Chapter 8: A World of Conflict: Fighting in the Same Room

Wuhan, China

In China's modern history, the capital of Hubei Province, known as the "thoroughfare of nine provinces" and an important town in central China, has been constantly burned by raging wars. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo

From the Wuchang Uprising, which overthrew the Qing Dynasty, to the repeated vicious battles of the Northern Expedition, and then to the Wuhan Battle in the War of Resistance Against Japan......

Today, although the Japanese invaders have retreated from Wuhan, the former anti-Japanese national united front no longer exists. Out of deep-seated hatred and hostility between them, as well as irreconcilable class contradictions, the Kuomintang and the Communist Party fought again, and the city was once again drawn into the flames of war.

At dusk, standing on the south bank of the Yangtze River, on the Yellow Crane Tower on the top of Snake Mountain in Wuchang, looking at the raging fire burning in Hanyang on the opposite bank, and listening to the faint rumbling cannon, the chief of staff of the Allied China Theater in civilian clothes, Joseph. Lieutenant General Stilwell couldn't help but close his eyes in pain.

His Excellency "Vinegar Joe", who is known for his recklessness and arrogance, was in a really bad mood at this time.

Everything is over, all my work and efforts have failed again.

Frustration, disappointment, pain, powerlessness, all kinds of negative feelings poured into Lieutenant General Stilwell's heart like a tidal wave.

From the outbreak of the Pacific War four years ago to the present, he has always played the role of a defeated general. For Stilwell, there is nothing more cruel than becoming a defeated general, but he has been kicked out of the battlefield by fate before the war is over.

Recalling that in the early days of the war, he led tens of thousands of Chinese expeditionary forces from Yunnan to Burma, how high-spirited he was! Even if the whole army was broken up and desperate on the battlefield in Burma, the tenacious Stilwell did not give up, but took the last 100 people around him, forced through the reckless mountains and forests, got rid of the encirclement and interception of the Japanese army, and successfully retreated westward to India, thinking about when to regroup and make a comeback.

But...... Damn it! Japan, an enemy that was recognized by Americans as a clown before the war, was actually so difficult to deal with.

Despite the fact that the country has been building ships frantically without counting blood, the Pacific Fleet has been broken again and again. The Army did no better than the Navy, MacArthur retreated from Manila to the Bataan Peninsula, and then left his troops and fled from the Philippines to Australia with a small group of men, and then continued to retreat south in Australia, and now has retreated to Melbourne, the southernmost point of Australia, and if he wants to continue to retreat, he will have to jump into the sea.

So far, almost all efforts by Western countries to resist Japanese aggression have failed, and the best case scenario is a draw. In Stilwell's view, which has been in the East for many years, the root of the problem should lie in the deep-seated superiority of white people over people of color. Intellectually, they knew that the Japanese were difficult to deal with, but emotionally, they refused to believe that the yellow-faced Japanese could defeat the Western powers.

- Although in the Russo-Japanese War at the beginning of the century, these island dwarves had already succeeded once.

Thus, the Japanese samurai, with their ferocity, cunning and toughness, taught the racists who insisted on white supremacy a hard lesson, making them experience enough embarrassment and humiliation, and also trampling the majesty of the United States of America and the afterglow of the British Empire under their clogs.

As a professional soldier in the United States of America and on the front lines against Japan, Stilwell certainly thought he should do something.

But he couldn't do anything.

Since the failure of his expedition to Burma and his embarrassment to India, he has not had a single soldier in his hands. Although he finally opened up the "Hump Route" from the air over the Himalayas and returned to Chongqing, China, the subsequent Japanese navy's large-scale entry into the Indian Ocean and the ensuing Indian anti-British uprising made Stilwell's plan to use India as a base to train Chinese soldiers to counterattack Burma was completely bankrupt.

- As a typical American who was raised to "hate the British," Stilwell could understand the hatred of Indians for the British colonizers to a certain extent, but it has to be said that the timing of this hatred was awkward, and the people who detonated it were terrible......

After the Indian subcontinent became a battlefield, the Hump route soon ran out of cargo and came to a complete halt. And this was the last international line of communication between China and the outside world during the war. If you lose it, you will suffocate China's blood vessels, and there will never be a single bullet or drop of gasoline to be transported to Chongqing......

Well, strictly speaking, there was an international line of communication with the Soviet Union in the north, but that had nothing to do with Stilwell, the American lieutenant general.

Stilwell, who could not get aid and lost his value, was kicked away by Chairman Chiang and sat on a cold bench in Chongqing.

Later, as the Japanese army shifted the focus of its attack to Nanyang and Australia, and for this reason, it continued to draw troops from the Chinese battlefield, retreated step by step, and took the initiative to abandon the occupied areas of large inland provinces, and Chairman Chiang easily recovered large areas of land such as Wuhan, and his attitude towards the war against Japan became more and more passive.

When MacArthur was stumbling and retreating from the Australian battlefield, Stilwell, relying on President Roosevelt's telegram, tried his best to urge Chairman Chiang not to be satisfied with taking over the part of the territory that the Japanese voluntarily gave up, but to cooperate with other battlefields and launch a diversionary counteroffensive:

“…… With the entire Asian theater of war in full swing, if China can lose no time in bravely counterattacking and take the initiative to launch a large-scale attack on the retreating Japanese invading army, so as to successfully contain the southward march of the Japanese army, and even if conditions permit, recover its capital city -- Nanjing, at an early date, it will certainly be able to give tremendous encouragement to the anti-fascist people of the world......

If it was before, Jiang Guangtou would still be able to listen to a few words about Stilwell, who was in charge of the distribution of US aid materials. However, after the U.S. aid supplies on the Hump route were cut off, the snobbish Chairman Chiang expressed great dissatisfaction and anger to him, and was full of complaints:

“…… How does China conduct its own war against aggression, and what does it have to do with others? So far, the allies have been defeated in the war against Japan! All the battlefields are retreating, but only I, China, are strong and have recovered a large part of the country! Even if the allies fulfill their little promises, give us a little practical support, or cooperate with our country to fight even once, they can be regarded as reflecting the value of the alliance! Now even the fuel of the Chennault Flying Tigers, which is made up of Americans, is not guaranteed! On the contrary, you want us to contain the Japanese army from moving south? Imperialism and racism have always sacrificed China's interests! ”

Although he said it beautifully, Stilwell was speechless for a while. However, Chairman Chiang's approach was really not flattering - he gave all the troops withdrawn from Burma and the last batch of American aid equipment obtained through the Hump Route to the south of Hu Zong in Xi'an, and wholeheartedly engaged in friction with the Eighth Route Army in Yan'an, but he had no interest in fighting the Japanese, and was only bent on waiting for the allies to defeat Japan, and then went to pick the fruits himself.

What is the use of such so-called "allies" who only take things and do not work for the United States? Does Washington owe you anything?

For such a stubborn "peanut", Lieutenant General Stilwell felt extremely frustrated and angry, but he was helpless.

Fortunately, after a period of silence, Stilwell finally found something to do, no longer idle and moldy - the repeatedly failed US Pacific Fleet, in order to save face and retaliate against the enemy, put forward the concept of "shuttle bombing", that is, let long-range strategic bombers take off from Midway, bomb Japan, fly directly to Chinese mainland, refuel and reload in China, and then fly east over Japan to carry out the second bombing, and finally return to Midway. In this way, the problem of insufficient range of the aircraft could be avoided and the Japanese could be doubled, but for this it was necessary to find a suitable base off the coast of China.

As a result, Stilwell, who was idle and moldy in Chongqing, devoted himself with great enthusiasm to the work of surveying the terrain and inspecting the location of the airport.

It's a pity that this work has just begun, and the hapless General Stilwell has been hit in the face again - the second Kuomintang-Communist civil war broke out!

As we all know, after the so-called "honeymoon period" in the early days of the Anti-Japanese War, the relationship between Chongqing and Yan'an has long been inseparable, and all kinds of conflicts and frictions, large and small, have never stopped, such as the most serious "Southern Anhui Incident". After the outbreak of the Pacific War and the gradual withdrawal of the main force of the Japanese army from the Chinese battlefield, Chongqing was even more passive in resisting Japan and actively "suppressing bandits...... However, the Japanese army's great stride and initiative to retreat not only allowed Chongqing to pick up a few cheap, but also allowed the Eighth Route Army to expand its power in the north sharply. In addition, with the closure of the Hump route, the national government has completely lost US aid, and is losing blood and weakening day by day, while the "Soviet aid" in Yan'an is still unimpeded.

As a result, Chiang in Chongqing saw that the Japanese army in China had temporarily lost its threat, so he was ready to take advantage of his absolute superiority in military strength on paper to preemptively launch a "preventive war" against Yan'an, so as to defeat the opponent's upward momentum as much as possible and nip it in the bud!

Regrettably, Chairman Chiang obviously seriously overestimated his own strength, but he forgot that his territory was now in a state of isolation, the channels for arms imports had been completely cut off, and the Nationalist Government's own military production was miraculous, and there was even an embarrassment that the arsenal would go bankrupt and close down during the war against Japan...... That is, his army is not self-sufficient in ammunition and has nowhere to import it, it belongs to the "disposable army" that will be finished after a few battles!

Therefore, the actual condition and long-lasting combat capability of the armies under the Nationalist Government were even worse than before the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, and quite a number of miscellaneous armies did not even have enough rifles for each man, and could only fight with spears and machetes. Even for descendant troops, ammunition reserves are usually only enough to fight one or two battles, and then they are out of supply. The planes and tanks that were managed to be preserved had neither gasoline nor spare parts, and in fact they were already lying on their stomachs. Therefore, in terms of weaponry, compared with the Eighth Route Army and the New Fourth Army, the Chongqing government army actually has no advantage at all, and its morale and fighting spirit are far inferior.

The catastrophe and famine in the Central Plains and the tyrannical expropriation of the Tang Enbo Corps made the local people rebel en masse and welcome the Eighth Route Army to be liberated.

As a result, in the full-scale civil war that lasted for a year, Chairman Chiang's most hardcore descendant, Hu Zongnan's Northwest Corps, was first defeated and then defeated, and was forced to abandon Xi'an and flee into Hanzhong, and all north of the Qinling Mountains changed hands. The Tang Enbo Corps in the Central Plains was even more defeated again and again, and almost did not make effective resistance, it was dealt a devastating blow, and fled from Luoyang, Nanyang, and Xiangyang all the way to Wuhan before barely gaining a foothold, and the 400,000-strong army was defeated to less than 20,000.

And when the front line collapsed, Chairman Chiang's backyard also caught fire, and the Guangxi Gui Army and the Yunnan Dian Army successively telegraphed to withdraw from the civil war, declaring that they would resist Japan and oppose Chiang...... All of a sudden, the Chongqing Nationalist Government was in turmoil, as if it was already embattled. Fortunately, the puppet Nationalist government in Nanjing was in the chaos after Wang Jingwei's death, otherwise even if the Japanese army didn't do it, those puppet soldiers would have to come to kill the tiger together.

In order to stabilize his opponent, he re-played the peace card and organized representatives of all parties to hold a peaceful armistice conference in Wuhan. Lieutenant General Stilwell also participated in the mediation as a representative of the United States, and he sincerely and urgently hoped that all forces in China would stop the civil war as soon as possible, unite with the outside world, and contain as much of the forces of the Japanese Empire as possible for the United States, so as to relieve the pressure on the counteroffensive operations of the US Navy and Army in the Pacific Theater, and also make a little credit for himself.

With the collapse of the fascist regimes of Nazi Germany and Italy, as well as the great fighting between the British and Soviet armies in Western Europe, the anti-fascist alliance was on the verge of breaking down in the spring and summer of this year.

In order to hold the Americans back, the Kremlin needs to find a way to temporarily relieve the pressure on Japan so that the Americans can shed more blood in the Pacific. Therefore, in April, he sent a special envoy to Yan'an, China, and instructed Yan'an, in the present favorable situation, not to compromise with the "class enemy", but to seize state power first, and then try to counter Japanese aggression, just as the Soviet Union did before and after the October Revolution. In exchange, the Soviet Union could provide Yan'an with a large amount of arms and material aid, in addition to improving their position in the Comintern.

As a result, under the combined soft and hard measures of the Soviet Union, the new round of armistice talks between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party finally failed, and the Wuhan peace talks were completely aborted. In August, Yan'an restored the title of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army and launched a new all-out offensive against the Nationalist Government - on the Western Front, 200,000 Red Army crossed the Qinling Mountains in a big way, defeated Hu Zongnan again, won the Hanzhong Campaign, and the Red Army guerrillas were already infested in the Sichuan Basin; On the Eastern Front, 100,000 Red Army rushed down the Dabie Mountains and easily routed the already frightened Tang Enbo Corps, which had just entered Hanyang and was engaged in fierce street fighting......

-- The U.S. mediation failed, the civil war broke out again, and the rear of the Japanese army was worry-free.

The Pentagon and the White House are still issuing orders to Lieutenant General Stilwell to try to help China's legitimate government defend itself against the "rebels" and not to allow the Chinese Bolsheviks to overthrow the Chongqing regime. However, now that the international lines of communication were all cut off, he could not get a single bullet or a barrel of gasoline or an American GI to Chairman Chiang in Chongqing...... What else could he do but take those electric orders to pad the table legs?

Looking back, I found that in this largest war in the history of mankind, I played a role in addition to the loser, but also the loser......

What is even more terrifying is that, according to the grapevine, Chairman Chiang, who was in a desperate situation, seemed to have the intention of taking refuge in Japan in order to survive...... If it came true, he, the American lieutenant general, might have to go to a Japanese prisoner of war camp next......

Looking at the other side of the Yangtze River, Hanyang City in the twilight, Lieutenant General Stilwell couldn't help but hang his head more and more.

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Shanghai, China

In modern history, China's most flashy city in the first half of the 20th century was called the "Paris of the East" or "Adventurer's Paradise" by Westerners.

When it is mentioned, it will remind people of majestic high-rise buildings, imitating Western-style gorgeous buildings; streets piled up with plane trees, rickshaws shuttling through the streets and alleys; women's low-pull hair and long cheongsam; Advertising pictorials that look like oil paintings; Paramount and the big world of drunken gold fans echo with the tired and beautiful singing of the dancers...... In this era, Shanghai is the most fashionable place in China and an important window for China's foreign exchanges. Western medicines, automobiles, electrical appliances, small hardware, and other foreign industrial products, as well as all kinds of foreign visitors, have poured into the interior from Shanghai, and the tea, silk, minerals, and other agricultural products exported from the mainland to foreign countries have also arrived in Shanghai along the Yangtze River and railways, and then shipped from here to all parts of the world.

However, by 1945, Shanghai Tang had lost its drunken splendor in the flames of war, and had become withered and bleak. Even if it is the world of flowers and flowers in the ten-mile ocean, it is no longer the extravagant atmosphere of the past.

With the full-scale outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War, especially after the Pacific War, the Japanese army forcibly took over the entire Shanghai Concession, making this modern metropolis completely cut off from the capitalist world market, and completely cut off Shanghai's shipping routes with Europe, the United States, and the South Seas. Since then, there has been no foreign oil, foreign surface and all kinds of foreign goods from the distant Western world, so that Shanghai's status as a trade and financial center has quickly stopped. And the only Japanese empire that could still maintain "trade" relations with Shanghai had always been a consistent attitude towards the Chinese that was squeezing and plundering the bones.

As a result, during the Japanese occupation of Shanghai, thousands of horses were in full swing and all industries were depressed. Large and small factories went bankrupt one after another, and foreign trade companies closed down one after another. Most daily necessities, such as cigarettes, sugar, oil, briquettes, and soap, are rationed, and the portions are very small and of poor quality. White rice, a staple food, is almost extinct from the market, or it is only available to Japanese people. Citizens can only satisfy their hunger with corn flour, potatoes and potatoes. The "cheap grain" occasionally rationed by Wang's puppet government was originally brown rice and broken rice, but by the time it was four or five years old, most of it had become a mixture of soybean cake residues mixed with sand, spoiled military horse material, and rotten grains, which not only made it difficult for people to swallow, but also risked poisoning after eating.

If anyone really lives according to the ration of food rations of the Japanese pseudo-colonial authorities, then it can be concluded that there is no difference between chronic suicide.

Suddenly, the peddlers selling cigarettes and pear paste disappeared from the streets, the shops were scarce, and the blonde foreigners were imprisoned in enemy camps. The tinkling streetcars stopped moving, and the street lights stopped coming on at night...... The style of Shanghai, a city that never sleeps, suddenly faded by half. is like a haggard and poor beauty, tormented by a bumpy fate for a long time, no longer the peerless elegance of the past.

But in spite of this, when the merchant ships carrying the Osaka Fourth Division of the Japanese Army slowly sailed into the Huangpu River and docked at the 16Pont Wharf, these Japanese soldiers, tanned by the tropical sun, still looked curiously at the high-rise buildings on the Bund and let out bursts of excited cheers.

Although Shanghai was no longer prosperous at this time, for these Osaka soldiers, it was much better than the ghost place on Ceylon Island - I have to admit that although the curry rice of the navy is indeed delicious, the origin of the curry is really not suitable for the Japanese to survive. After being stationed on the island of Ceylon for several years, all the officers and men of the Fourth Division smelled of curry, and they always complained that Indian rice was unappetizing, and many of them were plagued by tropical diseases such as dengue fever, malaria, and itchy skin...... It's really miserable.

Comparatively speaking, the water and soil in Shanghai are much similar to those of their Japanese hometown, which makes them feel comfortable at home.

With the sound of whining whistles, the ship docked at the wharf, and a group of soldiers of the 4th Division stepped on the gangplank and landed ashore, moved their legs and feet a little, and then threw themselves into the unloading work in full swing - dried coconut and coconut oil from the South Seas, black tea from Ceylon, curry and spices from India, and rice from Thailand...... These are all private goods that the Fourth Division has tried its best to collect along the way, and they are very precious, and they are bent on taking advantage of this opportunity to change their defense in Shanghai, sell them at a high price in the Shanghai market, and make a lot of money! Because I was worried about the coolies at the dock, I would rather work hard to unload the goods myself......

-- The most unusual "merchant division" in the sequence of the Imperial Japanese Army, its mind in business is indeed worthy of its reputation.

At the same time, a group of yellow-skinned, ragged Chinese laborers were also summoned to the docks, waiting to be boarded and sailed. At the moment, they were all drooling, looking enviously at these well-nourished, black-faced Japanese soldiers, and all kinds of good things they had brought out of the cabin...... It seems that the Nanyang place I'm going to this time is really rich, even if it's good, I have to give it to the Japanese Taijun first, and I should be able to mix it up with a round belly, right?

In an office next to the wharf, Zhou Fohai, the mayor of Shanghai appointed by Wang Jingwei's puppet government in Nanjing, was smiling and entertaining Zhongxi Gongzuo, who had come to handle the labor transfer matters. I saw that he first complimented the young and promising achievements of Zhongxi Gongzuo, and then complained about the hard work of recruiting these laborers from the nearby countryside, and the current livelihood embarrassment of the Shanghai Municipal Government - at present, even the civil servants of Wang's puppet government only have a ration of 200 grams of brown rice a day, plus the welfare of half a bag of flour every month.

So, seeing that we are working so hard this time, can the Japanese Taijun leak more benefits from his fingers?

But on the other hand, Nakanishi Gong secretly looked at the mayor of Shanghai in front of him and one of the founders of the Chinese Bolsheviks with a rather playful look...... Obviously, the guy Zhou Fohai on the other side doesn't know his other identity, otherwise this meeting is really weird.

One was a Japanese officer who became a full member of the Communist Party of China ♂, and the other was the founder of the Communist Party of China ♂ who took refuge in the Japanese Empire.

To tell the truth, since he came into contact with the Red Ideology at the Dongya Tongwen Academy in Shanghai more than a decade ago and secretly joined the party, Nakanishi Gong never imagined that he would meet the founder of the party in such a strange identity under such a rather delicate situation, even though a founder who has completely degenerated and betrayed the founding idea of the party...... Of course, as an underground worker who has been lurking in the heart of the enemy for many years, Nakanishi Gong will not make any inappropriate moves because of this little entanglement, which is suspicious.

I saw that Nakanishi Gong smiled and praised the hard work of Mayor Zhou Fohai and all the staff of the Shanghai Municipal Government, praised them for their great contributions to the cause of the "Great East Asian Holy War" of Japan's friends and the emperor, and then agreed to allocate a small batch of sugar and rice to the Shanghai Municipal Government from the South Seas, and finally asked his entourage to send a bundle of naval stamps printed with pictures of various Yamato-class battleships, which immediately made Mayor Zhou Fohai and his entourage smile with satisfaction.

Although it is also a military ticket, the military ticket of the Japanese Army has basically been reduced to waste paper, while the military ticket of the Navy is relatively strong, and you can find a way to buy some Nanyang or Australian specialties from the special commissary of the navy, as well as industrial products imported from the Soviet Union......

And looking at them with such a satisfied and flattering appearance, Zhongxi Gong couldn't help but sigh slightly in his heart.

In the eyes of those who don't know the inside story, the current situation of the Japanese Empire seems to be quite prosperous—good news is frequent, the national fortune is prosperous, the Yamato nation has issued a proud roar to the world, and the famous generals of various empires are shining in history...... In fact, however, Japan's national strength has been seriously overdrawn, the people's life is becoming increasingly difficult, war-weariness has continued unabated, and the general war spirit has become weak. It was only on the outside that it was difficult to reach a compromise, and the military department inside was stubborn, so it had to fight hard.

According to the spirit of the Comintern's instructions, the Japanese Empire today, like the German Empire at the end of the last world war, is arrogant, but in fact it is a definite defeat and a strong crossbow, and is not the real enemy of the proletarian revolutionaries. And the United States, which is blessed by the two oceans, the stronghold of capitalism, is the ultimate enemy that hinders the cause of the Comintern to liberate all mankind! Therefore, in order to plant the red flag all over the world, it was necessary for the Bolsheviks all over the world to use and strengthen the power of the Japanese Empire, drag the hands and feet of the Americans in the Pacific theater, and bleed them as hard as possible. This would buy time for the global proletarian revolutionary organization and make it impossible for the Americans to interfere with the real world revolution in the future......

And Zhongxi Gong also understands and agrees with this, thinking of this, he can't help but turn his head and look at the sky in the southeast...... At the time of departure, there was already information on the movements of the American fleet on the Nanyang front, and by now, the third naval battle of Noumea may have begun, right?

This time the size of the U.S. fleet should be larger than the last time, I wonder if Marshal Yamamoto 56 can achieve another good result?

However, he forgot that even a dog, after being beaten several times in the same place, would know to take a detour, let alone a human?

So, will the Americans really honestly follow the old path before and once again crash into the iron wall that the United Fleet has been preparing for a long time?

Minerals and other agricultural products also arrive in Shanghai along the Yangtze River and railways, and then are loaded and transshipped from here to all over the world.

However, by 1945, Shanghai Tang had lost its drunken splendor in the flames of war, and had become withered and bleak. Even if it is the world of flowers and flowers in the ten-mile ocean, it is no longer the extravagant atmosphere of the past.

With the full-scale outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War, especially after the Pacific War, the Japanese army forcibly took over the entire Shanghai Concession, making this modern metropolis completely cut off from the capitalist world market, and completely cut off Shanghai's shipping routes with Europe, the United States, and the South Seas. Since then, there has been no foreign oil, foreign surface and all kinds of foreign goods from the distant Western world, so that Shanghai's status as a trade and financial center has quickly stopped. And the only Japanese empire that could still maintain "trade" relations with Shanghai had always been a consistent attitude towards the Chinese that was squeezing and plundering the bones.

As a result, during the Japanese occupation of Shanghai, thousands of horses were in full swing and all industries were depressed. Large and small factories went bankrupt one after another, and foreign trade companies closed down one after another. Most daily necessities, such as cigarettes, sugar, oil, briquettes, and soap, are rationed, and the portions are very small and of poor quality. White rice, a staple food, is almost extinct from the market, or it is only available to Japanese people. Citizens can only satisfy their hunger with corn flour, potatoes and potatoes. The "cheap grain" occasionally rationed by Wang's puppet government was originally brown rice and broken rice, but by the time it was four or five years old, most of it had become a mixture of soybean cake residues mixed with sand, spoiled military horse material, and rotten grains, which not only made it difficult for people to swallow, but also risked poisoning after eating.

If anyone really lives according to the ration of food rations of the Japanese pseudo-colonial authorities, then it can be concluded that there is no difference between chronic suicide.

Suddenly, the peddlers selling cigarettes and pear paste disappeared from the streets, the shops were scarce, and the blonde foreigners were imprisoned in enemy camps. The tinkling streetcars stopped moving, and the street lights stopped coming on at night...... The style of Shanghai, a city that never sleeps, suddenly faded by half. is like a haggard and poor beauty, tormented by a bumpy fate for a long time, no longer the peerless elegance of the past.

But in spite of this, when the merchant ships carrying the Osaka Fourth Division of the Japanese Army slowly sailed into the Huangpu River and docked at the 16Pont Wharf, these Japanese soldiers, tanned by the tropical sun, still looked curiously at the high-rise buildings on the Bund and let out bursts of excited cheers.

Although Shanghai was no longer prosperous at this time, for these Osaka soldiers, it was much better than the ghost place on Ceylon Island - I have to admit that although the curry rice of the navy is indeed delicious, the origin of the curry is really not suitable for the Japanese to survive. After being stationed on the island of Ceylon for several years, all the officers and men of the Fourth Division smelled of curry, and they always complained that Indian rice was unappetizing, and many of them were plagued by tropical diseases such as dengue fever, malaria, and itchy skin...... It's really miserable.

Comparatively speaking, the water and soil in Shanghai are much similar to those of their Japanese hometown, which makes them feel comfortable at home.

With the sound of whining whistles, the ship docked at the wharf, and a group of soldiers of the 4th Division stepped on the gangplank and landed ashore, moved their legs and feet a little, and then threw themselves into the unloading work in full swing - dried coconut and coconut oil from the South Seas, black tea from Ceylon, curry and spices from India, and rice from Thailand...... These are all private goods that the Fourth Division has tried its best to collect along the way, and they are very precious, and they are bent on taking advantage of this opportunity to change their defense in Shanghai, sell them at a high price in the Shanghai market, and make a lot of money! Because I was worried about the coolies at the dock, I would rather work hard to unload the goods myself......

-- The most unusual "merchant division" in the sequence of the Imperial Japanese Army, its mind in business is indeed worthy of its reputation.

At the same time, a group of yellow-skinned, ragged Chinese laborers were also summoned to the docks, waiting to be boarded and sailed. At the moment, they were all drooling, looking enviously at these well-nourished, black-faced Japanese soldiers, and all kinds of good things they had brought out of the cabin...... It seems that the Nanyang place I'm going to this time is really rich, even if it's good, I have to give it to the Japanese Taijun first, and I should be able to mix it up with a round belly, right?

In an office next to the wharf, Zhou Fohai, the mayor of Shanghai appointed by Wang Jingwei's puppet government in Nanjing, was smiling and entertaining Zhongxi Gongzuo, who had come to handle the labor transfer matters. I saw that he first complimented the young and promising achievements of Zhongxi Gongzuo, and then complained about the hard work of recruiting these laborers from the nearby countryside, and the current livelihood embarrassment of the Shanghai Municipal Government - at present, even the civil servants of Wang's puppet government only have a ration of 200 grams of brown rice a day, plus the welfare of half a bag of flour every month.

So, seeing that we are working so hard this time, can the Japanese Taijun leak more benefits from his fingers?

But on the other hand, Nakanishi Gong secretly looked at the mayor of Shanghai in front of him and one of the founders of the Chinese Bolsheviks with a rather playful look...... Obviously, the guy Zhou Fohai on the other side doesn't know his other identity, otherwise this meeting is really weird.

One was a Japanese officer who became a full member of the Communist Party of China ♂, and the other was the founder of the Communist Party of China ♂ who took refuge in the Japanese Empire.

To tell the truth, since he came into contact with the Red Ideology at the Dongya Tongwen Academy in Shanghai more than a decade ago and secretly joined the party, Nakanishi Gong never imagined that he would meet the founder of the party in such a strange identity under such a rather delicate situation, even though a founder who has completely degenerated and betrayed the founding idea of the party...... Of course, as an underground worker who has been lurking in the heart of the enemy for many years, Nakanishi Gong will not make any inappropriate moves because of this little entanglement, which is suspicious.

I saw that Nakanishi Gong smiled and praised the hard work of Mayor Zhou Fohai and all the staff of the Shanghai Municipal Government, praised them for their great contributions to the cause of the "Great East Asian Holy War" of Japan's friends and the emperor, and then agreed to allocate a small batch of sugar and rice to the Shanghai Municipal Government from the South Seas, and finally asked his entourage to send a bundle of naval stamps printed with pictures of various Yamato-class battleships, which immediately made Mayor Zhou Fohai and his entourage smile with satisfaction.

Although it is also a military ticket, the military ticket of the Japanese Army has basically been reduced to waste paper, while the military ticket of the Navy is relatively strong, and you can find a way to buy some Nanyang or Australian specialties from the special commissary of the navy, as well as industrial products imported from the Soviet Union......

And looking at them with such a satisfied and flattering appearance, Zhongxi Gong couldn't help but sigh slightly in his heart.

In the eyes of those who don't know the inside story, the current situation of the Japanese Empire seems to be quite prosperous—good news is frequent, the national fortune is prosperous, the Yamato nation has issued a proud roar to the world, and the famous generals of various empires are shining in history...... In fact, however, Japan's national strength has been seriously overdrawn, the people's life is becoming increasingly difficult, war-weariness has continued unabated, and the general war spirit has become weak. It was only on the outside that it was difficult to reach a compromise, and the military department inside was stubborn, so it had to fight hard.

According to the spirit of the Comintern's instructions, the Japanese Empire today, like the German Empire at the end of the last world war, is arrogant, but in fact it is a definite defeat and a strong crossbow, and is not the real enemy of the proletarian revolutionaries. And the United States, which is blessed by the two oceans, the stronghold of capitalism, is the ultimate enemy that hinders the cause of the Comintern to liberate all mankind! Therefore, in order to plant the red flag all over the world, it was necessary for the Bolsheviks all over the world to use and strengthen the power of the Japanese Empire, drag the hands and feet of the Americans in the Pacific theater, and bleed them as hard as possible. This would buy time for the global proletarian revolutionary organization and make it impossible for the Americans to interfere with the real world revolution in the future......

And Zhongxi Gong also understands and agrees with this, thinking of this, he can't help but turn his head and look at the sky in the southeast...... At the time of departure, there was already information on the movements of the American fleet on the Nanyang front, and by now, the third naval battle of Noumea may have begun, right?

This time the size of the U.S. fleet should be larger than the last time, I wonder if Marshal Yamamoto 56 can achieve another good result?

However, he forgot that even a dog, after being beaten several times in the same place, would know to take a detour, let alone a human?

So, will the Americans really honestly follow the old path before and once again crash into the iron wall that the United Fleet has been preparing for a long time?