Iron Cross

Prince Fushimi Miyahiro Kyo was very skillful in his complaint. He said very little about defying the military command and being arbitrary. Because the battles were won, attacking the opponent's dictatorship can only show that the dictatorship is good, which in turn confirms that the military command is not dictating. Appropriately, the focus of his attack is on "inviting to buy people's hearts, forming parties for personal gain, and being too big to lose".

In the past few days, the Navy Ministry and the Military Command are jointly formulating promotions and rewards for meritorious officers. As a result, promotions have encountered trouble, and rewards are even more difficult. There was a long list of promotions reported by Horikichi. Basically, most of the officers wanted to be promoted to one level. Some officers who died in action asked for two levels (first to be promoted to one level normally, and then to pursue one level). Prince Fushimi Miyahiro was not a bad person, and he knew that too much obstruction in the matter of promotion would cause public outrage among the fleet, and the officers and soldiers would only be alienated from him. However, Horikichi requested too many promotion lists, and the speed was too fast, and he felt that he could not handle it. ——It’s not that there’s an imbalance within the fleet, but that there’s an imbalance within the fleet with other systems of the navy, and more importantly, it’s incompatible with the seniority system.

For example, among the four candidates proposed by Horikichi for promotion to generals, he believed that at most they could only be Nobutake Kondo and Shiro Takasu. Promoting Tsukahara was already an exception. If he promoted any one of the 37th Kaihei Kusaka, it would be even worse. What to do with the seniors who are early? Another example is that Horikichi wants to promote Mizuo Fuchida to the rank of major general, but the latter is only in the 52nd Marine Corps. Not to mention the same period, there are seniors who graduated 5-6 years earlier than him. For example, there are only a handful of people who graduated in the 46th and 47th cohorts. When a person becomes a general, promotion from colonel to major general is the most difficult step, even more difficult than promotion from lieutenant general to general. Fuchida just passed it so easily? He was just a lieutenant during the Battle of Midway.

Promotion is difficult, and rewards are even harder. He sent his confidant Fu Liushi, the director of the Operations Department of the Military Command Department, to inquire about the information and ask what rewards the fleet officers needed. When everyone was drunk, Fu Liushi asked in a joking tone some people who were closely related to him. When talking to a familiar officer, he was stunned by the answer he got: "Sir, the German and Italian allies have already come forward to reward you once in Europe. As long as you can make up for the salary of these few months, the rest will be paid. If the empire's finances are in trouble, it's okay not to reissue it. Anyway, we don't need this little money now..."

When asked in detail about the rewards from Germany and Italy, Fu Liufan was stunned: the entire combined fleet from top to bottom received nearly three times the income according to the standard German and Italian military ranks during their stay in Europe. Originally, the income of German and Italian officers of the same level was higher, plus additional The physical reward is almost equal to 10 years of domestic salary. All officers above the major general level receive a German-Italian brand car. Some outstanding mid-level officers such as Mitsuo Fuchida and Sadaki Akamatsu also receive one each, and he also vaguely I heard that a large number of people, including Tsukahara 243 and others, received checks to buy villas outside Tokyo; other officers who did not receive cars also received various gifts such as motorcycles, gramophones, radios, etc. . In addition to physical rewards, there are also many spiritual honors. A large number of Iron Crosses, Knight's Cross Medals, and Italian Legions of Valiant Service were issued. These medals can be used to receive preferential treatment in both Germany and Italy.

In other words, except for military ranks, Germany and Italy have fully provided everything they can and cannot give. Hortiyoshi underestimated this point. The labor costs paid by Germany and Italy for the combined fleet were definitely not just the tens of millions of marks he mentioned, but more than 400 million marks. Tens of millions of physical gifts alone were not enough. However, Horikichi didn't ask for specific figures, and Hoffman wouldn't just say that they were all planned to be given to the Japanese, so what's the point of fussing over them? What's more, the combined fleet did indeed perform well this time, and its results are fully worthy of these hundreds of millions of marks. The last and most critical point is that Germany basically made half of the money for the military equipment it sold to Japan. The 400 million marks actually came from the sheep.

After all this trouble, except for the promotion of military ranks, everyone in the combined fleet has long lost interest in the rest - they know how low domestic rewards, rewards and pensions are. Therefore, Prince Fushimi Gong Hiro Gong attacked this point fiercely. Now he doesn't know that Horikichi has an earth-shattering reform proposal in his hand. He is just giving a comprehensive report on what he heard and saw. He believes that Hirohito cannot not know that what he wants to do is to add fuel to the fire. .

In his words, the rewards won from Germany and Italy are not unavailable, but should be handed over to the Military Command or the Navy Ministry first and then distributed. But Horikichi knew the virtues of these bureaucrats. If 400 million marks were put in their hands, the United Fleet would be thankful if they could get 100 million. Instead of doing that, it would be better to just send it out, use it, and give it away. Germany's favorable favor would be immediately obvious - he didn't believe that the Military Command dared to take back the reward that had been given out in the face of the world's disapproval. It would really explode. Pot.

Hirohito's face was very calm, with no expression of dissatisfaction. He just said lightly: "Is that so? I already know that talents are rare. Don't take these small things to heart. Will my imperial army betray me? Do you want to? We need to be united sincerely and don’t take matters seriously. Horikichi is still respectful to me. Besides, you also received a car... German officers all drive cars, so why can’t my officers drive cars?”

"But, Your Majesty..."

"Okay, okay, I will remind him through appropriate channels in the future that you should be considerate of your subordinates and pay attention to your methods. The navy is so big, you can't treat one over the other."

Just when Fushimi Miyahiro Prince Kyoumei failed to complain and retreated from the palace in dejection, Horikichi took out the second report and handed it to Yamamoto Isoroku. While giving it, he sighed: "You don't even agree with the first report. Er Feng would not agree even more."

"You're wrong. I agree with everything you said. The key is to wait for the opportunity and take your time. If you rush too much, you will get twice the result with half the effort." Yamamoto Isoroku glanced at the second report and immediately flipped through it quickly, reading and not paying attention. Consciously read the voice, "... Regarding the strategic adjustment suggestions for ending the war as soon as possible and negotiating peace with the United States, I think..."

In the second report, Horikichi put forward the overall vision of the Axis peace talks with the United States: In his view, although the United States has suffered successive blows, its strength has not been fundamentally damaged. If the situation of Germany unifying Europe is formed, the United States will use all its strength to Concentrating on the Pacific region, Japan will be unable to resist, and must take advantage of the current favorable war situation to quickly achieve peace. In the report, he summarized the main terms:

Condition 1: The situation in China returns to that before the July 7th Incident. Japan has priority economic rights north of the Yangtze River, and the United States has priority south of the Yangtze River;

Condition 2: The United States recognizes Germany and Italy's situation in Africa and Europe, recognizes Japan's control of India and Southeast Asia, and the Axis recognizes the United States' control of the Western Hemisphere and Australia and New Zealand; South Africa remains neutral.

Condition 3: Establish a military system and a balance of power among great powers, that is, the European Group headed by Germany, the Asian Group headed by Japan, and the American Group headed by the United States...