Tokyo, Ishihara Cabinet Residence.

Seishiro Itagaki of the current Minister of Land of the Ministry of War in the Cabinet arrived at the door of Ishihara's mansion in an armored car.

Before the armored car could stop steadily, Seishiro Itagaki kicked the car door, jumped down, and hurried towards the mansion.

Seishiro Itagaki and Ishihara Waner are not only friends, but also the formers of the new cabinet this time, so the guards outside Ishihara's Waner Mansion naturally won't stop him without a long eye.

Seishiro Itagaki went straight to Ishihara's study, pushed the door in before he knocked on the door, and said urgently to Ishihara, who was reading: "Ishihara-kun, it's not good, the main force of the 200,000 Kwantung Army of Yoshio Shinozuka has been wiped out. ”

"Huh?" Ishihara's face was shocked when he heard this, and he got up and said, "The 200,000 army has been wiped out? ”

Itagaki Seishiro nodded sadly, and said: "It can be said that now the Chinese Qiao army has captured the entire northeast, and the remnants of our Kwantung Army are only less than 50,000 people left, and they have retreated into the Korean Peninsula, but the people of China are not willing to give up, and they have mobilized tens of thousands of troops and a group of tank and armored troops, and they have crossed the Yalu River and are advancing towards the hinterland of the peninsula." ”

"The Korean Peninsula could not be defended, so I immediately ordered the navy to respond to the remnants of the 50,000 Kwantung Army and quickly withdraw to the mainland." Ishihara made a decision immediately.

"I'm afraid not, according to the latest news from the Navy Joint Fleet, the mixed fleet of the Navy supporting Yoshio Shinozuka was attacked by an unknown submarine group in Bohai Bay, and the initial suspicion is that it should be the Chinese Navy formed by Qiao Anbang, with them, our naval ships may not be able to approach the waters of the Korean Peninsula, even if they risk approaching, if they are discovered, the loss will definitely be unimaginable." Itagaki Seishiro said with a sad face.

"Then what are we going to do......" Ishihara frowned and began to fall into deep thought.

Give up these 50,000 remnants of the Kwantung Army? Apparently not.

But what can be done to get them out of the Korean Peninsula?

You must know that the navy and the army have always been at odds with each other in our military circles, and if the navy wants to meet the army's withdrawal at any cost, it is obviously somewhat unlikely.

Even if they forcibly order them to carry it out, it may not be effective, and the front-line commanders of the Navy have all kinds of excuses to shirk their responsibilities and do things perfunctorily.

After thinking and meditating, Ishihara really couldn't think of any good way.

Itagaki Seishiro, who was beside him, suddenly slapped his thigh and said, "Ishihara-kun, I have thought of a way to help the remnants of the Kwantung Army withdraw to the mainland. ”

"What's the solution? Say it. Ishihara said impatiently.

"Ishihara-kun, after the Qiaojia army of China conquers the entire northeast, it is bound to pose a serious threat to the Far East of the Russians, and I believe that it will not be long before the Russians will go to war with the Qiaojia army."

"Tell me about your specific plans." Ishihara interrupted.

"Order our 50,000 imperial troops to immediately retreat in the direction of Vladivostok, and if the situation is critical, we should continue to retreat to Sakhalin, and it should not be a problem to hold Sakhalin with 50,000 Kwantung Army.

And the most critical thing is that Vladivostok and Sakhalin Island have always been occupied by the Russians and regarded as territory, if the Qiao army dares to continue the pursuit, it will be equivalent to invading their territory for the Russians, so that the Russians and the Qiao army are very likely to break out into war.

Once a war and conflict broke out between the two sides on the Manchu-Russian border, Qiao's army would no longer have time to pursue the remnants of our Kwantung Army, and they could either stay on Sakhalin Island and stand by at that time, or calmly withdraw to their roots. Seishiro Itagaki said with a deceitful face.

"Yo Xi, this method is greatly improved, in this way, it is very likely to drag the Russians into the quagmire, triggering a war between China and Russia, once there is a war between China and Russia, then I say that this empire can get a rare and precious respite." Ishihara nodded happily.

"So what's going to happen?" Hideki Tojo asked.

"Well, just do what Itagaki-kun said, and immediately find a way to contact Hideki Kamitojo or Yoshio Shinozuka, and order them to immediately regain command of the Kwantung Army and evacuate to Vladivostok as soon as possible." Ishihara nodded in agreement.

"Okay, I'll do it right away." After saying that, Seishiro Itagaki turned and left.

……………………………… Since the recovery of the entire northeast, in order to prevent a possible conflict with the Russians, Qiao Anbang transferred two-thirds of the 100,000 troops left behind in the Pingjin area out of the customs to strengthen the northeast region, especially the border areas between Heilongjiang and Russia.

At the same time, more than 300 fighters of the 1st Air Force Division deployed in Tianjin and Beiping were transferred to the northeast.

They are stationed at Shenyang, Qiqihar and Harbin airports.

The Reading Armored Division and the Special Operations Brigade were also transferred to the Hulunbuir steppe to monitor the Russian troops stationed in Outer Mongolia.

In order to solve the remnants of the Kwantung Army as soon as possible and take control of the Korean Peninsula, Joan Bont transferred his main 1st and 5th Divisions to the Korean Peninsula.

This is also the reason why he transferred troops from Pingjin in order to make up for the vacancies of the 1st and 5th Integrated Divisions.

After the 1st and 5th Consolidated Divisions crossed the Yalu River, they immediately divided their troops into two routes and rapidly advanced in the direction of Pyongyang.

Because the army had no intention of resisting, the reorganized 1st and 5th Divisions advanced extremely fast, and in just three days, they drove more than 150 kilometers straight to the city of Pyongyang.

However, at this moment, the remnants of the Kwantung Army had already abandoned the city and fled, and the whole army withdrew in the direction of Vladivostok.

After leaving part of its forces to garrison Pyongyang and other places, the 1st Integrated Division and the 5th Integrated Division continued to pursue the attack, and by the end of November, they easily occupied the entire territory of the Korean Peninsula.

However, the army retreated all the way and forcibly withdrew into Vladivostok, the territory of the current Russia.

Due to the special geographical relationship of Vladivostok, the Russians did not have many troops deployed here at this time, and they were unable to resist the attack of more than 50,000 Japanese troops at all.

Vladivostok was then occupied by the Kwantung Army.

Because of the involvement of the Russians, Li Yifeng and Chiang's army did not attack Vladivostok too recklessly, but quickly reported this information to Qiao Anbang in Shenyang.

.............................. "Vladivostok? After listening to Yali's report, Qiao Anbang hurriedly got up and walked to the map and found Vladivostok.

After being silent for a long time in front of the map, weighing the pros and cons, Qiao Anbang finally said to Yali: "Call back to Li Yifeng and Jiang Jun, ordering them to suspend the pursuit of the Kwantung Army, the first division will stay on the Korean Peninsula, and the fifth division will return to Shenyang immediately." ”

"Yes!" Yali gladly agreed, and immediately turned around and took the order.

Looking at Yali's departing back, Qiao Anbang took out his cigarette and sighed, not that he deliberately let the Kwantung Army survive, but that he was really not ready to start a war with Russia at the same time.

Since the reunification of the Russians in 1917 after the October Revolution, after so many years of development, their economic strength, national strength, and military strength have undergone earth-shaking changes.

In the past, he claimed to be the first in Asia, but as everyone knows, it is as strong as this in the world, and the comprehensive national strength and military strength can only rank seventh.

And the Russians have become the third world power after Britain and the United States.

Therefore, it is not yet time to go to war with the Russians, and you must be well prepared to be able to fight the Soviets in the Far East.

The following day, Joan Bang began the craziest expansion of troops in history.

Although the current strength of Qiao's regular army has exceeded 500,000, this is still too good for the Russians, who are numerous and well-equipped.

To deal with a behemoth like Russia, Qiao Anbang's forces would have to be at least tripled.

Because Qiao's territory has now expanded to nearly three million square kilometers, almost one-third of the later China.

With such a large territory, and to guard against Chairman Chiang and other warlords, a considerable number of garrison troops need to be left behind in various places.

500,000 troops, just staying behind is not enough, let alone using troops abroad.

Qiao Anbang placed the main recruitment area in the four provinces outside the Guan, which have a large population, and the number of hunters and retired soldiers is far greater than that of other provinces.

Compared with peasants who have not even touched a gun, these sources of soldiers are obviously easier to train and can form combat effectiveness faster.

After nearly a year of training, the trainees of the crash course of the Longshan Military Academy in the base area of northern Anhui have graduated three times one after another.

As soon as these graduates graduated, Qiao Anbang ordered them to be transferred to the northeast to prepare for the expansion of the new unit as the backbone.

By the end of December 38, after nearly a month of all-out recruitment, Qiao Anbang recruited a total of 300,000 recruits in the four provinces outside the Guan, plus nearly 200,000 surrendered puppet Manchukuo puppet army.

Qiao Anbang's military strength outside the border and on the Korean Peninsula has swelled to more than 800,000.

The original 10 integrated divisions were all expanded into group armies, and the original Reading Armored Division was also dispersed and expanded into 10 tank armored divisions.

The special operations brigade and the air force in the northeast have also been expanded, the special operations brigade has been reorganized into a special operations division, and the 1st Air Force Division in the northeast has been expanded into the 2nd Air Division.

At the same time, Qiao Anbang's troops left in the Guannai Central Plains were also expanded, the strength of the 200,000 garrison troops in the East China base area was increased to 100,000, the 10 newly organized divisions were formally reorganized into 10 integrated divisions, the 1st Air Force Division's left-behind flight regiment was also expanded, the armored corps was dispersed and expanded into five armored divisions, and the East China Front Army Headquarters was set up, with Qiao Anguo as the commander, to take unified command of the 400,000 left-behind troops.

The more than 30,000 troops left behind in the Pingjin area have also been correspondingly expanded, and their strength has tripled, and they have been combined into a group army, with Li Pinxian as the commander of the group army and unified command.

The specific establishment of the 10 group armies outside the border is as follows: Each group army has three integrated army divisions and one armored division directly under its jurisdiction, with a strength of more than 60,000 troops; after the expansion, the East China Front Army has a total of 10 integrated army divisions, five armored divisions and one air force, and has more than 2,600 tanks and combat vehicles of various types and more than 1,000 aircraft of various types.

There are nearly 10,000 large and small artillery pieces, and in addition, the East China Front also temporarily governs the newly established naval fleet.

The Pingjin Group Army has a total of more than 90,000 troops, four integrated army divisions, one armored division, 500 tanks and combat vehicles, and more than 2,000 large and small artillery pieces.

The 10 group armies outside the Guanguan are the most powerful, and they are a directly subordinate front army that Qiao Anbang is preparing for foreign operations, and has a total of more than 5,000 tanks, combat vehicles, and armored vehicles of various types.

There are more than 1,300 airplanes and more than 20,000 artillery pieces of various calibers.

Since pilots cannot be trained overnight, Qiao Anbang can only allocate 1,300 fighters to the Northeast Front Army in a short period of time.

Fighters are not a problem, the main thing is the pilots.

In order to facilitate command, Qiao Anbang officially carried out a unified reorganization of all Qiaojia troops under his command in January 39, one month after the completion of the expansion of various units.

After the reorganization, Qiaojia Army has a total of 15 group armies, 16 reading armored divisions, and 2 air force divisions.

The 15 group armies were further divided into two strategic groups, the East China Front Army and the Northeast Front Army.

Among them, five group armies, five reading armored divisions were subordinate to the East China Front, and ten group armies and ten armored divisions were subordinate to the Northeast Front.

Another group army and an armored division, also known as the Pingjin Group Army, were nominally subordinate to the Northeast Front Army, but in fact they were directly under the personal command of Qiao Anbang.

At the same time, Li Pinxian personally also served as deputy commander of the Northeast Front Army and commander of the Pingjin Group Army.

Since the 200,000 puppet army and the 300,000 Qiao family army were all veterans with combat experience, the addition of 300,000 new soldiers this time did not cause a serious decline in the combat effectiveness of the troops.

Seeing that the troops in his hands were almost sufficient, Qiao Anbang began to set his eyes on the Russians.

In fact, in the past two months or so, the Russians have not been idle, and the first thing they have naturally protested against is that they have forcibly occupied Vladivostok, Russia's inherent territory.

Therefore, he lodged a solemn protest against the political axe.

However, despite the diplomatic clamor of the Russians, in reality the military operation has not been carried out for a long time.

This is not that the Russians are afraid of themselves, but that they are afraid of Qiao's army, which is actively expanding its armaments, to be precise, the northeastern front of Qiao's army.

On the contrary, as early as after the reunification of the Soviet Union and the gradual strengthening of Russia, the Russians have been looking for an opportunity to wage war against the Yuban himself, so that they can recapture the southern peninsula of Sakhalin Island, which was forced to cede to Yuben during the Russo-Japanese War.

If it weren't for the threat of Qiao's army in the northeast, the Russians might have already launched an attack on Vladivostok and drove him into the sea to feed the fish.

In view of the rapid expansion of Qiao's army in the northeast, in order to ensure the security of its Far East, the Russians mobilized a large number of troops towards the Far Eastern border region through the Trans-Siberian Railway and the Eastern Railway.

By the beginning of February 39, the Russians had successively amassed more than 400,000 troops, tens of thousands of artillery pieces and thousands of tanks and combat vehicles in Outer Mongolia and other border areas.

At the same time, reinforcements were still being requisitioned from the Russian hinterland, which was strong at this time, with millions of troops and nearly 10 million reserves.

Its war mobilization capability and war potential are extremely staggering.

Knowing that Qiao Anbang was actively preparing for war, and at the same time in order to punish the hateful Yue himself, the Russians decided to fight with Qiao's army in the Far East this time.

Because both sides know that with the Qiao family's army becoming stronger, it is no longer possible to live in peace, and the two sides must have a war to determine the hegemony of Northeast Asia.

(To be continued)