On the eve of the fall of Liaodong, he led his troops in a remonstrance against the young marshal.

A slight commotion arose in the conference room.

The generals began to whisper among themselves, their buzzing chatter hovering above the long table like flies.

Zhang Xueming.

This name was repeated by different people in different tones, each tone filled with disbelief.

The king did not participate in the discussion.

He stood there, motionless, his face turning from ashen to ashen.

"Doihara."

"You mean to say that the Empire's 120,000 elite troops were completely annihilated by someone whose name we've never even heard of?"

Doihara opened his mouth, wanting to argue, but he realized there was no room for argument. He could only lower his head and say in an almost humble voice:

"Your Majesty, this person is indeed...very troublesome."

The king ignored him. He slowly turned his head, his gaze returning to the Minister of War and the Chief of the General Staff:

"Then tell me, where did Zhang Xueming get the tanks? Where did he get the planes? How did he train his troops? How did he do it?"

No one can answer.

Nanjiro's lips moved slightly, but he didn't say anything.

Doihara, steeling himself, added in an extremely difficult tone:

"Your Majesty, regarding the source of the weapons... we are still investigating."

"Based on preliminary assessments, his tank is very likely from the White Bear, and its model is highly consistent with the White Bear's current T-series medium tanks."

"However, the specific purchase channels and transportation methods have not yet been determined."

"Our intelligence agents planted within the Northeast Army were directly connected to people around Zhang Xueliang before the incident, and there was almost no network of contact with Zhang Xueming."

"This is indeed... a failure in intelligence work."

By the time he uttered the last few words, Doihara's back was completely soaked.

By admitting his dereliction of duty, he essentially handed the knife to someone else.

But he had no choice, because in this room, under the king's watchful eyes, the consequences of lying were far more serious than admitting dereliction of duty.

When Nanjiro heard Doihara admit to "dereliction of duty," the corner of his mouth twitched involuntarily.

He was about to speak, preparing to shift all the blame onto the Special Higher Police, when the King spoke first.

"Is there really nothing we can do about him?"

These words were squeezed out one by one from between his teeth.

The king's eyes swept across the faces of everyone in the conference room, and those he looked at unconsciously lowered their heads.

Doihara sensed the king's anger and dared not refuse to answer, so he could only grit his teeth and continue speaking.

His voice was even lower than before, carrying a sense of despair:

"Your Majesty... given the current battlefield situation, we indeed... do not have any effective countermeasures at the moment."

"The army's tanks, in terms of both quantity and quality, cannot compete with Zhang Xueming's armored formations."

"Our Type 97 tanks are like paper toys compared to the T-series tanks he bought from Polar Bear."

"In terms of air power, the Northeast Army deployed hundreds of fighter jets in the Fengcheng Campaign. Their performance was significantly superior to our Type 97 fighter jets, and air superiority was no longer in our hands."

"We can only defeat the Northeast Army on land once they run out of ammunition."

With each word he spoke, the temperature in the conference room seemed to drop by a degree.

When he said the last sentence, everyone unconsciously held their breath.

"The only force that still holds an advantage is the navy, but..."

He squeezed out the second half of the sentence with difficulty: "The navy has no aircraft carrier escort."

"The Third Fleet's aircraft carriers have been almost completely destroyed. If it wants to get close to the northeast coast to provide fire support to the land, it will inevitably have to enter the combat radius of the Northeast Army Air Force."

"Without air superiority, warships are just targets floating on the sea."

Dead silence.

Utter silence.

The Imperial Army, recognized worldwide as the strongest army in Asia, was utterly defeated by the Northeast Army's tank onslaught.

The Imperial Navy, the world's third largest navy, dared not approach the northeastern coast because it lacked air superiority.

The mighty Great Bhikkhu Empire was utterly helpless in the face of a local warlord from China.

The king's breathing became heavy.

His chest heaved beneath his uniform, his fingers clenched into fists, his knuckles cracking.

shame.

This is the greatest humiliation the empire has suffered since the Reformation.

If word gets out, the Kingdom of Bhikkhu will become a laughing stock in the eyes of the great powers.

If it can't even defeat a local warlord in China, what right does it have to call itself the hegemon of Asia? What face does it have to demand to be on equal footing with Britain and the United States?

Saito Minoru opened his mouth, wanting to say something to break the suffocating silence, but he couldn't find a suitable word.

Foreign Minister Hirota Koki had completely crumpled his handkerchief into a wet ball.

In the suffocating silence, there was a knock on the side door of the conference room.

The knocking was very soft, but in this room where you could hear a pin drop, every knock felt like a blow to everyone's eardrums.

All eyes turned to the door.

The door opened a crack, and a communications officer peeked in. Upon seeing the scene in the conference room, he immediately ducked back inside.

But Saito Minoru had already seen the telegram in his hand.

"Come in," Saito Minoru said.

The communications officer walked in tremblingly, his legs shaking.

He walked over to Saito Minoru, bent down, presented the telegram with both hands, and said in a low voice:

"Your Excellency Prime Minister, an urgent telegram from Tojo, classified as top secret..."

Saito Minoru took the telegram, unfolded it, glanced at it, and his eyes instantly lit up.

He raised his head, glanced at the king standing at the head of the long table, his lips moved, but he didn't know how to word the message.

After hesitating for two seconds, he stood up, held the telegram in both hands, walked to the king's side, and bowed to present it.

"His Majesty."

His voice was lowered to a level that only the two of them could hear, "A secret report came from Hucheng. Nanjing has sent a secret envoy."

The king took the telegram and glanced at it.

His brows furrowed, then slowly relaxed, and finally he couldn't help but burst into laughter.

"The Chairman of the Nanjing government actually sent a secret envoy to sue for peace, offering to pay 30 million taels of silver in war reparations."

"The only condition is that both sides shake hands and make peace."

The meeting room erupted in uproar.

Nanjiro's eyes widened, and Doihara's mouth gaped open enough to fit an egg.

The Imperial Army generals in the Northeast were utterly defeated by Zhang Xueming, the Navy was too scared to leave port by the planes, and the Cabinet trembled in fear of the King's wrath.

Everyone was worried about how to deal with that madman named Zhang Xueming, and then the Chairman actually took the initiative to send someone to sue for peace.

He also brought with him thirty million taels of silver.

The meeting room erupted in chaos.

Just now, at the cabinet meeting at headquarters, everyone's faces were deathly pale, as if they had just attended a funeral, as if their parents had died.

In fact, for the Empire, the blow from the Northeast war report was almost like a funeral.

Army Minister Minami Jiro shifted the blame to Doihara, who then brought up the name Zhang Xueming.

At this moment, they were overjoyed, as if their parents had been brought back to life.

"Your Majesty, I suggest that we increase our claims. The Chairman is afraid of us; he would never dare to go to war with us."

"Since we can't gain any advantage from the Northeast Army, we'll make up for it from Chiang Kai-shek."

"We demand that the Chairman pay 300 million taels of silver in reparations, or we will march on Nanjing. Even if we don't get 300 million taels in the end, it will definitely be far more than 30 million taels."

Everyone was drawn to the suggestion and raised their hands in agreement.

The king immediately ordered the foreign ambassador to Hucheng to extort money from the empire, using the Nanjing government's funds to compensate for the empire's losses, and then use the Nanjing government's silver to buy tanks and completely eliminate Zhang Xueming.