Although these high-ranking cabinet ministers knew better than anyone else about the current state of the Empire, after the meeting restarted, Reinhardt briefly combed through the main issues of the day, especially those related to the core interests of the Empire.

To sum up, it's all about the economy.

To put it in layman's terms, there is no way to live the day.

Although there are many reasons, such as the population of the Xilu Group led by the Juman Empire, which is much lower than that of the Liangxia Empire, and not as good as the Beigu Group led by the Nuland Republic, and the overall scientific and technological level of the Xilu Group is not as good as the other two super hegemons, what really involves the fundamental is still the resources closely related to the sphere of influence, and a series of problems caused by the lack of resources.

Among the 78 irreplaceable strategic resources, the Xilu Group has 2 types, namely coal and iron ore, which can barely achieve self-sufficiency.

Including oil and gas, there are a total of 62 types that must be dependent and heavily dependent on imports.

There are 14 natural resources that are closely related to the climate and region, such as natural rubber, and the Xilu Group is completely dependent on imports.

There is no way to solve the problem caused by the lack of resources.

Take oil, for example.

The Empire has the world's most complete coal catalysis industry, which is important in wartime, but has no value in peacetime. It is certainly impossible for the company to rely on coal-fired oil, which is several times more expensive than oil, to compete with the enterprises of the Eastern Group and the Beigu Group.

If the cost of energy is too high, it will inevitably greatly reduce the efficiency of social production.

The competition between the three superpowers in the economic field is, in essence, a competition of production efficiency, and those with low production efficiency are doomed to lose!

Even within the Sairiku Group, there is a serious problem of uneven distribution of resources.

In the case of vital grain, the Western Continent Group can theoretically achieve self-sufficiency, but because the grain producing areas are concentrated in a few countries, there are serious problems in the internal grain trade, which has caused contradictions that can hardly be resolved by conventional methods.

The most typical ones are the Kingdom of Rock and the Kingdom of Raleigh.

Thanks to the unique climate, the Kingdom of Locke and the Kingdom of Raleigh have always been the main grain producers in the Western Continent, so after the Great War, the agriculture of these two countries has developed rapidly, and some light industries that are highly dependent on agriculture have also been valued, which has developed into the main granary of the group.

Although after that, with the help of the third and fourth waves of industrialization, especially the Locke Kingdom once again became a major industrial power in the Western Continent, and developed many cutting-edge industries, including military industry, but in the entire Western Continent, the symbol of the Locke Kingdom is still a grain-producing country.

As a result, the country had to increase its investment in agriculture through government intervention.

Intervention from the government is bound to disrupt the market.

This phenomenon is even more prominent in the Raleigh Kingdom.

Because of too much investment in the field of agriculture, until now, the industrialization of the Raleigh Kingdom has been relatively backward, and it cannot even be compared with the Rock Kingdom, and this phenomenon has caused serious dissatisfaction among the Raleigh Kingdom, and even called for withdrawing from the Western Continent Group.

The same is true on the side of the Democratic Republic of Losha.

From the standpoint of the Manman Empire, it is not wrong to exert the originally limited power to the limit through intervention, so as to obtain the capital to confront the more powerful Liangxia Empire, but this situation has lasted for more than 40 years, so it is not a question of right or wrong.

After decades of tossing, the economic system of the Sailu Group has become very fragile and cannot withstand any wind and rain.

Sadly, God did not pity the believers in the Western Continent.

Since last autumn, the entire Northern Hemisphere has suffered a drought that has not been seen in a century, from the Northern Continent to the Western Continent, and then to almost the entire huge continent, in nearly 9 months, the precipitation is equivalent to only 60% of the average of previous years, and the global agriculture has suffered a fatal blow!

In the midst of this unprecedented drought, the most difficult situation was the Western Continent group, or the Empire.

The Liangxia Empire also suffered from drought, and the local grain production plummeted, with the summer grain production falling by nearly 15%, and the autumn grain production could even reach 20%, but the Liangxia Empire could also rely on the southeast region to expand the scale of imports from the southern subcontinent.

Taking a step back, there is also Austria in the southern hemisphere.

What's more, the grain production of the Liangxia Empire was basically self-sufficient, so even if the production was reduced, it could be compensated for by expanding imports.

The situation in the Republic of Nuland is similar, no matter how bad it is, it can be imported from the southern isolated area.

In addition, the Nuland Republic surpassed the Liangxia Empire more than 10 years ago to become the world's number one grain exporter, so the direct consequence of the reduced grain production is actually to reduce the scale of exports.

Just the reduction of exports by the Nuland Republic is enough to cause international food prices to skyrocket!

Obviously, the Empire was not so lucky.

First of all, the western continent was the hardest hit.

According to the statistics made by the Xilu Group, the reduction in summer grain output has been close to 20 percent, and the reduction in autumn grain output may reach a record 24 percent.

Secondly, there is no "reserve granary" for the West Continent Group.

In the Xuan Continent in the south, not to mention that most countries are friendly with the Liangxia Empire, even a few countries that are friendly with the Xilu Group do not have extra food.

To add fuel to the fire, international food prices have entered a fast track of rise.

Since May, the prices of several major grains in the international market have risen nearly twice because the Republic of Nuland, the Maple Leaf Country, Austria and Brazil, the world's four major grain exporters, announced that they were affected by objective factors and reduced their export volumes.

To a large extent, the current contradictions of the Xilu Group are actually due to the rise in food prices.

To put it simply, the reason why the Democratic Republic of Rosa insists on raising the export price of natural gas is because it costs more foreign exchange to import food.

In addition, the Bran kingdom made a fuss about the oil from the North Sea oil fields, which was also related to the import of grain.

There are many people who attribute the current "food crisis" to external factors, such as the suppression of the Liangxia Empire, but no one is willing to admit that the Xilu Group itself has problems.

Fundamentally, it attaches great importance to the heavy industry represented by the military industry, and not only neglects the light industry, but also the chemical industry related to agriculture is not taken seriously.

In addition, water conservancy facilities, which are closely related to agriculture, have not been developed for a long time!

From this point of view, the worst drought on recorded records is also largely man-made.

The disaster situation of the Eastern Group and the Beigu Group is not so serious, and it has a lot to do with the relatively better water conservancy facilities and the huge fertilizer production.

Of course, external factors cannot be ignored.

If anything, the Nuland Republic has an unshirkable responsibility!

At the meeting, Reinhardt highlighted this issue.

Long before the situation in Posha Bay became tense, he sent a special envoy to Hwaseong, hoping to get help from the Nuland Republic on the issue of grain imports, through which he imported grain from several countries, including Brazil and Argentina, in the southern isolated region, in the form of state procurement.

As a result, the Nuland authorities said they couldn't help!

At that time, the Nuland authorities actually wanted to use this issue to force the Empire to accept a referendum on whether to secede from the Western Continent bloc.

To put it simply, it is to separate the kingdom of Bran from the Western Continent group.

For this purpose, the Republic of Nuland has been operating for almost 20 years.

Even if you can't do it in one step, you must try to get the Bran Kingdom out of the Western Continent Group and lay the foundation for its next control of the Bran Kingdom.

To be said, in the decades after the war, especially after the status was confirmed, the Nuland Republic has been fighting the idea of the Bran Kingdom, vainly trying to return to the Western Continent through the Bran Kingdom, and in order to force the Riman Empire to make a compromise and let the Riman Empire hand over control of the Western Continent Bloc.

Of course, fundamentally speaking, it is actually to replace the Manman Empire and become the commander-in-chief of the Western countries.

Reinhardt's repetition of the Nuland Republic was also telling cabinet ministers not to have much hope for the country across the ocean.

However, it was Reinhardt who first had the illusion.

In addition to the negotiations that took place at the beginning of the year, just last month he sent a special envoy to Hwaseong to make secret contacts with the Nuland authorities about Iraq's military attack on Kuwait.

At the time, Reinhardt also believed that the Nuland administration would be actively involved.

Unfortunately, a few days ago, the news brought by President Nuland's special envoy completely destroyed Reinhardt's illusions.

Although the Nuland envoy said very positively, that is, the Nuland Republic will never stay out of the matter, and will definitely support the Hindan Empire and the Western Continent Group, but this guy who runs the train in his mouth also clearly mentioned that from the overall situation, the Nuland Republic will definitely not immediately enter the war.

The reason is also clear: the Nuland Republic needs time to complete its mobilization before entering the war.

According to the envoy, only if the Nuland Republic completes its mobilization for war and enters the war in the best condition can it hope of defeating the powerful Liangxia Empire.

From this point of view, at the beginning of the war, the Empire had to face the Liangxia Empire alone, and what the Nuland Republic could provide was to attack on the side, through spokespersons in other directions, or in other ways, to contain part of the Liangxia Empire's forces.

In other words, the Empire is a stepping stone on the road to victory for the Nuland Republic!

At that time, Reinhardt asked Nuland's envoy rhetorically.

Will the Liangxia authorities treat the Nuland Republic as air?

When the war breaks out, will the Liang Xia Empire let go of the more powerful Nuland Republic?

When diplomatic relations with the Nuland Republic were restored, the Liangxia Empire had already recognized that the Nuland Republic was the number one rival.

Even if the Liang Xia Empire will not take the initiative to declare war on the Newland Republic, it will prepare for war in the same way as it would start a war with the Newland Republic.

In this way, is it possible that the Nuland Republic can still outperform the mobilized Liangxia Empire in armament construction without mobilization?

This is clearly impossible!

In that case, what reason does the Nuland Republic have to stay out of the matter?

In Reinhardt's words, after the defeat of the Manman Empire and the end of the Western Continent, the Nuland Republic should not want to be in a corner of peace.

After taking control of the World Island, the next goal of the Liang Xia Empire will definitely be to dominate the world, and will declare war on the Nuland Republic at the right time.

It is almost impossible to defeat the Nuland Republic with the power of victory.

Don't forget, the Liangxia Empire had the strongest navy in the world, having crossed the Guia Ocean more than 40 years ago.

Nuland's envoy did not answer the question, but pretended not to understand, and did not give an answer before leaving Bailin.

The only thing that is certain is that the Nuland Republic will never enter the war in the first place.

It is precisely in this way that Reinhardt no longer has any illusions about the Nuland Republic.

In his words, the Newland Republic, which is controlled by the Youzu Consortium, prefers to eat the meat of the Western Continent Group and suck the bone marrow of the Empire to grow and develop.

When the Western Continent Group collapses, it will be good if the Nuland Republic does not stab the knife in the back!

At this point, the Empire had no choice.

Delaying it is bound to be a dead end.

Now give it a go, there's still a little hope!

After explaining the situation, Reinhardt, as usual, left the opportunity to speak to the other ministers.

Only a handful of ministers spoke, and they expressed the same view as the Prime Minister that there was no other way but war.

After the Chancellor of the Exchequer sat down, Reinhardt waited another half minute or so.

Finally, after confirming that no other minister had any other opinion to make, he said: "Everyone has expressed their views and opinions. If there is no objection, I propose that on the matter under discussion today, we should take this opportunity to launch a military operation to vote! ”

With that, Reinhardt nodded to the secretary standing at the door of the conference room.

Without asking too much, the secretary called the other staff members in charge of assisting the meeting to leave the conference room, and locked the door as he went.

Such a major matter must have been voted on behind closed doors.

Reinhardt was the first to raise his right hand and closed his eyes at the same time.

In fact, it is the same with raising the left hand.

A show of hands for approval, no for no, and finally just count the number of ministers who raised their hands to know whether the vote was passed or not.

Of course, it's not statistics.

There are only 27 ministers in total, and 28 are counted as prime ministers.

Because the prime minister's vote has more weight, with the support of the prime minister, only 13 ministers need to raise their hands to get the vote.

If the prime minister does not raise his hand, then it will take 15 ministers to raise their hands to pass.

The prime minister usually initiates the vote, so the prime minister will often be the first to raise his hand, so it only takes 13 ministers to get the vote.

It's a bit complicated, but the conference room is so big, just keep an eye on it and you'll know how many ministers have raised their hands.

It took about half a minute for Reinhardt to open his eyes.

He only glanced at it, and he didn't even count it to know the result.

All 27 ministers raised their hands, and not a single one objected!

Even the foreign secretary, who has always been mild-mannered, raised his hand in approval.

"The result of the vote, everyone has seen. After signing the vote, you can go back to rest. ”

With that, Reinhardt pressed the pager on the table and called the secretary in.

Actually, Reinhardt's mood was very heavy.

He knew that the vote would pass, but what he didn't expect was that it was all in support, even the foreign secretary, who was most likely and should be opposed, expressed his support!

In the past few decades, foreign secretaries have voted against every vote related to war.

What does this mean?

The internal contradictions of the Empire were so serious that the foreign ministers felt that a war was needed to resolve them.

So, can this war be fought and ended the way it was envisaged!?