my bright sword career

Chapter 259 is finally here
"What? The No. 20 [-]st Flying Squadron encountered the Rentai Flying Squadron in China, and had to withdraw after suffering heavy losses?" Naozaburo Okabe looked at the communication staff officer who came to report the letter in the office of the Commander of the First Army, with an expression of disbelief. .

"Yes, Your Excellency the Chief of Staff." The communications staff also had a look of pain on his face, "According to the news from the 21st Flying Squadron, they were ambushed by the Liantai Flying Squadron. , six Type [-] light explosive machines and one Type [-] heavy explosive machine, even Weijiazhuang fell into the hands of the Chinese.”

Naozaburo Okabe's heart sank, and he hurriedly asked: "Where are the Chinese people, how many Chinese planes have we shot down?"

"The Chinese..." The communications staff hesitated for a moment, "We shot down one fighter plane of the Chinese and injured two."

"Yaga... trash... all a bunch of trash!" Naozaburo Okabe couldn't help but yelled.

"A majestic flying team was beaten up like this by the Chinese. Does it still have the dignity of a samurai from the Great Japanese Empire?"

Naozaburo Okabe was really disgusted. Lu Hang, who was usually arrogant with his nostrils in the sky, was defeated by Rentai Feixiang's brigade, and this time it was the team led by the captain Shigeharu Fujino himself.

And what makes Okabe Naozaburo most flustered is that this represents a trend, that is, from now on, the era when the sky of Shanxi was ruled by the Great Japanese Empire is over, and even Taiyuan may be attacked by the Rentai Flying Brigade at any time. This is absolutely unacceptable to him.

In desperation, he yelled: "Go...tell the gendarmerie, and immediately send someone to arrest Fujino Shigeharu and send him to a court-martial!"

"Your Excellency, Chief of Staff...this..." The communication staff hesitated, Fujino Shigeharu was the captain of the flight team.Although the military rank is only Colonel, but in terms of actual status and role, he is not even below the commander of the division. If he is arrested because of a defeat, I am afraid that the 21st flying team will fall into chaos. More importantly, Naozaburo Okabe is just A chief of staff has no right to arrest him at all.

Just when the communication staff was in a dilemma, Shinozuka Yoshio said, "Forget it... Fujino-kun is still loyal to the empire and the emperor, we can't arrest him just because he lost a battle, let alone this defeat Can’t blame him entirely.”

"Your Excellency, Commander!" Naozaburo Okabe wanted to say something, but Yoshio Shinozuka stopped him.

He waved his hand: "Okabe-kun, the reason why the 21st flight team has lost one after another these days is not that the pilots of the empire are not brave enough and not skilled enough, but that the performance of the fighters we equip is far behind the opponent. Fujino-kun, he has already We tried our best, we can't demand too much from him."

"Your Excellency, Commander, Yan Xishan has dispatched an army group this time. If we cannot seize the air supremacy, Xinkou will be in danger!"

"I know."

Shinozuka Yoshio sighed softly, and flirted with the communication staff officer, who left knowingly and closed the door behind him.

After the door of the office was closed, Shinozuka Yoshio said to Okabe Naozaburo: "Okabe-kun... I will not stay in the First Army for too long, maybe the person who will replace me is already here. On the way to Shanxi, I don't care about winning or losing so much, so you don't have to worry about me."

Naozaburo Okabe felt sore, and choked up, saying: "But...but you have done something to the empire, the headquarters shouldn't have done this to you!"

"Successful?"

Shinozuka Yoshio snorted softly, "Before the war started, someone promised the Emperor that the China incident would be resolved for three months, but four years have passed, has the China incident been resolved?

Yes, on the surface, the empire has indeed occupied more than half of the land in China, but in fact the empire has only occupied the superficial cities, and the wider rural areas are still in the hands of the Chinese.Four years have passed, we have consumed an astronomical amount of supplies and money, and what we got in return were the corpses of hundreds of thousands of elite warriors of the empire. The money and supplies we got from China were simply not enough to offset the loss of the empire. From this point of view , this war should never have been fought. "

Naozaburo Okabe was silent. He and Yoshio Shinozuka were both high-ranking generals in Japan, so they looked at problems from a much higher perspective than ordinary soldiers and low-ranking officers.

In essence, war is the same as doing business. Only when there is profit will there be motivation. No one likes to do business at a loss.

At the beginning of the war of aggression against China in 1937, Japan spent 55 billion yen on military aggression against China. By 1938, Japan’s military expenditure had reached 61 billion yen, far exceeding its national gold reserves.

The "Wuhan Battle" launched at that time alone cost more than 30 billion yen in combat funds.

By 1939, the mode of printing money had been started in Japan, and the result was a sharp drop in the living standards of ordinary people with soaring prices.

As we all know, Japan is a resource-poor country, and more than 90% of important military supplies such as refined oil, rubber, and special metals are purchased from the United States.

In this era, especially during wars, trade settlements between countries are all traded using the hard currency of gold.

The war has been fought until now... Japan's domestic gold reserves have been wiped out, and all of them have flowed into the pockets of the United States, which also makes Japan's domestic paper money even more worthless.

At this time, some far-sighted people in Japan have realized that the dialogue war can no longer continue like this. If it continues like this, the domestic economy may really collapse, so they strongly call for an end to the war against China as soon as possible.

But at this time, the Japanese army is like a gambler who has lost his eyes. They are unwilling to admit the failure of the dialogue war.

In their view, Huaxia is like a crumbling building. It only needs to be pushed harder and it will collapse to the ground. At that time, Japan can permanently occupy this land of nearly ten million square kilometers, leaving that land with poor resources and frequent earthquakes. soil of.

On the surface, there seems to be nothing wrong with this view. As long as we persist for a while, the Huaxia government may not be able to persist tomorrow or next year. It is a pity to end now.

But Shinozuka Yoshio understands that Japan can't afford it anymore, and the Japanese government is almost emptying out its family because of this war, and the consequences of fighting it any further will be disastrous.

Just when the two were sitting opposite each other in silence, there was a commotion outside, accompanied by the sound of hurried footsteps, and then the door of the office was suddenly pushed open, and two expressionless military policemen in military uniforms walked in. After the two gendarmes entered the door, a lieutenant general also appeared in front of them.

(End of this chapter)