.On August 24, Fu Xiubo flew to Islamabad at the invitation of Pakistani President Shamir to pay a state visit to Pakistan.

Shortly after the head of state's special plane took off, Mu Haoyang returned to Beijing.

What surprised him slightly was that Teng Yaohui came to pick him up.

"The Head of State is flying to Islamabad."

Mu Haoyang was stunned and said, "The basic policy has been decided?"

Teng Yaohui nodded and said, "I did not attend the high-level meeting, but Mr. Huang made arrangements last night to hold a military meeting this morning."

"It is unlikely that the war will start now?"

"Not for the present, but for the future, so we have to start from the basics and prepare for the war in five years, perhaps ten years later."

Mu Haoyang nodded, indicating that he understood Teng Yaohui's meaning.

"Before I came here, I talked to Mr. Huang, hoping to increase the naval budget." Teng Yaohui smiled and shook his head, "You also know Mr. Huang's attitude towards this matter. If I go alone, it will definitely not be of much use. If it is proposed by someone else, such as someone he trusts, it may be more useful."

"General Teng..."

"I didn't ask you to do anything, I just hope you think about it in depth, especially the nature of the next war."

"this……"

"Whether we admit it or not, even in ten years, we cannot completely defeat India, and we cannot fundamentally solve the problem. If war is inevitable, it is also a war with very limited purpose and scale. It is not that I am arrogant, but that the navy is the decisive force in local conflicts."

Mu Haoyang didn't say anything, even though he held the same view.

"If we don't work hard now, we may not win in ten years."

"General Teng..."

"You think carefully and do what a naval colonel should do."

Mu Haoyang sighed secretly, Teng Yaohui was more difficult to deal with than Huang Zhibo.

When he arrived at the General Staff, Huang Zhibo had already gone to the conference room. Other participants, including several main persons in charge of the joint office, and several senior generals from various military branches, were present.

Mu Haoyang's location is next to Lu Wen, obviously specially arranged by Huang Zhibo.

"We're all here, let's start." Huang Zhibo personally presided over the meeting and did not let the secretary enter the conference room. "The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has announced the news that the head of state will pay a state visit to Pakistan. Before leaving, the head of state had already set the main policy and we must prepare for the next war."

No one was surprised that Kida Taichiro's trip to New Delhi had laid the root of the next war.

"First of all, we have to clarify the nature of the next war." Huang Zhibo knocked on the table and said, "According to the judgment of the head of state and other senior leaders, if the war breaks out within ten years, the scale will not be large, at most it will be local conflicts, and we have no reason to expand the scale of the war."

When Huang Zhibo said this, Teng Yaohui's brows jumped a few times, and the expressions of the two air force generals were a little excited, only Qi Kaiwei's expression dimmed.

"If it is just a local conflict or a local war, we have to adjust the equipment development plan." Huang Zhibo looked at Teng Yaohui specifically and said, "The specific problems will be explained in the subsequent planning book. Now I just want to emphasize one problem, that is, no matter who is light and who is heavy, our purpose is the same, to win the next war. So I hope that everyone can consider problems from the overall situation, from the fundamental interests of the country, from the overall interests of the army, and from the overall interests of the army."

Hearing this, Mu Haoyang breathed a sigh of relief.

Huang Zhibo has made concessions, so he naturally doesn't need to be the reconciliation person.

Although the equipment development plan involves things ten years later, the most important thing at that time was the allocation of the defense budget in 2020.

According to the standards given by the State Council, the defense budget in 2020 will increase by 17% year-on-year.

This is just a book number. After deducting 4.8% inflation in 2019, the actual growth rate is only 12.2%.

Even so, the growth rate of the defense budget is still ranked third in government spending, second only to scientific research and public spending.

Specifically, the total defense budget in 2020 was 1265 billion yuan, or approximately 176 billion US dollars.

Although second only to the United States, the relative proportion is not high.

In 2020, the US defense budget reached 987 billion US dollars, while the total economic scale of the US is 2.7 times that of China. If the proportion of the defense budget to the total economic volume is based on the basis of the rule, China is one-half of the US, which means that more resources are spent on national construction.

Of course, this is not a real defense budget.

By participating in scientific research, state-owned military-industrial enterprises make profits, and participating in state-owned enterprises make profits and dividends, we can also obtain about 340 billion yuan.

In this way, the actual defense budget is about 1600 billion yuan.

About one-third of this money, or 530 billion, is the allowance for 2.2 million soldiers and more than one million reserve soldiers.

After being shared evenly, the annual allowance for soldiers is around 120,000.

In 2020, this income was not high. In order to retain more professional soldiers, or to enhance the attractiveness of the army, the allowances and benefits must be increased. According to Huang Zhibo's requirements, if there is a surplus in the budget, a new allowance standard will be introduced in July 2020.

Of the remaining 1070 billion yuan, at least 370 billion yuan will be used to maintain existing weapons and equipment and daily training of the army.

In other words, the remaining one is only 700 billion yuan.

It is still impossible to use all this money to purchase weapons and equipment, because the State Council has allocated about 120 billion yuan of scientific research expenses, 70 billion yuan of daily administrative expenses, 160 billion yuan of infrastructure expenses, and 50 billion yuan of public project expenses.

As a result, only 300 billion yuan can be used to purchase new weapons and equipment.

What can this money do?

A j-20 costs about 400 million yuan, the unit price of j-11c is 280 million yuan, the construction cost of the 052c class destroyer is as high as 760 million yuan, and the 054c class frigate also reaches 470 million yuan, and the first domestically produced aircraft carrier requires an investment of 1.4 billion yuan just to start the construction project.

To put it more vividly, 300 billion is enough to buy 750 j-20s and more than 1,000 j-11c.

If used to build an aircraft carrier battle group, up to two can be formed, and daily maintenance costs are not included.

It can be said that money is not enough to spend.

Even so, the 300 billion yuan has to be divided into several parts, so that the second artillery and artillery each account for one part.

Now, the problem arises.

If a fleet that can expedition the Indian Ocean within ten years would be built, at least 120 billion yuan would be invested in 2020.

This is still the most conservative estimate.

According to the naval budget report submitted by Teng Yaohui, in addition to the initial investment of 1.4 billion yuan in the first domestic aircraft carrier, 800 million yuan must be invested in the transformation project of the "Huangdi". The Type 061 long-distance air defense cruiser, Type 055 multi-purpose destroyer, and Type 058 ocean frigate will be invested in a total of 5 billion yuan, the J-15's improvement cost is 12 billion yuan, the new carrier-based fighter jet needs 7 billion yuan, and the anti-submarine patrol aircraft project requires 4.8 billion yuan, and nearly 20 billion yuan must be invested in the construction of Type 095 attack nuclear submarine and Type 096 strategic nuclear submarine. These do not include the procurement of new ammunition and the development of electromagnetic catapults and new electronic equipment.

It can be said that 120 billion is not enough to spend.

Huang Zhibo made concessions, but did not fully adopt the budget plan submitted by Teng Yaohui.

In the end, Huang Zhibo only gave the Navy a 35% share, that is, 105 billion yuan in equipment procurement costs. Because the Air Force's expenditure is also huge, and the Second Artillery is also an important long-range strike force, Huang Zhibo can only compress the army's expenses and satisfy the navy's appetite.

According to the newly determined military expenditure allocation ratio, the army only accounts for 17%.

It must be admitted that Huang Zhibo did a very moral job.

In order to reduce army spending, he had to withstand the pressure from within the army and even endure the accusations and criticisms of the army generals in private and public places.

Even so, there is still a gap of 15 billion.

Huang Zhibo did his best, and Teng Yaohui should set an example for the rest.

Of course, the real pressure is not on Teng Yaohui, but on Mu Haoyang, because he is responsible for the review of naval equipment construction and procurement.

After passing his stance, he had to submit it to Lu Wen for technical feasibility review, and finally hand it over to Teng Yaohui.

The funding gap is equivalent to 12.5% ​​and Mu Haoyang has to make a fuss about equipment projects, that is, temporarily giving up some projects with little significance.

For the Navy, this is equivalent to reluctance to give up.

Mu Haoyang is very clear that the equipment construction plan submitted by Teng Yaohui has become very conservative, and almost every project has the necessity to exist.

Because it has reached the final review stage, Teng Yaohui cannot make unreasonable requests.

If you really want to cut off a few projects, it will definitely have a negative impact on naval construction.

In addition, we have to deal with Teng Yaohui.

After getting really busy, Mu Haoyang realized that the General Staff was definitely not a place to stay, and the Joint Office for Equipment Construction was not a paradise.

It was not until August 30 that Mu Haoyang nodded.

After many discussions with Teng Yaohui, I finally determined several projects with less urgent needs to be postponed.

Of course, the specific work has not been completed yet.

There is no need to rush to come up with the final result, because it will not be until the end of October to submit the national defense budget to the State Council, and there is still a two-month turnover period.

That night, Mu Haoyang packed his luggage and boarded a special plane flying to Dalian.

The naval officer cram school arranged by Huang Zhibo is about to start. As one of the first students, Mu Haoyang must report to the Naval Academy on the morning of August 31.

In order to facilitate the further study of in-service officers, the cram school is only taught on weekends.

Taking the tutoring in his busy schedule will allow Mu Haoyang to breathe a sigh of relief. If he deals with equipment projects every day, he will definitely go crazy.

Only by occasionally coming out to breathe and changing the environment can he become more active at work.

When I arrived in Dalian, it was already midnight. As soon as I got off the plane, Mu Haoyang met his good brother who had been born and died on the battlefield but had not seen him for many years...
Chapter completed!