Chapter 204 The Telegraph (Part 2)
"Marrior Brenberg's injury is not serious. Can he be arranged to visit Japan? It will be the New Year in Japan in more than ten days?" Weirler rubbed his eyes, raised his head and suggested to Xu Jun.
"What do you mean is to let Brenberg go to Tokyo to negotiate directly with the Japanese cabinet?" Xu Jun stopped.
"My head of state, Japanese Foreign Minister Matsuoka, seems to be a memoir, and he doesn't dare to have his own opinions at all. I think instead of arguing with the Japanese in Shanghai, it's better to go directly to Tokyo to find their emperor." Weirler looked very tough.
"This is indeed a solution. It is time to add some pressure to their senior management, otherwise they will really think that things will be over." Xu Jun nodded, and had already made a decision in his heart.
Earl Schdoughenberg's telegram was not much, but the amount of information he conveyed was not much. In the telegram, he reported the latest negotiation process and contents with the Japanese Foreign Minister, and the Japanese intelligence obtained by the German special envoy from various channels, including a lot of his personal analysis and evaluation.
The Japanese government now has a very contradictory attitude towards Germany. It not only wants to please and win over, but also is worried that the German forces will take this opportunity to return to the Far East.
With the development of trade cooperation between China and Germany, Germany's influence on China is gradually increasing. In addition, the German armed forces have returned to the South Asian colonies. Germany's recent actions have indeed brought considerable shock to the Japanese military and political circles.
After France was defeated, there were signs of a myth of the German combat power in Japan, because 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 domestic media portrayed Germany as extremely powerful, meaning that the empire had such powerful allies, and Japan would definitely be able to compete for the supremacy of Greater East Asia.
However, this propaganda offensive soon calmed down as the relationship between the two countries became colder. However, the Great Unity Will Empire's science and technology was the best in the world, the Unity National Defense Forces were invincible, and the head of state of the independent country was full of wisdom and tricks. The Japanese people had already instilled a lot of such information in their minds.
As mentioned in the previous article, there was a large group of German admirers in the Japanese Army. At this time, most of the senior Japanese Army officers visited Germany. They were convinced that Germany had the strongest military strength in Europe. The previous destruction of Morimoto's brigade in French Indochina deepened this impression in their minds.
The small conflict that broke out in the Shanghai Concession put the German SS, which the Japanese military had never paid attention to before, on the reality. Now a new 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 been able to take advantage of the outside world before, and the SS is their elite force.
The Japanese translated the SS as "pro-guards", which is correct. The SS was indeed Hitler's personal guard armed force at first, but after the group developed, its nature changed accordingly and gradually became a quasi-national military force used to maintain the Nazi political system.
Germany not only sent the army, navy and air force to Asia, but now even the most elite head of the pro-guards appeared. This can only prove that Germany's goal is not small. If it is just for the safety of Marshal Brenberg, it can be equipped with the army's guards, so why should we mobilize the pro-guards of the head of state?
Why did the Germans transfer this army to Shanghai just to parade? Fumikoto didn't think so. This was definitely not what Tokyo had previously judged, but just to declare the return of German power.
In order to discuss the handling of the concession conflict in Shanghai, the Japanese cabinet held several consecutive meetings. In addition to discussing how to appease the emotions of countries in the concession, it also discussed the German issues in particular.
Matsuoka, who rushed back to Tokyo from Shanghai overnight, raised a worrying idea at the meeting, that is, whether Germany is planning a plan to return to Asia.
If the Germans really wanted to regain the rights it lost in the last war, then their most likely target was undoubtedly China's Jiaodong Peninsula. The country had been operating the Jiaodong region for decades, invested a lot of manpower and material resources, established mines and railways, as well as the most advanced coastal defense fortress system in Asia at that time. As a result, all of this was cheaper after the First World War. Who knows whether the Germans still remember this old account in their hearts?
Although after the Washington Conference in 1922, Japan was forced to compromise with the great powers, nominally withdrew from the Jiaodong Peninsula, and returned the sovereignty to the Chinese government, Japan actually retained a lot of privileges, and the local area still lived in a large number of Japanese expatriates and various Japanese-run factories and mining enterprises.
After the 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 situation of the Japanese cabinet will be very difficult.
First of all, the military will never agree to such things. Neither the army nor the navy will tolerate it. This is not only a diplomatic and political issue, but also a matter of the face of the Japanese Imperial Army. The Japanese government cannot agree to this request. The nationalism in China has been played with, and the people with big hearts and souls will not listen to your explanation. They only know that "traitors" must be "sincerely punished".
As a result, the cabinet did not discuss any results until the end of the meeting. After all, this was just Matsuoka's personal imagination, and there was no evidence to confirm that the Germans did have this plan. If Matsuoka's judgment was wrong, wouldn't the overreacting Japanese cabinet become a laughing stock in the international community? More importantly, if the relationship between Germany and Japan is damaged, then who can bear this responsibility?
The Army said they had repeatedly deduced that if the Japanese Army confronted the German Army head-on, the Imperial Army would only have a chance to win if it occupied more than three times its strength and controlled the battlefield air supremacy.
This means that once Japan angered the head of state and led him to send German troops to Southeast Asia, there would be no large number. Just four or five conventional infantry divisions and one or two armored divisions, Japan's previous "South Advance Plan" would only become a piece of paper.
Japan is now drawing troops from the Chinese theater to form a "Southern Army" cluster to implement the southward advance plan. The General Staff Headquarters is still considering mobilizing some troops from the local garrison troops and the Kwantung Army to supplement the Chinese theater, where can they gather these twenty elite divisions out.
At present, the mobilization of a large number of Japanese elite troops on the Chinese battlefield, especially in the important North China region, has affected the local strategic situation.
Now Chiang Kai-shek has obtained a batch of weapons and ammunition made by Britain and France. He actually launched several small-scale counterattacks with tentative nature in the confrontation areas of the two armies on Hunan, Hubei and Guizhou. Although they were eventually repelled by local Japanese troops, the General Staff Headquarters' combat effectiveness has increased significantly based on the casualties counted by the post-war statistics of the General Staff.
At the end of the meeting, Fumikoto Kotori made a board. What Matsuoka said was just a guess. What the Japanese government has to do now is to prevent such speculation from becoming a reality as much as possible. Therefore, maintaining friendly relations with Germany now seems to have extremely important strategic significance. In order to achieve this goal, it is worth it even if it pays some price. Of course, blind retreat is not desirable. The dignity of the Great Japanese Empire and His Majesty the Emperor cannot be violated. In terms of the core interests of the empire, we should still fight for it, but we need to maintain a "degree". As for how to measure and grasp this "degree", it depends on your own performance.
Fumiko Koe still adheres to his theory. It is of course best to pull Germany onto Japan's chariot. This shows that the great god of the Tianyou Empire appears, and Germany doesn't need to force it if it is unwilling to form an alliance. As long as they do not become enemies with Japan, the Japanese government will have already made a profit.
ps: Chapter 1 is here, thank you for your support and understanding, take a break before continuing to code Chapter 2.
Chapter completed!