Battle of the Third Reich Chapter 204: Telegram (medium)

"Marshal Brumberg's injury is no longer serious. Can he arrange for him to visit Japan? It will be the New Year in Japan in more than ten days." Weierle rubbed his eyes and raised his head to propose to Xu Jun To.

"You mean, let Blumberg go to Tokyo to negotiate directly with the Japanese cabinet?" Xu Jun stopped.

"My head of state, the Japanese Foreign Minister Matsuoka seems to be a megaphone at present, and he doesn't dare to have his own opinions. I think it is better to go directly to Tokyo to find their emperor than to go back and forth with the Japanese in Shanghai." Wei Erle's attitude is very tough.

"This is indeed a way. It is time to put more pressure on their senior management, otherwise they would really think that this is the end of the matter." Xu Jun nodded and made a decision in his heart.

Earl Steufenberg’s telegram has not much content, but the amount of information conveyed is not much at all. In the telegram, he reported the latest negotiation process and content with the Japanese Foreign Minister, and the German special mission obtained Japanese intelligence from various channels. , Which also added a lot of his personal analysis and evaluation.

Currently, the Japanese government has a very contradictory attitude towards Germany. It not only wants to please and win, but also worry that German forces will take this opportunity to return to the Far East.

With the unfolding of trade cooperation between China and Germany, Germany’s influence on China is gradually increasing, coupled with the return of German armed forces to the colonies of South Asia, these recent actions by Germany have indeed brought a lot to the Japanese military and political circles. shock.

After the defeat of France, the myth of the German army’s combat effectiveness appeared in Japan. At that time, there was a saying that the two countries were about to form an alliance. In order to boost the morale of the Japanese people, the Japanese media portrayed Germany as extremely powerful. This means that the empire has such powerful allies, and Japan must be able to compete for hegemony in Greater East Asia.

However, this kind of propaganda offensive soon subsided as the relationship between the two countries turned cold, but the empire of the Great Solitary Will has the highest technology in the world, the national defense force is invincible, and the head of the single country is invincible. A lot of this kind of information has been instilled in the minds of Japanese people.

As mentioned in the previous article, there are a large group of German admirers in the Japanese Army. At this time, most senior officers of the Japanese Army have visited Germany. They are convinced that Germany has the strongest military strength in Europe. The Morimoto Brigade was previously in French Indochina. The demise of the city has deepened the impression in their minds.

And the small conflict that broke out in the Shanghai concession this time put the German SS, which the Japanese military had never paid attention to before, on the surface of reality. Now a new point of view has emerged in the Japanese Army, that is, the SS is stronger than the regular German Army. It turns out that the Germans have always kept a hand to the outside world before, and the SS is their elite force.

The Japanese translated the SS as "Guardian", which is true. The SS was indeed Hitler’s personal squad force at first, but after the development of this group, its nature also changed. , Gradually became a para-national military force used to maintain the Nazi political system.

Germany not only dispatched land, navy, and air forces to Asia, but now even the most elite guards of the head of state have appeared. This can only prove that the German side is not small. If it is just for the safety of Marshal Blumberg, it is entirely possible to equip the army's guards, so why mobilize the head of state guards?

Why did the Germans transfer this force to Shanghai just for the parade? Konoe Fumiko doesn't think so. This is definitely not what Tokyo had previously judged, but just to declare the return of German power.

In order to discuss the settlement plan for the concession conflict in Shanghai, the Japanese cabinet held several consecutive meetings. In addition to discussing how to calm the emotions of the concession countries, it also discussed the German issue in particular.

Matsuoka, who rushed back to Tokyo from Shanghai overnight, put forward a worrying idea at the meeting, that is, whether Germany is planning to return to Asia.

If the Germans really want to regain the rights they lost in the last war, then their most likely target is undoubtedly China's Jiaodong Peninsula. In the past decades, the independent country operated the Jiaodong area and invested a lot of manpower and material resources to establish mines and railways, as well as the most advanced coastal defense system in Asia at that time. As a result, all of this was after World War I, and it was all cheaper to the Japanese Empire. Who knows if the Germans still remember this old account.

Although after the Washington Conference in 1922, Japan was forced to compromise with the great powers, it withdrew from the Jiaodong Peninsula in name and returned its sovereignty to the Chinese government. But in fact, Japan still retains many privileges. There are still a large number of Japanese expatriates and various Japanese-owned factories and mining enterprises.

After the full-scale outbreak of the war of aggression against China, the Jiaodong Peninsula has become the core area of ​​Japan in North China. If Germany requests to return to Jiaodong at this time, the Japanese cabinet will be in a difficult situation.

First of all, the military will never agree to this kind of thing. Neither the army nor the navy will tolerate it. This is not only a diplomatic and political issue, but also related to the face of the Imperial Japanese Army. It is also impossible for the Japanese government to agree to this request. Domestic nationalism has already been played off. The people who are full of minds will not listen to your explanation. They only know that "traitors" must "tenchu".

As a result, the cabinet did not discuss any results until the end of the meeting. After all, this was only Matsuoka's personal imagination, and there was no evidence to prove that the Germans did have this plan. If Matsuoka's judgment is wrong, wouldn't the Japanese cabinet that overreacted become a laughing stock in the world? More importantly, if this destroys the relationship between Germany and Japan, then who can bear the responsibility?

The army said that they have repeatedly deduced that if the Japanese army confronts the German army head-on, the imperial army can only have a chance of winning if it occupies more than three times its strength and controls the air dominance on the battlefield.

This means that once Japan angered the head of state and caused him to send German troops to Southeast Asia, the number should not be too large. As long as four or five regular infantry divisions and one or two armored divisions, Japan’s previous "south advance plan" It can only become empty talk.

Japan is now drawing troops from the Chinese theater to form a "southern army" cluster to implement the southward plan. The staff headquarters is still considering mobilizing some troops from the local garrison troops and the Kwantung Army to supplement the Chinese theater, so where they can gather these twenty elite divisions.

At present, the Chinese battlefield, especially the important North China region, the mobilization of a large number of elite Japanese troops has affected the local strategic situation~IndoMTL.com~Now Jiang Zhongzheng has obtained a batch of weapons and ammunition made by Britain and France. The confrontation area between the two armies on the front line of Hubei and Guizhou launched several small-scale counterattacks of a tentative nature. Although they were eventually repelled by the local Japanese troops, the staff headquarters showed the number of casualties in the post-war statistics. There has been a noticeable increase in combat effectiveness.

At the end of the meeting, Fumaki Konoe made a decision. What Matsuoka said was just a guess. What the Japanese government has to do now is to prevent such guesses from becoming a reality as much as possible, so to maintain friendly relations with Germany. Now it seems to be of extremely important strategic significance. In order to achieve this goal, even if it is worth paying some price. Of course, blindly retreating is not advisable. The dignity of the Empire of Japan and His Majesty must not be violated. In the core interests of the empire, what should be strived for is still a struggle. It is only necessary to maintain a "degree". As for how to measure this "degree" Sure, it depends on Zhu Jun's own performance.

Fumniu Konwei still adheres to his theory. It is of course the best to pull Germany onto the Japanese chariot. This shows that the **** bless the emperor, and Germany does not want to form an alliance and does not need to force it. As long as they are not an enemy of Japan, The Japanese government has already earned it.

PS: The first chapter is here. Thank you for your support and understanding. Take a break and continue to work on the second chapter.