General Zhong Yifu was the Commander-in-Chief of the Chinese Army during the Sino-British War that ended in 1927. Fourteen years had passed since then. In his impression, although the British prisoners of war were defeated and captured, and were very depressed, they frequently felt that the Chinese army was uncivilized. This left Zhong Yifu with a feeling of pride.

At that time, Zhong Yifu just felt that the British were incomprehensibly arrogant. Now, hearing He Rui say that those hateful British would be in despair when China fought to their doorstep, he couldn't quite accept it for a moment, so he said, "Maybe not despair, but madness."

He heard He Rui reply, "Even in the worst countries, there will be people who die for their country when it perishes. Not to mention that white supremacy has existed for hundreds of years. In my opinion, even if tens of millions of people die for it, it wouldn't be strange."

Zhong Yifu just smiled and pulled the topic back to reality. "Chairman, a Class A Army Group has 80,000 troops, and a Class B Army Group has 60,000 to 72,000 troops. With 36 Army Groups, the total force is less than 3 million. Adding the Air Force and Navy, the total force is less than 6 million. Is it really enough to fight such a large-scale war with this amount of troops?"

"As long as we maintain this scale of combat troops, it is enough," He Rui answered decisively. Leaving aside the massive scale of the World People's Liberation Army that He Rui expected, more than 5 million Chinese troops armed to the teeth were enough to defeat any major power. To maintain these more than 5 million frontline combat troops, the rear had to maintain 10 million reserves, ready to replenish losses at any time. Adding up, that was 15 million people.

The recent national census results had come out, and China's population had reached 692 million. The number of active duty and reserve personnel accounted for 2.168% of the total population, which was just on the edge of not affecting China's economic operation. If possible, He Rui still hoped that China could survive this war relying only on normal national operations.

Zhong Yifu gave up discussing with He Rui on matters where he had no experience either. To study this issue, the General Staff had calculated many times using computers. The results calculated covered a very large range. Depending on the situation, China's frontline combat troops ranged from 5 million to 30 million. Zhong Yifu didn't want to bother thinking too much about it anymore. As long as He Rui spoke, Zhong Yifu felt that he had obtained inner peace.

This meeting discussed the timing of operations. The General Staff had already presupposed various situations and reached a final conclusion. As long as the United States or the Soviet Union did not take the initiative to attack China, the war could begin after October 1941. Although He Rui had a strong aversion to the Double Tenth Festival, he had no reason to take it upon himself to change the Double Tenth Festival to a National Day on October 1st.

Moreover, the Double Tenth Festival was later mechanically applied by the KMT, insisting on linking itself with the Wuchang Uprising. The Wuchang Uprising had little to do with Sun "Big Cannon" and Chiang "Baldy." He Rui ultimately had to tolerate it.

From the perspective of the comrades in the Military Commission now, since the war did not have particular urgency, fighting on National Day did not seem so auspicious in China's view. In addition, the north wind would only become strong after mid-October. Since it was a southward operation, the time was scheduled for October 15th. As for the reason for the war, the colonialists never treated people as humans in the colonies. Finding a few crimes against humanity could no longer be described as "too easy." It could basically be considered that every day the colonialists were in the colonies, they were committing crimes against humanity.

After finishing the work discussion, Xu Chengfeng suddenly remembered something. "Chairman, you once said that the war could begin after the completion of the Third Five-Year Plan. I didn't expect the Fourth Five-Year Plan to have already begun."

The comrades were stunned, and then remembered that there was indeed such a thing. Zhong Yifu sighed, "When the Chairman first mentioned it, I still felt that ten years was a long time away. I didn't expect the Fourth Five-Year Plan to start in the blink of an eye... Speaking of which, it has been 17 years since 1924. Those who were in elementary school then have graduated from university."

The former Minister of General Logistics Zheng Silang was now the Minister of Defense. He had a nephew who was in elementary school in '24. Because of his outstanding academic performance, he was now a graduate student. He couldn't help saying, "Wait until the Fourth Five-Year Plan is completed; the doctoral students we cultivated ourselves will have graduated."

Once this topic was opened up, everyone at the meeting became interested. Chief of General Staff Hu Xiushan spoke up. "The United States had 1.5 million college students in school in 1940."

Hu Xiushan rarely spoke on such meeting occasions. Since he actually said such a sentence, everyone became even more interested. Cheng Ruofan asked, "Chairman, how many college students do we have in school?"

He Rui thought for a moment. "There are 1.6 million STEM college students in school."

Hearing this, no one said the words "STEM guys." Everyone knew that He Rui had a prejudice against liberal arts students. He believed that one was only qualified to be called a liberal arts student after obtaining a STEM bachelor's degree first and then studying liberal arts. Studying liberal arts directly was called being a clerk. Therefore, there were different views on what exactly He Rui's prejudice against liberal arts students was. Some felt that He Rui looked down on liberal arts students, while others felt that He Rui attached great importance to liberal arts students.

Cheng Ruofan sighed. The number of STEM college students in China had already exceeded that of the United States. Adding liberal arts students, it would certainly exceed it even more. But China had a population of 692 million, while the United States had a population of only 110 million. China's population was 6.3 times that of the United States. China had spent huge financial and material resources on education in these years. The annual compulsory education funds accounted for 3% of the national GDP. Relying on the establishment of the Asian International Court of Justice to establish relationships with the law faculties of top universities around the world, and relying on these relationships to hire a large number of university professors from all over the world to lecture in China, and sending a large number of international students to study in various countries, China barely propped up its education system. It could truly be described as starting from scratch with great hardship.

"Chairman, is the United States' R&D capability still above ours?" Cheng Ruofan asked with a lack of confidence.

"In ordinary fields, they are definitely a bit stronger than us." He Rui did not exaggerate the progress China had made in the past 20-plus years.

The other comrades looked somewhat regretful. But Zhong Yifu felt he heard something in He Rui's words. He Rui would not exaggerate. Since he said the United States was stronger than China in ordinary fields, it was probably really a bit stronger than China. Since He Rui emphasized ordinary fields, there must be cutting-edge fields. He Rui didn't mention cutting-edge fields, so Zhong Yifu wanted to ask a bit.

Although he wanted to ask, Zhong Yifu felt it wasn't quite appropriate. According to what he had learned himself, China's innovation in many fields seemed to be unique in the world. If he asked at this time, he would either be considered smart-alecky or considered to be deliberately flattering He Rui.

Holding back without saying it, he felt uncomfortable inside. Zhong Yifu suddenly remembered a sentence He Rui said before the meeting: "Even in the worst countries, there will be people who die for their country. Not to mention that white supremacy has existed for hundreds of years. In my opinion, even if tens of millions of people die for it, it wouldn't be strange."

He Rui saying this probably meant he was prepared to annihilate tens of millions of white troops on the battlefield. Actually wanting to annihilate tens of millions of enemy troops—this number made Zhong Yifu's hair stand on end. Compared with this, the technological gap between the United States and China seemed unimportant.

Cheng Ruofan did not continue to discuss the issue of the technological gap. He asked again, "Chairman, we have determined the conscription standard of high school students as non-commissioned officers and junior high school students as soldiers. But from the standard requirements, our army is already number one in the world in terms of education level. Do you think we can bring this advantage into play?"

If judged only by the specific situation, this question was very silly. But asking He Rui this way, everyone felt it was very appropriate. It wasn't that Cheng Ruofan was silly, but that the Chinese army had undergone tremendous changes in the past ten-plus years. Before unifying China, the National Defense Force was already taking a professional route, but the equipment really couldn't keep up. Now the National Defense Force had undergone tremendous changes in the equipment field, leading to the fact that the Military Commission members had not fought a high-tech war. At such a time, the Military Commission members instinctively wanted to get approval from He Rui. This was not a knowledge problem, but a psychological problem shared by the Military Commission members.

He Rui certainly understood everyone's worries. If He Rui didn't have historical experience, he wouldn't strive to build a high-tech army. Seeing everyone's eyes fixed on him, He Rui explained, "In the previous army, if you were issued a rifle, you were a soldier. In the current army, soldiers are operators operating military equipment. In order to operate the equipment qualifiedly, one must possess a knowledge base of at least junior high school. To command these military equipment operators, one needs high school knowledge as a foundation. Without this knowledge, one doesn't have the ability to understand those military regulations.

"At higher command levels, a more comprehensive knowledge system is needed. A qualified destroyer captain has to receive three complete undergraduate educations. Soldiers are to a large extent already technicians, engineers, senior engineers, and systems engineers.

"Comrades have built the National Defense Force of the new era according to this line of thought over the years. I think our army's educational background has only just met the basic conditions of this army-building idea. In my opinion, the true requirement for our army should be that soldiers are high school students and non-commissioned officers are university students. It's just that at this stage, our education system cannot support such a requirement.

"As for combat capability, in the first few battles, maybe we will perform very well because of the enemy's weakness, or maybe we won't perform very well because our troops are all recruits. If recruits go to the battlefield and can perform at 60% of their training level, it counts as passing.

"But our army's soldiers, non-commissioned officers, and officers will grow up quickly in the war. With selection and elimination, excellent soldiers will be promoted and take on greater responsibilities.

"An army without culture and knowledge has no combat effectiveness. An army without philosophy cannot exert combat effectiveness. Our army has culture and knowledge, and our political and ideological work is top-notch in the world. Although I can't be sure when exactly the experience threshold point where our army fully adapts to the high-tech army of the new era will appear, our army's construction idea, logistics supply, military education, and political and ideological system determine that our army will inevitably become stronger as it fights."

The Military Commission members present listened very seriously. Just as He Rui said, they were the ones responsible for executing this army-building plan over the past ten-plus years. If everyone present were asked to give a report, they could also say what He Rui said. But when these words were spoken by He Rui, they had a feeling of calming people's hearts, so that all the impetuous emotions disappeared from the Military Commission members.

When He Rui finished speaking, Xu Chengfeng asked, "Chairman, if our exercise is interfered with and provoked, should we fight back immediately?"

He Rui answered decisively, "If we are provoked by Britain and the Netherlands, of course we must fight back immediately. If we can trigger diplomatic problems through these and move towards declaring war, I think it is a very good thing."

On June 3, 1941, China announced that it would conduct a military exercise named "Gentle Breeze" in the South China Sea region, and four Chinese aircraft carrier battle groups would participate in this exercise. The Chinese government informed countries around the world that sea areas would be blocked during the exercise, hoping that fleets of various countries would take note of this matter to avoid unnecessary interception and detention.

As soon as the news came out, it immediately caused a great shock in Europe and America. The content of the *Pacific Charter* had already spread to countries all over the world. The attention of non-European and American countries was focused more on the description of international peace, smooth navigation, and shared markets in the *Pacific Charter*. The colonial countries among the European and American countries generally expressed dissatisfaction with China's tough attitude.

And China's blockade of sea areas in this exercise—it could be said that for hundreds of years, only European and American powers had truly executed such decisions. Although China was already regarded as a Great Power by European and American countries, an Asian country blocking sea areas during an exercise indeed intensified the unease of European and American countries.

On June 5, Churchill had dinner with representatives of the British business community. During the dinner, British business people asked Churchill if he would approve the Anglo-German agreement as soon as possible, which made Churchill very dissatisfied. Churchill did not fail to understand the threat of China, but Churchill believed that Germany's compromise was far from satisfying him. So Churchill said unhappily, "I believe Poland must gain independence."

British business people naturally knew that Churchill was considered a war maniac and an absolute hardliner. They probed a few more sentences and found that Churchill's attitude was very firm: if Germany wanted to sign an Anglo-German treaty, it must cough up Poland.

As soon as the dinner ended, several business representatives met with the high-level officials of the Conservative Party to which Churchill belonged. The business people said, "Poland is indeed very important, but compared with peace, is Poland really that important?"

The high-level officials of the British Conservative Party all believed that Poland was really important. If Poland could be restored, Britain would restore that nail in Eastern Europe. But the Conservative Party also had to admit that compared with Britain, Poland was far from being that important. At this stage, the bottom line of the Anglo-German negotiations was basically clear: Germany could give up the occupation of Western Europe, but Germany could not give up the occupation of Poland.

Finally, a high-level official of the British Conservative Party said, "I think Germany has also made concessions. At least they reached an agreement with the French government to move all Jews to Madagascar, so that Germany and Eastern Europe will not continue to persecute Jews."

Logically speaking, driving the 7 million Jews in the German-controlled area out of Europe and moving them to Madagascar was a persecution through and through. But this statement didn't have much to do with the Jews. If Britain allowed Germany, France, and Eastern European countries to expel Jews to Madagascar, Britain must guarantee the safety of the German fleet.

Seven million people were not so easy to move; the migration time would be very long, so Britain must sign an agreement with Germany. Once the agreement was signed, the Anglo-German peace treaty would naturally be signed along with it.

This agreement involving the lives of 7 million people was a humanitarian agreement. If one wanted to sign it, one had to get the consent of British Prime Minister Churchill. If Churchill disagreed, he would be impeached. As for whether Churchill would be impeached, it depended on whether many people, including the British business community, worked hard enough.

The British business people could of course understand the twists and turns here. They immediately expressed with devout expressions, "Promoting humanitarian actions is our bounden duty."