The winter of 1946 was very cold, and it can be regarded as a "cold winter" worldwide.

Britain ushered in the worst snowfall in the 20th century, and the entire UK turned into a snow country, and even the British railways suffered large-scale interruption.

The situation in France is better, but snowfall is rare in many places, which makes it difficult for the French, who are accustomed to comfortable climates to adapt. The situation in Germany and Poland is relatively bad. These two countries have suffered serious damage in the war, and the current "cold winter" has made them even worse.

North America was also hit by severe cold, and the entire Canada was covered by snow. The lowest temperature in North America that has ever been hit by minus 63 degrees Celsius also occurred in this winter.

The cold winter is the natural enemy of many sports. The temperature below zero degrees Celsius and the snow-covered venues are all telling athletes to stay indoors honestly!

Due to the weather, the leagues of rugby and baseball had to postpone some games. Some fields had snow thickness that reached the knees, and the players could not run smoothly.

In the future, there will be many indoor football stadiums and baseball stadiums. Several newly built home stadiums in the NFL are indoors, but in the 1940s, the United States did not have such conditions. In extreme weather, outdoor games can only be suspended.

Basketball games are played indoors and the situation is better, but the Blizzard has affected traffic in the United States and has also made many fans give up their intention to watch the game on site.

The biggest beneficiary should be hockey, but unfortunately the hockey league NHL does not intend to expand their league.

During World War II, the NHL League was quite miserable, with only six teams left to support it, two Canadian teams and four American teams. This is the so-called Original Six. In more than 20 years, these six teams were the only teams in the NHL. It was not until 1967 that the NHL League ushered in a major expansion.

The slow expansion is also the main reason why the NHL was eventually defeated by the NBA. The NHL, founded in 1917, originally had a good hand that was no less than the NFL, but eventually became the last among the four major North American leagues.

TVs have gradually entered thousands of households, and TV programs are no longer just one channel. Many small broadcasters are also trying to set up TV stations. Behemoths like National Broadcasting Corporation are not satisfied with staying in New York, but have begun to set up TV stations in other big cities.

In the 1940s, there was no satellite transmission of TV signals. For TV stations, if they wanted to broadcast TV programs in different places, the best way was to build a TV station in other cities, specializing in building a TV signal tower, specializing in producing TV programs, and then divide it into different channels to play. This is like a broadcaster, which has many local stations, and local stations operate independently and do not interfere with each other.

This is obviously good news for the broadcast of basketball games. Local TV stations can broadcast basketball games in their own city, so the games of teams such as the Boston Celtics and the Washington Congress have also been brought to the TV screen.

Not long after Christmas, Chen Qiang received another invitation from the White House to attend the inauguration ceremony and celebration dinner of the new US Secretary of State.

The new secretary of state of the United States is George Cartlett Marshall, and it is precisely because of Marshall's coming to power to become the Secretary of State of the United States that the Marshall Plan to revive Europe.

The US Secretary of State is in charge of the US State Department, and the US State Department is the largest foreign affairs of the US government. However, the US State Department does not care about the US people's livelihood. They are mainly responsible for foreign affairs. Therefore, the US Secretary of State is equivalent to the US Foreign Secretary. In the news, the US Secretary of State often speaks to other countries, most of them are the US Secretary of State.

...

At the inauguration dinner of the Secretary of State, Chen Qiang came early. As soon as he walked into the banquet hall, he saw the future US President John Kennedy.

"John, oh, no, you should call Congressman Kennedy now!" Chen Qiang greeted Kennedy with a smile.

In last year's midterm election, Kennedy successfully ran for the House of Representatives. You should know that Kennedy was only 29 years old. He started his political career at the starting point of a member of Congress at such a young age. It is a bright future. However, compared with Marshall, the US Secretary of State, Kennedy's House of Representatives is much lower in importance. There is no special inauguration ceremony or large-scale inauguration dinner.

Kennedy, who had just become a member of the House of Representatives, began to chat with Chen Qiang with a proud expression.

"By the way, Chen, you are Chinese, so I have to remind you that if you have the opportunity to talk to Secretary Marshall, don't talk about your country. This is a topic that Marshall doesn't want to hear." Kennedy said.

"Why?" Chen Qiang asked with confusion. The Secretary of State is in charge of diplomacy. So isn't the matter about your country Marshall's business scope?

Kennedy lowered his voice and continued: "Secretary of State Marshall just experienced a failure in your country. Some time ago, he had been 'mediating' in your country, hoping to avoid the outbreak of the war, but failed. Although both the White House and members of Congress knew that the responsibility for the failure of mediation was not Marshall, mainly because the conflicts within your country could no longer be reconciled, Marshall still felt that this was a stain in his political career! Now Marshall has served as Secretary of State with stains, so naturally he does not want anyone to mention this matter."

"So that's it, thank you for reminding me." Chen Qiang nodded suddenly.

The United States had just signed a trade agreement with China and was planning to dump a large amount of goods into China. At this time, the United States certainly needed a peaceful and stable China so that American goods could be sold. So President Truman sent Marshall to China as the US envoy.

At the end of World War II, Marshall submitted his resignation to Truman and resigned from his post as Chief of Staff of the US General Staff. At that time, Truman held a farewell ceremony for him in the White House. After the ceremony, President Truman wished him a comfortable retirement life and personally promised: "General, you have done so much for the country. I will not disturb you again after you retire. You should have a good rest."

As a result, ten days later, Truman broke his promise. Truman also paid some price to invite Marshall out, such as the position of US Secretary of State and the future position of US Secretary of Defense, which is Truman's promise to Marshall.

The United States cannot find a more suitable envoy than Marshall. Eisenhower will replace Marshall as the chief of staff of the US military. MacArthur's arrogant personality is not suitable to be a "peacemaker". Truman's first term was not as good as a vice president, and the weight of others was slightly insufficient, so Marshall became the best candidate. Marshall once served as a military commander in the US Concession in Tianjin, which is also somewhat familiar with China. In addition, he is a five-star general in the United States, so it is most appropriate to do "mediation" in China.

Unfortunately, the "mediation" failed, so Marshall had no choice but to return to the United States and then take the position of Secretary of State. If he returns to victory and then becomes a new title, it would be like returning home in glory. Of course, people are happy when they are happy. But when Marshall returns to failure, he naturally feels a little uncomfortable when he becomes a new title. Perhaps others look at him a few more times, and he thinks this is a kind of ridicule. If anyone brings China to Marshall, it is more like exposing Marshall's scars!

A moment later, Ambassador Gu, who was in the United States, also appeared in the banquet hall. After seeing Chen Qiang, Ambassador Gu immediately pulled Chen Qiang to his side.

"Chen Qiang, are you familiar with Marshall?" Ambassador Gu asked.

Chen Qiang shook his head: "I'm not familiar at all, I haven't said a few words at all."

Ambassador Gu nodded in disappointment: "That's a pity. I originally hoped that you could give me a few good words in front of Marshall!"

"Do you have something to ask Marshall?" Chen Qiang asked.

I have sent an order from the United States to ask me to ask for some military aid from the Americans as much as possible, and it would be fine if it was a loan." Ambassador Gu said.

"Military aid is unlikely. Americans have just experienced a war and sacrificed millions of people. Now they don't want to get involved in the war again. There were several anti-war activities in New York a few days ago. Now Americans really don't want to get involved in the war anymore. From US President Truman to Congress, no one should support the United States being involved in the war again." Chen Qiang said.

"I also know what you said. It is unlikely to ask Americans to send troops! So I mainly hope that Americans can provide some weapons, ammunition and military training. If we are willing to provide loans, we can buy weapons." Ambassador Gu said.

"How much loan are you going to ask for?" Chen Qiang asked.

"Billion!" Ambassador Gu replied.

"Billion? US dollars?" Chen Qiang opened his mouth wide in surprise.

"Of course I have to borrow US dollars to borrow money from Americans. Could it be that I have to borrow fiat currency!" Ambassador Gu said.

"I said Ambassador Gu, you really think that Americans' money fell from the sky. Back then, I accompanied Mr. Hu Shi to Roosevelt to borrow money. If you borrow 20 million US dollars, you would have to get rid of your mouth. You are good, just one mouth means one billion US dollars! Do you think Americans are the suckers!" Chen Qiang said.

"I also know that this is a lion's big talk. Americans cannot really lend us one billion dollars, but there is a saying that asks for a price all over the place and repays the money. Let's shout out the price first, and the Americans can calculate as much as they can. And this money is used to buy weapons from Americans, and Americans will not suffer any losses." Ambassador Gu said.

"Ambassador Gu, you really shocked me. Your lion's mouth is too big! I really can't help you with this matter." Chen Qiang sighed lightly and continued, "But I also suggest that you don't talk about this matter with Marshall, at least not today."

"Why?" Ambassador Gu asked.

"It's not that Nanjing has offended Marshall. They traveled thousands of miles to 'mediary', but they returned in vain. You are the ambassador to the United States and the official representative. Now he definitely doesn't want to pay attention to you. I think you'd better not be troubled by this." Chen Qiang advised.

Ambassador Gu is an old diplomat after all, so without Chen Qiang's detailed explanation, he understood the reason immediately and knew that he could expose Marshall's scars at this time.

"Thank you for reminding me, if I have the opportunity to talk to Marshall later, I will only talk about the romance and not the state affairs." Ambassador Gu thanked.

Looking at Ambassador Gu's departure, Chen Qiang sighed helplessly.

During his tenure as ambassador to the United States, Ambassador Gu's main job was to seek assistance from Americans in a variety of ways. Moreover, Ambassador Gu asked for a large number of people every time, and they were all in "billions", which made him a very annoying person in Washington. It's normal to think about it. Some people wandered around in front of your house every few days and asked for money, even the two brothers would feel annoyed.

As for China's diplomatic strategy towards the United States, there is basically no Ambassador Gu. First, it is because Ambassador Gu has a Beiyang background, which makes him unable to enter the core of diplomatic decision-making; second, it is because of the existence of US Ambassador to China, so I can directly contact Stuart Stuart in China, so there is no need for Ambassador Gu to make efforts on the United States.

...

By 1947, the United States had a slight ease in its apartheid policy for African-American residents.

In February, an African-American journalist named Pasival Pradis was allowed to enter the news interview area of ​​the U.S. House of Representatives and Senators. He also became the first black journalist in the United States to enter the U.S. Congress to visit.

This incident has caused quite a lot of controversy in the United States. Some Americans affirmed the role of African Americans in World War II, believing that African Americans should be given more power, including the policy of abolishing apartheid; some people believe that African Americans should not be given more power, especially in the southern part of the United States, the reaction was the most intense.

In April, the MLB Major League Baseball welcomed its first African-American player, Jackie Robinson, who joined the Brooklyn Dodgers. He was also the first African-American to enter the four major sports leagues in North America.

Chen Qiang saw this news and an introduction about Jackie Robinson on sports news, and recalled that at the Berlin Olympics, he once faced an opponent named Mike Robinson, who was Jackie Robinson's brother.

"A black player has already entered the MLB major league, and our basketball seems to be one step late. Basketball is a very suitable sport for black athletes!"

Thinking of this, Chen Qiang picked up the phone and dialed Edward Ireland's phone number.

"Did there be any African-American players running in the NBA draft last year?" Chen Qiang asked.

"No." Edward Ireland said with certainty.

"Do you think there will be African-American players participating in our draft this year?" Chen Qiang continued.

Edward Ireland thought for a while and said, "I don't think there will be any. Basketball is a very test of mind and skills. Africans are just stronger. As for their mind and skills, they are probably not that good. Even if there are really African players who run for the election, they will not be selected."

What Edward Ireland said is exactly the general perception of black people in this era, that is, besides being physically strong, they are stupid and stupid in other aspects.

Chen Qiang said straight to the point: "Help me investigate whether there are any outstanding African-American players in the university."

—————
Chapter completed!