Dominate the Country

In April of the lunar calendar in the 35th year of Chengtian, the season had just entered summer. The sun was shining and the temperature was neither cold nor hot. It was a good time for primary, secondary and university students to study. Especially for graduates facing the college entrance examination, the last two months were left, and almost every motivated student was racing against time to study hard.

But at this time, in Central America, an emergency mobilization order made the entire high school community restless. The war between Chen Han and the Lighthouse Country had been going on for half a year. Time has proved that the combat effectiveness of Chen Han's army is far greater than that of the Lighthouse Country.

However, the shortage of personnel forced Chen Han to stop his steps every time after defeating the US military. The problem of the defensive forces prevented them from freeing up more troops for pursuit and attack. Therefore, the various feudal states and Tokyo, Hanjin and other places launched an emergency mobilization order.

The scope of the mobilization order is 18 years old, which has covered many students in school.

In this era, there are many people who are still studying hard in high school at the age of 20, and even the phenomenon of not going home at noon and having children bring them lunch is endless.

After more than 30 years of development, the gap between high school students and college students has widened. There is a saying in society now that going to high school is like taking the exam for a scholar in the past, and going to college from high school is like relying on the Juren in the past.

Even if the "Juren" who graduated from college is poor, they are not really "poor". They are just "poor" in a horizontal comparison among the rich.

So these high school students still have some capital in society. And for the army, high school students are the innate candidates for professions such as propaganda officers, ideological counselors, teachers, and clerks. Of course, artillery also needs soldiers with high cultural standards. Anyway, no matter how many high school students enter the army, the latter is not too much. There are also students from vocational high schools included.

But this makes many people in the education field unbearable.

In the eyes of many people, high school students are already the seedlings of college students. How can they be harvested with an emergency call?

However, many students who are 18 years old in many schools are enthusiastic about joining the army and shout "war, war"!

There may be many additional factors involved, but the patriotic education and martial spirit that have been persistently promoted in China's primary, secondary and high schools must have played a huge role.

…

Tokyo No. 8 High School has an old name, called the Gold Mine Children's School. The No. 8 Middle School was renamed after it was incorporated into the public education system.

There is so much gold in California, and gold mines have attracted a large number of immigrants. Gold Mine Children's Schools are not only in California and Hanjin, but also in many places, and they have everything from elementary school to vocational high schools that teach gold smelting, prospecting and mining technology. Only formal higher professional education must be returned to China.

However, there are still many first-generation immigrants in America. These people are not unfamiliar with their hometowns on the other side of the Pacific Ocean. If children go back to their hometowns to study, it is a real return home, not studying abroad thousands of miles away.

Early in the morning, the school's principal Zhang brought the teachers on duty and several school security guards to stand in front of the school gate to welcome students to school.

There are not many high school students who choose boarding schools in this era. The reason has been mentioned before. You can get married at the age of 18. North America is not the Central Plains of China. Some legal rules and regulations are not so strict.

But there are many people who are still unmarried at the age of 18.

Now the Chen Han official has set the marriage age to 20 years old for men and 18 years old for women. It is really affecting society little by little.

In the early morning, the sun just passed the sky, and there was still a hint of darkness in the sky. A few remaining stars hung in the west sky, like pebbles without any luster.

The North American branch of the Second Gold Company under the Ministry of Mineral Resources is in the family area of ​​Tokyo City. Light blue smoke slipped out of the kitchens of each family, and gathered into a light blue-gray fog above the family area, and also filled the humid air blowing from the sea with a fragrance mixed with breakfast. The sound of women shouting for their husbands and children came from the playground around the family area. It was time to have breakfast. Those young and old men finished their pre-dinner activities after being called by people in the room, and returned to their homes one by one, either fast or slow.

Zhu Min's father, Zhu Yishan, was a small section chief of the American branch. Although his position was not high, he allowed his family to live in a second-class house with a private door and courtyard. In this family area, only those at the director level were eligible to buy a first-class house with a private door and courtyard and a small building, while those at the first level of section chief were eligible to buy a second-class house. The third-class house is a suite in a residential building, whether it is a two-bedroom, three-bedroom or four-bedroom house, it is uniformly called a third-class house. The worst fourth-class house is a tube building, also known as a single dormitory.

The morning sun shines into the room through the half-open door, illuminating half of the room, and the light covers the entire room. Zhu Min, Zhu Min's younger brother Zhu Jiang, father Zhu Yishan, mother Bai Mei, a family of four, are sitting around a square table to eat. Rice porridge, pickles, stir-fried vegetables, fried dough sticks, plus a few steamed buns, meat buns and two quartered salted duck eggs.

If it was the Qing Dynasty, such a breakfast would definitely be a luxury for a commoner, because in addition to rice porridge, pickles and vegetables, fried dough sticks, buns and steamed buns had to be bought outside. For many ordinary people with this extra money, it would be more cost-effective to put a handful of rice in the rice pot, not to mention that there were two salted duck eggs with orange yolks on the table. But in today's Tokyo, this can only be said to be average.

Because Zhu Min and Zhu Jiang have an older brother named Zhu Peng, who is now studying law at Nanjing Jinling University. This is always going to cost money.

With Zhu Yishan's income, he has to save money on family expenses while supporting his eldest son. You have to know that in the previous Zhu family, duck eggs and chicken eggs were placed in bowls, and anyone who wanted to eat could take them. It's not like now, two duck eggs have to be cut into four halves?

But even if he has felt the financial pressure, Zhu Yishan firmly disagrees with his son's willingness to join the army. Although joining the army does not require winning the consent of parents, how many people can insist on joining the army despite their parents? Of course, Zhu Min also has his own reasons.

First, he is not good at studying. Unlike his older brother, his grades have never been out of the top ten in the three years of high school. The last time Zhu Min was in the top ten in the exam was in the third grade of elementary school ten years ago. There was only one class in each stage of his elementary school. He was ranked tenth in the class, and naturally he was also the tenth in the school.

Zhu Min's current grades make it difficult for him to get into a vocational high school. His math is good, but his Chinese and science scores are too low.

Facing the upcoming college entrance examination, Zhu Min is under great pressure. What he fears most is that his low score will hurt his parents' hearts, not what will happen to him in the future. Zhu Min's family is not poor, and he does not need to be the head of the family as early as the children of the poor. In the past ten years, his only task was to study.

The huge pressure of the college entrance examination made Zhu Min unable to escape. At this time, the emergency conscription order was like a blessing, giving Zhu Min, who had been suffering from drought for several months, a new way out. Unfortunately, Zhu's father and mother firmly disagreed.

"Mom, the teacher said that we will go to the Martyrs' Cemetery to sweep the tombs on the 18th. Please give me some money." Zhu Jiang put all the egg whites and yolks into the bowl, buried his head and drank the rice porridge in big gulps, mumbling vaguely. As he said that, he looked up and stared at his father who was sitting on the side drinking porridge and reading the morning newspaper, saying: "Dad, give me that porcelain kettle so I can bring some water." He had long been eyeing his father's beautiful kettle. The name of the company is on the front, and a world map is on the back. The location of the mines of the Second Gold Ore is all marked on it. There is a layer of porcelain on the outside, which is a high-end product at first glance. It is a souvenir of the Second Gold Company's 30th anniversary.

"No." Zhu Yishan said without raising his head while drinking porridge and reading the newspaper. "Where did the child learn to be so good at comparison?" How could the father not know what his son was thinking. One of his classmates brought a porcelain kettle like that, and the little guy was jealous. So, Zhu Yishan refused directly.

"This child, why does he need such a good kettle?" The mother also complained about her son. The kettle cost 10 or 20 yuan to buy in the mall, so she was reluctant to give it to her careless and disabled son. I gave it to him, but the outer layer of beautiful porcelain was all worn out in less than a week.

"I will give you money when you visit the graves." The last sentence directly rejected Zhu Jiang's initial request. It's not that Bai Mei doesn't believe her son and thinks Zhu Jiang is talking nonsense. Now the war is still going on, and the war with the Americans has reached a critical juncture. It is normal for schools to organize students to visit the martyrs' cemetery and lay wreaths.

The war seems to be far away from the lives of ordinary people, but in fact it has been deeply connected with thousands of households in China. Throughout the land of Central America, countless factories are working in shifts day and night to produce products, and batches of materials are loaded and shipped to the far west.

Countless workers are sweeping the market and various products with more wages than before, greatly stimulating the growth of economic consumption in North America. This fluctuation and influence even spread to the Central Plains of Han, which in turn led to thousands of factories and changed the fate of millions of people.

Zhu Min came out of the house in a sullen mood. His wish was not fulfilled. He did not say a word during breakfast, so he was naturally unhappy. But his "ambition" has not been cut off.

It was also in Tokyo, the same company, and the same family area.

"Grandma Li, where is my father?" Zhu Min's classmate + Zhou Zhen, who sat in front of him, took a napkin from the table, wiped the corner of his mouth quickly, threw it into the trash can, and asked casually without raising his head.

"Second Young Master, the master has gone out. Just after dawn, Secretary Liu from the factory came to the door and said that there was something wrong with a batch of goods. The master listened to Secretary Liu and rushed to the factory without eating." Standing behind Zhou Zhen was an old woman in her fifties or sixties. She put a cup of hot cocoa on the table and said as she stepped back. Zhou Zhen likes this thing very much.

It was almost 7:30, and Zhou Zhen's mother hadn't gotten up yet. Zhou Zhen frowned slightly with some dissatisfaction, stood up with his hands on the dining table, and complained softly: "Leaving so early? I still have something to say to him!" It is a common problem for children to always think that their own affairs are very important.

Many employees in the gold mine are actually about the same age as Zhou Zhen and Zhu Min, but compared with Zhou Zhen and Zhu Min who live in a sugar jar, their lives are much harder and they are much more mature.

"Grandma Li, is my schoolbag ready?"

"Ready. I'll let Lao Wang carry it for you." The living conditions of the Zhou family are not comparable to those of the Zhu family. There are two carriages in the family, one of which is specially used to pick up and drop off children from school. Zhou Zhen's eldest brother has returned to China to study at university. Although it is a private university, this carriage has become Zhou Zhen's special car.

"No, I can take it myself. Ask someone to tell Uncle Wang that I don't need the carriage today, and I don't need lunch. I'll have lunch with my classmates outside." Zhou Zhen took the schoolbag and ran outside.

Zhou Zhen never thought about joining the army. At worst, he could join the vocational high school affiliated with the company. As the deputy monitor of the class, Zhou Zhen is now thinking about the tomb sweeping activities in a few days. High school is about to end, and this kind of organized activities in the school are becoming less and less.