The next few days were very quiet for the officers and men of the Chunhua Constitutional Division, and the Shun troops who were tightly surrounded did not launch any offensive, and the Shun troops in some areas took the initiative to retreat some distance and abandon their positions, and even the propagandists who worked day and night suddenly became dumb.

Although the battlefield is calm, it is not calm for the hearts of ordinary soldiers like Li Hong, the monsters that fly over are not immortals and mortals, they cannot rain nectar all at once, they cannot make the soldiers of the Ming army invulnerable, and they cannot take away the weapons in the hands of the Shun army or promise the soldiers happiness after death. The Constitutional Division did not hide anything from the soldiers, on the contrary, the division headquarters tried its best to let every soldier know as soon as possible that the airship was a new weapon, and Li Hong already understood that the next battle would still depend on himself - the Shun army on the other side would find out the truth sooner or later.

On average, each soldier received several letters from home, and Li Hong had in his hands letters from his parents and wife, letters from neighbors, and a handwritten letter written by the district head.

He read the letters from the Constituent Assembly and the Provincial Secretary Yuan thanking Li Hong for his service to the country and threw them aside, but he always carried the letters from his parents, wife, and neighbors in his arms, and took them out and read them hungrily whenever he was free. Although the military academy has provided literacy education to all volunteers, there are still some people who cannot understand the letters of their family members (many of which are also written orally), and at this time they will look for people everywhere to help them read them.

The Constituent Assembly's letters praised the sacrificial spirit of ordinary soldiers like Li Hong, vowing to do everything in their power to relieve them of the siege — in due course, and at the same time the Constituent Assembly repeatedly stressed that they were issuing public bonds, that they were going to build more troops, that they were going to make more munitions, and that they were trying to convince ordinary soldiers that their persistence was important to the country, and that the country was benefiting from every minute and every second of their stay in Chunhua. Li Hong did not doubt this, but the word "country" was still empty to him, and although it was not meaningless to realize that he had died in battle, ordinary soldiers still could not figure out why they had died here just through this letter from the Constituent Assembly.

Like the Constituent Assembly, the Provincial Secretaries' Yuan also swore that they were collecting more taxes and would give Li Hong an extra one or two silver a month to ensure that they would be able to hang anyone who dared to embezzle military salaries. However, Li Hong still couldn't help but think of his wife in his hometown, as the pillar of the family, if he died in battle, he had some doubts about whether the Provincial Secretary Yuan would fulfill his promise and take care of his wife and children for the rest of his life.

The district chief's letter was handwritten, and he repeated some of the words repeatedly emphasized by the Constituent Assembly and the Qing Yuan, and told Li Hong in a tone of his son and nephew that the district was organizing manpower to take care of all the military dependents, and that the district chief expressed the hope that he would soon hear the news that the constitutional division had returned victoriously and that Li Hong himself was safe and sound.

The neighbors and his wife confirmed the words in the district chief's letter, and the wife said that the neighbors have been taking good care of her and the children recently, and the neighbors are very worried about Li Hong, they pay attention to the news about Chunhua in the newspaper every day, and they do not smile in front of her. In short, everything is fine at home, and his wife hopes that Li Hong will return safely.

My father's letter also mentioned this, and said that although he did not support Li Hong (a bombshell keyword) to volunteer in the army, he still has nothing to say. His father's letter was very long, saying that everyone now had to pay heavier taxes, and both neighbors and his school colleagues had bought their savings into public bonds, and the people who bought public bonds heard about Li Hong's incident and told his father that they had taken out their savings to help the soldiers at the front, and of course, they must have also hoped that the soldiers would be able to keep the Shun army out of the country and prevent them from attacking their hometowns.

Li Hong's father also mentioned that a few days ago, a soldier of the Constitutional Division was sent back to his hometown by the Shun army, and Li Hong's mother fell ill when she heard about it, and she very much hoped that her son would return home safely in this way. But Mr. Li's father said that after seeing the performance of the people around him, he hoped that Mr. Li would return home like a warrior, so that their family with a scholarly tradition would not feel ashamed of being a soldier — there were quite a few before, but would be able to proudly tell their neighbors that their children had served the country.

"Serve the country." At the end of the letter, his father said that in all dynasties, the small people could refuse to be taxed by the imperial court with their ballots, and they had never heard of the government issuing bonds to beg the people to buy them when the country needed money...... For the first time in thousands of years, Jiangxi's elders had the right to vote for refusal to pay taxes, but they used this right to vote in favor of heavier taxes imposed by the government: "...... Everyone was willing to pay such a heavy tax and take out all their savings, because they all believed that the officers and men of the Constitutional Division would be able to fulfill their duties," Li Hong's father said at the end of the letter, "and my father believed that Hong Er would also be able to fulfill his duties." ”

"Serve the country!" Li Hong softly spat out an oath, he had thrown all thoughts of escaping from the battle out of the clouds.

……

After the Shun army resumed the offensive, the force was much more fierce than before.

Since the landing of the airship, the desertion of the Ming army has immediately disappeared. The deserters who were imprisoned in the prison also got their copy of the family letter, and then they also asked to go back to the battlefield, and asked the division headquarters to help them hide their previous bad deeds of trying to escape, Tang Desheng and the military judge expressed their willingness to deal with them leniently, as long as they proved their courage, they did not mention anything about the past.

The deserters were all prosecuted by the military judge for disobedience, and all the convicts pleaded guilty and accepted confinement of varying lengths without complaint. As soon as they were out of the confinement cell, the military judge tore up the records in front of them — including reports from the patrols that captured them, testimony from officers, and their own confessions.

"After the victory, the division headquarters will not leave any records of the confinement that happened here." The soldiers were reassured by the military judge, and then they were allowed to take up arms again and return to their formations, and these soldiers, who were often the most hard-working men, began to prepare for battle when they were freed, and worked tirelessly to dig trenches, stand guards, and fortifications.

The changes in the Ming army were apparently also noticed by the Shun army, which began to lose confidence in the temptation to surrender, launched several fierce attacks in succession, and the position of the constitutional division outside Chunhua Town was captured by the Shun army, and thousands of Ming soldiers were killed and wounded in the battle. By the time of the new month, more than 10,000 Ming troops had been compressed near the core position of Chunhua Town, and after the Shun army dug a communication trench, hundreds of mortar shells were fired into the town every night for three days, killing and wounding hundreds of officers and soldiers of the Constitution Division, but the morale of the Ming army was still high, and the soldiers hidden behind the trenches and low walls were willing to jump up to meet the battle at any time, and the soldiers in the town also scrambled to put out the fire first, and extinguished the houses that were ignited by the shelling again and again.

Ren Hongcheng still sticks to Chunhua Town, since the establishment of the Sixth Army, he has been the representative of the Qing Yuan, and now he is the plenipotentiary of the Constituent Assembly, for him this army is everything in his career. The first airship returned to Longtan shortly after its arrival, and sent the situation of the constitutional division back to the rear, and the first airship crashed into the Yangtze River after an accident in Longtan after two round-trips, but soon Longtan sent a second airship, and two bold Fujian and Guangdong reporters came with the airship. Many of the reporters in the Southern Ming Dynasty could not bear to only inquire about the news in Nanjing or read the reports of the Shun Army that had been processed by the "Liaodong People's Observer", and these two well-informed reporters immediately smelled that the Ming army had a special means of communication after getting the first airship sent from Chunhua, and these two people arrived in Longtan after grinding and hardening, and finally He Feihu specially approved the individual reporters who could transport friendly parties (that is, excluding the "Liaodong People's Observer") into Chunhua. Of course, they will be heavily scrutinized in case it is a Shun military agent who is trying to spy on the military or try to sabotage the airship.

From Tang Desheng's point of view, he very much hoped that the rear would be equipped with an airship for the constitutional division as soon as possible for him to observe the position of the Shun army, but Ren Hongcheng said that he might not be able to meet this requirement in a short period of time, and what made Tang Desheng even more frustrated was that he was told that although the airship was owned by the military, it was not owned by the army, and the rear actually established a department parallel to the Ministry of War for these few new weapons operators - what is it called the Air Force Department, so the airship crew are all Air Force officers. Brigadier General Tang Desheng could only ask for their assistance and could not directly order them.

Tang Desheng felt that it was an exaggeration to set up an air force department on an equal footing with the War Department for dozens or hundreds of people (the army was very dissatisfied with the division of the navy before, and even felt that this was a humiliation to the army boss), and what made him even more bizarre was that the military ranks of these crew members were still very high, and all the operators were officers rather than soldiers, and the captains under a few lieutenants were naturally also rising and had the rank of lieutenant colonel in the air force. This caused Tang Desheng's deputy commanders to be very dissatisfied, they were only in charge of thousands of soldiers with the rank of major, and the deputy commanders of the major had to salute this guy who didn't look much stronger than their captain; The two lieutenant colonels had similar complaints behind their backs, they felt that it was better to be in charge of a regiment commander than a boat (even if it could fly), and the commander of the 34th Regiment was the colonel, and although he was a higher rank than the captain of the boat, he did not feel much comfort.

Tang Desheng could not convince Ren Hongcheng to agree to appoint Mr. Lieutenant Colonel of the Air Force (Tang Desheng and his gnashing subordinates never called the captain a lieutenant colonel, and always added the word "Air Force" in front of it that made them feel ridiculous) as his subordinate - Ren Hongcheng bluntly told Tang Desheng that he did not have this right, and that the current mission of the airship was equally important; Unable to persuade Ren Hongcheng to leave, the latter said that he would remain in the Constitutional Division until victory or destruction, and Ren Hongcheng also pointed out that since Tang Desheng repeatedly emphasized his important status as a plenipotentiary representative of the Constituent Assembly, it was obvious that there was an important figure in Chunhua who would be more inspiring to the military.

In the three consecutive nights of heavy bombardment by the Shun army, Ren Hongcheng stayed at the headquarters of the Constitution Division at first, and in the first two days, Tang Desheng and other staff officers could still say a few words to him in their spare time, or explain the battle situation to him. And on the night of the first day, the Shun army sent multiple groups of commandos to attack the trench in front of the core defensive position of the Ming army at the same time as the shelling, and Tang Desheng's headquarters was busy, and the heralds were endless, and no one had time to talk to Ren Hongcheng. After finding that he couldn't help at all, Ren Hongcheng simply braved the artillery fire and ran to the town to comfort the wounded soldiers.

Two equally frenzied reporters also left the safety of their bunkers and went out to experience the feeling of being bombarded by mortars, and by the time the shelling of the Shunjun army stopped in the morning, the two reporters had already prepared the headlines of the war report.

"The Constitution Never Flinched? Great, great! I love this title so much. Ren Hongcheng excitedly shook the hands of the two reporters, and after the airship arrived today, they would leave here to take the report back to Longtan, to Nanjing, and then spread it throughout the southern provinces: "We must publish this article in the newspaper as soon as possible." ”

"Our opponent is the invincible Immortal Army," Tang Desheng also ran out and laughed with two reporters after the battle ended, the division headquarters thought that the most difficult days may be coming to an end, and the mortar shells that the Shun army fired last night were more than the previous combined, causing hundreds of casualties to the Ming army, but the Ming army still held the position - no matter how much the Northern Expeditionary Army gave Xu Ping, he had a time to run out: "The enemy's commander is the only disciple of Qi Gong, but we will not retreat, The Constitutional Division will give the Immortals their first defeat here. ”

Although the old department of Huangshi did not recognize Xu Ping as a disciple of Huangshi, most people saw it that his methods of governing the army and his combat style were all derived from Huangshi; And the army under Xu Ping is obviously a continuation of the former Immortal Army, which even Huangshi and other old troops do not deny.

The two reporters also had a lot of emotion, in the past few days, they have seen Ren Hongcheng on the front line many times to boost morale, braving artillery fire to go to the trench to listen to the officers explain the battle situation, they all said that the current officials of Daming are becoming more and more different from the past - who said that Daming has no talent? No competent officials? From the governors of the provinces to the delegates to the Constituent Assembly, everyone was incorruptible and courageous.

Ren Hongcheng sent the two reporters away with a few polite words, and he just smiled in his heart at the reporters' feelings: "In the past, if you wanted to be an official, you only had to be approved by your boss, but now you have to be recognized by millions of people." ”

……

The Constituent Assembly held in Quanzhou has still not been able to finalize the Constitution, and the Qi State Government does not seem to be very urgent about this, and always asks them to discuss slowly and not in a hurry, and the main work of the Constituent Assembly is no longer to discuss the Constitution, they have shouldered the responsibility of the State Council, and they all understand that the current work is the responsibility of the future State Council. Since its work, the Constituent Assembly has gained a better understanding of the future of the law, many of the laws that were originally set have been unanimously overturned, and many people who have managed the affairs of the country feel that their original understanding of the Constitution, the future House of Secretaries, and the functioning of the government is somewhat superficial.

Xue Shan, chairman of the Armaments Committee set up by the Constituent Assembly today, is responsible for examining and approving the armament requirements of the three military departments, and the three military departments are well aware that Dr. Xue's opinion will play a decisive role in whether or not their departments can obtain appropriations, and they have all made full preparations in advance -- not only for their own but also for their opponents, and sometimes it is more important to attack the opponents than to sell themselves.

"The Admiralty demanded the construction of ironclad ships up to 50 centimeters thick, and the Admiralty claimed that the armament project was not difficult to complete and did not cost much. Indeed, if we had a dock capable of making such a large ship, and had a machine for rolling steel plates fifty centimeters later, it would not be difficult to do, and it would not cost much. Ignoring the angry glances of the Admiralty officials at him, the representative of the Provisional War Department slowly introduced to Chairman Xue of the Armaments Commission: "In order to roll a steel plate after fifty centimeters, it is necessary to first build a machine capable of rolling it; This machine is not difficult to make, but there is no one at the moment, so first of all, first of all, we must first make a machine that can make a machine that can roll a 50-centimeter steel plate, including...... These machines are not difficult to make, but unfortunately there are no ones at the moment, so first of all, the first of all, the machines that make - the machines that can make - machines that can roll fifty centimeters of steel plates, among other things...... Of course, these machines are not difficult to do, but unfortunately there are still none, so the first of the first of the first of the first ......"

The last time the representative of the War Department said seven times before he stopped, he raised his head and said to Chairman Xue: "If the Constituent Assembly agrees to this project and allocates it to the Admiralty, they will use the money that the doctors think is used to build ironclad ships that can be made - can be made - can be made - can be made - can be made - can be made ......."

"Alright, alright, I want to understand what you mean." Xue Shan interrupted the repetitive statement of the War Department representative, and he turned his head to look at the angry Navy Department representative: "Do you have anything to say?" ”

The Admiralty officer breathed for a moment and replied calmly: "Doctor Xue, this kind of battleship can withstand the bombardment of even eight hundred pound guns...... Yes, Xiaguan admitted that the intelligence did not show that Beishun could make such artillery...... The ship was a truly invincible battleship, capable of equipping and firing a thousand-pound cannon...... Yes, the lower official admits that we can't build such a cannon for the time being...... Yes, the lower officer admits that we don't even have a hundred-pound cannon for the time being, but the lower officer thinks that we should take a long-term view, and the lower officer thinks that the experts of the Admiralty have more say in the naval question. ”

"Oh, really?" The representative of the War Department sneered, his statement just now should have ended with "...... The machine of the rolling mill machine...... of the machine. Such a continuous seven machines can achieve the most perfect ironic effect, and it is a pity that the representative of the War Department did not finish it, and he said slowly and logically to Xue Shan, who was looking at him again, in a long voice: "The ironclad ship required by the Admiralty needs a large dock, and there is no such a large dock at present, neither the engineers nor the workers have the experience of building such a large dock, and according to the experts of the Admiralty (!) Said - "The representative of the Ministry of War deliberately bit the word expert in an accent, and his heart was full of the pleasure of revenge - these grandsons were originally pawns of the army, but now their tails are about to rise to the sky after they break away, and they are trying to grab funds from Lao Tzu! The representative of the War Department continued to say in a subdued voice: "The weight of the new ship should not exceed 20% of the previous largest ship, or the size should not exceed 30%, otherwise it is very likely that the new ship will be scrapped directly without any usability, so in order to build an ironclad ship of this specification required by the Admiralty, it is necessary to build ...... first First of all, we must first build ...... First of all, first of all, first of all, first of all......, first of all, first of all

"Okay, I get exactly what you mean." Xue Shan once again interrupted the speech of the representative of the War Department, and once again gave the representative of the Admiralty a chance to defend himself: "Do you have any excuses for this?" ”

The Admiralty's face changed again and again, and finally he sighed: "The Provisional Admiralty will resubmit the project specifications and budget request for the ironclad ship to the Constituent Assembly. ”

"Good." Xue Shan set aside the Admiralty's project and flipped through the next project report.

A smile spread over the officer's face, and he thought to himself: "When I return to the ministry, everyone will open a jar of wine for me and call me a hero......

However, he immediately stopped laughing, because the next armament project was about the army's application for the creation of an "army water corps".

"This is completely unnecessary, the army said lightly, as long as the basic military salary is fine, but in fact, the naval corps will need ships, sailors, captains, ......" The naval officer hurriedly popularized the knowledge of naval warfare to Chairman Xue, and he pointed out sharply: "This is a decoy, in order to make the established naval corps playful, the army will put forward new projects to purchase ships and set up a school to train army sailors - and this navy already has ...... If the Constituent Assembly agrees to this demand of the Army, then they will make new demands again and again, and if the Constituent Assembly does not agree, then their already huge water corps can only be used as ordinary infantry, not even ordinary infantry! ”

"But the army has to face rivers, lakes and seas at any time, and it will be very inconvenient to ask the navy all the time." The army officer hurriedly argued.

"Doctor Xue!" The naval officer shouted and drew Xue Shan's attention back to himself, reminding: "At the armaments meeting you presided over three days ago, the War Department swore that their commando team would be able to complete the work of crossing the beach river, and they asked the Constituent Assembly to increase the allocation for the army for this purpose, let them set up a new commando school, and buy new assault boats. When Dr. Xue asked if the army really needed so much money, he! The naval officer pointed to the Army officer's nose with all his might: "He swears to you that the money was well spent, and the exact words are: the new commando river-crossing training and assault boats have the greatest role incomparable in the Army's river-crossing attacks!" ”

Xue Shan stared closely at the eyes of the army officer, who had already begun to sweat on his forehead: "Doctor Xue, yes, the lower officer did say so, but there are always some big rivers that are difficult for assault boats." ”

"If we really encounter big rivers, big rivers, and big lakes that the army cannot cross by assault boats, the lower officer guarantees that the brave naval officers and men will definitely provide cover and help for the army brothers." The naval officer said aloud and solemnly.

Watching Xue Shan gently push aside the project report worth tens of thousands of taels and no longer include it in the budget, the army officer felt that his heart was about to break, and then looked at the guy with a wicked smile on the other side of the table, he really wanted to smash an old fist in the other party's face.

Sitting furthest away from Xue Shan was the representative of the newly established Provisional Air Force Department, the most low-key of the Air Force officers compared to the other two officers who were always on the line. At previous meetings, Air Force officers had heard representatives of the Army and Navy shouting loudly and threatening each other, one waving his fist and shouting: Hundreds of thousands of officers and men will never agree! And the other countered: 300 warships are always on board!

And what can an Air Force officer say? Can he say that "the two airships and the fifteen airships in construction, with their crews and reserve crews, are not to be trifled with"? Although these men were officers, even the reserve boatmen were ensigns.

Huang Shi didn't know what the Air Force could do in this era, nor did he know how to develop the Air Force, but he felt that just as it was the Navy officers who were most concerned about the construction of the Navy Division rather than the Army officers, as long as the Air Force Department was established, people whose vital interests were closely related to this department would naturally work hard to build the Air Force, tap the potential of the Air Force, and find the value of the Air Force.

Today, the Air Force officer also took advantage of the unpreparedness to stuff a letter into Xue Shan's discussion item, so he was also very nervous today, taking this first step for himself and for the Air Force.

Finally, Xue Shan flipped through the copy submitted by the Air Force.

"Airborne commandos! Oh, my God! ”

From both sides of the Air Force officers, two extremely sad and indignant cries erupted at the same time - with the two broken airships that could not hold a few people, did the Air Force want to form a combat unit? Want to compete with us for the budget too? This clown army with only officers and no soldiers! A clown department with more staff than the soldiers of the troops under its jurisdiction!

Unlike the two Army and Navy officers who were about to be hysterical, Xue Shan began to answer questions with representatives of the Air Department in a meticulous manner. In Xue Shan's understanding, Qi Guogong set up three divisions to divide and rule, and Xue Shan now agrees with this very much - he feels that it is far easier to deal with the three divisions of the land, sea and air force at the same time than to deal with a unified military department.

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