The crime of Naoto Matsushiro and Urayo Ishigami's gold theft has been confirmed.
In order to minimize the situation, Masaharu Honma did not announce the truth of the matter after careful consideration.
This is also Takuma Shintani’s suggestion.
"This is a scandal, perhaps even the biggest scandal since the empire took over the Philippines."
Takuma Shintani told Masaharu Honma very seriously:
"Whether it will make us a laughing stock, I am not yet within the scope of our consideration. The most serious thing is, once the superiors know about this, what attitude will they take towards us?
This will even have an extremely serious impact on your future, Commander, and you will also lose the trust of your superiors. Also, where is the gold that was stolen?
Our superiors will order us to immediately recover stolen Imperial property. As for the specific location of the gold, only Naoto Matsushiro and Urayo Ishigami know.
Even if we successfully recover it, what will happen? This serious crime will make us look amateurish and will cost us everything. "
Yes, Masaharu Honma admitted that Takuma Shintani was right.
Never in the history of the Empire had such serious malfeasance occurred.
And as the supreme commander of the Philippines, he must not be able to escape the involvement.
Everything he got today was earned through hard work.
He is an anomaly among Japanese military officers.
Japanese people are generally short in stature, but his height reached 1.8 meters, which dwarfed other Japanese officers.
However, many Japanese women are attracted to him. Being a romantic person, he naturally cannot resist the temptation.
He was married twice and had affairs with several Japanese actresses, so this became a topic of conversation among the Japanese military.
He also likes to write poetry, and his skills are pretty good.
Therefore, some people ridiculed him, "Homma is a good poet and a talented man, but he just can't lead troops to fight."
Probably for this reason, Honma Masaharu has always been unknown in the military and depressed.
His fate changed until he met Prince Yoshihito of Chichibu Palace and became his assistant.
This is also due to his "versatile talents". In addition to his love of dancing and writing, Masaharu Honma is also a good player at tennis. Therefore, the tennis-loving Prince Chichibu often comes to him for discussion.
It was this kind of "discussion" that opened the way for Masaharu Honma to quickly advance in his official career.
Later, Prince Yongren liked to take this tall officer with him wherever he went. Masaharu Honma once accompanied Prince Yongren to Germany and met with Nazi leaders in Nuremberg.
Not long after returning to Japan, Honma Masaharu began to rise step by step.
Masaharu Honma was first appointed as the second minister of the Japanese Army Staff Headquarters, and was promoted to lieutenant general just one year later. At this time, Masaharu Honma had gotten rid of his status as a civilian general and became a powerful military commander of the Japanese army.
Although he obviously lacked actual combat experience, due to the extreme trust of senior officials, he was even considered to be one of the four "heroes" of the Japanese army as famous as Yamamoto Isoroku.
However, many senior Japanese military officers were well aware of his abilities and secretly ridiculed him as a "flattery general."
The meaning is naturally self-evident.
Honma Masaharu also held back her anger for this.
In order to prove his ability, he resorted to any means on the battlefield.
Poison gas is one of his favorite methods.
Later, Masaharu Honma was transferred to the commander of the Taiwan Army, but he still did not forget his literary and artistic creations in the army. The infamous "Song of the Taiwan Expeditionary Force" was written by him.
Later, the name "Poet General" spread wildly throughout the Japanese army.
But his main business is not literary and artistic creation, but leading troops to fight!
Soon, the Japanese base camp established the Southern Army to implement the "Southern Invasion Plan", and Masaharu Honma was appointed commander of the Fourteenth Army.
His subsequent combat mission was to lead the army to attack the Philippines. Despite his extreme lack of actual combat experience, Honma Masaharu bit the bullet and took over the important task of military chief.
In fact, to be honest, Honma Masaharu's favorite thing is to write and write, and he is somewhat reluctant to fight with Britain and the United States. After all, he especially likes watching Western movies, and in his heart he does not think that his opponent is Japan's enemy.
But the military orders are coming, so the battle still has to be fought!
It seems that Honma Masaharu was indeed very lucky. As soon as the Japanese Fourteenth Army landed at Lingayin Bay in the northwest Philippines, the coalition forces commanded by the American Major General Winlett were vulnerable and soon gave up resistance and marched toward Bataan. The direction of the peninsula collapsed.
Even the Japanese army and Masaharu Honma themselves did not expect the battle to go so smoothly.
However, his military ability is really limited.
Especially after the U.S. military retreated, he did not seize the advantageous fighter opportunities to eliminate the opponent's effective forces. The Japanese fighter planes did not blow up the bridges along the way. Therefore, the U.S. military was able to successfully escape in the end, and also preserved its strength for the future counterattack in the Philippines.
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Therefore, there were many officers in the army who were dissatisfied with him and despised him.
After this crime of stealing gold occurs, his competitors are likely to make a big fuss out of it, and may even pull him from his position.
Takuma Shintani's words touched his sore spot.
"What should we do?" Masaharu Honma asked thoughtfully, "Should we just pretend that this never happened?"
"Yeah, that didn't happen."
Unexpectedly, Honma Masaharu just said casually, but Shintani Takuma strongly agreed: "No gold was stolen, the gold is still in the warehouse.
As for Naoto Matsushiro and Urayo Ishigami, they had long been instigated by the Americans to rebel, and they had been secretly cooperating with the Americans. It was you, Commander, who discovered their conspiracy in time! "
In this way, not only did Masaharu Honma have no fault, but she also made merit.
Masaharu Honma thought about it for a while: "Where is Yamada? He is also one of the insiders."
"Yotaro Yamada also doesn't want this to happen." Takuma Shintani is confident: "His interests are closely related to ours. I will convince him there."
"Then Naoto Matsushiro and Urayo Ishigami should not be alive in this world." Masaharu Honma finally made up his mind: "From now on, you will be the commander of the Military Police for the time being. Mr. Shintani, I know you are in charge of the Intelligence Division. It has been very hard, but I still have to ask you."
"It's my honor to be able to relieve your worries, Commander." Takuma Shintani agreed: "As for the director of the secret service?"
"I think it's Shibu Taniguchi." Masaharu Honma already has a candidate: "This person performed very well during this crackdown, and he also has this ability. Moreover, he cannot leave Manila for the time being. "
"Yes, Your Excellency." Shintani Takuma said with a smile: "Your Excellency's arrangement is very wise. I believe Shibuya Taniguchi will be qualified for this position!"
