Go back to the past and be a schoolboy

As far as the eye can see, the entire city is shrouded in a layer of gray sky.

From time to time, there were sporadic shelling sounds in the distance, and the word "peace" was obviously still some distance away from this land.

Because of the war, except for a few sick and disabled, most of the men were conscripted to the battlefield, so the work of dealing with these ruins fell on women and children.

Maybe it's because I've seen this kind of scene too much, but I'm actually very calm in the face of life and death.

When Cheng Nuo was taking care of the patients of the Chinese laborers, he saw with his own eyes a mother who didn't say anything when she learned that her child had died, but silently took the body home, found a tree in the yard, and dug it randomly beside it. Bury it in a hole, and continue talking and laughing with neighbors, as if nothing happened.

"People died one after another, and babies refused to be born. In the few years we have been in France, I have hardly seen a baby born." An elderly Chinese worker, who seemed to be able to read minds, knew Cheng Nuo's thoughts, Panting while moving the bricks on the ruins:
"But in Marseille, there are always new faces to replace those who disappeared. Do you know why?"

Cheng Nuo was still in the shock of the bereaved mother, and said dully, "Why?"

The elder turned his head towards the street not far away: "Here, here is a newcomer."

Following the direction pointed by the other party, Cheng Nuo looked and saw some relatively more down-and-out people pouring in from the countryside and surrounding small towns, either carrying cloth bags on foot or driving horse-drawn carriages. They piled up all their belongings and entered the city silently all the way.

Occasionally paused, and moved his eyes from the feet to the distance with difficulty, except for being confused or confused.

"There is nothing greater to be sad than to die in the heart, and the death of a human being is the next best thing.

There is no hope for this city right now, it is nothing more than jumping from one cage to another bigger cage, and this kind of scene, the motherland more than ten years later, is it not everywhere, such a mother, a similar father , can't even count.

If you don't hurry up, it will be too late! "

Thinking of this, Cheng Nuo rekindled his resolve. While actively participating in the rescue work, he also learned about various military technologies during World War I.

Some of these technologies shocked him, a traveler, especially the destroyer "Ward" made in the United States. The construction time of the ship was only 17 days, which set a new record for the speed of ship construction at that time. Years later it was broken.

What is the concept? For example, the construction period of the Matsu-class destroyer, an emergency product built by the Japanese Navy at the end of World War II, took half a year.

And this "Ward" is not a tofu project. Before the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Ward was the first to discover a Japanese miniature submarine and easily sunk it. The first shot, the historical significance is not insignificant.

Although this incident did not attract the attention of the U.S. Navy, nor did it cause any changes in the attack on Pearl Harbor, it is enough to prove the strength of U.S. military technology.

"Yixuan, I think it's almost settled here. I will leave France for a short time and go to other places in the near future. I'll let you arrange this here first."

Looking at the towering tents in front of him, Cheng Nuo temporarily felt relieved.

But seeing the gray sky, I was still a little worried, and patted Shi Yixuan on the shoulder: "As part of the spring offensive, the Luftwaffe began to bomb the battlefields in northern France, and 50 troops were redeployed to the western front, and the war became more brutal.

Logically speaking, it has nothing to do with us Chinese workers. After all, our contract states that we do not need to participate in any type of military operations.However, the lengthening of the front means that our compatriots of Chinese laborers are at the forefront of the battlefield, so we need to be more careful. "

Shi Yixuan hesitated for a moment, but still shook his head, holding a French newspaper that exudes the smell of ink, pointed to a paragraph and said: "Although the German army has been bombing us during this period and took away the lives of several of our compatriots, there is a shortage of French labor. It is also an opportunity for us Chinese workers to perform.

Last time you took a few Chinese laborers to help clean up the ruins. This French newspaper found out about it. It admired your spirit and spirit very much, and just posted an article to praise you. "

"Let me take a look." Cheng Nuo said curiously after receiving the newspaper.

Sure enough, it read:

[When the Chinese workers were in Paris, they behaved like Parisians in the French countryside. Their temperament was high and they looked very dignified.

They are all as strong as cattle. You will be surprised to find that three or four hundred pounds of wood or steel is like a stone on them. They can walk like flying with these heavy loads on their backs...

When the Chinese laborers came to Javier, France, the local French people cheered and jumped for joy, and the citizens gathered to welcome the arrival of the Chinese laborers...]

Rao Cheng Nuo knew that after the victory of the First World War, the rewards of these Chinese workers were not proportional to their efforts, but at this moment he had to be proud of these fellow Chinese workers.

Later, Cheng Nuo also learned that it was precisely because of the seriousness, rigor, hard work, physical strength and high work efficiency of Chinese workers that they were also recognized by the French Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Ordnance. These departments once only recruited Chinese workers. At that time, important ports Most of the fort's cranes are operated by Chinese laborers.

But after the war, the former frontline areas were almost in a state of no legal control, and the nearest police station was often tens of kilometers away. Most of the few residents who returned home lived in bunkers or hastily built cabins.

These Chinese laborers have become the ideal scapegoats for all unsolved crimes.

However, due to the development of German artillery technology, the fierce shelling and bombing have left no safe area on the battlefield. The Allied forces will launch a large-scale counterattack in the next few months. Assure.

Many of the Chinese laborers who were promised not to participate in military operations actually became cannon fodder in the war.

The most exaggerated point is to fill the crater at the airport when the German planes bombed, and there is a risk of being bombed at any time.

Even at the end of the First World War, when everyone was overwhelmed with victory and ready to leave, the British were still asked to work and be responsible for cleaning up the mess left by the war, many of which were still loaded with live ammunition, and responsible for Bury the bones.

The reason given by the United Kingdom is that the three-year contract has not yet expired and needs to be continued.

Thinking of this, Cheng Nuo's hatred for the UK grew deeper, and he had to find a way to collect a debt from them.

But right now, it's not the time yet, there is still some time before the Allied counterattack.

After thinking for a while, Cheng Nuo said: "We might as well expand our layout a little bit. Isn't it necessary to prepare a newspaper for the Chinese workers? The readers we imagined before were all our compatriots, but I thought about it carefully when I went back, and found that it was not good enough. and the improvement of the situation is very limited.”

Shi Yixuan was a little confused, and asked suspiciously: "You mean, we want to expand the audience of the newspaper?"

Cheng Nuo explained: "Of course, we Chinese workers are practical, smart, hard-working, no better than the dozens of nurses in Little Japan, but Little Japan is willing to publicize that we are uncivilized people who do manual labor. Coolies, their move to send female nurses has modern significance, the two are not the same..."

Before he finished speaking, Shi Yixuan directly angrily reprimanded: "This is obviously nonsense, I don't know what their nurses do, obviously... well, we suffer because of this mouth."

Cheng Nuo said with emotion: "Now we are doing [-] points of work, only [-] point of publicity, the effect is very poor, people ignore the role of our Chinese workers, and the public can't count on it, so we don't have a unified feedback channel .

That's why we thought that this newspaper we prepared should not only show the style of our Chinese workers, but also actively send out the voice of our Chinese workers to the entire European world. "

While Shi Yixuan was excited, his heart beat a little: "But introversion and moderation are our cultural characteristics. Even if we set up the stage, without the Chinese workers singing on it, the scene will not be very good, right?"

Cheng Nuo smiled and shook his head: "If you don't investigate, you have no right to speak. How do you know that we Chinese workers don't want to speak out, don't want to have a tasteful European 'clapper'? Just listen to me and do it. It is good for Chinese workers, and it is also good for our country's image."

Shi Yixuan nodded with the attitude of treating a dead horse as a living horse doctor, and asked again: "Then what is the name of this newspaper?"

Cheng Nuo blurted out, "It's called the Worker's Weekly!"

With Cheng Nuo's arrangement, "Workers' Weekly" not only took into account the educational function, but also added a lot of entertainment content in order to enhance entertainment and readability, relieve mental stress and enrich cultural life.

At the same time, it also collects and reports the living conditions and latest information of Chinese workers in various places, so as to enhance the connection and unity of Chinese workers from all over the world.

In addition, there is also a leisure section, covering a wide range of subjects, from famous places of celebrities, war scenes to daily life, etc.Various fables and novels will also be published to explain profound truths, which can play a role in entertaining and avoid preaching.

In order to encourage the majority of Chinese workers to speak out, Cheng Nuo also set up a solicitation activity for each issue, with no restrictions on the subject matter or content.

Contrary to the expectations of Shi Yixuan and others, these Chinese workers actively contributed articles, eager to speak out, and the articles they wrote were quite insightful, not much inferior to intellectuals. From them, we can feel their deep thinking about the future of the country, which surprised Shi Yixuan and the others. .

Cheng Nuo’s last request to expand the audience of the newspaper has not been forgotten. In order to unite the local workers, in addition to providing the French version of the newspaper, the "Worker Weekly" also specially serialized "*book*" to promote new ideas, especially equal pay for equal work. Arrange working hours reasonably.

Considering that in the current French military factories, apart from the Chinese workers, there are basically only female workers left.

"Workers' Weekly" deliberately focused on women's liberation, and completely won the love of local female workers. Although the circulation was not large, it was quietly rooted in soil other than Chinese workers.

As for the evening school education, it is also in full swing.

You only need to know ten words every night, and study without interruption in the middle. After one month, you can master more than 300 words, and after two or three months, you can read and write normally.

And their textbook is the current issue of "Worker's Weekly".

Over time, those with better talents not only learned the Mandarin, but also some common English and French, and directly became the trainee editors of the "Workers' Weekly".

With all these efforts, the Chinese workers not only have a good impression of Cheng Nuo, but also are full of curiosity about the science academy behind him. Coupled with homesickness, they faintly look forward to the days after returning to China.

In daily life, Chinese laborers increasingly associate their words and deeds with the honor and disgrace of the country. Many of them began to pay attention to the merits of French society, hoping to bring advanced technology and culture back to the country, instead of just being obsessed with personal The pursuit of interests, I look forward to coming to Sichuan to do a lot.

As for Cheng Nuo, he bid farewell to Marseille alone and quietly went to Germany.

He is not interested in anything else, but Krupp's cannon technology keeps him fascinated.

Even though he was almost killed by the "Great Bell Tower" during his stay in Europe, he is still very obsessed with it,
In fact, what he was really interested in was the "Paris Cannon". Unlike the howitzer like the Big Berta, the Paris Cannon was the artillery with the longest range in the world at that time.

The price of each shell is high, costing 305 marks, which is four times the price of the French [-] caliber artillery in the same period.

The main reason is that this kind of cannon is like the ballistic missile that appeared later. It is believed that although it is not suitable for attacking tactical targets, it can attack strategic targets behind the enemy's rear, so it has irreplaceable strategic value.

If the German army deployed more "Paris guns", it might be able to exert more pressure on the French government.

But if you think about it carefully, it's actually not reliable.

In the era when there was no precision guidance, these cannons did not have any guidance equipment, and the projectiles could only randomly fall anywhere in Paris. There was no such thing as hitting a so-called strategic target. Hitting a target like a church would only arouse international public opinion. The condemnation has the opposite effect.

The reason why Cheng Nuo's base was hit was because the German overseas Chinese told a spy where each shell exploded, and the latter used the phone to transmit the information to the border.

Then another spy sent it out of France, and then someone sent the information to the German Supreme Command by telegram. The whole process took about several hours.

After each round is fired, the axis of the gun barrel must be corrected to maintain shooting accuracy.

Time-consuming and labor-intensive.

But with so many shortcomings, why Cheng Nuo persisted was because of the industrial technology behind these types of cannons.

Until later generations, the 1mm smoothbore gun of the American M120 "Abrams" main battle tank and the 90mm smoothbore gun on the Japanese Type 120 main battle tank were all developed on this basis.

Moreover, after the defeat of Germany in World War I, many key technologies for the production of cannons were destroyed. For example, the Paris Cannon, even a blueprint and a document were all destroyed. Except for a seat ring part that was captured by the US military, no parts survived. It disappeared without a trace as if it had evaporated from the world.

The 36-meter-long cannon barrel, today, I am afraid that there are very few large milling machines and large drilling machines in the world that can process such long parts.

At the same time, the range of the artillery is the largest when the elevation angle is 50-60 degrees, and the projectile can quickly fly away from the dense lower atmosphere and reach the stratosphere of the atmosphere, thus flying to a longer distance.

It is the same reason that the intercontinental ballistic missiles of later generations must hit outside the atmosphere and then re-enter the atmosphere.

For other weapons research, even artificial satellites are very useful.

The cannon is not just a cannon, but also a rich treasure.