Chapter 21 20. The generals in the staff headquarters are secretly delighted

Tokyo.Japanese Army General Staff Headquarters. Just one hour after midnight that day, the intelligence department suddenly received a telegram from Fengtian: At about 10:30 in the evening on the 18th, the violent Chinese army destroyed the full iron line west of Beidaying in the north of Fengtian, attacked our garrison, and clashed with one of my garrison troops.According to reports, the Second Battalion of Fengtian Independent Defense is dispatching to the scene. This was the first telegram received by the General Staff Headquarters regarding the incident.The report was sent at 11:18 p.m. on the 18th, and the sender's signature was Colonel Kenji Doihara, head of the Mukden Secret Service.In fact, Doihara has been on a business trip to Tokyo since September 10 for the Nakamura incident, and has not yet returned to Fengtian.This telegram must have been made by Hanagu of the Fengtian Special Agency in the name of Dohihara.

At 2 o'clock in the morning, a second telegram was received in the name of Doihara: The Chinese troops in the Beidaying blew up the full iron line.There were three or four squadrons of its troops, and they fled into the barracks immediately.Our Hushitai Squadron was fighting with 500 or 600 enemy troops from the Beida Camp after 11 o'clock and occupied a corner of it.But the enemy army is constantly adding machine guns and field artillery.My squadron is fighting hard.Lieutenant Noda has a heavy responsibility. An hour later, a third telegram was received in the name of Doihara.The telegram made the following statement regarding the future combat operations of the Kwantung Army:

Based on the above situation, the advance staff officer Itagaki [Zheng Shiro] made the following deployments: 1. The second independent garrison brigade wiped out the enemies of the North Camp.2. The twenty-ninth infantry company attacked Fengtian City.3. The fifth independent garrison brigade attacked the North Camp from the north and accepted the command of the captain of the second independent garrison brigade.Fourth, request the Second Division to reinforce with the main force. These three telegrams were interlocking, allowing the people in the staff headquarters to see that the occurrence of the incident was inevitable, and the expansion of the situation was imperative.Everything seemed so logical.

Telegrams came one after another, and the General Staff Headquarters, which was the center of the command, also took action following the sudden attack on the black land of the distant continent. The Central Department of the Army, from Army Minister Nanjiro, Chief of Staff Kanaya Nozomi, General Affairs Minister Umezu Yoshijiro, Acting Chief of Operations Hitoshi Imamura, down to general class members, all rushed to the General Staff Headquarters as soon as they heard the news. Soldiers—"Soldiers who have been away from real wars for 27 years since the Russo-Japanese War, who have been insignificant in the age of disarmament, who have gradually rediscovered the true value of the saber with the recent rise of fascist tendencies Soldiers, soldiers who are determined to resolutely implement the "Showa Restoration" with their own hands, soldiers who are angered by the numerous anti-Japanese incidents in China starting with the Captain Nakamura incident, because of China's anti-Japanese or to strengthen Japan's national defense And the soldiers who advocate that Manchuria must be occupied and then a part of China”——haven’t smelled gunpowder for a long time.The smell of gunpowder from Manchuria made them excited immediately.

At 7 o'clock in the morning, the heads of the Army Ministry and the General Staff Headquarters held a meeting in the conference room in front of the Chief of Staff's office to discuss countermeasures for the current situation.Vice Minister of the Army Sugiyama Moto, Director of the Military Affairs Bureau Koiso Kuniaki, Deputy Chief of Staff Shigeharu Ninomiya, Minister of General Affairs Yoshijiro Umezu, Acting Chief of Operations Hitomi Imamura, Minister of Intelligence Hashimoto Toranosuke, and Chief of Military Section Tetsuyama Nagata attended the meeting. At the meeting, Deputy Chief of Staff Ninomiya Shigeharu first explained the information received, and pointed out: "The purpose of this meeting is to make the provinces and ministries make up their minds about the current situation and establish a solid foundation. "

Koiso Kuniaki, director of the Military Affairs Bureau, said: "The Kwantung Army's action this time is entirely based on its own tasks and measures at the right time." Koiso Kuniaki's speech set the tone for the Kwantung Army's actions.All of them affirmed this. However, they knew that the Kwantung Army had no more than 10,000 troops, while the Northeast China Army had more than 200,000 troops. Once the war started, reinforcements might be imperative.Therefore, everyone discussed whether to reinforce the Kwantung Army, and it was unanimously agreed to increase troops.When discussing this issue, it is worth noting that Koiso Kuniaki, who took the lead in affirming that the Kwantung Army's actions were justified, expressed a little concern about the reinforcement of troops, worrying that doing so would cause "misunderstanding" by the world, thinking that This incident was a conspiracy of the Kwantung Army.It seems that this expression of concern is enough to show that this operation is not a conspiracy of the Kwantung Army.

It was immediately decided that the relevant documents should be drafted by the Operations Section.The combat class immediately conducted a general study based on the established combat policy against China, and prepared to mobilize a part of the Korean Army and the Tenth Division to Manchuria.The Military Department of the Army Ministry is preparing to propose a troop increase plan to the cabinet. While they were discussing emergency mobilization of the Korean Army to reinforce the Kwantung Army, the Korean Army had already taken measures to dispatch troops according to the annual combat plan and sent a telegram to the General Staff Headquarters saying that it planned to continue to increase troops:

In view of the situation in Fengtian, our army ordered the 6th Flying Wing [in Pyongyang] to send a squadron of fighter jets and a squadron of reconnaissance planes to set off from Pyongyang this morning to reinforce the Kwantung Army.Also, about one brigade of the mixed brigade of the 20th Division [based in Yongsan, North Korea] plans to dispatch troops to Fengtian.He also ordered the 19th Division [in Luonan] to prepare at the garrison so that more troops could be dispatched. This was taken by Hayashi Mijuro, Commander of the Korean Army Garrison, at 7:07 in the morning, that is to say, it was the time when the General Staff Headquarters started a meeting to discuss it.

In response to this new information, the General Staff Headquarters judged that the Air Force's reinforcements had been implemented arbitrarily, but the mixed brigade would not start to act until the order was issued. The emergency dispatch of troops stationed in Korea was originally part of the established plan to deal with the crisis in Manchuria, so there was no fundamental contradiction with the policy of the Central Department of the Army.The problem with the central government is that before the order was issued, the commander of the troops stationed abroad sent a part of the troops abroad without authorization and planned to continue sending troops.

It turned out that when the Japanese Army participated in the Eight-Nation Allied Forces sending troops to China in 1900, it began to form a practice, that is, sending troops abroad must be approved by the cabinet meeting for expenditures, and the emperor exercised the commanding power to issue imperial orders before proceeding.However, the Military Department's "Important Orders in the Battlefield" also required the Japanese Army, from commanders down to ordinary soldiers, to receive a kind of cultivation training in which they can make decisions without authorization and act according to circumstances under extraordinary circumstances. Those who missed the opportunity were not allowed to re-enter the army commanded by the emperor, which was tantamount to encouraging soldiers outside to practice "arbitrary" and decide their own actions under extraordinary circumstances.How to deal with these two contradictory regulations, there is no clear way within the Army.This is the defect of the Japanese commander-in-chief system.

In view of this situation, the method proposed by the Combat Division is that the mixed brigades stationed in North Korea that are preparing to send troops must wait for the cabinet meeting to approve the expenditure and then perform the formalities of issuing imperial orders before they can act; It is also necessary to go through the reporting procedures immediately and ratify the determination and measures of the commander of the garrison in North Korea, otherwise the command and command system will be messed up, and it will attract criticism from the outside world. What they didn't expect was that the garrison in North Korea planned to go further.The instruction telegram of the Operations Division has not yet been drafted, and the telegram from the Commander of the Korean Army has arrived again: According to the situation of the battle between Japan and China near Fengtian and the requirements of the Kwantung Army, our army ordered a mixed brigade to go to the vicinity of Fengtian to reinforce the Kwantung Army.The brigade will depart from each garrison at about 10:00 am on the 19th, transport it by rail, cross the Yalu River, and accept the command of the commander of the Kwantung Army.The flying team was dispatched this morning and was also under the command of the commander. The telegram shows that the telegram was sent at 9:28 a.m., and the telegram stated that the mixed brigade would leave at 10 a.m., that is to say, when the staff headquarters received the telegram, the mixed brigade of the Korean Army may have already adopted took action.It seems that the plan of the garrison in North Korea is not only to allow the flight wing to cross the border arbitrarily, but also to allow the mixed brigade to cross the border without authorization. The General Staff Headquarters decided to prevent the arbitrary overreach of the Korean Army.So, at 12:30 noon, in the name of the chief of staff, he sent telegram No. 16 to the commander of the Korean Army: In the No. 5 of Chaoshenbao, it is hoped that the reinforcement of the Kwantung Army will be issued by the imperial edict. While sending the above-mentioned telegram to Hayashi Mijuro, Commander of the Army Garrison in Korea, he also sent a telegram to the commander of the 39th Infantry Brigade in Pyongyang: The actions of your brigade should also be suspended. If there are troops that have already set off, measures should be taken immediately to prevent crossing the border. To be on the safe side, the General Staff Headquarters also sent instructions to the Sinuiju garrison captain: In the unlikely event that any troops crossing the Yalu River have not received the above-mentioned order, they shall be notified of their intention to prevent them from passing through Sinuiju.But the affiliation of the flight team is not limited to this. This was the first day of the Army Staff Headquarters after the war had already begun.They actually faced two challenges, one from the Kwantung Army, and the other from the North Korean Army that rushed to help without authorization.In addition to the uneasiness caused by the incident and the unhappiness caused by the challenge of the Imperial Army's military discipline, there is also an inexplicable excitement-this indescribable mood made the Japanese generals of the General Staff Headquarters "painful and happy". However, the news from the cabinet did not look good - at 10 am, the cabinet meeting made a policy of "trying not to make the current situation worse than the status quo". However, the cabinet decision did not affect the Imperial soldiers too much.Deputy Chief of Staff Shigeharu Ninomiya, Chief of the Military Affairs Bureau Koiso Kuniaki, and Director of Education Araki Sadao held a meeting.Carefully plan countermeasures against the current situation.The three reached a consensus on this idea: take this incident as an opportunity to seek a solution to the Manchurian issue.This consensus then became the policy of key members of the General Staff Headquarters when dealing with this incident. At 2 o'clock in the afternoon, the chief of staff first summoned the three chiefs of the army-the chief of staff, the secretary of the army and the director of education to meet.Minister Nanjiro Lu conveyed the resolution of the cabinet meeting to "do our best not to make the current situation worse than the status quo", while the director of education expressed the intention of "using this incident as an opportunity to seek a solution to the Manchukuo issue" agreed upon by staff members of the General Staff Headquarters. claim.The chief of staff appears to be trying to find a balance between the two. Subsequently, Chief of Staff Kanaya Nozomi convened a ministerial meeting.Li Chen, the chief executive of Jin Gu, should deal with the incident quickly: "It is urgent now. This incident must be dealt with immediately and restored to the original state." The basic tone seems to be to implement the policy of not expanding the situation established at the cabinet meeting in the morning, and to deal with the incident.In the eyes of the staff members of the General Staff Headquarters, this is almost equivalent to the mistakes after the Huanggutun incident.Imamura, the acting minister of war, immediately retorted: "The arrow has been taken off the string. If it stops halfway and returns to its original state, I am afraid that it will have a great impact on the morale of the army. For the sake of the national army, it is of great importance. At this time, we must overcome all difficulties and maintain the peace of the country." The prestige of the national army, and work hard to achieve great goals." President Kanaya further clarified his belief: "If you want to do great things, as a chief, you must not be swayed by young people, and you must refrain from wavering yourself. My current state of mind is like that of Oishi Yoshio, one of the 47 righteous men. About this time I will take full responsibility for the incident." In the eyes of those young soldiers, the image of Yoshio Oishi as a daring and righteous man in the speech of Chief Kanaya seems to express his true inner thoughts and intentions better than the cabinet policy conveyed in his statement. Jun Imamura understood, and immediately drafted a telegram from the chief of staff to the commander of the Kwantung Army.When he took the draft telegram and asked Chief Jin Gu to sign it, the Chief signed it happily and said with a smile: "I let you see through my inner decision." At 6:00 p.m. that day, on the first day after the incident, the most important instruction telegram from the General Staff Headquarters to the Kwantung Army was sent to Commander Shigeru Honjo in Fengtian: 1. After the night of September 18, the Kwantung Army commander's determination and handling were well-timed, and he firmly believed that this was an act to enhance the prestige of the imperial army. 2. According to the attitude of the Chinese side after the incident occurred, the cabinet decided that the handling of the incident should not exceed the necessary limit.For this reason, the actions of the military in the future should be properly handled according to this purpose. The so-called "it is not appropriate to exceed the necessary limit", why is it necessary?Seeing the "wonderful" interpretation of the cabinet's decision by the General Staff Headquarters, the Kwantung Army was greatly inspired.An hour later, the telegram sent back by the Kwantung Army Command to the General Staff Headquarters was full of passion and fighting spirit: "I hope that with the greatest determination now, the entire army will advance bravely for the country's century-old plan."