afterglow

Chapter 694 Iron Crop Foundation; Surrender to Sydney
After days of bright sunshine, a heavy rain last night brought some coolness to the capital's Yingtianfu under the scorching heat.

Zhu Lingjing replied with a single word "read", and as she picked up the seal and struck the seal, the implementation of the draft was settled.

Although there are still opposition voices from radical warmongers both in the government and the opposition, the mainstream opinion has shifted to how to end the war in a dignified manner.

More than two months ago, the Ming court began to consider how to adjust its economic and foreign policies to adapt to post-war needs and challenges.

At the end of June, the Political Consultative Conference, the Taxation Commission, and the Ministry of Revenue jointly drafted a regulation bill to prepare for the transition from the wartime system to the peacetime system.

First, regarding economic policy, a series of policies are planned to promote economic transformation. Cut military budgets and encourage the production of civilian goods (provide tax breaks). At the same time, wartime material rationing and price control will be gradually relaxed and eventually cancelled within six months.

Second, regarding the transformation of heavy industry - the military industry exploded in the context of the war, and a large number of factories switched to become contractors for weapons and equipment parts. As the war was about to end, many related industries needed to resume production of cars, building materials, watches, cameras and other goods.

Third, fiscal and monetary policy - the large number of government bonds issued during the war need to be repaid, and inflation also needs to be closely monitored. It is planned to adopt a series of more conservative policies to stabilize the economy, including lowering deposit interest rates, reducing money supply, and increasing bank reserve ratios.

Fourth, demobilization of soldiers and social welfare - there are no more powerful enemies around, and there are no neighboring countries that dare to provoke. The imperial army naturally does not need to maintain its current scale. How to allow millions of soldiers to smoothly integrate into society is very important. The regulatory draft plans to establish a temporary bill to provide various preferential treatments for demobilized soldiers to ensure stability.

① The retirement pay varies according to the length of service and the distance of the service area. The standard is 80 yen per year, which is 1 times on the mainland, 2 times on the western front, 1.5 times on the southern front, 2.5 times on the eastern front, and 1.5 times for serving in the Anxi or Lingbei Expeditionary Force.

② Unemployment benefits are paid at the rate of 17 yen per month until you find a job, for a maximum of 12 months.

③ Loan subsidies: unconditionally provide those in need with an interest-free first loan of 600 won and a low-interest second loan of 1500 won.

④ Housing subsidy: a one-time payment of 200 yuan for self-built houses in rural areas and a one-time payment of 150 to 250 yuan for purchasing houses in urban areas.

These four benefits are exclusively for soldiers who choose to make a living on their own after retirement. The total amount of subsidies is not small, but it is far from generous. It can only be said to be okay.

It can be said that the powerful people in the Ming Dynasty were very shrewd and experienced. They were not willing to spend a lot of money on this aspect and were content with just enough to get by.

However, if you choose to follow the court's policy and migrate to Australia to settle down, the treatment you can enjoy will be much higher.

In order to gain actual control over the Australian continent, three army-level garrison construction units were formally established, corresponding to the envisioned provincial administrative divisions.

The first is the Western Australian Military Commission, whose jurisdiction covers almost half of the continent. It is vast and sparsely populated, with the population mainly concentrated in Perth and Adelaide. It plans to deploy 7 divisions.

The second is the South Australia Economic and Wei Commissioner's Office, whose jurisdiction is mainly in the southeast, including the two major cities of Melbourne and Sydney. It has the smallest area but the largest population, and plans to deploy 10 divisions.

The third is the Northern Australia Military Commission, which has jurisdiction over the northeast and only one large city, Brisbane, with a medium area and population. It plans to deploy 9 divisions.

The Ming Dynasty court only regarded the Jinglüe Xuanwei Mission as a temporary transitional institution. Once the migration and expulsion of the Australian people were completed, the number of local immigrants increased, and everything stabilized, the Jinglüe Xuanwei Mission would be abolished and transformed into a normal provincial administrative region.

【Picture】

If retired soldiers choose to settle in Australia, their status will first be changed to reserve force, and they will report to various divisions according to the unified assignment of their superiors.

Next, the soldiers determined their respective jobs through registration and drawing lots, and then were divided into units to which they belonged. Each regiment, battalion, and team was responsible for different tasks.

The Australian garrison is actually like a group enterprise, with many large and small subsidiaries, but it is a paramilitary organization after all. Although it looks like ordinary people, it trains for two days every month in battalion units, and conducts autumn exercises every autumn - joint training for the entire division.

The garrison troops are also paid military salaries, which are not work salaries in the normal sense. It may not seem high, but there is no need to consider housing, medical care, food and other expenses. Overall, it is quite generous.

Of course there are disadvantages, namely that you cannot leave your place at will and you need to ask for leave from your superiors if you want to travel far away.

In order to integrate this land as quickly as possible, the powerful and wealthy are now not stingy.

The draft also plans to establish an official marriage agency with special funding to guide young women from inland areas of the Ming Dynasty to marry into the Australian garrison troops.

Human trafficking has been a serious issue since ancient times, and the rulers and ministers of the Ming Dynasty do not dare to take it lightly today - especially Zhu Lingjing, who is worried about the integrity of some people. She believes that the marriage agency matter should be handled by the court. Although it may be inefficient, it is reliable.

Zhou Changfeng also put forward his own suggestions. He called for the establishment of a special foundation, which would stipulate that one percent of the mining export profits of the three Australian provinces be allocated as special funds each year, which would be used only as welfare for the soldiers of the garrison troops.

The huge income brought by rich mineral resources cannot be underestimated. This will be a considerable amount of funds, which can be described as a double entendre of "iron rice bowl and iron crop".

By binding interests together, more retired soldiers will be willing to take root in this land, thus becoming an integral part of it more stably.

After all, once people's vital interests are violated, they will burst out with an extraordinary spirit of resistance.

While the Ming dynasty's rulers and ministers were calmly preparing to end the war, Britain and the United States were in much greater confusion.

The people of British India were in panic due to continuous famine, and were close to starvation. The morale of the army was also extremely bad.

Although the extremely high temperatures in the South Asian subcontinent in summer forced the Ming army's Indu Corps to be unable to attack, everyone knew that as long as the Ming army landed by sea and opened up a second battlefield, British Indu would quickly collapse like a thatched hut.

Previously, the Royal Navy's Far East Fleet, as an existing fleet, still had a certain deterrent power, making the Ming army's landing plan only exist on paper. However, with the US Pacific Fleet suffering heavy losses, the Ming Navy now only needs to transfer a small number of warships to easily get rid of the Royal Navy's Far East Fleet.

The significance of persisting in resistance has become very small, and the benefit of increasing casualties is just to maintain the face of the British Empire.

The Union Jack gentlemen in London had to accept this cruel fact.

The two sides launched peace talks in Tehran. The British, who had been proud for hundreds of years, were too shy to show face at the negotiating table, and even discussing the agenda was not going smoothly.

The Chinese negotiators were unwilling to give in, so they simply stood up and toured the local area for two days before returning to the negotiation venue. It was an unrealistic joke to keep the brightest jewel in the crown, and the British representatives agreed to give up British India with great difficulty.

The difficulty of Indu's rule was beyond imagination. Not to mention other things, there were hundreds of languages ​​alone, and in later generations there were more than thirty languages ​​with millions of speakers.

In addition, its natural geographical conditions are also relatively poor. The extremely high temperatures in summer and autumn are not suitable for the development of heavy industry. Even if we do not consider the human factor - laziness and carelessness, the local natural environment will greatly increase the failure rate of mechanical equipment.

The court's plan to deal with Indu was largely influenced by Zhou Changfeng. The Ming Dynasty's rulers and ministers obviously did not have Zhou's unique insights as a time traveler. Some people even considered supporting Indu to revive the glory of the Mughal Empire as a powerful partner dominating the South Asian subcontinent.

Of course Zhou, who was in a dilemma, disagreed and argued about it for a long time.

So the way it's handled now is completely different, it's basically broken up into about ten states based on language, religion, and historical origins.

The Cabinet and the Council of State carefully designed a unique federal system of government to apply to British India.

Generally speaking, a confederation is composed of multiple sovereign and independent states, which are relatively independent in all aspects and quite loose. However, the confederation structure tailored for the Ming Dynasty's upper echelons has been adjusted - the diplomatic rights of the states have been abolished, and the degree of centralization of the confederation has been slightly strengthened, but the financial, personnel, and military powers of the states have still been retained.

Simply put, the Ming upper class hoped to make it a loose regional agricultural power that did not need to be too strong, and mainly provided mineral resources and cheap labor.

There was no suspense about the ownership of British India, and the British had no right to interfere with how the Ming people dealt with their most important colony.

The biggest disagreement between the two sides lies further west.

The Ming Dynasty demanded that all British forces withdraw from Iran and Afghanistan, and then proposed to take over several colonies around the Persian Gulf, including Oman, Abu Dhabi, Qatar, Kuwait and other places - this was actually strongly promoted by Zhou.

The British side refused to agree, and the two sides engaged in a lengthy wrangling over this issue, leading to a deadlock in the negotiations.

People are not sure whether there are oil fields with huge reserves around the Persian Gulf, but it is a fact that Iran's annual oil production now reaches tens of millions of tons.

Because of this understanding, the Ming Dynasty's upper class once considered giving up their claim to colonies around the Persian Gulf, and would accept it as long as British forces withdrew from Iran.

Zhou Changfeng was certainly not happy. According to the post-war situation, the Central Asian countries could only lose money, but the areas around the Persian Gulf did need to be fought for with all their strength now.

He felt that the British had not suffered enough beatings, and that they were still refusing to give in in the current situation, which was really too arrogant to recognize the reality.

Of course, in addition to arrogance, the fundamental reason why the British are fearless is that Britain and China are too far apart, and the carefree gentlemen flying the Union Jack do not worry that the atomic bomb will fall on their heads.

As for Australia, the British Empire, as the sovereign state, was really powerless. The British, who were out of reach, had no choice but to accept it even though they were extremely reluctant.

In order to ensure the needs of the army during the war, the Australian federal government tried every means to expand the military industry, and military spending occupied most of the budget, but it was still not enough. More than 60% of the budget was various bonds, and the fiscal deficit was very serious.

The brutal war consumed a huge amount of manpower, financial and material resources in Australia. Daily consumer goods were in short supply, prices rose sharply, and the strictly enforced rationing system made people's lives extremely difficult. The large number of young and middle-aged men enlisting in the army also led to a serious shortage of labor in the rear, and economic construction almost came to a standstill.

The economy was on the verge of collapse and the army was in a terrible state, with many infantry divisions short of a quarter of their staff and insufficient weapons and equipment.

The situation is so dire and almost at the end of one's rope, how can one continue to resist?

July 7th was Australia's national humiliation day. At 16:10 am that day, a grand surrender ceremony was held on the flight deck of the HMS Flag aircraft carrier anchored near the coast of Sydney.

The main fleet of the Ming army had already dispersed and returned to Pearl Harbor or the mainland for rest and recuperation, so the only one participating in the surrender ceremony was the 190th Fleet of the South Pacific Theater.

July is winter in the southern hemisphere, and the cold wind is just like the depressed and sad mood of the Australian representatives.

The cables of the flag ship were hung with all kinds of flags, including the ship's flag, the general's flag, the commander's flag, the fleet's banner, etc. The gun barrels of the dual-purpose turrets in front of the bridge were all ridden with spirited sailors.

The military band with the flag played the second national anthem "Fuyao", and everyone couldn't help singing in a happy mood.

Australian Corps Commander Ding Yiping delivered a speech as the plenipotentiary representative, and then several representatives appointed by the Australian Emergency Committee signed the surrender agreement with difficulty.

The reporters were ecstatic and took a lot of photos, with several cameras pointed at the scene from multiple angles.

After signing the surrender agreement, the ceremony was not yet completely over. According to Chinese customs, the Ming side also prepared a sumptuous lunch and gave it to the surrenderers in the name of the emperor.

However, facing so many contemptuous and mocking looks, how could the Australian representatives have the appetite to eat? But they had to accept the invitation to the banquet.

Even after the State of Emergency Committee, which exercises government powers, agreed to unconditional surrender, opposition voices continued.

7月18日拂晓，大约400人突然发动了反叛，他们隶属于澳军第1步兵师和第34要塞守备连。

Led by several hardline hawkish politicians and generals, hundreds of people occupied the Sydney Broadcasting Corporation and played a pre-prepared propaganda recording to call for continued resistance and refused to recognize the surrender decision of the Emergency Committee. Some of the rebels also seized several Stuart light tanks and rushed to the eastern pier to fire at the anchored Ming warships.

The Australian army did not quell the rebellion until the early morning of the next day. The exchange of fire between the two sides resulted in more than 100 casualties, and several tanks were also destroyed by Ming army destroyers.

Sporadic incidents of resistance continued to occur after this, with seven occurring that month alone, but they were all small in scale.

At this point, the war on the southern front was first declared completely over.

(End of this chapter)