Hara Kei became hesitant, and according to his own original vision, he should lead a peace cabinet. These included improving the living standards of the people, withdrawing troops from Siberia in Russia, and carrying out large-scale infrastructure construction in Japan, such as the construction of a national railway, while finding a new outlet for Japanese heavy industrial goods after the end of the European war.

But Yoshiichi Tanaka is now doing this, and it would be false to say that he will not waver in this grand goal. Unlike the inhospitable Siberia of Russia, Shandong was one of the two superior colonies of the era that best met the needs of the Japanese Empire, the other being Manchuria.

Needless to say, according to the changes in the national conditions of China, the imperial government set up the Kwantung Army Headquarters there in advance to replace the original Kwantung Prefecture Governorate. In Shandong, due to the time constraints, there are not many imperial troops stationed at present, and even at the time of the Battle of Xuzhou the year before, Japan did not send more troops to Qingdao. Fortunately, the army in South China at that time chose to advance westward after defeating the Feng army and did not continue the northern expedition, otherwise the consequences would be unimaginable. This matter also became the focus of controversy in the military department for more than a year, and the army repeatedly emphasized that the military strength of South China was far superior to that of North China, and that sufficient Imperial troops must be invested to ensure the interests of the Japanese Empire in Shandong. The navy is dismissive of this, their point of view is very simple, the coastline of China is so long, as long as the empire increases investment in the navy, then the empire will always be able to suppress the end of China, and more importantly, so far, the South China Navy has only four cruisers, not even a single battleship, such an opponent is really not as good as their eyes of the Imperial Japanese Navy. As for the Army's concerns, they don't take it seriously at all, because in their eyes, the Army is just a bunch of idiots who shout every day that they will be loyal to His Majesty the Emperor, and they are not the same as the elite of the Navy.

However, Tanaka Yoshiichi in front of Hara Kei obviously does not belong to the army idiot, but to the category of genius, and since the Russo-Japanese War in 1905, this person has been a tiger that cannot be ignored in Japanese politics. In 1907, Tanaka was instructed to try out the reform of military education, and served as the commander of the third wing of the first division, in which new educational policies such as respecting individuality, treating the wing as home, and coordinating between officers and soldiers were introduced, and a single educational method of corporal punishment and command knife drill was supplemented, which expanded its influence in the army. At this time, he was already impressive, and Tanaka was a native of Changzhou, "whether he was close or not, he was from his hometown", so he was promoted to a level and went to the department in charge of operations.

After Yoshiichi Tanaka arrived, he wrote an opinion called "Miscellaneous Records of Feelings", which covered the national strategy, military strategy, and the organization and system of the army, and handed it to Marshal Aritomo in Yamaprefecture through General Gentaro Kodama. Yama Prefecture looked at it, well, yes, as soon as he reported to Emperor Meiji, he came back and said to Tanaka, "You can make an imperial defense policy and take a look." He pulled Biao Dazuo, the finance department of the navy, to formulate a plan, stipulating that the army should have 25 divisions and regiments in peacetime, 50 divisions and regiments in wartime, and the navy should build the 88th fleet. In 1909, Tanaka was promoted to the chief of the military division, the commander of the second brigade, and the director of the military affairs bureau of the Ministry of the Army. In November 1910, the Imperial Soldiers' Association, which he had been advocating, was founded. The association was to organize reservists who had completed active duty, which would reduce the cost of maintaining the national army and at the same time spread the will of the country to the people (and later the reservists would be included). At the time of its establishment, the organization was limited to the Army, but from 1914 onwards, the Navy was also included, and the organization was finally perfected. In August 1915, as the mastermind behind the scenes, Major General Tanaka Yoshiichi, deputy chief of staff, plotted to propose the infamous 21 Articles to Yuan Shikai, which was met with strong opposition from the Chinese people and failed.

And in the operation of the Terauchi cabinet to send troops to Siberia, it was also planned and directed by Tanaka in front of him.

In addition to his influence among the soldiers in the countryside and in the army, Tanaka himself is also a good money-maker. In his election as prime minister, Yoshiichi Tanaka contributed 3 million yen to his activities. You must know that Tanaka is just a general in the army, and the salary is not good, so he can't help but be impressed by being able to come up with so much money. Later, Hara learned that during the operation to send troops to Siberia, Tanaka Yoshiichi used his authority to pay a total of 24 million yen in army secrets, of which about 3.4 million was given to the Terauchi cabinet. Then, according to the elementary school math addition and subtraction method, this Tanaka Yoshiichi is likely to have 20 million yen in his hand.

Another point that Hara could not ignore to Tanaka was his good personal relationship with Zhang Zuolin, the current de facto leader of China's central government and the ruler of Manchuria. Tanaka had a close relationship with Zhang Zuolin, and in 1904, during the Russo-Japanese War, the horse thief Zhang Zuolin was captured by the Japanese army on charges of Russian espionage. At the juncture, when he was about to be shot, Army Staff Officer Yoshiichi Tanaka asked Major General Fukushima Yasumasa for orders to rescue Zhang Zuolin from the gun. More than ten years later, the horse thief Zhang Zuolin became the king of China's northeast, and Tanaka also became Japan's land minister, and in last year's Chinese civil war, it was Tanaka's strong support for Zhang Zuolin, who made Zhang Zuolin, who received huge Japanese aid, successfully enter Beijing and occupy the North China Plain. In this regard, Tanaka said that "Zhang Zuolin is like my younger brother", so this time he sent troops to Shandong, and Tanaka was naturally the first to stand up.

Yuan Jing sighed and said, "Tanaka-kun, if we send troops to fight a war with Nanchina in Shandong, how much will the empire gain?" Don't end up cheapening your Chinese brother and wasting the blood of His Majesty's loyal samurai in vain. ”

Yoshiichi Tanaka pretended not to hear the sarcasm contained in Prime Minister Hara's words, and continued to peddle his war plans: "...... In any case, the completion of the substantive unification of China would be very detrimental to the empire, and once China became strong, the empire would lose its raw material sources and markets, and it would have a strong competitor in Asia. So in any case, we have to find a way to plan for the steps of reunification. However, in order to achieve this goal, it is obvious that assassination and bribery alone are no longer enough, and the empire must defeat the army of South China in Shandong, which is still the most basic. It would be even better if the southern branch could be defeated, and the branch will once again fall into unprecedented chaos. At this time, Zhang Zuolin will inevitably compete for the richer territory of South China, and we can justifiably lease the whole of Manchuria, and then add the coastal areas of the Russian Far East that we currently control, then the mainland area of the empire will be expanded by more than 3 million square kilometers, which is the most important step in creating the empire's eternal foundation......"

Seeing that Hara Kei was still hesitating, Tanaka suddenly got up and knelt on the tatami mat and bent down and kowtowed: "I know that the Prime Minister wants to compensate the people for the difficulties they have endured in the past, but Prime Minister, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity is in front of you. Make a decision! ”

Hearing this, Yuan Jing couldn't help but stand up and look at the small scenery in the courtyard without saying a word with his hands behind his back......

On July 1, the last stop of Wang Zhenyu's inspection was the 101 base of the Youth Army Air Force, which was the code name of the original training base of the expeditionary force, but now this base has been moved to Xiangyang and expanded more than tenfold. The 101st Airborne Division and the 1st Air Force Flying Division, which are currently subordinate to the Air Ministry, are being formed and trained here, strictly speaking, for the lack of airborne technology, and only the 1st Flying Division is currently working at this base. The 580 outstanding pilots trained in the past three years and 40 flight instructors from Germany who have participated in the actual combat work are engaged in this intense combat readiness work.

Lieutenant General Yang Xianyi, Minister and Commander of the Air Force, is reporting to Wang Zhenyu on the Air Force's preparations for war: "...... Since the commander of the Republic of China issued the order to comprehensively carry out the construction of the air force in the sixth year of the Republic of China, we have first completed the construction of 15 large military airfields in Zhengzhou, Xuzhou, Nanjing, Shanghai, Wuhan, Guangzhou, and Xi'an, as well as 22 second-class airfields and 33 third-class airfields, so as to ensure the smooth transfer of air force combat aircraft. And our current fighter is the Chinese Shenlong fighter, codenamed K1. ”

Wang Zhenyu nodded and said, "What is the situation with the plane?" What is the combat performance? ”

Yang Xianyi hurriedly took the folder from the adjutant's hand, opened it, and said seriously: "Our planes are divided into four categories of fighters: A reconnaissance, B bombing, C assault and D combat according to the standards of the Germans. Specifically, our current aircraft is a new product developed by the four major US airlines and combines the performance and technology of current European fighters. The flight range is all about 400 kilometers, the altitude varies from about 20 meters to 8,000 meters, the speed is currently 260 kilometers per hour, and the engine horsepower varies from 160 to 360 horsepower. At present, I personally serve as the commander of our First Flying Division, and the A Brigade is a reconnaissance group, equipped with 36 Shenlong A1 reconnaissance planes and 72 pilots, all of whom are biplanes. Group B is a bombing group, equipped with 40 Fire Dragon B1 monoplane bombers and 200 pilots. It is based on the British Handlepeti V/1500, with a total weight of about 13,600 kg and a maximum load of 3,400 kg; Our Dragon B1 is an improvement on this, with a crew of five, an engine of 360 hp, a total weight of 18 tons, and a maximum load of 6 tons. In addition, our aerial bombs have been dropped from hand to hand control bomb racks, the power of these aerial bombs has also been improved, according to your requirements, Wuhan military industry has developed a more suitable for bombing aerial artillery shells, after repeated tests have been proved to be 95% of the explosion probability after landing, the power is also equivalent to mortar shells, so our bombers are currently intended to be used to bomb the enemy's baggage troops and artillery in future battles. The C Brigade is a strike brigade, equipped with 50 water dragon C1 biplane attack planes and 50 pilots. This prototype is a German J-class Junkers fighter, mainly when our ground forces attack, these aircraft can be put into use the belly equipped with three airborne submachine guns to repeatedly strafe enemy ground positions and firing points. Group D is a fighter group, equipped with 60 Jiaolong D1 monoplane fighters and 120 pilots, mainly used for air combat and vigilance and defense missions. ”