afterglow

Chapter 253 Chapter [-] Don't Bring Women Back; Resist or Not
The army is about to leave, and before that, it seems that we should write a letter to relatives and friends or make a phone call by default?
The field post office of the regiment issued uniform letter paper and envelopes to the officers and soldiers, each with two copies, one for writing family letters and one for writing suicide notes.

This is all voluntary, and you can choose not to write it if you have a big heart; otherwise, the suicide note will be kept in a file and kept in the left-behind place of each army, and will be mailed to family members after confirming the death, wounded death, or missing.

Zhou Changfeng is a big-hearted person, or he thinks that the risk of this special military operation is minimal, not much higher than the probability of being crushed to death by a flower pot while walking on the road.

In this case, writing a suicide note in advance is a bit unlucky?He just wants to chat with his wife now.

After dinner that day, he made a call to Xia's house.

No matter how you look at it, the newlywed wife is a little lonely staying alone in the empty room. Fortunately, Xia Xiaoshi only takes a few tram stops to go back to her natal home, so Zhou Changfeng asked her to temporarily go back to her natal home to live for a few days before leaving.

Although today's telephones are not high-end gadgets, most ordinary people in Ming Dynasty do not have them.

The telephone itself is not expensive, and the price of a cheap model is about [-] yuan. However, the problem is that it costs another sum of money to ask the telephone company to install the wiring at your door, and you have to wait for a long time, so many families will not give priority to it. Consider it.

Looking at the north and south of the country, ordinary household items are just two out of four - sewing machines, bicycles, pocket watches/watches, and radios. Two items are considered qualified, and three items are considered good. If you can collect four items, you are at least a little rich. .

The standards in more affluent and prosperous places will be higher. For example, in Shuntian, Yingtian, Shanghai, and Hangzhou, you have to add a telephone to be worthy of the title of Xiaofu.

After layers of switching, it took a while to hear Gao Linglu's voice coming from the microphone.

"Who is it?"

"Mom, it's me."

Obviously, Gao Linglu on the other end of the phone was taken aback, and it took a full two seconds before he asked, "The call came suddenly, what happened?"

In view of the almost semi-public nature of this operation, except for the military details, the rest of the information has been published by various newspapers in turn, so Zhou Changfeng did not hide it.

"Uh... We're going to be preparing to leave soon. After much deliberation, it's more reassuring to call and say a few words."

"That's it, I'll call her over. Hey, Xiaoshi, come here and answer the phone."

After a while, there was a sound of footsteps coming from the microphone, followed by that familiar voice.

"Sir? What's the matter?"

The corners of Zhou Changfeng's mouth raised involuntarily, "How is it? Are you living comfortably these days?"

Looking back on the official reports of the past two days, Xia Xiaoshi already had a rough idea in her heart, but she was still not sure, "Of course I'm fine, when will you come back?"

"Hmm..." Zhou Changfeng, who was holding the microphone, was silent, and after a while, he said calmly, "I can't come back for the time being. I probably have to wait until the Dragon Boat Festival, depending on whether the time is going well, it should be no later than July at the latest." .”

After finishing speaking, he added with a smile: "I don't want to miss this year's Qixi Festival."

Although I had made some psychological preparations before, this situation was still quite unexpected. I hesitated for a long time and didn't know what to say. In the end, thousands of words were condensed into one sentence, "Then you must pay attention to your own safety."

Gao Linglu who was at the side left with a sense of humor, the young couple had to say some ambiguous words when talking on the phone, so it's better to walk away.

"Although don't worry, my fate is very hard."

The two joked a few words on the phone, and Xia Xiaoshi suddenly thought of some news——When the Ming army stationed in Nagasaki rotates every year, some people return to China with the women they hooked up with locally, and Most of them are pregnant.

According to folk rumors, the young women there are eager to get out of the local misery. If they don't consider the more risky smuggling, the main way to get to the paradise in their minds is to collude with the officers and soldiers of the Ming army stationed there.

Ordinary soldiers are often very young, mostly in their twenties, when they are full of energy, but it is too easy to serve in Nagasaki Xuanweisi, the sky is high and the emperor is far away, and there is no supervision for strict training, so the actual situation That is three days of fishing and two days of drying the net.

But the energy must find a place to vent, and you have to pay for the local fireworks and willow lanes.In contrast, if a girl took the initiative to come over and repost, it would undoubtedly be extremely attractive.

Officers are relatively the next-level choice, because most of them have families, and they will often kick away after prostitution for nothing, lift their pants and turn their faces.

However, with high risks and high returns, being a military officer's concubine is actually quite rewarding, at least better than the original life in the local area, so there are many women who try it in an endless stream.

Considering the "glorious" deeds of "Zhou Changfeng" in the past, it would be a lie to say that Xia Xiaoshi was not worried.

After hesitating for more than ten seconds, she said seriously: "Sir, don't be fooled by the local women. I heard that they will try their best to get close to you."

Zhou Changfeng on the other end of the phone couldn't help laughing, and then deliberately smiled and replied: "What? Are you so worried?"

"Heh, I just remind you one or two... that's all."

"Is it really just a reminder? Hahaha——"

Xia Xiaoshi clenched the microphone tightly, gritted her teeth and said, "Zhou Kexing, if you really want to do that, I will definitely be angry!"

Zhou Changfeng withdrew his smile, and coughed dryly: "Anyway, don't worry about it, I'm not interested in short Japanese women with turnip legs. Uh... I feel wronged that you have lived alone these past few months."

"Sir, you are serious. I am at home."

"Well, that's it, hang up."

After talking on the phone, Zhou Changfeng let out a long sigh of relief, settled one matter, and then it is time to prepare for the business wholeheartedly.

The battlefield is the best weapon testing ground. The Ordnance Bureau organized a team to take charge of this matter, and this team was subdivided into several groups.

Group A is responsible for infantry weapons, including: trial production of Type [-] rocket launchers, trial production of Type [-] anti-infantry directional mines, trial production of Type [-] anti-infantry jump mines, and trial production of Type [-] heavy machine guns.

Group B is responsible for artillery weapons, including: trial production of Type 144 80mm long-range field guns and Type [-] [-]mm anti-aircraft guns.

Group C is responsible for technical weapons, including: trial production of Type [-] Type A radio transceiver, trial production of Type [-] radio direction finder, and trial production of Type [-] electromagnetic wave detector.

Group D is responsible for service equipment, including: new first aid kits, antibacterial drugs, tents, gas masks, field food and so on.

Zhou Changfeng was undoubtedly very excited when he saw the dozens of boxes of jumping mines and directional mines.

How much tactical advantage can these things born in advance bring to the infantry unit of the Ming army?

Maybe they don't have much influence strategically, but tactically they may determine the outcome of a battle.

As for his favorite work, the recoilless bazooka, Yingtian Armory has already applied to the Ordnance Bureau to complete the finalization work. After the actual combat assessment, it can be mass-produced after making slight modifications according to the feedback.

The Second Army received [-] trial-produced [-]-type rocket launchers and [-] rounds of ammunition this time. The first marine regiment allocated [-] and [-] rounds, and the rest were distributed to the other three divisions.

In fact, the Guards Division and the First Division did not have many armored vehicles at all. There were only a few dozen vehicles in total—two dozen Vickers Crossley and Worsley armored vehicles, and a dozen trucks. Den-Lloyd MkV, Vickers MkE these two tanks.

Zhou Changfeng reckoned that if they were to be used, these bazookas would probably be used to attack the enemy's firepower. Anyway, the probability of encountering armored vehicles was not high.

The days before departure seemed particularly difficult, and the days seemed as long as half a month.

Because the [-]th Infantry Division and the [-]th Light Bombing Detachment were both under the banner of the Second Army, Zhou Changfeng could be regarded as fighting side by side with his old friend He Cheng, and Mu Yu was also dragged by him to join in the fun.

On a pile of supply boxes not far from Pier [-] of the naval base, three people sat side by side, the light spots of cigarettes flickering with breathing.

"The military report said that the Japanese still haven't made up their mind." He Cheng flicked the cigarette ash, "It's hard to say."

"You have to come to the city to be subdued?" Mu Yu snorted in disdain, "It's really unreasonable."

Zhou Changfeng stretched his waist, and said with a sneer: "Although I thought it would be best to take over smoothly before, but seeing their hesitation now, I should still have illusions, so I think it's better to fight, not to fight. Disobedient, breaking unrealistic illusions, that's the way to be well-behaved."

It is no different from what he said, the Japanese do still have a little illusion in their hearts and cannot make up their minds.

In other words, the surrender faction and the resistance faction have not yet reached a consensus, and they are arguing.

The current Japanese imperial court is in a relatively independent state, which is equivalent to a big feudal town in the center in name, but the feudal towns in various places do not obey orders.Both the imperial court and the feudal towns want to unify the archipelago again, but the western powers will definitely not agree.

Originally, the emperor was not able to regain some power until after the Boshin War. Before that, the status of the emperor was getting lower and lower during the Kamakura, Muromachi, and Edo shogunate periods.Among them, the emperor's court during the Warring States period was even reduced to selling officials and concubines and maids to make ends meet.

After the victory of the Boshin War, the Edo Shogunate collapsed, and the Emperor’s court immediately implemented a series of reforms, vigorously developed capitalism, and devoted itself to making the country rich and strong. , The political and economic collapse brought Japan back to a divided state.

Because of this war, and looking back at the previous failures of Britain and France in invading Ming Dynasty, the Western powers unanimously abandoned Daming, and chose to pick the weak persimmon very carefully.

After being divided, Japan's feudal domains were controlled by the great powers in many ways, but the operations of different powers were also different. For example, the Italians and Americans controlled less, while the British and French controlled more.

As for the emperor, he lost more than half of some of the powers established in the "Meiji Constitution" with great difficulty, and now he can only be regarded as a mascot.

On the surface, the current Japanese Central Government (Shizuoka, Kanagawa, Tokyo, Nagano, Chiba) is a dual structure consisting of the military and the civilian government, but it is essentially a chaebol that has been influenced by the British for a long time Haoqiang Group.

For some of them, there is no essential difference between the British and Ming people. Whose dogs are not the same?They can still continue to enjoy the privilege.

But there are also many people who firmly oppose it, thinking that the British at least respect customs and culture, but if Ming people come, I am afraid that there will be a complete reshuffle, burning books and destroying characters, and completely erasing the Yamato clan from culture , and these dignitaries are just disposable slaves.

Two months from the beginning of the year to the present, the two sides have been arguing endlessly.

As the British began to withdraw their assets and garrisons one after another, these plutocrats became more and more panicked and apprehensive.

In the past half a month, the Union Jack flags have been lowered. Teams of British soldiers wearing Tommy helmets and carrying Lee-Enfield rifles walked to the pier at random steps. Those who used to wear red turbans There are not many Indian-Duan policemen showing off their strength.

The Ming side reported the movement of the army almost semi-openly, which was obviously deliberate.

There were two armies in the north and the south. The northern army set out from North Korea, and the southern army crossed the sea and landed directly in Tokyo.

As the seat of the ancient generals who ruled Yi, and the "capital" since Jiazi, Tokyo can be described as a heart-like existence.After taking Tokyo, the Japanese imperial court ceased to exist, or in other words, it was completely under the control of the Ming people. How could the rest of the feudal towns resist?

In the early morning of the sixth day of the Lunar New Year, the fully prepared Second Army officially set off in Haizhou. The huge fleet composed of more than 60 large and small warships and dozens of cargo ships took several hours to form and headed for Tokyo Bay.

It was also on this day that the dignitaries of Tokyo held No. 14 cabinet meetings on this matter - the previous thirteen times were fruitless.

The sky showed a kind of gray black, as gloomy and gloomy as everyone's mood.

Many dignitaries have lost their minds, or they don't care.

Among the crowd, only the Minister of War advocated persistent resistance, and the Minister of the Exchequer generally agreed with it, feeling that it was possible to win the support of the Americans.Other than that, the rest of the people advocate obedient submission and respectful welcome to Master Wang.

"I reiterate again that resistance is meaningless. For the Ming people, Tokyo Bay is like a lotus pond that they can come and go at will. All our warships combined are not as good as one of their battleships." Minister of Foreign Affairs Nagamasa Yoshida said in a deep voice road.

"Such a defense that has no hope of victory is useless except to irritate Mingren." Minister of Internal Affairs Nakamura Raimoto stared sharply at the few people on the opposite side, and said seriously: "Whether it is for the people or for ourselves, obediently greet the people." That's the right thing to do."

"Resistance can prove that we are not at the mercy of others. It is to seek better treatment. If we don't resist? Ming people will think that we are weak and deceitful, and treat us as slaves at will. That will completely destroy Japan!" Secretary of the Army Kano Kuigo said loudly.

Hearing this, Yoshida Changzheng sneered and said, "I heard that there is flat land and warehouses behind your mansion, and a small plane is prepared inside. If the situation is not good, you will flee to Osaka, isn't it?"

Kano Kuiwu was exposed in public, but he still remained calm and did not lose his composure. Instead, he sneered: "Are you not ready to retreat? In your mind, which is more important, your own fate or the fate of the Yamato clan?"

Just like that, the atmosphere became tense again.

Seeing that this cabinet meeting was about to end in vain like the thirteen times before, suddenly, a secretary knocked on the door and broke in, saying in horror and eagerness: "It's not good, the First Division's mutiny has changed, there are rebels Coming!"

(End of this chapter)