When the news of Admiral Itagaki Seishiro's capture was transmitted back to the empire, Emperor Song Biao was on vacation in Lushan, and it was still the National Assembly that presided over the Lushan Conference, and the new speaker of the National Assembly at this time was Wang Zhaoming.

There are always a lot of interesting things about history.

Wang Zhaoming is actually the speaker of the Imperial Assembly and the chairman of the Liberation Party, which is really a bit of a dramatic surname.

Wang Zhaoming, who did not become a Han anniversary, is almost perfect in his life resume, although this is not what Emperor Song Biao thinks is gratifying, but in terms of actual national interests, Wang Zhaoming's appointment as speaker of the National Assembly is also expected, and Gu Weijun has won the election of his third prime minister.

During his time at the Lushan Summer Palace, Emperor Song Biao personally participated in a number of seminars on education, social institutions, business, science and technology, politics, international relations, religion, and many other topics that cared him to him.

His primary focus was on education and technology, which were the foundation of the empire's continued growth and strength.

The 20th Lushan Conference in 1940 is of great significance to China's long-term development, perhaps many years later, when people recall this conference, they will still think more of the launch of China's space and space system research project, the "World Science and Technology Outlook for the Next 20 Years", and the "popularization of higher education" proposed by Mei Yiqi, but in fact, the 20th Lushan Conference in 1940 represents more Chinese's self-confidence and beautiful expectations for the future, as well as the determination to make every effort to achieve this.

The night is getting deeper.

The silent study burns with wonderful, calming sandalwood.

Emperor Song Biao carefully studied the "World Science and Technology Outlook for the Next 20 Years" jointly compiled by more than 40 academicians of the Central Academy of Sciences in the imperial study, which made a relatively comprehensive forecast for the development of more than 20 fields in the next 20 years, such as aerospace, metallurgy, electromechanical automation, computer and electronic communications, shipbuilding, electrical engineering, agriculture, food, transportation, medicine, and medicine.

Before the Chinese Academy of Sciences tried to write this report, President Wu Xunzhi had asked Emperor Song Biao for his suggestions, and the emperor also gave his own opinions, in Emperor Song Biao's estimates, he believed that the most influential scientific and technological progress for China in the next 20 years should be in the fields of jet airliners, semiconductors and microprocessors, microcomputers and programs, program control and wireless communications, numerical control and heavy machine tools, nuclear power systems, high-speed railways, aerospace engineering and satellites. A comprehensive assessment and forecast of future scientific and technological developments is carried out on the basis of the requirements of the military department.

After Emperor Song Biao read this report, he felt that most of the predictions were very good, and a few predictions seemed a little strange, after thinking about it, he picked up the phone and dialed the switchboard, ready to connect the phone in Wu Xunzhi's room, and asked Wu Xunzhi to come and talk to him.

At this moment, Jiang Shoulin, the first-class internal officer, hurriedly walked in, bowed and saluted, and then handed over a telegram from the Central Military Department, and said, "Your Majesty, the Central Military Intelligence Department is in an emergency. ”

Emperor Song Biao didn't care too much, it is estimated that the Ministry of Military Intelligence has collected new information in the book, so he opened it and took a look, but the result surprised him.

It turned out that this telegram had nothing to do with the original text, but that the Central Military Intelligence Department sent a letter that Britain had a new military operation on the southwestern frontier of the empire, which might threaten the security of the empire in the southwest.

This is a very surprising thing, and of course there is a reason for it.

The Empire had always been at odds with Britain on the Southwestern Frontier over southern Tibet, and the British Empire certainly would not make concessions easily because China was strong, and as Churchill said, it did not want to get anything from the British Empire without going to war.

The Empire's control over the region was still weak, but the British Empire was not much stronger.

The empire has always been ruthless enough, after taking the Savage Mountains in northern Burma with both soft and hard measures, it invested a lot of money and manpower to build a railway from Xikang Province to the Wild Mountains area, so that the empire has two railways that can enter Burma, and in the barren primeval forests of the wild mountains, the empire arranged for the patrol army to be stationed in the name of the Wild Mountain Construction Corps, and continued to forcibly build the railway into the Assam region.

The Assam region was dominated by the Shan, that is, a branch of the Dai people, and it was with this as a rocker that the empire infiltrated the Indian state of Assam and sent Dai officers to organize the local reading army.

The Empire's ultimate goal is, of course, to plan the Assam state to be out or incorporated into the empire's territory, and the Central Military Intelligence Department is the implementer of this plan, and in the past ten years, the empire has supported nearly 40 million yuan in military spending in the Assam region, not only organizing the Shan ethnic armed forces, but also sending troops to set up a military reclamation bureau on the Assam border beyond the disputed areas of the two sides.

A territorial dispute is when you want to occupy someone else's land.

As long as it is always a simple matter to cause controversy, it is too easy for the empire to want to use railways and roads to connect southern Tibet, and it is much easier to bypass Xikang and Yunnan provinces to build railways and roads to the Assam region.

Therefore, after the empire built railways and highways to the Assam region, taking advantage of the favorable conditions of the British Empire's small garrison in the local area, it continued to advance layer by layer through the name of the Fourth Bureau of the Southwest Military Reclamation Bureau and the Yeshan Construction Corps, advancing more than ten kilometers every year, and controlling the land in the military system by clearing wasteland.

The British Empire's attitude towards this was very tough, constantly asking the Empire to restrain a little, but it was also unwilling to send more troops to confront it, the British always thought that the Empire would gradually stabilize, or just the adventurous policy of the lower army, as the territory occupied by the Third Bureau of the Southwest Military Reclamation Bureau expanded to Dingsugiya, crossing the border between the two sides by nearly 110 kilometers, the British finally could not bear it.

Seeing that the main military forces of the Chinese Empire had shifted to the northwest and northeast, and the main forces were more than several thousand kilometers away from the southwest, the British Empire could not wait to send two armored brigades into the Assam region.

The response of the Central Military Intelligence Department was extremely fast, and the two armored brigades of the British army confirmed this information as soon as they arrived in Chittagong, and immediately sent a telegram to the emperor, while in Yanjing, the chief of the general staff, Jiang Fangzhen, was also communicating with Prime Minister Gu Weijun.

It is true that the Empire provoked the matter first, but the Empire has no intention of backing down at all, even if the previous negotiations with the Soviet Union have essentially broken down, the war with the United States is still going on, and there is a new dispute with the United States over the question of suzerainty over Guam, the Empire will not abandon its policy of expansion in the southwest.

If there is no war, the empire will occupy as much as it can in the southwest, and once the war starts, the empire will definitely not penetrate and expand a few kilometers forward every year.

At present, the intelligence department has obtained very limited information, and it is not yet certain what Britain's real plan is, and no one can say whether Britain wants to take the opportunity to regain control of Assam, or whether it will only make some military deployments with the surname of alert to restrict China's continued infiltration and expansion.

It is precisely for this reason that Emperor Song Biao was not willing to make a rash decision.

After receiving this urgent telegram from the Military Intelligence Department, he weighed it a little and gave the Military Intelligence Department and the General Staff a reply at the same time, asking the Military Intelligence Department to continue to strengthen intelligence work and confirm the true intentions of the British side as soon as possible, and at the same time asking the General Staff to dispatch troops from the Kunming Military Region to increase the defense of Yeshan, and make all preparations to strengthen the reserve of war materials, so that in the event of a small-scale military conflict, the Imperial Wehrmacht must fight a quick battle and destroy the British army with a thunderous blow.

If the empire wants to start a war with the British army in the southwest, it is still more difficult, but in this way, it is to launch a war from Afghanistan to attack India, and the empire can sweep thousands of troops and directly take India.

If Britain had not been afraid of this, I am afraid that it would have fought back militarily against the empire a long time ago.

To really fight a large-scale decisive battle of the army, the four Britains together are not one China's opponent.

After Jiang Shoulin called back to the Ministry of Military Affairs and the Ministry of Military Intelligence, Song Biao continued to ponder this matter in the imperial study, and the fact is obvious, in the long run, the biggest competitors to the empire are the United States, the Soviet Union, and Germany, but at this stage, the most conflicting interests with the empire are Britain and the capital.

In the event of a military provocation by Britain, the situation may be more favorable to the Reich if it can effectively take advantage of the gap between the Soviet-German war and take the opportunity to inflict a severe blow on Britain.

Song Biao originally intended to attend the entire 20th Lushan Conference in Lushan, but the military emergency in the southwest forced him to take a special plane back to Yanjing the next day.

After returning to Yanjing, Song Biao did not return to the Central Palace, but went directly to the Central Military Headquarters by car.

The full name of the Central Military Department is the "General Staff of the Central National Defense Forces of the Chinese Empire", which consists of the general staff departments of various armies, and at the level of military institutions, the General Staff is at the same level as the General Political Department, the General Logistics Department, the General Armament Department, and the Central Military Intelligence Department, but in actual operation and work, the General Staff is responsible for assisting the Central National Defense Military Commission in leading the other three general departments and the Central Military Intelligence Department, and the chief of the General Staff is the vice chairman of the Military Commission second only to the Supreme Military Commander of the Emperor, and in essence he is also the first deputy commander of the imperial armed forces. It has a higher status than the Minister of Defence, who is usually only a member of the National Defence Council, not a chairman or vice-chairman......

After arriving at the Central Military Headquarters, Song Biao went straight to the minister's conference room of the General Staff Headquarters, and Jiang Fangzhen and Zhang Jun, director of the Military Intelligence Department, who had gone to the airport to pick up the plane in advance, also accompanied him all the way.

In the minister's conference room, all the national defense commissioners had already arrived, except for Prime Minister Gu Weijun, the rest were senior military generals, and everyone saluted the emperor together.

Chen Houfu, minister of national defense, Chen Jiliang, chief of staff of the Navy, Chen Qicai, chief of logistics, Cai Yi, commander-in-chief of the strategic forces and commander of the Central Military Region, Fu Liangzuo, chief of staff of the army, Pan Zhaoqin, chief of staff of the Air Force, and Zhang Xiaohuai, chief of political chief and president of the Central Military Academy, were all present.

Emperor Song Biao didn't say much, as soon as he sat down in the position of chairman of the general committee, he asked Jiang Fangzhen: "The director of the Southwest Military Reclamation Bureau is Zhang Zhixiu, right?" ”

Jiang Fangzhen nodded.

Hearing these words, Song Biao was much more relieved.

When Zhang Zhixiu's ability was very outstanding, when he was transferred from the chief instructor of the 3rd Infantry Division of the Central Military Region to the Southwest Military Reclamation Bureau, many people still thought that this was a big talent and a little use, but now we can see how long-term it is a long-term layout of the Central Military Department.

The Southwest Military Reclamation Bureau was originally located in Lijiang, then adjusted to Diqing, and finally moved the main force of the entire Southwest Military Reclamation Bureau to Assam and the Yeshan area in northern Myanmar in the name of the Third Bureau.

Song Biao took off his gloves and put them aside, handed over the saber he was carrying to Jiang Shoulin behind him for safekeeping, and continued to instruct Jiang Fangzhen: "Tell me about the situation over there?" ”

"Yes!"

Jiang Fangzhen replied, opened the information book prepared in advance, picked out the key parts and replied: "The current jurisdiction of the Southwest Military Reclamation Bureau is about 24,000 square kilometers, the total number of people in the jurisdiction is about 11,500 households, and there are 14 patrol detachments under its jurisdiction, which are equivalent to a reinforced brigade, the main body is mainly mountain troops, and there is a patrol aviation detachment in this region, with 32 J-3 fighters and 4 J-502 reconnaissance planes. In fact, the patrol aviation detachment is under the jurisdiction of the Operational Staff of the South-Western Military District. ”

Song Biao thought silently for a moment, and said to the others: "The matter of Britain's increase of troops in the southwest is not yet a priority, but I don't think Britain will do this kind of thing at such a moment for no reason, more or less there is a plan, our response must be accurate, there must be sufficient countermeasures, but we cannot further stimulate the deterioration of the situation." Therefore, I believe that it is a better choice to send the National Defense Forces to Yeshan for training in mountain combat exercises, and to speed up the stockpiling of war materials at the same time in Yeshan and the Southwest Military Reclamation Bureau, and to immediately send two divisions to the station as soon as the situation deteriorates. ”

Jiang Fangzhen and the others nodded silently.

The British Empire was not a small country to bully, and the empire had always adopted an active policy of gradual expansion in northern Burma, southern Tibet, and the areas west of the Hengduan Mountains, emphasizing less sovereignty arguments and more emphasis on the scope of actual control.

Sooner or later, this aggressive expansionist policy would oppress Britain's bottom line, and a small war between the two sides was highly likely, if not a large-scale war.

Minister of National Defense Chen Houfu asked Emperor Song Biao: "Your Majesty, do you want to send a member of the National Defense Council to the southwest to prevent an emergency?" ”

Song Biao nodded in agreement, and then asked Zhang Xiaohuai, "Can you go?" ”

Zhang Xiaohuai was a little surprised, he originally thought that the emperor would send Liu Jinggui over, because Liu Jinggui had served as the commander of the Kunming Military Region and was familiar with the local situation, and the focus of his work over the years had always been at the Central Military Academy.

He did not refuse the emperor's proposal, and replied: "Your Majesty's order, how can you not go?" ”

Song Biao pondered for a moment.

Fu Zuoyi's matter made Emperor Song Biao have a new understanding in his heart, he did not doubt the ability of this group of new generals and lieutenant generals, but it turned out that experienced veterans are still more reliable in many cases, especially for war.

Although Liu Jinggui also participated in World War I, he was only a major at that time, and the gap between Zhang Xiaohuai and Zhang Xiaohuai's role as the commander of a group army in the Sino-Soviet War is still obvious.

Ability is one thing, mind is one thing, and experience is a more important aspect.

Song Biao pondered for a while, and sighed with Zhang Xiaohuai and others: "Our goal in the southwest is still relatively large, and it may be a matter of time before a fierce military confrontation breaks out with Britain. Now there are two questions, the first question is what we want to do, whether to take the opportunity to fight a war to gain more territory, and the second question is how should we fight once China and Britain go to war? Both of these issues are a bit premature to consider in terms of the current situation, but the military has always been like this, and it is better to think further than to be unprepared and always prepare for the worst. ”

Could it be that Britain sent two armored brigades to the southwest border of China, and China was so frightened that the wise and martial Song Biaohuang ** wanted to return to the capital to hold a regular meeting of the National Defense Committee after his vacation?

Of course not.

The reason for this is nothing more than two reasons: first, the empire is a thief, the empire is a real troublemaker in the territorial disputes on the southwest border, Britain has made many concessions before and after the First World War, so that the empire in the southwest frontier steadily advanced about 300 kilometers, even so, the empire still continues to take the initiative to create new disputes step by step to continue to advance; Second, the empire could not ask for it.

At this time, the Chinese Empire was not afraid to provoke the British Empire, but was afraid that the British Empire would adopt a defensive policy of calming things down, and if Britain wanted to expand the incident into a war between the two countries, China really could not ask for it.

For China, the probability of losing is very low, and if it wins, it will take the opportunity to occupy the southwestern Assam region, continue to expand the actual occupation and control area to the Bay of Bengal region, and at the same time completely remove the British Empire from the throne, first dismantling the British Empire, and then India, so that the empire has no enemies in the southwest, West Asia, and Indochina that are strong enough to challenge the empire.

If the Empire were to engage the British Navy in the Indian Ocean, the Empire would actually be sure to win, provided that the Empire first stabilized its defensive operations at sea, attacked from Central Asia to the land, used its military strength and mechanization superiority to eliminate the British military bases in India, and then used the air force to cooperate with the navy, Britain would bid farewell to the Indian Ocean completely.

In addition, the Empire's navy, land, and air forces are all in a state of high readiness, and their military strength is at the peak of the Empire's history, and not only does the navy occupy a certain advantage over Britain, but the army and air force maintain an absolute superiority over Britain several times.

If Britain strikes back, the empire can't ask for it, and it is afraid that Britain will not fight back.

Taking advantage of the fact that the situation has been basically settled now, and there has been no direct military conflict with the Soviet Union and Germany, it is of course the best thing to take advantage of the opportunity of this year or so to attack Britain and annihilate the main British naval force in the Indian Ocean, and to take the opportunity to support the decolonization of Burma and India in the name of the Asian League and to overthrow the rule of the British Empire.

Although Britain is arrogant, they obviously know that China is not only not afraid of a military conflict with Britain, but even cannot ask for it.

At the regular meeting of the National Defense Commission, Emperor Song Biao communicated with all the National Defense Commissioners, and the internal opinions were still very unanimous, and if Britain wanted to provoke a small-scale military operation during this time period, it would take the opportunity to expand the situation.

If Britain stops provoking, it will also take the opportunity to expand its control over Assam and northern Burma, and the main naval force will move south, threatening Malaya and Singapore, and luring the British navy to Southeast Asia to fight the empire.

Either you don't do anything, or if you want to do it, you can do big things.

Maybe the British think that they have put up with China for a long time, but in fact, why hasn't China put up with Britain for a long time?

Emperor Song Biao held a brief and direct meeting of the National Defense Committee for half an hour, and asked Zhang Xiaohuai to go to Kunming to supervise the army, and be responsible for coordinating the Central Military Department, the Kunming Military Region, and the Southwest Military Reclamation Bureau to make preparations for fighting the British; the navy sent four aircraft carriers and their formations from the Central Air Combined Fleet to the port of Bandar Seri Begawan in the south, and the air force sent the main force from the northeast to the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau, Sichuan, and Xikang.

The empire has maintained the division of Xikang Province, on the one hand, to control Tibet separately, and on the other hand, because the conditions of Xikang Province are relatively suitable for the establishment of a modern economy, which can be used as an air base to threaten the entire southwest Asian region.

In addition, the empire's main military power in Southwest Asia was concentrated in the Yeshan region, which was established in 1937 with the Kachin Autonomous Prefecture, which not only clashed with the Kachin State in Burma, but also continued to advance into the Kachin State.

Judging from the past two decades, as well as the long-term future, China and the UK are indeed in a situation of ups and downs in Southwest Asia.

In order to deal with the situation that Britain sent two armored brigades to station, Emperor Song Biao also began to ask the Central Military Department to send two mountain divisions and one light armored brigade to Kachin Province and the Yeshan Construction Corps, and gave a warning to the British army.

From this point of view, it was a wise idea for the British to do everything possible to obstruct the construction of the Kunming-Burma Railway, but the British were ultimately unable to restrain it, and by now the Empire has basically built a number of railways and roads to the Kachin region, and the construction of local military facilities has been perfected, and the conditions for large-scale operations in the region have been completed.

After the meeting of the National Defense Committee, Song Biao left Chen Houfu, minister of national defense, and Chen Jiliang, chief of staff of the Navy, to ask them about the situation in the navy alone.

Song Biao only asked one question, that is, what were the chances of victory or defeat in a decisive battle between the Imperial Navy and the British Navy.

Faced with this simple and direct question, Chen Houfu was silent for a moment, and then replied to Emperor Song Biao: "Your Majesty, the minister thinks that if there is a decisive battle with the British Navy at present, if the decisive battle is fought in the South Sea, the battle can be won, and if the decisive battle is fought in the Indian Ocean, there is a probability of six or seven percent, in other words, as long as you do not go to Europe, you will win the decisive battle with the main force of the British Navy in Asia. Presumably, the British Navy is well aware of this, but if the British Navy thinks very highly of itself and risks sending its main forces to the Indian Ocean to confront our Navy, it will not miss the opportunity and immediately fight a decisive battle to destroy the main force of the British Navy. If the British navy had sent only a small number of its navy, although it had been very proud of itself, it would not have to tear up its face with the British. ”

Song Biao bowed slightly, he also had a similar judgment, but he needed to confirm it from Admiral Chen Houfu......

He sighed with Chen Houfu and Chen Jiliang, and said: "The Sino-British war can be avoided in principle, but it is better to fight a decisive battle, and once the British Navy will be removed from the throne altar, otherwise, we will have to confront Britain for a long time in South and West Asia." After a long war, it is inevitable to die, but the necessary war is also the cornerstone of the empire's domination of the world, and after preparing for so long, it is time to completely push Britain off the throne, since ancient times, the old and new hegemons must have a war after all. ”

Chen Houfu had studied in the British Navy for a long time and knew Britain well, and as a naval admiral of this era, he and others were envious of the past glory of the British Imperial Navy, and they yearned for it.

Now that he finally realized that the glory of the British Empire's naval overlord was actually ending in his own hands, Chen Houfu couldn't help but feel a lot of emotion.

Chen Houfu and Chen Jiliang, two of the two imperial navies, together with Emperor Song Biao, analyzed the strength comparison between the Chinese and British navies, and the imperial navy was able to close the gap between the Chinese and British navies in the early days thanks to the "Washington Naval Treaty", after the treaty, the overall strength of the imperial navy was about half of the British Imperial Navy, and in the development of aircraft carriers, the imperial navy was on a par with Britain.

To this day, the total size of the Imperial Navy in battleships is still only half that of the British Empire, but the Imperial Navy has 12 capital aircraft carriers and 10 escort carriers, while the British Navy has only 7 aircraft carriers in total, of which 4 are old models from the treaty era, and only 3 have been newly built in the last five years.

With the outbreak of the Sino-Chinese naval war, the British Navy, which realized the arrival of the aircraft carrier era and the end of the battleship era, immediately began to adjust its naval plan.

As the J-602 carrier-based aircraft engineering and the development of the steam catapult are nearing completion, the Empire's third-generation large aircraft carrier program with a displacement of 75,000 tons has also entered the final stage of research and development.

Before the successful development of a new generation of large aircraft carriers, the Empire will not build new aircraft carriers for the time being, the current number of aircraft carriers is sufficient, and the continued expansion will also put a very big pressure on the Navy's military spending, even so, it is very difficult for Britain to surpass the Imperial Navy, and it is not possible to achieve it in a short time.

Britain's naval military spending is about 40% less than China's, but the British Navy's annual expenditure on battleship maintenance is very staggering.

For the British Imperial Navy, which has the largest battleship group in the world, they are in a very awkward situation, unless Britain drastically reduces the number of existing battleships, the current military scale of the British Navy is not enough to support an aircraft carrier group of unprecedented size like the Chinese Navy.

In addition, the British Navy also has to train a large number of carrier-based aircraft pilots, have better carrier-based aircraft, and put them into production in large quantities, and these tasks themselves can only be developed after long-term implementation, and even if the British Navy turns to it at all costs, it will be difficult to compete with the Chinese Navy's aircraft carrier formation.

These five years were the best moment for the decisive battle between the Chinese and British navies.

Chen Houfu made his thoughts very clear, he was not so willing to see the decline of Britain in his heart, but for the dream of the Imperial Navy to dominate the world from now on, he preferred to start a large-scale decisive battle with the British Navy, and in the past five years, the British Navy was pushed off the throne.

Chen Jiliang, chief of staff of the Navy, did not have any objection to Chen Houfu's analysis and inference, and in fact, the two of them had discussed this matter many times in private, and they also agreed on this viewpoint.

Emperor Song Biao was not in a hurry to make a statement, he also wanted to find this opportunity, the key is that the British Navy is not stupid, the other side will not do this, and the empire is not suitable for an aggressive position, if it takes two to three years to gradually intensify the contradictions, it will also be difficult, because in two or three years, the empire is likely to be carrying out a final attack on Nazi Germany.

The current embarrassment of the Reich is that it does not want Nazi Germany to expand to the point where it can challenge the Reich, and at the same time, it wants to squeeze Britain out of its sphere of influence in Asia, and these two strategic objectives are difficult to achieve at the same time.

(To be continued)