Emperor Song solemnly and silently flipped through the latest national situation summary, especially in the detailed table of military expenditure, he still looked very carefully, the empire's current production capacity of tanks, aircraft, etc. has reached the highest peak since 1937, with the suspension of the construction of aircraft carriers, more military spending flows to the air force and the army, especially the air force, the new turbojet fighter is being produced frantically, and the seven larger aircraft factories in China have received large-scale orders.

Even though the J-6M series fighters produced at this stage belong to a simplified version, the production process has been greatly reduced, and the quality is not as good as the J-6A/B model of the previous conventional sequence, it still maintains the absolute suppression authority over the Axis air force.

On the basis of the J-6, the Imperial Air Force restarted a previous high-altitude and high-speed model that had not been put into actual production, and put it into production with the number of the J-606 fighter to make up for certain shortcomings of the J-6 fighter in terms of high-speed surname.

In fact, it cannot be regarded as a defect, but the J-6 fighter itself did not reach the highest level of turbojet fighters at high altitude and high speed in terms of aerodynamic design out of more comprehensive considerations.

The situation in China should be said to be not bad.

Song Biao spent more than ten minutes looking through the summary of the national situation in early September, and it was at this time that Lieutenant General Chen Jiayou, the chief of the Inner Court, personally sent a front-line reply.

This is exactly what Emperor Song Biao was waiting for, and the call from Commander-in-Chief Zhao Tingzhu came back.

He opened the telegram book and looked at it, and the answer was very simple, easy to understand, and it was not unexpected by him, he returned the telegram book to Chen Jiayou without much expression, and then he asked Jiang Gu and the others: "Do you have a clear conclusion about declaring war on the Axis powers?" ”

Gu Weijun replied: "Recently, a unified propaganda campaign on anti-Nazi and fascism has been arranged, but judging from the current polls, the majority of the people are still skeptical about declaring war on Germany. Judging from the preparation of military spending, it is still not the right time to start a war against Germany, but the military expansion of the German army is obviously faster than we expected, and the development process of the German nuclear weapons program is still unclear. ”

Speaking of this, Gu Weijun did not continue to answer, nor did he express a clear attitude, but just gave a mock answer, more than just waiting to see the emperor's specific opinions before making a new reply.

Jiang Fangzhen didn't have too many doubts, and replied simply: "The minister thinks that there must be a war at present, and if he waits any longer, I am afraid that there will be more variables and it is unknown." ”

Emperor Song Biao was no longer noncommittal about this as before, and nodded: "Then declare war on Italy, the empire and France have been allies for many years, and shoulder the mission of maintaining world stability, and can not condone the Italian fascists to invade Africa, formally signed an alliance agreement with Free France, sent troops to fight in North Africa, protect the interests of the empire, and curb the expansion of fascism." The Northwest Front, on the other hand, was not in a hurry to start a war, and continued to increase the scale of troop deployment, and if the German army took the initiative to attack, it would notify the whole country and formally launch an all-out counterattack against the German army. ”

His answer is no longer acceptable to the Cabinet for any kind of mediation, and this is the final word.

The good news is that starting from North Africa first, taking the opportunity to occupy North Africa and Egypt, and controlling the Suez Canal and the Red Sea is also the long-cherished wish of the empire for many years.

Britain and France do not really want China to intervene in North Africa and the Mediterranean at this stage, but without the Reich sending troops, it is impossible to defeat Germany with their strength, and without the support of the Reich, they will all be destroyed and eventually ruled by Nazi Germany.

The lesser of the two powers, Britain and France could only accept the conditions of the empire and actively implore the empire to send troops to declare war.

This is a great historical opportunity that should never be missed.

Gu Weijun naturally understands the truth, some historical opportunities are indeed fleeting.

He had nothing to say, but to obey His Majesty the Emperor together with Jiang Fangzhen, Chief of General Staff.

Emperor Song Biao continued: "The central political axe and the party must strengthen propaganda, unify the thinking of the people, speed up the allocation of resources, introduce wartime policies, and the military and political power will also be temporarily taken over by the Central National Defense Commission." Either we will not participate in the war, or if we want to participate in the war, we must firmly seize this historical opportunity, fight a real world hegemon in the first war, and stand tall at the top of the world from now on, without any controversy. The attitude of the Reich must be resolute, the Reich must be the world's largest power, and Nazi Germany will never be allowed to challenge the authority and interests of the Reich, the North African theater needs to be quickly decided, quickly expel Italy from the whole of North Africa, concentrate naval forces into the Mediterranean, annihilate the main force of the Italian navy, include Spain in the alliance camp, send troops from Spain against Germany, and ensure that Spain does not fall, and lay the foundation for a counteroffensive against Germany. ”

Jiang Fangzhen said: "I am afraid that the battlefield in southwest Europe will fall into a bitter battle, our army currently has four group armies in Spain have been deployed, plus the strength of West France, the total army is close to 3 million, 23,000 tanks and armored vehicles, 18,000 artillery, and the air force has more than 7,000 fighters, which can fight with the German army for about half a year. ”

Emperor Song Biao thought for a while and said: "Leave this problem to Liu Gengyun to consider, first clean up North Africa, the speed should be fast, the momentum of thunder, stabilize the entire North Africa in one fell swoop, and then consider concentrating troops to hold the Iberian Peninsula." Once the Germans take the initiative to attack, they will strengthen a full-scale offensive in the northwest, and now they must accelerate the expansion of their military superiority in the northwest and force the Germans to move their main forces to Eastern Europe. In addition, Britain could be consulted to send troops into the Iberian Peninsula to open up a battlefield on the European continent. After the surrender of France, the British Army has not been engaged in a large-scale war, and it is expected that millions of troops can be deployed to intervene in the southern European theater, which will greatly alleviate the situation in Spain. ”

Gu Weijun said: "Now I don't know if Spain is sure to participate in the war!" ”

Emperor Song Biao replied very calmly: "The answer to this matter is only four words, coercion and temptation. There is always a benefit to going to war, and whatever benefit he wants, give him what he wants. ”

Gu Weijun thought about it, and could roughly guess the benefits that the Spanish political axe needed, and he could basically agree, so he said: "I will immediately summon the Spanish ambassador, and at the same time send a ministerial-level envoy to Spain to negotiate directly, and strive to win over Spain to join the war as soon as possible." ”

Emperor Song Biao snorted and continued to emphasize: "Since this war has begun, it must have the full support of the people, and the Central National Defense Commission must set up a special organ to be responsible for the declaration of war and united front work, and must ensure that all the people can unify their thinking and resolutely win this war. ”

Gu Weijun and Jiang Fangzhen were both overjoyed, and both replied: "This is the best policy." ”

If the Emperor of the Song Dynasty is willing to come forward to call on the people to participate in the war, it is definitely the best united front strategy, the emperor enjoys a very high authority and reputation in the country, as long as the emperor is willing to speak clearly, all kinds of poll crises are not a problem at all, conscription, unified adjustment and military debt raising will no longer be any problem, everything is just a word from the emperor, it depends on whether the Emperor Song is willing to come out and express his position.

It is a matter of national honor and disgrace, and Emperor Song did not fail to come forward to settle everything.

On the morning of that day, Emperor Song Biao discussed with the prime minister and chief of the general staff about the "hadith" and the issue of speeding up military deployment and raising military funds; within this week, it was necessary to speed up all kinds of deployments and domestic public opinion propaganda and guidance, and strive to make a public declaration of war on September 20, formally start a large-scale war of annihilation in North Africa, expel the Italian army from North Africa, and take this opportunity to establish the "Horn of North Africa" in Ethiopia, Egypt, and Libya, and lay the foundation for the empire's overall interests in Africa.

The modern army is nothing more than two combat systems, one is artillery and infantry coordination, and the other is frank and infantry coordination.

In the empire's large-scale mechanized military system, artillery and infantry coordination is still one of the main parts, especially in the case of large-scale military expansion, the large-scale production of artillery and trucks is much faster than tanks, and the group army dominated by artillery infantry usually only needs to allocate 3 to 5 tank regiments to effectively tear apart the enemy's defense line and launch a large-scale army position attack.

To confront the German Panzer Army Group with such a military system is tantamount to hitting a stone with an egg, and it cannot be regarded as the strongest strength of the Imperial Army system, but with light armored infantry and towed artillery as the main body of coordinated operations, with the support of motorized infantry, air force and part of the main battle tank group, it is more than enough to deal with the Italian army and the North African battlefield.

With such an establishment, four to five army groups plus the British and French colonial forces would be able to effectively control the whole of Africa, and the actual scale of investment would be much smaller than that of the main armored army group.

In this war, military spending must be a very huge challenge, even the Reich has to use military spending fully and effectively and reasonably, but in the main duel with the German army, it is impossible to save money.

The Central Military Department has already formulated a relatively appropriate military plan for these problems.

On the morning of that day, Emperor Song Biao and Chief of General Staff Jiang Fangzhen roughly established the entire plan, striving to control the total military expenditure of the entire war at a scale of 35 billion yuan, and end the war within two and a half years and within 30 months.

After all, this is a world war, and with the total number of soldiers approaching 15 million, it is indeed a question whether the military expenditure of 35 billion yuan can be sufficient.

In the past year and a half, the central cabinet has been trying to find a way to raise military spending, and the state treasury currently has a fiscal surplus of 13 billion won that can be directly used for military spending, including part of the proceeds from the sale of central state assets, and in the next three years, the annual fiscal allocation can be maintained at about 7 billion yuan, which is basically barely enough to cover the military expenditure of this war.

In addition to the sale of war bonds, it is best to strive to raise 40 billion yuan in military spending, and to refund more and make up for less, because there is another very important issue to be considered, that is, the Central Military Department will continue to maintain financial support for other allies, and the central bank will also buy a large number of British and French government bonds.

All the expenditures add up, the total military expenditure during the entire war period is likely to be an astronomical amount, which is not the same as the war itself, don't look at the third Sino-Chinese war lasted for two years, the actual total expenditure is actually not large, and a large part of these expenditures are equipment costs, which can basically be used in this war against Germany.

Because this was likely to be an astronomical amount, the Reich pressed Britain and France to repay these expenses after the war.

The empire still has to keep a hand, if after the end of the war, the United States takes the opportunity to use the gold dollar offensive to sweep Europe, the empire also has to find a way to exclude the United States, at least on the basis of the United States to implement the same lend-lease terms and loan support to Britain and France, after the war is over, it will also give the United States some benefits, and draw the United States to continue to suppress Europe, and the dominant power must be in the hands of the empire.

After the end of the war, it would be better for the empire to ensure that 10 billion yuan of money is retained for the European reconstruction program, so as to prevent the United States from taking the lead in the process and allowing the United States to seize control of the European economy for no reason.

Jiang Fangzhen went back to deal with military affairs at noon, Emperor Song Biao left Premier Gu Weijun behind, and summoned Chancellor of Finance Chen Jin to the palace to discuss the post-war order and financial hegemony in advance.

Therefore, this matter must be prepared with both hands, ending the war as soon as possible, controlling a large amount of national debt and fiscal reserves, and preserving as much as possible the financial and industrial suppression of the United States by the empire.

In other words, the best course of action is to use nuclear weapons, and the sooner the better.

After Emperor Song Biao's clear statement, there was no room for maneuver in the matter of the Empire's formal declaration of war on Italy, and the Prime Minister of the Central Cabinet had the right to directly sign the war decree, and once the Prime Minister signed this order and approved it by Emperor Song, there was no need to consult the Diet.

Premier Gu Weijun can no longer maintain the previous vague strategy, can only forcefully come forward to the parliament to reply, asking for a formal declaration of war on Italy, now there is no need to seek the approval of the parliament, but the follow-up still needs the support of the parliament, so the unification of domestic thinking has become a very important topic, and all kinds of propaganda and public opinion guidance work has also been launched on a large scale.

In the face of this situation, the ambassadors of Germany and Poland urgently came forward to negotiate with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, hoping that the empire can continue to maintain the original position of not participating in the war, under the current situation, China, the United States, Spain, Brazil, Iran, Turkey and other countries did not participate in the war, and all countries in this country actually have a bias, the United States because of the issue of arms sales, relatively maintain a balance between the allies and the Axis countries, Sweden out of self-preservation factors, is also slightly biased towards the Axis countries, Turkey is obviously biased towards the Axis countries, in addition to China and the United States, The others are relatively less affected countries, and they are not significant.

If the United States suddenly enters the war, no matter which side it joins, it will directly lead to a huge turning point in the battlefield, but the United States still has much less influence than China.

To be precise, China's strength and influence are basically equal to those of Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Poland and other countries combined.

Once China formally enters the war, the entire Asian League will be involved, and other important Chinese partners in the world, such as Brazil and Chile in South America, Spain in Europe, and Ethiopia in Africa, may be directly involved in the war, and even the entire South America will join the war.

It's a very scary thing.

Nazi Germany did plan to challenge the hegemony of the Chinese Empire in the world and establish the hegemony of the Germanic people, but this was a very long-term plan, and it was impossible to achieve this goal in ten years.

Of course, it is indeed impossible for the Chinese Empire to give Nazi Germany this time cycle and opportunity.

The United States can sit on the sidelines and wait for Germany to challenge the new historical opportunity brought to it by China, but China absolutely cannot wait.

After Gu Weijun made a policy speech in the Diet and expressed a clear intention to enter the war, Germany and Poland immediately sent ambassadors to urgently start negotiations, hoping to continue to prevent China from entering the war through diplomatic mediation, because once China entered the war, the current strength of the Axis powers was likely to be unbearable.

Despite the misery of the British Empire, it still has strong backing such as Canada, Australia, and South Africa, and it still maintains a suzerainty and colonial relationship with India.

The British Empire still has the largest number of colonies in the world and a huge reserve of war resources, while China is the leader of the entire Asian League, with population, resources and industrial power comparable to the whole of Europe, as well as the world's most powerful financial and technological power.

As long as China formally enters the war, Britain will definitely accompany China to fight to the end, and if it really starts a long-term war of attrition with China and Britain, Germany may not be able to withstand it.

Let's talk about it.

It should be talked about or discussed.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs still sent the deputy foreign minister to negotiate with Germany and Poland, and the price was very high: first, Germany must completely withdraw from France and recognize the free French political axe; Second, the Axis powers must completely withdraw from Africa; Third, the Axis powers must withdraw from Russia.

France was the most important industrial base outside of Nazi Germany itself, and Russia was the resource base and industrial base of Nazi Germany.

By September 18, although the empire had not yet formally declared war, the two armies stationed in Ethiopia had already been stationed in Egypt, the air force had begun a large-scale attack on the Italian troops stationed in Libya, and the combined fleet of the Central Naval Air Force departed from the ports of Aden and North Malaysia and detoured through South Africa into the Atlantic.

The first stop of the Imperial Navy was the Congo, and after the occupation of the Congo, the whole fleet would be stationed in the Portuguese port of Lisbon after Portugal was sure to be drawn into the camp of the Central Powers, and then enter the Mediterranean Sea to destroy the Italian Navy in one fell swoop.

A big circle was made for two things, one was to occupy the Congo base in West Africa, and the other was to use military strength to force Spain and Portugal to completely fall into the Allied camp.

The curtain has begun on the offensive of the Imperial Army, and a new era is about to dawn.

(To be continued)