"The sky is clear and the air is clear. Phew...it feels so good to be free!"
In the morning, at the gate of Qixia Prison, Zhou Changfeng, who had a relaxed face, couldn't help but sigh.
"You'll be happy if you fight for the freedom of others but end up losing your own freedom." Xia Xiaoshi, who came to pick him up, complained.
Zhou Changfeng was in prison before, and it would have been too embarrassing to say such words during a visit, but now that he is out, he no longer has such worries.
"I'm very satisfied. I have to be punished both in terms of reason and law." Zhou Changfeng shrugged and said nonchalantly: "Besides, the last few days have been quite boring. Before, I always felt as leisurely as if I were on vacation."
"Tough talk!" Xia Xiaoshi, who was wearing a light blue shirt and skirt, shook her sleeves and curled her lips and said, "If I meet such a student at school, I usually greet them with a ruler."
"Oh, then you can whip me with a ruler from now on." Zhou Changfeng looked unconcerned.
Xia Xiaoshi:? ? ?
This is the first day back to normal life, so there must be a small celebration.
With whom? Of course it's with my fiancée. Anyway, it's been so long since I've been back to the 1st Marine Regiment. It won't matter if I'm late for a day longer.
Even though Qixia Mountain is a famous scenic spot, it is located in a remote place, so the two waited for a long time before boarding the bus.
While in the car, looking at Xia Xiaoshi's profile beside him, Zhou Changfeng's thoughts were suddenly pulled away, and he immediately thought of marriage.
I never thought I could get a reduced sentence and be released from prison early, but things are different now. I might as well settle the matter early!
The bus arrived at the terminal at Tongjimen. We have entered the urban area here, but how can Beicheng District be compared with the prosperous Nancheng District?
While waiting for the train to transfer, Zhou Zhangfeng, who had organized his speech, asked coldly: "I've thought about it. Let's get married in the twelfth month of this year or the first month of next year. I'll pick a good day then."
"Ah?" The surprise came too quickly and unexpectedly. Xia Xiaoshi was stunned for a few seconds, then blinked and nodded shyly in agreement.
"Everyone takes a break before and after the New Year, so it's relatively free. Otherwise, if it were normal times, you would have to take time off if you wanted to attend the wedding."
"Yeah, that makes sense."
About half an hour later, the bus stopped steadily at Taiping Road in Nancheng District.
The streets and alleys on both sides of the Qinhuai River have been extremely prosperous since ancient times, and they are still the same today. Nancheng District is the largest financial and commercial area in the capital of the Ming Dynasty.
The most eye-catching thing here are several skyscrapers. As long as you raise your head slightly, you can see one skyscraper under construction and one that has been completed.
They are the product of following the trend of skyscrapers around the world in the past ten years. The two that have been built are 303m and 320m high respectively, while the one under construction was originally planned to reach an unprecedented 400m, but was cut to 385m due to technical limitations.
Today, the world's largest building is the Empire State Building in New York, which is 381 meters tall. Today, Xinjianbo is ambitious and hopes to win this crown.
The name of this skyscraper under construction is also simple and direct, it is called "Da Ming Building". It is 80% invested by Yang Ming Group, and the remaining 20% is invested by Xin Xinbo, who has a sharp tongue from the Department of Commerce of the Ministry of Industry. That's coming.
Yangming Group is one of the largest industrial companies in Ming Dynasty today, with a distinctive feature - focusing on people's livelihood matters.
It is mainly engaged in light industry, import and export trade, scientific and technological research, including textiles, paper, food, home appliances, hardware, etc.; heavy industry is currently limited to cement, fertilizers, and pesticides.
The predecessor of this group was the "Xinjian Ash Factory" decades ago. The ash factory is a cement factory. It was established by the previous generation of Xinjian Bo. After that, it snowballed and grew bigger, involving more and more manufacturing industries. Changed its name to "Yangming Group".
This is typical bureaucratic capital, or... state capital.
In fact, these two are not rigorous economic concepts, but generally refer to business models that rely on power and nepotism.
One neutral and one derogatory. When a business group can still represent and safeguard the interests of its own citizens, it can be called national capital; otherwise, it is called bureaucratic capital.
It is said that it is a woman's nature to love shopping, and Xia Xiaoshi fully conforms to this point.
What frightened Zhou Changfeng was that she could still have a lot of energy left after shopping for most of the day, as if she automatically obtained a buff that reduced physical consumption by 90% while shopping.
In a large department store with three floors, Xia Xiaoshi, who never tired of it, was full of interest in every store, thinking about the appearance and cost-effectiveness of various furniture while shopping.
"This gramophone is so nice, tsk... it's twenty-nine yuan. Hey, the main thing is that the record costs extra."
"Miss, if you buy more records, the price will be reduced. Ten copies will be discounted by 10%, and twenty records will be discounted by 15%."
Zhou Changfeng, who was standing at the door of the store, glanced at it. It was an upright phonograph made of ebony wood engraved with clouds, thunder patterns and phoenix patterns. The upper part was a phonograph, and the lower part was a cabinet for storing records.
Oh, it does have a petty bourgeois sentiment.
He couldn't help but joked, "Exquisite life, you are quite good at living it."
Xia Xiaoshi heard this and asked, "Sir, do you think it's too expensive?"
"No, I just said it casually."
"My father has taught me since I was a child that you should live a certain life according to your status. It is your duty to be safe. It is inappropriate to pretend to be poor and complain, or to pretend to be fat."
Zhou Changfeng: "..."
She asked seriously: "My salary is not high, sir, don't you agree?"
Under Xia Xiaoshi's retort, Zhou Changfeng was really unable to argue and could only laugh about it.
Hey, I have a wife who is very articulate, and my life after marriage may not be good...
He walked outside the store and reached the corner of this floor.
Because this shopping mall is built on the Y-shaped fork in the road, its plane shape is approximately like an isosceles triangle, and where Zhou Changfeng walks is at the sharp corner.
The windows here are very tall, and the view outside is also excellent. You can have a panoramic view of the entire busy street intersection.
He looked up and down, left and right, and said to himself: "It's a good place... What a pity."
"Since it's a good place, what's the point of regretting it?" Xia Xiaoshi's voice suddenly came from behind.
Zhou Changfeng said "Oh", pointed down casually, and replied: "The view here is very good. If we place a heavy machine gun here and on the third floor of the restaurant diagonally opposite, we can effectively block the entire street."
? ? ?
Ridiculous, this guy has never been ignorant of amorous feelings before. Is he deliberately joking this time?
Xia Xiaoshi, who didn't understand why, subconsciously asked, "What's the pity about that?"
"Because this building is a brick-concrete structure, not a frame structure, it is not suitable as a solid support point."
"Why? Aren't they all reinforced concrete?"
"The outer wall of the brick-concrete structure must also bear force. If it is damaged, the integrity will be lost. In actual combat, half of it may collapse after a few shells." Zhou Changfeng turned around and raised his hand to point to a longitudinal beam above. "But the frame structure only uses beams and columns to bear the load, and the outer walls only play a protective role. It will be fine if they are completely demolished."
Xia Xiaoshi didn't know how serious it was - she didn't understand it, but she thought it made sense.
"Awesome, sir, how do you even know this?"
Seeing her starry-eyed expression, Zhou Changfeng coughed dryly and said: "It's not worth mentioning, it's just the basic training of a qualified officer."
"Well, let's go. This is the capital, and no one can get in."
"It's not the same thing."
Although they were released from prison early in the morning, it took too long to get from Qixia Mountain to Nancheng District, so it was already noon before the two of them had wandered for long.
While the two of them were aimlessly looking for a favorite restaurant on the street, cabinet ministers and senior generals who came from all over the capital and even other places were entering the Wenhua Palace one after another.
After stopping for a while in the rest room, they were led to the largest meeting room No. 1.
The large and generous table is two meters wide and long enough to accommodate ten chairs facing each other. Teacups and sealed documents are now neatly placed in front of each position on it.
Under the arrangements of the attendants, all the big shots took their seats one after another.
Looking at the document in front of him that was sealed by kraft paper with the word "Top Secret" printed in red, someone turned his head and asked, "Can I open it now?"
"As you please."
Amidst the "hissing" sounds one after another, the documents were opened one after another, and the inquiring eyes quickly scanned the words above.
At this time, Lin Xi and a skinny middle-aged man who looked energetic stepped over the threshold and walked in.
Seeing this, more than a dozen people in the meeting hall all looked over in unison.
Someone said happily: "I haven't seen Duke Wei for two months since the middle of the year. How is your health lately?"
Finance Cabinet Minister Li Guangyuan smiled and said: "Look at his face, isn't it clear? I just gave him many boxes of old wild ginseng that has been around for decades, so it's naturally very good."
As the current top leader of the Metropolitan Governor's Office, Duke Wu Weihuan of the State of Wei also serves as the commander of the garrison commander's department, but the latter is actually only in name.
Hearing this, he couldn't help but smile and said: "You Li Mingyin, how can you eat those old ginseng you gave me?"
Make up for whatever is lacking. Mistaken supplements will lead to trouble, especially ginseng, which is a great tonic.
At the beginning of this year, due to a sudden attack of acute pancreatitis, Wu Weihuan was on the verge of death. Fortunately, he was finally snatched back and has been recuperating for half a year.
With the arrival of two key figures, the meeting began.
After browsing the documents in hand, everyone present quickly understood the purpose - oh ho? Is the emperor really plotting against Japan?
Lin Xi glanced around and slowly introduced: "Have you all seen it? This 'A-character/407/1/Change-5' plan can be traced back to the sixth year of Zhichang, and it has been successively launched to this day. It has been revised five times.”
Foreign Affairs Minister Yu Shenhua said with some surprise: "You are already making up your mind so early?"
"Actually, there was a strategy for conquering Japan two hundred years ago." Lin Xi smiled and replied matter-of-factly: "Basic preparations are necessary. This is just one of more than a hundred war plans. It is also a strategy. The Japanese country has several plans to deal with different situations.”
The Ming army was also very standardized in the numbering of war plans - "A" means that it is an offensive plan; "407" is a number with no actual meaning; "No. 1" refers to one of the situations; "Gai Wu" is as the name suggests. This is the first revision.
Number 1 represents the situation of war without foreign intervention. In addition, number 2 considers British intervention, number 3 considers American intervention, and so on.
"The conquest of the Japanese country has been brought up every now and then. Is the Emperor interested this time?" Someone smiled with interest.
"Of course it has nothing to do with preference, it's just that I think the time is right." Prime Minister Zou Zhuoyun, who had been silent from the beginning until now, picked up the tea cup and took a sip, and said calmly: "Let's talk about it first."
The conference hall was so quiet that only the sound of breathing and the clinking of teacups and cup lids were heard. More than a dozen cabinet ministers and senior generals were brainstorming.
Suddenly, an army lieutenant general broke the silence.
"The first wave deployed four army divisions and two air force detachments to Shikoku Island, and the second wave deployed three divisions and two air force detachments to the Yamaguchi area in the western part of Honshu Island... With all due respect, this is like adding fuel one by one. I think it's too dull and lacks the sharpness to defeat the enemy with one move."
"It's an exaggeration. I can only say that this plan is relatively safe." Another lieutenant general retorted: "The idea of defeating the enemy with one move is empty. Although the Japanese vassals are now independent, the Japanese king's jurisdiction is limited, and there is no one to give orders to all parties. , but it is unrealistic to expect that after defeating a few vassal towns, the other vassal towns will just surrender obediently."
"Military-wise, I don't think there's anything worth worrying about. It's a small area, and it has separate vassal towns. There's no difficulty at all." Yu Shenhua pondered, "The key point still lies in the response of Britain and the United States."
"The situation in Europe is also not optimistic. The British will only intervene if they are mad. It is obvious that they will only protest verbally."
"I agree. So, it's probably the United States that has more to worry about."
"The United States also has no possibility of interfering. To put it bluntly, it is calculated mentally but not unintentionally. By the time they finish it, the sun and moon flags will have been planted all over the Japanese islands."
The generals all had similar opinions. Naturally, they were unwilling to miss the opportunity to make achievements.
Seeing that they had the same view, Li Guangyuan said: "What we need to consider more is the import and export trade. The conquest of Japan is too tough. Britain and the Netherlands are likely to counterattack economically, and the United States will counterattack. is the next most likely."
"This view is too pessimistic and inappropriate." Lin Xi shook his head slightly, "The British politicians are also shrewd. We can try to ventilate this matter in advance to temporarily maintain and protect their existing interests in Japan. Negotiate terms. Well, it’s not shabby.”
"Xiangguo, what do you think?" Yu Shenhua looked at Zou Zhuoyun who was in the upper seat.
The latter with a calm expression replied:
"We might as well think about it from their perspective. For Britain, the United States, and the Netherlands, the resource-rich Nanyang Islands are of sufficient value to be defended. First, they can seize resources, and second, they can serve as forward positions."
"As for the Japanese country far away, it is barren and has almost no resources. Today, it is a waste of food and food. If the Ming Dynasty can allow them to withdraw honorably, I think the British will seriously consider it."
"This is one thing. The other thing is that using it as a delaying strategy can be said to be beneficial and harmless, and the cost is very small. Now that the situation is getting increasingly anxious, the British will inevitably be tempted to sign a contract to ensure that they will complement each other. Well, I have also discussed this with His Majesty. He thinks that in two years It’s worth a try.”
After a brief silence, there was a burst of approval in the chamber.
Li Guangyuan nodded thoughtfully and said: "In this case, it's better to do it as early as possible. Negotiations are time-consuming, so we shouldn't delay."
(End of chapter)
