Chapter 455: Tug of War!

Yamamoto, like many Japanese officers, never wanted to go out of Japan, establish the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere, and become the hegemon of Asia.

In November 1940, the commander of the British Mediterranean Fleet, Andrew = Brown = Cunningham, attacked Taranto with an aircraft carrier, sinking 3 Italian battleships in one fell swoop, changing the tide of the Mediterranean War, and the success of the Battle of Taranto shocked the entire world navy. For the first time, it became known that the battleship of the Sea King could have been buried under the sea by a torpedo dropped from a small plane, and that torpedoes dropped from the air were always thought to require at least a foot (about 30 meters) to a depth of at least a foot, but the Royal Navy used a modified low-altitude torpedo in the port of Taranto, which was only 40 feet (12 meters) deep, and achieved brilliant results.

In January 1941, Yamamoto further radically improved the strategic thinking of the Japanese Navy. For the previous 20 years, the Japanese Navy had been a believer in Mahan's theory of sea power, and accordingly formulated a tapering indentation operation: light surface ships, submarines, and shore-based aviation would continue to weaken the U.S. Navy fleet as it crossed the Pacific, and finally the Japanese Navy would wipe out the U.S. Navy in a "decisive battle" in the North Philippine Sea (about between the Mariana Islands and the Ryukyu Islands) with the traditional battleship-to-battleship artillery warfare method. Yamamoto astutely pointed out that such a plan had never succeeded even in Japan's own war games, and pointed out that the real strategic advantage of the United States lay in the strength of its domestic production capacity.

Yamamoto suggested that instead of hoping for a defensive plan that would weaken first and then fight a decisive battle, it would be better to take the initiative to attack. Yamamoto hoped that if he could inflict heavy losses on the U.S. military in the early stages of the war, he might be able to push the latter to sit down at the negotiating table and sue for peace early. The Japanese expected the strike to give them at least six months of strategic superiority in attacking the resource sources of the Dutch East Indies without being thwarted by the U.S. Navy.

Someone in the West said in response to the attack on Pearl Harbor that only gamblers would dare to take such a big risk. Yamamoto was an adventurer, especially with a knack for gambling. Gambling and games of chance are more important than food, and poker, bridge, Go, and bets are all experts in poker. He gambled with his colleagues, with his subordinates, and often with geisha, and gambled seriously.

In 190, Yamamoto gambled with his close friend for a small matter, which could buy a good house at the time, but Yamamoto lost. Although he laughed at it, Yamamoto insisted on repaying the debt and deducting it from his salary every month, which has been deducted for more than ten years. When Yamamoto traveled to Europe, legend has it that because of his excellent gambling skills and too many wins, Yamamoto was even banned from entering the casinos in Monaco, and he was the second Japanese gambler in Monaco to be banned from entering the market (the first was Motojiro Akashi, the king of Japanese agents in Europe during the Russo-Japanese War). Yamamoto once said that if the emperor could give him a year to gamble, he could win back an aircraft carrier for Japan. In short, the Japanese Navy's traditional preemptive strategy American novel, coupled with various factors such as Yamamoto's personal Bing, contributed to the formation of the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor.

Pearl Harbor is located in the Hawaiian Islands in the eastern Pacific Ocean between Japan and the United States, about many nautical miles from Japan and about nautical miles from the continental United States, and is the most important base of the U.S. Pacific Fleet.

On January 7, 1941, Yamamoto wrote a letter to the Minister of the Navy and Shiro Kawako, formally proposing the idea of a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor: "The first strategy that our military should adopt in the war between Japan and the United States should be: to smash the enemy's main fleet as soon as the war begins, and to put the American Navy and American people in an irreparable place and demoralize them. In this way, we can occupy the key obstacles in East Asia and ensure an invincible position, so as to build an East Asian co-prosperity sphere, ・・・・・・ once the idle forces south of the Philippines of the main US fleet are broken, morale will inevitably be depressed, and it is difficult to consider being able to fight bravely. "After that, he secretly worked out a battle plan with several staff officers (Onishi Takijiro, Minoru Genda, and Kuroshima Kameto). In June, when the formal plan was proposed, there was a debate in the upper echelons of Japan, with some people not believing that a large fleet would cross the sea undetected, and expressed doubts about the viability of such a plan. What if it doesn't work out? The probability of failure is much greater than the probability of success, how to deal with it? Yamamoto Isoroku's answer was very simple, and it was also very Yamamoto Isoroku: "If Japan has God's blessing, the Hawaii war will definitely be successful, and if it fails halfway, that is to say, without God's blessing, just give up the entire operation." Yamamoto was stubborn and even threatened to resign. General Nagano Shusei, the chief of the Military Command Department, said, "If Yamamoto has such self-confidence, he will do as he says." The plan was approved in mid-October. As a result, Yamamoto commanded the Combined Fleet to choose Kagoshima Bay, which is similar to Pearl Harbor, and began thorough preparation and rigorous simulation training.

In the early morning of April 18, 1942, the U.S. Army No. 1 Squadron flew P-38 fighters from Guadalcanal. In order to conceal the attempt, the formation did not go directly to Bougainville Island, but flew west for a distance and then flew north, setting up a míhuò formation. In order to prevent detection by Japanese air defense radars, the P-38 formation flew up to 800 kilometers at a low altitude of only 10 meters above the sea surface. It was an extremely difficult flight. The cabin is not air-conditioned, and the high temperatures in the equatorial region make the cabin as hot as a steamer. The pilots were sweating profusely.

U.S. military intelligence believes that Yamamoto's 56-seater may have landed in Barral, on the island of Bougainville. Major Mitchell decided to intercept Yamamoto's 56-seater 76 kilometers before landing. As it turned out, Mitchell's choice of interception point was very accurate, otherwise he would have missed the best position to intercept Yamamoto Isoroku.

As soon as the P-38 formation set off, it encountered a series of problems. One of them blew a tire on takeoff. The other found that the drop fuel tank did not work and had to return home. After two and a half hours of flying in the entire formation, the range had reached 800 kilometers. The pilots began testing weapons in preparation for the interception.

Soon the pilot Canning discovered the formation of Yamamoto Isoroku. Yamamoto's 56th formation was shocked when it suddenly saw the P-38 formation of the US army. 6 escorted Zero fighters quickly dived to intercept. The P-38 formation began to split into two main parts: one against six Zero fighters, and the other part was three P-38 interception squads led by Lanfil, which specialized in attacking Yamamoto's 56-seater. However, what Lanfil's team did not expect was that there were two bombers in the air that could serve as Yamamoto's fifty-six seaters. It turned out that in another bomber sat the chief of staff of the United Fleet, Yuheng.

Fortunately, the bomber that Lanfil's formation attacked for the first time happened to be Yamamoto's plane. Due to its slow speed and other reasons, Yamamoto's 56-seater was soon hit by a bullet and caught fire, and finally crashed into the forest on the island. Yamamoto 56 and other crew members all fell to their deaths. Another bomber was also damaged and made a forced landing at sea. Chief of Staff Yuheng and others were injured.

Yamamoto's violent death was like a bolt from the blue to the Japanese government and the opposition, and it was a heavy blow to the Tokyo base camp since the outbreak of the war, and it was called a "Class A incident" by the Japanese base camp. The Americans finally avenged the victims of the Pearl Harbor attack.

It's really crazy for such a person to gamble and bomb Pearl Harbor in the United States, and although the current Yamamoto Kazuki did not inherit Yamamoto Isoro's madness and courage, he inherited Yamamoto Isoro's ambition, and he has always wanted to conquer East Asia, and even trampled the European and American capitalist countries under his feet. Therefore, looking at Lin Yu now, he has some emotions.

But Lin Yu doesn't care, the Japanese are like this, if you are strong, he is weak, if you show weakness, then he will kick his nose in the face, so, you can't be weak from the beginning, you have to be strong all the time, the Japanese are cheap bones, only if you are strong, he will worship you.

"First of all, Milan has to pay off the money within 10 years after the interest accrues, which means that the Milan consortium has a maximum of 15 years to pay off the money we have injected." I don't know if it's because Lin Yu is young, or because he said unceremoniously without fear, "Secondly, the Milan consortium must complete the purchase of shares within two years, and if it does not reach the standard of five after two years, we will regard it as an automatic abandonment, and the Fuji consortium has no responsibility!" At the same time, the Fuji Foundation does not agree with your so-called "reasonable price", which means that everything must be based on the market value of the company at that time! ”

"Hehe, it's my turn".

After Mihonkazuki finished speaking, Mitsui Ryuxing smiled and said, "I'm just adding some here, double the price is acceptable to our Mitsui consortium, but the purchased shares are obviously unreasonable, the Mitsui consortium requires that the maximum number of shares that can be subscribed for remains unchanged, and at the same time, the Milan consortium requires the highest shares that can be subscribed is also unreasonable, I suggest that it should be reduced to 20%, the difference is 'reasonable price, we agree!' ”

"Nope." Lin Yu shook his head, and was embarrassed: "The conditions of the two are added together, and it is no longer something I can accept!" If you two insist, you can only say sorry! ”

"What about your opinion, Mr. Lin?" After hearing Lin Yu's words, Iwasaki Akechi hurriedly said.

Both the Mitsui Consortium and the Fuji Consortium said the conditions, but only he Iwasaki Akeshi did not say it, waiting for Lin Yu to say his conditions first, and then negotiate on this condition, so it would be much better.

"I also want to hear Mr. Lin's opinion again!" Mitsui Ryuxing nodded and said.

It was as if he had the highest status in the room.

Yamamoto Kazuki didn't say anything more, but looking at the posture, he was also waiting for Lin Yu to say the conditions.

"The investor's purchase of shares and double the price cannot be changed, and the highest right of the Milan consortium cannot be changed"!