War of Resistance

Chapter 789
"Hey...the Japanese army is still too strong after all. We have to go a long way to defeat them." Zheng Boqu walked slowly away in the garden, leaning on crutches.

Everyone in the world knows the strength of the Japanese army, and they can clearly understand the shortcomings of their own country. However, the backward industrial strength makes it impossible for the national army to defeat the well-equipped and well-trained Japanese army with equal strength.

What everyone doesn't know is that an imperial meeting in Japan is going on.

The cabinet headed by Japanese Prime Minister Fumimaro Konoe sat neatly in front of Emperor Hirohito of the Showa era.

"Your Majesty, I believe that the war must continue when it is officially at its most critical moment. Otherwise, we will definitely be in a disadvantageous position for the China battlefield." Japanese Prime Minister Fumimaro Konoe said in a deep voice.

"Aiqing, let me tell you, what is our situation on the battlefield in China?" Emperor Showa Hirohito said.

"Now the main force of our imperial army is trapped in the battlefield of China, and the Chiang Kai-shek government seems to have no intention of surrendering. After we captured Nanjing, they still chose to fight to the end. Compared with my country, our country's war potential is actually limited. If If we cannot solve the China issue quickly, our country will be trapped in the quagmire of the war against my country for a long time, and I am afraid it will be very detrimental to our country." Konoe Fumimaro said, from his face that can slightly see the appearance of his youth, it can be vaguely seen It can be seen that when he was young, he must have been a handsome guy who could fascinate thousands of girls.

It's just a pity that after getting old, a trace of shadow inevitably appeared in those eyes.

"I also agree with Prime Minister Konoe's statement that he just withdrew from the battlefield in China. I also know that if the Chiang Kai-shek government does not surrender, the stubborn resistance of the Chinese army will continue to the end. Therefore, I also believe that China must be resolved quickly. Problem. Otherwise, there will be endless troubles.” Seishiro Itagaki, who has already assumed the post of Minister of the Mainland of Japan, stood up and bowed respectfully in front of Emperor Hirohito of the Showa era.

Seeing this minister who made great military exploits in the North China battlefield, Emperor Hirohito nodded imperceptibly, and then asked, "Do you have any better proposals?"

For Itagaki Seishiro, this meeting was the first meeting he participated in after being called back to China.

As for why Itagaki Seishiro was recalled to China to serve as Minister Lu, we have to start with the relationship between the former Minister of the Konoe Fumimaro Cabinet (i.e. the Minister of War) Sugiyama Moto, his deputy Umezu Yoshijiro, and Foreign Minister Hirota Koki.

These three people are all hardliners in the military against China, especially Moto Sugiyama and Vice Minister Umezu Yoshijiro, who have been clamoring to "destroy China in three months", so that the Konoe Fumimaro Cabinet who just took office was forced to coerce This war of expansion against China was carried out.

In essence, Konoe Fumimaro is no different from other officers of the Japanese Communist Party who are clamoring to destroy China, but in terms of specific practices, Konoe Fumimaro has a different point of view from these people——

What Konoe Fumimaro advocates is not to expand the war against China, and to do everything step by step, and not to become a fat man in one breath.

However, the China hardliners headed by Foreign Minister Hirota Koki, Lu Prime Minister Sugiyama Moto, and Vice Minister Umezu Yoshijiro disagreed with Konoe Fummaro's approach. They believed that China's problems should be resolved as quickly as possible.

More importantly, these people have strong prestige in the army.

Konoe Fumimaro not only scolded these military officers who were hardliners towards China for being too domineering in private, but also for being too weak and useless as his prime minister.To what extent are these people overbearing?Even the Prime Minister Fumimaro Konoe can no longer command them!
It is precisely because of these frictions, coupled with the fact that the end of the war with China is far away, that Konoe Fumimaro took the opportunity to take down the positions of Minister Lu and Foreign Minister, and put the hardline officers against China Hirota Koki and Sugiyama Moto kicked out of the cabinet.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, Konoe Fumimaro began to use Seishiro Itagaki, who looked like a "good baby" and had a certain prestige in the army.

The foreign minister is held by Kazunari Ugaki, the leader of the ruling faction. As for the appointment of this position, it is not Konoe Fumimaro's original intention, but a compromise.

After all, in Konoe Fumimaro's heart, he is still more inclined to the Emperor's School-otherwise he would not have refused to take the position of Prime Minister of Japan years ago, but he had to wait until the two cabinets collapsed. Came out to serve as prime minister.

Therefore, taking advantage of this change, Konoe Fumimaro re-appointed Araki Sadao, a leader of the Imperial Road faction who was removed from his post in the "February [-] Mutiny", as the Minister of Culture.

But no matter what, at least Seishiro Itagaki is more obedient, and in general he is more able to know how to advance and retreat and measure.

Therefore, in this personnel change, Fummaro Konoe has arranged for some "insiders" to hold important positions in important positions.

After kicking out the two guys who didn't deal with him so well from the cabinet, Konoe Fumimaro's voice finally became much louder.

Seeing the silence in front of him, it seemed that they all agreed with the opinion of Prime Minister Konoe Fumimaro. Emperor Hirohito smiled and said: "Then, Konoe Aiki, how should we fight the next battle, which is more appropriate?"

Konoe Fumimaro thought about it, and then said: "From a historical point of view, as long as Wuhan is captured, China can be controlled. We can achieve the goal of resolving most of the China incident by force through the Wuhan-Hankou battle. As long as Wuhan is controlled , we can drive the Chiang Kai-shek regime out of the Central Plains and reduce the Chiang Kai-shek regime to a local government!"

When the Japanese Cabinet Prime Minister Konoe Fumimaro said this, the people around couldn't help but look at each other and could see the joy in each other's eyes-obviously, this sentence is the most important thing in the current imperial meeting. important place!
Emperor Hirohito, all in military uniform, sat on the main seat, stroked his beard lightly, and after some careful thinking, he said, "Yo Sai. What Konoe Aiqing said is very reasonable. If we If Wuhan can be controlled, then the end of the China Incident will not be far away. Once the China Incident can be ended, our imperial army will no longer be in such an embarrassing situation.”

Everyone knows what Emperor Hirohito meant by the predicament. Now Japan is full of domestic conflicts, especially after the start of the war of aggression against China, it is facing a series of financial problems and combat attrition.

In this war, the Japanese army killed and injured so many people, especially for the Japanese economy, it can be described as "severely damaged".

Just ask, if Japan, with such a difficult economy, cannot solve the problem of the war of aggression against China as soon as possible, they will face the problem of maintaining the livelihood of millions of combat troops for a long time.

This is an extremely difficult and difficult problem to solve.

It can be said that in this war, not only the Chinese side is facing very difficult problems, even the high-level leaders of Little Japan are having a hard time...

……

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(End of this chapter)