More than a dozen trucks drove into the gate of the Marine Corps headquarters one after another, and Vice Admiral Makita took all the generals and adjutants to welcome the Huatong Trading Company in the courtyard to present condolences to them.

"Thank you Chen Jun for your great contribution to the Imperial Navy, and thank you for the condolences and gifts you sent during the Spring Festival, our Marines will continue to help you and jointly build the prosperity of Shanghai!" Lieutenant General Makita Kakuzaburo bowed to Chen Mingxiang in public.

"According to the festival of the Empire, New Year's Day is the Spring Festival, and on this important day, the officers and men of the Imperial Navy are fighting for the construction of Greater East Asia in China, and they cannot be reunited with their families, so I must extend my highest respect and sincere greetings to the Imperial Army." Chen Mingxiang said with a smile, and also bowed back.

Then there was the distribution of condolences and gifts, this time Chen Mingxiang made enough budget, and the effort was unprecedented, and the atmosphere of the entire Marine Corps became jubilant.

With an establishment of more than 5,000 people, more than 4,000 ordinary soldiers each received one pound of sake, five boxes of cigarettes, and one pound of tea; officers of the rank of lieutenant received a red envelope of $100, two pounds of sake, ten boxes of cigarettes, and a pound of tea; officers of the rank of junior officer received a red envelope of $1,000, two bottles of red wine, five barrels of cigarettes, and two pounds of tea; and a general officer received a red envelope of $10,000, a box of red wine, a box of cigars, and three pounds of tea.

It is worth mentioning that Chen Mingxiang's three iron relations in the headquarters, Ono Nakasa, Nakajima Osa and Shimada Nakasa, they are also issued according to the treatment of generals, and no one else has any objection to this, if it were not for their efforts, where would the Marines get so many benefits?

In addition, there are truckloads of chickens and ducks, meat, vegetables and fish, and then there are relatively rare South Sea fruits, such as bananas, mangosteen, dragon fruit, etc., there are many kinds of products.

Chen Mingxiang first went to the headquarters of the gendarmerie and sent down the goods and condolences to the more than 2,000 gendarmes in the entire central China region, and the treatment of ordinary gendarmes is equivalent to the treatment of officers at the rank of lieutenant, and the condolence money has reached more than $300,000.

Lunch must be eaten at the Marine Corps Headquarters, which was specially called by Ono Nakasa before he came, and the Gendarmerie Headquarters in Shanghai is Chen Mingxiang's base camp, and the relationship is quite special, and it is the same when to eat.

"Chen Jun, the empire's battle for Kuah Island in the South Pacific region may be about to fail, in view of the gradual loss of air and sea supremacy, it is very difficult to supply the ground troops, Kuah Island is no longer suitable for continued operations, the situation is very grim!"

"The U.S. Navy lost the USS Wasp and USS Hornet aircraft carriers in this campaign, and we lost the USS Longxiang aircraft carrier, on the surface it seems that the losses of the Navy are smaller than those of the United States, but the industrial strength of the empire cannot be compared with the United States at all, and the number of ships built by the other side has reached as many as 14, which is terrible to think about."

"After receiving information, the 2nd Marine Division and the 25th Infantry Division of the US Army were transported to Kuah Island in December to replace the 1st Marine Division, and the strength has occupied an overwhelming advantage." Ono said with a frown.

This is in Nakajima Daisa's office, the four of them get together to drink tea and chat, and the conversation of the soldiers is often involved in the war, and the most important battle at present is the battle for Kuah Island.

"One or two failures are not the key, the most troublesome thing is that because of the supply difficulties on Kuah Island, Lieutenant General Tanaka Shinichi, the chief of operations of the General Staff Headquarters, and Major General Kenrio Sato, director of the Military Affairs Bureau of the Ministry of the Army, fought in the office, and also ran to Prime Minister Tojo's office and scolded him for being a bastard, for which he was transferred to the General Headquarters of the Southern Army." Nakajima said.

The chief of operations of the General Staff Headquarters ran to the Prime Minister's office and scolded Hideki Tojo for being a bastard, which sounded like a fantasy to Chen Mingxiang, but it was the case.

The waters off Kuah Island were blockaded by the US Navy, and the ammunition, medicine, and food supplies could not be delivered, and the Operations Department of the General Staff Headquarters demanded that civilian ships be brought in to meet the needs of the combat units despite losses.

However, this request was vetoed by Hideki Tojo, who was also the Minister of War, on the grounds that it was more important to keep a certain number of civilian ships to expand military production than to send supplies to the front.

Tanaka Shinichi, who was like thunder, and Ken Sato, the director of the Military Affairs Bureau who conveyed the order, were also the confidants of Hideki Tojo, and the two scuffled in the office, not to mention that the Minister of War actually ran to Hideki Tojo's office and scolded the Prime Minister and Minister of War.

"It's not news that Major General Shinichi Tanaka likes to fight, in the fifteenth year of Showa, that is, in the twenty-ninth year of the Republic of China, he and the then Director of the Military Affairs Bureau, Muto Akira, also fought in the office in order to start a war with Britain and the United States, just because his attitude was deeply appreciated by the bigwigs at the time, and he was promoted to lieutenant general the next year."

"But this time it's different, he went directly to provoke Hideki Tojo, so he didn't have to sit on the cold bench? It is estimated that in this life, he will be a lieutenant general. Shimada said with a smile.

"Has the Empire decided to retreat from Kuah Island?" Chen Mingxiang asked.

This is a very important piece of military intelligence, if the Japanese army wants to evacuate Kuah Island, it must quickly inform the US military that it is obvious that the Japanese army's logistical supply can no longer hold up, and it can drag this enemy to death on Kuah Island, which has an extremely important impact on the war situation in the South Pacific region.

"I haven't heard this news for the time being, even if it is a retreat, it will need to be carefully deployed, and it is not easy to decide, there are more than 30,000 imperial troops on Kuah Island." Ono Nakasa shook his head and said.

After lunch, Chen Mingxiang went to the headquarters of the 13th Army and the 61st Division to "express condolences," but this was a symbolic move.

The rank of lieutenant general includes commander and division commander, which is $10,000, and if the rank of major general is a commander, such as the chief of staff of the headquarters and the brigade commander, he can get $5,000.

However, the auxiliary major general was 2,000 US dollars, the junior officer received a red envelope of 200 US dollars and a pound of tea, and the rest of the grassroots officers and ordinary soldiers were just given a batch of condolence materials.

The 61st Division and the 17th Independent Mixed Brigade were stationed in Shanghai, the 61st Division was a Type B Division with an establishment of 24,400 men, and the 17th Independent Mixed Brigade was 5,000 men.

Although Chen Mingxiang has made some money this year, in the face of such a huge base, he really can't afford it, and everyone can understand this, this is unprecedented, and the condolences from the city government are not even a fraction of him, and they have not lived up to the strong support of the 13th Army.