After receiving the report that Yanping Port had been attacked by a US fleet, Li Hui was not shocked but rejoiced, because the reason why he has endured not going to war against the United States in the past few years is of course because he has taken into account the factors of disasters at home for many years, and because he is worried that taking the initiative to provoke war will arouse the fear of the entire West, at least European countries will have more reason to come to the aid of the United States. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 infoNow that the Americans have not calmed down and made the first move, he will naturally not let go of this good opportunity, so he immediately convened a meeting of all the Beijing officials above the second rank to discuss the matter of taking the opportunity to start a war against the United States.

When the meeting was held, the good news sent by the Yanping Fortress was also sent to Li Hui, which made him even more happy, saying that with the continuous progress of wireless telegraphy technology, Li Hui no longer relied on the message board function of the biochemical soldiers, even if he occasionally wanted to use it for convenience, he no longer had to worry about attracting the attention of people with intentions, it was too convenient compared with before.

All the participants were very excited after learning the good news, but they did not all agree with Li Hui's idea of taking this opportunity to start an all-out war against the United States, and more than one raised objections.

Although Yuan Shikai, the prime minister in charge of civil affairs, did not oppose war, after all, he already knew by now that "if you seek peace through struggle, you will survive peacefully; If you seek peace through compromise, you will die peacefully. But they hope to control the scale of the war within a certain range, and try not to turn into a full-scale war, after all, the consumption of a full-scale war is too great. Moreover, the United States has a vast territory, and if it fights a full-scale war, it will inevitably drag on for a long time, and the competition will be the comprehensive national strength of the two countries, and considering the geographical disadvantage, he is not very confident that China will be able to win in the end.

Zhan Tianyou, who has been promoted to Sikong (in charge of industry and construction), also agreed, "What the prime minister said is that although China's steel output has jumped to the second place in the world, there is still a big gap compared with the first United States (in 1906, China's steel output just exceeded 10 million tons, and the United States even if the development in these years is far less rapid than in history, but after all, the foundation is strong, and the steel output in 1905 broke through the 15 million ton mark. Moreover, the development of our various industries is very unbalanced, and the gap is even greater on the whole, if calculated according to purchasing power parity, China's total industrial output is only a quarter of that of the United States, and if it still fights away from home and fights into a full-scale war, even if it has the upper hand in the early stage, it is inevitable that the follow-up will be weak. My view is that it is okay to send only a few elite standing troops to fight a local war to teach the Americans a lesson, but try not to let the scale of the war expand. China's industrial development speed far exceeds that of the United States, and we only need to lay a good foundation step by step, and sooner or later we will have the day when our national strength will be crushed, so why rush to a decisive battle? ”

Although the opposition is not small, Li Hui is very pleased, because not even one of them has expressed opposition because of peace-loving/disgusting (fear) of war, which fully proves that the national system he has painstakingly built over the years has basically taken shape, and in a country where only meritorious service (and military merit is easier to obtain) can consolidate and improve one's status, whether it is a superior or an ordinary person, even the most peace-loving person in his bones will consciously transform into a militant. This is the terrible thing about the farming and warfare system that was passed down from the pre-Qin period! It is precisely because of this system that Li Hui dared to make up his mind to wage an all-out war against the United States, the world's largest industrial country, when the overall national strength was not strong enough.

As for why they are in such a hurry, first, the Americans are looking for their own death, and such an opportunity is rare; second, Li Hui believes that it is precisely because China is not strong enough now that the possibility of the European powers standing on the side of the United States will not be too great; if China is already the world's largest power, it is indeed a good chance of winning against the United States alone, but as long as the European powers are not fools, they can realize that their lips and teeth are cold and actively stand in line, in that case, the odds of victory may not be as good as now.

"Another point is that the western part of the United States is far from being developed, so we are not the only ones who have logistical difficulties, but if we drag it to the United States to fully develop the western region, the situation will be different. You know, the western part of Canada that we got from the British looks like a big area, but because of the climate, it can't actually support a large number of people, and no matter how much we develop it, we can't support a million people nearby. In this case, it is better to take advantage of the current situation in which the Americans are unable to deploy too many troops in the western region, and give full play to the advantages of our army's better equipment and more advanced tactics to win this war! After Li Hui clearly expressed his determination, he motioned to everyone present to ask questions freely, so as not to affect their work with doubts.

For example, in the past 1906, there were catastrophic floods in Guangdong, Hunan, Hubei, Anhui, Zhejiang and other provinces, and whether it was appropriate to launch a full-scale war at this time, Li Hui smiled and asked him not to worry, "You only care about planting and harvesting and not accumulating, so I don't know the situation very well, although disasters have occurred frequently in the country in recent years, but relying on the efforts of the military and civilians across the country to prevent and fight disasters, grain production has always increased, and we have also increased the import of agricultural products. At present, the grain depots under the control of the central government alone store enough grain for more than 600 million people in the country to eat for a whole year, and even if this war will last for several years, even if there are still frequent disasters in the country in the past few years, there is no need to worry too much. ”

"China is too big, so natural disasters are indispensable every year, but it is impossible to have no harvest everywhere in the country, even if there is a severe situation like the Xiaoice River period in the late Ming Dynasty, one year's grain storage is enough to support three years." Moreover, now that science and technology have advanced, the organizational power of the people's power is far from being comparable to that of the old society, and the losses caused by disasters are much smaller than those of those years, so there is no need to worry. Li Hui's words did not completely eliminate the worries of the Minister of Agriculture, he pointed out that there is also the pressure of military food supply, in ancient times, the supply of one stone of grain to the army needed to prepare ten stones, and now the transportation conditions are much better, but after all, the distance is far away, more than three times is unavoidable, if you enter the inland area, there is no convenience by sea, then the cost will be greater.

After Li Hui heard this, he realized that he had an important issue that he had not made clear, and immediately explained, "You may not have figured it out, I said all-out war. It means that the previous war with the United States was not limited to a specific area, nor was it limited to the mode of warfare, but this does not mean how many troops we have to invest? After all, the United States is too far away from our homeland, even if we want to invest millions of troops, we don't have the transportation capacity to ensure logistics! (To be continued.) )