Under the vigorous promotion led by Zhou Changfeng, a number of parliamentarians and generals worked together to get the draft law to be submitted to the case of Shangshu of the Criminal Department.

The total number of words in this draft, entitled "Several Drafts of the Laws on the Protection of Marriage for Military Personnel in Wartime," is only two pages long, and the entries and annotations add up to only two pages.

"Now these things are really unexpected, people's hearts are not ancient, and women are more and more avoiding harm and seeking profit." An official shook his head slightly.

Shangshu of the Criminal Department read it carefully with reading glasses and squinted his eyes, and sighed: "It's not too late to make amends." There are some things that I usually can't think of and don't pay attention to. ”

Later, a seal was taken and the draft law was stamped with a large square seal in bright red.

The organizational structure of the Ming government after the constitution was fine-tuned many times, but it was generally the same as it was at that time. Although the six ministries with a long history have not been abolished, their actual functions have changed considerably, and the gap between ministries is very large.

For example, as a military department, the functions of the Ministry of War are very important, and none of the departments, bureaus, bureaus, departments, or four divisions under its jurisdiction can report to higher levels, so the authority and responsibility of the head of the Ministry of War are quite large.

Another example is the Ministry of Rites, which has jurisdiction over departments such as the Department of Foreign Affairs, the Department of Teaching, and the Department of Literature and Art, but these departments can all have direct access to the central government, so the Ministry of Rites is actually hollowed out, and the Ministry of Rites has also become a noble position with no power.

With the approval of the Imperial Court, the draft was refined and turned into a formal proposal, which was then transferred to the Advisory Yuan.

The next standard process is to review, debate, and vote on a law that is reasonable and compliant.

"The wives of servicemen are not allowed to unilaterally reconcile and divorce, but must be witnessed by the government and the people before they can be negotiated; If the engagement contract has been made, it shall be no different from the disposition in the preceding paragraph, and the contract shall not be broken by unilateral."

"Every wife of a soldier in service must be clean and self-conscious, and commit adultery with others, and be punished with thirty lashes, and six months' imprisonment, and inform her neighbors; and whoever commits adultery with a military wife fifty rods, three years' imprisonment, and a fine of five hundred."

"Anyone who, under the pretext of his own authority, coerces and seduces the wives of servicemen on duty, shall be dismissed from his post and handed over to the Military Suppression Section for investigation and punishment, and shall be severely punished."

It can be said that this proposal is very distinctive, especially for traditional conservatives.

Although it is true that some of them are contrary to human rights and are suspected of going backwards, it is clear that this is not the time to let things go.

As a traverser, Zhou Changfeng naturally referred to similar laws in later generations, and at first he did not think of punishing the woman in this law.

The difference in perception is evident - several parliamentarians and generals agree that if a man and a woman fornicate, it is not enough to punish the man, there must be joint and several responsibility, and the woman can be punished lightly, but not without punishment!

After being kept on file, the proposal was sent to the Advisory Yuan, where it was first discussed by the Legal Affairs Committee of the Advisory Yuan.

The Advisory Council has a number of committees, including the Council for Foreign Affairs, the Council for Government Affairs, the Council for Finance and the Committee for Legal Affairs, which are responsible for assessing the reasonableness of relevant matters.

This is the normal process of Ming legislation, first by the imperial court to review the draft initiated by others, or simply the court itself to issue the draft, and then it is the turn of the committee of the Advisory Yuan to discuss, if the evaluation is feasible, then a full vote will be held, the constitutional amendment must be approved by two-thirds, and the rest of the laws only need half of it.

On the same day, August 26, at 14:00 Honolulu time, the calm eastern Pacific Ocean ......

After several months of continuous fighting, the Saratoga and Enterprise did not get more time to recuperate than the Ming fleet, but because of the previous existence of Pearl Harbor, the protection was more complete.

The hull paint of both aircraft carriers has peeled off slightly, revealing the primer inside, and barnacles and algae below the waterline.

Accompanied by the USS Louisville, the USS Omaha, and a dozen destroyers, guarding the carriers and tankers, the fleet is on a zigzag anti-submarine voyage at a lower speed.

Soon, consistent with what the radar had detected, a group of small black dots appeared in the eastern sky, looming among the clouds.

The Saratoga and Enterprise then re-routed and ground crews prepared for the arrival of a new batch of aircraft.

In order to deliver planes to Hawaii as quickly as possible, the "ingenious method" mentioned by Admiral Ernest King was officially put into service ten days ago.

The two carriers cruised near the midpoint of Hawaii and the West Coast, and the pilots of the carrier-based aircraft first flew back to their homeland, where they flew brand new aircraft back to the carriers, landed and refueled, and then took off to the Big Island or Maui.

As a result, the required range was halved, and the original 3,800 km across the eastern Pacific Ocean was now only about 1,900 km, and the possibility of a transfer was finally possible.

However, the maximum range of the F4F Wildcat fighter is still not reached, and the US military can only mount a 100-gallon belly fuel tank for it, while keeping flying at a high altitude as much as possible to save fuel.

Such a long continuous flight poses a great test to the pilot, and he has to rest for a day every time he completes a transfer mission.

Through this approach, the U.S. Navy has deployed 153 F4F Wildcat fighters and 30 SBD dreadnought dive bombers to Hawaii since 16 August.

But because they were making a layover on an aircraft carrier, the pilots and planes of the Army Air Corps were powerless, so they could only wait for the sea and pray that the convoy would arrive safely from submarine attacks.

For the first time in many days, the U.S. military in Hawaii has more planes than pilots.

The Navy generously handed over some of its planes to the Army Airlines, but the pilots of the Army Airlines had never flown the planes of the Hainan Airlines, so they had to undergo adaptation training first.

The port city of Hiro, northeast of Hawaii's Big Island, became an important base for the U.S. military, and the Pacific Fleet Command relocated here after the evacuation of Pearl Harbor.

The small city had a population of only about 20,000, and the influx of military personnel shattered the peace, and now the streets are filled with jeeps with soldiers and trucks with artillery towing artillery.

From time to time, Ming planes came to patronize and dropped hundreds of aerial bombs on the pier, and the roar of rumbling explosions and anti-aircraft guns came and went.

There are five volcanoes on the island of Hawaiʻi, two of which are active volcanoes.

Mauna Loa is a famous tourist attraction because of its gentle eruption, and tourists from all over the world even come to see the magma gushing and the smoke and fire.

The National Volcano Park, established in 16, is now one of the main camps, and the headquarters is located in a cave that has been excavated and reinforced.

Outside, under the anti-aircraft camouflage net, two officers were sitting on sandbags and wooden crates, smoking cigarettes.

One was the commander of the Air Forces, Colonel Clarence, and the other was Lieutenant Colonel Barnett, the operational staff officer of the command.

"The SL-75 flotilla has been assembled on the West Coast, God bless them."

"The Chinese have less submarine activity, which is good news."

"Maybe they ran out of torpedoes and supplies, so they had to return."

The bright sunlight shines through the camouflage net, dappling on the ground.

Lieutenant Colonel Barnett lowered his head and stared at the scattered spots of light, worried: "We must be careful, their reconnaissance aircraft have been watching the situation here, and if the fleet arrives, they will definitely carry out an air attack." ”

"In the last two weeks, there have been 12 airstrikes, an average of 30. In the event of a targeted attack, they have the ability to make 100 sorties for several days in a row. Colonel Clarence spat out a smoke ring, "Thanks to the Saratoga and the Enterprise, we can intercept the Chinese this time." ”

Any "want-and-want" greed will eventually pay a price, as evidenced by the loss of Oahu.

The frightened federal government could no longer afford to slack off, and in order to keep the remaining islands, they hurriedly demanded that some troops that should have been deployed to Europe be transferred to reinforce the Pacific theater.

The 27th Infantry Division, adapted from the New York State National Guard, was originally planned to be sent to Europe, but four days after the fall of Oahu, it suddenly received an order to go to San Francisco and reinforce Hawaii.

So the division took all its weapons and equipment on a train across the eastern and western continents of the Americas, boarded a ship in San Francisco, and was transported by the SL-75 fleet.

Soon after, the 32nd Infantry Division in Wisconsin also received an order to cancel the remaining two weeks of training, enter the battle early, and immediately leave Seattle.

Through aerial reconnaissance, submarine patrols, and intercepted telecommunications, the Metropolitan Governor's Office judged that the U.S. military was sparing no effort to increase its troops in Hawaii to strengthen the local defense.

However, knowing this does not mean that it can be stopped, and there are only four submarines left that are still operating in the waters east of Hawaii, and the other dozen or so submarines have successively exhausted their torpedoes and returned home.

And because the submarine base at Midway Island could not guarantee so many submarines, and the hoarding of torpedoes was limited, half of the submarines could only go to the mainland.

One of the nine submarines that took over from mainland China returned to sea due to mechanical problems, and the other eight had different journeys, the fastest of which was now near Wake Island, and it would take nearly ten days to reach the target area.

The long battle line, the long voyage, and the vast sea have posed a considerable test to the level of organization and coordination of the rear General Staff -- the operation on the map is very different, the actual voyage is thousands of miles wrong, and it is very difficult to accurately and properly arrange every battleship!

Even if the plan is rigorous and correct, the reality is not a war game, and the battleship will still have unexpected situations such as inadvertent deviation, failure and repair, bad weather and need to change course, etc., resulting in uneven results of the plan that are obviously flawless.

While the Americans were doing everything possible to make up for their losses, with the fleet returning home, the Akito was busy with rusty and dilapidated warships.

Among them, the proud steel giant Yongle was overhauled at its dry dock in Shanghai, and its faulty No. 3 engine was nearly scrapped due to continued operation in poor working conditions.

Although the possibility is very small, the technical team is still wondering if there is a way to repair it, otherwise it will have to take a lot of trouble to cut open the hull and replace it, which will not be done in a year and a half.

Zhou Changfeng is quite leisurely, and the time spent with his wife for several days can be said to be quite comfortable.

While waiting for the Advisory Yuan to review the legal proposal, he also made a special trip to the Ordnance Bureau of the Ministry of War to follow up on the situation of ground equipment.

In view of the national conditions and needs, the Ming army was not enthusiastic about heavy tanks.

All the blame is on ...... At least the responsibility for this does lie with the U.S. military - neither the current M2 medium tank nor the later M3 medium tank can stimulate the Ming army to iterate on its own heavy tanks.

The 38-type assault vehicle in service is actually embarrassed to evaluate from the perspective of God, this heavy tank with interwar technology uses five pairs of large-diameter load wheels suspended by independent leaf springs, riveted body, cast turret, vertical armor with a thickness of 50mm on the front, and is equipped with an 80mm short-barreled gun with an empty weight of 26.5 tons.

However, such a mediocre heavy tank has been rampant since the outbreak of the war, especially the tank crews of the Ming army will stack sandbags, apply cement, and place spare track shoes for it, so the small-caliber anti-tank guns of the American and British armies can only hope to penetrate their frontal armor at a distance of several hundred meters.

Therefore, the Ming Army and the Ordnance Bureau were all rotten.

They decided to develop only the next generation of heavy tanks as a technical reserve, but not to procure them.

The only upgrade was a minor improvement to the Type 38 heavy tank, including the adoption of a welding process, thicker armor, and replacement of artillery.

This modification, known as the Type 38 C, increased its empty weight to 31 tons, but did not upgrade the engine, so its maneuverability decreased.

It is characterized by the full adoption of the welding process; The frontal armor of the hull was thickened to 70mm, the frontal turret was thickened to 60mm, and the sides were all thickened to 30mm; using a large cast turret designed by Yenching First Heavy Machinery Company; The artillery was replaced with a 112mm, 22x diameter tank gun modified from the Type 34 howitzer.

"Come on, come on, give Zhou Zhizhao a snack!"

Zhou Changfeng is a frequent visitor to the Ordnance Bureau, not to mention anything else, he has eaten no less than thirty times in the canteen of the Ordnance Bureau alone.

He was surprised: "You are really able to make careful calculations, are the army side willing?" ”

The official who introduced him to the general situation laughed, "What's not to like?" The Army thinks this is good, because it is more familiar to maintain, and it is cheaper than building a brand new car. ”

"This cannon is good, it should work well against fortifications."

"Yes, four pounds of explosives, no matter what civil fortifications will collapse with one shot."

The Type 34 112mm howitzer has an internal charge of 2.07kg TNT, and most medium-sized tanks have to lie down when they are shot.

"What about the R&D project as a technical reserve?" Zhou Changfeng glanced at the documents in the closet and asked, "Has the target been set?" ”

"It's almost decided." The official casually said: "The main thing is to verify the new suspension system and engine, as well as the processing technology of large-thickness armor plates." ”

Although Akito has always held on to the traditional balanced suspension, he has also tested a lot of various suspensions, such as Christie suspension, linkage leaf spring suspension, butterfly spring suspension, etc.

In line with the views of the major powers, Daming engineers also believed that the torsion bar suspension was the most excellent performance, and the disadvantage was the high production cost.

The technical specifications of the next-generation heavy tank are relatively vague, and a lot of new technologies are piled up, which does not seem to be reliable, which shows that its technical verification is very meaningful - anyway, it is not planned to be installed for the time being.

These include a 520 hp V12 air-cooled petrol engine with supercharger, artillery vertical stabilizers, torsion bar suspension, a long-barreled tank gun converted from a 96mm anti-aircraft gun, and a 90mm thickness cold-rolled rare earth nickel-chromium-molybdenum alloy armor steel.

Zhou Changfeng said with a smile: "This ...... It's purely an experimental car, can it really be built? ”

In contrast, the Germans, who are leading the trend, have already set up a project last year for the VK4501 heavy breakthrough vehicle, which is the zoo's first heavyweight.

However, the design of the VK4501 is conservative, and there is not much advanced technology other than the Maybach HL230 engine.

(End of chapter)

.