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 at that time, the military had a habit of using passwords, and the military used to use words such as southeast, south, northwest, and so on in the direction and weather, such as sunshine, rain, snow, wind, thunder, and lightning in the code. 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," "east," "east," and "eastern," and "southern," and "southern" in the telegrams they have heard one after another. It was from these frequently occurring words that Abe came to the conclusion that the military 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 "East", because "East" generally referred to the United States to the east, so he could not figure out what would happen to his relations with the United States.

However, because the Abe family is a hereditary aristocracy and has close ties with the imperial family, political leaders, and the military, 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, shortly after the militant right-wing militarist Hideki Tojo came to power, he was forced by the pressure of Commander Isoroku Yamamoto of the Navy's Combined Fleet to make a decision that bordered on gamblers in view of the international and domestic conditions at that time. It is 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 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. 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, it was said that Ben signed the Triple Alliance Treaty with Germany and Italy, forming a group of treaty countries, and the spearhead was directly aimed at the United States and Britain and other Western powers at that time, in a vain attempt to re-divide the world.

Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, commander of the Combined Fleet of the Navy, believes that the greatest threat to the occupation of Southeast Asia comes from the United States. Once the United States goes to war, the main force of the US Pacific Fleet will inevitably attack from Pearl Harbor and contain the Southeast Asian offensive 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, Yamamoto Go[***] will formulate a "Z battle plan" based on the above judgment, and Yamamoto, who was born as a gambler, was determined to take a big gamble, and he shouted frantically: "Either win a big game, 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 Navy's command department vigorously 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 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 the post of 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 to the expedition. In the face of Yamamoto's last threat, the Navy Command Department had to approve the "Z Operation Plan."

After the plan was approved, he immediately threw himself into intense preparations. Pilots of torpedo bombers in the southern part of the country simulated the terrain of Pearl Harbor and conducted stunt-like attack training over the bay of Kagoshima in the south. 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 Navy did not have any preparations for 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 people from top to bottom are intensively preparing for war, tremendous changes have taken place in the world situation.

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

June 22 is the summer solstice, and this day is 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 army that was preparing to attack Southeast Asia, and the fanatical militarists in the army were even more restless, constantly exerting pressure on the political axe and the army base camp, and actively demanding the expansion of the scale of the war.

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

After Yamamoto had made many preparations, on 5 November, Yamamoto 56 immediately issued the "Combined Fleet Top Secret Operation Order No. 1" in accordance with the instructions of the Naval 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 Go, the commander of the Naval Combined Fleet, who was well-known in the 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 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 army would be fighting in the south, and that many troops of the army 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.