In Tokyo, the cold winter and distant war have not diminished the festivities here, the streets still maintain the festive decorations hung during the New Year, many women carry donation boxes to collect donations from passers-by, the streets are full of people standing on the side of the road reading newspapers, and pedestrians who come and go always consciously or unconsciously look at the row of gray buildings, which are the seat of the Ministry of War and the General Staff Headquarters.

A black sedan quickly stopped in front of the army building, Itagaki Seishiro's short body came out of the car, and the officers who were going out stood and saluted him, and Itagaki did not return the salute and went straight to the operations hall of the staff headquarters on the first floor.

The battle hall was crowded with people, and the stars were gathered, and the chief of the general staff, Prince Miyazaihito, sat in the first place, Tanaka Shinichi, Okamura Ninji, Tada Jun, Muto Akira, Anan Yuki, etc., all looked at the huge sand table in the middle of the room, and Itagaki recognized at a glance that this was the terrain of the Xuzhou area.

"Your Excellency."

After seeing Itagaki come in, everyone including Zaijin stood up, saluted Itagaki, and Itagaki returned the salute dignifiedly, and then walked up to Zairen and bowed slightly, he didn't dare to slack off at all to this emperor's uncle.

"Does Your Majesty have anything to say?" Jae-in sat still, just asked calmly. In the eyes of the officers present, there was nothing wrong with Zai-in's action, Itagaki Shi's etiquette was a commoner's etiquette, and Jae-in was a nobleman of the royal family, and there was no problem in accepting such a etiquette in this way.

"Your Majesty is very worried about the development of the war," replied Itagaki, who had been urgently summoned by the Emperor today, and that everyone was concerned about the purpose of this summons: "Your Majesty is very worried about the current war in Xuzhou, and hopes to defeat Shina as soon as possible, and in addition, His Majesty has also inquired about the possible surname of the peace talks with Shina." Speaking of this, Itagaki sighed deeply and turned his head to face the generals present: "Gentlemen, Your Majesty is very worried, the people of China claim to drag the empire into the quagmire of a long-term war, a long-term war, although we are not afraid of a long-term war, but the damage to the empire is serious, especially if it drags on, it will give the United States and Britain a chance." His Majesty's worries are precisely because of this. I replied that the empire is capable of resolving the Sino-Chinese incident, and what we need to do is to eliminate the interference of the United States and Britain, completely destroy the resistance of the Sino-Japanese army, eliminate its determination to fight, and at the same time actively contact the people of insight in the political axe of the Sino-Chinese government to restore peace between China and the two countries. Shogun Tsuchihara and Kagesa Daisa have already begun to implement this strategy. His Majesty was very comforted when he heard this. ”

Hearing this, the generals showed a look of relief on their faces, to be honest, the war has been fought in the way it is now, it has been beyond all of their expectations, and the strategy of the military and political axe towards China has been quietly revised from the simple conquest of China to the two two-pronged military and political preparations, and they are ready to make some concessions, such as the conditions of the army ceding Nanjing, expanding the area where Shanghai is not garrisoned, and negotiating with Chiang Kai-shek. But at this time, they found that the statement of the guards had become the biggest obstacle, which forced them to find their target again.

Tu Feiyuan believes that Wu Peifu has a strong appeal, and Wu Peifu should come out to organize the political axe, but Ying Zuo Frame Zhao is optimistic about Wang Jingwei. The two sides could not argue, so they took action at the same time, Ying Zuo resigned as the head of the strategy section and went to Shanghai to form the Mei Agency, and launched the "shadow work" with Wang Jingwei as the goal, and Tu Feiyuan went to Yanjing to persuade Wu Peifu.

"Your Majesty, there is another concern, that is, Britain and the United States," Itagaki did not wait for everyone to ask, and added: "I say to Your Majesty that we can take diplomatic means against Britain and the United States, on the one hand, to unite Germany and Italy to contain Britain and the United States, and on the other hand, to actively take action against Britain and the United States to persuade them to maintain neutrality. His Majesty did not express this proposal, and I failed to bring His Majesty good news. ”

After finishing speaking, Itagaki sat down with a heavy face, and Zairen looked at the sand table expressionlessly, as an imperial family, he can't easily express his opinion, otherwise it will be regarded as the emperor's opinion, and his appointment as chief of the general staff is just for the emperor to strengthen his influence on the army and balance the forces of various factions in the army.

"I think the Triple Alliance should be reached as soon as possible to distract the pressure from the United States and Britain." After a brief silence, Muto Akira was the first to stand up and speak out.

The Triple Alliance is a proposal recently put forward by the Army, and Hiroo Iwabe, chief of the Army's Military Division, and Shigeki Usui, chief of the Strategy Division of the General Staff Headquarters, proposed to further develop the anti-communist agreement signed in 36 years into a three-[***] alliance, and this proposal was strongly opposed by the Navy, believing that this would lead to a deterioration in relations with Britain and the United States, and Britain and the United States would further support the Sino-Japanese War of Resistance, which would be detrimental to the empire.

"That's right, the Navy doesn't know what to do!" Anan Weiji also stood up and shouted: "With the support of Germany and Italy, Britain and the United States will take care of it, and it will also be a strong deterrent to Soviet Russia, what is wrong with such a thing." ”

"Yes," Tada Jun immediately stood up and said to Itagaki as soon as possible, "Your Excellency, our position should be firmer, and if we can't reach an alliance, we should withdraw from the political axe!" ”

Itagaki glanced at Hito out of the corner of his eye, there was no expression on Jaehito's face, in fact, Tada's words represented the hidden point of view of some people in the army, and Fumiro Konoe, especially the statement he made, had become an obstacle that should be removed as soon as possible and a new prime minister should be elected. Itagaki didn't know if there was the emperor's support behind this, and Jaehito still didn't have any expression on his face.

The successive statements of Tada Jun and Anan resonated with the generals present, and Shinichi Tanaka, Hiroo Iwabe, and others said one after another that the Triple Alliance should be signed in the first half of this year, otherwise the Minister of War should immediately resign and force the political axe to dissolve.

Okamura Ningji silently looked at some passionate colleagues, he did not speak, but from the bottom of his heart, he did not approve of a head-on conflict with the United States and Britain, especially when the Shina incident was not resolved, as a military general, he has been silently observing this war far from the war, the Chinese are following what that person said, step by step to love you more empire dragged into a long war, although that person has only met once, but his performance in the war is really good, in the case of Nanjing, At least he can't play like that. The only one who can match him may be Ishihara.

"Okamura-kun, what do you think?"

A sentence woke Okamura Ningji from his contemplation, he looked up, everyone looked at him with a strange gaze, he grinned slightly: "I think, whether it is the Triple Alliance or peace work, we must first defeat the Chinese general Zhuang Cultural Revolution, and the sooner the better, the sooner the better, the only way to deter the young Zhuang generals in the Chinese political axe army, promote Chiang Kai-shek's awakening, and strengthen the peace force in the Chinese political axe." ”

Okamura's words made the lively atmosphere in the room disappear suddenly, there are too many famous generals of the empire who were defeated in the hands of Zhuang Jihua, there are Itagaki and Okamura here, and the absent Isoya Ryosuke, Nishio Shouzo, Matsui Ishine, and Terauchi Shouichi, these people before this are not the elites of the imperial army, who are not famous, prestigious, and not looked at by the imperial army?

Itagaki felt a haze descend on the room, and the air in the room became colder, perhaps sensing the cold, Jae-in spoke.

"Okamura is right, only by winning on the battlefield can we talk about anything else, the Battle of Xuzhou has developed into a decisive battle between the main forces, this is a battle that we must win and must not lose, gentlemen, work hard!" Jae-in's tone was unprecedentedly harsh.

"Hay." Everyone stood up and replied in unison.

"Tada-kun, let's talk about the opinion of the General Staff Headquarters." Jae-in said again.

Tada Jun stood up and bowed to Zairen and Itagaki, then picked up the command baton and looked at the surrounding generals: "According to the intelligence from all sides, we can determine that the strength of the Chinese army in Xuzhou and Henan is about one million, of which about 650,000 in Xuzhou and about 400,000 in Henan; The Imperial Army mobilized a total of 21 divisions and regiments, with a total strength of 600,000; At present, the four divisions under the command of General Masaharu Honma have been inserted into the flanks of the Fifth Theater of the China Army in accordance with the battle plan drawn up by the General Staff, but they have been stubbornly blocked by the China Army, and except for the progress made along this road, the rest of the roads have not made much progress, and the Seventh Division sent by the Sixth General Tian Yan has been blocked by the China Army in the mountains southeast of Linyi. ”

Tada Jun pointed to the sign on the sand table: "On the southern front, the Chinese Army launched an attack on Shou County, and nearly 100,000 people from the 21st Group Army and the Second Army attacked our Third Division from the north and south, and General Fujita Jin fell into a bitter battle; General Tani, who undertook an important mission, was blocked by two elite legions from the southwest; While General Nishio Toshizo was fighting hard in the mountains of the Eastern Front, General Haneda was trapped in the rivers and lakes of Huainan. The General Staff considered the most dangerous to be General Honma, whose troops were divided into two divisions by the Yellow River, and he himself commanded two and a half divisions in Henan and one and a half divisions in Hebei, which was under heavy attack by the Shina Army, but fortunately General Sugiyama sent the 41st Division to the south, otherwise they would have been ......surrounded by the roundabout Shina Army. All in all, our army is gradually slipping into passivity. ”

Speaking of this, Tada Jun put away his baton and bowed his head to Itagaki and Zairen, and then sat down, the generals were silent, 600,000 imperial troops were actually forced to be like this by a million of that army, and the gap between the calculation before the war is too big, and even the calculation of the previous days, the gap is not ordinarily large.

Looking at the silent generals, Itagaki gently pursed his dry lips and said slowly: "Today is a joint meeting of the Ministry of War and the General Staff, you can speak freely, first of all, do you agree with the judgment of the General Staff?" ”

Looking up at each other, although there was some disbelief in their eyes, they finally nodded: "Agreed." ”

"In that case, Tada-kun, what are the suggestions of the General Staff?" Itagaki asked Tada again.

"The General Staff suggests, increase the number of troops." Tada Jun replied without hesitation: "The southern front should be increased by three divisions, at least not less than two divisions, the breakthrough point is selected on the Lu River, and after crossing the river, go west to outflank and intercept the main force of the Chinese army of Gu Shoufu." At least three divisions were to be added to the northern front, all in the Henan direction, to first defeat Xue Yue's counterattack, and then to outflank the main force of the Xuzhou China Army with General Honma. ”

"This means adding six divisions?" Itagaki frowned, he had just increased his troops by twenty divisions, and now he was going to add six divisions, would the prime minister agree? Can the imperial finances afford it?

(To be continued)