Because of the real threat brought by the "January 28" incident in Shanghai to the capital Nanjing, coupled with the strong combat power shown by the Japanese Navy, the National Government began to actively deploy defenses at the estuary of the Yangtze River and Shanghai.

After the July 7 Incident, the National Government did not make a military decision to expand the war. In contrast to the expansion of the war, the National Government still held a calm attitude, but repeatedly ordered the Shanghai Security Group not to provoke the Japanese, and did not approve the preemptive strategy proposed by Lieutenant General Zhang Zhi, but only ordered the central government to make active war preparations.

In fact, Japan's aggression against China has damaged the interests of the world's powers in China, and will inevitably deepen the conflict between Japan and Western powers. Therefore, the National Government attempted to take advantage of this contradiction to seek support from Western powers through diplomatic political strategies, mediate Sino-Japanese relations, and even directly interfere with the war between the two sides.

Shanghai is the real core of the interests of Western powers in China. At the strategic level, the National Government sought to take the initiative and had already begun to plan to seize the initiative in the war. It wanted to shift the strategic focus of the Sino-Japanese War to the south to Shanghai in order to get the support of the world's powers. The senior officials of the National Government believed that Japan's occupation of Pingjin was almost a fact, but they still hoped to be treated as a local event as before and as a local problem as before. Since the Japanese purpose was to occupy Pingjin, then the number of troops he used was to do.

The war plan will also correspond to this. This is the National Government's prediction of the war in the north. At the same time, Japan has repeatedly advanced in military terms, and the trend of war expansion is becoming more and more obvious. This situation obviously challenges the bottom line of the National Government. With the rising national anti-Japanese voices, anti-Japanese has become the top priority in the country. The National Government has had to do its best to do its best, otherwise the government will lose the hearts of the people and be despised by the people. At the same time, the National Government has also gradually made plans for a full-scale war.

The top leaders of the Republic of China have a clear understanding that China is a great power with extremely poor national strength. The top leaders believe that relying solely on China's own strength to fight against Japan is naturally far from enough, so they looked at Shanghai. Because Shanghai is an international city, European and American forces have a lot of investment in Shanghai. If China fights with the Japanese army with all their might, it will inevitably destroy more and greater interests of the European and American powers in Shanghai and China. In this way, through the game of interests, Western powers can participate. Through the war against Japan, changing the international image of the National Government's always weak, it can also change the mentality of the Western powers' light China, and it may also cause European and American powers to mediate or even interfere with armed forces. Between diplomatic and political strategies and military strategies, it is obvious that the top leaders of the National Government are obviously more inclined to obey diplomatic and political strategies, and of course this is also due to national strength.

The Japanese authorities believe that the necessary forces should be used to quickly achieve excellent results in the Shanghai war and ensure the interests of Japan in Shanghai. This will achieve the effect of preventing interference from various countries, destroying the economic center, carrying out large-scale air strikes on key areas, and hitting China's morale.

From a strategic perspective, the Sino-Japanese War conflict between China and Japan is inevitable. When and how it broke out, the internal factors are the unchangeable position of China and Japan, and the attitude of the European and American powers is also an important external factor that influences the Sino-Japanese military conflict.

Six years ago, after the September 18th Incident, the Republic of China government resorted to the League of Nations, and the League of Nations made a confused decision to "strike 50 major boards each". Obviously, this was a condolence and compromise on Japan's invasion of China, and the fairness expected by the National Government was not realized. Although the facts did not go as expected, and although the compromise between the League of Nations and the great powers against Japan was an indisputable fact, after the July 7 Incident, the senior officials of the National Government still felt that Western powers enjoyed major interests in China and would not allow Japan to expand its invasion of China and further damage their own.

Interests. Especially in the "January 28th" incident in Shanghai, Western powers were unwilling to be harmed by Shanghai's interests and adopted armed deterrence and diplomatic intervention to mediate the military conflict. The senior officials of the National Government believed that Shanghai's interests may be the bottom line drawn by the Western powers on the interests of China. Based on this overall judgment, while negotiating with Japan, the National Government strives to attract the attention of the international community on the war, seeking world powers to speak out, and attempt to use the powers of the great powers to force Japan to make military and political compromises, or even concessions.

On July 12, Chairman Chiang Kai-shek sent a secret message to Song Zheyuan specifically mentioned that "Ping-Tianjin international relations are complex. If I can resist the war to the end, as long as I do not allow any conditions, countries with rights in North China will not be ignored." However, the European and American powers maintained a very cautious attitude towards Sino-Japanese relations, and Britain and France should be relatively active. Regarding the actions of the Japanese army, the British ambassador to Tokyo protested to the Japanese government. On July 12, British Foreign Minister Aiden summoned Japanese ambassador to Britain Shigeru Yoshida, and used the suspension of the negotiations between Britain and Japan as a warning to Japan.

On July 20, Chairman Chiang Kai-shek met with ambassadors of the United States and Britain in Nanjing, emphasizing that Japan's full-scale war of aggression against China was imminent, and said that the current situation was only the cooperation between the countries, especially the United States and Britain, could save the crisis. In response, Britain immediately responded, and Prime Minister Chamberlain expressed his willingness to cooperate with the United States and take joint actions to fight against Japan. However, the US Congress was dominated by isolationist forces, and they believed that what happened on the earth had little to do with their own interests. China's war disaster did not attract their real attention.

They did not enter their sight. In this way, the US government did not want to get involved in the war on the other side of the ocean, and was even more unwilling to oppose Japan, and insisted on unwilling to take completely consistent intervention actions. Americans paid more realistic attention to economic interests, and even continued to export large amounts of waste oil, old steel, rubber, medical supplies and other important war materials to Japan after the outbreak of the war between China and Japan. This is where the United States of America's interests in Asia is. The war between China and Japan can allow both the "number one commercial giant" in the world to obtain, so why not sit on the wall and watch it?

As for further actions, because of the attitude of the United States, Britain did not want to take action alone. There are three reasons: First, Britain's military power in East Asia is relatively weak, and second, because the European problem is in full swing, and Britain's interests in China are of great importance, but Britain's economic focus is not on China. Third, it is because Japan was originally a pawn of the British Far East strategy and grew stronger with the support of the United Kingdom. The British Conservative Party still has fantasies about the old love between the two countries.
Chapter completed!