afterglow

Chapter 286 The girl from Lanfang;

Hearing what he said, Luo Fu couldn't help shaking his head slightly, "You're already planning for the chariot battalion? It's you."

Although most people don't know about the establishment of the Marine Brigade, such internal information is nothing to him.

"Wouldn't it be better to plan ahead? Without (medium tanks), the Marine Corps would only have thin-skinned floating tanks and slow-moving heavy tanks."

"What's wrong with that?"

Amphibious tanks are used to accompany the landing team to grab the beach and provide support, while heavy tanks are used to cooperate with the troops to defend the landing site and beachhead. This is the consensus of the Marine Corps on the application of tanks, and Luo Fu naturally considers it that way by default.

"The best defense is offense. When conditions permit, deploy an armored unit to carry out an assault, disrupt the enemy's offensive preparations, and disintegrate their offensive. This is much more flexible than standing still."

"You... are so bold again."

Zhou Changfeng replied indifferently: "This is not called boldness, it is a necessary enterprising spirit. Even if you can't completely win the initiative on the battlefield, you can't just give up right?"

Luo Fu, who smiled wryly, waved his hand, "Okay, it's up to you, anyway, you can do it."

Compared with the army, the marine corps needs much less, and the funds are abundant, so there is no need to worry about whether to equip all tanks with on-board radios.

The forty [-]-type medium tanks won by the navy will all be equipped with radio equipment, ordinary vehicles will only be equipped with receivers, and platoon and company commander vehicles will also be equipped with transmitters.

In addition, pneumatic assisted shifting equipment, leather seats, and small electric fans have all been added-this is the habit of the Navy when purchasing vehicles, and all of them must be top-level and fully equipped.

"By the way, you have seen the situation now, and you may not know when it will change." Luo Fu stretched out his hand and pointed to the sky, "Sister-in-law is pregnant, I'm afraid you won't be able to accompany her at that time."

"Yeah, I've been thinking about it for the past few days."

"Just hire someone directly, so you don't have to worry about it."

In fact, Zhou Changfeng had plans in this regard before, but he was still at the stage of thinking about it and did not put it into action.

Given the growing urgency of the situation, now is indeed the time for serious consideration.

Later, he talked about it to Xia Xiaoshi.The latter was somewhat resistant at first, worried that it would not be easy to get along with.

"No, sir, I can take care of myself. If I have trouble moving, then just ask my mother to come and take care of me for a while. Why bother?"

"Come on, it's easy for you to talk about it, but then you will suffer."

"That's fine, but it must be the kind that is very cute and lovely..."

In this way, the matter of hiring people was tentatively settled.

There are quite a lot of specific requirements. First of all, the gender defaults to female. I don’t need to say more about this, otherwise the more I think about it, the more outrageous it will be.

In short, this maid must first follow Xia Xiaoshi's "gentle and lovely" hope, and secondly, the age requirement must be between 30 and [-] years old; at the same time, Zhou Changfeng also needs to be able to chat with Xia Xiaoshi normally, so her education level must be at least a middle school.

Because they are too close and intimate, it is best for the candidate to be related, so he called Zhou Roujia to ask if there was any recommended candidate in this regard, but unfortunately there was not.

The same is true for Xia's father and Xia's mother. Women who meet all the requirements are either married or too high-spirited to do the work of serving others under the fence.

After inquiring around like this, but with no results, Zhou Changfeng finally had to go to Yaxing to search for it on his behalf.

The reason why I didn't go to a housekeeping company was mainly because I felt that those people were not reliable, and there must be very few candidates who met the requirements, otherwise the company would charge a lot of money.

So Zhou Changfeng still went to the tooth shop, this way, one-on-one, directly introduced the on-site signing, and avoided the middleman of the housekeeping company.

As an intermediary, this intermediary company named Xin Yun is not small and operates various peer-to-peer businesses.

After clarifying the requirements, the receptionist nodded and said, "Do you have a telephone at home, sir? If you find it, we can call or send a letter."

"Just make a phone call." At this time, Zhou Changfeng suddenly thought of something, raised his hand and said, "Oh wait, I forgot to mention a note."

"It's okay, just say it."

"It's just because of my personal reasons. If you come to my house, you should still be inspected by the foreign police."

"Oh, that's it...Okay, I'll write it down for you."

Two days later.

In Nanjing in July, the weather was clear and windless, and the heat was unbearable. The temperature in the afternoon was as high as 35°C, and the body temperature was even higher.

And because of the terrain, the heat in Nanjing is completely different from the heat in Yanjing. The humidity and heat with more water vapor will make people feel slightly damp all over the body. After sweating, it will be wet and sticky, which is very uncomfortable.

A thin figure greeted outside the gate of Xinyun Company. She put away her umbrella, looked left and right for a while, and then walked in nervously.

The girl's name is Lin Xi, she grew up in Dongwanlu, and she is an authentic Lanfang native.Her great-grandfather was from Zhangzhou, Fujian Province. He was one of the thousands of people who went to Nanyang to wander around. He worked as a gold miner and bodyguard in Dongwanlu, and later married a wife and had children there.

The Lin family's well-off life is actually very comfortable, but Lin Xi's desire and curiosity about the outside world cannot be suppressed. After graduating from middle school, she worked in the local library for a year, then boldly resigned secretly and boarded a ship bound for Fuzhou.

So, she came here, the capital of the Ming Dynasty, Yingtian Mansion.

Along the way, her strange accent made her suffer a lot of contempt, so she was very nervous in this bright dental shop.

What jobs are there for a young girl traveling across the ocean?

Restaurant waiter?No, the pay is too low and not decent.

The company's accountant?No, I am not competitive.

A nurse in a hospital?No, the salary during the internship is too meager, and it is almost impossible to live in the majestic capital of Ming Dynasty.

In fact, Lin Xi wanted to find a stable place to transition for a while, correct his accent, and be able to speak Nanjing Mandarin fluently.In addition, "food" and "clothing" can be very frugal, but "living" is not easy. The housing prices in the capital can almost squeeze out her monthly salary.

So she set her sights on the seemingly alluring post of housemaid.

Looking at the dazzling array of dozens of different requests, she patiently looked through them one by one, and finally settled on one of them.

"This is a little different. The owner of this household has a very special identity. If you go to his home, you may have to be inspected by an outside factory." A worker casually reminded.

"External factory? What is that?" Lin Xi didn't know why.

"It's a secret agent, someone who checks people."

"Oh."

Despite such an additional request, she was still moved.

This family is not big, which means that there will not be too many things to do, the main thing is to take care of the pregnant mistress.Moreover, he manages food and housing, has a lot of spare time, and has a decent salary, forty yuan a month.

This is simply a tailor-made job for yourself!While the minimum one-year contract requirement might seem restrictive, it pales in comparison to other perks.

That afternoon, Zhou Changfeng, who had just returned home from a meeting at the Ministry of War, received a call from the dental office, claiming that someone had been hired, and asked him when he was going to meet for confirmation.

Without further ado, since it's early, let's do it now.

After more than an hour, Zhou Changfeng and Xia Xiaoshi came to the front yard together when they heard knocking on the door, and opened the door.

"Excuse me, is this the Zhou family? I'm here to apply for employment..."

A small man less than 1.6 meters tall, with a thin body, slightly dark complexion, round face and big eyes.Although her appearance was not outstanding, she was very pleasing to the eye. This girl gave Zhou and Xia a very good first impression.

However, the girl's accent is really... weird.

"That's right." Zhou Changfeng didn't show any other expressions, just nodded and said, "Come in and talk."

"Yes……"

"How old are you this year?"

"Well...nineteen, next month will be twenty."

Lin Xi's background made Zhou quite surprised and curious. There was a Lanfang girl who dared to venture into his family?

The full name of "Lanfang" is the "Lanfang Grand Domination Republic". It is needless to say the cause and effect of its establishment. Even if there is no change of Ming and Qing Dynasties, there will still be countless Chinese who went to Nanyang.

In 1777 AD, Lan Fang was established in Pontianak, in the west of Borneo, which is rich in gold.Since then, surrounding tribes and clans have responded and joined in one after another.At its peak, Lanfang's sphere of influence covered almost the entire Borneo.

The previous leaders of Lanfang paid great attention to the development of production, improving farming, expanding mining, building roads and bridges, and so on.The military system is also unique. All the people are soldiers. Except for a small number of standing troops, all young and middle-aged people in the country must receive military training.

In terms of cultural education, it also followed the traditional culture at the beginning, giving lectures, and even hired great Confucians from the Ming Dynasty to teach.

In history, the Qing Dynasty was not interested in Lanfang, a small country that was spontaneously established by "abandoned people from the celestial dynasty". In order to avoid annexation by the Dutch, Lanfang pretended to be a vassal of the Qing Dynasty, and this was the only way to bluff the Dutch attack.

What happened later became a matter of course. After the defeat in the late Qing Dynasty, the Dutch immediately invaded Lanfang. The Qing Dynasty ignored this, and the Dutch, who had the advantage in weapons and equipment, naturally succeeded.

But the difference today is that Ming did not recover from the initial crisis. Although the long-coveted Dutch also tried to annex Lanfang, it ended in failure.

At that time, the Ming court that received the request for help also had many differences. Some thought it was not appropriate to meddle, some thought it should be stopped in the face, some thought it should openly send troops, and some thought it should assist secretly.

In the end, the emperor ordered the Nanyang Navy to hold a ship review ceremony, and secretly assisted several batches of ordnance.Facing Ming's posture and the tenacious resistance of Lanfang's army and civilians, the Dutch had to give up their annexation plan, but Lanfang's territory also shrank greatly, leaving only a small piece of western Borneo.

Today's imperial court has a clear position on Lanfang, and regards it as the bridgehead for the projection of Ming's influence and military power.

Due to the abundance of rare metal resources and relatively developed trade, Lanfang's finances are very ample, and because it was once infinitely close to the danger of extinction, it attaches great importance to the construction of national defense forces.

The Lan Fang Grand Command State has two major armed force systems, the National Defense Force and the Civil Defense Force. The former is divided into the army, navy and air force, and the latter has only land forces.

陆军有2个步兵师、5个步兵旅、1个战车团、2个野战重炮团、1个高射炮团，共计八万余人；空军有三百余架各型战机；海军有1艘重巡洋舰、2艘轻巡洋舰、6艘驱逐舰、5艘小型潜艇，均购自大明或法国，此外还有上百艘扫雷艇、布雷艇、猎潜艇、鱼雷艇，近海防御力量不俗。

The Civil Defense Force is the second echelon of armed forces, used to cooperate with the National Defense Forces in carrying out defensive tasks, and their equipment and training are much behind.

Of course, the tradition of all people serving as soldiers has continued to this day, and because of the advancement of ideology and culture, this tradition has been improved to a higher level-although women are not required to serve in the military, they must also receive other skills training such as medical care.

Under the one-year military service system, all young and middle-aged people in Lanfang have received military training and have served in the army.What is even more exaggerated is that, regardless of gender, any college student must participate in additional officer candidate training in his spare time, and he will be a second lieutenant in the reserve service of the National Defense Forces after graduation; high school students are not required to participate in candidate officer training voluntarily, and are awarded the rank of reserve corporal or sergeant according to their achievements.

In addition, all kinds of semi-permanent fortifications and permanent fortifications can be seen everywhere around ports and towns.

It can be said that this almost pathological action made Lan Fang a "hedgehog" that should not be underestimated. Whether the British or the Americans, it was very troublesome to formulate military plans around Lan Fang.

"... Anyway, that's it. I'm likely to be away from home for a long time in the future. My wife is pregnant. Life will be somewhat inconvenient in the future. You just need to take good care of her."

"Well, sir, I understand everything."

Zhou Changfeng is very satisfied with all aspects of Lin Xi, and his behavior, appearance, knowledge, and personality all meet the needs of his family.

As for the accent, it can be reversed in a month or so.

Perhaps because of their interest in Lanfang, Xia Xiaoshi and Lin Xi had a good chat in detail, and even excitedly discussed traveling there in the future to see how the people who went to Nanyang overcame obstacles to establish such a unique small country overseas.

So is this really 3-minute heat?

The next day, after confirming some details, they were ready to sign the contract.

Mr. Zhou's life is very comfortable and comfortable, but some people are different. The burden that comes with status and power makes people extremely worried and troubled.

Also on the same day, a passenger plane took off steadily from Gaoqiao Airport, and after changing its course, it flew slowly towards the Dongying Islands.

The passenger on the plane was none other than Crown Prince Zhu Liqie.

Through the round window next to the engine room, the propellers of the engines inside the wings can be seen rotating at high speed, and the things below are getting smaller and smaller, and finally completely covered by the white clouds.

Parallel to the passenger plane, there are three fighter jets on the left and right sides, forming an inverted V formation as a whole.

"How are the preparations over there?"

"I have been stepping up preparations for the audience since yesterday, Your Highness can rest assured." An attendant hurriedly clasped his hands and replied.

Zhu Liqie added another sentence, "This is a great symbol, and there can be no mistakes."

(End of this chapter)