(The book of empires is coming to an end, and on the question of whether to write about the First World War, Speechless has also considered it, but in the case of completing the layout of the First World War, that is, the Sino-German, Russian-Austrian alliance, the outcome of the First World War is almost no suspense, there is really no need to write it, I hope you can understand...... The speechless new book "Iron and Blood Ambition" has been updated synchronously, and every recommendation and collection of your "Iron and Blood Ambition" is extremely precious! It's not easy to get a new book, so please support it, thank you! "Iron and Blood" Novel Group: 150536833, welcome book friends to join and discuss the plot together! PS: This recommendation is for new books! Don't make a mistake! ）

"Looking back, to this day, when we look back on history, we are always amazed by the determination and courage of that generation, what kind of courage sustained them? What kind of will made them make that decision?

Let's go back to the ninth year of the empire, when the second "Five-Year Industrial Plan" was underway, and under the policy of "economic control", the national economy appeared to be unprecedentedly "prosperous", but its own economy and industrial strength were still far inferior to those of the United States. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 At this time, the United States has emigrated to the world's largest industrial power for more than 20 years, and the comprehensive national strength of the United States is much higher than that of China. Here's a simple example of a set of data:

The U.S. national income is seven times that of China

The U.S. produces three times as much steel as China

The U.S. produces twice as much coal as China

The tonnage of merchant ships in the United States is four times that of China

The U.S. industrial output is 17 times that of China

……

It can be said that the United States is ahead of China in all aspects, and in this almost extreme contrast, anyone can clearly see the absolute disparity in national strength.

We should look at another list, and maybe we will understand why people in that era made such choices.

The Industrial Revolution, which began in Britain in 1770, developed greatly in Europe and the United States by the end of the 19th century. These advanced countries, in order to gain access to markets and raw materials for their products, invade untapped Asia:

(1) The Dutch invasion of Indonesia from 1596 to 1757.

(ii) the British invasion of Bombay in India in 1661, Calcutta in 1686, Australia in 1770, Malaysia and Singapore in 1824, colonizing the entire Indian Empire from 1858 to 1877, and Burma in 1886;

(iii) the French invasion of Indochina from 1857 to 1885;

(iv) Russia invaded the Philippines in 1898 and gradually made it a colony;

(5) to China, through the Opium War between Britain and the Manchus in 1840, the Manchu government ceded Hong Kong to the British; In 1887, Macau was ceded to Portugal......

In the twentieth century, when the empire was founded, the danger from the West hung over the heads of the empire and even the whole of Asia like the sword of Damocles, and for the people of the time, they needed to think more about survival!

As the sentence in the play "Hamlet" "To live or to perish, this is a question worth pondering!" ”……”

"Choice"

The Admiralty building, where one seems to have been able to feel the changing atmosphere for some time -- since two months ago, according to the order of the Admiralty, all officers and men of the Imperial Navy have ended their leave at once, and although there has been no order to go into combat readiness, all officers and men have been required to be put on standby.

It was from that time that the atmosphere at the naval bases suddenly became tense, and in response to this, the shipyards were asked to speed up the construction of warships.

War will break out tomorrow!

In the Imperial Army and Navy, this is a message from His Majesty, which must be remembered by every officer and soldier of the Army and Navy, and this instruction is printed on the military ID card, reminding them at all times that war can break out at any time, and peace can end at any time.

Just as now - the clouds of war are gathering in the sky, and no one knows when war will break out, and no one knows when peace will come to an abrupt end. But everyone knows that at this time, it is just the calm before the storm.

“……”

In the war room under the Admiralty, at the joint meeting held by the Admiralty and the Navy General Staff Headquarters, Han Che, as the Minister of the Navy, only listened to the chief of staff and the staff officer with half-closed eyes, and what they said was very simple, nothing more than that. It's just a war plan against the United States.

War against the United States!

As a matter of fact, when the United States began to form the "Great White Fleet," the Navy began to formulate a combat plan against the United States, and the "Pacific Naval Exercises" that began in the fourth year of the empire were actually a series of exercises conducted with the United States as an imaginary enemy.

It is precisely because of this that Han Che can say the core content of the battle plan when he closes his eyes, and it is precisely because of this that he seems a little distracted, or absent-minded, not that he, the Minister of the Navy, does not care about the battle plan, but because he knows what the biggest loophole in this plan is.

It is not the comparison of the strength of the navy, but the strength of the navy, the imperial navy still has an advantage, thanks to the fact that the navy seized the first-mover advantage of the "warring ship" under the proposition of His Majesty, from the design of the "warring ship" to the 15-inch cannon of the Weiqing-class giant ship, the imperial navy has the first-mover advantage in tonnage and firepower, which ensures the absolute superiority of the navy over the US Navy in the Pacific Ocean in the next one to two years.

But so what?

As the Minister of the Navy, Han Che had studied in the United States, and in fact, 65% of the senior generals in the Imperial Navy had the experience of studying in the United States, and because of this, no one knew the United States better than them, and understood the strength of the country on the other side of the Pacific Ocean.

To fight a war with the United States, go and count the chimneys of the United States!

Han Che thought of Akiyama Shinyuki's words, although he had retired from the navy due to physical reasons, but he was concerned about the situation in the outside world, and when he realized that the current contradictions between China and the United States had intensified to the extreme, and there was a great possibility of war at any time, Akiyama immediately left the temple of Jiuhua Mountain and spent the whole night with him at Han Che's home.

“…… U.S. steel production is 28.51 million tons, and how much do we have? Now, seeing that the weak skeleton of the empire has finally grown so many muscles, many people are arrogant and don't know why, they think that we have the ability to challenge the United States, and even the world, but they obviously ignore that the absolute national strength gap between the two countries is ......."

Absolute national strength gap!

This is what Han Che is worried about.

How can you not be worried?

Closing his eyes, Han Che did not continue to compare the gap in national strength between China and the United States, but thought about how to make up for this gap in national strength, which is the problem that needs to be solved now, otherwise, China will not be able to win the war at all.

What to do?

"Your Majesty, after 20 years of military establishment, the current empire has certainly made some achievements, especially the navy seized the technological changes of the navy to seize the first-mover advantage, so that the navy military strength reached the peak state, and had a 15% relative advantage over the United States, but considering the national strength of the United States, we believe that if the United States catches up with all its might, it will be able to recover this advantage in 24 months at the latest, that is to say, if we cannot use the existing forces to quickly eliminate the opponent, then after entering the war of attrition, we will definitely lose......"

In the trail of the Imperial Garden, Han Che, who followed His Majesty step by step, told a fact in a calm tone.

"yes!"

Nodding silently, Tang Haoran did not deny this fact, and now he found that he seemed to have become another "Hirohito", and when he started a war against the United States, the absolute disparity in national strength made his whole person a little troubled and lost.

In another time and space, the lessons of Japan's war against the United States seem to be vivid, and Japan's challenge to the United States is like a joke to many people in later generations, yes, how is it not a joke? How ridiculous is it that a weak baby would challenge a giant?

And now, what about the contrast between China and the United States?

It is not much stronger than Japan in another time and space, and perhaps the United States in 1911 was far less powerful than decades later, but it still holds the position of the world's largest industrial power.

After mankind entered the industrial age, war was not so much a competition of generals' strategy, but a competition of national strength, the strength of the country can make mediocre generals become famous generals, and the weakness of national strength can also make famous generals hate Waterloo.

Now, with the intensification of the contradictions between China and the United States, war is on the verge of breaking out, and the corresponding problem has arisen again -- the difference in national strength cannot be avoided.

They are not willing to go to war with China!

How ridiculous the initial judgment was!

Thinking of this, a trace of worry flashed between Tang Haoran's eyebrows, what should I do now?

Is it just to wait for war to break out?

How should the absolute gap in national strength be bridged?

"Han Che, if I'm not mistaken, you're resolutely opposed to going to war, aren't you?"

Suddenly, after being silent for a long time, Tang Haoran looked at Han Che and asked.

If there is a compromise now, is there any chance of salvaging?

"Your Majesty, that's ...... once"

Although he was unwilling to face it, Han Che finally chose to face reality.

However, we must see that after the "Torreon tragedy", the contradictions between China and the United States have become white-hot, and now the US Congress has approved a large-scale expansion of its army and navy, and according to the calculation of the war potential of the United States, if we cannot take advantage of the current slight advantage, then the fastest 24 months, the slowest 36 months later, With the world's largest industrial base and economic base, the United States will surpass our country in terms of army and navy strength, and in six years' time, it will leave our country far behind, and then we will have to face a practical problem......"

After a moment of silence, Han Che bowed slightly.

"We need to consider homeland defense on the Pacific defense chain, although we have a defense chain from Kamchatka to the Philippines, but this defense ring is fragile, and once the United States breaks through, the problem of homeland defense will be in front of us, which will undoubtedly be extremely disadvantageous, so ......"

As the Minister of the Navy, Han Che once opposed a war against the United States, but when the problem was inevitable, he changed from an anti-war faction to a main war faction, and the reason why he fought the main war was because of his understanding of the strength of the United States.

"The most advantageous choice for us now is to take advantage of the fact that the United States is still insufficient and our strength is in an advantageous position, to concentrate our forces and strive to completely disintegrate its maritime power in the Pacific Ocean through one or several decisive fleet battles, and directly threaten its west coast......

Han Che told His Majesty about the plan of the navy, and the navy could be said to be full of confidence in this plan, after all, the navy had fought naval battles in the distance.

"Operation Less Retraction is to deal with the main forces of the U.S. Pacific Fleet on the west coast at the outset of the war as a last resort. Whether or not we can win this battle will determine the fate of our army in all future battles. The idea of the Navy was that, at the beginning of the war, a direct attack on Panama! ”

"Panama?"

Tang Haoran looked at Han Che in surprise.

"Yes, Your Majesty, the U.S. Navy knows that its strength is slightly inferior to ours, and limited by capacity, we cannot have enough strength to attack the U.S. mainland, after all, we only have 4.34 million tons of merchant ships, in this case, there is no possibility at all to ensure that millions of troops fight on the U.S. mainland, and there are certain difficulties in maintaining operations in the South Seas, therefore, the U.S. side knows very well that they only need to guard the ports and ensure the presence of the fleet on the west coast, which is a victory, two years later, The U.S. military will not seek a decisive battle at sea until it surpasses us, and we must find a way to pull the U.S. Pacific Fleet out of the fortress from the very beginning, that is, Panama! ”

"The Navy's strategy is to attack the place where it must be saved?"

Tang Haoran immediately understood the idea of the navy, which was to lure the snake out of the hole.

"Yes, Your Majesty, now that the main project of Panama has been completed, and its Gatun Lake is in the stage of impoundment, once the impoundment is completed, the U.S. Navy warships can enter the Pacific Ocean through the canal without detouring through Cape Rennes, so the Panama Canal can be said to be the lifeblood of the U.S. two-ocean fleet, if we send Marines to seize the Panama Canal, then even if we know that the danger is extremely great, the U.S. Navy can only send a fleet to block the support and escort of our troops to the Panamanian landing force, so that its plan to defend itself will come to naught......"

Although Han Che did not explain further, Tang Haoran realized a problem from his words, the Panama landing force is a decoy to a certain extent, this decoy is not only not a third-rate force, but will be the elite unit of the Marine Corps and the Army, their goal is not to seize the canal, but to let the United States send their fleet to carry out a long-distance landing operation in the Americas tens of thousands of kilometers away, the logistics test will undoubtedly be unprecedented, and it may even be because the strategic goal of the Navy is the American fleet, could lead to another outcome - hundreds of thousands of elites trapped in the rainforests of Panama......

Perhaps, this is a success and ten thousand bones are dry!

"It's a lot of sacrifice......"

His Majesty's exclamation made Han Che bow deeply and said.

"Originally, the goal of this operation was to annihilate or severely damage the US Pacific Fleet, and as for the Panama Canal, it was a secondary target, and if it could not be captured, it could be blown up and blown up, but in any case, we must let the Americans see our determination...... Therefore, the navy will do everything possible to ensure the initial operation of 200,000 land troops, and as for the future ......" (to be continued. )