Back in the imperial capital, Bai Zhizhan's first feeling was the cold that penetrated deep into the bone marrow.

Although it was only early winter, Bai Zhizhan felt that it was even colder than the harsh winter when he first came to the imperial capital twenty years ago, as if the air was about to freeze.

It's not just the temperature, it's the depressed market.

The Great Depression, which began in 89 A.D., has been going on for ten years now.

Although three years ago, the New Deal of the Nuland Federation began to bear fruit, and countries around the world announced that they had successfully survived the most difficult period, that the Great Depression had passed, and that another golden age was coming, the truth was just the opposite, and it was more cruel than public opinion.

Did Keynesianism triumph over the Great Depression?

Obviously, this is a false proposition.

When the Newland Federation began to implement the New Deal, the most famous economist of the empire asserted that it was nothing more than adding a scoop of cold water to a pot of boiling water, or throwing a huge ice cube into it, and temporarily lowering the temperature of the water below the boiling point; Because the fire at the bottom of the pot has not been extinguished, it will not be long before it boils again, and the pot is already full, and there is no more cold water and ice cubes for it.

So what to do?

About three years ago, the Sakuyi Imperial Kingdom gave the answer with action.

At the beginning of the 96th year of the imperial calendar, the Nuland Federation once again called for the signing of a new treaty on the basis of the "Hwaseong Treaty" and the "Luntai Treaty", adding another five years, preferably ten years, to the period of limitation of naval armaments, so as to cool the increasingly tense international situation.

This proposal was fully supported by the Liang Xia Empire and the Bran Kingdom, but was opposed by the Narrow Empire.

Although in the end, the three major contracting parties reached an agreement and signed the second phase of the arms limitation treaty, known as the "Second Luntai Treaty", the treaty also stipulated that if the Imperial State did not become a contracting party at the beginning of the following year, that is, on the first day of the 97th year of the imperial calendar, the restrictions on capital ships and mother ships would be fully relaxed.

As a result, the Narrowish Imperial State did not conclude the treaty the following year, and the "Second Luntai Treaty" became a waste of paper.

Fundamentally, it was caused by the Great Depression.

If a treaty is concluded to continue to strictly limit the armament of the navy, within five years the economy of the Imperial Kingdom will be over, many enterprises, including shipyards and steel mills, will be closed, thousands of workers will lose their jobs, and even a nationwide riot will be triggered.

For this reason, the excess capacity can only be used for the production of arms.

Even if it's a thirst-quenching drink, it's much better than ending it right away.

Besides, if we are desperate in the end, we need a strong army all the more in order to divert domestic contradictions through external expansion.

In the middle of that year, the Sagai Navy launched work on the construction of the "Super Battleship". It was only at this time that the outside world learned that before the end of the "naval holiday", the Sagai Navy had secretly completed the design of the super battleship, and all indicators greatly exceeded the treaty limits.

It can be seen that the Narrow Imperial State has long been determined to withdraw from the treaty, and will not agree to extend the deadline for five years at all.

Now it's good, the great powers are back on the field.

From an economic point of view, the development of armaments and the vigorous construction of infrastructure in the New Deal are actually a rationale, that is, to consume the gross excess industrial capacity through expenditures without direct output, to provide new orders for enterprises, to get factories running, and to give workers the opportunity to support their families.

The difference is that the arms race requires military expansion to realize value.

In addition, the exact thirst-quenching effect of this glass of wine varies from person to person.

For a great power with a size of tens of millions, such as the Narrow Empire and the Bran Kingdom, building a few more battleships and expanding the size of the navy by one-third can create hundreds of thousands of jobs in a short period of time, and make millions, or even tens of millions, of people in hundreds of thousands of families worry-free.

With millions of hungry people missing, the situation in the country can certainly be stabilized.

However, for a superpower like the Liangxia Empire and the Newland Federation, which are 100 million-level in scale, it will not work.

At the height of the Great Depression, the unemployment rate in the Nuland Federation was close to 30 percent, and the unemployment rate in the Liangxia Empire was also over 20 percent.

What is this concept?

According to the calculation of family size, there are 60 million people in the Nuland Federation and 100 million people in the Liangxia Empire are in the predicament of having no meal and may go hungry at any time.

Build a few more warships so that these people will be fed?

Obviously, this is very unrealistic!

Not to mention a few warships, even a few more fleets will not help.

The huge size of the Liangxia Empire and the Nuland Federation determined that only by reshuffling the global pattern, redividing the colonies, and redividing the market and resources could they get out of the predicament caused by the Great Depression and create a peaceful situation that could exist stably for decades.

Of course, a reshuffle of the cards will certainly require a sufficiently strong military force.

In fact, this is also the essential difference between the Liangxia Empire and the Newland Federation when they expanded their armaments, and the Bran Kingdom and the Narrow Yi Empire.

What do you mean?

The difference between being far-sighted and being a mouse-eyed!

From beginning to end, the Liangxia Empire and the Newland Federation are moving towards the final goal, that is, through a major war, after reshuffling, to become the only superpower in the world, to become the formulator and defender of the international order and interest structure, and to become the master of the future world.

For this reason, the Liangxia Empire and the Newland Federation were very comprehensive when expanding their armies, focusing on consolidating the foundation and focusing on infrastructure construction.

What about the Bran Kingdom and the Saja Imperial Kingdom?

At most, it only regards the expansion of the armed forces as a means to resolve the economic crisis, and has no more long-term plans, and even if it does, whether it is capable of carrying it out.

More than two years ago, the Imperial Navy put forward a long-term plan to build four capital ships per year, and it was supported by the Imperial Cabinet and the two houses of parliament. After receiving the grant, the Imperial Navy launched the first round of construction in 97 Calendar, ordering one capital ship from each of the four shipyards. After that, in 98 and 99, orders for four capital ships were also placed, and the shipbuilding plan was fully implemented.

The point is, the Imperial Navy also counts aircraft carriers as capital ships.

The Nuland Navy did not treat aircraft carriers as capital ships, but began to steadily expand the size of the fleet at a rate of three or four ships a year.

Only, as mentioned earlier, the economic impact of the build-up of armaments is far less obvious than it might think.

The aftermath of the Great Depression had not yet dissipated, and the economy of the Liangxia Empire remained sluggish.

If anything, it's just a little better than it was ten years ago, at least the people are no longer so pessimistic about the future and have begun to face challenges positively.

Even if life is still hard, as long as there is hope, there is positive motivation.

In fact, the imperial capital has also changed very much.

The most obvious is the airport in the suburbs.

Although civil aviation is still in its infancy, and airplanes are only toys for a few wealthy people, after 20 years of rapid development, airplanes have long been well-known to the public.

After being used to transport mail, the next use of airplanes was to become a means of transportation for people after cars, trucks and ships.