The Rise of the Third Reich

Japan, Prime Minister's Office Building, Tokyo.

On the terrace of the Japanese Prime Minister's official residence, which is low and looks like a bunker, a terrace buffet reception is about to begin.

A snow-white tablecloth was spread out, and bottles of French champagne, red wine, Italian sparkling wine, German Riesling white wine, and Japan's own Nada sake, Isamu sake, Tsurugai... were placed everywhere. yes. The waiters in black dresses continued to place all kinds of fine wines and various dishes that looked like handicrafts on the table.

Looking at this extravagant appearance, you can imagine that today's buffet reception must be held for a huge happy event.

Yes, there is great news coming from Switzerland.

Americans are suing for peace! And he also offered conditions that satisfied Japan! Just when Japan was already fighting unsustainably - it was not that the losses on the frontal battlefield were unbearable, but that the Americans' broken engagements left Japan breathless, the Americans sincerely sued for peace!

Although the United States is so big, its industrial strength is ten to twenty times that of Japan, its technology is also far ahead of Japan's, and its resources exceed Japan's by who knows how many times. Moreover, after more than two years of expansion since the war began, the military strength of the United States is approaching its peak. After a long and bitter war, Japan's national strength, military power and resources are all close to depletion.

For example, the ongoing war of attrition in the Hawaiian Islands has given Japan a sense of unsustainability. It has only been more than two months since the war started in March, but the army and navy have lost more than 3,000 captain-level (pilot) pilots! The fighter aircraft stored in the Hawaiian Islands before the battle began were almost exhausted.

Long-range bombers such as the "Galaxy", "Tenglong" and "Flying Dragon" can transfer through the airport on Attu Island and land directly on Oahu using their long range.

However, fighter jets do not have such a long range, so they can only risk dispatching the combined fleet, take the North Pacific route, use the cover of night or rain clouds to get slightly closer to Oahu, and release Zero fighter jets 2,000 kilometers away. However, using the fleet to transport aircraft is not only risky, but also costly.

Because every time a fleet is dispatched to deliver an aircraft, it is a huge and complex plan. Including feints, luring the enemy, sneak attacks, assaults and escapes, which can not only be accomplished by a few aircraft carriers or a small air fleet. Usually the main force of the combined fleet must be dispatched, and preparations must be made for a decisive battle at sea!

When the main force of the combined fleet is dispatched, the daily fuel consumption alone is close to 15,000 tons! A transportation operation took at least 20 days, and 300,000 tons of heavy oil were burned like this.

If there were not countless American submarines destroying Japan's sea lines of communication, 300,000 tons of heavy oil would not be impossible to produce. However, since 1944, U.S. submarine activities 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. The loss of such a cargo ship is simply fatal to Japan! Because the total tonnage of Japan's ships 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 ship (excluding warships) production is more than 300,000 tons.

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

Even if Japan's shipyards can maintain production amid the increasingly tight supply of raw materials, Japan will only have a few hundred thousand tons of merchant ships left in 25 months. For an island country like Japan, where most 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 even more frightening is that American submarines are still in service, and most of them will be deployed in the Pacific battlefield. The destroyers, submarines and aircraft of the Japanese Navy simply do not have the ability to sink many American submarines. Therefore, it is unable to suppress the surge in the number of U.S. submarines in the Pacific battlefield. According to estimates by the German intelligence agency, the total number of submarines currently owned by the U.S. Navy and the British Royal Navy (Canada and Australia) is probably close to 700!

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

In addition, American submarines are still laying large quantities of mines along the coasts of the Southeast Asian islands, the Taiwan Strait, the Indochina Peninsula, and even the Korean Peninsula and the Liaodong Peninsula. Some of them are traditional anchor mines, and some are bottom-sinking magnetic mines. Although the number of ships sunk by these mines was not as many as that by torpedoes, the mines had a "blocking" function.

Once a mine is discovered in a certain sea area, merchant ships can only detour or stop sailing until a minesweeper or minesweeper aircraft clears a channel (of course it is not 100% safe). However, because the Japanese Navy did not have a sufficient number of minesweepers and minesweeper aircraft, the shipbuilding and mine-laying speed of the US military was much faster than the Japanese mine-sweeping speed. Therefore, transportation losses caused by mines (it does not necessarily have to sink the ship, it is also a loss if you cannot transport it) are also increasing. Naturally, the supplies shipped into Japan are becoming less and less day by day.

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

Fortunately, Japan is not fighting against the behemoth that is the United States.

After all, the war in the Pacific and the war in the Atlantic and the European continent are one.

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

The Japanese Empire is finally victorious!

What will be held today on the terrace of the Japanese Prime Minister's official residence is a cocktail party to celebrate the victory.

These days, as the war has become increasingly unfavorable and Hideki Tojo is under great political pressure, he can't wait to take advantage of the victory that has not been finally achieved to stabilize his power. This is the purpose of holding this celebration party.

Wearing a general's uniform and a Grand Order of the Rising Sun, First Class hanging on his chest, Tojo Hideki was strolling on the terrace where a celebratory reception would be held, with his hands behind his back. But his face didn't look very surprised, and his brows were lightly frowned.

Beside him, on the left and right, walked an army lieutenant general and a civil servant in a tuxedo. The lieutenant general of the army is Hiroshi Oshima, the Japanese ambassador to Germany, and the civilian official is Foreign Minister Aoi Shigemitsu.

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

Tojo Hideki then asked: "Oshima-kun, do you say that the Germans are actually not interested in the land east of the Ural Mountains?"

"Yes." Hiroshi Oshima answered with certainty. "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 attacking Moscow now is entirely because In fact, Hitler and Hersmann were dragged into the water by Empress Olga. However, the Ural Mountains are also a limit. Germany's military and financial resources are limited, and the Germans are limited. The population is not large enough to digest the whole of Russia.”

Hiroshi Oshima is a Japanese with a "German soul". He understands German thinking very well and also knows Europeans' views on the mainland and colonies - of course, the bigger the colony, the better. It is also very happy to use the land to dry up if it cannot be developed. .

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

Blind expansion of the local area means that the number of uncles is rapidly expanding. If these uncles are not taken care of well, who can bear the burden of making revolution with you all day long?

Therefore, European countries were very energetic when expanding their colonies and very cautious when expanding their homeland. For Germany, integrating with France, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Belgium, which are rich countries with large colonies, is of course a good thing. It is also beneficial to absorb small countries with small populations and very rich land, such as Poland, Ukraine, and Lithuania, to strengthen their base.

But Russia... is really suffering beyond words.

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

Seizing the Far East when the Soviet Union collapsed was 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, and the European Community expands in the future, will the Japanese Empire still be the hegemon of the East? Therefore, Tojo Hideki was prepared to send troops to the Far East after negotiating peace with the United States, to establish at least one puppet state, and then discuss the rest.

"The Germans will object," Oshima said. "This is a matter 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 that they become permanently neutral countries?"

"This..." Hiro Oshima, a "spiritually German", was also unsure. "The British will be furious."

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