Prime Minister's Residence, Tokyo, Japan.

Last month, Hayashi Mijuro, who had recently formed a cabinet, handed over a telegram from Shanghai to Mitsumasa Yonechi, Minister of the Navy, and said: "There is a great deal of difference among the civil and military officials in Shanghai, with the civilian officials all opposing the escalation of the situation and hoping for peace as much as possible, while the military attachés, without exception, demand severe punishment Chinese...... The Empire now only has a naval presence in Shanghai, and I have come to you to ask for your navy's opinion. ”

After reading the telegram, Mitsumasa Yonechi did not answer immediately, but asked an extremely sensitive question: "What is Your Majesty's will on this?"

Mitsumasa Yonechi's words are not untargeted, it stands to reason that Hirohito's marriage to King Liangko, the eldest daughter of King Kunihiko Kunomiya, should take good care of the Kurenomiya family, but in fact this is not the case.

After Hirohito and Yoshiko got engaged, the elder Yama Prefecture had a friend who insisted that the Kurenomiya family had color blindness hereditary hereditary and forced Hirohito to withdraw from the marriage. However, due to the insistence of both Kurenomiya and Hirohito on the marriage contract, the prestige of Yamaguchi was greatly damaged and he died in frustration, which was known in Japan as "a major event in the palace". Since then, in order to avoid internal divisions, Hirohito has always been relatively distant from the Kurenomiya family, and this time I wonder if it will be unexpected.

Lin Mijuro hesitated slightly, but still said the truth: "From the news from the palace, His Majesty is very dissatisfied with His Royal Highness Jiu Er's leaving Japan for Shanghai without permission, thinking that this is really insulting to the royal system...... What is especially unbearable is that His Royal Highness Jiu Er did not die on the way to study in the winter and summer, nor did he die on the battlefield of opening up the territory for the empire, but died at the hands of the lowly and dirty Shanghai gangsters, which really discredited the royal family.

"Since That's what Your Majesty means, it's obvious what we're going to do."

Mitsumasa, who has always been conservative, said: "The navy is used to defend the country, not to be used for war, and now the international and domestic situation does not allow us to start a war in Shanghai...... It is true that it is a great pity that a small detachment of elite naval forces died in Shanghai, but if we do not exercise restraint, the number of casualties will inevitably be tenfold, hundredfold, and thousandfold than today's losses."

Lin Mianjuro nodded, not paying too much attention to what happened in Shanghai.

Now that Hayashi has focused all his attention on the country, the new year has already begun, and the previous cabinet has just drawn up this year's budget and left in a hurry, and Hayashi must lead the current cabinet to complete this work first.

Toyotaro Yuuki, who was president of the Industrial Bank of Japan and head of the Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry, became a representative figure in the financial circles who promoted "collusion between the military and financial circles," and reduced the budget of 3 billion yen drawn up by the former cabinet by 260 million yuan. Although the budget formulated by the current Cabinet is 10% smaller than the budget of the previous Cabinet, the reduction is mainly due to social policy expenses and local government contributions, and no changes have been made to the budget for military expansion.

He was very uneasy about whether this plan could be passed in the Parliament, knowing that the members of the Parliament, who were mainly composed of businessmen, were the most disgusted with the war, and if he took a too tough stance on the Shanghai issue, it would inevitably provoke a strong backlash from the Parliament, so he was not prepared to escalate the situation at this sensitive time.

"Okay, I'm going to call the ambassador to China, Shigeru Chuanyue, and the consul general in Shanghai, Ihataro Ishizu, and ask them to exercise restraint, now is not a good time to provoke a war."

After making this decision, Lin Mijuro, who had served as the president of Lu University and the commander of the Korean army, inevitably felt a sense of loss. In the 918 Incident of that year, Lin Mijuro decisively sent troops stationed in Korea to reinforce Mukden, so that Japan successfully occupied the three eastern provinces, and now he sees the opportunity slipping away, and he regrets: "It's a pity, such a good opportunity is fleeting, and it will be difficult to encounter it next time."

Mitsumasa Yonechi disagreed: "If the empire is really mobilized, even if there is no chance, we can calmly create, and a little difficulty will not be difficult for the Japanese Empire."

"Not bad"

Lin Mijuro was reasonable: "As long as we successfully overcome the current difficulties, we can announce the dissolution of the parliament and form a new government with no political party and only military personnel, and then it will be a good opportunity for us to show our skills."

Shinjuku, Ichitani Motomura-cho, Military Headquarters Building.

In the conference room on the second floor, Akira Muto, head of the Operations Section of the General Staff Headquarters, was filled with indignation:

"Ishihara-kun, where is your original blood and courage? As long as we add fuel to the situation in Shanghai and disclose it in the news media, then even if the cabinet tries to control the development of the situation, Ishihara-kun will not be able to do so, please tell me, why do you want to sign the cabinet report on the control of radio and newspapers and magazines? ”

Ishihara patiently explained: "It's easy to stir up public opinion, but it's difficult to calm it down...... Now that the empire has just taken possession of Manchuria and has not yet fully digested this ointment of land, the most correct thing to do is to continue to strengthen the construction of Manchuria, to avoid Sino-Japanese conflict as much as possible before the construction of Manchuria is completed, and even if necessary, to give up the privileges in the north of China and retreat from the Great Wall or even the Rehe River"

"Shanghai has always been the focus of attention of the great powers, and the water network in the south of the Yangtze River in China is dense, which is not conducive to the mobilization of large troops, even if there is a war in the future, it should also follow the history of China, from north to south, the most ideal is to follow the route of the Mongolian annexation of the Song Dynasty, from Shanxi and Henan into Shaanxi, and then from Shaanxi to the southeast to attack Sichuan and Yunnan, and then down the river"

"At this point, our troops stationed in Henan and Shandong will go south from the Pinghan Railway and the Tianjin-Pudong Railway to capture Wuhan and Nanjing, and the other army will land from Songhu and other places with the cooperation of the navy, and the government will be able to retreat from three directions, so we can only flee all the way to the south, and we will consolidate one place when we occupy one place, or ten years, we will be able to steadily dismember and encroach on China, which is the only correct strategy."

"It's an ingenious idea, but there are so many things that are prone to surprises."

Yongjin Sabi, chief of the branch of the General Staff Headquarters, sneered: "Now that the peace talks between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party in China are in China, coupled with the failure of the joint anti-Chiang alliance between the two provinces last year, and seeing that China is about to end the long-term split situation, if Chiang Kai-shek is allowed to integrate the military, politics and economy of the whole country of China, and China develops in ten or twenty years, will they still tolerate our occupation of Manchuria?" ”

"No matter what way you look at it, they will not, they will definitely take the initiative to provoke and recover Manchuria, then the empire will face a strong and unified China, I think the sooner the attack on China is launched, the better, and now is undoubtedly a good opportunity"

Ishihara smiled coldly: "You can do as much as you can, according to the current national strength of the empire, you must not fall into a protracted war of attrition, so I will definitely not agree to relax the control of the press, let alone deliberately provoke a war between China and Japan, you will die of this heart."

The Japanese Army is similar to the United States in that its policies are formulated by the Ministry of the Army, and the General Staff Headquarters is responsible for the specific movement of the troops. At present, the chief of staff is in charge of Prince Zaihito of Kanin Palace, but according to tradition, the position of this chief of staff is just a mud bodhisattva for everyone to worship, and the real deputy chief of staff is Imai Kiyoshi. However, due to health problems, Imai Kiyoshi has been unable to perform his duties, and the real power is in the hands of Major General Ishihara Wanji, the head of operations.

Because of his outstanding contributions to the 918 Incident and his outstanding ability during his tenure as chief of operations of the General Staff Headquarters, Ishihara has a group of staunch supporters in the army, including Seishiro Itagaki, Ninji Okamura, and now the chief of the Operations Command Division, Toroshiro Kawabe.

"You-"

The Military Division of the Ministry of the Army, Tanaka Daisa, glared angrily, but he was helpless against Ishihara's stubbornness, and the situation was at a stalemate for a while.

Hongkou Park, Shanghai.

Due to the delay in receiving a reply from the consulate, the volunteers, composed of ronins and soldiers in the countryside, could no longer endure any longer, and began to leave Hongkou Park in groups of three or five, passing through the cordons set up by the Japanese marines along the border of Jielu, Beihe South Road, the eastern section of Qiujiang Road, Guangdong Street, Dongbaoxing Road, and other streets bordering the Chinese border, and gathered at the railway, preparing to enter the Zhabei boundary, and launch a frenzied revenge against the Chinese with an eye for an eye and blood for blood.

The reason why the Japanese did not dare to attack the Chinese and Chinese-funded shops in the public concession was that they were afraid of the reaction of the concession authorities and did not want to trigger international disputes.

Du Yuesheng and Huang Jinrong were mentally prepared for the madness of the Japanese, and as early as last night they began to consciously evacuate the masses on dozens of streets north and west of the Zhabei Railway Station and the railway.

In the eastern and northern areas of the public concession, many of the land boundaries were stolen by the great powers through illegal cross-border road construction, and today, all the areas formed by cross-border road construction have a total of more than 47,000 acres, and most of the Hongkou and Yangshupu areas where the Japanese are entrenched are areas of this nature.

Near the North Railway Station and the north and south of the middle section of Qiujiang Road, and the area west of the north and west of the Songhu Railway, they are all at the junction of the concession and the Chinese boundary, and the transportation is convenient, and the administrative power of the public concession authorities and the Shanghai Municipal Government is more difficult to govern.

Now the Japanese want to intervene sideways, once they let them gain a firm foothold, it will be extremely difficult to expel them again, whether it is for the interests of the Youth Gang itself, or the dignity of the country and the nation, Du Yuesheng believes that it is necessary to fight back and give the other party a little color.

When heavily armed Japanese appeared sporadically near the railway, Du Yuesheng knew that there was no possibility of reconciliation between them, and immediately issued weapons and equipment to more than 1,000 Qinggang members stationed at the railway station and near the railway area, nearly half of whom received rifles and shell guns, and the rest were still armed with broadswords and axes.

Du Yuesheng divided these people into combat teams of 50 or 100 people, and sent them to key areas such as the middle section of Qiujiang Road, Baoshan Road, Baotong Road, Baoyuan Road, and Baoxing Road.

When the matter came, Huang Jinrong was not idle, and about 2,000 members of the Green Gang entered the hinterland of Zhabei from Puxi to evacuate the people of the Chinese community and protect the Green Gang industry.

In his heart, Huang Jinrong was not willing to stand at the front desk to confront the Japanese, but if the other party really deceived the door, he had to fight, and if he failed, it was a big deal to quit Shanghai and find a place to retire in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and other places.

In a two-story house at the intersection of Baoyuan Road and Baotong Road, Du Yuesheng stood in front of the window on the second floor, holding a sub-telescope and looking at the railway in front of him. Fortunately, at this time, the Japanese did not make any radical moves, but only occasionally crossed the railway, stopped for a long time in the open area by the railway, and pointed in the direction of the Chinese boundary.

"Boss, the central government has not yet expressed its position, and the Shanghai municipal government is also pretending to be deaf and dumb, as if nothing has happened, what is the matter if we are now in front of the war with the Japanese, what if we are held accountable in the future?" Wan Molin, who was standing beside Du Yuesheng, asked worriedly.

Du Yuesheng looked resolute: "In this situation, our government and army are not easy to express their position, and a little radical may trigger a full-scale war between China and Japan, and everything can only rely on ourselves...... Tell the brethren that if we do not defeat the arrogance of the Japanese, we will have no place in Shanghai, and as long as the Japanese dare to come, we will wipe them out in a clean and clean manner, and we will not tolerate mercy."