"Stand upright! Salute to the Chief! As Captain Ishikawa shouted a loud order, more than 200 officers and men of the 5th Squadron of the front line of the Jinnan Pass stood up in unison and saluted Lieutenant General Hideki Tojo who was emerging from a Toyota AA car.

"Yo Si." After the Minister of War stood still, he returned the standard military salute to the Japanese officers and soldiers in front of him.

Judging from the appearance and demeanor of these soldiers, it is indeed what the elite of the highly trained Imperial Army should look like, and Captain Ishikawa led the troops in a good way, leaving a good first impression on Tojo. Surrounded by a group of staff officers and officials, Tojo stepped into Cairo and climbed the city wall of Zhennan Pass with great strides.

"In which direction is the combat position of the Morimoto brigade." Tojo took the binoculars from the adjutant and asked indifferently.

The staff officers standing beside him looked at each other, and one of them quickly glanced at Ishikawa, who was accompanying him, and the infantry captain was also accustomed to observing words and feelings, and when he saw that he had the opportunity to perform in front of the commander, where would he let it go, he hurriedly took two steps forward and replied respectfully to Tojo.

"In that direction, Your Excellency." Ishikawa pointed in the direction of the gunshots and continued to report. "At about 1:40 p.m. that day, the soldiers on duty heard a dense burst of gunfire in the distance, and immediately reported to me, because it was in Indochina, and we thought that the Chinese were conducting military exercises."

"I've seen these in the report, so I don't need to repeat them in a wordy way." Tojo glanced at the captain beside him, his eyes cold and sharp behind the round spectacle lenses.

"Hah! Excellency, I am very sorry. Ishikawa hurriedly bowed and apologized, and in an instant the back of his shirt was wet with cold sweat.

"Hmm." The other party's reaction made Tojo feel very satisfied, knowing that he knew how to respect his superiors to be a qualified samurai, if the imperial army was full of such officers. Why did he have to go all the way to such a ghost place?

The current situation of the Japanese Army is very passive, which makes it, the current Minister of War, a headache. When Emperor Hirohito learned of this in the early morning of the 14th, he urgently convened a cabinet meeting at noon on the same day, which was an extraordinary event in the Showa era, and even when the Manchuria Incident occurred that year, Emperor Hirohito only summoned the prime minister and the minister of war alone. How can there be such a stirring up like this time, which shows how much Hirohito attaches importance to this matter.

This time, Hirohito was really angry with the army, and this group of red deer couldn't let him save his worries, and he didn't forget about causing trouble all the time, after all, the army did it for the future of the imperial country and fulfilled his wish to be eight and one yu, but now it seems that he is still too indulgent to the army, and let them be pampered and coquettish, which will lead to the current situation. Now looking at the history of the Japanese Army, it is indeed too much. Often, the in the front has not been wiped clean, and the back has pulled up a pair of pants, and if this goes on for a long time, the Japanese cabinet and themselves will not do anything else.

Besides, even if you stab Lou Zi, you can pick a better target, the belief that the army has always adhered to has never been to pinch soft persimmons? When did the painting style change to hitting the iron plate? The last time he moved troops at Nomenkan without authorization, he ended up kowtowing to the people of Lu Guo and bleeding, which frightened the staff headquarters from now on and did not dare to mention going north again, isn't this lesson profound enough? This time, it went directly to the two countries of the independent country. I just don't know whether to live or die. It was when the old European powers, and Japan was still playing shogunate. Imperialist expansion is already underway.

The army of the country was once known as the strongest army in Europe, although it was very weak in the later period, but the tiger did not fall to the end, not to mention that it was a big European continent. Needless to say, the independent country is already the leader of Europa, a world-class hegemon. The ironclad soldiers were invincible, and it took half a year to overturn half of the European powers and sweep most of the European continent. The national policy of the empire has already been determined to be friendly with the independent country, and even if it cannot form an alliance, it must not become an opponent, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has been desperately trying to curry favor with the independent country some time ago. Of course, it is impossible for the government to take the blame for the officers who caused the trouble, but the result of denying it is tantamount to admitting to foreigners that the Japanese government cannot control its own army, which makes the face of the cabinet princes and even Emperor Hirohito go there.

Hirohito rarely lost his temper in front of the ministers, he has been trying to behave mildly in front of the courtiers on weekdays, even if he is in a hurry now, he does not forget to maintain the so-called royal etiquette, compared with ordinary people, the emperor's scolding vocabulary is a little poorer, and he likes to use a bunch of esoteric historical allusions to sneer, at that time, he was ashamed of Tojo's scolding, and almost showed Hirohito how to self-extricate himself in court, but fortunately was stopped by Konoe Fumiro and others in time, The Minister of War failed to show the Emperor his well-developed large intestine.

Hirohito also knows that it is a little unreasonable to put all the blame on Tojo, but there must always be someone who stands up for him to let out this bad breath, and what kind of system is it to die or live if he is blamed for two sentences, and is he still careful to abide by the courtier's etiquette?

Now that the incident has happened, it will not help to cut the cabinet one by one and dry it. The Imperial Council discussed for a long time, but failed to come up with a slightly reliable plan, and in the end Hirohito made the decision, and the army came up with a detailed report within three days to hold all relevant personnel accountable. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Prime Minister immediately began diplomatic mediation with the two countries, especially for the two countries, and in particular, they would seek the understanding of the other side at all costs.

Since the emperor had made a sacred decision, it was necessary to do so, and immediately after the meeting, the cabinet members divided the work. The Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Secretary of State for the Home Affairs were responsible for conducting a campaign against the German ambassador to Japan. General Ott made a few kind words for Japan, and at the same time asked Hiroshi Oshima and Toshio Shiratori to come forward again to ask for a meeting with the head of state (the Japanese put it?). Führer? translates as President, and President translates as Commander-in-Chief, which is still referred to as the Führer in this book), and these two diplomats have formed a bit of a good relationship with the head of state in the last incident, and I hope that this time it will also play a role in resolving the matter properly. As for the army's investigation, judging from the previous performance, Tojo, the minister of the army, is relatively able to convince the public, and it seems that the army's problems can only be entrusted to him.

In order to save his image in front of the emperor, and at the same time in order to throw away the black cauldron on his inexplicable back, Tojo took a 100-style transport plane to fly directly to Taipei in the afternoon of the same day, and after a short pause in Taipei, the plane took off overnight, and after a short stop on Hainan Island, it landed at the airport outside Nanning at midnight that day. The Minister of War was accompanied by Deputy Chief of Staff Shigeru Sawada, Chief of Operations Section Shigeichi Okada, Second Chief of Staff Headquarters Major General Yuyoshi Tsuchihashi, newly appointed Commander of the Army Military Police, Lieutenant General Toshima Botaro, and Chief of the Military Police Section Lieutenant Tsukata Shikata Lieutenant Satsukata.

The commander of the Fifth Division, Nakamura Akito, knew that he could not escape the blame for this crime, so when he learned the news that the Minister of War had personally come to investigate, he hurriedly ran to the airport to greet him. However, Nakamura obviously miscalculated, his future had already been decided at the Imperial Council in Tokyo, no one could save the poor lieutenant general, he should feel glad that he was not alone at the moment, and that there were a large number of colleagues who would accompany him to the end, he was not the biggest scapegoat in this incident, and there were several unlucky ones above him.

When he saw that there were also generals of the gendarmerie unit coming at random, Nakamura knew that this time he was in danger, and sure enough, before he could defend himself to Tojo, the other party had already taken out an order approved by the emperor, relieved Nakamura Akito of his post as commander of the Fifth Division, and the commander of the gendarmerie arrested him on the spot and handed him over to the gendarmerie for investigation and interrogation. Also arrested at the same time as Lieutenant General Nakamura were the chief of staff of the 5th Division and the staff officer of the divisional headquarters, as well as the superior commander of the Morimoto Brigade, the commander of the 21st Wing, Wing Commander Miki Yoshinosuke.

That night, they were taken to a makeshift gendarmerie prison where the head of the Japanese Gendarmerie Police Section personally conducted preliminary questioning. For Tojo, this is just the beginning, he wants to use this opportunity to take advantage of the army's casual habit of ignoring the superiors, and at the same time establish the prestige of Tojo the Razor in the army, so that those red-headed red deer who like to be hot-headed will be afraid from the bones when they hear his name, and will carefully consider the consequences before doing stupid things, so as not to cause trouble to the empire and His Majesty the Emperor.

For Japan, there are enough troubles now, and the Chinese battlefield alone is already a lot of trouble, and if it provokes the intervention of European powers, it will be a disaster for Japan at present. Although the army and navy have already decided on the strategy of advancing southward, it will take a lot of time to accumulate sufficient resources and strength, and the previous increase in troops has disrupted the previous deduction of the general staff headquarters, and the navy has almost turned against the army over the issue of landing. At this time, if there are any more variables, the southward expansion plan may be aborted. Who can take on this responsibility at that time, anyway, Tojo knows that his small body will definitely not be able to carry it.

The next day, Lin Qingzhongzuo of the military police of the Southern Branch sent troops to Nanning with his elite soldiers, and then the gendarmes under the direct instructions of the Minister of War set off a bloody storm in the Fifth Division, and the 21st Wing bore the brunt of the disaster area, and all the personnel related to Morimoto were taken away by the military police for investigation. The remaining members of the Morimoto Brigade were seen by the gendarmes as the best way to break through, especially the two survivors who eventually escaped back into China.

At the beginning, there were some young officers who agreed with Morimoto's behavior, believing that they had a background in the country, and showed obvious resistance to the gendarme's questioning, and then the torture experts of the gendarmerie used facts to prove to them that their bones were not as hard as they imagined, and the brutality of the Japanese military police was famous all over the world, and since they had the support of the Minister of War, they had no worries. The gendarmerie non-commissioned officers got enough pleasure from the wails of the other party, and Miki couldn't get any confessions, and soon a detailed interrogation report was put in front of Tojo.

Tojo cleanly completed the task assigned to him by the cabinet, and successfully handed over an investigation report on the incident within three days, although there were some discrepancies with the statement of the independent country, but Tojo believed that what he investigated should be the truth. (To be continued.) )