Chapter 581: Confusion

Guan Kaoji's hanging was carried out quickly. After all, this is the war years, everything is simple, and everything that can be saved is saved. Under the command of the commander, the soldiers who enforced the law directly hung Guan Guizhi to the gallows. Guan Kaoji only struggled in the air for a few moments before it was over.

Gu Shoufu was stabbed one by one.

This punishment originated in the Five Dynasties period and was abolished in 1905 at the end of the Qing Dynasty. The reason why Gu Shoufu is still sentenced to death is that needless to say, it is because Gu Shoufu has done evil to the point that it is too cheap to hang him.

It is said that Liu Jin, the great eunuch of the Ming Dynasty, was sentenced to Ling Chi and was stabbed 3,357 times for three days.

Considering that the execution of Ling Chi was too difficult and too bloody, Liu Yimin told Cai Zhong that they could not let the soldiers execute, and they had to find an executor from among the old executioners of Jinan Prison. According to him, in the Ming Dynasty, Ling Chi's knife skills were fine, generally more than a thousand knives, and after the Qing Dynasty, Ling Chi roughly had twenty-four knives, thirty-six knives, seventy-two knives and one hundred and twenty knives. He is an ancestral craft, and he can slowly concoct Gu Shoufu with a thin blade, at least more than a thousand cuts. In the end, Liu Yimin made the final decision and chose the 120-knife cutting method.

This night was a grand festival for the Chinese who were invaded by the Japanese invaders. When the verdict is over. From Shaanxi to the rear to all the counties controlled by the squadron, as long as there is a radio, it has become a sea of joy. Firecrackers are set off, gongs and drums are beaten, songs are twisted, and the suffering Chinese are smiling and singing small songs in their mouths, expressing their excitement and excitement in various ways.

Gu Shoufu's wail struck the hearts of all the Japanese officers and soldiers in front of the radio.

None of the Japanese generals could have imagined that the Eighth Route Army did not implement the policy of preferential treatment of prisoners for the captured Gu Shoufu and Guan Guizhi, but prosecuted them and tried them in the name of war criminals, and the punishment they imposed was so severe, so severe, so cruel, and so tragic.

The strongest reaction was naturally the officers of the units of the 6th Division of the Japanese Army.

After Lieutenant General Shiro Inaba, commander of the 6th Division, issued an order prohibiting ordinary officers and men from listening to the radio, only officers above the rank of group leader were allowed to listen to the live broadcast. In this way, there is a situation in which officers above the rank of captain listen in the room, and officers and soldiers below the rank of captain listen secretly outside the unit unit and outside the windowsill. Later, those squadron leaders and squad leaders couldn't stand the crowding, so they simply disobeyed the order and listened to their own squadron headquarters.

The people who are most likely to have a cult mentality are those who are not deeply involved in the world.

The same is true of the Sixth Division of the Japanese Army, speaking of Gu Shoufu, those brigade commanders and wing commanders may not admire him much, maybe some people still have opinions about him, but he is unlucky but those junior officers and soldiers, mentioning Gu Shoufu's name is extremely respectful, always taking him as an example, dreaming of being like him, killing crazy and making meritorious contributions on the Chinese battlefield.

When the wail of Gu Shoufu when he was Ling Chi came from the radio, these junior officers and ordinary soldiers completely collapsed, and wails rang out, as if it was not Gu Shoufu who was tortured, but their own father and mother.

After the wailing, some young officers first acted irrationally, and began to accuse and abuse each other, which later developed into fights. Later, some young officers and soldiers began to commit suicide. None of this is anything, life is theirs, and if you want to die, no one can care. But it's not right to kill someone else, and those irrational young officers do exactly what is wrong. One of the squad leaders actually picked up a light machine gun and fired at his own team, and as soon as he went down, more than a dozen little devils fell. There is still a devil who doesn't want to die and decisively kills him, otherwise, when he replaces the magazine, I'm afraid the whole team will die.

According to later statistics, on that night, the 6th Division, the most elite of the Japanese army, had 120 suicide and manslaughter accidents, and 1,200 personnel were reduced, which is equivalent to an elite infantry brigade. This also alludes to the figure that Gu Shoufu was cut one hundred and twenty times.

After the incident, Inaba Shiro urgently reported to the base camp and asked the country to immediately make another batch of exquisite amulets for each of the soldiers of the Sixth Division to wear one to give them a sense of security and confidence. At the same time, he requested that the base camp immediately select and transfer senior monks to the Sixth Division to preach the essence of Shinto and Buddhism, and help the officers and men of the Sixth Division restore their morale.

In the headquarters of the North China Front, there was a dead air.

When the chief of staff of the North China Front Army, Yamashita Fengfu, and the deputy chief of staff heard the news on the radio that the Eighth Route Army was going to try Gu Shoufu publicly, they all burst into a rage and cursed loudly.

The reason why Yamashita was able to become the chief of staff of the North China Front was because his father-in-law and Terauchi Shouichi were good friends. Originally, after he served as the commander of the independent brigade of the North China Garrison Army, he had been stationed in Beiping and was tasked with defending the headquarters of the North China Front. After the Independent Brigade of the North China Garrison Army was reorganized into the 27th Division, Lieutenant General Masaharu Honma became the commander of the division. At that time, because he was a major general, he could not serve as the commander of the division, so he stayed at the headquarters of the North China Front Army to assist Lieutenant General Naosaburo Gangbu in his work.

The Independent Brigade of the Zhutun Army in North China did a lot of bad things, the most famous of which was to provoke the Lugou Bridge Incident. The bad things that Gu Shoufu and the Sixth Division have done, Yamashita Fengwen and his original North China Zhutun Army Independent Brigade have all done, but they are not as famous as Gu Shoufu and the Sixth Division.

After listening to the indictment read out by the prosecutor, Yamashita Fengwen said indignantly: "Liu Yimin is making a big fuss, is this kind of thing worth prosecuting?" What occupation army in the world doesn't do that? Gu Shoufujun just did what many people in history have done, Liu Yimin has the ability to arrest and interrogate those famous generals in history, why only judge Gu Shoufujun? It's absolutely unfair."

Muto Akira was one of the representatives of the Japanese army, which expanded to the war of aggression against China. He was one of the seven Class A war criminals hanged at the Tokyo Trial in history, and he had the lowest military rank, only a lieutenant general.

Like the vast majority of Japanese generals, this Muto Medal was also promoted along the route of the Army Infant School, the Army Non-commissioned Officer School, and the Army University. Unlike other Japanese generals, Muto Akira liked to dance and write in his youth, pretending to be like a literary youth. This also laid the foundation for his long-term work as a counselor in the future.

After graduating from the 32nd Army University with the second grade, Muto Sho was selected to go to Germany to study military affairs, and he was deeply stimulated by the upsurge of the whole German army and military economy, and after returning to China, he began to vigorously advocate waging a war of aggression against China.

This Muto Zhang, the official is not big, but the things he does are earth-shattering.

When he was the leader of the fourth squad of the second department of the General Staff Headquarters, Muto Akira was ordered to go deep into the central and southern regions of China to collect intelligence and survey the geography, and came to the conclusion that China was vast and rich, while Japan was narrow and barren, and believed that the way out for Japan lay in occupying China. When he was the chief of the operations section of the General Staff of the Kwantung Army, Muto Akira also led the intelligence collection and analysis of the northeast region, laying the foundation for the Japanese invasion and occupation of the northeast. King De occupied Suiyuan and formed an army, Muto Akira was like a fly that smelled a stench, and immediately stuck to it, instigating the Kwantung Army to fully support King De in an attempt to establish the "Mongol Empire". As a result, Fu Zuoyi led his troops to launch a counterattack, and the battle of Bailing Temple was a great victory, almost capturing Muto Zhang alive who was acting with King De's army.

At the time of the Lugou Bridge Incident, Muto Akira was already the head of the Operations Section of the Japanese Army General Staff Headquarters.

After the Lugou Bridge Incident, there were two opinions in the Japanese General Staff Headquarters: Akira Muto's immediate superior, Japan's No. 1 military scientist, and director of the First General Staff Headquarters, Ishihara Wan'er, believed that the imaginary enemy of the Japanese army was the Soviet Union, and that the time was not ripe for a full-scale invasion of China, and that if it fell into the Chinese battlefield, it would affect the Japanese army's strategy for the whole of Asia. However, Muto Akira did not see it that way, and after receiving the report of the Lugou Bridge incident, he was overjoyed, believing that the opportunity for a full-scale invasion of China had come, and that it was necessary to seize the opportunity that China had not yet completed its war preparations to deal a fatal blow to China. The two went toe-to-toe, and the lawsuit went to the prime minister and even the emperor, and the result was naturally that Muto Akira won, and the Japanese army began to fully invade China.

During the Songhu Anti-Japanese War, Muto Zhang flew to Shanghai to see Matsui Shigen, and then to Beiping to see Terauchi Shouichi, and single-handedly planned the landing in Hangzhou Bay, which led to the retreat of the squadron from the Songhu battlefield.

When the Japanese army attacked Nanjing, Muto Zhang had already served as the deputy chief of staff of the Central China Dispatch Army, and the Japanese army captured an empty city, and the losses were so big, Muto Zhang naturally wanted to retaliate, and Gu Shoufu and his ilk burned and looted ships in the market towns near Nanjing with his consent. Historically, the Nanjing Massacre was also triggered by his order to allow large Japanese troops to camp in the city.

After listening to Yamashita's words, Muto Akira immediately let out a lot of nonsense: "The people of Shina are illiterate and are the garbage of the civilized world, and the Imperial Japanese Army is a great contribution to world peace by sweeping away the garbage that affects the progress of the world." What is Lieutenant General Gu Shoufu's crime? Liu Yimin's courage to publicly try General Gu Shoufu shows that he is also a frog at the bottom of a well who does not know current affairs and the direction of changes in the world trend, and cannot explain the general climate. ”

Yamashita immediately continued: "That is, any crime against peace, crimes against humanity, and war crimes are unheard of. It is simply inexplicable that the world has never heard of a single general who committed such a crime. Liu Yimin's unscrupulous attempt to tamper with an international convention that had never been fulfilled and to convict the generals of the Japanese Army with those provisions that were still on paper was purely nonsense and nonsense. ”

This is not the idea of Yamashita Fengfumi alone, at this time, there is indeed no case in the world where war criminals are prosecuted and tried for these three crimes. In the hearts of Japanese generals, killing people is a war achievement, and robbery is a war achievement, including ** women, which is also a violation of military discipline. At this time, the Japanese generals did not have the concept of war crimes, and it was precisely for this reason that they published in the newspapers photos and news of soldiers massacring civilians.

Liu Yimin's indictment of Gu Shoufu and Guan Guizhi on three charges of undermining peace, crimes against humanity, and war crimes can be regarded as ushering in a new era in the history of war in the trial of war criminals, and it is standing on the high plane of the entire human civilization to make judgments on all acts that endanger human civilization. It is also a warning to those war maniacs that if you dare to launch a war of aggression, I will judge you in the name and qualifications of all mankind.

How can these things be understood by little devils?

Yamashita Fengfumi has this view, and Muto Akira has this view: "Liu Yimin is grandstanding and wants to use the blood of the generals of the Imperial Japanese Army to attract the attention of the international community. I have to say, this guy has a set, he succeeded, tomorrow newspapers around the world will publish on the front page the news of their public trial of General Tani Shofu. There may be a heated debate in the legal circles. However, this is only grandstanding, it is strength that determines the outcome of the war, and the strength of the Imperial Japanese Army is by no means something that the small Tsuchihachi Road can contend with. What crimes against peace, crimes against humanity, war crimes, the Great Japanese Army is waging a holy war in Greater East Asia and liberating backward and ignorant Chinese. Liu Yimin is purely confusing right and wrong and reversing black and white. I can guarantee that although the press will make a noise, military strategists and politicians from all over the world will scoff at Liu Yimin's arrogant and ignorant move. ”

Yamashita Fengwen nodded: "Muto-kun, it seems that we have to immediately formulate a battle plan similar to the landing in Hangzhou Bay, completely shatter Liu Yimin's unrealistic illusions, and dispel his confidence in confronting the imperial army." ”

Muto Shoen's face immediately flushed: "Your Excellency Chief of Staff, there is a chance now, the Fifth Division has already gone north by boat and will soon arrive in Qingdao." I believe that we are fully capable of launching a large-scale offensive against the Tuba Road in Shandong and destroying the main force of Liu Yimin's Sect Instructor in one fell swoop. Maybe we can rescue General Tani Toshio and General Seki Kameji. ”

Terauchi Shouichi listened to his chief of staff and deputy chief of staff talk exaggeratedly, and knew that these two people did not understand Liu Yimin's instructor at all, and their thinking was still at the level of fighting against Chiang Kai-shek's government army, and they were still a long way from the former chief of staff, Naosaburo Gangbe. If they followed their idea and let the Fifth Division land at any port in eastern Shandong, it would indeed be able to catch Liu Yimin off guard at the beginning and sweep the base area of the Eighth Route Army. But what next? If Liu Yimin's main force surrounds him next, wouldn't it send the elite Fifth Division into the wolf's mouth?

Shouichi Terauchi was upset and asked Yamashita Fengfumi and Muto Akira to shut up and listen to how the Eighth Route Army pronounced the verdict.

As soon as I heard that the Eighth Route Army really convicted Gu Shoufu and Guan Kaoji of six major crimes such as undermining peace, crimes against humanity, war crimes, homicide, ** crimes, and robbery, and announced that Gu Shoufu Ling Chi was executed and Guan Kaoji was hanged, and there was no need for Terauchi Shouichi to stop it, Yamashita Fengfu and Muto Akira shut up.

By the time Sekiki was hanged and the wails of Tani Shofu's torture were heard on the radio, both Yamashita and Muto Akira's heads began to sweat.

Yamashita Fengwen touched his neck, and couldn't help but think, Guan Guizhi has only been in China for a few days, and after his 34th Division arrived in Tai'an, he has been in the midst of the attack of the Eighth Route Road, and he has never been able to let go of his hands and feet to do a big job, where is his original independent brigade of the Zhutun Army doing so heartily in the Pingjin area, Guan Guizhi was sentenced to hanging, so if he fell into the hands of the Eighth Route Army one day, wouldn't he be sentenced to Ling Chi to death like Gu Shoufu's unlucky bastard? It seems that in the future, it is better to stay in the headquarters and be safer to move with the troops casually. It's best to get out of North China as soon as possible.

Muto Akira's heart is more hairy than Yamashita Fengfumi, and he knows in his heart that one of the evidences that Taniso can be convicted of war crimes, crimes against peace, and crimes against humanity is that he has participated in the decision-making and discussion of the Imperial Council. The reason why Guan Guizhi was not sentenced to death by Ling Chi was that in addition to the fact that he killed fewer people than Gu Shoufu and had fewer women than Gu Shoufu, an important factor was that he was purely an officer and only carried out the orders of the military department, and he did not participate in the decision-making of the war against China.

Gu Shoufu only participated in one imperial meeting, and although Muto Zhang's position is low and his official position is small, because he is in the central decision-making center, he not only participated in the imperial meeting many times, but also directly led to Japan's full-scale invasion of China. Gu Shoufu was sentenced to Ling Chi and was cut with one hundred and twenty knives, so when it was Muto Zhang's turn, how many knives should be cut?

Muto Zhang didn't dare to think about it, but he felt that every pore around his body was slightly squeezing cold air coming out.

At the beginning, Terauchi Shouichi thought that the public trial of Tani Shoufu would only disgrace the Emperor of Japan, the government and the army, thinking that the Eighth Route Army would probably really shoot Tani Shoufu and Seki Kameji. He never thought that Liu Yimin would sentence Gu Shoufu to Ling Chi to death, and he really cut Gu Shoufu alive with a knife. In Gu Shoufu's wails before he died, Guan Guizhi's hanging seemed a little lucky.

Liu Yimin's daring to execute the lieutenant general of the Imperial Japanese Army, the commander of the dignified Sixth Division, and the commander of the 12th Army was simply an extreme contempt and humiliation for the Imperial Japanese Empire, and it was unbearable

Shouichi Terauchi, who was furious, wanted to immediately order a crazy revenge on the instructor of the Eighth Route Army, but after looking at the dejected Yamashita Fengfu and Muto Zhang, Terauchi Shouichi had to restrain his anger and sit down and slowly chew the bitterness in his heart.

Liu Yimin clearly knew that the Japanese army would retaliate frantically, knew that the Japanese army had large-scale aircraft and warships, knew that in terms of national strength, Japan was far superior to China, and dared to inflict the capital punishment of Ling Chi, which had long been abolished, on the captured Gu Shoufu. Shouichi Terauchi didn't dare to think about it.

Terauchi Shouichi knew that no matter how arrogant Liu Yimin was, no matter how strong and capable his instructor was, he would not be able to change the basic situation that the Japanese army was stronger than the squadron in a short period of time. Once the main force of the Japanese army completes the assembly and rushes to Shandong again, Liu Yimin's instructor is still not an opponent of the Japanese army. Unless a miracle happens. In this case, Liu Yimin still dared to ignore the large-scale retaliation of the Japanese army, and resolutely Ling Chi Gu Shoufu and hanged Guan Guizhi, at least to show one point, that is, they had the heart of death that would rather be broken than broken, and they were determined to fight the imperial army to the end.

The public trial of Toshio Tani is likely to make all the squadrons more resolute in fighting the Japanese army to the end.

Terauchi Shouichi, like Prince Zaihito of Kanin Miyajihito and Sugi Sugimoto, are all supporters of the quick victory theory. In their minds, the squadron has backward weapons, poor training, and inconsistent thinking, and as long as the Japanese army invades China on a large scale, it can completely wipe out the main force of the squadron in a short period of time, destroy the Chiang Kai-shek government or force it to surrender. It is precisely because of this that they are desperate to launch a full-scale war of aggression against China.

By this time of the war, Japan had done its best and captured the capital and all the largest cities in China, and as a result, the Chinese government and squadron's will to resist was not weakened, but became stronger. The most terrifying thing is that China had 3 million troops before the war, and now that the Wuhan Raiders have ended, China still has 3 million troops, maybe more. In particular, the Eighth Route Army, which had sprung up as a new force, occupied a larger territory, controlled more population, and fought more and more troops. It's also scary.

If this continues, the Japanese army will have to adjust its strategy.

Unlike Tani Shoufu, Terauchi Shouichi was one of the planners of the 100% Japanese war of aggression against China. He had a very good idea of why he wanted to launch a war of aggression against China and to what extent he would fight it. Now that Gu Shoufu was killed, he was reminded at once that the Sino-Japanese war was not as simple as he originally thought, the Japanese army's land, sea and air superiority was not so absolute, and the Nationalist Government was not as quickly eliminated or surrendered as originally thought. It seems that it is impossible to quickly destroy China in the short term.

Shouichi Terauchi, who woke up, seriously reviewed the combat history of the Japanese army since the Lugou Bridge Incident, and found that his judgment of the Chinese situation before the war was very wrong. At that time, all aspects of intelligence, including analysis reports, showed that China was a country that was completely rotten from top to bottom, the warlords had not been eliminated, the officials at all levels of the national government were from top to bottom, and the common people had only home and no country in their hearts, and they had no sense of identity with the Republic of China, and it was easy to accept foreign rule. As long as the Japanese army destroys the main force of the Nationalist government army and turns the Chiang Kai-shek government into a local government, China will immediately appear in a situation of fragmentation and warlords swarming. Now it seems that it is not the same thing at all, and the Chinese have formed a new unity in the face of war and the whole country has resisted Japan.

Why was the capture of Manchuria so smooth at that time and now so difficult to fight?

Terauchi Shouichi thought about it and felt that the northeast region belonged to Zhang Xueliang's rule at that time, and in the hearts of the Chinese government, it was a place where the warlords had seized the territory, and they could not take it back. Besides, Zhang Xueliang has already returned to the central government, and Chiang Kai-shek has no excuse to go to war with him, so he can only watch him dominate the northeast. As soon as the Japanese army occupied the Northeast, Chiang Kai-shek had an excuse to take back the Northeast, and if the Japanese army withdrew from the Northeast in the future, the Northeast would no longer belong to Zhang Xueliang's Northeast Army, but would truly belong to the Chinese government. Perhaps this is a trap set by Chinese strategists, just as they launched a preemptive attack on the Songhu battlefield. The main reason why it is so difficult to fight with the squadron now is that the Japanese army has invaded the hinterland of China, which has endangered the survival of the Chinese nation, and they have to rise up to resist.

Shouichi Terauchi, an old devil, thought about it and thought about it. Where is Chiang Kai-shek's kind of thinking, if he had that kind of thinking, he would have launched an operation to recover the Northeast a long time ago, where can little Japan still occupy the Northeast to this day?

Shouichi Terauchi overestimated Chiang Kai-shek's wisdom and ability.

Although he had a misunderstanding of the reasons why the Japanese army successfully captured the northeast, Terauchi Shouichi was very sober about the current war situation, and he knew that it was impossible to mobilize 700,000 troops to attack Shandong like the last time, and the Japanese army had already occupied so many places that the local garrison alone would not be enough. In order to eliminate Liu Yimin's instructor, you can't just draw out all the troops stationed in Wuhan, Nanjing, Hangzhou, and Shanghai, right? If you really want to do that, I am afraid that the squadrons in various places will take advantage of the situation to counterattack, and the results achieved by sacrificing so many elite soldiers in the past year of the war will not be in vain. If you want to capture those places again, I'm afraid it will be impossible.

Terauchi Shouichi thought about it and felt that the current Sino-Japanese war situation was really very delicate, the Japanese army had just captured Wuhan and Guangzhou, and the Eighth Route Army captured Jinan and tried Gu Shoufu. If we don't concentrate on attacking Liu Yimin's tutor, I am afraid it will be even more difficult to deal with when Liu Yimin calmly develops in Shandong for a period of time. But if you want to concentrate on eliminating Liu Yimin, where does the power come from?

Terauchi Shouichi calculated that after the Kwantung Army drew out three divisions, it was no longer possible to draw out more troops, not to mention preparing for war against the Soviet Union, just to garrison the northeast, that would also require a huge number of troops. Otherwise, the Northeast Anti-Japanese Alliance and the Eighth Route Army will swell rapidly. This result must not be allowed to happen. The Central China Dispatch Army, which occupies such a large territory, and faces almost all the main forces of Chiang Kai-shek's government army, can draw out three or four elite divisions at most, and it can't be long enough for the squadron to find out. Otherwise, Chiang Kai-shek would definitely organize troops to counterattack.

After calculating it, the temple Shouyi sighed, and there was a feeling that it was difficult for a good woman to cook without rice.

With the existing strength alone, Terauchi Shouichi has already made up his mind, no matter what others think, even if he scolds him for shrinking his head and turtle, he will definitely not act rashly. Because he knew that Liu Yimin's main force was staring at the three directions of Dexian, Yanzhou, and Qingdao with wolf-like eyes, ready to pounce and bite at any time, and make him a big shame again.

Shouichi Terauchi calmed down and began to draft a secret report to Emperor Hirohito and Prince Zaihito of the Kanin Palace.

In the secret report, Terauchi Shouichi proposed that at this point in the Sino-Japanese war, it was no longer possible to solve the problem by military means alone, and political means must be strengthened. It is necessary to quickly strengthen the work of luring the Chiang Kai-shek government to surrender, and even if the order is unsuccessful, it is necessary to go all out to stir up the contradictions between Chiang Kai-shek and the **, and let them fight themselves. At the same time, he urged the acceleration of the pace of the "Tong Plan", instigated the rebellion against the politicians with great influence in China, formed an authoritative Chinese central power, established a unified and powerful imperial army, and used them to deal with the Eighth Route Army. In this way, the effect is much better than that of the imperial army, which is unfamiliar with the Chinese.

As for the Shandong operation, Terauchi Shouichi objectively said that before he gathered a strong force, he would mainly attack and harass Liu Yimin's troops with small troops to avoid greater losses.

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