Chapter 9: A World of Conflict: Winter is Coming

Aleutian Islands, southwestern Alaska, USA

It stretches thousands of kilometers from the Alaska Peninsula to the southwest, echoing the Kamchatka Peninsula in Asia. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

This is the Aleutian Islands, known as the "stepping stone to Alaska".

Before the Stars and Stripes were planted in this inhospitable land, the Aleutian Islands and the Alaska Peninsula belonged to Tsarist Russia, and generations of Russian explorers fought with astonishing perseverance to carve out new horizons for their homeland thousands of miles away. However, the distance made it difficult for Moscow to project its forces here, and it could not withstand the Anglo-Saxon nation, which was bent on becoming the sole master of North America.

So, in 1867, the Aleutian Islands, along with Alaska, were sold to the United States for $7.2 million. In the eyes of the tsar at that time, the Aleutian Islands were volcanic and seismically active, and the islands were barren and barren, almost unsuitable for immigration and cultivation, so for Russia, which had just lost the Crimean War and was exhausted, it was a good deal to get rid of the hot potato. However, if Tsar Alexander II had known that Alaska had a huge gold mine buried underground, and that the Aleutian Sea was a world-class fishing treasure, especially the Bering Sea in the north, which was known for being the world's largest fishing ground and had important military and strategic value, he would have regretted it.

- The Aleutian Islands are volcanic islands, consisting of five groups of islands: Fox, Andreyanov, Four Mountains, Rath and Neil, with a total of 159 large and small islands and a total area of about 18,000 square kilometers. Straddling the North Pacific Ocean, the archipelago is the natural dividing line between the Bering Sea and the Pacific Ocean, guarding the Bering Sea exit. At the same time, it is also the closest place to the territory between the United States and Russia, and it is also a shortcut to North America and Northern Europe.

However, despite such unique geographical conditions, after all, it is located in a high-latitude cold sea, surrounded by tundra wilderness far from the civilized world. Not only is the island barren, but also volcanic earthquakes are frequent, so the Aleutian Islands, plagued by ice and fire, have always had a small population, even the capital of the archipelago, Holland Port, has only about 3,000 inhabitants, and most of the islands are simply uninhabited.

At the beginning of the Pacific War, the Japanese briefly invaded the Aleutian Islands, occupying the deserted islands of Attu and Kiska. But soon because he could not maintain such a long supply line, he fell into a dilemma. In the summer of 1943, the U.S. forces launched a counteroffensive and recaptured Attu Island under the cover of battleship fire, while the Japanese on Kiska Island fled in a hurry, ending the war in the Aleutian Islands.

This small battle, which took place in the distant cold sea, did not attract anyone's attention at the time. For the next two years, the sea remained calm away from the war. The entire Pacific War seems to unfold between the coral reefs of the South Pacific, burning with blood and fire in that sunny tropical ocean. The Aleutian Islands, located at the northernmost tip of the Pacific Ocean, have become a forgotten corner of the world.

However, in fact, in this forgotten cold island, the US military has been building on a large scale for the past two years, and has not hesitated to throw away a huge amount of capital that can be called a sea of gold and silver, and has built large airports and secret oil depots, ammunition depots, and material supply depots on various islands, forming a logistics base of astonishing scale.

Now, it's time for this archipelago to do its job!

When the Japanese Navy detected the news that the main force of the US Pacific Fleet had sailed out of Hawaii and its whereabouts were unknown, and hurriedly shrank its forces everywhere to prepare for the next Armageddon in the South Pacific, the fleet quietly came to the Aleutian Islands, which are located at the northernmost tip of the Pacific Ocean.

- The next great counteroffensive of the United States of America is about to shoot the arrow of vengeance at the Japanese Empire from here!

At this moment, in this cold sea area where clouds and mist linger all year round, all kinds of warships are densely packed, like overwhelming locust swarms, covering the ocean outside Holland Harbor, the capital of the Aleutian Islands, and there is no end in sight. The masts resemble forests on the sea, and the brightly colored Star-Spangled Banners hunt and wade in the humid sea breeze - six Essex-class carriers, three Independence-class light carriers, twenty merchant converted escort carriers, two Alaska-class battlecruisers, three Montana-class battleships, four Baltimore-class heavy cruisers, twelve Cleveland-class light cruisers, and more than a hundred destroyers of various types...... When such a large fleet sails over the sea, the waters of the Pacific Ocean will probably be stirred up!

And in this huge "sea of warships", the most conspicuous object is the "Hawaii", the first ship of the "Hawaii" class battleship, which was launched just 10 months ago and can be called an unprecedented 100,000-ton super giant battleship!

-- Stimulated by the astonishing performance of the Japanese Yamato-class battleships, the Americans almost took out a desperate posture to build large ships and huge cannons during the Pacific War: think about it, the stupid and clumsy Japanese monkey who has always been extremely despised by himself actually built such a super battleship that blocks and kills gods and Buddhas, and the entire Pacific Fleet is actually beaten by it, where should the face of this strongest industrial country on the earth go? We must build a bigger and better battleship to boost the morale of the front-line soldiers!

Although some naval professionals, based on the examples of the attack on Pearl Harbor and the air raid on Taranto, have preached the theory of victory in the air everywhere, saying that the big ships and huge guns are the tears of the times, and only the aircraft carrier is the key to dominating the sea in the future. However, those parliamentarians and people who do not understand professional knowledge still intuitively believe according to traditional experience that only battleships with large tonnage, thick caliber, and thick armor are invincible winners in naval battles!

Moreover, the terrible performance of the Japanese battleship Yamato in the South Pacific also threw off the supporters of the "uselessness of battleships" one slap after another.

Besides, if you build a battleship, it doesn't mean that you won't build an aircraft carrier, since you think the aircraft carrier is important, let's play big construction together!

As a result, the entire United States of America frantically played a large-scale construction activity, and the 50,000-ton Iowa-class battleship could not beat the Yamato, so it went up to the 70,000-ton Montana-class, and when it was discovered that the 70,000-ton Montana class could not beat it, there was this "Hawaiian"-class "super large" battleship: a standard displacement of 100,000 and 50,000 tons, a top speed of 30 knots, a 20-inch caliber main gun, and a super-heavy projectile of more than 6,000 pounds......

Due to the fact that the tonnage of the battleships of the "Hawaii" class was already far beyond the maximum permissible passage of the Panama Canal in this era, it was impossible to pass through the Panama Canal. Therefore, after being launched, he made a detour through the Drake Strait in South America, rushed all the way to the Pacific theater, and then rested at the Pearl Harbor anchorage in Hawaii for a while, and then continued to assemble north, preparing to participate in this vigorous counteroffensive against Japan.

However, although this 100,000-ton cutting-edge super battleship stands out among the steel battleships flying the Star-Spangled Banner, it does not play the role of the general flagship in this unprecedented counteroffensive...... This glorious mission belongs to another legendary ship......

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With the sound of a long whistle, the aircraft carrier "Enterprise" flying the admiral's flag slowly sailed into the anchorage near Holland Port, the capital of the Aleutian Islands, and all the ships moored nearby raised their flags or fired their guns to it.

In the US Pacific Fleet, which has been defeated repeatedly, the USS Enterprise has become a spiritual symbol. If the battleship Yamato symbolizes the self-confidence and arrogance of the Japanese Combined Fleet, then the aircraft carrier Enterprise symbolizes the tenacity and indomitability of the US Pacific Fleet.

As early as when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, it was chased by the battleship Yamato and forced to run aground, but because it did not hurt the keel, it was lucky to be able to repair it quickly. Then, in a series of encounters in the South Pacific, the Enterprise participated in almost all major naval battles. Although the entire U.S. Pacific Fleet was almost wiped out three times, from fleet commanders to ordinary sailors, and even ships were replaced at least once, the Enterprise always survived each time, so it was known as the "Lucky Star" in the army, and the sailors were fortunate to be able to serve on the Enterprise.

At this moment, the current commander of the US Pacific Fleet, nicknamed "Brute Bull" William Jr. Frederick. Admiral Halsey stood on the legendary ship "Enterprise", which accompanied him through the four years of war, and looked at the scenery of Alaska that gradually unfolded on the horizon.

- Only after you actually come to this land will you realize that the image of Alaska in your mind in the past is not correct. Alaska is not exactly a purgatory of ice and snow covered in glaciers and permafrost, but an equally vibrant green world. Behind the cloud-shrouded coastline, lush forests and meadows are everywhere, and the doors and windows of local wooden houses are covered with flowerpots in full bloom and delicate.

However, such a vibrant and beautiful summer time has also come to an end in Alaska today. Whether it's the longer and longer nights or the cold Arctic winds, it is a sign that a harsh winter is coming...... But it was a wonderful good thing for Halsey – in the North Pacific at the end of September, the seasonally good weather for aerial reconnaissance had almost come to an end. Today, the North Pacific, the Sea of Okhotsk and the Bering Sea are gradually becoming filled with all kinds of strong winds and fog. Just as the United States had not discovered the Japanese Navy's sneak attack fleet from the North Pacific before Pearl Harbor, it was almost impossible for the Japanese to discover the main force of the U.S. Pacific Fleet assembled in the Aleutian Islands.

After a while, when the Japanese navy mistakenly gathered their forces in the old battlefield in the South Pacific and defended that empty sea, the Halsey fleet, which had achieved its strategic deception goal, would avoid the real and the false, and carry the cold wind of the Arctic, from here to the south and go straight to the Japanese archipelago!

At that time, the ownership and contention of this vast ocean should be settled.

If Eastern civilization originated from the Yellow River, the Ganges, the Tigris and the Euphrates, then the cradle of Western civilization is the blue ocean.

War and bloodshed have always followed in the footsteps of human civilization, and with the development of seafaring, fire and sword have also descended on the ocean.

The trinity of naval battles, warships, and naval generals was forged into the trident of Poseidon, the god of the sea. The early admirals of the Age of Discovery were mostly daring adventurer captains; Drake and Nelson, the stars of naval warfare in the era of sails and artillery, were just some tacticians who bravely crowned the whole army; It was only after entering the industrial age that Tirpitz and Fisher began to put their ideas on the strategic stage.

Now, two more great nations are going to use the vast Pacific Ocean as a stage to play a legendary epic full of blood and fire.

Over the past few years, Halsey "The Bull" has seen too many failures, and a series of deaths of acquaintances and friends — Nimitz is dead, Fletcher is dead, Spruance the Silent is dead, and Kincaid is dead when he led his army to regain the Aleutian Islands in '43.

The fierce Japanese Combined Fleet on the opposite side, the Marshal Yamamoto 56 who seemed to be destined for heaven, and the few Yamato-class battleships that were like nightmares, wiped out the US Pacific Fleet again and again, forcing the Americans to rebuild their navy almost from scratch again and again, but each time they had just lifted themselves half up from the quagmire, and they were immediately beaten and pressed into the mud again.

On the other side, Yamamoto 56, as if in the Second Punic War, Hannibal, the undefeated Carthaginian god of war, led a fleet that should be inferior in both quantity and quality, and defeated the US Pacific Fleet.

But just as Hannibal underestimated the resilience and war potential of the Romans, Yamamoto Isoroku probably underestimated the resilience of the U.S. Navy. Each time he defeated the U.S. Pacific Fleet, a new, more powerful fleet would be reborn......

No matter what difficulties he faced, even if he had to risk his own life, he was determined to fulfill his will and slogan, that is: "Kill the Japanese!" Kill the Japanese! Kill more Japanese! ”

However, the Pacific War, which lasted for four years, did cause heavy losses to the US Navy. For a superpower like the United States, which is rich in natural resources and has an industrial scale that is proud of the world, once it enters the wartime system, it is only a matter of time before a "sea of warships" breaks out.

The real key problem was the lack of a sufficient number of qualified sailors – after such a series of defeats, the elite naval officers and men who served on the capital ships were almost dead. The navy is a rather complex technical branch, although in order to cope with the war, the major naval academies in the United States have repeatedly expanded their enrollment, but those rookies who have just graduated are not able to do things at all, at most they can operate destroyers, light cruisers and other auxiliary ships. If you want to operate a huge capital ship of tens of thousands of tons to be handy, you must have several years of practical training.

At present, in order to be in a hurry, the US Navy can only draw personnel from the merchant fleet, and even pull strong men from the British, French, and a bunch of exiled countries in Western Europe to replenish them after a period of emergency training. Compared with the sailors before the war, the quality has deteriorated a lot. Fortunately, the United States is in great difficulty, and the Japanese side is even more bleak. The losses of the pilots could barely be replenished, and the newly recruited crew members were also a bunch of rookies.

After all, a general war between the United States, which has a big business and a country with limited industrial strength, is like a millionaire and a poor man burning money, even if they burn dollars and devils burn yen, they can burn Japan bankrupt...... It's a pity that there is still a Soviet Union that is giving blood transfusions to Japan, so it will never be able to fall.

Thinking of this, Halsey hated it - according to the latest intelligence, from Vladivostok in the Soviet Union to the ports in the Sea of Japan in the northwestern part of the Japanese archipelago, it has now become the busiest trade route in the Far East. Oil, steel, machine tools, spare parts, heavy machinery, chemicals, flour, potatoes, salted fish, and canned food exported from the Soviet Union were being shipped to Japan in a steady stream to keep the Japanese war machine running and to ensure the minimum needs of the Japanese people. Just as the arrogant Brits on the other side of the Atlantic are munching on the American Spam luncheon meat, the Japanese, who were used to eating rice, are now frowning and chewing on the Russian black leba......

In order to pay the bills for these things, the Japanese also poured all their money into their own pockets, not only organizing one donation campaign after another in the country, taking away the last gold ring from the hands of the common people, but also looting all kinds of tea and silk from China, spices, cocoa, palm oil, coffee, sugar, tobacco, rubber and tropical fruit preserves from Southeast Asia, rabbit skins and wool from Australia, all of which were transported to the Soviet Union by ship after ship as debt redemption items. And in order for the Japanese to have ships to transport goods, the USSR even exported entire merchant ships to Japan in large quantities!

Alas, the United States of America can have such an "anti-fascist ally", and it is really eight lifetimes of mold.

Thus, during this world war, the standard of living of ordinary Soviet people, instead of seriously declining, became better in some respects. The rationing of bread and other staple foods was not much different from before the war, and the supply of various non-staple foods was even better than before the war! Now, residents of Moscow and other large Soviet cities no longer need tickets to buy spices, tea and sugar, and long-lost tropical specialties such as palm oil, cocoa, coffee and pepper are on the shelves. In addition, there is a variety of unheard of canned tropical fruits and canned fish. The women were delighted to buy all kinds of splendid silks, and the cigarettes smoked by the soldiers and workers were much higher...... It's almost like Hitler's Führer, after winning the French war, frantically collected all kinds of luxury goods from the Parisian market and shipped them back to Germany, so as to curry favor with the Germanic people at home who had enough of artificial coffee and margarine.

However, the effect of this approach was immediate, and the enthusiasm of the Soviets to support the war was unprecedentedly high, and there was no obvious atmosphere of war weariness so far.

On the other hand, the common people in the various occupied areas of the Japanese army fell into bad luck because of this, but this account can only be credited to the Japanese. Equally unfortunate are the United States and Great Britain, the former endlessly sacrificing and bleeding in the Pacific, and the latter losing colonies year after year that cannot be regained.

Obviously, if the Soviet Union's blood transfusion to Japan could not be cut off, the cost of destroying the Japanese imperial war machine would be unimaginably high.

But how can we get the Soviet Union to cut off blood transfusions every day, or even declare war on Japan, and end the Pacific War as soon as possible, which dragged the United States to the point of withering up its bone marrow? Neither the White House nor the Pentagon can come up with a solution. Military threat? The Soviets not only had atomic bombs, but also dared to drop atomic bombs casually! An exchange of interests? The whole of Europe is already about to be swallowed up by the Soviet Union, where can the United States and Britain have any decent chips to exchange? In such a situation where the red flag is about to be planted all over the world, the Soviets may wish that the United States, the "last bastion of capitalism", would drain its blood on the Pacific Ocean!

Therefore, in order to break this dilemma and end this damned war as quickly as possible, the US Navy once again opened its brains, decided to avoid the real and make a false move, moved troops northward on a large scale, and formulated this combat operation codenamed "Winter", preparing to hit the back of the head of the Japanese Empire with a hammer!

For more than three years, the main force of the Japanese Combined Fleet has been stationed in the South Seas, the oil base and transportation lifeblood that kept the Japanese Empire running, and the private kingdom that Marshal Yamamoto 56 painstakingly managed. Once this resource-rich land is lost, the once invincible combined fleet of the Japanese Navy will become a source of water and a tree without roots, and the halt of the Japanese Imperial War Machine will be just around the corner.

Therefore, after the outbreak of the Pacific War, the Japanese Empire continued to invest the essence of the navy and army into this land thousands of miles away. In the previous three years, the U.S. Pacific Fleet had repeatedly launched counteroffensives here, but unfortunately all attempts ended in failure.

After repeatedly hitting a wall, the US Navy finally considered the possibility of attacking the Japanese archipelago from Alaska in the north - in order to withstand the powerful counteroffensive of the US army, the elite of the Japanese Imperial Navy and Army are now almost all mobilized to the Nanyang-Australia line, and the remaining part of the troops are also stranded on the battlefield in Chinese mainland, or to aid the Indian insurgents, and the military strength of its archipelago has been quite empty.

In particular, the Japanese Navy did not have a single capital ship on its own soil, except for a few old coastal defense ships left over from the Russo-Japanese War. Even if the Japanese found out about this problem, they would not have the spare forces to fill the holes in the northern defensive line of their homeland. In this way, if the US Navy can jump out of the vicious circle of thinking inertia and no longer stick to defeating the main force of Yamamoto Isoroku's Combined Fleet head-on, then it can completely attack from the North Pacific, stab the border between Japan and the Soviet Union, and win the war in the hometown of these little people!

According to the Commander-in-Chief of the US Navy Ernest Brown. Joseph. The main objectives of Kim's instructions and the "cold winter" combat plan are as follows:

First, it is necessary to pull Japan's maritime defense line and make it lose sight of one or the other. Once the Combined Fleet went north to rescue the mainland, the U.S. military switched to the South Seas.

Second, it was to enter the Sea of Japan, the "pond of Emperor Hirohito," and cut off the Soviet Union's supply to the Imperial Japanese war machine.

Third, it will shake the Japanese Empire's resolve to fight and create an opportunity for the political forces in Japan to seize power.

Fourth, on the basis of achieving the above three goals, we should provide appropriate assistance to China's government forces to prevent them from becoming another red country.

For General Halsey, who was on the front line, this plan reminded him of the Second Punic War in the epic: Yamamoto Isoroku in the South Seas was the Carthaginian god Hannibal, who was invincible in the Italian Peninsula; And he Halsey is about to smash the native nest of the "contemporary Hannibal", force him to withdraw his troops and return home, and finally hate the famous Roman general Scipio who was defeated in the battle of Zama!

Since we can't beat you in the South Pacific, let's try another battlefield!

Alas, I don't know where in the Japanese archipelago the "Battle of Zama" will be fought?

General Halsey touched his chin and looked at the map of Japan on the chart table, thoughtful......

Of course, it seems that it is too early to think about this question, and before that, the first thing he, the "brute bull", will do is to lead the fleet along the Kuril Islands, smash the Sea of Japan from the north, and kill the Japanese! Kill the Japanese! Kill more Japanese!

“…… Autumn has arrived, and the following winter should not be too far away...... The sun of the Japanese Empire has been shining over the Pacific Ocean for too long, and now is the time for those hateful yellow-skinned dwarfs to feel the cold winter winds from the Arctic! ”

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Midway, the Central Pacific, the forward base of the US military's operations against Japan

With the landing of a seaplane, the Admiral Ernest Ernest Brown patrolled the front line. Joseph. Kim, came to this island.

At this time, the main force of the Pacific Fleet led by Halsey had been assembled in the Aleutian Islands in the north, and was in the process of final rest and replenishment before the sortie. Another small feint fleet, tasked with defrauding the enemy, had also set anchor for New Zealand.

However, even Admiral Halsey did not know that the real killer weapon of this Armageddon against Japan was actually arranged here.

-- At Midway's largest military airfield, more than 200 B-29 four-engine "Super Flying Fortress" strategic bombers have all been transferred and landed, and are undergoing final overhaul work. In the open space next to it, ground crews are transporting boxes of "special aerial bombs" with skull patterns into the warehouse. In addition, there is a large group of experts in white coats, surrounding two huge special aerial bombs, instructing ground crews on how to maintain and install them.

This is the real killer feature of the US Pacific Fleet's "winter" operation: relying on the technology obtained from the fugitives of Nazi Germany, a large number of sarin gas bombs were urgently produced; And the entire existing nuclear arsenal of the United States, the two atomic bombs codenamed "Fat Man" and "Little Boy"!

Although Admiral Halsey regarded his decisive battle with Marshal Yamamoto as an epic duel between "contemporary Scipio" and "contemporary Hannibal". However, Ernest. Commander Kim was well aware that this was not the whole plan.

Although the northern defense line of the Japanese Empire was empty, it would be a waste of time to win all of them if they were to fight for them island by island. Once Isoroku Yamamoto led the main force of the Combined Fleet to the north to rescue, then with the advantage of relying on the local battle, and considering the outstanding performance of the Japanese Navy in the previous series of battles, the chances of victory for the Halsey fleet may not be very great.

Indeed, taking advantage of the fact that this combined fleet was transferred out of the South Seas, the United States could take the opportunity to launch an offensive on the southern front, reverse the defeat in the Australian battlefield, and even end up the Japanese oil fields and strategic resource bases in the South Seas, so that this fleet would lose its long-lasting combat capability and gradually become an iron coffin with no fuel to burn...... But the Japanese Empire still has millions of tons of crude oil reserves on its own soil, and it will take at least a year or two to drain its opponents!

And this is still in the best case scenario - let's not forget that there is also a Soviet Union that will give Japan a blood transfusion so that it can drag the American army on.

It's just that the United States is already burning its eyebrows, and there is no time to continue tearing with the Japanese! In order to be able to free up their hands as soon as possible and work with the British allies to curb the excessive expansion of Soviet Bolshevik power in Europe, the United States must end the Pacific War this year!

As long as this goal can be achieved, even if it pays some reputational and image losses, the White House is ready to pinch its nose and admit it.

So, Ernest. Admiral Kim personally rushed to Midway Island to preside over this "special bombing" of Tokyo, Japan, -- first dispatched an unprecedentedly large B-29 four-engine "Super Flying Fortress" strategic bomber group to drop a large number of sarin gas bombs on the urban area of Tokyo from a high altitude, killing thousands of Japanese and forcing the rest into basements or bunkers, not daring to flee at will. Next, two atomic bombs will be dropped on the Nagatacho Imperial Palace and the Akasaka Imperial Palace, in an attempt to kill the Japanese emperor in one fell swoop, or at least paralyze the entire wartime stronghold of the Japanese Empire.

In this way, in the face of the Japanese Empire, whose command center was paralyzed, the Halsey fleet only needed to crush some insignificant and sporadic resistance, and it could easily rush into the heart of the empire, repeating the scene when Admiral Perry led four "black ships" to force Japan to open the country.

The Japanese domestic peacemakers, who have long been linked to the United States of America, will also take the opportunity to raise trouble internally, establish a new pro-American regime, break the will of the Japanese army to resist, cooperate with the US military to take over this samurai island, and even use the legacy of the Japanese Empire to assist the US military in dealing with the red forces of the Soviet Union and China...... At that time, even if Yamamoto Fifty-six, who is in the South Seas, has great ability, he can only surrender and let his fate fall.

Of course, after doing so, the reputation of the United States is probably about the same as that of Hitler, who slaughtered the Jews...... But since Churchill could have decided to shake hands with the Nazis in Germany in order to curb the spread of the Red Forces, why couldn't the United States learn the methods of the Holocaust?

What's more, this is just killing a group of innocent Japanese devils! Only dead Japanese are good Japanese!

Looking at the two atomic bombs that were about to create an unprecedented catastrophe, Ernest . Admiral Kim convinced himself so......

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Kyoto, Japan

In autumn in Kyoto, the leaves are falling. In the historic ancestral estate of the Mitsui family in Kyoto, a secret internal meeting of great importance is being held, and several old men in kimonos or suits are arguing fiercely, but they are never able to come to a conclusion.

Seventy-seven years after the success of the Meiji Restoration, Japan's largest chaebol ushered in another important moment that would determine the fate of the family.

The last time such a choice was made was on the eve of the Battle of Fushimi-Toba, which decided the survival of the Tokugawa family......

As a family of wealthy merchants with a long history, as early as the Tokugawa shogunate, the Mitsui family began to engage in the gold and silver currency exchange industry, as well as financial businesses such as pawnbroking and lending, and later took over the tax exchange business of the Tokugawa shogunate, so that ordinary wealthy merchants became the top chaebol in one fell swoop. Later, through long-term close cooperation with the shogunate, the Tokugawa shogunate's trust in the Mitsui zaibatsu reached an unprecedented level.

In particular, after the Western powers opened the door to Japan, the shogunate went so far as to stipulate that all local business of foreign banks must go through the Mitsui family, so that foreign banks could not have direct contact with Japanese merchants. The Mitsui family played the role of the thirteen banks of Guangzhou in the Qing Dynasty, and the Mitsui family monopolized all the trade and financial interfaces between Japan and foreign countries, so that the Mitsui family's financial and business network was the only one in Japan.

However, although the Tokugawa shogunate loved the Mitsui chaebol so much, the Mitsui chaebol was like a hungry wolf that could not be fed, and in the chaotic times at the end of the Edo period, he resolutely dealt a fatal blow to the Tokugawa shogunate from behind: on the eve of the Fushimi-Toba Battle that decided the ownership of the world, Mitsui Saburosuke, the richest man in Japan and the head of the Mitsui zaibatsu, ordered all the bets to be placed on the shogunate faction, and poured all his family resources to aid the Meiji Emperor's restoration government, and openly broke with the Tokugawa shogunate!

As a result, the new government army, which had been empty and was about to become chaotic without a fight, suddenly had ample military spending, and purchased more than 500 artillery pieces and supporting ammunition in one go, and fought a decisive battle against the shogunate army, which was three times its strength. However, the Tokugawa family, which seemed to have deep roots, immediately fell into financial collapse and financial chaos as a result, and its combat effectiveness plummeted by several notches. Next, the shogunate army was not only defeated in the Battle of Fushimi-Toba, but also completely collapsed, and almost unable to organize any resistance, surrendered in Edo Kaejo.

Since then, the Mitsui zaibatsu has achieved a magnificent turn from the remnants of the shogunate to the imperial fathers, and was appointed by the Meiji Emperor as the new financial agent of the Japanese Empire, and the Mitsui Bank has almost become the national central bank of Japan, monopolizing many powers such as coinage, printing money, and issuing public bonds, and occupying the huge interests of many mines, ports, and factories, so that a super economic empire from finance to industry has been formed, and its wealth and power are incomparable for a while.

Even Mitsubishi, Sumitomo and other major chaebols are just juniors who look up to the Mitsui chaebol in Japan.

The New York Times once described it this way: There has never been such an organization in Western civilization. The Rothschilds, who are only engaged in the financial industry, are very ordinary compared to the Mitsui chaebol. Mitsui was the richest conglomerate in the Eastern world, controlling mines, banks, railways, shipping, factories and trading companies. "Rich as Mitsui" means infinite wealth to the Japanese, just as Americans dream of "being as rich as Rockefeller."

The various zaibatsu led by the Mitsui family not only controlled the economic lifeline of Japan, but also colluded with the elders, bureaucrats, and warlords to manipulate political parties, sway and control the political power, and constantly prop up their own agents in political circles, so that the chariot of the Japanese empire had to always serve the interests of the zaibatsu.

However, when the chariot gradually drove towards the cliff and was in danger of capsizing and disintegrating, the chaebols couldn't help but want to jump out of the chariot and change horses......

-- Although the current situation of the Japanese Empire still seems to be in full swing and extremely prosperous, the heads of the major chaebols know very well in their hearts that the strength of the empire has long been overdrawn to the limit, and it is only by fighting for the last breath that it can compete with the United States. Moreover, with the successive destruction of Germany and Italy, Japan was the only one left in the three major Axis powers, and Japan could not bear it in the face of the coming global siege.

At present, the Imperial Japanese war machine is barely kept running, except for the squeezing of the people and the occupied territories, that is, the blood transfusion obtained from the Soviet Union, but this has to pay a heavy price. And the red ideology that poured into the Japanese Empire along with Soviet supplies, especially after the corresponding signs appeared in the army and government, made the hearts of these extremely reactionary chaebols with great alarm - for them, it was really better to turn Japan into a colony and then change to serve by an American master, rather than see Japan become a country like the Soviet Union.

As a matter of fact, as early as when Nazi Germany was on the verge of collapse and the European theater was coming to an end, Japan's major chaebols had already communicated with the United States and Britain through their own channels to try the possibility of getting Japan out of the war and obtaining an honorable ending.

However, the conditions offered by the allies were far from the minimum bottom line that could be accepted by Japan's wartime base camp, and if such a peace treaty had been signed, it was feared that the army would soon have a mutiny and a heavenly punishment -- as long as the military headquarters was stuck in the middle, peace would not be possible.

However, in militaristic Japan, no one could suppress the army - the all-out war that lasted for many years had already swelled the military's power to the point of not being able to lose its power, and the factories, banks, and merchant ships owned by these chaebols had to accept the wartime control and supervision of the base camp, and their actual control was greatly weakened. And the current extremely harsh wartime system has also seriously constrained the means of these chaebols to stir up trouble.

Just as it was impossible for a merchant in the shogunate era to defeat the samurai and control the country's affairs on his own, it is impossible for the current Japanese chaebol to suppress the Japanese army.

In addition, even within the various chaebols, there are many discussions and disagreements on the issue of bypassing the military and seeking peace with the allies -- they certainly know that this crazy war that singles out the whole world can no longer be fought, and they are even more resentful of the military's wanton interference and control of the industries under their own name under the banner of "wartime control", and they are also very worried that Japan will break out drastic changes under the domestic and foreign difficulties, repeat the mistakes of Tsarist Russia at the end of World War I, and lose everything.

However, many people also lack trust and are very hesitant about the American lobbyists who are shaking the olive branch: after the end of World War I, they still remember how the Allies demolished factories and machinery from Germany and apportioned huge reparations.

In any case, the situation of the Japanese Empire does not seem to have reached the end of the road, so why make a decision so quickly?

Moreover, it is still a decision to "collude with foreigners" behind the government's back, and it is likely to make a decision that will leave a stench in history for thousands of years.

However, although they had not yet made up their minds to jump from the chariot on the verge of disintegration of the Japanese Empire into the bowl of the Americans, they heeded the advice of their liaison and left Tokyo temporarily...... After all, Tokyo is the imperial capital, full of many spy eyeliner, even if you have reached a tacit agreement with the high-level in advance, it will be a trouble if you are stabbed out by the stunned Qing below. If you want to do something in secret, it's really better to go out of town.

- Until this time, they didn't know what was going to happen next, what kind of landslide and earth shattering it would be.

However, while the cold winter snap from Alaska and the nuclear flame from Midway Island were still gathering momentum thousands of kilometers away from the Japanese archipelago, another cold wind from the north that swept through Europe had already made countless people shiver under its obscenity......