Ever since it was learned that military spending would begin to be lowered in the second half of the year, and that it would even be lowered to less than 30 percent of fiscal expenditure by next year, the military side could not sit still for a moment.

In these years, everyone knows that money is the way to fight a war and expand the army, and if there is no money, it will not be able to purchase enough ordnance and ammunition, and it will not be able to pay the salaries of the soldiers.

In this regard, the high command has convened several emergency internal meetings in succession to discuss how to deal with this emergency.

The convening of an emergency meeting for several days in a row can be said to be a thing that has never happened before for the Chinese military, and it was not done during the war with the British and French forces last year, which shows that the drastic reduction in military spending has greatly alarmed the generals of the military, and the degree of panic is even more serious than the loss of tens of thousands of people in the lost battle at the front.

"It has been found out clearly that the proposal to reduce military spending was put forward by Lai Changying of the Ministry of Industry and Commerce and Jiang Daoquan of the Ministry of Education, and the group of corrupt officials in the cabinet all supported this proposal, and they submitted this proposal to His Majesty at the cabinet meeting five days ago, and finally forced His Majesty to approve their proposal." Han Xiangfang of the Ordnance Department said: "If this plan is really implemented, then next year, our military spending will be directly reduced by more than the average, and it will cause great obstacles to our army expansion and subsequent military operations at that time!" ”

"Damn, they all deserve to die, these people actually stabbed them in the back when hundreds of thousands of our soldiers were fighting bloodily, this kind of thing is absolutely intolerable, intolerable!" Lin Dabiao, the chief of the Navy Department on the side, showed anger on his face, and this expression was eager to swallow those officials in the cabinet.

You must know that his navy has just submitted a three-year expansion plan for the Imperial Navy, trying to ensure that the two thousand-ton class and a number of gunboats of the existing plan are launched into service. Strive to build and enter service more than three warships of more than 3,000 tons, more than five cruisers and more offshore gunboats in service in the next three years. The number of steam-powered warships in the navy, including ocean-going warships, river gunboats, and offshore gunboats, will be expanded to more than 100.

At the same time, there are plans for large-scale coastal fort renovation and naval port construction and expansion, and it is intended to continue to expand the main base in Shanghai. New naval ports were built in Lushun and Qingdao in the north, Guangzhou in the south, Zhoushan in Zhejiang, and Taipei in Taiwan.

In these plans, it was necessary to build ships, expand ships, and build new naval ports, and to build repair shops, ammunition depots, and coastal defense batteries in the ports, all of which cost a lot of money.

Originally, the navy belonged to the category of the little brother in the military, and only when the total military expenditure was more could the navy be able to share enough military expenditure to support the navy's development plan, if the military expenditure dropped significantly, the navy would not be able to share a few dollars at that time.

"It's useless to talk about this now, let's come up with a plan, we can't let that group of people in the cabinet mess around and ruin the current good situation!" Shi Qingxuan, who was sitting above, also frowned and said: "Your Majesty has not left our excerpts in the past two days, obviously there is an article to do here, and we will work harder when we go back." Continue to fold, and then everyone will split up and talk to the group of people in the cabinet to see what the constitution is on the cabinet side, whether it really intends to send our imperial navy and army to the grave or has another plan, these must be tried! ”

As the person with the highest prestige in the military at present, Shi Qingxuan has no choice at this time, he must lead the generals of the military to resolutely oppose this military spending reduction proposal, even if it is not a pity to completely turn the other cheek with the cabinet because of this, otherwise it will seriously damage his prestige in the military. Many senior generals will have serious doubts about his ability to serve as chief of the Joint Staff.

It is important to know that in the command system of the contemporary Chinese army, the Joint Staff Department is the most important department among all the departments of the General Command, and it is not an exaggeration to say that it is the head of all departments of the General Command.

Although the specific role of the Joint Staff in the early days was not large, it only assumed the role of part of Lin Zhe's military advisers. However, as the scale of the Chinese army became larger and larger, it became more and more difficult for Lin Zhe to directly control the troops under his command, and the size of the Chinese army swelled to the scale of hundreds of thousands now. The issue of the command of the whole army has become a systemic issue, and it cannot be something that Lin Zhe or someone else can decide alone.

And in this case. The chief of the Joint Staff has gradually changed from the role of military steward and Lin Zhe's mouthpiece to the real person in charge of the operational command of the whole army.

This is also the reason why the person who serves as the chief of the joint staff of the Chinese army is more senior than the other. At first, it was just Shi Langyi, but Shi Langyi was in the stage of refrigeration than Lin Zhe, and the position of chief of the joint staff at that time was just a housekeeper.

Later, Chen Yuntao, who was then the commander of the Third Army, was transferred to the post of chief of the Joint Staff, although he was also a military commander when he was transferred, but in the huge Chinese Army, he was still a small character, not to mention his power and prestige, not to mention that he was on a par with Shi Qingxuan and Xu Yanqing and others, and was not even as good as Han Xiangfang, the chief of the Ordnance Department. At that time, although the Joint Staff Department had already begun to take over the actual combat command of the whole army, it was not until the later period of Chen Yuntao's tenure that it could be regarded as taking over the command of the Navy and Army in an initial and comprehensive manner, making the Joint Staff a real combat command organization of the Navy and Army.

By the time Shi Qingxuan took over the post of chief of the Joint Staff, the Joint Staff Department had grown into the largest department of the General Headquarters, which was in charge of and responsible for naval and army operations, exercises, intelligence, training, and strategy.

At present, the ministry consists of the Military Affairs Department, the Army Operations Division, the Naval Operations Division, the Cavalry Division, the Artillery Division, the Strategy Division, and the Intelligence Division.

The two most important divisions, the Army Operations Division and the Naval Operations Division, are responsible for all operational planning of the Navy and Army.

What is more interesting is that the officers serving in the Joint Staff Department are not limited to the army, but are all naval and army generals; for example, the Navy Operations Department is naturally dominated by naval officers, and the Cavalry Division, Artillery Division, and Army Operations Division are mainly composed of Army officers, but the Strategy Department, Intelligence Department, and other organizations basically have Shanghai Army officers.

Today, when the Joint Staff is becoming more and more important, the chief of the Joint Staff has already vaguely shown signs of being the first person in the Navy and Army.

But the more outsiders attach importance to you and rely on you, the heavier the pressure on you, and this is the case with Shi Qingxuan now, he is facing the expectations of many generals below, and at the same time facing the pressure of Lin Zhe, and he also has to fight on behalf of the military and the civilian officials on the cabinet side.

Early the next morning, in order to get a clear message from the cabinet, Shi Qingxuan personally invited Premier Bi Yutong to dinner, but although Bi Yutong was a little afraid of Shi Qingxuan's power, he was the prime minister of the cabinet, and he was also the main person in charge of promoting the reduction of military spending, so I didn't know what Shi Qingxuan was looking for him to do.

Looking at this Shi Qingxuan, his eyes were about to eat him alive, so he hurriedly refused.

However, Shi Qingxuan was not so easy to dismiss, just waved his hand, and the few officers he brought with him formed a human wall to block Bi Yutong's way, and then he stepped forward and said: "It's still so early, why are you in such a hurry, let's go have a drink together, our brothers haven't drunk together for some time!" ”

What are you kidding, except for formal occasions such as state banquets, when have I ever drunk with you Shi Qingxuan!

The relationship between the civil and military groups of the empire and the military generals was not very close at the beginning, and in addition, Lin Zhe deliberately created contradictions between civil and military officials in order to prevent the union of military dignitaries under his command, create some unnecessary troubles for himself, and shake the foundation of his rule.

At the same time, the war has been fought year after year, and military spending has increased year by year, which has seriously reduced the funds of various cabinet ministries, with the result that most civilian officials in the cabinet have no good impression of the military, believing that they are just a group of people who are clamoring for military spending every day.

Moreover, Lin Zhe has awarded noble titles to so many generals, but there are only two viscounts on the civilian side, which undoubtedly increases the envy and jealousy of the civilian officials for the military generals.

The civilian cabinet officials, including Bi Yutong, have long been looking forward to ending the war, and then slashing military spending to suppress the military, which is too popular.

The relationship between the civil and military is not very harmonious, so in the past few years, it is almost rare to see any military generals and civilian officials talking freely.

But looking at Shi Qingxuan's appearance now, it is estimated that it is not easy to get out today, of course, it is impossible to drink, he and Shi Qingxuan are not good enough to talk about things while drinking and eating.

Immediately, he took two steps sideways, then pointed to an office next to him and said, "Okay, I only have a quarter of an hour now, and I still have to go to the saint later!" ”

Shi Qingxuan nodded, and then walked into the conference room next to him with Bi Yutong, and the subordinates of these two people naturally consciously did not follow up.

After Shi Qingxuan came in, he didn't waste even a second of time, and he didn't say half a word of nonsense, but he got straight to the point: "I want to know, why did the cabinet do this?" What good will it do you to cut military spending and shake the foundations of the empire? ”

"The benefits? And much more! In the face of Shi Qingxuan's questioning, Bi Yutong did not show weakness at all, although Shi Qingxuan is a military boss, and his title is two levels higher than him, but he Bi Yutong is the prime minister of the cabinet, a veritable first civilian official, and his power is not much weaker than Shi Qingxuan.

"As long as 1 million military expenses are released, then the Ministry of Education can build two institutions of higher learning, and as long as 5 million military expenditures are released, the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry will be able to improve the construction of water conservancy projects in Anhui and Jiangxi and other places, and restore grain production in these areas; as long as 10 million military expenditures can be released, the Ministry of Industry and Commerce will be sure to expand the scale of the existing Dangtu Industrial Zone by more than three times, and as long as 50 million military expenditures are released, our cabinet will be sure to build a new Shanghai!" When Bi Yutong said this, he put down the document in his hand, pointed to the document on the table and said, "What is the purpose of cutting military spending?" That's all for it! (To be continued.) )