The plan to fight all the way south to the Middle East, "liberate" India and the whole of Southeast Asia, occupy Australia in an all-round way, and drive the United States back to its homeland was completely shattered after the disastrous defeat at the Battle of Imphal.

The bigwigs in the base camp of the Great Japanese Empire finally saw the gap between themselves and the Western powers in terms of strategic deployment and campaign execution capabilities, just like sleepwalkers who had woken up. Relying on a slight advantage to dominate the world in Asia is no longer applicable, and the powerful Japanese navy is stuck in the waters of the Solomon Islands.

In fact, this so-called base camp is mainly headed by the chief of staff, the deputy chief of staff, and the chief of naval orders to guide the daily work, and the ministers of the army and navy of the Empire of Japan are nominally the chief of the base camp, but in fact the chief of staff, army staff officers, and naval staff officers are responsible for the actual work. It consists of the Attendant Military Attaché, the Military Internal Affairs Bureau, the Military Station Command Department, the Transportation and Communications Department, the Field Supervision Department, the Field Health Department and the Management Department.

It stands to reason that such a well-equipped organization should at least be at the same level as the German high command, right? However, Japan did not have such a figure who could make all the generals bow down like Accardo, so this base camp became a place where the army and navy quarreled.

As one of the generals of the army in the base camp, General Sugiyama Mototo, who has been in a very bad mood lately, as the Minister of War, has been in trouble because of the fiasco of the 15th Army in Burma, and His Majesty the Emperor has summoned him several times individually, and each inquiry has made him feel like he is on pins and needles.

100,000 Japanese elite troops, in the process of going south, were so inexplicably defeated, and the defeat was very ugly, it was simply miserable. Leaving aside the defeat of the British, anyway, the British army has always been a world power, and it is not particularly embarrassing to lose - but what kind of trouble is it to lose to the Chinese expeditionary force?

When the 15th Army was in full swing, it didn't even think to deal with this Chinese unit as a dish, thinking that after fighting Imphal, it would take this unit with it and eat it.

However, contrary to expectations, the Battle of Imphal ended in the complete collapse of the Japanese army, and the most unbearable fact for the Japanese was that in the final stage of the campaign, the Chinese expeditionary force, which had not been taken into account, gave the Japanese army the most fatal sword at the most fatal time and in the most deadly place.

Fifteen thousand! The losses alone were as high as 15,000, not to mention that because of the Chinese interception, the original marching plan of the Japanese army was disrupted, resulting in starvation and scattered troops - anyway, the Japanese army only has a rough estimate, that is, using the 100,000 Japanese troops at the time of departure, minus the more than 20,000 people who fled back, the result is almost 80,000 killed.

Compare the heartache from top to bottom when the German army lost 10,000 people in Stalingrad, and you can understand the grief and indignation of General Sugiyama Moto. He was eager to gather forces now and fight to the death with the cunning Chinese army, but his plan was completely rejected, and the idea of starting an all-out war in China and completely defeating China finally came to naught.

If China can be defeated once and for all and turned into a submissive client state or colony, then the Japanese will not have to go on an expedition to develop a second battlefield in Southeast Asia. Only now did the Japanese top brass remember the fact that it was because they could no longer fight on the Chinese battlefield that they were hot-headed and went to trouble the United States.

Now a quarter of the Japanese army is trapped in Southeast Asia and cannot get out, a quarter of the Japanese army is trapped in the frontal battlefield of China and cannot get out, and a quarter of the Japanese army is trapped in the Pacific theater and cannot get out - anyway, the Japanese army has really not many options to choose from now.

The only thing that can be counted as a field mobile force is the few remaining elite Kwantung Army in Northeast China. This force is now entrenched in northern China, and because there is no war with the Soviet army, the military pressure is relatively low.

Sitting still, or being a quiet beautiful man, is obviously not the character of the army boss Sugiyama Moto, which is not to say that his big pie face is far from a beautiful man, but to say that he has been subjected to the cynicism of the Minister of the Navy for not saying a word recently, and the main reason is that he is looking for an opportunity to revitalize the Japanese Army.

"Your Excellency General!Your Excellency General!" Ueno in the office was a young man, who rushed into Sugiyama Moto's office in a hurry, not even caring about the demeanor that he needed to maintain.

Sugiyama Moto frowned, a little dissatisfied with the reckless behavior of his subordinates, he lowered his tone coldly, and reprimanded in a tone of lesson: "What are you panicking about? The soldiers of the Great Japanese Empire must have the composure and calmness in the face of danger!"

General Yamashita said that this is the army's last chance to be ashamed. "Although Ueno's military rank in the base camp is only Nakasa, it can't even be summed up as a minion. However, he is a close confidant of Sugiyama Moto, and he also has contacts with some senior army generals, and his status is not much better than that of Dazuo on the front line.

Sugiyama took the piece of information from the Far Eastern Frontier and looked at it carefully, feeling that his pores were about to open - this was a very good opportunity, at least on the surface, it was one of the few opportunities for the Army to turn around.

When the Japanese spies were secretly operating in the Far East, they were lucky to find and kill a spy from Germany, which was originally just a small incident in countless espionage wars, but it allowed the Japanese army to obtain countless important information.

The slain German spy actually had a whole roll of microfilm on him, which densely recorded the military points of the entire Soviet army in the Far East. This information was very important to the Germans, but it was even more attractive to the Japanese.

Intelligence shows that in order to cope with the frantic offensive of the German army in Stalingrad, the Soviet army once again transferred 30 divisions from the Far East to the west, plus the troops transferred from the previous time, the main force of the Soviet army in the Far East was completely withdrawn, and only 700,000 troops remained.

In order to corroborate this troop movement, a German spy in Chelyabinsk checked the material movement and train schedules of the Soviet army and determined the authenticity of the transfer.

In addition, countless supplies from the U.S. military to the Soviet Union were piled up on the east coast of the Soviet Union, of which only 1 million tons of oil, a strategic material urgently needed by the Japanese army. If you include machine tools, skilled workers, countless reserves of steel and rare metals, as well as ammunition, weapons and heavy armored vehicles, which are of great interest to Japan, it is simply a treasure trove.

"Heaven and I, we will take it!" This is the sentence that comes to Sugiyama's mind now, he thinks that as long as the army takes the eastern part of the Soviet Union, then all the difficulties of the Japanese army will be solved, and the supplies there will be at least enough for Japan to fight the war for another three years!

Japan has experienced this kind of thing too many times for Japan, fighting against the water of the whole country, fighting the Beiyang naval division of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, and becoming the strongest in Asia overnight; and Britain eyebrows, defeating Tsarist Russia in one go, and becoming a world power overnight - now another strategic adventure, this is obviously a moment to witness a miracle again!

Japan, a country that keeps in mind the experience from top to bottom, is that every gamble must be won - with such a cool past, then this time to push the chips in your hand to a chic stud, it is simply a matter of course?

"The Soviets, 60 divisions of Far Eastern troops have been transferred, why doesn't our intelligence department know about this?" Sugiyama Moto's eyes narrowed and looked at Ueno, who was standing aside and didn't dare to speak out.

"Your Excellency, because of race, it is almost impossible for us to infiltrate the Soviet army. Ueno defended his colleagues in the intelligence department: "Moreover, we are not ignorant of the movement of Soviet troops, and after repeated confirmation, we have detected that 19 Soviet divisions have disappeared in the northeast." ”

"Whoosh...... A third of what we have already demonstrated...... In this case, it is entirely possible that this information from German spies is true? It is worth thinking about...... It's worth thinking about. Sugiyama touched his bare chin as if talking to himself.

Since that idiot at Mutaguchi did not complete the plan to take Imphal and eat the strategic materials of the British, then it is not impossible to think about going north to the Soviet Union, laying down the supply base of the Soviet Union, and eating Stalin's supplies.

Now, what makes Sugiyama Mototo and Hideki Tojo dare not reach out easily, is the unforgettable battle of Nomenkan left. Who can guarantee that this time the Soviet Union will not kill the second Zhukov and completely sound the death knell for the Japanese army with a hearty victory?

"This time, we must not make the mistake of the enemy again! We must concentrate our forces! We must prepare at least 400,000 soldiers and use 70 percent of the Manchurian forces to carry out this risky offensive plan. At the operational meeting at the base camp, Sugiyama Mototo persuaded Hideki Tojo: "Even if the Germans are cheaper, they must eat this batch of supplies and save the fate of the empire, and the only one who can save His Majesty the Emperor is the army of the Great Japanese Empire!"

"Yo West!" Hideki Tojo nodded with murderous intent in his eyes.