Iron Cross

"What did you say? Japanese coup? Is this true?"

"It is absolutely true. This is the news that Comrade Ambassador sent back from Tokyo in an urgent manner. He witnessed the whole process at the embassy and was invited to participate in the joint fleet parade."

"I will report to Comrade Stalin immediately." People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs Molotov thought for a moment and told his subordinates, "Don't disclose it to the outside world for the time being, whether it is our comrades or the United States."

"Comrade Molotov, what does Japan's coup mean?" Stalin was also shocked by the news. "Didn't it mean that Japan had an intention to go to war with us?"

"There is an attempt, and it has been further strengthened after the coup." Molotov's face was ashen. "The ambassador made it very clear in the telegram that the former Chief of Army General Staff became the Prime Minister of Japan, and Navy Marshal Horikichi controlled the entire Japanese naval power. ”

"What does this mean? He didn't know it before? He killed the original commander?"

“He now concurrently holds the most important positions in the Japanese Navy, and even received the unprecedented and special position of Privy Councilor of the Navy. Based on our understanding of Japanese policy, we believe that this is a complete evasion of the power of the Emperor by the Japanese warlords. "Molotov introduced, "The current position means that he can give orders to himself and set goals for himself without worrying about others. Of course, he can mobilize all Japanese naval forces as he wishes. In short, He is now a combination of the Japanese naval emperor and naval commander. What is terrible is that he still harbors deep hostility towards us. It is his order to rob the American transport fleet and threaten to use the fleet to attack Vladivostok and the Soviet port."

Stalin gritted his teeth: "Can we get rid of him? Such a person is too great a threat to us."

"It's basically impossible. If we could get rid of him, the Americans would have taken action long ago." Molotov smiled bitterly, "He has killed more than 1 million tons of British and American naval warships in the past year or so, which is more powerful than Marshal Togo Heihachiro back then. , and his control over the military exceeded everyone's expectations. His political opponents originally dismissed him from his post, but he casually instigated the entire navy to rebel. Not only did he kill his opponents, he also took control of all naval power... Only such unscrupulous warlords can ignore international law and basic moral principles and seize supplies from neutral countries."

"Adjust according to the combat readiness plan of the Supreme Command. Now we must avoid giving the Japanese an excuse to provoke a full-scale war." Stalin sighed helplessly. After the exploratory retaliatory attack on the border was defeated by Umezu Yoshijiro, he ignored everyone's dissuasion and insisted on launching a larger-scale attack and insisted on regaining the ground. Now he is completely speechless.

"There is another embarrassing news..." Molotov spoke with difficulty, "After negotiations, the Japanese side agreed to reduce the robbery fee to 40%, but it was calculated based on the number of ships, and they had to choose first. , to ensure the safety of the remaining ships after picking them up. The Japanese side once again stated that they have no intention of war. Let us not misjudge the situation, but they are not afraid of war - the Kwantung Army is not idle now. Let’s all try again.”

"Asshole!" The furious Comrade Stalin slapped his hand on the table, with veins popping out on his face. He was obviously extremely angry, but there was nothing he could do about it - this is the virtue of militarism. If you can beat him, everything will be easy, but if you can't, everything will be easy. Don't blame others for being rude in what they say and do. In the past 40 years, Japan has waged war against Russia many times (the Russo-Japanese War in 1904, the Siberian War in 1918, Zhang Gufeng and Nomenhan in the past few years), but every time it didn't even bother to find a reason?

"Tell your American friends and hear what they think."

Molotov understood. Stalin had no choice but to give in, but he had to obtain the consent of the United States. After all, the supplies were provided by the United States, and the crew were basically Americans. The Russians detained last time were all released by the Japanese. However, none of the American crew members were released, and they were all taken to prisoner-of-war camps to work as coolies.

In fact, Molotov did not dare to say anything. Gu Zhengzhi, who remained as Foreign Minister, said arrogantly to the Soviet Ambassador: "Because your country has brazenly invaded Manchuria, we have decided to reserve the right to retaliate. Today we will issue a warning. When will The next step will depend on your performance. Next time it won’t be as simple as messing around with some destroyers.”

Is Gu Zhengzhi bragging? Of course not. Now the civil servants in the cabinet understand very well that since the entire Navy fought against rebellion and the Army stood aside during the "Cruelty against Communism", it is no longer easy for His Majesty to speak out in the military. As long as the four major leaders of the Army and Navy unanimously approve opinions must be implemented.

The retaliation plan formulated by the base camp is to send troops to occupy the entire North Sakhalin Island - there are very rare oil minerals on it, which originally produced 400,000-500,000 tons of oil a year. After losing the Baku Oilfield, the Soviet Union urgently carried out expansion, and now the oil production can reach 800,000 tons. For Japan, whose annual oil consumption is about 7 million tons (the historical figure is 5 million tons, this book estimates it to 7 million tons due to Japan's expansion of heavy equipment and reduction of fuel consumption in China), this is very attractive. For the Soviet Union, which consumed 10 million tons of oil annually, it was of great significance. Originally about to take action immediately, Ishihara Kanji expressed his objection: "What will happen if the Soviets send bombers to blow up the oil wells after we seize it?" Everyone felt that they were not completely sure of avoiding it at present, and the Navy had other considerations, so the whole thing had to be done. Set aside for now.

"I will never agree to such a shameless and absurd practice, no matter what reasons you use to convince me!" US Vice President Wallace, who was acting as president, tore up the letter of advice submitted by the Joint Chiefs of Staff, "As long as I am in the White House, you will never think about it!"

The news of the Japanese coup and 40% of the robbery fee soon spread to the United States through the diplomatic system. The United States had no spies or personnel who could be openly active in Japan, so its intelligence collection on Japan was heavily dependent on the information provided by the Soviet Union and China. Only the Soviet Union knew the most about things like coups, and the joint fleet review ceremony made the United States frown. After hearing that Japan had two super battleships and aircraft carriers with ultra-low-altitude flight capabilities, the Joint Chiefs of Staff immediately submitted a seemingly humiliating but actually very rational letter of advice - if Japan could really ensure the safe delivery of the remaining materials to Russia, it would agree to pay 40% of the extortion fee.

Admiral King, Nimitz, and Turner all thought that the money was not outrageous - because the loss rate of the North Atlantic route for transporting supplies to Britain was nearly 50%, and the loss was the same for ships, goods, and people. Japan only offered 40% and guaranteed the safety of ships and personnel, and the actual transportation effect exceeded that of the North Atlantic route. Giving some supplies is nothing, just give more, anyway, Japan can't win the war with this little extra stuff.

Of course, the Joint Chiefs of Staff is also good at passing the buck. If this arrangement is leaked and heard by Congress or the public who don't know the truth, they will definitely point at the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the senior officers of the Army and Navy and scold them for aiding the enemy, so they tried every means to get Wallace to sign the consent order - if something goes wrong in the future, the responsibility can be passed on to Wallace who is acting as president.

But I don't know whether Wallace's political idealism broke out or his think tank saw through the "little tricks" of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He was hysterical at the communication meeting and refused to sign the consent letter no matter how hard he tried. He even had a quarrel with senior military officials including Marshall and Admiral King, accusing them of being responsible for the current military failure of the United States. Everyone retorted and finally left unhappily.

Turner, who has always been fearless, made a shocking statement at the subsequent closed-door meeting of the Joint Chiefs of Staff: "I'm fucking starting to envy this guy Hori Teikichi. He said he would launch a coup and he did it. Emperor, if you don't know what's good for you, get out! - This is the life of a human being. When can we shout out heartily - '**** Vice President, if you don't know what's good for you, get out?'"

Admiral Lee, the President's Chief of Staff, who has always advocated political correctness, also had a gloomy face: he was not angry about Turner's "stupid words", he was annoyed by Wallace's lack of appreciation. Originally, everyone brought up the vice president's "acting" power to ask you to sign more and talk less nonsense, but now you are actually starting to speak in a pretentious manner. It would be fine if you just spoke in a pretentious manner, but now you openly reject the unanimous opinion of the army and navy leaders, and even threaten to remove us. What do you want to do?

Eisenhower, who was relatively mild-tempered, sighed: "Then we can only suspend the transportation of materials first. Let's think of a way to see if we can win the support of some powerful members of Congress Hill and let them put some pressure on the president."

"It's the vice president!" Marshall reminded, emphasizing the word "vice".

Eisenhower repeated awkwardly: "Yes! Vice President!"

"Should I call Hoover..." Turner whispered a few words in Admiral King's ear, and the latter's face changed slightly, but he didn't nod in the end.

In addition to the military, Hoover was also unhappy with Wallace. Wallace expressed dissatisfaction with his control of public opinion and the massive infiltration of the "Loyalty Act". He believed that the FBI was engaging in spy rule and political purges. He said that he wanted to let independent judicial institutions intervene to review the cases that have been handled and listen to reports on the use of the budget, which undoubtedly made Hoover extremely annoyed. Turner suggested whether Hoover could collect some black materials on Wallace and simply get him out of office. The "acting" candidates could be "tried" by the Speakers of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The shrewd Admiral King thought it was not the time yet, at least he should not take the lead. If the matter was exposed, it would be a big deal.

"Let's prepare for the battle in the Gulf of Guinea first." Nimitz sighed and said helplessly, "Let's discuss the aid to the Soviet Union. I hope that Father Stalin's offensive in Central Asia will be effective, so that we can make better suggestions."

Li Hai nodded: "Prepare the supplies first, prepare 30 ships, and load them as evenly as possible."