"Will the Great Japanese Empire Collapse?" Katsura Taro stared at Takahashi with a sharp gaze, his eyes and expression full of malice and anger. Takahashi Kiyoshi's words clearly implied that Katsura Taro's policies would be the main culprit for the collapse of the Great Japanese Empire. Even if Takahashi is gentle and sincere, Katsura Taro will never turn a blind eye to Takahashi Shikiyo's words because of this politeness.

Takahashi is Qing Qing dared to say this, naturally there was no concern or fear, he still had a tone and tone, "Mr. Katsura, you don't even need your plan to fail completely, as long as your plan cannot be successfully completed, the finances of the Great Japanese Empire will collapse first." Even if this financial collapse does not spread quickly to the military, the military will not have much time to continue to accomplish the objectives of the war. There may even be a good situation in the war, but there is a possibility that the army will lose because of domestic problems. ”

No one had ever dared to describe such a situation to Katsura Taro so bluntly, and the muscles on Katsura Taro's face writhed, which was the effect of gnashing his teeth. After a moment, Katsura Taro squeezed out the words from between his teeth, "Then let the military department completely control the country." ”

Regarding Katsura Taro's performance, Takahashi is not surprised at all, the military department's tendency to go alone has always been strong, "After the Meiji Restoration, isn't it the military martial arts who have mastered the country?" As a result, isn't it because of all kinds of unsolvable problems that the problems are left to the parliament, the government, and party politics to deal with? Mr. Gui, I believe in the patriotism of you and the military department, but first of all, only with the country can there be an army to protect the country, and let the army become the ruler of the country, this is not a question of whether it will work or not, but this situation will definitely fail. ”

After hearing these words, Katsura Taro came to see Takahashi is Qing before the idea of respect and appreciation had already flown out of the clouds at this time, he pointed at Takahashi is Qing and wanted to scold this former little guy, but Katsura Taro felt that this was too cheap Takahashi is the baronial councilor of the current Imperial House of Nobles of Qing, and finally Katsura Taro finally let out an angry shout, "You non-national!" ”

In the face of the 67-year-old Katsura Taro's angry scolding, 61-year-old Takahashi Shiqing couldn't help laughing, "Mr. Katsura, it's not that I don't want to support the war, as far as I can see now, if we don't defeat China, our Great Japanese Empire will have no future." However, this war cannot be lost, and if it fails, the efforts of our Great Japanese Empire for so many years will come to naught. I am not unacceptable to your request for expanding the number of personnel and expanding the war. But you also have to prove that this war can be won! ”

The two old men in their 60s just looked at each other like this, Katsura Taro was angry and had a heart that was difficult to hide completely, while Takahashi was sitting in his place frankly. Compared with status, prestige, influence, and even age, Katsura Taro is above Takahashi Shiqing, but at this time, Takahashi Shiqing completely has the upper hand.

After a long time, Katsura Taro finally returned to normal, and he asked, "So what kind of victory does Takahashi-kun hope to achieve?" ”

Takahashi said calmly: "Even if I support it, I want to see what kind of military plan you put forward first." ”

This was said very bluntly, and Katsura Taro got up and said goodbye without asking any more questions. Returning to the official residence, Katsura Taro immediately summoned the generals and colonels of the War Department and asked them to formulate a comprehensive plan for the eventual capture of the Tohoku. This is not too difficult to do, and the Japanese War Department has long had a multi-faceted plan for how to completely annex Northeast China, and the preliminary work of this plan has been implemented since the victory in the Russo-Japanese War.

However, on October 30, 1915, perhaps due to overwork, it is also said that Katsura Taro was very dissatisfied with the final plan that the War Department had come up with several times, and he was furious, and Katsura Taro suddenly fell ill and died on November 11, 67 years old.

This variable has shocked the entire Japanese political circle, especially the Japanese War Department. Defu Su Feng said: "The special honor of rebuilding the Imperial Army, although it should be the first to recommend the county to have friends, but since 1885, in 1890 and 1891, for the reform of the imperial army's military system, the rectification of administrative institutions, and the improvement of the army's functions, among which the meritorious service should be the first to recommend Gui Gong." ”

In the Katsura Taro era, in the face of factional disputes and establishment problems in the Japanese War Department, Katsura Taro implemented drastic reforms, and in 1912 he was elected as a marshal by the army leadership, but was rejected by Katsura Taro on the grounds that he was an "active politician rather than an active soldier". He is the real boss of the army faction, and the death of Katsura Taro made the War Department leaderless for a while, and it was a mess.

At the same time, the 18th Army of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army, far in the northeast, did not know that such a major event had taken place in Japan. In order to exterminate the many Manchurian strongholds within five or six hundred miles of each other, the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army had done its utmost to destroy them. It was only in mid-November that the campaign came to an end.

"Japan's reaction is so weird." Mu Husan raised this issue at a meeting of the military department. In fact, if the 18th Army launched an all-out attack, the killing activities would be completed by early November. However, as soon as the 18th Army came, it had to monitor the Japanese troops trapped in Shenyang, and also had to guard against the sudden appearance of reinforcements, and the efficiency of troop dispatch was not high.

The comrades in the military department were also quite puzzled by this, if they had known that Japan's reaction was so slow, the 18th Army could even join forces with the 14th Army to attack Shenyang. The chief of staff put forward an opinion, "Are the Japanese preparing to attack in winter?" Among the information we have captured, there is a lot of information about the weather in the northeast, cold protection, and marching. Compared with the Japanese army, our preparation for the winter was significantly insufficient. ”

"Fighting in the weather of minus 30 degrees? Small-scale surprise battles can be considered, but large-scale battles, if there is no reason to fight, this winter is not the time for war at all. The chief of the military logistics department had just finished receiving winter clothes, and after listening to the words of the chief of staff, he couldn't help but refute. The Military Commission obviously decided to let the 18th Army stay in the Panjin area this winter, so it began to transport a large number of winter equipment to the northeast front before winter.

After conquering Hebei, the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army encountered something that might be called lucky. One of the achievements of the Beiyang government is the implementation of commercial cotton cultivation in Hebei. It also imports long-staple cotton seeds from the United States. After the implementation of land reform in Hebei, in order to increase the purchasing power of farmers, the Hebei Provincial Party Committee purchased a large amount of cotton from Hebei and opened a number of garment factories at the same time. The troops marching into the northeast were still wearing summer clothes when they set out, but before the temperature dropped to the point where they could not resist, they brought up rubber soled leather boots, autumn coats and trousers, knee pads, hats, woolen hoods, wrist pads, thick socks, gloves, and cotton coats.

The logistics department was the last to change into these equipment, and the logistics department had to know how to do arithmetic, so most of them were comrades from the old base areas. When he was in his hometown, they added a coat to their single clothes in November, where they had experienced the cold of the Northeast, and he couldn't help but raise objections when he remembered fighting in the cold he had never seen before.

Although I don't know if Japan will fight in the winter, the logistics chief couldn't help but add, "We Chinese are people, and the Japanese are also people." ”

Japan's recent military performance has been really unusual, and the comrades in the General Staff Department cannot guess what the Japanese really want to do. Faced with the doubts of the chief of logistics, the chief of staff simply stopped answering.

All eyes then fell on the army commander Mu Husan and the political commissar. The commissar didn't seem to be very energetic, and everyone couldn't guess what was going on, but the commissar himself knew it. A few days ago, he and Mu Husan discussed work and had a dispute. As a result, the political commissar was reprimanded by Mu Husan, and the political commissar himself actually admitted that there was indeed a problem with his ideas.

This time, the propaganda of the two super-combat heroes who blew up the Yalu River Bridge is not about how they did not fear death, but about "not completing the mission, the troops will cause more losses." So for these two combat heroes, the reason why they made such an extremely brave action was not to die, but to complete the combat mission at all costs. ”

There are also comrades in the army who have raised the question of whether it is not only these two comrades who have completed combat missions regardless of life and death, why other comrades are all first-class combat heroes, but these two comrades have won the title of special combat heroes.

The troops' explanation for this was, "We went into battle to complete the combat mission, and those comrades who died were indeed very brave." These two sacrificed super-combat heroes were not only brave, but also completed the combat mission and blew up the Yalu River Bridge. That's why, when merit is evaluated, they are stunt combat heroes, and other comrades who died are first-class combat heroes. ”

The political commissar was a little embarrassed by this explanation, after all, the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army was a revolutionary army, and this explanation would not seem too utilitarian.

Mu Husan is very disdainful of this rather "petty bourgeoisie" view. During the training of middle and senior commanders, Chen Ke once spoke very bluntly about Chen Ke's views on the implementation of war, "No matter how to beautify war, from an extremely cold point of view, war is how to make our personnel die most effectively!" Since war is so brutal, we must make our soldiers more aware of the purpose of war. Everyone was a member of the army, and all the commanders and fighters of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army were determined to achieve victory in war and other operations. ”

And the commissar obviously did not understand this in this matter, there were sacrifices and survivors on the battlefield, there were victories or defeats. The only criterion for judging the contribution of commanders and fighters to the troops is whether or not they have fulfilled their combat missions. The purpose of the war machine is to win, and every commander and fighter is a member of this war machine and must complete his or her own tasks.

Fortunately, the political commissar's objection to this matter was only told to Mu Husan in private, and Mu Husan had no intention of arguing too much with the political commissar. After the political commissar said that he had a problem with the angle of consideration, Mu Husan did not mention it again. However, I found that I had a relatively big mistake in my understanding of the war, which greatly shocked the mood of the political commissar.

Mu Husan could not guess what the Japanese wanted to do, and with the information obtained by the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army, if Japan still wanted to do something about the northeast, it would inevitably risk the taboo of using troops in winter. Even with the information that Japan's domestic political struggle was fierce, Mu Husan's cleverness could not imagine how this struggle could have a huge impact on the military. This cannot be blamed for Mu Husan's lack of imagination, since the era of the insurance regiment, the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army has not had any political interference in the military. All the problems that create confusion are, at best, disagreements at the front over the specific execution of the war. Even at the strategic level, the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army always had clear strategic steps. The adjustment of the strategic process has to be adjusted in response to changes in external circumstances, and there has never been a problem that the strategic objectives cannot be implemented. Therefore, in terms of this kind of infighting, it may be very appropriate to use "summer insects can't talk about ice" to describe Mu Husan's ignorance of Japanese infighting.

Seeing that the comrades were all looking at themselves, Mu Husan said: "Since the situation is unknown, we insist that you beat yours and I beat mine." Create as much of an environment as possible that is more favorable to us before the battle. ”