[Anti-Japanese Iron Blood King] Chapter 776: Fierce Dispute (Ask for Subscription!) , ask for a monthly pass, ask for everything! ）

As soon as Konoe Fumima's words fell, former Prime Minister Mitsumasa Yonechi stood up and said, "Your Majesty, I reiterate once again that we must stop the war as soon as possible, otherwise the Great Japanese Empire will face the greatest crisis in nearly a hundred years, and even endanger the foundation of the Empire." Pen ~ Fun ~ Pavilion www.biquge.info"

As a well-known military strategist and statesman in Japan's Showa period, Mitsumasa Yonechi was undoubtedly the elite of Japan's upper-class elite, and he was different from the mainstream of the main war in Japan now; he saw that the Japanese army was invincible and at the same time saw the hidden dangers hidden under the brilliant achievements, so he actively advocated peace talks with China, and even more opposed to strengthening ties with Germany and Italy.

"Your Excellency Mine, you are still so stubborn that a small defeat has made you, the former Minister of the Navy and former Prime Minister, lose the blood and honor of a soldier?" It was War Minister Hideki Tojo who stood up to speak.

There had been no contradiction between Hideki Tojo and Mitsumasa Yonechi before, or there had been little overlap between the two before, but since January 1939, Seishiro Itagaki, then Minister of War, proposed a plan to strengthen the defense and communist agreement between Japan, Germany, and Italy, and submitted it to the cabinet meeting as an important part of the national policy, with the intention of establishing a military alliance.

However, this plan was fully opposed by Navy Minister Mitsumasa Yonechi, Vice Minister Yamamoto Isoroku, and Military Affairs Bureau Chief Inoue Narumi, while the army stubbornly insisted, and a situation of serious confrontation between the army and navy appeared.

At the cabinet meeting, the two sides argued more than 70 times, during which it was rumored that Yonei and Yamamoto had been assassinated, which caused a stir for a while. In this chaotic situation, Mine, Yamamoto, and others did not give an inch and waged a stubborn struggle for their position.

As the differences between the two sides grew, the relationship between the Army and Mitsumasa Yonechi gradually deteriorated, so much so that no matter what the occasion, as long as the two sides were present, there was always a dispute.

"Humph! Senior Tojo private, I'm afraid you're stubborn, right? Don't you know how far the empire's economy has deteriorated? Do you think that if you continue to fight, you will be able to force the people of China to surrender? It's a pipe dream, and I'm telling you, as long as the army can't completely wipe out the people of China within half a year, then the recently issued treasury bonds will be exhausted again, and then your soldiers will have to fight the people with bayonets! Mitsumasa Yonechi said angrily.

"Mine, our Imperial Japanese Army is invincible, even with bayonets, we can defeat the incompetent Shina people, we can defeat the 300,000 Northeast Army with only 20,000 people, and we can wipe out 3 million China troops with 1 million people!" Hideki Tojo said loudly.

"Humph! Tojo, are you kidding? That's right, it is precisely because of the Minister of War like you that the Imperial Japanese Army will not be as good as day by day, don't always use the previous achievements to advertise that you are a hero, in the words of Shina, it is a good man who does not mention the courage of the year. ”

Then Mitsumasa Yonechi continued: "The army before Showa 12 was still very good, but look at the current army, it took nearly a year for more than 300,000 troops to defeat Wuhan, and nearly 150,000 troops were lost. Not to mention the North China Front this time, nearly 350,000 troops were beaten by the China Soil and Eight Roads to lose their armor and abandon their armor, and in the end, more than 100,000 people were swallowed by others. Your army is really okay, what else can you do but brag and talk big? Mitsumasa Yonechi sneered.

"Yaga, Your Excellency Mine, you can insult me Tojo, but you can't insult hundreds of thousands of imperial warriors on the front line, the defeat in the war is the dereliction of duty of the commander, and it has nothing to do with the warriors who fought bloody battles on the front line, have you ever thought that you are also a soldier when you insult them like this?" Hideki Tojo said angrily.

"Tojo, you superior soldier, don't give me a big hat, as you said I am also a soldier, how can I insult myself boringly? As the Minister of War of the Imperial Japan, you should know that fighting a war is not just a fight between people, but a competition between national strength. In terms of comprehensive national strength, the people of China are indeed inferior to our great Japanese Empire, but after all, China is China, and the land area of China is 30 times that of the Empire, and China has a population of 400 million, which is six times the size of the Empire. ”

"The empire occupies the northeast of China, the people of China can withdraw to Guannei, the empire occupies Hebei and they can withdraw to Shanxi and Suiyuan, the empire occupies Central China, the people of China can also withdraw to the Sichuan Basin, the people of China have enough strategic depth, but does the empire have so many troops? No, in fact, with the economic strength of the empire, it can only equip a maximum of 500,000 troops, and any more will greatly affect the normal development of the empire! I tell you, as long as the Shina people hold out for another year, the Great Japanese Empire will collapse without a fight, and the Shina people will win without a fight! You don't know any of this, you just don't know the so-called clamoring for more troops and going to war! Mitsumasa Minechi said loudly.

Then Mitsumasa Yonechi said: "War is the only way out for the Great Japanese Empire, but it does not mean that the Great Japanese Empire can be done in one step, we can go to war with the Chinese people, but we cannot fight the Chinese people for a long time. ”

"Just like in the Sino-Japanese War more than 30 years ago, we only fought with the Shina people for one year, and the Japanese Empire received 230 million taels of silver, and at the same time got the island of Taiwan. Nine years ago, in the Manchurian Incident, we only fought for half a year, and we got the whole of Manchuria. But this time, we have been fighting for more than three years, paying a huge price, and now we have not gained the slightest benefit, so our strategy must be adjusted, otherwise the Great Japanese Empire will decline because of this, and will eventually be surpassed by the Chinese people! ”

Mitsumasa Yonechi did not disagree with a war with China, but he was very supportive of Japan's invasion of China, and like all Japanese in this era, Mitsumasa Yonechi firmly believed that foreign expansion was the only way out for Japan.

However, he did not support a nationwide war with China, and Mitsumasa Yonechi believed that the most correct tactic was to deal with a large and weak country like China, and that it was the most foolish thing to carry out a nationwide war of attrition for a long time.

Because of this, when the Lugou Bridge Incident broke out on July 7, 1937, Minai, then Minister of the Navy, advocated not to escalate the situation, and when answering questions from members of the Special Diet, he took it upon himself to say, "The Army's operational scope will not exceed the line between the Yongding River and the Baoding River."

However, as Japan's former prime minister, Mitsumasa Yonechi is different from other Japanese military officers after all, and he looks farther. He is well aware of the predicament that Japan is now facing, and that the Great Japanese Empire and the Great Japanese Navy are not as powerful as they appear to be.

First of all, Japan's not very developed economy severely limited the scale of this war, and if the scale of the war is barely expanded to the maximum extent that the economy can accommodate, Japan may be able to hold out for a while.

However, the problem now is that the scale of this war has long exceeded the limits of what the Japanese national economy can bear, and if it continues to fight, it will not only gain the slightest benefit, but will also drag down the Japanese economy as a result.

It is no wonder that Mitsumasa Yonechi was so determined to end the war, at a time when the speed and extent of Japan's economic deterioration had exceeded many people's estimates, and because the war had dragged on for a long time. On the contrary, the scale of the war continued to expand, and as a result, Japan's finances were on the verge of collapse. Direct military spending, which accounts for 70 to 80 per cent of budgetary expenditures, has skyrocketed, causing state expenditures to increase year on year.

In the four years from 1936 to 1940, Japan's budget expenditure totaled 48.8 billion yen, an increase of nearly four times from the cumulative amount of 10.755 billion yen in the previous five years, which led to a substantial increase in tax revenue, which rose from 2 billion yen in 1936-1937 to 5.8 billion yen in 1939-1940. On average, the tax burden per household has increased by more than two times.

The most immediate negative effect of such high taxes was the decline in the living standards of the working masses in Japan after 1937. The turnover of goods in the country has decreased sharply. Continuing to expand the amount of tax revenue has faced insurmountable difficulties. In order to make up for the growing fiscal deficit, the government had to resort to a greater degree to the issuance of public bonds and banknotes. (To be continued.) )