Emperor Meiji said, "Looking at this situation, Lin Yuan's troops are going to have a general battle with us in Kyoto, right?" ”

Yama Prefecture Aritomo nodded, and Emperor Meiji said, "According to your analysis: Do we have a chance of winning?" ”

Youpeng of Shanxian shook his head and said: "I'm afraid not, judging from the war situation in the whole country, we are already completely at a disadvantage, Lin Yuan's troops have not been dragged down by our people after occupying our land, on the contrary, the occupied areas have entered China's economic system one after another, and there are fewer and fewer people who dare to fight to the death."

Emperor Meiji said: "That means that our strategy of dragging Lin Yuan to death did not work? ”

Shan Shan Youpeng smiled and said: "In fact, this strategy has been debatable from the beginning, throughout the history of world wars, it has always been a large country with a large population and a vast territory that dragged a small country to death, Napoleon's defeat of Moscow was a clear example, and our Japanese Empire is a small country, China is a big country, we want to drag China to death, how is that possible?" When China fights a war with us, not only is it not dragged to death, but it is getting richer and richer. ”

Emperor Meiji sighed and said: "When China was fighting, everything was solved from the domestic market, and it did not rely on foreign countries at all, and the battlefield was still abroad, how could it not become richer and richer the more it fought?" ”

Yama County Youpeng nodded with a wry smile, a group of losers discussed how the winner defeated himself, there is probably nothing more painful in the world. At this time, Emperor Meiji said: "What I am most worried about now is the top-secret locations in the emperor's command post, without those top-secret locations, the plan for the rebirth of the empire may not be carried out, and the command posts in Hiroshima and Sendai have been occupied by Hayashi's troops, have the top-secret locations in there been destroyed?" ”

Yama Prefecture Youpeng said: "Your Majesty the Emperor, please rest assured, the entire command post in Sendai has been blown up, and it is impossible for Lin Yuan's troops to know the role of the top-secret location, although the Hiroshima command post has not been completely blown up, but the top-secret location has been bombed, and Lin Yuan's troops will definitely not know the purpose of the top-secret location." ”

Emperor Meiji frowned and said, "Why wasn't the Hiroshima command post completely blown up?" What if Lin Yuan deduced the purpose of the top-secret location based on the role of the other parts of the command post? ”

Yama Prefecture Youpeng said: "The attack on Hiroshima by Lin Yuan's troops was very sudden, and our troops were attacked by Lin Yuan's troops in the process of transporting explosives, and it was the air cavalry regiment that launched the attack, which was extremely fast, and most of our explosives were blown up, so we did not transport enough explosives to the command post." ”

Emperor Meiji said: "There is no need to hold the responsibility accountable now, there is no point, let's fight this last battle of Kyoto, and after this battle, no matter what the victory or defeat, we must carry out the plan for the rebirth of the empire." ”

The first thing he did was to figure out the direction of the attack of Lin Yuan's troops, he already knew that Wakasa Bay and Ise Bay were the focus of Lin Yuan's troops' landing, but he did not know the plans of Lin Yuan's troops in other places, and after a period of reconnaissance, he had a general understanding of Lin Yuan's troops' plan to encircle Kyoto.

At the same time, he ordered the 20th Division stationed in Wakayama Prefecture to resist the landing of Hayashien's troops, and transferred the Guards Division in Tokyo to Kyoto, and at the same time mobilized all elite divisions in the area east of Kyoto to station on the front line in Kyoto.

By 30 August, the Japanese army had taken advantage of the developed road network to assemble 1.2 million troops in the vicinity of Kyoto, and Nogi Noshinori's plan to complete the million-strong army on Kyushu Island was completed at this time.

When Chen Fei attacked the emperor, Lin Yuan learned about the information of this division, this division is one of the best elite divisions in Japan, and it is the most relied on force by the emperor, and this army is deployed in the Kobe area, the closest to his own troops, Lin Yuan thought in his heart: "Although the Japanese army has put together a force of 1.2 million people, many of the troops in it are ineffective, if I can destroy the Guards Division in one fell swoop, I will definitely be able to deter the Japanese army in one fell swoop!" ”

Lin Yuan then instructed Xiao Yingwu: "In this battle, first pick hard bones to gnaw, gnaw hard bones, and then pinch soft persimmons, the Japanese Guards Division is the hardest bone, first concentrate forces to defeat them!" ”

Xiao Yingwu then began to reconnoiter the situation of the Guards Division stationed in Kobe, only to find out: The division commander of this division is Prince Zairen who went to use a delaying tactic against Lin Yuan, and this division is well-equipped, especially they also have a main artillery chariot unit, in fact, each division of the Japanese army has a certain number of main artillery chariots, but because Lin Yuan has carried out a long-term sea and air blockade of Japan, there is a shortage of oil in Japan, and many main artillery chariots have no fuel, so they naturally cannot be dispatched. And the main artillery tank units of the Guards Division had quite sufficient fuel reserves.

The scouts sent by Xiao Yingwu also found that the Guards Division was arrogant, especially Prince Zairen, who was even more arrogant because he had carried out a mission in the barracks of Lin Yuan's troops, and even threatened to save Japan by himself. Xiao Yingwu then decided: use their arrogance to lure the enemy deep and set up a pocket formation for the Guards Division.

On August 31, Xiao Yingwu issued an order to Zhou Xiao, commander of the 2nd Division: "Lure the Guards Division to Takasago Town, 30 kilometers west of Kobe, and launch a war of annihilation against the Guards Division here." ”

Zhou Xiao agreed, and immediately ordered all units to attack the Guards Division, the Guards Division dispatched the main artillery combat vehicles, counterattacked the 2nd Division, the 2nd Division did not love to fight, and immediately retreated westward, Prince Zairen heard that Lin Yuan's troops were retreating, and he did not know what to do, so he ordered the troops to attack with all their might, and at two o'clock in the morning of September 1, when the Guards Division was pursuing to Takasago, the 33rd Amphibious Combat Division suddenly landed ten kilometers east of Takasago, cutting off the retreat of the Guards Division.

Although Prince Zaihito knew that he was surrounded, he had no fear, and ordered his troops to build fortifications in Takasago Town to resist the attack of Hayashien's troops, and at the same time sent a telegram to the emperor, asking Emperor Meiji to quickly dispatch troops to encircle the 33rd Amphibious Division behind him.

The telegram was sent to Emperor Meiji, who immediately instructed Yamaguchi Aritomo to concentrate his forces and completely annihilate the 33rd Amphibious Combat Division of Hayashiwon's army.

At the same time, Xiao Yingwu also transferred the 3rd, 5th and 7th divisions to the battlefield, and gave a death order to destroy the Guards Division within twenty-four hours!