The mystery was quickly revealed, and King Minoru of the Higashikure Palace said: "It's not impossible for Your Majesty to let me be the chief of staff, but I have one condition. ”

"You say."

"Ishihara must be the deputy chief of staff."

"Ishihara Waner?" Hirohito nodded, "I know that he has always been kicked out to teach at the university because he has always opposed Tojo's erroneous ideas, and many of his policy ideas seem to be a bit negative at first, but they seem to be right at the moment, this is a visionary figure, I think I can help you manage the staff headquarters." ”

Kido Takaichi was shocked, and blurted out a sentence: "If Ishihara Waner comes to power, it will be difficult for the land minister to give birth, and both Commander Umezu and Commander Yanjunroku will disagree with Vice Minister Ishihara......"

"What's so difficult, it's good to let General Seishiro Itagaki be the land minister, and the army will definitely have a new situation with the wisdom of Ishihara and the courage of Itagaki again." King Minoru Higashikuremiya said nonchalantly.

But Hirohito frowned and said: "Itagaki Seishiro can't do it, he has repeatedly provoked the Soviet Union in office, and after the relationship with Germany warms up this time, it is easier for the army to instigate Germany to attack the Soviet Union, and now the empire's internal and external difficulties are really not easy to make too many enemies." ”

"Then it's only Tada?"

"But he was transferred to the reserve a year ago." Koichi Kido said embarrassedly.

"Then go straight back to active duty." King Minoruhiko Higashikunomiya said, "The cabinet reshuffle should not be slow, and there will be various voices if it drags on for a long time. ”

Hirohito nodded in agreement, and then explained to Kido Takashi: "Tada Jun and King Fushimi Miyahiro Gong entrusted Qing to say, and they must make it clear that it is me." The Prime Minister's matter will be reconsidered. The work of the staff headquarters can be let Ishihara worry about it privately. As for the immediate withdrawal of the gendarmerie surveillance - Tojo made a lot of trouble. ”

"The ministers obey." Koichi Kido and Minoru Higashikurenomiya looked at each other, smiled at each other, and immediately understood each other's mentality.

Did King Minoru Higashikuremiya visit Hirohito with nothing to do? Of course not. He had secretly received a message from Ishihara in the evening of yesterday evening, and in light of the imminent turmoil in the cabinet, he was keenly aware of the opportunity and was immediately ready to move. He decided to go and meet Ishihara in person and hear what he had to say. As a figure who has served as the deputy chief of staff, Ishihara certainly has a backstage, otherwise it would not be possible to stay with Tojo for so long, and this backstage is King Minoru Higashikure Palace. Of course, the gendarmes did not dare to move when they saw the royal family coming to visit, and no one dared to poke it up to report. In case the prime minister and the royal family end up falling out, it is they who are unlucky. This time, Ishihara learned wisely, knowing that he had a large group of opponents both in the Ministry of War and the General Staff Headquarters. Therefore, his suggestion was to reject the Tojo faction and reuse the faction that had "not expanded" the original counterpart, in other words, from top to bottom, they must be friends or supporters of Ishihara. This was supported by King Minoru Higashikunomiya, who also wanted to use this incident to carry out a purge of the General Staff Headquarters. Ishihara's preferred candidate for land is Seishiro Itagaki. After the two discussed, they decided that in addition to being unacceptable, Umezu Mijiro and Yan Shunroku were not accepted. Other neutrals are fine, even Koiso Kuniaki can be appointed. Of course, another reason for rejecting Umezu Yoshijiro was that Ishihara believed that Umezu Mijiro was very important in the Kwantung Army, and that only he could control the Kwantung Army and not let them move - now it was absolutely impossible to fight against the Soviet Union, even if the Germans were pulled to the sky. But in the end, neither of them expected that Lu Xiang would fall on the head of the retired Tada Jun.

Koichi Kido is still thinking about the choice of prime minister: if Tada Jun and Ishihara come to power, Umezu Mijiro, who is not in the same faction as them, will definitely have no fun; Koiso Kuniaki is a man of Ugaki Kazunari, and it is estimated that he can't do it; But will the possibility of Ugaki Issei increase a little?

Kazunari Ugaki has been revolving around the prime minister's throne all these years, and every time he seems to have an opportunity but fails to seize it every time, among other factors. Mainly because he offended the Army in two things. The first was the "Ugaki Disarmament" in 1925, in which he reduced the army strength of four divisions. Five army hospitals and two army schools for young children were closed, and then one tank wing, one antiaircraft artillery wing, two aviation wings, and one Taiwan mountain artillery wing were expanded with the funds saved, and an army automobile school and communications school were opened, and army units were equipped with aircraft, tanks, light machine guns, automobile-towed guns, and field heavy artillery. The strength of the troops increased, but the officers of the four divisions were not properly placed, which caused opposition within the army. Now it seems that the first factor does not exist, because the facts have proved that Ugaki Issei's method is reasonable, the Japanese have a lot of troops but the technology and equipment are seriously backward, and they can still show off their might on the Chinese battlefield, but they can only bow down to the Soviet army, whether it is Zhang Gufeng or Nomenhan, every time the Japanese army is defeated very badly, and the Americans on the Nanyang battlefield can not be defeated, and only the British who have only five scum left in fighting spirit can take advantage, if they want to continue fighting, they must use Ugaki's method to improve the quality.

The second is the attempted "March Coup" in 1930, when the core figures of the Ugaki faction, Hashimoto Shingoro, Nagayong, Tanaka Kiyoshi, several junior officers and Okawa Shuaki wanted to push Ugaki to power as prime minister, and planned to let Koiso Kuniaki mobilize the right wing to create riots through Okawa Shuming, and then send troops to establish a military dictatorship in the name of suppressing the riots, but Ugaki himself was not firm and finally gave up. Now that even his former subordinate Kuniaki Koiso has been put on the list of candidates for prime minister, there is no reason to dwell on this matter anymore.

Removing these two factors, Kido Koichi was surprised to find that Ugaki Kazunari met almost all the conditions, and in addition to the fact that the Heavy Ministers Council had promoted Ugaki Kazunari as prime minister during cabinet changes many times in a row, he thought that Ugaki Kazunari should be given a chance: this prime minister's re-election was to coordinate all aspects of the relationship and not simply serve decision-making, and Ugaki Kazunari, who was highly qualified and well-connected, met this requirement, and he was determined to reveal Hirohito's recent change of mentality to the re-level meeting so that they could reconsider the election.

That night, Koichi Kido, who was in a hurry, approached Tada Jun to negotiate and communicate, and the latter himself was stunned, a retired general, who was almost on the sidelines, dared to think of Lu Xiang's position? But when he heard that it was the recommendation of King Minoru of Higashikure Palace and Ishihara, he became excited, because these two people were all old acquaintances and had a good relationship, which was very helpful for future work. But he is a calm personality, although he is excited, but he is not in a hurry to express his position, after thinking for a long time, he finally put forward a request: "If I want to be the land minister, I hope that the sea minister will be Admiral Yamamoto, he is the person who can really control the troops, and he is also the current soul of the navy, I don't want to be deceived by the navy on major issues again, and if there is a second time, it will not be as simple as resigning, it will be a ...... to lose my head."

"Sir, something big has happened in Tokyo." At the Combined Fleet Command at Truk Atoll, the Chief of Staff, Vice Admiral Ugaki, came over and handed the Combined Fleet Commander General Yamamoto 56 the relevant telegram.

"Well, I'll take a look at ......"

When he saw the news of the suicide of Shimada and the resignation of the head of the military command department, Nagano Shusei, Yamamoto knew that a storm was coming.

"What else is there to say?"

"It is said that Nagumo Tadaichi is also going to resign, and the report has been drafted."

Yamamoto Fifty-six nodded, of course Nagumo Tadaichi wanted to resign, first, he was the culprit for the defeat of Midway, and second, his benefactor Admiral Nagano Shushen resigned, and Nagumo Tadaichi couldn't stay in the position of commander of the mobile fleet - he was not Yamamoto's man, how could he stay without the support of Nagano Shufu?

"Respect his personal choices."

"The second telegram is that Tokyo orders us to end the Kuah Island operation as soon as possible and assist the army in a full transfer."

"What?" Yamamoto Fifty-six hadn't said anything yet, and the other combat staff officers next to him all shouted, "Who gave this order?" The sea phase is gone, the chief of the military command department resigns, who can directly order the combined fleet? It's a mess! Besides, we have paid countless sacrifices in the battle of Kuah Island, and if we hold on a little longer, the turning point may be just around the corner, how can we give up easily? ”

"Obey orders." Yamamoto Fifty-six said lightly.

"Yes, but? ……”

Yamamoto had already seen the source of the telegram clearly and explained: "This is His Majesty's personal decree, not issued by the Military Command Department. Of course it won't be a chaotic life, have you forgotten that Your Majesty has the right to command supreme? ”

Everyone was silent, and everyone was thinking: what the hell happened, why did the situation become like this all of a sudden?

Later, a tidal stream of telegrams poured in, and all the personnel in the headquarters understood that the navy had concealed the true situation of the Battle of Midway and the Battle of Kuah Island from the Emperor, and began to talk nonsense:

"Hey, those people in Tokyo are messing around, we have already reported the situation to the country, and the hat of lying and concealing the report cannot be put on our heads."

"I guess it's General Nagano's idea, he has a lot of ideas, and Chief Nagumo is also unwilling to resign because of him, you didn't see that as soon as he resigned, Chief Nagumo immediately resigned."

"But it's good now, the commander has more power, and he won't be held back by those damn army red deer again."

"Enough!" Yamamoto glared at everyone. He reprimanded, "High-level personnel changes and major policies are also something you can discuss?" ”

The group of staff officers were silent, not daring to make a sound, and Yamamoto then left the room and went to the bridge.

"Sir, I don't think you're happy." Ugaki followed silently and said after a long time.

"Can you be happy?"

"I think ......"

Before Ugaki could finish his words, he was interrupted by Yamamoto Isoroku: "I may have to leave the Combined Fleet......"

"Why?"

"The country is in a difficult situation, Your Majesty doesn't say it in his heart, he may have other considerations and arrangements for me."

"But who has the prestige and ability to hold the position of commander of the Combined Fleet?"

"There's going to be someone." Yamamoto said meaningfully, "If I die tomorrow, will the Combined Fleet be dissolved?" (To be continued.) )