Kusunase Yukihiko knows very well that he just wanted to save it before, but how to save it, the navy is obviously patchwork, at most to ensure the safety of navigation, and the rest, he will not care, whether their army is ready to fight with the Northwest Army and fight head-on in Qingdao, this is not a joke, if they let them do it with real swords, any decision he makes will directly affect the safety of tens of thousands of army soldiers, which makes him unable to decide.

Whether to continue to land in Qingdao, or choose to retreat. At this moment, the army is a little embarrassed, it has lost so many troops over there, and it is absolutely unwilling to retreat, but continue, God knows how many there are in the northwest, after a difficult choice, Yukihiko Kusunase proposed a different solution, landing near Tianjin, supporting the 18th Division, instead of landing directly in Qingdao.

"Tianjin, where is there still a long distance from Qingdao, are you sure that you can break through?" A naval general raised an objection, and some strange army generals next to him applied for it, just out of the army's camp, and didn't say much, but the puzzled gaze in his eyes clearly represented their thoughts, this war minister, what kind of idea did he fight, if he wanted to be surrounded by Japanese troops all dead, no need to rescue, just order them to surrender, they considered the problem of rescue at most, so they sent almost all the infantry to rescue the trapped 18th Division, but chose the farthest way, which is too abnormal.

"How do you know if you don't try, besides, where is the territory of the Beiyang Army, even if it fails, you can go back." Yukihiko Kusunase said with some unconfidence.

"Tianjin is too far away from Qingdao, I'm afraid after we arrive. Mitsutomi Kamio's 18th Division has long been unable to resist surrendering, right? ”

"So. If the navy comes to help, we will send an elite force of a division. Coupled with enough supplies, with the help of most of the naval fleet, enter Qingdao to boost the confidence of Kamio Mitsutomi! ”

"Feelings are using our navy as bait, are you so confident that you can transport the rest of the troops to China?"

"Of course, there is not even a need for a naval escort!"

"Oh?" Not only Minoru Saito is strange, but even Emperor Taisho is also strange, the other side has already declared war. What makes Yukihiko Kusunase so confident that the other party will obediently let their army land near Tianjin.

Feeling everyone's gaze, Yukihiko Kusunase said with some excitement: "We can hire British, French, and American merchant ships to transport our soldiers and supplies!" ”

"Anglo-French-American?" Everyone's eyes lit up in unison, although Yukihiko Kusunase hadn't shown outstanding ability before, but this idea was really a stroke of genius. According to their previous estimates, to deal with the Northwest Army, it is necessary not only to expand the size of the divisions and regiments, but also to signal the second-line troops. At the very least, it takes 300,000 to do it, and with such a huge army, logistics supply is a big problem. The loss of the Combined Fleet allowed the Navy to cobble together only a part of its strength. Combined, these forces can play a strong role in suppressing the Chinese Navy. However, it is difficult to ensure security if it is dispersed, and in that case, the army will have to eat in China, which will be a lot of trouble.

However, with the use of British, French, and American transport ships, on the one hand, the northwest will certainly not dare to attack, and the security will be greatly increased; even if it is attacked, it is equivalent to drawing Britain, France, and the United States into it, and once any of them increase their support or directly send troops, it will be of great benefit to Japan.

Emperor Taisho nodded with a little satisfaction, and praised Kusunase Yukihiko's approach, even the navy can't say anything, after all, Kusunase Yukihiko didn't let the navy as a bait, but just sent the navy to Qingdao to protect an elite division to land, by the way, protect the protection, prevent China's sea power, strike at the landing ground of the Japanese army, and the rest, there is nothing.

Kusunase Yukihiko's approach inspired Emperor Taisho again, and he set his sights on the foreign minister, and said tentatively: "By the way, can you encourage Britain and France to move against the northwest." ”

The foreign secretary shook his head and said: "No, looking at the actions of Britain and France, I don't want the northwest to join the sequence of the allies. ”

"I estimate that the fleet of Britain and France, together with us, attacked Qingdao and did not suffer huge losses, and it is even possible that it was unscathed, otherwise, they would not be so high!" Dongxiang Hei Hachi's eyes were gloomy and he said.

Togo Heihachi's words caused the Japanese high-ranking officials present to think deeply, and after thinking for a long time, they didn't figure it out, it stands to reason that with the strength of Britain and France, how could the northwest be allowed to attack like this, at this time, Emperor Taisho seemed to say unintentionally: "What the hell is going on, is there a change in Europe!" ”

He said casually, but other high-ranking officials were bright, Taisho's sentence is actually really right, Britain and France are really too busy to take care of themselves at this time, because of the arrival of winter, Paris has not finally fallen, but even the most optimistic French marshal, do not dare to say, he will definitely be able to rescue Paris, the start time is too late, compared to later generations, France has prepared for at least a year or so, while Germany has prepared for a year more, or even more than half a year earlier, and it has entered a wartime state, such an increase and a decrease, even if France is at the same level as Germany, it will fall behind, not to mention that France and Germany are not on the same order of magnitude, and the gap between them is even greater.

In addition, the Schlieffen plan is really an open plan, at least 10 years ahead of the times, and the plan of Germany to attack France in later generations was basically born here, with the help of airships, it is equivalent to solving it from a certain distance, without the ability to attack quickly with armored clusters, occupying part of the railway between Belgium and France, and also making Germany's outflanking successful, which further increased the strength gap between the two sides, and now France, can only be in Bordeaux, With the help of this remaining force and the continuous reinforcements of the colonies and the support of the British, this is a stable position, and as for the counteroffensive, it is almost impossible

Almost all the important ministers of the army and navy are considering the possibility of changes in Europe, they Japan rose too late, plus several heavy losses, government funds are insufficient, plus the biggest goal is to occupy the mainland, so the staff is more in China, but the spies under the jurisdiction of the staff are as many as 1,000 people in China, and Europe, only some diplomats are left, of course, the difference between the East and the West is also the key, Japanese spies to China, which is very good, not easy to find, But when the yellow race enters the place where the white race enters, it is simply a big light bulb, and it is difficult to do anything, not to mention that Japan is only a second-rate power, and it is not welcomed in Europe.

Japan also defeated Russia before stepping into the position of a second-rate power, but Europe has been the center of the world in the past few hundred years, and several major powers take turns to sit in the bank, paying attention to bloodline and ability, even if it is as strong as Napoleon, it also needs to be crowned with blood, in order to become the emperor of France, the Japanese, in the eyes of Europeans, will not be stronger than the hillbilly to go there, so Japan is almost trained in Europe, as for buying some foreigners to help pass on information, the Japanese have been doing, But the effect is not good at all, and a lot of the information obtained is wrong, which has been abolished, that is, the diplomatic department, through the orthodox channel, to get some information,

Japan's grasp of the current war situation in Europe is not even as good as that of the northwest, which has already grasped the situation in Europe clearly by relying on the intelligence network arranged in advance and the help of Germany, and many decisions have been made on the basis of this, taking into account the limits of what Britain and France can accept. Japan didn't know at all that in their eyes, Britain and France, which were extremely powerful, had been beaten by Germany and were looking for teeth, France could even lose its capital, and Britain, France, and Russia, the important forces of the Entente, had lost 2.3 million troops in just one month, and the prisoners of war, on the way to China, would be used as coolies and practical in China, rather than special citizens on the high.

After there was no other and more solution, Emperor Taisho also agreed to the plan of the navy and the army, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was responsible for contacting the shipowners of the British, French and American sides, mobilizing steamers to come over to help transport the troops, offering more than 3 times the price, 300% of the profit, and relatively safe, which everyone wanted, in the eyes of the British, French and American shipowners, whether it was China or Japan, it was nothing to pay attention to, and they did not care at all about the possible consequences of intervening in the war.

Since he promised the emperor, Minoru Saito also continued to draw forces to carry out the war against Qingdao, as much as he cobbled together, as much as he cobbled, and in the end it was almost 68 warships of all sizes, the oldest of which was almost 30 years old, and on the personnel, the navy also did its best, not only the remaining personnel and reserve personnel, and even the personnel who had been retired for more than 5 years, but also urgently transferred back to operate the battleships, and these people almost became the main force of the combined fleet this time, It can be said that it is the last bit of the Japanese army's foundation.

If Yang Yuanzhao knew that Cai Yi's tactics of encircling but not attacking actually allowed the Japanese Navy to mobilize old warships, and even mobilized reserve personnel to reinforce the 18th Division, I don't know if he would wake up with laughter, Japan is tantamount to adding another knife to its already weak foundation, if this part of the force can be killed, at least within 5 years, Japan will withdraw from the competition on the entire East Asian stage, which is a good thing for the northwest, without Japan's involvement, to be exact, Without the involvement of the Japanese Navy, many things that were lost in the past could be regained. (To be continued......)