The signature and content of the letter are very ordinary. It looks like a greeting written by a good friend, but in fact it has a completely different meaning.
Simply put, it’s a reminder—your vacation is almost over, so don’t forget to report on time.
The holiday ends tomorrow. It must be reported on February 1st that although Gotha is only a small city in Thuringia, thanks to Germany's well-constructed railway network, Chris is not worried at all about being late.
But the three-month vacation made her tired of such boring leisure time, and this letter immediately touched her heart.
She feels that the joy of performing a task is unmatched by anything. The tension and excitement, as well as the sense of unknown that unexpected situations may happen at any time, are really intoxicating and memorable.
Even if there is no field mission, even if you are sitting in the office of the General Investigation Bureau, analyzing newspapers and periodicals from various countries and extracting effective intelligence from them, it is much more interesting than staying in your hometown town.
After saying hello to her grandfather, she quickly packed her luggage and tied it to the back of her motorcycle.
She tied her hair tightly and put on her woolen hat. Then she turned the key and twisted the handle, and the 18-horsepower two-cylinder gasoline engine roared to life.
The R12 motorcycle sped out like a nimble black rabbit and quickly disappeared at the end of the road where the snow had not yet melted.
That afternoon, the train was clanging.
Chris habitually wandered back and forth from beginning to end, and as expected, she discovered a colleague who was performing a routine surveillance mission. The other party also discovered her, but both of them just ignored it silently.
As a member of the Stasi, basic professional qualities and behaviors have been deeply imprinted on Chris's soul - when checking in a motorcycle, checking in for a ticket, or resting on the sofa, She was distracted listening to the conversations and conversations of the people around her.
A doctor and his friend in the front left were discussing the world situation. At one moment they said that the situation in Tsarist Russia was in turmoil and there might be a coup; at another moment they talked about the non-aggression pact signed by the Ming and the British.
Of course, discussing this kind of topic will most likely lead back to the home country in the end.
So Chris put down the coffee cup, took out a small notebook, wrote down her judgment on these people's remarks in a standard format, then tore off the page, went to another carriage and handed it to the other person. A peer.
It's not that we should arrest those people immediately based on this, but it's just a summary.
The Stasi will separate citizens who have made political statements into several categories and build a huge data base to facilitate its work.
It happened to be early in the morning when she arrived in Berlin. Since she had already rested on the train, she went directly to the General Investigation Bureau to report.
After entering the main entrance, what comes into view is a bronze statue.
Behind it, the unremarkable reinforced concrete building is where the General Investigation Bureau is located. It looks like a gray square building block.
"Have you fully recovered?"
"Of course, one month is actually enough."
The supervisor smiled, found a three-page document from the drawer and handed it to her, "You can either go to work in a foreign embassy, or you can stay in Berlin and do your original job."
Do you even need to ask? Definitely choose the former.
Chris, who was in a happy mood, flipped through the three pages and wrote a brief introduction to the mission to serve in the embassy. Each page contained a country, namely Santiago, Chile, Wellington, New Zealand, and Nanjing, China.
"You haven't had breakfast yet? Just make a decision before noon tomorrow. Go ahead."
"yes."
On the way to the cafeteria, Chris began to think about what to choose.
New Zealand was definitely the first to be excluded. It was too remote, destined to be boring, and I wasn’t going on vacation.
Chile is relatively better, but still not that good.
Compared with them, only Nanjing seems to be the best choice.
She spent some time in Paris in the past, because there were many overseas Chinese there, and she had opportunities to interact with them from time to time. Therefore, she tried to learn some Chinese, but felt that it was too difficult, so she could not master it.
However, the task description stated that one would analyze news newspapers and periodicals at the embassy, requiring mastery of spoken and written Chinese as proficiently as possible.
The thought of Chinese gave Chris a headache, but the attraction of working there was too great.
Chinese characters are hieroglyphics that are completely different from alphabetic characters; Chinese is neither an inflectional language nor an agglutinative language, but a unique isolating language.
Although a word root has only one form of expression, there are at least 3,000 commonly used "words". The relatively fixed word order and the so-called "auxiliary words" bear the function of inflection and change of part of speech, and the meaning of the word is distinguished through the tone. No matter how you think about it, it feels like complex.
After eating the fried eggs and fried bacon with orange juice, she wiped the plate with a piece of bread before eating the bread. It can be said that food shortages have left a deep mark on the childhood of this generation of Germans.
At this point, she has made up her mind - no matter how difficult it is, it is just a language, so what is there to be afraid of? As long as you work harder, you will definitely learn it!
This day is January 31st, which is an ordinary day for Europeans, but for hundreds of millions of people in the east of the world, it is the first day of the Lunar New Year with extraordinary significance.
Last night on New Year's Eve, when Xia Xiaoshi insisted on staying up until the end of the year, Zhou Changfeng couldn't resist, so he obeyed her.
But in this era with no TV or mobile phones, there are far less ways to kill time than in later generations, especially when there are only two people in a small house.
So, in order to dispel sleepiness and stay up late until midnight, the two of them decided to do some exercise.
After being busy for a full half-quarter of an hour, Xia Xiaoshi put on her bright wedding clothes - a double-breasted gown, Xia Pei, a horse-faced skirt, and embroidered shoes with raised toes.
why? Because someone Zhou claimed that he had no spare time on the wedding night and missed the wonderful feeling of experiencing this outfit. Now that he has time, he might as well make up for it.
The wedding clothes all have a crimson background color, supplemented by beige and gold embroidery patterns, and the workmanship is quite exquisite.
It is obviously such a bright red, but it does not feel the passion and fire it should have. Instead, it gives people a full sense of dignity and elegance.
"Sir, change...change..." As she said that, a blush appeared on Xia Xiaoshi's shy face.
Looking from the bottom up, the pair of embroidered shoes with wedge heels lifted her up a little, making her figure taller; there was a silver anklet on her left ankle, which played the same role as a lace leg ring. There are different approaches but the same effect.
Under the light emitted by the incandescent light bulb, the gems in the hairpin on the dark bun shone brightly.
Although this outfit wraps the body tightly, who says that revealing clothes can be considered attractive? Facts have proved that there is no necessary connection between the two.
This situation made Zhou Changfeng feel like he had been punched in the chest and a heavy blow in the heart. Stimulated by this, his heart beat violently, as if he had suddenly switched to the state of having just finished a cross-country run.
The blood all over his body was almost boiling, and the liquid flowing in his arteries and veins seemed to have been replaced by hot molten steel; his eyes also became sharp, and his gaze changed from gentle appreciation to extremely aggressive in an instant, as if he had seen the falling sky. Single lamb of wolf.
"gentlemen……"
Zhou Changfeng put his arms around Xia Xiaoshi's waist and lifted her chin with his left index finger, "This title is too formal. Let's change it to something more intimate, huh?"
The latter was extremely shy and hesitated for several seconds before saying, "Husband...husband..."
Wedding clothes are troublesome, but taking them off is easy.
Of course, it’s not impossible not to take it off, it all depends on your preference and interest.
Although the original intention was to boost her spirits so that she could persist in staying up till the end of the year, the result was the opposite. After that, the exhausted Xia Xiaoshi fell asleep in a daze, and even the sound of crackling fireworks outside could not stop her. Fall asleep.
The next day is the first day of the Lunar New Year, and according to custom, we must visit each other.
However, since there were no relatives to visit, Zhou Changfeng and Xia Xiaoshi decided to go to Xia's house.
Xia's father and mother naturally welcomed them. Gao Linglu and Xia Xiaoshi went to the east wing to sort out the ingredients for lunch, while Xia Bing and Zhou Changfeng were chatting in the main room.
"The imperial court is probably going to take some action." Xia Bing picked up the tea cup and took a sip, "I'm afraid it will be this year."
Based on a series of recent news, anyone with a little sensitivity to current affairs can make a guess, let alone officials.
Zhou Changfeng nodded slightly and said vaguely: "Maybe. However, our department will conduct drills according to local conditions in the future."
Hearing this, Xia Bing was silent for a long time, and after a while he said in a deep voice: "It's your duty to go, you have to go, just pay attention to your own safety."
"must."
"Now that the negotiations are settled, the countries in the West and the West can rest assured and boldly if they choose to give in and pacify Japan. In the future, we can advance, attack, retreat or defend. No matter what the disputes in the world are, at least the country and the dynasty can be in an invincible position."
There are thousands of miles of rotten land as an obstacle to the northwest, and the Japanese archipelago as a barrier to the east. As long as the war does not spread to the mainland, defeating the Ming Dynasty is almost impossible, and a population of 600 to 700 million can slowly wear it out until the end of the world.
Zhou Changfeng held his chin and thought for a few seconds before replying: "At present, war is inevitable. The imperial court's current layout is generally stable. While preparing for war year by year, we will acquire strategic locations from outside. After that, we can focus our main energy on In the quasi-elite area, this is called ‘grasping the main contradiction’.”
After a pause, he continued: "But how it will end in the end is hard to say. After all, the other party cannot give in. Either one party will gain a decisive advantage or fight to the point of exhaustion, then peace talks will be possible."
"Yes," Xia Bing sighed, "How to end the war decently is the most difficult thing. If not, we will have to fight to the death."
The two of them continued chatting along this topic, and time flew by unknowingly.
At the same time, in the east wing, Gao Linglu and Xia Xiaoshi, who were cutting vegetables and preparing meals, were also asking and answering questions.
"How have you been getting along these past two days?"
"Pretty...pretty good."
"Many things will only be revealed when we live together. It's only been two days for you two... let's see." Gao Lingling skillfully cut the potatoes, and the kitchen knife made a "click" sound when it collided with the chopping board, " Let me remind you, if there are differences in the future, be patient and tolerant. If you are really dissatisfied, don't hold it in your heart. Isn't he quite open-minded? Speak boldly."
"I remember it."
"It's good to know. Also, you two are not young anymore. You must be concerned about your children. You can't do it casually. Pay more attention to it on weekdays."
Xia Xiaoshi couldn't help but blush when her mother said such a thing to her face. She didn't know how to reply, so she just lowered her head and said "hmm".
Just like that, by noon, the meal was finally ready.
When Xia Xiaoshi came to greet them to eat, the two of them immediately stopped chatting, and their expressions invariably became normal.
Although they are two families in theory, the four of them are as harmonious as one family.
Even though this year is much worse than before, it is generally quite comfortable, and there is far more joy than sadness in the north and south.
In the Forbidden City, the Zhengdan banquet was in progress, and it was a great pleasure to interact with the banquet guests.
But the emperor's family did not participate. They were having lunch in the Qianqing Palace.
The richness of this lunch was far less than last night's New Year's Eve dinner, and there were no separate tables. The four of them ate at the same table.
"...There are quite a few people who are opposed to this right now. This is not a small resistance, but there are many benefits to public redemption of land. Father, I feel that the intensity of implementation must remain unchanged."
"That's inappropriate." The emperor stretched out his chopsticks and picked up a piece of fried green vegetables. "Even so, it still seems excessive to do this at this juncture, not to mention that it takes up too much expenses."
"But as soon as the war started, military expenditures suddenly increased, and all development and construction had to be compromised. This would have to be delayed for an unknown period of time." Zhu Licheng put aside his concerns, "In addition, there are quite a lot of benefits contained in this matter. What people have coveted for a long time can also suppress one or two..."
Huge sums of tens to hundreds of millions of yuan are often used to redeem acres of public land. This pot of soup contains a lot of oil and water. It can be said that it is so thick that if you put a cotton swab in and dip it in a little, your mouth will be full of oil.
In addition, while suppressing local forces, left-wing factions will slow down their momentum as their demands are achieved.
The emperor smiled and said nothing. After a while, he casually said: "Ning You, what do you think?"
Zhu Lingjing, who was a little distracted, blinked, quickly organized the words in her mind, and said: "I think that whether it was before or after the war, public redemption of land can be implemented, but now that we are preparing for war... it is not timely. "
"I know what you are thinking." Although he was opposed in person, Zhu Lizheng was not angry. He just asked calmly: "Are you simply issuing additional war bonds to cover expenses? Using the righteousness of the war to overcome the opposition? Same thing. There are risks, and if your idea goes wrong, the consequences will be obviously tragic."
"Indeed." Zhu Lingjing did not deny what he said, "But this is the best move in line with the current situation. Brother Emperor, the Constitutional Council's actions are going against the trend."
Seeing that war is about to begin, if you do not focus on preparing for war, but also think about engaging the landlords, the hearts of all parties will easily disperse.
It will be relatively easier to try to deal with them after the war breaks out, but it is undeniable that there are greater uncertainties, because losing a war can easily amplify internal conflicts.
Asking for a monthly ticket!
(End of chapter)
