Travel through the Qing Dynasty and become emperor

Chapter 730 Olympic Spirit
The time came to June 1912, and the preparations for the Beijing Olympic Games were over. Berlin and Rome originally applied to host the 6th Olympic Games in 1912. Berlin was forced to withdraw its application due to lack of support, and the International Olympic Committee voted , the venue was chosen in Rome.Due to repeated earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, the Italian economy suffered huge losses. Therefore, Rome proposed that it was unable to build stadiums due to financial difficulties and announced that it would give up the right to host.Time is running out, and the Olympics cannot be postponed.In this case, the IOC had to turn to China for help.With the support of Guan Xuqing, China has very happily promised that the Olympic Games will be hosted by Beijing and will be held as scheduled.

After that, the Olympic Organizing Committee was established immediately under the leadership of the cabinet, and the Ministry of Finance allocated 5 million dragon coins for this purpose. This is an unimaginably huge amount of money in the history of the Olympic Games.Coubertin, who was in charge of the International Olympic Committee at the time, realized that he had made the right choice at the right time. At the same time, he also had a premonition that he would be immortalized as the most successful Beijing Olympic Games in history.

The Beijing Preparatory Committee spent more than a year building more than a dozen large stadiums in the suburbs outside Xizhimen, Beijing, the scale of which far exceeds that of the Chicago Olympics.The main stadium "Zunhuang" was designed and built by an Italian designer. The overall image looks like the crown of a Chinese emperor. The internal seats can accommodate 536 spectators. The cinder inner track in the stadium is 666 meters long and the asphalt outer track is long 100 meters, used for bicycle competitions, and the audience seats are built around the bicycle track and road.There is also a swimming pool of 15.24 by 1 meters in the center; fencing, gymnastics, wrestling and boxing competitions can be held in the field at the same time. It is a multi-functional sports field.Coubertin excitedly called this stadium "the first modern sports complex". It was larger than any stadium at that time, and it had complete and advanced facilities.Electric timers and terminal photography equipment were installed experimentally in the field, and the time is accurate to one tenth of a second.In the first four Olympic Games, all timing events were performed by manual chronographs, and because of the expensive equipment, only the top players were eligible to count the results, while the scores of the latter players were still timed by manual chronographs.This Olympic Games has solved the ranking problem by relying on the terminal photography equipment.However, this kind of advanced device still had great limitations at that time, because it was too expensive and difficult to popularize, so it was not used in the next few Olympic Games, and it was not used again until the 1932 Los Angeles Olympic Games. on the field.

It is worth mentioning that the funds for the Olympic Games were not raised by the empire, but by Guan Xuqing's initiative to issue five sports lotteries to enterprises and people across the country. , there is a word printed in the interlayer of each lottery ticket. If you can make up the six words "Long Live the Chinese Empire", you can get a bonus of up to 1 dragon coins. "Spirit" and other prizes of different amounts, the lottery has been issued, and was immediately snapped up by businesses and people from all over the country. Through the issuance of five lottery tickets, a total of 1 million dragon coins were raised, which is more than enough to hold a special sports event .

The opening date of the Olympic Games is approaching, and invitation letters from the empire have been sent out to the whole world. The heads of state and dignitaries of various countries have arrived in Beijing one after another by plane. Except for some important heads of state, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is responsible for the rest of the meetings. At that time, the flags of the five rings of the Olympic Games were flying everywhere in Beijing, and there was a festive and festive atmosphere everywhere.

It is a little surprising that the Imperial Foreign Office sent invitation letters to the six countries of Britain and France who participated in the Indian War out of diplomatic etiquette. Unexpectedly, the six countries sent powerful politicians and athletes to Beijing to attend the Olympic Games , especially this time King Edward VII of the United Kingdom brought Prime Minister Churchill and senior officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to visit, and President Charles de Gaulle of the Fifth French Republic brought Prime Minister Georges Pompidou and others to attend the Olympic Games. The heads of state also came in costumes.

The defeat of the Indian War caused Britain and France, which have always been close, to complain to each other about this matter. The noisy chickens flew up and down. De Gaulle blamed Churchill for being indecisive at the critical moment, and did not send the main British Royal Army to India in time. Churchill made tit-for-tat accusations De Gaulle trained a group of French rabble who would only be deserters on the battlefield.

The parliaments of Britain and France also fought a war of words. For a while, western Europe was made into a mess by them, full of shameful atmosphere of defeat.Churchill and de Gaulle were not stupid. Although the Indian war ended in failure, they were glad that the Chinese did not use this to spread the flames of war to Europe, or even to Britain and France. If that was the case, they had no confidence in defeating the powerful Chinese army.The war is over, and they also hope to turn over this unpleasant page as soon as possible, and hope to re-establish diplomatic relations with China. After all, in this world, no one can ignore the existence of China.

Fortunately, the Beijing Olympics gave them a chance to re-establish diplomatic relations with China. Therefore, under Churchill's initiative, the leaders of several countries decided to attend the Olympics together after consultation, and first give China enough face.

Guan Xuqing couldn't play this kind of diplomatic game anymore, so he personally held a grand welcome ceremony in the Old Summer Palace to welcome the leaders of the six countries.Churchill and de Gaulle were also veterans in the diplomatic arena. After seeing the Chinese emperor, they pretended nothing happened. They kept shaking hands and greeting the Chinese emperor. Of course, Guan Xuqing didn’t mention the Indian war at all. Regarding the matter, the banquet was photographed in the Zhengda Guangming Hall, and Churchill and de Gaulle were invited to the banquet in person. Naturally, they said some innocuous diplomatic rhetoric.

"We always put Sino-British relations at the top of our diplomatic relations, and hope to take this opportunity to strengthen foreign trade ties with China and expand our economic exchanges." Churchill took the lead in expressing his intention.

"Yes, the Sino-French relationship is paramount to France, and France and its people have been looking forward to the arrival of the Sino-French partnership." At the critical moment, Charles de Gaulle also did his part.

Guan Xuqing said with a smile: "China has always pursued an independent foreign policy of peace, and has always been committed to developing friendly relations with countries around the world. Britain and France, as two important powers in Europe, are naturally the focus of China's diplomatic relations. There is no doubt about this, just like the Olympic Games. As stated in the Charter, everyone should enjoy the possibility of playing sports without any form of discrimination and embody the Olympic spirit of mutual understanding, friendship, solidarity and fair competition. I also firmly believe in this , the purpose of holding this event is to strengthen ties with countries around the world and enhance friendly and united relations."

After this meeting, Churchill and de Gaulle were flattered to receive such gracious hospitality from the Chinese emperor, and their hearts were finally relieved a little, and the next step was to enjoy the sports held in China with a happy mood. It's a party.

But Guan Xuqing didn't take Britain and France seriously in his heart. After meeting Soviet leader Stalin and US acting president Eisenhower, he made an exception to meet a Jew from the Middle East, the leader of the Zionist movement, Gurion.

Before the meeting, Guan Xuqing took out Gulian's resume that Zhao Bingjun had secretly sorted out, and read it carefully.Gurian was born into a wealthy Jewish family in Plansk, Poland.In an atmosphere of strong Zionism, he began to study the Bible and Hebrew from an early age. At the age of 14, he organized the children around him to speak Hebrew. At the age of 17, he joined the Zionist political party Zion Workers Party and became a Zionist. At the age of 20, he came to Palestine, a territory of the Ottoman Turkish Empire at that time, the "Land of Israel" in his mind, determined to realize the ideal of Zionism by settling down.He firmly believed that the Hebrew labor on the Hebrew land was the only way for the Jewish nation to recover its rights.The harsh environment and arduous labor were a huge challenge for the frail Gurion."I spent more time with fever and starvation than I did working. Work, malaria and hunger were all new and interesting to me. After all, that's why I came to the Land of Israel," he said.

Guan Xuqing admired people with a strong will the most, which was one of the reasons why he decided to meet Gurion.After a while, Zhao Bingjun ushered in a foreigner from outside the hall. He was half a head taller than Zhao Bingjun. He was less than 40 years old and had a strong figure. He was wearing a white Jewish robe and looked very energetic.

"This is His Majesty the Emperor of the Chinese Empire!" Zhao Bingjun introduced, "Your Majesty, this is Mr. Gurion."

Gurion did not rush to salute the Chinese emperor, but stared at the legendary figure in this world with a pair of deep eyes, as if trying to see something in him.Guan Xuqing was also looking at the tall foreigner in front of him. In this foreigner, he seemed to see a shrewd idea, an unyielding belief, and a fighting spirit.

"My most respected Majesty the Great Emperor," Gulian said suddenly in fluent Chinese, "please allow me to convey the most sincere thanks to you from the Jews all over the world for your generous assistance, and please allow me to express my respect to you on behalf of the Zionist Congress. With your gratitude, allow me to express my personal love and admiration for you!"

Guan Xu smiled lightly and said: "Mr. Gurion, you don't have to be too polite. I believe that justice will always be on the side of the righteous. I respect your efforts for your dreams. I respect your efforts to build a world for thousands of years. Sweat, tears and blood shed for the integrity of the Jewish State. Mr. Gurion, let us sit down and talk."

(End of this chapter)