The success of the Seoul Offensive was built on the sustained efforts of the twelve-year-long Great Mechanization Revolution that built the empire.

The defeat of the army was not because the officers and men at the lower levels were not brave, but because of the rigidity and conservatism of the upper ranks, as well as their self-righteousness, and their bizarre methods of believing that they could break the armored forces by relying on individual means and the bravery of the soldiers, which basically proved to be of no practical value in the war.

The Imperial Army launched a general attack at 7 a.m., and at 3 p.m. it had already broken the entire defense line of the Japanese army in Seoul, and the Combined Naval Air Fleet also sank the two Kongo-class battleships that had been hiding in the port of Incheon and could not break through - the Kongo was sunk by a low-altitude torpedo, and the Kirishima had run aground in repeated breakouts, and was finally blown up by the Japanese army itself in the battle.

Two days later, the Northeast Defense Force, with the combined advance of the Air Force attack aircraft group and the army's steel torrent, attacked all the way to Cheongju, North Korea.

On January 25, 1940, the Northeast Defense Forces captured Naju and Haemam-gun, Korea, and successfully fulfilled the strategic task of connecting with the Jeju defense line in the south.

In the eyes of all the Chinese people, this war will officially end, and the century-long grievances between China and China will also be completely concluded, and the revenge of the First Sino-Japanese War, the revenge of the Russo-Russian War, the revenge of the Lushun Massacre, and the revenge of the army for killing 8,000 Chinese in Tokyo after the Kwantung earthquake have also been avenged.

Even Fu Liangzuo, deputy chief of the general staff, who had always believed that the combat strength of the Yue army should not be underestimated, declared that the war was about to end, and that there was no other way but to surrender, and the Central Military Department and the cabinet mostly judged this, but the emperor still concluded that the most difficult moment of the Zhongyue War had not come.

After the end of the Seoul Offensive, the Northeast Defense Force rested on the Korean Peninsula in accordance with the operational plan, carried out a larger-scale light mechanization transformation, and prepared for the subsequent capture of the entire Korean Peninsula and the invasion of the homeland, the focus of the Sino-Japanese War shifted from the north to the south, and the navy and marines continued to attack along the Ryukyu Islands to the mainland of the Ryukyu Islands with the support of the army and air force, and in the Pacific theater, the Imperial Defense Forces also launched a large-scale offensive, planning to occupy all the colonies of the Japanese army in the Pacific and overseas before June 1940.

After the end of the Seoul offensive, the forces seeking peace talks in the country surged, and the newly appointed Prime Minister Fumiro Konoe also sent Foreign Minister Hirota Hiroki to Washington, D.C., hoping to persuade the United States to intervene in the Sino-Chinese war and coordinate negotiations between the two countries, and the United States also had great intentions in this regard, because the Sino-Japanese war not only seriously affected the economic interests of the United States in the Pacific region, considering that the navy had been basically eliminated, the United States did not want China to continue to expand its navy on the pretext of war, still less did it want China to completely eliminate the role of the Chinese navy. This allows China to dominate the entire Western Pacific Ocean on its own.

Franklin. President Roosevelt was generally a relatively pro-China president of the United States, and it was during his tenure that he banned the US Chinese Exclusion Act and demanded that Congress apologize to China for the Chinese Exclusion Act, but no attitude or personal inclination can take precedence over the national interests of the United States.

After meeting with Foreign Minister Hiroki Hirota, Franklin. Roosevelt not only personally wrote to the Emperor to persuade China to cease the war, but also sent Vice President John Brown. Ghana visited Yenching as a special envoy to host coordinated negotiations in Manila, Philippines.

…… President Roosevelt's handwritten letter was written by U.S. Vice President John Roosevelt. Ghana was brought to the Central Cabinet and handed over by the Prime Minister of the Central Cabinet, Gu Weijun, and the Emperor himself did not receive John. Ghana.

After the end of the Seoul offensive, China had just entered a stage of all-out counteroffensive from the previous stalemate, and the Central Military Department had a lot of work; since the beginning of the plan to attack the Sanduao naval base, Emperor Song changed his previous practice and handled official business in the office of the Central Palace every day, leading the Central Military Commission to lay out the grand strategy and grand plan for the third Sino-Chinese war.

On the afternoon of that day, he convened a regular meeting of the Central Military Commission to discuss the issue of strategic layout in the next stage with Jiang Fangzhen, Chen Houfu, Fu Liangzuo, Chen Jiliang, Chen Qicai, and others, and also took this opportunity to criticize the optimism that has recently spread among the Central Military Department.

After the meeting, Song Biao left Chen Houfu alone to discuss with him the upcoming Ryukyu Campaign.

The naval and air forces of the country have suffered serious damage, but they still have a relatively large number of submarine forces, and thanks to the technology exchanged and secretly introduced from Germany, the level of these submarines cannot be underestimated; as the army gradually loses the ability to attack frontally and moves into the stage of all-out defense, attacking merchant ships along China's coastal areas with submarines has become the only and limited means of attack.

In order to effectively contain the submarine attack, in addition to sending more submarines to counter the submarine attack, the empire has established a comprehensive submarine reconnaissance network in the surrounding waters and tried its best to block the submarine tactics of the Japanese army.

In the past six months, the Imperial Navy has added 35 anti-submarine destroyers and stepped up reconnaissance of the submarine forces on a large scale, with a total of 1,400 Tiger Shark fighters and other patrol planes, reconnaissance planes, and seaplanes used by the Navy and Air Force to monitor the submarines.

This is not enough to completely stifle the submarine tactics of the Ryekben, and if you want to completely destroy the submarine force of the Rakumben and launch an all-out attack on the mainland of the Ryukyu Islands, you must occupy the Ryukyu Islands.

After the other members of the Standing Committee of the National Defense Committee left, Chen Houfu, as Minister of National Defense and former Chief of Staff of the Navy, stayed behind to report to the emperor on the latest situation of the submarine force and at the same time to submit a new operational planning report.

Everyone was anxious, because the Battle of the Ryukyus had been prepared for half a year, and now everything was ready, but the emperor was slow to approve the battle plan.

In the past two weeks, Chen Houfu personally went into battle, pondered a new plan with Jiang Fangzhen and others, and submitted this plan to the emperor.

His judgment was anxious about three factors: First, although he had a relatively large number of submarine armaments and a good accumulation of submarine technology, he still lacked appropriate submarine combat theories and tactics until now, and his tactical leading thinking was still too chaotic to concentrate his thinking and to produce a concentrated threat; 2. The large number of Imperial ports and the dispersion of shipping routes deprived the submarine forces of effective and concentrated strike ranges; Third, the rapid expansion of the Imperial antisubmarine forces has effectively curbed the space for the activities of the submarine forces in the coastal waters of the Empire, and at the same time, the continental shelf in the coastal waters of the Empire is too wide to be suitable for close ambush operations by submarines.

The average depth of the Bohai Sea and the Yellow Sea was only 18 to 44 meters, and this shallow sea structure was a great constraint on naval operations, and the anti-submarine pressure invested by the empire in the East China Sea and the more dispersed routes in the East China Sea made it extremely difficult for the emperor to carry out submarine ambush operations.

This is the opinion of the experts.

There is no need for Song Biao to be suspicious, and the facts of the past six months have also proved that the initial concern about the submarine force was a bit too serious, and now it seems that the submarine force of the submarine force is not very destructive to China's maritime shipping.

However, Song Biao was still not satisfied with the new Ryukyu battle plan submitted by the Navy Staff and the Joint Staff, but he himself lacked a new idea that was very suitable.

It stands to reason that it is not difficult for the Empire to launch a full-scale attack on the Ryukyu Islands when the Ryukyu Islands are already lacking in the Ryukyu Islands, but the difficulty lies in how to attack more and contain the counterattack.

This requires consideration from two aspects, one is the planning of landing operations, and the other is the planning of occupation tactics after landing.

War is a very meticulous work, it is not simply to send tens of thousands of people with rifles to kill the island, it needs to consider many issues clearly, first of all, to decide the overall tactical plan, whether to attack in a line or leapfrog to attack the key points; The second is to determine the tactics of the landing operation, and what areas of work are for which the navy, air force, and marine units are responsible; In addition, it is necessary to determine new equipment, new tactics, organize the most suitable tactics with the most suitable equipment, and destroy the opponent in the most effective way.

Specifically, in the offensive of the Ryukyu Islands, it is actually necessary to break down into two types of war plans, one is the island landing operation, and the other is the mountain rainforest operation.

For Song Biao, what really made him difficult to choose was how to determine the status of the Ryukyus, in the Korean Peninsula, the empire had long supported the northern free political axe, and with the imperial attack, the North Korean political axe was also regaining lost territory, and the territory of the restored Korean ** Republic was under formal state jurisdiction, and the imperial [***] ministry only needed to maintain contact and cooperation with this North Korean political axe, which could basically ensure the stability of the Korean environment and not fall into the difficult situation of being enemies on all sides and attacking the hinterland of the enemy country.

Although Ben has been working hard to sow discord between China and the DPRK in the past few decades, sow discord between the Chinese and North Korean people, and spread rumors and trouble, judging from the summary at this stage, the North Korean people still generally support the Central [***] team, and have organized the DPRK ** National Defense Force and the Southern Guerrilla Force to cooperate with the Chinese [***] team.

In order to win the absolute support of the DPRK political axe and the people, Premier Gu Weijun has personally visited Pyongyang and signed a new "Sino-DPRK Friendship and Reciprocity Agreement" with Ri Kyung-hoon, president of the DPRK ** Republic, to abolish the colonial privileges and other privileges in the DPRK on his own, and help the DPRK become a political axe of free reading, and the DPRK has officially become an associate member of the Asian Cooperation League.

What about the Ryukyus?

How to re-establish a new Ryukyu Kingdom, or to incorporate Ryukyu into Taiwan Province, or to form a new overseas province, what should be done about the natives and a large number of people in the Ryukyu Islands?

These are all places where Song Biao is difficult to make decisions.

If the Ryukyus were to be incorporated into Taiwan Province, or to establish a new province, it would mean that the islanders themselves were all belligerents, and the imperial armed forces needed to effectively ensure that none of them posed any threat to the army, in short, they would kill all the way to the mainland.

After listening to Chen Houfu's report, Song Biao was silent for a long time.

After thinking about it for more than ten minutes, he proposed to Chen Houfu: "Should we consider directly skipping the Okinawa Oshima Island, giving priority to attacking Amami Island, and cutting off the connection between the Japanese army and the Okinawa garrison?" ”

Chen Houfu thought for a moment and replied, "Such a plan would be more risky. ”

Song Biao replied: "Cut first, and then encircle and annihilate, this has always been our strategy of using troops, and it is appropriate to take risks, as long as the benefits are higher." ”

After a pause, he continued: "The first and most important military thought I learned during the war came from a general in Tsarist Russia, who told me that military affairs always have to take risks. ”

Chen Houfu no longer defended, and knew that he could only design tactical planning according to the emperor's decision, and such a plan was indeed risky, but the emperor's strategy had always had this style and habit of hitting the point.

This is not a simple adventure, but a more clever fight, cutting off the enemy's rear road, cutting off his food and grass as the best move.

Song Biao continued: "First of all, we should not be in a hurry to formulate a plan for the landing operation, let the airborne division troops conduct some new exercises and tests in advance to see if they can carry out the airborne operation on the island at a low altitude and cooperate with the landing operation. ”

Chen Houfu nodded yes, but said: "Your Majesty, if you continue to test this and reformulate a new battle plan, it may be difficult to successfully occupy the Ryukyu Islands before March next year." ”

Song Biao snorted, and ordered disapprovingly: "Then give priority to strengthening operations in the South Pacific region, don't rush to solve the opponent, if you want to clean up the fish more cleanly, the knife should be as fast as possible, and the technique should be more skilled." Time is not a serious issue for us. ”

Chen Houfu nodded again.

At this time, Gu Weijun, the prime minister of the empire, came to meet him.

Song Biao looked at the time, and it was indeed time to meet the prime minister, so he asked Chen Houfu to go back first and continue to discuss the operational plan with the Joint Staff Department and make new adjustments.

After Chen Houfu, the Minister of National Defense, left, Gu Weijun hurriedly walked into the office to meet the emperor.

Song Biao had been sitting in the office for a long time, so he used this time to get up and move, and asked Gu Weijun to accompany him to the West Garden for a walk, and talked about the United States' attempt to mediate and some of the armistice conditions that he was currently proposing.

Yanjing has ushered in the winter of the new year, with heavy snow, the brook garden is covered in silver makeup, and a thin layer of ice has formed on the stream.

Song Biao wore a black cloak and walked with Gu Weijun in the Xiyuan, and the newly appointed first-class guard officer of the inner court, Jiang Shoulin, led two inner court attendants behind.

Jiang Shoulin is a relatively young first-class chamberlain, this is because his father Jiang Zunwei died relatively early, just such a son, has been training and growing up in the army very early, when the Zhejiang Uprising, Jiang Zunwei played a very big role, when he retired was a lieutenant general of the Imperial Army, and then transferred to the governor of Fujian Province, died of illness.

Jiang Shoulin studied at the Central Military Academy, his grades were also very good, considering that Jiang Zunwei was such an heir, after he trained at the grassroots level for two years, Song Biao transferred him to the inner court as an internal officer.

Do the math, it will be seven years until this year, and you can become a first-class internal servant in seven years, and this promotion speed is still very fast.

Song Biao's mood was still relatively heavy, and the great victory on the Korean Peninsula basically laid the general pattern of the third Sino-Chinese war, but in Europe, the situation in which Germany was about to attack the Soviet Union on a large scale was unlikely to be reversed, and if Germany won the Soviet Union, whether it would continue to attack France in turn after that, I am afraid that only Hitler himself could answer.

China is now facing a very difficult choice, and it is relatively difficult to decide whether to end the war ahead of schedule or whether to continue the war and whether to use nuclear weapons or not.

Theoretically, China could have completely sunk the Reichswehr without using nuclear weapons, but after landing on the mainland, the losses suffered by the Imperial Wehrmacht would be even more severe, and it was likely that the Reich would be involved in a seemingly endless catastrophe.

After walking for a while on the bluestone road by the stream, Song Biaocai praised Gu Weijun thoughtfully: "You have done a good job in this term, which is worthy of appreciation, but you still have to continue to work hard." ”

Gu Weijun immediately thanked him and said: "Thank you for the emperor's kindness, and your subordinates will be reluctant." ”

Song Biao bowed slightly.

This year happens to be a general election, but according to the provisions of the imperial constitution, as long as the wartime cabinet is voted by the National Assembly and approved by the emperor, the wartime cabinet is an automatic continuation of the free election, since the Song Emperor is so praised, it means that the emperor will use the special approval authority to allow Gu Weijun's cabinet to be re-elected.

Gu Weijun can definitely understand this.

Song Biao and Gu Weijun continued to discuss: "Although today's military spending is still high, and the economy and finance are not as prosperous as in the previous two years, the expenditure on education and scientific research is still absolutely irreducible. In the next Cabinet, you should have a more long-term macro plan, which is to ensure that the total expenditure of the empire on education accounts for 12 per cent of the gross national product, that the total expenditure on public education accounts for 5 per cent of the total expenditure of the whole country, that 12 years of compulsory education is guaranteed throughout the country, that secondary and specialized education is free and half of the cost of higher education, and that scholarships, grants, and student loans for higher education are universalized. In terms of scientific research expenditure, the country's total expenditure in the field of scientific research should account for more than 4% of the gross national product, we can simply call it the 1254 plan, you have to lay this foundation, form a basic political axe fiscal expenditure principle to carry out for a long time, for this reason, other areas of expenditure can be appropriately contracted, for example, we in the central government and political axes at all levels of the infrastructure expenditure can be appropriately reduced. With the change of the structure of the political axe, the political axe should change from the direction of the big political axe to the small political axe, reduce the number of personnel, and reduce the cost of administrative expenses. ”

Gu Weijun has been listening quietly, he knows that the emperor will not often negotiate administrative work with him, but as long as he speaks, it must be some opinions after careful consideration.

After serving as prime minister for six years, Gu Weijun at this time is no longer the newly appointed prime minister, at this time he has gradually become an experienced politician, enjoying a high political reputation in the international world and at home.

At home, his popularity is extremely high.

The position of prime minister also requires deep qualifications and connections, of course, the qualifications and connections are too deep, so that the lack of restraint is a bad thing, at this time Gu Weijun is in the best moment, both deep qualifications and connections to ensure that he can perform his duties as prime minister normally, maintain the normal operation of the imperial cabinet and political axe institutions, and promote the progress and development of the empire, but also not like Tang Shaoyi back then, he is not qualified and capable to challenge the emperor's authority in the country.

This is also the prestige accumulated over the years.

A person who has been a prime minister for ten years is obviously different from a person who has just become a prime minister, and after being an emperor for 30 years, it is naturally completely different from when he first became an emperor.

It is said to accumulate over time.

Emperor Song has become more and more the center and core of the empire's stability, and his existence is enough to make the entire empire incomparably stable and thick, like a whole 19.6 million square kilometers of giant steel plates that are as heavy and difficult to shake.

After working as prime minister for one term, Gu Weijun has become more and more mature at this time, and he has more in-depth thinking and his own understanding of the country and the nation, the international situation and various internal problems in the country.

While accompanying the Emperor on his walk in the Creek Garden, he had been pondering various questions about the future of China at this stage.

After the emperor proposed the new 1254 plan, Gu Weijun pondered for a moment before replying: "What the emperor thinks about is the great cause of benefiting all the people. The empire's economic growth and development over the past decade has been largely due to infrastructure investments, and I always wonder if there will be more constraints to such progress and development, including the depletion of resources. There is no doubt that, as the Emperor has said, we should increase our investment in education and scientific research, and permanently guarantee the Empire's insurmountable superiority over the other world powers in these two respects. If China wants to truly surpass the world and become a central country above the top level in the world, it should have first-class education that is proud of all countries in the world, and at the same time, it must also have first-class scientific research that is proud of all countries in the world. There is always an end to infrastructure, but there is no end to our education and research. ”

Song Biao agreed with him and said, "What you said is very right. ”

The two of them just walked to the Guanshan Pavilion on the edge of the Creek Garden, this pavilion is built on the slope of the rockery, surrounded by a heavy tempered glass screen as the wall, which is a good place to watch the panorama of the Creek Garden in spring, autumn, winter and summer.

The time happened to be 3 o'clock in the afternoon, and the inner court prepared a box of salt shortbread for the emperor and the prime minister in the Guanshan Pavilion, a whole plate of nuts and dried peanuts and almond lotus seeds, and the two sat down in the Guanshan Pavilion, boiled a pot of butter tea, and talked while drinking.

The education of the Chinese Empire is certainly very good, even compared with Britain and the United States, there are many advantages, and in the past thirty years, the speed of development is also very fast, and the education of the Empire is very characteristic in the world.

Compared with Britain and the United States, there are three big differences in the education of the empire, one is that the proportion of traditional education is larger, the empire does not have such a subject as language, but sets up a separate course of Chinese studies, Britain and the United States are covered in foreign language courses, and other foreign countries are elective subjects. Second, the vocational education system is more important, the empire in the normal six-year primary school, three-year secondary education on the basis of the continued addition of three-year vocational education and high school education, the twelve years of education for the national compulsory education, in the country every year high school graduates, the proportion of secondary college education accounted for about 50%, after the graduation of secondary college can be directly promoted to other junior colleges according to academic performance, the state subsidizes half of the tuition expenses; The third is the perfect combination of the lifelong education system and the vocational education system.

In the empire, vocational education and Chengren vocational education are part of the political axe expenditure, all levels of political axe have to spend budgets every year to support vocational education, each county basically has a higher vocational and technical college, to provide workers with on-the-job, full-time education and other education, half of the education expenditure is still provided by the political axe.

Under normal circumstances, if a high school student joins the workforce after graduation and decides to participate in higher education after working for a few years, he can still participate in school education, and before he officially graduates, he can enjoy a 25% tuition subsidy, and after graduation, he will receive another 25% subsidy.

In addition, all the expenses for social and vocational skills training and education in the empire will also be maintained by political axes and social institutions to ensure and train more excellent technical application talents, as well as more professional engineers and technicians.

This is the biggest difference between imperial education and Europe and the United States, so the proportion of the total expenditure on education of the imperial political axe is much higher than that of Britain and the United States, and the proportion of vocational education funds in the total annual education expenditure of the imperial central government and all levels of political axe is more than 1/2.

This means that if the United States spends 6% of its GDP budget on education every year, China will spend 12% of its annual budget to maintain the same development of quality education and vocational education, and it is precisely because of this special surname in the education of the empire that in the past 30 years, the empire has been able to train the world's largest number of outstanding skilled workers and engineers so quickly, and the empire's industry and imperial manufacturing can quickly surpass Britain and the United States at a magical speed and occupy the leading position in the world's manufacturing industry.

Emperor Song was the earliest promoter of this national policy, and he always believed that education was the best social welfare for the people.

In this regard, Premier Gu Weijun is the most powerful supporter and executor of the emperor's idea, and it is during his term of office that the development of vocational education in the empire has made greater progress than in the past, and the investment in the field of vocational education has also increased significantly.

The war was going on, and the whole of China was running for this third Sino-Chinese war, and the country's railway system was at full capacity at high speed, rail, air, and sea transportation were busier than in previous years, and the military mobilization of the empire was more intensive.

At such a moment, Emperor Song and Premier Gu Weijun were more concerned about the future development of the empire.

Be prepared for danger in times of peace. China has reached a new stage of development, and it needs more drastic new changes to ensure that the empire continues to develop rapidly, and the investment-led economic growth of the past is difficult to sustain, which forces the empire to pay more attention to education and technology, and to maintain the empire's growth through more good development.

After 30 years of development, the Empire has clearly led the world in specialized education, and in the next few decades, and even in the next 50 years, as long as the Empire maintains its current policy and dominant direction, the Empire will maintain its position as the world's industrial hegemon for a long time.

It's just that the empire also needs to invest more energy in research and education to further expand the cultivation of research talents, even though the empire has been the world's largest country in the field of scientific research in the past decade, most of the empire's scientific research talents have graduated overseas and returned from studying in Britain, the United States, France and Germany, which is not a long-term solution.

Premier Song Biao and Premier Gu Weijun talked for a long time that afternoon, and both of them had a consensus, that is, on the basis of maintaining the existing leading direction of specialized applied education, we should further strengthen the development of research-oriented education and comprehensive universities as much as possible, and cultivate more world-class universities.

After discussing for a period of time, the two decided to organize social non-profit organizations to launch the top 100 comprehensive universities in China and the top 100 colleges in China, the two lists are tied, as the two first-class institutions supported by the state, allowing colleges and universities to launch four-year elite education, cultivating world-class engineering experts and technical experts in the manufacturing industry, and setting up special degrees such as special bachelor's degrees, which are different from other countries in the world. Promote the common progress of applied education and research-based education in secondary and higher vocational schools in the empire.

In the evaluation and assessment of engineering titles, the application process, the effect of higher college and bachelor's education is equal, there is no difference between three-year junior college and four-year undergraduate in terms of treatment, and the same treatment must be guaranteed from the political axe institution to the employing unit.

In the general direction, the empire still encourages higher vocational education, maintains the empire's strong position in the field of industrial manufacturing, as a kind of adjustment policy, the admission of graduate and doctoral students is more inclined to research bachelor's education, expand the number of master's and doctoral degree education and enrollment nationwide, increase the number of teachers and treatment, and invest more research funds and projects in first-class research universities.

The two had been talking for several hours, and after discussing this series of questions, Gu Weijun saw that it was not early, so he had to get up and leave.

At this time, Gu Weijun asked the emperor separately: "Your Majesty, can you meet with the American envoy and the German envoy at the right time?" ”

Hearing this, Song Biao roughly thought about it before saying: "Since they have already come, it's not good not to see them, but there is nothing to talk about. ”

Gu Weijun nodded silently, he actually meant the same thing.

As for the American envoys, the emperor saw or did not see the same, and the emperor's attitude was already obvious, so he did not intend to cease war with the emperor at all, unless the emperor system was terminated and the unconditional surrender of other terms was accepted.

As for the German envoy, the emperor negotiated with him for too long, and he was afraid that he would leave a handle for the international community and the Soviet Union.

The Chinese Emperor is the supreme and supreme symbol of the Chinese Empire, and it represents the highest honor and image of the entire Chinese Empire, so it is necessary for the Central Cabinet and the Military Department to maintain the holy and immaculate image of the Chinese Emperor, and there is no need to have anything to do with the Chinese Emperor.

If Emperor Song had personally come forward to negotiate directly with the US envoy and directly rejected the US request for mediation, or had put forward clear and unacceptable conditions, it would certainly have made the world feel that China and the Emperor were too arrogant, and would have imperceptibly blamed the Emperor for the war crimes.

This was a situation that was unlikely to be accepted by the Reich Central Cabinet and the Military Department.

It is precisely because it represents the highest absolute authority of the empire that it is even more infallible. (To be continued)