Chapter 594 Tiger of South Asia (13)

Colonel Takeda Ko is a descendant of an Osaka merchant. Unlike most army officers and soldiers who come from extremely poor backgrounds, he is a typical second-generation rich man, and he is also the most favored youngest son. It is rare for people from such a family to choose to join the army.

Osaka soldiers have always had a bad reputation in the Japanese army. They like to play with empty things in war. They have the worst spirit of hard work and endurance in normal training. They rush forward when the wind is favorable, and run far away when fighting hard and fighting to the death. But this is for ordinary infantry divisions. For the tank divisions that claim to be superior, the flexible brains of Osaka soldiers are still very useful. Most of the Osaka soldiers from the city have a higher level of education, which is very needed for the tank troops that need more cultural knowledge.

Takeda Ko was born in a good condition. His father was rich and spoiled him. He basically did not suffer. When he was very young, he played Harley motorcycles and Ford Model T cars with his brothers, and developed a fearless character. As he gradually grew up, his shrewd father thought of an unusual way out for this son of a businessman: considering that Takeda Gong had several capable brothers who could inherit the family business, and the youngest son himself seemed to have no interest in doing business, he hoped that he could join the army or politics to provide a reliable backer for the family in the future.

Takeda Gong had no interest in politics and becoming a member of parliament, but he was very enthusiastic about being a soldier. He was originally going to be sent to the navy, but his enthusiasm for vehicles far exceeded his yearning for giant ships and cannons. When he was still a middle school student during World War I, he learned about the majesty of chariots through newspapers. Although he had never served as a soldier for a day, he intuitively believed that chariots were the future development direction of the army. If he wanted to serve in the army, he must go to the chariot unit, not the superior cavalry unit at that time.

The father was shocked by the maturity and persistence of his youngest son. In the end, the family meeting decided to use all resources to arrange for Takeda to study in a military academy and must learn chariots. As a price, except for a large sum of money for his future marriage, the rest of the family property would not be divided. The youngest son agreed to this without any hesitation.

To achieve this goal, the Takeda family did not hesitate to curry favor with Baron Obata Miinai, spent a large sum of money to pave the way for Takeda Osamu to join the army, and let him become a disciple of Obata Toshishiro, the third son of Baron Obata Miinai. The latter was 17 years older than Takeda Osamu, joined the army at a young age, and studied all the way from the Osaka Army Junior School. In 1914, when he was only 29 years old, he graduated with the 23rd class of the Army University Sword Group. Later, he served as a military attaché in Russia and was one of the first tank unit generals of the Japanese Army. His future was limitless - becoming his disciple was a very far-sighted investment.

At that time, there were many people who wanted to curry favor with Obata Toshishiro, and Takeda Osamu was just one of them, and he was considered to be one of the poorer ones (the status of a merchant's son was not too high). Except for a little money and the status of a non-commissioned officer, the rest was not worth mentioning at all. Obata Toshishiro only accepted this student because of his father's face. However, Takeda's smooth, clever and sociable characteristics soon came into play, and he was particularly able to win the favor of his teacher. In addition, his understanding of machinery and armored warfare was very profound, which made his teacher like him very much. Later, he regarded him as his favorite disciple.

In 1921, Nagata Tetsuzan, Obata Toshishiro and Okamura Yasuji held a secret alliance in the hot springs of Baden-Baden, Germany, and vowed to use the Choshu clan as a tool to "improve politics". They were called the "Three Crows" of the Showa warlord army. The one who was guarding the door was Tojo Hideki, who later became the prime minister. Because he was one year lower than the "Three Crows" in the non-commissioned officer school, he had nothing to do except lighting cigarettes for Nagata Tetsuzan and standing guard at the door of the steam bath. He could not be included in the "Three Crows" and could not participate in their discussions.

Even so, Tojo Hideki did not shy away from talking about this matter even after becoming prime minister. Instead, he was proud of being able to guard the door. In addition to the four from Baden-Baden, the "Three Crows" also selected seven young officers who did not belong to the Choshu clan to form the 11-member "Baden-Baden Group", including the military attaché in Berlin, Michijiro Umezu, the military attaché in Bern, Tomoyuki Yamashita, the military attaché in Cologne, and others, all of whom were the most famous figures in the army later.

As time went on, Obata Toshishiro's status in the army gradually rose and became very popular. In 1932, he served as the chief of the Operations Section of the General Staff for the second time. Although his military rank was not up to that of a general, he was the most important department under the chief and deputy chief of the General Staff and was regarded as the core of the General Staff. Generally speaking, any opinion unanimously approved by the Operations Section cannot be easily rejected by the superiors. It is precisely because of this that if a new chief comes to power, the chief of the Operations Section must be replaced by his own people (now the General Staff is controlled by Ishihara Kanji, and the section is full of Ishihara faction or pro-Ishihara faction people).

Obata Toshishiro and Araki Sadao became the core of the Imperial Way Faction. Of course, he also had to cultivate his own team. With the help of people in the court, Takeda Ko was promoted all the way. He became a lieutenant colonel before the age of 35 and married the daughter of a member of parliament.

On the surface, a 35-year-old lieutenant colonel seems to be a handful in the army, but for Takeda Ko, who has never attended any army junior school, graduated from an ordinary middle school and applied for a non-commissioned officer school, and his graduation ranking is not the highest, it is almost a great fortune. For a lieutenant colonel, the place and department of employment also determine the future prospects. Takeda Ko is not in an ordinary army unit, but in the most core guards division and tank division of the army. When he goes out shopping, his nose is upturned.

According to the original planned path, as long as Takeda Ko and his backers do not have any problems, he is completely sure to become a lieutenant general of the army before the age of 50. As for whether he can become a general of the army, it depends on opportunities and luck.

Things had been developing smoothly, but something went wrong. Before the February 26th Incident, the Baden-Baden Group had split, forming a confrontation between the Imperial Way Faction and the Rule Faction. Although the members of the Three Crows had good personal relationships with each other, they were completely opposed in political stance. Then there was a series of major events: the Rule Faction occupied a key position in the army, and its core member, Nagata Tetsuzan, was hacked to death while serving as the Director of the Military Affairs Bureau. The Imperial Way Faction launched the February 26th Incident, and Ishiwara Kanji insisted on increasing pressure. After the failure of the incident, Obata Toshishiro and Araki Sadao were purged and forced to stand aside.

Takeda Ko was of course implicated. He did not participate in the incident at all. At that time, he was studying at the Army University and was preparing to go to the General Staff Headquarters for a transition of two years after graduation, and then he could naturally go to the tank division as the commander of the regiment. But the result of the treatment was based on faction rather than position and action. As soon as his teacher fell, he immediately went from a young lieutenant colonel who was on the rise to a role that no one cared about. He was supposed to be promoted or promoted after graduating from the Army University, but he got nothing. Instead, he was assigned to the baggage unit as a lieutenant colonel - in the name of using his mechanized transportation expertise.

Anyone with a discerning eye knew that the status of the Japanese army's baggage unit was extremely low. Not to mention that it could not be compared with the tank division, even the ordinary infantry division looked down on the baggage unit. After 6-7 years of wasted time, the superiors gave him the rank of colonel, which was better than nothing. It took him 13 years to go from a second lieutenant to a lieutenant colonel, and another 8 years to be promoted from a lieutenant colonel to a colonel, returning all the rocket speed he had accumulated before.

But he didn't mind at all, and didn't complain about his teacher. Even in the environment where everyone was in danger of liquidating the Imperial Way faction, he still maintained a close relationship and communication with Obata Toshishiro. He also took advantage of his relatively free time in the baggage unit to continue to study and master the Soviet armored tactics and deep combat theory, and was as proficient in Russian as his teacher.

The fact is so strange: although Tojo Hideki and Obata Toshishiro were both Baden-Baden companions, he was not close to the latter and was always lukewarm; while Ishiwara Kanji, who advocated the use of force to purge the officers of the February 26th Mutiny, and Okamura Yasuji, the commander of the North China Expeditionary Army, believed that Obata Toshishiro had real talents and could be reused, so they enthusiastically invited him to come out. At this time, Obata Toshishiro had to stay in the country due to poor health. He successively rejected Okamura Yasuji and Ishiwara Kanji's invitations to come out, but tried his best to push Takeda Ko, his proud and loyal disciple, out. So Takeda Kou, who was almost sitting on the bench, suddenly had a change of fortune and became one of the four commanders of the newly formed 4th Tank Division.

The four regiments each chose a country's tank as equipment. Takeda Kou's 22nd Regiment chose Soviet equipment because of him, and was nicknamed the Soviet Regiment. The 7th Tank Regiment, which was started by Nagura Kan, chose German equipment, and the 18th and 19th Regiments chose British, French and American equipment respectively.

According to Yamashita Tomoyuki and Nagura Kan's original idea, after 10 days of training, the German regiment would definitely be the winner. Not only did they receive a lot of education from the German army's experience in use, but the performance and stability of German equipment should be the best. As a result, the result of the competition on the 10th day was surprising: it was Takeda Kou's Soviet regiment that won the final victory. Whether it was a routine use exercise or a brigade-to-brigade level confrontation, the Soviet regiment, mainly composed of T-60 and T-34, steadily overwhelmed the German regiment composed of No. 3 and No. 4.

Even Scheer was stunned by the result of the competition. He knew very well that except for a few T-34s, none of them were equipped with radios. When asked how Takeda Gong did this, the latter only said: "German tanks are indeed more advanced, but they also require higher coordination from people. We used to use a 4-man crew. After changing to a 5-man crew of a German tank, the order was disrupted. I don't think it will be more adaptable than the 4-man crew of T-34 in a short period of time. In addition, please forgive me for being frank. Soviet tanks are not delicate and easy to operate. At this stage, they are more suitable for us who are not good enough. Otherwise, why don't your experts recommend imitating the No. 3 or No. 4, but only recommend us to imitate the T-34?"

This high-sounding theory convinced everyone, so Takeda Gong naturally became the highest commander of the Japanese landing force that day. Facing the temporary unfavorable situation on the battlefield, he released a big move...