Spy Wars: Return of the Red Luan

Chen Jiehua arrived in Qingdao, joined the fleet, and secretly boarded the ship, exchanging identities with Zhao Yiyue.

"De Zhao, you go with the car to Tianjin and discuss with Lao Yang about keeping an eye on that fat, rotten bug. He's been making a lot of noise in the interior lately, and now he's going to Shanxi probably to try and win over Yan Xishan. I reckon his next target is Han Fuqu in Shandong. Keep an eye on him."

After a brief resupply, the fleet headed towards Tokyo, Japan.

When Chen Jiehua returned to the Tokyo naval port, a vehicle from the Naval General Staff was already waiting for him.

The Naval General Staff was in complete chaos.

The army has been arguing about this for days, and the five-pronged meeting has already been held three times.

To withdraw or not to withdraw, that is the question.

The Navy Headquarters recalled Aoki Seigen, who was living a carefree life outside, at the suggestion of Prince Fushimi Hiroyasu. The sole purpose was to have the young man attend a cabinet meeting and persuade the cabinet to withdraw from the League of Nations.

Isn't this just sending me straight into the line of fire? Old Saito Minoru had already forgotten about me, and now you're making me walk right into it? Convince him?
Does Chen Jiehua look like a fool?

I wasn't about to walk into the line of fire, so the slippery Chen Jiehua wandered off to Senso-ji Temple.

First, we need to contact Ozaki to find out the attitude of the cabinet, the individual attitudes of the five ministers, and the attitudes of the major factions in the military.

In fact, even if I hadn't intervened, the Saito cabinet would have ultimately decided to withdraw from the League of Nations.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is now firmly demanding withdrawal from the League of Nations. The Navy and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs are on the same side as the Naval Headquarters, which was originally the Fleet faction. The Navy's original treaty faction, which is now the Navy Ministry, believes that it should not withdraw from the League of Nations.

Similarly, the army was also divided into two factions, arguing for the sake of arguing. The pro-war faction of the Army General Staff had the upper hand and strongly demanded withdrawal from the League of Nations.

Fourth, the Ministry of Finance opposes withdrawal.

Fifth, Prime Minister Saito was originally a treaty supporter in the navy.

Currently, the power dynamics among the various factions are delicate but unbalanced. The powerful figures in the military are demanding withdrawal from the League of Nations. In reality, Saito is powerless to reverse the situation and is just putting on a brave face while trying to find a scapegoat.

Ozaki's information was timely and helpful, giving Chen Jiehua a direction: first, deal with the Army General Staff Headquarters and add fuel to the fire; that was the simplest thing to do.
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Related international events in the same period of the same year:

After Mustache became Chancellor of the Weimar Republic in 1933, he worried that he would lose the next general election to the Communist Party of Germany and planned to suppress the Communist Party.

On February 24, 1933, Nazi Party leader Hermann Göring orchestrated the Reichstag fire.

On the evening of February 27, the Berlin fire department received a report of a fire at the Reichstag building. Firefighters and police rushed to the scene and found 20 bundles of unburnt arson fuel and Dutch communists. Göring called it an atrocity by the communists, while Hitler called it a signal that the communists were launching a revolution.

The following day, Hitler demanded that President Hindenburg issue an emergency decree to abolish the clauses in the Weimar Constitution that guaranteed personal freedom.

On March 1, the Nazi Party falsely accused the Communists of plotting an uprising and declared it illegal.

The Nazi stormtroopers occupied all Communist Party headquarters in the Weimar Republic, dissolved trade unions, and banned all Communist Party newspapers.

Subsequently, approximately 1.8 communists, including Ernst Thälmann, the leader of the Communist Party of the Weimar Republic, were arrested and imprisoned. This series of actions by the Nazi Party in Germany was a revelation to the pro-German faction within the high command of the Japanese Army and Navy, as if they had found a guiding light. Both sides quickly reached an agreement, using this as a basis to persuade Prime Minister Saito Makoto, and easily convinced Emperor Showa, who was already pro-German.

Before the Japanese cabinet officially announced its withdrawal from the League of Nations, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs secretly held multiple exchanges and communications with Germany.

Foreign Minister Yosuke Matsuoka told Germany, "Germany is the only country in history that shares so many similarities with Japan's historical development path, and both are striving for global recognition of their status."

I want to make my stance clear and follow your lead, but I'm too embarrassed to back down, so I'm finding an excuse to force my way in.

The man with the mustache gave an ambiguous reply, "Du springst, ich springe auch." (German), which can be simply translated into English as "You jump, I jump."

Foreign Minister Yosuke Matsuoka confidently reported to Prime Minister Minoru Saito, "Look, Germany said we should withdraw, and they withdrew with us."

The cunning old Saito has found a scapegoat, and Germany is a tough one at that. It's time to climb down the ladder.

Chen Jiehua breathed a sigh of relief; finally, I wouldn't have to take the blame. It seems the matter of sending spies to Germany needs to be arranged as soon as possible.

The Japanese cabinet's withdrawal from the League of Nations excited the navy. The fleet faction, which had already planned to abolish the London Naval Treaty, inexplicably sent a diplomatic note to the League of Nations president.

The gist of this note was that although we had withdrawn from the League of Nations, we would continue to administer the Pacific and South Pacific islands that we had previously managed through the League of Nations.

Because Manchuria and Mongolia are the lifeline of our army, and the South Pacific islands are the lifeline of our navy.

Although I've left the group, I'll continue to enjoy the perks the group admin gives out, mainly because I'm shameless and brazen.

A heated debate ensued within the Naval Command regarding whether Japan should immediately declare the abrogation of the London Naval Treaty.

"The cabinet has withdrawn from the League of Nations. Is the Empire about to face global economic sanctions? Resources are already scarce. Abolishing the Treaty now is not a good idea."

"Even if we build at full capacity, the Empire's industrial construction capabilities are no match for the United States. This will lead to further confrontation between the Empire and the United States, and will inevitably widen the gap in military strength between the Empire and the United States Navy."

"Why not build it secretly? After the Yamato is completed, we can build another giant ship. With two giant ships in a fleet, the Pacific will be the Empire's domain!"

"It's not too late for us to announce the abrogation of the treaty when the construction of the giant ship is discovered and can no longer be concealed."

Chen Jiehua's four sentences, which emphasized taking shamelessness to the extreme, once again gained the unanimous approval of the fleet faction of the Naval Command. They agreed to listen to him, not to abolish the treaty outright, and to render the treaty a mere shell of its former self.

The Yamato is about to be launched. Everyone has visited it several times and was speechless with awe. It's practically a sea fortress!
General Aoki Seigen is truly remarkable; he actually conceived of building such a massive warship, the Yamato! Yoshi! Soga!
During this period, at the Naval Headquarters, it seemed that even Chen Jiehua's farts smelled sweet.

As Chen Jiehua came out of the conference room, he saw two young naval clerks walking past the door. One of them was Anzai Kuji, whom he had seen once but had almost forgotten. He didn't recognize the other one.

"General Aoki, could you please sign your autograph?"

Anzai Koji's first encounter with Chen Jiehua was quite unique. (End of Chapter)