"Fujiwara-kun, you're a little late, I wanted to talk to you a little more, and I'll have to pay three glasses of wine in a while!" Ryuji Katsuta said with a smile on his face.

He and Ning Zhiheng are friends with close interests, and their relationship is naturally different from others, and the conversation between the two is cordial and casual, without any barriers.

Ning Zhiheng also said with a smile: "Katsuta-kun, you know me, I rarely participate in such a large banquet, and I came here because Mayor Su was repeatedly and graciously invited." ”

Ryuji Katsuta knew that Ning Zhiheng liked to be quiet, and he was usually reluctant to socialize, but it was indeed not easy to come to the banquet this time.

He laughed and said to Su Yue on the side: "Brother Su, it's still your big face, Fujiwara-kun usually comes to this kind of occasion, you have to get this love!" ”

Su Yue was also full of smiles, his mouth was full of lotus, and he bowed slightly and smiled: "Actually, it is Shengtian-kun's big face, I invited Fujiwara-kun in your name at that time, Fujiwara-kun immediately agreed, speaking of which, Katsuta-kun is going to receive this love!" ”

As soon as these words came out, the three of them all looked at each other and laughed heartily, Su Yue deserved to be a politician who had been in the scene for a long time, and he spoke wittily and wittily, which made people feel like a spring breeze.

Ning Zhiheng came to the living room and sat down under the gaze of everyone, and at this time, several presidents of the Japanese Chamber of Commerce also hurriedly greeted them, these are the largest Japanese chambers of commerce in Shanghai, and this time they are also among the invitees.

Fujiwara Kaisha is the overlord trading company in the business world, and these business presidents naturally want to meet in person, and they usually deal with the manager of Fujiwara Kaisha, Hirao Daichi, and they can't see President Fujiwara himself at all, so today I just took this opportunity to contact President Fujiwara, hoping to leave a good image in front of President Fujiwara.

But Ning Zhiheng was too lazy to deal with these people, and he was not a person at the same level after all, so he just responded lightly with a few words, and then glanced at the Hirao Dazhi who was guarding the side.

Hirao Dazhi naturally understood what the president meant, stepped forward and stretched out his hand to signal, inviting these presidents to talk to the side, and these people also retreated with interest.

Su Yue, who had been accompanying him, looked at it in his eyes and nodded secretly, worthy of being the children of Japan's top nobles, and sent these people away lightly, these wealthy Japanese businessmen who are usually arrogant did not dare to say a word in front of President Fujiwara.

Su Yue originally wanted to say a few more words to Ning Zhiheng, after all, there were not many opportunities to be able to contact this President Fujiwara face-to-face.

But at this time, another guest came, as the host, but it was not good to snub the other guests, Su Yue had no choice but to confess to Ning Zhiheng, get up to greet the entertainment, and Ryuji Katsuta accompanied Ning Zhiheng to talk and chat.

There is still some time before the feast, and it is the time for the guests to communicate and talk with each other, and the guests are talking according to their status and industry.

Ryuji Katsuta and Ning Zhiheng are both high-level people with deep military backgrounds, and the rest of the guests, looking at the two, are all eager to come forward to talk and talk a few words, but their status is low, and they still dare not make a mistake after all.

Soon, however, two high-ranking Japanese officers sat down with them, and they were talking to each other.

Among them is Ryuji Katsuta's fellow countryman and friend, Major General Yoshioka Masakazu, commander of the 18th Brigade.

There is also Ogasamura Ming Daisaku on the side, he is the fourth wing captain of the Shanghai garrison, although his position is lower than the others present, but he is also from Kyoto, and Ryuji Katsuta and Yoshioka Masakazu are fellow villagers, and Fujiwara Tomohito, the president of Fujiwara Club, is also from Kyoto, and they all have a military background, so they are also in this small circle.

Ryuji Katsuta said to Yoshioka Masakazu: "Yoshioka-kun, your 18th Brigade has been a great success in southern Jiangsu this time, and it has dealt a powerful blow to the Chinese guerrilla troops. ”

Yoshioka Masawa heard Katsuda Ryuji's words, he waved his hand and said with a smile: "Katsuta-kun has won the award, to be honest, we spent several months clearing the guerrilla forces in southern Jiangsu, the results are not ideal, there are many lakes in southern Jiangsu, the terrain is complex, plus these squadrons are very cunning, it is difficult for us to catch them, four months of clearance, at most only half a month of fighting, the rest of the time is constantly looking for traces of the enemy, but fortunately, the effort is not in vain, We have now succeeded in forcing them into the southern mountains, but it is very difficult to clear them further, and our troops are also miserable, so we have to withdraw to Shanghai for a temporary rest. ”

Ning Zhiheng's heart moved when he heard this: Since the Japanese army invaded and occupied Guangzhou and Wuhan in October last year, due to the excessively long offensive front, the Central China Front Army has seriously undergrown its strength, and its manpower and material resources have been consumed enormously, so that all aspects of its financial and economic situation have fallen into a predicament.

This situation even affected Japan's domestic economic development, leading to war weariness and anti-war sentiment in Japan.

As a result, the Japanese Government and the Ministry of Military Affairs readjusted their war policy toward China, changing from a strategic policy of quick and quick victory to a long-term war policy.

The specific strategy is to adopt a political inducement to surrender to the Nationalist Government, supplemented by military strikes.

Militarily, it has also stopped its strategic offensive on the frontal battlefield, focused on consolidating the areas it has already occupied, and shifted the focus of its military attack to dealing with the anti-Japanese guerrilla forces in its rear.

At this time, southern Jiangsu, as the heart of the Japanese occupation zone, had been active in two Chinese combat units.

That is the Red Party, the New Fourth Army and the Kuomintang Party to save **.

In the face of the Japanese army's powerful offensive, these two units mainly relied on guerrilla warfare, avoided their sharp edges, attacked them unprepared, and constantly attacked the weak links of the Japanese invading army, especially the Red Party's New Fourth Army, whose combat strength was strong and their guerrilla tactics were skillful, and they caused great trouble and blows to the Japanese military.

Because southern Jiangsu is located between Nanjing and Shanghai, the geographical location is extremely important, the Japanese have always wanted to make great efforts to clear out the squadron in this area, so in the months after the end of the Battle of Wuhan, the Japanese garrisons in Nanjing and Shanghai have carried out many joint operations to carry out a large-scale cleanup of southern Jiangsu, but they have achieved little.

However, the latest clean-up operation, achieved a lot of results, for the first time, they forced all the squadrons into the southern mountains, and deployed heavy troops to set up many checkpoints, limiting the scope of activities of the squadron, which is a very big improvement compared to the previous record.

Ning Zhiheng then asked: "Yoshioka-kun, according to what you said, the squadron has retreated into the mountains, so can the safety of the Beijing-Shanghai Railway be guaranteed?" ”

The railway between Shanghai and Nanjing has long been an important economic route for Shanghai, but after the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War, the Beijing-Shanghai railway suffered great damage, and in the next two years, the railway has not been able to operate normally.

The reason is very simple, the Japanese regard this railway as an important supply line for transporting soldiers and materials, and how can the squadron let him get his wish, so the New Fourth Army and the rescue ** have fought many times around the Beijing-Shanghai railway, they demolished the railway, attacked the Japanese army, and intercepted the strategic materials of the Japanese army, which gave the Japanese army a great headache.

As a result, the Beijing-Shanghai railway was repaired and repaired, and repaired and repaired, because the safety of the railway could not be guaranteed, and the Japanese finally simply stopped the Beijing-Shanghai railway.

But now it seems that the New Fourth Army and the Salvation ** have been forced away from the railway line and hid in the southern mountains.

Ning Zhiheng immediately realized that the Japanese would definitely repair this important transportation and supply line immediately.

This railway was a great help to Ning Zhiheng's smuggling channel, which allowed him to transport his goods directly to Nanjing, the capital of the Republic of China, which far surpassed other cities in China and was the railway hub of central China.

Ning Zhiheng can use Nanjing, the railway hub, to transport his goods to all major regions in North China, which is much more convenient than opening up land channels.

Yoshioka Masakazu and Ning Zhiheng are also quite familiar friends, when Ryyuji Katsuta moved to the housewarming, the two of them got along well and talked very happily.

Hearing Ning Zhiheng's question, he immediately reacted, he had already heard after he came back, Fujiwara Club is now developing extremely rapidly, as if it is already a commercial giant ship in Shanghai, the business scope is getting bigger and bigger, and the volume of goods trading is also very amazing, it seems that this Fujiwara president has a very keen sense of business, and he smelled business opportunities in just a few words.

He replied with a smile: "That's true, now the repair of the Beijing-Shanghai railway is close to completion, if nothing else, it will be opened to traffic in twenty days, and then our army will enter southern Jiangsu, so there will be no need to travel so hard, Fujiwara-kun can also expand the business of the company to the Nanjing area, which is a great thing!" ”

Ogasamura on the side also knew that Fujiwara's business was doing a lot of business, and many military people on the transportation line were benefiting, and he had long wanted to take this chain of interests, so he took the initiative to say: "Fujiwara-kun, if the Beijing-Shanghai Railway is opened, the Shanghai Railway Station is in my jurisdiction, if it is useful to my place, please be polite!" ”

When Ning Zhiheng heard this, he couldn't help but smile, Ogasamura Ming knew very well what he meant, this is willing to cooperate with him and become a chain of interests in the smuggling channel of Fujiwara Club, in the end, who doesn't like money?

Ryuji Katsuta and Masakazu Yoshioka both smiled knowingly, both of them are also benefit recipients, plus they have a close relationship with Ogasamura Akira, of course they are willing to have one more ally in the army.

Ning Zhiheng immediately nodded and agreed: "Ogasa-kun, we are all fellow villagers, adrift in this overseas land, of course we have to support each other, and I will ask you in the future." ”

After speaking, he stretched out his hand to shake hands with Akira Ogasamura, and reached a preliminary consensus.