"It's a good thing to stay out for an extra day. People who have never been out want to go in again."
"Hey, but this..."
"Is there any reason to stand idly by? Do you and I have other tasks now? No. Moreover, the tracks are deformed and the train cannot move."
"But it's too dangerous, and there will be a plague."
"Don't make excuses. Ming Dynasty now has sulfa drugs, so we are not afraid of bacterial infection. Come on, let's set off quickly."
Zhou Changfeng was naturally unwilling to leave just now, so Luo Fu seemed to be in a dilemma, because one of his accompanying tasks was to keep an eye on this guy so that he wouldn't do something outrageous again.
Apart from the responsibilities of emergency rescue and disaster relief, it is a waste of money for Zhou Changfeng to participate in earthquake relief now.
What is "execution outside prison"? Days spent outside prison are also counted within the term of imprisonment. One more day spent outside will mean one less day spent in prison when you return.
However, after hesitating, Luo Fu chose to refuse in his heart, but he had no objection on the surface.
After the two simply packed up, they left the inn and came to the street. The citizens looked on in fear and gathered on the roadside, not daring to go back to their houses.
When passing several patrol policemen, Luo Fu suddenly grabbed Zhou Changfeng's arm and shouted: "You guys, come here and help! Take out the handcuffs!"
Ten seconds later.
Zhou Changfeng, who was speechless, stared at Luo Fu beside him, "Hey, you guy, you are trying to mess with me, right?"
The latter cupped his hands and said, "If you offend Brother Zhou, I will also be blamed if you run around."
Zhou Changfeng took a deep breath, lowered his voice and said, "Okay, you go call the princess now and ask for instructions!"
"Your Highness will not agree."
"That's not necessarily the case, just go ahead."
In order to make Zhou Changfeng give up, Luo Fu agreed.
Accompanied by a patrol officer, they returned to the patrol department police station here.
The call Luo Fu made went through many layers of transfers, and it took dozens of seconds before he was connected. He explained the current situation and Zhou's intentions, and then heard Su Yiyi on the other end of the phone asking Zhu Lingjing.
For a moment, he turned to look at Zhou Changfeng who was a few steps away with a strange expression, and said with some trepidation: "Brother Zhou, what His Highness means is that unless you agree to change it to temporary parole, it won't work."
Parole refers to being released before the sentence is completed due to special circumstances, but there is a certain trial period. As long as no new crimes are committed, the sentence will be judged to have been completed, otherwise the new and old sentences will be punished together.
This is a typical Western legal concept, which originated from the maritime law system, was later cited by the civil law system, and has now been absorbed into the Chinese legal system after major reforms.
In the military law of the Ming Dynasty, parolees can regain their original reserve military rank during the probation period, and return to official rank at the end of the probation period.
However, it is obvious that Zhou Changfeng does not meet the conditions for parole now. After this period of time, he will have to go back to prison for a while. Temporary parole may seem like taking off his pants and farting, but he can legitimately and legally hold a military rank during this period.
"Okay, I agree." He agreed without hesitation.
What else do you care about? It would be great to be able to go, and I would also have the rank of reserve lieutenant colonel again, which is a dream.
The two of them stayed here for a while, and later, a call came from the Ministry of War and Navy Department, announcing temporary parole.
"...Hey, wait a minute, reserve military ranks are also divided into branches. I should still use the original ones now?" Zhou Changfeng asked.
There was a bit of noise on the other end of the phone, and then someone changed, and Xu Zhanming's voice came out, "No, change to the military police. Isn't it a good thing for you kid? You are allowed to do business this time. Remember, you are not allowed to show off, but you can't do it either. Keep a low profile, this is considered to represent the navy, are you clear?"
At this moment, Zhou Changfeng was filled with emotion, stood up straight and said seriously: "Don't worry, I promise to fulfill my duties!"
In a disaster area that is almost equal to military control, the power of a military police lieutenant colonel is unimaginable, and it will not be greatly reduced now even because of the addition of the word "preparation".
Since ancient times, China has always dispatched officials more than their duties. In the Ming Dynasty, it was even more serious. The seventh-grade censor can make the fourth-grade prefects tremble with fear, just because they have extra powers temporarily.
The embarrassed Luo Fuqian smiled and said: "Brother Zhou, you...don't blame me, I'm in a dilemma too."
Zhou Changfeng rolled his eyes, then stretched out his hands and asked the patrolman beside him to use the key to unlock the handcuffs. Then he smoothed his clothes and said casually: "That won't work. I hold grudges very much. From now on, you will go to the Marine Corps honestly." Ha...Okay, let's go now."
The two went straight to the station and took a bus to the military camp in the suburbs.
The brigade headquarters of the Army's Third Siege Artillery Brigade is located in Yanzhou Prefecture. When they arrived, the place had already entered a state of combat readiness, but it was only the lowest level D.
They came here mainly to catch a ride, but the adjutant on duty told them that they had not received orders to participate in the rescue of the disaster area and had no right to make their own decisions now. Moreover, the brigade commander was recovering from illness a few days ago.
"...The 35th, 31st, and 40th Divisions in Jinan, Daming, and Kaifeng have already been ordered, but we are still on standby."
"I understand, but should I borrow a car from you, right? I am now ordered to directly coordinate the navy's operations."
What Zhou Changfeng said was unconvincing, and the officers at the brigade headquarters were doubtful.
They did not listen to Luo Fu's testimony, but reported directly to the Ministry of War. After confirmation, they finally believed that these two men were telling the truth.
Fortunately, the siege artillery brigade is a unit directly under the Metropolitan Government, otherwise we would have to ask people one level at a time, even if it would take until tomorrow.
As the only three combat units in the country, the siege artillery brigade is equipped with all precious gadgets - 192mm heavy field guns, 320mm heavy mortars, and their dedicated crawler tractors.
The 320mm mortar can launch a 430kg concrete-destroying projectile 12km away. The shell of this projectile is made of expensive nickel-vanadium-manganese alloy steel, and the warhead is an equally expensive tungsten-nickel-chromium alloy, which can penetrate three meters thick reinforced concrete.
Just imagining the sight of this thing firing and nearly half a ton of shells hitting the enemy's head is very satisfying.
Zhou Changfeng originally wanted to borrow an ordinary Thunder 16 off-road vehicle, but he caught a glimpse of several big ones he had never seen before in the garage.
Although it is also a four-wheel off-road vehicle, it is more than a circle larger.
Seeing his eyes shining, Luo Fu explained helplessly: "It is also produced by Swift Company. This is Type 18. It is a heavy-duty off-road vehicle, but it is too expensive. Only the Army bought a hundred of them last year..."
The same tough and angular appearance has been enlarged in size, the total weight has increased from 1220kg to 1600kg in Type 16, and the power has been changed from 45 hp to a 65 hp six-cylinder gasoline engine.
"That's it." Zhou Changfeng took a look at this wild and heavy-duty off-road vehicle and waved, "Move a motorcycle and put it on the back seat, then fill it with medicine and food."
According to the current information, we know how bad the previous earthquake was. The purpose of bringing a motorcycle is to cope with the harsh conditions where even off-road vehicles cannot drive in.
Several soldiers worked together to load a two-wheeled scooter and then began to load various supplies.
During this period, Zhou Changfeng asked the gendarmerie officer of the 3rd Brigade for his spare shoulder and collar badges, and then asked a tailor to change the outer frame from blue to red to represent the school officer, and add a triangle to represent the reserve; if it was a reserve Served, it is round.
At noon that day, the off-road vehicle with its awning unfolded sped out of the military camp, splashing muddy water several meters away on the ground, and then disappeared into the gray rain.
For Zhu Lingjing, she was very busy right now and had no time to care about Zhou Changfeng, who was thousands of miles away. Besides, at least this time he knew how to ask for instructions openly.
These days, people have been showing their goodwill and joining the gang. She was busy considering and selecting, but she didn't know that such a serious natural disaster would suddenly occur.
So now we have to make a fuss about it. Being involved in politics means that many times we cannot act according to our own wishes and preferences.
Although Zhu Lingjing felt that rushing to the disaster area at this moment was tantamount to a shameful show, she also knew that at the same time, many politicians belonging to different parties and factions across the country were rushing to the disaster area.
Whether it's sincere or just a show, if they go and you don't go, then the limelight will be taken by others.
Nowadays, the political power between the Ming Dynasty and the opposition should not be imbalanced. This sudden change is the time to test all parties.
She immediately asked people to prepare a large donation, and organized public donations while promoting it, while she made several phone calls to several people, including the crown prince, to express her anger.
In the evening of the same day, she took a flight directly to Yanzhou Prefecture. Zhu Lingjing, who had a psychological shadow about flying, finally tried her best this time.
The Crown Prince, who answered the phone despite his busy schedule, expressed his support and continued to coordinate the overall situation.
Although disaster relief matters are carried out step by step based on past experience, and these details are handled by the cabinet and other government agencies, some key decisions cannot be made without someone's decision.
Since this month, the emperor has given up most of his power to the crown prince because he is recuperating. Although he did not explicitly say that he was allowed to "supervise the country", the civil and military officials all knew it.
"Your Highness, it is reported that Pratt & Whitney also agreed, but their asking price... is relatively high."
"Be steady, don't show any impatience, make a decision when the opportunity is right, and don't worry about how much money you have."
"yes."
"Okay, have you contacted Caozhou now?"
"not yet."
At the beginning of the year, Zhu Lichi's random trap successfully deceived the Americans. They mistakenly believed that the Germans had secretly transferred high-horsepower radial engine technology to the Ming Dynasty, and the Ming Dynasty had experimentally produced a bomber equipped with a 1,300-horsepower engine.
Therefore, while Americans complained vigorously, they relaxed controls.
Pratt & Whitney and Wright do not want to miss this opportunity to make money. In the past, even if they wanted to sell technology or license production, the federal government would not agree to it, but that is different now.
Since Wright Company had spent a huge amount of money developing the R-2600 engine in the past few years, it wanted to sell the production technology of the R-1820 engine to make money to replenish its blood, so it took the initiative to find the space established under Zhu Lizheng's instructions. Shell company.
Americans are eager to sell, because the later they sell, the lower the price; Mingren are eager to want it in their hearts, but they pretend to be reserved on the surface.
Just yesterday, after a series of negotiations, the production license for the Wright R-1820-25 "Tornado" engine was finally settled. Wright will provide nearly 100,000 pages of copies of technical drawings, parts that can assemble 100 units, and a Production guidance engineer team.
However, extreme joy brings sorrow. Before people had time to celebrate, a natural disaster suddenly occurred today.
After half a day of failed attempts, it was not until the early morning of the next day that a Type 30 small liaison aircraft dispatched by the Air Force barely landed, at the cost of a broken landing gear and deformed propeller.
But this finally allowed several officers and soldiers with radios to land successfully, and sent back a more detailed description than aerial reconnaissance - "...continuous rain, puddles everywhere, the fields are like the country of Ruoze, and the affected people are sleeping on the streets and On the ridges of the fields, tents were built to shelter from the rain. Countless people were killed and injured, and the situation was extremely miserable... There were many cracks in the land, ranging from a few inches to a few feet. The well water turned black and green and was not drinkable..."
The official radio station of the Ming Dynasty also reported in a timely manner after hastily organizing speeches: "... On the first day of August, a major earthquake occurred in Caozhou, and there was no news. Today we only know the outline. At the fifth hour of Yinshi, the earthquake was violent, extremely bumpy, and there was wind and rain. , all the houses across the state have collapsed, official roads and transportation have been completely destroyed, the old, the weak, women and children are huddled among the ruins, there are countless casualties, the officials and the people are trying their best to rescue..."
When news about the disaster area was being reported by radio stations and newspapers, Zhou Changfeng and Luo Fu finally arrived in Caozhou.
It took more than ten hours to drive on a short three-hundred-mile road. Because the road was so damaged, we had to drive through rugged wilderness most of the time. Moreover, the closer we got to the epicenter, the more damaged the road became. In the end, it was completely damaged. It no longer exists.
"It's really scary. The road conditions are like this. The subsequent relief teams may not be able to get in for a while." A worried Luo Fu said.
If a powerful heavy-duty off-road vehicle is so strenuous, how can a truck loaded with cargo be able to drive in?
"There will definitely be a way, at least airdropping supplies." Zhou Changfeng, looking straight ahead, sighed, "In short, we'll do our best."
When we passed through Juye County before, the devastated scene was shocking enough. We can only imagine what the situation will be like in Caozhou when we are about to arrive.
Caozhou is Heze. Historically, it has been the most severely affected city. More than 3,000 people died, more than 12,000 people were injured, and 320,000 houses collapsed.
Although Caozhou in the Ming Dynasty is just an ordinary inland city, its economic level is much higher than in history.
More multi-story buildings, more and more concentrated populations... the situation will only get worse.
The villages and towns along the way are also in dilapidated condition, and there are homeless people everywhere. Zhou Changfeng and Luo Fu's current destination is Zhouya, and they really shouldn't be distracted by their rescue.
Just as the off-road vehicle bumped past the half-collapsed ancient city wall, suddenly, a gunshot came from the gloomy drizzle.
Immediately afterwards, there were several more "bang bang bangs".
"Get your gun ready!" Zhou Changfeng sighed inwardly. As expected, there are always people who like to take advantage of others.
Buy for zero yuan? Never condone it!
(End of chapter)
