Imperial Capital Shoufu Residence, 12 noon.

After lunch, Zhou Yongtao returned to the study.

In the morning, I received a message from the Joint Command that all military deployments against Iraq had been put in place.

The implication is that it is only an order from Shousuke.

In Zhou Yongtao's view, there is still a necessary condition missing.

Although he did not participate in the war games organized by the General Staff, and did not even ask about military matters, as a former marshal of the Imperial Navy, Zhou Yongtao was very aware of the current situation and knew what the imperial ** team needed to worry about most in the next battle.

That's right, it's a two-front battle.

Otherwise, he would not have let Bai Huamin, as a special envoy, take a special plane arranged by the Military Intelligence Bureau overnight to Doha for a secret meeting with the special envoy of the Polish State.

Although there is enough reason to believe that compared with the Liangxia Empire, the Boi State is more hostile to the Baghdad regime, or that the threat from Baghdad is greater, after all, the behavior of the Liangxia authorities can still be speculated with common sense, and the behavior of a military dictator cannot be predicted at all, but everyone ignores a very key issue, that is, the influence of the Nuland Republic on the Boyi authorities.

Fundamentally, the Iran-Iraq war, which has been fought for eight years, is a farce jointly directed by the Empire and the Republic of Nuland for the purpose of gaining regional discourse.

The key is not clear to the outside world, and it is impossible for the Imperial Shoufu not to know.

Although before that, the Liangxia Empire had lost the Polish-Iranian War, it was still the number one hegemon in the Posha Bay region by relying on the "moat" operation implemented later.

The most telling thing is that, with the support of the countries on the south shore of Posha Bay, the global oil trade is still settled in gold dollars.

The gold dollar of the Liang Xia Empire accounted for as much as 60 percent of the global trade settlement by virtue of its peg to oil, far exceeding the gold mark of the Juman Empire and the new New Zealand dollar of the Nuland Republic, and the Liang Xia Empire firmly grasped the international financial hegemony by virtue of the gold dollar.

According to international estimates, the Liang Xia Empire obtained more than one trillion gold dollars in the financial field every year by virtue of its coinage rights.

It is precisely by relying on the income from "coinage" that the Liang Xia Empire can sit on the throne of the world's number one hegemon.

After fighting hard for more than ten years, the Boyi State finally achieved independent status, because its own strength was too poor, it was impossible to challenge the Liangxia Empire.

In this war, which lasted for more than 10 years, in order to drive out the army of Thel and the army of Liang Xia, the Boi country paid a heavy price of 6 million casualties. In the last six years of the war alone, the high-intensity strategic bombing launched by the Liang Xia army resulted in more than 300,000 casualties among soldiers and civilians.

As for the damage to property, it is completely impossible to estimate.

These costs are not ordinarily large!

In addition, the fundamental purpose of the Liangxia Empire's initiative to withdraw its troops in the end was to maintain its hegemony, or to stop losses.

All in all, when the Liangxia Empire recovered, that is, before Zhou Yongtao came to power, Poshawan was still firmly in the hands of the Empire.

Faced with this situation, the Empire and the Republic of Nuland had almost no choice.

To put it bluntly, as long as the Liang Xia Empire is given a few years, at most ten years, after regaining its strength, it can take advantage of the strong wind of the second round of military reform to re-dominate the Crescent region, which is located between the East and the West, known as the "crossroads of civilizations", and consolidate its position as the world's number one hegemon.

It was against this backdrop that the Empire and the Republic of Nuland joined forces to plan the Iran-Iraq War.

In this eight-year war, Iraq, which was directly supported by the Empire, and Poland, which was assisted by the Nuland Republic, can be said to be inseparable.

In the end, it was not the two belligerents who benefited.

At the time of the signing of the ceasefire agreement, Iraq's national economy was in ruins, and grassroots dissatisfaction with the Baghdad regime was at its peak.

The situation in the country of Boi is not much better.

That's right, it was the Empire and the Newland Republic that benefited.

In eight years, the Empire and the Western Continent sold 77 billion gold marks worth of arms to Iraq, accounting for 70 percent of total arms exports during the same period. Boi is the number one buyer of Nuland's arms companies, with imports totaling more than NZ$30 billion, accounting for almost 60% of Nuland's arms exports.

Relying on the super-profits earned from the export of arms, the Manman Empire barely kept up with the tide of the second military revolution, and the Nuland Republic gained the capital to compete with the Liangxia Empire.

In contrast, the scale of arms exports of the Liangxia Empire in recent years has not only not expanded, but has shrunk somewhat.

However, the arms trade is not critical.

After this war, Iraq became more dependent on the Empire, and the Polish-Polished State also fell to the Nuland Republic.

Through an eight-year war that killed and injured millions of soldiers and civilians, and displaced tens of millions of innocent civilians, the two superpowers finally realized their long-cherished wish to return to Posha Bay.

With two spokesmen, the Empire and the Republic of Nuland can at least have an impact on the situation in Posha Bay.

This was also the root cause of Iraq's invasion of Kuwait.

If you want to pull it fundamentally, it is actually the pot of the Liangxia Empire.

After the end of the Iran-Iraq war, the Iraqi authorities did not thank the Liangxia Empire for its indirect support during the war, and fell out with the Liangxia Empire over the high-stakes oilfield development project, and subsequently confiscated the rights of the Liangxia Empire to exploit the Iraqi oilfields on the grounds of violating its domestic laws.

After that, the Liangxia Empire launched an oil price war against Iraq.

To put it simply, it is to suppress oil prices in the international market through spokespersons such as Kuwait, so that Iraq cannot profit from exporting oil.

As a result, Iraq's internal contradictions have been exacerbated by balance-of-payments imbalances.

Iraq's invasion of Kuwait, in addition to diverting domestic contradictions, was also aimed at pushing up oil prices.

It's just that many people ignore the country of Boi.

In the past two years, Poland has been able to hold on, rather than having to divert domestic contradictions through war, as Iraq did, and in addition to not being able to sell oil directly in the international market like Iraq, it has a lot to do with the support of the Republic of Nuland.

According to the information provided by the Military Intelligence Agency, in the past two years, the Nuland Republic has provided tens of millions of tons of food to Poland in the name of aid, basically filling its food gap. It is precisely because of the sufficient guarantee of food supply that the situation in Poland has basically remained stable.

Poland's foreign exchange earnings also depend mainly on oil exports to the Republic of Nuland.

It can be seen that the economic lifeline of the Boi country is actually in the hands of the Nuland Republic.

And that's not all.

After the end of the eight-year war, except for a very small amount of equipment, nearly 60% of the main battle equipment of the Polish army came from the Republic of Nuland.

Crucially, Poland can only buy advanced weapons and equipment from the Republic of Nuland, and rely on these weapons and equipment to modernize its national defense.

Obviously, the national security of the country of Poland is closely related to the Republic of Nuland.

To put it mildly, the lifeblood and lifeblood of the Poi country are in the hands of the Nuland authorities!

It is precisely because of this that Zhou Yongtao is worried.

If the Nuland regime exerts influence, Poland may not be able to withstand the pressure.

Can the Boi state remain neutral?

Of course, the Polish-Polish state will certainly not fight for Iraq.

But the problem is that as long as the Polish-based state appropriately raises its combat readiness level or creates an incident in the Strait of Hormuz, it will be able to make the imperial authorities throw a rat into the trap.

Besides, the Boyi State has not established diplomatic relations with the Liangxia Empire, and there is every reason to prohibit the passage of Liangxia ships and combat aircraft through its territorial waters and airspace, and can even use this reason to block the Strait of Hormuz, at least it will use this to blackmail the Liangxia Empire, such as letting the Liangxia Empire lift the strategic blockade that has lasted for more than ten years.

So, is the Polish-Iraqi Congress on fire?

In fact, Zhou Yongtao waited for more than ten minutes.

When the phone rang, Zhou Yongtao was stunned for a moment, and then grabbed the microphone.

"It's ...... me"

After listening carefully for a while, Zhou Yongtao let out a long breath.

"Okay, got it."

After replying, he put down the microphone and sat down.

It was Nong Chengpei who called from Riyadh and said two things, both of which were good news.

Bai Huamin has already negotiated with the envoy of the Polished State that as long as the Liangxia Empire guarantees not to infringe on the sovereignty of the Polished Empire and lifts the financial sanctions against the Polished Empire within half a year, the Polished Empire will remain strictly neutral and acquiesce in the necessary actions taken by the Liangxia Empire to restore the sovereignty of Kuwait.

On the other hand, the Shau Di promised to personally intervene and unite the countries of the Crescent region to impose sanctions and embargoes on Iraq.

Crucially, the Shau Di King has agreed in principle to bring the royal army under the joint command and obey the command unconditionally during the war. If necessary, the Shau will also step in and form a coalition of crescent states within the framework of the Joint Command.

To put it simply, the countries of the Crescent region, led by Saudi Arabia, especially those on the southern shore of Posha Bay, will do their utmost to support Kuwait's recovery.

It's also a huge burden.

According to Nong Chengpei, the Shah Shau has made it clear that the basic purpose of this war is to restore Kuwait.

As for whether or not to overthrow the regime in Baghdad, we will discuss it later.

When Luo Youbin brought the re-brewed tea, it was already half past 12 noon.

In fact, he also specially brought tea at this time to remind Zhou Yongtao that there was still half an hour before the ultimatum expired.

"Is there any news from the Sixth Bureau?" Although the Sixth Bureau has long been reorganized into the Military Intelligence Bureau, the older generation like Zhou Yongtao is still used to the old name.

"Not yet."

Zhou Yongtao only nodded, and Luo Youbin didn't explain much.

Don't look at Lin Shiping, he can come to Zhou Yongtao at any time, but he knows the rules very well, and he will call Luo Youbin in advance every time he comes over.

In Lin Shiping's words, no matter how powerful he is, he is only an intelligence officer.

There is no news at this time, in fact, it is the worst news!

In addition to arranging for Bai Huamin to negotiate secretly with the special envoy of Poland, Zhou Yongtao also asked Lin Shiping to find a way to see if he could do something inside Iraq.

It's not that Zhou Yongtao is timid, or that he still has illusions.

What's the harm of being able to win without a fight?

Clearly, Lin's efforts did not bear fruit.

Waiting for Luo Youbin to go out, Zhou Yongtao did not delay any longer, and called Shi Zhiliang, who was far away in King Khalid's military city.

However, what Zhou Yongtao issued was not a war order, but an order for war readiness.

After making this call, Zhou Yongtao left for the City Hall.

Because of the need to use the army, navy, and air force, according to imperial law, Zhou Yongtao had to obtain the support of both houses of parliament before issuing an order for battle.

To be precise, it's actually a war mandate.

Of course, in the past three days, Zhou Yongtao has persuaded most of the lawmakers to conservatively estimate that he will be able to get at least two-thirds of the support.

Actually, it only takes a simple majority of more than half.

It is only a local war, and all that is needed is military mobilization, and there is no need for war mobilization, so it does not need to receive more than two-thirds of the majority.

In any case, you have to go to both houses of parliament and give speeches, and then call for a vote.

This is also the thing that Zhou Yongtao hates the most.

Like the previous military leaders, Zhou Yongtao has always felt that he has dealt with those big men in the two houses more often, and even his IQ will be reduced!

But what can be done?

…………

King Khalid Military City.

After talking to Zhou Yongtao on the phone, Shi Zhiliang issued an order for combat readiness.

According to the plan set before, the first to be dispatched is the Air Force!

At 7:30 local time, Li Tianling sat in the cockpit of the "Zhan-11B".

Compared to when he arrived here three days ago, his fighter has a not-so-noticeable, but particularly noticeable change.

On the left side of the cockpit, a crash logo symbolizing the results of the battle was painted.

It's a fighter-like pattern.

After finalizing the battle plan last night, Li Tianling began to draw up a tactic and communicated with the other pilots.

After that, he went to rest for 4 hours.

By the time he returned to duty, the ground crew had completed their pre-takeoff preparations, including painting the emblem that was the envy of the other pilots.

Because there was no air battle in Sri Lanka when the rebellion was suppressed, Li Tianling was the first pilot of the Imperial Air Force to achieve air combat results after the end of the Polish-Iranian War.

In this regard, Li Tianling was speechless.

In his opinion, shooting down that "super military flag" mainly depends on luck and has little to do with his own ability.

But what can be said?

In the words of the head of the ground crew, the battle is about to begin, and who cares if there is a sign on the captain's plane that he has shot down an enemy plane?

As usual, the "Zhan-11B" adopts the air superiority mount mode.

The difference is that this time it is fully loaded. 8 medium-range air-to-air missiles plus 2 combat missiles, and 180 rounds of 30-mm artillery shells.

However, out of 8 medium-range air-to-air missiles, only 4 are "KK-12A", and the other 4 are "KK-6M".

For this reason, the ground crew leader also specifically mentioned that this is the above meaning, mainly because the "KK-12A" has a small inventory, and it is necessary to use the "KK-6M" that is about to be retired as much as possible.

Li Tianling didn't blame the ground crew leader, but felt that those guys in charge of logistics were too picky.

After completing the inspection, Li Tianling made a normal gesture to the guide.

Subsequently, the "Zhan-11B", with the assistance of a tractor, taxied to the take-off point.

In the left rear, the partner's wingman is also in position.

In addition, two "Zhan-11B" and two "Zhan-10B" will participate in the first round of combat operations, including large and small two-sized landline aircraft.

In order to be able to seize the task, they also gave Li Tianling a military order, promising to obey the command.

In fact, even if they didn't make a military order, Li Tianling would still give them a chance, because according to the plan, it was necessary to let the two stunned young men who were not afraid of death charge into battle.

In the whole team, the big and small two pairs are notoriously stunned.