Located in the temperate zone, Osaka itself is a city of rivers with a long history, with distinct seasons throughout the year, making it a great tourist destination for later generations.

At the same time, Osaka is the second most important industrial and commercial city after Kyoto, and Osaka is extremely convenient for water and land transportation, because it is close to Osaka Bay, and the Yodogawa River runs through the city of Osaka, so the water area of Osaka alone accounts for more than one-tenth of the entire city area.

Due to its special location, it has been an important gateway to the ancient capital of Nara and Kyoto since ancient times, and as early as the 4th and 7th centuries AD, several generations of Emperor Komoto even established their capital here.

In modern times, after the Meiji Restoration, the economy grew rapidly, and commerce and heavy industry sprung up like mushrooms after a rain.

Osaka's industrial level also developed rapidly, and it soon became the second largest industrial city in Japan after Tokyo.

First of all, it should be explained that the industrial base of the Soviet Union is different from that of the Soviet Union and Germany, and the composition of their military industrial base is composed of countless small family workshops in the residential areas of the civilian community, and some parts and components of weapons and equipment are made in these small processing workshops, and then sent to the arsenal for final assembly and production.

Of course, this refers to the equipment parts that can be processed by small workshops, such as naval ships, aircraft and tanks, and of course the main project is still built by the shipyard and aircraft factory of the devil.

Osaka, on the other hand, is located in Osaka due to its unique geographical location (close to the Seto Inland Sea), so it is said that Masatake has built a large-scale shipbuilding, aircraft manufacturing, and tank and armored vehicle manufacturing plant here.

In Osaka Bay alone, there are several military port wharves, among which several shipyards have been built on several port wharves such as Osaka Port Wharf and Hannan Port.

The first target chosen by Qiao Anbang for this attack was the shipyard on the port wharf, because the 3rd Guards Division was stationed in the middle of Osaka and Kobe, so it was obviously impossible to replicate the crazy action of taking Hiroshima two days ago.

The only way to do this is to fight a quick battle, to retreat quickly after achieving the strategic goal of destruction, so that the Yue army cannot react, and then continue to attack other areas of the city, so that the garrison on the mainland of the city will be exhausted.

After receiving Qiao Anbang's instructions before departure, the officers of the special combat team, such as Liang Yilu and Gao Junjunior, lived up to their expectations and attacked two shipyards of the Yue army at the same time with lightning speed, and then decisively led the army to retreat.

When the 3rd Guards Division received news of the Osaka garrison and the military police unit's request for help, Qiao Anbang had already evacuated the combat area smoothly with his special operations troops in batches.

Coming to a small town 100 kilometers north of Osaka, in order to conceal his whereabouts, Qiao Anbang acquiesced to the massacre of the village by the special operations forces, and slaughtered all the men and women in the village, regardless of gender, old and young.

The right to settle down in this town and wait for the next move.

The attack on Osaka was far from over, and after resting for a day in the town, Qiao Anbang personally led a special operations battalion to attack the city of Osaka that night, using white phosphorus bombs to carry out heavy shelling in several industrial areas in the city of Osaka.

Under the frenzied burning of white phosphorus bombs, inextinguishable fires were ignited in several industrial areas, and with the help of the wind that night, the fire spread rapidly.

At this time, the fatal defect that most of the buildings were made of wood was highlighted, and even though the Devil's Gendarmerie and the 3rd Guards Division mobilized a large number of troops to fight the fire, they could not extinguish the fire.

The fire spread throughout the night, and almost the entire city of Osaka was burned, especially the small hidden military processing plant, which was completely destroyed in the fire.

As for the people who were killed and injured in the fire, there is no way to calculate.

Tokyo was attacked, Hiroshima was lost, Osaka was burned to the ground, and the military industry was dealt a very heavy blow and suffered heavy losses.

Coupled with the defeat of the Battle of Qingdao on the Chinese battlefield, a series of unfavorable news hit the already angry half-dead Emperor Hirohito one after another, and Emperor Hirohito was still immersed in deep self-blame and anger for not being able to avenge his daughters who were tragically annihilated by hundreds of [***] people.

Therefore, when Emperor Hirohito was almost about to commit suicide, Seishiro Itagaki, the former commander of the Fifth Division, who had just been repatriated by Sugiyama Gen from the Chinese battlefield, rushed to the palace and knelt down to beg for an audience with Emperor Hirohito.

As soon as Emperor Hirohito, who was bitter in his heart, heard that it was Itagaki Seishiro, the national hero of the empire, he seemed to grasp a life-saving straw and hurriedly ordered the inner chamberlain to pass on Itagaki to meet him.

Seeing Emperor Hirohito Itagaki Seishiro, he saluted excitedly and said, "Your Majesty, you have lost a lot of weight!" ”

"Itagaki-kun, now is not the time to talk about this, Qiao Anbang, the leader of the Tiger Ben Army of the Chinese Army, personally led several sneak attack troops deep into the mainland of my empire, first attacked Tokyo, then took Hiroshima, and yesterday attacked Osaka, and wantonly killed people and set fires, doing all kinds of evil, dealing a heavy blow to the empire, causing us unimaginable losses, Aiqing, what good plan do you have?" Emperor Hirohito asked eagerly.

"Your Majesty, there is only one general of our army who can deal with Qiao Anbang's sneak attack force now!" Seishiro Itagaki hurriedly replied.

"Who? Who's it?! Emperor Hirohito asked eagerly.

"Former head of the General Staff Operations Department and hero of the Manchurian Incident, Ishihara Wanerjun!" Seishiro Itagaki replied with a firm tone.

"Ishihara?" Emperor Hirohito was certainly no stranger to the actual planners and promoters of the Manchurian Incident, but it seems that he had always opposed the expansion of the imperial war against China, and he was at every turn against the high-ranking generals on active duty, such as Hideki Tojo and other War Ministers.

As a result, he was ostracized everywhere, and gradually faded out of the high-level of the base camp, and naturally faded out of the sight of Emperor Hirohito.

"That's right, it's Ishihara Wan'er!" Itagaki Seishiro nodded with great certainty: "Because Ishihara-kun had predicted long before the 77 Incident that it is not appropriate for our army to continue to expand the war in China, otherwise it will be very likely to fall into a protracted war of attrition that we are most unwilling to carry out, and it turns out that Ishihara-kun's prediction and dissuasion are completely correct, even if there is no sudden rise of the Tiger Ben Army of the Zhina Army, the imperial army has fallen into the quagmire of a protracted war." ”

"It has been a long time to completely defeat the political axe of the city of Chongqing, which is in a remote corner and is still fighting, but it consumes a lot of military, material and financial resources of the empire, once our national strength is exhausted, then the victory or defeat of the war against China seems to be self-evident!" Seishiro Itagaki continued.

"It can be seen from this that Ishihara is really the most prescient pillar of the empire, such a talent, if Your Majesty is not important, wouldn't it be a pity for my empire?"

After a long time, Emperor Hirohito was obviously moved by Itagaki Seishiro's words, and immediately got up and said: "Itagaki Seishiro received the order, from today onwards, I order you and Ishihara Waner to immediately start to form a new cabinet and other related matters, and at the same time, restore your position as the commander of the Fifth Division and reorganize the Fifth Division, but the top priority at the moment is to deal with the sneak attack troops of China that have infiltrated the territory of my empire!" ”

"Therefore, I order you to quickly form a Native Defense Command, with you as the Lieutenant General Commander and Ishihara Waner as the Chief of the General Staff, to unify the command of all Guards divisions and all the troops on the Mainland! It is imperative that all the people who have infiltrated our country are wiped out in the shortest possible time, especially their leader, Qiao Anbang, and I will tear his body into pieces and scatter his bones to ashes! To vent the hatred in my heart! ”

"Hai, I will obey Your Majesty's holy orders, and I will go all out to exterminate the infiltrating army of China, and be loyal to His Majesty the Emperor and the Great Empire!" Itagaki Seishiro bowed his head suddenly in excitement.

………………………………………… After being personally appointed by Emperor Hirohito, Seishiro Itagaki, who was extremely excited, left the palace and went straight to the place where Ishihara was going to report the good news.

The admirals who had just returned to the mainland with the combined fleet of the Navy and recovered Hiroshima, which had been abandoned by the Tiger Army, also flew from Hiroshima to Tokyo by plane.

Under the leadership of Admiral Mitsumasa Yonechi, the Minister of the Navy, Emperor Yonechi asked Emperor Hirohito for orders to reorganize the new cabinet, but Mitsumasa Yonechi and other admirals apparently went one step further when they learned that Emperor Hirohito had given the appointment of forming a new cabinet to Seishiro Itagaki and Ishihara Kanji of the Army.

Mitsumasa Yonechi and other admirals were all furious, scolding Seishiro Itagaki and Ishihara Waner, but the admirals could only scold angrily, because none of them dared to disobey His Majesty's orders, and the contradiction between the navy and the army was even worse.

………………………………………… Ishihara's house arrest.

Seishiro Itagaki excitedly informed Ishihara of the appointment of Emperor Hirohito, but Ishihara's expression was not as excited as Itagaki Seishiro imagined.

On the contrary, there is a deep sense of concern.

"Ishihara-kun, this time His Majesty the Emperor personally appointed you and me to reorganize the new cabinet, and at the same time appointed us to form a homeland defense command, with me as the commander and you as the chief of staff, all the entire army in the homeland will be under our command and control, and your talents and abilities finally have the opportunity to give full play, you should be happy!" Seishiro Itagaki looked at Ishihara in confusion.

"Itagaki-kun, the empire can be described as internal and external troubles now! The Chinese battlefield is losing one after another, the North China Front is even more elite, your fifth division has also disappeared, and the mainland has been attacked by the Chinese army continuously, and the losses are heavy! What if you make me happy when I am faced with the most difficult problems that need to be solved urgently? Ishihara said worriedly.

(To be continued)