Chapter 12 11. Japan's strategy to solve the "China problem"

The Guangzhou Nationalist Government and the Nanjing side are still fighting relentlessly. On September 3, Zhang Xueliang, as a neutral third party, called on both Ning and Guangdong to "understand the difficulties, work together for peace, see the gaps in front of each other, and be sincere to help the plane", thinking that the country will build an immortal achievement.The words are sharp, but they are speaking for Nanjing. On September 15, members of the Guangzhou Nationalist Government jointly replied to Zhang Xueliang, saying: "The destroyers of peace are the Communist Party and Chiang Kai-shek. Chiang used the Communist Party to bring about today's natural and man-made disasters. If Chiang goes down, peace will come true." In short, Jiang was to step down.

Interestingly, the Japanese side also joined the verbal battle between Ningyue and Guangdong.On this day, the acting major general of the Japanese military attache stationed in China visited Chen Yi, the deputy director of the Ministry of Military and Political Affairs of the Nationalist Government, and strongly denied the Japanese aid to Guangdong.Of course, Japan didn't want to come to this troubled water by itself, but was caught by the pigtails.The Nanjing National Government received information that Japan was in secret contact with Guangzhou. Japan expressed its willingness to provide military assistance, but requested that the Guangzhou National Government, which might develop into the central government of the Kuomintang, recognize its rights and interests in Manchuria in the form of a treaty. .Under the circumstances at that time, Japan would not be so stupid as to abandon the Nanjing National Government and tie its own interests in China to the Guangzhou National Government with an uncertain future.Therefore, the production-generation major general still has to come out to "refute the rumors", even though both parties have tacitly agreed.

Japan is an island country, and to the west is China, which is dozens of times larger than it. China once nourished and influenced Japan with its own culture, but when Japan has a "world" vision and is determined to find its own international positioning Therefore, China has become an "obstacle" that it must overcome.At that time, China was weak, but only because of its size, it also caused Japan a headache - with its limited manpower and material resources, it was almost impossible to solve the "China problem" as a whole, so the idea of ​​​​dividing China into China became Japan’s consistent way of thinking about dealing with China—to this day, aren’t there still some Japanese who are passionate about this way, and are imagining how many parts of China would be the most appropriate?Therefore, when there are forces in China that compete with the central government, Japan will always go there enthusiastically to express support, and sometimes see that things are more secure, and will give some substantive assistance and the like.

Shortly after the September 18th Incident, Japan had occupied most of Fengtian and Jilin provinces, but had not yet occupied northern Manchuria, and the military department formulated a policy document on China—"Detailed Rules on China's Countermeasures."It stipulates that "the main goal of Japan's China policy is to quickly establish a Manchurian and Mongolian regime." The audiovisual is far away from Manchuria. If possible, establish multiple regimes in China, from South China to North China, all of which will make Japan more colorful.”The main content of the document is aimed at Northeast China, but the countermeasures for China itself are exactly the same as the policy of "overthrowing the Chinese central government and supporting a pro-Japanese regime" proposed by the Ministry of Military Affairs in the "Strategy for China" in a similar document.

On December 23, 1931, the Japanese Army Ministry and the General Staff Headquarters jointly agreed on the "Outline Plan for Dealing with the Current Situation" based on the plan provided by the Kwantung Army. While mainly stipulating the policy towards Manchuria and Mongolia, Japan once again proposed Japan's policy towards the Chinese central government and mainland China. The policies mainly include "supporting the anti-Zhang and anti-Chiang forces, especially the powerful forces in the north (such as Duan Qirui), with a view to eliminating the Kuomintang, which is the bane of Japan."

This is how Japan planned and acted.In fact, since the establishment of the Nanjing National Government in 1927, this kind of action has not stopped for a moment. As early as the eve of the Central Plains War, when Yan Xishan and Feng Yuxiang planned to jointly oppose Chiang Kai-shek, Kenji Doihara, who was promoted to the head of the Kwantung Army's secret service after Zhang Zuolin was killed, came to Peking to carry out activities, under the guise of opposing the Kuomintang and Chiang Kai-shek. , Instigated the establishment of the "Beiyang School Alliance" headed by Duan Qirui and Wu Peifu, so that Japan could fish in troubled waters.

During the Central Plains War, Japan paid close attention to this war and the northern regime headed by Yan Xishan.At the end of the war and when the Kuomintang enlarged meeting reorganized the northern government in early September, on September 16, 1930, Japan published "Our Concern to the Northern Government" which was read by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Vice Minister, and the Director of the Asian Bureau. In the document "The Attitude of Establishment", it analyzed the difference between the northern government and the Wuhan government and Nanjing government in 1927, and clearly stated:

Because our side has a very important relationship in the Pingjin area, it is not the best policy to adopt an unnecessary indifference towards the northern side, which has become the real power in the area at this time. ...There is no need to directly change our consistent attitude towards the north because of the change of the government. This shows that Japan will still maintain a consistent attitude of support for Yan Xishan, Feng Yuxiang and other local powerful factions in North China, thus establishing its special relationship with this faction.Later, the Northwest Army not only produced a resolute resistance faction like Ji Hongchang, but also many senior generals such as Liu Yufen and Lei Zhongtian defected to the Japanese. The close relationship of the Northwest Army has great relevance.

Among the northern power factions in China, Yan Xishan is the one that the Japanese will never forget the most.After the September 18th Incident, Seishiro Itagaki, who had been promoted to the chief of staff of the Kwantung Army, expressed his support for Yan's regime in Shanxi as much as possible. Later, Jun Tada, the commander of the Chinese Garrison Army, recruited Yan Xishan to serve as the leader of the "North China Five Provinces Autonomy Movement".Under the centrifugal force with Nanjing, Yan Xishan once adopted a pro-Japanese policy.However, he soon discovered that in the economic cooperation with Japan, Shanxi's economy was severely hit by Japan's dumping policy; Daily activities.These all show Japan's true intention to support him in ruling Shanxi and even North China, and it's the ulterior motives.Therefore, he not only responded to the proposal of the Nanjing National Government, but also served as the vice chairman of the Military Commission of the National Government in December 1935, and began to secretly communicate with the Chinese Communist Party, taking the lead in uniting the Communist Party of China in Shanxi to resist Japan.

Shi Yousan is one of the most volatile warlords in modern Chinese history. The intervention of the Japanese finally degenerated this volatile warlord into an accomplice of the invaders. In March 1931, Doihara was sent by the Japanese General Staff Headquarters to come to North China again and set up a special agency in Tianjin.Doihara chose Shi Yousan, who was capricious but inclined to oppose Chiang, "attempting to use Shi Yousan's rebellion to eliminate Zhang Xueliang's power, so as to solve the Manchurian issue at the same time as North China."For this reason, the Doihara Agency carried out the "Shi Yousan Work".In order to cooperate with the "Shiyousan Work", Japan also carried out work on Yan Xishan who lived in Dalian. On June 15th, Yan Xishan took a Japanese plane and secretly returned to Shanxi from Dalian. He stepped up contact with Shi Yousan and others to jointly carry out activities against Zhang Xueliang.He also sent soldiers to Tianjin on a special trip to deal with the supply of weapons by the Japanese side through the Doihara agency.Sure enough, under the instigation of Japanese secret agents, Shi Yousan quickly raised the banner of anti-Chiang.Shi Yousan's anti-Chiang actions were also supported by Guangdong, and he was appointed as the commander-in-chief of the Fifth Army. On July 18, Shi Yousan called to discuss Zhang.But after the start of the war, there were very few responders, and they were attacked from the north and the south by the Jiang and Zhang armies, and they were defeated within half a month.

The Guangzhou National Government formed by the Anti-Chiang Alliance on May 28, 1931 was the biggest opposition that emerged after the Nanjing National Government achieved reunification. Of course, Japan would not miss this opportunity. In late June, Wang Jingwei, Sun Ke, and Chen Youren, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Guangzhou Nationalist Government, through the Japanese Consul General in Guangzhou, Suma Yakichiro, made a request to the Japanese side for assistance in their anti-Chiang campaign and to go to Japan.Foreign Minister Motohara replied on July 2, quite vehemently, saying: It is inappropriate to discuss future issues with the Guangdong government now; although the Guangdong government has not been recognized by the Japanese side, it has no objection to its strong request to send representatives to Japan.After some consultations, on July 26, Chen Youren and others changed their names to Japanese and secretly went to Japan.Before leaving Japan on August 13, Chen Youren visited the Army Ministry, the General Staff Headquarters, and the President of the Political Friends Association Inuyang Takeshi, the leader of the Black Dragon Association Toyama Mitsuru and others in Tokyo, and had many talks with Foreign Minister Moshihara.During the meeting, the talks between the two sides involved specific issues such as recognizing the Guangdong government and hiring military advisers, as well as the issue of arms assistance. According to Li Zongren, one of the main members of the Guangzhou National Government in 1931, recalled: During the two to three years after September 18, more than a hundred Japanese military, government, business, and academic officials visited Guangdong and visited my private residence.Among the soldiers, such as Major General Doihara Kenji, Lieutenant General Matsui Iwane, Major General Okamura Ningji, Major General Umezu Yoshijiro, Major General Itagaki Seishiro, Lieutenant General Suzuki Mitsutsu, Second Lieutenant Assistant Wachitaka, Komeda Kanzo, Hattori, Nakai, Yoshino, Zuo Fang, etc. were all key players in the war of aggression against China and the Pacific War. During this period, the Guangxi faction received a large amount of Japanese military aid, including 5,000 rifles, dozens of machine guns, and more than a dozen aircraft. Japan also sent dozens of army and air force trainers to Guangxi.Regarding Japan's aid, Li Zongren's attitude is: we can use the army and air force trained by the Japanese on our behalf and the weapons bought from Japan to fight Japan in the future. "Later, it is said that in the Battle of Taierzhuang commanded by Li Zongren, these arms that Japan assisted the Guangzhou Nationalist Government in the early years were used in the battle against the Japanese army. At the end of 1931, the Kwantung Army sent Doihara to Guangzhou to meet with Hu Hanmin, who was planning an anti-Chiang movement here.While attacking the Nanjing government, Doihara expressed his willingness for Japan to come forward to help Hu "organize and improve the government", but Hu Hanmin refused on the grounds that he did not want other countries to interfere in his own internal affairs.At this point, the secret flirting between Japan and the Guangzhou Nationalist Government came to an end.