the world is at stake

The Chinese National Defense Force has been bloodletting Japan in North Korea. As a result, Japan has not only failed to make profits in North Korea, but has continued to consume more than 30 billion yen in military expenditures in five years, and the funds used for people's livelihood are very limited.

In order to build ships, the Ministry of the Navy has spent almost all the US aid it has received over the years.

The military chiefs including Terauchi Masaaki thought that even if the United States changed its president, it would not change its decision to support Japan against China, but they did not expect it to change.

In the past few months, Japanese politicians have been called flying dogs.They keep flying to Washington, hoping that the Democratic government will continue to provide assistance.But China directly threatened that if the United States continued to aid Japan, the Chinese market would be closed to it.

Without the baptism of World War I, the strength of European countries is at its peak, and the market is closed.American isolationism is prevalent, and consortiums are counting on making money from China.

The judgment of the Wilson cabinet on the world situation is that the situation in Europe is tense, but the United States does not need to end immediately, and maintaining a good relationship with China is conducive to economic development-the result is that Japan is weaned by the United States.

Miura was able to rely on Marcos to get help before, but now that the "Brotherhood" is in trouble, he will not be able to take care of him for a while.The Japanese military and chaebol couldn't find a better substitute, so they simply let him be the mascot on stage.

Without U.S. aid, the Japanese economy deteriorated rapidly within a few months.The Japanese military and political circles had nothing to do, so Emperor Taisho had to come out to appease the people, eat some light meals and express that they would tide over the difficulties together.

The emperor ate pickles, so the prime minister's dinner plate naturally had to be served with salted radish.Miura was holding white rice and chopsticks holding a two-finger-wide saury, and said with a wry smile, "I don't know if something worse is going to happen."

This sentence became a proverb, and before lunch was finished, Hase, the chief of staff who was also selected by Japan, came to pay a visit to Miura, knelt down, bowed his head, and said in a sad tone: "Your Excellency, I'm sorry, the 'big one' you founded East Asia Co., Ltd.' went bankrupt."

Nani? !

This company has a special designation, meaning it refers to the Japanese selected team.

What does close down mean?Break up!

The chief of affairs sent by the military to monitor knelt beside him, staring at the conversation between Miura and Hase. Although he couldn't understand, he felt that something big was about to happen.

Miura was stunned, and almost jumped up and shouted: "Disband? Take me with you too. What do you mean by leaving me alone?" He asked in a low voice, "Where is Hase-kun planning to go?"

"Should go to Los Angeles, USA, and work hard to promote Japan-US relations." Hase said.

That's ventriloquism -- Los Angeles is now an important location for China to obtain funds and train personnel in the United States.They said they were going to Los Angeles, but they clearly wanted to vote for the Communist Party.

No wonder it says 'sorry'.

"The situation is so bad?" Miura couldn't sit still.

"I'm really sorry." Chang Gu seemed to be just here to inform, and kept bowing, but didn't say the specific plan.He didn't stay in the prime minister's office for long and left sadly.

Miura is either staying in the prime minister's residence or the prime minister's office, and he doesn't know the outside situation in recent months.

The time is approaching June, and the Japanese military is still stubbornly holding on to North Korea and Taiwan, continuing to increase its troops, and wants to export the rice produced locally.

Due to the lack of food, there were several rice-grabbing commotions in Tokyo, and the Miura cabinet had nothing to do about it.The summer harvest is coming soon, and the Japanese army and navy are in a hurry and plan to forcibly collect food from various places.

The Japanese elect are extremely desperate for this and must find a way out.

After Hase bid farewell to Miura, he immediately drove to Tokyo Minato.He saw Araki in a transshipment warehouse—that is, Araki who had made meritorious deeds for instigating the rebellion against Liang Shiyi.

When they met, Araki said with a cold face: "Mr. Hase, you shouldn't make up your mind to meet the prime minister."

"I'm sorry to trouble you." Hase bowed, "I have to say goodbye, otherwise I'm too sorry for Miura-kun."

In the warehouse, hundreds of black cargo boxes are being transferred to a passenger ship at the port.Chang Gu looked at those boxes, shook his head and sighed, and went into the cabin after boarding the ship, never coming out again.

When the passenger ship passes Yokohama, west of Tokyo, you can see more than a dozen large warships docking in it, with dozens of chimneys standing upright.The coal-fired high-pressure boiler does not shut down, continuously emitting white smoke.

Just by the pier, hundreds of emaciated laborers were moving grain to the transport ship.When the big powers began to use machinery to ship goods at the ports, Japan turned back and used manpower instead.

Just to save some coal.

Araki used his own special pass to allow the passenger ship to leave the port.After boarding the boat, he looked at the time on his watch and sighed silently:

"Are all the lunatics in the military blind? Can't see that the people at the bottom can't take it anymore? Let this damn war end quickly, otherwise if there is a famine on this island, tens of thousands of people will die."

At the same time, in the War Room of the General Staff of the Ministry of National Defense of the Imperial Capital, a large Japanese sand table was placed in the middle.

Surrounded by more than a dozen senior army and navy officers, Xiao Jinlang and Zhou Qingfeng stood by the sand table and listened to the battle plan explained by the navy commander Fang Bo himself.

"According to different situations, the navy and air force have drawn up six combat plans. Mainly attack Hiroshima and Nagasaki."

Zhou Qingfeng was delighted to hear it, "Why are these two cities so unlucky?"

Fang Bo said solemnly: "Hiroshima is known as Japan's 'Military Capital'. Its Army Transportation Department, Engineering Field and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries are located here.

Zhujima Naval Port and Kure Port are just around Hiroshima, and Kure Port has the largest naval shipyard in Japan.As for Nagasaki, it is the home port of the Japanese Combined Fleet, and Sasebo Port is just northwest of Nagasaki.

The important thing is that the bombers of the Navy and Air Force currently only reach these two places.I would like to go to 'Burning Tokyo', but there is no aircraft with a combat radius of 1000 to [-] kilometers. "

Is it far from Japan to China, or is it close?

Nagasaki is more than 800 kilometers away from Shanghai, and the "H-1" modified with the same model as the "Ke-1" can only fly a maximum of 1000 or [-] kilometers, and it will never come back.

"When the Army can take Busan, North Korea, our bombers will be able to cover western Japan and bring cities west of Kyoto and Osaka into the attack range."

Fang Bo looked at Man brigade, who was the chief of the general staff and also the commander of the army.

The latter smiled and said: "The Japanese navy is not easy to deal with, but so is its army. We control most of North Korea, and the little devils are compressed in only a few big cities.

If it weren't for the continuous bloodletting of the little devil, we would have driven him into the sea long ago.As long as the central government determines the will to fight, Busan will be in our hands before the end of the month. "

Xiao Jinlang looked at Zhou Qingfeng, and Zhou Qingfeng shrugged and said, "I don't know how to fight, so I just came here to make up the numbers. If we can solve Japan as soon as possible, it will also make it easier for us to free our hands."

Military Intelligence sent a briefing just at this time.

Zhou Qingfeng took a glance and said: "Two news, there are two 'Fuso' class ships, two 'King Kong' class ships, and two 'Fengxiang' class ships in Yokosuka Port in Tokyo.

The Japanese army seemed to be guarding against us, and transferred half of the main force of the navy.

In addition, after Japan was blocked by us, there was a food shortage, and it is certain that it will definitely not have enough food this year.The inside line that was placed in Japan connected with Miura and his group, and is taking them back, including about ten tons of technical materials. "

For the past five years, Japan has been trying to use its naval superiority to attack coastal ports such as Shanghai and cut off China's sea lanes.The naval and air forces of the two sides continue to fight, and the six 'Fengxiang' class aircraft carriers are the biggest threat to China.

Fang Bo whispered: "Building so many warships in five years puts a lot of pressure on Japan. At present, there are only four ships of the 'Feng Xiang' class, and the last two ships currently in Tokyo have not yet completed outfitting, so they cannot be counted.

We are not afraid of the little devil's battlecruisers and battleships, but its four 'Fengxiang' class is really a headache.If you can't catch them all at once, it will cause a lot of trouble later. "

Everyone looked at the sand table in unison, wondering where exactly the four 'Fengxiang' would be?

Chapter 18 Naha

Naha Naval Base, Okinawa.

In the early morning mist, the 7000-ton "King Kong" battle cruiser emerged from the sea. The slender hull was like a sharp blade, splitting the waves and cutting the sea and sky in half.

Sergeant Yoshioka Fance, who commanded the King Kong, stood outside the porthole of the bridge, letting the salty sea breeze blow on his face, hoping to take away his exhaustion and haggard face.

Naha is more than 600 kilometers away from mainland China, just at the edge of the combat radius of the current Chinese navy and air force fighters.The Japanese warships are relatively safe here.

There are dozens of ships of different sizes parked on the port pier.Some are supplying and some are maintaining.Some are tilted and crooked, relying on electric power to drive water pumps on the shore to pump water desperately.

Slanting to pump water is 'Kaoxi Maru', a high-speed transport ship built only two years ago, with a displacement of tens of thousands of tons, built by Uraga Shipyard in Kanagawa.

This is Japan's first batch of [-]-ton passenger and cargo ships manufactured with U.S. aid technology and equipment. After launching, they were regarded as treasures by the Japanese Navy.Because of its high speed, it is easy to evade the Chinese shore-based air force, and it is specially used to supply supplies to the Japanese troops stationed in Taiwan.

As a result, when transporting personnel and materials to Hualien Port in the east of Taiwan last month, the "Kaohsiung Maru" was obviously protected by three destroyers, but it ate two 533mm caliber torpedoes in the Miyako waters.

Afterwards, it was inferred that it was targeted by a Chinese submarine performing a blockade mission.

The 1000-ton passenger and cargo ship is thin-skinned and stuffed, and two torpedoes almost killed the "Kaohsiung Maru" on the spot.Most of the more than [-] Japanese soldiers on board died without even seeing the coast of Taiwan.

The transportation mission failed, and 'Takao Maru' returned to Okinawa.The hull tilted seven degrees, and more than 2000 tons of water entered the ship. It was only by injecting water to the other side that it barely maintained its balance.

The Naha base desperately rescued the treasure of the navy, and pumped water after sealing the gap.According to the sailors at the base, the cabin where the torpedo was hit was bombed to pieces, and seven or eight cabins were full of swollen corpses.

During the difficult return voyage of the "Kaohsiung Maru", these corpses floated out from the gap in the ship's side and turned into a very conspicuous sea track, floating up and down, and entered the mouth of fish and shrimp.

This transport ship was fatal. After returning to the port, it was discovered that it had actually been hit by three torpedoes, and one was stuck in the rear of the hull. The fuze failed and did not explode-if it exploded, it would have sunk on the spot.

When Colonel Yoshioka saw the 'Takao Maru', the ship was about to straighten up, and was escorted by a destroyer back to the mainland for repairs. After being injured, its speed dropped to eight knots, and the way home was doomed to be extremely dangerous.

When the "King Kong" docked, the sailors on the ship threw cables to the shore, and the base personnel connected the gangway to connect the cables and oil and water pipelines to the hull for replenishment.

The gangway stabilized, and strings of stretchers were lifted off the ship.Some of the stretchers were heavily wounded, while others were simply covered with blood-soaked white cloths.Covering his head and face with minor injuries, he moved step by step.

When the base personnel saw the hull clearly, they were all shocked.

As a battle cruiser, the 'King Kong' has a waterline armor as thick as 203 mm, which cannot be pierced by ordinary naval guns.But the superstructure of the hull is not all protected by armor, such as eighteen triple-mounted 25mm rapid-fire cannons and a large number of machine guns.

Now the lifeboats, rapid-fire guns, and boiler chimneys on the left side of the ship are covered with dense bullet holes, as if they have been strafed by hundreds of planes.

"What happened?" The base personnel asked the sailors on the ship carrying the stretcher.

The sailors were drooping, and most of them didn't want to talk.Occasionally, someone would only say that this raid mission encountered a large number of Chinese shore-based fighter planes, and they only escaped with the full support of the aircraft carrier 'Fengxiang'.

After a long time, more detailed news spread.

The 'King Kong' and 'Fengxiang' brought seven or eight cruisers and destroyers to carry out the Chinese coastal sabotage operations.But at present, the only valuable large cities along the coast of China are Guangzhou, Shanghai, and Tianjin, all of which are closely guarded.

Land-based fighters are inherently stronger than sea-based fighters, and there are also long-range seaplanes and bomber patrols.The Japanese army's raids often hit the iron plate, and the head was broken.

In the past, the attacking fleet relied on a large number of anti-aircraft guns to prevent land-based fighter jets and torpedo planes from approaching, but this time the King Kong encountered fighter jets carrying aviation rockets.

"The 'Baozhi' fighter jets fired flying shells about 1000 meters away. The hit rate was very high, which caused great damage to our ship's air defense firepower."

"Six machine guns on the left string and [-] anti-aircraft machine guns were destroyed. The communication mast was broken, and hundreds of people were killed or injured."

"When there was a gap in our ship's air defense, the 'Baozhi' torpedo planes came to drop mines. To cover our ship, the water aircraft carrier 'Wakamiya' and two 'Ekaze' class destroyers were hit by mines one after another and sank."

"In order to protect our ship from retreating, the 'Fengxiang' sent two flying squadrons to provide support, and was lucky enough to break away from contact before dark yesterday. At present, the 'Fengxiang' continues to cruise in the East China Sea, and our ship returned to Naha for repairs."

Colonel Yoshioka sent a telegram to the Ministry of the Navy of Japan, telling the story of the battle.Immediately there was talk in the Naha base that Chinese fighter jets were equipped with new weapons, and everyone was worried about it.

The state of war between China and Japan has lasted for five or six years.When the war started, Japan thought that it could subdue China by relying on its naval blockade, but it did not expect that the opponent would become stronger and stronger.

When the 'King Kong' class and the 'Fengxiang' class were not in service, the Japanese naval fleet did not dare to approach the Chinese coastline easily, nor did they dare to intercept European and American merchant ships casually, making the blockade completely ineffective.

After finally waiting for a vote of fast battleships to enter service, Terauchi Masaki and other military chiefs have not yet breathed a sigh of relief. The air force on the opposite side is almost ready to bomb the Japanese mainland.

Anyone with a discerning eye knows that Japan can't last.Two years ago, the military department tried to find an opportunity to cease the war with China. At first, they wanted to blackmail some military compensation, but later they didn't expect compensation. Just stop being in a state of war.

But it is easy to start a war and difficult to stop it, and China simply does not agree.

"If I had known this, I shouldn't have built the 'King Kong' class first-class battle cruiser, let alone the slow-moving 'Fusang' class. If I tried my best to build the 'Fengxiang' class, I wouldn't end up in the current embarrassment."

Colonel Yoshioka thought about his frequent combat missions in recent years, and found that facing China, high-speed battle patrols were useless at all, and the expensive battleships had been parked in Tokyo Port as luxury hotels.

Only a mobile and flexible aircraft carrier can effectively strike the opponent.

"The Chinese are too cunning. They don't build large warships at all. The saved military expenses are used to develop the army and update fighter aircraft warfare. Its air power advantage is too obvious. No matter how fast a warship runs, it can't fly faster than the sky."

Colonel Yoshioka is complaining about himself.As the war dragged on, the hope of victory became increasingly slim.After the United States cut off aid, it became extremely difficult for the Japanese navy to even maintain it.

The master of the military department staying in Tokyo fantasizes about retreating to the mainland and continuing to fight against China.However, China's offensive has surged recently, and there is a faint intention to launch an attack on the Japanese mainland.

When the "King Kong" returned to the Naha base, the destroyers patrolling outside the port were negligent for a while, and there were loopholes in the anti-submarine network deployment.I didn't notice that a periscope was covered by the fog and touched in behind the buttocks of the 'King Kong'.

In the underwater submarine with turbid air, the captain of the National Defense Forces manipulating the periscope whispered excitedly: "The 'King Kong' is back, and the 'Fengxiang' is nowhere to be seen."

The sour political commissar wiped the sweat from his neck with a dirty towel, and said angrily, "The little devil's aircraft carrier is really cunning, and he can't always catch it."

In order to break diplomatic relations, both China and Japan chose to use submarines to sneak into the port to lay mines, or squatted on a fixed route to launch a wolf pack attack.

With the United States as a backup, Japan's submarines are similar to those of China in terms of quantity and quality.Due to the blockade of the first island chain, China Shipping has suffered heavy losses, which is very big.

With no radar, no listening sonar, the 'Holy Light' has no good way of dealing with subs.

But today's submarines are small warships that can dive and cannot sail in high sea conditions.Floating on the sea surface at ordinary times, need to use snorkel to obtain air from the sea surface when concealed, speed of boat is slow, and voyage is short when fully relying on batteries to submerge.

The most effective way to deal with submarines is to build fast patrol boats, arrange seaplane patrols, and use motor sailboats operating at sea to keep an eye on the sea surface all the time.

These days, submarine crews are suffering very much. They eat and drink in a boat with a displacement of hundreds or thousands of tons, and the space is extremely small. The boat 'Pioneer-7' spent five or six days outside Naha Port, and the crew's physical strength and energy were exhausted.

"Captain, is it possible that the 'Fengxiang' is in the ocean east of Taiwan?"

The electromechanical chief pointed to the chart in the boat command room, "According to the telegram sent by the superior, the 'King Kong' was discovered by us yesterday off the coast of Taizhou, and the 'Fengxiang' may be supporting it from the east, or it may be from the south. "

The annoying thing about an aircraft carrier is that it can launch an attack from two to three hundred kilometers away from the battlefield, without being with the attacking fleet.Its speed is high, and it can maneuver thousands of kilometers in 24 hours.

The little devil aircraft carrier likes to operate outside the first island chain, and rushes into the East China Sea or South China Sea at night at high speed, hitting and running.On the vast sea, it is difficult for shore-based aviation to catch it.

"We are short-legged and slow-moving shrimps, and we can't catch up with the aircraft carrier. The 'Fengxiang' rarely communicates with the outside world, and radio interception and deciphering secret messages are useless.

But after finally sneaking into Naha Port, it would be too bad not to take advantage of the thick fog to make a fortune. "The captain shouted excitedly in front of the periscope: "'King Kong', as long as we do it, we will make money. "

Sneaking into the enemy's port is a near-death matter, and attacking the port will expose you even more. The captain of the 'Pioneer-7' said he made a profit, and obviously planned to lose himself.

The political commissar laughed and didn't take life and death seriously.The officers and men on board No. 21 were also very calm, and only carried out orders inertially.

"Fill the torpedo tubes with water."

"The depth of the torpedo is eight meters."

"The 'King Kong' is 700 meters away from us, we should use it first."

"Sanqing, Buddha, Jade Emperor, King Pao of Zhou, gods from all walks of life bless you. Our fuze must not go wrong, it must be detonated!"

The captain muttered as he gave the order.When he mentioned the fuze, the political commissar next to him jumped up.At present, the reliability rate of torpedo fuzes in various countries is not high, and they are often fired without exploding.