Chapter 573: 573 Dahua Court Discussion
Chapter 573 573 Great China Court Discussion
Zhao Kai was in the main hall, looking at the group of ministers in front of him, as if he could scrape frost off their faces with a knife.
He was extremely gloomy and his anger was obvious to everyone. In the center of the hall, there is a huge table with a map spread on it.
This map is from the Qi State, and it also covers part of the land of Dahua, and on the other side, there is a corner of the Tang State.
Below this map, there is another map with a small half exposed, which is the entire map of the Dahua Empire.
"What do you mean no? Huh? What do you mean less than? In two years, I spent money to build hundreds of kilometers of railways! But you tell me that even if you mobilize 100,000 troops to the Qi border, you can't do it?" Zhao Kai stared at Chen Jing, the minister of the Ministry of Industry, scolded sternly.
Chen Jing lowered his head, looking like a dead pig who was not afraid of boiling water. Whether or not these railways are useful, and how useful they are, cannot be denied by Zhao Kai in just two sentences, so he cannot afford to defend himself.
Everyone knows that the current transportation from north to south and east to west in the Great China Empire relies on these railways and the road system built around the railways.
Without these roads and railways, the Great China Empire would be at least ten times behind what it is now! Chen Jing's achievements have long been engraved in the annals of history, and they have nothing to do with Zhao Kai's questioning.
Everyone present knows that the reason why the situation is so passive is not that money is wasted on building railways, but that more money is not wasted on building railways!
●There are too few railways in the current Great China Empire. According to estimates, the total mileage of railways and roads must be increased to five times the current length to almost meet the basic requirements.
If you want to continue to develop, the total length of the railway will have to be increased ten times! This is the consensus of everyone in the Ministry of Industry and the Ministry of War!
"Your Majesty! There are too few railways on the border. Our troops are moving slowly and dispatching is difficult. The Ministry of Works has actually done its best." Wang Yucai, the Minister of Household Affairs, who knew the difficulties faced by the Ministry of Works, had to stand up and explain.
According to the Ministry of War's view, railways should be built between borders and military towns to facilitate the mobilization of troops.
The railways that can be built in border areas will have negative assets in peacetime, and they will have to pay for maintenance if they are not used.
So when building railways, we still need to take care of people's livelihood as much as possible and consider some maintenance costs. Therefore, all parties held a meeting and made compromises and concessions, and this is how the current Dahua Railway came into being.
Dahua’s railways are built around the north-south main line and the east-west main line, which radiate to most cities.
Such a railway network is basically operated around passenger and freight transportation in peacetime, so it is profitable and makes a lot of money.
It is precisely because of making money that the Ministry of Industry has the spare capacity to continue to extend these railways. This is a virtuous circle and the main reason why the Dahua Railway can build such a large scale in a short period of time.
However, railways built for civilian use are not so easy to use for military purposes: the railway lines with Dahua Capital as the core and radiating to the surrounding areas cannot actually be transported horizontally at the radiating ends because there is no time to build a ring line.
This has caused inconvenience for the military - it is very convenient to transfer materials from the core production area to the border areas, but it is very troublesome to mobilize adjacent troops on the border.
This is very similar to the railway in Qi: once there is a problem, if you want to mobilize troops, you have to make a big circle. This is the difference between a railway network and a railway line.
Everyone knows that a railway network is good, but it takes time and money to build it. To countries with insufficient production capacity, the rails are like gold bars paved on the road.
The Dahua Empire is not short of money, they are short of time. Give them another ten years, maybe they can build a barely usable railway network.
To be honest, Dahua’s Ministry of Industry has done a very good job. They not only built a large number of railways, but also encouraged the opening of various factories. Their efficiency and strategies were countless times better than those of those in the Westernization Movement.
●Today’s Dahua Empire’s industrial level is actually quite good, and it can at least be said to have a certain industrial foundation. Many machines can produce their own products, as if they are trying to catch up.
“Every time you prevaricate me like this!” Zhao Kai looked at Wang Yucai, the Minister of Household Affairs, with dissatisfaction. He now looked at these ministers, each one of them looked like a waste who was specifically against him.
Prime Minister Chu Muzhou also knew that now was not the time to talk about this, so he tried to persuade him: "Your Majesty, our situation is much better now than it was two years ago. This is the result of your hard work, Your Majesty. You have done It’s good enough.”
Of course I know what I did is good enough! I'm so unhappy with you losers right now, okay? Zhao Kai cursed manically in his heart, but did not show it on his face.
As the Minister of War, Shen Chuan was the protagonist of this meeting. When he saw this, he quickly spoke and took over the topic from Prime Minister Chu Muzhou: "Your Majesty, although a month ago, we mobilized the 5th Army to support the north, but It’s still a little slower after all.”
As he spoke, he marked the location of the 5th Army on the map: "Three divisions, nearly 30,000 people, had just arrived at the border of Qi State, and the road was blocked by the attacking Tang Army."
"In the final analysis, Qi's defense line was broken through too quickly. No one could have imagined this kind of thing in advance." He simply passed the responsibility to someone who had no way to hold him accountable. This pot is thrown beautifully! Even Prime Minister Chu Muzhou praised him secretly in his heart. Several ministers also nodded and agreed with this statement.
"They're all rubbish! They're all **** over there in Qi! That idiot Jiang Xian can't even guard his own border! Bastard! Trash!" The furious Zhao Kai had nowhere to vent, so he could only keep cursing, in his voice Full of hostility.
"Your Majesty, the war situation in Qi has been irreversible. What we have to consider now is what to do next..." Chu Muzhou reminded Zhao Kai again.
Zhao Kai clenched his fists. He had been preparing to avenge Zheng Guo two years ago, but these ministers did not agree, and the situation did not allow it, so he gave up the idea.
At that time, the Tang State was also in a state of surrender, which gave Dahua enough face. Tang Guo will more or less provide Dahua with the technology it wants. This is also the main reason for Dahua’s technological progress in the past two years.
Even sometimes, Zhao Kai would feel that the Tang State had really surrendered to him, so he did not continue to suppress and deploy the Tang State.
But now it seems that how correct I was back then? If these mediocre ministers in front of him hadn't delayed him, the Tang State would have been destroyed long ago.
It's too late to say anything now, so Zhao Kai plans to consider the possibility of destroying the Tang State again: "Continue to increase troops to the border of Qi State and put pressure on the Tang State! Warn them that if they continue to invade Qi State, Dahua's elite will march eastward to Qi State , flanking the Tang army!"
This was a plan to strategically intimidate the Tang Dynasty - the ministers present also felt that such verbal intimidation was the lowest-cost solution, and there would be no problem in using it, so they all nodded in agreement.
Mobilizing troops to go north and reach the border between Dahua and Qi is also a necessary operation. Even if you don't attack the Tang troops, you can still defend the original Qihua border section. It can be said that it kills two birds with one stone.
It's just that this kind of mobilization should have been rapid, but now it is very slow - just the mobilization of the 5th Army has already overwhelmed the originally poor border road system.
"On the other hand, Your Majesty, we still need to contact the Mirage Kingdom and the Chu Kingdom! If both of them are willing to send troops to expand this war, then we will still have an absolute advantage." From a purely situational perspective, Li Minister Zhou Qiang suggested.
"It's just the Chu State. Isn't it appropriate to contact the Mirage State?" General Feng Kezhi on the side frowned and questioned: "The goblins were originally not of my race. They once ravaged the Zheng State, but now they are our allies. I’m afraid raising tigers will cause trouble in the future…”
"This Tang country is already full of tigers and wolves. If we don't drive the tigers and devour the wolves, our border area of Dahua will never have peace!" Zhou Qiang continued to explain his strategy.
In his opinion, the Tang State is the most serious problem, so even if he contacts the Goblin Dwarf, he should contain the Tang State first.
Why is he so against the Tang Dynasty? Because the Tang State implemented a series of agricultural reforms in the country, it was banning landlords on a large scale and destroying the traditional scholar-bureaucrat class.
In Zhou Qiang's view, the destruction of a country is not a big deal, but reforming the original social system will cost the life of the aristocracy and scholar-bureaucrats, which cannot be allowed.
So Zhou Qiang would rather associate with the goblins and dwarfs whom he usually dislikes than let a Tang country rise that does not take the scholar-officials and nobles in their eyes.
"Just do as Zhou Shangshu wants! Jiang Run!" Zhao Kai made up his mind, looked at the insignificant Minister of Rites beside him, and ordered.
"I'm here!" Jiang Run, the Minister of Rites in charge of diplomacy, came out and bowed his head in agreement: "I will make arrangements now."
"Well!" Finally, he met a minister who didn't push back or push back. Zhao Kai's face became somewhat better: "In addition, we need to contact Cyric and the Lions Empire! Create trouble for Tang State on the other side as soon as possible! Otherwise, Things are getting ugly and no one can run away!”
“I understand!” Jiang Run continued to agree.
In any case, he is only responsible for diplomatic affairs. When the time comes, he can just carry out his orders in accordance with his will. There is not much cost and there is no need to question anything.
“Contact the Chu State again to discuss the feasibility of attacking the southern part of the Tang State!” Finally, the Emperor of Great China added additional instructions.
"I obey the decree! I will do my best to share your Majesty's worries." Jiang Run, the Minister of Rites, continued to agree, looking like a good old man.
(End of this chapter)