.Chapter 1 Embargo effect

On June 28, 2035, the "Yellow River" aircraft carrier battle group in the Philippine Sea.

On the flight deck, fleet officers and air officers were having basketball games. Two and a half months of sailing at sea made the officers and soldiers exhausted. In order to improve morale and boost the morale of the army, Mu Haoyang specially arranged some sports events so that the officers and soldiers could relax in their busy schedules.

In the monotonous sea life, proper entertainment is essential.

You should know that there are only 38 NVxing soldiers on this aircraft carrier with nearly 3,000 officers and soldiers. Without proper entertainment activities, more than 2,000 young and middle-aged soldiers will definitely cause trouble. Through sports competitions, the excess male Hing Hing Méng can be properly played and utilized, which will be of great help to maintain discipline.

After seeing a young soldier making a beautiful three-pointer, Mu Haoyang looked north.

About ten kilometers away, the "Chongqing" cruiser was undergoing tactical turn. Not far behind, followed by a fast combat support ship. It seems that the "Chongqing" will carry out fuel supply operations. Because it is a nuclear-powered cruiser, it is supplemented with aviation fuel.

Further away, outside Mu Haoyang's visual range, the "Yangtze River" has turned to the windward direction.

When the Yellow River was playing a friendly basketball game, the Yangtze River was responsible for all aviation operations, such as dispatching air defense patrol fighters.

About 250 kilometers further north, the First Fleet was patrolling the same route.

More than two months after entering the Western Pacific, the main task of the two fleets was to carry out strategic embargo tasks, namely intercepting and inspecting all suspicious ships heading to Japan.

In fact, in the past two months, only five cargo ships have been intercepted.

It is all due to the First Fleet. As a support fleet, the Second Fleet has been staying outside the patrol waters and has not participated in the interception operation.

Of these five interceptions, four of them were just a formality, and only once was a real game.

It was in early June, and Mu Haoyang received information from the Second Department that an American cargo ship set sail from San Francisco was likely to carry equipment that could be used for nuclear projects.

The interception operation was smooth sailing, and the freighter stopped under the threat of helicopters before the warship arrived.

What was followed was naturally a boarding inspection.

The information provided by the Second Department is very accurate. The freighter has a batch of industrial equipment that can be used for the refining of nuclear raw materials, and there is an arms dealer on the ship.

But, things are not that simple.

The Chinese fleet openly intercepted American ships in international waters, obviously not giving the United States face.

After the incident, the US federal government immediately took action, demanding that China immediately return the ship and the cargo on the ship and release the detained crew. Subsequently, the Seventh Fleet deployed in Guam left the port and went to the waters where the incident occurred, confronting the First Fleet, and there was almost a conflict.

The problem is that in the face of conclusive evidence, the US federal government cannot be hard at all.

You should know that the sensitive equipment on the ship not only violates China's strategic embargo policy, but also violates the "Washington Treaty" recognized by the United States. If the United States openly helps Japan to create nuclear weapons, the "Washington Treaty" will become a piece of paper, and the international order established thus will fall apart.

More importantly, this is not a national act of the United States.

To put it bluntly, this is a ship that transports cargo, and US law does not protect the behavior of si, so there is no reason to be evil with China for this.

However, the situation at that time made many people believe that war between China and the United States is about to begin.

You should know that in the past 100 years, American ships have sailed freely on various oceans. Even during the two world wars, no fleet of a country has intercepted American ships on the high seas, let alone sent soldiers to board the ships for inspection.

Three days later, things were resolved.

All the goods on the ship were transferred to a fast combat support ship, and the ship was returned to the shipping company, releasing other crew members except the arms siege merchants.

That's why this matter has not made a big deal.

According to the news released by both China and the United States, the Chinese Navy only routinely inspected the freighter and returned the freighter after completing the inspection. It did not mention the sensitive equipment on the ship, nor did it mention the incident of American arms traveling to si merchants. It seemed that it had never happened at all.

In the end, the cargo ship did not go to Japan, but diverted to the Philippines.

Twenty days later, three days ago, the cargo ship arrived in Japan and sent 50,000 tons of yu rice and other grain crops as animal husbandry feed. Interestingly, according to some information released after the war, the 50,000 tons of feed was not fed to livestock, but became the food rations for the Japanese.

It must be recognized that the strategic embargo plays a crucial role.

In the absence of materials, the Japanese economy has suffered a heavy blow. According to statistics released by the Japanese Masahifu in early June, Japan's year-on-year economic growth rate in May was 4.3% negative, and 1.6% month-on-month, and negative growth has lasted for three months. If this continues, at most, the Japanese economy will collapse by the end of the year and the unemployment rate will exceed 30%.

This is definitely a disaster for a developed country.

The high unemployment rate has led to domestic outbreaks. In the first half of June alone, thousands of demonstrations occurred across Japan.

Although there are no exact statistics, Japan's domestic crime rate has definitely increased several times.

It is also necessary to admit that the Japanese have no less patience than the Chinese.

On June 1, Japan began to implement the "Priority Living Materials Control Law", which distributed food, yào products and other daily necessities to the people through rations. According to the administrative law, the average monthly grain supply for adults is 25 kilograms, 20 kilograms for minors over twelve years old, and 15 kilograms for minors under twelve years old. Even so, it only alleviated the food crisis, because Japan cannot produce enough food at all.

Of course, this has nothing directly to do with the embargo, because food does not belong to the embargoed materials.

What leads to this situation is mainly price factors, that is, the excessive unemployment rate, which drags down the Japanese economy and leads to soaring prices of necessary materials such as food. If the Japanese government does not control the price increase rate, it will break out before the war breaks out.

Strictly speaking, this is also related to the embargo.

Although China did not include essential materials on the embargo list, the embargo had a collateral impact on trade, resulting in a sharp shrinkage of Japan's import trade. To put it bluntly, under the threat of war, any country will have some concerns when trading with Japan. Not to mention countries that remain neutral, even countries that are more sympathetic to Japan, such as the United States, Canada, Australia, etc., which have left a hand in trade, requiring Japan to pay hard currency, and pay before departure, rather than after arrival according to international practice.

How many hard currency does Japan have?

According to data released by Japanese authorities, by the end of 2034, Japan's foreign exchange reserves were US$370 billion, making it the world's largest foreign exchange reserve. However, after the currency depreciated sharply, this foreign exchange reserves were only equivalent to Japan's three-month trade volume during normal periods.

Apart from foreign exchange, Japan only has about $120 billion in gold.

To put it bluntly, Japan does not have much hard currency in its hands.

For example, at the end of 2034, China's foreign exchange reserves were less than one trillion US dollars, but the RMB had been accepted by 58 countries, becoming the third largest trade settlement currency after the US dollar and the euro, while there were only eight countries receiving the Japanese yen, so China's actual purchasing power far exceeds that of Japan. In addition, China's strategic gold reserves have exceeded 8,600 tons, making it the second largest gold reserve country after the United States, and the gold reserves of all EU member states are only more than 6,000 tons.

Taking these factors into consideration, Japan's import trade was hit hard after the embargo began.

Without import trade, it would be strange if Japan's economy does not have any problems.

Take grain as an example. If the Japanese government does not implement control measures, it will consume all its strategic reserves by at most by mid-2036. By limiting grain consumption, Japan can persist until at least 2037. If focus on foreign trade measures, that is, increase grain imports, it is expected to persist until 2038.

Overall, the ban operation has achieved predetermined results.

However, Japan not only did not compromise, but instead accelerated its preparations.

According to the information provided by the Second Department, by the end of May, Japan could control the social unemployment rate to less than 18%, mainly because it expanded the scale of military production. Although the figures were not very accurate, compared with the same period in 2034, Japan's military industry workers increased by at least 3.5 million.

The direct result is that Japan's arms production scale has expanded dramatically.

Japan has no intention of surrendering to the strategic embargo and will naturally consider resolving the problem through war.

In early June, Japan carried out its first war mobilization, mainly for the Navy and Air Force, and the mobilization ranged to all retired soldiers under the age of forty.

With this item alone, Japan mobilized about 300,000 officers and soldiers.

This is definitely not a small number for the Navy and the Air Force.

According to the intelligence provided by the Second Department, Japan mobilized at least 3,500 pilots, of which 500 were retired pilots of the Navy. After receiving two months of training, these people were basically able to meet the service standards and become a powerful supplement to the aviation force. In addition, the mobilized retired naval soldiers were enough to meet the four aircraft carrier battle groups being formed and provide enough high-quality soldiers to dozens of large warships.

Of course, the key is still the nuclear issue.

Mu Haoyang has learned from Ma Mingtao that the explosion in April was the credit of the Second World. The explosion site was Japan's nuclear raw material concentration factory. However, this explosion did not completely destroy Japan's nuclear capabilities, but only delayed the time when Japan obtained nuclear weapons.

In time, Japan will still have the ability to create nuclear weapons.

What has happened in the past few months also shows that Japan will not make concessions on the nuclear issue, and it is even more unlikely to give up its nuclear program as required by China.
Chapter completed!