Traveling through the Republic of China to become a special agent, the system is very easy for me

However, Yuan Ye soon understood that it must be Iwai Yuichi who knew that Oshima Kenji was coming to Shanghai and invited him to dinner.

After all, Kenji Oshima's father, Foreign Minister Shigeru Oshima, was his superior, and Kenji Oshima, as the military attaché of the embassy, ​​was also his colleague, so naturally he had to play the role of host.

Yuan Ye was right. After Iwai Yuichi knew that Kenji Oshima was coming to Shanghai, he had wanted to invite him to dinner for a long time, but Kenji Oshima was not available, so he was not invited until tonight.

In fact, Iwai Yuichi had another purpose, which was to find out whether the military had reached a conclusion on the dispute over the policies of advancing north or south?

From what he knew, it seemed that there was already a result. As a military attaché sent by the military, Kenji Oshima should know better.

The so-called Northward Policy is a foreign expansion policy led by the army. Its goal is to achieve a "breakthrough in the middle" in China and then invade Siberia, that is, the Soviet Union. The primary imaginary enemy is the Soviet Union.

Japan's disputes over interests in the Far East and its defensive mentality toward the Soviet Union were important motivations for the army to promote the northward strategy.

Because as early as 1905, Japan had fought a war with Tsarist Russia over its interests in the Far East and won. In 1931, after Japan occupied the three northeastern provinces, the Soviet Union's Far East Army became the biggest threat to the Japanese Army.

The Army believes that although Japan's strength has been rapidly improved after the Meiji Restoration, its national foundation is still a bit weak compared to Western powers.

Although the Soviet Union was powerful, its control over the Far East was not strong, which was much better than going to war with Britain, the United States and other countries.

Another point is that because the country's resources are very dependent on Western countries, if it fights with Britain and the United States, the other side will cut off its resource supply.

Under such circumstances, Japan may collapse. This means that Japan can only choose the Soviet Union as its target. Western countries are very supportive of Japan's attack on the Soviet Union, which will provide Japan with more strategic resources and be more conducive to the war in China.

Therefore, the Army believed that attacking the Soviet Union was the most suitable for the current situation. In addition, there was another important factor, which was the support of the Japanese consortium. Because the Japanese consortium gained huge benefits during the Army's invasion of China, they strongly supported the Army.

The so-called "Southward Policy" is a foreign expansion policy led by the navy. Its goal is to expand into the Pacific region after ensuring a solid hegemonic position over China. The primary imaginary enemies are Britain, the United States and other countries.

The navy believed that sooner or later there would be a war with Britain and the United States, so it would be better to march south to capture Southeast Asia and plunder strategic resources such as oil, rubber, and non-ferrous metals, which would allow them to gain greater benefits and also cut off Britain and the United States' material aid to China.

Iwai Yuichi knew that the army and the navy had been arguing about this for a long time, and judging from the current situation, it was time to determine the strategic direction.

By now, the Army's strategic offensive in the Chinese battlefield has reached saturation. The Army has a total of 34 divisions. Except for one division each stationed in North Korea and Japan, the remaining 1 divisions are all deployed to the Chinese battlefield, accounting for 32% of the Army's total strength.

Moreover, the casualties have reached hundreds of thousands, and the military expenditure is huge. Now Britain, the United States and France are supporting China from the south through India and Burma, and the Soviet Union is providing strategic assistance to China from the north. The above situation has put the military in a dilemma.

Therefore, whether it is to achieve strategic encirclement of China or to block aid from the Soviet Union, Britain, the United States, France and other countries, the military must abandon the strategic step of "China first, then the world" and make a choice between "advance south" and "advance north".

Iwai Yuichi took a sip of wine and said to Oshima Kenji:

"Oshima-kun, I heard that the military has already determined its strategic direction and is preparing to implement the policy of advancing northward. Is this true?"

Oshima Kenji nodded and said:

"Yes, it's confirmed."

Although Iwai Yuichi already knew this, and now that it was confirmed by Kenji Oshima, he was still a little disappointed, because deep down in his heart, he was inclined to move south.

He sighed and said:

“I actually don’t understand why we have to adopt the Northward Policy.

The Soviet Union is a powerful army country, so our strategy should still be to adopt a defensive policy toward the north and avoid a full-scale war with the Soviet Union.

It is not militarily cost-effective to attack the Soviet Union's Far East because the Far East is sparsely populated and it is difficult to effectively strike the Soviet Union. In addition, attacking the Soviet Union will occupy a large number of manpower, while the resources that can be obtained are limited.

Oshima-kun, do you think this is militarily advisable?

Kenji Oshima was obviously a supporter of the Northward Movement, so he naturally disagreed with Iwai Yuichi's opinion and said disapprovingly:

"The Soviet Union is not as strong as imagined. According to the report of the military attaché of our embassy in the Soviet Union, the Soviet Union carried out a brutal purge of the army and shot a large number of experienced middle and senior officers. Now the combat effectiveness of the Soviet army may not be as good as that of the previous Tsarist Russian army. It is time to launch an attack on them.

Moreover, their military strength in the Far East is very weak and completely vulnerable.

I do not think that occupying the Far East is of little benefit, there are abundant oil resources there, which is exactly what we need. "

He thought that Iwai Yuichi was getting old and had become timid, just like those old men in the army who were more likely to cause trouble than to accomplish anything. Fortunately, there were still a large number of young officers in the army who maintained their ambition and fighting spirit, otherwise the consequences would be disastrous. They were the real hope of the country.

"Oshima-kun, don't you remember?

Last year, we fought against the Soviet army at Zhanggufeng on the Sino-North Korean border, and we suffered a loss. "

Iwai Yuichi frowned and said.

"Of course I remember that the reason we suffered losses was entirely due to the headquarters' inaction. We only dispatched a few battalions with thousands of people, while the Soviet army had several times more troops than us, including planes, tanks and heavy artillery.

However, the headquarters was afraid of a full-scale war with the Soviet Union and did not allow us to use aircraft and tank support, which caused us to suffer losses.

However, that was just a tentative attack, but this time it was different. The army made a careful plan and the attack site was set in the Nomonhan area on the China-Mongolia border in early May.

Our troops have reached tens of thousands and are gathering there, equipped with more than 100 tanks and hundreds of aircraft for support.

The Soviets are weak there, and if we launch a surprise attack, we will surely win."

Kenji Oshima said confidently.

Iwai Yuichi was a little surprised and thought, the attack is going to be launched so soon, it seems that the plan to advance northward is inevitable.

He could only say:

“I hope the Northward Advancement Plan will be successful and achieve the desired results.”

When Yuan Ye heard this, he thought that the Japanese had determined the northward strategy and were about to launch an attack on the Soviet Union. It was almost the end of April, and there were only 10 days before the Japanese army launched an attack in the Nomonhan area. He had to pass this news to the Red Party and let the Red Party tell the Soviet Union to prepare in advance and thwart the Japanese attack.

Iwai Yuichi felt that the topic had been discussed enough, so he called two geishas to drink with them.

Yuan Ye didn't hear anything valuable anymore, so he concentrated on drinking with Murakami Yeo. With the help of beautiful women and fine wine, Murakami Yeo had a great time and didn't stop drinking until almost ten o'clock.

At this time, Yuan Ye heard that Iwai Yuichi and Oshima Kenji had left early with two geishas.

After Yuan Ye paid the bill, he left Kawashima Izakaya with Murakami Yeo and Sakurako Kazuko.