Chapter 1078 Revenge? No, expansion (first update, please subscribe)

Emperor Zhu stood by the window, thinking and considering over and over again.

After waiting for almost half an hour, Prime Minister Qian Degong, Assistant Ministers Fang Zhanbo and Cheng Dingkang, and Minister of Foreign Affairs Zhuge Jun all rushed to His Majesty's study.

Seeing His Majesty standing by the window with his back to the others, they bowed and then stood there without saying a word.

"What's the situation now?"

Emperor Zhu, with his back to the crowd, asked.

"Your Majesty, the Spanish ambassador said that this incident has no direct connection with Spain. The assassin is a Chilean who has been in exile in Peru for a long time. He entered Cuba through the United States."

Although the incident had just happened, the Spanish side had already learned the results of the preliminary investigation and informed the Ming Dynasty of the results truthfully.

"absurd!"

Fang Zhanbo sneered.

"It is true that the assassin was a Chilean exiled in Peru, but the assassination took place in Cuba. How can they be connected? Why not somewhere else, but in Cuba!"

After sneering, Fang Zhanbo went straight into his speech.

"Your Majesty, I believe that the assassination of Prime Minister Wang is a matter of concern to the dignity of the empire. Prime Minister Wang's blood must not be shed in vain. In order to maintain the dignity of the empire, the empire should declare war on Spain, send troops to land in Cuba, and occupy Cuba!"

When Fang Zhanbo finished speaking, Cheng Dingkang and Zhuge Jun all looked sideways. While they were still considering the truth of the assassination, others were directly using it as an excuse to declare war and occupy Cuba!

"It's not just Cuba. Cuba is just the first step. I think the Peru-Bolivian Federation is no longer necessary. This is the best excuse for the Empire to go to war with Peru."

The suggestions of the two prime ministers made Cheng Dingkang frown. He thought about it and then said.

"Your Majesty, the annexation of Peru will inevitably arouse the vigilance of other countries, which goes against the "strategy of detente" currently pursued by the Empire."

"What Prime Minister Cheng said is surprising. The "detente strategy" was proposed in the past to ease the conflicts between the Empire and other countries after the annexation of Brazil. However, it was just a way for the Empire to digest the fruits of victory with the other powers. Now the Empire's occupation of Brazil has been consolidated, the public security in the twelve northern provinces is good, and the people have adapted to and accepted the Empire's rule. The digestion of the fruits of victory has been basically completed."

After directly stating the essence of the "de-escalation strategy", Fang Zhanbo continued.

"Originally, the existence of the Peru-Bolivian Federation has threatened the security of the Empire. We have tolerated it until now based on the "detente strategy". Over the years, thanks to the saltpeter trade, the economy of the Peru-Bolivian Federation has developed rapidly, and its national strength has been increasing. The threat to the Empire is also obvious to all. If it is allowed to develop, the Empire will not only face threats from Britain and the United States, but also face direct threats from the Peru-Bolivian Federation. In the past, we lacked an excuse to invade. Now the assassination of Prime Minister Wang has given us enough excuses. Moreover, with the completion of the initial infrastructure of the 12 northern provinces, the role of the new land infrastructure in promoting the Empire's economy is no longer as good as before. After occupying the Peru-Bolivian Federation, in order to maintain the Empire's rule, it is necessary to build railways, roads, and urban public infrastructure in the local area. The infrastructure of the newly occupied area will once again become the engine of the Empire's economic take-off!"

Expansion always makes money!

This way of making money is not through raising taxes or exploiting the people in the occupied areas, but through boosting the economy through infrastructure investment. Although the infrastructure of the Ming Dynasty is far from being perfect, compared with the Ming Dynasty, the infrastructure of other countries at this time is almost blank.

After occupying Brazil, the Ming Dynasty took improving people's livelihood as a breakthrough point, invested hundreds of millions of yuan to build tens of thousands of kilometers of railways, hundreds of thousands of kilometers of roads, and transformed the slums in the cities.

Large-scale infrastructure not only stimulated the production of factories in Daming and promoted the industrial development of Daming, but also provided a large number of jobs. With employment, there is consumption, and with consumption, there is economic development. Of course, the most important thing is that the biggest benefit of large-scale infrastructure for the empire is not just that the double investment can receive several times the increase in GDP. It is the population migration accompanied by jobs - more than six million Chinese immigrants poured into various places in the northern twelve provinces, fundamentally changing the local population composition.

Five years ago, the mainstream population of the twelve northern provinces was Brazilians, but now it is Chinese - the number of Chinese in the twelve northern provinces exceeded 7.5 million last year, 1.5 times that of Europeans.

"Prime Minister, we must take into account the international environment. It is different now than in the past. Will the four-nation alliance of Britain, the United States, Germany and Italy sit idly by and watch us occupy Peru?"

After Cheng Dingkang asked back, he looked at Zhuge Jun and asked.

"Minister Zhuge, under what circumstances would Britain and the United States accept our occupation of Peru?"

"this……"

After a moment's silence, Zhuge Jun, the Minister of Foreign Affairs who once served as Ambassador to France, said.

"I think that Britain and the United States will definitely not accept the further expansion of the empire. After all, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the bottom line of Britain and the United States is the empire's occupation of Brazil. If the empire expands further, it is very likely to lead to joint intervention by the two countries."

Joint intervention… Turning around, Emperor Zhu looked at Qian Degong without saying a word, and then asked.

"Qian Degong, what do you think?"

"His Majesty……"

In response to His Majesty's question, Qian Degong raised his eyebrows and said.

"I think that using this as an excuse for expansion is indeed a rare opportunity, but we cannot ignore the reactions of countries like Britain and the United States. After all, the Empire is not ready for war with Britain. After all, in all the military and the Executive Yuan's simulations, as long as war with Britain begins, it will be a total war of mobilization of the Empire, a world war, and in such a war, the loser will lose everything, so the Empire must win the war at all costs. Before completing preparations, the Empire should not start a war lightly."

Fang Zhanbo was displeased by the Prime Minister's caution.

"What Prime Minister Qian said is surprising. Why hasn't the Empire completed its war preparations? In the tenth year of Shengde, our total industrial output value has surpassed that of Britain. The scale of our steel and other industries is also far greater than that of Britain. As long as we are willing, we can build a navy far larger than that of Britain at any time. At present, the scale of our navy is only 65% ​​of that of Britain. This is due to the Empire's "detente strategy". If a war breaks out, with our shipbuilding capabilities and economy, we can completely build a fleet more powerful than Britain. War preparations are not a problem at all!"

In fact, as everyone knows, Fang Zhanbo is not a radical. The reason why he made this judgment is because... the empire is indeed very strong!

1880 was a watershed year. It was in that year that the empire's total industrial output value surpassed that of Britain for the first time. The large-scale infrastructure made the Ming Dynasty powerful overnight.

My fists are hard, my muscles are strong, but it feels bad to have someone strangle me by the neck and not be able to expand!

Therefore, there have always been people within the empire who advocate breaking the current deadlock, and Fang Zhanbo is one of them.

He would not be so radical as to want to go to war with Britain, but he hoped to break the deadlock in which Britain was holding him back and preventing him from expanding.

Qian Degong frowned and said.

"Prime Minister Fang, preparations for war don't just involve industry!"

I have set up a book club: 335260551. Everyone is welcome to join and discuss and deduce the plot together.

(End of this chapter)