It turned out that the car in front of them was Honjo Shigeru, and I don't know why Honjo Shigeru's car suddenly stopped, and Hanaya, who was not very concentrated, almost crashed into Honjo Shigeru's car.

The section of the road where the convoy stopped was not far from Nanguan in Shenyang, and on both sides of the road were large paddy fields with full ears of rice about to be harvested.

When Itagaki and the others got off the train, Honjo Shigeru was already standing at the edge of the rice field, and the adjutant and guards of Honjo Shigeru who followed down saw Itagaki and others coming over, and they consciously retreated to the back.

Honjo Shigeru glanced at a few people, bent down, held the saber in one hand, and reached out with the other hand to pull down a handful of golden rice grains, put them in his mouth, and chewed them with relish in the direction of Tokyo.

Seeing this scene, Itagaki, Ishihara, Tohihara, and Hanaya Masashi also took a large handful of wheat grains and put them in their mouths and chewed them.

Honjo closed his eyes and chewed slowly, savoring the fragrance of the rice grains very comfortably.

After a long time, Honjo Shigecai opened his eyes and said with great emotion: "The taste of the rice here is even better than our best rice in Hokkaido!" ”

Tu Feiyuan smiled and said, "Yes, Your Excellency Honjo, the land of Manchuria is very fertile, and this rice is indeed very good. ”

Honjo Shigeru looked at Tohihara and Itagaki and said, "You two and Isoya Ryosuke together claim to be the three Chinese experts in our army, tell me, is this the case with rice in other areas of China?" ”

Although Tu Feiyuan has been in China for nearly 20 years, he has mainly been active in the northeastern, northern and southeastern coastal areas, unlike Itagaki who has lived in central and southwestern China, and he is not very clear about the situation of rice in various parts of China. Moreover, in 24 years, Itagaki worked as an assistant at the Legation in Yanjing to Shigeru Honjo, who was still the deputy military attache in China at the time, and Shigeru Honjo was his old superior, so it was better for Itagaki to answer this question.

Dohihara glanced at Itagaki and motioned for Itagaki to answer the question.

Itagaki replied without hesitation: "In China, the southern and central regions are all double-cropping rice, and the taste is much worse than that of northern rice. The rice produced in the north of China is mainly produced in Ningxia and the northeast, but the rice in the northeast is still the best in terms of taste. ”

"In the Northeast, the best rice is from Panshan County (now Panjin) in Liaoning Province and Wuchang County in Heilongjiang Province. ”

Honjo Shigeru nodded appreciatively to Dohirahara and Itagaki and said: "Before I came to Manchuria this time, I specially went to the University of Tokyo to ask those professors for some knowledge of the history and geography of Manchuria, and I also deeply felt that Ishihara Nakasa's statement that Manchuria is the lifeblood of our empire is very, very correct. ”

Honjo looked at Ishihara with great admiration, and rarely reached out and patted Ishihara affectionately on the shoulder.

Then, Honjo said to a few people, "Do you know? The geographical latitude of Manchuria is similar to that of japonica rice production near our native Hokkaido, except that the black soil of Manchuria is more fertile. ”

Honjo said in an envious tone: "The people of Shina are very blessed, the black land is the most fertile land in the world, and they actually occupy one of the only three black lands in the world. ”

Honjo lowered his head and looked at the black soil under his feet, and asked, "Do you know which country the other two black soils in the world are in?" ”

After waiting for a while and not hearing an answer, Honjo raised his head and said: "The other two pieces of black land, one is in the Great Plain of Ukraine on the Dnieper River in the Soviet Union, where the black soil covers an area of about 1.9 million km2, known as the granary of Europe; The other is the Mississippi River Basin in the United States, with an area of about 1.2 million km2 of black soil, which is the largest producer of corn and cotton in the United States. And the black soil area of Manchuria is larger than that of the United States. What a place to be! ”

Honjo Shigeru examined the expressions of Itagaki, Ishihara Waner, Tohihara, and Hanaya Masa, one by one, and then turned around, looked at the large fields of rice fields around that were about to mature, and said in a somewhat sad tone: "Ishihara-kun's exposition on the lifeline of Manchuria is well said, 'We say that the territory of this empire is long and narrow, and it lacks resources and strategic depth, and it is absolutely impossible to compete with the great powers for hegemony. ”

"And the bureaucrats in the military department and the cabinet are not enterprising, and they do not care about the future of our empire. After the Washington Conference in 1921, large-scale disarmament began. Do you know that in 1921, the military expenditure of our empire was 730 million yuan, and last year, it was reduced to only 500 million yuan. But do you know how much the Soviet Union spent in our north on military affairs? ”

Honjo did not wait for a few people to answer, and said to himself: "The Soviet Union's military spending last year was 20 billion rubles. ”

"20 billion!" Itagaki, Ishihara and the others all grew their mouths in surprise.

"Yes, 20 billion. The ruble of the Soviets, like the Yuan of the Great Empire, is also based on the gold standard, which is about 2 billion yuan when converted into yuan, which is still more than four times our own. Ladies and gentlemen, although the industrial and technological level of the Soviets is still not as good as ours, and many materials and even grain have to be imported from abroad, which will consume a lot of expenses, their military expenditure is still far more than ours. ”

"In the long run, we will find it difficult for our empire's army to dominate East Asia. There is a Chinese proverb that says that time does not wait, and it is very incisive that if the soldiers of our empire do not rise up and work hard, the fate of the empire will be worried. ”

Honjo Fan glanced at a few people, and suddenly said, "I want to go to the North Camp of the Northeast Army to have a look." ”

Regarding Honzhuang Fan's sudden request to go to Beidaying at this time, several people couldn't help but be stunned.

Now that the Northeast Army has been caught up by the frequent exercises of the Kwantung Army, it has become a rumor, especially when the operation will be launched tomorrow night, and the commander of the Kwantung Army suddenly appeared at the gate of the Beida Camp at this time, so it will not arouse the great vigilance of the Northeast Army? Honjo Shigeru made this untimely request at this time, which immediately made Itagaki embarrassed.

This time, it was Hua Gu Zheng who reacted first, he stepped forward and said: "Your Excellency, Commander, we just conducted an exercise near Beidaying, and the Northeast Army there has a deep hostility towards us, so it is not safe for you to go. Moreover, I have photos of the inside and outside of the camp in my office, and I know the situation there very well. ”

"Oh! Do you have a photo of the interior of the North Daying camp? ”

Hanaya replied proudly: "Report to Your Excellency Commander, not only photos, but also topographical maps of the camp. ”

Regarding Hanayamasa's display, Ishihara couldn't help but glared at Hanayamasa fiercely behind Tufeiyuan.

"How did you get it? Are there any of our people there? Honjo asked with interest.

Hanayamasa said with some pride: "Report to Your Excellency Commander, that's right, in late April this year, Ishihara-kun, Imada-kun, Shinoda-kun and others followed Chief of Staff Miyake to visit Kita-ying. When Wang Yizhe, the commander of the 7th Brigade, was talking with Chief of Staff Miyake, Shinoda-kun, who stayed in the courtyard, not only secretly remembered the configuration of the North Battalion, but Ishihara-kun also took advantage of the opportunity to go to the toilet to take quick pictures of various places from the window. When we returned, we drew all the terrain we had written down during the visit. ”

"Mixi!" Honjo nodded in satisfaction, his eyes flickering across the faces of the four of them.

"As I said, in the event of a sudden incident, it is advisable for all units to take decisive and active action, and this requires that all units of the Kwantung Army be familiar with the situation of all important targets. In addition, it is necessary to conduct as many actual combat exercises as possible, and you have done a good job in the early stage. In addition, the exercises should be as close to actual combat as possible, for example, you can simulate the exercises of encircling the Northeast Arsenal and Mukden City, as well as street fighting drills, night battle exercises, and so on. ”

Honjo Shigeru's meaningful words, to the ears of Itagaki and the other four, the meaning of the words was obviously known to passers-by, which made them feel a burst of ecstasy. It's just that including Hua Gu, they are trying their best to control their emotions and dare not show the slightest. Because, they have all deeply realized the good intentions of Honjo Fan.

Honjo turned around and walked to the car, and said as he walked: "Hanaya-kun, I will return to the Lushun headquarters after seeing Hayashi Kujiro, please arrange a train back to Lushun for me." ”

On the evening of 18 September, although the sky had already darkened, in front of the residence of Rong Zhen, chief of staff of the Northeast Frontier Chief's Office on Sanjing Road in Shenyang, it was brightly lit, crowded, and full of guests. In particular, there are a lot of Zeng Mingwaliang's cars parked in front of the door, which shows that most of the guests here are high-ranking officials and dignitaries, and what kind of celebration should be held here.

Yes, today is the birthday of Rong Zhen, chief of staff of the Northeast Army, and Rong Zhen has been celebrating his father's birthday since yesterday. As the No. 2 real power figure in the Northeast Army, Rong Zhen's father's birthday will naturally attract many dignitaries and dignitaries with the trend of inflammation to come to cheer. In the past two days, almost all the high-ranking officials and dignitaries in Shenyang City have arrived, and even military and political dignitaries from other places in Liaoning Province, as well as Jilin and Heilongjiang, have also come or sent special people to give gifts.

Two black cars hurriedly drove to the door of the Rongzhen Mansion and stopped, and Han Guangdi, who was dressed in civilian clothes and had a melancholy face, and Qi Xingya, the commander of the Shenyang Military Police in the uniform of a major general, got out of the first car one after another.

Han Guangdi arrived in Shenyang 10 days ago, and after contacting Rong Zhen, chief of staff of the Northeast Frontier Chief's Office, who had already received a telegram from Zhang Xueliang, he began to transport weapons and ammunition and a large amount of grain produced by the Northeast Arsenal to Guannei and Nanmeng by rail and road.

Since the summer grain in the northeast has not yet been harvested, it is difficult to meet Song Zhewu's requirements in a short time. However, Song Zhewu helped him Zhang Xueliang back then, and now Song Zhewu needs his Zhang Xueliang's help......

(To be continued)