The autumn wind with a little fishy smell swept across the cold courtyard, with yellow leaves mixed with a few pieces of paper confetti, which are traces left by refugees in the square outside. "　"

The lush cherry blossom trees are left with bare branches, like chickens with feathers stripped away. The exposed bark is like the skin of an old lady, withered and wrinkled.

In Hirohito's eyes, the palace was full of declining scenes. Although the Chinese Air Force bombs never fell into the palace, the palace was also affected. A fire in late Xia burned to the edge of the palace. If the Imperial Guards had not fought hard, the palace would have turned into ashes.

Mars floated into the palace on the 1st. The Meiji Temple was partially damaged and the imperial kitchen was burned. The palace was panicked. It was said that the palace was protected by the great god Yaozhao, so in the past air raids, no bomb fell to the palace.

Of course, Hirohito would not be as ignorant as the people, but he did not have the idea of ​​helping to uncover the truth, and he also intentionally or unintentionally encouraged such rumors. He needed the blindness of the people.

The shadow of failure is getting stronger and stronger, quarrels between the army and the navy are becoming more and more frequent, and the opinions of civil officials and military generals are seriously different, and the cabinet is about to collapse several times. If it weren't for not finding a better prime minister to be elected, if Kido had tried his best to coordinate, if Hirohito had not secretly supported him, the Suzuki cabinet would have been unable to maintain it.

The front line was frequently defeated. After Manchuria was lost, Naosaburo Okabe retreated to North Korea and finally stabilized his position. However, in the Battle of Manchuria, the Kwantung Army lost about 80,000 troops and consumed countless supplies. Naosaburo Okabe frequently called for supplementary calls, but there was no such thing in the country.

The domestic army is also in a very bad situation. The ambitious plan to recruit 1.5 million troops is being implemented, but the weapons and equipment are not equipped.

China's bombing that lasted for more than half a year seriously damaged the empire's production. Nearly 70% of the country's factories were burned, and the remaining factories were seriously insufficient to start construction; Manchuria lost its important raw material base, and production dropped sharply.

In addition to production, millions of refugees produced by bombing, and millions of refugees fleeing from Northeast Korea are scattered all over the country. These refugees have nothing else except the property they carry. As the winter is approaching, these people can only sleep on the streets, and the government is helpless.

This will be a difficult winter death, a winter death with corpses everywhere.

Famine and severe cold will take away millions of lives from Japan.

"well!"

Kido looked at Hirohito with a serious expression. Recently, he sighed more and more. The sound of the piano had disappeared from the palace. The queen and the palace maids planted various vegetables on the open space. The flowers and plants that had been planted for decades in the back garden were cleaned up and replaced with rice. The newly harvested rice was piled up in the warehouse of the palace. Now the whole garden has the young seedlings of potatoes. The tender stems and leaves are trembling in the wind, adding some vitality to the bleak garden.

"Your Majesty, victory or defeat is common in military affairs. As long as the imperial system is in place, Japan will flourish again." Kido comforted: "Look, although this seedling is small, it is also full of vitality. There are huge fruits hidden under its young branches and leaves."

"In the past, Emperor Meiji was able to turn the poor and weak Japan into a world-class power, and His Majesty could also lead Japan to join the people, rebuild it from the ruins, and ten years of cultivation, ten years of rebirth, and twenty years in Japan will become a world-class power again."

The Japanese elites already knew that defeat was inevitable, and the entire country was unable to continue to fight. The defeat on the battlefield was frequent, and the morale of the people was low. There was no such cheer that was excited and cheering, but more of a howling of despair.

After being bombed continuously, urban residents in Tokyo Yokohama Osaka and other places fled to the countryside. According to statistics from local police stations, about 14 million entrances across the country fled to the city.

What's more, the remaining factories in various places, residents living nearby moved one after another, and some would rather live in shacks in the distance than live near the factory, because this factory might become the target of China's bombing at any time.

But now Japan has only realized that it is so difficult to stop the war. The Swiss ambassador reported that Dulles refused to meet, and the news feedback from other channels showed that the allies only accepted unconditional surrender.

These news made military generals who advocated continuing to fight find reasons and firmly demanded to fight in cabinet wars and meetings. The officers proposed a relatively radical strategy - to withdraw troops from Jiangnan and at least 200,000 troops, and all of these troops were withdrawn back to the country to enhance the combat effectiveness of the domestic army.

This strategy was strongly opposed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who believed that this would weaken the power of Jiangnan too much, but the cabinet meeting still adopted this strategy, withdrawing 200,000 troops from Jiangnan. After withdrawing, it could give up Nanjing and retreat to Shanghai if necessary.

The China Expeditionary Force Command did not protest, quietly accepted the order, and quickly adjusted its deployment, and dispatched troops to gather in Shanghai.

The situation on China's battlefield is irreversible, and the Pacific battlefield is also in decline. As the main strike force of the joint fleet, the main strike force of the Pacific battlefield, the aircraft carrier is difficult to go to sea to fight due to lack of aircraft and fuel.

The base camp judged the next move of the United States to the Philippines, and for this base camp formulated a combat plan No. 1. According to this plan, the joint fleet will be dispatched.

But what I never expected was that the commander of the Joint Fleet, Shisaburo Ozawa, rejected this plan. Shisaburo Ozawa's reason was very simple. The Joint Fleet did not have enough fuel, and the entire fleet could not drive the Philippines at all. Secondly, in the Mariana Naval Battle, the Joint Fleet lost a large number of aircraft, but was not supplemented. Now the entire fleet only has more than 60 combat aircraft.

The second problem is easy to solve, and it will be difficult to have no oil. At the end of August, the oil reserved at the naval base was bombed by the Chinese Air Force, and the fire caused an explosion in the oil depot. All the losses of the 100,000 gallons of oil stored have been unable to be completed yet.

So the problem was thrown to Toyota, the military minister in charge of production. Toyota made no ambiguity in guaranteeing that the refinery could work overtime to produce enough oil in two months, and as long as the navy could transport the oil from Nanyang back, it would be fine.

After the end of the Mariana Naval War, the US submarine attack schedule was reduced by more than half, and the attacks on maritime transportation lines became more fierce, and the maritime transportation lines were almost paralyzed.

The problem was returned to the Navy, and the Navy once again expressed its powerlessness. After the outbreak of the Pacific War, US submarines frequently attacked and attacked maritime transportation lines based on Australia and Pearl Harbor. However, the Japanese army never learned to escort at sea, and the transport fleet suffered heavy losses.

The problem was stalemate. The base camp combat meeting finally issued an vague combat order. The Navy prepared the No. 1 combat plan on the 1st. The Minister of Military Affairs was responsible for collecting oil and materials across the country for naval operations.

But where did Toyota collect oil? No one knows that the oil in the country is under Toyota's control. If there is enough oil, Toyota would have given the Joint Fleet a long time ago, which is the last barrier to defend Japan. If the Joint Fleet is annihilated, Japan will be like a naked woman entering the street.

In the past few months, Hirohito has not heard a good news, and there is not even a little bit of comfort. Kido's words are just to comfort "There are brothers in the world, and there are brothers in the world," Hirohito murmured at his grandfather's haiku. Seven years ago, under this haiku, the Japanese army crossed the Lugou Bridge and rushed into the Central Plains; also under this haiku, three years ago, the Japanese army attacked Pearl Harbor; now, Hirohito tastes the bitter fruit of the war, and really hopes that there are brothers in the world.

"Your Majesty, the cabinet is coming soon." Kido reminded in a low voice.

The issue of war and harmony has never been as urgent as that of Jinyao. The cabinet was stalemate at several meetings. Military generals and lords fought, civil officials were in harmony, and there were quarrels at each meeting. Hirohito felt that he could not continue like this, so he decided to convene a meeting of the imperial court to solve this problem.

Hirohito nodded and turned to the conference room, sighing that the Chinese Air Force is planning to rest today. Until now, the air defense alarm has not sounded, but for the sake of safety, the meeting was still held in the air-raid shelter in the palace.

The palace's air-raid shelter was built a long time ago. This is a huge underground project. The entire air-raid shelter is divided into three areas: living area, work area, and material area.

The three districts have their own division of labor. The living area is the area where life is entered in the palace, and is also divided into three parts: the ordinary work enrollment area, the imperial guards area, and the imperial and empress living area.

The work area includes Hirohito's office, conference room, secretary's office, intramus office of the intramus office, queen's office, telegraph room, etc.

When Hirohito came to the conference room, the main leader of the cabinet members, I was already waiting outside the conference room. Hirohito walked through the crowd and walked into the conference room first.

Suzuki lowered his head slightly, and only looked up at the closed door after Hirohito entered. After a while, the door was pushed open again, and Kido stood by the door.

"Your Majesty asks you ministers to come in."

Suzuki saluted respectfully and walked into the conference room first. The ministers followed behind him and entered one after another. This conference room was naturally not as luxurious as the conference room on the ground. When the crowd entered, it seemed a little crowded. There was a long table in the conference room, and the whole team was surrounded by golden thrones.

Hirohito sat on the wide throne, put his hands on his knees, straightened his waist, and looked straight ahead with gentle eyes.

Suzuki first saluted Hirohito, then walked to the seat in front, and then went in one after another at Hirohito, Nishio Suzu, Umezu Mijiro and others. After each entering the house, they saluted Hirohito first, and then walked to their own seat.

I don’t know whether it was intentional or unintentional, the side of Suzuki Kantaro are all civil officials, foreign ministers, agriculture and forestry ministers, finance ministers, etc. are all on his side, while the opposite side is military in. Nishio Suzuo, Umezu Mijiro, Toyota, and Navy Minister Minumasa all sit opposite him.

After everyone was seated, Kido announced that the imperial meeting began, and then he walked to the lower seat of Emperor Yao and sat down. Usually, he sat in this position when convening imperial meetings. He was the representative of Emperor Yao. If the Emperor Yao was not good at saying anything, he would say.

(To be continued)

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Chapter completed!