This was the first Spring Festival after the siege of the Japanese army was lifted in Nanjing, and although the haze of war hung over everyone's heart, there was no need to be as bumpy and displaced every day as before.

For ordinary people, this is the greatest happiness.

Because of this, although this New Year is still lacking in material things, it is extraordinarily lively and festive.

From the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum to the Confucius Temple, the banks of the Qinhuai River and Fenglin Road, as well as the ancient city wall, there are a lot of national flags, Spring Festival couplets and lanterns, a joyful atmosphere.

The offices of the Executive Yuan have been relocated back to Nanjing in their entirety a year ago, and the newly established People's Food Distribution Committee has distributed more food rations than usual to the citizens of Nanjing to celebrate the arrival of the New Year.

Although Huang Ke's family was not reunited, his brother Huang Zheng and Huang Ying, who were in the United States, also called, and in the gossip, they realized that the family had not spent a year together for three years.

These days, Huang Zhengzhong went to the Executive Yuan and the Ministry of National Defense to help him, and under the leadership of Chen Liewen, he really saw a basic process of working here. I have a rudimentary understanding of how the state apparatus works.

A few days passed in a blink of an eye, and Huang Zhengzhong's apprenticeship ended.

The day before the Lantern Festival, after Huang Zhengzhong and people from several departments in his department resigned, he came to Chen Liewen's office to bid farewell to him.

Chen Liewen is the political secretary of the chairman of the Central Committee and the secretary general of the Ministry of National Defense, and the office should have been configured according to the rank of major general, but because of the shortage of office space during the war, he took the initiative to give up his office and moved out of the table to work in the hall with many secretaries of the secretariat.

Seeing Huang Zhengzhong coming, Chen Liewen knew that it was not very convenient to talk here, so he walked with him to the backyard.

"I didn't expect you to be able to come and say goodbye to me, like you, I've only met two people so far." Chen Liewen walked as he walked.

"Let me guess, one of those two people must be my brother Huang Zheng." Huang Zhengzhong said with a smile.

Chen Liewen nodded: "Every year, a large number of high-level children come to various departments for apprenticeship work, and I have also arranged some inconsequential positions for them to go. Only your brother and Jianfeng of the Jiang family came to bid farewell to me, and the others patted their butts and left. What's more, they don't even come. ”

Speaking of this, Chen Liewen shook his head, the style of these high-level children really can't be disagreed.

"Forget it, let's not talk about them. Even if you don't come to me, I'll talk to you once after this is over, as your father wants. Chen Liewen asked him: "Do you have any insights and thoughts these days?" ”

Huang Zhengzhong thought about it and said seriously: "I won't say much about the work procedures, there are more professional things, and I haven't been exposed to some confidential positions, so it's not good to make more evaluations." ”

"My most intuitive feeling is that there are not a lot of waste and incompetent people in the state institutions, as many people say, and they are not as idle and comfortable as many people say; On the contrary, in such a state apparatus, more people are elites and leaders in their respective fields, and their work and life are also busy. ”

Of course, that's not to say how hard their work is, or how great the people here are. After all, compared with the vast number of peasants and workers and other low-level society, the working environment and welfare security of people here are many times better. Of course, I also recognized the ignorance of some of my previous thoughts. ”

Chen Liewen nodded, and he asked again, "Do you have any other feelings besides these?" ”

Huang Zhengzhong didn't think about it this time, he asked with a smile: "This time is what my father meant, or are you going to ask me yourself?" ”

"Does it make a difference?" Chen Liewen said.

"Yes, if my father had asked you to ask, I think he would have asked me to say something about the macro feelings, which is the above. And if you come to me, I will answer you as if you were a friend, and this will say some of my own feelings. ”

"Well, I'd like to hear from my friends." Chen Liewen said.

Huang Zhengzhong took off his glasses, rubbed his eyes, and said: "Actually, I have lived in this environment since I was a child, so I still have some understanding of the work content of various military and political departments. Later, I went to Britain and the United States, and I also learned about their political environment. Overall, there's a big difference between the two, we have our strengths, they have their strengths, but overall I'm more inclined to theirs. ”

"Oh? Why? Chen Liewen was intrigued by this.

"Although I see that there is a good order here, I also see the cumbersomeness between many things and the bloated office, a small thing has to go through so many procedures, there are too many crossovers between various departments, but there is not enough coordination. To be honest, I feel that the leader, my father himself, has a great responsibility. ”

Chen Liewen didn't expect Huang Zhengzhong to criticize his father, but Huang Ke also told him in advance that he wanted him to understand Huang Zhengzhong's comprehensive thoughts, so Chen Liewen didn't stop him.

Huang Zhengzhong then expressed his opinion: "At the beginning of the Xinhai Revolution, Mr. Zhongshan and others originally hoped to establish a presidential system modeled after the United States, and later engaged in a responsible cabinet, a five-chamber system, and even a monarchy in which Zhang Xun was restored and Pu Yi re-ascended the throne, and later implemented the committee system, and now the committee system and the five-chamber system are parallel. So, that's what led to the situation we are now. In this case, the most important thing is that the internal institutions of the government are loose and the personnel are corrupt, the supervision mechanism is not in place, and a group of old people are holding power. ”

Huang Zhengzhong said a lot of things about this, and after saying that, he smiled and said: "I just have my own shallow opinions, and many issues are still very naïve, Brother Liewen laughed." ”

Chen Liewen didn't laugh, he said solemnly: "You are very right. We also have a group of similar middle-aged and young people who are bitter about this phenomenon, and we are also aware of corruption within the government, the bloated institutions, and the imperfections of the system. We had a salon and had regular gatherings. If you are interested, you can come and join us. ”

"Okay, but I'm going to Kunming in a few days, I don't know if there's a chance?" Huang Zhengzhong said with some regret.

"Don't get in the way, we're going to have a party after the New Year, you see which day there is some time these days, I'll initiate it." Chen Liewen said.

"Okay, I'll have time for today and tomorrow." Chen Liewen said.

……

After the end of this conversation, Chen Liewen made a report to Huang Ke. He did not mention Huang Zhengzhong's criticism of him and the existing system, but only briefly talked about his thinking and his views on joining the Youth Club.

After hearing this, Huang Ke nodded and said, "Suck him into your youth club and let him know more about your thoughts." Remember, you young people are the pillars of the future, and you need to expand your influence and lay the groundwork for post-war political reform. ”

……

After the year passed, the Japanese offensive in Burma became even more obvious. The British army in Burma was defeated, and the British army lost many important towns in Burma, and retreated all the way, and was extremely embarrassed.

President Roosevelt of the United States sent a personal letter to Huang Ke, hoping that he would send troops to support the British army in Burma and lift the siege of Burma. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill also made a request to China through diplomatic missions and consulates, hoping to send troops to help Myanmar.

The matter is already imminent, and after listening to the opinions of many parties, Huang Ke generally believes that the advantages of sending troops outweigh the disadvantages. After all, the Americans provided all the equipment for this trip, and it was not counted in the Lend-Lease Act. Taking a step back, even if the Americans do not provide equipment, China will have to send troops this time. Because the Yunnan-Burma Highway is an important gateway for China to receive foreign aid, the significance of opening this highway is crucial.

But the reality in front of Huang Ke is that there is not a single soldier to send out. Not to mention an expeditionary force of more than 100,000 people, it is an infantry division, and Huang Ke can't even be transferred now.

The main military forces of the whole country have been invested in the three major battlefields, although there is no large-scale battle in the northeast battlefield, but Zhang Xueliang and Lin Zuoda's troops are not able to move at all, they have to confront the million Kwantung Army, once one of the two sides is out of balance, then the other side will be swept away unceremoniously.

The situation on the Shandong battlefield was even worse, the Japanese North China Front came in to launch a winter offensive, and the front line was in short supply, and Liu Jian repeatedly asked for reinforcements.

Not to mention East China, a situation that has only been opened up with great difficulty, if 100,000 troops are transferred, I am afraid that the situation of sacrificing hundreds of thousands of soldiers in the defense of Nanjing will be burned to the ground.

Do you want to transfer troops? Where to transfer troops? How much to turn it over? These questions surrounded Huang Ke's mind. He is not Han Xin, he can't sprinkle beans into soldiers, and soldiers have to be trained one by one.

Bai Chongxi reminded Huang Ke that the only troops available now were Batu's engineering troops and Hu Zongnan's several infantry divisions in the Lianghu area, and if they needed to be mobilized, these troops could be used.

A word woke up the dreamer, Batu's engineering troops were obviously not suitable for mobilization, after all, the engineering troops had not touched a gun for many years, but Hu Zongnan's troops could. They are in the Two Lakes area, and now the defense pressure is low, and they are well-trained, so it is only fitting to move there. However, Huang Ke is still a little worried, will Jiang Zhongzheng agree?

You must know that Hu Zongnan is a descendant of Jiang, and his troops were originally withdrawn from Zhejiang and Fujian, and they have always been one of his political capitals.

But in any case, Huang Ke will not know until he gets a vote on the Standing Committee.

"The Secretariat has informed the Standing Committee members of the Executive Committee that we will hold a meeting of the Standing Committee to discuss whether or not to send troops this time and the plan for sending troops."