Hoffman's meddling in Japanese politics finally led to a change in the situation in the Pacific, and the Battle of Kuah began to take a different fork in the road.

According to the original historical trajectory, at dawn on October 26, the Japanese and US fleets will conduct an aircraft carrier duel in the waters off Santa Cruz after the Battle of Midway, which is historically known as the "Battle of Santa Cruz" (the Japanese side calls it the Battle of the South Pacific), but because Nagumo Tadaichi had left his post before, and Yamamoto Isoroku had left his post as commander of the Combined Fleet for a few days, both the mobile fleet and the combined fleet were in a position of being leaderless, so all major Japanese fleets were deployed near Rabaul except for the 8th Fleet, which needed to maintain the "Tokyo Express." The rest of the warships were assembled in the waters near Truk on the orders of Vice Admiral Nobutake Kondo, and although the posture was a little negative, it was a passing shoulder to shoulder with the menacing attack of the US aircraft carrier task force -- on October 25, Halsey, who had just been the new commander of the US South Pacific Force for just a week, had issued the famous order to the commander of the aircraft carrier group, Kincaid, "Attack, Repeat, Attack."

On the night of October 28, Masanobu Tsuji, who was tasked with the mission of "dismissal if he did not succeed", boarded Kuah Island on the first "Tokyo Express" and successfully met Hyakutake Haruyoshi. At the beginning, when he heard the words "withdraw the troops", Baiwu jumped like thunder, roared incessantly, and even threatened to use the right of "playing on the curtain" to tell the emperor and leave alone. But Masa Tsuji's cold words shattered the other party's illusions and arrogance.

"The base camp has clearly issued an order: the establishment of the 17th Army will be abolished, and the relevant troops will be placed under the jurisdiction of the 18th Army of Lieutenant General Anda 23, and at the same time, all the landing force on the island with the 2nd Division as the main force will be withdrawn. In other words. If you don't carry out the order, Lieutenant General Anda can directly command Lieutenant General Maruyama to carry out the order, even if Lieutenant General Maruyama is willing to follow you alone. Don't expect Lieutenant General Anda to support you, let alone the 38th Division landing on Kuah Island – the Navy will not carry out this mission. If the chief insists on staying on Kuah Island, it can only be the final destruction of the tens of thousands of soldiers on Kuah Island. ”

"The base camp and navy are going to watch us die?"

"The army and navy have unanimously decided to move from Kuah Island, not only from Kuah Island, but also to Bougainville with all the garrisons on the islands east of Bougainville."

"This is the abandonment of the Solomon Islands, this is the abandonment of Guadalcanal......" Hyakutake Haruyoshi pounced and clutched Masanobu Tsuji's collar, staring at his blood-red eyes. gasping and said, "The blood of tens of thousands of soldiers of my 17th Army has been shed in vain. ”

"Seek benevolence and get benevolence, and seek death and death." Masanobu Tsuji, who was strangled out of breath, did not struggle, only struggled to spit words out of his throat. "Withdraw...... Retreat is for ...... to keep more ...... The blood and lives of soldiers, even if they ...... All of you are dead in battle, and so are Kuah...... Can't hold it. ”

"Is there no room for redemption?" Hyakutake Haruyoshi let go of his hands in a dejected manner, hugged his head and began to cry. The staff officers around him all looked indignant.

"Nope. Let's be honest. Before landing on the island, I had the same thoughts as you, as long as the situation can be maintained, even if I don't want to fight with my life, I will insist on fighting, but ......" Masanobu Tsuji pointed to the ordinary soldiers outside whose eyes were green, and who had lost their human form and were barely supported, "Can they still fight?" Do you still look like an army soldier? If it drags on, they will starve to death. The new commander of the Combined Fleet, Vice Admiral Horikichi Tsukichi, has arrived at the Truk base to take over the command of the Combined Fleet, and he is determined to suspend the supply to the island - the Navy cannot afford to lose destroyers. ”

"Woo woo ......" There was only the cry of Hyakutake Haruyoshi in the headquarters.

The actual situation was even worse than what Masanobu Tsuji saw, after two consecutive failed attacks on the 25th and 26th. The main spirit of the Maruyama Division had been lost, and he himself wanted to withdraw his troops. But Hyakutake Haruyoshi forced him to launch another attack on the 27th, and he achieved nothing but another more than 1,000 casualties. Maruyama finally retreated despite Hyakutake's orders, so he would never support Hyakutake to go alone. If Hyakutake Haruyoshi is still stubborn to the end, then Masanobu Tsuji still has a trick to draw wages from the bottom of the kettle, so that Maruyama refuses to carry out Hyakutake Haruyoshi's orders, and without the strength of the 2nd Division, how much storm can a 17th Army military headquarters set off?

When the adjutant sent telegrams to King Minoru Higashikurenomiya and his brother Hyakutake Saburo respectively to persuade them to carry out the order and withdraw their troops decisively, Hyakutake Haruyoshi finally felt afraid: Although Tokyo has no way to do anything with itself now, as long as he leaves from Kuah Island, he will inevitably engage in military law, or it will be the final outcome of burying Gua Island with these tens of thousands of soldiers. After figuring this out of this, he no longer insisted on his own assertions, and instead asked Masanobu Tsuji about the retreat plan.

"In view of the difficulty of moving forward in front of the enemy, the General Staff Headquarters Sejima Ryuzo Shozo has formulated a plan, that is, to cover up the essence of our action with the illusion of a large-scale attack, and specifically order that a naval staff officer will be sent to the island tomorrow and the day after tomorrow, and your only task now is to gather forces on the premise of alarming the US troops as little as possible."

"Okay, I'll inform Lieutenant General Maruyama immediately."

Seeing Hyakutake Haruyoshi accept the advice, Masanobu Tsuji's hanging heart finally let go.

At this moment, in the Truk Lagoon anchorage, in the conference room of the battleship Yamato, an unprecedented meeting of the combined fleet is taking place.

Vice Admiral Horiyokichi, the new commander of the Combined Fleet, was surrendered, including Vice Admiral Imi Shimizu, commander of the 1st Fleet, Vice Admiral Nobutake Kondo, commander of the 2nd Fleet, Vice Admiral Kusaka, the new chief of staff, Vice Admiral 243 Tsukahara, the new commander of the 3rd (mobile) fleet, and the commander of the 8th Fleet, Mikawa Gunichi. The atmosphere of the meeting was very dull, after Nagumo's resignation, Yamamoto's transfer, and Ozawa's departure abroad, the entire Combined Fleet was filled with a different feeling, but everyone knew that the battle situation had reached a very critical moment - the battle of Kuah, which had no hope of victory, was the most important thing at the moment.

"Ladies and gentlemen, according to the latest decision of Your Majesty and the base camp, the Indian Ocean Attack Strategy of Japan, Germany, and Italy has been officially approved, requiring the main forces of our combined fleet to break through to the main theater of operations by December 15 at the latest, and cooperate with Germany and Italy in land operations, and it is expected that the Pacific regions will fall into a naval power vacuum for 4-6 months between departure and return."

Everyone felt confused about this sudden Indian Ocean Raider, and even the South China Sea War was struggling, and what Indian Ocean Raiders were going to do on it, I really didn't know what to do. However, all of them were smart people, and when they saw the collapse of the Tojo Cabinet, the strengthening of the Imperial Army's military order, and the unification of the Army and Navy in their own right, they understood the mystery of this, and after hearing the price offered by the German side for this strategy, everyone was also moved.

Although Horikichi was transferred directly from the reserve and the position of chairman of the company, the qualifications of the chief officer and vice admiral of the navy of the 32nd period were placed here after all, and the banishment of the "golden mask" Ugaki as soon as he came to power made everyone dare not disobey his words: "In order to effectively deal with this situation, the base camp made the following decisions: first, to reduce the army strength and strengthen the defense, not only to withdraw troops from Kuah Island, but also to abandon the islands east of Bougainville and south of Lae; The second is to seek to deter and injure the US naval fleet and force it not to pose a major threat to China's Nanyang islands during the westward transfer of the main forces of the combined fleet......

Everyone was in an uproar, although the withdrawal of troops from Kuah Island has always had this idea, but the army side refused to agree, now it is good, not only Kuah Island is not wanted, but even most of the other Solomon Island islands are not wanted?

"Sir, the implementation of the Indian Ocean Raid, the retreat of the islands east of Bougainville, etc., are all unimaginable before, is this the latest policy of the base camp?" Shimizu Izami asked puzzled, "The order we received ten days ago is not like this. ”

"The situation is changing so quickly that the policy of ten days ago can no longer guide the current operation. The battle on Kuah Island has been difficult to maintain, and both Vice Minister Ishihara and Tada Jun have seen the crux of the problem, and after Hyakutake Harumichi's three attacks failed, can't you still see what the consequences of the Battle of Kuah Island will be? Horikichi said solemnly, "We have lost the air supremacy of Kuah Island, and we have lost the daytime sea supremacy in the waters of Kuah Island, how can we win without these two things?" Without the support of air and sea supremacy, the army's offensive was very dismal, and what was worse was that the peace talks did not go well. ”

The word "peace talks" was thrown into the meeting hall like a bombshell, and in the face of the noisy crowd, Horiyoshi briefly introduced the recent changes in the political situation and the communication between Japan and Germany: "The United States has rejected the idea of peace on the A plan and the reform of the A case, and the empire has no way to retreat...... Ladies and gentlemen, are you willing to surrender or continue to fight? ”

This slogan is almost a replica of Pearl Harbor's previous ones, with the only difference being that the decision was made with apprehension and anxiety, and now it is made with an infinite fear of future failure.

Even the treaty faction such as Yamamoto Isoroku and Hori Tsukichi were murderous and demanded to fight to the end, and the fleet faction led by Kondo Nobutake naturally could not admit it, and after the initial shock passed, all of them were one-sided support and agitation.

"I announce the next phase of the operational concept, and before the implementation of the Indian Ocean Raider, we must fight another battle with the Americans." Horikichi glanced at the meeting hall for a week, "When this commander came to take up his duties, he had already preliminarily conceived the relevant combat plan, and finally came to the conclusion that the situation in the South China Sea could not be stabilized without seriously damaging the US aircraft carrier formation, and now is the time when the strength of the US aircraft carrier is the weakest, and once it is time for dozens of US aircraft carriers to pounce next year, it will be too late to fight hard." With the consent of the Military Command Department and after many consultations with the Chief of Staff, the core of this operation was the US Navy's aircraft carrier formation. (To be continued.) )