The Spring Worship Festival ended with a grand and grand ceremony, followed by the customary spring wine time, when relatives and friends walked around and visited each other, announcing the arrival of a vibrant season of the year. However, while the people were still immersed in joy and peace, the media in the imperial capital began to pay attention to the frequent court discussions held by the empire's central government after the Spring Festival. Everyone knew that the court meetings at this time would determine the empire's future in the next year. Where will the pace be headed? Should we continue to maintain the momentum of external expansion and strengthen military operations and military power, or should we vigorously develop the economy and balance the extremely unbalanced economic system within the empire? This issue has always been a matter of concern to the media and all walks of life.
Representatives from the Senate and Citizens' Chambers from various counties in the empire have not left. It is obvious that they will also participate in the central government's political, economic and cultural planning for all aspects of the empire in the next year. In addition to confidential diplomatic and military discussions, they Except for those who are unable to participate, they have the right to attend and speak, and can even co-sign the ideas and suggestions put forward to the administrative department.
In several consecutive court meetings after the Spring Festival, the Government Council and the Privy Council were discussing the empire's plan for the year 701-1. It was obvious that this year would be a year dominated by economic proposals. The Government Council discussed the plans for the Empire. This can be seen from the fact that the time occupied accounts for more than two-thirds of the time in a continuous meeting. Each department has come up with its own ideas and plans. They must explain their work plan for this year at this joint military and political meeting. Only after obtaining the approval of the joint military and political meeting, especially His Majesty the Emperor, can they set the tone. Develop a standardized and complete plan. It will be determined by the Government Affairs Council and coordinated with the financial department before being submitted to His Majesty the Emperor for approval.
Several important projects have been basically finalized before this. It was just concretized and implemented at the court meeting. The Ministry of Economic Development and the Ministry of Construction proposed to use the funds raised from the first batch of national bonds issued by the empire to carry out a series of major construction projects to promote the balanced development of various regions of the empire. In Binhai Xizhe Prefecture in the county and Fahan Prefecture in De'an, West India, will build deep-water commercial ports, build and improve strategic transportation roads from Burma County and Zhongnan County to the coastal ports of Nanhai County, and build from Shuangdui via Zhaipudu and Saile The road runs through the entire southern region of India from Mus, Lahore, Goa to West Jersey. These three construction projects mainly focus on transportation and shipping. It was also an important measure taken by the empire to strengthen its rule and influence over the newly controlled areas in the west.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Water Resources also proposed three major projects of its own. The first is the overall flood control and irrigation project in the Five Lakes area to ensure that the Five Lakes area remains unshakable as the empire's first granary in the next twenty years; the second is to cover the entire Yanyun area. The Sanshui Project in Yanyun County, Jieluo County, and the western part of Beiyuan County will comprehensively renovate the three river systems of Huangshui, Weishui, and Daqingshui, improve the dams and reservoir projects, and bring more benefits to Yanyun County, western Beiyuan County, and Jieluo County. The county will gradually establish a comprehensive flood control and irrigation system within five years. Strive to bring the level of agricultural and water conservancy development in these three regions to or close to the current level of the Heshuo region; the third is to prepare to build Soder'an County into the empire's second largest granary after the Five Lakes region. The empire will spend huge sums of money to renovate the severely aging water conservancy facilities in the Solian area, and strive to have Solian County surpass Jiangnan County in food production in the next five years.
The Ministry of Administrative Affairs and the Ministry of Construction also plan to continue or build several prefectures, including Langshan Prefecture in Terok County, Kueyang Prefecture and Pami Le Prefecture in North Luzon County, and Okhotsk Prefecture in Kithara County (formed by Okhotsk Prefecture). These cities are either located on the border or are of great significance to promoting the local economy. Both the military and the government attach great importance to this planning and construction project. In particular, Okhotsk and Kuiyang are of great significance to the empire's future strategic layout.
After careful analysis and demonstration, the Ministry of Finance and the Imperial Central Bank decided to follow the example of some economically developed countries and cities in the Western Continent in issuing treasury bonds in 701. The expected issuance amount of treasury bonds in 701 is 300 million imperial gold coins for a period of fifteen years. The interest rate is slightly higher than commercial interest rate deposits, but much lower than commercial loan interest. This kind of treasury bonds has been enthusiastically sought after the issuance was announced, and the chambers of commerce in every county in the empire have requested underwriting of this kind of treasury bonds. This caught both the Imperial Central Bank and the Ministry of Finance somewhat unexpectedly.
The 300 million treasury bonds did not even meet the requirements of the Gangnam County Chamber of Commerce. Later, the Imperial Central Bank had to issue an additional 700 million treasury bonds of 700 million imperial gold coins after emergency consultations with the imperial finance ministries. However, this was still a drop in the bucket. To meet demand, especially in various regions of India, the wealthy Indian gentry who have invested huge amounts of money hope to obtain stable and risk-free returns by purchasing government bonds, and have tightly allocated a quota of 100 million to each county in the Indian region. It was almost a robbery, and even caused riots. The counties in the empire also expressed their dissatisfaction with the Imperial Finance Ministry and the Central Bank for giving priority to the Indian region. This even triggered the intervention of the Control Council and the court of inquisition, demanding that the Imperial Control Council and the Tribunal to correct this distribution plan that clearly exhibits regional discrimination.
In the end, the Imperial Ministry of Finance and the Central Bank, after considering the empire's financial solvency, once again increased the national debt by 500 million imperial gold coins, and stated that they would increase the national debt by another 500 million imperial gold coins in the second half of 701. This was enough to barely calm down the storm. Come down.
The great success of the issuance of the Imperial Treasury Bonds gave the Empire relatively abundant financial support. It also gave the Imperial Ministry of Economic Development, the Ministry of Construction, and the Ministry of Agriculture and Water Resources the confidence to put forward their respective plans in a grand manner.
The Privy Council also put forward their own ideas. In view of the fact that both the emperor and the government have determined that the national policy for 701 is mainly economic development. Based on the actual situation, the two Privy Council envoys proposed the strategy of stabilizing the army and vigorously developing the navy. While preserving Under the current premise of 14 army corps and 10 cavalry regiments, some other irregular army units will be disbanded and reorganized, and reorganized and replenished to other corps nearby in the theater to carry out a large-scale operation to improve the army's mobile combat capabilities and sustained combat capabilities. Large-scale drills ensure that the empire can complete the delivery of one legion of troops to any place within the empire within two months under any circumstances, and complete the delivery of three to four legions of troops within three months.
In terms of planning for building the navy, the Privy Council also made regular adjustments to the naval military system. The navy no longer has the position of naval commander, but only the commander-in-chief of the navy (water) force. The commander-in-chief of the navy also serves as the assistant to the privy envoy of the Imperial Privy Council. The Imperial Navy It consists of three ocean fleets, one inland water fleet, nine marine divisions, as well as specialized Naval Intelligence Bureau, Naval Staff Training Bureau, and Naval Logistics Bureau.
Although the Privy Council gave up on large-scale expansion of the army, the government administration still complained about the huge expansion of the navy. In particular, the rapid expansion of the Marine Division's establishment made many government officials think it was equivalent to two army regiments. A special Naval Intelligence Agency was also established, which was independent of the two intelligence agencies of the empire. This was equivalent to throwing all the funds that could not be reduced by the army to the navy. In fact, naval intelligence expenditures did not decrease in 701. , and there is even an increasing trend.
However, the officials of the Privy Council also argued hard, especially arguing that due to the inclusion of Sikkim Island in the southwest and the Sporades Islands in the Baltic Sea and Aegean Sea, the empire has become a maritime power with long coastlines facing the sea on three sides. If you want to better defend the maritime rights and interests of the Empire, you must build a powerful Imperial Navy. At this stage, the Imperial Navy has not even established a basic structure. If you want to compete with the naval powers of the Western Continent, you still have to build a powerful Imperial Navy. Quite a long way to go. Therefore, the empire has to invest more and spend more in its initial construction. Only in this way can the gap between the imperial navy and the navies of other powerful countries be gradually narrowed.
Discussions related to the development direction of the empire in 701 and the next few years lasted for two full weeks before the tone was barely set. During this period, representatives of the Imperial Senate and the Citizens' Council also put forward some demands and demands representing their respective regions and classes. ideas, while the imperial military plan related to military secrets was demonstrated on a very small scale. There was also a lot of discussion on whether to agree with Cui Wenxiu’s proposal to seize South Meili and Northwest India in 701. The dispute ultimately determined that in principle he did not support large-scale military operations in 701, but as the military commander of the Central Continent Theater, he also had the authority to take necessary actions under special circumstances. If military action is taken in an emergency, there must be sufficient reasons to explain the reason for taking action. There are some ambiguous and vague language in this. In the words of Bo Jinchen, the Right Privy Councilor of the Empire, it is to conduct military action for Cui Wenxiu. Looking for excuses, of course he will bear greater responsibility.
The Imperial Privy Council also confirmed that after the end of the autumn of 701, the imperial army will complete preparations for the military operation against the Maci Khan. The first phase of the plan is to complete the Yuejing, Anjie, and Anjie attacks against the Maci Khan in 702. Regarding the military operations in the three provinces of Romania, the military's work in 701 was more about preparing for the operations at the end of the year, and the diplomatic department will cooperate with the military to persuade the Three Kingdoms Alliance headed by Milan to consolidate The cooperative relationship with the Triple Alliance prevents it from turning to or joining the alliance with the Machi Khan and the Nanyang Alliance.