The news of the victory in the Battle of the Taiwan Strait was officially ordered by Shang Jinfeng at about 12 o'clock that night and sent back to Qingdao, and at 6 o'clock in the morning, the detailed results were sent back to Qingdao. It was Xia Bohai on duty that day, so he also received the news of the victory of the People's Army fleet at the first time, although he did not know the detailed results at this time, but there was no doubt that he would win this battle.

However, after receiving the news, Xia Bohai was not very excited, because he knew in his heart that there was no reason why he could not win this battle in the battle of five modern warships, and the result was only how to win? Xu Jichao's family also sent a telegram to Qin Zheng in Shenyang, so that they would know as soon as possible that they had won, and at the same time, they would inform all departments of the news early tomorrow morning, and then start thinking about their own affairs again.

It turned out that just this morning, Qin Zheng sent back a report in which he put forward his own opinions on how to completely end the war in the Far East after the battle of the Taiwan Strait ended. And this report also won Xia Bohai's heart.

The victory in the battle of the Taiwan Strait can confirm that the East China Government has won a victory on the battlefield, but this does not mean that the Far East War, which lasted for three years and lasted more than 30 months, has come to an end; still less does it mean that the East China Government has won a final victory. Because wars between countries have never been limited to the battlefield, not to mention that this war in the Far East involved a total of six countries, and the intricacies of them are even more indescribable.

For soldiers, as long as they win on the battlefield, it is enough, but for politicians, it is far from enough to only win on the battlefield, and whether or not to achieve the final victory lies in whether the predetermined plan before the war is realized, and whether the national strategic benefits brought by the victory are really obtained. Before the war, the East China Government set the following goals: to expand its own territory and gain a broad space for the development of the East China Government; to inflict heavy damage on Japan and Russia so that they would not be able to pose a threat to the East China Government in a short period of time and to shock other countries and create a good environment for the development of the East China Government; and to obtain a large amount of funds for the development of the East China Government by extorting huge war reparations from Japan and Russia.

Judging from the current results, the first two goals have basically been achieved, but the last goal has not yet been scored, and now the objects of the war reparations are not only Japan and Russia, but also Britain, France and the Netherlands, but these five countries are not incompetent Qing courts, they will lose when they fight, they will be accepted when they lose, and they will pay compensation when they are served, and if they want to pay the reparations honestly, the current victory is not enough.

What should we do if Britain, France, Japan, Russia, and the Netherlands insist on not paying reparations? Should the East China Government continue the war? If the war continues, what is the direction in which the East China Government will use troops in the next step? What is the goal of using troops? Will the war force the five countries to pay reparations? Or will they simply destroy one or two countries? And will the East China Government's financial, human, and material resources support the continuation of the war? These are all questions that politicians need to think about, so it is by no means an empty sentence to say that a good politician should consider how to end the war at the beginning of the war.

Of course, Xia Bohai knew that it was impossible for the war to continue indefinitely, and although the East China Government had won an incomparably brilliant victory on the battlefield, its weakness was also quite obvious, that is, it was indeed impossible for the East China Government's financial, manpower, and material resources to support the war for a long time.

At present, the East China government is not short of funds, and after winning the battle of the Taiwan Strait, fundraising is not a big problem, and it can continue to issue bonds in the US and German markets. However, the manpower and material resources of the East China government have almost reached the limit.

Before the war, the territory occupied by the East China government was not large, only the whole province of Shandong, part of Henan Province, and a small number of Hebei, Hubei, Anhui, Jiangsu and other places, with a total area of about 280,000 square kilometers and a population of about 40 million, have not been fully developed except for Shandong Province, and their support for the war is limited.

In terms of manpower, the East China government can still be self-sufficient, but most of the war materials it needs must be imported from outside, and of course, mainly within the scope of China. Because the East China government was very well prepared for the war, and had a good reputation and high prestige in China, and established a number of stable supply channels, so at the beginning of the war, the supply of materials was still very strong, and the supplies were also very rich.

However, the cost of supplies to the war was also quite huge, and before the Portsmouth negotiations, the East China government's consumption of materials had exceeded the increase in material reserves. After the breakdown of the Portsmouth negotiations, Britain and France entered the war, not only in military operations, but also in economic suppression of the East China government, and also united with the Qing court to restrict the import of goods to the East China government.

Britain and France have been operating in China for decades, and have a huge influence on China's economy, and the Qing court is still the current legitimate government of China after all, although it has been extremely decaying at this time, but the residual power of more than 250 years can not be ignored, so the merchants who supply materials to the East China government are partly forced by Britain and France, Under the double pressure of the Qing court, the supply of materials to the East China Government was stopped or reduced; on the other hand, because Britain and France had entered the war, they were not optimistic about the East China Government, so they cut off their commercial contacts with the East China Government one after another, and not only interrupted their commercial exchanges with the East China Government, but even more so they received deposits from the East China Government, but withheld the goods and did not send them; only a small number of people insisted on maintaining trade contacts with the East China Government, while Britain and France adopted such methods as raising prices and rushing to buy, thus increasing the difficulty and cost of importing materials from the East China Government.

As a result, the material input of the East China government suddenly fell off a cliff, at the lowest time, less than 3 percent under normal circumstances, fortunately, there was a large amount of accumulation before the East China government, and at this time, Japan and Russia were both greatly injured, and they were unable to launch a large-scale war, so the materials were also smaller, and the East China government seized the opportunity to continuously fight the victory of recovering Shenyang, conquering Manchuria, landing on Japan, etc., and in Japan used predatory materials, Population, of course, is putting pressure on Japan, but it is also alleviating its own supply and demand difficulties to a considerable extent.

However, some businessmen saw that the East China government had won successive victories, and on the other hand, they were also forced by the pressure of public opinion, and some changed their minds and secretly exported a small amount of materials to the East China government, so the East China government's material imports were also slowly picking up, and before the battle in the Taiwan Strait, the speed of material imports was not strong enough to return to about 5 percent of the previous ones.

However, at this time, the import of materials has lagged far behind the consumption of materials, so now the East China government's reserves are only enough to use about 4-5 months, of course, after the battle of the Taiwan Strait, presumably there will be more businessmen to resume the supply of materials to the East China government, to be optimistic that the consumption of materials by the East China government should be able to last for 8-9 months, and then there will be a shortage of materials.

In addition, the war dealt a tremendous blow to the economy, people's livelihood, and social development of the East China government, and now the investment, production, and operation of almost all industries in the East China government, except for the military industry, have all stopped, and the people's daily necessities have been distributed according to the plan, and all entertainment industries have basically ceased business, and the entire society has almost completely stagnated.

However, this situation cannot be maintained for a long time, and the East China Government estimates that it can only ensure stability for half a year at most, and if this situation lasts for one year, the rule of the East China Government will appear unstable. In the Russo-Japanese War in the old time and space, although Japan won a military victory, it had to give up its demand for reparations during the final negotiations, because Russia could still afford it, but at that time, Japan's national strength and economy could no longer support the continuation of the war, and it could only compromise in order to end the war completely. The ideal outcome of the East China government is to formally end the war within half a year and receive reparations, but it can only hold out for a year at most, and then even if the reparations are not paid, the war will be ended.

However, if it does not receive war reparations, the East China government will be burdened with a heavy debt burden, which will inevitably seriously affect its future development, although it has obtained a large amount of land and strategic benefits from the war, but it cannot offset the debt, and it can only be regarded as a crushing victory. In the old time, although Japan won the Russo-Japanese War, it was unable to obtain war reparations from Russia, and as a result, it was burdened with heavy debts, and it was not until the outbreak of World War I that Japan received a large number of war orders to pay off its debts. Therefore, for the East China government, war reparations are a must-win.

Of course, the situation facing the East China government is much better than that of Japan in the old time and space, and Bi Jing's current East China government can still support it for one and a half years, while the consumption of Japan and Russia is far greater than that of the old time and space, and the domestic economy has basically collapsed, and now it is all dependent on the blood transfusion of Britain and France to support it, and once the blood transfusion stops, Japan and Russia will immediately go into shock; Britain and France have strong national strength, but they have no choice but to be too far away from China, and the two countries have a large number of economic, political, and geostrategic interests in the Asian region, but in the battle of the Taiwan Strait, Britain and France are almost unable to protect their interests in the Far East, and at the same time, Britain and France have to give blood transfusions to Japan and Russia, and they cannot let Japan and Russia collapseAs for the Netherlands, its own national strength is negligible.

It can also be seen from this that in the game outside the battlefield, the East China government actually still has a great chance of winning, but the operation in it requires serious and detailed planning, and it is not inferior to fighting a real war.