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Chapter 1715 Turning Danger into Safety

A luxury villa next to Ueno Park, Tokyo, Japan. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info

Surrounded by a group of warblers and swallows, General Ishihara, chief of staff of the Japanese army, walked out of the courtyard gate, and before getting into the car, he kissed every shy and timid girl on the lips, and then lowered his head and got into a luxurious black car, and then drove in the direction of the general staff headquarters surrounded by four cars in front and behind.

Ishihara leaned his head on the backrest, closed his eyes and calmed down, and quickly entered the real world from the boundless gentleness of the country, then he opened his eyes, turned his head and asked, "Imada-kun, is there any new news from the staff headquarters?" ”

"Yes, at eleven o'clock last night, the commander of the 25th Army in Xingzhou sent an urgent report to the General Staff Headquarters, and a private secret message to you later! In addition, Admiral Yamamoto, commander of the Combined Fleet of the Navy, sent you a telegram at 5 o'clock this morning. ”

Major General Shintaro Imada, head of the Operations Department of the General Staff Headquarters, said respectfully as he opened the briefcase and took out several telegrams from it. As a die-hard supporter of Ishihara Waner, a small junior staff officer of the War Department back then has risen with the rise of Ishihara Waner's status and assumed the position of the most important head of the Operations Department of the General Staff Headquarters.

Ishihara took the telegram and did not pick it up and read it immediately, but asked suspiciously, "Yamashita Fengwen!?" Hasn't the war in Malaya just ended? What is the emergency situation of the war......"

"Chief, don't you know when you open it?" Major General Shintaro Imada asked with a smile.

Ishihara shook his head: "No, I'll guess first!" Recently, Sugiyama Moto, Nishio Shouzo, Umezu Mijiro, Muto Akira, Tanaka Shinichi and others have jumped up and down, plus Tojo Hideki, who was supposed to be punished but was transferred to the director of aviation, I have a verbal fight with these people every day, which has caused my IQ to drop a lot, and if I don't use it anymore, I will become a big fool!

"I have to admit that the money-greedy and lustful Yamashita Fengfu is very capable of fighting..... In the battle of Langfang in North China last year, the 20th Division was almost completely wiped out, and the commander of the division, Lieutenant General Kawagishi Fumizaburo, and the chief of staff, Major General Kimura Hizozo, were killed.

"After this guy returned to Tokyo, he was unwilling to fade out of the military circles, up and down activities, his father-in-law Yongyu Motohiko was also interested, and took the initiative to send his charming little daughter Masako to my warm bed, after I became the chief of staff at the end of last year, this guy went to my house to be more active, and expressed his loyalty to me many times! I saw that he was an extraordinary talent, so I appointed him as the commander of the Fourth Division, replacing the incompetent Lieutenant General Matsui, and then transferred the reorganized Fourth Division to Manchuria and garrison.

"The commander of the Kwantung Army, Shouichi Terauchi, was originally an old friend of my cheap father-in-law, and he also took special care of Yamashita Fengfu on the 226 incident, so that Yamashita Fengfu had room to display his talents, and when he was formed into a new corps this year, he was able to stand out from so many division commanders and become the commander of the corps.

"He commanded the Malay battle very well this time, and it stands to reason that the British have already been defeated, where is the new battle report? Could it be related to the Anjia Army in the north? ”

Shintaro Imada looked admired: "The chief is wise, and it is indeed related to An Jiajun...... A group of staff officers took the initiative to attack the Anjia army, but they were beaten up and lost their troops, so they put the blame on the chief officer who died in battle. General Yamashita had a clear heart, but the stakes were so high that he had to adopt the report of the staff officers. ”

Ishihara waved his hand: "It's not that I'm an unpredictable prophet, the intelligence agency of the China Dispatch Army has already sent the news of Syria and South China Radio to the base camp, but there is no specific battle report of the 25th Army, including His Majesty the Emperor, who is half-convinced of this, and our opponents are even more convinced that this is an unfounded rumor spread by the An Jia Army, with the purpose of dispelling the empire's mainland strategy!" ”

After that, Ishihara Waner picked up the telegram, found the telegram belonging to Yamashita Fengfumi and read it carefully, pondered for a while, and then picked up the telegram from Yamamoto Fifty-six, his face was surprised and happy, and finally laughed: "Okay, well, with this, I have the confidence to convince His Majesty the Emperor and stand firmly on my side again...... Go, now go to the palace, I want to see Your Majesty in person! ”

The convoy soon arrived at the Royal Palace, located in the heart of the city. After Ishihara got out of the car, he found that the Minister of Military Orders, Senior General Nagano Shusei, was already waiting for Hirohito to receive him, so he hurriedly walked over and greeted Nagano Shusei with a smile: "Your Excellency Nagano, are you also here for the conflict in Malaya?" ”

Nagano Shusei was a staunch southward faction, and he had always advocated Japan's active southward expansion, marching to Southeast Asia, Australia, and India. ”

"Of course I am!"

Ishihara nodded: "Now there are a lot of mosquitoes in the army, from the General Staff Headquarters to the Ministry of the Army, from the Military Senate to the Department of Education, as well as in all aspects of the army, dispatch army, corps, divisions and colonial garrisons, there are many generals who want to readjust the base camp strategy, and the twitter is annoying, and now it must come to the time when His Majesty the Emperor must come out and make a final decision!" If those short-sighted generals are allowed to behave in a reckless manner, dragging the limited resources of the empire into the quagmire of war in China, what awaits the empire will be a terrible disaster! ”

"I'm sorry, Ishihara-kun!"

Nagano was greatly moved, and bowed deeply to Ishihara: "Before that, there was no good reason, and at the same time, beware of people saying that our navy only cares about itself, so the Military Command Department and the Ministry of the Navy cannot give Ishihara-kun more support, so Ishihara-kun has been fighting alone, and Nagano admires Ishihara-kun's noble character!" Well, now that our navy has a good reason to prove that going south is the only way out, I believe that His Majesty the Emperor will make the final judgment! ”

"That's good!"

Ishihara Wan'er said with relief: "Your Excellency Nagano, I know your difficulties, Hyakku Gengo, Mitsumasa Yonechi and others in the navy are also looking for your shortcomings behind your back, you should be cautious!" Now it's not too late for us to join forces! ”

At this time, the emperor's close attendants announced that Nagano Xiu was summoned to meet him, and then called Ishihara Waner in.

At 10 o'clock in the morning, Emperor Hirohito, who was worried about being attacked by a mysterious weapon and was both angry and afraid, called an "Imperial Council" and threw several telegrams in front of Military Senator Sugiyama Moto, Director of Education Umezu Mijiro, and Military Affairs Bureau Director Muto Akira Muto, and then roared loudly:

"You know how to fight, fight, fight! Is China so easy to conquer? China has boundless strategic depth, the whole territory plus Annam, Siam has a population of more than 600 million, and the empire is less than 100 million, plus the other side has a strong industrial base in the southwest, guns and ammunition are sufficient, ready to replenish the needs of front-line operations, if our army is used to attack China, you tell me clearly, when will the war end? Do you have to throw all the lives and limited resources of the Imperial warriors into the battlefield of China before you are willing?

"From the beginning of last year's war to the present, the army has repeatedly disappointed me, lost troops in successive battles, and humiliated the national body. A large number of aircraft, artillery, guns and ammunition were consumed, but few results were achieved, and the plan of 'destroying China in three months' formulated before the war became a laughing stock of gossip among the nations! What is especially hateful is those captives, why don't they choose 'jade shattering' and be loyal to the empire with practical actions, but instead let people parade through the streets like monkeys, and later simply do things to build bridges and pave roads for the enemy, which is hateful and annoying!

"The only consolation is that under the leadership of Chief of Staff Ishihara-kun, the empire quickly reversed the passive situation, occupied the Lanyin Islands and the Far East, and now acquired Malaya, eastern and southern Burma, expanding the empire's influence into the Indian Ocean in one fell swoop, and multiplying its national power. I am now very puzzled: if the strategy of going south has been proved to be correct, why do some generals still strive to gain control of the China continent? Do you think that's fun? That would be a reckless move that would cost countless lives and drag the Empire into the abyss!

"Some time ago I saw that you were arguing fiercely, and I thought that perhaps you could achieve unity of opinion within yourself, but in the present situation, I should not expect anything good from you. Look at the telegram first......"

Under Hirohito's majestic gaze, Sugiyama Moto, Umezu Mijiro, Muto Akira and others trembled and picked up the telegram and passed it to each other, crying bitterly in their hearts.

"See? The opponent's fighter planes are overwhelming, the imperial air force is not an opponent at all, the opponent's tanks are hundreds or thousands, and there are four or five hundred tanks that have penetrated deep into the Malay border alone, plus its huge fleet of armored vehicles, motorcycles and transport trucks, the number of vehicles dispatched in a major battle is about 3,000!

"What is particularly shocking is that the other side actually has an unprecedented missile, which comes and goes without a trace, with extremely high accuracy, and a light cruiser is actually directly hit and blown to pieces! Under the blow of the opponent's missiles, the two large ports, which had a large amount of anti-aircraft fire, could not react in any way, that is, they fell into a sea of fire...... It's hard to imagine the catastrophic consequences of such a powerful missile hitting our heavy cruisers, battleships, aircraft carriers, and even my imperial palace!

"Just imagine, if the army was suddenly attacked by such missiles when it was carrying out a landing operation in the port of China, the soldiers of the empire and their equipment would sink into the sea with almost no power to fight back, and the soldiers on the front line could not be replenished at sea and the supplies were cut off, how could this battle be fought? Do you want me to experience another shameful defeat in Western Siberia? Also, we don't know how far this missile can be and by what means, so you don't have to anger your opponent and aim at the Tokyo Imperial Palace to make you happy, right? Well!? ”

The generals in uniform were all in mourning, and the cabinet ministers all bowed their heads and stood solemnly, while several generals who were directly reprimanded hurriedly kowtowed and apologized, and they didn't even dare to shout!

Hirohito vented, felt much more comfortable, and said earnestly: "The war that took place in the Malay Peninsula fully shows that without knowing how many secret weapons the opponent is hiding and without being sure to restrain the opponent's planes and tanks, we must not expand the war in China on our own, otherwise we will only plunge the limited forces of the empire into the quagmire of the Chinese battlefield, and it will be difficult to extricate ourselves in the end!" Think for yourselves! ”

Hirohito got up and walked away, making his attitude clear to his ministers and the generals of the navy and army.

Due to the prior orders, the Imperial Household Minister did not make any records of Hirohito's "Tamayin", and retired with the Minister of the Seals, leaving the meeting to the Cabinet and the Ministry of War.

Prime Minister Fumiro Konoe presided over the meeting, and he said loudly: "Your Majesty was proud of the glorious victory of the Army only two months ago, but recently he has fallen into a certain anxiety and cannot sleep at night. The Cabinet fully supports His Majesty's holy ruling, and as far as the current situation is concerned, the key to solving the problem of China is not to occupy it, but to gradually divide it, because the population of China is too large, the territory is too large, and the whole people are soldiers, and the empire wants to annex it, which is tantamount to a snake swallowing an elephant, so under the premise that there is a strong enemy such as the Anjia Army, our military attack and occupation are doomed to be in vain.

"What we need is to take advantage of the internal contradictions of the other side to repeatedly dismember and divide China into a number of small forces that are independent of each other and controlled by the empire, so as to achieve the long-term goal of 'Greater East Asia Co-prosperity', so the cabinet is inclined to send representatives to make secret representations to the Nanjing government to force the other side to recognize the 'autonomy of North China' and other harsh conditions!"

The Minister of Naval Command, Nagano Xiushen, nodded in greeting: "Our Navy fully supports His Majesty's Holy Judgment!" For now, going south is indeed the best way out for the empire! Now, the United States is not armed, the French have become frightened birds, and the British need to deal with both German and Soviet expansion in Europe.

"On the 30th of last month, the Soviet Union mobilized 23 divisions with a total of 450,000 troops to attack the Finnish border and quickly reached the Manohim Line. On the first day of this month, a puppet government was established in the hope of inciting the socialists in the Finnish army to revolt. On the 14th, at the request of the Finnish government, the League of Nations, manipulated by Britain and France, officially expelled the Soviet Union from this international organization!

"And in Asia, the Chinese army invaded Afghanistan, the Soviet army attacked Persia, the national liberation movement in India is moving more and more, and the British are exhausted on all fronts, so to speak, this is the best opportunity for the empire to take India, if this opportunity is missed, it will be difficult to get involved again!"

Ishihara stood up as a victor, and his ostentatious gaze swept over the faces of Sugiyama Moto, Umezu Mijiro, Muto Akira, and others:

"Our Army also fully supports His Majesty's decision! As an emperor, I deeply know that the stage of the military can only be on the battlefield, our generals here, can not wait for decades, even a few years, tomorrow's glory and meritorious service will not belong to the monarchs here, therefore, our army will never stop the pace of expansion, but we must first make it easy and then difficult, to obtain enough living space, and then to manage the war in China, there is a priority problem in the middle!

"Let me now talk about the benefits of going south! First, as we all know, the oil of Malaya, Lanyin and Borneo is the lifeblood of the empire, and only if we take the British naval base in Ceylon and occupy India can we ensure our core interests! Otherwise, the enemy's fleet could come from the western seas at any time and attack our oil fields and refineries, disrupt our fuel supplies, which will not be allowed under any circumstances!

"Secondly, although I don't want to admit it, but the Anjia Army is indeed brave and good at fighting, since the beginning of the war, the victory of our emperor *** team is almost zero, this is a terrible psychological baggage, often the troops in the face of the Anjia Army, before the battle is cowardly, even half of the combat effectiveness on weekdays can not be played. What do we use to achieve victory when our weapons and equipment are inferior to our opponents, are we piling up with the lives of precious soldiers? The population of the empire is far less than that of its opponents, whether this kind of attrition can be beared, and what will be the consequences of long-term persistence, have you considered it? On the contrary, the vulnerability of the British army, coupled with our entry into India as national liberators, must have been supported, as is clear from our experience in Malaya and Burma!

"Third, intelligence work in South Asia has always been the focus of our attention, and it has a relatively large control and influence on the Indian rebel armies. India is a populous country, and you may wish to imagine how much it would be a boost to the empire if 200 million Indians were on our side. We can use this to close the population gap with China, form a steady stream of Indian troops, and after rigorous training of our army, open to all fronts, and expand the combat power of the empire more than doubled.

"Fourth, India's industrial base is far beyond that of China. As early as the last European war, the troops who set out from India to fight in Europe went with weapons on their own, and did not need to be supplied in Britain at all. Now after more than 20 years of development, you can imagine how much it will promote our industrial development? India is rich in iron ore and coal mines, and these resources are located on the southern seaside, which is convenient for transportation, and when India, Southeast Asia and the empire itself are organically combined into one to form a complementary resource, how much will it improve the comprehensive national strength of the empire? Although I also think that China is very close to us and there are many food producing areas, are there any industrial facilities that we urgently need? If the empire wants to draw closer to the United States, will the occupation of India help us more, or will it be the coastal areas of China? I don't think I need to say this, everyone should know about it, right?

"Fifth, in terms of state-to-state relations, the occupation of India by our army will be a great stimulus to Germany and the Soviet Union, and they will certainly launch frenzied attacks on the surrounding countries in order to acquire as much land as possible in order to expand their own national power, which in turn can cover our occupation of India. On the other hand, if we start a war in China, the Germans and the Soviets will not be able to cooperate with each other in their own affairs.

"Sixth, our army is massing heavy troops in the Langyin Islands, and the supply of food, fuel and ammunition can be replenished through the newly occupied Malaya, Burma, British Borneo and our Lanyin Islands.

"Finally, once we occupy India, our materials and resources will be greatly replenished, the newly formed divisions and regiments will also be trained in actual combat, and together with the newly established army in India, we will have the ability to compete with the United States. When the time comes, whether it is the Navy raiding Pearl Harbor or the Army attacking Australia, the initiative is in my hands, and the Empire dominates the Pacific Ocean, and the opportunity is right in front of us! ”

Ishihara's analysis demonstrated the necessity of going south from all sides, and won bursts of applause from cabinet ministers and military ministers.

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: I'm sorry, in the past few days, the treatment of cold and fever, infusion and medicine are more miscellaneous, the result is complications, last night the heartbeat jumped to 180 times, convulsions, was rushed to the hospital by his wife, after treatment slowed down to about 120 times...... Myocarditis is the *** disease of the Son of Heaven, no one expected it to recur at this time, the doctor told you to rest well, and the update in the next few days may slow down!

I'm sorry, I originally wanted to fight for ***, but it's a pity......