readx; Chapter 772: Singing a song

In the chaotic situation of the global situation, although China's entry into the six Southeast Asian countries has aroused the opposition of various countries, including Britain, the United States and the Soviet Union, to a certain extent, China's presence in Southeast Asia has already existed, and this also means that the opposition of Britain, the United States and the Soviet Union can prevent China's southward expansion, and the British and the United States are not willing to risk war with China and break with China in an all-round way. The isolationism of the Americans www.biquge.info caused them to still exercise restraint in the face of German expansion in Europe, and Roosevelt was not able to enter the war if he wanted to.

As for Soviet Russia, the attitude is even more subtle; as China's traditional hostile country, the relations between Soviet Russia and China are undoubtedly bad, and this situation has not been improved even after the two countries formally signed an armistice treaty last year, and this can be seen from the fact that the two sides are still heavily armed in Siberia and Central Asia, and from the perspective of Soviet Russia's interests, he cannot shift China's strategic focus to the south, and finally China and the United States and Britain, the three capitalist countries they see as evil, break out into a full-scale war, In this way, a lot of pressure could be directly relieved of Soviet Russia.

China's invasion of the six countries in Southeast Asia, the first expansion in this world war, and the cost is very small, the military cost is almost negligible, it has brought huge benefits to China, which not only makes it represent a vast export market, but more importantly, China has obtained a large number of strategic resources from Southeast Asia, such as natural rubber and grain. These are the materials that China has been importing in large quantities before.

The grain of the six Southeast Asian countries, especially the rice in Vietnam and Thailand, has always been an important import material for China, and the grain growth in China's domestic regions has actually been difficult to meet the domestic population growth rate, and a large amount of grain needs to be imported every year, and the main grain import area is Southeast Asia. In addition, natural rubber is also a much-needed material in China.

Natural rubber, in addition to the ordinary industrial production needs, is also a necessary material for the army, the most important is used in various tires, such as truck tires, aircraft tires, and even tank load wheels are required of rubber. Although the tank looks like a pure steel monster on the surface, there is still a lot of rubber inside, and the largest and most important thing is the thick layer of rubber surrounded by the outer layer of the load wheel, in order to reduce the vibration and noise of the tank when walking, and increase the life of the tracks. Load-bearing wheels and all-steel tracks can barely be used in all-steel manufacturing, but the defects are so large that they would not have been possible if it were not for the extreme lack of rubber.

China has always needed to import a large amount of rubber, although it has signed rubber supply guarantee agreements with the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, but this kind of agreement is not guaranteed, at most it is a verbal agreement. When Indonesia, to which the Netherlands belonged, was occupied, the rubber supply agreement between China and the Netherlands was null and void, and China instead imported rubber from Indonesia itself.

Due to the occupation of Indonesia, an important rubber producing area, the production of rubber available to the United Kingdom and the United States has also decreased rapidly, and the supply of rubber to China has begun to decrease since the end of last year, which has gradually reduced China's rubber reserves.

Now that he has controlled the six countries in Southeast Asia, Chen Jingyun intends to control all the resources in this area, not to mention the important resources of Tianqi rubber. Although the total amount of natural rubber produced from the six countries in Southeast Asia is not large, it is not better than none.

In order to solve the lack of domestic rubber, China, like Germany, the Soviet Union and the United States, began to vigorously develop artificial rubber, the output from last year's thousands of tons has begun to soar, in the first quarter of 1941 China's synthetic rubber production has reached 6,000 tons, almost the total output in the past two years, although this amount is far from meeting China's consumption of rubber, but this number is still increasing dramatically, and it is doubling and doubling. Several large synthetic rubber factories in China are already under intense construction, and it is expected that the output of synthetic rubber will reach 780,000 tons next year. At that time, it will be able to greatly alleviate China's rubber gap, after all, although China's rubber is used more, but it is only hundreds of thousands of tons, the total amount of rubber imported last year is actually only 180,000 tons, and the number of rubber imported this year should be further increased, mainly because it is said that Indonesia and China control the six countries in Southeast Asia, so that China's rubber imports have climbed, and it is expected to reach about 350,000 tons.

Then coupled with the domestic Hainan, Yunnan, Guangxi and other southern provinces planted in the local natural rubber production of tens of thousands of tons, it is estimated that it can also meet the huge demand for rubber, the demand here does not only refer to the consumption of this year, and other lack of strategic materials, China also has to do a certain amount of strategic material reserves.

Just as countries hoard tungsten ore exported by China as strategic reserves, China will also hoard some materials that it lacks.

It can be seen here that with the increase in China's rubber consumption day by day, especially after the expansion of armaments, rubber consumption has increased substantially, relying solely on imported natural rubber is no longer able to meet domestic demand, and the development of synthetic rubber is almost necessary.

Sending troops to Southeast Asia has also received great support in China, and the military doesn't have to think about it, these people are thinking about fighting wars and making military achievements all day long, not to mention sending troops to Southeast Asia, which can expand China's southern defense circle to the entire Southeast Asian region, and avoid all kinds of blows to the southern provinces of the country to the greatest extent. For domestic capitalists, the dispatch of troops to Southeast Asian countries represents a huge export market and an additional supply of resources.

For those nationalists who are full of enthusiasm and are full of Chinese rejuvenation, this is undoubtedly an important part of fighting for the production space of the Chinese nation and returning to the top of the world.

For ordinary people, under the many positive propaganda in the country, they also think that sending troops to Southeast Asia is a great thing, as for what is the benefit to them?

Who knows!

In May, the Nanjing Grand Theatre, built during the construction of the country in the early thirties, was built on a grand scale and with magnificent interiors, which could accommodate nearly 1,000 people for large-scale concerts, and an opera hall that could accommodate more than 700 spectators. This building with a strong artistic atmosphere and a symbol of urban culture is a non-profit building invested and built by Nanjing Special Municipal Axe.

Since its completion, it has become a good pastime for dignitaries and nobles, and the domestic magnates can often be seen on the VIP seats.

China in this era is extremely Westernized compared to traditional China, which has nothing to do with arguing about the usefulness of traditional culture, a country opens its doors and integrates into the world economic system, it will inevitably be eroded by foreign cultures, although China under the rule of Chen Jingyun is ruled by scholars, but it is a serious capitalist country, and trade with other countries before World War II is extremely frequent.

Moreover, Chen Jingyun is a descendant, many modern living habits seem to be different from the traditional ones in China, at least he doesn't like to listen to the so-called quintessence of Peking Opera and other so-called national quintessences, of course, he doesn't like those Western operas, although it is a little shallow, but what he likes to listen to is some pop music in later generations, and those seemingly noble things are really not his preference. However, in recent years, those noise-like meteor music are obviously gone, and occasionally listening to pure concerts in desperation is also a pastime, as the so-called upper is good, and the lower is welcome, Chen Jingyun occasionally comes to listen to this, and other magnates also come more or less, which slowly formed such an atmosphere in the upper echelons of the republic.

Those people in the upper echelons of society see going to concerts as a social act to show their status, which is somewhat similar to Western countries, but there is also a huge difference in the fact that operas or vernacular dramas and things that occupy an important position in Western society are not popular, and you have to say to a social salon that you just went to see Shakespeare's stage play last week, and people have to look at you with white eyes, and then look contemptuous and say I went to a concert of so-and-so musician last week.

At this time, in the concert hall of the Nanjing Opera House, nearly 1,000 seats were full, all of them were men and women in formal attire, men wore formal tuxedos, women wore Western-style evening dresses or expensive silk cheongsams, and a fox shawl that could make people sick in the sultry spring and summer.

In several VIP seats, there is a group of dignitaries who are unattainable in ordinary times, and there is usually an extremely rare core magnate of the republic, but today there are dozens of them at once, and their eyes are also looking at one of the VIP boxes, intentionally or unintentionally, there is a person who also needs them to look up: Chen Jingyun.

Chen Jingyun was sitting, surrounded by Lin Lin and a pair of younger children, the fourth son Chen Huayan and the third daughter Chen Yu, both of whom were only thirteen or fourteen years old, the younger of the brothers and sisters.

Although Chen Huayan is not very old, he was born to Lin Yun, and growing up in Chen Jingyun's family is destined to have an ordinary and ordinary childhood, and he looks like a little adult in formal clothes. However, the daughter Chen Yu on the side was chattering with him from time to time, and then occasionally said a word to her mother Lin Lin or a few words to Chen Jingyun, which was not too restrained.

Due to Chen Jingyun's different attitudes towards his son and daughter, the surname of the boys and girls in the Chen family is quite contrasting.

"That man sings so ugly, his voice is so sharp that he is not afraid to shout out his voice!" Chen Yu muttered, although he lowered his voice, he still let a few people around him hear it.

Lin Lin pretended to be angry and made a straight face: "Don't be noisy, listen well!" ”

The elder brother Chen Huayan next to him was still sitting straight, but there was still a snicker in the corner of his mouth, and he secretly nodded to his sister, indicating that he agreed with her words, but out of the corner of his eye, he saw Chen Jingyun's gaze drifting over, and immediately returned to a serious appearance.

Chen Jingyun didn't care, but explained to his daughter: "You are really bored when you hear this, and when there is something you like, don't move obediently now, they are all watching!" ”

This kind of public occasion, image is very important, especially for Chen Jingyun's family, this kind of occasion to listen to concerts is to enjoy it, it is better to do image engineering, recently Chen Jingyun in order to cheer up the people, so that they can follow him all the way to the low but frequent appearances in public.

Lin Lin still had a straight face towards Chen Yu, it wasn't that she didn't like this daughter, but she also knew that today's occasion was more important, not that she could make any trouble at home, she didn't have many opportunities to accompany Chen Jingyun to attend public occasions, usually Chen Jingyun attended with his genuine wife Lin Yun, not Lin Yun when Cai Ning was also present at other times, and several other women generally did not have this opportunity.

Chen Jingyun was able to bring her here today, mainly because of the relationship with her daughter, Chen Yu said that she wanted to come to this concert, the girl's house, and she was still a thirteen-year-old girl who was still very interested in the excitement, Chen Jingyun felt that since she brought Chen Yu here, she also brought Lin Lin over. It's just that today's occasion is not at all as lively as Chen Yu imagined, but it is extremely boring.

When a soprano singer finished the performance, Chen Jingyun gave the same applause with a smile on his face, and after the applause fell, he turned his head to Chen Yu and said, "You will definitely like it when you will go on stage!" ”

Chen Yu pursed his lips: "Oh! ”

The next moment, a young woman wearing a light purple cheongsam came out of the stage, different from the few singers who performed before, most of the previous ones were middle-aged, and most of them had male surnames. And this woman in front of her is a very young woman, but this woman is not a stranger in the eyes of everyone present, she is Zhou Xuan.

Zhou Xuan's reputation in contemporary China is very large, she is the most famous film actor and singer in the thirties and early forties, she has no connection with singers in the traditional sense, because most of what she sings are pop songs, and no matter what era the upper class, the so-called pop songs have no good feelings, which has little to do with whether they are good or not, it is related to the so-called taste they care about, they would rather listen to music that they don't understand, than listen to those popular songs.

Under normal circumstances, an actor like Zhou Xuan is not qualified to appear on the stage of the Nanjing Grand Theatre even if he is famous in Shanghai, but there is an exception to everything.

In addition to singing, in fact, her profession is to star in movies, and in the late thirties, she starred in several extremely high-grossing movies, and the themes are all positive themes that the official likes very much, and the roles performed are all positive roles, such as the "Dawn Night" that describes the Fuzhou Uprising in Xinhai Year, she played a young female student who participated in the uprising, and what made her really famous was the movie "Lushun" in 1938, which was an official propaganda film that belonged to the official propaganda film, and even the investment had an official background, The background of the story is that during the first Sino-Chinese war, Zhou Xuan played a girl who fell in love with an army captain, although the content of the story is mainly love, but what is shown behind it is naked militarism, and the things that are preached are the rejuvenation of China, soldiers serving the country, and so on.

This movie is an extremely sad love story, but behind the sad love is the revival of China and other things, which not only caused great repercussions among ordinary people, but also was affirmed by the upper class of society.

Of course, the ostensible reason why she is able to take this stage today is that she has become the official positive propaganda image of this era. And the actual reason, it's very simple, that is, Chen Jingyun's daughter Chen Yu likes or worships her, well, to put it simply, it is chasing stars.

As soon as Chen Yu saw Zhou Xuan coming to the stage, he immediately opened his mouth wide, and stood up with excitement on his little face: "When did she come to Nanjing, isn't she in Shanghai." I know she's making a new movie! ”

Lin Lin looked at her daughter's appearance, and said angrily: "Look at your appearance, girls should be reserved, don't stand up, sit down!" ”

Chen Jingyun smiled: "I should have only come here today, I only ordered it last night!" ”

If you do a good deed, you have to leave a name, this is Chen Jingyun's concept, this specially sent someone to invite Zhou Xuan over to sing a song, isn't it just to make this daughter happy, otherwise he wouldn't be guilty of inviting a movie star to come over, and he doesn't chase stars.

Although Chen Jingyun did not directly say that he invited Zhou Xuan for Chen Yu, Chen Yu's head was also shrewd, and when he heard Chen Jingyun say this, he immediately turned around and said to Chen Jingyun with a smile: "Dad, come over a little, I want to reward you!" ”

Chen Jingyun leaned over, and then Chen Yu kissed Chen Jingyun on the face very unceremoniously: "Is Dad satisfied?" ”

Chen Jingyun smiled happily and nodded twice in a row: "Hmm! ”

Looking at the appearance of the father and daughter, Lin Lin glanced at Chen Yu again, but she just gave her a white eye, and she laughed first.

Only Chen Huayan was watching pitifully over there, and the whole person was still sitting straight, not to mention laughing, and he didn't even move.

Chen Jingyun said: "Don't be too restrained, don't be the same as usual, wait for your sister to go backstage, you can go with you!" Speaking of this, he added: "Don't think I don't know that you also like this circumference!" ”

Chen Huayan, who had pretended to be serious all night, also blushed at this time, and the young man's mind was embarrassed to be said like this, but thinking that he would be able to go backstage with his sister to watch Zhou Xuan, his little heart couldn't help beating very quickly.

When Chen Huayan and Chen Yu, the two brothers and sisters, looked at the Zhou Xuan singing on the stage with excitement, he also looked at the Zhou Xuan singing on the stage with great interest, but in Chen Jingyun's opinion, Zhou Xuan's singing is actually really not good, far less good than her acting in movies, which will lose interest after listening to it slightly, although the eyes are still on the stage and the ears are listening to the music, but the mind is already not knowing what military affairs are starting to think about again.

Chen Jingyun's actions in this small family are naturally eye-catching, although those people will not blatantly look at Chen Jingyun, but occasionally glance at it, when they see Chen Yu's excited appearance and Chen Jingyun's laughter, some dignitaries who think they know Chen Jingyun still think that Chen Jingyun has some interest in Zhou Xuan on the stage, thinking about whether to use any means to send Zhou Xuan to Chen Jingyun's bed!

And some people who know the inside story, such as Yan Jing Kuang and Fan Lin not far away, have different thoughts, Yan Jing Kuang sighed in his heart: "The president is ruthless enough to others, but he is still very good to his family, otherwise he would not have called Zhou Xuan over, just to make his daughter Chen Yu smile!" ”

Fan Lin next to her also looked at the circles in the stands, and then looked at Chen Jingyun's family not far away, and then lowered her head and pondered, she didn't know what to think about, but she seemed to think about what she was happy about, and the corners of her mouth showed a smile, and the corners of her mouth muttered in a voice that only she could hear: "He is different from what others say!" ”