The crowd is indignant, and the whole country is boiling!

The Shina Incident broke out, and the news was fully leaked out as soon as possible.

Tokyo, the War Department, is in a hurry.

Although the empire had lost nearly one and a half divisions under the raid of the vile and filthy Shina people, many people in the War Department were under the appearance of anger, and their excited eyes lit up, including the land minister, the famous fool Yuan in the army.

In the hearts of the soldiers, China has never been their enemy, or in other words, China is not qualified enough to become the enemy of the Great Alliance, and the only real dangerous enemy of the empire is Soviet Russia.

As a result, there are two strategic orientations, whether to destroy China first and then clean up Soviet Russia, or to subdue Soviet Russia first and then go back and clean up China.

The vast majority of people are of the first strategic orientation, and there are people of the second type, but not many.

Lu Xiang, Sugiyama Moto, was a heavyweight who actively advocated the first strategic orientation, believing that only three divisions could be sent to destroy the Shina army.

In addition to Sugiyama Moto, there is another person named Ji Huanshi, that is, Muto Akiosa, the head of the Operations Division of the General Staff Headquarters, who shouted a famous sentence that made the blood of the soldiers boil: Do you know how long Shina can exist? Trimester!

No, three months is overestimated, it should be said that it will never be more than three months. How could they resist the Imperial Army for a long time with such a fragile military force and such a chaotic political organization?

Sugiyama Moto, Muto Akira helped, and then Kotaro Nakamura, vice minister of the Ministry of the Army, Sabi Nagatsu, chief of the China Division of the General Staff Headquarters, and Shinichi Tanaka, chief of the Military Division of the Ministry of the Army, then spoke.

This said, as long as the country is mobilized, you can see, as soon as the train transporting troops arrives, the army of China is invincible and will not be able to form an army.

That said, you can't say that, they are not so weak, but they are not much stronger, they only need to break through the Shanhaiguan Pass, fight at most one battle, and finally Zhun Bao beat them to the ground and can't get up, and all the problems are solved.

A group of people took the "weakness" of the branch as a pastime, and their faces were full of excitement and "longing", and it seemed that they had already "taken" the branch in advance.

This group of madmen, led by Lu Xiang Sugiyama Moto, and the deputy official Nakamura Kotaro, was the mainstream in the army and was called hardliners.

While these hardliners were making high-minded statements, there was one man who sat there calmly, as if he didn't fit in with the excitement at all, but when he stood up to speak, everyone was silent, and the room was silent.

This person is Ishihara Waner, the head of the first department of the General Staff Headquarters.

Ishihara was one of the greatest national heroes, the direct planner of the September 18 Incident, and also the No. 1 strategist of the Soviet Union, with a reputation like Zhongtian, and was regarded as "the Hitler and Mussolini of the Soviet Union." The combat strategy he came up with against the Soviet Union was regarded as a classic in the General Staff Headquarters, and the "Five-Year War Readiness Plan" against the Soviet Union led by him was also being implemented.

On the point of invading China, Ishihara and Sugiyama are not fundamentally different, and it can also be said that in the entire military circles, there is no one who does not want to attack China, but there are differences in specific strategies.

If Sugiyama is the boss of the hardliners, Ishihara is the head of the modest, and he knows a famous Chinese saying that if you can't bear it, you will make a big plan.

According to Ishihara's plan, there is only one "big plan," that is, to concentrate forces on dealing with Soviet Russia, and it is completely possible to "bear with China."

Ishihara Waner spoke, he completely disagreed with the views of Sugiyama Moto, Muto Akira and others, believing that not to mention three divisions, even fifteen divisions may not be effective, and once the empire falls into the big quagmire of China, it will be an extremely dangerous thing.

Ishihara advocated that Soviet Russia was the most dangerous enemy of the empire, and that until this most dangerous enemy was eliminated, it must not be easily plunged into other wars.

The empire should reconcile with the political axe of China, and give up all interests in China except for the puppet Manchurians, including all kinds of political and military privileges, such as the right to garrison troops, concessions, etc.

In this way, on the one hand, we should vigorously develop the Northeast, make full use of the resources of the Northeast, develop industry, expand armaments, and wait until we become a fat man, and then we will first fight with Soviet Russia, and when the fight is over, what is China, but a dish of appetizers for us, swallowing it in one bite, it is as easy as a hand!

Moreover, once we reconcile with China, the civil war in China will inevitably break out again, and the national strength will inevitably become weaker.

There is no doubt that Ishihara is a minister who seeks the country, but in the military circles, his views do not have much market, not to mention, he is now suffering a big loss.

-- The two sides were at loggerheads, so the issue was handed over.

In this book, the greatest power is neither the emperor nor the ambitious generals, but the chief of staff, Prince Zaihito.

Prince Jaehion doesn't seem to be in charge of things, but no one can stop him from making any decisions.

After Lu Xiang Sugiyama Yuan left, Prince Zaihito sat quietly for a long time, and then ordered to summon Ishihara Wan'er.

Although Ishihara was a national hero, there was no seat for him in front of Prince Zaihito.

Ishihara stood aside respectfully.

After a while, Prince Zaihito said softly: "Ishihara-kun, tell me your reasons." ”

Knowing what Prince Zairen asked him to say, Ishihara said: "Your Highness, in the battle of the Great Wall, we dispatched the 6th and 8th Divisions, as well as the 4th Cavalry Brigade of the 14th and 33rd Brigades, the Lushun Heavy Artillery Brigade, and the Kwantung Army's three flying brigades......"

Ishihara first reviewed the situation on his own side during the Battle of the Great Wall, and then reviewed the situation on the Chinese side at that time.

At that time, because the Chinese political axe was busy clearing out the [***] Red Army in Jiangxi, it did not send regular main troops to participate in the war at all, and the support in terms of ammunition supply and other aspects was also pitiful and not worth mentioning.

And what about the local Chinese army in North China? Like the Jin Sui Army, the Northwest Army, and some of the Northeast Army, they were also opposed to the dispatch of regular troops into North China by the political axe of China, and all hoped that each would protect its territory in case it was annexed and lose its support.

On the battlefield, due to effective instigation, many of Tang Yulin's troops defected to each other, causing other troops to distrust and suspect each other.

That was the situation in China at that time, but now, it's completely different.

According to the information that has been collected, the political axe of China has mobilized a large army into North China, and it is still being transferred in one after another, and China is now united in one mind, and the previous situation of intrigue is all gone, and what is more worrying is the second cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party.

When Ishihara Waner was speaking, Prince Zaihito's eyes were always closed, and after Ishihara Wan'er finished speaking, after a long time, Prince Zaihito opened his eyes, looked at Ishihara Wan'er and asked lightly: "Ishihara-kun, what is your opinion?" ”

With a sigh in his heart, knowing that the matter was irreparable, Ishihara said: "Your Highness, if you want to attack, it must be a thunderous force. According to the humble position, the attacking force must have at least ten divisions, two heavy artillery brigades and three hundred aircraft. ”

After a pause, Ishihara added, "Your Highness, you must also call up the reserves. ”

After thinking about it, Prince Jaehito said, "Okay." ”

"Yes, Your Highness." Ishihara bowed respectfully, then quietly retreated.

-- The Kwantung Army has always been a system of reading, not very obedient, and very fond of making its own opinions.

The North China Garrison Army and the Kwantung Army are not the same system, and the existence of the North China Garrison Army also has the meaning of counterbalancing the Kwantung Army.

The existence of the Kwantung Army has always been based on Soviet Russia as the main combat preparation target, and its military strength is mainly deployed in the areas of North Manchuria and East Manchuria, so what happened in the Kwantung Army has little to do with them.

But this time, the Kwantung Army firmly advocated the settlement of the China issue.

The reason why this is so is not only related to the overall international situation, but also related to a sudden small event.

The international situation is the rise of Germany and Italy, which not only contains Britain, France and other countries, but also restrains Soviet Russia to a certain extent.

Eight days ago, on June 31, there was a skirmish between the Kwantung Army and the Soviet Army.

Ganchazi Island is rich in gold, and it is said that this is a great collection, and Lao Maozi can't see it, so he runs over and wants to intervene, so the two sides have a conflict.

The two sides were ship-to-ship and cannon-to-gun, and they confronted each other on Ganchazi Island. In the end, the Tokyo Division opened fire first, sinking a Russian gunboat and wounding one.

Afterwards, the Russians suffered a loss, not only did they not fight back, but they also relented by the political axe, officially confirmed that Ganchazi Island belonged to Manchukuo, and withdrew all troops from the island.

This incident surprised the Kwantung Army, and later analyzed that it was mainly because Stalin was engaged in an internal purge and did not have much enthusiasm and energy to take care of the border dispute.

The Kwantung Army has always been a hardliner among the hardliners, and those who can become the commander and chief of staff of the Kwantung Army are inevitably hardcore militarists, and the current commander of the Kwantung Army, Kenkichi Ueda, and Hideki Tojo, chief of staff, are naturally the same.

When the July 7 Incident broke out, the two leaders of the Kwantung Army came to a judgment from this, that is, there would be no new war between the Soviet Union in the short term, so there was no need to be too vigilant against Soviet Russia.

For this reason, Ueda Kenkichi sent Deputy Chief of Staff Major General Imamura Jun and Takayoshi Tanaka Nakasa to fly to Tokyo to admonish the Chief of Staff and the Minister of Land in person, requesting that the war be fought against China and promising to send two mixed brigades and six flying squadrons to participate in the war.

In addition to the Kwantung Army, the Korean army was even more vigorous, and the commander, Lieutenant General Koiso Kuniaki, and the chief of staff, Major General Seiichi Naga, asked for battle, and they promised to send the Korean Yongsan Division to help in the event of war.

The Kwantung Army and the Korean Army joined the final word, and on the evening of the 8th day, it was decided to start a war against China, and the land minister, Sugiyama Moto, immediately issued an order that all divisions and regiments, and soldiers who had served for two years, delay their discharge.

This move alone left 100,000 veterans in the army.

Subsequently, the War Department issued an order to enlist 738,000 reserve soldiers.

In addition to these, there are 879,000 reserve forces, 1579,000 for the first supplementary military service, and 905,000 for the second supplementary military service.

However, these are enough, and if Ishihara and others insist on it, or the reserves will not be called up, because there is no need to deal with China, seventeen permanent divisions and regiments plus the Navy and Air Force will be enough.

(To be continued)