In the evening of the next day, a family dinner was being held in the dining room of the Uehara Junhei Mansion, and several men in kimonos were sitting at the table, each toasting and talking.

The youngest, Tomohito Fujiwara, sat on Junpei Uehara's right side, quietly listening to Hiroki Kagesa talking.

"Harada-kun, I think what you said is a bit wishful thinking, facts have proved that the Chongqing government has always been resolute in resisting the empire in the past three years, for this reason, their troops have suffered heavy losses, and it is absolutely impossible to let the Chongqing government sit on the negotiating table and conduct peace talks according to our ideas, unless we achieve absolute superiority on the battlefield, but we can't do it for a while, so the new Nanjing government is our best choice."

The middle-aged man sitting opposite Hiroki Kagesa, with a square face, thick black and neat eyebrows, a pair of shrewd and bright eyes, and a rather upright appearance, this person is Major General Tsuyoo Harada of the General Staff Headquarters of the Central China Front.

The chief of staff of the Central China Front, Jiro Sakagaki, had two right-hand men under him, one was Major General Hiroki Kagesa who was currently in charge of Mei's work, and the other was Major General Tsuyoo Harada.

Tsuyoo Harada is an excellent strategist with outstanding ability and intelligence, and is also known as a wise man in the military, and has always been valued by Jiro Itagaki.

Tsuyo Harada has always advocated that Japan's eyes should not be confined to China alone, but should be confined to the international community, and have a clearer understanding of the world situation; therefore, he has always held different opinions on the base camp to constantly increase investment in China, and he advocates ending the all-out war between China and Japan as soon as possible, pulling out its feet from the quagmire of China as early as possible, and concentrating all its forces to strive for greater interests in the world.

For this reason, he placed his hopes on the Chongqing Government, believing that only through peace talks with the Chongqing Government could this goal be truly achieved, and as for the so-called Nanjing Government, it was simply in name only, and it would not only be of no help to the real solution of the Chinese issue, but would even arouse the Chongqing Government's jealousy and become more resolute in its attitude toward Japan.

Hearing Hiroki Kagesa's words, Tsuyo Harada pursed his lips disapprovingly, although he knew that there were not many people in the army who agreed with his proposal, but he firmly believed that his judgment was correct, so he retorted: "The decision-makers in the base camp took it for granted, and we promised the cabinet to resolve the war in China within three months, which made the cabinet agree to our resolution of all-out war.

But now? Three years have passed, and in addition to spending an incalculable amount of military spending and sacrificing the lives of thousands of young soldiers, what have we actually gained?

On the contrary, we have lost the one thing that is most precious to us, and that is time, and the international situation is moving so fast that we simply do not have time to prepare.

According to the original plan, the Chinese issue was to be resolved in three months, and another three years to make preparations for a new round of world war, so as to control the whole of Asia and become one of the world's great powers.

However, we take it for granted, the outbreak of war in Europe was several years earlier than we expected, and seeing that the Germans are now in a state of strength, occupying nearly half of Europe, and their strength is getting bigger and bigger, while we can only fall into the deep pool of the Chinese theater of operations, and consume our precious combat strength little by little, this is a completely fatal mistake in strategy.

The Germans and Britain and France officially declared war, and what we need to do now is to seize this opportunity, withdraw our forces in China, actively prepare for war, take advantage of the war between Britain and France and Germany, and cannot take care of Asian affairs, enter Southeast Asia, and occupy this treasure land rich in natural resources, instead of entangling with the Chinese here. ”

Ning Zhiheng on the side looked at Tsuyoo Harada's confident remarks, and nodded secretly in his heart, this person is worthy of being a famous strategist of the Japanese military, and his judgment is extremely accurate, according to the development of the war in Europe, the confrontation between Germany and the old European powers cannot be avoided, and Britain and France are involved in the war, so it is bound to be impossible to take care of their Southeast Asian colonies, which will naturally lead to the weak combat strength of the entire Southeast Asian region, and there is almost no resistance, so it will inevitably become the best target for the Japanese.

"Southeast Asia is extremely rich in resources, oil, rubber, steel, timber, everything, we can solve the biggest shortcoming of our country's lack of resources, the price is small, but the harvest is huge, this is the most correct decision-making route.

Therefore, I think that by directly holding peace talks with the Chongqing government, we can appropriately give up some interests, and we only need to stabilize them for a while, wait for us to take South Asia into our pockets, and finally concentrate our efforts on solving the China problem, which is the best policy, but now that we have supported the Nanjing government, this will inevitably arouse the Chongqing government's antagonistic spirit, and the gains outweigh the losses. ”

Tsuyo Harada's remarks, several of the Japanese generals present looked at each other, and if they had said these words a few years ago, even a year ago, before the Battle of Changsha broke out, they would have scoffed.

In their original vision, China's vast and ancient empire was nothing more than a rotten piece of dead wood that could be destroyed in one fell swoop, but now they know that this is just wishful thinking on the part of the military.

Especially in this year's time, the Japanese army suffered from the stubborn resistance and blows of the Chinese army, the battle of Changsha and the battle of Guinan launched one after another, the Japanese army suffered heavy losses, facts have proved that the tenacity of the Chinese army's combat effectiveness, far beyond everyone's expectations, the war no longer has the unstoppable victory at the beginning of the war, with more and more military losses, the war potential of the Japanese army is gradually exhausted, they began to pay more and more attention to the opponent in front of them, and have to agree with the views of Tsuyo Harada, Instead of fighting a war of attrition with the Chinese army here, it is better for persimmons to find a soft pinch to clean up the weaker Southeast Asian countries.

Lieutenant General Kyosuke Ishimura, the general of the garrison, nodded, and said in an approving tone: "What Harada-kun said is extremely true, the potential of the Chinese army is very great, and we have no possibility of solving it in a short period of time, and our situation is clear to everyone, after the Changsha offensive, our military strength in Central China has suffered heavy losses, and all the mobile troops together are only tens of thousands, so it can be said that by now, we have lost the ability to launch large-scale battles.

Moreover, at the end of last year, the Battle of Guangxi in South China, which was launched by the base camp in South China, caused great losses to our troops, and from the current point of view, reaching peace talks with the Chinese Chongqing Government is indeed the best way to resolve the Chinese war as quickly as possible. ”

Kyosuke Ishimura's words also faintly revealed a hint of the fear of war that has begun to appear in the Japanese army invading China, after all, the war has been going on for three years, and the long-term and arduous fighting has not only put the Chinese army in a difficult position, but also the Japanese army has been overwhelmed, and both sides have a sense of exhaustion.

Hiroki Kagesa, who was responsible for supporting the puppet government in Nanjing, naturally disagreed with this view, arguing: "I don't think there is any chance of success in the peace talks with the Chongqing government, and the base camp will not agree to us giving up our interests in China.

Moreover, although the losses in the Battle of Guangxi were somewhat large, our strategic goal was achieved, and Nanning was now in our hands, which cut off the main artery of China's material supply, and without this transportation line, they had no material support from the outside world, and the Chongqing government would inevitably be unable to continue.

As long as we persist and gradually weaken the strength of the Chongqing government, we will be able to free up our hands in less than two years to achieve the strategic goal of using China to contain China, which is also the safest way. ”

The Battle of Guangxi in the mouth of Kagesa Yuki is also known as the Battle of Guinan.

Since the start of the full-scale war, the Japanese navy has blockaded all Chinese ports and cut off any communication between Chinese customs and the outside world, so that all Chinese coastal ports have become unusable.

The Chinese government can only transship strategic goods from Vietnam and Burma, which border Guangxi and Yunnan, and there are three main transportation routes from Vietnam and Myanmar to Yunnan and Guangxi: the Yunnan-Vietnam Railway, the Yunnan-Burma Highway and the Gui-Yue Highway.

Among these three routes, the Yunnan-Vietnam Railway is a narrow-gauge railway, with many caves, large slopes and limited capacity.

The Yunnan-Burma Highway was opened in a hurry, the road surface was in poor condition, the distance was too long, and the freight was high.

The Guiyue Highway, from Haiphong in Vietnam to Kunming is only more than 800 kilometers, and finally arrives in Chongqing, the freight cost is naturally relatively low, therefore, the Guiyue Highway has become the most important channel for China to obtain foreign materials at that time, and the military and civilian material resources of foreign aid are continuously transported to the front line through this highway, and the Guiyue Highway has become the main rear artery for the entry and exit of anti-Japanese war materials.

Through this transportation route, the Chinese government brought in all kinds of military materials, including aircraft, tanks, machine guns, rifles, machine gun shells, flat-fire artillery shells, aircraft bombs and other ammunition, as well as large quantities of gasoline, which alleviated the huge pressure on the Nationalist government to face a shortage of strategic materials.

At the same time, the Guiyue Highway is also a trade route, China's mineral products, agricultural and sideline products, handicraft products, such as tin, tungsten, tung oil, antimony, raw silk, pig bristles, silk and so on are transported to Haiphong, Vietnam, sold to Britain, the United States, Europe, Southeast Asian countries, obtained a lot of foreign exchange, and played a great role in supporting the financial support of the Kuomintang government.

Nanning, Guangxi, as the hub of this Sino-Vietnamese transportation and supply line, has an extremely important geographical location, and more importantly, it is also the closest to the coastline, so it has become a key target for the Japanese.

Therefore, after a long period of planning, in November last year, the Japanese naval and land forces conducted a joint operation, concealed and assembled in Yulin Port at the southern tip of Hainan Island, appeared in Qinzhou Bay like lightning, landed quickly, captured the defense city all the way, drove straight in, quickly occupied Nanning, cut off the entire Sino-Vietnamese transportation and supply line, and even further advanced to occupy the Kunlun Pass.

The Military Commission of the Chongqing National Government urgently dispatched a large army to reinforce Guangxi, and counterattacked to Kunlun Pass, under the siege of heavy troops, defeated and severely damaged the Japanese defenders of Kunlun Pass, and even killed the Japanese brigade commander Nakamura, and achieved the famous victory of Kunlun Pass, after which the Japanese army once again dispatched troops to counterattack, and occupied Kunlun Pass again, and finally both sides fought hard for many days, and suffered great casualties, so they withdrew their troops and ended the battle.

This battle gave the Japanese army heavy casualties, the formation of the troops was annihilated, but also made the Japanese military extremely shocked, once again felt the determination of the Chinese army to fight tenaciously, but paid a huge price, their strategic purpose was still achieved, the loss of Nanning, so that the Chinese government lost an important material supply line, the supply of materials appeared major difficulties.

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"The First Secret Agent in History", a new book of pastries, a great handwriting, must be a masterpiece!