The poor will have something to hate, and the hateful will have pity.

In the past ten years, China has indeed been suppressed too pitifully, even if it is a defeated country, Germany is still in the British foreign policy of the balance between Germany and France, with the support of Britain, and in the European policy of the United States, Germany is also the first link in the debt aid plan to Europe.

What is in this book?

Under China's exclusion and suppression, the company had the world's third-largest navy after Britain and the United States, but it was unable to expand into Southeast Asia, and the huge military expenditure did not allow it to reap any practical benefits.

China cannot understand the narrative at this time.

When there were only two colonies in Korea and the island of Paradise, once the colony of South Korea was lost, it would be equivalent to losing one-third of the national output and the only raw material base.

On the surface, Ben had three options: one was to recognize China's absolute leadership over Asia, join the Asian League, and join the Shanghai Free Trade Organization with China's support; The second is to maintain peace, abandon the South Korean colony, and on this basis, maintain a part of the interests in the DPRK through diplomatic negotiations as much as possible; The third is to start a war and occupy the whole of Korea.

The first option is that there is no such thing as a non-existent option, and even if the current version acknowledges that China is the real hegemon of Asia, it is impossible to join the Asian League, which is the only industrial country in which China has the most important economic foundation.

Gu Weijun's cabinet hoped to use military and political means to force Yue Ben to accept the second option, but Yue Ben was not willing to accept such a situation at all, so Yue Ben was left with only one option: war.

Although the attitude of the Konoe cabinet was very tough, putting on a posture of not hesitating to fight, in fact there was no real idea of going to war, and Konoe Fumiro did not feel that the matter was really serious at this time, as long as he did not recognize the political axe of northern Korea, after all, he firmly controlled the "Korean Empire," and it was in the best interests of him to hold on to south Korea, and if North Korea wanted to unify south Korea through a military attack, it would not be too late for him to consider military action.

This is not the case with the military headquarters, which demanded that a decisive battle be seized to occupy the entire Korean Peninsula and at the same time eliminate the Chinese navy to clear the way for the southward expansion.

However, if the military department wants to start a war, it will inevitably face two obstacles: first, Mitsumasa Yonechi resolutely does not agree to start a war against China, and Mitsumasa Yonechi is the most sober person in the Admiralty, so he insists that going to war against China is tantamount to suicide, and behind him is the last patriarch of Saionji Gongwang, and his attitude also represents the opinion of Saionji Gongwang; Second, Emperor Moto made it clear through the Minister of Internal Affairs that he would not support the war against China.

After all, there are sober-minded people in China, and they know very well that it is impossible to win against China with their current national strength.

Almost at the same time that the Song Emperor learned from a special source that he was considering launching a war and attacking the Sanduao Naval Base, on the evening of the same day, Prime Minister Fumihiro Konoe, Mitsumasa Yonechi, Mitsumasa, Sugiyama Moto, and the two marshals of the Marshal's Palace, Prince Zaihito, and Admiral Hiroko Fushimi Palace, were all invited to his private residence by the Konozo of Saionji Temple to try to make a final judgment on the declaration of war against China.

As the last patriarch of the political arena, Saionji Gongwang's control over the political arena has become weaker and weaker in the past ten years, and although he still has the right to nominate the prime minister of the cabinet to the emperor, he has also been very hollowed out by the generation of Konoe Fumiro.

Even so, Xiyuan Temple Gongwang still has the strength to convene such a secret meeting.

From the very beginning, this debate was destined to be a debate between Mitsumasa Yoneuchi and Sugiyama Moto, the former being anti-war and the latter actively calling for war against China, while Fumihiro Konoe was a typical centrist, who wanted to go to war but did not dare, did not dare to go to war and did not want to offend the military department.

Because the intelligence of the Ministry of Military Affairs has always been notorious for adding fuel to the fire and covering up the gaps, the public hope of Saionji Temple did not trust the various summary reports submitted by the Ministry of Military Affairs at all, and asked Mitsumasa Yonechi and Ishihara Wanji to arrange another person to investigate the gap in military strength.

After everyone arrived, Saionji Gongwang, who was sitting on the tatami mats, summarized and distributed the information collected by their faction to everyone, and waited quietly for them to read it, but it was obvious that Lu Xiang Sugiyama Moto did not trust the reliability of this information at all.

Saionji Gongwang didn't care about the arrogance and disdain shown by Sugiyama Motoriku under the table, he held a black cane in his hand, sat on the gray and white tatami with his eyes closed indifferently, and calmly waited for the others to finish reading.

Gradually, everyone put down the information book in their hands.

The Duke of Xiyuan Temple said bluntly: "Ladies and gentlemen, this summary report has been submitted to the Imperial Front, and Your Majesty has asked me to conclude from this, in short, Your Majesty does not support war, if you must not be able to fight, why fight?" This is the words of the emperor, and I hope that you will give a calm answer to your majesty. ”

Lu Xiang Sugiyama Yuan unceremoniously threw this summary report on the wooden floor in front of him, and said: "With all due respect, Duke, this kind of report is not enough to believe at all, so please believe the information of the military department." ”

The prince of Xiyuan Temple glanced at Sugiyama Yuan indifferently and said, "I'm afraid there are more and more stupid and arrogant army generals like you, Sugiyama Yuan?" ”

"You're going too far, even as a patriarch!"

Sugiyama Moto's face turned red, although as an army general, he also knew very well that he was not qualified to spread wilderness in front of Saion Temple.

In any case, the old thing on the other side who should have died a long time ago was a figure of Marshal Oyamaiwa's generation, and he was as disgusting as the undead zombie in this politics, and there was nothing he could do.

Mitsumasa Minai said: "I think this report is much more reliable than the report submitted by the War Department and the Navy General Staff, and in any case, even if this report is as untrustworthy as the War Department report, it is absolutely unthinkable and unacceptable to go to war with the Shina Empire." Even if the navy's surprise attack strategy succeeds, even if China loses all its main naval forces, as long as China has a plan to fight absolutely to the end, it will inevitably fail, because we are too close to China, and as long as the China Army controls the entire Korean Peninsula, half of the mainland of the Great Empire will be within the bombing range of the China Air Force, and we simply do not have enough air forces that can compete with the China Air Force, and it is an impossible task for the two air forces in terms of personnel and aircraft. ”

Sugiyama replied arrogantly, "Minister Yonei, what you said is really pitiful, is a person like you also the Minister of the Navy who has sworn allegiance to the Imperial Minister?" For the first time, I feel sorry for the Ministry of the Navy. ”

Mitsumasa Yonechi was calm and in no hurry to answer, he didn't want to lose his demeanor for a bastard like Sugiyama Moto.

There was silence.

Seonji Gongwang asked, "If the surprise attack tactics are successful, will the army be able to stop the offensive of the China Defense Force to occupy the southern part of the Korean Empire?" ”

Sugiyama Mototo immediately concluded: "This is an indisputable matter, the emperor's army is absolutely impossible to be defeated, although the Shina army has more mechanized weapons, but the war on the Korean Peninsula will always be dominated by infantry, and their tanks will not be able to operate here at all, and if it is only a competition of infantry, it is absolutely impossible for the emperor's soldiers of this empire to be defeated." ”

Mitsumasa Yonechi sneered, "If we remember correctly, ladies and gentlemen, the Meiji 44-year war was a fiasco for the army, and although the people know very little, it is impossible for us here not to know, right?" Only recently, the China Army has successively defeated the Soviet Army and the Italian Army in the European and East African theaters, and as far as we know, the China Army has not sent a real elite at all, and the legendary Northeast Department of the 6 Army Divisions has not been dispatched, but the 10th, 14th, and 15th China Divisions have participated in the 44th War, and they are only the main force of the second line at that time. I think it's better to go to the shrine and talk to the 100,000 elite army soldiers who died in Korea, or to General Yoshimasa Oshima, who was defeated and self-defeated! ”

Sugiyama was furious and said, "What does the navy want, if you don't want to bear the responsibility for the defeat, then take back all the military funds you took in the past to our army!" ”

Mitsumasa Yonechi said, "Is it true that your army's military expenditure is very small? ”

Without waiting for the two to continue arguing, Xiyuan Temple Gongwang slammed the ground with his cane, interrupting their words and reproaching: "It's time like this, do you still need infighting?" If there is to be a war with China, the navy must win the battle of Samduao, and the army must also defend the northern part of Korea, otherwise all of you here will become sinners of the Yamato nation and empire. ”

At this moment, Prince Jaehito, a general of the army who resolutely supported the war, suddenly asked Mitsumasa Minei: "Is the navy capable of winning the battle of Sanduao?" ”

Mitsumasa Minai hesitated for a moment, but still replied: "As long as the tactics and timing are right, the chances should be relatively large, the problem is that even if it is ......!" ”

"That's it!"

Prince Zaihito brutally interrupted the words that Mitsumasa Yonechi was about to add, stood up, and concluded without any doubt: "Since there is no problem with the navy and no problem with the army, what are you waiting for, the opportunity to serve the emperor and the empire is at this time, if you are not willing to serve like this, please resign!" ”

After saying this, he ruthlessly and indifferently scattered the information book provided by the Xiyuan Temple Gongwang to the ground, turned around arrogantly and left the room, not wanting to waste time listening to other people's explanations at all.

Admiral Fushimi Palace, who was also listed as the two marshals of the Marshal's Mansion, still humbly apologized to the Saionji Gongwang and said "Aya-Ado", and then got up and left the Saionji Mansion.

Although he lost face, Saionji Gongwang still accepted all this very calmly, and he silently apologized to Mitsumasa Minechi, who opposed the war, and signaled that he had done his best, since the matter had come to this point, it was not possible to argue at all, and I am afraid that even the emperor was not suitable to violate the decision of the Marshal's Office.

Mitsumasa Rice only silently apologized to the Saionji Gongwang.

He did not intend to resign from his position as sea minister, and even if the hope of victory was extremely slim, he could still do everything he could to avoid defeat in this position.

In any case, he did not want to see the day when the Great Empire was completely defeated.

If there really is a day, for the sake of the hope of revival, he is afraid that he will still have to persevere, he has always felt that this is the saddest thing about himself.

…… Objectively speaking, as the Shenwu Emperor of the Chinese Empire, the Song Emperor has not done his best for the well-being of the empire in recent years, simply put, the Song Emperor has been a little far away from the political and military center in recent years, of course, this is his own choice, because he feels that the time is almost up, China wants to progress, he must give up more space to promote the normal development of the constitutional monarchy, rather than staying in the period of political training.

As far as the political situation is concerned, the situation of the Chinese Emperor is different from that of Emperor Showa Moto, King of the British Empire and Emperor George VI of India, and in the constitution, the Chinese Emperor still retains a high degree of real power as a monarch, and has extremely high prestige and military and political influence within the empire, in Asia, and in the whole world.

Even so, the Song Emperor did not resemble the Führer of Nazi Germany, Adolf. Hitler was in control of everything in the country.

Especially after Gu Weijun's cabinet came to power, this is the sixth central cabinet of the empire, Song Biao chose to give up more real power to the cabinet during this period, his main work in the past few years is to coordinate the personnel of the central cabinet, the military department and some important social institutions and scientific research institutions, this situation is a bit abnormal, he seems to be for Gu Weijun, Jiang Fangzhen and them to do some auxiliary work, to help them remove some obstacles in personnel arrangements.

Through his efforts, under the condition that Gu Weijun's political prestige is relatively insufficient, the sixth central cabinet of the empire is still very stable, every cabinet minister is the best candidate, and the reserve talents below are also abundant; In the Central Military Department of the Reich, high-ranking officers, members of the Central National Defense Commission, and commanders and commanders of various military districts and commanders of education were all replaced by middle-aged and young people, and the overall metabolism was very smooth, and there were no bad situations.

Unlike the young emperor Hirohito, who was said to be Emperor Showa, Song was already an experienced old emperor, and he only needed to control personnel to ensure the stability of the empire and the stability of military politics, and not let the military department turn from an honor to a scourge of the empire.

It's just that after the news of the possible sneak attack on Sanduao came out, Emperor Song was still very cautious to change the habits of previous years, just as Ouyang Geng's cabinet did when he first came to power, reopened the various systems of the time of political training, and dealt more directly with the country's military and political affairs.

In the military department, he would work at 9 o'clock in the morning at 9 o'clock in the morning in the general office of the Xuanzheng Pavilion of the Central Palace, and at 9:30 a.m. every day in the military department, a member of the Central Defense Commission would report to him on all important matters of yesterday's war, and he would personally sort out all kinds of intelligence and statistics on the war.

As one of the best military commanders in the world, after Song Biao sorted out all kinds of information during this period, his overall judgment was that he did not have the possibility of a successful surprise attack on the Sanduao Naval Base, because the surrounding environment and defense of the Sanduao Naval Base were too complicated, and he still lacked the strength to break through these obstacles in terms of technology.

The Sanduao Naval Base was comprehensively surveyed in 1915, officially opened and built on a large scale in 1922, and replaced Luoyuan Bay as the headquarters of the Southern Fleet of the Imperial Central Navy from 1930.

The so-called Sanao is Dongao, Western Australia, Beiao, respectively, three semi-enclosed port areas, Beiao is located in the middle of the north, composed of Baima Port and Yantian Port, in the periphery of these three semi-enclosed port areas there is a natural crater, so that San'ao really leads to the East China Sea exit is only 5 kilometers wide, and the total area inside is 770 square kilometers, there are a large number of islands and mountains in the large port area of Sanduao, although the area is large, but the whole flight environment is not high, especially in the case of low-altitude flight.

This is exactly where Sanduao is superior to Luoyuan Bay as a military port center.

The headquarters of the Chinese Navy are too close to each other, and for this reason, a large number of air defense facilities have been continuously built at the Sanduao Naval Base throughout the construction period, and in the mock tests of the military headquarters, its air defense strength is enough to withstand more than 1,000 fighters.

On the eastern side of Sanduao, the empire has radar bases in the Taishan Islands, Dongyin Island, Pengjiayu, Island Island, and Keelung, Taiwan, air bases in Taipei and Fuzhou, and a spare air base in Shouning, Fujian.

It is precisely because of this kind of unusually tight defense that the possibility of wanting to break through the defense is very low, and the whole empire seems to be particularly lax, and absolutely does not believe that Yue Ben dares to sneak attack the Sanduao naval base.

Song Biao guessed that it was indeed possible for Yue Ben to take a sneak attack on the Sanduao naval base, so as to suddenly declare war and vainly try to destroy the main force of the Chinese Navy before the war, it was normal for the empire to think like this, but Song Biao did feel that Yue Ben really did not have this kind of strength.

Judging from the available information, the development plan of the Type 00 warplane is very smooth, and the new aircraft, which was later called the Zero fighter, has a very low wing load, plus the all-duralumin alloy fuselage and the Nakajima Sakae engine, the overall design parameters are indeed very good, but for the time being, the real main combat aircraft of the book is the 96 Ship Battle and the 97 Ship Attack that were just put into service in 1936, and its carrier-based dive bomber is still in the double-wing stage of the 94 Ship Explosion, which is compared with the J3\4\ of the Chinese Navy in the overall combat parameters There is still a certain gap between 303 and G2.

The most important issue is the range, the combat radius of the 94 ship explosion and its improved 96 ship explosion is only 450 kilometers, which means that the aircraft carrier group must reach the area of 125 east longitude \ 26 north latitude before it can launch an attack on the Sanduao naval base, and in this combat area, the 215th Air Division of the Imperial Air Force in Taiwan and the 223rd Air Division in Wenzhou happen to have the best attack range.

Together with the 210th Air Force Division stationed in Fuzhou, the Navy almost had to brave the counterattack of three air divisions and the First Air Brigade of the Southern Fleet of the Imperial Navy, and its naval defense force could not hold up.

If the Chinese army were to carry out an aircraft carrier air attack operation outside the operational range of the three air divisions of the empire, the range of its carrier-based aircraft would simply not be enough to support this operation, and if it chose to engage in an air battle with the air division first, it would be difficult for it to support such a large-scale combat plan with the strength of its aircraft carrier group.

This meant that the navy had to take a risk and deploy an army air force in Okinawa Prefecture to support operations, but even then, the navy still had to take a great risk, because its carrier-based aircraft did not have enough range and could only be very close to the mainland area of the Chinese naval base.

Regardless of whether the sneak attack operation was successful or failed, its mothership group had to flee at a frantic high speed in the direction of Okinawa, a distance of about 150 nautical miles, which is basically a five-hour voyage, of which at least three hours were within the counterattack range of the Chinese Air Force, and its own defense was basically equal to zero, and the only rescue could only be the Yumoto fighter group from the Okinawa base.

It's really too risky.

The Empire's active carrier-based aircraft are basically the second generation of the J\G series that entered service around 1933, that is, the J3\4\303 and various improved models of the G2 series, and the army's heavy fighters have twin-engine J5, this fighter is basically the same as the later P-38 of the US military in terms of overall design and architecture, with a huge fuselage, its combat radius is close to 1300 kilometers, it can be said that it is a special fighter specially developed for the sake of the book, and it is also the world's first heavy fighter in the true sense.

Because this J-5 Tiger Shark fighter is equipped with the on-board radar and turbocharging technology of the first generation fighters, it can even replace the patrol aircraft of the S series in high-altitude cruise reconnaissance, and can also carry 2 bombs of 905kg, or 4 bombs of 230kg.

The J-5 Tiger Shark fighter is mainly deployed in coastal air bases, and Fuzhou, Taipei, and Jiaxing air bases are deployed, but the number is not large, because it does not occupy many advantages in close combat, and its greatest advantage is in range, night combat, the caliber and range of airborne cannons, and excellent parameters for high-altitude navigation.

On the whole, the positioning of the J-5 Tiger Shark fighter in China is more like a fighter-bomber, and it belongs to a medium-sized fighter-bomber with high combat parameters.

Even if the empire had drastically reduced its research investment in the field of propeller fighters after 1935, it would not be possible for the empire to catch up within five years, because of the gap in the level of basic industries between the two sides.

The propeller aero engine of the empire is mainly supplied by three companies, which belong to different series and designs, and the overall horsepower is more than 1,000 horsepower, while the maximum power of the latest Nakajima Sakae engine is only 950 horsepower, and the company still lacks the experience and industrial materials of turbocharging technology, so it can only be increased by first-class machinery, and the newly developed 14-cylinder engine is still a single row.

The Empire's active propeller fighters mainly use three types of aero engines, namely the star series air-cooled engine of Northeast Heavy Industry, the Fuke series single-row 4-axle U-series engine and the Allison liquid-cooled engine of the D series of Jiangnan Fudao Company, and the Southeast Star V series engine of Fuzhou Heavy Industry.

The characteristics of these three engines are different, the overall star shape as the main body, and the Fulker U-series engine is mainly used for large passenger aircraft, patrol aircraft, transport aircraft and heavy bombers, which is characterized by a larger and heavier body structure, but the fuel rate and output power are extremely high, the D series engine itself is between the star and Wright cyclone engines, with a liquid-cooled design, unlike the traditional star engine, which will cause the propeller and nose part to be as large as the pilot's vision.

The D series engine is similar to the Merlin engine of the Spitfire, the overall structure of the engine is longer, the diameter is much lower than that of the air-cooled engine, mainly used for the J-3 Viper and J-303 Sea Serpent fighters, as a carrier-based aircraft, this series of fighters have good aerodynamic structure, instantaneous hovering and climb rate values, good fighting surnames, and the lack of high-altitude combat surnames can be made up for by turbocharging technology, and the overall can be maintained at a high level.

There are two designs of the Southeast Star V series engine of Fuzhou Heavy Industry, one is the conventional positive V, and the other is similar to the inverted V design of the German DB601, the former is currently used less, and the advantages of the latter are similar to the D series, but there is a large space to add two stages or turbocharging devices to make up for the combat surname of the aircraft at high altitude.

At present, the empire has significantly reduced the investment in the development of new propeller fighters, which are mainly based on small modifications and upgrades of existing fighters, the main fighter is J-4, J-4 lightning fighter uses Northeast Heavy Industry's double-row 18-cylinder star-shaped air-cooled engine, horsepower reached 1350KW, about 1805 horsepower, and its test model even reached 2400 horsepower.

In fact, the Northeast Star series of engines is exactly the same as the Pratt & Whitney R2800, a subsidiary of United Industries Corporation, except that the latter is only produced and sold in the United States and is dedicated to the U.S. Air Force and Naval Air Force.

Northeast Heavy Industry is also developing a double-row 22\24 cylinder larger size star engine, but the diameter of this engine has reached an unacceptable level, can only be used in air transport aircraft, passenger aircraft and patrol aircraft, and in the field of high power, the performance of the star-shaped air-cooled engine may not be better than Jiangnan Fudao Company's U-series engine.

Because of the extremely powerful horsepower, the J-4 Lightning fighter has a very high combat ability, but its only criticism is that the oversized engine hood has a large obstruction to the line of sight, which is very similar to the P47 and the Soviet Union's La series, even so, the J-4 Lightning fighter is still the main force of the Empire's active fighters, and its carrier-based aircraft model J-402 is about to enter service at the end of the year.

It did introduce a star-shaped engine from the United States, and achieved a 14-cylinder design, but the gap in the field of materials is obvious, so it cannot reach the level of high horsepower between China and the United States.

The Soviet Union also faced this kind of problem, and the Soviet Union had different ideas for solving the problem, with the Soviet Union adopting a multi-aircraft combination to make up for the lack of the surname of a single fighter, while the Soviet Union adopted the method of desperately reducing the weight, and China and the United States were on the other line -- desperately increasing the horsepower of the engine.

The difference between these three lines of thinking is mainly due to the different industrial strength and foundation of each country, China and the United States have a deeper accumulation of technology in the field of aero engines and heavy industry, and have the conditions to continuously increase engines, while the Soviet Union cannot do it, so it has to go off course.

So can we use a high-horsepower engine like China and the United States on an extremely light aircraft?

This is not possible, because the strength of the aircraft cannot meet the standards matched by the engine, unless it is to abandon duralumin alloy and directly use titanium alloy, the empire has indeed invested in the field of titanium alloy for up to ten years of research and development cycle, and some titanium alloy parts are also used in the jet P series aircraft, but in terms of the overall fuselage, it is still not possible.

Titanium alloy is too expensive, difficult to process, high cost, and low mass productivity, which is the biggest limitation at this stage.

Therefore, China's aircraft can only be more solid and stronger, while the original can only be under the constraints of horsepower, constantly reducing the weight of the fuselage and increasing the sensitivity of the aircraft.

The two sides are on the same path, and the difference in the operational parameters of the aircraft is not particularly large, and in the end, which is superior or inferior, then it can only be answered through war.

(To be continued)