Indeed, Hanyuan Palace could not accept it emotionally. The Japanese Army invested millions of troops in China, but was defeated by the National Defense Forces in previous battles and annihilated more than 300,000 troops.

Even in those battles that were victorious, the Japanese army suffered losses of fifty to sixty thousand people. Calculated in this way, Japan's losses in China until now have been close to four hundred thousand.

But what did Japan gain?! In the areas they occupied, there were mostly minerals and even many roads that had not been repaired. Most of the food collected was consumed by the expeditionary Japanese Army itself.

Very little was shipped back to the country, and not a drop of the most important oil was found. This resulted in Japan's investment in aggression being too high, but its recovery was very low.

Calculated in this way, Japan suffered serious losses. In fact, this was one of the reasons that forced Japan to launch a campaign in Southeast Asia. But after launching the campaign, the Japanese had other ideas.

On the battlefield in China, everything was consumed, troops and resources were consumed but nothing was obtained. But what about Southeast Asia?! This time alone, tens of thousands of tons of crude oil and iron ore were sent back, as well as a large amount of rare metals.

and thousands of tons of rice.

The number of troops invested in the Southeast Asian campaign was less than 300,000, and the losses were less than 50,000. Moreover, Japan had a better foundation in Southeast Asia, and the upper-class families that cooperated with Japan continued to provide help to Japan.

The large amount of advice provided by those "Japanese overseas Chinese" also made the development of minerals and oil go smoothly. Japan has tasted the sweetness, and some people are beginning to consider whether it is appropriate to continue investing in the Chinese battlefield.

The main person who thinks this way is actually the Japanese Navy. Although some people in the Army have ideas, no one will dare to speak out. After all, the Army has lost too much face and lives in China, and if it is brought up, it may be dismissed by the General Staff.

Kill those fanatics directly.

"Think about it! Hanyin Palace, I just think that continuing to fight like this will not do any good to the empire." Fushimi Palace said to Hanyin Palace Zai Ren: "Of course. I am not saying that I will give up on China just like that. I just want to give up on China."

But I don’t think we’re fully prepared yet.”

"If we can fully arm ourselves through Southeast Asia, we can then launch an attack from the Myitkyina area and launch a landing operation from the sea. As long as we are fully prepared, taking China is just a matter of counter-attack."

Kanin Miya Zaijin had a sullen expression and said nothing. He knew that since Fushimi Miya could say these words to him, he must have the support of someone. Perhaps the shadow active behind him was Saionji.

Others are those chaebols who have benefited from this Southeast Asian campaign. They suffered a serious defeat in China, but gained huge natural resources in Southeast Asia. In contrast, those businessmen naturally hope that Japan can do more.

Put your strength where they can benefit.

"The war against China was both expected and unexpected." Fushimi Palace sighed, looking at the vehicles that were busy transporting various supplies, and said: "We have long planned to go to war against China.

.But we didn’t expect to pay such a high price and we didn’t win it.”

"But this cannot be blamed on the Army. It can only be said that fate plays a trick on us! The sky is always on the road to China, and the sudden appearance of the tiger really gives us a headache." After a pause, Fushimi turned around to face Xian.

Yuan Gong Zairen said sincerely: "Only with the resources of Southeast Asia can we restart the war with China. That's when we will win the final victory!"

"The new fighter jets and tanks currently at Mitsubishi are unable to be mass-produced and entered the battlefield due to lack of materials. If we can find enough resources in Southeast Asia, do you think this is a problem?! By then we will have more

With so many new fighter planes and tanks, do you think we will still lose to that tiger?!"

Kanin Palace did not speak. He knew from the bottom of his heart that what Prince Fushimi Gong Hirokyō said was the truth. But he also knew that once he withdraws from China, it will be difficult to go back.

Moreover, this kind of mental blow would be more severe than the actual defeat, and the damage to the morale of the army would be immeasurable. Even Hanyuan Gong Zairen could not accept it emotionally.

The entire Army Department, or the entire Japan, has been planning to invade China for more than a day or two. It can even be said that the chief of staff has been planning for several terms. Just gave up. Who would be willing to do so?!

"This is not within the scope of our consideration. Your Highness, this topic will stop here." Xianyuan Gong Zairen took a deep breath and said: "The empire's troops will not withdraw from China!"

Fushimi Palace looked at his face and did not continue to dissuade him. He knew that Hanin Palace was also facing great difficulties. It was already very difficult to convince the radicals of the General Staff Headquarters.

At the same time, withdrawing troops from China will undoubtedly stimulate a large number of senior generals. These people include the current Japanese Prime Minister Hideki Tojo.

Unlike the Navy Department, from the Army Department's perspective, attacking Southeast Asia is to obtain resources to better carry out China's war. However, from the Navy's perspective, China's war is like a bottomless pit.

Last time, the army filled in the entire North China Front, and now it has lost a lot of the land it originally occupied and was forced to retreat to Zhejiang. And their enemies have soared to more than two million.

So, how much more will Japan have to pay to win the war?! How many resources will it have to spend to fill it?! How many lives will it have to spend to fill it?! This is simply unimaginable.

No matter how much Southeast Asia gains, I'm afraid it won't be able to fill the bottomless pit of China. Maybe by the end of the day, the whole of Japan will have to pay for it.

And why didn't Hanyuan Palace consider this issue?! But he finally chose to continue the war in China because he couldn't imagine what the consequences would be if he announced a withdrawal from China.

No matter what the Japanese thought, Tu Menghu had no intention of letting them go. After several months of preparation and running-in, various armies of the National Defense Forces had arrived at the outer positions of Shanghai.

They could even see Japanese bunkers in the distance. Yan Chenghan was very excited now. After a series of adjustments, troop recruitment and training, his Third Army Corps was now affiliated with the North China Military Region.

Tian Jixiang, the original commander of the Third Army Corps, was transferred to the post of commander-in-chief of the East China Military Region.

"Grandma, the war is finally about to begin! I'm so idle right now. If we don't fight our Third Army, we will get rusty!" Yan Chenghan laughed in his headquarters.

Next to him was his new chief of staff Tao Hong. Tao Hong looked at Yan Chenghan who was overjoyed and said with a smile: "This is also an opportunity given to us by the commander-in-chief. He also sent the First Armored Group Army to assist us. If we

If you can’t do well, that would be a shame..."

When it came to business, Yan Chenghan's expression became serious. He said to his deputy: "Old Tao, what you said is true. This time our brothers from the Second Army sacrificed their lives under Nanjing City. If we can't fight,

It would be a shame to show off to those brothers who died at the gates of Nanjing..."

Tao Hong nodded and said: "I guess this is also a chance for the commander-in-chief to give us revenge. After all, those who attack and defend us are the troops of the Central China Front Army. And the troops guarding Shanghai are also them. If we give them to

If you do it well, you can avenge those brothers who died in the battle at the gate of Nanjing."

Yan Chenghan nodded and said: "How is the situation of the Japanese troops in Shanghai?!"

"According to the information given to us by the headquarters, there are as many as 300,000 Japanese troops entrenched in Shanghai." Tao Hong opened his folder, took out a document and handed it to Yan Chenghan.

"At the same time, they also have 300,000 men who were forced to join the army. Those were brought over by officers from the former government." After a pause, Tao Hong said: "They don't have much equipment in terms of artillery, but the Japanese did not treat them badly in terms of firearms.

They are all equipped according to the standards of the Japanese army."

"The Japanese troops stationed in Shanghai are a whole front army of the original South China Front Army and three divisions transferred from the Central China Front Army. The main person in charge is the new commander-in-chief of the Japanese China Expedition Force, Shunroku Hata. He integrated the remnants of the original North China Front Army and Central China,

Two front armies in South China. And formulated new campaign deployment."

After a pause, Tao Hong said with a smile: "He put the main force in Shanghai, and the other part was placed on the Quzhou front line. I guess he is preparing to defend our South China Military Region..."

"In Shanghai, he announced that he would make Shanghai another 38th Line."

"Hmph! He really has a good idea!" Yan Chenghan snorted coldly: "Even if he was so stupid as to build the Maginot Line, I would have smashed it all with one punch!"

"Commander, don't underestimate them." Tao Hong warned his commander: "The Japanese have spent a lot of money this time. The entire Shanghai family has turned into a huge military city, with weapons collected from all over Zhejiang.

of food and a large amount of ammunition shipped from Japan. It goes without saying that these Japanese are planning to fight us here to the death!"

"Then we have to be willing to fight with them!" Yan Chenghan chuckled, with a ferocious expression on his face.

The one who is as confident as Yan Chenghan is the new Japanese commander-in-chief of the China Expedition Force, Shunroku Hata. The 300,000 puppet soldiers are working hard under the machine guns.

The dug fortifications formed a large area along the entire suburb of Shanghai. Most of the steel in Shanghai was used to lay these fortifications. Even the tram rails were removed to build these bunkers.

From the outside to the inside, the entire Shanghai defense line formed five lines. Each line was connected by cement-paved traffic trenches, bunkers, machine gun holes, chain bunker groups, etc. These formed blind spots for shooting.

Looking at these carefully constructed defense lines, Hata Shunroku was full of confidence. A large number of anti-tank guns, heavy machine guns and grenade launchers were allocated to each bunker for storage.

Even in order to defend against the tanks of the Wehrmacht, they placed a large number of anti-tank mines in the frontline positions. These are high-power anti-tank mines specially made by the headquarters after receiving reports from the forward positions on the power of the Wehrmacht tanks.

The earliest anti-tank mines were manufactured by the Germans in 1918 to deal with the British tanks at that time. The first anti-tank mines were very simple. They just used artillery shells and detonated to form anti-tank mines.

As the war progressed, anti-tank mines were constantly changing. When the Japanese found that their tanks could not compete with the tanks of the Wehrmacht, they thought of anti-tank mines.

Compared with tanks, the cost of anti-tank mines is much lower. However, complete anti-tank mines are too heavy and not suitable for battlefield use, so the Japanese anti-tank mines were made into large grenades.

In order to blow up the tank, the Japanese army even installed four magnets on this new anti-tank weapon that can be thrown by hand or buried. The final result of the Japanese experiment was that this new anti-tank weapon only needs one shot to penetrate 20mm

High-strength alloy armor plate. Two rounds overlapped and penetrated 30mm high-strength alloy armor plate.

After the results were achieved, this type of bomb was named "Type 99 Magnetic Anti-Tank Explosive Bomb" twice. Then they were sent to Shanghai in large quantities and distributed to the front line.

However, Shunroku Hata did not intend to use these anti-tank explosive bombs on a large scale. Everyone knew that the National Defense Forces would definitely use artillery fire to clear the mines in front of the positions. Such use would be absolutely wasteful.

Shunroku Hata exerted the traditional spirit of the Japanese army and allowed individual infantry units to use these anti-tank bombs. They were said to be anti-tank bombs, but in fact, Shunroku Hata's method of use was exactly like a suicide bomb.

An anti-tank explosive bomb made by the Japanese army weighs about 1.25 kilograms and contains 0.68 kilograms of explosives. This is a large hand grenade. Of course, not everyone can throw it.

"Gentlemen! With our efforts, let this become the Verdun of the Chinese Army!" Shunroku Hata said in great interest to the division commanders behind him.

"Hai!!"

The Japanese soldiers were not as confident as their commander-in-chief. A sergeant looked at the anti-tank bombs that looked like kettles in depression and said nothing.

"Can this thing penetrate the tanks of the National Defense Forces?!" A corps commander grabbed the kettle-like explosive bomb in his hand. He looked left and right for a long time and sighed: "Could it be the whims of those gentlemen in the base camp?

Is it something you made?!"

"Shut up! Mihara, your mission is to execute the order! Not to question! Do you understand?!" The sergeant scolded the corps commander named Mihara: "Don't question the order, otherwise your family in the empire will be blamed for you.

And put to shame!"

"I am an orphan. All my family members have died a long time ago." Mihara shrugged and put the bomb back on the ground: "If I die, I would like to trouble you, Sergeant, to give me a stick of incense during the holidays."

The sergeant remained silent for a long time before saying, "Miyuan, you should be confident that you will survive..."

"To be honest, I don't have even the slightest bit of confidence." Mihara suddenly became serious and looked at the sergeant and said word by word: "You have never seen the National Defense Forces fighting, you can say such a thing."

"But, I have seen it before."

At 4 o'clock in the morning on March 30, 1939, the artillery division of the Third Army of the North China Theater of the National Defense Force slowly pushed out eighty Liao 105mm howitzers from its position.

Along with these eighty howitzers were pushed out, there were also twenty 150mm heavy howitzers. These were artillery manufactured based on the Japanese Type 38 150mm howitzer during the Eastern Three Provinces period.

Later, after improvements by German engineers, the gun's initial range was increased from 5.9 kilometers to the current range of 10 kilometers. The muzzle velocity also increased from the original 275 meters/second to the current 400 meters/second.

There are not many such artillery pieces even in the National Defense Forces. Even a unit like the Third Army only has twenty of them in the artillery division directly under the army.

When all the artillery was withdrawn and all the elements were adjusted, the artillery division commander Xi Lin took a deep breath, picked up the phone and shook it to call the headquarters.

"Report to the Commander. The artillery division is all ready! Please give instructions!"

"According to the predetermined plan, prepare to fire!" Yan Chenghan's voice came from the other end of the phone. Xi Lin's eyes suddenly turned red, and he responded loudly: "Yes!! Prepare to fire!!"
To be continued...