesn't matter, it's better to leave this den of controversy early.

  "The principal is busy with affairs and students dare not come to disturb him too early." ZHUANG Jihua's answer was grandiose.

  "Oh, you've thought of everything." Chiang Kai-shek made no comment and turned into the living room.

  The living room is simply and traditionally decorated with two rows of elm wood chairs, an intricately carved elm wood coffee table in between the chairs, but it looks a bit old.

  Chiang Kai-shek came in and didn't go to the upper seat, but sat down on the chair on the left, then pointed to the chair opposite him and said: "Sit."

  Zhuang Jihua didn't hesitate and agreed with a nod, then sat down.

  "You've been quite idle lately, while other comrades are fighting for the revolution, you're just watching from the sidelines. How does it feel?" Chiang Kai-shek's tone was tinged with a hint of teasing.

  "Reporting to the principal, students are ashamed, ashamed of the principal's teachings." Zhuang Jihua thought in his heart that you didn't let me live, but here you are pretending to be a good person, how...

  "Are you ashamed? I'm afraid not, but being dissatisfied is certain. You're thinking that it's not me who didn't do the job, but rather you didn't give me a job to do, right?" Chiang Kai-shek seemed to see through Zhuang Jihua's thoughts: "In the entire first class of Whampoa, only you haven't been assigned work. In a country that so desperately needs talent, you still haven't been assigned work. What does this show? It shows that you've made a big mistake. If you had only offended one side, it would be easy to say, but the result is that you've offended both sides. You wanted to walk in the middle, but ended up being like a mouse in a bellows. Is that right?"

  Zhuang Jihua had no choice but to admit that Chiang Kai-shek was right, and he also saw these things. But did Chiang Kai-shek find him just to say these things? Zhuang Jihua decided to wait and see.

  "The principal is right, students' ideas are still too naive." said Zhuang Jihua with a tone of "ashamed".

  "It's fine if you understand, even the big beards of the Soviet Union sometimes have to look at my face, and you go provoke them, it's natural to suffer a bit," Chiang Kai-shek said here, intentionally looking at Zhuang Jihua. Today, his strategy towards Zhuang Jihua was straightforward, with a hint of "openness". Seeing that Zhuang Jihua looked puzzled when he mentioned the Soviet Union, he felt somewhat satisfied in his heart, thinking that he still didn't know where the trouble came from. He continued to say: "You don't know, do you? Your article made Borodin extremely angry, so he gathered all the leaders of the Communist Party in Guangzhou to investigate the author, which led to what happened later."

  Zhuang Jihua was somewhat perplexed, as Borodin's reaction to his article was beyond his expectations. Originally, Zhuang had thought he understood the reasons behind the Communist Party of China's accusations against him. Historically, the CPC had always adopted leftist and even ultra-leftist methods, with Li Lisan and Wang Ming representing one peak, **representing another peak, until Deng Xiaoping came to power and the CPC's governance strategy returned to normal.

  However, today Chiang Kai-shek mentioned Borodin, which made him think of another possibility. Is the left and right behind the Communist Party of China being deliberately guided by the Comintern? Zhuang Jihua thought of this and couldn't help but ask: "Why?"

  Zhuang Jihua's reaction made Chiang Kai-shek somewhat satisfied: "Why? Your article must have touched the sore spot of the big beard, as for what it is I still don't know, but the ancients said that being concerned leads to chaos, since they had such a big reaction, there must be a reason."

  Chiang Kai-shek opened his mouth, and Zhuang Jihua knew that Chiang had misunderstood him. However, he decided to let it slide and see what Chiang would say next. Chiang's strategy today was not to use clichés; he believed that someone as "intelligent" as Zhuang couldn't be treated like Wang Boling. All Wang needed was a promise of an official position, and he would become extremely loyal. However, this approach wouldn't work on Zhuang Jihua. Look at how calm and collected Zhuang has been these past few days; if Chiang didn't take the initiative to find him, Zhuang might have continued to coast along like this indefinitely. With someone like Zhuang, you need to force him to make a choice, while also providing him with a practical path to follow, and simultaneously blocking off all other options. Fortunately, the Communist Party and the Rightists had helped Chiang by blocking off Zhuang's other paths, leaving him no choice but to follow the route that Chiang had laid out for him.

  The two were talking when Chen Jieru walked in from behind, Zhuang Jihua hastily stood up to greet her: "Hello, Teacher's wife." This wasn't his first time seeing Chen Jieru, but it was the first time he had been so close.

  "Sit down, sit down, don't be polite, this is your principal's home, which is also your home." Chen Jieru had a long fringe and wore a Chinese-style loose-sleeved dress that exposed half of her arm, with a short skirt and high-heeled shoes below. She was from Ningbo but grew up in Shanghai, having the unique flavor of a Shanghainese girl, which seemed to Zhuang Jihua as that kind of petty bourgeoisie taste.

  "Our guest has arrived, let's have dinner first, we can talk about anything after the meal." Chen Jieyu said softly to Chiang Kai-shek.

  "Hmm, let's eat first." Chiang Kai-shek stood up and walked straight to the dining hall. Zhuang Jihua let Chen Jieru walk ahead, while he followed behind.

  The dining hall is not large, with a round table in the middle. On it are six plates arranged in a plum blossom shape and a bowl. In the middle one there is a fish, others have stir-fried vegetables and meat, scrambled eggs and two ordinary vegetables, while the bowl contains fish head tofu soup. However, Zhuang Jihua noticed that there was no wine on the table.

  Chiang Kai-shek politely said, "Please sit down." Zhuang Jihua sat down and hastily said, "Principal, you sit, teacher's wife, you sit." Chen Jieru smiled and said, "Don't be polite, Wen Ge. I often hear the principal mention you, saying that you're bold and brave in battle, even the advisors praise you highly."

  "That's the principal overpraising." Zhuang Jihua's face turned red, he himself knew that the tactics he used that day came from his old predecessor, in another world his skin had been trained to be very thick (no way, work required it), after coming to this world the thickness of his skin increased even more, using a city wall as an analogy would probably not be far off, unexpectedly this young teacher's praise actually made him blush.

  "Try some of this, Chiang's favorite Huangpu egg. The food at your school is not good, eat a bit more today." Chen Jieru saw Zhuang Jihua devouring his food and happily added another piece of scrambled egg for him. Although Chiang Kai-shek was very fond of Chen Jieru, there were few women on Huangpu Island, and the families of military officers at the Whampoa Military Academy either left their families in their hometowns, like He Yingqin, Wang Boling, and Deng Yanda, or settled in Guangzhou City, like Liao Zhongkai. Only Chiang Kai-shek had his family on Huangpu Island. Chen Jieru had almost no social activities, and Chiang Kai-shek only accompanied her when he was free, but his free time was really too scarce. There were rarely any guests at home, and even fewer dinner parties. Today, Zhuang Jihua lacked the tense and restrained awareness, using Zhao Benshan's words, he "let go" and this kind of abandon fascinated Chen Jieru, and later also made Soong Mei-ling feel that he was different from others.

  "You don't know, their conditions are already very good. They have 8 yuan of food allowance every month, which is much better than soldiers. It's even better than when I was a soldier myself. When I was in Japan, each meal was just a small box of cold rice and two or three pieces of salted vegetables. There wasn't a single day when I had enough to eat." Chiang Kai-shek said.

  "Really? Weren't Japanese soldiers always hungry, how could they fight?" Chen Jieru was somewhat surprised, apparently she also just learned about Chiang Kai-shek's experiences studying in Japan for the first time.

  "Fighting depends on bravery and perseverance, that's why Chinese soldiers only care about military pay and food. The Japanese consider fighting for their country an honor, they don't care about these things. So I want to say that revolution first of all requires eating bitterness, not talking about conditions, but talking about spirit. Where does the spirit come from? It comes from ideology. Therefore, we must teach soldiers ideology, once they understand it, they will be brave and fight well." Chiang Kai-shek said.

  "The principal is right, if the students have the opportunity to lead the army, they will follow the principal's teachings." Zhuang Jihua naturally understood that Chiang Kai-shek was right, the Red Army and the Eighth Route Army were not easy to defeat, but the army did not collapse and continued to develop. However, he didn't understand why Chiang Kai-shek also knew this, which made a big difference from his previous reaction.

  "Leading troops is definitely an opportunity, don't be discouraged. Let's eat first and talk slowly later." Chiang Kai-shek ate quickly but emphasized not speaking while eating, rarely talking at the dinner table.

  While they were talking, Chiang Kai-shek had already finished eating and put down his bowl. Then, Zhuang Jihua made a big show of eating again. Chen Jiuru didn't eat much and put down her small bowl after finishing it, so the couple just watched Zhuang Jihua perform his gluttony.

  Under the gaze of two pairs of eyes, Zhuang Jihua's face was so thick that he couldn't bear to be embarrassed anymore, so he hastily finished the rice grains in his bowl, put down the bowl, and indicated that he had finished eating.

  "Have you eaten enough? Do you want another bowl?" Chen Jie asked with concern.

  "Thank you, Auntie, I'm full already." Zhuang Jihua thought to himself: You two are watching me eat, what a monster I am.

  "In the past, Kangxi evaluated the great Confucian Fang Bo saying he was broad-minded and robust, belonging to the kind of person who eats with an open belly and stands firm on his feet; during the Cultural Revolution, I think you had a bit of this spirit." After returning to the living room, Chiang Kai-shek seemed to still be savoring Zhuang Jihua's epicureanism.

  "Fang Guo?" Zhuang Jihua didn't know who Chiang Kai-shek was referring to.

  "Fang Bo was a talented scholar from Tongcheng, a famous Confucian in the Kangxi period who served as an imperial advisor despite being a commoner." Chiang Kai-shek saw that Zhuang Jihua didn't understand who Fang Bo was and gave him a brief introduction.

  "You grew up in the United States and don't understand Chinese history, so you wouldn't know, but Fang Bao is very famous. Zeng Guofan, the leader of the Xiang Army during the late Qing dynasty, established the Xiangxiang School based on his academic achievements." Chiang Kai-shek said this, and Zhuang Jihua became even more confused. He knew about Zeng Guofan, the leader of the Xiang Army who suppressed the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and he also knew about Li Hongzhang, who signed the Treaty of Shimonoseki, but what was this "Xiangxiang School" all about?

  Chiang Kai-shek looked at him and said, "It seems that you still need to learn more about Chinese culture. Although there are some bad things in Chinese culture, there are also good and excellent ones, especially the art of war. For example, Sun Tzu's Art of War and Zeng Guofan's Military Maxims, these two books you must read."

  Zhuang Jihua nodded in agreement: "The Art of War by Sun Tzu, I have already read it. The Records of Huhai's Military Exploits I haven't read yet. Since the principal has mentioned it, I will definitely find it and study it carefully when I get back."

  Chiang Kai-shek nodded and said, "That's good. People all think that Zeng Guofan and Hu Linyi are just literary figures, but they don't know that they have unique insights in military affairs. General Cai E compiled the writings of these two on military strategy, which resulted in this book. Later, when General Cai was training troops in Yunnan and fighting against Yuan Shikai's forces, he relied on this book. I'll give you a set later."

  Zhuang Jihua finally understood that General Songpo was Cai E, and the "Hu's Treatise on Military Strategy" was compiled by him. He had thought it was written by Chiang Kai-shek. Chiang Kai-shek came out of his study with a set of books in hand and handed them to Zhuang Jihua, saying: "I have recently studied these military strategies and added a new chapter called 'Cultivating the Mind', which specifically discusses how to cultivate soldiers' fighting spirit. Take it back and take a look."

  Zhuang Jihua took over loudly and said: "Yes, students will definitely not disappoint the principal's teachings."

  He thought that was the end of it and he could go back, but Chiang Kai-shek pointed to the chair behind him and said: "Sit down, as the old saying goes, the master leads you in the door, but cultivation depends on each individual; from now on, I'll see how you apply what you've learned at military school on the battlefield."

  Then Chiang Kai-shek turned the topic to Zhuang Jihua's current situation.