While Cherev was chatting with Stilwell, Hirohito had already received the news.
After learning that Kenji Doihara had been captured alive, and that Xu Rui had been fooling around, Hirohito's first reaction was undoubtedly furious, and he flew into a rage.
When the Minister of the Army, Juichi Terauchi, and the Deputy Commander of the Army, Hideki Tojo, came outside Hirohito's study room, what they heard was Hirohito's angry roars, like a cub being killed and a mother animal being kidnapped. The trapped beast was hiding in its cave and let out desperate roars one after another, followed immediately by the sound of objects falling to the ground and shattering.
"idiot!"
"Bagayalu!"
"Damn Chinese!"
"Stupid Chinese!"
"You pissed me off, you really pissed me off!"
"You will eventually pay the price with blood for today's guild!"
"Ah, Baga, Baga Yalu, I will definitely make you pay the price."
"The dignity of the Japanese Empire cannot be desecrated, nor can the dignity of the Japanese royal family be desecrated. Xu Rui, you will pay a heavy price for today's stupid behavior! Ouch! Ahhh..."
In the temple, Shouichi and Tojo Hideki stood outside the imperial study, looking at each other and not daring to enter.
They could fully imagine how angry His Majesty the Emperor would be at this time, but they knew better that the reason why His Majesty the Emperor was so rude and furious was not because of Xu Rui's refusal to surrender. , but because Xu Rui's refusal to surrender shattered His Majesty the Emperor's strategy of paying equal attention to both military and political affairs.
To put it bluntly, the failure to recruit Xu Rui seriously weakened the emperor's prestige!
When the news that Xu Rui refused to be surrendered and Doihara Kenji was captured alive spread back to the empire, there was even a voice in the empire: His Majesty the Emperor does not understand politics and military affairs at all. It is nothing to understand, but he insists on dealing with The empire's political and military strategies were dictated, causing irreparable heavy losses.
It's just a rumor among the people, there are even such noises in the cabinet and headquarters!
It is simply unimaginable that such a voice should appear in Japan, where the Emperor is supreme! No wonder Emperor Hirohito had such a violent reaction!
Both Terauchi Juichi and Tojo Hideki knew that Hirohito was angry at the moment, so they didn't dare to go in to touch his bad luck. Then they suddenly realized that the old guy Kanin Miya Zaijin was definitely not really ill, but had long been suffering from a disease. I know, Emperor Hirohito was in a very bad mood, so he hid because of illness, but let them get into trouble.
At that moment, both Teruchi Juichi and Tojo Hideki began to greet the female ancestors of Kanin Miyazai Jin in their hearts, but midway through the greetings, they suddenly thought that the female ancestors of Kanin Miyazai Hitoshi were the ancestors of His Majesty the Emperor? At that moment, they each slapped themselves and threw all distracting thoughts behind them.
The roaring and the sound of broken objects in the royal study lasted for half an hour before they finally stopped.
After almost five minutes, they were sure that Emperor Hirohito would not go crazy again before the two dared to enter.
When Terauchi Juichi and Tojo Hideki walked into the Imperial Study Room, they saw Hirohito half lying on the gold-rimmed chair, his face full of exhaustion. Seeing the two people walking in, Hirohito just raised his eyelids slightly. , said sickly: "Temple-san and Tojo-san, are you here? Come closer, come closer to me."
"Hai!" The two of them paused and walked to Hirohito.
Hirohito's eyelids were slightly raised, revealing two bloodshot eyes. He looked at Juichi Terauchi and Hideki Tojo, and asked quietly: "Terauchi-san, Tojo-san, do you also think that I am useless? Do you also think that I don’t know anything about politics or military affairs, but I insist on intervening in the empire’s foreign strategy?”
Terauchi Juichi hesitated for a moment, but Tojo Hideki rushed to say: "Of course not. In my opinion, His Majesty the Emperor is the unparalleled heroic master of the Japanese Empire. The young superintendent has shown extraordinary ambitions." In short, the empire's current prosperity is inseparable from His Majesty the Emperor's wisdom, prowess, and hard work in governance."
Terauchi Shouichi turned his head slightly and glanced at Tojo Hideki, thinking to himself, what a flatterer.
However, we must admit that Tojo's flattery was very useful to Hirohito.
Hirohito's mood was finally no longer as bad as before. He straightened his posture and asked again: "Tojo-san, do you think I really made a mistake in my strategy of simultaneously developing politics and military affairs?"
"Of course not." Tojo Hideki said, "Political and military strategies at the same time are a treasure for governing the world!"
Hirohito immediately frowned and said: "If there is nothing wrong with the simultaneous political and military strategy, why did we get such a result in recruiting Xu Rui?" After a pause, Hirohito said with great confusion, "Put it on Ma Zhanshan. It’s an effective strategy, but why did Xu Rui fail? I really don’t understand.”
Tojo Hideki said in a deep voice: "Your Majesty's strategy is not wrong, it is Doihara, the idiot, who is wrong."
"The fault was Doihara?" Hirohito bowed his upper body slightly and asked Tojo Hideki, "How do you say this?"
Tojo Hideki added: "The so-called peace talks are talks for the sake of peace, but the word "peace" is not negotiated, but typed on the battlefield. Although this idiot Kenji Doihara understands His Majesty's He started to negotiate peace with Xu Rui, but he completely failed to understand the essence of the word "peace talks" and actually gave in repeatedly to Xu Rui's military adventure. Under such circumstances, it is a ghost to be able to negotiate a result. "
"Sodesna!" Hirohito perked up after hearing Tojo Hideki's words, and he immediately said, "When he was in Manchuria, the reason why Doihara Kenji was able to successfully negotiate with Ma Zhanshan was entirely because of the The Second Division maintained strong pressure on the Mazhanshan Group on the Songnen Plain, and it turns out that the problem actually lies here!"
"Hai." Hideki Tojo said, "That idiot Doihara is too accommodating to Xu Rui."
At this point, Hirohito's energy and energy had been completely restored, and he said: "Tojo-san, you mean to say that if strong military pressure is maintained on the Dameishan Independent Regiment, the peace talks with Xu Rui may still be successful. , Xu Rui may still surrender due to the strong military pressure of the imperial army, right?"
"Hai!" Tojo Hikiton said, "I always believe in one sentence, there is no one in this world who cannot be bribed, it depends on whether you can afford a sufficient price! Xu Rui's price is obviously higher than Ma Zhanshan, so At present, the empire may not be able to afford it, but we can definitely reduce his asking price through military means!"
"Yo Xi!" Hirohito nodded happily, rang the bell to summon a guard, and told the guard, "Summon the cabinet minister and the finance minister into the palace immediately. I want to hold an imperial meeting overnight. Hurry, hurry up!"
The imperial meeting is also divided into two parts, one is the staff meeting and the other is the cabinet meeting.
This time, Hirohito convened a cabinet meeting attended only by senior officials.
Not long after, cabinet ministers Wei Wenmao, Finance Minister Shishe Ino Taro, and Foreign Minister Hirota Kouki rushed to the imperial palace following the imperial edict.
"The fighting on the Chinese battlefield will probably continue."
Hirohito's first words scared the cabinet minister Wei Wenmeng half to death.
Konoe Fumimaro said in panic: "Your Majesty, the war on the Chinese battlefield must not continue any longer. If it continues, the empire will really go bankrupt. Your Majesty should be very clear that the public's enthusiasm for subscribing for the latest issue of national debt has been great. It is not as good as before. This is not because the people are unpatriotic and do not support the war. It is because the financial resources of the people have been exhausted, Your Majesty!"
Finance Minister Taro Ishigami also said: "Your Majesty, given the current financial situation of the Ministry of Finance, it is true that we can no longer afford large-scale military operations!"
Hirohito frowned and said: "We can't afford a large-scale military operation. There is no problem with a medium-sized operation, right?"
"Medium scale?" Konoe Fumimaro frowned and asked, "How large is it and how many divisions are used?"
Hirohito turned his attention to Juichi Terauchi and Hideki Tojo. Hideki Tojo rushed to say: "We need at least five divisions or more to ensure significant progress in a short period of time!"
"Five divisions?" Ishishe Ino Taro shouted, "This is impossible, absolutely impossible!"
Konoe Fumimaro also said: "Your Majesty, in order to win the Battle of Wuhan, the empire has exhausted all manpower and material resources. Due to insufficient firearms, even the teaching guns of the 6th Military Academy were collected and shipped to China to supplement the troops. , and now we have to use more than five divisions to launch a large-scale attack, it is really... "
Ishishe Ino Taro continued: "It has really exceeded the limit of the empire's finances!"
Hirohito turned his attention to Tojo Hideki again, meaning, could there be a few less divisions
Tojo Hideki frowned and thought for a moment, then said in a deep voice: "Four divisions, no more!"
"Impossible, absolutely impossible!" Konoe Fumimaro shouted, "One division, at most one division!"
"Konoe-san, are you kidding? One division wants to wipe out Xu Rui's Dameishan Independent Regiment? The Himeji Division is a lesson learned from the past!" Hideki Tojo roared loudly, "Three divisions cannot be less. Got it!"
"Two divisions!" Konoe Fumimaro bargained like a vegetable seller, "No more!"
The two of them refused to give in, and their words were flying. Then Ishigashi Ino Taro and Terauchi Juichi joined in, and finally even Foreign Minister Hirota Koki joined in. The five people made the imperial study room as noisy as a vegetable market, and the guardian Several guards outside the imperial study looked at each other in shock. Is this really a high-level imperial meeting? Why is it like a quarrel between vegetable vendors
The five ministers divided into two groups and argued for a long time, but no result was achieved.
In the end, it was Hirohito who made the final decision: "Okay, don't argue anymore. This time we will mobilize two divisions plus an independent brigade. The Kumamoto Division plus the 104th Division, plus the Taiwan Brigade." ”
Konoe Fumimaro and Tojo Hideki fell silent. (To be continued.)