So Hideki Tojo immediately called Ken Sato to his office. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

"Sato-kun......" Hideki Tojo asked Sato Ken, "I heard that you have a plan to fight the Americans in the Philippines?" ”

Ken Sato couldn't help but look at Hideki Tojo in dismay.

As the director of the Military Affairs Bureau of the Ministry of the Army, Kenri Sato certainly knew about the disastrous defeat of the Japanese Combined Fleet in the Battle of the Marianas...... On the surface, this battle seemed to be a small loss, but Sato Ken knew that this was to wipe out the last bit of Japan's strength that might confront the American army. In particular, more than 300 fighters were lost...... This loss can almost be said to be unforgivable.

What is especially ironic is that Kenki Sato believes that the reason why Japan lost this war is entirely because Hideki Tojo did not adopt his own opinion, and now Hideki Tojo is asking himself about his battle plan in the Philippines!!

Although Kenri Sato expressed indignation in his heart, he did not dare to show it in his face and words, after all, the other party was the Japanese prime minister who leaned towards the government and the opposition.

After being stunned for a moment, Ken Sato replied, "Your Excellency Prime Minister...... My battle plan was based on fighter planes, but now ......"

Needless to say, the fighters were all defeated by Hideki Tojo in the Marianas, so it's a fart!

Hideki Tojo pretended to be calm and said "um", and then said: "We know about the current situation, but Americans don't necessarily know!" ”

"Your Excellency the Prime Minister means ......" Sato Ken is a little confused, do Americans know what it matters? The point is that the Japanese have no carrier-based aircraft at their disposal.

"I mean......" Hideki Tojo said, pointing to the Philippines on the map: "We are making some feints in the direction of the Philippines to make the Americans think that we still have many fighters and the ability to fight against them, which will make them have some scruples, and thus slow down the pace of the Americans and Japan!" ”

"Oh!" When I heard this, Ken Sato understood.

This is indeed a clever plan, after all, the Mariana Islands are too close to Japan, the nearest is only more than 1,700 kilometers, and the distance from Tokyo is only 2,200 kilometers...... If the Americans continue to advance at this pace, they will only need to conquer Iwo Jima and Okinawa...... It is estimated that it will be off the coast of Japan in a few months.

Therefore, there is only one way now, and that is to make the Americans think that Japan still has considerable strength in the Philippines, so that they will not dare to attack Japan regardless of the Philippines......

Thinking of this, Sato Ken nodded and said, "Your Excellency, I understand what you mean, and I will do my best to get this matter done!" It's just ......"

"Just what?"

"We don't have any fighters after all!" Kenri Sato replied: "So, we will definitely not be able to defeat the Americans in the Philippines, and the Americans will eventually find that the appearance of the Philippines is just a delaying tactic...... In other words, this is just stalling for time, and it does not solve the problem substantively! ”

"That's enough!" Hideki Tojo replied.

"This ......" Ken Sato didn't understand what Tojo Hideki meant by this, whether he could delay it for a while, or delay it for a while and find another way out.

Kenri Sato prefers the former, because he believes that after Japan has lost so many carrier-based aircraft, especially when carrier-based aircraft cannot be replenished and resources are seriously scarce, Japan has no hope of victory.

However, the truth is the latter...... Hideki Tojo wanted to use the Philippines to stall for time so that he could gather forces in China to launch an unprecedented battle, trying to destroy the Chinese forces or at least occupy China's major points, so that Japan would have the space to shift its strategic focus from Japan to China with deep defense.

This can be said to be Hideki Tojo's last hope, because only in this way can Japan have a chance to survive.

This plan of Hideki Tojo is known in history as the "Operation No. 1" plan, and China calls it the "Battle of Yuxianggui...... This can be described as a desperate attempt by the Japanese army to take most of China at the last moment, or at least to crush the Chinese army and give Japan any hope of survival.

Therefore, the Japanese army gathered 510,000 troops in this battle alone to fight a battle that lasted eight months...... This is unimaginable for Japan, which is desperately short of troops.

It is precisely because Japan has such strategic intentions that in the later stage of the war, Japan not only did not transfer its elite to the Pacific, but instead devoted its whole country to attacking China.

According to Chinese records, in eight months, China lost more than 50-600,000 troops on the battlefield of Henan, Hunan and Guizhou, lost 4 provincial capitals and 146 cities (38 cities were lost in 37 days in the Battle of Central Henan), 7 air bases and 36 airfields, and lost more than 200,000 square kilometers of land and 60 million people......

The loss of China was the result of the Japanese army.

But in the end, the Japanese were unable to achieve their strategic goal, which was to completely defeat the Chinese forces.

On the modern Internet, many people describe this battle as follows: "When the U.S. military beat the Japanese elite in the Pacific, the remnants of Japan's defeated troops in China beat the Chinese troops into a mess and fled!" ”

The purpose of saying this is obvious, that is, to achieve the goal of elevating the US military and belittling China through some information that seems to be true on the surface but is actually false, but as long as you know a little bit about history and the strategic policy of the Japanese army at that time, you will know that this is not the case...... At the end of the war, the Japanese army used all its elite in China.

These are all off-topic.

After receiving orders from Hideki Tojo, Kenri Sato quickly drew up a new battle plan.

As a matter of fact, this new battle plan is to make some changes to the original battle plan...... He was pretending that the Japanese army was using the Philippines to fight the U.S. military to the death, so Sato Ken was pretending that the Japanese Combined Fleet still had enough fighters.

Of course, these pretenses also have to be pretended, otherwise Americans will not be so easily deceived.

In addition, he is using some land-based fighters to confuse the US military, so that the US military thinks that those land-based fighters have taken off from the Japanese aircraft carriers, and they are also ready to move on the US military.

In order to achieve this goal, Sato Kenri even preferred to arrange many new fighters, which were also in short supply in Japan at this time, to the islands adjacent to the Mariana Islands at the risk of being bombed by the United States...... This is in another way to tell the Americans: "Look, the Japanese have no shortage of fighters!" ”

(To be continued.) )