Mitsumasa Yonechi did not disagree with a war with China, but he was very supportive of Japan's invasion of China, and like all Japanese in this era, Mitsumasa Yonechi firmly believed that foreign expansion was the only way out for Japan. However, he did not support a nationwide war with China, and Mitsumasa Yonechi believed that the most correct tactic was to deal with a large and weak country like China, and that it was the most foolish thing to carry out a nationwide war of attrition for a long time.

Because of this, when the Lugou Bridge Incident broke out on July 7, 1937, Minai, then Minister of the Navy, advocated not to expand the situation, and when answering questions from members of the Special Diet, he took it upon himself to say, "The Army's operational range will not exceed the Yongding River and the Baoding line," and the Minister of War Sugiyama, who was sitting next to him, turned pale with anger.

However, as Japan's former prime minister, Mitsumasa Yonechi is different from other Japanese military officers after all, and he looks farther. First of all, Japan's not very developed economy has severely limited the scale of this war, and if the scale of the war is barely expanded to the maximum extent that the economy can adapt, Japan may be able to support it for a while. However, the problem now is that the scale of this war has long exceeded the limits of what the Japanese national economy can bear, and if it continues to fight, it will not only gain the slightest benefit, but will also drag down Japan's economy as a result.

It is no wonder that Mitsumasa Yonechi was so determined to end the war, at a time when the speed and extent of Japan's economic deterioration had exceeded many people's estimates, and because the war had dragged on for a long time. On the contrary, the scale of the war continued to expand, and as a result, Japan's finances were on the verge of collapse. Direct military spending, which accounts for 70%~80% of the budgeted expenditure, has risen sharply, causing state spending to increase year by year.

In the four years from 1936 to 1940, Japan's budget expenditure totaled 48.8 billion yen, an increase of nearly four times from the cumulative amount of 10.755 billion yen in the previous five years, which led to a significant increase in tax revenue, which rose from 2 billion yen in 1936/1937 to 5.8 billion yen in 1939/1940, and the tax burden per household increased more than twice according to the average number of households.

The most immediate negative effect of such high taxes was the decline in the living standards of the working masses in Japan after 1937. The turnover of goods in the country has decreased sharply. Continuing to expand the amount of tax revenue has faced insurmountable difficulties. In order to make up for the growing fiscal deficit, the government had to resort to a greater degree to the issuance of public bonds and banknotes.

Japan's national debt was 6 billion yen in 1931, first to 10.5 billion yen in 1937 and then to 28.6 billion yen in 1940. Early 1939. The amount of public bonds issued was close to the total amount of national activity funds that were idle at that time; Subsequent forced marketing of public bonds. In fact, funds for the activities of civilian enterprises are already being looted and concentrated. This, of course, leads to the destruction of the process of reproduction, and the expansion of reproduction is the basis for a further increase in the issuance of public bonds. In line with this, the forced sale of public bonds has also encountered increasing difficulties.

After the July 7 Incident, the situation of making ends meet became even more serious. Printing machines to cover deficits became the norm. During this period, Japan's currency issuance also increased dramatically, from 2.31 billion yen at the end of 1937 to 5.9 billion yen in 1940, far exceeding the total value of goods in circulation, leading to increasing inflation. Inflation, which affected the normal flow of capital and commodities at that time, was opposed by the industrialists and businessmen represented by the Gerakan Party, and became one of the reasons for the sharpening of the internal strife in the ruling circles. The sharp depreciation of paper money was a naked plunder of the broad masses of the people, and caused the prices of commodities, including munitions, to skyrocket, thereby continuously expanding the government's fiscal deficit.

In Yonei's view, Japan has now fallen into a full-scale vicious circle, and for this war, which should not have been fought for such a long time, the Japanese government's gold foreign exchange reserves accumulated over the years have all bottomed out, and military spending is as high as at least 40 billion yen, which can build a full 400 Yamato-class warships. In this war, Japan has turned all the considerable gains that can be predicted into the consumption of guns and ammunition, and if this continues, Japan will definitely be dragged down by this war.

Mitsumasa's remarks resonated with a large number of military and political officials who attended the Imperial Council, and although the army still did not agree to an armistice, the vast majority of politicians were aware of the crisis, and Japan really should not invest more manpower, money, and material resources in this war.

Compared with the military, politicians understand the intrinsic meaning of war, war is a continuation of politics, and war is not for fun, but for profit. In line with the principle of maximizing profits, if you invest too much in this war, then you will get less benefits, so many politicians have begun to speak out in support of Minnet.

In fact, they have always understood this truth, but before they always thought that the Japanese Empire was invincible, and every extra yen invested today would be rewarded with countless yen in the future. However, the ruthless reality shattered all their extravagant expectations, and the strong rise of China's Eighth Theater and the strong counterattack of the Chinese government made Japan's military advantage smaller and smaller, and now the Chinese can even fight back against the Japanese provocation on the frontal battlefield, and can still win.

The crushing defeat of the North China Front cleared up Japan's originally fanatical ambition and irrational mind a little, and made them realize that Japan was still a small island country like a worm, and it could not swallow China all at once.

Moreover, in addition to the fiscal crisis, Japan must also deal with a growing energy and resource crisis, as well as a growing food crisis, if it wants to continue fighting. Before the outbreak of the full-scale war of aggression against China, Japan's dependence on foreign countries was: iron ore 52.3%, bauxite 100%, rubber 100%, oil 80%, salt 63%, cotton and wool 99.9%, scrap iron and steel 67%, copper. Aluminium. Lead, zinc, etc. are half and more than half. Japan expanded its armaments, so it vigorously developed heavy industry, although the production of military heavy industry has been greatly developed, for example, the output of steel was 2.03 million tons in 1929 and 4.1 million tons in 1936. Coal production was 28 million tons in 1931 and 41 million tons in 1936.

The development of heavy industry is inevitably inseparable from oil, after all, there is no such industrial blood as oil. If you want to develop heavy industry, it is tantamount to a fool's dream. As a result, Japan's oil imports also increased dramatically during this period, from 2.28 million kiloliters in 1931 to 4.51 million kiloliters in 1936, resulting in a large increase in the balance of payments deficit, with a surplus of 270 million yen from January to June 1936, and a total of 620 million yen in the same period in 1937, and a gold export of 300 million yen from March to July.

In 1936, Japan entered more than 129 million yen, deducting 246 million yen from the puppet Manchurians, and the actual income exceeded 376 million yen, and in 1937, the excess reached 638 million yen, and after deducting the excess of 321 million yen from the areas occupied by the puppet Manchurians and the Japanese invasion of China, the actual income exceeded 959 million yen, and in 1939, after drastically reducing the import of civilian materials, Japan's imports were 2.918 billion yen and exports were 3.576 billion yen. However, excluding the imports and exports of the "yen circle" (the area occupied by the puppet Manchurians and the Japanese invasion of China), which were unable to obtain gold and foreign exchange, imports were 2.235 billion yen and exports were 1.829 billion yen, and Japan's economic power began to become apparent in 1939-1940.

The first thing that appeared was the lack of food supply, in 1939 the demand for rice in Japan was 80 million stones, an increase of nearly 10 million stones over 1936, and before the outbreak of the war of aggression against China, Japan only needed to import 13 million to 14 million stones of rice from Taiwan and Korea every year, and at this time, due to the factors of the war, Japan's local grain production has been declining since 1939, from Taiwan, North Korea imported rice due to the war and local military needs and other factors, the import amount has been declining year by year, In 1938 it was 2.25 million tons, in 1939 it was 1.45 million tons and in 1940 it was 480,000 tons.

In order to cope with the increasingly serious food crisis, Japan has tried its best to order the peasants to sell the rice, wheat and other grain products they produce to the government at official prices, except for their own consumption and seeds, implement grain rationing, prohibit the sale of rice in ordinary restaurants and restaurants, vigorously promote the consumption of substitute food, and stipulate that breakfast should not exceed 1 yen, lunch 2.5 yen, and dinner 5 yen, even so, there is still a gap of 9 million stones, for this reason, Japan has to take out 200 million yen of foreign exchange to French Indochina, Thailand imported 8 million stone of rice.

The food crisis was followed by the electricity and coal crisis, and by 1940 Japan had only 88.3% of the demand for coal, 18.4% for oil, 42.4% for iron ore, 43% for copper, 15% for aluminum, and 18.4% for lead and zinc.

At the time of the outbreak of the war of aggression against China, the Bank of Japan's gold reserves, including the reserves for the issuance of banknotes, were only 1.35 billion yen, while during the Russo-Japanese War, Japan's national hard currency reserves were 14 million yen, and it borrowed 800 million yen in foreign debt, which was 2.8 billion yen in 1937, and under the huge consumption of the war of aggression against China, Japan's balance of payments deficit in 1936-1941 amounted to 5 billion yen, and there was little gold and foreign exchange left. As a result, Japan had no choice but to start using its strategic reserves, and all the measures adopted by Japan, such as expanding exports, reducing imports, plundering occupied territories, and borrowing from foreign countries, were ineffective.

More importantly, Japan's foreign trade environment has undergone tremendous changes in recent years, and as a result of Chen Feng's strong intervention, the United States, which has always supported Japan in the face of a large number of interests, has quietly changed its policy, and its trade with Japan has gradually become standardized and strict, and almost all strategic resources related to war have been included in the embargo, and even grain has become a strategic material prohibited from export half a year ago, which has made Japan extremely angry.

Without the United States, a wet nurse, Japan will become a motherless child, and it is inevitable that it will starve and freeze. All of these crises were overshadowed by the Army's brilliant record. Now lift the lid on this. All the Japanese were dumbfounded, and at the same time realized the seriousness of the matter, the Great Japanese Empire was now only an empty shell and the 1.5 million troops, and there was no need to argue about whether to fight or not. (To be continued.) If you like this work. You are welcome to come to the starting point (biquge.info) to vote for recommendation and monthly pass. Your support. That's what motivates me the most......)