Travel through the Qing Dynasty and become emperor

Chapter 303 Bloody World
With the advent of Christmas and the invasion of Siberia's cold current, both sides urgently need time to heal their wounds, and it is inevitable that the war will enter a buffer period.

Since it is the beginning of the second year, the Chinese people always have the habit of calculating the income and expenditure of the past year's success or failure. It is not unknown, but Li Zhen and other important officials of the Ministry of Finance were taken aback by the calculation. Last year, more than 1000 million The financial revenue of RMB 2000 and several major expenditures have already exceeded the income. In fact, most of them have no money left over the past year, and the financial balance of many regions has gradually shrunk.The war consumption of the navy is shocking. Except for the lost eight cruisers, there are more than 2 million yuan of direct expenses waiting to be paid and settled, such as the consumption and maintenance costs of various artillery shells, the logistics costs of the navy, and those used in support The money from the insurgents in the Philippines was directly allocated to North Korea and the money. These items add up to a huge 1 million yuan.The Sino-Russian war on land is a big spender, the consumption of baggage, soldiers’ rewards, pensions, the purchase of various medicines, the calculation of transportation costs, the money for hiring private merchants, the consumption of clothing to keep out the cold, and the consumption of airships And so on, it reached more than 8000 million yuan.These are the direct expenses of the war, how much more than this amount is spent on the army?The military expenditure in the past year has been [-] million yuan if not [-] million yuan.

Of course, fiscal revenue cannot all be used for the military.Educational infrastructure across the country is all piled up with money. These are hardware.The software also includes hiring teachers, lunch fees for schoolchildren across the country and evening meals for some boarding students, and literacy subsidies for private school teachers everywhere. The cost is also close to 2 million yuan.Counting this year's military and education alone, the two ends have almost spent their annual income.

The industrial infrastructure is still laying the groundwork. The oil mines in Shaanxi have begun to expand, the construction of the Luhan Railway, the iron works in Shanghai, the shipyards and overhaul yards in Dalian. These are all national engineering projects, each of which is sponsored by the Ministry of Industry If the money was transferred directly, it was nearly 3000 million yuan.

In the upper study room, Li Zhen was sweating coldly while reporting to the emperor. He told him that this year’s fiscal deficit would reach at least 5000 million yuan. He stayed in the seat of the Ministry.

Unexpectedly, after Li Zhen said these words, Guan Xuqing was not only not angry, but laughed out loud. Li Zhen didn't know what the emperor meant, so he knelt down in fright, not even daring to lift his head.

"It's really hard for you, get up." Guan Xuqing put away his smile and asked Li Zhen to get up, and then said: "There is nothing wrong with what you reported, but that's not how the account is calculated."

Li Zhen was slightly taken aback, and thought that he had been in the finance department for ten years or so, and the annual financial revenue and expenditure statistics had never been wrong. Why did the emperor say that the accounts were not calculated in this way?Immediately said: "The minister is dull, please make it clear to the emperor."

"The money spent did not go abroad as in previous years. It was all spent in the country. The money spent on logistics, didn't it create a large number of industrial and commercial enterprises in the north? There are also various infrastructure projects. The investment of these costs will always be recovered in the future, and it will also drive the prosperity of the surrounding private enterprises. In terms of education, let alone, a nation without education has no future, and education should lose money. If a country relies on education to earn the little money of the common people, it is really unreasonable. As for the money spent on the Sino-Russian War, I will return it to you in double one day. Generally speaking, these are still good things. I owed too much in the past. If there is too much, I have to make up for it slowly, so I have expected to spend a little more this year." Guan Xuqing said word by word.

"Your Majesty, I heard that in the second half of last year alone, the empire's arms business in the world earned 7000 million yuan in revenue. I would like to ask the emperor whether this money can be allocated to the Ministry of Finance to develop the economy." Li Zhen obviously heard some rumors and believed in the news.

"This money must be earmarked for its own use, and no one can misappropriate it without my consent." Guan Xuqing's face eased a little, and he said, "I once said that wars should be supported by wars, and military matters should be left to Feng Xianghua and the others. It's better to deal with it."

"The minister obeys the order."

After Li Zhen and others retreated, Guan Xuqing's eyes fell on the Western sword placed on the table in the corner. This was a gift from Wilhelm II to China at the German National Day Ceremony. The meaning of the Kaiser is self-evident. , he seems to use the huge military power of China and Germany to sweep the whole world with his sword.But the clever Guan Xuqing was very close to the Kaiser on the surface, but he never thought of embarking on the road of no return to the Communist Party.War is only a means of development, but it is not the only one. If a country embarks on the road of militarism, it will one day become incurable, such as Germany now.Guan Xuqing is a pragmatist. As long as it can make the country stronger, the national prestige pursued by previous Chinese rulers can be ignored.National interests are the coordinates of his actions, but national dignity is the absolute criterion he pursues.The present war against the Russians is a war to grab benefits and dignity from the Russians.

On the other side of the world, the German Legation in Prague notified the Czechoslovak Ministry of Foreign Affairs that President Hacha was asked to meet Kaiser Wilhelm II in Berlin.At one o'clock in the morning, the Germans chose this moment when human resistance was weakest, and took the old President Hacha to the streets of Berlin by train.

At the beginning of the meeting, Kaiser Wilhelm II delivered a lengthy speech in an aggressive manner. He first rebuked former President Benes for his disrespect to the great German Empire, and then talked about the main points in a naked and arrogant tone. : "Czechsia" has been extremely lukewarm in cooperating with the German army, which he cannot tolerate.He now decided to declare the provinces of Bohemia and Moravisia a German protectorate.In order to carry out this decision, German troops will cross the border of "Czech Asia" in 5 hours and occupy the capital Prague at 9 o'clock.So there are two paths for Hacha to choose: Either the Czechs resist the German advance, at which point they will be trampled mercilessly; or they accept their fate peacefully, making the German occupation a little easier .

Having said that, the Kaiser signed his name on the pre-prepared documents and walked away.It was about two o'clock in the morning.

After a period of silence, President Hacha said with grief and indignation: "If I sign this document, I will be reviled by my people forever."

But the chief of the German general staff, Maoqi, had no mercy. He forced the pen into Hacha's hand, threw the document in front of him, and kept threatening: "If you want to be a hero, "Czechsia" will be punished." unforeseen danger."

"Sign it, sign it!" shouted the Germans present.

"If you don't sign, within two hours, half of Prague will be reduced to ruins." Xiao Maoqi ruthlessly asserted that hundreds of airships had been loaded with bombs and were about to take off.

Time is ticking.The fate of Prague loomed direly before President Hacha.But he still refused to sign.Due to the extreme pain, the president, who was already frail and sickly, passed out due to exhaustion.The doctor who had been waiting beside him rescued him and brought him back to life.

Time continues to fly by.It is already 04:30 in the morning.Threats, inducements, and blackmail have never stopped.Hacha passed out again, then was revived again, and finally in a state of half-death maintained entirely by injections, he signed insensibly and at the mercy of others.

When Little Moltke forced President Hacha of Czechoslovakia to sign the "deed of sale" with a bayonet, William II happily rushed into his palace after receiving the exciting news, and embraced his queen passionately. cried: "Darling, this is the greatest day of my life! I will go down in history as the greatest German monarch!"

William is overjoyed about this "signing" event, and there are reasons for him.

According to the overall military strategic deployment planned by him and senior military officials such as Maoqi, the acquisition of the Sudetenland region and the conquest of Czechoslovakia are not goals in themselves.Even the annexation of Serbia was but a preparatory step in a larger campaign to capture Poland and Russia, to gain living space in Eastern Europe.Therefore, for this purpose, Czechoslovakia must serve as a bridgehead not only politically but also materially from which to carry out the assault.Germany's military victory over Czechoslovakia was not just a region of Sudetenland, but the entire country.Now he really got it, and he got it without bloodshed by relying on Germany's powerful military deterrence!
Just before President Hacha signed the "Deed of Sale" and came back, William led an army of 10 troops, personally marched, and arrived in Prague in advance. He came to the presidential office building arrogantly, made a simple inspection, and then walked into Hacha The president's office, on his desk wrote this sentence: "From today, Czechoslovakia no longer exists!"

What also pleased William was that after his military force dismembered Czechoslovakia, Britain and France, the self-proclaimed leaders of Europe, dared not do anything other than stunned or a few empty threats.William has seen through their "schizophrenia" and "fear of war"

"Now we can let Britain and France get away and do our own business!" He looked around, and found that there were so many open doors and so many wide roads lying in front of him.So, William flipped through the customized menu one by one: Poland's next hunting target, then Russia, France, and the British Isles.

In short, he wants to fill the whole world with the smell of blood!

(End of this chapter)