"The rice balls are cold again, I'll take them hot."

After stopping Luo Youbin, the secretary who didn't know when he came in, Zhou Yongtao said: "Don't bother, I don't have an appetite now, let's solve it for lunch." ”

Luo Youbin also sighed secretly and cleaned up the dishes and chopsticks.

This bowl of rice balls has been heated three times, and the soup is all paste, and if it is heated again, I am afraid it will become a paste.

"Nong Chengpei, did they set off?"

"The plane was still at JFK International Airport, and the deadline was three hours away. As previously arranged......"

After seeing Zhou Yongtao waving his hand, Luo Youbin closed his mouth.

"Go and call the Minister of Defense and a few chiefs of staff in, and the others can go back."

"Do you want to schedule your next meeting in advance?"

"We'll know when the next meeting will take place."

Luo Youbin was stunned, but then he understood what Zhou Yongtao meant.

War will break out in a few hours, and there is no need to schedule the next plenary meeting in advance, and it is not too late to wait until the war has begun.

As a life secretary who has followed Zhou Yongtao for more than 20 years, Luo Youbin knows very well that Shoufu has made up his mind.

Compared with the previous first assistants, especially Lian Xusheng, who has a strong personality, Zhou Yongtao looks much gentler, but deep down, he is a real diehard.

In fact, this is also a naval feature.

The successive commanders of the navy are all soft on the outside and rigid on the inside.

In Zhou Yongtao's words, the stronger the heart, the gentler the attitude.

A few minutes after Luo Youbin went out, the Minister of Defense and the four chiefs of staff came to the study.

The Ministry of Defense replaced the Ministry of War and the Ministry of the Navy, the Army, Navy and Air Force, and the Marine Corps, no longer having an commander-in-chief, but a chief of staff as the supreme military commander.

It's just that in order to take care of a large number of meritorious deeds such as Bai Zhizhan and Li Yunxiang, the military command organization with the General Staff as the core was only established after Lian Xusheng left office.

As a result, Li Mingbo became the last commander-in-chief and first chief of staff of the Imperial Navy.

The key point is that according to the rules of Lian Xu's promotion, the defense minister can only be a civilian official, but he can be a retired general.

The current Minister of National Defense, Qin Fenglie, is a retired army general.

Of course, there is no rule that generals cannot wear military uniforms after retirement, and according to tradition, there is no such thing as retirement for generals.

It is precisely like this, Qin Fenglie is a military uniform all the year round, just an honorary military rank he wears.

Compared with the military rank of serving generals, the honorary rank of retired generals is mainly two purple ribbons on their epaulettes.

As for Army Chief of Staff Niu Zhengshen, Navy Chief of Staff Zhang Xiaotian and Air Force Chief of Staff Zhen Bisheng are all active generals, while Marine Chief of Staff Tian Kaixuan is a lieutenant general.

The restriction of military ranks is also the result of military reform.

At the end of the war, there were more than 20 marshals and hundreds of generals in the army, navy and air force of the empire, and more than 10,000 generals at the rank of major general and above. As a result, in the post-war years, generals' allowances alone accounted for 5 percent of annual defense spending.

Spending money is still a trifle.

There are many generals, and the number one problem is that the tail is too big to fall.

After three military reforms, the rank of marshal was determined to be awarded only in wartime, and the rank of general was given to meritorious generals in peacetime.

In addition, the generals are divided into three ranks.

As a result, the highest rank that an active-duty military member can attain is a general.

The control of military ranks is also aimed at improving the status of the first assistant to the cabinet.

In front of the marshal and general, not to mention civilian officials, even the first assistant who has no military background has to be pleasant.

The first few assistants after Lian Xusheng have not been in office for a long time, just because their aura is not strong enough, and they have no right to speak in front of respected generals.

From another point of view, this is also one of the reasons why Zhou Yongtao was able to live in the Shoufu Mansion.

For Zhou Yongtao, there was no such problem, he was a naval marshal before he became the first assistant of the Empire, and he was the youngest remaining marshal of the Imperial Navy.

De is taller than him, and those who are heavier than him are all seventy or eighty.

In fact, Zhou Yongtao is 70 years old.

Zhou Yongtao left the five of them behind, not to discuss combat matters with them, but to ask them to recommend front-line commanders.

If you really want to fight, the first thing you need to determine is the leading general.

On the contrary, there is no disagreement on this issue.

According to the current theater of operations of the Empire, Posha Bay is under the jurisdiction of the Western Theater facing the Luxinhai, Fanyanyang, the Western Continent, and the region north of the Sahara.

However, the problem is that the Western Theater is the most special of the five major theaters.

After the Polish-Iranian War, the position of commander of the Western Theater has been vacant, and for a long time the chief of the general staff has been concurrently held by the chief of staff, and the chief of the general staff has been held by the chiefs of staff of the three major services in turn.

The reason for this situation is that the situation in the western theater is the most complicated, and it is difficult for any branch of the military to take charge of the situation on its own.

Then, you can only choose between the Northwest Theater and the Southern Theater.

The huge land and western continents faced by the Northwest Theater have always been dominated by the army and air force, and have basically nothing to do with the navy and marines.

The southern theater of operations faced the Fanyan Ocean, the sub-Saharan region, the Austrian continent and the surrounding areas, which have long been played by the navy.

Obviously, under the circumstance that a ground war is inevitable and air strikes will definitely be the main focus in the early stage, General Shi Xuliang, commander of the Northwest Theater Command, is the best candidate.

No one denies the importance of the navy, but in the post-war large-scale regional wars, it was not the navy that played the absolute main role.

In the words of the White Stop, the Navy was born for all-out war.

In an era when peace is the main theme, if the fleet is not enough to deter the enemy, it will inevitably have to rely on ground forces when it enters the war phase.

As a matter of fact, as early as last month, it was decided that Shi Zhiliang would organize a combat operation in Posha Bay.

Otherwise, he would not have been allowed to set up an operational command center in the Northwest Theater in the name of planning the "Westward 150" exercise, and would have begun to make arrangements for combat operations ahead of schedule.

Zhou Yongtao brought it up again, in fact, in order to let Zhang Xiaotian express his position.

Although Zhang Xiaotian is Zhou Yongtao's subordinate, Zhou Yongtao has always been very polite to this subordinate.

The reason is the same, he is the nephew of the little eldest princess, that is, his father is the elder brother of the Zhang family of the little eldest princess, and it can be said that he is a real royal relative.

Of course, he is also Bai Zhizhan's nephew and the spokesperson of the Bai family.

Similarly, Zhou Yongtao is also the spokesperson of the Bai family.

At several meetings last month, Mr. Zhang did not take a position on the choice of a front-line commander, indicating that he did not feel that Mr. Shi was the only candidate.

It's just that now, a decision must be made.

Fortunately, Zhou Yongtao had already told Zhang Xiaotian in private, and now let Zhang Xiaotian express his position in public in order to save face for several other people.

The big war is imminent, and it is most taboo to change generals in battle.

After some discussion, Zhou Yongtao adopted Qin Fenglie's proposal and said that at the appropriate time, he would issue a first auxiliary order appointing Shi Zhiliang as the commander-in-chief of the front.

There was no immediate appointment, also because the Great War had not yet broken out.

Subsequently, Qin Fenglie and others said goodbye and left.

It's just that without waiting for Zhou Yongtao to call the secretary in, a phone call came.

An hour later, while having lunch, Lin Shiping, director of the Military Intelligence Bureau, hurried over.

At first, it was he who called.

It was this phone call that made Zhou Yongtao advance the lunch time to 11 o'clock, and asked the secretary to prepare an extra working meal.

Because I didn't eat breakfast, it was normal to eat lunch early.

If you want to say anything, Zhou Yongtao and Lin Shiping are old acquaintances.

Lin Shiping is Wang Kaiyuan's protégé, to be precise, the last senior intelligence officer brought out by Wang Kaiyuan. Later, during Zheng Jiangming's tenure as director of the Military Intelligence Bureau, he went around in circles in four positions, including deputy director and executive deputy director, and became director after Zheng Jiangming's retirement.

So far, he has been the director of the bureau for 14 years!

According to the military's evaluation, he is the most powerful director of the Military Intelligence Bureau after Yang Zhiyuan.

It's just that the successive directors of the Military Intelligence Agency, which one is not powerful?

As for the value of the Military Intelligence Agency, Lian Xusheng's evaluation is the most convincing.

In the era of the three-legged tripod, the Liangxia Empire can still dominate the world and become the world's number one super hegemon, with the contribution of the Military Intelligence Bureau as the most.

It is precisely in this way that whenever faced with emergencies and major changes, the head of the Imperial Empire will first think of the director of the Military Intelligence Bureau.

Intelligence is the key to making the right strategic decisions.

What Lin Shiping brought was the information that Zhou Yongtao needed most now.

In addition to dozens of carefully processed satellite photographs marked with details, an analysis report that was also annotated, and some non-objective information.

Actually, it's intelligence from spies.

The most crucial piece of information is that Ambassador Ferman has given assurances that he will not sever relations with Iraq because of the annexation of Kuwait, and that he will support Hussein's claim in the international community that Kuwait originally belonged to Iraq and was forcibly divided by the former suzerainty in the struggle for independence, so Iraq has sovereignty over Kuwait, which is a reconquest and does not violate international law.

However, Ambassador Ferman did not promise to provide military assistance.

The reason is that Iraq's military is strong enough.

After eight years of Iran-Iraq war, and especially after the next six years of tug-of-war, Iraq has the most powerful military force in the entire Crescent region.

Whether in terms of the number of troops or the size of equipment, Iraq's military strength ranks among the top 10 in the world.

After eight years of fierce war with Poland, he has not been defeated, and even if he has to face the world's number one military hegemony now, he will definitely be able to hold out for a while.

In addition, the Republic of Nuland is also taking a wait-and-see stance.

Because the Republic of Nuland mainly relies on the Polish-Iraqi state and attaches more importance to its relations with the Polish-Iraqian state, at this time, maintaining neutrality is a support for Iraq.

To put it simply, the Nuland Republic will definitely rebel when the Liang Xia Empire launches its call.

This is also the key reason why Hussein is full of confidence and refuses to continue consultations.

"In my judgment, the reluctance of the Empire to provide direct assistance, and the Republic of Nuland's wait-and-see stance, are actually signs of lack of confidence."

When Lin Shiping said this, Zhou Yongtao turned his gaze.

However, Zhou Yongtao did not refute.

Why are the two superpowers not confident?

This round of military reform has been carried out for more than 10 years, and a large number of new technologies have been adopted, and weapons and equipment designed and manufactured in accordance with new military ideas have come out, but except for the short military operation six years ago, that is, the empire sent troops to Sri Lanka, new equipment and new tactics have not been tested.

To put it bluntly, there is no value in military reform, how the next war will be fought, and how much influence new weaponry will have on the way of warfare.

Not to mention others, even the Imperial Military is not absolutely sure!

More critically, this round of military reform was initiated by the Liang Xia Empire, and so far, it is also the Liang Xia army that has carried out the most thoroughly.

Relatively speaking, the other two super-hegemons are still close to fire.

The Nuland Republic is slightly better, especially in terms of the key air force, and the Nuland Air Force is no slower than the Liangxia Air Force. On the other hand, Nuland's poor is actually the navy, which temporarily lacks the ability to reach and deliver globally like the Liang Xia navy.

If anything, the Manman Empire has fallen behind in this round of military changes.

Until now, the Manman Air Force has acquired only one third-generation fighter, the jointly developed Tornado.

In fact, the Tornado ADV did not meet the standards of a third-generation fighter, but was more like a second-generation fighter armed with third-generation electronics.

In addition, several other third-generation fighters of the Western Continent Group, such as Locke's "Mirage" 2000 and the MG-29 of the Luosha Democratic Republic, either have poor engines or insufficient advanced electronic equipment, and they are almost on fire, which has a sense of fly in the ointment.

The Manman Navy, that's even less worth mentioning.

In fact, even the army that has always been the pride of the Manman Empire, and even the army of the Western Continent Group, are lagging behind in this round of military reforms.

The most representative is that the first armed helicopter of the Western Continent Group, which is still on the drawing paper.

Even the main battle tanks, the Empire and the Western Continent, now only have a numerical advantage, and more importantly, in terms of performance, they are also lagging behind.

What led to all this is actually comprehensive strength.

Among the three superpowers, the foundation of the Manman Empire is the worst, and among the three major groups, the Western Continent Group has the most internal contradictions.

Fundamentally, it is actually the Rimman Empire itself that does not have the foundation to become a superpower!

In other words, if it weren't for the victorious country in the last war, the Empire would not have been able to dominate the Western Continent with a total population of more than 500 million with a mere 80 million people.

The Empire was able to win the last Great War thanks to the Liangxia Empire!

It has been 45 years since the end of the Great War, and in the past 45 years, the Empire has basically eaten up its old capital and spent all the dividends of the victorious countries.

It is a pity that the great cause of the reunification of the Xilu Group is still far away.

I am afraid that in a few years, internal contradictions will surpass the fear of strong external enemies and cause the Xilu group to fall apart.

In fact, similar problems have already arisen.

The Bran Kingdom has always been on both sides, to be precise, it is also providing a military base for the Liangxia Empire while acting as a member of the Western Continent Group, and at the same time strengthening economic and trade ties with the Nuland Republic across the Sunset Ocean, wanting to gain benefits from the three sides.

In addition, the Kingdom of Span was also at odds with the Empire because of the problem of the Zhira Fortress.

As for the Raleigh Kingdom, it was even more because it was put aside by the Hindan Empire on the Algiers issue, and since then it has become half-hearted.

The intensification of internal contradictions is precisely the key to the instigation of the Iraqi authorities by the Hindan Empire.

In Lin Shiping's words, after the flames of war in Posha Bay were ignited, the Manman authorities could breathe a sigh of relief, and even take the opportunity to speed up the process of reunification of the western continent.

This is also the key to the Empire's desire to stay out of the matter.

To put it bluntly, if it was really involved, how could the Empire possibly take this opportunity to resolve the internal contradictions of the Western Continent Group?