When I arrived at Ishihara's house, I found that there were still faint gendarmes watching beside him, Cole was surprised, and saw that the military Cao who had just escorted over had taken the initiative to run over to communicate with the other party, and the two muttered and bit their ears for a while before running over and laughing: "According to the regulations, you are not allowed to meet guests, but you are a friendly envoy and a special envoy of the Führer, we have decided to meet your request, but we can't spend the night in the house, so as not to make it difficult for us to ......"

"Understood, understood." Cole took out two more packs of cigarettes, and the gendarmes all went to the side to smoke at once, who cares if a foreigner visits a retired general?

"Who are you looking for?"

"I'm here to visit Lieutenant General Ishihara, are you?" He saw a short, thin old man watering the potted plants in the yard, and thought that the other party was a florist in the Ishihara Mansion, and his tone and posture were only average—in Japan, if you are too respectful to your subordinates, you will frighten them.

"I am."

I have always heard that the other party is very powerful, I thought it was a wise and far-sighted, mighty and majestic general, but I didn't expect it to be such an ordinary Japanese old man, Cole was taken aback and slightly disappointed, but he quickly calmed down and reported himself to the door concisely.

"Germans? Hehehe. The other party immediately began to greet me in fluent German, and said with a smile, "Do you feel a little disappointed to see me like this?" Not in line with your expectations? ”

"Don't dare, don't dare."

"What's not to dare?" "When I visited your country in 1923, it coincided with the coup d'état of the beer hall just launched by the head of your country, and he was also a small person of poor appearance at that time. I could clearly read in the newspaper that his light was completely obscured by General Ludendorff next to him, but who could underestimate him now? ”

The counterattack is coming right away. Cole smiled wryly and nodded and bowed. While apologizing, he put away his contemptuous mentality.

"Since you've been in Japan, would you rather drink sake or tea?"

"I can do all right, at your command. If you want other options, I can also help. Cole took out a bottle of whiskey from his purse and handed it over, "This is for you, I really don't have anything special to get my hands on when I come to the door for the first time, please take care of it." ”

"I see you've just sent out a round of cigarettes. If nothing else, you're smarter and more flexible than most Germans. There is no arrogance of an aristocratic officer, nor the rigidity that is common to Germans......" Kohl sweated profusely, and it turned out that the other party had been observing him for a long time.

He quickly took out another pack of cigarettes and handed it over, looking at him with a smile. After thinking about it, he poured out all the cigarettes in his purse, put them on the table, and pushed them over. Ishihara skillfully opened a pack and smoked one. Seeing that Cole didn't move, he asked strangely, "You don't smoke yourself?" ”

"No, I don't smoke. The Führer didn't like people around me to smoke, so I quit smoking. ”

"I see, it's a lot of perseverance to quit smoking." Ishihara asked, "Don't you mind if I smoke?" ”

"Of course not." Cole hurriedly stood up and lit a cigarette for the other party, there was nothing to be wronged about, he was only a lieutenant colonel, but the other party was a lieutenant general - even if he was retired.

Ishihara spat out a large smoke ring and said with satisfaction, "Sure enough, it's still a familiar taste, I haven't enjoyed it for many years......

"If you like it, I'll bring more next time."

"You won't be able to meet me next time in Tokyo. The government arranged for me to teach at Ritsumeikan University in Kyoto, and my family was going to move there after this winter. Otherwise, there is always a group of dogs swinging around the house, and they always feel uncomfortable. Cole knew that the other party was scolding the military police who were watching from the sidelines, so he nodded in understanding, and then took advantage of the situation as a breakthrough and said, "Maybe the situation has changed, and Your Excellency doesn't have to move?" ”

"Oh?" Ishihara smiled meaningfully.

At this moment, Mrs. Ishihara had already brought up the snacks for entertaining the guests, Cole glanced at it slightly, and found that there was only a little dried fish, peanuts or something, he was full of surprise, although the Japanese eat simple enough, but the lieutenant general's family eats these?

"Then let's drink whiskey." Ishihara saw Cole frowning, so he said casually, "It's good to have these things." Dried fish is expensive to death now, and if it weren't for an old subordinate who came to see me some time ago, you wouldn't have seen it. As for the peanuts, I grew them myself, and when I saw the things in the yard, I planted some of them wherever I could. ”

Cole remembered that the things Ishihara had watered just now didn't look like bonsai, and he was shocked and said, "Letting a general with outstanding contributions and a bold mind be embarrassed to grow peanuts at home, your country's use of talent is really unique." ”

"Forget it, these flattering words are to tell the outside world, if you really let me come to power, I'm afraid that you Germans will be the first to be unwilling."

"Why?"

"I oppose the Triple Alliance and a war between Japan and the United States."

Cole smiled slyly: "Your Excellency, I am also opposed to a war between Japan and the United States. ”

"Huh?" This time it was Ishihara's turn to be surprised, "Tell me why?" ”

"Not only you are against it, but I am against it, even the Führer himself is against it, do you want to listen to him?"

"Of course." Ishihara put on a posture of listening to his ears.

"The Führer said, 'If I were the prime minister of Japan, I would never approve of a war between Japan and the United States, because there is too much difference in strength, which is equivalent to a fight between a child and an adult, even if the child takes advantage of the adult's inattention, it will not help, and after a long time, he will be beaten hard, or even more severely.'"

"There's some truth to that."

"The problem is that there are wars that you don't want to fight – between Japan and the United States, and between Germany and the United States. If it weren't for the fact that the United States had repeatedly favored and supported Britain, how could we have agreed to a war with the United States? If it weren't for the U.S. economic sanctions, oil and scrap embargo on your country, would your country have come this far? Cole said, "Fighting is looking for death, not fighting is waiting for death, as a bloody man, is it better to look for death or wait for death?" ”

"Young man, I underestimate you, your level of understanding is more than enough to be a deputy chief of staff here in a few years......"

"Your Excellency has an overreputation." Cole smiled all over his face, "These statements were all pointed out by the Führer, and he asked me to visit you and say that you are one of the few strategists in Japan. ”

"When you say this, many people don't like to hear it."

"Not a compliment, of course! Although Japan and Germany were friendly allies, the Führer could not afford to compliment anyone in private in Germany. "He said that you are the only strategist in Japan who can really read Clausewitz's On War, and that you should study it well for the generals." ”

"He showed you this?"

"Yes! He gave one copy to each of the officers above the rank of general, and another copy was "Total Warfare" by His Excellency Ludendorff, and he always criticized the generals for not understanding strategy and war, and asked them to study hard, and we naturally had to learn every day around him. ”

"It's kind of interesting, it's kind of funny."

"I wonder what Your Excellency thinks of the current situation between Japan and the United States?" Cole didn't want to go around in circles with Ishihara any longer, so he asked bluntly, "The Führer cares about your opinion, and by the way, General Yamamoto's opinion - it's just that he commands operations at the front, and I can't visit him." ”

"Isn't the situation very obvious?" Ishihara tapped the plate with his chopsticks and said in a deep voice, "You don't need to read the newspaper or listen to the radio, just look at this." ”

"So, you don't believe in government announcements and propaganda, do you?"

"Those things?" Ishihara smiled contemptuously, "I don't know how many times I played in the staff headquarters back then, and they always picked us to play with the rest of the things, and there was no innovation at all. ”

Cole briefly described the complete defeat of the Japanese Battle of Midway and the great disadvantage of the Kuah Island Battle.

Ishihara's face became solemn, he got up and looked at the map on the wall, then turned to Cole and said, "The Midway battle was the mistake of Admiral Yamamoto who was scattered and self-righteous, and if he fought again, it might not be the result; However, in the Kuah Island operation, we did not make too many mistakes in our response strategy, and the root cause of our current disadvantage is really inferior to others, and Japan will have a big problem if it continues like this. ”

"There is a bigger problem, Your Majesty has no knowledge of this, and neither does the Army of the defeat at Midway." Cole pointed outside, "I walked all the way and found the slogan for the Midway victory." ”

"What?" Ishihara was shocked, "Your Majesty is also kept in the dark?" ”

"Yes. Yesterday I talked to Your Majesty, and the Minister Gu Zheng said that His Majesty was very surprised and annoyed, and that an emergency imperial meeting was held today. ”

"Baga, Baga!" Ishihara scolded a few words angrily, and then said dejectedly, "Japan is going to end, and it is going to fail!" ”

"Your Excellency." Now it was Cole's turn to be shocked, "You can't just say this, you still have gendarmes in your house." ”

"They can't beat me." Ishihara said angrily, "Look at the good things that this high-ranking soldier and red deer have done. ”

Cole didn't react at first, but after a long time, he realized that the other party was scolding Prime Minister Tojo, and it turned out that Ishihara Waner's evaluation of Hideki Tojo was very low: he could manage up to 20 machine guns in the warehouse, and it was difficult to say more than 20; …… He was able to take the trouble to write everything down in his notebook, but how to use them was beyond his ability.

"I see." Cole deliberately lowered his voice, "Do you want to hear what the Führer has to say about your country's Prime Minister?" ”

"You say."

"He said, 'I don't deny the merits of Prime Minister Tojo's vigorous and resolute behavior, but if he is a colonel-level officer, he should be a good officer because of his strong executive ability. But the question is where is he? He is the prime minister of Japan, and it is said that he is also the minister of war, and his position in Japan is the same as mine, but what do you think he is in charge of besides taking power? ’”

"The Führer is so accurate in looking at people more than 10,000 kilometers away......" Ishihara stopped Cole, who was about to continue, "I know your intentions, I will find a way, you can do this as a foreigner, and it will not be good for you to mix in again." (To be continued.) )