When the ultimatum of the envoys of the East and West Song dynasties was submitted to the Head of the Great Zhou Republic, the Fourth Central Plains War was actually inevitable.

Because just one day ago, the Senate of the Great Zhou Republic passed the new version of the Citizenship Law and the Military Service Law with high votes.

Now 180 million people in the Great Zhou Republic are equal citizens, all of whom are masters of the Republic. Although only a small number of masters have the right to vote, they are still a big step forward compared to the previous inequality of more than 200 years.

Although for such progress, the proletariat of the Great Zhou risked their lives to be a gun-carrying soldier. But when did the citizens of the Great Zhou be afraid of war?

The Great Zhou Heavenly Soldiers are invincible in the world!

How can a mere two Song dynasties be able to hit?

Therefore, for young and middle-aged men among the working people in Tianjin who have not had a good life, as a glorious citizen, they still yearn for joining the army and fighting.

Their fate may be changed because of this war...

As for the senators, they were even more excited about the upcoming war.

Is there anything better than war for these veterans who represent the interests of the nobles and bourgeoisie?

When the cannon fires, it’s a thousand taels of gold!

Now there is overproduction everywhere, there is no demand everywhere, and there is a young and middle-aged man on the street who cannot find a job. Not only can the aristocrats and capitalists not only cannot make much money, but they also have to worry about trouble at all times.

But as long as the war breaks out, these problems will not be problems!

Due to the continuous inflow of gold and silver from the New World over the past 200 years, the Great Zhou Republic is not short of funds. Moreover, the Great Zhou Bank has been available more than 200 years ago, and the gold-silver mixed standard paper money has been issued for more than 200 years, and the currency value is maintained well - it is not that there is no inflation, but that the price comparison with silver and gold is very stable.

Therefore, the government of the Great Zhou Republic also had a way to issue bonds to expand fiscally. However, the government of this era had a misunderstanding about finance, thinking that borrowing money would have to be paid...

Therefore, they will not issue bonds for projects that obviously cannot generate returns, so it is difficult to implement expansionary and stimulating fiscal policies.

The war to annex the mainland of the Eastern Song Dynasty was obviously a expense that could generate a lot of profits. The 50 Hezhong Prefectures in the Eastern Song Dynasty were all very rich, and even if they maintained the current autonomous Hezhong system, they could pay hundreds of millions of taxes to the central government every year.

With this expected income, the Great Zhou Republic's finances can discover at least 1 billion taels of bonds!

What a big demand is it to spend 1 billion taels of military expenditure!

Recruiting troops, purchasing weapons, building ships, and building roads... As long as an army of millions of people is pulled together, how much domestic demand will be driven?

Will you still be afraid that the proletariat will be unemployed and the bourgeoisie will go bankrupt?

So when the elders heard that the two Song dynasties were now together, they gave the Great Zhou Republic an ultimatum. That was really exciting!

This is what you two are stupid enough to fight!

Our Great Zhou Republic is so nice to you. China has given priority to more than a hundred years, so I changed this one?

Why are the two unconscience-free goods in the Eastern Song Dynasty and Western Song Dynasty still kept? Let’s just destroy them!

From now on, the Great Zhou Republic will unify the world!

"Declare war! Declare war! Declare war..."

As soon as Wu Yuanlong walked into the Senate's convention hall, the shouts of the elders rang in his ears.

Wu Yuanlong strode to the rostrum. The second-class veteran in the Senate held a hammer in his hand, and looked at a hammer with a gong.

"Bang..."

With a harsh gong, the elders immediately calmed down.

The next elder said loudly: "Please speak."

The so-called second-class veteran is actually the speaker of the Senate, and the chief of the Senate is the head of state Wu Yuanlong himself.

However, the government of the Great Zhou Republic is not a "responsible" type, which means that only the head of state has the status of a veteran, and the rest of the cabinet members are not veterans.

Wu Yuanlong nodded to the second elder, then owed his lower body to the elders in the conference hall, and said, "Seniors, the Ministry of Rites has just received an ultimatum submitted by the envoys of the East and West Song dynasties! The ultimatum requires our country to immediately open the export of American bird droppings, and at the same time give up the ten "Aquaman"-class battleships that are about to be completed.

Such a request is a serious offense to our Great Zhou Republic! Therefore, the ultimatum has been rejected by the head of state!"

More than 200 years after the co-establishment of heroes in the Chinese world, the central dynasty system in the era of great unification no longer exists, and the international system is replaced by it.

Although the land population owned by the three great Chinese powerful people is far greater than that of the Song Dynasty before, no one will regard themselves as an unattainable country of the Celestial Empire.

Therefore, a set of rules for diplomatic countries was slowly established and improved.

According to this set of rules, rejecting an ultimatum is equivalent to choosing a war!

The usual practice is that three days after the ultimatum is rejected, the two countries will be in a state of complete hostility.

So while Wu Yuanlong refused the ultimatum, he had already issued an order to the Ministry of War and the Navy to enter the state of war after 36 hours.

Wu Yuanlong looked at the excited elders in the hall with bright eyes, took a deep breath and said, "Seniors, the Republic does not like fighting, but it will never fear fighting, and will not surrender without fighting!

Even if the East and the Song dynasties unite, 180 million citizens of the Republic will not surrender!

As the Head of State, I plead with the elders to authorize the government to announce the implementation of wartime laws. The Republic will enter the wartime system from now on until our enemy is completely defeated...

Long live the Republic! The Republic is victorious!"

"Long live the Republic..."

The elders all cheered, as if they were not going to vote for war, but had already won.

Wu Yuanlong looked at the cheering elders, and his heart was filled with indescribable pleasure.

When he was a head of state, he always made people retort when he was speech in the Senate, and he always made more cheers than cheers. The people did not have a high opinion of him, and they always said that his head of state was not good at doing well, and was the worst ever.

Such a scene of everyone cheering today can only be seen when Kamakura is hosting an election campaign.

The news that the country entered a wartime state spread throughout Tianjin at the first time. The place where the great magnificent land of the Great Zhou Republic suddenly fell into a craze.

The Great Zhou and the Eastern Song dynasties, two countries that have already entered the threshold of the industrial revolution, have not shown much fear of the coming long war.

Because although these two countries suffered from economic surplus after the arrival of the era of machine industry, their productivity was indeed leaping! The wealth created by the working people of the Great Zhou and the Eastern Song dynasties was unimaginable to their predecessors.

The leap in productivity also gave the people of both countries the illusion that they are omnipotent! Naturally, they can defeat all enemies!

The first thing that realized that there would be a long and cruel war to deal with was the "Huashan Sect advisers" of the Western Song Dynasty who had always shown themselves as a belligerent.

When the Great Zhou Republic rejected the ultimatum and entered a state of war, the news reached the Privy Council in Huaqing City (affiliated with Chang'an Prefecture), the response was extremely solemn atmosphere.

"It's going to fight..."

"Mr. Zhou reacted so quickly this time!"

"Are they ready?"

"Alas, they have water heaters (steam engines), new continents, gold and silver mountains, 180 million people, and the republican system..."

"Yes, they are developing fast..."

The Western Song Dynasty has now seen a class solidification with significant price comparisons. It is difficult for poor warriors to climb to high positions, and it is unlikely that they will enter a yamen like the Privy Council.

Therefore, the music in the Privy Council is all the elite children of various wealthy families, and most of them have the experience of studying or working in the Great Zhou Republic.

Everyone knows the Zhou faction. Moreover, when they were in the Zhou Kingdom, they could also know a lot about the situation in the Eastern Song Dynasty. So they all know that the Great Zhou and the Eastern Song Dynasty have been so earth-shaking in the past twenty years!

These two countries were already prosperous and strong, but now there is another round of industrial revolution. It is really unreasonable to be prosperous and strong.

On the other hand, the Western Song Dynasty can only be described as lifeless. There has not been any major change in the past 200 years... Oh, there are also changes, and it has become worse than 200 years ago!

200 years ago, the Western Song Dynasty society was at least fair. It was possible to capture soldiers based on its ability, and to make meritorious service in the army to obtain land.

But now, the Western Song Dynasty has become a country monopolized by wealthy military officials. Not to mention that the middle and lower classes have no hope, even ordinary military households and gun doctors have no chance to make a comeback.

A small number of wealthy soldiers born with golden keys could not see hope. It was not that they did not expect their own future, but that they could not see hope in the Western Song Dynasty.

This country is poor, backward, conservative, ignorant, full of suffocating stagnation, society is full of injustice, and there is no future at all.

And there is no possibility of defeating the Great Zhou Republic?

The Great Zhou Republic has 160 million citizens, and at least more than 10 million young and middle-aged men of appropriate age!

Moreover, the developed industries in the Great Zhou Dynasty were enough to provide them with weapons and equipment, and the agriculture in the Great Zhou Dynasty was enough to feed ten million soldiers, and they could also make them eat well.

But what about the Western Song Dynasty?

Although there is a population of 60 million, most of them are tenants and are no longer within the scope of military mobilization. The number of gun doctors within the scope of mobilization is as high as five or six million. Among them, the number of suitable soldiers is one million...one million and ten million?

This is suicide!

Moreover, the Western Song Dynasty did not have the ability to support 1 million troops in overseas offensive operations. Even if they could get support from the Eastern Song Dynasty, they could guarantee up to hundreds of thousands of people.

There is no possibility of winning with this little force!

As for the Eastern Song Dynasty...their navy was not bad, and the army might be able to defend.

But can the Eastern Song Navy defeat the Great Zhou Navy?

It seems that there is no confidence?

As for defense... no one can destroy a country by defense.

So now no one can tell the Privy Councillor Yue Xuan and the Privy Councillor Zong Wan how to defeat the Great Zhou Republic.

Yue Xuan and Zong Wan looked at each other, and were both a little disappointed.

This is not a good opportunity for this session... It seems that I have to throw a brick and arouse my talents.

Zong Wan coughed and said, "There are 160 million people in the Zhou State. Recently, the new Citizen Law and the Military Service Law have been implemented, which has expanded the recruitment targets. Up to 10 million troops can be recruited! If the Zhou State is fully mobilized, our Song Dynasty may be in danger of destroying the country, so we should take the initiative first!"

Should we start first?
To be continued...