The Axis Alliance landed in the southern part of the Korean Peninsula, cutting off the retreat routes and supply lines of the Kwantung Army and the North Korean troops stationed. This caused the entire eastern Manchuria and the Yalu River defense line to shake, and the situation suddenly became precarious.

The car drove past the streets of Tokyo, and the smell of burnt was filled with the air. Most of the buildings had been burned down during the bombing, leaving only broken walls and tiles. There were few pedestrians on the streets, only some fire brigades and volunteers were digging something in the ruins, and the entire city had become lifeless.

The air was filled with the smell of burnt corpses. Last night, the Chinese Air Force visited Tokyo again and bombed Shimocho District violently. The automobile manufacturing plant, engine manufacturing plant and affiliated workshops were completely blown up, including all buildings within dozens of square kilometers around Shimocho. About 30,000 died in the fire, and more than 70,000 were injured.

Tokyo citizens have become very numb to such large-scale bombings. Most civilians no longer pay attention to the emperor's call and choose to leave cities and factories and flee to the countryside for refuge. The loss of labor and the lack of raw materials have made it impossible for some factories that survived the bombing to maintain production.

The car drove by the broken street wall. The Foreign Minister Togo Moto, who was sitting in the car, looked indifferently at the streets on both sides through the car window, with a helpless look on his face. Today, Tokyo has almost been ravaged into ruins. Four-fifths of the buildings in the entire city were destroyed in the bombing. The bomber groups of the Axis Alliance's bombers were raging in the sky. The number of army aviation fighter troops was almost exhausted and they were unable to protect the Japanese sky. Moreover, they were rarely seen in the sky.

The entire Japanese industrial system established since the Meiji Restoration has been basically completely destroyed. Relying on limited military aid by the Americans is like a drop in the bucket and it is impossible to reverse the direction of the war.

The entire empire is completely finished!

This is almost unanimous view of senior officials. Although public opinion is strictly controlled, newspapers are still fooling the public and ordinary officers and soldiers all day long. But at the top, with the fall of the Tojo Cabinet, in the understanding of the Koi Iso Cabinet, defeat is actually inevitable. The main problem now is how to reach a decent defeat peace agreement.

"The biggest mistake of the empire was that it was tempted by the Soviet Union and rashly chose to go to war with China." Togo lamented in his heart that most of the expanded armies who advocated a comprehensive invasion of China were now silent. The army veteran Sugiyama Moto, who actively encouraged a comprehensive invasion of China and divided the Manchu Mongolian with the Soviet Union, refused to admit it. Tojo, the executor of the war invasion of China, has also stepped down.

As the war progressed, after the Axis coalition landed in Okinawa, the demigod figure in the palace finally stopped silent and expressed his dissatisfaction by disbanding the Tojo Cabinet.

The situation was so optimistic in the early stages of the war. The Empire and the Soviet Union divided the entire Manchuria and Mongolia, occupied the entire East China region, and finally achieved the second step of the empire's century-old continental national policy formulated by Emperor Meiji, and entered the mainland, occupied Manchuria and Mongolia, and the entire territory expanded dozens of times.

Invasion of East China was just a strategy. The military headquarters originally wanted to use it as a bargaining chip to retreat in exchange for the Chinese people's recognition of the current situation of the empire's occupation of Manchuria and Mongolia. But later, this strategy began to go off the right track, and the smooth progress of the war allowed the calls in the army provinces to occupy and annex the entire China and Southeast Asia to gain the upper hand. This also aroused the Chinese's determination to fight to the death.

Before the war, no one took the warnings and threats of the German and Austrian emperor seriously in the entire empire. Although the two European empires were powerful, they were thousands of miles away, how could they interfere in East Asian affairs at will? The attitudes of Britain and the United States were always ambiguous, and they did not want to see the Japanese annex China, thereby damaging their own interests. In fact, in the early stages of the war, the two countries had been secretly restricting the development of Japan's military power. Only after the outbreak of the European war, did they have no choice to form an alliance with the empire. Even so, the Americans still secretly restricted the development of the imperial navy when providing military assistance and restricted the export of sensitive technologies to the empire, so as not to threaten their own safety after the war. This made the empire lag behind its opponents in terms of military technology and equipment when facing the German and Austrian coalition.

All these reasons led to the empire's defeat on the battlefield and finally fell to the point of losing.

Such a serious situation forced the Emperor to summon all the cabinet members again within five days and hold a royal meeting in the palace.

"Your Excellency, you have arrived." The voice of the secretary sitting in front of him interrupted Dongxiang's thoughts, and the car had already stopped in front of a hall in the palace.

During the bombing, nearly one-third of the entire palace was burned down. Since it did not belong to the key bombing area, most of the buildings in the entire palace could survive the bombing.

The news of the Axis coalition landing in North Korea was heard, and the entire base camp and the cabinet were shocked. The new Prime Minister Koisaki was almost helpless about the current situation and could only hold joint meetings of the base camp cabinet, so they quarreled with each other at the cabinet meeting. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Trade and Industry, the Ministry of Grand Tibet, the General Staff, the Ministry of Army, and the Navy, did not give in to each other and accused each other, but no one could find a solution to the crisis.

The new Navy Secretary Minamasa Menei advocated giving up the Korean Peninsula and demanded that all the Kanto Army's forces be transferred to the foreign Northeast and domestic countries, preserved their forces, and immediately began peace talks with the Axis powers. The army strongly opposed it. If this was done, it would be like vomiting out all the results of the empire's century-old expansion, and advocated to hold on to the death and wait for the arrival of US reinforcements.

Everyone knows that the idea of ​​the Army Department is ridiculous. The American strategy is to first Europe and then Asia. First, we must ensure that Britain and Australia are not invaded and their own security. Secondly, we will consider the survival of Japan and the Soviet Union. But this ultimately gave Japan a glimmer of hope, giving the army an excuse to continue to delay the war.

But the war can no longer continue, which has become a consensus among the top leaders of the entire political circle.

However, the Axis Powers' Roman Declaration closed the door to peace talks and announced that they would only accept unconditional surrender and hold the emperor accountable for war crimes. This is the most unacceptable point. This is the fear of taking responsibility for war crimes and becoming tough-headed military leaders have an excuse to continue the war.

However, there is no hope at all.

The Axis Alliance landed in North Korea at this moment, and it was clearly intended to trap the Kwantung Army in the mountainous areas of eastern Manchuria and northern North Korea. It was a chilling feeling that the cold winter in Manchuria and how the 1.8 million Kwantung Army and the North Korean garrison troops who were short of food and supplies should survive.

The imperial meeting has become a stage for shirking responsibility again.

The military put the blame on the Ministry of Industry and Industry, but the Minister of Industry and Economic Affairs Toyota threw out a thick document of industrial and agricultural statistics, and said the above data in front of all the cabinet members with expressionless expression: "...The entire agricultural production has declined, and grain production has dropped by 40%. After losing the iron ore in Manchuria, steel production will continue to decline, with the annual steel production only about 250,000 tons; in addition, the output of coal, aluminum and copper will also drop to a historical low, with coal production of about one million tons, aluminum only less than 30,000 tons, and aircraft production has dropped sharply to less than 200 aircraft per month; copper production is even lower; and oil imports have almost been completely cut off..."

As Toyota's voice without any emotion came out, the atmosphere of the entire cabinet meeting became even more serious. It was obvious that the entire war could no longer continue. Tokyo, Osaka, Yokohama, Nagoya, Kobe, Nagasaki... Almost all industrial cities were destroyed. Now the Axis coalition forces have shifted the bombing targets to those small and medium-sized cities, and they are planning to destroy all the war potential of Japan...

The biggest problem is to punish the emperor and change the national system. No one can bear such responsibility...

So, the slogan of "Total Jade Shattered" was shouted out by the military. (To be continued.)
Chapter completed!