afterglow

Chapter 328 Corruption is a small matter of negligence in politics; code name "Northern Lights"

After Zhou Changfeng left, the thoughtful Zhu Lingjing stared at the book in front of her for a while, then reached for a bookmark.

In her view, the Fuzhou Prefecture officials' attempt to negotiate was a bit wishful thinking and naive. Perhaps it was Zhu Shiyan's past behavior and handling style that caused them to form inertial thinking?

She can basically guess what these guys are planning.

The current situation is different, and Zhu Shiyan has never been willing to be a villain in this regard. For half a year, the clean government supervision work in Ming Dynasty was completely dominated by the imperial court.

The prime minister was the key to the policy planning of the Ming Dynasty, and the differences in the governance of successive prime ministers also caused this aspect to be tight and loose at times.At the same time, it is impossible for experienced politicians to be cruel to their own people, so even the prime minister who punished corruption most severely could not convince the public, and opposition and ridicule from the government and the opposition were endless.

And Zhu Shiyan, who likes to grind people with soft knives, has always been relatively lenient. Compared with ancient times, he can probably win a reputation of benevolence and tolerance comparable to Song Renzong.

So if it were him in the same situation, the plan of the Fuzhou government officials would probably come true—kill a few scapegoats, fine the rest a large sum of money, and then order them to resign.

But unfortunately the version has been updated.

Facts have proved that failing to keep up with the version is doomed to be eliminated. Late learning is a bad habit that is not conducive to survival. Obviously, some Ming officials' abilities in this area have gradually deteriorated in their comfortable days.

"The minimum is 500 million, and the maximum is 4000 million." Zhu Lingjing with a relaxed expression thought about it in her heart, and murmured to herself: "Say more, not more, say less."

It's not that she covets money, but that she feels that the incidental gains are very considerable.

Zhu Lingjing actually does not hate corruption, it is just the most common among many behaviors.

In her cognition and judgment criteria, compared with this, negligence and lazy administration are more serious.

This is the so-called "corruption is a small matter, but political neglect is a big matter."

The power held and exercised by the government is undoubtedly important and indispensable. If officials are lazy, perfunctory, and slack, and their power cannot be applied, other forces will naturally take its place.

All races, sects, blacks, etc. are all pervasive, and the government can only barely resist it when it is operating normally. Once the government is negligent, the consequences can be imagined.

As a result, the state apparatus will be quickly damaged, and the efficiency of administration and governance will plummet.

In this regard, Daming has suffered a blood loss, and "Ming Shi died in Wanli" is not groundless.

Ming Shenzong's negligence due to objective and subjective factors directly caused Daming to fall into a semi-paralyzed state. Although he himself would actually deal with some financial and military affairs, the appointment and dismissal of crucial personnel was extremely delayed.

This caused long-term shortage of many positions in the imperial court and local government. The number of officials in the Ming Dynasty itself was not as large as that in the Song Dynasty, and they were usually at a level that was just enough.

As we all know, the consequences were disastrous.

As for the salary, the "famous" meager salary of Ming officials had undergone major changes and increased a lot as early as the early days of the post-Ming Dynasty.

Today, the salaries of Ming officials have been raised many times, not to mention the most basic support for the family, even a decent life is enough, but there is still a certain distance from being rich and generous.

There have been many people who suggested that they could try to implement the strategy of high salary and honesty, but the senior officials in the DPRK and China felt that the effect was not directly proportional to the cost, so they did not adopt it as it should be, and everything remained as usual.

After returning home, Zhou Changfeng was not in a good mood. The more important reason was that the bet between him and Shen Yu could basically be decided.

Although it is still early until the final statistical results come out, one thing can be concluded-the sum of so many local officials is less than 1000 million yuan?Who do you look down on!
Not to mention one Jieyang-class destroyer, maybe two or even three can be assembled.

hateful!

After being promoted, the salary also increased, from the previous 250 yuan per month to [-] yuan.

Losing such a large amount of money all at once, the gambler's psychology is absolutely unacceptable!

"Small gamble, how can you place such a big bet? This will make your cronies and friends a lot of money."

Xia Xiaoshi stirred the noodles in the bowl, picked out a strand, and swallowed it almost silently.

Zhou Changfeng shrugged helplessly, "I didn't think too much about it at the time, I thought it was only a month's money at most, but after calming down... naturally I regretted it."

Xia Xiaoshi on the opposite side of the table curled her lips, "Heh, sir, you are not a little angry. You usually travel around outside and don't have time to worry about family affairs. In fact, our family's expenses are not small. It costs nearly two hundred a month. I really don't have much money left."

Talking about this, she became more and more unhappy, and counted with her fingers: "The unit price of daily necessities, rice, oil and salt is not expensive, but the sum is not expensive, and then there are clothes and the like, the fare for traveling, and the cost of refueling the car. There is a salary for Lin Xi... When the child is born in the future, the expenses will be higher."

Xia Xiaoshi is actually quite curious. In people's inherent impression, people who can work by the emperor's side will be short of money?

Just the gifts from those who came to greet and curry favor should be able to pile up into mountains!

Hearing her list of expenses like this, Zhou Changfeng waved his hands again and again, and said nonchalantly: "Salary alone can barely maintain the balance of income and expenditure, but I still have the money to be the emperor's military advisor, and there are other dividends."

These two are actually the big ones. The former is as high as [-] yuan per month, which is equivalent to the salary of a brigadier general. In the past few months, he has actually accumulated a lot, but it has been in the bank account and has not been withdrawn.

It was undoubtedly a very wise choice to use the large amount of money that Zhu Lingjing used to win people's hearts to invest in Hengguang Company. The engagement fee she gave at that time was a huge sum of 9000 yuan, most of which was used to invest in Hengguang Company. .

Although the basic purpose is to find a place that can help manufacture experimental light weapons at will, the generous dividends that come with it are also very considerable.

After the scale is expanded, Hengguang Company will naturally be able to win more orders. After making huge profits, it can continue to expand. It can be said that it has fully reaped the dividends of Ming Dynasty's war preparations.

As his agent, his brother-in-law Li Shuye also worked very hard in Hengguang Company. Even if his salary and a small amount of dividends were not included, the amount of dividends purely belonging to Zhou was as high as tens of thousands of yuan.

And this is just the beginning. It is foreseeable that this originally unknown gun factory will expand rapidly in the next few years.

After listening to his narration, Xia Xiaoshi blinked, and said in surprise: "There are so many, then... a mere two hundred yuan less seems nothing."

But she immediately added: "It's not okay, I can't do this again in the future, if I don't learn from it, I will only bet more and more."

"Okay, okay, I understand, I don't like gambling."

With the Fuzhou case temporarily coming to an end, Zhou Changfeng's attention focused on the paratrooper equipment that made him particularly speechless at the time.

After lunch, he hurriedly left home and drove straight to the Ministry of War.Maybe some people dare not take Mr. Zhou seriously, but no matter what, they dare not despise the position of "military aircraft awaiting edict".

Regardless of prejudice or jealousy, you still have to behave yourself after meeting.

"I urged you a few days ago, how is the situation now?" Zhou Changfeng asked straight to the point as soon as he arrived.

A staff member of the Air Force Department in charge of this matter presented him with a bound booklet, which was very thin, only a few pages.

"According to your request, we found out the previously shelved design. We also communicated with the manufacturer about the size and strength of the parachute. It can be changed, but it will take some time."

"That's good."

The seemingly gentle Air Force officer said: "But now that this new gadget has been applied, the previous Type [-] umbrellas can no longer be used, and there are still nearly [-] sets in stock..."

"It's not advisable to make a small loss." Zhou Changfeng said lightly.

"That's true."

In fact, the officials of the Air Force Department were a little dissatisfied with this, and everyone felt that Zhou's arbitrary instruction was really irresponsible.

Not even considering the opinions of actual users, just such direct and rude instructions?This guy does have an extraordinary record, but that's not the capital to do whatever he wants.

The leg bag designed at that time was called a "sling bag" inside the Ming army. After parachuting, the canvas bag containing the weapon would be hung two meters below the paratrooper, before the legs touched the ground, so as to keep the center of gravity stable.

But the soldiers didn't buy it. They thought it was too bulky and abandoned it on the grounds that it was inconvenient, easy to miss the best parachute opportunity, and had the potential to hinder normal parachute opening.

I don't know if they have thought that in this way, they may have to charge the enemy's position with a pistol in the future-because the airdrop box containing the weapon fell on the opposite side.

Perhaps it was because the current situation was getting more and more tense, and no one noticed such a thing, so Zhou's arbitrary request was carried out quite smoothly.

The trial-manufactured Sanqi parachute, which was only completed in trial production but became a technical verification product, is now ordered by the Air Force for [-] sets, but the delivery time of the earliest batch will probably have to wait until next year.

"How many sets can be delivered in the first batch?"

"About two thousand sets."

"Okay, when the time comes, just divide it up on average, take a little from each of the three regiments, and get acquainted with it, and you can get used to it as soon as the subsequent batches arrive."

The man pushed his glasses and said in a low voice, "It's just... I'm afraid those soldiers will be reluctant..."

"Heh, they won't really treat war like a child's game, will they? That would be fatal." Zhou Changfeng patted the table, then put his hips on his hips and said, "The first priority is to do everything possible to achieve the goal. No matter what At that time, looking for weapon boxes everywhere is a hundred times better, and according to their mentality, they will suffer a lot!"

It can be regarded as a remedy for the dead, and the omissions discovered by accident were blocked by Zhou Changfeng, who acted vigorously and vigorously.

After fixing an omission in his country, he inevitably thought of the Germans who had suffered a lot in history.

Do you want to remind them by the way?
Although Zhou Changfeng is very entangled, and he feels that the rigid Germans will probably not make changes.

People are still the same after heavy casualties, will they really follow the advice of a foreigner?

At the same time, at the German Society's embassy in Daming, located in Zhongcheng District...

An easy life will undoubtedly make people decadent, and Chris feels that it may be a wrong decision for her to choose to come to Daming.

In view of the fact that Germans have no talent in cooking food, she has tried a wide variety of dishes and snacks during these days in Jingshi Yingtian Mansion.

The price is that she has gained a full five kilograms, from the original 58 kilograms to 63 kilograms. If it wasn't for the fact that she is taller so the fat is not obvious, otherwise she would be really depressed to death.

But this is just a corner of Nanjing. Trying to eat all of China is an arduous task that will probably take half a lifetime to accomplish.

"How is your work progressing? Are there any other moves by the Chinese?" Major General Justus Kohler, the chief military officer, asked routinely.

"It's still the same as before, no obvious large-scale operations were found." Chris replied truthfully.

Due to the monitoring and restrictions of the foreign police, the military attaches of the legation are very inconvenient to move, so her work is basically limited to obtaining information through newspapers, periodicals, and radio news, and screening and summarizing useful information from them.

"The war is coming," Kohler said, looking out the window. "It just so happens that it is a very suitable time to watch the Northern Lights."

The Cabinet of the British Empire has issued instructions, and Prime Minister Neville is extremely confident after making up his mind.

The hawks in the British army were even more optimistic, declaring:
"...After landing, you can immediately get a big prize - not only can you control a large amount of 150 million tons of iron ore, but you can also occupy the Nordic ports that are of great value to the navy. Even if you can't use the railway, we can rely on the port to gain a firm foothold , there is no possibility of resistance from the Scandinavians, at least not against us."

Their optimism also infected the generals of the United Expeditionary Force. Some people boasted smugly: "I can foresee the tall and burly Scottish warriors shocking the Norwegians who just woke up at six in the morning... God is on our side. This way."

However, compared to the full confidence of Lord Chatfield and others, Major General Maxey, the supreme commander of the Joint Expeditionary Force, seemed worried.

First, the British troops planned to be under his command were severely lacking in training, and the details of the French troops were unclear; and due to ice and capacity constraints, it would take approximately two weeks to land all troops and equipment.

More importantly, there are no roads available there, and the only line of transportation is a railway, which is a one-way electrified railway-not only is the capacity limited, but it will also be paralyzed if the power is interrupted.

Clearly, the stakes were actually very high, and had the Germans reacted sharply and acted decisively, the Scandinavian expedition would have ended in tragic failure.

But how can a martial artist control the decisions made by the politicians of the Zhengmi Ziqi?

At the same time, the German Agency also unified its opinions, and determined that the British and French landings in Norway and Switzerland were just a cover for helping Tsarist Russia maintain stability.

The latest intercepted telegrams indicated that about a dozen British submarines were headed for the North Sea, with four more on the way—twice the usual number and a clear red flag.

The Berlin side decided to complete the preparations for the combat plan as quickly as possible, and issued an order to "complete the preparations before the deadline of January 1th".

Operation code name: Northern Lights.

(End of this chapter)