Empire Conquest-Chapter 680 - 16: The Opening Battle

Imperial Capital, Grand Hall.

Compared to the Privy Council, the Prime Minister Mansion, and other historic sites that boast several hundred or even a thousand years of history, the Grand Hall of the Parliament is a completely modern structure, despite having existed for over a hundred years, and its style is utterly different from that of the steel and concrete skyscrapers.

The Grand Hall is the single largest building in terms of floor area, not only in the Imperial Capital but throughout the entire Empire.

Even on a global scale, the size of the Grand Hall is second to none.

Within this angular palatial building, apart from a grand hall that can accommodate tens of thousands of people, there are thousands of large and small rooms.

Over a hundred committees of both houses of Parliament, dozens of political parties, and more than a dozen inspection agencies all have their offices here.

In addition, there is a dedicated visitor reception center.

On days without major meetings, approximately 50,000 visitors from around the world are received daily.

Even so, the Grand Hall is only utilized to a third of its capacity.

According to popular rumor, during the design phase, Emperor Shiwu personally altered the blueprints, expanding the scale several times over to leave enough room for future expansion.

Outside the Grand Hall, there already was a sea of people.

After dawn, thousands of reporters from around the world had completely surrounded the Grand Hall.

Although the Imperial Authority had disclosed related news three days prior—that after the ultimatum expired, a full session of both houses would be convened to vote on whether to take military action, namely, to grant war authorization to the Grand Secretary, and the deadline for the ultimatum was one o’clock in the afternoon—the reporters clearly didn’t take the announcement seriously, apparently thinking that the vote on the proposal for war authorization would be moved forward.

That was not the case.

Just before one o’clock, Zhou Yongtao, the Imperial Chief Minister, arrived at the Grand Hall.

As it was a closed-door session not open to the public, all reporters were kept outside.

To maintain order, especially given the large crowds and potential for disturbance, the Imperial Authority dispatched additional police and the Imperial Guard Army, setting up two lines of police cordons outside the Grand Hall.

The last time such a scene occurred was 16 years ago when the Imperial Authority officially announced the withdrawal of troops from Boi Country.

The difference was, at that time it was deep winter, and heavy snow was falling, with temperatures dropping to negative 20 degrees Celsius. Now it was the height of summer, with a blazing sun overhead, and temperatures were almost reaching 40 degrees Celsius. Moreover, those who had gathered outside the Grand Hall back then were mostly wounded and retired servicemen; the reporters were primarily there to report on protest marches, and very few were concerned with the voting and decisions on ceasefire and withdrawal that were taking place inside.

Fortunately, the grand lords of both houses did not leave the reporters outside waiting in vain.

About half an hour after Zhou Yongtao went in, at around one-thirty, cheers came from inside the Grand Hall.

Even through several walls, the noise was clearly audible, and it was no small commotion.

A few minutes later, dozens of staff members came out from the Grand Hall, distributing prepared press releases to reporters who had been enduring the scorching sun for half the day.

A standard press release announced that the Parliament of the Empire had passed the war authorization proposal, and the Imperial Chief Minister would deliver a televised speech at half-past two in the afternoon.

Afterward, the Chief Minister would personally hold a press conference at the official residence to announce related news and take questions from reporters.

With that, the reporters immediately sprang into action.

Not for any other reason but to hurry to the press hall of the Prime Minister Mansion to snag a spot.

That place was originally a storage room used to pile up miscellaneous items, at most accommodating a few dozen chairs. If they were late, there wouldn’t even be a space to stand, let alone sit.

Of course, insider information also came out along with the Grand Hall staff.

At two o’clock, the official state television took the lead in reporting.

In the full session of the Parliament, the military action authorization bill submitted by Imperial Chief Minister Zhou Yongtao had been passed unanimously.

Not a single parliamentarian voted against!

This was the first war authorization case to receive unanimous support since the declaration of war against the Saiyi Imperial Kingdom proposed by Xue Yuanzheng during the last Global War.

However, this was an incomplete war authorization case.

Simply put, the authority granted to the Chief Minister was to mobilize existing military forces; full-scale military mobilization still required approval from both houses of Parliament.

In addition, the existing military forces included the Reserve Forces.

Meaning, Zhou Yongtao could issue military mobilization orders according to the authorization, using the conscription of reserve officers and soldiers to bolster regular military strength.

To deal with an Iraq, this was arguably an overkill.

After the Boi War, the Empire’s standing forces had been maintained between 3.5 to 4 million, with the Army accounting for sixty percent.

Although for the scope of the Empire’s territories, and the areas of influence it controlled, even a 4 million strong regular army was only sufficient for the normal needs of peacetime, such as posing a sufficient deterrent to hypothetical enemies, ensuring that the core interests were not violated, and providing basic strategic security to Allies, when looking around the world, only two other superpowers could truly threaten the Empire and infringe upon the territories of its allies.

If it was about aiding Kuwait in restoring its country, even if it required thoroughly defeating Iraq, the forces deployed would not exceed 300,000.

Clearly, for the total military strength of the Empire, reassigning 300,000 troops was not a big issue.

At this time, mobilizing the Reserve Forces was clearly indicative of additional intentions.

To a great extent, the Reserve Forces, which consist of local military forces at their core, including civil defense forces, are the cornerstone of the Empire’s strategic security.