Dr. Oscar Paul Todmann was the ambassador of the German Empire to China, and served in Wuhan and Beijing for many years. ≤≤Little≤, but before being sent to China, he served in Japan for five years, serving as the Consul General to Kobe and Assistant to the Ambassador to Japan, and was the interim office. Earlier in 1907-1914, he also served as a diplomat in Russia. It can be said that his entire diplomatic career revolved around Russia, Japan and China.

Therefore, since early 1939, he has become a core figure in coordinating Soviet-Japanese relations, frequently traveling between Wuhan, Vladivostok and Tokyo. According to the instructions of German Foreign Minister Ribbintrop, his mission was to relieve the worries of the Japanese Empire's advance southward.

Promoting the Japanese Empire's southward advance has always been the core of Hessman's Eastern policy! Because Hessman never fantasized about living in peace with the United States. To start a war with the United States, Japan is naturally inseparable from restraining it in the Pacific direction.

To this end, Germany has gradually moved closer to Japan since 1928 and launched a 10-year economic and technological cooperation between Japan and Germany. The focus of Japan and Germany is to increase the force of the Japanese Empire at sea and in the air.

In addition to economic and technological cooperation, coordinating the conflict between Japan and another partner of Germany, the Soviet Union, is another important means to promote the Japanese Empire to advance south. After all, Japan's national strength is limited and it is impossible to undertake the three major tasks of going north, west and south at the same time.

Moreover, since the status of the Soviet-German relationship is above the Japan-German relationship, once the conflict between Japan and the Soviet Union escalates into an armed conflict, Germany will have to stand on the side of the Soviet Union. Although Germany cannot directly send troops to fight against Japan (in Hessman's view, it is unnecessary because the Japanese army cannot defeat the Soviet Red Army at all), all Japan-German cooperation projects must be stopped, which will seriously affect Japan's future southward operations.

However, this coordination policy encountered great trouble by early 1939, and the relationship between the Soviet and Japanese showed a sharp deterioration.

Therefore, Todman, the German ambassador to China, was busy mediating between the Soviet Union and Japan.

However, before his mediation was successful, Hitler and Stalin, the "close socialist comrades-in-arms", met in Riga and then issued the "Declaration of the Liberator". Although the "Declaration" was not directed at Japan, it still caused an uproar in Japan and brought a lot of trouble to Dr. Todman's mediation.

Dr. Todman felt a change in Japan's attitude from a Lufthansa Juncker 52 passenger plane.

The gangway was empty, and no Japanese senior officials came to greet them, only German Ambassador to Japan Dixon and German Military Attachment to Japan Colonel Eugene Ott, and a Japanese Foreign Ministry’s Director of East Asian Affairs, Shishi Taro Ishikawa. He once served in Shanghai and Wuhan and was an old acquaintance with Todman. After serving as the director of the East Asian Bureau of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in March 1937, he became an official in charge of the Soviet-Japan coordination.

"This Shizutaro finally came." Todman thought to himself: "This shows that the Japanese did not close the door to negotiations."

"Zhutaro," Todman quickly stepped forward, speaking fluent Japanese, "It's great to see you here."

He shook hands with Narutaro, who bent down and bowed, saying, "Mr. Ambassador, there is an important meeting of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs today. Both the ministers and the subordinates cannot separate themselves. They can only be idle at home, so they come to the airport to welcome them."

"Oh, that's right." Todman laughed, as if he was not concerned, and then shook hands with Ambassador Dixon and Colonel Alt. Both of them looked quite heavy, and it seemed that Japan was alienating Germany.

After a brief greeting, Todman and Colonel Eugene Ott got on a Mercedes-Benz W07 sedan from the German Embassy, ​​while Ambassador Dixon and Ishikazutaro got on a Nissan 70 sedan sent by the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The two cars went to downtown Tokyo, one in front and one behind.

Todman, sitting in a car, carefully observed the situation in Tokyo. The capital of the Japanese Empire, composed of large areas of low wooden houses and a small number of Western-style buildings, looked very prosperous at this time. There were many cars driving on the streets, which showed that Japan had not yet imposed strict controls on gasoline. This may mean that Japan had not decided to go to war with the Soviet Union.

"They don't want to fight, do they?" Todman asked Colonel Alt beside him.

"Mr. Ambassador, it should be said that they are not ready for war yet," said Colonel Eugene. "The situation has changed too drastically, far beyond Japan's expectations. Moreover, their army was not prepared enough, with only 17 weapons and equipment equivalent to the divisions of the Polish infantry division and some independent brigades. The full rate is not very high, and it is difficult to win with these forces.

For this reason, fierce differences arose within the Japanese military. Some people believe that taking advantage of the Soviet Union's opportunity to fall into war on the Western Front, expand Japan's interests and launch a large-scale war;

Another group believes that the changes that have occurred do not harm Japan's interests, because the other party has guaranteed that Japan's existing rights will not be damaged, and is willing to continue to provide cheap coal, iron ore and non-ferrous metals, and the quantity will be more than in the past. In this case, there is no need to start a war and the risks are difficult to control."

"So do they know the empire's position?" Todman immediately asked.

"Ambassador Dixon has clearly informed the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Empire's position," said Colonel Eugene Ott.

"What about Britain, the United States and France?" Todman asked, "How did their ambassador to Japan react?"

"British, American and French support Japan," said Eugene Ott. "They hope that Japan will fall into a long and arduous ground war so that Japan's maritime power will not threaten Britain, American and French colonies in Southeast Asia. It is precisely because of the attitude of Britain, America and France that the Japanese army and navy are now split into two factions and are quarreling endlessly. Today, the Five-Princes' Front-State Conference will be held to discuss national policies."

"Five-Prince Meeting?" Todman suddenly became nervous. Although he had been in the Far East for many years, he still didn't understand the strange thinking of the Japanese. Perhaps they would really put large pieces of fat in the south and not eat them, but fight another larger "Russian War".

"So what is Prime Minister Abi's proposition?" Todman continued.

Prime Minister Abhi is Nobuyuki Abhi, who is a general of the army and belongs to the "Ugaki faction" in the Japanese army (with Ugaki Ichi became the leader). Therefore, he is separated from the struggle between the commander and the imperial faction. However, he was still expelled from active service after the 2.26 Incident in 1936.

However, Nobuyuki Abe has a good reputation in the Japanese army and navy, and the Ugaki faction's strength in the Japanese army is still there, so he was able to replace Fumikoto Kobe who was helpless in the face of major changes in the situation and became the prime minister.

However, Nobuyuki Abe's ability is also not enough to solve the current crisis. Now he has to hold a meeting of the five imperial ministers to push the problems to the Army, Navy and the Emperor.

The intellectually inadequate Emperor Hirohito (this term is not good at this term), who currently ruled the Japanese Empire, is also helpless about the current situation.

"At present, the lifeline of our empire has been seriously threatened by the Red and Russian forces. If decisive measures are not taken, the empire's future and destiny will be held by others." Army Minister Shinroku Hata shouted loudly at the meeting of important ministers, "Therefore, the army suggested a decisive battle with Red and Russians by force! But at the same time, it did not give up the preparation for advancing south. Once a situation is favorable to Germany on the European battlefield, the imperial navy and army will unswervingly shoulder the mission of going south to liberate the oppressed nations in Asia."

Emperor Hirohito glanced at the dry-looking minister of the army. He knew that the minister wanted to express something was not consistent with what he said, and needed careful analysis to draw a correct conclusion.

The Army seemed to be suggesting to start a fight with the Soviet Union, but in the past 10 years, the Japanese Army has not been prepared to start a fight. Most of Japan's military spending is spent on the navy. If the army is not considered an aviation force, its weapons and equipment are similar to those during the First World War, and the number of people is too small. Now that the Army is rashly attacking, it will definitely not be able to defeat it.

In other words, if you want to start a battle, you must prepare for war, expand your troops, and add equipment... There are many military expenditures!

While preparing to advance westward, the army must also prepare to go south, in fact, this is actually the same thing for the army, and it must greatly increase military spending.

However, the army cannot rely solely on the army to move south, but must cooperate with the land and sea. For most of the past 10 years, because the Western continent is peaceful, most of the Japanese military expenditure was spent on the navy. In early 1937, the "03 Ship Supplement Plan" was passed, and four "ideal aircraft carriers" were determined to be built.

Since Japan has had a relatively stable Far East situation in the past 10 years, and the channels for obtaining raw materials and selling industrial products (mainly machines, steel and chemical products) are also very smooth, Japan's economy is developing well, and it has relatively strong financial resources to invest in naval construction, allowing eight main ships that are highly anticipated to be started at the same time.

According to the plan, these eight main battleships will be completed before the end of 1943, and the Japanese Navy will have the most powerful battleships and aircraft carriers!

In the eyes of the Army, the Navy has so many expensive main battleships, so of course it must show its strength in Southeast Asia. The Army can also go with it to liberate the oppressed Southeast Asian people... This is a great contribution!

Therefore, the Japanese Army has now unified its opinions and expanded its military and prepared for war first! If we don’t invest in military spending quickly, the army will not be able to defeat it!
Chapter completed!