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March 1, 1948
Nanjing, China
Even in Kazakh, India and Tibet, I encountered crowds of people welcoming my visit.
However, upon entering Nanjing, a huge number of people flocked to see the German President.
When I returned to Berlin after France's surrender, I saw crowds of Berliners flocking to see me.
The streets were filled with people, and so many people were worried that a stampede would occur that the police and SS were sweating as countless people flocked to the Presidential Residence.
However, in Nanjing, there were people who were several times larger than the welcoming crowd of citizens I encountered in Berlin.
The streets were packed with no room to walk, and people were even climbing on street trees and electric poles.
The rooftops and windows of the buildings were filled with people, and the roads where cars passed were covered with flowers thrown by Nanjing citizens, giving the illusion that one was passing through a flower field rather than a road.
"Hitler! Hitler! Hitler!"
"Heil Hitler!!"
"everyone! Führer Hitler has come to Nanjing! He has come!!"
People kept chanting my name and cheering loudly.
The sound was so loud that it made my ears tingle.
"That's a really huge number. "It makes me wonder if all the citizens of Nanjing came out."
As I clicked my tongue at the jaw-dropping crowd, Brauchitch, who was also present, spoke as if he sympathized.
"This is the mood of the continent. Huh... … ."
"I wonder if China, like Austria, will request annexation with Germany."
At Rommel's words, Brauchitsch and Reichenau burst into laughter. Rommel himself laughed out loud at the joke he had told.
It was a good thing there were no Chinese people in the car. Wow, really.
"What do you think, sir? How does it feel to be back in Nanjing again?"
"yes… … I am very moved."
Buddha Yon Rabe of Nanjing.
After 10 years, he returned to the city where he had saved 250,000 people from the Japanese army, and his heart was more excited than anyone else.
"Yon Rabe! Yon Rabe!"
With the Red Flag and Hakenkreuz flags waving everywhere, people who recognized Rabe called his name in unison.
I don't know about other places, but in China, especially here in Nanjing, he is probably more popular than me.
Just like the Dalai Lama, Chiang Kai-shek was waiting for me in front of the Presidential Office with ministers and an honor guard. As we shook hands, the cheers of the people grew louder.
The honor guard fired a salute, and the National Revolutionary Army fighter planes flew, drawing a Hakenkreuz pattern in the sky.
It was obvious how much China had prepared for today's event.
"Welcome to China, President. Do you know how much the entire Chinese people have been waiting for this day to come?"
"No one will know how long I've waited for this day, too."
"Hahaha!"
"It's been a while, Marshal Falkenhausen. "Have you been okay so far?"
"Of course, Mr. President."
After a brief greeting with Chiang Kai-shek and Falkenhausen, I went up to the podium to give a speech to the citizens of Nanjing who had gathered to see me.
Even though I simply went up to the solidarity stand and stood in front of the microphone, endless new cheers came out of people's mouths.
"Nice to meet you, dear citizens of Nanjing. German Fuhrer Adolf Hitler greets you."
"Oooooh!!!"
The voices were so loud that it took almost three minutes for the next word to be spoken.
"In the past, China suffered indescribable hardship and humiliation. Just like Germany did."
The cheering slowly died down and people now listened to my words and gestures.
With 3 million Nanjing citizens looking at me, my words echoed throughout Nanjing through microphones and speakers.
"Nanjing was wounded. Nanjing was destroyed. Nanjing was tortured. But Nanjing was liberated."
"No words can describe the hardships you went through. But you overcame them all, and with your own hands you drove out the foreign enemies and rebuilt your destroyed city." On behalf of Germany, I salute the struggles and efforts of the citizens of Nanjing."
"And here is a man you should know. His name is Jon Rabe. As a proud German citizen and National Socialist, he was a righteous man who had the courage to protect precious lives from injustice when the Japanese army burned, destroyed, and tortured Nanjing."
When I stepped away from the podium to make room for Rabe, he went up to the podium with a puzzled expression.
"Yo, this is Yon Rabe… … ."
As he spoke into the microphone, the volcano erupted.
Like boiling lava, people's heat would not cool down.
***
Chiang Kai-shek, who emerged as the undisputed ruler of the Central Plains, has been in a very uneasy mood recently.
Tibet has been a part of China since ancient times. Although Tibet had no choice but to take advantage of the chaos to separate from China, formally Tibet was still Chinese territory.
Although he had no intention of taking away autonomy from the Tibetans, Chiang Kai-shek was thinking of one day annexing Tibet again as part of great China.
Britain, Japan, and the Soviet Union, all of which tried to annex Tibet, have all failed, so who can dare to stop China?
Americans are too busy keeping Germany in check and won't pay much attention to what China is doing in Tibet.
However, the story changed when Germany recognized Tibet as an official country.
Although it may have been a change of heart, Hitler accepted Tibet's request to recognize it as an official country.
As soon as Germany's approval was lost, Europe and the Axis Alliance member countries all recognized Tibet as an official country.
Then, the United States, the Commonwealth, and South American countries also recognized Tibet as a country, as if they would not be defeated.
Chiang Kai-shek's plan to annex Tibet fell apart even before detailed discussions could be held.
What was even more heartbreaking was that I could not complain to anyone or show my dissatisfaction with Germany.
What kind of country is Germany? Isn't China a world superpower that ranks shoulder to shoulder with the United States and is the second country to support China after the United States?
Currently, the relationship between Germany and China is indescribably good. But is it really necessary to cause trouble in the relationship between Germany and China because of the issue of Tibet recognition? If you do that, everyone around you will call you crazy.
Therefore, Chiang Kai-shek could not even mention the Tibet issue and had to suffer internally.
China must become great again. Becoming great here means that China must regain its old territory that was lost through the years of shame.
It was for that very reason that Chiang Kai-shek brought up the topic of Mongolia to Hitler.
"Mongolia has been a powerhouse of China since ancient times."
"okay."
sniffling. Hitler answered briefly and drank tea.
Although he was not particularly hoping for a positive response, Chiang Kai-shek was somewhat discouraged by Hitler's dry response.
However, he continued talking without stopping.
"Then the damn Russians invaded and separated Mongolia into China and turned it into their own puppet state. The imperialists disappeared into history, and the communists who followed them."
"Hmm."
Hitler still didn't react in any way. But he didn't even try to change the topic of conversation.
Chiang Kai-shek, who interpreted this as a signal to continue, revealed his true intentions.
"Mongolia should become Chinese territory again."
"Do you mean to invade Mongolia?"
Chiang Kai-shek nodded. And waited for Hitler's answer.
How will Hitler react?
"If it is something that the President has decided on, I don't think it is my place to argue."
"Can we view those words as acquiescence to the Mongol invasion?"
"It's okay to think so."
Chiang Kai-shek's face brightened. As expected. He thought that Hitler would understand what he said. He believed that someone who hated the Communist Party more than anyone else and cried for its destruction would understand what he said.
"Have we discussed this with the United States?"
"Not yet."
This fact has not yet been reported to the United States. What more can come out of the mouths of arrogant Yankees than asking if they are preparing for another war when they are already busy recovering from the damage caused by the war?
As the post-war damage was being restored with the aid of the United States, even Chiang Kai-shek had no choice but to keep an eye on the United States. As such, he was still keeping his ambitions for Mongolia a secret from the United States.
"Germany will maintain complete neutrality against China's invasion of Mongolia. But I don't know how the United States will come out."
Whoop. Hitler took another sip of tea and continued his speech.
"No matter how the United States maintains its neutrality, the Red Army remains."
The United States was also a problem, but the biggest hurdle remained: the Soviet Union.
Everyone knows that Mongolia is a puppet state of the Soviet Union, but will the Soviet Union just sit back and watch as its own puppet state is attacked?
Like Hitler, Chiang Kai-shek knew that the Soviet Union would intervene if China attacked Mongolia. But he had different ideas from Hitler.
"Of course I know. But don't worry. "The Soviet army can no longer be a great opponent of China."
Hitler looked embarrassed for the first time since the meeting began. Chiang Kai-shek quietly waited for Hitler's rebuttal.
"… … I'm offended, but I don't think the Soviet Union is an opponent worth looking down on. "Although they lost the war, the Soviet Union still has an army of 5 million people, armed with thousands of tanks, fighter jets, and tens of thousands of cannons."
"But many of those troops, equipment, and supplies are deployed along the Ural Mountains."
Chiang Kai-shek was not unaware of the fact that approximately 80% of Soviet troops were deployed in the Ural Mountains and on the border of the newly independent nation of Kazakhstan in preparation for a re-invasion by Germany.
The Soviet army is certainly not an opponent to be taken lightly, but the Mongolian army without the Soviet army is no match for the National Revolutionary Army.
The National Revolutionary Army, which is no better than a ragtag group of people, is now a thing of the past.
Through seven years of war and support from Germany and the United States, the National Revolutionary Army was reborn as the strongest army in Asia in name and reality.
Even if China invades Mongolia, the Soviet Union will not be able to move because it is busy keeping Germany in check. At most, it will send only a few divisions. It is also a third-class division made up of child soldiers and elderly people.
Chiang Kai-shek knew from Dai Li's report that the number of 5 million was the result of including divisions containing a large number of child soldiers and old soldiers.
It was obvious that the Soviet and Mongolian armies, made up of half-babys, would be no match for the elite divisions of the National Revolutionary Army trained in the German style.
If the Soviet Union rallies its entire army to seize Ulaanbaatar and announce the annexation of Mongolia... … !
Chiang Kai-shek already had a winning strategy in mind. It cannot be said that there are no variables, but if not now, you never know when such an opportunity will come.
To annex Mongolia, now was the right time, as the Soviet Union had not yet fully recovered from the damage of the war.
Although he did not tell Hitler, Chiang Kai-shek's goals did not stop at Mongolia. After the annexation of Mongolia was completed, he also planned to someday annex the outer Manchuria region as Chinese territory.
Unlike Mongolia, Outer Manchuria was Soviet territory, so the Soviet Union would resist more strongly than ever, but in the end it would bow before the power of popularization and admit defeat.
The United States governs the Americas, Oceania, and the South Pacific, Germany governs Europe, the Middle East, and India, and China governs Asia and the Western Pacific.
A peaceful world where the three superpowers of the United States, Germany, and China rule the world, and weak countries comply with the new order.
This was Chiang Kai-shek's plan.
***
My mind was racing all the way back to my accommodation after the meeting.
A sudden Mongol invasion. why?
Since I can't look into Chiang Kai-shek's mind, I can only guess, but I saw on the Internet a long time ago that Chiang Kai-shek, who was a believer in Sinocentrism, once said that all of China's former territories should be recovered.
In fact, until 2012, Taiwan considered all of China and Mongolia to be its unrecovered territories.
However, since Germany recognized Tibet as an official country and established various cooperative relations with Tibet, even if you want to eat Tibet, you cannot.
Ignoring this and invading Tibet is tantamount to openly declaring that you will not pay any attention to us, but Chiang Kai-shek is not a person who will go that far.
Therefore, since they can no longer eat Tibet, they may be targeting Mongolia by saying they eat chicken instead of pheasant. Or, they may have thought that even if they gave up on Tibet, they must eat Mongolia.
Regardless of what was real, it seemed clear that he was determined to annex Mongolia. In actual history, there was a time when Mongolia was not even considered because of the war with the Communist Party, but here the Chinese Communist Party was long ago destroyed.
Now that I have some spare time, it is not unreasonable to decide to slowly reclaim the 'unrecovered territory'.
Even the Soviet Union, which would be the biggest obstacle to Mongolia's annexation, would think that it was a fight they had no choice but to win since they were barely surviving after being torn in half.
As Chiang Kai-shek said, if China is planning to invade Mongolia, now is the right time. Nevertheless, I found it difficult to agree with Chiang Kai-shek's opinion.
What happens to Mongolia is none of my business. It is not a country whose interests are directly intertwined with Germany, but a country that acts as a puppet of the Soviet Union, so what does it matter whether it collapses or not?
The problem is that the situation in China is not that good right now.
Although it has been almost four years since the end of the war, China has still not fully recovered from the damage caused by the war. Even in rural areas, more and more people are starving to death due to lack of food, and there is no sign of the Kuomintang's corruption being resolved. It's not visible.
However, in actual history, Chiang Kai-shek, who fled to Taiwan after losing the Chinese Civil War, carried out major reforms, saying he would not repeat previous failures, solving the problem of corruption and laying the foundation for Taiwan to grow into an economic powerhouse, but the Chinese Civil War itself did not occur here. Since there is no will to solve corruption, there is no will.
Lastly, the warlords under Chiang Kai-shek are also playing separately.
At least they managed to unify during the Sino-Japanese War, but will the warlords really respond to the risky gamble of a Mongol invasion now that the Sino-Japanese War is over?
Why do we keep trying to take the difficult path instead of taking the easy path? What on earth is that damn territory?