Army Minister Yamanashi Hanzō and the Navy Minister glanced at the proposal, exchanged a look, and then Yamanashi Hanzō walked up to Takahashi Korekiyo with a dark expression. Prime Minister Kiyoura Keigo thought Yamanashi was about to furiously scold Takahashi, but was surprised when Yamanashi bowed and said, "Please allow the Ministry of Finance and the Imperial General Headquarters to conduct a joint review of the budget proposal."

Kiyoura Keigo let out a small sigh of relief. He already had a picture in his mind: rows of tables arranged on the left and right sides of the conference room. The Army and Navy from the IGHQ on one side, the Ministry of Finance on the other. Every table piled high with documents, staffed by relevant personnel from different departments. Two tables in the middle where personnel from both sides would come up to exchange views whenever a specific item was discussed.

Or perhaps both sides would send personnel with full authority to arrange things, providing answers from the back rows as questions arose.

However, Takahashi Korekiyo replied calmly, "Prime Minister, the war budget is too large. The budget for the first phase is already double last year's total national fiscal budget. At this stage, it is uncertain how many overseas bonds can be sold. If the IGHQ insists on having its demands met, tax revenue and domestic fundraising would need to reach 250% of last year's levels. This will inevitably lead to economic collapse. Issuing additional currency under these circumstances will trigger Rice Riots."

Hearing these cold numbers, Kiyoura Keigo didn't know how to respond. After thinking for a moment, he asked Yamanashi to return to his seat before asking Takahashi, "Takahashi-kun, what do you think is an appropriate tax increase ratio?"

"At this stage, we can increase taxes by at most 29%."

The gap between 29% and 250% was too vast, and Yamanashi Hanzō didn't know how to bridge it. After some thought, Yamanashi ordered, "Then, let the IGHQ and the Ministry of Finance send personnel to present the basic situation."

Although it was unwise for the Prime Minister to personally preside over the meeting, Kiyoura Keigo knew that if he couldn't make a judgment himself, a quick decision would be impossible.

The three ministers did not object. They agreed to meet at two in the afternoon and went their separate ways.

At 1:30 PM, everyone from both sides had arrived. Kiyoura Keigo decided to start the meeting straight away. Personnel from the War Ministry immediately began presenting their logic: "After the first phase of conscription, the Army recalled all soldiers, NCOs, and officers from the reserves who had retired within the last five years. The Army's strength has been restored to 470,000. The Kwantung Army's establishment will not be restored for the time being; the Empire's 20 divisions are rapidly recovering their strength. The second phase of conscription has already begun, recalling soldiers, NCOs, and officers who retired within the last ten years and are under the age of 40. We can conscript another 190,000 officers and men. According to the operational plan, our army needs to maintain 1.5 million troops on the front lines to meet the demands of the war. Therefore, the second phase requires conscripting another 840,000 new recruits. We also need to call up 500,000 reservists to begin training. Personnel expenses, calculated at three months per person, with an average salary of 15 yen, 200 yen for firearms and ammunition, and 25 yen for bedding and uniforms. For 2 million troops, the most basic requirement is 500 million yen."

Prime Minister Kiyoura Keigo also had the relevant documents in front of him. In 1922, Japan's national budget was 1.7 billion yen. The Army budget was 256 million yen, and the Navy budget was 397 million yen. The 2 million Japanese Army troops in the IGHQ's plan hadn't even deployed yet, and just the conscription alone would cost 500 million yen.

The War Ministry personnel continued, "According to the operational plan, the number of artillery pieces needs to be increased to 3,800 for the war next year. We need 2 million artillery shells of various types. Existing ammunition stocks are 1 billion rounds; reserve ammunition quantity is 10 billion rounds, requiring the production of 9 billion rounds."

Kiyoura Keigo understood immediately. Takahashi Korekiyo had said the budget proposal was double last year's total national budget. 2 million artillery shells, even at an average of 100 yen per shell, would be 200 million yen. Bullets cost 0.25 yen. Even assuming 8 billion bullets, and cutting the price in half after general mobilization, that was 1 billion yen.

That was already 1.7 billion yen. Adding other expenses, although there was room for reduction to reach 1.7 billion yen, the space was not large. Even if only 3 billion yen was needed, the Japanese government could not bear it.

***

If Wu Youping could see the situation in Japan, he would probably lament the superiority of the Northeast Government's system.

Because the Northeast Government had only been established for a few years, there was no privileged class. Even if a very small number existed, their share in the Northeast economy was negligible. The number of powerful and noble figures in Japan was huge, and even the Prime Minister and the IGHQ couldn't touch them. If anyone tried to touch their property during the war, those people would immediately be eliminated. So, the mobilization base in the Northeast was naturally much broader than Japan's.

Another major advantage of the Northeast Government lay in its sufficient food supply. The autumn harvest in the Northeast was now complete. "In 1922, the Northeast and Inner and Outer Mongolia regions produced 80 billion *jin* of grain. Calculated based on 40 million people, that is 2,000 *jin* of grain per capita. Edible oil production is 30 *jin* per capita, and meat is 30 *jin* per capita.

The reason the Northeast Government dared to implement total war at this stage was that this grain would definitely last until the completion of next year's autumn harvest. A temporary reduction in industrial production remuneration would affect the urban population. As long as rationing was implemented for the urban population, life would encounter some difficulties, but no major problems would arise.

Of the current 40 million people in the Northeast, 20 million were immigrants. They had homes inside the pass, and their political reliability was significantly lower than the 20 million people who had already taken root in the Northeast. The Northeast Army had 2 million active-duty troops and 2 million reservists training in villages or factories periodically. Out of the 20 million new immigrants, at least 1.2 million had to be drawn. This was the biggest problem facing the government.

The first phase was a great victory. The new immigrants' reaction to the victory was clear: they were happy to see victory, but extremely resistant to their own children becoming soldiers.

Comrades from the Census Bureau sighed as they introduced the situation. "Looking at it now, the influence of schools is too great. Many youths joined the army by signing up together with their classmates. Although compulsory education and literacy campaigns were fully implemented among the new immigrants, in two years, we haven't been able to penetrate deep into the masses. Only 480,000 new immigrants have signed up. Of these, 45% signed up with their classmates. 44% signed up together with local youths in factories and farms. The proportion of those signing up from formed villages is only 11%. Moreover, some new immigrant families, upon learning their children had signed up to join the army, tried to run away to retrieve their children. Thanks to timely road closures, the impact was limited. Some parents even ran to the front of government offices and cadres' homes, threatening suicide, creating a very bad influence. Some who caused too much trouble have been arrested, which indeed caused some negative impact. If we follow this pace, our conscription gap might be over 800,000."

The senior government cadres were speechless for a moment. The Northeast Army's combat effectiveness relied on strong organization and good training for enlisted soldiers; the results were striking. However, current achievements were built on the foundation of voluntary enlistment, not by dragging men away to organize an army.

If it were peacetime, they could take it slowly, but the current situation allowed no such leisure. The senior cadres had all held meetings in their respective departments and truly couldn't think of a way.

Seeing everyone silent, Wu Youping could only lower the standard and ask the attending Acting Chief of Staff, Zhong Yifu. Zhong Yifu thought for a moment and proposed a bottom line. "At a minimum, we must conscript another 400,000. For the shortfall, we can conscript more from the Northeast side. If the second phase of the campaign goes smoothly for our troops in the Shanhaiguan area, the defense can be handled mostly by recruit units, which would free up some troops. We must call up another 400,000 recruits from the new immigrants; it cannot be any less."

400,000 was a lot less than 800,000, yet 400,000 people was still a large number. Wu Youping looked at the Central Committee members; everyone frowned, and some impatient ones even sighed slightly. But not press-ganging was the bottom line. How could they stimulate the determination of these people to join the army without breaching this bottom line?

Finally, Minister of Personnel Xu Jia broke the silence. "I want to make a suggestion. Although it can get people to volunteer, it will have negative effects."

Everyone looked at Xu Jia with anticipation. Xu Jia said, "When recruiting, the Personnel Department found that some people's motives for responding were not pure. They wanted to use the opportunity of joining the government organization to change their status and take revenge on others. This counts as a negative type of incentive. These people fled to the Northeast, so they harbor some hatred toward their hometowns. If we tell them that after defeating Japan, we will liberate the whole country and give them the chance to eliminate the local tyrants and evil gentry in their hometowns... through class hatred, we might be able to mobilize a portion of them."

A sound of sighing arose in the conference room. The Northeast Government never shied away from class contradictions and never went soft on suppressing local tyrants, evil gentry, and cracking down on black-hearted capitalists. However, class struggle was not physical elimination. Xu Jia could grasp the degree, but this recruitment mode would inevitably have some problems, specifically political problems.

Since no one could come up with another way, they looked at Acting Chief of Staff Zhong Yifu. The expression on Zhong Yifu's square face was grave. Just as everyone thought he would ponder for a long time, Zhong Yifu spoke. "I agree to use class struggle as the mobilization baseline; we absolutely must not breach this baseline. Our army's political education is in place; I believe we can educate the comrades well."

Zhong Yifu was the Commissar of the Northeast Army. Since he stated his position, everyone naturally had nothing more to say, and tasks were assigned.

After discussing this matter, Wu Youping's pressure decreased significantly. Taking advantage of the presence of Zhong Yifu and the responsible cadres from the industrial sector, he asked about the arrangements in the latest report.

Zhong Yifu exchanged a few words with Zhuang Jiaxiong, Director of the Industrial Department, and simply introduced the two current difficulties. "First is the shortage of trucks and insufficient transport capacity. To allow troops to withdraw at a moment's notice, the number of trucks needs to be ten times what it is now. Even if achieved, the roads in Korea don't support the movement of so many trucks. We will do our best on this part. The other difficulty is the Yalu River defense line. The fire support points of this defense line are designed to withstand 250mm siege guns. To defend against enemy siege guns, we must have heavy artillery with a range exceeding theirs. Other fortifications also need to be able to withstand the Japanese Army's 150mm heavy artillery. Our army has air superiority, and our reconnaissance capabilities surpass Japan's. We must complete this defense line, capable of garrisoning 1 million troops, within 100 days. As long as it is completed, victory in the third phase of our operations will be fundamentally guaranteed."

Zhuang Jiaxiong bit his lip, unable to speak for the moment. The China-Korea land border was 1,334 kilometers long. The defense line consisted of three parts: the obstacle zone, the main defensive zone, and the rear positions, with a depth of 35 to 75 kilometers.

The obstacle zone mainly consisted of minefields, barbed wire, and a system known as "Dragon's Teeth" (multi-row pyramidal reinforced concrete stakes).

The forward edge of the main defensive zone was located tens to hundreds of meters behind the obstacle zone, equipped with reinforced concrete and steel-armored machine gun and artillery fortifications, as well as command posts, observation posts, personnel shelters, vehicle bunkers, ammunition depots, supply depots, etc.

The rear positions were located several kilometers to tens of kilometers behind the main defensive zone, mainly consisting of reserve personnel shelters, reserve vehicle bunkers, and combat supply depots. And fortress-style long-range heavy artillery groups of 120-305mm.

There were also a large number of airfields 15 kilometers behind the rear positions, providing reconnaissance and bombing operations for the fortress groups.

The characteristics of the Yalu River defense line were that most fortifications were relatively small and simple in structure, but their number reached 18,860, planning to use 9.31 million tons of concrete and 350,000 tons of steel.

At present, 60% of the construction on the Yalu River line had been completed, but construction in the mountainous areas was still in full swing. To speed up construction progress, the Industrial Department even produced ten-wheeled truck cement mixers. This type of vehicle could provide concrete for construction sites above 100 meters every day.

But producing one such ten-wheeled cement truck took ten times the time of producing a standard truck, and required mobilizing the most skilled engineers and technicians.

A large portion of the stone and river sand needed for the crushers also had to be imported from the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union also made demands; since the Soviet Union still had steel needs in 1923, the steel traded for raw materials had to be delivered on time.

The Northeast's several steel-making cities were expected to produce 1.05 million tons of steel in 1922. After providing 350,000 tons of steel to the Soviet Union, the actual available steel was only 700,000 tons. But to increase imports from the Soviet Union, the contract had to be fulfilled. They could only wait until July 1923, when two new steel plants and the second phase projects of three steel plants were handed over, to increase steel production by 750,000 tons.

Zhuang Jiaxiong said to Zhong Yifu, "The day after tomorrow, the Industrial Department will hand over the project progress schedule for completion within 90 days to Commander Wu."

Zhong Yifu nodded. Zhuang Jiaxiong wasn't throwing a tantrum or causing a split. According to the system, the General Staff put forward requirements, He Rui approved them, and they were handed over to government departments for execution. At this time, He Rui had to solve an urgent problem, so he had the General Staff and these Central Committee members of the government meet directly.

If Zhuang Jiaxiong dared to say he would give the progress schedule directly to Zhong Yifu, Zhuang Jiaxiong would likely be dismissed for it. The system was the system; if a Central Committee member didn't understand the system, they shouldn't be doing the job anymore.