On the afternoon of March 6, a military conference was held to discuss the military plan for 1907, which was chaired by Lu Weimin and attended by Li Civilian, who was in charge of foreign military intelligence. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

The first issue raised by Lu Weimin was: "Your Majesty, the biggest military operation in 1907 was to occupy the Commonwealth of Australia and New Zealand, and drive all these whites back to Europe, and the whole of Australia will be the inherent territory of the empire in the future." ”

Zhang Wei asked: "Will this trigger a full-scale war with Britain?" Will other countries become more wary of the empire and become more hostile? ”

Lu Weimin obviously had already thought about it for a long time, and said unhurriedly: "Your Majesty, this time it is the United States that supports us to make trouble and cause chaos in Asia, and their purpose is to prevent us from attacking the Philippines; The second is to provoke chaos in Asia, where they fish in troubled waters or pursue their open-door policy; the third is to use this time to accelerate the development of their military industry and expand the size of the navy and army; So the American side does not need to think about it. The German side will support us in launching any military action against Britain, France, and the United States to reduce their pressure in Europe. The Russians have no need to worry, they are now afraid that we will compete with them in the Far East, and if there is a war with Britain in Australia, they will welcome it. France is the only country that has no clear attitude, and now France is in a dilemma. So, the opinion of the General Staff is that now is the best time to occupy Australia. ”

"Is there a reason to start a war? The empire now has to pay attention to its international image; Then there is the time when the war is planned and the equipment and number of troops of the navy and army to be used. ”

"Your Majesty, we plan to launch a military operation in the second half of the year, which requires 4 divisions of the Praetorian Guard and 4 divisions of the Wehrmacht, 2 battle cruiser formations of the Navy to attack from 2 directions, and the other warships mainly to defend against the British Far East Fleet stationed in Bombay. As for the reason, I had to let the intelligence department help create the reason. ”

"And when will the United States be occupied?"

"Your Majesty, I feel that the war against the United States cannot be started too early, and my opinion is to send Russia back to the west of Lake Baikal before launching a war against the United States, otherwise the entire Western countries will unite against us. The prediction of the Operations Section of the General Staff is that after the occupation of Australia, the United States will definitely not be satisfied with our military operation to occupy Australia, and they will definitely support us to occupy the Indochina Peninsula and trigger a war against Britain, so as to help them suppress Britain's strategy. ”

"Why doesn't that one hit directly to the Ural Mountains and the Ural River?"

"That would provoke the Germans to turn against them, and arouse the fear of all Westerners."

"The empire expanded too quickly after its establishment, and now it has caused fear in them; Is there anything to add to the intelligence services? ”

Li civilians reported: "Your Majesty, now there are rumors in Britain and France, and the German emperor also wants to promote the spread of this kind of public opinion in Germany, but it has been suppressed by the chief of the general staff, and for the time being Germany still supports the empire, but my suggestion is to use more land forces when launching foreign wars, and before you don't want to be enemies with the world, you can't expose the true strength of the navy, slow down the development of the navy, and resolutely don't expose more powerful battleships." ”

"Is there any difference of opinion on the part of the Navy?"

Li Zhaoshui thought for a moment and replied: "Your Majesty, Minister Li's words have a certain amount of truth, if the battleships equipped with 343mm main guns at the end of this year or the beginning of next year will cause great pressure on Britain, France, the United States and Germany, or wait for them to digest the technology of the Lanfang-class battleships and successfully develop the battleships with 343mm main guns, before they are launched, it is not too late for us to equip 343mm battleships, and before the British Navy has the strength to absolutely suppress the Imperial Navy, Britain will definitely choose to forbear." , will not choose to go to all-out war with the Empire. ”

Zhang Wei thought for a while and asked, "Then when will we occupy the Indochina Peninsula?" I don't want Indochina to be dragged back by the empire as an unstable rear in the event of a war with the United States. ”

Lu Weimin replied: "Your Majesty, our opinion is that in the event of a war with the United States, if Britain and France drag the empire back in the Indochina Peninsula, they will directly occupy it, and it will not be difficult for the empire to start a war on two fronts, and if they can maintain stability, it will not be too late to occupy it when a war breaks out between Britain and France and Germany." ”

Zhang Wei felt that everyone wanted to take Australia first, upgrade the system to the imperial level, and then start a war with the Russian Empire, and finally start a war with the United States, and leave the main forces of Britain and France to the Germans to deal with, and not take the initiative to start a full-scale war with Britain and France. And there is also a purpose to occupy Australia first is to hope that the system can unlock the air force, if there is an air force, then it will be easier and simpler to occupy the United States; If you can't unlock the air force project, the empire will also have enough time to prepare, so you must occupy North America as soon as possible after stabilization, and directly upgrade the system to the intermediate imperial level.

So they agreed to the request of the General Staff to occupy Australia first, and asked them to continue to refine the battle plan and take all possibilities into account; Civilians Lee had to cooperate closely with the work of the General Staff, obtain information, and create a reason to start a war against Australia.

The first topic was passed, and Lu Weimin continued to put forward the second topic: "Your Majesty, the current more urgent work is to support Yuan Shikai's forces, according to His Majesty's prediction, the Empress Dowager and the Emperor of the Great Qing Kingdom will die in 1908, if you want to start an incident at that time, there is only more than 1 year of preparation time, time is very tight, you must speed up the speed of support, the minimum requirement this year is to build 4 more towns." ”

Zhang Wei thought to himself, even if 4 more towns are built this year, there will only be 8 towns under the frontier generals, and Yuan Shikai has 5 towns in Zhili and Shandong, a total of 13 towns, which is far from being able to control the entire Qing Dynasty.

So Zhang Wei instructed: "Lieutenant General Du Shihui is fully responsible for assisting the frontier generals in expanding the army, and Metropolitan Governor Xiao Xuguang must give full support; This year, the frontier generals will expand the number of troops into eight towns, and next spring they will expand the number of towns to four more towns, and at the same time set up 10 independent mixed associations in the peninsula special administrative region, with a personnel control of about 80,000, and set up five more mixed associations next spring, so that the source of soldiers can be recruited on the spot, and the frontier generals can be secretly sent to the peninsula after recruitment, and two temporary officer crash schools will be established in Fengtian and Dalian to specialize in training low-ranking officersand replenish the troops as soon as possible. If there is still too much shortage of officers and men at the grassroots level, the newly expanded troops will be replaced with the three towns under Yuan Shikai's current command, and the three newly changed towns will be expanded. All expenses are deducted from the loan, and if it is not enough, continue to give him the loan. Help Yuan Shikai to establish a complete iron ore and coal mining, a small iron and steel plant, a small bullet and rifle production plant, and a 75 mountain artillery shell production plant in the border special administrative region. Is there anything else you would like to add? ”

"Your Majesty's summary has been very comprehensive, and the General Staff will implement it in accordance with Your Majesty's instructions."