Tokyo, Tokyo Bay.

The sun had been sinking below the horizon for a while, and the peaks were blocking the last of its glow. Vast expanses of dark clouds sealed the dusk sky, making the night come early and gloomy.

The night in Tokyo Bay is quiet.

The once whistled of Tokyo Bay, which would have been surprisingly quiet, seemed to disappear overnight, and the once busy port, the coolies yawned, and only a few cargo ships from the United States were anchored in the port, and the coolies unloaded all kinds of supplies from the ships, some related to military production, some related to factory production, and for the first time fell into the current silence from the busy port after the war.

This kind of tranquility is by no means what I want to see, and the current situation is precisely the Second Pacific Fleet commanded by Roderstinsky, who has gone through hardships and experienced a "great voyage" of 18,000 nautical miles, inadvertently brought about it, almost after the Second Pacific Fleet appeared in Cam Ranh Bay and began to drift towards the sea of Beibu Gulf, and a great panic has begun in the country, because the Russians have inadvertently threatened the lifeline of the city, and the number of ships entering and leaving the port has been greatly reduced. Due to the shortage of raw materials in the Kansai and Osaka areas, there have been factory shutdowns.

But the Russians don't know about all this, and the same people themselves are doing everything possible to hide all this, and of course Rozherstvinsky doesn't know, and the same Russians, who are a continental people, can't even imagine that there will be such a thing.

But maybe Rogerstwinsky didn't know, but his appearance made some unexpected changes in the Yueben Islands, after a year and a month of war, the current Yueben has cooled down from the frenzy of the early stage of the Russian War, and even they are only concerned about the future fate of the Yuben Army in the Manchurian battlefield, and not like at the beginning, shouting for revenge against China.

Even the most fanatical people knew that war was no joke at all, and with the main forces of the Manchurian Army under siege and the arrival of the main forces of the Russian Second Pacific Fleet, even the layman saw that the prospects for war were bleak. There was a kind of confusion on their numb faces, and then they resigned themselves to fate, as if they had been like this for thousands of years, and they were accustomed to obeying the fate of heaven, like dead fish on a board.

So be it!

Perhaps the vast majority of them think like this, especially when their lives change, the war will not benefit most of them, but the war will take away their husbands, brothers and sons, and the vast majority of them are not like some people in high society, who buy large maps, plant small flags on the land that does not belong to them every day, and then divide the interests of the post-war period there, in their opinion, it should be so.

But now?

The Manchurian army in Manchuria was encircled, and the proximity of the Second Pacific Fleet threatened the lifeline of Yuben, and the number of ships entering and leaving the port was greatly reduced, and the production was stopped due to the shortage of raw materials, but it made those upper classes, especially the merchants, begin to muttered in their hearts, can they really win?

While those people were concerned about the war, the vast majority of them were more concerned about prices, supplies, and food. Because life is inseparable from these things, and the cut off of Chinese rice and Nanyang rice has caused prices to soar, and after the loss of the Chinese market, hundreds of yarn factories and cloth factories have fallen into difficulties.

Everyone has no bottom in their hearts about war, and although they have no bottom in their hearts, they still have to fight war.

On the clanging train, the carriages were full of "one milli five" singing war songs, one milli five was just stamp money, these soldiers who received the call letter, assembled in Nagasaki and then headed for Manchuria, the age of the soldiers varied, from ten to thirty years old, and even the officers were mostly recruited from liberal arts universities, and anyone who saw these soldiers could see a little.

Smoke-spewing trains travel along the railway line towards Nagasaki, passing through cherry blossoms, through dark tunnels, and over bridges over rivers. There were few men to be seen in the fields, and even those who worked were mostly women, and young and vigorous men were rarely to be seen, with a population of only 36 million men, and the cost of 420,000 casualties in this war had exhausted his human resources, at least to a certain extent.

While the recruits for the reinforcements of Manchuria sang war songs there, in the carriages outside a few carriages, several disabled soldiers sat in military uniforms without rank.

"Yamamoto-kun, you soldiers are working hard."

A woman said to the wounded soldier who had returned from Manchuria, with a look of deference on her face.

"Not only will we be hard, but we will die."

Yamamoto, who had an empty left sleeve, said in a dumb voice that he had seen too much death in Manchuria, in front of the positions of the Russians, in front of the positions of the Chinese army, in addition to death, still death.

"Can the war be won?"

The woman in rags blurted out the question, perhaps even to herself, how could a woman say such a thing.

Yamamoto didn't answer the woman's question, and he fell into deep thought with his sleeves empty, can the war be won?

Even he was muttering in his own heart, when he was fighting with the Russians in the past, he thought that the war would definitely be won, but now the Chinese have intervened, perhaps in the mainland, because of the censorship, many Manchurian reports have been "corrected", but when he returned from Manchuria, he knew that in Manchuria the Chinese army now has the upper hand, as long as they want, the Yueben army, which is equivalent to almost one percent of the population, may be buried in the big grave dug by the Chinese army.

There will be only the clatter of the wheels at the seams of the rails. When the train comes along the station. There were very few people who got on and off the bus, and even if they did, they rarely saw young men, and many men went to join the army.

Yamamoto was silent and did not want to answer any questions, he would never be like those people in the country, shouting about what to set foot on China, to fight to Nanjing, to capture the Chinese emperor, he knew that it was simply delusional, and even now the Manchurian army is still alive in Manchuria, because the Chinese have not launched a full-scale attack.

The car finally entered the station again, looking at the empty station, Yamamoto found that it was different from when he left last year, when he left last year, the entire train station was full of people cheering to see them off, and today, when he came back, there was no one to pick him up, and the station was very deserted.

At this time, it had long been in decline, and after leaving the train station, Yamamoto, who was holding a box of ashes, could not see a few familiar men of the same age at all. The young man left here with the illusion of "participating in this crucial battle that would determine the survival of the city", and went to Manchuria, to Manchuria, to defend the city, to defend the book from Lucia's invasion, to ...... Go and help the people of China resist Lucia's invasion! But why did the people of China beat them in turn?

As he walked towards Komatsu's house, he saw the barren fields in the fields, and looking at the barren paddy fields, it was hard for Yamamoto to imagine that this was his hometown in his memory, and in his memory, wasn't it time for the fields to be full of rice. Or why is it now a vast expanse of desolation? Now that the men are gone, and they have all gone to defend the book from invasion, who is going to cultivate the barren paddy fields that have not produced much food? Is it the women and the old people who still have children?

When he entered Komatsu's village, he saw that there were only a few women left in the village, and the women shouted in surprise when they saw Yamamoto in military uniform.

"Look, isn't that Jiro of the Yamamoto family?"

"Yikes! Jiro is back! ”

"Jiro is still alive, have you seen Komura?"

"They're not on the same team!"

"Jiro, did you come back from Manchuria? Have you ever seen Matsui? ”

The women, calling Yamamoto's nickname, eagerly inquired about the news of their relatives, who had been cut off from a month earlier for the vast majority of the Manchurian soldiers, and who had not heard from their families again.

More and more people came around, and when they saw the box wrapped in white cloth that Yamamoto held on his chest, most of them were sad, but with a little sadness, and when they got the answer from Yamamoto, the women's faces showed a hint of luck at the same time, but the melancholy was even stronger, if Yamamoto brought the ashes of their sons, husbands, and brothers, perhaps, they would be relieved by this, and they no longer need to worry about their family members who have not heard from them.

At this moment, a slender young woman ran out of the dilapidated thatched hut in the distance, her cheeks were slightly red from running, and ran in front of Yamamoto, her chest rising and falling as she gasped, and she looked at Yamamoto.

"It's Jiro of the Yamamoto family, have you seen Komatsu?"

She is Komatsu's wife, the wife who has just been married for two days, and Yamamoto looks at her and bows ninety degrees.

"Miko, Komatsu...... He ......"

As he spoke, Yamamoto picked up the urn hanging around his neck, and Komatsu received a call letter with him, in the same brigade of the same wing, and in the same squadron.

The cry rang out instantly, Miko's whole person instantly seemed to be paralyzed, her soul seemed to be scattered, she waited for a year, a whole year, she looked forward to it at night, but in the end it was the news that her husband died.

"Let's go."

Yamamoto picked up Miko, and then hugged her shoulders, the woman's body smell made Yamamoto take a deep breath. Miko stood still sadly, and it was a long time before she spoke.

"Thank you, Yamamoto-kun, come to my house, my father would love to see you."

Miko hugged her husband's ashes and said to Yamamoto, and then walked towards her destitute home with Yamamoto's support.

Stroking her shoulders, Yamamoto said.

"The war in Manchuria was very brutal."

Yamamoto looked at the vast cumulus clouds, it was dark, it seemed to be raining, and his voice became a little heavy.

"When we fought with the Russians, we killed many of them, and they killed many of us, but there was no end to the number of Russian men in military uniforms. Before we could kill them, our resources were exhausted, our young people were dead, and now the Chinese have joined in. ”

Miko didn't say anything, just let Yamamoto hold his shoulder and walk forward a little blankly, and Yamamoto realized that now was not the time to say this.

"Miko, I came back from Manchuria, Komatsu and I were in a squadron, and he was brave, like a samurai."

"Yamamoto, the family doesn't need him to be brave, he still has to sacrifice his ancestors, pass on the ancestry, and take care of his father and me, but why should he die!"

Miko, whose eyes were red and swollen, said in a somewhat dazed voice, and as she spoke, tears couldn't stop flowing down her eyes.

Looking at Miko, Yamamoto took her hand with his right hand and said softly.

"If there's anything I can do for you, you're welcome."

Help, what else can we help with?

He himself is a wasted person, how can he still help Miko? Thinking of this, the two of them stopped talking, and just silently walked towards Komatsu's house in the southwest.

Whether or not the war was still capable of continuing the war, but since the war had begun, it would have to go on, and the same would be true for the army and navy, and when the Russian Second Pacific Fleet was floating in the Gulf of Tonkin and repaired its warships, the Combined Fleet went to Zhenwan on the west coast of Korea, where it trained hard.

During this period of time, the amount of ammunition consumed by the Combined Fleet in 10 days is equivalent to the amount used by the Navy in a year in peacetime, and while the accuracy of single artillery shooting increases, new tactics are constantly being created from a small building in Zhenwan, and the training of the Combined Fleet is all based on those new tactics and tactical requirements, and it is Masayuki Akiyama, chief of staff of the Combined Fleet, who designed these tactics.

There is no Yama Prefecture and Peng, and the army can take Lushun, because of Kodama Gentaro, without Togo, it is said that Ben can also defeat the Russian Navy, because of Akiyama Shinyuki, for the chief staff officer of the Navy's General Staff Akiyama Mayuki, who has been designing tactics such as attacking Lushun since before the war, has been thinking hard about defeating the Second Pacific Fleet of the Lu Country, but at this time he found that he could not calm down, a Russian war was fought, Akiyama Shinyuki couldn't stand this mental pressure, and became a strange person, and now he is even more bitter to the extreme, In a room smelling of sweat and feet, Akiyama, with his messy hair, was arguing with Shimamura Suo, the chief of staff of the fleet.

“…… Impossible, the most dangerous thing now is not the Second Fleet of the Lu Country, but the Zhina, the Zhina, do you understand? ”

Akiyama's roar was more like a cry of despair, and he received a telegram from his brother who was surrounded by Chinese troops at Tieling, and the harshness of the Manchurian front was far greater than he had imagined.

"Now we have 240,000 troops surrounded by the Chinese Guards Regiment, in Kwantung Prefecture, there are nearly 60,000 troops and the Chinese army confronted, the main force of the army has been completely surrounded, in order to win the superior situation in Manchuria, we have mobilized another 100,000 people, what are those 100,000 people, the vast majority of the soldiers are middle-aged people in their thirties and forties, Jun Cao is a primary school teacher, the officers are college students, and the weapons they take are even Murata rifles during the Qing war, cannons and even cannons that captured the Qing State, can such an army defeat the Chinese army?"

"If you can't be defeated, you can always maintain the battlefield!"

Suo Shimamura whispered.

"Now the fateful battle is the upcoming decisive battle between the two countries, as long as we win the naval battle, defeat the Lu national fleet, and the army of the combined fleet appears off the coast of China, then China will take the initiative to return to the negotiating table......"

"You're delusional!"

Akiyama Shinyuki roared, his hand rubbing his forehead.

"The enemy is not a fool, how can they not know, if by that time, all the battlefield advantages they have achieved now will be in vain, they will definitely make a move!"

"Action, it is difficult for them to destroy our army in Manchuria!"

Although he admired Akiyama Shinyuki's tactical achievements in his heart, Shimamura Suo did not believe his alarmism, there were a few naval officers who knew about land warfare, not to mention, if the Chinese army wanted to act, I am afraid they would have already done it, how could they wait until now, they themselves understood that once the army equivalent to one percent of their own population was really annihilated by them in Manchuria, then China and the two countries were afraid that they would have to fight to the death, and there was no possibility of reconciliation at all.

"For China, they want to control the scale of the war far more than anyone else, they have batteries, but what about batteries? We still have the Combined Fleet, but after the Second Fleet of the Republic of Kelu arrived at Cam Ranh Bay and Beibu Gulf, most of our merchant ships were nested in the harbor, many factories were shut down because of lack of raw materials, and even the Pacific route was the same, if China completely annihilated the army, the scale of the war would inevitably expand, and the navy would not even need to shell the cities of China, but only need to attack the merchant ships bound for China, and soon, their economy would collapse, would the people of China have the courage to expand the war? ”

"Seriously, Shimamura, I"

Akiyama Mayuki suddenly raised his head, and there was a hint of confusion on his tired face.

"I really wish to get the news of a full-scale attack on the besieged army now, if that happens, I will not have to worry about the variables on land, the people of China are not fools, they started when the army was exhausted and our fleet was simply impossible to deter them, they chose the most favorable moment to force us to control the scale of the war even more than they did, Shimamura, I always felt that if the China army would definitely attack, and it would be in the deadliest place for us, If that were the case, we would probably not have any choice but to accept the conditions of the Shina people! ”

With Akiyama Mayuki sighing heavily, Shimamura Suo frowned violently and sighed.

"Akiyama, you have to know that whether or not you can win this war now depends on the tactics you have formulated, and you have to spend your energy on this, understand? As for the Army, they have their marshals and generals to worry about! ”

(To be continued)