Chapter 42 The Moon of Yesteryear
Cai Huai looked at Xie Ning's young and innocent face in silence. If he remembered correctly, Xie Ning should be three or four years younger than him.
Yet Xie Ning, in his early twenties, was an expert in firearms and an undeniable firearms specialist. In the previous battle, with the addition of guns and cannons manufactured by Xie Ning, the Japanese casualties were at least twice as high as usual.
Xie Ning is so talented that it wouldn't be an exaggeration to call her a genius. It is precisely because of her abilities that even the commander of tens of thousands of soldiers dared not force her. Xie Ning is not a cake, but a person who can make cakes.
Cai Huai certainly wouldn't go to Commander Cai right away. Instead, he chose to figure it out on his own first. He had been standing by Xie Ning while she was chatting with Sister Windsor. After sending Xie Ning back to the mansion, Cai Huai went out and brought back a bunch of newspapers.
Natural disasters happen every year, but from 28 years ago to now, the severity of floods, droughts, locust plagues, and hailstorms has been the worst in decades. In particular, the various natural disasters of the year before last and the floods in the Yangtze and Huai River basins last year were especially severe. The victims sold their children, tore apart and ate corpses, and even ate living people. However, the newspapers did not report on it extensively, and the number of victims in the reports did not seem to be very large.
But Cai Huai wasn't stupid. It was obvious that this was being suppressed by the higher-ups. After all, there were countless refugees who had fled to Shanghai alone. Newspapers would only publish reports that were permitted by those in power, and the relief funds would be skimmed off at every level, with less than one ten-thousandth actually reaching the disaster victims.
In particular, at that time, a major war broke out between various factions and warlords of the Kuomintang. The three warlord forces of Yan, Feng, and Li formed an anti-Chiang alliance to fight against Chiang's Nanjing National Government, with the battle line stretching for thousands of kilometers.
War naturally requires military spending.
The scales of justice in the world are always tipped in one direction.
Last year, Chiang Kai-shek mobilized 300,000 troops, ten times the size of the Red Army, to launch the third "encirclement and suppression" campaign against the Central Soviet Area. The campaign ended in failure, and the National Revolutionary Army was exhausted. In early September, the Guangzhou National Government launched a general mobilization to attack Chiang Kai-shek. Chiang quickly mobilized troops to "punish the rebels" and personally went from Nanjing to Nanchang to supervise the battle. As a result, the main military forces of the National Government were drawn to the south.
Coupled with the severe floods in the Yangtze and Huai River basins last year, the war, and natural disasters exacerbated the already strained finances of the Nationalist government, leaving the national treasury empty and resulting in a serious fiscal deficit.
Taking advantage of the situation, the Japanese army invaded Northeast China, adhering to their consistent tradition of launching a war without declaration and taking advantage of others' misfortunes (a shameless tradition).
Meanwhile, the country was focused on the civil war and adopted a policy of non-resistance to foreign enemies, completely disregarding the anti-Japanese sentiments of the people and the spirit of not yielding an inch of the country's territory.
"I'm glad you understand this, Ah Huai. It seems you've made a lot of progress while you're with Miss Xie."
Xie Ning spoke of destiny. Commander Cai didn't know who had destiny, but it certainly wasn't in the current commander's hands. After all, that man had terrible luck. The Communist Party was his biggest enemy. Despite leading an army of 300,000, he failed to wipe them out. Domestic natural disasters and foreign invasions forced him to back down.
Commander Cai gestured for Chen Jian to hand the newspaper Xie Ning had sent to Cai Huai.
"The 26th Army?" Cai Huai frowned. "Miss Xie wants you to emulate the 26th Army?"
“Naive, Ah Huai, you can’t judge things by appearances. The G Army is not yet capable of fighting against the Kuomintang. I will not choose them, at least not now.”
They are not orthodox.
“But you oppose that person’s policy of non-resistance and the decision to pacify the country before resisting foreign aggression, so you won’t side with that person.” Cai Huai couldn’t guess anything else, but he had been following his uncle since he was sixteen, for almost ten years. In terms of understanding, he probably didn’t even know as much as Staff Officer Chen.
"Well, the government is only superficially peaceful and unified. There are many factions with ulterior motives. Whether they defect to the G army like Ji or start their own uprising, it's inevitable. We have many brothers under our command, and now we don't have to worry about buying guns and cannons from others. On the contrary, others have to beg us to share some of the spoils."
He naturally chose to start his own uprising, but he still needed to make preparations and gather some people to join him.
Commander Cai pointed to the newspaper. "This is just one option, a cooperative option, a united front against Japan, which is what the people want."
For some reason, Cai Huai felt relieved and then brought up Xie Ning's request to expand production. Commander Cai was more than happy to do so; he would even swindle money to give to Xie Ning as funding.
When Cai Huai returned to pick up Xie Ning, she was sitting on the ground, surrounded by scattered papers covered with dense calculations. Cai Huai's head ached just from looking at them.
These are astronomical symbols to him, and he doesn't know why Xie Ning and Ms. Lin Qin like them so much.
Without looking up, Xie Ning asked, "When does Commander Cai plan to start the uprising?"
Without even asking if there would be an uprising, they went straight to asking when. Cai Huai suddenly felt a headache coming on. "Miss Xie, you..."
"This matter can be understood with a little analysis. Do you think the higher-ups don't know? It's just that they are currently focused on dealing with the G army. They don't even have time to deal with the Japanese army, let alone warlords like you."
Of course, you'd better remain loyal for now, otherwise, if you get bitten, you'll at least have a big chunk of flesh torn off.
It's impossible for the military to be without personnel sent from above to supervise, and there are also Blue Shirts members watching from the outside—two layers of supervision.
Cai Huai didn't help Xie Ning clean up the scattered papers on the floor. Instead, he went to a small cabinet to the side, poured a glass of warm water, and handed it to Xie Ning. He couldn't help but voice his doubts.
“Miss Xie, you really don’t seem like an expert or scholar. From what I’ve met of some writers or experts, they are, well, rather pure.”
Like a bookworm, such as Ms. Lin Qin, although she is excellent at mathematics, she cannot avoid talking about national affairs and factional struggles. She would rather think about fashionable Western clothes and delicious food.
Xie Ning is as shrewd as a politician.
Should I thank you for secretly praising my quick wit, or should I be angry that you secretly criticized me for being shrewd and worldly?
Xie Ning took a sip of water to relieve the dryness on her lips, then looked at Cai Huai with a half-smile.
Cai Huai awkwardly touched his nose, looking extremely flustered despite his towering height of 1.9 meters.
"Alright, I'm not teasing you anymore. Let's practice when we get back."
Before leaving, Ms. Lin packed a lot of snacks and treats for Xie Ning to eat as a late-night snack. "Aunt Lin knows that Aunt Liu's cooking skills are good, but these delicate snacks are not what she is good at. Take more back with you so you won't be hungry when you stay up late tonight."
Speaking of staying up late, Ms. Lin Qin couldn't help but urge, "Although you have a lot on your plate, you should also take care of your health. Don't ruin your life at such a young age. Get some rest early."
Xie Ning nodded obediently, and she and Cai Huai each carried a large box of pastries into the car.
When Aunt Liu saw Xie Ning return, she quickly informed her, "Miss, that Aunt Ruan came to invite you out for dinner again. I told her you weren't home, so she left."
Ruan Xue? Xie Ning counted, this was already the sixth time Ruan Xue had come to invite her.
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