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The land of Asia is turbulent, and at this time, there is also a place in the southwest Pacific Ocean that is also anxious and busy. In the Bismarck Archipelago, once hailed by Germany as a foothold in the Pacific and named after the iron-blooded Prime Minister Bismarck, a group of soldiers from distant Japan are hiding in a fortified fortress and pointing at a map.

After the defeat at Qingdao, Japan learned from the painful experience and took advantage of the European war and the reconstruction of the Chinese navy to wantonly annex the German islands in the Pacific, not only taking the Caroline Islands into its arms, but also taking the opportunity to swallow the rich and vast German Guinea and Bismarck Islands. After the war, Australia and Britain objected to these two areas and wanted to take them back, but at that time, out of the Anglo-Japanese alliance and the idea of containing China, they finally agreed at the Paris Peace Conference to give the two areas to Japanese jurisdiction until 1940.

Although it has only been in jurisdiction for 20 years, the whole of Japan has never thought of ceding it. In order to ensure long-term rule here, the Japanese government used a lot of manpower and material resources to massacre the local aborigines, and sent a total of 41 pioneer regiments of nearly 500,000 Japanese and 30,000 soldiers to this place, reclaimed more than 30 mines of various types, more than 700 plantations, and a total of more than 1.4 million hectares were used to grow urgently needed grain, rubber, jute and other crops. Using captured natives as coolies, fortifications and fortifications were built in places such as Moresby, Lae, and Rabaul in Bismarck, and Rabaul was used as the second home port of the Combined Fleet, opposite Truk, another important base.

After 17 years of development, Rabaul has become a military fortress in the Pacific Ocean second only to Pearl Harbor, with the continuous growth of the Japanese Navy, this is known as the control of the intersection of Asia, Australia and the United States, can radiate the entire eastern route of the fortress, has become a thorn in the eye of any navy trying to compete in the Pacific.

The United States is jealous, Britain is gritting its teeth, and even the ambitious Chinese Navy is eyeing it.

Nagata Tetsuyama is more aware of the importance of this place. So when he was in power, he deliberately let Okamura Ninji supervise it. With the arrival of the navy, it became a paradise for the Japanese navy such as Yamamoto Isoroku. In today's fortress, he and Yamamoto Isoroku who had come from afar were facing the map, looking indescribably excited and anxious.

All happiness comes from a news a few days ago, China and the Soviet Union are at odds, and war in Afghanistan is imminent!

"Nagata-kun, do you think the time is right?" Yamamoto Isoroku, dressed in a white naval uniform, is now the vice-minister of Mitsumasa Yoneuchi, Japan's maritime minister, and he is as heroic as a sword in power. After China and the Soviet Union became hostile to Afghanistan, he realized that the opportunity had come. So he immediately invited Nagata Tetsuyama to meet here. As for why he didn't go back to Tokyo, it was because Hideki Tojo and others in China were slowly clearing Nagata's influence, and going south was a strategy planned by Nagata himself, so it was more polite to take the initiative.

Nagata Tetsuyama put on a pair of thick reading glasses and leaned on his desk to carefully read the latest information and documents. Having contributed to Japan's difficult times, he is now not only in the reserve and stationed in East Timor. Even the power to refer to top-secret information is gone, and if it weren't for Yamamoto's trust, I'm afraid it won't be long before people forget that there is such a person in Japan. Looking at the once familiar intelligence information, his expression was serious and serious, carefully considering the meaning revealed between the lines, and when he read Yang Qiu's sentence "Don't say it unexpectedly", his heart suddenly tightened.

Yang Qiu is going to do it!

This sentence told him without any suspense. This time, Yang Qiu is determined to eliminate the influence of the Soviet Union in Afghanistan, but he is not very optimistic about whether a Sino-Soviet war will break out. Shaking his head, he replied to Yamamoto's words: "Yamamoto-kun, Afghanistan will fight." But I'm afraid the Northwest is not so fast. ”

Yamamoto Fifty-six actually thought that China and the Soviet Union would not directly start fighting on their own territory, but he always had a trace of luck in his heart. Now after hearing that Nagata Tieshan also said that it was unlikely that the Chinese and Soviet armies in the northwest would directly start a war, he couldn't help but be a little disappointed: "Nagata-kun, what is the basis for your judgment?" ”

Nagata Tieshan pointed to the northwest and said, "Yang Qiu's choice to launch at this time is very particular. Because now it is winter in Central Asia, and there are only two railways from the Urals to the border. One is the Siberian line, which has a poor winter capacity, and the other is the southern Caspian line of Turkmenistan, both of which are affected by wind, snow and sand and dust in winter, and the transport capacity is only half that of spring and summer. The same is true of the Northern Ring Line (formerly the eastern section of the Trans-Siberian Railway) from China and the Central Line through Mongolia, and the slightly better Longhai Line, but it cannot be supported by a single railway. Because the front between China and the Soviet Union is too long, neither of them has the ability to defend in an all-round way, and once a war starts, they will inevitably suffer damage to each other. And now their armaments are not finally ready, so the best way is to use the territory of Afghanistan to fight a smaller-scale outpost war, test the army, and make targeted deployments and adjustments. But this war was inevitable in the end, and as soon as there were major changes in the international situation, a war between China and the Soviet Union would break out immediately. ”

Yamamoto Fifty-six showed a helpless smile, if China and the Soviet Union tacitly confined the war to Afghanistan, then Japan would still not be able to get rid of China's flank threat when it went south, plus Britain and France blocking in front, and the United States, which was waiting for the benefits behind it, would still have a lot of difficulties. Nagata Tetsuyama saw his concern and asked, "Yamamoto-kun, is the country in a hurry to go south?" ”

"Nagata-kun has been away from Tokyo for a long time, right?" As a few sober-minded officers, Yamamoto Fifty-six is not optimistic about Japan's future, especially being sandwiched between China and the United States, two major industrial and economic powers, but some people in China still can't understand it, and they are eager to go south, so they say with emotion: "Now the domestic situation is very bad, industry and commerce have reached the limit, the reserves of raw materials have been exhausted, and it has become difficult for us to buy from the United States, plus here and Guinea have never been able to discover new mineral deposits, It will be difficult if it is not replenished. We have also received information that the Chinese are already secretly building four new battleships and four new aircraft carriers, which are expected to be available by the end of next year at the latest. Yang Qiu also took this opportunity to order the halt of this year's soldier recovery, and used these veterans to form the 16th Army and the 17th Army, a total of 10 divisions. In this way, China has 17 armies with a total of 85 army divisions. In order to deal with this, discussions are underway to increase the number of army divisions by five more in China, so that your army units will exceed 500,000. Supplies will become more and more scarce. ”

"What a formidable mobilization!" Nagata Tieshan praised it from the bottom of his heart, and said that he admired Yang Qiu's three-level mobilization system very much, not to mention temporary conscription, just by mobilizing reserve veterans within five years of retirement, the military strength of 50 infantry divisions can be rearmed, and these veterans can fight with a little training, which is far stronger than the recruits who have not held guns.

But he was not too surprised, after all, China was no longer Manchu, and Yang Qiu's iron fist of comprehensive compulsory education had been insisted on for more than 20 years. Industry has been growing from scratch for nearly 30 years, and the total number of workers and intellectuals in the country is close to that of the United States, so the longer it drags on, the more unbalanced the balance of power between China and Japan becomes. On the contrary, the attitude of the United States made him think of something, and he sat on a stool with his brows furrowed and fell into deep thought.

Now Japan lacks everything, the main of which is steel and oil. However, in the past few years, both of these things have been overcome by the support of Britain and the United States, and now the United States has suddenly reduced its share of exports, which shows that Roosevelt probably wanted to use this method to urge Japan to move south to break the equilibrium.

In fact, he and Yamamoto are very clear that in this era of steel and oil, Japan has gradually lost the capital to compete in the world. Turning to China and the United States is Japan's only option, and what he and Yamamoto are doing so far is only a last-ditch struggle. But! It wants to break through the sandwich between China and the United States to form a three-legged pattern in the Pacific. It was necessary to take the Dutch East Indies and the Philippines first.

Only by taking these two places can Japan continue to grow stronger, avoid becoming a puppet like Afghanistan by relying on China and the United States in the future, and if it can get a five-year buffer period. By fully seizing the huge and abundant resources of the two places and then making use of the depth of the Southwest Pacific, Rabaul, and Truk, Japan still has the strength to fight a war. Of course, Japan can also expand into the South Pacific. Australia's vast territory is coveted, but that would not only involve the British. It is also very likely to provoke the United States to enter the war, which is more than worth the loss. "Bear with me a little longer." Thinking of this, Nagata Tieshan opened his eyes, and the gaze behind the reading lenses was deep and blurred: "It is not clear how the situation in Afghanistan will develop, but I think Yang Qiu must have a way to go, because with the current situation, it is difficult for him to win in Afghanistan with only one resource road." Before he makes the next move, it would be irresponsible to let the empire go south. The first is that the war between China and the Soviet Union is not far off, because the Soviet Union will not be willing to hand over Afghanistan and the entire Islamic world, and give China the opportunity to open up the road to Iran. The second condition is that Britain is not yet ripe to be contained, and it will have to wait for the right time.

Yamamoto Fifty-six nodded, but his heart became more and more anxious. Sakhalin and here are three years away from the so-called trusteeship period, and even if you don't count the Philippines, the 6 million tons per year oil field of Balikpapan Anglo-Dutch Shell, the mega iron ore and rubber plantation in West Java, the copper mine in Sulawesi, the nickel mine in Kalimantan, the Chinese gold mines and plantations in West Borneo, the tin mine in Belitung, the 7 million tons per year Minas oil field complex of the Chinese Gulf Oil Company in Sumatra, and so on, all have hope for Japan's revival! If you get it a day earlier, you can digest it a day earlier, and if it's too late, I'm afraid that even if you get it, the empire will be hopeless.

Is it true that Japan's destiny must go back to the past, and that it can only survive by relying on powerful countries?

What an unwillingness!

With a long sigh in the southwest Pacific, the situation in Afghanistan is also becoming more and more tense, and as the ultimatum deadline approaches, China and the Soviet Union continue to send troops to the border, and the scale is unprecedented after the European war! The rolling wheels of the China-Arab resource highway are hundreds of kilometers long.

On November 10, the Beijing Ministry of National Defense officially ordered the suspension of demobilization to form two armies, and at the same time, the 103rd Central Guard Division, the 10th Army (under the jurisdiction of the 10th Armored Division, the 12th, 27th, 42nd, and 57th Infantry Divisions), the 711th, 733rd, and 754th Heavy Artillery Regiments, the 824th, 825th, and 830th Independent Truck Logistics Brigades (11,000 vehicles), the 11th and 17th Combat Wings of the Air Force, and the 15th, 16th, and 17th Transport Wings, the 6th, 9th and 11th Bomber Wings, as well as the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Infantry Divisions of Afghanistan, and the Asian Brigade, were appointed by Lieutenant General Mei Sheng and President Nader Shah as the Commander-in-Chief of the Chinese Afghan Volunteer Army and the Commander-in-Chief of the Afghan Army respectively, and the commander of the 10th Army, Lieutenant General Sun Chuanfang, and Afghan Lieutenant General Chahatu served as Deputy Commander-in-Chief, and promoted Long Yun to Lieutenant General and served as Chief of Staff, forming the Afghan Coalition Army, with a total strength of 200,000!

On 17 November, Moscow also fought against each other after learning the news, pressing forward the three army groups stationed in Chelyabinsk and the Urals to the east, and Stalin also demanded that the pace of military construction be continued to be accelerated, and that the total strength of the troops be increased to 300 divisions, and that 14 mechanized armies be added to the current six tank corps, and that the total strength of the whole country should be maintained at 4.5 million.

At the same time, the troops originally stationed in Dushanbe, Tashkent, and other places were combined with the three infantry divisions stationed in Afghanistan to form the First Army, and Senior General Shaposhnikov was appointed as the commander of the army. The group army has jurisdiction over the 57th, 71st, 82nd, 131st, 152nd, 153rd divisions, the 9th cavalry division, the 36th motorized division, the 5th armored brigade, the 7th, 8th, and 9th brigades, the 6th, 7th, and 11th tank brigades, the 212th airborne brigade, the 5th machine gun brigade, the 185th artillery regiment, the 37th and 85th anti-tank gun battalions, the 63rd, 66th, and 150th air defense battalions and other militia units, with a total strength of 250,000. It also used the railway to send a large number of weapons and ammunition to the two major towns of Termez and Herat around the clock, including 3,000 trucks, 12,000 horses, 898 tanks, 746 armored vehicles, 1,542 artillery pieces and 875 aircraft.

On November 27, three days before the ultimatum deadline, Yang Qiu signed a presidential decree authorizing the National Defense Forces to take all necessary measures to restore Afghanistan's sovereignty and integrity, while Congress also secretly approved a draft to increase military spending and issue huge military orders to all military enterprises in the country. This includes an order for 1.5 million Type 37 assault rifles, 200,000 short assault rifles, and 3 million semi-automatic rifles. Ordered 15,000 T36 main battle tanks, 35,000 half-track armored vehicles, 110,000 self-propelled guns, anti-aircraft guns, etc., 500,000 military trucks of various types, and 100,000 motorcycles. A large number of military equipment, including 2,500 Y-10 (weakened twin-engine 1,600-horsepower C46 Assault), 2,500 Y-8 and Y-9 transport planes, 3,000 bombers of various types, 2,500 J-4 fighters and 2,000 new naval fighters of the Ship-5 type, and 52 ships were ordered.

On November 29, the day before the ultimatum deadline, Motorov issued a final statement at the League of Nations, officially announcing his withdrawal from the League of Nations and refusing to withdraw from Afghanistan, as well as announcing the recall of diplomatic personnel in China. On the same day, Beijing also announced the recall of its ambassador to the Soviet Union and issued a warning to Chinese in the Soviet Union and Afghanistan to leave the two places within a deadline.

Nov. 30, the last 16 hours before the deadline, front page of the New York Times.

Who Can Control the Asian Heart? 》