Chapter 109 The Moon of Yesteryear
When they returned, everyone was waiting. Seeing Xie Ning and Er Niu carrying large and small bags of things, they all curiously went up to them.
What is this?
"cake."
The soft, fluffy cream was something they had never eaten before. Xie Ning handed a cake with a small candle to the youngest of the guards, saying, "Happy birthday, Xiao Fang! After this birthday, you'll be sixteen! This is how birthdays are celebrated in the West. Let's try it today and be a little more sophisticated!"
Xiao Fang smiled shyly, her eyes sparkling. "I... I've never had a birthday celebration before. No, thankfully, when I was little, my mother would cook an egg for me."
While he and his older brother were out farming with hoes, their home was bombed by planes, which is why he joined the army. Despite his young age, he joined the army at the age of twelve!
"Come on, come on, it's New Year's Eve today! And it's also Xiao Fang's birthday, so eat more! Look at this braised pork knuckle, it's so tender! The lamb dumplings smell amazing too! Brother Yang even fried some in oil, we've never eaten anything so delicious before!"
It was New Year's Eve. On ordinary days, they didn't even have white rice to eat, let alone meat. Moreover, they only started to eat meat occasionally after following Xie Ning.
Everyone started eating in a lively atmosphere. Xie Ning filled a bowl with food and asked Er Niu to take it to Deputy Factory Director Liu. There was a lot of food at the banquet, but that old cadre probably wouldn't get to eat much.
Xie Ning was right. The banquet was so focused on chatting and probing that by the time they realized what was going on, all that was left on the table were vegetable scraps.
So when he saw the hot meal that Xie Ning had Erniu bring, Deputy Factory Director Liu felt really warm inside. "Xiao Ning is too kind, bringing so much food."
After Erniu left, Deputy Factory Director Liu immediately shouted, calling all the guards in the yard over to eat, "Where's the vinegar? Bring out the vinegar from the kitchen, and a few cloves of garlic too! There are so many dumplings! They're even mutton dumplings!"
The rain brings a strong sense of spring.
The specially designed weapons were very effective against enemy aircraft. According to statistics, fifty enemy aircraft had been shot down. However, this was far from enough. The Kuomintang lost more than two hundred combat aircraft in just three months after the start of the full-scale war of resistance!
If the numbers continue to decrease and become unsustainable, then we will have to start implementing a "war avoidance strategy," and only then will we completely lose air superiority.
Speaking of airplanes, Xie Ning recalled the Japanese invasion of Northeast China. Because of the policy of non-resistance, they directly captured 260 airplanes. It was heartbreaking to think that there were a full 260 airplanes!
Besides these, the Kuomintang originally had more than 305 aircraft available for combat. After all, in 1936, due to the nationwide "aircraft donation for birthday celebration" movement, all primary and secondary schools across the country, and even monks, Taoist priests, and nuns in temples and monasteries, were forced to donate money.
These funds, calculated at the time, were sufficient to purchase more than 1,300 advanced aircraft produced in the United States and Germany.
However, Song did not buy combat aircraft at the time, but instead deposited most of them into accounts at New York banks. After the outbreak of war, other countries maintained a neutral stance and imposed an arms embargo, which resulted in China having only 305 combat aircraft available.
These things are not secrets to those at the top.
If China had purchased over a thousand combat aircraft back then, it wouldn't be so weak in the air battlefield now.
Sometimes Xie Ning really wished she could build airplanes, but unfortunately, all she could do was make guns and shells to shoot down airplanes.
Even with the help of these specialized weapons, shooting down a single aircraft still required the lives of countless soldiers, as ground-to-air combat was inherently disadvantageous from the outset.
Xie Ning, filled with resentment, was still gritting his teeth and drawing design blueprints late into the night, not only for combat aircraft but also for armored vehicles.
Suddenly, there was a loud knocking on the office door, and Liu Yun burst in, shouting, "Teacher, there's been an explosion in Workshop 5!"
Workshop 5 is where artillery shells are produced. If an explosion occurs, there will definitely be many injured. "Have the people from the medical room gone there yet?"
"I've already sent someone to call them."
"How could it explode?"
"It is said that..."
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