"What?" , Katsura Taro's cronies were stunned for a moment, not long ago it was clear that the Chinese army was abusing prisoners of war and asking the soldiers to fight desperately to get rid of their luck, why did you think of surrendering first? Aren't you afraid of having your nose and ears cut off by the Chinese?

At this time, Katsura Taro can't tell the truth, in fact, after he understood the plan, he thought that the other party did it completely to provoke himself, and it could not be concluded that they had the habit of abusing prisoners, and Katsura Taro said that when he was mobilized before, it was just to deceive the soldiers and make them fight to the death

Katsura Taro's confession undoubtedly made everyone more or less dissatisfied, but in such a situation, everyone was still generally overjoyed to see the way out, and after knowing that they might not be mistreated after surrendering, the call for surrender quickly prevailed. Although there will certainly be no good fruit to eat when you return to Japan after surrendering, the "law does not hold the people accountable" is not unique to China, and everyone estimates that at most they will be punished by such lifeless as early retirement, at least it is better than dying in a foreign country meaninglessly. What's more, if he really wants to surrender, the biggest culprit must be the division commander Katsura Taro, he is not afraid, what else is he afraid of?

Katsura Taro naturally knows how much responsibility he will bear if he leads the army to surrender, but he really doesn't want to die, don't look at Katsura Taro has the reputation of a fierce general, but he is also a politician, and which politician in ancient and modern China and foreign countries does not cherish life?

What's more, although Japan's military discipline is strict (limited to military discipline), the standards for the top and the grassroots are completely different, and Katsura Taro and Yama Prefecture Aritomo, a respected teacher, are backers, and the possibility of going to a military court is close to zero, and even if they do, they will definitely not die.

Besides, Katsura Taro's performance after leading the army into Northeast China was actually not bad, if it weren't for the sudden emergence of a mysterious and incomparably powerful rebel army in China, the Third Division would have reached the Forbidden City by now. And with the strong combat effectiveness displayed by the rebel army in the two battles, no matter which famous person in Japan led the 3rd Division, the result would not be any different, so Katsura Taro rightly believed that he had no merit.

What's more, when the Third Division surrendered, it had run out of ammunition and food, and suffered most casualties, even if it resolutely resisted to the end, it could not kill a few more enemies, but just let more than 10,000 officers and soldiers die in vain; And if we consider the overall situation, since the emergence of the Chinese rebels, the operations of the Third Division in Northeast China have completely lost their meaning.

In this case, it is naturally reasonable for Katsura Taro to lead the army to surrender, and it can even be washed into the fact that he sacrificed his personal reputation to save tens of thousands of living forces for the Japanese army.

Although he felt that the reason was sufficient, Katsura Taro was still faintly worried, after all, the Chinese rebels only "may not abuse prisoners of war", in case cutting the noses and ears of prisoners of war before was not a trick, but really had such a barbaric habit, then his surrender is not equivalent to sending people to the door to torture people to death!

Therefore, Katsura Taro decided to surrender to the enemy while the troops were still completely dispersed, which was much more valuable than surrendering alone, and was more likely to be courteous and favorable.

On the other hand, Katsura Taro did not intend to pin all his hopes on the enemy, he specially selected a man who was good at reading words and feelings, and was very good at dealing with people (of course, he had to be able to speak Chinese first). If the other side is deliberately deceiving, there is always a greater chance of seeing through it than others, and if the other side is serious about negotiating, there is a greater possibility of obtaining better treatment for the surrendered Japanese army.

As long as the other side can cease fire for a period of time, Katsura Taro will hopefully restore the disrupted organization and order of the Third Division, so that even if he scatters and escapes, it will be an organized action, and it will not be slaughtered like pigs and sheep, but if it can be delayed until dark, with the natural cover of night, the chance of escaping will be much greater

It must be admitted that politicians really have much more eyes than pure soldiers, and Katsura Taro's unexpected early admission also created a problem for Commander Zhang of the cavalry regiment

Although the previous two battles were very miserable for the Japanese army, but Commander Zhang's evaluation of the third division was quite high, if it was the Qing army, it was estimated that the long-range artillery bombardment of Miss 75 would be able to defeat it, even if it was the top elite among them, such as Yuan Shikai's previous troops, they were caught up by the cavalry regiment and were bombarded by a bang after a burst of artillery will inevitably collapse, and the Japanese third division has not scattered and fled after being hit hard three times in a row, this is definitely an iron army, if there is no advantage in weapons, Even if the strength of the two sides is about the same, Commander Zhang is not sure of victory.

But such a tenacious army suddenly raised a white flag and surrendered, which inevitably surprised Commander Zhang, "What? Are you going to surrender? ”

"Yes, I hope your army can give us humane treatment." The representative of the Japanese side bowed heavily and replied in fluent standard Chinese Mandarin, but the rest of his eyes kept observing Commander Zhang's reaction.

When Regiment Commander Zhang heard the shameless tone of the Japanese representative, he immediately became angry, "Humanitarian? When you burned, killed, and plundered the land of China, what humanity did you give to the people of Northeast China? ”

In addition, before Li Hui sent the cavalry regiment to Mukden, he also specifically said that he did not want the prisoners of the third division, so the head of the regiment Zhang did not hesitate much, and opened his mouth to refuse, but at this time, Yuan Shikai accidentally interjected, and put on a face of the main general and said to the negotiator, "It is best for your army to be willing to lay down its arms, but your country provokes a war for no reason, I doubt your credibility, if you really want to surrender, then immediately the whole team will go out of the camp to accept our fate." ”

Although Yuan Shikai is a demoted general, he currently enjoys the treatment of a brigade-level officer, and judging from the words in Li Hui's message, he still attaches great importance to him.

Moreover, after this period of getting along, Head Zhang felt that Yuan Shikai was not the kind of person who didn't know the importance of it, maybe people had other deep meanings, so he kept silent and put on a posture that Yuan Shikai was the main general to cooperate with him. )