After the New Year, Australia's singing and dancing are in peace. After the Lantern Festival of the 15th day of the first lunar month, factories and mining enterprises quickly returned to the busy production rhythm of the Heat.

In the new year, the situation of war in Europe suddenly became tense, and various orders flew over like snowflakes.

The unprecedented Battle of Verdun broke out on the Western Front of Europe. The wars broke out in the Eastern Front, and the wars broke out in southern Europe, the Balkans, the Near East and North Africa lasted until the Eurasian and African continents. The scale and intensity were far beyond the previous two years of the war, revealing the boundless slaughter of the year of the decisive battle.

Tens of millions of people are involved in frequent wars, without production, and the amount of materials consumed every day is astronomical, greedily swallowing Europe's huge wealth.

Local Australian

This year marks the 40th anniversary of the Imperial Australia. The cabinet has planned a series of grand celebrations since the beginning of the year, warming up the September ceremony, folk essays, poems, songs, specialties, buildings, handicrafts and engineering for the celebrations, etc., many things have already been intensively exploring.

Although Li Fushou himself did not want to do it, he could not withstand the rounds of persuasion and advice from the ministers. If he did not do that, he would put the ministers in a situation where they were unfaithful, unfilial, unkind and unrighteous, and had no king or father. Is it a way for the king and father?

Li Fushou could not resist the ministers, so he could only let them do it.

But there are three rules in advance;

First, do not force the levy, and raise funds to increase the burden on the people. Second, do not take large projects or large projects, and stop at the right time. Third, the main purpose is to focus on national joy and happiness. Do not mobilize the people's strength excessively and spend money.

As the richest royal family in the world, the Ocean Empire's royal family has a wealth of more than 10 billion Jinyang. Its royal funds, family funds, growth funds, many banks and other institutions invested by enterprises all over the world, and its property rights are countless, forming a huge commercial and financial empire.

With the royal wealth, what kind of treasure can be seen?

All we need is just a little thought of the subjects. A song, an article, a long-distance race with tens of thousands of people participating, a blessing, and a thank you are enough!

Daming Palace

Unlike the stable and peaceful prosperity situation in society, the atmosphere in the Dongji Palace is solemn. Prime Minister Zhang Li, Finance Minister Tang Zhaoyi, Foreign Minister Li Sixian, Army Minister Marshal Li Shuanzhu, Navy Minister General Zhu Qingxi and other important officials in the cabinet are all here. Today is a routine two weekly imperial meetings.

Everyone didn't speak, they just waited quietly for the emperor to inquire.

Li Fushou was holding two letters in his hand and watching, one was written by British Prime Minister Herbert Asquis, and the other was written by French Prime Minister George Crimson, especially the latter letter was written by seven or eight.

Watched for a while

Li Fushou casually put the letter on the imperial desk, picked up the hot tea and took a sip. There was no clue on the calm expression on his face, and it seemed that he was still thinking about the content of the letter.

After waiting for a few more minutes, Prime Minister Zhang Li asked tentatively, "Master, what does Britain and France mean?"

"What else can I do? I just want to drag us into the water. Britain and France are preparing to join forces to launch a large-scale offensive on the Somme. Because too many French troops were involved in the Verdun front, the battle was very anxious and there were great casualties. Therefore, the Battle of the Somme will be led by Britain and the main force of the British Army will be sent to fight. There are many things in the letter. The French are willing to share with us the Indochina Peninsula. The British want to rent ships to escort, so you can see for yourself."

After Li Fushou said that, he stretched out his hand and pushed it. Secretary-General Cai Tinggan, who was standing next to the imperial case, quickly picked up the letter with both hands and sent it to Prime Minister Zhang Li.

"Thank you, please Secretary-General." Prime Minister Zhang Li took the letter and said politely.

Cai Tinggan replied with a smile, "No need to mention what you have to do."

Although it is a private secret letter, it is about national affairs.

Of course, Li Fushou would not hide the secrets of pretending to be mysterious. The matters in front of the imperial court were talking about national affairs. His current form and style tended to be moderate. All major events must be discussed by the court and then implemented after they were formed.

Instead of being arbitrary and dictatorial before, the Cabinet just needs to follow the steps.

This is because the cabinet officials have experienced and experienced political experience, have a proper and steady attitude towards the overall situation of the world, which is a very important ability that Li Fushou values ​​very much.

It is very terrible for a world-wide big country, a strong country, and a leader does not have a global strategic vision and only knows how to write in a closed-door manner.

Now that the cabinet has been in power for the sixth year, the internal and external affairs are very well integrated, so you can feel at ease.

Secondly, it is to delegate power to the cabinet and to the parliament. This is a gradual process. The sensitive upper politicians of the empire have felt the change and are excited about it.

After reading a letter, Prime Minister Zhang Li passed it down and quickly circulated it. The eyes of the cabinet ministers revealed a thoughtful look and different expressions.

"Master, you..."

"You can discuss it first. If you have any opinions, speak freely without any arguments, Marshal Shuanzhu will throw bricks and lead jade to speak first, let us listen to the military's views."

Li Fushou did not want to set the tone of the topic first, so he interrupted Prime Minister Zhang Li's inquiry, took the lead in calling Marshal Lee Joo-ju, then picked up the tea and took a sip of it, and made a quiet audition statement.

Since he was named, Marshal Lee Joo-zhu stood up and bowed and said after a moment of contemplation;

“Report to the Lord;

I think there is a lot of content in the private messages between Britain and France, but first of all, there is a major premise to be established, that is, will the empire participate in the war?

If you don’t participate in the war, then everything will be implemented step by step according to the current policies. This is undoubtedly a matter of no need to discuss.

If you participate in the war, this will be related to the fundamental change in imperial policies, involving political and military aspects, and the solutions to the above problems will be different.

War has always been a stage for soldiers to display their skills. The army is the unscrupulous protagonist, but as a soldier, you must always remember it;

War is just a continuation of imperial politics and a means to solve problems. Don’t imagine scattering the people and kidnap the empire on the road of war to realize your personal ambitions and dreams.

From the official position of the military

We do not agree to join the Allies, participate in the European war, do not want our officers and soldiers to shed blood and sacrifice for the white people, nor do we want to fight on the battlefield for such a vain goal as world stability and peace.

This war that affected the entire Europe and Asia and Africa was essentially a drama of white countries fighting for world hegemony and had nothing to do with our Chinese Empire.

If one day the emperor decides to participate in the continental competition and dominate the world, Shuanzhu asks himself to be a front pawn and leads millions of warriors in the Royal Army to charge into battle, and there will be advances but no retreat."

Marshal Li Shuanzhu’s statement makes a lot of sense. First of all, we must establish a policy premise, otherwise the following discussion will not be able to be carried out.

The measures taken to participate in the war and not participate in the war are completely different, and this cannot be confused.

The ministers turned their eyes to the emperor again. Facing everyone's dependence, Li Fushou felt warm and helpless. All of these people were from secretaries he personally trained. Li Fushou's identity was both a master, a father and a master, including former foreign minister and current finance minister Tang Zhaoyi, and his dependence on him was almost natural and unreserved.

"The current major policies remain unchanged. Whether the course changes in the future depends on the evolution of the international situation. Let's discuss it based on this major premise." Li Fushou said.

He mentioned the third possibility besides participating in the war and not participating in the war, which added more uncertainty to policy formulation and left more room for activity.

Marshal Li Shuanzhu bowed respectfully when he heard this, and answered with great respect;

"The emperor's instructions are understood.

What the heads of Britain and France said, without considering the current participation in the war, the matter of sharing the Indochina Peninsula's colony as French Prime Minister George Crimson is not considered by the cabinet.

The French Governor's Office of the Indochina Peninsula, the Vietnamese Kingdom, Thailand, the British Strait Governor's Office and other places are all close neighbors of our empire. After taking Suma Dara Island into the empire, it is just a narrow Strait of Malacca from the above countries.

It can be said that the chickens and dogs are heard from each other, and they are so close.

There are many people talking about the matters related to the entry into the Indochina Peninsula. The military admits that there are also relevant military plans, but this is only to meet the needs of time, rather than the strategic direction of empire expansion.

As a soldier, Shuanzhu dared not influence national policies with the needs of the military, so he did not argue about this. He could only do his part, restrain the army and act according to the will of the emperor.

King Gu of Yue and Shuan Zhu were old acquaintances and had the friendship to resist the French army together.

In his private secret letter, he did not hide his ambitions for French Laos and Cambodia, hoping to dominate the Indochina Peninsula one day and establish a great power.

You are so kind to say that this person is very ambitious and talented, far from being a wise master, and his ability cannot support this passion.

In his reply, Yu also pointed out this point directly. King Yue has been governing the country for more than 20 years and has given many gifts to the empire. To this day, Yue is only a preliminary industrial country dominated by agriculture. It has little economic performance and people's livelihood development is far less than that of Fusang. The integration of ethnic groups is neither thorough nor down-to-earth, and even the implementation of the Chinese literary and spiritual spirit is not effective.

The domestic bureaucratic compradors are rampant, and the upper aristocrats are even more popular, which is inseparable from the King of Yue himself.

The current strength of Yue Kingdom is sufficient to maintain itself, but insufficient expansion.

So in my reply, I told the King of Yue bluntly, and advised him to extinguish this thought that he shouldn't have as soon as possible.

Although the French were beaten up by the Germans, they were not something that the little King Yue could think of.

The Army is optimistic about the British ship lease and will not comment.

Regarding the Allies, we hope to supply a large amount of existing military equipment. In addition to the latest equipment of tanks, self-propelled artillery and aircraft, we can cooperate without affecting the combat effectiveness of the main force.

You can give more ammunition and backward weapons and less standard equipment.

I have reported to the Master, and the words of the empress have been finished."
Chapter completed!