"What do you say? Japanese coup d'état? It's true? ”

"It is absolutely true that this was sent back from Tokyo by Comrade Ambassador, who witnessed the whole process at the embassy and was invited to participate in the military parade of the combined fleet. Pen Fun Pavilion www.biquge.info"

"Okay, I'll report to Comrade Stalin right away." People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs Molotov thought for a moment, "Don't disclose it to the outside world for the time being, whether it's our own comrades or the American side." ”

"Understood."

"Comrade Molotov, what does the news of the coup d'état in Japan mean?" Stalin was also shocked by the news, "Didn't you say that Japan was trying to go to war against us?" ”

"The intentions were there, and they intensified after the coup." Molotov's face turned pale, "The ambassador made it very clear in the telegram that the former chief of the General Staff of the Japanese Army became the prime minister of Japan, and the Japanese Navy Marshal Horikichi controlled the entire Japanese naval power......"

"What does this mean? He didn't grasp it? He killed the original commander? ”

"He now holds the most important position in all the Japanese navy, and even has the never-before-seen, ad hoc position of Privy Counsellor of the Navy, which, based on our knowledge of Japanese policy, we believe is a complete nullification of the Emperor's power by the Japanese warlords." "The meaning of his current position is that he can give orders to himself, set goals for himself without having to worry about others, and of course he can mobilize all the forces of the Japanese Navy as he pleases." In short, he is now a combination of the Emperor and the Commander of the Japanese Navy, and to the worst of all, he is deeply hostile to us. The robbery of the American convoy and the threat of a fleet attack on Vladivostok and the port of the Soviets were his manifestations. ”

Stalin gritted his teeth: "Can you get rid of him?" Such people are too much of a threat to us. ”

"It's basically impossible, if they could get rid of it, the Americans would have done it a long time ago." Molotov smiled bitterly, "In the past year or so, he has killed more than 1 million tons of British and American naval warships, which is more powerful than Marshal Heihachiro Togo back then, and he has a deeper grasp of the army than everyone expected." His political opponents had originally removed him from his post, but as soon as he instigated it, the entire navy rebelled, not only killing his opponents, but also mastering the entire naval force...... Only such unscrupulous warlords can ignore international law and basic moral norms and rob neutral countries of supplies. ”

"Well, let's adjust it according to the combat readiness plan of the Supreme High Command, and now we must avoid giving the Japanese a pretext for provoking a full-scale war." Stalin sighed helplessly. After the tentative retaliatory offensive on the border was defeated by Umezu Mijiro, Stalin, despite everyone's dissuasion, insisted on launching a larger-scale offensive and had to get the field back, this time completely speechless.

"There is also embarrassing news...... "Molotov opened his mouth with difficulty, "after negotiations, the Japanese side agreed to reduce the robbery fee to 40%, but the proportion is calculated according to the number of ships, and they must pick first, after the picking, they will ensure the safety of the remaining ships, and then the Japanese side declares that it has no intention of going to war, let's not misjudge the situation, but they are not afraid of war, now the Kwantung Army is not the time of Nomenhan, and it is idle to be idle, everyone may as well compete again." ”

"Bastard!" The furious Comrade Stalin slapped the table, his face bruised and bruised, obviously angry to the extreme, but there was nothing he could do - militarism is this virtue, if you can beat him, everything is easy to say, if you can't beat him, don't blame others for talking and doing things badly. In the past 40 years, Japan has waged war against Russia many times (the Russo-Japanese War in 1904, the Siberian War in 1918, Zhang Gufeng and Nomenhan in previous years), which time is not a reason to bother to find?

"Tell your American friends and hear what they think."

Molotov understood that this was Stalin's resignation in desperation, but he had to obtain the consent of the United States, after all, the supplies were given by the United States, and the crew members were basically Americans -- all of his own people who were detained last time were released back by the Japanese side, but none of the American crew members could leave, and it is said that they were all sent to the prisoner of war camp as coolies.

In fact, Molotov still didn't dare to say anything, and Gu Zhengzhi, who remained as foreign minister, said arrogantly to the Soviet ambassador: "Because your country has brazenly invaded Manchuria, our side has decided to reserve the right to retaliate. ”

Is Gu Zhengzhi bragging? Of course not, the civilian officials in the cabinet now understand very well that since the "crusade against national thieves" in which all the members of the navy rebelled against each other and the army watched from the sidelines, it is no longer easy for His Majesty to speak militarily, and as long as the opinions unanimously adopted by the four bigwigs of the army and navy must be implemented.

The plan drawn up by the base camp was to send troops to occupy the entire island of North Sakhalin -- there are very rare oil minerals on it, producing about 400,000 to 500,000 tons of oil a year, and after losing the Baku oil field, the Soviet side urgently expanded it, and now the oil production can reach 800,000 tons. For Japan, which consumes about 7 million tons of oil annually (originally 5 million tons, but this book estimates it at 7 million tons due to Japan's expansion of heavy equipment and reduction of fuel consumption in China), it is very attractive. For the Soviet Union, which consumed 10 million tons of oil a year, it was not of small significance. Originally about to do it, Ishihara expressed his opposition: "What if the Soviets send bombers to blow up the oil well after the seizure?" "Everyone felt that they were not completely sure at the moment, and the navy had other considerations, so the whole matter had to be put on hold for the time being.

"I will never agree to such a shameless and absurd practice...... Whatever reason you use to convince me! U.S. Vice President Wallace, who is acting as president, tore the letter of proposal submitted by the Joint Chiefs of Staff to shreds, "As long as I am in the White House for a day, you will not think about it!" ”

Japan's coup d'état and 40% of the robbery fee were quickly transmitted to the United States through the diplomatic system, and there was no person in Japan who did not have spies or could openly carry out activities, so the intelligence collection on Japan relied heavily on the information provided by the Soviet side and the Chinese side. After hearing that Japan has two super-battleships and aircraft carrier-based aircraft capable of ultra-low-altitude flight, the Joint Chiefs of Staff immediately submitted a seemingly humiliating but actually very rational proposal -- if Japan can really guarantee the safe delivery of surplus materials to Russia, it will agree to a 40 percent extortion fee.

Both Admiral King, Nimitz, and Turner thought that the money was not outrageous, because the North Atlantic route that transported supplies to Britain had a loss rate of nearly 50 percent, and it was often lost along with ships and goods, and Japan only offered 40 percent of the price and ensured the safety of personnel, and the actual transportation effect even exceeded that of the North Atlantic route. It is nothing to give some supplies, just send a little more, and it is impossible for Japan to win the war with this little more anyway.

Of course, the Joint Chiefs of Staff is not weak in its ability to shake off the blame, and if this arrangement is leaked out and is heard by the Congress or the people who do not know the truth, they will certainly point the finger at the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the top brass of the army and navy and bitterly scold the financial enemy, so they will do everything possible to get Wallace to sign an order agreeing to it -- in the event of an accident in the future, they can also shift the responsibility to Wallace, who is acting as president.

I don't know if it was Wallace's political idealism or his think tank that saw through the "careful thinking" of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and he was hysterical at the communication meeting, saying that he would not sign this consent form, and even openly quarreled with the top military officials, including Marshall, Admiral King, and others, accusing them of being responsible for the current US military defeat.

Turner, who has always been not afraid of heaven and earth, made a surprising statement at the subsequent closed-door meeting of the Joint Staff Council: "I'm starting to envy this guy Horikichi, saying that if you do a coup, you will do a coup, and if you don't know how to do it, the emperor, get out of here!" -- This is the life of a man. When will I be able to shout heartily, shit vice president, you don't know how to get out of me? ”

General Li Haihai, chief of staff of the president, who has always flaunted political correctness, also had a gloomy face: He was not annoyed by Turner's "stupid words", he was annoyed by Wallace's ignorance of promotion, and everyone originally raised the vice president's "acting" authority to make you sign more and talk less nonsense, but now it's good, you have begun to take up the tone. Now you are openly rejecting the unanimous opinion of the top brass of the army and navy, and even threatening to remove us, what do you want to do?

Eisenhower, who was relatively mild-mannered, sighed: "Then we can only pause the delivery of materials for a while, and we will find a way to see if we can win the support of some powerful congressmen on Capitol Hill and let them put a little pressure on the president." ”

"It's the Vice President!" Marshall "reminded" and accentuated the tone on the word "vice."

Eisenhower awkwardly repeated: "Yes! Vice president! ”

"Do you want to call Hoover......" Turner whispered a few words in Admiral King's ear, whose face changed slightly, but finally did not nod.

In addition to the military, Wallace was unhappy with Hoover, who expressed dissatisfaction with his control of public opinion and the massive infiltration of the "Statute of Loyalty", believing that he was engaged in spying rule and political purges, and that he would allow an independent judiciary to intervene in the review of cases that had been handled so far and to hear reports on the use of the budget, which undoubtedly made Hoover extremely annoyed. Turner's suggestion was whether Hoover could collect some black material about Wallace and simply remove him from office, and let the Speakers of the Senate and House of Representatives "try it." The scheming Admiral Jin thinks that it is not yet this time, at least he cannot take the lead, in case the matter is exposed, it will be a big deal.

"Let's prepare for Guinea first." Nimitz sighed and said helplessly, "The matter of aiding the Soviet Union will be discussed again, and I hope that Father Stalin's offensive in the direction of Central Asia will be effective, so that it will be better for us to make this suggestion again." ”

Lehi nodded: "Prepare the supplies first, prepare 30 ships, and load them as evenly as possible......"