Time is like flowing sand, silently passing between the dry fingers, and only in the night dream can we go back to the past, look back at the past, and think of the bravery and absurdity of our youth and ignorance.

1925 year.

The fifteenth year of Shenwu was like a spring rain and quietly came, as if there was no sign and reminder, and Emperor Song suddenly woke up in his nightdream, only to know that he had unconsciously spent a long fifteen years on the emperor's throne, and his youth was no longer there, and the woman around him was still young and gorgeous, but it was not the first love of yesterday.

The spring thunder sounded in the night, and the sting had arrived.

Song Biao put on a dark black mink coat, walked out of the dormitory, lit a Yuxi cigar in the quiet night, and sat in the wide rattan chair to enjoy this moment of tranquility and sorrow.

He was glad for himself to live in such a beautiful and hopeful era of freedom.

The gray Yuxi cigar between the fingers is filled with a wonderful aroma.

There is a natural drive for business, especially in this simple and pure era, every industrialist has the opportunity to create a legend belonging to Chinese businessmen, they have ideals and morals, have the influence of traditional culture and traditional values, they will not simply follow money worship.

It is precisely because of this that there will be Qi Hong and Baina.

Because of Qi Hong's success, when the royal family invested in the Yunnan Tobacco Company and Yuxi Cigar Factory, they chose Hu Guangmei, a Huizhou tea merchant who had never been involved in the cigarette industry before, to operate as a joint venture with this Huizhou businessman.

Probably adhering to the quality of the royal offering, Hu Guangmei personally went to Cuba to recruit the most famous cigar masters, introduced dozens of tobacco experiments and selections, and finally selected the two with the best growth effect in Yunnan, and all Yuxi cigars are mixed with the essence of these two kinds of tobacco, and there will be a slight spicy feeling when smoked at first glance, just like the sunshine of the plateau, and then you can experience the real fragrance.

The scent permeates the body and the surrounding environment, making it unforgettable.

Probably because of the imperial offering of the Chinese Emperor, from the very beginning, Yuxi cigars have been regarded as imperial treasures in the cigar world, and its slight pungency and strong fragrance are as noble as the emperor, and as fascinating as the emperor's rights.

If you want to do it, you will do your best, represent the Chinese, represent China, and replace foreign goods.

This is the dream of all Chinese industrialists in this era, who have worked hard to create one miracle after another for the Chinese people.

It is this spirit of Chinese businessmen that has made Yunnan a magical place, one of the world's best coffee, tea, wine and tobacco producers seemingly overnight, where people look for ancient magical centuries and the land of the legendary Southern Buddhism.

Although the ** of young girls makes men obsessed to death, in the lonely late night at this time, Song Biao misses the Queen Shu Xuan, if in such a late night, hearing the sound of his sleepless night, Shu Xuan will definitely get up and accompany him warmly and quietly by his side, as if it is the greatest support in his life.

It is shameful to betray a woman.

Song Biao's heart struggled between the obsession with youth ** and pure love, he thought that if the queen could not forgive him, he would definitely regret everything that betrayed her for the rest of his life.

True love is like a spicy and intense fragrance, which will only deepen with time, and it is as inseparable as if the lives of two people are blended together.

Sitting in such a quiet night, listening to the thunder in the distance, Song Biao felt the loneliness in the depths of his heart, as well as those beautiful sighs.

In the distant Soviet Union, Stalin had become the leader of the new Soviet Russian Reich, and in distant Germany, the Nazi Party officially came into view, and Hitler began to become the new statesman of the Germans, and was sentenced to prison and became the leader of the radical faction known throughout the country.

A month ago, the epoch-making first artificial transmutation in nuclear physics research was successful at the Cavendish Laboratory of the University of Cambridge, and the 201S3 Engineering Department, the top secret of the Imperial 201 Science and Technology Industrial Engineering, followed this new news and launched a new project, at the same time, the Empire invested a lot of manpower and material resources in the fields of punch card analog computers, relay computers and tube computers, and in this field surpassed several companies in the United States to become the world's most important analog computer production and research and development country.

The Bureau of Science and Industry of the Central Military Department has set out to establish the world's first electron tube computer for the statistics and calculation of war logistics materials, and the empire has always insisted on investing in the research of silicon and germanium transistors.

Similarly, Albert Brown, who published the special theory of relativity. Albert Einstein was hired at a high price to teach at Aurora University's German campus last year.

Here, Song Biao vaguely felt that this was the most valuable legacy he had left to the empire.

The era of empires is so brilliant and fascinating, and how many Chinese people were lucky to be born in this era, and the Song Emperor, who created this era, walked in the last glorious moment of his life, this year, he was already a thirty-eight-year-old man.

He still had many years to spend with the Empire as emperor, but the most energetic era of his life was dying, and this last decade was the best moment of his life.

He guessed that by the time he had gone through World War II, he must have been too old to accept.

What a wonderful thing youth is.

Looking back at the past, he didn't have a trace of regret, he never had the idea of hoping to turn back time and let him go back to the past and start over, because he knew that he had done his best, did his best, and spared no effort.

When dawn came, he got up from his chair and went to the bathroom to take a dripping hot shower, and then went to the Hibiscus Room to enjoy a quiet and warm breakfast with his wife, son, and daughter.

He had envied the happiness of his father-in-law, Shu Gaodi's extended family, and was willing to work hard for it, but now he had finally got his wish, and the number of members of the imperial family had increased to 17, and perhaps one more by the end of the year.

He has four wives, Empress Shu and Concubine Qiao Guifei in addition to Concubine Ning and Concubine Rong, there are four princes and eight princesses in the family, every day as long as Song Biao is in the imperial court, the family will gather in the Furong Hall to enjoy three meals, the children have been taught by the royal kindergarten teacher since they were young, and when they reach the age of eight, they will study in the primary school attached to Xinhua Middle School in the Central Military Region, and the prince will go to the Youth Preparatory Military Academy to board when he reaches the age of fourteen, and the princess will go to the middle school affiliated to Yanjing Foreign Chinese College.

The eldest princess Song Yuanyuan is fourteen years old this year, as beautiful as her mother when she was young, her surname is extraordinary, open-minded and humorous, she often makes Song Biao and the queen laugh, she is going to study at the Beijing Foreign Language High School this year, because she has received education in English and Russian since she was a child, and the foreign language is very good, but she is now more interested in French, and when she grows up, she wants to travel around the world and want to be a female diplomat.

Song Biao, as a father, is naturally enthusiastic supportive, and he specially sent her to the US Embassy in China as a junior intern during last year's winter vacation.

Mornings are the most wonderful time of the day, as if everything is brand new.

Song Yuanyuan just learned a Russian poem by Pushkin yesterday, and she couldn't wait to recite it to Song Biao and his family in the morning.

"Farewell, faithful oak grove! Good bye. The refreshing silence of the field, and the joyful day, flew away like a fly. ”

She recited loudly and emotionally, as if she had really been to the village of Mimelov and had seen the beautiful and dense oak forest where Lady Osipova was buried.

Listening to her childish but well-written Russian and Pushkin's poems, Song Biao seemed to return to his youth, alone in the gazebo of the high school campus, flipping through the original version of Pushkin's poetry selection, disdainful of the young female classmates who walked past him and envied them, and immersed himself in the vast world of Russia.

He loved the devastated but romantic Tsarist era, where oppression, poverty, misery, and the luxury and romance of the upper class constituted enough elements of conflict to make Russia as colorful as the stars in the sky.

When Princess Yuanyuan recited the full text and waited for her parents' praise with anticipation, Empress Shu sighed with a smile: "Yuanyuan, when you start reading His Excellency Pushkin's poems at such a young age, it may be difficult to appreciate his wonderful and desolate artistic conception, right?" ”

Such a tactful criticism made Princess Yuanyuan a little unhappy, and she spit out her pink little tongue to the queen mother with hatred, and then ran to her father for help.

Song Biao smiled very interestingly, patted his daughter's head, and said: "In the world, our consistent principle is to pretend not to understand until we really understand, my eldest princess, isn't this the truth?" ”

Princess Yuanyuan giggled and echoed happily, "Yes, yes." ”

When she recited "Goodbye, Faithful Oak Grove", Pushkin's most classic and touching poem, Song Biao had already finished breakfast and drank the last half cup of goat's milk and soy milk, and he said to Empress Shu: "I will entertain Marshal Xia Fei who has come to visit at noon, and I will not come back for dinner." ”

Empress Shu sighed and said, "Didn't you originally say that Marshal Foch came to visit?" ”

Song Biao said: "His position is too tough, and he expresses too much dissatisfaction with some secret cooperation between China and Germany, in order to avoid impacting the alliance and close cooperation between the two countries, His Excellency French President Dummège sent Marshal Xia Fei to negotiate new cooperation, which is also the most appropriate arrangement, because Xia Fei is the chairman of the French National Defense Council." ”

Empress Shu still didn't care too much and whispered, "That's pretty good." ”

She has always been so indifferent to military politics and state affairs, under the responsibility of the royal family, she pays more attention to women's education and power, and it is with her active initiative and persistence that the emperor will directly appoint six female parliamentarians in the general election of the parliament in May this year.

After Empress Heshu emphasized that she would not come back for dinner at noon, Song Biao gently kissed Princess Yuanyuan's little cheek, and then went to the office accompanied by the chamberlain.

This year is the last year of the first term of Ouyang Geng's cabinet, and the election of the central members of the National Assembly will be held in May.

The Empire did not adopt the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives to balance the provinces, but chose to use each province as a basis of 3 people, and according to the population limit, the total area of the province increased by up to five seats, which means that the average number of people in each province is about 6, and the emperor has the right to directly appoint 1/5 and 10 military representatives.

Because of the good achievements and anti-corruption hardline attitude of the Liberation Party during its administration, as well as the common prosperity policy advocated by the left wing of the Liberation Party, which has become the general trend within the empire, all parties expect that the Liberation Party will win another big victory this year, compared with the stability of the Liberation Party, other political parties have undergone great changes in the past few years, the Ming Cook Party and the Constituent Assembly merged into the new China Ming Cook Party, with Song Jiaoren as the chairman, and firmly maintained the seat of the second party, and the New Deal Strong Council and the Restoration and Progressive Association merged to form the China Progressive Party to continue to maintain the third party.

In addition to the three major parties of Guangfu, Mingzhuo, and Progress, the right-radical China Youth Party and the left-reformist China Social Democratic Party are still too far behind the first two parties, although they have gradually gained a certain degree of influence.

Among the three major parties, the Liberation Party belongs to centrist reformism, which is characterized by emphasizing centralized and decentralized politics, emphasizing the spirit of modernization and traditional reform, and emphasizing the common role of the state and the people in promoting the cause of national recovery, that is, it not only emphasizes the principle of free competition in the market, but also emphasizes the role of macroeconomic regulation and control of the political axe, and belongs to the position of a strong central political axe; The Ming Cook Party belongs to the right-wing liberal economy, emphasizing the reduction of political axes in the liberal economy; The Progressive Party belongs to the conservative faction, emphasizing the importance of traditional culture and the concept of "governing the country with national learning, and strengthening the country with Western learning", which is basically a continuation of the new policy ministers such as Zhang Zhidong.

There is no suspense about the Liberation Party's victory again, and now it is only a question of whether it will be able to take the lead by as much as the last time.

Regardless of the outcome of the congressional elections, Song Biao did not worry too much about it, and the power he held was enough to ensure the basic stability of the country.

After he arrived at the General Office, Wang Zhaoming also immediately submitted two important documents of the Secretariat, namely the State Remarks and the Chinese and Foreign News Minutes, along with today's "Central Daily," "Information and Government Reference," and "World Economic Report."

All three newspapers are required reading for domestic officials and have the largest circulation in the country.

During this time, there was nothing big at home and abroad, and after a brief review of the state notes and Chinese and foreign news minutes, Song Biao took out about an hour to read the newspaper.

Since Wang Zhaoming assumed the post of the General Administration of the Inner Court, he has generally been responsible for the editorial commentaries in recent years, and only those editorials that are particularly important or written by Song Biao himself will be stamped with the seal of "Emperor Shenwu" and published in the name of the emperor.

Because of Marshal Xia Fei's visit to China, the title of the article in today's Central Editorial is "Looking Back on the 15 Years of China and France, Looking Forward to the Future," which is written in a decent manner, which not only points out some disharmony between China and France, but also emphasizes the reason why the Sino-French alliance is important.

Song Biao re-lit a Yuxi cigar, sat here and slowly admired Wang Zhaoming's writing, it should be said that the article is very well written, the words are very accurate, and it is also the connotation of quoting scriptures, but it is difficult to say whether the French can understand the deep meaning of the full text after being translated into French.

After the signing of the Washington Treaty, there were three major camps in the world, namely the Chinese, French, and American camps, the British-Italian camp, and the Soviet Union, and the debt problem between China and the United States and Britain was the most important international contradiction, and there were also too many irreconcilable factors on financial rights and international economic and trade issues.

There are also many contradictions within the Sino-French-American camp; with the sharp contraction of US foreign trade and the plummeting of the value of international grain, the United States has constantly demanded that China, France, and other countries reduce tariffs, but to no avail, and all countries are unwilling to lower tariffs.

France has the highest tariffs in the world, and China and the United States demand that France continue to open its colonial markets to the two countries, but France naturally does not agree, and France demands that China and the United States reduce their debts, but China and the United States do not agree, and the secret technical cooperation between China and Germany dissatisfies France, which is always trying to blockade Germany, and the military-technical cooperation between France and France makes China dissatisfied.

Compared with the internal struggle between China, France, and the United States, the relationship between Britain and the United States is more solid, and the British alliance has become the only winner of this international confrontation, and its global economic growth rate is second only to China.

The chairman of the French National Defense Council, Joseph Brown. It was under such circumstances that Marshal Xia Fei visited China, and both sides hoped that through this visit, the two sides would deepen their cooperation and restore the close Sino-French alliance to deal with various problems between the two countries.

Marshal Xia Fei arrived in Yanjing last evening, and this morning he will formally meet with Jiang Fangzhen, chief of the general staff of the Central Military Department, and go to the central palace of the imperial court to meet His Majesty Emperor Hua before noon, and Emperor Hua will also hold a banquet to entertain him.

After confirming that he had arrived at the Central Road, Song Biao changed into a white military dress of the commander-in-chief of the three armies in advance, and put on a white dragon red cloud pattern with the royal symbol, and went to the White Deer Palace, which is dedicated to receiving foreign heads of state.

Bailu is native to the Mediterranean in Europe, and was regarded as auspicious by the ancient Chinese dynasties, and Zhu Xi rebuilt the academy in the Bailu Cave in Jiujiang in the Song Dynasty.

After several researches, Song Biao finally named this white palace with a typical Gothic style as White Deer Palace, and set up a forest garden behind White Deer Palace to keep more than ten white deer in captivity.

Song Biao had met Marshal Xia Fei during World War I before, so this was their second meeting, after meeting, Song Biao found that Marshal Xia Fei was more pot-bellied than in the past, if you want to select the fattest military commander in the world, Marshal Xia Fei will definitely be able to occupy the first place.

Just because they have seen each other, there is no need to introduce them again, and China and France are now eager to re-maintain the Sino-French alliance, Song Biao personally stepped forward to shake hands with him when he saw Marshal Xia Fei, and said: "I have always wanted to invite Your Excellency to the Empire, and now I have finally invited Your Excellency, I am also very much looking forward to Your Excellency's arrival, and I hope that Your Excellency can spare some time in this country of China to sightsee and play around, as the world knows, this is an ancient country in the East with a history of 5,000 years, with a vast territory, The scenery is beautiful and varied, and there is so much to see. ”

Joseph. Xia Fei is a French man with moderate political positions, and his surname is also known for his extraordinary calmness, patience and endurance, and strong willpower, and he can hold on to his heart's huge plan without making mistakes in the most difficult war environment, and he is indeed a rare military commander.

He also admired Emperor Hua's strong courage and courage as the commander of the Chinese affairs that can be compared with the Napoleonic Emperor, whether it was the Sino-Chinese Xinhai War or the later Sino-Soviet War, the Song Emperor showed the world's military circles in the war was the kind of large-scale military dispatch that broke through the convention, and suddenly annihilated hundreds of thousands, or even millions of enemy troops in the rapid onslaught.

Europeans say that the Song Emperor was the Napoleon of the East, to Joseph. From the point of view of Xia Fei as the same army commander, this is definitely a well-deserved evaluation.

He immediately replied to Emperor Song very sincerely: "Your Majesty, I am very happy to be received by you, in the great world of today's military commanders, you are a well-deserved Napoleon of the East. Emperor Napoleon said that China is a sleeping lion, and the best thing to do is not to wake him up. Now we all know that it was Your Majesty who awakened this lion and will lead China to conquer the whole world. ”

Compliment each other, and each other seems to be very harmonious.

Song Biao invited Marshal Xiafei to sit down, and after the waiter brought the tea, he also personally poured tea for Marshal Xiafei, so that Marshal Xiafei couldn't help but feel a sense of sincerity and fear, and hurriedly wanted to pour the tea himself.

Song Biao did not refuse, when Xia Fei poured tea, he took the opportunity to introduce: "Usually the imperial royal family receives foreign guests to choose Qimen black tea, this time, I invite you to taste the Yunnan red of Xishuangbanna, if you have been in China long enough, you will also have the opportunity to taste the imperial Shu red, Hui red, Zhejiang red, Gan red and the three major Fujian reds, as well as Guangdong Yue red." ”

Marshal Xia Fei took a sip of Yunnan red, praised it, and said: "The empire is indeed worthy of being the hometown of tea, there are so many kinds of black tea alone, it is really an enviable great country." ”

Listening to such a heartfelt admiration, Song Biao felt happy, maybe the things we are accustomed to are the most cherished in the eyes of others, he wanted to continue to recommend to Marshal Xia Fei some green tea that is more popular with the Chinese people, as well as very rare white tea and black tea, but in the end it was just to order, as if the biggest treasure of China's tea kingdom is black tea.

However, during the fifteen years of the imperial era, China's black tea was indeed the fastest and best, and these were all thanks to the efforts of the Minister of Agriculture Wang Yongjiang and the strong sense of crisis of the entire empire about Chinese tea culture, as well as the awakening of national self-esteem that could not let the soul of this nation decline.

In the field of tea, the empire vigorously advocated black tea and Western-style technology, set up the Chinese Tea Industry Research Institute to continuously improve and improve tea seedlings, and determined 22 provincial-level regional standard brands, almost every major tea province has a core local brand, such as Yunnan red, Shu red, Yue Hong, Zhejiang red, Su Hong, Hui Hong, Min Hong, etc., and Qi Hong, Min Hong, Yunnan Red and Zhengshan Xiaozhong have been established as China's four major black teas, and all regional standardized brands are licensed and supervised in accordance with the concession certificate, and the brand is not allowed to be used if it does not meet the standards, and heavy fines are imposed on illegal private property.

In the world's major tea consuming countries, the empire has also long funded propaganda, promoting China's tea culture through various strategies, shaping China into a real tea kingdom, and re-branding the label of tea with a strong Chinese mark.

This long-term and strong policy eventually led to the rapid revival of the imperial tea industry, and in just a decade it re-surpassed India as the world's largest tea exporter, and re-established the image of China's tea kingdom around the world.

In France, 95% of tea imports come from China, and 70% of them come from Minhong, which is the largest producer.

After a short polite moment, Marshal Xia Fei couldn't wait to cut to the point, and proposed to Song Biao: "Your Majesty, as we all know, China's industrial level is rapidly improving, before meeting you, I had the honor to see the Qingzhou-class battleships recently launched in the Fuzhou Shipyard, I must say that China is becoming the most powerful industrial country in the world, and the latest equipment of the shipyard surprised and envied me, a military commander from France. China has the most powerful army in the world, and if you become the world's leading naval power, there is no country in the world that can be your enemy, but in Europe, France is still in an awkward situation, France's security is being provoked, and Germany is not really giving up their military, as we fear, if the United States and Britain continue to indulge Germany, Germany will eventually become a land power that will threaten France. ”

Song Biao thought for a while and said: "Marshal Foch said that the Peace of Versailles was only a twenty-year armistice, which is not wrong, and I have repeatedly reminded you that you must strengthen the construction of the army, but you always listen to it. Whether it is the army, the air force, or the navy, in our opinion, there are still many loopholes in the systematic construction of the army, and if France does not take precautions in peacetime, it will eventually be punished by history. ”

Marshal Xia Fei replied evasively: "Compared with the Empire's army expenditure, our army's expenditure is still relatively small, and we have a large part of the expenses to be used for the salaries of soldiers, and the military service system adopted by the Empire is indeed an extremely clever choice in terms of expenditure. ”

Song Biao said: "It is an indisputable fact that China's army spends a lot of money, but France can still do a lot of work, and the biggest problem of the French army is the lack of a long-term plan. In my opinion, the next twenty years will be the stage of the tactical and technological revolution of the world's navy, land and air force, if any country cannot keep up with this trend, it will be completely eliminated, France needs to start working on this now, as far as we know best, the mechanized army is already an inevitable trend, the popularization of tanks and self-propelled guns, as well as military trucks will completely change the speed of traditional warfare, which requires the creation of more rapid and elite troops, as well as corresponding defense strategies. If, ten years later, there is a war between China and France, and my main force is located in Germany, I am very sure that I will occupy Paris within a week, and our large-scale mechanization exercises in the Northwest and Shanxi have proved that mechanization can increase the movement speed and logistical supply capacity of the troops to more than ten times that of the First World War, including firepower, which can also become more ferocious because of the improvement of logistics capabilities, which means that the firepower in the unit area can be greatly increased, so, We can't wait to fully replace semi-automatic rifles with higher rates of fire, and light machine guns and submachine guns continue to be installed at the infantry squad level. ”

Marshal Xia Fei thought for a moment in silence and asked, "Your Majesty, can you transfer a copy of the exercise materials of the Imperial Army to our National Defense Commission?" ”

Song Biao replied: "Of course, there is no problem. ”

Song Biao will not refuse, because China and France are still the most important allies of each other, and they are only weakening because of temporary differences between the two sides, but as Germany becomes stronger again, Sino-French relations will continue to become strong and inseparable.

As for the question of how the French army could resist the German army, Song Biao also had a headache, because the depth of France was too small, only 500 kilometers from the Rhine River to Paris, and it only took three days for the German army during World War II.

It is only 1,200 kilometers from the northeast to the southwest of France, and the forward speed of 200 kilometers a day can be advanced to the end in a week, which is completely different from China's situation.

Even if the empire faces the challenge and attack of the Soviet Union and Germany at the same time, there is an ultra-long depth of 6,000 kilometers from west to east, if you calculate the distance spanned by the Soviet and German armies, their main forces and supply will be more than 10,000 kilometers of long supply lines, as long as the empire maintains air superiority, even if the Soviet and German attack together, they will find death.

If it was just a land and air war, Emperor Song would definitely have the domineering power to challenge two world-class opponents at the same time, the weakness of the empire was the weakness of the navy, and this short board was too short, so that the empire could only rely on the joint development of submarines with Germany to make up for this weakness.

Fortunately, the cooperation between the Reich and Germany at this stage has basically come to an end, and both sides have what they need, and in view of the Sino-French military alliance, Germany is not willing to maintain long-term cooperation with the Reich, and after reaching a secret agreement with Stalin, many of Germany's military research bases have been transferred to the Soviet Union, and the Reich, after obtaining the various technologies it needs, also needs to study submarines and other military equipment that completely belong to its own country on this basis.

Of course, commercial cooperation between China and Germany remained very close, especially in the exchange and introduction of technical personnel, and China was the main beneficiary of this cooperation, and by 1925 the total number of Germans working in the Reich had exceeded 700,000, half of them concentrated in Shandong Province.

So, Joseph. The timing of Marshal Xia Fei's arrival is just right, and now is indeed the time for China and France to cooperate on a larger scale and truly restore the Sino-French alliance.

(To be continued)