Takeo Ishida was a little annoyed by Mu Yang's rudeness, Mu Yang couldn't help but didn't stand up and salute, and nodded at himself very casually.

Seeing Muyang wearing a suit before, he thought he was a businessman, but he didn't care. After Etojima's introduction, I learned that it was a staff officer of the Army Headquarters. Even if you are a staff officer of the Army Headquarters, you can't be so rude. As soon as he wanted to teach Muyang a few words, Etojima whispered a few words in his ear, and Takeo Ishida was immediately stunned on the spot, then quickly got up, bowed slightly to Muyang and said: "Your Excellency Kurita, I am Takeo Ishida, originally belonging to the 25th Division of the 18th Army Corps. ”

"Ishida Daisa, please sit down, I know that your brave troops, in 1941, were General Terauchi Shouichi, who led the 5th, 18th and Guards Divisions of the 25th Army Corps to take the Malayan Peninsula in one fell swoop, and then marched into the Philippines, defeating the British and Americans." Muyang has seen that period of history.

Takeo Ishida was also said by Muyang to have a light on his face, and it was a great honor to be praised by a royal family. However, then Takeo Ishida's face fell again. He thought of the recent war situation, and the situation of the Japanese army in Southeast Asia was already very critical, and he could not be happy.

The year 1944 was a turning point in the Pacific theater, after Japan invaded the south, conquering Singapore, the Philippines, Vietnam, Cambodia, Brunei, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Papua New Guinea, and Laos. Almost all Southeast Asian countries were occupied by the Japanese army.

Even the once-invincible British Empire surrendered under the guns of the Japanese.

In June of this year, the United States sent heavy troops to confront Japan, and a "Philippine Sea Battle" was held, in which Japan lost three aircraft carriers, many heavy cruisers, and more than 600 warplanes, and finally ended in failure, and also lost the sea supremacy in Southeast Asia.

On land, during the three-month landing operation on the Mariana Islands, the US forces successively captured Saipan, Guam, and Tinian Islands, and basically completely annihilated about 70,000 garrisons on the three islands, resulting in a serious deterioration of the Japanese military's strategic defense posture in the Pacific, and the "absolute defense circle" stipulated in the base camp was facing collapse due to the loss of the core area, and the Japanese mainland would be directly attacked by US B-29 bombers taking off from the Mariana Islands, and the US military would be given an forward base to continue its advance in the Central Pacific.

The fall of the Mariana Islands greatly shook Japan, exacerbated the internal contradictions in Japan's domestic political arena, and the distrust and antipathy of the Tojo Cabinet for starting the war were high, and the Tojo Cabinet was forced to step down under tremendous domestic pressure.

In order to save the crisis in Southeast Asia, Japan formulated the "Operation No. 1" plan, intending to open up the communication lines from China to Southeast Asia. "Operation No. 1" can be described as the largest battle of the Japanese army since the invasion, immediately 8 months, hundreds of thousands of Chinese soldiers, soldiers and civilians died in this battle, more than a dozen cities in 3 provinces were contributed, and the losses were incalculable.

It was under such circumstances that Japan accelerated its efforts to plunder valuable materials from Southeast Asia and China, and this time Takeo Ishida was the escort officer who was sent to transport the supplies.

The three of them sat down to eat and chat, and then they heard Takeo Yamada ask, "Your Excellency Kurita, is there something going on in China this time?" ”

Mu Yang wiped his mouth with a napkin and said: "It's nothing, it's just that the empire has occupied China for so long, and I haven't been here once, so I feel quite regrettable, so this time I will take advantage of the holiday to come to China to have a look and appreciate what China is like." ”

"How does it feel?"

"It's big, it's crowded, it's chaotic." Mu Yang replied noncommittally.

At this time, Jiang Tengdao said: "Yes, now the empire is still in the stage of conquest, and there are still some omissions in management, but I believe that as long as China is fully occupied and governed a little, China will become the best place for the empire, and now the Pinghan, Yuehan and Xianggui railways have been taken by the imperial army, and the road to the unification of China by the empire is not far away." By the way, Mr. Ishida, what is the situation in Southeast Asia now? ”

Takeo Ishida shook his head and said: "Very bad, the American army is pressing forward step by step, they often use large fighters to bomb our military bases, and the imperial army has suffered a lot of losses. ”

"What a bastard, but it doesn't matter, as long as the "Battle No. 1" is over and the communication lines from China to Vietnam and Burma are opened, the war situation will become favorable to our side. But speaking of which, the bombing by the Americans was really annoying, and many cities in the empire were bombed one after another, and my family had been forced to move to the countryside. Etoshima said angrily.

On June 16, 1944, U.S. B-29 bombers took off from Chengdu, China to bomb Kyushu, Japan, and the flames of war directly burned to the Japanese mainland, and this strategic bombing continued until the end of the war.

In 1945, the United States flew tens of thousands of planes to bomb 97 cities in Japan, destroying all major cities in Japan, except for Kyoto and Nara. A total of 8.5 million of Japan's urban dwellers have fled to the countryside.

As for the final dropping of the atomic bomb, it was only to hasten Japan's surrender, but in fact, it was not to drop the atomic bomb, and Japan probably would not be able to hold out for two months.

Mu Yang thought to himself, fortunately, it was still 1944, if it was 1945, he really didn't dare to go to Japan, it is estimated that he would not be killed by the Japanese, but also by the Americans' aerial bombs.

Mu Yang didn't care much about these things, he was most concerned about those antiques. From Shanghai to Tokyo, the sea voyage is about three days and three nights, and the ship will not dock halfway, so it should not be later than this time, and Muyang's action is best completed during the sea voyage, if it arrives on the main island of Japan, it is estimated that it will be much more troublesome.

Muyang thought for a while and said, "I once looked at the War Department's Lily Project, and I was more interested in your actions, can you tell me how many things you transported back to Japan?" Mu Yang showed a very curious look.

Takeo Ishida and Etojima both looked at Muyang, and finally Takeo Ishida spoke: "This is the second time I've transported supplies to Tokyo, and I don't know much about the rest, but this time I can tell His Excellency Kurita." ”

Originally, this information was supposed to be kept strictly confidential, but now that we are on the way back to Japan, what can happen on the ship? For Kurita Shotsune, a child of the imperial family, Ishida Takeo didn't want to offend, so he finally decided to say part of the situation.

Takeo Ishida said, "Your Excellency Kurita, if you have eaten well, you can come to my guest room and sit down." "Obviously, there are a lot of people here, and Takeo Ishida is reluctant to talk about it here.