Chapter 1675 The Mastermind
While large-scale military exercises were being conducted in East Africa, particularly in the Mozambique Channel, the Japanese military in the Far East was also feeling the pressure of the war.
May 24, 1938.
Far Eastern Empire, Jinyang City.
Last year, 1937, can be described as a year of great gains for the Japanese invaders, with most of the northern and coastal areas of the Far East Empire falling under the iron heel of the Japanese invaders.
Jinyang was also occupied by Japan at the end of 1937 and quickly became the command post of the Japanese invaders in the region.
In May, Yoshijiro Umezu succeeded Kiyoshi Kazuki as commander of the First Army, the main force responsible for the operation and occupation of the Shanxi region. At this time, there was a special intelligence document on Yoshijiro Umezu's desk, and his expression was not good.
The head of the Japanese-backed Jinyang intelligence agency is reporting to him.
"Commander, this is intelligence we collected on the orders of former Commander Kiyoshi Kazuki regarding the economy and other relevant information of the Northwest Labor Party and the Jiangcheng government's jurisdiction."
At this time, the Far Eastern Empire government had moved to Jiangcheng due to the fall of Nanjing. However, as the Japanese invasion progressed, the Jiangcheng government was already arranging a retreat route to the mountain city.
As Yoshijiro Umezu tapped the table, he asked, "What are Commander Kiyoshi Katsuki's plans regarding this report?"
Yoshijiro Umezu, who had just taken over the job, was clearly not very familiar with some of the matters left behind by Kiyoshi Kazuki.
The head of the Jinyang Special Service Agency said respectfully, "Commander, this report concerns the changes that have occurred in the northwest of the Far Eastern Empire over the past few months."
"When Commander Kiyoshi Kazuki was still in office, the Empire's war in the Far East Empire was going quite smoothly. The Empire's army exerted a great suppressive force on the Far East Empire's armed forces in terms of both military skills and logistics."
"However, from the end of last year until now, our intelligence agencies and the Imperial front-line troops have discovered anomalies in the Far Eastern Empire."
This piqued Yoshijiro Umezu's interest, and he pressed further, "What's the anomaly?"
The head of the Jinyang Special Service Agency did not give a direct answer, but respectfully asked, "I wonder if Your Excellency, Commander, is aware of the economic and industrial layout among the Far Eastern Empires?"
Yoshijiro Umezu frowned and said, "Of course. In order to support the Empire's war, we did a lot of intelligence gathering before the war. If we're talking about our understanding of the overall situation of the Far Eastern Empire, I might know more than you, a Far Easterner!"
What Yoshijiro Umezu said was not an exaggeration at all. Although the head of the Jinyang Special Service Agency was a lackey they had promoted from the local area, he only had some knowledge of Shanxi and the surrounding areas.
However, once the entire Far Eastern Empire is involved, he might not know more than Yoshijiro Umezu.
The head of the Jinyang Special Service Agency bowed and scraped, saying, "Of course. In terms of knowledge and education, I certainly cannot compare to Your Excellency the Commander."
"In that case, what are your views, Commander, on the original economic and industrial layout of the Far Eastern Empire?"
Without giving it much thought, Yoshijiro Umezu stated decisively, "Although the Far Eastern Empire's economy is underdeveloped, as the world's most populous country, it still has some bright spots in its economy and industry."
"As for the layout, it is nothing more than concentrated in the eastern part of the Far Eastern Empire, especially the coastal area."
The head of the Jinyang Special Service Agency hurriedly said, "Commander, your insight is truly remarkable. But Commander, who now controls those economically prosperous and industrially concentrated areas of the Far Eastern Empire?"
“Naturally…” Yoshijiro Umezu paused for a moment, then said, “In the hands of the Empire!”
The head of the Jinyang Special Service Agency said, "This is the answer. Before the war, the Far Eastern Empire's industry was concentrated in the eastern region, especially the coastal areas."
"Including the Northeast, the Far Eastern Empire's industry can be said to have lost more than half of its industrial base, and the vast majority of it has been taken over by the Empire."
"Moreover, the Far Eastern Empire itself was extremely backward in terms of industrial level, especially its military industry, which was greatly weakened after the empire occupied the Northeast."
"The remaining military industry of the Far Eastern Empire was also greatly damaged by our war last year. For example, Jinyang, where we are now, was one of the regions where the Far Eastern Empire's military industry was relatively concentrated."
During the modern era of the Far Eastern Empire, Jinyang's military industry was quite famous throughout the country, and the Jinyang Arsenal was one of the most advanced arsenals in the Far Eastern Empire.
Before the war, Jinyang's military industry was second only to the Yangtze River Delta region. Of course, this mainly refers to the area within the Great Wall, which was also the area nominally controlled by the Nanjing government.
The head of the Jinyang Special Service Agency said, "Basically, most of the original military industries of the Far Eastern Empire have been controlled or destroyed by the Empire. Even if some have escaped, it will take them a lot of time to reorganize."
"Given this trend, the weaponry and equipment of the Far Eastern Empire's army should decline further. Commander, do you agree with me?"
Yoshijiro Umezu nodded and said, "That's certainly true in theory!"
The head of the Jinyang Special Service Agency shook his head and said, "But reality is quite different from what we thought."
"From the end of last year to the beginning of this year, our troops in the Northwest clearly felt that the enemy's material reserves and equipment quality had not been significantly weakened, but had actually improved, which was obviously very unusual."
"Your Excellency Commander, you must also know that most of the industrial areas of the Far Eastern Empire have either been occupied or destroyed by us."
"However, the resistance forces were strangely not greatly affected at the beginning of this year, and even improved. This shows that our intelligence on the Far Eastern Empire before the war was flawed."
"If it wasn't an intelligence failure, then there's only one possibility left..."
Yoshijiro Umezu asked, "What kind of possibility?"
The head of the Jinyang Special Service Agency replied, "The resistance organizations of the Far Eastern Empire have come into contact with external aid!"
Yoshijiro Umezu's expression immediately became much more serious, and he said in a somber tone, "You mean the Soviets?"
It's no wonder that Yoshijiro Umezu immediately thought of the Soviet Union. After all, given the current situation of the Far Eastern Empire, the Soviet Union was indeed the most suspicious country that could provide the Far Eastern Empire with a lot of external support.
After launching a full-scale invasion of the Far Eastern Empire, Japan naturally blocked the Far Eastern Empire's external import channels, especially maritime transport, which Japan guarded against with extreme vigilance.
The important ports from the south to the north of the Far Eastern Empire were basically occupied or blockaded by Japan, resulting in the blockade of the Far Eastern Empire's maritime transport by Japan.
If external forces want to support the Far Eastern Empire, they naturally need to consider land-based support. Among the countries that can make contact with the Far Eastern Empire on land, the Soviet Union is undoubtedly the most convenient.
The head of the Jinyang Special Service Agency said, "When Commander Kiyoshi Kōzuki discovered this, he thought so too, especially the labor party armed forces of the Far Eastern Empire, who themselves had close ties with the Soviet labor party."
"Therefore, we have every reason to suspect that the Soviets were involved in the war of the Far Eastern Empire, supporting the armed forces of the Far Eastern Empire to fight against the empire."
"Therefore, Commander Kiyoshi Katsuki ordered us to investigate the Soviet Union's support for the Far Eastern Empire and its routes."
Yoshijiro Umezu asked, "And what was the result?"
The head of the Jinyang Special Service Agency said with a solemn expression, "The results are quite different from what we guessed. Based on our investigation over the past few months, and even our efforts to bribe officials of the Far Eastern Empire, we have found that they did not have much contact with the Soviet Union."
"Hmm!" This result made Yoshijiro Umezu frown even more. "You mean the Far Eastern Empire did not receive support from the Soviet Union?"
The head of the Jinyang Special Service Agency nodded: "Your Excellency is right. Although it is very unreasonable, it is indeed the result of our investigation."
"Moreover, the intelligence from the Far Eastern Empire's Labour Party in our investigation may not be accurate, but the intelligence from the Jiangcheng government of the Far Eastern Empire should be correct!"
"After all, we have many trustworthy partners in the Jiangcheng government. They are unlikely to hide this kind of intelligence from us, and it would be difficult for them to keep it a secret."
The Far Eastern Empire government itself is a mixed bag, and it's not an exaggeration to say that some of its members have deep ties with Japan, or are even supported by Japanese intelligence agencies.
After all, in modern times, many officials of the Far Eastern Empire had studied in Japan when they were young, with a total number of nearly 100,000. Even if the Japanese government only bribed a very small number of these students, it would still be a terrifying number.
After all, most of these people will participate in various national affairs as high-level talents after returning to China, and this only applies to the group of students who studied abroad.
Before the outbreak of the full-scale war, it would not be an exaggeration to say that the Nanjing government was completely infiltrated by Japan. Many of its members in the occupied areas simply stopped pretending and cooperated with Japan to establish a puppet government.
Even if no one surrendered directly, the number of people lurking in the Far Eastern Empire government was probably not small.
This was also an important reason why East Africa was very reluctant to cooperate with the Nanjing government before the outbreak of the full-scale anti-Japanese war in the Far East Empire.
As for why the direction changed after the outbreak of the full-scale War of Resistance against Japan, it was because at this time, the Far Eastern Empire government had reached a unified consensus that even those Japanese spies planted in the Far Eastern Empire could only engage in small actions and could not interfere with the Far Eastern Empire government's decisions on the overall direction.
The head of the Jinyang Special Service Agency said, "Moreover, the changes in the Jiangcheng government of the Far East Empire and the armed forces of the Northwest Labor Party occurred at the same time."
"This leads to the conclusion that the Northwest Labour Party armed forces and the Far Eastern Imperial Government are supported by the same external force."
“We have learned from the Jiangcheng government of the Far Eastern Empire that they have not been in contact with the Soviets, which means that the Northwest Labor Party armed forces may not have received full support from the Soviet Union either.”
After pondering for a moment, Yoshijiro Umezu surprisingly agreed with this.
He analyzed, "It's quite possible that the Soviet Union didn't support the Northwest Labour Party's armed forces."
The head of the Jinyang Special Service Agency asked, puzzled, "Commander, why do you make this judgment?"
Yoshijiro Umezu said, "This is my deduction based on the current international situation. Admittedly, the Soviet Union is a very unpopular country, but the Soviet government is unlikely to antagonize the empire because of this."
"The Soviet Union is now under pressure from Germany in Europe. They are unable to extricate themselves from Europe. If they offend our Great Japanese Empire, they will be caught in a pincer movement between us and Germany."
"So if the Soviets were rational, they wouldn't break with the Empire at this time, let alone support the Empire's hostile forces!"
"Germany alone was enough for the Soviet Union to concentrate all its efforts on dealing with. Since Germany annexed Austria-Hungary, it can be said that it has completely crushed the Soviet Union."
"The population advantage that the Soviet Union once took pride in in Europe no longer poses a threat to Germany, and in the fields of industry and economy, it is incomparable to Germany."
The head of the Jinyang Special Service Agency agreed: "Germany is indeed capable of putting enormous pressure on the Soviet Union, especially with the support of countries like Italy. Including Germany's many followers, the Soviet Union has fallen behind Germany in every way."
"From this perspective, the Soviet Union at this time was indeed unable to attend to the Far Eastern Empire, and did not even dare to get deeply involved in our war with the Far Eastern Empire."
Yoshijiro Umezu said with a smile, "Not only that, our Great Japanese Empire may also have to fight the Soviet Union in the future. When Germany officially goes to war with the Soviet Union, we will take over the Soviet Union's territories in the Far East and divide Eurasia with Germany."
Yoshijiro Umezu made no attempt to conceal his ambition for Soviet territory. As an island nation, Japan's greed for territory was insatiable, and Japan was particularly envious of the Soviet Union's territories in Asia.
Although the Soviet Union's territory in Asia was not of high quality, its area of over 13 million square kilometers was enough to offset some of its environmental disadvantages. This area was almost equal to that of East Africa.
As for whether Japan could snatch food from the Soviet Union's jaws, the Japanese military believed it was highly feasible, namely that Germany would keep the Soviet Union tied down in Europe, allowing Japan to "pick up the scraps."
The head of the Jinyang Special Service Agency said to Yoshijiro Umezu, "Commander, I believe the Empire can achieve this one day."
Yoshijiro Umezu said, "That depends on Germany's actions, but I believe that war between Germany and the Soviet Union will break out very soon!"
"Before Germany goes to war with the Soviet Union, our focus should remain on the Far Eastern Empire."
The head of the Jinyang Special Service Agency chimed in, "That's right. On another note, Commander, if the Soviet Union hadn't been supporting the Far Eastern Empire, we could basically pinpoint which country was behind it all!"
Yoshijiro Umezu asked, "Who is it?"
The head of the Jinyang Special Service Agency said, "The mastermind behind this is very likely an East African."
"Looking at the map, the only countries that could provide substantial support to the Far Eastern Empire without going by sea, besides the Soviet Union, were East Africa."
"The land routes that the Far Eastern Empire used to contact other countries were in three directions: first, the Soviet Union to the north; second, Southeast Asia; and finally, the countries bordering Central Asia to the northwest."
"We have ruled out the Soviet Union. As for Britain and France in Southeast Asia, we don't know much about their intelligence, but considering that they were able to support the Northwest Labour Party's armed forces, they are not too suspicious."
"They don't need to completely break with the Empire, after all, whether their interests in Southeast Asia can be maintained depends on the Empire's attitude."
Japan's ability to blockade the Far Eastern empires at sea effectively meant that its naval power could also cover the South Pacific region.
In the South Pacific region, apart from East Africa and the United States, other countries simply could not resist Japan's naval power.
(End of this chapter)
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