In June in Tokyo, the sky is always overcast and the sun has not been seen for several days. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

The people on the street were dejected and listless, and even the wild dogs on the side of the road were infected, lying lazily on the ground, not willing to lift their eyelids, and the wild cats who did not know where they barked from time to time, and heard the sharp voice.

The female cat in heat and the listless male dog are perhaps the best views that can be seen on the streets of Tokyo right now.

In view of the setbacks that had taken place on the battlefields of China, Emperor Hirohito of Japan decided to convene an Imperial Council, which was the first time he had presided over such a meeting.

Before, it was all the cabinet ministers who discussed it, gave him a recital, or summoned one or several people to report.

This was the first imperial council he presided over since his accession to the throne.

Since the palace coup d'état launched by Okubo Toshitsu and Saigo Takamori "Imperial Retro", the emperor ended the seven or eight actual green hat era, and the first imperial council presided over by Emperor Meiji ignited the artillery fire of the First Sino-Japanese Naval Battle, defeating the thousand-year-old pressure. In the Celestial Empire at the head of the Japanese capital, the Japanese and the original embarked on the road of a strong army and a rich country.

Each Imperial Council produces important decisions that will affect the future and destiny of the country for years to come, if not decades.

The conference room in the East Hall of the Imperial Palace is next to the Emperor's study.

Under the personal convening of Emperor Hirohito, the cabinet and important ministers of civil affairs and military affairs of the army and navy sat in two rows at the conference table covered with red checkered brocade, each with his hands on his knees, and his eyes did not squint, like a puppet clay sculpture.

Their occasional gaze at Hirohito is also a kind of reverence as listening to the heavenly sound of the Buddha, and the sacred is like a performance.

Politicians are generally excellent actors, and their acting skills are god-like beings.

Who knew that under their serious faces, they would have such thoughts about Emperor Hirohito, the man closest to God?

The closest to Emperor Hirohito were Prime Minister Fumima Konoe and Shigeru Honjo, president of the Military Protection Agency.

The former is young and dashing, with the graceful demeanor of a scholar.

The latter showed a bloated and old state, full of martial artists' ferocious murderous intentions.

The Japanese army encountered unexpected trouble on the battlefield in China, and international public opinion was also quite unfavorable to Japan and Ben, and the Nanjing Massacre was made public, and the whole world was in an uproar. It was three more days, and the corners of my eyes were bloodshot.

Seishiro Itagaki was in a straight military uniform, and his eyes were shining with the light of a gloomy owl.

China's problems do not seem to be as simple as those arrogant soldiers say, except for the garrisons in Northeast China and Korea, almost all of the field divisions and regiments of the Japanese and Japanese armies have been used on the Chinese battlefield.

Originally, it was planned to implement the operational plan of attacking Wuhan after opening up the Jinpu route, but now the consumption and losses on the Chinese battlefield are too great, and the replenishment of troops and the collection of materials are facing relatively great difficulties.

After careful analysis, the think tank and research team under his command felt that the future of attacking Wuhan at this time was not optimistic, and if it suffered losses in the Battle of Xuzhou again, the Japanese army would not be able to fight again, and the possibility of occupying or forcing the Chiang government to surrender by force would not exist at all.

In addition, summer is coming, the rain increases, Wuhan is located in the hinterland of the Central Plains, even if it is fought along the Yangtze River, the river fortifications on both sides of the Yangtze River will be the biggest obstacle to the advance of the Japanese army.

Konoe Fumima's opinion is to tend to fight late, and fight again when he is fully prepared, at least until after the autumn coolness.

The meeting began with the Prime Minister reading out a document entitled "Guidelines for Handling the Incident in China" drawn up by the Ministry of the Army.

The core idea of the Ministry of War was to focus on conquest by force and to settle the Chinese problem once and for all, and proposed to strengthen the combat strength of the Central China Front and redeploy the operational plan for attacking Hankow.

It is not difficult to see that this guideline is militarily oriented, and the army has been inclined to the idea of capturing Wuhan from the southern line of the Yangtze River, and has almost abandoned the original plan of preparing to move south from the Pinghan line.

If it were to go south from the Pinghan line, it would be too costly for the current Japanese army, and it might drag into a protracted hold. The long-term war is not in the interests of the Japanese army now.

Japan's greatest enemy was not China, but Soviet Russia to the north.

The purpose of the invasion and occupation of China was to seize China's resources and population and prepare for a future war with Soviet Russia.

Throughout, Japan and Ben did not regard China as his opponent.

"Your Majesty!" Honjo Fan stood up first, he had a short hair, looking drooping and old, but he was full of energy, "The determination to capture Wuhan cannot be shaken, only to take Hankou, to obtain the lower reaches of the Yangtze River and the Huguang region, the most economically developed area in China is in our hands, Chiang's government can only live in a poor ravine, will no longer have the strength to confront the empire, and completely disappear from the political arena." ”

Shigeru Honjo said as he looked at Prime Minister Konoe defiantly, and his cheeks trembled with two lumps of fat. Trembling, the old eyes looked at Emperor Hirohito aggressively.

Konoe Funma was so excited by Honjo's aggressive gaze that he couldn't sit still, so he suddenly stood up and said to each other: "Your Majesty, the minister also feels that it is necessary to capture Hankou, because only by capturing Wuhan can the forces of the Kuomintang and the Communist Party cooperate to resist Japan can be destroyed, but we must take into account that our target is a semi-feudal colonial peasant country, and the cities seized by Western capitalist countries can solve the problem, but not in China, they have not yet formed an urban economy as the center, so, We should be cautious about our holy war to liberate the people of Chinese from the colonial rule of British and American imperialism......"

Emperor Hirohito, who was expressionless, slowly nodded at him after listening to Konoe Fumima's words.

Konoe Funma was a little excited, and a few flushes flashed on his pale face, when he was young, he had tuberculosis, his body had been delicate, and he was still suffering from hemorrhoids, so he couldn't sit for a long time.

"Your Majesty, the minister believes that in order to attack Wuhan and force the Chiang government to surrender, one person must first be dealt with, and this person has become more and more a threat to this holy war in the empire, and his threat is even more than that of the anti-Japanese forces of the GCD!" Seishiro Itagaki stood up and said.

Emperor Hirohito frowned slightly, as if he didn't understand who Seishiro Itagaki was talking about?

"What Sakagaki Jun said, but the last half a year has been giving it to me. Did the Japanese Imperial Army inflict great damage on the Chinese General Leng Feng? Prime Minister Konoe asked.

"Yes, Your Excellency Prime Minister, it is this Leng Feng, he and the troops under his command are currently stationed in the northern Henan region, where it was once occupied by our army, this person is young, but extremely insidious and cunning, does not abide by the old law, the sword goes sideways, sometimes there is no discipline at all, although on the battlefield of Xuzhou, he and his troops did not play the main role, but every attack of his is in an extremely critical place, the North China Front was frustrated in the early offensive, mostly because of this person, He cooperated with Li Delin, commander of the Fifth Theater of the Chinese Army in the Xuzhou area, which was very different from what we had encountered in the past, and what was even more terrifying was his grasp and foresight of the battle situation......"

Itagaki Seishiro talked a lot, obviously, he had just returned from China, and he had done a considerable study of the war situation in China, especially for Leng Feng and the New First Army, which was beyond the understanding of many people.

The central idea of Seishiro Sakagaki's argument is that to capture Wuhan, the first thing to do is to solve the obstacle of Leng Feng.

Even if it can't be completely resolved, he must be dragged down and not allowed to intervene in the battle of Wuhan.

Otherwise, it will repeat the mistake of Xuzhou, losing so many troops to occupy Xuzhou, and the cost of such a victory is too great.

"Sakagaki-kun's words are serious, just one Chinese army, no more than 30,000 people, how powerful can it be, I think it is the incompetence of the front-line generals that exaggerate the opponent." Honjo is prosperous.

"Your Excellency Honjo, everything I said is true, Nakajima-kun, Isoya-kun, and even Dohihara-kun were all defeated in the hands of Leng Feng, if one of them fails, it is incompetent, but these three people are the elite of the empire, and they are all defeated in their hands, can't it be explained?" Seishiro Itagaki retorted.

"According to Sakagaki-kun's meaning, if you don't solve this cold front and the new first army, you can't carry out the plan to attack Wuhan?"

"I mean, we have to hold off Leng Feng and his new army, and we can't give him a chance to rush to the Wuhan battlefield, so that our chances of quickly occupying Wuhan will increase a lot."

"Sakagaki-kun agreed to launch an attack on Wuhan and planned it?"

"Yes, I think it is better to attack Wuhan sooner rather than later, if it drags on for a long time, give the Chiang government a chance to recover, then the empire will fall into the quagmire of jihad." Itagaki Seishiro solemnly bowed to Hirohito, "Your Majesty, the minister thinks that now is the best time to quickly resolve the Chinese incident. ”

"Your Majesty, the courtier thinks that the occupation of Wuhan will not immediately solve the Chinese problem, before full preparation, and according to the current situation transmitted back from China, the anti-Japanese sentiment of the Chinese is high, even if we occupy Wuhan, I am afraid it will be difficult to force the Chiang government to compromise, the current empire needs to change its strategy, we now send as many as thirty divisions to China, and now we are still mobilizing and conscripting, if we want to maintain such a large army to fight the food, ammunition and other materials, It was necessary to pursue at least three billion yen in military expenditure, and the empire's tax revenue could only last until about October, so the minister felt that instead of spending manpower and force to occupy Wuhan, it would be better to adopt a defensive posture, bomb the economic and military important places in the country, and establish and develop a new self-controlled regime. Fumima Konoe said, standing up.

Emperor Hirohito's head was swollen when he was told by Konoe Fumima's phone call, but he also understood that the cabinet did not advocate continuing to solve China's problems by force, at least not for now.

The army naturally wants to expand the war and occupy China by force, and regards it as the best strategic opportunity, which is almost the same as the original land minister Sugiyama Yuan.

"Your Majesty!"

The white-haired Foreign Minister Ugaki Kazunari took over, and the old voice sounded in the huge conference hall: "The minister thinks that the opinion of His Excellency the Prime Minister is not unreasonable......

"Your Majesty!"

Another loud shout, Hirohito's thin body trembled slightly, the gold-rimmed glasses on the bridge of his nose almost fell off, and he was a little unhappy in his heart, he wasn't dizzy and tinnitus, why did he speak so loudly?

The general who spoke was full of words: "The minister thinks that the solution to the Chinese problem must not be defensive, but can only attack, a few years is a year of decisive victory, Honjo-kun's opinion is completely correct, for the sake of a hundred years of peace, we must immediately take Wuhan, expand the suppression circle, and force Chiang to surrender!" ”

As soon as the general finished speaking, the government of Araki, the minister who was sitting opposite, nodded, also stood up, and opened his mouth with a slightly trembling mustache: "Your Majesty, the minister also agrees with Sakagaki Jun's opinion, however, in view of the proximity to the lower level, the high temperature and heat of Wuhan on the Yangtze River may not be conducive to the battle, so the minister thinks that it will not be too late to capture Wuhan after the autumn is cool!" ”

"No!" The general of the internal affairs department of the sea phase Miguang, who was next to the guards, suddenly stood up and retorted loudly: "Your Majesty, after the westward advance along the Longhai Road is blocked, this strategic plan to go south to Wuhan along the Pinghan Line is no longer meaningless, then the route to attack Wuhan can only be to take the Yangtze River waterway, the river is wide and the water is large in summer, which is conducive to the operation of our ships, and if it reaches the dry season after autumn, it will be extremely unfavorable to our army's operations!" Therefore, if you decide to capture Wuhan, you must not delay the fighter plane because of the heat! ”

Miguang's words on internal affairs fell heavily on the hearts of many ministers of civil and military affairs.

"If we only capture Wuhan, now is the best time, but in addition to our foothold attack, we also have to study and defend, the summer is rainy, Jiangxi, Anhui and other places The complex terrain is extremely unfavorable to our army's march, and there are also supply problems."

"Bad weather conditions are the same for both sides of the enemy, and this is completely unnecessary!"

"Your Majesty, the minister feels that the conditions are not yet ripe for the capture of Wuhan, and the reasons are as follows......"

"Your Majesty......"

In front of Emperor Hirohito, these imperial civil and military ministers would not bargain like peasant women and vendors in the vegetable market buying and selling vegetables, but they argued one after another, and they were only a little more civilized.

The Army, the Navy, and the Cabinet each represent their own interests, and each of them strongly expresses their own interests.

Of course, after another quarrel, the final decision was handed over to Emperor Hirohito.

Suddenly, when everyone looked at Hirohito, he coughed lightly, and after dozens of seconds, he said, "Let's dismiss." ”

From beginning to end, at the first imperial meeting of the base camp, Hirohito's only time he opened Chrysostom was such an "edict".