February 1, 1940 AD, the bustling streets of Nanjing
There were dense clouds in the sky, and drizzle like cow hair floated in the sky and fell on the crowded pedestrians on the roadside.
A group of Japanese soldiers wearing yellow military uniforms and holding 38-type rifles ran in the middle of the street. As they ran, they kept scolding pedestrians on the roadside and pushed them to the side of the road. They punched and kicked pedestrians who had no time to avoid them.
Kick. Seeing this situation, the pedestrians on the road immediately gave way, and the street vendors also hurriedly moved aside. For a moment, there was some chaos on the street.
Although the pedestrians on the street were very dissatisfied with this, they were too angry and dared not speak out. At most, they could only curse softly: Damn Japanese devils.
After the group of Japanese soldiers passed by, a convoy also drove over, led by a black car with a rising sun flag on both sides of the front. There were seven or eight cars in this convoy, and behind it there were
Two trucks full of soldiers followed closely behind. Each truck also had an Eleven-year-old light machine gun mounted on the roof. The machine gunner behind the machine gun was watching the surroundings with eager eyes. Once he noticed any movement around him, he
He would point the gun at the target without hesitation and pull the trigger. It didn't take long, and the originally bustling streets soon became deserted.
The motorcade stopped when it reached the entrance of an alley, and two soldiers got out of the car. One of the two soldiers was about fifty years old, thin, with a horse face and a lip.
He had a beard on his hair, three gold stars on his shoulders sparkling in the sun, and a fierce look in his eyes. It turned out that he was a Japanese general. He turned to look at another younger man next to him, with a fierce look on his shoulders.
The lieutenant general, whose brochure was dotted with two gold stars, said: "Ishihara-kun, is there any reason why you brought me here?"
This younger Japanese general also has a thin face, but compared with the older general, there is much less fierceness in his eyes. However, what is different from that general is that the lieutenant general has a fierce look in his eyes.
From time to time, a vicious and cunning look flashed across his face. In fact, these two people were Juichi Terauchi, the commander of the Central China Front, and Kanji Ishihara, the commander of the 16th Division.
After hearing Juichi Terauchi's words, Ishihara smiled and lowered his head and said: "Your Excellency, Commander, I brought you here to show you a gathering place where poor Chinese people gather."
"A gathering place for slums?" Terauchi frowned, turned to look into the alley, and asked unhappily: "Ishihara-kun, I need to deal with at least hundreds of official documents every day. You made me waste a whole morning.
Is the time just for seeing these slums in China?”
Ishihara Wanji said seriously: "Your Excellency General, I have my reasons for asking you to come here for inspection. After you see it, I will explain it to you, okay?"
"That's it!" Terauchi Shouichi took a deep breath, nodded and said, "Okay, I'll go with you today to see what you have to say."
After saying that, Juichi Terauchi was about to walk forward. However, he was stopped by a major officer behind him, "Your Excellency, Commander, the people living here are all poor people from China, and the public security is chaotic. As your guard captain, I
I don’t recommend that you go in. If you insist on going in, I ask that I lead the guards to clean it up before you go in again.”
"No." Ishihara smiled and shook his head, "If I let you go in and clean it up, the meaning of letting the Commander visit this place will be lost. If Major Nakagawa is worried about the safety of the Commander, you can bring him
Let the soldiers go in with us."
"But……"
The major still wanted to speak, but was stopped by Juichi Terauchi.
"Okay, Nakagawa-kun, just bring a small team and follow us in."
"Hai!"
Although Major Nakagawa was still a little reluctant, he had no choice but to nod his head and agreed. Soon Juichi Terauchi and Kanji Ishihara and their entourage walked into the alley under the escort of dozens of heavily armed Japanese troops.
This is a narrow interchange that can only accommodate three or four people or a small car passing through. Black sewage flows from the small ditches on both sides of the alley from time to time. At the same time, a stinky smell mixed with various smells hits the face.
, which made the pampered Juichi Terauchi frown. He took out a white handkerchief from his pocket and covered his mouth and nose. He looked at Ishihara Wanji, who was no one around and wanted to say something, but then held back. If he didn't really want to see it,
What Ishihara Wanji wanted him to see, he turned around and left long ago. Walking in the alley, Terauchi Shouichi and others could see some ragged people with sallow faces and skinny muscles hiding in corners everywhere, watching them.
His eyes showed either numbness, hatred, or a sinister look, but he was forced to do so by the dozens of heavily armed soldiers beside him who did not dare to act rashly.
More than ten minutes later, they walked to the depths of the alley. There were several collapsed houses and several bomb craters. Terauchi Shouichi, who had been a soldier for half his life, could tell by looking at the craters that they were at least caused by artillery shells with a caliber of over 100.
It's just that there are a lot of weeds growing sparsely on the surface of these craters. Due to the winter, these weeds also look very withered.
Ishihara Wanji stopped in front of these bomb craters and turned to Terauchi Shou: "Your Excellency, Commander, please take a look."
Terauchi Shouichi stopped and looked at these craters, frowned again, and said dissatisfied: "Ishihara-kun, did you bring me here just to show me these craters?"
"Of course not." Ishihara Wanji pointed to the side again, "Your Excellency, Commander, I want you to take a look at these big pits nearby."
Following the direction of Ishihara Wan'er's finger, Terauchi Shouichi saw two or three pits with a diameter of hundreds of meters. Ishihara Wan'er then said: "Your Excellency, Commander, have you seen those big pits?
"
Juichi Terauchi: "Well, I saw it. Is there anything wrong with those pits? Of course, I am surprised. Now that we have passed the Dongzhi, it stands to reason that the weeds here should become sparse, but
The lush wild grass here is very surprising.
Ishihara Wanji said with a straight face: "Your Excellency, Commander, this is a mass grave in China."
"Mass grave?" Terauchi Shouichi looked at Ishihara Wanji with some confusion, waiting for his explanation.
Ishihara smiled sternly and said: "Your Excellency Commander, this is where the Imperial Army used to execute prisoners of war and poor people. Every large pit here contains about 10,000 to 20,000 Chinese corpses. Because of this,
That’s why the land here is so fertile.”
"Yoshi, so that's how it is." Terauchi Shouichi asked calmly: "Then Ishihara-kun, why did you bring me here today..."
Ishihara Wanji said seriously: "Your Excellency Commander, I think the reason why the empire's occupied areas in China are very unstable and the Chinese people's hostility towards the empire is very strong is because of the empire's wrong attitude towards the occupied areas in China.
Although the Empire occupied a large area of territory in China, the military discipline of the Empire's soldiers was very poor. House invasions, robberies, and rape of women often occurred. This also led to the Imperial Army's reputation in China being very bad.
, In view of this, I think we can slightly change the empire's attitude towards the occupied areas of China, such as restricting the military discipline of the imperial soldiers and not letting the soldiers go around robbing and raping Chinese women, etc. In this way, we can ease the attitude of the Chinese people towards
Our hostile attitude."
"No!" Before Ishihara Wanji finished speaking, Major Nakagawa shouted: "Sir Ishihara, how can this be possible? Aren't you putting the cart before the horse by doing this? You have to know that the empire is a conqueror, and conquers
The conqueror must have the right to be a conqueror. What are the soldiers of the empire crossing the ocean to come to China for? Isn’t it just to make their families’ lives easier while making meritorious service to His Majesty the Emperor? The life in the military camp is so boring.
What’s wrong with soldiers going out to have some fun in their spare time? Shouldn’t they still be trying to reason with those lazy and stupid Chinese people?”
Seeing Nakagawa's anxious look, Ishihara Wan'er felt secretly unhappy. This Nakagawa was just a little major, and he dared to interrupt when he was talking to the commander. It was really rude. But Ishihara also knew that Nakagawa was
The captain of the guard of Shouichi Terauchi must be a confidant of Shouichi Terauchi. It was not easy for him to reprimand him in person, so he just frowned and said nothing, and just looked at Shouichi Terauchi.
Seeing Ishihara's smiling eyes, Terauchi Shouichi couldn't help but shouted at Nakagawa: "Baga, Nakagawa, you bastard, how can you talk to the leader of the Ishihara division like this, why don't you just step back quickly? Don't disturb me.
Do you understand the conversation with the commander of the Ishihara division?"
"Hai!" Seeing Terauchi Shouichi's words, Nakagawa could only take a few steps back angrily without saying a word. However, although his people stepped back, there were seven dissatisfied and eight dissatisfied eyes.
After drinking away Nakagawa, Terauchi Shouichi turned to Ishihara and said with a smile: "Ishihara-kun, can you tell me the reason why you want to do this?"
"sure!"
Ishihara Wanji bowed slightly and then asked: "Your Excellency, Commander, what do you think is the biggest threat to our Central China Front Army now?"
After hearing this, Shouichi Terauchi glanced at him angrily, "Of course it's the Seventh Army led by Su Rui to the south of us. Although they have occupied Jiangxi, I think their ambitions are not small. According to our lurking
Judging from the intelligence sent by the agents in Guangdong, they are still expanding their troops. It is expected that by April this year, all three of their armies will be able to form combat effectiveness. By then, the threat to us will be huge!"
"Yoshi, what Commander said makes perfect sense!" Ishihara Wanji nodded and began to explain in detail... (To be continued...)
ps: Thank you to Little Tiger from the Demon World, Cold Night Wind and Rain, cjj71, Pastor Huanhuan, etc. for your rewards!