Before the W Brigade was attacked by the air raid, the Japanese army base camp had already guessed the truth of the Qingdao Mutiny, and the first battle of the Brigade University confirmed their guesses. The dignified "Great Japanese Imperial Army" was actually played by the Chinese as monkeys, and it was deceived for so many days, after the news came out, there was an uproar in Japan, and Emperor Hirohito was even more angry, demanding that the army and navy immediately retaliate, especially those warships captured in Qingdao, either snatched back or sank!

The Kwantung Army has no way to do anything about this for the time being, and it is not easy for the Kwantung Army to limit the development of the Northeast Anti-Japanese Federation while having to devote most of its strength to defend against the Soviet Army in the Far East; The main force of the North China Front Army did not dare to move lightly because of the strength of the Eighth Route Army, and the Yellow River Bridge on the Jinpu Line had been blown up by the 15th Army before, so at least for a few months, there was no need to cross the Yellow River south to attack Shandong; Now that Qingdao has been occupied by the enemy, the supply of more than 100,000 Japanese troops in the southern section of the Jinpu Line and the main force of the Central China Front has been flanked by hundreds of thousands of people, but it is difficult for them to crush it; now that Qingdao has been occupied by the enemy, the supply of more than 100,000 Japanese troops in the southern section of the Jinpu Line has also been cut off, and if they cannot join forces with the Central China Front within half a month, they will be in danger of running out of ammunition and food; As for the Japanese troops along the Yangtze River, even the garrisons in several large cities were obviously insufficient in number, and they were unable to launch an offensive at all, and even once the hundreds of thousands of troops in Wuhan launched a counterattack with all their might, they could hardly resist it, and could only rely on the naval guns to assist in the defense

"After all, is it going to expand the army again?" , Hirohito closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and forcibly suppressed the anger in his heart and said, "Okay. The army will be expanded by another 1.5 million men in half a year, but this is zuihou once! The Empire's finances are on the verge of depletion, and it is no longer in a position to carry out the next expansion."

"The army must live up to Bixia's high expectations!" , Lu Xiang was so excited that his voice trembled, 1.5 million, this is equivalent to more than doubling the number of Japanese troops invading China, including the Kwantung Army, and the sharp increase in troops. It will not only re-turn the situation on the battlefield in China, but also further improve the status of the army, and it will directly benefit these army commanders.

The rise in the status of the army is something that the Japanese Navy absolutely does not want to see. Hai Tai immediately ignored the eyes of the land minister who were about to breathe fire, and said with a stiff neck, "The navy will definitely wash away the shame of Qingdao." There is no need to expand so many army forces, costing the people and money. ”

Hearing this, Hirohito shook his head and said in a deep voice, "The 15th Army of China will not be destroyed, and similar incidents will continue to appear, I am really uneasy, can the navy go ashore and destroy the 15th Army?" ”

No matter how confident they were, they would not dare to use their sparse marines to challenge the Chinese 15th Army, which had wiped out no less than 200,000 Japanese troops

"The Qingdao Incident is not only a shame for the Navy, but also a shame for the Army, and even more so for our Empire Japan! It comes down to the truth. It's because the army and navy are at odds, and if something like this happens again, I won't be as soft as this time. Hirohito couldn't bear it anymore and said a cruel word and the truth. Maybe in your eyes, I am just a puppet of the army and navy, but if I just want to kill a few generals, it is still no problem, you should do it yourself, and don't mislead the country because of personal grudges! ”

Although the Japanese army was fierce, they were not afraid of death. But the generals who sat in such a high position were all people who cherished life, and now after hearing the emperor's words, the two of them both stood on end. It is true that the Japanese emperor is now only being pushed to the altar by the military, and in fact he has no real power, but if he only wants to kill a few generals, the military department will never turn against him in order to save one or two people. Under the threat of death, the Japanese land and sea ministers, who were already deeply ashamed because of the Qingdao incident, invariably reached the most basic tacit understanding, although the contradictions between the Japanese navy and the army still existed, but such blatant infighting as the Qingdao incident never happened again, and in those major military operations directly related to the national fortunes, the cooperation between the Japanese navy and the army was much better than in history, which was really not a good thing for China and even the entire Shijie anti-fascist camp

Although Japan's goal was to eliminate the 15th Army and other anti-Japanese forces and then conquer China, the shame of Qingdao could not be ignored, and the army could not count on it for the time being, so the navy could only take action. However, the two airfields of the Luda University that were able to get Qingdao were blown up by the North China Air Corps, and it was not possible to repair them in a day or two, and the repair of those aircraft carriers was even more time-consuming, so now the Japanese Navy can only rely on the traditional "giant ship artillery".

The "remnants" of the battleship faction in the Japanese Navy finally waited for the opportunity to prove themselves, and they took the initiative to seek war, and the Admiralty now had no other choice, so they agreed to form a powerful task force with battleships as the main force to attack Qingdao. Considering that the speed and endurance of this warship were not very important, as long as the firepower was strong and the armor was thick, the Japanese Admiralty sent six traditional battleships with thick armor and huge guns, but the speed was slow, in line with the idea of "making the best use of things". As for the Kongo-class high-speed battleships that were originally battlecruisers, because of their outstanding speed and endurance, they can cooperate with aircraft carriers to fight, and their value is still relatively large, and the Japanese Admiralty does not want them to suffer losses in this battle, and the firepower of 6 battleships is already very strong, and there are no less than those 3, so they are not sent out.

In this way, the Japanese Admiralty took six battleships as the core, plus a number of cruisers, destroyers, and auxiliary ships, to form a powerful fleet with more than 50 ships and a total displacement of no less than 300,000 tons. Most of these cruisers and destroyers are old ships with poor speed and endurance, but there are also some newer ships with fast speed, such as the second heavy cruiser of the Tone-class heavy cruiser, the Tsukima, which has just been put into active service (more than half a year earlier than in history). On the one hand, this is to prevent the officers and men of the fleet from making trouble, and on the other hand, the strength of the Japanese navy has been able to rank among the top three in Shijie, and the warships have been replaced very quickly, and in fact it is impossible to find so many old warships, so some newer warships have also been incorporated into the fleet to run in and temper the officers and men on the ships. In fact, since the home fleet does not have any combat missions in normal times, these warships are not only equipped with a lot of new recruits, but some officers and even captains are newly promoted, and you are welcome to come to your support, which is my biggest motivation. m