"Your Excellency Shirakawa, now that the empire is under unprecedented pressure, if it wants to expand the area occupied in Shanghai, it is necessary to increase the army, otherwise it will not be enough to break the Chinese army, which has increased in strength exponentially. According to the news sent from the base camp, according to the current rate of attrition, the empire can only bear the military budget for another three months at most, and the financial budget will be declared bankrupt, I wonder how His Excellency Shirakawa intends to solve the problem of military spending? As the naval commander of the Songhu operation, Nomura Kichizaburo threw the problem to Shirakawa Yoshinori.

"The funds are naturally squeezed out, didn't someone retreat from the problem of military spending when the battle of Fengtian was fought before, but we persevered, only to keep the fruits of months of hard fighting, Nanjing now only thinks about the empire's truce in Shanghai, and can't take care of the northeast at all, and Zhang Xueliang retreats again and again, and has no courage to fight with the imperial army at all. Now in Shanghai, the empire has gained the upper hand, and although the Chinese army is determined to resist, it does not have too strong a position to defend compared to the fully militarized urban positions of Mukden. The empire could well go further to achieve greater benefits. ”

Regarding Nomura Kichizaburo's questioning, Shirakawa Yoshinori sneered in his heart, this Songhu War of Resistance was provoked by the navy, but the marines and the special marines ate turtles in a row, and they had a blue nose and swollen face in Shanghai. It is clear that he can't eat grapes and doesn't let others eat them. How could he allow Nomura Kichizaburo's plot to succeed so easily?

"Your Excellency Shirakawa, weigh the risks and benefits in everything. The Anglo-American ghost animals have no vital interests in northeastern China, so even if the empire occupies northeastern China. There are some dilemmas. It can't shake the overall situation. But it's different here in Shanghai. Almost all the great powers had more or less commercial interests in the Yangtze River valley, Shanghai, and the southeastern provinces of China. If the empire wants to dominate the United States, not only will the existing Shanghai army not be able to achieve further victories, but the empire will also really face the risk of being economically sanctioned by the great powers. Moreover, there are two battlefields in Shanghai and northeast China, and northeast China is the core strategy of the empire. The Empire does not have the ability to win on both battlefields at the same time. The anti-Japanese armed forces in Heilongjiang and Jilin provinces are still developing rapidly. Even the Chinese guerrillas in Mukden were very active. The Empire's intention in launching the Songhu War in Shanghai was also to use Shanghai to divert the attention of the great powers from northeastern China. Now the former Qing Emperor Puyi has successfully established the puppet Manchu state, and the goal has been achieved. Your Excellency Shirakawa, it's time for moderation. Otherwise, not only will the Shanghai side fail to win, but even the northeast of China will plunge the empire into the quagmire of endless wars. ”

Chongguang Cai looked at Shirakawa Yoshinori with a serious face and said.

"Your Excellency Shirakawa, Minister Shigemitsu is right, compared to Shanghai, the empire urgently needs to restore the production of coal and iron deposits in the northeastern part of China. Therefore, the suppression of the anti-Japanese armed forces in northeastern China is a top priority, and the country's military strength is now very empty, and if we continue to increase troops in Shanghai, the military operation in northeastern China will be greatly reduced. If we can't seize the last half a year, we will deal a devastating blow to those anti-Japanese elements as much as possible. Then as soon as autumn and winter arrive, the military operations of the empire are bound to be more difficult. In the words of the people of China. Now the empire is facing a situation in which it is impossible to have both fish and bear's paws, and those who give up fish and take bear's paws are also. ”

Major General Tashiro Wanichiro, chief of staff of the Shanghai Dispatch Army, also said after thinking for a moment.

Seeing that hardliners on China such as his chief of staff also supported the strategy of focusing on Manchu and Mongolia, Shirakawa Yoshinori fell into deep thought, and it seemed that under the pressure of the great powers, it would be difficult for the empire to achieve further success in Shanghai this time.

On 2 April, the League of Nations again passed a resolution on the peaceful settlement of disputes in the Far East, stipulating that Japan must comply with the resolutions of the League of Nations and withdraw all its troops from China. The Japanese side made private contact with Nanjing, and suggested to the south that on the condition of the Japanese armistice, the two sides would make concessions to each other without interference from Britain and the United States, and tried to avoid the League of Nations and reach a compromise with Nanjing privately. On the one hand, Japan wanted to use the withdrawal of troops from Shanghai as a condition to achieve the established fact that Nanjing recognized the Japanese occupation of Northeast China. On the one hand, they wanted to test Nanjing's attitude toward British and American interference, and what kind of attitude they would adopt to maximize their interests under the pressure of the League of Nations.

Although Nanjing did not accept Japan's proposal, it did not abandon the policy of settling the interior before opening up the outside world. Just to ease domestic pressure and strive for relatively good-looking armistice conditions. On 3 April, Chairman Chiang told a Reuters reporter that the establishment of the puppet state of Manchukuo in Northeast China was entirely carried out by the Japanese side, and the government hated Pu Yi and others for being puppets. However, if there is a crusade, it will inevitably expand the war, and considering the results, the crusade order will not be issued for the time being.

On March 13, Nanjing, in opposition to the League of Nations' resolution demanding that Japan withdraw all its troops from the country, advocated a cessation of the fighting in Shanghai first. Although a weak country has no diplomacy, it is indeed too weak to make such a concession when the diplomatic group of the Republic of China has already made considerable efforts, which shows that although Nanjing at this time did not say it directly, it also advocated that the Northeast and Shanghai issues should be resolved separately.

With the arrival of the League of Nations investigation team in Shanghai on the 15th, Nanjing completely handed over the Northeast issue to the investigation team to solve. Even Nanjing put aside the issue of the Northeast at this time, and did they expect the foreigners of these investigation groups to persuade the Japanese army to leave the Northeast?

As the Japanese side suffered relatively large losses and Kurume mixed into the 24th Brigade, the 11th Division took the lead in withdrawing to China, and Nanjing also moved the 19th Route Army to Nanjing, Zhenjiang, and Changzhou. The remaining 1st and 4th Divisions were transferred to Anhui, the 4th Division of the 4th Army was transferred to Hubei, and the 8th Army was transferred to Jiangxi. The 2nd Army was transferred to Xu, and the area of Su. These units have been assigned new tasks in Annei.

So far, the Songhu War of Resistance, which has been fought for half a month longer than in history, has come to an end, with the 19th Route Army, the 5th Army, and the 15th Route Army mixed into four brigades with casualties, and a total of 20,173 people are missing, including 1,083 officers and military assistants. The Japanese suffered 8,093 casualties.

Again, this is the result. Gao Zhihang, who was standing on the deck, pinched the telegram and smiled coldly, and tore the telegram in his hand into pieces and sprinkled it into the blue sea, as the Songhu War of Resistance came to an end, Gao Zhihang, who had arrived in Malacca at this time, continued to go north with the purchased machinery, looking at the large and small containers behind him, Gao Zhihang was not discouraged because of the losses of the Northeast Air Force in the past, on the contrary, with the arrival of these aircraft, the Northeast Air Force, which has been disgraced, will become a historical term, replaced by a bloody rebirth, and will spread its wings in the Republic of China, A brand new air power in a bloody battle against the Japanese army! (To be continued.) )