Chapter 1509: Give out money, spend money
Lieutenant General Kinoshita and his men rushed towards the American positions.
Then he saw dense trenches, massive artillery and tanks that were like steel walls.
"Is this something a human can fight?"
Lieutenant General Kinoshita was completely dumbfounded.
No matter how arrogant he was, he knew that it was impossible to resist those steel tanks with just his flesh and blood body.
But now, it's too late.
Boom, boom, boom.
The artillery roared.
Howitzer shells smashed into Kinoshita's team.
Kinoshita watched helplessly as his men were blown to pieces.
In the blink of an eye, all the soldiers from both squadrons were wiped out.
"Retreat, retreat quickly."
Kinoshita knew that he couldn't hold out any longer and had to move on immediately.
Kinoshita loudly ordered his subordinates to retreat.
But how could their two legs outrun the cannonballs?
The firepower extended in depth, covering his entire division.
Although the entire team retreated quickly, it was already too late. In the end, only a hundred or so people ran out of the artillery range, and the rest turned into corpses on the ground.
The survivors ran frantically to the shore and reported the situation.
Nan Yun did not dare to conceal the loss of an entire division and reported it immediately.
However, he was careful when reporting.
The telegram stated that Kinoshita ignored the advice and insisted on leading his troops deep inland, where he was ambushed by the American army and most of the entire division was destroyed. Fortunately, they were rescued by the Combined Fleet, otherwise the entire army would have been wiped out. He hoped that the headquarters would severely punish Kinoshita.
Nanyun is bullying Kinoshita because he can't speak.
If Kinoshita knew that Nanyun had framed him like this, he would crawl out of the ground and strangle Nanyun to death.
The news that the Kinoshita Division was almost wiped out quickly reached the headquarters, shocking everyone there.
They originally thought that the Americans were extremely weak and would surrender as long as the brave imperial soldiers rushed forward.
This has been proven in Luzon.
However, the situation is quite the opposite in the United States.
They had already captured the city, but the enemy's army not only did not surrender, but also dared to fight back and even wiped out most of their division's forces. This was really beyond their imagination.
But the thing has already happened, and the real thing is to find ways to shift the blame.
Navy Minister Matsumoto immediately seized the opportunity and said, "Your Majesty, this loss was caused entirely because of the incompetence of the army. This led to such a great defeat. I ask Your Majesty to punish the army and allocate more funds to our navy. We guarantee to capture all the ports of the United States."
Seeing the Navy Minister taking advantage of the situation, Army Minister Tojo naturally said: "Humph, our army fell into an ambush because of your navy's poor reconnaissance. If you give us enough planes, we can do it too."
"Besides, your navy can only detect things within 50 miles of the coastline. What about those beyond 50 miles? Don't we need our army to take action?"
"I beg your Majesty to stop the large-scale construction of the navy. One battleship is enough to arm several divisions. Please think twice."
When the Navy Minister heard that the Army was going to attack his large-scale construction plan, his eyes turned red.
Dajian is his lifeblood, no one can touch him.
"Your Majesty, the Great Construction Plan is the pillar of the country. It is the core of the country. Without warships, how can we maintain the vast sea borders of the empire? Please think twice."
The Navy Minister and the Army Minister were arguing so fiercely that if Zhang Tuohai had not been present, they would probably have fought on the spot.
In the end, the two of them couldn't come to a conclusion, so they had to ask Zhang Tuohai to make the decision himself.
Zhang Tuohai thought for a moment and said, "You two are both loyal ministers of the country. The army and navy are both the pillars of the country. We cannot give up on either of them. Therefore, I have decided that the navy's large-scale construction plan will remain unchanged and will be accelerated. All workers will work in three shifts to speed up the construction and make sure that the warships are completed as quickly as possible."
"In addition, the Navy will list the ships it will need for the next quarter based on actual needs. I will review it and approve it if it is reasonable."
"As for the army, we will expand it to 20 divisions and recruit one million soldiers. After these divisions have undergone basic training, they will be sent to Southeast Asia, and then the elite troops will be selected from Southeast Asia and transferred to the United States."
"The Americans are weak and can only rely on advanced weapons. As long as the imperial soldiers are elite and courageous, they will be able to defeat the American army."
Zhang Tuohai said calmly.
Hearing Zhang Tuohai's words, the Minister of the Navy and the Minister of the Army were overjoyed.
They didn't expect that Zhang Tuohai did not reduce the quotas of the two armies, but increased them instead.
Moreover, recruiting one million soldiers at once was unprecedented.
"Your Majesty is wise."
The two men knelt on the ground , their eyes full of excitement.
The Minister of War and the Minister of the Navy were happy, but the Minister of Finance was not.
"Your Majesty, the new large-scale construction and military expansion plan requires a lot of money to support, but there is not enough money in the treasury. I am afraid it will be difficult to do it."
"No money? This is easy. Just print as much as you need."
Zhang Tuohai waved his hand and said nonchalantly.
"Your Majesty, this is absolutely not possible." The Minister of Finance panicked when he heard this.
"Your Majesty, recklessly issuing more banknotes will lead to an excess of cash in the market, causing cash to depreciate, emptying the savings of ordinary people, and causing social unrest."
"Baka," Zhang Tuohai slammed the table, "The country is in a difficult time now. It's time for the civilians to work hard for the country. What's wrong with issuing more money? Anyone who dares to oppose at this time is a traitor to the country. Send the military police to the streets, arrest anyone who dares to oppose, send them to prisoner-of-war camps, deprive them of their citizenship, and treat them the same as prisoners of war!"
Zhang Tuohai said loudly.
"Yes." The Minister of Finance did not dare to say more.
He was afraid that if he said anything more, Zhang Tuohai would treat him as a prisoner of war as well.
Zhang Tuohai's order was passed down, and the printing machine began to run rapidly.
Vast amounts of money were printed.
Zhang Tuohai not only printed a large amount of money, but also started a plan to spend the money lavishly.
In order to celebrate his birthday, Zhang Tuohai generously announced that he would give each resident a red envelope of 10,000 yen.
This made the civilians very happy.
You have to know that at that time the salary of an ordinary soldier was only a few yen, and the cost of a Zero fighter was only more than 2,000 yen. Ten thousand yen was an astronomical figure for many people.
The Japanese knelt on the ground and worshiped, thinking that they would become rich soon.
In the end, reality slapped them hard in the face.
If you have more money but no more things, the value of money will decrease.
They were surprised to find that the prices of all daily necessities were rising rapidly.
The price of rice quickly increased from 20 cents to 200 yuan per catty, a full 10,000-fold increase.
The money they had was only enough to buy less than 50 kilograms of rice, not even enough for a month's consumption.
However, their savings were diluted and everyone became complete paupers.
