Chapter 891: Whatever You Wish For, Comes

“According to the German intelligence, 60 divisions have been transferred to the western front. That’s about 900,000 men. This means that the Soviet army only has 600,000 men in the Far East,” the intelligence officer said, holding the intercepted German intelligence report and analyzing it. “This is a single piece of intelligence, so its credibility is not high.”

As he spoke, he walked to the map and pointed to several areas, introducing the situation in each. “The Soviet unit designations we have identified in these areas are more than 50 divisions, so to think that the main force of the Soviet army in the Far East has been withdrawn is incorrect.”

“The Soviet army may be exaggerating to deceive the Germans, so I believe that the number of troops transferred should be between 40 and 45 divisions, not the 60 divisions shown in the German intelligence,” the staff officer said after looking at the data in his hand. “Based on the intelligence, the current strength of the Soviet army in the Far East is about 900,000.”

“Sō ka,” Tojo Hideki nodded, then looked at Sugiyama Hajime. In order to push for this northern advance plan, they had deployed a large number of intelligence personnel to infiltrate the Soviet Union. Of course, their subordinates had, in order to please them, investigated and found a lot of corroborating evidence for the main Soviet force’s westward advance. Although this evidence was all vague, it had strengthened General Sugiyama’s belief in a northern advance to wipe away the shame.

But on the other hand, although their belief had been strengthened, it could not make up for the thick shadow in the hearts of the Japanese army. The last time they had caused trouble in the Nomonhan region, although the Japanese army could not be said to have suffered a disastrous defeat, they had certainly not gained any advantage. At the very least, its northern advance strategy had been directly beaten back by the Soviets into a southern advance strategy, which showed that its heart was still very wary of the Soviet army.

In that battle, the Soviet army’s 122mm howitzer had beaten the Japanese army’s pitiful 75mm field gun to a pulp. The Japanese troops had even requested that their own artillery not return fire, for fear of provoking an even more ferocious retaliation from the Soviet army. So much so that even the “Emperor” of Manchukuo, Puyi, had heard: the Soviet cannons are powerful, even the masters can’t afford to provoke them.

As for those terrifying Soviet tanks, the Japanese army had no way to deal with them. The armored forces of the Japanese army in northeastern China had never been very numerous. Even after being reinforced, the number of tanks they could scrape together was less than 600, about the same as two German panzer divisions.

All together, they were not even as strong as a single German panzer corps. Most of the 600 tanks were Type 95 light cavalry tanks and Type 89 medium tanks—even the Type 97 medium tank, which the great powers looked down on, was pitifully scarce. To go looking for trouble with the Soviets with this configuration was no different from suicide.

If this went wrong, and the Soviets had deployed a T-34 armored battalion in the Far East, it would be enough to give these few hundred cats and dogs a hard time. It wasn’t impossible that the Soviets could even produce a tank ace, the kind who had destroyed a hundred or so tanks. Just hearing about it sounded high-end, grand, and classy.

“This time, we will avoid the Mongolian direction. With our superior infantry, we will enter the mountainous regions to fight. We will not compete with the Soviet armored forces for a temporary advantage, but will only aim to capture the Soviet supply bases,” Sugiyama said, standing up. He signaled to the intelligence officer by the map to give him the pointer. He then took the pointer and, pointing at a position on the map, spoke.

He drew a line on the side of northeastern China with his pointer and said, “We will not engage in a decisive battle with the Soviet armored forces on the broad Mongolian border, but will instead launch an attack directly from the Greater and Lesser Khingan Mountains. In areas where tanks are not suitable, we will use infantry to attack!”

This was something the Japanese were very good at. The infantry of the Great Japanese Empire was the best in the world in terms of shooting and bayonet fighting. This was the conclusion reached after the army had hypnotized itself. If it were just a contest of infantry, then all the army generals present believed that their own troops would not lose.

With the natural mountain barrier of the Outer Khingan Mountains, wouldn’t it be a piece of cake for the Japanese infantry to deal with the Soviet troops who had lost their armored advantage? An outstanding soldier of the Great Japanese Empire, one man against two Soviet soldiers, should still be possible, right? In short, if the absolute inferiority of the Japanese army in armored forces was excluded, it seemed that the war was not entirely unwinnable.

The navy had been able to temporarily suppress the powerful U.S. Navy with a surprise attack, so the army could definitely use a surprise attack to restrain the powerful Soviet army. As long as they carried out one large-scale surprise attack and caused the Soviet Union to lose 100,000 to 200,000 troops in the border region, then this offensive operation could completely achieve the goal of seizing the Soviet army’s strategic supplies.

As for holding the entire occupied territory, this seemed a bit difficult for the Japanese army. But to cover the retreat of a large amount of supplies and to return to their own defense line was not a difficult matter. As long as they returned to the fortress-filled northeastern region of China, then even if the Soviet army had suffered a loss, they would not dare to counter-attack.

This was the wishful thinking in the minds of Sugiyama and Tojo Hideki. As for what would happen if the Soviet army really did counter-attack, he had not considered it at all—just as the Japanese Navy had not considered what to do if the United States did not surrender after the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor.

They believed that with the strong enemy of Germany pressing down on it, the Soviet Union would not raise another strong enemy in Japan. So the Soviet Union would only swallow its anger and sue for peace with Japan, even at the cost of giving up some territory—just as the Japanese Navy had believed that the United States would swallow its anger and surrender, giving up a portion of its interests in Southeast Asia.

“Tojo-kun, Sugiyama-kun. With all due respect, we can no longer draw up such half-baked strategic plans,” a lieutenant general of the army said with a frown, raising his own questions. “If the Soviet side does not compromise and sue for peace, but launches a counter-attack, then what should we do?”

Yes, the Soviets were supposed to sue for peace in humiliation. But if those old Russians really had a screw loose and refused to surrender, and attacked, then would Japan have the ability to hold its existing defense line without collapsing? This was a question that not only Tojo Hideki did not know the answer to, but Sugiyama Hajime did not know either.

“And, even if we solve the gap in armored forces in the north, there is still the problem of artillery. Our troops are accustomed to using small-caliber artillery that is easy to carry. This is determined by our transport capacity. But the Soviet cannons have a longer range and greater power than ours. Can we ignore this gap?” an officer in charge of artillery also asked with some resignation.

Of course, there were many other problems of this kind. Further north of Manchuria, many places were uninhabited. These places were not much better than the tropical jungles of Burma. To fight in such a place, how terrifying the consumption of supplies would be, the Japanese Army, which had just been through the Battle of Imphal, of course knew very well.

Most of the Japanese generals present had not been tempted by the beautiful picture painted by Tojo Hideki and Sugiyama Hajime. They had maintained their rationality. At a time like this, apart from the crazed Tojo and Sugiyama, everyone rationally believed that to provoke another powerful opponent was extremely unwise.

Damn it, are you trying to kill us? After you can’t handle China, you turn around and provoke the United States, using the war with the United States to solve the war in China—that was already very stupid, okay? Now you can’t beat the United States, and you’re starting to plan a sneak attack on the Soviet Union, using the war with the Soviet Union to subsidize the Pacific theater—this line of thinking is really heaven-defying.

“Recess! Recess! This plan will be kept as a backup and will continue to be improved!” Tojo Hideki helplessly gave up the idea of implementing this plan at the current stage. He could only announce a temporary recess to alleviate the embarrassment of being unable to answer a single question.

Sugiyama Hajime also let out a turbid breath. He had almost just pounded the table and answered these questions with “The soldiers of the Great Japanese Empire have a stronger faith, and His Majesty the Emperor will bless us to never fail!”

This was a typical case of being a rogue. When you talked to him about the disparity in forces between the two sides, he would talk to you about the quality of the soldiers. When you talked to him about the gap in weapons and equipment, he would talk to you about the soldiers’ spirit of sacrifice. When you talked to you about the material reserves and the determination for the campaign of both sides, he would start to talk to you about the need to bravely challenge a strong enemy for the sake of the country.

The disadvantage on the Pacific front and the defeat in the Southeast Asian war had finally made the Japanese find a little bit of rationality, at least on the surface. The high-ranking officers of the army had temporarily rejected the somewhat arrogant plan to invade the Soviet Union and had begun to prepare to blame their old rivals, their naval colleagues, for the navy’s recent series of defeats.

While the Japanese side was rejecting the offensive plan and, after the recess, was beginning to discuss holding the Japanese Navy accountable, the Soviet army headquarters in the Far East also received a top-secret telegram: “In view of the increasingly unfavorable war situation for the Soviet army on the western front, Stalin intends to secretly transfer another 10 divisions to the Moscow region to ensure the absolute security of the capital.”

“When will these troops be set to move?” a Soviet general asked with his hands behind his back.

“The order says, the sooner the better!” the Soviet staff officer holding the telegram replied, his head bowed.

For the sake of the motherland, the Soviet army had once again transferred 10 divisions of its combat troops from the Far East, sending these young men to the even bloodier “western front.” Although the Soviet army, after its expansion, still maintained a force of over 1 million in the Far East, its combat level had declined considerably.

And this time, because time was too tight and the means of deception were insufficient, the news of the Soviet army’s transfer of troops to its western front was discovered by Japanese spies not long after.

“Kudo-kun! This is truly great news. At least the designations of seven regular Soviet divisions have disappeared from the border region! Our men have secretly infiltrated the vicinity of their train station and have discovered that their troops are being transferred on a large scale!” a Japanese spy said happily, handing the intelligence in his hand to his superior.

“Yoshi!” The intelligence officer named Kudo nodded excitedly and replied with approval, “I will immediately send this intelligence to the commander.”

Advance chapters at Nightjar Reads · nightjarreads.com