[Anti-Japanese Iron Blood King] Chapter 778: Japan Can't Hold on (Ask for Subscription!) , ask for a monthly pass, ask for everything! ）

The direct impact of insufficient resources is that weapons, equipment, and other industrial products cannot be produced normally, which will affect the operations of the front-line troops, and then will affect the outcome of this war. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

If the consequences are so serious, how can such a problem be solved?

In fact, it is easy to solve this problem, that is, it needs to import from abroad, and both the United States and Southeast Asian countries in close proximity can provide Japan with a large amount of supplies.

In fact, Japan did exactly that, and at the outbreak of the war of aggression against China, the Bank of Japan's gold reserves, including reserves for the issuance of banknotes, were only 1.35 billion yen, while during the Russo-Japanese War, Japan's national hard currency reserves were only 14 million yen. In addition, in order to win the war, the Japanese government borrowed another 800 million yen in foreign debt, totaling 2.8 billion yen.

However, under the tremendous consumption of the war of aggression against China, Japan's balance of payments deficit from 1936 to 1940 amounted to 5 billion yen, and there was not much gold and foreign exchange left, so that Japan had no choice but to start using strategic reserves, and Japan's various methods such as expanding exports, compressing imports, plundering occupied territories, and borrowing foreign loans were all ineffective.

More importantly, Japan's foreign trade environment has undergone tremendous changes in recent years, and due to the strong intervention of the Nationalist Government and Ma Zheng, the United States, which has always supported Japan in the face of a large number of local interests, has quietly changed its policy, and its trade with Japan has gradually become standardized and strict, and almost all strategic resources related to war have been included in the embargo, and even some time ago the United States was even discussing whether to include grain in the list of strategic materials prohibited from export, which made Japan extremely angry.

If we lose the wet nurse of the United States, Japan will become a motherless child, and it is inevitable that we will starve and freeze.

All of these crises had been overshadowed by the Army's brilliant achievements, but now that the lid has been lifted, all the Japanese have suddenly been stupid. At the same time, he also realized the seriousness of the matter, and the Great Japanese Empire was now only an empty shell and that 1.5 million troops, and there was no need to argue about whether to fight or not.

In fact, Mitsumasa Yonechi and others were opposed to the expansion of the war, and although the plan proposed by former War Minister Seishiro Itagaki last year to strengthen ties with Germany and Italy and even conclude a military alliance was not adopted for the time being, many people supported it.

However, Menet, Yamamoto, Inoue, and others believed that if Japan concluded an alliance or held consultations with Germany, it was very likely that there would be a danger of triggering a war between Japan and the United States in the near future, and that if Japan got involved in the whirlpool of war against the United States, it would be quite dangerous and unbearable for the Japanese navy. Therefore, it is necessary to oppose the conclusion of an alliance with Germany, both from a national policy and a strategic point of view.

The unequivocal opposition of Mine, Yamamoto and others in recent months prevented the further escalation of the proposal to strengthen the Japan-Germany agreement, and temporarily saved Japan from the trap.

In the face of a large amount of data, the army side was criticized by Minai, Yamamoto, Inoue and others, although they still did not agree to peace talks with China, but many high-level leaders, including Prime Minister Konoe Fumima, have agreed with the suggestions of Mitsumasa Yonechi and others, so the next thing becomes how to negotiate with China, what is the bottom line of the Japanese Empire?

Since the outbreak of the full-scale war of aggression against China in 1937, Japan has not had no contact with the Chinese government, but each negotiation ended in failure, and the Japanese side is not very sure what the outcome of this negotiation will be.

In fact, the Kuomintang had been trying to get in touch with the Japanese since '37, and the Japanese had already held two secret negotiations with the Nationalist Government before that.

The first was the "secret negotiations between Yu and Kong" in 1938, which was the first time that the Nationalist Government took the initiative to request "peace negotiations" with Japan, and this time the representatives sent by both sides were not of low rank. On the Nationalist government's side, there is Kong Xiangxi, the new president of the Executive Yuan and foreign minister. The Japanese side sent Army General Kazunari Ugaki. At that time, Senior General Kazunari Ugaki was the foreign minister of the reshuffled Konoe Cabinet, and it can be said that the peace talks were negotiations at the level of foreign ministers of the two countries.

Lao Jiang has the highest expectations for that peace talks, after all, he himself has a good personal relationship with Ugaki Issei. Because Chiang died in Japan after the failure of the "Second Revolution", Ugaki Kazunari took care of him and formed a friendship.

After Chiang came to power, he sent Zhang Qun to Tokyo and Seoul (the capital of North Korea) on many occasions to exchange views with Ugaki Kazusei on Sino-Japanese relations. In view of the severe situation in view of the loss of Shanghai-Nanjing and Xuzhou, the Japanese army storming Wuhan, Chiang ordered Zhang Qun, vice president of the Executive Yuan and secretary general of the Supreme Council of National Defense, to send a telegram in May 1938 to congratulate Ugaki on his completion of his post, and at the same time put forward the hope that peace talks could be held with Japan, and even made Wang Jingwei, the leader of the pro-Japanese faction, an ambassador for negotiations.

The Japanese side was not very active in the Nationalist Government's request for peace talks, and even refused to let Wang Jingwei serve as ambassador for the peace talks. In the minds of people in your country, as soon as they hear about Zhang Qun or Wang Zhaoming, they will immediately think that they are pro-Japanese giants. The Japanese are talking to you and Wang Zhaoming at the forefront of the negotiations, and it is very easy to get along. However, the people of your country will denounce this as a pro-Japanese faction, who betrayed the country in pursuit of glory and put the negotiations in a bad position. ”

At the same time, Ugaki named Kong Xiangxi, the new president of the Executive Yuan, who wanted to "have not deep relations with Japan," to make representations, and then there were subsequent negotiations. In fact, it can be seen from here that Wang Jingwei has hooked up with the Japanese a long time ago, otherwise the Japanese would not have thought about Wang Jingwei at such an important moment and wanted to protect him. Therefore, the establishment of Wang's puppet regime some time ago was not a one-day cold, but a premeditated one.

On June 26, 1938, the "secret negotiations between Ugaki Kazunari and Kong Xiangxi" were held in Hong Kong in the form of a "preparatory meeting" between the Japanese Consul General in Hong Kong, Nakamura Toyoichi, and the Secretary of the Executive Yuan, Qiao Fusan.

In this negotiation, Japan's Ugaki counterpart put forward six demands on the Chinese side: (1) recognition of Manchuria's independence, (2) the designation of North China and Inner Mongolia as 'special areas', (3) compensation to Japan, (4) economic cooperation, joint development of (China's) resources, (5) stationing troops in certain areas, and (6) China's acceptance of Japanese advisers or other instructors.

Since the Battle of Wuhan was in full swing at that time, the Nationalist Government was anxious to seek a compromise, so after careful consideration of the demands put forward by the Japanese army, the Nationalist Government made an unprecedented concession to Japan on the issue of "Manchurian independence." "It's okay to set up special areas in Inner Mongolia.";" With regard to the acceptance of (Japanese) consultants, the joint development of resources is a good thing, and the conditions of the Japanese are almost completely accepted.

However, Kong Xiangxi made some requests from the domestic situation in China: "It is very difficult for us to openly recognize the independence of Manchuria in the treaty, and we can only quietly and gradually implement it. For example, consuls are set up first, and all economic issues are resolved by the consular staff. If there are many political problems that cannot be solved by the consul, then a minister or ambassador will be sent. At the same time, it is not appropriate to set up a special area in North China, and China cannot afford to pay reparations to Japan. ”

In fact, the Nationalist Government had already made the greatest concessions, but in the end, Japan tried to make "****** and the Field" one of the "conditions for submission" of the Chinese Government. After many meetings between the two sides, Japan's demand for "****** to the wilderness" was the focus of the negotiations, and it was also the crux of the difficulty in reaching a compromise.

In order to facilitate the peace talks, the Nationalist Government even proposed a concession plan: "If Kong Xiangxi himself resigns as the president of the Executive Yuan with full responsibility, at least until the completion of the implementation of the treaty, Mr. Chiang will remain in his original position." ”

However, the Japanese side categorically refused. In order to reach a compromise, Kong Xiangxi agreed to go to Nagasaki on a Japanese warship to meet directly with Foreign Minister Ugaki. In the end, the hardliners of the Japanese Army, Seishiro Itagaki and Hideki Tojo, insisted on "****** the subno" and forced Foreign Minister Ugaki to resign by means of establishing the "Koyain," and in the end the negotiations ended without a hitch. (To be continued.) )