4 June 1646, Manchester City, North America.

As soon as Children's Day passed, the citizens of the capital saw an unexpected notice from the city government on the city hall square, which was promulgated by the municipal education bureau and distributed to all public kindergartens, primary and secondary schools in the city.

Notice: In view of the lack of public education resources, starting from the new semester in the second half of the year, non-local residents of Manchester City, whose children from families study in public kindergartens, primary schools and middle schools, will be charged a school choice fee for children with non-local household registration.

This administrative notice can be regarded as breaking the completely compulsory education system for primary and secondary schools that Huamei has insisted on for more than 20 years, and it is also the first precedent for the differentiation of the household registration policy in Manchester City.

Having been wearing the hat of the provisional capital for more than 20 years, there is no doubt that the city of Manchester has concentrated the best resources in the country. Even as heavy industry moves away, the city's thriving urban economy still provides one of the best jobs in the country.

As of the first quarter of this year, there were only more than 120,000 citizens with household registration in the files of the Mancheng Civil Affairs Bureau, but now the permanent population of the capital has exceeded 170,000, and nearly one-third of the capital's residents are registered in other places.

The minimum wage adjustment by the state last year is an insurmountable hurdle for large enterprises with the strictest supervision of labor contracts, but it is resisted by private and micro enterprises. By extending working hours in disguise, the significance of the minimum wage guarantee for employees has been greatly diluted. Especially for those positions that are the hardest and most tiring or have long working hours, employers usually like those who privately take the initiative to get temporary job opportunities with low salaries, which virtually squeezes the employment opportunities of "local old fritters".

At present, more than half of the capital's urban service industry workers are registered in other places, and some of these types of work have been completely "occupied" by non-local household registrations. As household incomes continue to rise, local residents have gradually moved away from so-called low-status service jobs such as dishwashers, laundry workers, porters, sewer dredgers, garbage cleaners, etc., and a large number of migrant workers with non-local household registration have filled in.

The influx of a large number of people from other places and the increase in the urban population have naturally formed the basis for the continued prosperity of all walks of life in the capital, but it has also brought pressure on many aspects of urban management, especially in the fields of public security, health and education.

Needless to say, there are all kinds of birds in the forest, and there is no legal basis for talking about foreign household registration, after all, all the people who are eligible for free movement within the framework of Chinese and American law are nationals with permanent household registration and residence certificates.

The clear provisions of the Labor and Social Security Law have eliminated the possibility of local governments exploiting loopholes in employment and medical insurance from the legal level. However, the area of education is relatively vague, at least the compulsory education law does not clearly define the content of household registration management for school-age teenagers.

From free school uniforms to free lunch and dinner, from family education bonuses to extracurricular art clubs, the welfare of students in Manchester's public primary and secondary schools is second to none in the country. Being able to send children to public schools in the capital is actually equivalent to completely handing over the children to the state to raise, and parents have no pressure to have as many children as possible, from kindergarten to the fifth grade of middle school, they will save a lot of money in more than ten years.

(Note: The family education bonus is a unique award program for some public primary and secondary schools in the capital of China, which is specially set up for the parents of students, and the families of students who have outstanding performance in designated life skills or talents will receive the bonus.) ）

In order to supplement the shortage of public primary and secondary schools, Manchester City has long encouraged social forces to establish private primary and secondary schools, but most of these schools are aristocratic schools for wealthy families seeking more advanced educational opportunities.

The introduction of such a policy by the Manchester city government is tantamount to semi-forcibly depriving most of the children of low-income working families who are not registered in Manchester from public schools, and forcing them to give up working and settle in Manchester City and return to their original places of residence.

But this is also a helpless move, because even if the investment in urban construction is increased every year, the growth rate of the capital's population still exceeds the rate of urban renovation and expansion. In addition, the complaints of local residents are no longer limited to small streets and alleys, so curbing the inflow of foreign population from the side has become a task that has to be done at this stage.

However, anyone with a discerning eye knows that to alleviate the pressure of the capital's population expansion, I am afraid that it cannot be done by a single differentiated policy of compulsory education household registration. Not only the capital, but also the state capitals or central towns are currently experiencing a more or less concentrated inflow of people from other places.

High urbanization will reduce the average management cost of the large-scale population at the macro level, boost consumption, and provide more employment opportunities in the urban service industry, but it will also raise the cost of urban governance and the hidden danger of urban construction bubbles. The siphoning effect of large cities that occupy superior social resources on talents and capital will also make it more difficult for small local cities to develop.

At present, playing a sideshow in the compulsory education policy is only an introduction to the differentiation of the local household registration system in all aspects, and it is probably only a matter of time before all parts of the country and all walks of life follow the trend and exploit loopholes.

For the gorgeous top-level designers who emphasized population management and social stability in the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China, the hukou system used to be the most annoying thing in their hearts, but it was precisely the most familiar to them. When they become top-level managers, the necessity of a hukou system is overwhelming, and beyond that, they are not sure to operate a population management model that they have never experienced before.

Choosing the hukou system is tantamount to choosing the inequality of the future, and an undifferentiated and equal civil society is still just an idealism in the final analysis.

……

……

The success of local government policies will naturally be judged by man and time, and the disappointment of the city's non-local residents has not prevented the Chinese and American top brass from continuing to operate a long-planned strategy for this new world.

In the conference room of the Army Headquarters, a special meeting is underway, and the main topic of the meeting is about an accident at the Army Far East Command.

Major General Deng Jian, who was originally the commander of the Army's Far East Command, accidentally fell off his horse during a military exercise a few days ago, causing multiple fractures on his body.

Major General Liu Chenxu is wiping his ass in the Indian Ocean Viceroyalty for last year's failed Madagascar war to defend against the possible retaliation of the Kingdom of Merina. Unlike Governor Sun Hongyi, who was disheartened and chose to resign, Liu Chenxu was desperate to get back on the field, and at present, he has no intention of going to other war zones.

Brigadier General Shen Mo is currently leading a brigade-sized mixed unit in French Quebec, tasked with clearing France's many small colonial strongholds. Shen Mo was very young when he joined the army, but except in the field of artillery, his military command ability was very average, and his rank promotion has been very slow, and he did not have the command ability of the scale and grade of military operations in the Far East.

Major General Xu Hongyun is currently organizing a large-scale military operation in Jiangzhou in the south to eliminate Bao Hatan and other hostile Indian tribes. In order to gather sufficient troops, the Ministry of Defense also launched the largest "field training" of the National Guard to date, in which a total of more than 3,000 members of the National Guard units from various states, together with a small number of regular troops of the National Defense Forces and the Foreign Legion, were organized into two brigade-level combat units, determined to force the opponent into the mountains of western Alabachia to fend for themselves before winter.

Some of the remaining army generals are either in logistics positions, or their actual combat experience is far inferior to that of the above-mentioned generals, so the military deployment of the Chinese and US Army in the East has suddenly fallen into a situation where there are no generals available.

When Major General Scott walked into the conference room, many people present stopped muttering, especially the Chief of the Army General Staff, General He Yu, who also stood up and nodded in greeting.

"I'm sorry, Major General Scott, for you to come from West Point early in the morning." As soon as Scott sat down, He Yu pushed a cup of tea in front of the other party.

"Your Excellency the Chief of the General Staff is polite, I originally planned to come to the capital in a few days to participate in my daughter's fundraising charity performance, this time I should come to see her in advance."

Ten years ago, Scott commanded troops to participate in the Southern Mountains Rebellion War and the Brazilian War, and Scott left the front line and stayed in the position of president of West Point for a full decade. Probably accustomed to the regular life of light and breezy, the classic cold expression was replaced by an indifferent smile.

"Now that General Scott has arrived, I'll just say what I think. I mean, it is proposed that Major General Scott replace Major General Deng Jian in the post of Army Far East Command and Commander-in-Chief of Military Operations in the Far East! ”

He Yu's knuckles tapped on the tabletop, and the bell-like speech actually had a shocking feeling in the small conference room.

With a puzzled expression, he whispered a few questions to a European brigadier general next to him, and after receiving the answer, Scott's one-eyed eyes flashed with surprise.

"This is the result of my conversation with the Chief of Staff, General Scott, and this is an emergency, which is why you came from West Point. For now, you are the most suitable person, and this will be a military operation that has never been seen before, and it is worthy of your resume. ”

The commander-in-chief of the army, General Chen Liwen, also signed a document and said an appointment that was not a formal appointment without raising his head.

"Your Excellency, can I take a look at the plan of action first?"

As he spoke, Scott pulled out a pair of glasses from his jacket pocket, a result of moderate myopia caused by ten years of teaching at the Army Academy at West Point and writing a lot of textbooks. An army lieutenant hurriedly placed a document in front of Scott, who began to flip through it in front of everyone present.

did not recklessly express opinions or express determination, but first understood the situation, Scott's rigorous style made Chen Liwen and He Yu even more confident. There was silence in the conference room for a while, except for the rustle of Scott flipping through papers.

"I'm sorry, I think I'll probably need a day to think about it." After reading the last page, Scott finally stood up, his previous indifferent smile was gone, and he returned to the familiar cold and solemn expression, "This time tomorrow, I will go to the office of the two of you to say my opinion." ”

Scott apologized slightly to the two army generals, and was even more shocked by the details of the military operation in the Far East that he had seen before.

Although Scott had known for a long time that the country would intervene in the Far East, the Tatar-induced geopolitical crisis, judging from the current information, the Army's ambitions may be much more than simply stopping the adversary through a war.

Once he accepts this appointment, he will probably have to stay in the East for several years, and the one he is most worried about is his only daughter Alice, who lives in Manchester City.

"No problem, if you reply to my appointment now, maybe I'll regret calling you here. Also, on the weekends I go to your daughter's charity show, and what your daughter is doing right now is great. ”

After glancing at He Yu, Chen Liwen smiled. He knew that Scott needed time to digest the information, and he could tell that the other party was already eager to try.

……

……

The carriage was parked on a remote boulevard with a villa-style single-family building on the side of the road. Looking left and right, except for the occasional shaking of the cleaner or gardener, it is almost impossible to see a person walking around, and it seems very quiet.

Created from a neighborhood redevelopment and a small park last year, this upscale residential complex is one of the few upscale neighborhoods on West Long Island that can rival the rich streets of Manchester's South Side. When his daughter had to settle down in Manchester City for her career, Scott bought one of the best villas in the city.

Leaving a small amount of luggage to the casual adjutant to tidy up, Scott walked straight into the villa and opened the door with ease.

There was a fast-paced conversation in the living room, and it seemed that there were other guests besides her daughter.

"Miss Alice, please respect the work of our agent. You have changed your starring plan without authorization this time, which has made it very difficult for the company. ”

A slightly older young man was sitting opposite Alice with a tangled face, rummaging through the file bag in his hand while muttering: "I have tried my best to win the company's understanding for your personal fundraising charity performance on the weekend." But next week, in any case, you have to complete the established endorsement contracts, otherwise, the company is likely to face a default. ”

Although the beautiful girl in front of her sat here seriously, she still had a smile and an absent-minded expression, as if all her attention was focused on the honey fruit tea in her hand. Judging by the habit of getting along for a long time, the agent knows that Alice has made the choice to refuse.

"Mr. Jiang, these contracts were only signed by your brokerage company, and I didn't agree to them. According to the broker-agent contract signed between us, any commercial notices that exceed the three-day priority date must be confirmed by me. ”

Alice grinned and pushed the contract on the table towards the other party slightly, but there was no complaint or accusation in her polite and nice voice.

"You'd better think again......" The young agent already had a little despair on his face.

"Ah...... Father! ”

After a few seconds, Alice suddenly stood up in surprise, walked around the couch, and almost ran into Scott's arms. The girl, who was already twenty-one, was still tired of her father's side like a child, and then quickly shrank behind her father, as if seeking shelter from her father, and her indifferent demeanor disappeared without a trace.

"You're Alice's agent?"

Held by his daughter's arm, Scott spent a few minutes reading the commercial endorsement contract that brought "infinite pressure" to his daughter before, and the smile in his eyes never stopped.

"Yes...... Sir, oh no, Your Excellency General...... This is a rare opportunity, the three commercial endorsement contracts of 'Rainbow Clothing', 'Green Forest Furniture' and 'Black Wolf Beer' have been carefully selected by the company, which can bring your daughter at least 10,000 yuan of after-tax income. Miss Alice only needed to spend a month shooting and painting three sets of promotional images and posters......"

In the face of Scott's military aura, the agent was already nervous to death.

"10,000 yuan after tax? What an unexpected number, it's almost enough to purchase equipment for a light artillery battery......"

Scott looked a little surprised, touching his shaved chin in contemplation, as if for the first time he recognized his daughter's ability to attract money and the role she played in this country.

"An artillery battery? Belch...... Maybe......"

The young agent was even more embarrassed, and he didn't know how to take the conversation.

"However, I think if the troops don't have equipment needs, the Ministry of Defense can't shoehorn a company of artillery equipment in, right?"

Glancing at the number that could make anyone's heart tick again, Scott smiled and handed the contract to his daughter, saying that he supported her in any choice.

"I want to sign this again next year. I'm going to the East next month! ”

Alice took a deep breath and finally said what she really was going to do.

"Huh?"

"Miss Alice?!"

Scott's and agent's expressions changed almost at the same time.

"Yes, my charitable foundation, need to go where help is really needed. It's my dream to go to the East, Dad, will you support me, right? ”

Alice spoke her heart in one breath, her chest rising and falling rapidly because of excitement.

Looking at his daughter's serious look that he had never seen before, Scott had mixed feelings.

……

……

The next day, the General Headquarters of the Army.

"General Scott?"

Chen Liwen gently knocked on the table, and pointed to the tea that had cooled in front of the other party.

"Oh, it's rude, Your Excellency!"

Scott came back from his trance and took his teacup apologetically, as he pulled the papers he had put together all night yesterday out of his briefcase.

"Your Excellency, I am personally deeply honored to be appointed to the Far East, but only if the Army Headquarters agrees to me some conditions."

As Scott flipped through the papers, the dark color suddenly became serious: "As for the military plan for the Far East, I think that the lack of troops will be a fatal problem. If I don't solve this, I'm afraid I won't be able to do my job. ”

"The 3rd Brigade of the Army (Eastern Brigade), the Brown Bear Brigade of the Foreign Legion, and the 1st Volunteer Brigade of the Army, which will complete its training next month, are under your command of three full-fledged infantry brigades, and it is an exaggeration to say that this country has never invested so many troops on a single battlefield!"

Chen Liwen's face suddenly looked a little unpleasant, and he was a little unacceptable to Scott's attitude of increasing the number of troops as a condition for taking office, you must know that this troop deployment plan is already the limit of the army headquarters.

"First of all, this coming war in the Far East will be a war experience that we have never experienced before. We have never had a precedent for successfully fighting at a distance of more than two hundred kilometers from the coastline or supply points. This was demonstrated earlier this year in the western part of Jiangzhou and last year in Madagascar. ”

"Secondly, the size of the enemy, the war experience, is far stronger than any opponent we have met before. To put it bluntly, any battle that took place in the Ming Empire was more than the sum of all the battles in the European war in a year, and the proportion of equipment with hot weapons would not be much worse than that of European countries. ”

"The current military deployment scenario is too risky and too optimistic. According to the most streamlined preset plan for the campaign, even with the cooperation of the Asian Fleet, we will have to disperse our forces in two inland directions, and the farthest will land behind enemy lines and penetrate deep into the interior, and the preset battlefield will be at least 200 kilometers away from the coastline in a straight line. ”

"Unlike the traditional army of the opponent, which can replenish combat strength and materials on the spot, the logistical support capacity of our infantry brigade is very limited, and it can only last for a week in the case of independent operations, and the number is only three days when it comes down to the front-line combat company. Every soldier, every shell, and every bullet we have to pay more logistical burden than our opponents to reach the theater of operations, and just maintaining the security of the logistics support channels in the theater may take up half or even a brigade of troops. ”

"The plan calls for a perfect campaign of annihilation to control the Ming Empire, not a simple successful defense. But to deal with a Tatar army that is far larger than any country in Europe with three brigades, the probability of success is difficult to predict, IMHO. Under such circumstances, the pressure on the officers and men of the front-line combat units will be extremely great, and the slightest negligence or a slight increase in the casualties of the troops may lead to the stagnation of key operations, or even the complete failure of key operations. When the time comes, a remedy will cost us even more. ”

Scott unhurriedly summed up and explained the operational characteristics of the Chinese and US Army over the years in combination with practical examples, and the more he talked about the latter, the more he showed that the planned content of the military operation in the Far East at hand was a wishful thinking.

Looking at Scott's one-eyed, Chen Liwen fell into deep thought, and after a few minutes simply stood up and walked around his desk.

"The reason for choosing you is that you have the ability to command a large military force, and you know that the stability of the situation in the Far East is very important to us! This military operation in the Far East will set the pattern for the Far East for the next ten years, and the Ming Empire will go all out, and as long as the diplomatic side goes well, they will also provide us with considerable logistical support. ”

After thinking about it for a while, Chen Liwen found an explanation that didn't look like an explanation.

"Yes, half of the key to the success of the campaign is on our allies, but as far as I know, the armies of the Ming Empire were all negative in the face of the Tatars. So, all my preparations are based on the assumption that I can handle the worst-case changes. ”

After slowly sitting back at his desk, Chen Liwen was really silent now. The military leadership has been conceiving this military operation for 20 years, which integrates group interests and historical feelings, and even if everything is based on contempt and crushing prediction of backward feudal armies, Scott's pragmatic thinking is to the point.

Theoretically, there is not much of a problem in achieving victory, but opportunism still dominates the program of military operations that has been revised several times. At least when it comes to predicting the details of the war, there are not many people in this country who can match Scott's vast experience.

"General Scott, I understand and respect your analysis, but you also know the current situation, no matter which direction, there are no more combat units at the Army Headquarters that can be transferred to you."

Chen Liwen sighed, showing an embarrassed look for the first time in front of his subordinates.

As if having already guessed the difficulties of the commander-in-chief of the army, Scott once again took a document from his briefcase and gently placed it on the table.

……

……

Major General Scott's "Far East Campaign Force Replenishment Plan" can be called a paper "big inventory" operation within the army, which made Chen Liwen and He Yu two army generals have to admire.

Scott's request for additional troops was not excessive, as long as one more brigade of troops was added. In order to gather enough troops for the brigade, Scott sketched out every corner of the military's current operations in order of priority.

Brigade headquarters units are relatively simple, and they only need to be drawn from the army headquarters and the teaching teams of various military academies to be formed.

The brigade headquarters guard company, composed of a company drawn from the capital garrison, is absolutely elite.

The cavalry company directly under the brigade was transferred from the 1st Cavalry Brigade that was fighting in Quebec, and at present, the Quebec operation has entered its final stage, and the transfer of a cavalry company has almost no impact.

The light artillery battalion is composed of one company each from the artillery training battalion of the West Point Military Academy and the cavalry artillery battalion of the 1st Cavalry Brigade.

The baggage battalion is handled by the National Militia Garrison Command, and there is no problem in recruiting hundreds of non-front-line combat soldiers on the mainland.

Crucially, Scott had four infantry battalions in demand, so in addition to the Marine battalion that surprised Mr. Chen, Scott also selected three new Wehrmacht volunteer units that had been formed by the Department of Defense last month. They are the 1st Caribbean Volunteer Camp, the 2nd Azorean Volunteer Camp and the 3rd Indian Volunteer Camp.

The Caribbean Volunteer Battalion and the Azorean Volunteer Battalion are both light infantry battalions, and compared with a standard infantry battalion of more than 500 people in the army, a battalion has less than 400 people, and there is a fire support company understaff. The officers and men of the two battalions, all of whom are retired officers and men of the former Foreign Legion, have extremely rich combat experience, and the average age of the soldiers has reached an incredible age of 35.

As for the Jiangzhou inland purge campaign, which was dominated by the National Guard, Scott believed that the current sweeping force was sufficient, and it would not make much sense to invest two more light infantry battalions.

The Indian Volunteer Battalion is a volunteer recruited in Portuguese India authorized by the Ministry of Defense of the Indian Ocean Viceroyalty, which is also a light infantry battalion, but the soldiers are not literally native-born Indians, but the descendants of Chinese who have been settling in Portuguese India through immigration channels and trade for more than 20 years.

The Indian Volunteer Battalion is currently training in Madagascar with the Blackwater Security Company, which is a request made by Theater Commander Liu Chenxu to the Army Headquarters and the Ministry of Defense in order to make up for the weakness of the local defense force after the war in Madagascar.

In Scott's view, the follow-up problem for Madagascar is not to increase the number of troops to strengthen the defense, but to require the local government to make gestures of détente and concession with the local indigenous kingdom of Merina.

With the strength of the Indian Ocean Fleet, if it is really pure defense, and several coastal colonial towns are all covered by the range of naval guns, the need for ground defense forces is actually not as urgent as imagined. Anyway, it is unlikely that Huamei will launch a retaliatory war against the Merina Kingdom in recent years, so it is okay to temporarily slow down the deployment of local troops.

As for the transfer of the Marine battalion to this mixed army brigade, it will need to be coordinated by the Department of Defense, after all, the Marine Corps has been waiting in Jiangzhou since the beginning of the year and has been preparing to enter Florida. Scott saw this as a waste of troops, and as long as France bowed its head strategically in North America, it was only a matter of time before Florida was "recovered."

In Scott's mind, the Marine Battalion will be the most important combat strength of this mixed brigade, because the establishment is different from the Army, this Marine Corps called the battalion has a strength of more than 800 people, which is more than the combined strength of the Caribbean Battalion and the Azorean Battalion, and the elite degree is claimed to exceed the capital garrison battalion.

In contrast, the Caribbean Volunteer Battalion, the Azorean Volunteer Battalion, and the Indian Volunteer Battalion are all light infantry battalions with much weaker firepower, while the brigade light artillery battalion has only two artillery companies and eight field guns. After several calculations, the total strength of the new mixed brigade is about 3,000 people, and with the integration of the Marine battalion, the combat effectiveness is barely comparable to that of the Eastern Brigade or the Brown Bear Brigade.

Once all the above-mentioned units are reorganized and shipped to the Far East, the strength of the Far East Army under Major General Scott will rise to four brigades with a total of more than 11,500 officers and men, which will set a record for the largest number of troops assembled in a single theater since the founding of the Chinese Army.

……

……

The Delaware Indian-based First Volunteer Brigade of the Army will take another month to end the training, and the overall progress is a little later than expected, and the temporary mixed brigade will not be able to be adjusted in a short time, and the candidates for some middle and low-level officers still need to be considered, so Scott will accompany his daughter Alice to live in Manchester City in the coming month.

Scott chose limited support for Alice's plan, but he persuaded his daughter to complete the agency's contract before setting off with him.

The biggest reason is that Scott feels that he is going to go to the East, and if he can walk with his daughter, on the one hand, he can meet his daughter's wishes, and on the other hand, he can feel that his family is by his side.

While Scott made the final decision and Alice rejoiced, Senate Speaker Qi Jianjun's home was also jumping.

Qi Zuping once again rejected the blind date arranged for her by her parents, and resigned from the unit, intending to go to the Pearl Island Overseas Consulate in the Far East with Alice as the founding partner of the Alice Charity Foundation to carry out charity tour promotion.

Qi Zuping showed his determination to devote himself to charity and children's education with the attitude of "never marrying", which made Qi Jianjun and Zhai Hong furious.

What worries Qi Jianjun and his wife is not their daughter's fearless dedication, but what is the motive for going to the Far East. The other protagonist who once caused a tragedy, Qi Zuping's brother Lu Yuzhou, is currently serving in the Oriental Brigade, and it is unknown whether the two brothers and sisters who loved each other without knowing their blood relationship have now come out of the haze. (To be continued.) )