Nanyang Storm 1864

1919st January 5

An unprecedentedly grand victory parade was held in Manila, the homeland of the Great Chu Empire. Tens of thousands of officers and soldiers of the expeditionary force, who had returned triumphantly from Europe, marched in neat formation along the Avenue of Glory, holding their military flags high, to be reviewed by millions of people, the emperor, and a host of nobles.

In May, the metropolis of Manila was filled with countless fluttering national flags, royal coat of arms and military flags, turning into a grand celebration for the entire city.

As the resolute officers and soldiers marched past in formation, their shouts of "Long live the Empire! Long live His Majesty the Emperor! Long live the Expeditionary Force! Long live the Expeditionary Force!" resounded throughout the heavens and earth, deeply moving everyone present.

Since the establishment of the Great Chu Empire
For over fifty years, continuous expansion and colonization have led to the empire's territory spanning all five continents, achieving the ultimate glory of the British Empire and elevating the confidence of the Chu people to its peak.

The victorious return of the European expeditionary force, showcasing its formidable military strength in foreign lands, instilled unparalleled pride throughout the nation, igniting a profound patriotic fervor.

Millions of residents of Metro Manila took to the streets, and the metropolis was completely transformed into a sea of ​​celebration amidst the majestic military music of the military parade.

This is just one example of the empire's celebrations of its wartime victory. Various victory celebrations are being held in major cities and remote villages in overseas territories.

This is the most effective activity for fostering a sense of national pride and boosting morale.

Emperor Zheng Guohui of the Great Chu Dynasty stood atop the high reviewing tower of the Yuehu Official Residence, inspecting the magnificent returning troops. His heart was filled with boundless ambition, and his face was filled with gratified joy.

These decades have witnessed the rise of the Great Chu Empire from weakness to strength, and he feels genuinely proud.

Facts have proven
The Han and Tang civilizations, having undergone thousands of years of refinement, possess an unimaginable inner explosive power. They only need a wise leader to guide them at the right time to unleash amazing vitality, as evidenced by the Great Chu Empire.

The Emperor of Great Chu looked up at the skyline of countless skyscrapers along Glory Avenue. Even a hundred years from now, such a metropolitan scene would still be considered a top-tier city in the world.

This is a miracle created by countless Chinese subjects. In today's open social environment, it has fully stimulated the imperial subjects' ability to absorb advanced knowledge from around the world and creatively applied it to all aspects of the national economy.

What immense power will be unleashed when hundreds of millions of citizens work together with one heart and one mind?

Emperor Zheng Guohui of the Great Chu Empire had not done much, except to create enough space for the empire's development, to establish a peaceful and relatively equal environment for development, and to provide solid protection for the interests of his subjects overseas. That was all.

The feedback from these hundreds of millions of subjects was an increasingly powerful empire. In 1918, the empire's total economic output had reached 82.1% of that of the United States, firmly securing its position as the world's second-largest economy.

In the short span of just five years since the Golden Age began in 1914, the Empire’s overall economic output has more than doubled, thanks to the combined efforts of its hundreds of millions of subjects.

After several years of rapid development, some hidden dangers have gradually emerged, attracting the attention of Emperor Zheng Guohui of the Great Chu Dynasty.

Of these, the excess productivity deserves the most attention.

With the war that had engulfed Europe over, European countries were fully engaged in postwar reconstruction and recovery, which led to a sharp decrease in external demand and brought the empire's rapid economic growth to a halt.

A large number of orders from Europe were canceled, delayed, or encountered various problems without reason, and similar issues occurred in thousands of factories throughout the empire.

Despite repeated warnings from the Prime Minister's Office and various departments of the Imperial Government, a large number of companies still fell into the trap.

The root cause is simply the greed of capitalists.

The major banks of the Imperial Bank had already tightened monetary policy by the end of 1917, and by 1918 they had tightened credit across the board. These powerful measures greatly reduced the blind and impulsive development in all sectors of society.

If not so
The empire has far more than just thousands or tens of thousands of struggling businesses; the number is likely ten times greater, and the losses are many times greater as well.

A typical counterexample is the United States. The US government believes in free economics, and when major enterprises exporting from the Great Chu Empire tightened their grip, the US financial and industrial sectors went into a final frenzy.

They frantically expanded production capacity to fill the supply gaps of the Great Chu Empire's enterprises, and continued this frenzied expansion in 1918, leading to the current operational difficulties faced by hundreds of thousands of enterprises of all sizes.

The mountains of goods, having lost their buyers, could only pile up in factory warehouses and customs docks, ultimately dragging down businesses, banks, and consequently the entire economic development trend.

According to news from North America
At the end of the second quarter of 1919
A large number of banks in the United States, led by Kentucky National Bank, Inter-American Bank, and Mississippi People's Bank, have collapsed, with a total of about 137 banks of all sizes filing for bankruptcy, causing a huge upheaval in the industrial finance sector.

Tens of thousands of companies went bankrupt and were liquidated, millions of industrial workers lost their jobs, the golden age of economic development came to an abrupt halt, and the soaring economy crashed heavily to the ground.

This is the consequence of blind and disorderly development, and the Americans are now tasting the bitter fruit of it.

In contrast, the Great Chu Empire
Under the strong control of the Prime Minister's Office, the financial sector, led by the Royal Banks, issued warnings as early as the end of the previous year and continued to tighten credit.

Even now, while European demand has plummeted, the overall economy of the Great Chu Empire has not been severely damaged, and the current predicament is within a controllable range.

The empire's economy is transitioning from wartime to peacetime. The government is guiding the orderly withdrawal of industrial capacity through large-scale, orderly procurement, allowing many factories to maintain low-speed operation for the time being.

The Imperial Household Department also issued large orders, partly to replenish strategic stocks and partly to guide social output toward strengthening the empire's infrastructure.

For example, recently
The Royal Household has listed thirty major infrastructure projects, such as the Cebu Bridge, the highway network of the three main islands, the Kalimantan Ring Railway, the Sumatra Coastal Railway, the Java East-West Highway, the expansion and renovation of the new Xi'an Wharf, the Gold Coast Railway in Australia, and the North-South Highway in Australia, among other major projects that affect the national economy and people's livelihood.

This will not only help strengthen and improve the infrastructure level of the empire, but also absorb a large amount of industrial capacity, employ a large number of workers to reduce the unemployment rate, and allow the overall national economy to smoothly transition to the era of peace.

During the war

The Royal Household Department has accumulated a vast amount of funds, totaling billions of silver dollars. These funds, when invested heavily in infrastructure, will generate stable and long-term returns.

The Imperial Government also announced major infrastructure construction projects, mostly focused on the comprehensive hardening of urban roads, bridges, thermal power plants, and rural roads, as well as dams, canals, and farmland facilities, which would help absorb a large number of bankrupt enterprises' labor force.

Under the strong leadership of the government

The national economy of the Great Chu Empire will stabilize, which is far superior to the free market economy of the United States, which completely ignores the situation.

The Great Chu Empire was a typical constitutional monarchy, roughly somewhere between the British and German systems. It was neither as laissez-faire as the British system nor as authoritarian as the German system. Each department under the Grand Secretariat of the Great Chu Empire had its own hired social think tanks to provide advice for the department heads' decision-making—a very beneficial system.

For example, the National Police Agency has several social think tanks involved in policy evaluation and post-event supervision. These groups are mostly composed of people from universities, factories, enterprises, and social organizations, and they publish a report every six months or a year.

The assessment of public security, supervision of police appearance and discipline, supplementation of the Public Security Law and Traffic Law and other administrative regulations, and reflection of public demands are all summarized and submitted to the senior management of the National Police Agency.

The relevant opinions were decided upon at the meeting, and the senior management of the National Police Agency provided written responses to each of them.

Any suggestions that help improve police efficiency, reduce malpractices, and improve law enforcement procedures will be adopted by the National Police Agency and implemented throughout the Imperial Police Force.

Significant suggestions for supplementing or correcting existing administrative regulations will be submitted to the Imperial Legislative Council. After a parliamentary resolution is passed, these suggestions will be reflected in the latest version of the police regulations.

This is a self-repairing and continuously evolving system, with similar institutions in various government departments that serve as post-event oversight bodies.

This system is not reflected in the judicial systems of England and Germany; it is a unique judicial and administrative system of the Chu state.

It is more complete, more transparent, and more widely welcomed by the imperial subjects than the former.

After experiencing the unprecedented scale of the European war, the German Empire, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and the Russian Empire, which had brazenly launched the war, all disintegrated and tasted the bitterness of authoritarian rule.

That is, one person ruling the world can either lead the empire to unprecedented prosperity or plunge it into an abyss of no return.

The most commendable examples of the former are Queen Victoria of England and Emperor Zheng Guohui of the Great Chu, while the negative examples of the latter are arrogant and conceited monarchs such as Wilhelm II of Germany and Tsar Nicholas II.

The resulting wave of reflection spurred the "constitutional reform" of the Great Chu Empire from the beginning of 1918 to the present, which was a restructuring of the entire imperial ruling order and had a profound impact on the future.

During the "Constitutional Reform", the imperial family transferred most of the executive power to the government and the legislative power to the parliament, retaining only the final and crucial right of veto.

This was also a major transformation undertaken by Emperor Zheng Guohui of the Great Chu Dynasty in response to international events, resulting in a complete overhaul of the imperial high-level system, shifting from "rule by man" to "rule of law," and from monarchical autocracy to government governance.

This was a political reform he had been planning for a long time, with the aim of ensuring the long-term stability of the empire.

He couldn't expect Crown Prince Chu-Zheng Yuan to also have vivid memories from the future, leading his empire to navigate the turbulent waters of progress with ease; that was too unrealistic.

If we run aground, it will cause serious problems.

The weakest point of royal authoritarian rule lies here. If everything goes smoothly, all is well, but if a decision is wrong, then the monarch will have to bear the wrath of millions of people.

Now that the government takes the lead, even if there are any major policy mistakes, the ultimate responsibility will be borne by the imperial government, and will not affect the royal family.

The imperial family also wields astonishing wealth and military power, possessing the final say in the appointment of high-ranking military commanders—this is their greatest strength.

No government dares to ignore imperial power. With an army and control over the judiciary and police, the dignity and wealth of the imperial family remain unchallenged, ensuring the continued prosperity of the royal family.

For the royal family of the Great Chu Empire, the "constitutional reform" was a wise move to adapt to the times and "advance by retreating".

This time of year
Emperor Zheng Guohui of the Great Chu Empire, who had ruled for 53 years, was about to abdicate, which caused a great shock to the imperial family and the high-ranking officials. Petitions requesting the emperor to rescind his decree flew like raindrops.

Many of the old ministers wept bitterly, feeling as if the sky had fallen.

However, Emperor Zheng Guohui of the Great Chu Dynasty had an undeniable will. After decades of hard work, leading the empire to its current glorious peak, he also felt somewhat tired and weary, and wanted to rest.

People only saw the supreme majesty of the emperor sitting high on his throne, enjoying the utmost glory in the world, as if he were a god descended from the heavens.

But who can understand?

The weight of this position is immense; to wear the crown, one must bear its weight. The pressure of carrying the burden of hundreds of millions of subjects on one's shoulders can be utterly exhausting.

Without strong enough nerves, one cannot shoulder great responsibilities.

As a world power, the Great Chu Empire's decisions on major affairs, whether political, economic, military, or cultural, have a profound impact on the world.

The abdication of the Great Chu Emperor in favor of the Crown Prince is the most talked-about and important event among the upper echelons of the empire.

Despite the ministers' desperate attempts to persuade him, Emperor Zheng Guohui of the Great Chu Dynasty was determined and could not be swayed by ordinary people; the matter was essentially settled.

May 4, 1919

The Emperor of the Great Chu Empire issued an edict appointing the newly appointed Marshal Chu-Zhenghui, Prince of Thrace who had returned from Europe, as the Commander-in-Chief of the Royal Army, in command of the three armed forces.

Marshal Chu-Zheng Hui once commanded an expeditionary force of over 260 million in Europe. He held a high position of power and had an outstanding military record, making his appointment as Supreme Commander a popular choice.

The vast majority of his men remained in Europe, and he did not have a deep base of influence in the home army.

The Ninth Division, which initially rose to prominence, later developed into the Ninth Army and is now stationed in Crimea, becoming one of the long-term garrison forces in Europe.

Upon returning to the empire's homeland, he found himself with few of his old subordinates.

While the position of Supreme Commander of the Royal Army may seem prestigious, in reality, one has no troops under one's command. In the imperial capital of Manila, the real military power rests with the Commander-in-Chief of the Royal Guard and a few divisions stationed in key areas around the capital.

These officers leading troops are all His Majesty's most loyal officers; they have no eyes for His Majesty.

Without His Majesty's personal edict, Prince Chu-Zheng Hui, the highest-ranking officer in the Royal Army, couldn't even mobilize a single battalion; this is the power of checks and balances. (End of Chapter)