Chapter 1023 Benzi's Plan

Japan, Tokyo Cabinet Prime Minister's Residence.

On the terrace of the low, bunker-like Japanese Prime Minister's Residence, a terrace buffet is about to begin.

The snow-white tablecloth was spread out, and bottles of French champagne, red wine, Italian sparkling wine, German Riesling white wine, and Japanese-produced Nada wine, Yong wine, and Tsuruyaki... were placed everywhere. The waiters in black dresses were still constantly placing all kinds of good wines and various dishes that looked like handicrafts on the table.

Looking at this luxurious appearance, you can imagine that today's buffet must be held for some great happy event.

Yes, there is great news from Switzerland.

The Americans asked for peace! And they also offered conditions that satisfied Japan! Just when Japan was already unable to continue fighting - not because the losses on the front battlefield were unbearable, but when the American's commerce-breaking war made Japan breathless, the Americans sincerely asked for peace!

Although the United States is so large, its industrial strength is ten or twenty times that of Japan, its technology is far ahead of Japan, and its resources are many times more than Japan. Moreover, after more than two years of expansion since the war, the US military strength is approaching its peak. After a long and bitter battle, Japan's national strength, military strength and resources are all close to exhaustion.

For example, the ongoing war of attrition in the Hawaiian Islands makes Japan feel that it is difficult to sustain. From March to now, it has only been more than two months, but the captain-level (pilot) pilots of the army and navy have lost more than 3,000 people! The fighter planes stored in the Hawaiian Islands before the battle began were almost exhausted.

"Galaxy", "Tunlong" and "Flying Dragon" bombers with long range can transfer through the airport on Attu Island and use their own long range to land directly on Oahu Island.

However, fighters do not have such a long range, so they can only risk sending out the combined fleet, taking the North Pacific route, using the night or rain clouds to cover slightly closer to Oahu Island, and releasing Zero fighters 2,000 kilometers away. However, the method of using the fleet to transport aircraft is not only risky, but also too costly.

Because every time a fleet is dispatched to deliver aircraft, it is a huge and complex plan. Including feints, luring the enemy, sneak attacks, assaults and escapes, it is not just a few aircraft carriers or a small air fleet that can be completed. Usually, the main force of the Combined Fleet must be dispatched, and it must be prepared for a decisive battle at sea!

When the main force of the Combined Fleet is dispatched, the fuel consumption alone is close to 15,000 tons per day! A transportation operation takes at least 20 days, and 300,000 tons of heavy oil is burned.

If there were no countless American submarines destroying Japan's sea transportation lines, 300,000 tons of heavy oil would not be out. However, since 1944, the activities of American submarines have become more and more rampant. In March, the total tonnage of Japanese transport ships sunk by submarines and mines exceeded 150,000 tons! By April, the total tonnage sunk further increased to 160,000 tons. Such cargo ship losses are simply fatal to Japan! Because the total tonnage of ships owned by Japan before the war was only more than 5 million tons, after more than two years of consumption, the total tonnage has dropped to less than 4 million tons, and the annual output of ships (excluding warships) is only more than 300,000 tons.

In other words, now the US submarines can sink Japan's commercial ship output for half a year or 4% of the total tonnage of Japanese merchant ships in one month. At this sinking rate, if Japan's shipbuilding industry stops production, Japan will not have a single merchant ship available in 25 months.

Even if Japan's shipyards can maintain production under the increasingly tight supply of raw materials, Japan will only have a few hundred thousand tons of merchant ships at most in 25 months. For an island country like Japan, where most of its industrial raw materials need to be imported from overseas, hundreds of thousands of tons of ships cannot even maintain the most basic industrial production, let alone support a world war.

What's more terrifying is that American submarines are still in service, and most of them will be deployed in the Pacific battlefield. The Japanese Navy's destroyers, submarine-driving submarines and aircraft have no ability to sink many American submarines. Therefore, they are unable to suppress the surge in the number of American submarines in the Pacific battlefield. According to estimates by German intelligence, the total number of submarines owned by the US Navy and the Royal Navy (Canada and Australia) is likely to be close to 700!

This number is 15 times more than the destroyers that the Japanese Navy can use for escort and anti-submarine operations. If all of them are deployed in the Pacific battlefield, the remaining merchant ships of Japan will probably be sunk within 12 months.

In addition, American submarines also laid a large number of mines along the South Pacific Islands, the Taiwan Strait, the coast of the Indochina Peninsula, and even the coasts of the Korean Peninsula and the Liaodong Peninsula. Some of them are traditional anchor mines, and some are magnetic mines that sink to the bottom. Although the number of ships sunk by these mines is not as many as that sunk by torpedoes, mines have a "blockade" function.

Once mines are found in a certain sea area, merchant ships can only detour or stop sailing until minesweepers or minesweepers clear a channel (of course, it is not 100% safe). However, because the Japanese Navy does not have a sufficient number of minesweepers and minesweepers, the speed of laying mines by the shipbuilding US military is much faster than the speed of minesweeping by the Japanese army. Therefore, the transportation losses caused by mines (it doesn't necessarily mean the ship will sink, but it is also a loss if you can't transport) are increasing. And the materials shipped to Japan are naturally getting less and less every day.

If this trend continues, Japan will be defeated by American submarines and mines.

Fortunately, Japan is not the only country fighting against the giant United States.

The war in the Pacific is integrated with the war in the Atlantic and the European continent.

The Soviet Union's disastrous defeat in the Battle of Moscow and the actions of the European Community and the Roman Empire in South America have finally forced the United States to seek peace with Japan!

The Japanese Empire is finally going to win!

Today, a victory celebration will be held on the terrace of the Japanese Prime Minister's residence.

These days, because the war is getting worse and worse, Tojo Hideki, who is under great political pressure, can't wait to use the victory that has not yet been finally achieved to stabilize his power. The purpose of holding this victory celebration is this.

Tojo Hideki, wearing a general's uniform and a first-class Order of the Rising Sun on his chest, is walking on the terrace where the celebration will be held with his hands behind his back. But his face does not look much surprised, and his brows are always slightly frowned.

Next to him, on the left and right, walked a lieutenant general and a civilian in a tuxedo. The lieutenant general was Hiroshi Oshima, the Japanese ambassador to Germany, and the civilian was Foreign Minister Shigemitsu Mamoru.

Hiroshi Oshima was recalled to Tokyo by Tojo Hideki to report on his work after Matsuoka Yosuke and Hopkins reached a verbal agreement. Shigemitsu Mamoru was about to leave for Switzerland to discuss the final peace treaty with relevant personnel from the United States, Rome and the European Community.

At this time, Tojo Hideki asked: "Oshima-kun, you said that the Germans are actually not interested in the land east of the Ural Mountains?"

"Yes." Oshima Hiroshi answered very affirmatively, "In fact, the German government and the Wehrmacht don't even want the European part of Russia. They only want Ukraine and Belarus. The reason why they are fighting in Moscow now is entirely because they did not grasp the scale in supporting Belarus. In fact, Hitler and Hessmann were dragged into the water by Empress Olga. But the Ural Mountains are also a limit. Germany's military and financial resources are limited, and the population of the Germanic people is not large, which is not enough to digest the entire Russia."

Oshima Hiroshi is a Japanese with a "German soul". He understands the Germans' thinking very well, and he also knows the Europeans' views on the homeland and colonies-of course, the bigger the colonies, the better, and it is also a happy thing to have the land to dry if they cannot be developed.

But the homeland is not the bigger the better, because the common people in the homeland of the European powers are different from the oppressed people in the colonies and the hardworking civilians in Japan. They are all uncles!

Blind expansion of the homeland means that the number of masters will expand rapidly. If you don't serve these masters well, who can bear to make revolution with you all day long?

Therefore, European countries are very enthusiastic when expanding their colonies, but very cautious when expanding their homeland. For Germany, integration with rich countries with large colonies such as France, Britain, the Netherlands, and Belgium is of course a good thing. Swallowing small countries with not too many populations and very rich land such as Poland, Ukraine, and Lithuania can strengthen its base, which is also beneficial.

But Russia... really has no words to say.

"What if we send troops to seize the Far East?" Tojo Hideki asked again.

In the case of the collapse of the Soviet Union, seizing the Far East is a matter of course for the Japanese Army. Aren't they preparing for this by stationing hundreds of thousands of troops in Manchuria and Korea?

Moreover, if Japan does not take over the Far East now, will the Great Japanese Empire still be the overlord of the East when the European Community expands in the future? Therefore, Tojo Hideki is ready to send troops to the Far East after making peace with the United States, at least to create a puppet state, and then discuss other things.

"The Germans will object," said Oshima. "It's a question of the correct position of the European Community, but they will not send troops east of the Ural Mountains."

"Are you sure?" Tojo asked again.

"Very sure!"

Tojo nodded, "What about Australia and New Zealand? Can the Germans accept them as permanent neutral countries?"

"This..." Oshima, the "spiritual German", was also unsure. "The British will be very angry."

Tojo thought for a while, then turned back and asked Shigemitsu Aoki, "Shige, what do you think?"