In the dense woods of the Imperial Palace in Tokyo, there is a place called the "Gobunko", but it is not the Emperor's study or library, but a sturdy Imperial Air Defense Shelter.

Protected by tall walls, heavily protected by the Japanese Army and Navy, and in the southern part of Tokyo Bay, there is also the Yokosuka Naval Port Gongwei, which is known as Japan's first fortress, and the Imperial Palace where the emperor's family lives is supposed to be quite safe. However, from the moment the swarms of German bombers flew over the English Channel, people of insight from all over the world began to realize that the battlefield was different from the previous battlefield, and the distance in the traditional concept had been greatly shortened, and the planes that originally needed to trek through mountains and rivers and advance step by step may only take dozens of minutes to arrive.

During the Russo-Japanese War, the Japanese Navy built a large number of wooden torpedo boats by surprise, although it was only a helpless move to prevent the Russian fleet from attacking the western coast of Japan, but it also played a great role in calming the people's hearts and stabilizing the situation. In the 19th year after the end of the Russo-Japanese War, German bomber groups flew over Washington, and in anticipation, the Japanese army began to strategically build a large number of air defense fortifications in major cities in the country.

The "Imperial Library" is a bungalow building, with a three-meter-thick cement roof to withstand any conventional bomb attacks, the basement floor is the residence of the guards, and the second basement floor is the royal family's air defense room, in addition to sunlight and rain, there are all kinds of living facilities such as study, bedroom, council room, kitchen and dining room, sufficient food and fresh water reserves, anti-gas compartments, backup generators and transmitters to ensure that the royal family can survive the most difficult times.

Despite the near-perfect preparations, neither the Japanese government nor the military wanted this air defense facility to be put into use one day, and it was undoubtedly a great insult to the Japanese Empire to condescend to hide underground, but when the situation developed, the emperor still entered the "Imperial Bunko" surrounded by his attendants. Before the bombing began. Prime Minister Yoshiichi Tanaka and other military and political dignitaries came uninvited, and Emperor Showa took the opportunity to convene the first wartime Imperial Cabinet meeting since Japan's declaration of war on Germany.

When listening to the reports of Prime Minister Yoshiichi Tanaka and Minister of War Yoshinori Momokawa, Emperor Showa remained silent and his expression was extremely serious, because it was the first time that the Imperial Family had entered the bunker to take refuge in a non-drill situation, and the tables, chairs, and lamps in the "Imperial Library" were all brand new. The emperor was obviously not in the mood to appreciate this, and for this supreme "living god", he could only hide in this "cave" when the enemy was about to attack his own capital, which was undoubtedly a slap in the face.

Yoshinori Baichuan's report is not yet complete. Amid the sound of anti-aircraft guns firing and shells exploding, the first distinct loud noise came from far away. A closer look reveals that this is not the sound of a single bomb at all, but an explosion that is so dense that it cannot penetrate the gaps, like a sudden rainstorm.

As the saying goes, Lady Luck always favors those who are prepared, but when both sides are prepared, the balance of victory always favors the strong.

Among the ground air defense units of the Japanese Army, the largest number of equipment is the Type 88 75-mm anti-aircraft gun, which can be used for both flat firing at ground targets and anti-air, and the rate of fire is relatively reassuring. This kind of anti-aircraft artillery is not powerful enough to deal with German heavy bombers at an altitude of 10,000 meters. If the shell had not hit the fuselage directly, shrapnel alone would normally not have been able to cause fatal damage to the hard surface of the Dornier III ultra-long-range bomber. Taisho 14 105 mm, 87 120 mm every time the cannon is fired, it is possible to pose a huge threat to German bombers, however.

Not only were they few in number, their rate of fire was extremely slow, and the Japanese artillery fire was not accurately guided, so there was nothing to praise the night except for the lucky shooting down of a German bomber at the beginning.

The German bomber group soon received the guidance of the last two radio beacons, and the bombers who had escaped the Japanese artillery fire opened the bomb bays in the belly of the plane, and at an altitude of 10,000 meters, the sharp sword was unsheathed.

At this time, the air raid sirens sounded loudly on the ground, and the Tokyo Garrison Command issued an early order to control the lights of the whole city, but this also made it easier for some people with bad intentions to spread rumors and create confusion among the civilian population. With the advent of German bomber groups. The garrison command also ordered the evacuation of residents from bomb shelters and bunkers, when North Koreans and Chinese, who also had oriental faces but were hired by Germany, threw grenades and incendiary bombs into crowded streets, causing large-scale chaos in the streets. At the same time, some people set fire to major warehouses, shops, rice shops, and even oil depots, and when German bombers flew over Tokyo, the Japanese garrison, army, and fire brigade were busy fighting fires.

Hearing the sound of the German bombing, the ministers sitting in front of the emperor had extremely unnatural expressions, and some of them had angry faces. There are those who look gloomy, and there are those who sigh and shake their heads; As for the army and navy generals who are responsible for opening up their territories to the outside world and guarding their homeland internally, most of them blushed with the complex emotions of anger, sorrow and shame, especially the Minister of War Hyamokawa Yoshinori and the Minister of the Navy Keisuke Okada, both of whom felt deeply guilty, and the chief of the general staff of the army base camp, Prince Kanin Miyazaihito, simply closed his eyes, and the four main figures of the army and navy only lacked the commander of the Combined Fleet, Naoma Taniguchi, who was sitting in the Yokosuka Military Port, but the expression of the 18th commander of the Combined Fleet was probably not much better.

As time passed, the sound of explosions outside came and went, some far and some near, and when the volume of the explosion suddenly increased, the great power of the aerial bomb could also be felt in the underground bunker of the Imperial Palace. There was another concern in the minds of the ministers and generals -- many of them had wives and children in Tokyo, and although the Tokyo Garrison Command had already built a number of bomb shelters and shelters in advance, the main purpose of these fortifications was to reassure the people, and their number and scale could only accommodate less than one-tenth of the more than 10 million inhabitants of the Tokyo area.

Gradually, the momentum of the explosion subsided. At this time, an officer in a guard uniform walked in from the outside with a stern face, and then went straight to the side of Prime Minister Tanaka Yoshiichi, who was also the Minister of the Interior, and whispered a few words, the officer bowed and turned away, and Tanaka's face was obviously more gloomy, and he walked slowly to the emperor's side. After kneeling, he reported in a medium volume: "Your Majesty, the Germans used a large number of incendiary bombs during the bombing, causing fires in several places in Tokyo, and more than 100 civilians were unfortunately killed in the bombing!" ”

"Bastard!" The generals below gritted their teeth one by one.

After being silent for half a minute, Emperor Showa said decisively: "The enemy is unkind, I am unjust, this battle must let the German people understand the divine power of my great Japanese empire!" Hyamokawa-kun, Okada-kun. The two of them should work together to complete the important task of capturing Vladivostok in three days and Sakhalin in one week! ”

"Your Majesty!" Bai Chuan Yoshino stood up confidently, "Tomorrow will make the flag of our Imperial Japanese Army fly in Vladivostok!" ”

"Your Majesty!" Keisuke Okada also said uncompromisingly, "The Imperial Navy vows to let the German fleet and the Russian Navy follow in the footsteps, and will not be soft!" ”

As soon as the two of them finished speaking, an extremely violent explosion woke them up from their arrogance, and the most urgent thing now was probably how to defend the mainland, especially Tokyo. At the emperor's signal, the two sat back in their seats.

"Your Majesty, will you use a special plan to retaliate for the attack on Berlin?" Yoshiichi Tanaka suggested in a whisper.

"Yes!" The emperor only said one word, but he made a weighty decision.

Tanaka replied, "Then give an order to the Special Intelligence Department as soon as possible!" ”

Emperor Showa nodded. He also turned his attention to Prince Zaihito of the Imperial Palace, who was also a member of the imperial family but was 34 years older than him. In an inquiring tone, he said calmly: "Are the air units ready for a counterattack?" ”

"Yes, Your Majesty!" The Prince of Xianyuan replied, "Everything is ready!" ”

Showachi's mood had completely calmed down by this time. He pondered, blinking much more often than usual, and only spoke again when the explosions outside had finally died down.

"The war has officially begun, and you must do your best! Tanaka-kun, the aftermath of the bombing is over, let our people know that the German bombing is only temporary, and the Imperial Army will soon eliminate any factor that can threaten Tokyo and the mainland! ”

"Yes, Your Majesty!" Tanaka replied respectfully.

"How many more nights like this?" Showa suddenly said secretly sadly.

At this time, it was in the sea between Hokkaido and Sakhalin. A large group of silvery-white painted fighters were flying rapidly towards the south of Sakhalin Island in the faint moonlight. The 182 fighters in this wave were all monoplanes, of which 152 were single-wing single-engine fighters with small bodies and relatively flexible appearance, and 30 were large-bodied single-wing and double-engined fighters.

"Team 1 accelerates the climb, pay attention to cover the bombers of Team 2!" On the pilot Japanese fighters, the commander made the final deployment before the battle through a radio communicator. The German-American and German-Russian wars have obtained huge economic and strategic benefits for Germany, and at the same time, they have also given the first team an object of study and research.

They only installed a radio transceiver on the lead plane, and only a radio receiver on the other wingmen, that is, they could only receive commands and not express opinions.

Soon, more than 100 fighters quickly climbed into the sky, and the rest were still flying at medium and low altitudes less than 200 meters above the sea surface. Unbeknownst to the Japanese pilots, their every move was under the surveillance of German airborne early warning aircraft and ground-based radars.

In less than a quarter of an hour, as many as 233 Junkers-Heinkel I, Messerschmidt, and Black Hawk II took to meet the enemy, and in addition to many Dornier 101 medium bombers and more than a dozen Dornier III bombers used for aerial radar alert, they took off to avoid the fire.

When the German fighters bravely rushed to the Japanese group, the anti-aircraft artillery fire around the radar warning station at the southernmost tip of Sakhalin Island also began to fire, and near the airports, ports and transportation hubs on the island, there were also a large number of HK23 quadruple 13 mm large-caliber anti-aircraft machine guns, HK22 twin 20 mm anti-aircraft guns, HK19 single 37 mm anti-aircraft guns, and HK24 twin 37 mm anti-aircraft guns. As well as the FA18 75 mm vehicle-mounted anti-aircraft gun manufactured by Aihart, the FA23 half-track armored vehicle mounted quadruple 20 mm anti-aircraft gun, as well as the FG21 88 mm anti-aircraft gun of Jiji Arms, and the FG23 full-track armored vehicle mounted single 88 mm anti-aircraft gun are waiting for the arrival of Japanese fighters, these air defense weapons are far beyond the imagination of the Japanese army in terms of performance and mobility, and more importantly, the German air defense forces have gradually applied radar technology to the guidance of anti-aircraft artillery shooting. This battle is destined to be unsuspenseful before it has even begun.

Although more than half of the bombs carried by the German bombers were high-explosive bombs, the destructive power of incendiary bombs was the greatest against the urban area of Tokyo, which was dominated by wooden buildings, and with the impact of a large number of high-explosive bombs on the momentum, the morale of the Japanese military and civilians was a blow at the beginning of the war.

Although the Imperial Palace in Tokyo was not directly bombed, but looking at the burning city and the thick smoke, Emperor Showa and his military and political dignitaries obviously did not have any mood at all, the German bombers flew away, but the bad news followed, in Shikoku and Hokkaido, the bombs of the German bomber group also brought great suffering to the Japanese residents there, the number of people who died directly from the bombing exceeded 3,400, and hundreds of people were killed by the fire, and thousands of people were homeless after the bombing. - About an hour later, the battle on Sakhalin was over, and after receiving a report from his subordinates, Tanaka worriedly told the Emperor that half of the Japanese fighters who had attacked had been shot down, and the results of the battle were still unknown, but their courage must have made the Germans feel timid. In addition, the second wave of fighters was preparing to strike again while the German bomber group was returning and landing.

After standing for a long time, Showa only said four words: "Fight to the death!" ”

Since then, "Glorious Death" has become a major slogan for the Japanese army to boost morale, but the Japanese army, eager to retaliate, has gradually embarked on a strategic misdirection, and the balance of war has never been balanced.