After Japan's surrender, nearly 1.2 million prisoners were taken prisoner, of whom 400,000 were held in Siberia, nearly 100,000 were held in Korea, and the remaining 700,000 were all imprisoned in various parts of Japan.

Under Wu Peifu's order, all the middle-level officers of the Japanese prisoners above the rank of captain and below the rank of captain were taken out of the concentration camp and received by the senior generals of the local Chinese army in Siberia, Korea, and Japan. And in Japan, all these mid-level officers of the Japanese army were concentrated in Tokyo, and the number turned out to be in the hundreds.

In a concentration camp on the western outskirts of Tokyo, hundreds of mid-ranking Japanese officers were taken to a barbed wire playground surrounded by barbed wire, where they lined up in a neat line on the orders of the Chinese Guards' Corps and sat cross-legged on the grass.

In the distance, several trucks full of soldiers protected the two cars and drove into the concentration camp, Lu Zhengxiang and Wu Peifu got off the cars respectively, and the Chinese army officers in the concentration camp trotted over to salute the two and report: "Sir, according to your request, all the officers above the rank of captain and below the rank of wing commander among the Japanese prisoners held in various places have been gathered here, and they are waiting for the arrival of the commander and others on the playground at this moment, please give the commander instructions!" ”

Wu Peifu looked at Lu Zhengxiang and asked, "Governor Lu, do you see?" ”

Lu Zhengxiang waved his hand and said, "Let's go, go directly over there!" ”

The camp officers immediately led the way in front, Wu Peifu and Lu Zhengxiang followed, and other guards were with them to protect them.

Coming to the playground, surrounded by barbed wire, the officer on duty shouted: "Commander - all stand up!" ”

With a "huh-" sound, all the Japanese officers stood up in unison. All of them are straight and do not squint. This was the case during the concentration camps. The Chinese army officers on guard still treated the Japanese prisoners with the same attitude as soldiers, requiring them to go out for morning exercises every day. Seeing that the commander had to salute, to shout a report before speaking, to speak only when he was allowed to speak, to work during the day, and to report the ideological dynamics of the day to the officers on duty before going to bed at night, the officers of the Chinese army often preached to the Japanese prisoners about the damage caused by the Japanese invasion of Korea, China and Siberia.

If this situation was only for a while, but after a long time, most of the Japanese army was brainwashed, and only a few extremely diehards were not greatly affected.

After Lu Zhengxiang and Wu Peifu walked in front of the captives. The officer on duty then introduced loudly: "This is Lord Lu Zhengxiang, the Governor of our country in Japan, who is fully responsible for handling the affairs of China and Japan, and this is Lieutenant General Wu Peifu, the commander of our army in Japan. ”

The Japanese officers applauded one after another, and it could be seen that they were a little curious about Lu Zhengxiang and Wu Peifu, Lu Zhengxiang was a civilian official, but he was in charge of the affairs of China and Japan. The position of power is not low, and Wu Peifu is indeed the commander of the Chinese army stationed in Japan, after Japan surrendered, in order to save military spending. Most of the Chinese troops were withdrawn to the country, and only about one elite army maintained order and security in Japan, and these men and horses were all under Wu Peifu's command. Besides. The Chinese army also supported some security teams in various parts of Japan to maintain local law and order, but these security teams were not under Wu Peifu's control. is only responsible for Lu Zhengxiang.

Lu Zhengxiang and Wu Peifu shook hands with these Japanese officers one by one to express their condolences, and they have reached this point. These middle-level officers of the Japanese army, who had been crossed by Japanese militarism, no longer had the same unruly and invincible strength as they had at the beginning, and in the face of the officers and soldiers of the Chinese army, some of them were only in awe, and in front of the officers and soldiers of the Chinese army, these Japanese officers were obedient one by one.

Lu Zhengxiang and Wu Peifu showed respect for these Japanese officers, these people were very moved, in their opinion, this is the embodiment of the high quality and high character of the soldiers, after all, any time to respect the opponent, is to respect oneself, but also to recognize the other party's extraordinary.

After getting to know everyone, a full hour had passed, and when he returned to the front of everyone, Lu Zhengxiang said to Wu Peifu: "General Wu, you are a soldier, and it is always easy for soldiers to talk to each other, so you should come!" ”

Wu Peifu didn't shirk either, nodded and said, "That's okay!" ”

Glancing at hundreds of Japanese officers, Wu Peifu said in a loud voice: "Many of you are from all over Japan, I don't know if you have found it yourself, all of you were colonel-level officers before, and you were sent here and gathered together to facilitate communication with you."

In the past, you were all middle-level officers in the Japanese army, and you were all elites in the Japanese army, and your bravery on the battlefield was obvious to all. Yes, you heard it right, please keep fighting, this time the battlefield is in Europe, your combat object is the Germans, I know that the Japanese Army is basically learning Germany, it can be said that the Japanese Army is a student of the German Army, but I don't know if this student has surpassed the teacher or you have basically just learned the surface, if we give you the same equipment as the German army, let you go to the battlefield and fight face to face with the Germans, I don't know if you have the guts?

We will select 500,000 Japanese prisoners to form our Ninth Army Corps and go to the European theater to fight the German army, and the Ninth Army will be composed of Japanese prisoners except for some high-ranking generals and military police units, guard units, staff officers, and interpreters.

I was the commander of the Third Army Corps before, and I was the deputy commander of the Second Army Corps before I was promoted to the commander of the Third Army Corps, the Second Army Corps was composed of Japanese troops, the Korean Army and the armies of Southeast Asian countries, in addition to the Japanese Army and the Korean Army, the armies of Southeast Asian countries were farmers before rushing to Europe, and there were 80,000 Japanese soldiers who joined the Second Army Corps at that time, and their performance on the European battlefield was admired by our Chinese army, I remember the Battle of Kiev, The three frontal lines of defense garrisoned by 80,000 Japanese troops blocked the German 300,000 attacks for a month, and the attacking German troops paid an extremely heavy price, and although the Japanese troops also suffered heavy casualties, they fought to the death, and they won the respect of everyone, including the enemy!

Now there are 580,000 men left in the Second Army, and there are still 33,000 troops left in the original Japanese army, and in the next three months, they will return home with freedom, glory, and rich spoils!

If you are willing to join the Ninth Legion, any of you can be promoted to the rank of the previous officer! You don't need to make a choice now, you will have three days to consider it, if you choose to join, you can sign up with this officer next to me, after signing up you will not continue to be locked up here, but have a new place to live, and after receiving the order, rush to the unit or unit where you are serving to take up your post, from the day you sign up, each of you will start to calculate the salary, and you can choose to keep it yourself, You can also choose to entrust the Legion Logistics Military Administration Office to send it home, if you command the army to defeat the German army on the battlefield, the victory belongs to us, and the glory belongs to you! During the war, except for spears and other weapons and ammunition, all the spoils of war belong to you, and the legion commanders and the generals of the Chinese army will not ask! After the end of the war, you will return to your hometown with freedom, honor and your own spoils of war, you are no longer prisoners, but soldiers who fought bloodily, you will be respected by everyone, including our Chinese army, and you have the right to choose your future life! That's all I have to say, the choice of whether or not to join the Ninth Legion is up to you, and even if you choose not to join, you will not be treated differently in the future! ”

After Wu Peifu finished speaking, these hundreds of Japanese officers immediately started to discuss, and the officer on duty said loudly at this time: "After thinking about it clearly, you can ask me to sign up, and dismiss it now!" ”

The two returned to the car, and Lu Zhengxiang asked, "Commander Wu, how many people do you think will choose to participate?" ”

Wu Peifu shook his head and said: "This is not accurate, but I believe that the number of people who choose to join should not be less than two-thirds, after all, this is a way out of the concentration camp, and although those Japanese soldiers have been poisoned by militaristic ideology before, but each of them is a soldier with a formal military education, and they are not willing to admit defeat in their bones, and now they have the opportunity to go to the European battlefield to compete with the German army, I believe that no one will give up this opportunity."

Lu Zhengxiang sighed: "I hope there are as many people who join as you said!" ”

The reason why these Japanese officers should choose for themselves is mainly because this is a war after all, if these Japanese soldiers are unwilling, even if they are forced to go to the battlefield, it is estimated that they will not be able to contribute, and only if they are willing to set foot on the European battlefield, they will do their best.

Three days later, Lu Zhengxiang and Wu Peifu came to this concentration camp again, and the regiment on duty that day told them that in the past three days, people have been asking him to sign up one after another, and the total number has exceeded ninety percent, and it seems that those Japanese officers hope to gain freedom and honor by relying on this way, and prove their own strength with their performance on the battlefield.

The Japanese soldiers who had already signed up for the Ninth Army were organized to leave the camp, and they soon received a letter of appointment from Cai Wei, the commander of the Ninth Army, with which they rushed to the camp to organize their troops and take up their posts, accompanied by Chinese officers. (To be continued......)