Chapter 42: Let’s sit down and have a meeting! (Chinese)
On the evening of the first day of the first lunar month of the fifth year of Chongzhen Emperor's reign, Vladivostok, Qidian Town (Vladivostok Military Port in the old time and space), Far East Company Headquarters
The twilight light of the setting sun, refracted by the vast snowfield, shines slantingly on the rough beech floor through the warm double-layer glass. This conference room, which was not too spacious, was crowded with people at this time, and the atmosphere was as heavy as solidified graphite.
Even by twenty-first century standards, the conference room was well appointed. There are water dispensers and self-service coffee machines in the room. A cabinet next to it contains various tea leaves, dried fruits and several cartons of cigarettes of various brands. A refrigerator with a transparent door also contains a variety of iced drinks. There are also some iced drinks placed against the wall. with several computers started at work. The side walls of the conference room are decorated with furs, and a pull-out glass blackboard hangs on the front wall, with a simple map of Vladivostok and the location of the armed forces drawn on it. Next to it was a white cloth screen similar to the one used in modern primary and secondary school classrooms. A projector was connected to the computer, projecting various images that had just been taken from the front of the confrontation onto the white cloth screen.
Everyone in the meeting was puffing away cigarettes one after another, making the air in the room very bad and smoky, with cigarette butts all over the floor.
No one expected that the second New Year after they traveled to the late Ming Dynasty would actually lead to such a heart-pounding and mental breakdown!
——First, the steam-powered warship that appeared in the waters of Jeju Island yesterday, as well as several time-travelers on the warship, the senior leaders of the Vladivostok Far East Company finally confirmed initially that in this obviously disturbed time and space, there is indeed There are also other time-traveling group forces.
Regarding the above-mentioned explosive news, the senior directors of Far East Company in Vladivostok immediately got into a quarrel on New Year's Eve, and even the New Year's Eve dinner was tasteless. Some self-centered radicals believed that since Far East Company has such strong strength, it cannot be allowed to go unchecked. There are several other groups of modern people like myself in this time and space, so they must be forced to join the group, otherwise they must be eliminated no matter how high the price is.
But there are also a few conservative guys who sneer at the above-mentioned "decisive killing" proposal - even the nearest Hainan Island crossing group is far away from the other end of China, and the remaining crossing groups are even further away. Australia and America. Not to mention how much sacrifice and price it would cost to eliminate these forces, just the expedition route that crossed half the world was already a nightmare. Even if their military technology level is still stuck in the steam power era, their knowledge and vision of the 21st century is enough to bring huge obstacles to the Far East Company's road to conquest.
Therefore, rashly provoking these time-traveling forces without any reason will only make you the target of public criticism. Moreover, such a violent approach of attacking and killing other groups of time travelers without even making an excuse can easily make the grassroots time travelers of the Far East Company feel disgusted: Since the company's senior management is so careless about human life and cannot tolerate people, then who knows that the Far East Company Will the company's butcher's knife suddenly strike at me one day?
reason? In order to maintain their supreme status, the company's top executives don't want too many time-travelers to exist in the world. Isn't this reason enough?
Then, before the directors could quarrel and figure out how to face this chaotic world that was more lively than expected, and how to treat other Chinese compatriots from later generations, the spacecraft crashed on the outskirts of Vladivostok today. , and brought a subversive change to the Far East Company - the modern new Chinese government in the 21st century actually pursued it to the time and space of the late Ming Dynasty!
Something that I had never imagined before happened suddenly! What to do now? ! !
Amidst the gloomy smoke, Li Ming, the discoverer of the space-time gate and chairman of the Far East Company, who presided over the meeting, frowned and put out a thick cigar in the glass ashtray, and at the same time reached out and picked up the table again. The handwritten letter from ************.
——The content of the letter is very short. It is more like a note than a letter. The main content is to first praise their pioneering and adventurous spirit, and then briefly mention the troubles and mess they have left in the modern world. Finally, I hope that the retired soldiers of the Far East Company can recognize the situation and cooperate with the government to do a good job. In all aspects of the aftermath, we must not do something that will disappoint our loved ones and disappoint our enemies. The party and the country will also listen carefully to their opinions and views and strive to negotiate a solution that is acceptable to both parties. A happy ending.
In general, since this incident has "reached the sky" and alarmed Zhongnanhai from the beginning, under the attention of high-level officials, the government's response measures were basically cautious and appropriate, at least there was no surprise. The second generation of brain-dead officials who specialize in helping others use national interests as soon as they open their mouths. Under the guise of benefit, he arrogantly listed the charges against the other party and ordered the other party to do this and that, ultimately intensifying the conflict and making the matter impossible to end... However, although the wording of this ultimatum was quite sincere, there was basically no threat or reprimand. words, but Li Ming still felt a little resistant to this.
And this is also the unanimous perception of the vast majority of travelers in the Vladivostok Far East Company regarding this sudden change...
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As a group of adventurers who take the initiative to bid farewell to the old world and create a new life, these travelers from the Vladivostok Far East Company, who are retired soldiers, are different from those "democracy fighters" who forget their ancestors and seek refuge in the West. In essence, they should still be regarded as patriots, but Due to various reasons, they basically don’t have much nostalgia and ties to the original world - otherwise they wouldn’t choose to abandon everything in the past and start over in the late Ming Dynasty.
For example, Chairman Li Ming, the discoverer of the Time and Space Gate and the boss of the Far East Company, was an orphan before traveling to the late Ming Dynasty. He joined the army at the age of seventeen and was selected into the regiment's special agent company because of his excellent military qualities. The group army won the first place in three individual events in the scout competition. He was also selected to join the special operations brigade of the group army, and in less than a year he became the top trainee of the special operations brigade.
Later, Li Ming joined the special operations brigade of the military region. He won many awards in the army's special forces competitions and attracted the attention of the military. He was subsequently selected into a special unit directly under the General Staff for training, and was sent to Africa. He performed more than ten special missions in South America, the Middle East, Southeast Asia and other countries, and made many meritorious deeds, but was also injured many times. In the end, due to an accident, he was demobilized and returned to his hometown, where he jointly opened a machinery factory with a comrade. At first, the business of this small machinery factory was booming, but not long after, Li Ming was set up in a trap by his comrade in joint venture. Not only was he defrauded of a large sum of money, but he was also owed a fortune. Li Ming was unable to repay his bank loan, which made Li Ming despair and almost commit suicide.
Fortunately, at this moment, a space-time door leading to the late Ming Dynasty quietly opened in front of him, and on the other side of the door, there was a splendid treasure house... Li Ming, who was crazy about poverty, immediately took action and took away the gold in the warehouse. All the silver jewelry and antiques were moved away, and then most of the treasures were sold to exchange for money to repay the loan, and at the same time to earn the start-up capital for the time travel business. A few national treasures with archaeological value, including more than a dozen Yuan blue and white pieces, dozens of precious porcelains from the five famous kilns of the Song Dynasty, as well as a large number of precious historical documents, materials and rare books, were approved by the conscientious Comrade Li Ming. An agency company found abroad donated all the items to the National Palace Museum free of charge, causing an uproar in the country. Even many academic issues that have been debated in the archaeological community for many years were immediately solved due to the emergence of this large number of historical documents.
It can be seen that, on the one hand, Li Ming is determined to bid farewell to the original world in order to realize his ambition, but he has no hostility towards the party and the country. On the other hand, as a disgruntled person from the bottom of society, he is also extremely disgusted with the faces of some "people's servants" in the country.
In addition to Li Ming, other powerful senior leaders of the Vladivostok Far East Company are also in a similar situation. For example, Gao Jianguo, the No. 2 chairman of the Military Commission, was once Li Ming's superior. He was born in a poor rural area and joined the army at the age of fifteen. From an ordinary soldier, he became the top trainer of the entire regiment and division. He was later promoted to the Army Academy under special circumstances and was recommended to the Army Academy. After graduation, he served successively as platoon leader, deputy company commander, company commander, regimental training section chief, battalion commander, division training staff officer, regimental deputy chief of staff, chief of staff, and deputy regimental commander. All the way up. But since he changed his job and returned to his hometown, he has been unsatisfied - because he had no other options, he was assigned to the cold yamen of a small agency and became a division-level researcher with no prospects or prospects.
——In general, Gao Jianguo is a real soldier, but he was born in the wrong era. Only in the raging war years, people like him would have the freedom to gallop on the battlefield. In peacetime, with a character like his, he would be incompatible with the society when he returned to his place.
What is even more embarrassing is that Gao Jianguo found his wife at the station. Because Gao Jianguo was devoted to the army, his wife had been with someone outside many years ago. Their relationship was only in name only. Gao Jianguo soon agreed to divorce his wife because of this. The son followed him, and the wife fell into the arms of her mistress. The most terrible thing is that, as the saying goes, "good fortune never comes in pairs, misfortunes never come singly." Not long after, Gao Jianguo's son got terminally ill again. In order to raise money for his son's surgery, Gao Jianguo even sold his house, but it was still not enough, so he had to borrow money from everywhere. I borrowed it from Li Ming. Li Ming, who had just made a lot of money by selling antiques, helped Gao Jianguo pay the surgery fee without saying a word, and also helped Gao Jianguo pay off his previous debts - from then on, Gao Jianguo became Li Ming's best friend. A capable assistant who willingly worked for this former subordinate.
Then, Song Tao, another managing director of the Far East Company in charge of military affairs, also had a rather bumpy life experience - he was the illegitimate son of a wealthy red family in the capital. Because his mother died when he was fifteen, he was He was taken back to Beijing by his father. However, although the people in that family reluctantly admitted his identity, they still couldn't accept him psychologically, which made Song Tao roll his eyes. His father also had no feelings for Song Tao, and Song Tao was rebellious at that age, so he didn't have much identification with the big family.
Because Song Tao was causing trouble every day in the capital, his father sent Song Tao to the army. Unexpectedly, this guy took to the army like a fish in water. He infiltrated the special forces and became comrades with Li Ming. It's a pity that Song Tao still liked to cause trouble after joining the army. Later, he beat up his leader, so he was forced to retire and demobilize. After returning to his hometown, Song Tao did not go to work in the unit arranged by his father. Instead, he went to Africa alone to work as a mercenary, and began a thrilling and exciting life... However, while enjoying the rain of bullets and smoke of gunpowder, Despite his life on the battlefield, he couldn't help but feel a little regretful - in this monotonous and boring world, there was no longer any earth-shaking revolutionary situation. No matter what he did on the battlefields of backward countries that were often ignored, it was difficult to win any reputation, let alone make any changes in the world.
Therefore, in order to create a more vigorous career and create a new world, he came to travel excitedly.
There is also Wang He, the managing director in charge of civil affairs. He was originally a leading cadre within the system. He rose up step by step from the grassroots level. He was once popular and high-spirited, active in key positions, and even appeared on the news network. But there are always ups and downs in officialdom. Wang He, who was once a political star, was almost thrown into prison a few years ago because of high-level political struggles and personal financial problems.
At the most dangerous time, he sent his wife and daughter abroad, and divorced his wife, who had no relationship with him for a long time. In the end, he was just assigned to a cold yamen, while his ex-wife remarried a foreigner. In the new family, his daughter also got married and had children abroad, leaving him alone in China. The family was destitute and there was no possibility of turning around in his career.
Wang He, who was extremely depressed and unwilling to continue to waste time in the cold yamen, after some hesitation and struggle, in order to find some meaning for the rest of his life and not to grow old slowly in wasted time, he finally embarked on a time travel journey. road, trying to start a second starting point in life.
Another managing director, Han Shanglin, who was also a fallen person from Tianya, was the deputy director of a branch of a large state-owned enterprise before time travel. Later, he resigned for some reason and went to the local Machinery Bureau as a deputy director with no position or authority. His wife died early due to illness and he had no children, so he was frustrated and depressed these years. It wasn't until he joined the Vladivostok Far East Company's time traveling business that he completely got rid of his previous depression and became energetic and energetic. He searched for various information every day, took a lot of notes, and worked late every day. I just rested and didn’t feel tired...
In short, the personnel of the Far East Company in Vladivostok is almost like a concentration camp for life losers. It is mainly to get rid of the bleak life in the past, forget all the gloom and depression in the first half of life, and embark on a new starting point in life in a new time and space. Like-minded people came together - this is why they named the first settlement built by the Far East Company in Vladivostok in the late Ming Dynasty "Qidian Town".
Fortunately, although these people are somewhat fanatical in their thoughts, they are far from crazy to the point of losing all moral integrity.
Therefore, Chairman Li Ming, the top "leader" of this group of losers in life, thought about it for a long time, but still couldn't make up his mind, so he had to find another topic at random: "...Ahem, Lao Gao, last time I took the bus Are the people who came with the Navy mini-submarine under control now?”
"...The few people who are still in Vladivostok, especially Agent Zhou Bili who seems to have some background, are now under control. After knowing what happened, their attitudes are quite cooperative. However, most of them turned out to be The crew members and Marine Corps officers and soldiers are still on the front line of Jeju Island. In order to avoid riots on the front, I ordered the news to be temporarily blocked and the attacking troops to be kept secret..."
Gao Jianguo, the Chairman of the Military Commission who had just escorted the immigrant ship back from Liaodong, opened his mouth and blew out a smoke ring, and replied, "...By the way, Li Yuancong (the pilot of the paramotor that went for reconnaissance) was not captured after he was captured. Did he find out anything there? "
"...He didn't get much meaningful information. This guy just flew over and was shot down before he could see anything clearly. Fortunately, the height of the paramotor was already very low at that time, and it was blocked by the branches of pine trees. He fell down and ended up in a pile of snow, so he didn’t suffer any injuries.”
Li Ming frowned and replied, "...Next, Li Yuancong became a prisoner. He was blindfolded and thrown into a tent, and no one talked to him. (After the interrogation, Doraemon used magic to The props deleted part of the prisoner's memory). It was not until a few hours later that our advance team had a fire conflict with the People's Liberation Army over there that he was escorted out and sent a message to us...
According to what he observed when he came out of the opposite position, the government's force input was about two to three battalions of Marines. It is also equipped with technical weapons such as rocket launchers, armored vehicles and tanks, and we just discovered the opposite reconnaissance drone over the city. ”
"...If this happens, I'm afraid it will be very troublesome! It seems that the government is very confident in their strength..."
Gao Jianguo rubbed his chin and muttered, "... Speaking of which, don't look at the fact that we have used Russian armored vehicles and landing ships in the past two years to fight against the Koreans, the Ming military households in Liaodong, the Japanese samurai, and the Jurchen Tatars. It's all like chopping melons. It’s as easy as chopping vegetables. But on the battlefield in the modern world, the gadgets we have in our hands are, at best, the same as those in Africa and Southeast Asia. The level of the country's resistance guerrillas. Not to mention the U.S. soldiers who are armed to the teeth, even our country's general border defense forces may not be able to defeat them, not to mention that our main forces are still on Jeju Island and the Liaodong coast, and are in Vladivostok. The headquarters only has some indigenous militias and a few second-line troops left behind, and there is even less heavy equipment..."
"...Then we can't just arrest him! Can we sneak attack under the cover of night?" A young man who looked like a college student said excitedly.
"...It's useless. The Marine Corps opposite must be equipped with full-color night vision devices, infrared monitors, and perhaps some other cutting-edge military technology products that we haven't heard of. You should have also seen how the US military fought in Iraq. It’s a movie about street fighting! The modern army’s ability to adapt to various terrains and environments is quite impressive. To be honest, even in night battles, we are no match for the regular army.”
Special Operations Captain Song Tao, who had also just returned from Jeju Island, stared at the hot tea cup in front of him and said lightly, "...not to mention, there are still psychological barriers that cannot be overcome - don't forget, the people here are Most of them are veterans, and they are also from the People’s Liberation Army!”
When it came to this point, several hard-liners who originally had expressions of dissatisfaction on their faces had no choice but to remain silent at this time - even though they had experienced many battles in the late Ming Dynasty and were accustomed to killing. But if they want to take action against the old troops they once served in, the psychological pressure is still not ordinary...
"...Ahem, yes, for our current situation, provoking an armed conflict is the worst of the worst!"
Gao Jianguo coughed dryly and said to everyone, "...Stop holding on to the crazy idea that I am the best in the world and I am the only one who is the only one! Who knows how much power there is on the other side? Now that they have a group coming, will another one come next? A division, or even a group army? If that's the case, are we still going to attack our former comrades under the Bayi Army and use a mantis as a chariot to bring about our own destruction?"
"...Anti-force confrontation is self-destruction? Well, then do you want us to surrender and continue to work for those bastards who are officials?"
Someone immediately retorted with dissatisfaction, "...don't forget what goal we all have to achieve, so we chose to give up everything and come to this backward time and space! And what is the purpose of the government's massive deployment of troops to pursue us? What? They are treating us like criminals!”
——The few managing directors who knew exactly what the Far East Company had done in the original time and space could not help but feel guilty and blush for a while, and even sweated from behind... Well, from many angles, they were indeed a group of uncompromising people. There is nothing wrong with the criminals who do not deduct...
Finally, Chairman Li Ming flicked the stainless steel tea cup in front of him with a teaspoon, letting the clear voice dispel the deadlock and dull atmosphere in the conference room.
"...No matter what, if we just discuss it behind closed doors, we will definitely get nowhere. Didn't the government send us a long-distance radio walkie-talkie? Bring that thing over and talk to the other side first. Let’s talk about it and understand the government’s attitude.”
A young man who was serving tea and water next to him was about to move the walkie-talkie after hearing this, but was stopped by another time traveler.
"...Wait a minute, how did you learn the common sense of modern warfare? Do you dare to misuse the radios sent by others? Aren't you afraid that like President Dudayev during the Chechen War, others will check the mobile phone signal? Arrive at the location and then destroy it with precision-guided weapons?”
——During the first Chechen War in 1996, Russian early warning aircraft intercepted Chechen rebel leader Dudayev’s mobile phone communications and accurately measured Dudayev’s location. Immediately, the Russian army launched two anti-radiation missiles dozens of kilometers away from the target. Following the direction of the electromagnetic waves, they accurately hit Dudayev's call location, killing him on the spot. This has become a classic example of "decapitation tactics" in modern warfare.
After hearing this, the expressions of other people in the room suddenly changed and they hesitated slightly, but Li Ming, the big boss, waved his hand disapprovingly:
"...Haha, there's no need for that! If the government is really determined to use force to solve us, it won't need any missiles at all. It just needs to use a rocket launcher group over there to fire a covering shot, and Vladivostok can be turned into a A burning ruin..."
He sighed and smiled bitterly, "...since the government can get rid of us without so much trouble. So, let me bring the walkie-talkie and let me talk to the person on the other side! Of course, if you are afraid If you are subjected to beheading tactics, you can hide outside by yourself..."
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At the same time, in the temporary camp of the People's Liberation Army on the outskirts of Vladivostok, as Marine Corps officers and soldiers, technicians and negotiators arrived one after another, Wang Qiu, who was now idle, was also talking to Professor Guo about "relevant departments" coping strategies.
"...I said, Professor Guo, in order to solve this big mess, does the government really plan to arrest all these people in Vladivostok? No matter how much trouble they have caused in our world, after all, they have created such a big thing in another world. It would be a pity to give up such a career casually!” "...Haha, let them go back to jail like this? How is this possible?!" Professor Guo smiled and shook his head, "...retired officers and soldiers can dare to fight like this, start their own businesses, and go abroad to compete for living space , if it doesn’t cause trouble to the country, the government should obviously support it. How could it oppose it? And what about killing their enthusiasm? We are not a closed country like North Korea... Of course, merit is merit and fault is fault. Although traveling to another world is not a crime in itself, the trouble they caused in this incident is They also have to make a careful calculation. In addition, the development of this time and space must be done carefully. In terms of exploration matters, in accordance with the instructions of the Central Committee, all travelers should accept the overall arrangements of the party and the state, and the group of people in Vladivostok are naturally no exception. Since most of the travelers in Vladivostok are veterans, they should have a higher level of consciousness. Something is right..."