Chen Zikun flew to Nanjing. After landing at the campus, Song Ziwen sent a special car to greet him, and went straight to the Nationalist Government to meet Sun Ke, the premier of the Executive Yuan.

Sun Ke is the son of the former prime minister, and he had a one-sided relationship with Chen Zikun at the funeral of that year, and he has always taken a tough stance toward Japan.

This current Nationalist Government is the weakest team, Chairman Lin Sen is in name only, he is just a man who sees India, the Premier cannot command the army, and he has no financial power, the situation is like a mess, and he has no time to take care of himself, how can he have the ability to deal with foreign enemies.

After Chiang Kai-shek left the wilderness, he was a member of the Standing Committee of the Kuomintang Central Committee and the supreme leader of party affairs. ”

Wang Zhaoming's road didn't work, Chen Zikun went to find Chiang Kai-shek again, Lao Chiang was cultivating himself in the villa, and he said that I had gone into the wilderness, and I didn't ask about political affairs, but I was looking for Sun Ke if I had something.

As for Hu Hanmin, another party-state magnate, he did not enter Beijing at all, and he couldn't find anyone if he wanted to.

The leaders of the Republic of China either failed to manage it or did not have the power to manage it, in short, they passed the buck to each other and were indifferent.

Busy until the evening, still no progress, had to drive back to the apartment, although Nanjing is the capital, but the prosperity is far inferior to Shanghai, in the evening, there are fewer people on the street, the shadow is full of low houses at the end of the Ming Dynasty ancient city wall, the street lamps are dim, a white hat hoop patrol police stand alone on the street.

A gust of wind blew, rolled up a piece of paper on the ground, floated and floated, and floated into the car window, it was today's calendar, the twenty-eighth day of January in the twenty-first year of the Republic of China, Thursday, the twenty-first day of December in the old calendar, and there were nine days before the Spring Festival.

In a house on the side of the road, the police were knocking on the door, and Hongyu was sitting in front of the window, tearing up the calendar cards one by one, her eyes were hollow, and she was humming a nursery rhyme in her mouth, and the calendar made of tissue paper fluttered in the cold wind, like snowflakes.

The police finally broke down the door, grabbed Hongyu and looked at it, and scolded: "It's a crazy woman, search for me!" A group of people rummaged through the cabinets, found nothing useful except for a few torn clothes, and left in a daze.

……

Chen Zikun has a house in Nanjing, and it has been a little damp for a long time, and the clothes in the cabinet are moldy, Liu Ting thinks that the guards are rough and cleans it personally, looking at her busy figure, Chen Zikun suddenly has a strange feeling, as if this is also his home, and Liu Ting is also one of his family members.

After cleaning, the time is not early, the hotel is on the door, the guards are all big and coarse, and they can pass the time by eating a bowl of duck blood vermicelli soup at a nearby stall, Chen Zikun can't be so sloppy as a general, and besides, he is full of worries and has no appetite, so he sits in the hall and smokes alone.

Liu Ting saw it in her eyes, quietly went out to find a small shop, bought oil, salt, sauce and vinegar noodles and eggs, came back and ordered a pot of noodles, lay down an egg, sprinkled with finely chopped shallots, dripped sesame oil, and held a fragrant bowl in front of Chen Zikun.

There were no extra words, the two ate relatively silently, after eating, Liu Ting went to brush the pot and wash the dishes, the wall clock on the wall rang the bell at eleven o'clock, it was not early, the two said good night to each other, and each entered the bedroom.

The wind was blowing outside, flying sand and stones, whining, as if who was whimpering, the branches were knocking on the window, the dark shadows outside, it seemed that the demons were dancing, Liu Ting was frightened, got up and turned on the light, who knew that the power was out, so she had to tremble and light a candle, and suddenly remembered that the window in the living room forgot to close, put on a nightgown and went out with a candlestick.

The window of the living room was rattled by the wind, and it was stormy outside, Liu Ting hurriedly stepped forward, put down the candlestick to close the window, the curtains flew like ghosts, the cold wipers came in and extinguished the candles, and it was dark all around, I don't know whose wild cat whined, so frightened that she screamed, turned around and ran, pretending to crash into a broad chest.

Chen Zikun didn't know when he was already standing in the living room, Liu Ting unintentionally threw himself into his arms, struggled subconsciously, and then hugged him tightly, and the two hugged each other wordlessly on this cold and rainy night.

Suddenly, there was a quick knock on the door, and Shuangxi shouted in front of him: "Chairman, someone from the headquarters of the three armed services is looking for you." ”

The two hurriedly separated, Chen Zikun ran back to the room and quickly put on his military uniform, and walked out while wearing an armed belt, Liu Ting wrapped a cotton nightgown and followed closely behind, and came to the door, only to see three cars parked in the yard, the doors were painted with blue sky and white sun, one of them was an open-top truck, the soldiers on the car wore steel helmets on their heads, wearing rubber raincoats, the rain wet the helmets, and flashed in the dim light.

A colonel stepped forward quickly and saluted: "General Chen, the headquarters of the three armed services have been summoned urgently." ”

Chen Zikun fastened his armed belt and asked solemnly, "It's so late, what's the matter?" ”

"There's a war in Shanghai." The colonel replied simply.

Chen Zikun's face was expressionless, and he turned back to Liu Ting and said, "Wait for me." ”

Liu Ting nodded, and watched the car taillights disappear at the end of the long street.

When the convoy drove to the entrance of the headquarters, Chen Zikun's guards were stopped outside, and he was allowed to enter alone, the headquarters was brightly lit, the courtyard was full of cars, and double posts and steel helmets and bayonets were added to the door, as if facing a great enemy.

In the conference room of the headquarters, Chiang Kai-shek had already arrived first, and he was also dressed in military uniform, the heads of the Ministry of Military Affairs did not pull any of them, and in terms of government and party affairs, Wang Zhaoming, Sun Ke, and Chen Guofu were also there, and a group of important members of the party and state who were still blaming each other during the day were all dignified at the moment, and Chen Zikun suddenly understood that these people were all old foxes, and they did not have to pay less attention to the Songhu front.

Chiang Kai-shek presided over the meeting, motioned for Chen Zikun to sit in the back row, and said: "An hour ago, the Japanese marines launched an attack on us in Zhabei in Shanghai, the 19th Route Army has begun to resist, the war will expand at any time, Shanghai is no better than the northeast, it is very close to the capital, and it will endanger the security of the central government at any time. ”

Wang Zhaoming said: "Shanghai is the lifeblood of the country's economy, once the war is poisoned, the tax revenue is sharply reduced, what can be used to maintain the operation of the government." ”

Sun Ke sneered: "Shanghai was occupied by the Japanese, wouldn't it be impossible to collect even a dime in taxes." ”

He Yingqin said: "But the main force of our army is in Jiangxi, Shanghai only has the 19th Route Army, it is certainly not the opponent of the Japanese army, Japan transported troops from the mainland, it only takes a few days by boat, I transferred troops from the front line of Jiangxi to suppress bandits to the north, but the cycle is not as good as the Japanese army, and the Japanese navy has superior firepower, and there is aircraft carrier support, our army will lose the war." ”

Chiang Kai-shek said: "Zikun, what is your opinion?" ”

Chen Zikun said: "The people's morale is available, we must fight, victory or defeat is second, the key is to let the people, to let the foreign powers see our determination to resist the Japanese invasion, so that the people will support us, and the great powers will not abandon us." ”

Sun Ke raised his hand and said, "I agree with Chen Zikun's opinion. ”

Chen Guofu also raised his hand.

Chiang Kai-shek said: "This is what I mean: after 918, the loss of power and humiliation of the country, the people's resentment is boiling, and if we don't fight a war, the people's will will be lost, and the problem now is how to control the war to the smallest extent, and we must not expand it, and we must win international sympathy." ”

He Yingqin said: "With the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Military Affairs, there is absolutely no ability to command operations against Japan, and I propose to restart the establishment of the Military Commission to control the overall situation." As he spoke, he stood up and said solemnly: "Ladies and gentlemen, I nominate Mr. Jiang Zhongzheng as the chairman of the Military Commission. ”

The generals in the audience raised their hands one after another, and Wang Zhaoming said: "Originally, the resumption of the Central Military Commission required a meeting of the Central Committee to make a resolution, but the incident happened suddenly, and if there is a quorum of the Central Executive Committee members present, we will hold a temporary meeting to vote." ”

During the war, all procedures were simplified, and Chiang Kai-shek was elected chairman of the Military Commission with a high vote, and he went out of the mountain again, only a month and a half after his last visit.

The military conference is still going on, and the focus is no longer on the question of whether to fight or not, but on how to fight the war, which can neither lose Shanghai nor provoke the Japanese excessively, leading to the expansion of the war.

It was not until the early hours of the morning that a general strategy was come up: the 19th Route Army took the lead, and the central government organized an army as a backup, tried not to use naval and air forces, did not clash with the Japanese army outside Shanghai, and strictly restricted anti-Japanese activities in various localities.

Chen Zikun had never seen such a battle plan, he wanted to fight, but he was afraid of hurting the opponent, but as the former chairman of the National Defense Construction Supervision Commission, he deeply understood the difficulties of Chiang Kai-shek and He Yingqin, China was too poor to produce its own heavy weapons, and the price of an imported artillery shell was worth the total income of the peasants for five years! China cannot produce automobiles, warships, and airplanes, while Japan can even produce aircraft carriers, and the gap is too big to afford to fight.

At seven o'clock in the morning, Chen Zikun hurried home, Liu Ting had already prepared breakfast, her eyes were red, and she obviously hadn't slept all night.

"How's it going in Shanghai?" As soon as she saw Chen Zikun coming back, Liu Ting immediately asked.

"The brothers of the 19th Route Army did a good job, they beat the Japanese back, and there is a meeting in the morning, and I will probably take up a certain position......," Chen Zikun said as he ate, and his spirits were very high.

Liu Ting naturally stood behind him and helped him rub his shoulders: "I had a night meeting, I'm tired." ”

"Yes, meetings are more tiring than fighting, and I'd rather lead troops to the front." Chen Zikun suddenly turned around and grabbed Liu Ting's slender hand, "It's a war, I can't take you with me, you can go home first." ”

After last night's hug, the distance between the two seemed to have shortened a lot, Liu Ting smiled, showing two dimples, she rarely smiled, she didn't expect to laugh so sweetly.

"Where you are, it's my home." This is Liu Ting's first sincere confession.

Chen Zikun paused, and was about to say something, when Shuangxi pushed the door in very inappropriately, coughed dryly, and didn't squint: "Chairman Jiang's phone." ”