October 16, 1940, Taiyuan, Headquarters of the First Army of the Japanese Army

"To be honest, what surprised me the most was the Eighth Route Army, 30,000 tons of high-quality rice, and it was sold when it was sold, and there were no additional conditions at all, it seems that we must reassess the strength of the Eighth Route Army." Yamamoto Kazuki said with a somewhat gloomy face,

The 30,000 tons of rice, with the current transportation capacity, is by no means something that can be done in a day or two, and the gratifying traffic conditions in the base area of the Eighth Route Army make the Japanese army and the Eighth Route Army equally miserable.

"What Your Excellency said is true, but we still don't understand where they got these rice, the quality is very high, the taste is good, the price is not high, and the most important thing is that they don't want cash yet." Hirata Ichiro is also puzzled, Jin Province and even North China are not the main rice producing areas, the Eighth Route Army wants to obtain a large amount of rice, can only be transferred from the south, but also need to travel to Shaanxi Province to Jin Province, time-consuming and laborious, the cost is high, not cost-effective at all.

In order to save costs, even the Japanese army bought sorghum rice from Suiyuan nearby, and sometimes had to get some soybean cakes used as fertilizer from the four eastern provinces to make up the number, but the Eighth Route Army was eating rice.

"What happened to the results of the expert tests?" Yamamoto Kazuki was also very confused, although a small amount of food had been provided to the Imperial Army, he still airlifted the rice to Binzhou and handed it over to experts for testing.

"There are no big problems, but experts believe that the rice used for processing may be stored for a long time, so the producers add calcium peroxide and paraffin wax to whiten and brighten the rice, but in addition to increasing the cost, it is harmless to humans." Hirata Ichiro immediately replied that this was the same as what the experts of the Taiyuan Water Supply Unit said, and it could be confirmed that there was no problem with the test results.

"Exchange abalone for food, Hirata-kun, do you think the Eighth Route Army has a channel to sell these net abalones?" Kazuki Yamamoto gently pressed his temple with one hand, and he had a headache, and he really couldn't figure it out.

"The reply given by the special high school is that the current market for net abalone is stable, and there is no greater demand, and even because of the war, it has shrunk, especially the dried abalone, which has more than doubled in price compared with before the war." Hirata Ichiro smiled bitterly, the Japanese eat abalone, but the Japanese eat fresh abalone, like the dried abalone that Kuroshima Morita got is used for export, and the destination is China.

Because of the war, Japan's dried abalone exports have almost come to a standstill, and many fishermen have gone bankrupt, but who cares about the lives of a handful of fishermen.

"There are a lot of things on the list that the Eighth Route Army gave to Heidaojun, especially those things like timber, if there are no export channels, they will definitely not be purchased in large quantities, I need to know who or force is buying these things." Kazuki Yamamoto would not think that the Eighth Route Army was buying these things for his own use, the soldiers of the Eighth Route Army were so hungry that they even ate horse food, where would they eat imported abalone, or half a giant abalone. 33

"There is some relevant information about this special high school, the Yamashiro government has recently been buying those strange things on a large scale, and the news from the Yamashiro Ministry of Finance shows that the Yamashiro government is using these things to exchange for arms from third countries, and it is said that the Ministry of Military Affairs plans to train 1.5 million troops at one time." Ichiro Hirata replied that although the Ministry of Military Affairs is also keeping it secret, the plan to reorganize the army, which involves more than one million people, will certainly not be kept secret, and in addition to the displeasure of some people in the Ministry of Finance, this matter has already spread among the intelligence traffickers, and the special high school naturally knows about it, and even the number of the troops and the configuration of weapons are clear.

"One and a half million troops! Yaga, how is it possible, how can they have such an ability? Yamamoto stood up suddenly, his face full of shock and disbelief, don't look at the national army claims to have 6 million troops, according to the estimate of the Japanese military department, the actual number should only be more than 4 million, and most of the others are just empty quotas, and the formation and training of 1.5 million troops at once is definitely to break the rhythm of the balance of the battlefield.

"The special high school has obtained the details of the last two weapons transactions of the mountain city government, and it is estimated that it will be presented to the imperial front today, so please take a look." Ichiro Hirata took out two pieces of paper from his pocket folder and pushed them in front of Kazuki Yamamoto.

"Damn imperialism, these weapons are enough to arm a country, they want to bleed the Great Japanese Empire!" Kazuki Yamamon picked up the two pieces of paper and blew them up with just one glance.

Up to now, Japan has only 49 divisions of regular army, but their opponents have to increase the army by 1.5 million at once, and in response, the Imperial Army has to increase at least 20 divisions, but so far, the plan of the military department is only to add two divisions, and that's it, it will have to wait until 1941.

If you want to maintain the balance on the battlefield, the military department must respond, but does the empire really have the strength to arm twenty new divisions? Even if 20 divisions were armed and then put into the Huaxia battlefield, would the poor logistical capacity of the Huaxia Dispatch Army be able to ensure the supply of these troops?

"Although the other side has deliberately sold weapons from many countries, at present, there are only four countries that have the strength to mobilize such a number of weapons, the Alliance, Bald Eagle, Britain, and Hans." Hirata Ichiro smiled bitterly, not only Yamamoto Kazuki was angry, but even he was equally angry.

"It is certainly impossible for Britain, and it is said that now they have even dragged out the cannons of the nineteenth century and used them, and they simply do not have the ability to do so, nor do they have such energy; As for the alliance, it is only a foreign power, and even open arms sales have been stopped, and there is no need to make any more extraneous branches, and what they want most now is to conclude a non-aggression pact with the empire; Hans is our ally, and besides, they don't have the strength to transport weapons to the hinterland of China, so in fact, there is only one country. Kazuki Yamamoto spoke in a somewhat heavy tone.

"The special high class also analyzes it in this way, only the bald eagle has such strength and motivation, after all, those naval red deer want to challenge the bald eagle for a day or two." In the army's view, the fundamental reason why the Chinese battlefield has been delayed for a long time is that the navy has squeezed out too many war resources, and if this were not the case, the army would not have been short of troops at all.

"Those damn fools, the Empire is already difficult enough, they still have to provoke everywhere, in fact, it's not just a provocation, the Empire is already making plans for war against Bald Eagle and Britain, although the cabinet is still trying to avoid it, but with the support of the Navy, preparations for war are already underway." Yamamoto Kazuki sighed, and immediately sat down weakly, with the promotion of his position, he also began to come into contact with a lot of secrets, and naturally he also knew that the domestic southbound faction was gaining the upper hand little by little, but from his point of view, whether it was going south or north, it was not the best choice, but it was obvious that neither the radicals in the country nor the bald eagle wanted the empire to really stop the war.

"Hirata-kun, I want Kuroshima-kun to continue to make such a deal with the Eighth Route Army, do you think it's okay?" Kazuki Yamamoto thought for a while and then said.

"Your Excellency, Kuroshima-kun is likely to have defected, shouldn't we send him to the Mongolian garrison as originally planned?" Hirata Ichiro is puzzled, although Kuroshima Morita's affairs are very secret, but in order to redeem Kuroshima Morita, the Kuroshima family has done a lot of things behind the scenes, which inevitably makes people see the clues, the reason why Kuroshima Morita is okay is because of Kuroshima Morita's special identity, on the other hand, Shinozuka Yoshio is worried about the spread of his family scandal, and the reason why he was transferred to Yamamoto's army is to hope that he can be monitored nearby.

"What does it matter, as long as he can get this kind of low-cost high-quality food, we don't have any foundation, it is impossible to rely on our own strength to get a large amount of materials in exchange for food, if you want to maintain the situation in Jin Province, food must be indispensable, not to mention that he is just a possible defection, even if he is an anti-war alliance, it doesn't matter." Yamamoto Kazuki responded nonchalantly, in fact, through the observation during this time, he could have already concluded that this Kuroshima Morita had betrayed, but it didn't matter, as long as he could use the other party well.

"Could it be that we are pinning all our hopes on these Eighth Route Army?" Ichiro Hirata suddenly felt ridiculous, the dignified Japanese Imperial Army actually had to rely on the enemy to eat?

"That's definitely not possible, my classmates in Hansi said that they are promoting potato flour there, and next year, I plan to introduce high-yielding varieties of bald eagles, promote potato cultivation in Jin Province, and at the same time promote potato flour in the army." Kazuki Yamamoto's classmates actually complained to him about the anti-human nature of potato flour, but in his opinion, the soldiers of the Imperial Army could even eat horse food, so why couldn't they eat potato flour? If he wasn't worried about the uproar of public opinion, he would have wanted to send someone to Suiyuan to plant alfalfa, which is said to be edible.

"Your Excellency, will this work?" Hirata Ichiro is a little unsure, he has trained with Yamamoto's troops for a long time, and he has eaten all kinds of messy things, I don't know why, when he hears potato flour, he always thinks of something that is not very good.

"Hirata-kun, in addition to promoting potato planting, next year I also plan to engage in infrastructure construction in the Taiyuan Basin, while developing agriculture and resuming production, the Taiyuan Basin will be built into a super fortress, with the richness of the Taiyuan Basin, once the potential bursts out, there is absolutely no problem in feeding millions of people!" After a deep groan, Yamamoto Kazuki still said his ultimate goal.

Judging from the current situation of the First Army and the Huaxia Army, it is impossible to hold the entire Jin Province at present, but it is no problem to completely control the Taiyuan Basin in their own hands, which is also the reason why the last sweep was limited to the surrounding areas of Taiyuan.

"Your Excellency is wise!" Ichiro Hirata's eyes were full of admiration, but there was something wrong in his heart, during this time, Qian Bojun took tens of thousands of people to build bunkers around the Taiyuan Basin, obviously, that guy knew about His Excellency Yamamoto's plan earlier than himself.

Some people died, but not completely......