At the end of 1937, the regular meeting of the Standing Committee of the Central National Defense Commission was as usual, but unusual as usual. It was the last meeting of the Standing Committee of the year. Under the tough vote of His Majesty the Emperor, Gu Weijun, the Prime Minister of the Central Cabinet of the Empire, passed the Standing Committee.

Voting and officially attending one of the Standing Committee members.

This means that Premier Gu Weijun will know all the affairs of the military headquarters during his future term, all confidential research and backup combat plans, and he has the right to know that for the huge military expenditure of up to 2.7 billion yuan per year, he will also

Have the right to know all the details of these military expenditures.

After the Standing Committee meeting ended, Emperor Song asked Gu Weijun and Jiang Fangzhen to stay, preparing to coordinate another issue between the military headquarters and the cabinet.

The emperor was the supreme commander of the empire above the military headquarters and cabinet.

Song Biao and the military headquarters have basically contacted each day, and he will decide on all major events within the military headquarters. On the cabinet side, Song Biao will meet Gu Weijun once a week, sometimes discussing the situation, and sometimes listening to the cabinet.

The explanation is sometimes to make some major domestic and foreign events.

Unlike Tang Shaoyi and Ouyang Geng's cabinet era, Song Biao interfered less and managed less in Gu Weijun's cabinet. Even if many cabinet policies were not satisfied with him, he would sign and agree to approve them.

Among the three prime ministers, Tang Shaoyi and Gu Weijun are both very smart talents. During the ten years that Gu Weijun served as foreign minister, it happened to be the stage when the empire advanced from a great power to a top power. During his tenure, the empire encountered many diplomatic areas.

The challenges, such as the two Indonesian storms, the provocation in Seoul, and the Great Depression, etc., but Gu Weijun can handle them cleverly.

The world seems chaotic now, but it is the most favorable situation for China. This situation is precisely the result of the vague strategy implemented by Gu Weijun. Whether it is to serve as a foreign minister or as prime minister, Gu Weijun adopts a kind of foreign policy in the imperial world.

The policy of clarifying hostile forces and maintaining a stable and clever balance strategy for Britain, the United States, the Soviet Union and Germany, making it difficult for the empire to be contained by either side in the process of rising to become the world's number one hegemon. The empire has no clear enemy, nor among the great powers.

A clear allies adopt a balanced fuzzy strategy against Britain and the United States, and a balanced fuzzy strategy against the Soviet Union and Germany.

If the empire has been firmly maintaining the alliance camp between Britain and France, the empire will inevitably encounter more risks in its development process. If the Sino-US-French alliance is too closely maintained, it will also encounter the restraint of Japan, the Soviet Union and the United Kingdom.

None of these choices are in the highest interest of the empire.

While promoting the fuzzy strategy, Gu Weijun continued to adopt the strategy of getting along with each other from a distance and attacking the near and fighting against the east, implementing strategic and diplomatic containment against Japan, forcing Britain, France, the United States, the United States, the Soviet Union and Germany to maintain cooperation with Japan too blatantly and not give obvious benefits to Japan.

Assistance, the empire established the Asian League and the Shanghai International Trade Association organized the organization, resolutely restraining Britain and the Soviet Union as an Asian leader, uniting France to restrain Britain, Brazil, Portugal, Spain and other countries to restrain the United States, and then use the Soviet Union and Germany to restrain each other.

The reason why the world today is in chaos is that all camps are hostile to each other and no one can unite into a whole is that these situations are the contributions of Premier Gu Weijun, and they can be said to be the greatest contribution.

It is precisely because he used the diplomatic means of checks and balances to make the world chaotic, that China can rise rapidly with very little restraint and pressure. Even today's empire surpasses Britain and the United States in terms of economic aggregate, military strength, and even the size of the navy.

It is also extremely difficult to have a way to restrain and contain China.

This dangerous balance and vague strategy is exactly the effect that Premier Gu Weijun wants.

Gu Weijun's cabinet has great diplomatic achievements, but for a period of time, it lacked appropriate policies and programs in internal affairs. Until Song Biao gave a series of suggestions and asked Wang Zhaoming to promote new cases in the parliament and add deputy to the central cabinet.

The position of Prime Minister, the Deputy Prime Minister, is also the Vice Premier, and is also the Chairman of the State Economic Work Committee. He ranks higher than the Foreign Minister in the Cabinet. Chen Qicai serves as the first Deputy Prime Minister of the Empire, responsible for assisting Gu Weijun in handling internal affairs.

Since then, Gu Weijun's central cabinet was completely established, with Chen Qicai as deputy prime minister and Guo Taiqi as foreign minister. Because Gu Weijun and Ouyang Xi have always been in disagreement, after Ouyang Xi stepped down, Gu Weijun nominated Liu Dajun, former director of the Central Bank's Monetary Committee, as the new one.

Minister of Finance and Minister of Agriculture and Water Resources was replaced by Yang Zhaolin, and Song Jiaoren was nominated as Minister of Justice again. Song Jiaoren considered refusing, and finally chose to take over after Emperor Song's personal persuasion.

The Minister of Land and Resources continued to be appointed by a military background. After Cai E returned to the military headquarters, this position was held by Jiang Guangnai, the Minister of the Central National Patrol and Police Force. After Yang Tiesheng and Jiang Guangnai, the Minister of the Central Patrol and Military Command was ranked first in the inner court.

Lieutenant General Ding Ying took over the role.

As the prime minister, Gu Weijun actually does not have such a large connection to suppress these people. Except for the few he nominated, the others have much more qualifications than him, and their abilities may not be inferior to him.

Everyone was willing to cooperate with him, but they had the support of the emperor and Wang Zhaoming's coordination within the Restoration Party.

If the country wants to be stable, the cabinet must first be stable.

The empire may not have more political talents than other countries, but under the coordination of the emperor, every cabinet of the empire can basically ensure stability and optimal personnel allocation, and each is a minister with rich experience and outstanding capabilities.

, coupled with the long-term implementation of the imperial system of public examinations and party recruitment, the entire empire's official system has always remained very stable.

This is the key to the long-term stability of the empire in terms of internal political and political governance and the ability to implement every policy for a long time.

After several other national defense committee members left, Jiang Fangzhen stood up and shook hands with Gu Weijun and congratulated him: "Congratulations on becoming a member of the Standing Committee of the Central National Defense Committee. I hope that the future cooperation will be happy."

Although it was a late congratulation, Gu Weijun was still very happy and held his hands tightly with Jiang Fangzhen and replied, "It must be, it must."

The military headquarters has always been relatively arrogant, and many people do not take the cabinet seriously. If it weren't for the emperor above the empire, even the prime minister would have been overturned like Japan.

Therefore, the emperor said that there was no difference between the empire and the militarism of Japan.

Although he became a member of the Central National Defense Commission at the end of the meeting, because he had just recommended that the emperor not rush to start a war against Japan, almost all the efforts of the navy, army and air force in the past six months were wasted. All the members of the Standing Committee were very angry and were about to be

The angrily leaving the seat made Gu Weijun quite embarrassed, and he felt that even the Prime Minister had no reputation on the Imperial Central Military Department.

At that time, Tang Shaoyi and Ouyang Geng suffered repeated losses in the military headquarters. Even Tang Shaoyi finally offended the military headquarters and has no chance to serve as the third prime minister. Gu Weijun has also deeply understood the various problems in the past two years.

It's right.

Song Biao could naturally see Gu Weijun's embarrassment. After Jiang Fangzhen and him sat down again, Song Biao comforted Gu Weijun and said, "You don't have to care too much. Isn't this the case in all dynasties? How can the ministers who have made meritorious service do?

Take civil servants seriously? A country like China has too long history, and some things are always impossible to be the same as those in the West.”

Gu Weijun answered cautiously: "The emperor is wise."

Song Biao and Jiang Fangzhen laughed and said, "Actually, I think Gu Weijun is much more lucky than Tang Shaoyi back then, and he is better than Ouyang Geng. When they were Chen Wu and the others in those two sessions, those people were even more

Arrogant."

Jiang Fangzhen agreed: "It is true. I think the time is right for the emperor to promote nationalization of national defense and military departments. It is not as appropriate as it is now."

Song Biao said no.

One of the key reasons why this time is good is that Jiang Fangzhen serves as the Chief of Staff and Chen Qicai serves as the Minister of National Defense. Both of them are army generals who support national defense and have the deepest qualifications.

In a few years, if there is no large-scale war, Jiang Fangzhen will retire, or go to the Central Military Academy to serve as the dean for a long time, or be responsible for establishing the Central National Defense University. Whether it is Fu Liangzuo or Zhang Xiaohuai, the candidates to take over him, are Fu Liangzuo or Zhang Xiaohuai.

Or the unpopular candidate Cai E, these people are not easy to get along with in the cabinet.

After a little thought, Song Biao decided not to discuss this topic for the time being. After all, he was not as good as he could not control such a person as the military headquarters.

It is normal for soldiers to be rebellious, especially the senior officials who have reached the peak of the Emperor's ** side. Each of them has the generals who command hundreds of thousands of army operations. If they are just a group of flatterers.

Those who flatter themselves may suffer.

It is precisely because they are imperial hawks that foreign countries dare not offend that the cabinet can have a stable and peaceful governance country, check and balance foreign powers, and use diplomatic means to balance and restrain countries and regions.

Song Biao turned to Gu Weijun and asked directly: "Do you have a more appropriate idea about the war against Japan?"

Gu Weijun thought carefully for a moment and replied: "Report to the emperor, I think that the empire has only two mortal enemies that cannot be relaxed today, one is the Soviet Union and the other is Japan. The others are just temporary troubles. You either don't fight against Japan, or you want to fight.

Fight to the end without any scruples, and the battle will save the Sino-Japanese and East Asia peace for a hundred years. This time is very simple. As long as we induce Germany to attack the Soviet Union, the Soviet Union cannot take the opportunity to attack our country, and make the Soviet Union empty.

We cannot retain a large number of troops behind our backs to restrain our country. We can seize an opportunity of about two years to fight a fierce battle against Japan until we sweep the entire Japanese mainland."

Song Biao agreed and asked Jiang Fangzhen: "What do you think of the Prime Minister's idea?"

Jiang Fangzhen said: "The Prime Minister is a great diplomat. He is naturally exquisite in grasping the international situation. But if we want to create this opportunity, our country will pay too much. When the war between Germany and the Soviet Union, no matter who wins or loses, the result will definitely be unfavorable.

Our country.”

Song Biao chose a Yuxi cigar, ignited it for a while, and analyzed with Jiang Fangzhen and Gu Weijun: "For our country, the worst thing is that the Soviet Union defeated Germany, and the best thing is that the Soviet Union continued to be unable to separate.

Win or lose. Overall, we would rather let Germany win first. If Germany is not satisfied and counterattack France, we will just defeat Japan. Then we will attack Germany again, which will both extreme left and extreme right forces at once.

Eliminate and restore the long-term peaceful development situation of the international community, this is the outcome we want most."

Jiang Fangzhen asked: "Master, if Germany will no longer counterattack France after defeating the Soviet Union and use the foundation for occupying the Soviet Union to develop steadily, then it will probably be our biggest concern?"

Song Biao said: "Those who want to take revenge always need to take revenge. If even the Soviet Union is destroyed, Germany will definitely counterattack France. We need to maximize our interests. Such a Germany will definitely be more conducive to our negotiations with Britain and France. Therefore,

Our current policy still needs to support Germany, especially in the military industry. It is valuable to conduct some more in-depth exchanges with Germany. In Sweden, as long as Germany ensures Sweden's neutrality principle, we can continue to increase it.

Sweden invested as an important aid to support Germany’s declaration of war on the Soviet Union.”

Jiang Fangzhen continued to ask: "What should Poland do? Germany mentioned this to us a few years ago. I think they really want to annex Poland. The only thing they are worried about is the attitude of our country and Britain and France."

Song Biao sighed and ordered Gu Weijun: "In the near future, you can go to Germany with the Minister of Defense Chen Qicai. Before this, visit Poland, or suggest that they form an alliance."

Gu Weijun silently paused and said yes.

The relationship between the Empire and Poland is indeed special, but this does not mean that if the Empire forcibly prevents it, Germany will give up its invasion of Poland.

It is better to say that the problem between Germany and Poland is in the German Corridor, but Poland is a country that is also a shame. It has never been appropriate to grasp its own strength and always regards itself as a European power equivalent to Britain, France and Germany.

Since Gu Weijun had a suitable idea, Song Biao would not ask more questions. It would be more appropriate to leave these things to the cabinet. As the emperor, he should not control these things too much. Moreover, Gu Weijun advocated temptation first.

It is indeed the best strategy for the empire to attack the Soviet Union and allow the empire to focus on eliminating Japan without any distractions.

Just imagine when the empire attacked Japan, if the Soviet Union took this opportunity to expand its infiltration in Central Asia, or pull the empire into the quagmire of war, and accumulate large-scale heavy troops in the northwest region to restrain the main force of the empire, the result can be imagined.

Taking advantage of this meeting, Song Biao and Gu Weijun briefly asked about the financial audit report this year and some other questions.

After Chen Qicai served as deputy prime minister, Gu Weijun and Chen Qicai formed a stable cabinet team, basically adopted the "liberal nationalism" centrist policy advocated by the emperor and the construction plan of the world's first industrial powers.

In education, new 102 key university plans and 1235 plans will be launched, and the construction plans of 102 key universities will be promoted nationwide and 12-year compulsory education will be promoted. All students will enjoy the right to complete secondary vocational education for free, and promote metallurgy and materials in industry.

,The development of 37 key industries including machinery, electrical, computer, semiconductor, ship, aviation, automobile, chemical, etc., all goals point directly to the goal of establishing a world's largest industrial power.

In the field of culture, the Empire has also begun to focus on promoting the development of the film industry. In the background, Shanghai, Chenyang and Guangzhou have established film schools, and have given clearer long-term support policies to the empire's reformist cultural trend, which must be established in this era A more prosperous era of cultural rejuvenation, just like all dynasties, national rejuvenation will inevitably usher in cultural development, which is also an important part of the establishment of a great empire advocated by the emperor.

The large number of tax cuts introduced by the Empire in 1935 ended at the end of 1937. Next year, the central government is expected to get rid of the three-year deficit. In the over-experienced in recent years, the Empire's economic structure has also been buffered and Over-investment, investment and development of industries such as machinery, electrical, and automobiles have become even larger, and traditional low-value-added industries have significantly reduced the proportion of industrial in the empire by 7 percentage points.

According to the cabinet's estimates, the decline of the empire's low-industry industry will continue to maintain an annual range of about 2 per year in the next decade and gradually weaken, while the empire's growth in machinery and other industries will still grow rapidly. The empire is in South America and Southeast Asia, The share of industrial products in markets such as West Asia and Africa is rising steadily, and exports to Europe and the United States also set a new historical record in 1937. The empire's capital investment scale in the Asian, African and South American markets is also continuing to grow slightly.

Economically, there is no problem with the empire today.

In addition to the fact that Britain was in its decline, the industrial development of the United States, the Soviet Union, Germany and France was also very smooth, and the world economy has also developed more than the level before the Great Depression in recent years.

This steady growth of the global economy has enabled the four major trust companies of the Imperial Central to make extremely high profits in the process of selling and cashing out their assets overseas, and have largely stabilized the central finance, even if there are more central finances. The deficit and the financial situation of the empire are much better than those of Britain, the United States, Japan and other countries.
To be continued...