"Where's that Engels?" As Lin Hong, who grew up under the red flag, he couldn't help but have some admiration for Marx and Engels, and although it was impossible for him to come forward to meet a proletarian mentor this time, it did not prevent him from being excited.

"Your Majesty, you have just arrived in Singapore," Nangong Zheng, the commander of the new Jin Yiwei, replied, although he didn't quite understand what the emperor was excited about. "Your Majesty, the Prime Minister of the State Council will need you to attend later."

"Oh?" You must know that the State Council is the internal executive meeting of the government, although the emperor has the right to observe, but for the effective operation of the government, Lin Hong will basically not attend the State Council, this time the cabinet took the initiative to invite him to participate in the observance, it can only be said that there are major matters that need the emperor to make decisions.

"Got it!"

The Cabinet Building is a newly built seven-story concrete building. It's only about 30 meters, and compared with the 115-meter-tall Empire State Building, the tallest building in the empire, which is about to start construction in Shanghai, the office building of the cabinet government is indeed a bit shabby.

At 1 p.m., Cabinet Room, Chen Kejie.

"Your Majesty, it has been more than 20 years since the establishment of the Empire, and the Empire's investment in the colonial cause has never stopped for more than 20 years, and of course the Empire has also made amazing achievements overseas. But Your Majesty, I have to advise you, on behalf of the Government, that the colonial cause of the Empire has begun to drag down the development of the Empire's domestic affairs, and in the first half of this year, in order to carry out your 'Great Clean-up' operation (that is, to bring Vietnam, Laos, Burma, The Ministry of Finance invested more than 572 million yuan in this regard, which greatly exceeded the original plan of 135 million yuan, and of course it is undeniable that the economic effect of this operation (as long as it is the development of the colony) and the relief of domestic land pressure played a huge role. However, not counting the military spending of Central Asia, the Ministry of Finance estimates that the deficit will reach 718 million yuan this year, which will cause further inflation in the country. ”

"It's my fault that I have made you suffer." Lin Hong felt embarrassed when he heard this, "Prime Minister, the cabinet and the government have something to arrange next." ”

"Your Majesty, the Cabinet has decided to sell the imperial treasury on the world market in advance to reduce the deficit, and we hope to cut some military and other expenditures to fill the hole. In particular, it is hoped that the military spending of the Siberian Military District, the South-Eastern Military District, and the Navy this year will be reduced. ”

"No, how can military spending be arbitrarily compressed, the Western military has been chasing us, can we sit and watch them catch up, our military will never agree." When Navy Minister Hu Bohui heard that the navy's military spending was to be reduced, he immediately jumped out in protest, and the war minister also looked anxious on the sidelines.

Lin Hong thought for a while and said: "Don't reduce military spending, the deficit caused by the colonial department this time is indeed due to me, I'm too anxious, so be it!" The Imperial Consortium will openly raise $100 million from the Imperial Government, and I will ask other foundations to raise donations to fill the financial gap, and the Government will run according to this year's financial plan! ”

"Thank you, Your Majesty!" The Prime Minister said.

"You kid, you can't be slandering me, are you?" Lin Hong looked at the prime minister and said suddenly.

"How dare you. The main thing is to hope that His Majesty understands that the current colonial steps of the empire are a bit big. Hearing this, Lin Hong was speechless and remembered a sentence: 'The steps are too big, and the eggs are pulled'.

"In addition, Your Majesty has had an ample labor force in East and South Africa after the 'Great Cleanup' operation, and the empire now needs time to digest the colonies and the vacated land at home, and the cost of colonizing Africa is too high and the medicines needed to treat malaria are extremely scarce, and I think that large-scale colonization can be suspended in recent years. In addition, colonization activities in Australia should be slowed down, where the current colonization has only inputs and no outputs, and it is really worth the loss. ”

"However, my expedition team has just opened up a stronghold on the Nigerian coast, and if we limit development funds now, then we can only give up, knowing that the Gold Coast and the Ivory Coast have always been European territory, and this time it was the local colonial officials who bribed the local chiefs to establish a stronghold." Li Hongzhang, the colonial minister who had just been repatriated from East Africa, did not want to see his gains go to waste.

"I mean there will be no more colony development, but the stronghold and lend-lease activities will continue." The Prime Minister explained.

"There are two other things that Your Majesty needs to decide." Chen Kejie said, "The first is the establishment of the North American colonies. ”

"Oh! Is something wrong? Lin Hong frowned and said calmly.

"Yesterday, the North American colonies of the communication ship, brought the latest situation of the colonies, and a copy of more than 100,000 signatures (including handprints), the people of the colonies opposed the establishment of North America, they thought that the empire was ready to abandon them, and at present North America has sent petitions to the land, in addition to dozens of North American representatives to the cabinet to petition. So I think Your Majesty will suspend North America and make plans again. ”

"Is the situation serious?" Lin Hong asked.

"It was a big deal, but it didn't cause damage to the running of the colony."

"This" Just when Lin Hong was distressed, the system suddenly gave him a hint, Belgium, Congo. Lin Hong thought about it, and it could only be like this.

"Prime Minister, that's like announcing at home and abroad that from now on, the North American colonies will be the emperor's territory, officially separated from the jurisdiction of the Cabinet Colonial Department, and will be my direct territory."

"The army?"

"The military system of the army remains unchanged. By the way, what is the second question? ”

"The second problem is the army" Chen Kejie glanced at the two ministers of the sea and land, and saw these two enemies who killed their father staring at the prime minister.

The Prime Minister continued: "The problem lies in the colonial army, and it is really unnecessary for the colony army to be expanded repeatedly in the past ten years, for example, in the East African colonies, the number of foreign legions and local vassals is as high as 200,000, which is really unnecessary, and the army of the North American colonies is about 180,000 more. The General Staff plans to reduce the number of troops in East Africa to about 100,000 in the next five years, the Foreign Legion newspaper in South Africa at about 3 to 50,000, and the North American army at about 7 to 90,000. In addition, if the financial budget permits, the General Staff Department will also plan to reduce the number of troops in the Southeast Military Region and other non-frontier areas, replace all full-strength first-class divisions and full-strength second-class divisions with first-class divisions that are not fully manned, and plan to control the number of domestic troops from more than 1.6 million to about 1.2 million to 1.3 million within five years. ”

"It doesn't matter if the military is reduced overseas, but there will be too many domestic troops," said Qin Han, the defense minister and minister of the army.

In fact, Lin Hong didn't expect the determination of the General Staff and the government to be so great, but it is obvious that the benefits are great. "So decide! Implement it as soon as possible. "Qin Han just wanted to say a few words here, and the emperor there had already decided, he could still do this, and he would do it. Hu Bohui and Qin Han had to smile bitterly at each other.

"Your will is our life's pursuit!"