The sky bent on the first quarter of the moon, the silver light was clear, and the Hanshan Temple of the state Su was white.

In the early winter, the cold of Zhousu is thick, and there is silence between heaven and earth.

The whole state Su seemed to be in a deep sleep, in a villa building not far from Hanshan Temple, the lights were bright, and because the curtains were tightly drawn, there was no light outside.

This is the highest command structure of the Japanese army in Central China, headed by the commander of the Central China Front, General Matsui Ishine.

He had been retired for several years before being reactivated because of the needs of the war. At that time, he was the only retired soldier in the entire Japanese military system, so he appeared very modest in front of active soldiers, and rarely had the domineering style of other senior officers.

At this moment, in the supreme command structure of the Japanese army in Central China, Matsui Ishine was holding a secret operations meeting, which was attended by Major General Tsukada Tsukasa, chief of staff Tsukada, and Akira Muto, deputy chief of staff of Osa, as well as the commander of the 10th Front Army, Yanagawa Heisuke, commander of the 101st Division, Masakashi Ito, division commander of the 3rd Division, and Ryosuke Yoshizumi, commander of the 9th Division.

In order to stabilize the mood of the front-line soldiers and ensure that the speed of the front-line offensive was not affected, several division commanders, such as Tani Toshio, Nakajima Imasago and Yamamuro Sotake, were not notified to participate.

The Japanese army was stubbornly resisted by the Chinese army on the outskirts of Jinling, and it was difficult to move an inch, and some troops suffered heavy casualties.

On December 10, Matsui received an urgent telegram from Tani Toshio asking for a truce and recuperation and replenishment of troops.

Matsui Shigen is not only a China expert, but also a Jiang Tong, he knows Jiang very well, this attack on Jinling, he figured out Jiang's thoughts, thinking that Jiang Shou Jinling is only temporary, so he asked the soldiers to be patient and persist, and at the same time made the decision to attack the city immediately.

If Jiang knew that Matsui Shigen held such a meeting, he would definitely not leave Jinling, and it would not be possible to easily ask Tang Shengzhi to retreat.

What he could think of was that in the face of the Japanese attack, the Chinese defenders could not resist the Japanese army's ferocious advance, and when Chiang initially expected the Songhu battlefield, the Japanese army would invest at most three divisions, but he never thought that only in the early days of the Battle of Songhu, the Japanese army would invest the strength of three divisions, and then successively invested three divisions, and the Japanese divisions in the Songhu battlefield had reached six.

At the end of the Songhu War, the Japanese army sent an additional 10th Army.

The size of the Japanese army's divisions in the Songhu battlefield has reached more than seven.

It was far beyond Chiang's prediction of the strength of the Japanese army.

Therefore, Jiang thought that it was inevitable that they would not be able to hold Jinling City.

At the beginning of the Japanese army meeting, Matsui Ishine looked a little tired, and he said, "Let me tell you the news, I unfortunately have pneumonia and am still having a fever. ”

When he said this, his face flushed, a little panting, he stopped listening, took a few sips of water, and continued: "Birth, old age, sickness and death are the laws of nature, as a veteran, I have an end to life and no end to fight, we fought and died for the emperor, and the name behind us will be passed down through the ages." I am willing to fight for the Emperor and die for the Emperor. However, when the Emperor learned that I had worked too hard to command the war in Shanghai, that I was feeling cold, and that my health was not suitable for the early winter in Shanghai, he called me today and ordered the commander of the Chaoxiang Palace to take over my duties and command the troops to attack Jinling. ”

Before Matsui Ishine's words were finished, Asakanomiya stood up and said modestly, "Everyone, this is not to replace, but to assist General Matsui Ishine." ”

"The commander of the Asaka Palace does not have to be modest." Matsui Ishine took out a piece of paper from his leather bag and said to everyone, "There is an order from the Emperor here, and he will not assist me, but take over my position, and he will be the supreme commander in command of the Jinling Operation. ”

With that, he took the lead in applauding.

The officers who attended the meeting clapped their hands in welcome. Some clapped their hands while talking in private, while others turned sideways and asked others why the emperor appointed Asakanomiya to replace Matsui Ishone, and in addition to the reasons mentioned by Matsui Ishone, it is estimated that there are other reasons.

The person who was asked whispered, "Don't you know? Asaka Palace is the emperor's uncle, and the emperor trusts him very much, and in order to successfully conquer Jinling, he specially arranged for him to secretly supervise. ”

Someone whispered: "In February last year, there was a mutiny within the Japanese Army, and Asakanomiya sided with the emperor's younger brother Chichibu Palace, and opposed Emperor Hirohito on many political issues. In order to punish Asakagu, the emperor deliberately used a red pen to remove the name of Asakagu from the palace roster, and he was no longer a member of the sacred imperial family. I estimate that the emperor's appointment of him as commander of the Central China Dispatch Army this time shows that he has passed the emperor's test and it is better to repent and reform himself. If Asahokyo commanded Jinling to fight well, I estimate that he would be restored to his position in the imperial family. ”

Many of the officers present had a certain understanding of the Chaoxiang Palace, and they also knew a little about the mutiny that occurred within the Japanese army last year, after all, this incident was quite fierce at that time.

Matsui Ishine and Asahi did not say a word, quietly watching the officers participating in the combat meeting, listening intently to the discussions of these people, but did not speak.

In the end, it was Matsui Ishine who coughed lightly, stopped the discussion, and raised his voice, "Asakanomiya said that he is not very familiar with the situation in Jinling, so I will preside over today's combat meeting." ”

He glanced at the officer and continued: "The central topic of today's meeting is to study the current situation that is not right and determine the time for the invasion of Jinling. ”

Yoshizumi Ryosuke was the first to speak, he said: "In this attack on Jinling, we encountered many unexpected difficulties, for me, there were several surprises, one was that I did not expect that the Chinese army was particularly brave in the operation, when attacking the position of the Chinese army, there was a Chinese soldier who had one leg broken, and he gritted his teeth and crawled under our tank, pulled a grenade, and died with our tank. My conclusion is that the Chinese soldiers are not as vulnerable as we think, and the situation in China is not as bad as we think, and to call them the 'sick man of East Asia' is to call them completely despicable to them. ”

"The second unexpected thing is that the cunning of the Chinese soldiers, they are very cunning in battle, their weapons and equipment are far inferior to ours, relying only on the superiority of numbers, they have resisted our iron cavalry, which shows that their tactical level is very high, every inch of land they get, our soldiers are paying a heavy price, a little careless, our army will not be caught by their two wings. From the map, many villages have to go through fierce and repeated battles, and often we have just occupied the village, and within a few hours, the village is looted by them. ”

"I came to the conclusion that we underestimated China, underestimated their soldiers, and their soldiers were much more difficult than we thought, and the casualties of our division in Shanghai and on the outskirts of Jinling were very large."

After a pause, Yoshizumi Ryosuke said his plan: "I think we can besiege them first, adopt the strategy of besieging them and resting at the same time, so as to give our troops and soldiers a little breathing space, otherwise this battle will not be fought, and even if it is fought hard, it will have to pay a very heavy price." ”

"Yoshizumi-kun is too worried." Matsui Shigen listened very carefully, nodded and said: "You see the Chinese ants as fierce lions, I hope you don't exaggerate the Chinese soldiers." Although we have suffered casualties, the casualties of the Chinese soldiers are far above ours, and we have been given a rest, and they have not been given a rest either. War is fair, it doesn't take sides, war is relative, we have casualties, they have casualties, we don't get rest, they don't get rest. As for the victory of the war, it depends on the skills of the commanders of both sides, and I think that every one of you here has surpassed the officers of the Zhina, so you should not be arrogant. ”

Matsui Shigen showed a confident smile on his face: "I don't think that Tang Shengzhi's military literacy in Shina can be higher than mine." Besides, the central army of China has basically been wiped out in Shanghai, and in the idiom of China, it is already the end of the crossbow, and we should take advantage of the momentum in Shanghai to attack for another week, and we may attack Jinling. ”

He motioned for Yoshizumi Ryosuke to sit down, and then looked at Ito Masakaki, "What about your opinion, do you agree to the immediate occupation of Jinling?" Ito-kun, tell me what you think. ”

When Ito Masaki was named, he stood up and said: "The situation of our division is similar to that of the Yoshizumi division, which suffered heavy losses in the Shanghai theater and more than 3,000 troops in the outer operations at Jinling. ”

After a pause, he said again: "However, I listened to Yoshizumi-kun's words, many of them are wrong, you are not on the front line, you don't know much about the combat effectiveness of the Chinese army, there are not many heroic Chinese soldiers, and more people have seen us flee." ”

Matsui Ishine nodded, and then looked at Fujita Shin, who spoke briefly: "I agree with Yoshizumi-kun and Ito, and ask for a temporary rest. ”

Then Yanagawa Heisuke, waiting for them to finish, then said: "The situation of our Tenth Army is very similar to that of other troops, I won't talk about it more, I don't think Matsui-kun is neither a recruit nor a junior officer, and his proposal for an immediate occupation ban must have his good reasons, I think it can be considered, but before I think about it, I want to hear Matsui-kun's specific thoughts, is that okay?" ”

Asakanomiya, who had not spoken for a while, began to speak as his host, and he said approvingly: "Yes, or Yanagawa-kun is right, we might as well listen to Matsui-kun's specific thoughts and reasons before making a decision." I think if he had a good reason to attack Jinling and let everyone have no opinion, I think everyone would agree. ”

Seeing that the wind of the meeting was changing towards him, Matsui Ishone's face gradually softened, and he said with a smile, "Okay, I'll tell you my reasons." I believe that after listening to my reasons, you will definitely rush to attack Jinling first. ”

He opened his notebook and began to explain his reasons, but he did not start talking directly, but first sold Guan Zi and introduced himself.

"You may know a little bit about me, but I don't think you know enough about me. In addition to fighting in China, I also worked as a spy in China, and served as a Japanese military attache in China. ”

He smiled and looked at the officers at the meeting, "On two occasions we actually talked all night, I know Jiang better than his wife, I know very well what kind of person he is, you may not believe it, it is indeed unbelievable." ”

Matsui Shigen's words were like a pebble thrown into a calm lake, which suddenly exploded in the meeting, and many officers were very shocked, but they did not expect Matsui Shigen to go to Jiang's house five times as a guest, and twice talked with Jiang all night.

Some believe, some don't.

Matsui Ishine also knew that this was indeed shocking, in fact, even he was the same, when he first became the Japanese military attache in China, he never thought that he would have a good conversation with the king of China, and even talked all night twice.

Matsui Ishine knew everyone's reaction to these words, and said quietly: "You are surprised, shocked, and don't even believe it, but do you know? In the past few years, Chiang's mind was full of the Red Party, and he always wanted to know the attitude of our Japanese top brass towards China and what big moves would be made in the next few years. The most dangerous enemy in Chiang's mind was not us, but the Red Party, and he really wanted to kill the Red Party before Japan attacked China. ”

"'He would rather be a slave of the country than compete with the Red Party'"

"He wanted to find out when our Great Japanese Empire would start, so that he could set a schedule, so I took the opportunity to approach him and talk to him about the truth and falsehood, and I knew that in order to gain his trust, I had to tell the truth, and it was not enough to just tell lies."

"Because I told some truth, he was very warm to me, he treated me as a guest, I was trying to find out what he thought, he was trying to find out what I thought, we were just using each other, and that's why he talked to me for so long."

Speaking of this, Matsui Shigen's expression was a little proud, and he told the whole story of his conversation with Jiang, "I am well aware of China's contradictions, and I have analyzed Jiang even more thoroughly. Ladies and gentlemen, there is a famous saying in China, "If you don't have a diamond, you won't dare to take over this porcelain job", and since I dare to accept the emperor's mandate, I can't do it without any ability. I dare to say that the immediate attack on Jinling is not without confidence. ”

It was only now that he began to really get to the point, and he did have a very thorough understanding of Chiang's personality and the Chinese national conditions.

He was well aware of China's contradictions, and in light of the recent trend of international public opinion and the recent activities of the Jinling government from the information submitted by the spies, he analyzed China clearly, and almost took out Chiang's underwear to see what color it was.