To be honest, they thought that the situation in northwest Shanxi would become more serious, but they did not expect it would be so serious.

If it were according to Takaichi Sakamoto, the 69th Division, which was used to maintain public order in northwest Shanxi, would face the 20,000 Eighth Route Army, the 10,000 Jinsui Army and the 6,000 Central Army.

The comparison of enemy and us forces is two to one!

And over time, it may become three to one or even four to one!

The reason is also very simple. The Imperial Army will only fight less and less, while the Chinese army will only fight more and more.

Takaichi Sakamoto continued: "So, in the future, the Imperial Army will be at an absolute disadvantage in northwestern Shanxi, and even if there is an Imperial Army, it is not enough to erase this disadvantage."

"In such a situation, it is undoubtedly extremely difficult to maintain the offensive."

Speaking of this, Sakamoto Takaichi said again: "But what I want to tell the commander and you all is that if you just keep your guard to death, then the end result will be to be to die!"

"If you just keep it to the end, you will definitely not be able to defend it in the end."

"The final result can only be to be bitten to death by the enemy one by one."

Sakamoto Takaichi's words were somewhat beyond Yoshio Iwamatsu's expectations.

At that moment, Yoshio Iwamatsu asked, "So what you mean is to continue taking the offensive?"

"Yes, continue to take the offensive!" said Takaichi Sakamoto. "Even if his troops are at a disadvantage, he must insist on taking the offensive and put pressure on the enemy."

Yoshio Iwamatsu asked, "What should I do specifically?"

Takaichi Sakamoto replied: "Start from two aspects, one is to improve the enthusiasm and combat effectiveness of the Imperial Army, and the other is to alienate the relationship between the Eighth Route Army, the Jinsui Army and the Central Army."

Yoshio Iwamatsu said again: "You can talk about it in detail."

"Okay." Sakamoto Takaichi paused his head slightly and said, "The biggest problem with the Imperial Army is that they are at both ends of the head. On the one hand, they hope to live a comfortable life with the Imperial Army, but on the other hand, they do not want to break up with the Eighth Route Army, so they often do things perfunctorily on the battlefield, and even reach a tacit understanding with the Eighth Route Army."

"I have heard of this, too." Hanagu Masaru said.

"It is said that the Imperial Army will only shoot in the sky on the battlefield."

"In return, the Eighth Route Army generally won't kill the Imperial Army."

Takaichi Sakamoto said: "So it is necessary to break this tacit understanding."

"This matter is difficult to deal with." Yoshio Iwamatsu shook his head, "The most difficult thing in this world is the human heart."

Takaichi Sakamoto said solemnly: "It's really difficult to deal with this matter, but it's easy to deal with it."

"Oh?" Yoshio Iwamatsu became interested and asked again, "Sakamoto, what's the best way?"

Takaichi Sakamoto said in a deep voice: "Whether it is a person or a country, the ones that are fighting for are nothing but interests. Therefore, if you want to break the tacit understanding between the Imperial Army and the Eighth Route Army, you can only start with interests."

"Enterprise?" Hanagu Masato, "Are there any specific measures?"

"Of course." Sakamoto Takaichi said, "The specific measure is to cover taxes!"

"Tax-inclusive?" said Yoshio Iwamatsu, "What do you mean is to let the Imperial Army collect taxes?"

"Yes, let the Imperial Army be responsible for taxation." Takashi Sakamoto nodded, "but it is not the tax on public security, but the taxes in the guerrilla areas and bandit areas. If the taxes in the guerrilla areas are collected, the Imperial Army can keep half of them. If it is the taxes in the bandit areas, no matter how much they are collected, they will belong to the Imperial Army, and the Imperial Army will not collect a penny!"

"In this way, the enthusiasm of the Imperial Army will inevitably increase greatly."

"People's hearts are greedy. Driven by interests, the Imperial Army will definitely actively collect taxes from the guerrilla areas, and it is likely that they will also enter the bandit areas to collect public grain."

"In this way, the Imperial Army and the Eighth Route Army immediately became mortal enemies, and the tacit understanding between the two sides would be self-defeating."

"And driven by interests, the Imperial Army will have the enthusiasm to improve its combat effectiveness to fight the Eighth Route Army, and its combat effectiveness will inevitably increase in a short period of time."

Speaking of this, Takaichi Sakamoto emphasized his tone again: "At least, it will no longer be just a decoration like now, and even the defense base cannot be counted on the Imperial Army."

"Yoxi." Yoshio Iwamatsu nodded happily.

Masashi Hanaya, Yasushi Inoue and others nodded one after another.

Only Takuya Mizuhara's eyes flashed with disdain.

The way Sakamoto Takaichi's approach is to take care of immediate interests and ignore long-term gains and losses, which is completely contrary to the three non-standard policies advocated by the General.

If the northwestern Shanxi was handed over to Takaichi Sakamoto, it would take less than a year to make all the efforts before, and all the people in the guerrilla area would have to turn to the Eighth Route Army. By that time, what would it be if the combat effectiveness of the Imperial Army increased? At that time, the Eighth Route Army had already expanded to 50,000 or even 100,000.

So this is a completely scattered approach.

But Takumi Mizuhara would not say this, otherwise what would happen if Iwamatsu Yoshio asked him to go to northwest Shanxi again?

Thinking of this, Takumi Mizuhara quickly praised a few words: "Sakamoto's method is indeed very clever."

"However, such an approach seems to conflict with the three non-policies advocated by the General." Yoshio Iwamatsu said, "Will it bring negative effects?"

"It's urgent to follow the power."

Takaichi Sakamoto said: "The result will not become worse than it is now."

Yoshio Iwamatsu refused to comment and asked again: "So, how should we alienate the relationship between the Eighth Route Army, the Jinsui Army, and the Central Army of China?"

“This is even simpler.”

Takaichi Sakamoto smiled and said, "We can say hello to the Jinsui Army and the Central Army of China in advance and give them the territory between the Eighth Route Army, the Jinsui Army and the Central Army of China. In this way, the controlled areas of the Jinsui Army and the Central Army of China are directly bordered by the controlled areas of the Eighth Route Army, and there will inevitably be conflicts between the two sides."

"Well, this method is good." Yoshio Iwamatsu said, "not only in northwest, western, central, southern and southeastern Jin, can also learn from it. The Jinsui Army and the Chinese Central Army can use the Jinsui Army to restrain the Eighth Route Army. In this way, the Imperial Army can shoulder the important task of public security in the occupied areas with less force."

He paused for a moment and said, "This means that the First Army can still concentrate enough superior forces on local battlefields to launch offensive operations, and defeat various bandit areas of the Eighth Route Army one by one."

"Commander, Aijing." Takaichi Sakamoto bowed his head repeatedly.
Chapter completed!