Great time travel

Chapter 43. The meeting that decides the fate of Japan
Spring of [-], Western Japan, Hiroshima Prefecture, Itsukushima Shrine
The tall vermilion torii gate stands in the middle of the surging waves; the bells under the eaves of the five-fold pagoda tiles rang softly in the sea breeze.

The gorgeous temple with red pillars and white walls contrasts with the green forest and blue sea, as if telling an ancient song.

——Itsukushima Shrine in Hiroshima Prefecture is a religious shrine with a long history. It was founded around 593 A.D. during the reign of the Empress Tuigu and enshrined the three goddesses of the ocean (Munakata Sangoddess) in ancient Japanese legends.

By the end of the Heian period, Itsukushima Shrine was respected and donated by the powerful Heira clan, and it prospered rapidly.Afterwards, Kiyomori Hira, the originator of the Japanese samurai regime, officially selected Itsukushima Shrine, which enshrines the sea god, as the place of worship for the Ping family in order to expand ocean trade. In Japan, incense is extremely prosperous.In the subsequent Warring States period, the Mori family and the Ouchi family fought for the hegemony of the Western Kingdom, and the Battle of Itsukushima, known as one of the "Three Great Raids of the Warring States Period in Japan", broke out here.

Because it is a shrine dedicated to the god of the sea, in order to highlight the characteristics of the ocean, Itsukushima Shrine was built in the intertidal zone on the coast of the Seto Inland Sea. The entire shrine is located on a stilt. It is the only maritime wooden building in Japan designed using the principle of ebb and flow. It is also rare in the world.When the tide rises, Itsukushima Shrine will be covered by sea water, as if it has become a giant ship floating on the sea, or a miniature water city of Venice.

In the spring of this year, in this ancient and gorgeous Itsukushima Shrine, a major meeting that will determine the fate of Japan is being held.

In other words, the preparatory meeting for the founding of Red Japan!

The fate of this oriental island country has once again reached a historic critical moment!

——Currently, the urban areas of Hiroshima, Kuregang Tutorial Office, and Etajima Naval Academy have been repeatedly bombed by U.S. aircraft, and there are rubble and ruins everywhere, and there is no decent enough meeting place.And the army representatives resolutely refused to hold meetings on the navy's warships, so as not to be inferior.So the two sides had to make a compromise, and finally chose Itsukushima Shrine, which is far away from the urban area, has not been attacked by air raids, and has a quiet environment and beautiful scenery, as the meeting place.

The warm sunshine of the warm spring day is passing through the carefully carved window lattices, and slantingly shines into the courtyard of the shrine, filling the ground with bright golden lights.The gentle breeze, with the fragrance of vegetation and the salty smell of sea water, quietly poured into the tall and magnificent ancient halls, as well as the winding and deep corridors. The petals and fallen leaves, as well as the delicate maidens in red and white dresses, everything is as exquisite and beautiful as a gorgeous Ukiyo-e... Only the Japanese navy and army soldiers with live ammunition and heavy guard inside and outside the shrine, and the shrines erected around the shrine The anti-aircraft gun bunkers have given this historical and religious sanctuary of the Japanese goddess of the sea a chilling atmosphere of iron and blood.

At this very moment, in a wide wooden Japanese-style room at Itsukushima Shrine, a group of men with serious faces are sitting cross-legged on tatami mats exuding the smell of straw, discussing how to build a new revolutionary government and how to destroy the barbarians and restore the country important topic.

The participants here are all high-ranking and powerful people in today's Japan. Among them, the army members include the former Kwantung Army Commander Umezu Yoshijiro, the North China Front Army Commander Okamura Neiji, the North Korean Governor Koiso Kunizaki, and the "Hokkaido Soviet Republic" President. Commander Kuribayashi Tadamichi, as well as the souls of the Imperial Road faction who were forced to retire due to the February [-] Mutiny, Araki Sadao, Mazaki Jinzaburo, and Obata Toshishiro; the navy members include the current commander of the United Fleet, Inoue Narumi, and the chief of staff of the United Fleet, Kami. Shigetoku, the principal of the Etajima Naval Academy Takeo Kurita, the principal of the Naval University Jisaburo Ozawa, and the chairman of Nanyang Heavy Industries, Hori Tikichi... Compared with the khaki uniforms of the army generals, the pure white military uniforms of the navy generals are particularly dazzling.

If the representatives of the navy and the army are clearly divided, then the representatives of the Japanese Communist Party sitting at the head of them are even more disorganized and full of factions: among them is the "local grassroots faction" led by the founder of the party, Tokuda Kyuichi. The "local academic faction" led by theorist and Kyoto University professor Hajime Kawagami, the "international faction" who fled to the Soviet Union to avoid arrest, and the "anti-war alliance" faction developed by Nosaka Sanzo in the Japanese prisoner-of-war camp in Yan'an, China; The "Nanyang faction" developed with Ozaki Hideshi under the protection of the navy (to be precise, the ship's mother) in the southern occupied area... In addition, there are Soviet liaison officers, several sporadic small groups that do not belong to each other, and even Taiwan's Party representatives also sent representatives to attend the meeting.

The reason for this situation is that the Japanese Communist Party was destroyed by the government shortly after its establishment, and its founder, Tokuda Kyuichi, spent more than 20 years in prison.The central government organization ceased to exist in an instant, and the party organization was shattered from then on. It could no longer be put together again. Only a few leaders could find foreign aid to pull the small group down the line. In the end, it turned into a bunch of small parties. Before straightening out the organizational relationship, we are in a hurry to build a country!

In other words, today’s Japanese Communist Party is actually not a unified political party at all, but a coalition of small groups with scattered votes. There are several party chairmen who are self-styled or sealed by China and the Soviet Union. Probably equivalent to the Japanese reformers at the end of the Bakumatsu...

However, today they are not empty-headed guns with no money and no soldiers, but have seized part of the local power and established various Soviet regimes and local Red Guards. Otherwise, they would not be qualified to come This place holds a meeting to discuss the plan of building a country.

In addition to the participants, there were some leaders of "vigorous patriotic social groups", county governors of more than a dozen counties in the Kansai region, the presidents of some companies, and a number of well-known folk people... Finally, there was Yan The priest of the Shima Shrine was also able to participate in the meeting as the host.

All in all, it is a hodgepodge of various resistance forces across the country, and there is almost no common ground other than "resisting the United States and resisting barbarians".

——If "White Japan" is indeed white enough, then this "Red Japan" is obviously not red enough...

Although the identities of these people and the power they represent are already confusing enough.However, this is not the most confusing. What is even more confusing is the host of the preparatory meeting for the founding of the country: the former Prime Minister of the Imperial Japanese Empire, the current Prime Minister of the Provisional Government of Yokohama, Duke Fumma Konoe, who is sitting on the main seat!

This messy feeling in the wind is almost the same as Generalissimo Jiang attending the founding ceremony on Tiananmen Square!

You are a feudal aristocrat, a universally recognized civilian fascist, a direct descendant of one of the five major regency families of the Fujiwara clan, and the supreme leader of a puppet reactionary government supported by the US military. Why are you here to join in the fun?This brain hole is probably too big!
But Duke Konoe Fumima said that he is really one of his own, and has a long history with Marxist thought...

— No way, this guy really used to be a famous Marxist!He is also a Japanese Marxist theory expert and the favorite student of Kawagami Hajime, a professor of economics at Kyoto University... Although strictly speaking, he is just a Marxist mouthpiece of Ye Gonghaolong... he is still self-proclaimed.

※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※

——Anyone who has played Japanese Warring States games probably has a little impression of a Guanbai named Konoe Maeku (the highest position among the ministers, similar to the prime minister).Among the public affairs groups in the Warring States Period in Japan, this Kanbai-sama has the highest appearance rate: from Uesugi Kenshin’s Kanto Raiders, to the war between Oda Nobunaga and Honganji Temple, and then burning Oda Nobu to death Chang Honno-ji Temple (Honno-ji Temple is next door to his house)... Konoe Fummo is a direct descendant of Konoe Maeku, belonging to a famous family, and his mother is a descendant of the Maeda family. The first is also called noble.

However, although Konoe Fummo came from a noble family, his life was quite bumpy. Unfortunately, he lost his father when he was 12 years old.Then, inexplicably, I found that I had a lot of debts on my head, and people I didn't know came to the house at two ends of the three days to move things away as collateral...

The sudden decline of his family fortune made the young Konoe Fumimaro feel the coldness of the world, and gradually became a little cynical.Then, he happened to come into contact with Professor Kawagami Hajime's Marxist works in school, and he was immediately attracted. He even transferred to Kyoto University to learn from Kawagami Hajime. It was a headache for the government that was severely suppressing the red elements at that time: a person of noble blood like Fumima Konoe, unless he really did something rebellious, he would not be able to catch him at all... In the end, he could only let him talk about it.

However, although Konoe Fummo said a lot of praise for Marxism, he actually didn't really join any party organization.Moreover, he is not so much in favor of Marxism in thought as he hates the world hegemony of the Anglo-Saxons of the United States and Britain. He strongly agrees with anything that the mainstream thought of the United States and Britain dislikes... So, at the beginning, Fumma Konoe claimed to be a Marxist; when Hitler came to power and Nazi Germany was born, he gradually became a fan of fascism; at the same time, in the political struggles in Japan, he tended to the imperial way school , vowed to speak for the people at the bottom, wrestling with the plutocrats...

All in all, in the Japanese political arena before World War II, Konoe Bunma was basically equivalent to a modern well-known big V, representing "social conscience" all day long, and making all kinds of radical remarks... But in the final analysis, it was just letting go It's just a mouthful, if you ask him what to do, you will be caught blind...

To say that he is a Marxist is not worthy of the name, and to say that he is a fascist is not quite correct. In short, he is a famous mouthpiece.

After the February [-]th Mutiny, the Internal Control Faction of the Ministry of War completely cleaned up the Kodo faction in one fell swoop and took over the power alone. In order to balance the power, Emperor Showa decided to let Konoe Fumma of the Kodo faction organize a new cabinet.One month before the July [-]th Incident, Konoe Fumma sat on the throne with great ambitions, and then found that he had jumped into a big fire pit. The army did not listen to his command at all, and the cabinet members always lied to him about this. The prime minister, let alone manage the country, even the cabinet members play tricks on him all day long.For most of the military operations, he, the prime minister, was kept in the dark, and he had to read the newspapers to know the latest developments on the front line. He was so angry that he lamented all day: "Even if there is an order from the emperor, there is no policy within the army to discuss." people."

In the whole process of the Sino-Japanese War, the army or navy started the fight first, and then reported to him, the prime minister, and asked him to fully cooperate.Faced with huge international pressure, he vowed several times to negotiate a peace with the United States and Britain, and then tried to negotiate with Chairman Jiang, but was screwed up by the berserk army, making people inside and outside... Next, at the request of the army , In order to fight against the Soviet Union, he single-handedly presided over the conclusion of the Japan-Germany-Italy Triple Axis Alliance, wanting to advance east and west and attack the Soviet Union.Unexpectedly, he was tricked by Hitler and signed the "Soviet-German Non-Aggression Pact" instead, setting Japan on fire, and the blame was pushed on him.In the end, he offered generous terms in an attempt to lure Wang Jingwei to join him, disintegrating the national government's will to fight.As a result, Wang Jingwei hadn't switched over yet, Konoe Wenmo had already been ousted from the stage, and all the previous promises were naturally in vain.

Anyway, after a few years of prime ministership, Konoe Fumma's public image has changed from being a talker to a fool. The whole world knows that Konoe Fumma's words are not listened to, and his actions are unreliable. Being teased by others is actually just a vase, but he has no self-consciousness as a vase... From the emperor to the chaebol to the army and the people, they were all disappointed in Konoe Bunma and ridiculed him as "the most stupid man in Japanese history". prime minister"……

Before the outbreak of the Pacific War, Fumma Konoe had been forced to leave the field and lived in seclusion in a country house in Karuizawa. Just because of his identity and blood relationship, he would be summoned by the emperor from time to time to ask for some opinions as a reference.Then, under the influence of Hidemi Ozaki, a well-known leader of the Japanese Communist Party, who once served as his secretary, he moved closer to Marxism ideologically. Confess, and then even set up a line with the Soviet spy Sorge - Originally, Sorge's special agent team would be cracked during the war, but in this time and space, with the power of Miss Sophie, the ship's mother, naturally it will not let This kind of thing happened, and even let the entire imperial navy cover them in turn...

And the reason why he was elected prime minister by the "Interim Government of Japan" that advocated surrender to the United States was actually purely accidental. When there was a bit of wind, although I thought it was not a big deal, I didn't want to be regarded as a fool who didn't know anything, so I ordered my attendant to make a phone call and signaled Jinwei Wenmo, an idler in the field, to join in the fun, so as to Let's beat these chaebols so that they don't think that they can be lawless and talk nonsense if they run out of Tokyo...

As a result, just after Konoe Fummo drove his car to Kyoto, he broke into the gathering of the chaebols uninvited, and Tokyo, the emperor and the government were bombed into the sky by atomic bombs... Next, before Konoe Wen Mo recovered from his ignorance, and the group of "non-citizens" in Kyoto set up a "Japanese Provisional Government" to preside over the surrender of the Allied forces.Because this matter will definitely be infamous for all generations, a group of chaebol bosses pushed me and pushed you, and finally dumped the blame on Fumma Konoe, an outsider who used to be the prime minister, and was going to let this guy be the prime minister before surrendering. Sign the book.

Forced by samurai swords and pistols, Fumma Konoe, who had the misfortune to cast himself into a tiger's den, had no choice but to lament "this time he jumped into the fire pit again", while taking office miserably as the provisional government. Prime Minister, and read out the proclamation of surrender to the United States... Then within a few days, Fumma Konoe took advantage of the opportunity when the group of people relaxed their defenses, found an opportunity to slip away alone, fled all the way to Hiroshima, and connected with the organization head.

As a result, when the Itsukushima Conference was held, all parties had a great dispute at the preparatory meeting-if the Army people presided over the meeting, the Navy would not agree; if the Navy people presided over the meeting, the Army would not agree ; If someone from the Japanese Communist Party presides over the meeting, the navy and army will not agree, and the Japanese Communist Party itself is a mess. It has not yet decided who is the real party chairman. It is waiting for this meeting Solve it together!

As for those folk people who are like cats and dogs, they are completely out of the question.Someone also suggested that the host of the venue, the palace secretary of Itsukushima Shrine, preside over the meeting, but no one objected to it. The problem is that this poor priest doesn't know what to say at all...

In the end, Fumma Konoe, who came from a noble background, once served as the prime minister of the empire, and shared some incense with Japan, was elected as the host of the meeting. As for his other identity as the "Supreme Leader of White Japan" , everyone had to turn a blind eye intentionally or unintentionally.

In short, although Wang Qiu, who was holding a recording pen as a clerk, saw that this meeting was so messy from the venue to the participants to the host, but no matter how embarrassing the above-mentioned things, this The Itsukushima Conference, which decided the fate of Japan, was successfully held.

※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※

At the beginning of the meeting, as the moderator, Fumma Konoe first reported the current grim situation on the domestic battlefield—before, as the Japanese archipelago entered winter, it was freezing everywhere and the roads were covered with snow, which was not conducive to the mobility of the army.Moreover, the U.S. military has yet to be transferred across the Pacific Ocean to Japan, and the front-line forces are stretched for a while. Therefore, the Red Guards and resistance forces in various parts of Japan have successfully blocked the continued invasion of the U.S. military with relatively weak forces. After the Battle of Nagoya, Japan There was a stalemate on the battlefield for nearly three months.

However, after entering March, the Japanese archipelago is already full of spring flowers and melting ice and snow.After this period of hard work, the U.S. military has assembled about 40 to 50 troops in Japan, and has hoarded enough ammunition and supplies to launch a new round of offensive.

So, after entering March, the U.S. Army commanded by Patton once again launched a new all-out offensive on the Japanese battlefield, first annihilating the local Red Guards in Gifu City in central Japan, and completely sweeping the entire Nobi Plain; Landed on Shikoku Island in a large scale and controlled the southern half of Shikoku Island facing the Pacific Ocean; at the same time, in the Battle of Utsunomiya, they defeated the regular army of the old empire commanded by Kuribayashi Tadamichi, forcing them to go north and retreat to Aizu, relying on the Abukuma Mountains to continue to hold on, and at the same time they had to worry about The threat posed by the U.S. Marines at the port of Sendai from the flank.

At present, the U.S. paratroopers are airborne on a large scale in Kofu. Cooperating with the frontal offensive of the ANZAC mountain troops, it seems that Kai, the place where Takeda Shingen started his family, will be included in the bag. Although the local red guards are still trying their best to resist, they have already exposed It's like a failure... If it weren't for the rugged terrain of the Japanese archipelago that is really not suitable for racing tanks, the complacent General Patton may already be planning how to drive straight into the Hiroshima base camp.

Then, at sea, Japan is also at a clear disadvantage.Although the main force of the U.S. Pacific Fleet led by Admiral Halsey has returned to Pearl Harbor in Hawaii for rest, the main force of the U.S. Atlantic Fleet led by General Kent Hewitt has been transferred to the Western Pacific battlefield through the Panama Canal last month , effectively filled the vacancy left after the Halsey fleet returned to the division, making it difficult for the combined fleet to take the opportunity to counterattack.

So far, the United States has put almost all of its sea power on the front line against Japan. The total tonnage of combat ships deployed by the US military in the Pacific battlefield has reached more than 1000 million tons. With a tonnage advantage of five to six times, the Japanese navy has to Proceed with caution.

What is even more detrimental to the Japanese resistance forces is that with the blooming of the Soviet regime, although the people at the bottom have been successfully mobilized, they have joined the resistance war.But it also prompted many traditional aristocratic families with a lot of land to vote for the US military out of consideration of class interests.

Those powerful families whose family history could be inherited from the Heian era not only had a deep-rooted influence on the old imperial government, but also had a strong control over the people to the bone marrow.Even in the current situation of betraying the nation, a lot of forces can still be mobilized to join the enemy.They successfully set off many Japanese riots in Shikoku, Kyushu, Kansai and Hokuriku, which seriously hampered the front-line defensive operations.

Therefore, in order to more effectively suppress the traitorous reactionary forces and deal with the brutal national salvation war, it is necessary for all resistance forces to unify their thinking, clarify their organization, coordinate and unify, and continue the war as a normal country rather than a state of disunity.

In the end, Fumma Konoe concluded, "... If we use the situation of the Warring States Period as an example, then the territory of the Oda family, Takeda family, Imagawa family, Hojo family, Date family, and Nagamune family , have already been reduced to an enemy territory. If we cannot unite as one, but continue to fight on our own, the result can only be crushed one by one. Therefore, the princes will come here to discuss the future of the country... ..."

Next, is the real meat of the show—since a new regime is to be established, how should the state system be determined and how should power be distributed?