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Volume 1 The Glory of Germany Chapter 244 The Last Effort

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    Empire Storm 244_Empire Storm full text free to read_Chapter 244 The last effort comes from

    According to the evaluation of later generations, Gu Zhutong's greatest contribution after moving into the Presidential Palace was to add the last straw to the already overwhelmed war machine of the Second German Empire through the fictitious "Star War" plan.  , and crushed this war machine.

    In other words, what Gu Zhutong did brought the Cold War to an end years, or even decades, ahead of schedule.

    Of course, this cannot deny Gu Zhutong¡¯s great contribution.

    To put it bluntly, without Gu Zhutong, hundreds of millions of Chinese people would have lived in the shadow of nuclear threats for a long time, and no one could predict how the Cold War would end.

    This is, without the straw added by Gu Zhutong, the outcome of the Second German Empire would probably have been different.

    As early as the late 1970s, when the global economic crisis caused by the oil crisis had eased, there were calls for reform within the Second German Reich.

    At that time, the reformists within the empire believed that it was better to cooperate with China than to confront China.

    To put it simply, it means recognizing China¡¯s hegemonic status in exchange for China¡¯s recognition of the Second German Empire¡¯s status as the number one power in Europe, and participating in the world order led by China as the world¡¯s number two power.  Pursue the interests that rightfully belong to the Second German Reich.

    Of course, this is just a slogan shouted by the reformists.

    What drives the need for reform is real economic pressure.

    Although during the oil crisis, the Second German Empire provided support to Egypt and Syria, and even provided Syria with a large amount of weapons and equipment during the ceasefire.  It was not subject to the oil embargo by Arab countries, but the Second German Empire did not become the lucky one in the subsequent global economic crisis, and no country escaped the attack of the economic crisis.

    To put it bluntly, in an era when trade is becoming more and more important, no country can exist in isolation from the world.

    Of course, the Second German Reich relied more on trade.

    Don¡¯t forget, the local resources of the Second German Empire were not enough to support its global hegemony strategy.  Food from Russia was as important as oil from the Middle East, and in order to keep the country's balance of payments balanced, the Second German Empire also needed markets in other countries.

    ??In fact.  During the Cold War, when the two camps of China and Germany were engaged in military confrontation, they did not block economic and trade exchanges.

    At that time.  In the two camps, the economic and trade exchanges between various countries are extremely close.

    For example, the United Kingdom is China's most important ally in the North Atlantic region, and the United Kingdom has always pursued a basic strategy of relying on China. However, in 1976, the Second German Empire replaced China as the United Kingdom's number one trading partner, and it remained so until  The Cold War is over.

    For another example, Italy was the main ally of the Second German Empire, but during the forty-five years of the Cold War, China was Italy's number one trading partner for almost forty years.  The Second German Empire was not even Italy's main trading partner for a long time.

    The close economic and trade exchanges have turned the world into a whole, at least at the economic level.

    The result is an economic crisis caused by the war in the Middle East.  Even if China suffered heavy losses, the situation of the Second German Empire was not much better.

    This is because, after China suffered from the oil embargo, it needs to obtain oil from other regions, and at the same time, it needs to increase exports to cope with the changes in the national balance of payments caused by rising energy expenditures. Therefore, Chinese companies must increase exports.  This will inevitably crowd out the markets of companies from other countries.  When engaging in a trade war, China had to focus on price wars, that is, by lowering the prices of exported goods to capture more overseas markets.  Obviously, the Second German Reich could only respond to China¡¯s trade war in the same way.  This means that even if the size of the overseas market does not shrink, the profits earned by the Second German Empire from exports will be significantly reduced.

    In fact, during the economic crisis, the size of overseas markets in all countries shrank.

    As a result, the Second German Empire encountered the post-war economic winter, that is, export profits dropped by 50% during the economic crisis.

    ??For China, this may not be a big problem.

    Don¡¯t forget, China is not only the world¡¯s largest exporter, but also the world¡¯s largest market. Its domestic market can absorb most of its production capacity.  More importantly, during the economic crisis, China abandoned the gold standard of the Hua Yuan, causing the Hua Yuan to depreciate sharply to the outside world, thereby improving the competitiveness of Chinese commodity exports and allowing Chinese companies to gain a foothold in more overseas markets.  through financeThrough subsidies and other means, the Chinese government has stabilized the purchasing power of Huayuan in the domestic market, which basically ensures the purchasing power of the domestic consumer market.

    ?Obviously, the Second German Empire did not have such unique conditions.

    The depreciation of the Chinese Yuan means the appreciation of the Reichsmark, which means that the exports of the Second German Empire will suffer a heavy blow.

    This economic crisis directly affected the social stability of the Second German Empire.

    In 1978, when the economic crisis reached its peak, the unemployment rate in the Second German Reich reached 22%, equivalent to one out of every five workers in the empire without a job.  The terrible thing is that the Second German Empire was a quite conservative country, and most women did not engage in social labor.  In other words, an unemployed person means that a family has lost its source of livelihood.

    ??Obviously, the high unemployment rate has led to extreme social unrest in the empire.

    It was in this general environment that calls for reform emerged within the empire.

    Later, many people believed that if the Second German Empire had seized this opportunity and started to carry out social and political reforms in the late 1970s, it would have been possible to survive the coming dangerous period, at least not for more than ten years.  Post-collapse, it may even be possible to embark on a path of sustainable development.

    The problem is that the Second German Reich did not seize this opportunity.

    Faced with calls for reform, the imperial authorities not only failed to carry out reforms, but instead brutally suppressed the reform forces on the grounds of protecting imperial power.

    In 1980, tens of thousands of reformist politicians and social activists were forced into exile.

    According to later published information, in this political persecution to "defend imperial power", at least 30,000 imperial citizens who supported and sympathized with the reform were purged, and many disappeared after being secretly arrested.  Others were imprisoned for years.

    The problem is that suppression cannot solve the fundamental problems of the empire.

    Entering the 1980s, the imperial authorities did another extremely wrong thing.

    This is, in order to divide domestic contradictions, or transfer domestic contradictions to external contradictions, the imperial authorities launched the Balkan War to invade Yugoslavia.

    ¡°Obviously, the imperial authorities hoped to use this war to arouse patriotism and make the people temporarily forget the hard life of lack of food and clothing.

    The problem is that this war fundamentally shook the foundation of the imperial authorities.

    This is, the people of the empire must choose between "cannons and butter".

    If a hundred years ago, when the Second German Empire had just won the Battle of Sedan and Kaiser Wilhelm I was crowned Emperor in the Palace of Versailles, this set of policies would definitely have worked. Those who were immersed in patriotism  The imperial populace would certainly support the government's foreign wars.

    The problem is, a hundred years is enough to change a lot.

    What the citizens of the empire saw was not the benefits that the Second German Empire gained from foreign wars, but that on the other side of the continent, a country that had been established for less than seventy years had become the world's number one power through modernization, and this country  Hundreds of millions of citizens live a prosperous life.  More importantly, in World War II, this country and the Second German Reich jointly defeated a powerful enemy.  In the thirty years after the war, the country's people's income increased several times, while the Second German Empire was a different story.

    It is undeniable that these insights led to the rapid spread of anti-Chinese sentiment in the Second German Reich.

    However, at the same time, more and more citizens of the empire realize that foreign wars will not bring prosperity, nor will they provide more bread for the people.

    ¡°Obviously, most citizens of the empire realize that if they have resources to wage war, why can¡¯t they be used to improve their lives?

    As a result, the Balkan War not only failed to alleviate the internal conflicts of the Second German Empire, but also caused a serious deterioration of the economic environment of the empire due to the huge war expenditures, and affected almost all citizens of the empire, making the lives of the citizens of the empire even worse.  difficult.

    By the end of the 1980s, even a piece of real white bread had become a luxury for the common people of the empire.

    According to later published information, in 19**, 80% of the butter consumed by the Second German Empire was chemically synthesized.  At that time, the income of an ordinary family in the empire was only enough to support four people, and the monthly salary of an empire worker was only enough to buy 60 kilograms of flour in the market.

    ¡°Apparently, the Second German Reich built enough cannons but not enough butter.

    Affected by this, the Second German Empire had to start implementing food regulations in 19**Control laws, and gradually banned market transactions, and the government distributed food to the people.

    You should know that in other industrialized countries, rationing is only implemented during wartime.

    Of course, the decline in people¡¯s living standards caused by the deterioration of the domestic economic environment became the main driving force for the implementation of comprehensive reforms in the Second German Empire.

    In 1986, Herzendorf was elected Prime Minister of the Reich, which became a major symbol of the reform of the Reich.

    Herzendorf's election as prime minister is also related to his campaign slogan, that is, he vowed to end the Balkan War that caused heavy casualties during his term, and would promote political reform, expand the power of the Federal Congress, narrow the gap between the rich and the poor, and improve people's lives.  .

    There is no denying that Herzendorf is very talented.

    It¡¯s just that he was elected prime minister too late.

    Empire Storm 244_Empire Storm full text free to read_Chapter 244 The Last Effort has been updated!

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