In Nanjing in July, the sun was blazing, and the cicadas clinging to the trees were screaming desperately. The sunlight was shining directly on the skin, as if it was being burned by the fire.
It has been more than ten days since last month. Although it is not a long time, a series of major changes have happened in Daming one after another.
Under the emperor's instruction and promotion, the original head of the imperial court, Prime Minister Zou Zhuoyun, resigned and retreated to the third line. Gao Qingkui, then fifty-five years old, took over.
The cabinet also underwent a minor reshuffle, but the main cabinet ministers were not transferred. The "top five prime ministers" of personnel, finance, civil affairs, foreign affairs, and national defense are still the same team.
Gao Qingkui, a native of Xuzhou, was one of the second-class Jinshi who took the last imperial examination before the imperial examination was abolished and changed to the unified national examination. After that, he studied for two years in the reorganized Taixue. At the age of twenty-two, he was promoted to a household clerk. He entered the official career at the beginning of the middle school, and was later sent to Yanzhou as magistrate for three years, and then transferred back to the capital to continue his steady promotion.
He has outstanding performance in the Constitutional Council and is very popular. Because he has sufficient qualifications and his political views are in line with the current situation, and because he is relatively young, he must be much more energetic than the old men in their sixties. Therefore, he caught the emperor's eye a few years ago, and today he finally entered the court and became the head of the Ming Dynasty.
On July 2, the Consultative Council passed a war preparedness bill based on the "Recommendation on the Rapid Expansion of National Defense Armaments" to increase the issuance of national debt and vigorously expand the size of the army, navy and air force.
The Army currently has 44 infantry divisions, 2 tank brigades, 3 motorized infantry brigades, 7 field heavy artillery brigades, 3 siege heavy artillery brigades, 8 engineer brigades, and several other units, totaling 860,000 people. This time it is planned to expand to 8 infantry divisions.
This expansion of the Navy mainly focuses on small battleships and auxiliary ships, including 9 destroyers, 2 anti-aircraft cruisers, 1 submarine carrier, 4 submarine hunting ships, 14 landing ships, as well as a large number of minesweepers, minelayers, Torpedo boat.
In addition, landing fire support ships and frigates also appeared in the order plan for the first time.
The Air Force focuses on strengthening its sea strike capabilities. Originally, the Navy had always claimed that it was enough for the naval aviation to be responsible for sea strike missions. However, the Air Force has now changed its previous attitude of laissez-faire.
In addition to conventional fighters, dive bombers, level bombers, and transport aircraft, the Air Force also plans to order 240 twin-engine torpedo bombers, 400 training torpedoes, 2,200 448mm aviation torpedoes, and 1,000 500kg semi-armor-piercing heavy aircraft bombs and 4,500 250kg semi-armor-piercing aerial bombs.
In addition to these military expansion plans, some unheard of "little things" have also quietly arrived.
The Consultative Yuan passed a "Copper and Aluminum Control Order" requiring private companies to reduce copper consumption of their products by 20% and aluminum consumption by 35% within three months.
Whether it is changing to substitute metals or directly reducing the total output, these strategic resources must start to be used sparingly. The specific consumption must be carefully reported to the government for statistics, and fraudsters will be severely punished.
The time for entertainment programs on radio broadcasts was reduced by one hour, half an hour in the morning and half an hour in the evening, and was replaced by "National Situation Experts (national situation analysis experts) preaching and analyzing the world situation."
To put it bluntly, it is something like interviews with famous people.
Members of the Renhe Party made public appeals, suggesting that rural people should stock up on some industrial necessities, while urban people should stock up on meat, sugar, and oil.
In order to ensure stability, there is no need to worry about rice, noodles, and salt, but the government has no time to ensure that every household has meat, sugar, and oil, and these three are the most obvious things to improve the quality of life.
Although there are still many people who are still obsessed with the peace and prosperity of singing and dancing, more and more people have smelled the approaching smoke of gunpowder.
Looking back at the upcoming turning point, the previous decades may not have been perfect, but after all, we don’t have to worry about the disasters caused by the raging war. So, it seems reasonable to call it a golden age?
Now, the days of peace and tranquility are coming to an end.
"Hey, no sir, don't touch it, it hurts a little."
"Huh? What's going on?"
On the night of the third day of July, while enjoying the cool air in the small front yard, Xia Xiaoshi stopped Zhou from moving.
The latter replied in a low voice, somewhat coyly: "For some reason, my chest... is a little swollen and painful today."
Puzzled, Zhou Changfeng withdrew his hand, thinking over and over again to feel that she didn't seem to have any illness.
So he asked casually, "Xiao Shi, have you come for this month's business? I remember it should have come a few days ago, right?"
"Not yet, it's already three or four days late..." As she said that, Xia Xiaoshi thought of something and said in surprise: "Ah, could it be..."
"I'm afraid so." Zhou Changfeng said seriously.
Under the soft moonlight, Xia Xiaoshi's eyes reflected Xiwei's light. She stared blankly for a few seconds, and then she happily said: "Go to the medical clinic and check it out!"
"It's not an emergency. Why go to the hospital tonight? We'll go there tomorrow morning."
"Yeah, too."
Although he could not yet conclude that she was pregnant, Zhou Changfeng's intuition told him that this situation was almost certain.
Women's sentimental characteristics are particularly prominent at this stage. They should be happy, but when they think about the gender of their child, Xia Xiaoshi can't help but become worried.
She said gloomily: "It's best if it's my son this time, otherwise I'll feel a lot of pressure."
"Why are you panicking? The probability is 50/50, whatever you draw will be what you get. Again, I would like to reiterate that my husband likes his daughter equally, no matter if he has a boy or a girl!"
"A daughter will eventually have to marry into another family. You are the only one in the family. If you have no children, the whole family will be cut off." Xia Xiaoshi sighed softly and said, "It would be great if the genders must complement each other. Next time it will be a man."
Complaining about the lack of guaranteed card draw mechanism in nature?
Hearing this, Zhou Changfeng couldn't help but want to laugh.
He pretended to be profound and joked: "How can the metaphysics of heaven and earth be controlled by mortals?"
Xia Xiaoshi raised her head slightly and said proudly: "You can't say for sure, my wishes have come true since I was a child." After speaking, she looked at Zhou Changfeng with a hint of teasing and said: "Otherwise, sir, you would have been put in the trap the year before last." Sent back in a small box.”
hateful! This woman is bold!
"Snapped!"
A slap that was neither light nor heavy landed on the back of the lower body, which looked particularly crisp in the quiet little house.
The next day.
Unlike Zhou Changfeng who wakes up naturally at the same time every day, Xia Xiaoshi always relies on the alarm clock to get out of bed, and on the second day of the tenth day of the month, she sleeps until at least three o'clock in the morning.
But this day she woke up extra early, and got up quietly and numbly before staying in bed.
With this movement, Zhou Changfeng also woke up.
So the two got dressed and washed early, and then drove out.
At a vendor they passed by on the way, they bought sesame seed cakes, fried dough sticks, and soy milk for breakfast. The fried dough sticks and fried dough sticks, which were crispy on the outside and soft on the inside, were wrapped in old newspapers, and the soy milk came in a large paper cup.
At Jiangning County Second Hospital, there were many citizens coming for treatment, but it was not overcrowded.
The doctor who treated her was a very young girl with a baby face, wearing a light green dress, her hair was tied up with a wooden hairpin, and a stethoscope hung around her neck.
"Madam, you look good. Why are you here?"
"Well... my period is four or five days late this month, and yesterday it was a little swollen, and it still hurts if I touch it."
The female doctor looked at her, then glanced at Zhou Changfeng diagonally behind her, then raised her hand to motion for her to stretch out her arm.
It was a routine step to check, hear, and ask questions. However, when taking the pulse, the female doctor, who looked like she was just starting out, was a little confused. She tried several times without saying a word. After trying with her left hand, she switched to her right hand, but she still couldn't make a conclusion.
Seeing this, Xia Xiaoshi, who felt extremely nervous, asked, "Ah? Doctor, is there something wrong with this pulse condition?"
The little girl replied with some embarrassment: "That's not the case, it's just that your pulse is too late, I'm not sure..."
The rookie doctor was really confused when she encountered a non-textbook case, so she got up and called for foreign aid.
After a while, she led an old doctor with gray hair and beard in.
"Master, her pulse is too shallow and weak, I can't take it out."
This time the experienced master entered the battle. After feeling it for a while, he smiled and said: "Although it is light, the smooth and fluent feeling is unmistakable. It is the slippery pulse. But the slippery pulse is not only a sign of pregnancy."
So he asked again and learned that Xia Xiaoshi also had some unbalanced diet and poor spleen and stomach these days, so he nodded and said: "A weak spleen and stomach and stagnant food will also cause slippery pulse. Madam, although it is very likely , but whether there is joy or not... I still can’t make a conclusion.”
But the problem is not big. When faced with things that are beyond the reach of manpower, technology can help.
More than ten years ago in the 23rd year of Zhichang, the famous human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG) was discovered by scientists. This is a hormone produced by the placenta. It has high levels in the blood and urine of pregnant women, so it can Use it as a reliable marker to determine pregnancy.
But the problem is that in this era, instruments and technology for reliably measuring hormone levels cannot be popularized, so doctors and biologists have opened their minds and come up with an excellent alternative method.
They tried to inject the urine of the tested female into immature mice. If it showed abnormal estrus response, it meant that the hormone HCG was present in the urine, so it was judged that the test subject was pregnant.
However, in order for rodents such as mice to respond, the HCG hormone content must be high, and newly pregnant women do not have such high concentrations of HCG in their blood and urine.
Hard work pays off. In Dongwanlu, the capital of Lanfang, a research team from Republic University found that HCG hormone can also act on amphibians, and it is easier to take effect and observe. After many experiments, they confirmed that Xenopus laevis does not spontaneously lay eggs under normal circumstances, but injecting urine from pregnant women into the skin of Xenopus laevis can stimulate it to lay eggs with very high accuracy.
Soon, this technology and detection method spread around the world.
As an intermediate hospital in Beijing, Jiangning County Second Hospital naturally has such testing items.
Xia Xiaoshi, who usually has no social fear at all, had to be extremely shy to accept the test this time.
Under the guidance of a nurse, she went straight to the toilet nearby...
Because the results were not given on the spot, Zhou Changfeng went home with her first.
The feeling of waiting for the "judgment" is uncomfortable and uneasy. It would be embarrassing if the joy was in vain.
As the sun set, when Xia Xiaoshi finished her busy work in front of the stove, the phone rang.
Zhou Changfeng stepped forward and directly picked up the microphone.
After asking about her identity, the female voice over there announced with a smile: "The actual test shows that you are pregnant. Congratulations to both of you."
Oh haha!
I'm really excited to be a dad now, literally.
While having dinner, the two of them also recalled what they had done before, and finally concluded that they hit the target more than half a month ago.
Once this matter became clear, their lives suddenly changed dramatically.
Xia Xiaoshi almost dragged the unwilling Zhou Changfeng to the Dabaoen Temple, burned incense and prayed for blessings, and asked for several talismans.
"... How could people in ancient times have expected that now? Steel ships sail in the sea, iron birds fly in the sky? One day they will have a way to decide whether to have a boy or a girl!" She said with confidence.
In Zhou Changfeng's eyes, Xia Xiaoshi, who was still holding the birth-pregnancy talisman and the child-seeking talisman in her hands, said this humiliatingly, which seemed very inconsistent.
"Xiao Shi, are you... a materialist?"
"Um?"
Zhou Changfeng, who was dumbfounded, pointed at the talismans in her hand and hesitated to speak.
The latter was nonchalant and complacent, "Sir, I only care whether it is useful or useless, no matter what it is, practicality comes first."
Neither materialistic nor idealistic, is this simple pragmatism with traditional Chinese characteristics?
Zhou Changfeng thought of the customs in some places - when there is a drought, people will go to the Dragon King Temple to pray devoutly for rain; however, if repeated prayers for rain are ineffective, the people will carry the Dragon King statue into a car and parade it through the streets to whip it.
As the news spread, relatives and friends gradually learned about the incident.
Zhu Lingjing actually knew it very early - only a few hours after the hospital called Zhou's home.
She knew that Mr. Zhou was neither short of money nor fond of money, but she had nothing to give as a present, and only real money was the best choice to show her attitude.
In addition to the simple fixed check, she also prepared many special tithes from the royal family and sent them to him, and wished him well in advance.
"Your Highness, just tell me what is missing. If you can raise the baby with peace of mind, the mother and baby will be safe in the future."
This time Luo Fu came to visit, and by the way, he delivered a check in an envelope and more than ten boxes of exquisitely packaged things.
"Thank you for her blessing."
Zhou Changfeng and he stood at the door of the small house. The latter took out a box of matches and wanted to smoke, but was stopped on the spot.
"Hey, my wife can't smell the smoke right now."
"If you don't smoke, I will smoke."
"No, it will still smell like smoke."
So Luo Fu had no choice but to clip a cigarette to his ear, then throw the burning match to the ground and stamp it out.
"Okay, no more talking, I have some good news for you this time."
"Oh? Double happiness?" Zhou Changfeng stared at him with a smile.
"First, the first batch of production heavy tanks for the navy has been delivered and is ready to be loaded." Luo Fu stretched out his second finger helplessly, "Second, a few days ago you were clamoring to win the battle. The Army has refused to let go of the vehicle, but after a few days of hard work, we have now reached an agreement to transfer 40 of the first batch of 420 vehicles to us."
"When can it be delivered?"
"Early next year."
A satisfied Zhou Changfeng said with emotion: "Finally, the tank battalions of the Marine Brigade can be matched with high and low levels."
The big one is coming!
(End of chapter)
