It was very windy outside and slightly cooler.

In fact, the sea area where the fleet is located is close to the equator, and there are no strong winds and waves all year round. Because it is sailing at high speeds, there is a strong deck wind.

As for the cooler temperature, it is because it is only dawn and the sun has not yet risen.

Even near the equator, the night temperature is only 20 degrees Celsius.

"Do you know General Ding Zhennan?"

Bai Zhizhan suddenly asked, which made Jiang Wenlong confused, and he didn't react at all.

"You're talking about the general Ding Zhennan who commanded the Posha Bay War?" It wasn't until Bai Huawei looked back that Jiang Wenlong muttered.

Is there a second Ding Zhennan?

Bai Huawei didn't answer, just looked at Jiang Wenlong.

This made Jiang Wenlong feel uncomfortable, and he couldn't turn around and walk away, so he could only nod honestly, indicating that he knew who Ding Zhennan was.

"Then you know for sure that he concluded many years ago, let alone the third time, even if we fight a few more global wars, we will not be able to achieve total victory, that is, defeat all enemies, and unify the whole world under one central government, at least within one alliance."

Jiang Wenlong was secretly shocked in his heart, and unconsciously tightened his brows.

Seeing this change in his expression, Bai Huawei shook his head with a smile.

Obviously, Jiang Wenlong didn't know that when he felt something, especially when his mood fluctuated, he would always frown unconsciously.

This is actually a general sentence, which introduces the "new military doctrine".

"In his opinion, we were wrong from the start."

"Wrong?"

"The military idea of fighting a global war, or rather, hoping to solve all problems through a large-scale war."

Before Bai Huawei said this, Jiang Wenlong had already sighed secretly.

This idea put forward by Ding Zhennan, commonly referred to as the new military doctrine, had already spread in the imperial army, and was supported by almost all the officers of the Young Zhuang faction.

It's just that most of the young Zhuang officers felt that they would be the beneficiaries of this theory.

The reason is also very simple, if the traditional way cannot win the global war, it is necessary to carry out military reform, but also to invest more resources in the military field, and no matter what is done, it will bring substantial benefits to the young Zhuang officers, so that young soldiers can get more opportunities.

Obviously, Ding Zhennan's original intention was not to speak for the officers of the Shaozhuang faction.

There are not many people who truly understand and believe in this view, and there are even fewer who fully support it, and Bai Huawei is one of them.

If you want to say, Jiang Wenlong is also a fan of Ding Zhennan.

At the beginning, with the third place in the whole school and the top 50 in the province, he gave up the full scholarship of the Imperial University and chose the Imperial Naval Academy.

During the years when Jiang Wenlong was in high school, Ding Zhennan began to become famous, and by publishing articles, he put forward a new military doctrine.

Then, he became Jiang Wenlong's idol.

It's just that Jiang Wenlong's first choice is actually the Imperial Army Academy.

Unfortunately, a few days before the physical fitness test, I was not able to meet the minimum standards of the Army Academy because I had a bad cold.

Fortunately, I didn't miss the entrance exams for the Naval Academy.

As for the Air Force Academy, there is no need to think about it at all. His unaided visual acuity is only 4.8, which is just enough to meet the minimum requirements for admissions to the Naval Academy, while the Air Force Academy requires a 5.0 naked-eye.

Before graduating from the Naval Academy, Jiang Wenlong familiarized himself with all the articles published by Ding Zhennan.

Although it can't be said to be a backward recitation, the main content, especially the core idea, must be familiar by heart.

Fundamentally speaking, the new military doctrine has only one core idea: to completely abandon and negate the idea of fighting a global war, to contain and consume the opponent through small-scale wars, to achieve the goal of dragging down the opponent, and to accomplish the goal of global hegemony in decades or even hundreds of years.

It's just that it's too difficult to get the upper echelons of the empire to accept the new military doctrine.

Not to mention the others, but Zhou Yongtao, the first assistant of the empire, is not very interested in the new military doctrine, or does not think that it is the only correct choice.

As mentioned earlier, almost all of the officers who supported the new military doctrine were young Zhuang officers, and they were mainly able to benefit from the new military doctrine.

Then, in addition to the officers of the Shaozhuang faction, his soldiers, especially the generals who are in high positions and hold real power, will definitely suffer from the implementation of the new military doctrine. From the point of view of the power struggle, these high-ranking generals will inevitably obstruct the promotion of the new military doctrine.

When the young Zhuang officer sits in a position of real power and becomes a senior general, he will do the same.

In addition, there are more fundamental problems.

The adoption of the new military doctrine is tantamount to acknowledging that the main adversaries, namely the Nuland Republic and the Empire, are also global hegemons and have an international status equal to the Empire, or at least roughly equal, to the Empire, and it is tantamount to giving up the dividends of the Second Global War and the crown of global hegemony.

Politically, this is clearly unacceptable.

Although the Empire was also the victorious power, according to the many agreements signed at the end of the war, the Empire was only subordinate, not only recognizing the leadership of the empire, but also giving up some of the war dividends, such as the right to garrison several military bases in the Kingdom of Bran.

This is also in line with the performance of the two countries in the war, as well as the comparison of national strength.

Under the circumstances, the Empire was actually forced to compromise.

If the Empire refuses to compromise and recognizes the dominance of the Liang Xia Empire, a third global war is likely to break out immediately, or within 10 years. For the Empire, which has exhausted its national strength, has been strategically bombed, and urgently needs to be rebuilt after the war, even after 10 years, it will not be an opponent of the Liangxia Empire, and will lose the war on the day it starts.

Decades later, it became clear that the Empire was unwilling to accept this outcome.

In fact, after the end of the Great War, the Empire has been seeking the status of superpower, and the efforts made are all aimed at achieving this goal.

It's a pity that as long as the Bran Kingdom still has the garrison of the Liangxia Empire, the Juman Empire is not a super hegemon.

Not a real super-hegemony, at least politically.

Don't forget, the Kingdom of Bran was a member of the Western Continent Group and an ally of the Empire.

Obviously, no superpower would allow the presence of troops from other countries within the borders of an allied country, let alone an occupying force that symbolizes victory.

Of course, the Empire is nothing.

In any case, the Empire was the victor of the Second Global War, the dominant power of the Western Continent Bloc, and a traditional Western power.

The key is the Nuland Republic.

Although it did not admit defeat and did not sign any international treaties related to surrender, the Nuland Republic was a de facto defeated country.

Recognition of a defeated country as a super-hegemon?

There is no doubt that this is absolutely a huge political disaster.

When diplomatic relations with the Republic of Nuland were restored, the imperial authorities only agreed to put aside the dispute on several extremely crucial issues. This includes ownership of the Khowaii Islands. It was in this way that the empire retained its status as a victorious power.

To put it simply, as long as the Khowaii Islands remain in the hands of the Empire, and the Nuland Republic claims sovereignty over the islands, then the Empire is the occupying power. According to international law, only the victorious country has the right to occupy, to be precise, to station troops in the defeated country, so the garrison is a symbol of the victorious country.

In fact, it was only after the two houses of the Imperial Council passed a bill to restore diplomatic relations with the Republic of Nuland.

It can be seen that even if the Nuland Republic has developed into a superpower, and only in the Liangxia Empire, it is also a defeated country in legal terms.

This identity is not just symbolic.

Because it is a defeated country, the status of the Nuland Republic in many international organizations is very low, even inferior to the Raleigh Kingdom and the Kingdom of Span, which are much weaker victorious countries, and they also have to bear more onerous obligations, such as paying more membership annuities.

Of course, the key is the right to speak internationally.

So far, the influence of the Nuland Republic is limited to the isolated continent, and it is mainly in the northern isolated continent, and has little impact on some countries in the southern isolated continent.

In contrast, the political and diplomatic influence of the Empire was much greater.

Taken together, the imperial authorities, at least in peacetime, would never have pursued a new military doctrine.

This raises an extremely serious problem.

A global war is inevitable!

As a matter of fact, the new military doctrine is fundamentally aimed at eliminating a global war, or in other words, if we want to implement the new military doctrine, we must avoid fighting a global war.

The core idea of the new military doctrine is to replace "whale swallowing" with "encroachment."

If measured by scale, a global war is a "whale swallowing strategy", that is, defeating all strong enemies through a large-scale war. On the other hand, the new military doctrine is a "encroachment strategy" in which all opponents are defeated one by one in a planned manner through numerous small-scale wars.

However, in terms of specific operation, the new military doctrine also has many problems.

The most salient question is how to define "defeat".

In a global war, the definition is clear, that is, the occupation of an enemy country, or the surrender of an enemy country.

However, in the case of small-scale warfare advocated by the new military doctrine, this definition is very vague.

Fight until the enemy country surrenders?

So, then what?

In the aftermath of the First Global War, even if an opponent is defeated, it is rare to openly occupy the territory of the opponent, let alone annex it.

Strictly speaking, wars for territory ended when the era of global industrialization came.

As a result, there is no way to defeat your opponent completely!

Take Luo Sha as an example, first Emperor Shiwu defeated the Luo Sha Empire, obtained the extreme north region, and beat the Luo Sha Empire back to the prototype in one fell swoop; Then, in the First Global War, the Luosha Empire collapsed in an instant, and after several years of war, it was replaced by the Luosha Federation; By the end of the Second Global War, there was a resurgence of the Lockham Federation, and the Locksa Federation became one of the most uncertain and threatening enemies; Even after the Second World War, the threat from Silosha still felt like a nod to the Empire.

It can be seen that in more than 100 years, three large-scale wars have been fought before and after, but none of them have been able to completely eliminate Luo Sha.

As for the military occupation, it is even less worth considering.

The colonial era had long since come to an end, and in the non-colonial era, military occupation of any nature meant that the economic gains outweighed the losses.

In times of all-out war, economic issues can also be put on hold for the time being.

In peacetime, the first thing to consider is the economy.

The most typical, that is, the Polish-Iranian War.

Although the Imperial Army suffered hundreds of thousands of casualties in this war, including 50,000 casualties alone, the highest number after the war, it was not a huge casualty that forced the Empire to withdraw, after all, in the two global wars, more than 1 million officers and soldiers were killed.

The point is, the cost of this war is too great!

Including indirect expenses, a total of about 20 trillion gold dollars were spent.

This is 20 trillion gold dollars in the era of the gold standard!

In the year of the invasion of the Boi region, the GDP of the empire was less than 10 trillion gold dollars, and in the year of the withdrawal of troops it was only 20 trillion.

That is, this war directly burned the GDP of the empire for 1 to 2 years!

In fact, it was the huge expenditure during the Polish-Iranian War that caused a huge deficit, forcing the imperial authorities to abolish the gold standard after that.

According to unofficial statistics, of the 20 trillion yuan spent on the war, less than 1 trillion yuan was directly spent on warfare, and 4 trillion yuan was spent on occupation.

In addition, about 60 per cent of the casualties suffered were related to the occupation.

In large-scale combat operations, fewer than 50,000 officers and men were killed or wounded.

This was true during the Polish-Iranian War, and even more so now.

Directly annex enemy countries?

If anything, this is the only way to go.

However, this is also the most unlikely method to be adopted by the imperial authorities.

Don't forget that after Emperor Shiwu, the empire had stopped expanding abroad, no longer seeking new territories, and had begun to restrict immigration.

After the completion of industrialization, this xenophobic thinking became more prominent.

The reason is also very simple, after becoming rich, the people of the empire are unwilling to add burdens, that is, they are unwilling to share the fruits of modernization with outsiders.

For example, long before the outbreak of the First Global War, King Gao Ju proposed to annex it and become a special vassal state with a high degree of autonomy in the empire. It is clear that there is a desire to be able to obtain the assistance of the Empire, but not to give up vested interests, especially privileges within the kingdom. As a result, the imperial authorities rejected the request for the annex made by King Goju on the grounds that they "did not recognize the king with a different surname".

Later, after the end of the Second Global War, the Sabean Islands also proposed to annex it.

Although the Sadou Islands had a higher strategic value, a population of less than 1 million, and tourism to be developed, it would not add much burden to the empire, but the imperial authorities repeatedly refused, and after nearly 20 years of negotiations, they were incorporated into the empire as a special administrative region.

As a result of this status, the residents of the Sabean Islands lost their right to vote as citizens, and there was almost no possibility of participating in political activities.

From these aspects, it is necessary to completely defeat the enemy country by annexation, not to mention whether the army can do it, but there is a great deal of opposition within the empire.

This was also the key to the reluctance of the imperial top brass to embrace the new military doctrine.

Even Zhou Yongtao, if he openly supports the new military doctrine, will be given the title of "minister of power" and may even be impeached.

It's just that it is impossible for Zhou Yongtao not to be unaware of the value of the new military doctrine.

Otherwise, Ding Zhennan would not have been able to get so many opportunities.

For Jiang Wenlong, a young officer who is only in his 20s, the new military doctrine has an even greater significance, and it is worth pursuing all his life!