The leader of the spy team, Shinjiro Abe, then said mysteriously to Yamamoto;

"Yamamoto-kun, the Imperial Base Camp may have a big plan of action in the near future, which will decide the fate of the Empire. Have you heard? ”

Yamamoto hesitated for a moment and said to Abe:

"I've only heard bits and pieces. However, I heard that the base camp was transferring a large number of troops from the Chinese occupation zone to the south, but I did not know what the specific combat operations were. ”

Yamamoto looked at Abe in surprise and asked suspiciously:

"Abe-kun, how did you know that there was going to be a major operation in the Empire? That's a top-secret plan, and ordinary people don't even know about the commander of a division or brigade. ”

Abe looked at Yamamoto proudly, lowered his voice and said:

"Yamamoto-kun, do you know who I am?"

"Isn't it the spy team?"

"Yes, the task given to me by the special high school section of the military department is to specifically monitor the telecommunications between us and the enemy, and every day we have to analyze and summarize the telegrams we have monitored, and then report the results of the analysis to the special high section."

"And how did you know about the above?"

Abe hesitated, leaned in front of Yamamoto and whispered:

"Yamamoto-kun, I can tell you why, but please keep it a secret for us. May I? ”

"Okay."

It turned out that the Japanese army had a habit of using the password at that time, and the military used to use words such as southeast, south, northwest, etc., in the direction, and the weather in the weather, such as cloudy, rainy, snowy, wind, thunder, lightning, and lightning to express orders. For example: the West is clear, that is, there is no war on the Western Front. Recently, the cipher listeners of the spy team have frequently heard the words "east", "south", "eastern rain" and "southern rain" in the telegrams between the Japanese army and the headquarters of the 11th Army. It was from these frequently used words that Abe analyzed that the Japanese army would have large-scale combat operations in the south, and that war was about to break out in the south. However, he was sensitive to the word "Orient" because "Orient" generally referred to the United States to the east of Japan, so he could not figure out what the relationship with the United States would be.

However, because the Abe family is a hereditary aristocracy in Japan, they have close ties with the royal family, government officials, and the military, and some of them are in high positions in the imperial family, politics, and military circles. So, even those high-level secrets, he can get a little spider silk and see some clues.

Not long ago, the government of Hideki Tojo, a belligerent right-wing militarist element in Japan, came to power, and in view of the international and domestic conditions at that time, it was forced to make a decision that bordered on gamblers under pressure from Commander Isoroku Yamamoto of the Navy's Combined Fleet. It was to start a war with the United States at all costs, seize the colonies of the United States and Britain and other Western powers in Southeast Asia, and thus establish a new necessary energy and material supply base for the Great Japanese Empire.

In fact, as early as the spring and summer of 1940, Hitler swept through Western Europe with a "blitzkrieg", the British army retreated to the British Isles, and the Western powers were too busy to take care of themselves, so they were unable to maintain their colonial rule overseas, and the Japanese militarists believed that this was a good opportunity to advance southward, seize the colonies of Britain, France and the Netherlands in Southeast Asia, and seize strategic resources. As soon as Konoe came to power, he decided to establish a military alliance with Germany and Italy to expand the aggression. Therefore, on September 27, 1940, Japan signed the Triple Alliance Treaty with Germany and Italy, forming a group of treaty countries, and the spearhead was directly aimed at the Western powers such as the United States and Britain at that time, in a vain attempt to re-divide the world.

Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, commander of the Japanese Navy's Combined Fleet, believes that the greatest threat to Japan's occupation of Southeast Asia comes from the United States. Once Japan and the United States go to war, the main force of the US Pacific Fleet will inevitably attack from Pearl Harbor and contain the Japanese attack in Southeast Asia from the flank. First of all, it is necessary to get rid of worries, first destroy the main force of the US Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor, and force the United States to conclude an alliance under the city.

In February 1941, General Yamamoto 56 formulated the "Z Battle Plan" based on the above judgment, and Yamamoto, who was born as a gambler, was determined to make a big gamble, and he shouted wildly: "Either win a big victory, or lose a lot." If our attack on Pearl Harbor had failed, the battle would have been aborted. ”

Because the "Z Operation Plan" was too risky, not only did the Japanese Navy's Command Department strongly oppose it, but even Vice Admiral Nagumo Tadaichi, commander of the 1st Aircraft Carrier Task Force, which carried out the surprise attack mission, was skeptical at first. However, Yamamoto insisted that there was no hope of victory in a war with the United States, and that if he knew that this was the case, he would still fight hard, and he would do his best to preemptively strike a hard blow to the enemy from the beginning, thus creating difficulties and obstacles for the enemy. There is no other way.

However, the Japanese Navy Command Department was still hesitant at that time, and Yamamoto finally proposed that if the Navy Command Department did not agree with the "Z Operation Plan," he would not hesitate to resign from his post as commander of the Combined Fleet, and at the same time said that if Vice Admiral Nagumo did not fully agree, then he would personally lead the aircraft carrier fleet on the expedition. In the face of Yamamoto's final threat, the Japanese Navy Command Department had to approve the "Z Operation Plan".

Immediately after the plan was approved, Japan plunged into intense preparations. Pilots of Japanese torpedo bombers simulated the terrain of Pearl Harbor over the bay of Kagoshima in the south, and conducted stunt-like attack drills. At the same time, naval intelligence sent spies to Hawaii to reconnoiter the U.S. Pacific Fleet's entry into and exit Pearl Harbor. In order to ensure the success of the attack and prevent the leakage of secrets, except for the personnel involved in the planning, no one, including the commander of the aircraft carrier, knew what the combat mission was, and a strict letter inspection system was implemented. In addition, the students of the Navy Non-commissioned Officer School were allowed to wear official military uniforms to visit Tokyo, creating the false impression that the Japanese Navy was not prepared for any war, so as to deceive foreign attention. In order to further confuse the United States, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs sent former Ambassador to Germany Saburo Raisi to the United States as a "special envoy for peace" to assist Ambassador Saburo Nomura in holding peace talks with the United States.

This series of actions really blinded the eyes and ears of the world at that time. At a time when Japan is in full swing and actively preparing for war, the world situation has undergone tremendous changes.

On June 22, 1941, Hitler launched Operation Barbarossa after careful preparations, and successfully attacked the Soviet Union.

June 22 is the summer solstice, the shortest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere.

At 2 a.m., 6,000 artillery pieces of Nazi Germany took off their camouflaged artillery jackets, and nearly 3 million German troops waited for the order to attack. At half past three o'clock in the morning, Hitler tore up the Soviet-German non-aggression pact and gave the order to attack the Soviet Union, and suddenly, the quiet dawn was torn apart by the explosion of tens of millions of shells, and the German 2,000 planes pressed down on the Soviet positions like dark clouds, and the bombs rained down, and tens of thousands of Soviet soldiers died in their sleep.

By evening, the German tank units had advanced 50 kilometers into Soviet territory. After the success of the sneak attack, the German army mobilized 190 divisions, 3,700 tanks, 4,900 aircraft, 47,000 artillery pieces and 190 ships to launch a full-scale attack on the Soviet Union on a 1,500-kilometer front from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea.

The Germans were divided into three routes, attacking the Baltic coast of the Soviet Union and Leningrad on the northern route; The middle leads to Moscow; The southern route seized Ukraine, the "breadbasket" of the Soviet Union. At that time, the situation was very dangerous for the Soviet Union: the German army in the north road penetrated 400-450 kilometers into the hinterland of the Soviet Union in 18 days, and the Soviet army suffered heavy losses and retreated one after another. By early November, the Germans had occupied more than 1.5 million square kilometers of Soviet land. Seeing that the Soviet Union was about to fall.

The unprecedented military success of the German army in the European theater of war gave great encouragement to the Japanese army, which was preparing to attack Southeast Asia, and the fanatical militarist elements in the Japanese army were even more restless, constantly exerting pressure on the Japanese government and army base camps, and actively demanding that the scale of the war be expanded.

On October 18, 1941, Hideki Tojo came to power, and he formed a more right-wing government. Soon after, Yamamoto's "Z Operation Plan" was approved, and the Japanese Navy Command Department and Yamamoto's combined fleet were ordered to prepare for the immediate implementation of the "Z Operation Plan".

After Yamamoto had made many preparations, on 5 November, Yamamoto Isoroku immediately issued the "Combined Fleet Top Secret No. 1 Operational Order" in accordance with the instructions of the Japanese Navy's Command Department. The plan outlined the Navy's strategy for the first phase of the operation, including not only an attack on Pearl Harbor, an important U.S. military port, but also a specific plan for simultaneous attacks on Malaya, the Philippines, Guam, Wake Island, Hong Kong, and the South Seas.

The old devil Yamamoto actually knew it for a long time, and he couldn't help but be surprised after listening to Abe's words. I was not only impressed by Abe's wisdom and superb reasoning and judgment, but also surprised by Abe's background.

But he was still very proud, because he knew the news earlier and more accurately than Jiro Abe.

It turned out that Yamamoto's background was unknown to Abe, because his cousin was Admiral Yamamoto Isoroku, the commander of the Naval Combined Fleet, who was well-known in the Japanese military circles. The news he received came from relatives in the Yamamoto family.

Previously, Yamamoto, as the commander of the Jiujiang City Defense, made repeated mistakes, resulting in heavy losses for the Japanese army. In particular, for the loss of the "Poyang Lake Sweeping Battle Plan", he was not given the punishment he deserved by the 11th Army Headquarters, because both Commander Matsui and Commander Abe knew his background. In addition, Yamamoto Fifty-six has a good relationship with the two commanders, so they are all "big things into small things, and small things into small things".

In this way, Yamamoto knew that the Japanese army would be fighting in the south, and that many of the Japanese troops stationed in China would be transferred to the south. He took advantage of the fact that before the troops stationed in northern Jiangxi were transferred, he successively carried out two encirclement and suppression operations against Xiao Xiong's anti-enemy special forces in northern Jiangxi.