Nobusuke Kishi's residence, Tokyo, Japan. A secret meeting is underway, and in addition to people from Kishi's small circle, there is also former Prime Minister Fumiro Konoe.

As a former prime minister, Konoe has always played a key role in the Emperor's small staff group (the Heavy Ministers' Council).

Although Konoe was not involved in the recent interrogation of Makino, after reading the minutes of the meeting, he immediately became interested. As an aristocrat, he is frivolous and romantic, likes mystic novels since he was a child, and is easy to accept absurd and strange things, which is very different from Hideki Tojo, whose imagination is close to 0.

After reading the minutes of the meeting, Konoe believed the story told by Makino almost immediately, and his instincts told him that a madman couldn't make up such a story. The complexity of the story surpasses that of Jules Verne's, and the futuristic world it constructs is grotesque and plausible, with the only thing that makes him doubt is the status of post-war China.

Konoe then approached Ito, the head of the Cabinet Intelligence Bureau, and Okumura, the deputy chief, and asked about the origin of the incident.

Okumura is the official in charge of liaison when Kagesa returns to Tokyo from Shanghai with three travelers, and has met with both Hasegawa and Asano, and has a fairly direct opinion. In his opinion, Makino and Hasegawa are definitely not crazy people, and Asano is difficult to say.

This is the reason why Konoe visited Nobusuke Kishi today, he knows that behind the shadow Sage Zhenzhao is actually Nobusuke Kishi and Eisaku Sato, as well as some people from the academic and military circles. As a prelude to the Sino-Japanese War, he was naturally also worried about the fate of Japan, and he himself was not very supportive of the Pacific War, which was similar to the attitude of the emperor.

Now, at home, Konoe studied the situation of the war all day, and from the day the Germans were accustomed to blitzkrieg failed, he thought that things might not be good.

"So, a year ago, you were ready to stop the war?" The guard said leisurely, smoking a cigar. He had in his hand a copy of the post-war modern history written by Asano, which he spent an afternoon hastily reading.

"Yes, Your Excellency."

"The rebellion of the 1st Division, the operation to blow up the communication facilities, was also planned by you?"

"This matter has nothing to do with us." Nobusuke Kishi hastened to deny it.

"We're going to get straight to the point," Konoe shook his hand indifferently, "and if we knew that the country was going to fall into the abyss, we wouldn't have to overdo it." ”

"Is this...... Of course I know," Kishi said he didn't dare to claim it. However, he didn't think the guards were here to pursue the matter.

"If you follow the information written by Asano-kun, if you continue to fight, the future of the war is worrying."

"Yes, all the forces of the empire must be immediately concentrated and weapons that can be used against the United States must be developed."

"I read the excerpts of the Imperial Council, and Prime Minister Tojo still insists that Makino is a nervous liar."

"The current holy judgment?"

"The emperor is there, he is still skeptical, but Tojo is obviously already arrogant, and he refuses to accept anything he doesn't understand, and it's not a day or two."

"yes, that's exactly how I feel," Kishi Nobusuke heard Konoe clearly on his side, "but time is of the essence, and we don't have time to wait for the Cabinet to drag on like this." ”

Sato Eisaku on the side took a desk calendar with a sense of understanding, and compared with the general desk calendar, this one is thicker.

"Duke Konoe, this is all the time we have," Sato said and quickly flipped through the calendar, and Konoe watched him finish flipping through it, not knowing what Sato meant. He waited to see that the last page stopped on July 16, 1945.

"This date represents the defeat of Japan?"

"No, this day is done on behalf of the United States*. We have two years and eight months to go. At present, the human resources invested in the academic community alone are not enough, and we need to use all the resources of the empire to make this weapon every second. According to Mr. Yukawa's estimate, at the current pace, we can get about 5 kilograms of high-purity uranium-235 in the first year and a plutonium-239 reactor in the second year, but it is still too slow. ”

"It's just that both the army and the navy need a lot of money. Otherwise, before this calendar is finished, the enemy will hit the doorstep. Konoe said.

"Strategically it should be contracted," interjected by retired Army General Ishihara Wanji, "the larger the place occupied, the more manpower and material resources will be consumed." It is necessary to withdraw from those battlefields that are not strategically important. ”

After Ishihara finished speaking, he sat in place with his hands folded.

The meeting scene was cold for a while, and Ishihara's sudden interjection surprised everyone, and every time I had a meeting, Ishihara would come from his hometown in Yamaguchi Prefecture to participate, but he generally just listened and rarely expressed his opinions.

"And what do you think?" Konoe couldn't help but ask.

Ishihara looked around, wondering if he should say the words on his lips. It seems that he should make a decision in both public and private life, and of course there are personal grievances involved.

"Duke Konoe, you just said: knowing that the country will fall into the abyss, what kind of reaction is not too much?"

"Yes. Soldiers should be more resolute. The guard snuffed out his cigarette butt and waited for the following.

"For now, the only way to do this is to kill that person, otherwise, you can't put the country on the right track. Otherwise, Japan will only have the last 960 days left. ”

Ishihara was out, and he knew that if he didn't kill that man, Makino would most likely be imprisoned until he was defeated.

In the South Pacific, Project 419 submarines continue to track the U.S. and Japanese fleets. The Chicheng had broken away from the formation and headed for New Guinea, the mobile force had lost two of its main carriers, but was supported by two more Shoho-class carriers, and two other warships carrying command guidance*, as well as four of Takasu Shiro's battleships, had also joined the battle group, and it looked like it would be another fierce battle tomorrow.

Cheng Dayang made a new plan, once the enemy sacrificed*, then let them fail, according to Lin Xiuxuan's analysis, there is no fog between 419 and Makino at present, he should know what kind of forces are against him, so Makino can escape repeatedly.

But he may not be able to convince the politicians in Tokyo that having his weapons disgraced in the war may be very useful in undermining his credibility.

At dawn, the Nagumo fleet took the lead in taking off six Zero water reconnaissance planes from the USS Nisshin seaplane carrier to reconnoiter the area where the enemy might exist.

The Nisshin was a very fast sailor carrier, and its arrival at night with the Takasu fleet compensated for the reduced reconnaissance capabilities of the mobile forces caused by the departure of the Wyvern.

The Hornet replaced the Enterprise in front of the fleet, and the reconnaissance dive bombers that took off from the aircraft carrier missed the Japanese reconnaissance planes in the air. 7 a.m. Japanese seaplanes discovered the position of the opposing aircraft carrier before the American military. But the US military also spotted reconnaissance aircraft. Task Force 16 under Spruance and Task Force 17 under Fletcher then headed north, as if the Americans were not preparing to run head-on with the Japanese early in the morning, but to use the new day to start a new round of maneuvers with the Japanese.

Cheng Dayang realized that this was not a good thing, and that the Americans' goal might be to lure the Japanese to the Solomon Islands under their control, so that some long-range army bombers could play a role.

The Americans in this time and space did not experience the Battle of Midway, and probably did not know very well that large bombers did not play a role in naval warfare. One serious consequence of this was to make it more difficult for the 419 to help the Americans, and on the Allied route from New Calisdonia to Guadalcanal, there were often some supercharger-using P38 aircraft that could fly at altitudes of more than 10,000 meters. And the carrier-based aircraft of the navies of both sides are not able to fly to such altitudes, so for UAVs, the P38 is a threat.

The second group of reconnaissance planes of the Japanese fleet discovered the movement of the US fleet, and the Japanese fleet did not show weakness and followed closely, leaving behind the slower battleships. Nagumo also breathed a sigh of relief and was ready to take down the Halsey fleet today. Nagumo's biggest regret is that the submarine was deployed by Yamamoto to attack the Australian cruiser fleet on the coast of Australia, and was not deployed to this area in advance, otherwise it could increase a lot of reconnaissance efforts.

In the morning, the Japanese planes lost their targets several times, rediscovered them several times, and lost several seaplanes in the Trek, but it was obviously worth paying such a price, and Nagumo kept marking the location of the opponent every time he found it on the chart. Apparently he is approaching the target.

His fleet sailed at 26 knots, eager to swallow his opponent in one gulp. He knew that Halsey was not avoiding the battle, but luring him to a sea area that the U.S. Army and Marine Corps planes could support, and he was unmoved. He judged that the various types of bombers of the US Army did not pose much of a threat to the fleet, and no matter how many bombers came, they were only targets, and the superiority of the Zero fighter was still unchallengeable at this time.

At 11 o'clock, the American forces stopped the complex course and sailed southwest, preparing to intercept the advancing Japanese fleet.

At the same time, about 20 B25 and B26 bombers took off from New Caledonia and the Solomon Islands, and approached the Japanese fleet under the escort of the same number of fighters.

A Japanese seaplane that gave advance warning of the arrival of enemy bombers. A large number of fighters on five Japanese aircraft carriers took off and headed head-on for these bombers.

The Nishimura destroyer fleet, which served as a reconnaissance on the northern flank, was the first to be hit. During the fierce battle between the Japanese Zero fighters and the P40 fighters, several B25 bombers approached the destroyer fleet, which had weak anti-aircraft firepower.

This time the Japanese were eye-opening, because the B25s were not flying high and dropping bombs as they used to, they were coming straight from a height slightly above the side of the ship, and the Japanese sailors thought they were going to fire*. This makes it somewhat difficult for Japanese ships to deal with, if it is a bomber that drops bombs horizontally, they should try to flank the enemy, prevent the enemy from flying from the bow to the stern, use the length of the ship to increase the hit rate, if the opponent is * machine, the opposite is true. Of course, it seems, those are indeed twin-engine army bombers.

However, the number of US bombers was no longer what they expected, and the first B25 suddenly attacked the Japanese ship with a large caliber * gun, and the Japanese ship was caught off guard.

The Japanese encounter with the B25G was a crude combination of a bomber and an army 75mm tank gun, for which the number of planes was reduced and there was an additional loader.

The first B25 fired three shots in a row, and it actually knocked out the bridge of the destroyer Yutachi. Then the bombers dropped small * at a greater distance. These* jumped on the surface of the sea, and two of them smashed into the side of the hapless destroyer.