The Third Reich in Desperation

As for why Japan finally chose French Indochina as the first springboard selected in those staff plans, this is not only because of the special geographical location here.

More importantly, this is also a bold test by the Japanese government on the attitudes of European and American countries towards Japan.

In other words, these dwarves want to see the bottom line of tolerance in European countries.

You must know that although the Japanese have made achievements in the Far East battlefield and the Asian battlefield, so far, they have never taken the initiative to provoke European and American countries in the true sense.

However, now that France has been defeated and the European battlefield, and the French government has also become a German puppet government, the Japanese combat staff feels it is time to be a little bolder.

It is conceivable that if the French act resolutely and toughly, then the Japanese may make further prudent decisions when considering invading their colonies.

Of course, if Pétain's Vichy government turned a blind eye to Japan's approach, it would even ignore it.Well, the Japanese will certainly not give up this excellent opportunity.

The Japanese Army has done a lot of preliminary work for this.

The southward plan is related to the core interests of the Japanese army, and failure must not be allowed.What they want is a one-time success to obtain their own strategic resource base in South Asia.

However, in fact, facing the French Indochina Federation, the Japanese Army is actually a little bit guilty.

Not only because the French army was also known as the strongest army in the world after all, the invincible European army.

Moreover, the French Army has always been a role model in the hearts of the Japanese.

After World War I, the Japanese Army carried out targeted reforms, imitating and learning from French military technology and strategic and tactical thinking.

Even the non-commissioned officers of the Japanese Army repeatedly learned the tactical and strategic thinking of the French Army in the classrooms of the school.

The Japanese instructors repeatedly preached the classic battles of the French army in World War I. Military academies throughout Japan were once obsessed with all the thinking of the French army.

Not only the tactical and strategic thinking and combat methods of the French army, but even the equipment and combat clothing, they are trying to imitate the French army.

However, in the bloody and tragic battlefield in the later period of World War I, although the Battle of Verdun was victorious, the French army also suffered huge losses, which made the aura of the French army suddenly dim.

On the contrary, although Germany was defeated, its advanced combat thinking and its beautiful uniforms became the object of pursuit of the Japanese Army.

But even if the French army was defeated and lost to Germany, compared with Japan, France is still extremely powerful.

After all, France is a European country, and their loss to the mighty Germany does not prove anything.

In short, France is also a veteran power anyway, and it must not talk about his temporary defeat.Therefore, what the Japanese government expects is that it is best to solve the problem through diplomatic means, and it is better not to have a direct conflict with the French army if it is not a last resort.

This is the code of conduct formulated by the top army and the cabinet, and it was issued in a clear written order to the execution units of the Japanese army, and they were ordered to strictly implement it.

Text Chapter 428 False Friend

However, something happened that the Japanese did not expect. The international situation changed suddenly. The rapid defeat of France in the European battlefield made Japan unprepared.

In the face of the German army, the French army suffered a series of disastrous defeats. Before the Japanese could figure out what happened, the German army had already paraded in the streets of Paris.

And now France seems to have been controlled by Germany, and Pétain's Vichy French government also signed a so-called contract with Germany and became a puppet government of Germany.

The failure of the French army was too miserable and too fast, which caused a series of misjudgments by the Japanese government.

They suddenly realized that their previous plan seemed too cautious.

The strength of France is simply an illusion. In fact, this country is completely foreign.

Therefore, the Japanese government immediately decided to change its attitude towards the French colonies and use all available means to obtain their due benefits in South Asia.

The Japanese government not only sent a military and diplomatic negotiating team with a tough attitude towards France, but also deployed the armed forces of the Fifth Division to station on the Sino-Vietnamese border.

In addition to cutting off the flow of materials between China and Vietnam, Japan's approach is also to show its force against the French.

At this time, they are trying to put pressure on the French Pétain government from both military and diplomatic aspects at the same time to force the French colonial authorities to submit to their illegal conditions.

Even, Japan also asked France to open the airport in northern Vietnam and allow Japanese troops to station and pass through the territory of French Indochina.

But obviously, the Japanese acted too hastily, and they ignored the existence of Germany.

You must know that although Germany disbanded its local army and air force after accepting the surrender of France, and at the same time occupied a large amount of land in northern France, Reinhardt naturally had his own plans for its overseas colonies, otherwise, he would It will not throw out the big sweetness of the Algerian oil field, deliberately showing the hope of revival to the French.

The Japanese government now seems to be making conditions to the French government, but in fact, they are also equivalent to making conditions to the French protectorate, that is, to the German government in disguise.

Of course, the Vichy government will not make any clear response to the government diplomatic documents sent by the Japanese foreign minister to the French ambassador to Japan.

After all, the political situation in the country is far from being stable, and it is obviously unacceptable for the Vichy government, which is not yet firmly established, to agree to cede land at this time.

The Vichy government only asked the then French ambassador to Japan to do everything possible to negotiate with Japan, and at the same time it reported this request of the Japanese government to Reinhardt, the head of state of Germany.

Petain's attitude was actually just perfunctory to the Japanese, procrastinating as long as he could.

After all, France at that time had just come out of the German-French war and was waiting to be done. Where would there be spare energy to take care of the shit that Japan caused in Southeast Asia?

But Germany is different. They value the French colonies in Southeast Asia very much. The reason is naturally needless to say.

Even if he doesn't pay attention, Reinhardt will not let Japan bully the Vichy regime, which is already comparable to Germany's younger brother.

After he learned of Japan's actions in Southeast Asia, he took immediate action.

First of all, Reinhardt put pressure on Japan through diplomatic means, and expressed his willingness to compensate Japan in other ways.

But the Japanese side only agreed to Germany's request on the surface, but in fact, they are still secretly arranging a strategic attack on the French colonies.

After all, Japan has been dreaming of the dream of the Great Japanese Empire dominating Asia, and they will never stop their long-planned things because of Reinhardt's pressure.

A crazy country like Japan dares to provoke any country for its own benefit, even if this country is a superpower, they are not afraid!

But the Japanese government will not completely ignore Germany's warnings. After all, they have always hoped to further cooperate with Germany, which defeated the "world's number one army", and learn the powerful secrets of the Germans.

Moreover, the Iron Fist rocket launcher sold to them by the Germans during the Battle of Nomenkan really gave Dizhou Libing a lot of sweetness at that time.

Although they lost in the end, the Japanese Kwantung Army always believed that there was absolutely no problem with the German weapons, and they were excellent to use!

On the one hand, they let their foreign affairs department negotiate with the German government, and went all out to make up for the unhappiness caused by this incident.

On the other hand, the Japanese army also stepped up the deployment of troops in southern China, preparing to launch an attack on Vietnam.

The reason for adopting this two-faced approach to Germany is that the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs believes that it is not appropriate to provoke the Germans, at least at the moment when they are eager to cooperate further with the Germans.

If the French colonies are touched at this time, it may give the Germans the impression that Japan is trying to snatch the German spoils.

This will obviously deepen the misunderstanding between the two countries.

However, the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs also agreed that its strategic deployment in Southeast Asia must not be interrupted, so it adopted this method to contain Germany.

Reinhardt is not stupid, of course he knows the cleverness of the Japanese.

After all, this kind of small means of negotiating and preparing for war at the same time, the Chinese army in history has seen a lot during the 14-year war of resistance.