The TV speeches had been arranged a long time ago, and Zhou Yongtao read them according to the script.

Because the news had already spread and the TV station had also made relevant reports, Shousuke's TV speech did not cause much turmoil.

For the military and civilians of the empire, fighting a war was not something to be fuss about at all.

According to the comments of the TV station, in the more than ten years after the Polish-Iranian War, except for sending troops to Sri Lanka to quell the military coup, the empire has not experienced other regional wars worth mentioning, but the Empire and the Nuland Republic have directly or indirectly participated in several wars.

As far as the history of the empire is concerned, there has been no war for more than ten years, but it is very rare!

Don't forget, the Liangxia Empire was born in the Battle of Nanjiangkou, grew in the Liangluo War, and became the world hegemon during the two wars.

The last time there was such a long peace was a "20-year truce" between the two wars.

After finishing his work, Zhou Yongtao returned to the study.

His mood was very complicated, not because he had just finished reading the prepared speech in front of the camera, but because he was discussing the matter of voting in both houses.

Although Zhou Yongtao knew three days ago that he would definitely be authorized to war, that is, the majority of the members of the two houses said that they would support Shoufu's war proposal, but what Zhou Yongtao did not expect was that in the final vote, he would be unanimously supported.

Not a single parliamentarian voted against!

This is so abnormal!

Fifty years ago, Xue Yuanzheng won unanimous support in the votes of the two houses of the Chamber, because the Narrow Imperial State attacked the Chengjiang Military Port without declaring war!

Can this be compared?

Not only did the Iraqi army not attack the empire's mainland nor its overseas military bases, and Kuwait was not an imperial ally.

In addition, the imperial royal family's security assurances to the Kuwaiti royal family have not been broken, and members of the Kuwaiti royal family, including Abbas III, have arrived safely in Riyadh.

Why did the thousands of members of both houses of parliament support a war against Iraq?

Obviously, this is enough to illustrate a problem.

The internal contradictions of the empire were so serious that they needed to be alleviated by war.

The most serious problem is actually the economic problem.

At the root, it is also related to Zhou Yongtao.

Six years ago, after moving into the residence of the first assistant, the first thing Zhou Yongtao did was not to authorize the Marine Corps to take action in Sri Lanka, but to initiate the construction of a strategic defense system codenamed "Skynet" and began to build the so-called national strategic defense system.

At the time, the incident detonated global public opinion.

According to Western media commentary, if the Liangxia Empire takes the lead in establishing a national strategic defense system and obtains a strategic strike capability based on this system, it will have the absolute advantage of carrying out a comprehensive strategic strike against any opponent without worrying about being counterattacked.

To put it simply, it has broken the strategic balance formed by the three-legged tripod.

In theory, both the Empire and the Republic of Nuland, due to the lack of reciprocal means of counterattack, will lose to the Liangxia Empire in the next major war.

In fact, after obtaining a strategic strike method that almost crushed the superiority, the Liangxia Empire was able to wage war as it pleased.

The key to this is, in fact, to expand the arms race into the space domain.

It's just that what happened next, the military coup in Sri Lanka, successfully diverted the attention of public opinion.

The problem, however, is that the arms race, which has lasted for more than 30 years, has escalated.

In the same year, the Nuland Federation took the lead in launching the strategic plan codenamed "Star Wars", which was actually aimed at the empire's "Skynet".

The following year, the Empire also launched a strategic plan codenamed "Ragnarok".

In the years that followed, the three superpowers exerted their power in the space field.

Of course, the leader has always been the Liangxia Empire.

In the past few years, the empire has not only launched dozens of military reconnaissance satellites of the "Sky Eye" series, mastering the space reconnaissance capability covering the whole world for the first time, but also officially launched the construction of a global navigation satellite system codenamed "Compass", completing the comprehensive coverage of the homeland.

As for the communication satellites, the deployment of the network has long been completed.

Of course, in contrast, there is a high level of military spending.

During the six years of Zhou Yongtao's rule, the growth rate of imperial military spending has remained above 15 percent, which is basically four times the economic growth rate.

Last year, the empire's national defense budget was as high as 640 billion gold yuan, accounting for 30% of the central budget!

In the year 143 of the new calendar, the year before Zhou Yongtao came to power, the imperial defense budget was only 230 billion gold yuan, and even if inflation is counted, it is only equivalent to 300 billion epochs in the 149th year of the new calendar. Going back further, in the final year of the Second World War, the empire spent less than 60 billion gold dollars on the war, equivalent to 880 billion gold dollars in 149 of the new calendar, and only 30% of the central budget.

Such huge military spending will inevitably lead to serious social problems.

Zhou Yongtao knows this best.

However, this is also the key.

The launch of the "Skynet" strategy is not really aimed at acquiring a space-based strategic strike capability, and it is technically impossible to achieve it at all.

The purpose of the program is twofold.

Militarily, it is actually to expand into space, accelerate the process of the third round of military transformation that has already begun, and enhance the military strength of the empire.

Among them, the "Compass" satellite navigation system is the most important.

The most difficult and slowest progress of the next-generation reconnaissance, communications, intelligence, command, and strike system led by the Air Force and involving the Navy and Army is the Global Navigation and Positioning System.

The purpose outside of military affairs was to force the Nuland Republic and the Empire to follow suit, putting economic pressure on the two opponents.

In addition, it is to increase the weight of science and technology in the arms race.

This is a war between economics and technology.

Last year, Nuland's military spending exceeded NZ$500 billion, accounting for 40 percent of the federal government's budget and 8 percent of the national economy.

The defense expenditure of the Empire also reached 850 billion gold marks, accounting for 45% of the budget and more than 10% of the national economy.

In peacetime, this is an absolutely unbearable burden.

In Zhou Yongtao's words, this will be the last round of the arms race before the third global war, because the super-hegemony that cannot support it will definitely start a war.

Fundamentally, this was also the key to the Manman Empire's instigation of Hussein's regime to wage war.

Therefore, it is not difficult to understand why the big men of the two houses are so enthusiastic about sending troops to Bosha Bay to liberate Kuwait.

There is also a very sensitive issue involved.

That's right, inflation brought about by a huge deficit budget, that is, a currency depreciation.

The Empire's fiscal deficit has exceeded 20% for six consecutive years, and the current debt ratio is equivalent to 240% of the government's annual revenue.

In order to balance the budget, the empire has been issuing additional currency for the past six years.

Without control of the global trade settlement system, especially the fact that the major oil-producing countries settle in gold dollars, the imperial financial system would have collapsed long ago.

Of course, in the end, it is actually serious inflation, or overcapacity.

Here's the key!

The only option to eliminate inflation, solve excess capacity, and use up the vast amount of surplus materials that has been hoarded is a large-scale war.

If anything, that's where the root is.

It was not only the Empire that faced this problem, but also the Empire of Manman and the Republic of Nuland.

In fact, this also proves from one side that the current situation cannot be maintained at all, and a super hegemony will inevitably fall in the end!

Only at the expense of a superpower can the global economy return to normal.

Does this scene seem similar?

However, this is also what Zhou Yongtao is most worried about.

Needless to say, even if it did not directly participate in the war, the Empire would have changed its tactics to support the Hussein regime and vigorously supported Syria to the west.

The key is actually the Nuland Republic.

To put it bluntly, if the arms dealers of the Nuland Republic wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to make a war windfall, they could encourage Poland to enter the war.

Secret protocol?

Obviously, that's just a piece of paper!

As long as the Nuland authorities nod and the Nuland arms dealers provide support, the Boi militants will open fire on the Liangxia fleet at the first opportunity.

If it really comes to this point, a big war will be inevitable.

But what's the use of worrying?

As Lin Shiping said, the only thing that the imperial authorities could decide was to do their best to fight this battle, show the great improvement brought about by the second military revolution after the war, and let the opponent recognize the gap with the Liang Xia Empire, so as to dispel the idea of expanding the scale of the war.

When Luo Youbin came in, more than ten minutes had actually passed.

"Fighting?"

Luo Youbin nodded, and then said: "I just received the news that our fighter jets shot down 2 invading Iraqi fighters in Kuwaiti airspace. ”

"Do we have any losses?"

"No reports of war damage have been received."

At this time, Zhou Yongtao breathed a sigh.

"General Shi Zhiliang will officially announce the establishment of a no-fly zone after 10 a.m. local time."

"Let him do it, remember to inform the Ministry of Foreign Affairs."

Luo Youbin nodded in agreement, and then retreated.

The matter of setting up a no-fly zone has long been decided, and it has also been approved by Zhou Yongtao.

There is nothing strange about the delay of 2 hours.

Of course, after Shi Xuliang, in his capacity as commander-in-chief of the joint forces, announced the news of the establishment of a no-fly zone, the front-line combat operations had nothing to do with Zhou Yongtao.

What he wants to do is actually solve Shi Yuliang's worries.

The first task is to get a large number of allies to join the war, and to convince the interested countries as much as possible that the joint force will develop into a real joint force.

It is precisely because of this that Zhou Yongtao asked Luo Youbin to inform the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

…………

King Khalid Military City, headquarters of the coalition forces.

Because it is a military base, only invited journalists are allowed to enter, and there are gendarmes to maintain order, so the press conference can be said to be orderly.

Interestingly, the journalists are most concerned not with the next combat operations, but with the battles that have already ended.

About 15 minutes earlier, the Iraqi Ministry of Defence had preemptively issued a statement claiming that during the 9 a.m. battle, it had successfully intercepted the invading enemy planes and shot down seven of them.

In order to "prove" this claim, the spokesman of the Iraqi Ministry of Defense produced several very blurry photos.

However, some relevant professionals have pointed out that the fighters taken in the photos released by the Iraqi Ministry of Defense are actually the "Zhan-7" fighters exported to Saudi Arabia by the Liangxia Empire, and this kind of fighter has long been relegated to the second line and has not been deployed in the Posha Bay area.

In fact, the "Zhan-7" itself is an "export" fighter.

It was only in order to open up the international market, or to carry out advertising, that the Liangxia Air Force purchased a small amount of equipment and never used it as the main fighter. Almost all of the "Zhan-7" that still served in the Liangxia Air Force were in the second-line troops, and they were mainly used for daily training.

Crucially, according to very reliable inside information.

There were only six Liangxia fighters dispatched in the morning.

Well, where did the Iraqi Air Force go to shoot down the 7th?

Also from reliable sources said that during the morning battle, the Liangsha fighters shot down 2 Iraqi fighters over Kuwait, and most likely MG-29.

This is not just a rumor, journalists in Kuwait filmed the shot down fighter jet.

If this is the case, the Iraqi Air Force will lose a lot!

The MG-29 is the most advanced fighter owned by the Iraqi Air Force and one of the few third-generation fighters available on the international market.

Until then, the Rosa Democratic Republic had been boasting, declaring the MG-29 to be the most advanced fighter today.

As for the fighter dispatched by the Liangxia Air Force, it is very likely to be the "Battle-11B".

Although the "Zhan-10" is a medium-sized fighter of the same class as the MG-29, the news media of the Western Continent Group have always compared the "Zhan-11" with the MG-29.

While waiting for the press conference, some reporters have already prepared press releases based on these hearsay news, and they are waiting for it to be finally confirmed.

If you can report relevant news in the first place, it can definitely increase newspaper sales, or increase TV ratings.

Now the whole world is watching this war.

As a result, when Shi Zhiliang came to the venue, there were still many reporters who were immersed in the manuscript, and they didn't even notice that the press conference was about to start.

Until the host slapped the microphone vigorously and made a loud noise.

…………

At the other end of the military city, next to the runway of the air base.

After getting off the fighter, Li Tianling did not untie the flight suit, but only gave the helmet to the ground crew, and then found the ground crew leader to advise.

On the way back, the No. 2 engine fuel indicator was on for a few seconds.

It may be that the contact is poor, but there may also be hidden dangers, so Li Tianling told the ground crew leader to check the oil supply line.

The battle has already begun, and unless the Baghdad authorities swallow the bitter fruit of defeat, they will definitely go out in a big way to challenge the Liangxia Air Force.

For this purpose, 2 squadrons of 16 fighters had to be mobilized.

To be precise, there are four squadrons, Li Tianling's wing is responsible for the eastern region, another "expeditionary melee wing" is responsible for the western section of the border, and the third wing serves as a reserve.

For this reason, there is only about 30 minutes of preparation.

If it weren't for the engine failure indicator light on, Li Tianling would not have taken the plane back to the military city.

To the north of Military City, two large tankers are refueling several other fighter jets.

Of course, by borrowing the return for maintenance, you can also replenish the used missiles.

Li Tianling just went to the toilet for convenience, and waited for the dough to pee in the crotch.

The ground staff has done an inspection and found no problems, the oil supply system of engine 2 is working normally, and the oil pressure and hydraulics are within the normal range.

Li Tianling did not delay any longer, and after the fighter plane was filled with fuel and missiles were hung up, he sat in the cockpit again.

By the time he took to the skies, it was already a quarter past 10 a.m. local time.