Episode 5 Cannon, Not Butter

Li Guoliang, commander of the army aviation, said indignantly:

"Sir, you see, these people are like this, when there is a benefit, they desperately squeeze forward, when you are in power, they all lean towards you, and now you ...... Before you do, they're all far away......"

In Xiang Xiaoqiang's luxurious official residence, .14 Gege invited Li Guoliang tonight, and also invited the commanders of the five group armies who besieged Pukou with Xiang Xiaoqiang last time. During these months, the Ming Dynasty has been constantly reinforcing the defense line of the Yangtze River in Nanjing, summing up the lessons of the defense line being broken in the fog, increasing the density of mines on the river, and adding spitfire turrets and oil pipelines on the shore to ensure that when there is fog again, the river can become a sea of fire.

At the same time, those group armies were not transferred back to their original positions, and were still stationed near Nanjing. Their commanders were all in Nanjing. But that's it, after receiving the invitation of Fourteen Gege, there were still three commanders who said that they were unwell or had something to ask for and did not come to the banquet.

Xiang Xiaoqiang knew that now the news that the empress might marry the prince of Siam had spread, and many people concluded that with Her Majesty the empress leaving Nanjing, Xiang Xiaoqiang would definitely lose power, and the entire Xiang Xiaoqiang group would also collapse. Many high-ranking officials and generals who originally planned to show favor to Xiaoqiang are now waiting. Especially this morning, the news that Xiang Xiaoqiang entered the palace and faced the saint, and he was not even allowed to enter the second gate, also spread quickly. More people decided that Xiang Xiaoqiang was going to fail.

Many ministers who are old and serious agree with their original judgment: it is not a good thing for a new star to rise too quickly, and it will definitely fall quickly. Xiang Xiaoqiang, the former Ming star, is now about to fall.

But the core personnel of Xiang Xiaoqiang Group all understand that the most dangerous time has passed. Zhu Yourong is now tormented by the struggle between reason and emotion, as long as there is a firm hand to push her, she will definitely surrender. Zhu Yourong is not a strong-willed person.

In particular, several people knew the reason why Zhu Yourong didn't see Xiang Xiaoqiang, and they also knew that Mrs. Li was a heavyweight, so they had no choice but to stand with Xiang Xiaoqiang.

……

Xiang Xiaoqiang stood on the balcony, smoking a cigarette, looking down at the lawn downstairs, patting Li Guoliang's shoulder, and said with a smile:

"Master Li, it's always like this. The icing on the cake will always be the majority. Those commanders are different from you and me. You and me, we are already our own people, we trust each other, and naturally we will not hide to the side at the slightest breeze...... But those commanders have no friendship with us...... Now that people see that I may fall, it is too demanding to expect others to risk walking with us...... However, we can also take this opportunity to see who is with us with iron heart, and who just wants to join in the fun and share some benefits......"

He threw away the cigarette butt, faced Li Guoliang, clapped his arms with both hands, and said very seriously:

"Master Li, after this incident, I can also see that you are a very friendly person. …… Let's go, let's go inside. ”

Li Guoliang was excited, he knew that he was unswervingly standing with them at the critical moment of "Xiang Party", and now that his loyalty has been rewarded, he has squeezed into the core of "Xiang Party".

In the small banquet hall on the second floor, two tables of banquets were being held, and the members of the "party" were pushing glasses and changing lamps, talking loudly, and they did not look like they were in crisis at all.

At one table are Li Gensheng, Stomach Ache, Snail, Li Changgui and other old men, Song Ruhai, Wang Hexiang, Sun Jiye three old men, as well as Feng Lingcai, commander of the 16th Group Army, and Wang Binggui, commander of the 22nd Group Army, who joined the new team tonight.

The other table is a little smaller, and there are several female members: Qiu Yun, Xiuxiu, Fourteen Gege, and Zheng Yuxuan. Zheng Yuxuan heard that there was such a banquet tonight, and he also ran from the palace to join in the fun. Now she lives in the palace every day to accompany Zhu Yourong, although Zheng Yuxuan and her cousin are very good, but with her fickle character, she has long been impatient to live in the palace. If it weren't for Xiang Xiaoqiang, Zheng Yuxuan would have gone home a long time ago and reconciled with his father. So now Zheng Yuxuan likes to run out and play whenever he has the opportunity.

In the more than two months since Xiang Xiaoqiang left Daming, although Zheng Yuxuan often eats and drinks tea with Xiuxiu and Fourteen Gege, it is just girls playing together. Tonight is the first time that Zheng Yuxuan has made a public appearance at the Xiang Party gathering, officially announcing that Zheng Yuxuan is on Xiang Xiaoqiang's side. Zheng Yuxuan is a red relative, and a celebrity in the upper class society of the Ming Dynasty, the three old advisers, Li Guoliang, and the two commanders have all heard of it, but they have never seen it, and they don't know what she has to do with Xiang Xiaoqiang.

Today, Zheng Yuxuan appeared at the banquet with a smile, and they were also startled, listening to the introduction of Fourteen Gege, they realized that Miss Zheng was also a member of the party. They immediately looked at Xiang Xiaoqiang with admiration, but they didn't expect that the energy of the Xiang Group was far beyond their imagination. The three old men were naturally more confident in Xiang Xiaoqiang, and even the two commanders who gambled on their future tonight and came to the banquet with sweat were secretly overjoyed, feeling that they had won a lot of bets.

Now in the banquet hall, there are men at the big table, rushing to the small table to toast Zheng Yuxuan, especially those who have newly joined the Xiang Xiaoqiang group. In their opinion, in addition to Xiang Xiaoqiang, Zheng Yuxuan is the most worthy person to be tied up tonight.

Zheng Yuxuan originally liked to enjoy this feeling of being sought after, but now he was held up to the sky by a few big men, fainting, fluttering, and laughing and groaning.

Qiu Yu didn't have much friendship with Zheng Yuxuan, and he didn't get along much, but Qiu Yun was very arrogant and could quickly become friends with anyone. Fourteen Gege and Xiuxiu both watched coldly, but Qiu Yu was close to Zheng Yuxuan with them, giggling, so unhappy. And Qiu Yu has an advantage, she is Mrs. Xiang, and none of those commanders dare to talk to her, as soon as she speaks, they all calm down, and listen to her with a smile.

Zheng Yuxuan is usually very smart, but at this time, like Qiu Yu, he became Ma Daha. The two beautiful Ma Daha called sisters and sisters through wine, and became good friends like lightning. Fourteen Gege and Xiuxiu glanced at each other next to each other, and they both smiled silently. Both of these girls are very deep in the city, but they both like to get along with people like Qiu Yun. If it weren't for Qiuyu, the two girls might never have sat down to eat together. But it is precisely because there is a big grinning and honest Qiu Yu between them, although Fourteen Gege and Xiuxiu will not become friends, at least they will not become enemies.

……

The dinner was over, and it was only past eight o'clock in the evening. Everyone went to the small living room to drink tea and chat. Xiang Xiaoqiang smiled and asked Li Guoliang and the two commanders:

"How's that, three? How are our brethren emotional? ”

They all know that the "brothers" in Xiang Xiaoqiang's mouth refer to the officers and soldiers of the Ming Dynasty. Wang Binggui shook his head and sighed:

"Don't tell you that the armies below me, from the army commander to the regiment commander and the battalion commander, are now complaining."

Xiang Xiaoqiang smiled:

"Complaining that there was no fighting?"

Wang Binggui smiled with some embarrassment:

"What's the complaint...... Hehe, it's too late to complain, and the good battles have been fought by Lord Xiang's People's Guards, hehe......

Everyone here laughed, and Xiang Xiaoqiang also smiled:

"What are you complaining about?"

Feng Lingcai also smiled:

"I also complained that the troops were withdrawn so quickly, and I didn't make a single blow and continued to fight to the north. When we were in the south, the Qing prisoners pressed us to fight, and we all felt that the Qing prisoners were powerful, but who knew that once we hit the north, the Qing prisoners would be like cotton candy, and they would surrender as soon as they hit them, and they would catch hundreds of thousands at once. If I had known this, I shouldn't have withdrawn so quickly. ”

Xiang Xiaoqiang smiled:

"Oh? What do the brothers think they should do if they don't withdraw? ”

"Hehe, Lord Xiang, the morale of the brothers is high, and they have been addicted to speaking out, don't care. The brothers all shouted that they would fight all the way north, destroy the Qing captives, and recover the lost territory in Jiangbei. Ha ha. ”

Fourteen Gege sat in the corner, picked up his teacup and took a sip of tea.

Her action made Feng Ling see it at once. Feng Lingcai then remembered that Princess Liaoyang was still sitting here, and he was here "Qingyu, Qinglu...... He was slightly nervous, his face changed slightly, and he closed his mouth.

Xiang Xiaoqiang looked at it in his eyes. He also smiled and took a sip of the teacup as he thought to himself, Fourteen Gege was indeed a problem. He climbed up and expanded his power in the country, and Fourteen Gege was able to help himself intimately. But he was bent on the Northern Expedition to destroy the Manchus. Although the current Manchu emperor killed the entire family of Fourteen Gege, the Manchu Qing Dynasty was her parents' state after all, and at that time, would she still help herself?

He glanced at Fourteen Grids again. It just so happened that Fourteen Gege was also looking at him. The two looked at each other, and Fourteen Gege seemed to read what was going on in his mind in an instant. She slowly lowered her head, and her gaze dropped to the ground, dimming.

"That's right," Xiang Xiaoqiang smiled again, looked at the stomachache, and changed the topic, "Ziteng, how many tanks and planes have we produced in the past few months?" Don't let the north catch up. ”

Stomach ache and laugh quickly:

"Your Excellency, you're asking. In the past few months, Daming has not recovered from the wartime economic state, and has been producing at full capacity. I heard that this is also what Your Majesty meant......"

Zheng Yuxuan immediately interjected happily:

"That's right, that's what Your Majesty meant...... The old men in the cabinet tried to restore His Majesty to a peaceful economy several times, but His Majesty did not agree, and he was about to make them angry, haha. …… Well, not only did Xiang support Your Majesty, but the High Command also supported Your Majesty. Several marshals and generals of the General Staff of the Navy and the General Staff of the Army also came to His Majesty twice in three days, saying that we must not fall behind the Qing prisoners......"

Stomach ache smiled and said a few words "yes, yes", then looked at Xiaoqiang, and said with a smile:

"My lord, guess what our average production has been in the past few months?"

The old problem of stomach ache has been done again. If it was usual, Xiang Xiaoqiang would have glared at him a long time ago and pushed him back. But today he was in a good mood and guessed with a grin:

"How many tanks? I remember before I left, there were more than 300 vehicles in February, can this number be exceeded in these months? Can you have 300 cars a month? ”

With a stomachache and a smile, he stretched out four fingers and said:

"The average monthly production is 425.3 units! My lord, just the tank, several models combined, 1064 units were produced in these two and a half months! My lord! ”

Xiang Xiaoqiang was startled, stood up suddenly, stared at the stomachache and asked:

"How much? More than a thousand? ”

Several people laughed, and Xiuxiu also smiled:

"My lord, what Lord Du said is right, it is 1064 vehicles. After the armistice, we produced more tanks in three months than in the last ten years. ”

Xiang Xiaoqiang was ecstatic in his heart, his heart was about to jump out, he sat down slowly, took a big sip of tea, and the tea spilled out. He put down the teacup, wiped his mouth, and asked:

"Exactly?"

The stomach ache is a little sloppy:

"Absolutely, this is our own data, how can it be fake? But...... My lord, it seems that the production of tanks over there is more. ”

"What?"

"My lord, that's right, the intelligence in the north is not very complete, and the tank factories where we have intelligence officers lurking only account for three-quarters of all the tank factories in Qingqing. But just three-quarters of these tank factories, the number of factories during this period adds up, and there are basically more than us. We estimate that the number of new tanks added to the Qing Dynasty may be several hundred more than ours. ”

Xiang Xiaoqiang groaned for a while, then raised his head and said with a smile:

"It's nothing, hehe, their tank industry is bigger than ours, it's normal. Their army base is too large, and more than a thousand tanks are scattered on average, and there is no wave at all...... The key is the plane. We just need to ensure air superiority in our hands, it doesn't matter how many tanks they have. …… And what, what about airplanes? How many planes were produced? Don't tell me that the plane was also ahead of the Qingqing, right? ”

My stomach hurt and I was happy again, and said with a smile:

"My lord, our aircraft industry can't compare to Qingyu...... It's a technical job...... In these three months, we produced 492 combat aircraft of all kinds in a month, and a total of 1,476 new aircraft were added. Hehe, it seems that there are only more than 500 of them, and at least 400 of them are biplanes, haha......"

Xiang Xiaoqiang was very satisfied, nodded his head, and slapped his fingers on his knees, as if the torrent of steel and the whistling fighters, the scene of a large-scale attack on the Manchu Qing was just around the corner.

Within three months after the end of the war, the monthly output of various armaments in the Southern Ming Dynasty reached a new peak. Among them: an average of 425 tanks; 492 combat aircraft; 266 armored personnel carriers. The most critical - military trucks, reached 3,500 units.