On September 18, 1931, after the Japanese Kwantung Army blew up the South Manchurian Railway, it framed the Chinese army, and then used this as an excuse to brazenly attack Shenyang and the Beida Camp where the Northeast Army was stationed.
From brazenly launching an attack to occupying Shenyang, Japan's ambition to devour and encroach on Northeast China was clearly exposed, and in order to achieve this goal, the Japanese army had been planning for a long time, and it had made full preparations, and it was doing everything possible to take Northeast China into its pocket.
In short, Japan at that time coveted the Northeast very much, and the reason why this was so was because the Northeast was Japan's last hope for "resurrection" at that time.
Why? We can look at the serious situation in Japan before 918.
Those who are familiar with modern history know that the rise of Japan began with the Meiji Restoration, which was a symbolic transformation of Japan from a feudal society to a capitalist society.
The impact of the Meiji Restoration on Japan was very far-reaching, and the economic impact was huge, and at that time, Japan was like being opened up to the second line of governors, and it took only a few decades to industrialize from a feudal society-dominated country, and finally greatly improved the country's overall economic strength.
In the vernacular, through the "Meiji Restoration", Japan went from being a poor man to becoming a nouveau riche.
Many people will attribute this to a series of internal reform measures in Japan, but in fact, internal reform measures are important, but this is only one of them, not all, relying on this alone, in terms of the situation at that time, it will not be able to achieve essential changes, at least not as successful as after the Meiji Restoration in Japan.
For example, at the end of the Qing Dynasty, the Qing court also had a "Westernization Movement", the basic nature of which was similar to that of the Meiji Restoration, but why did the Qing court end in failure?
Of course, some people will say that the Qing court was conformist and pedantic in its thinking, but in addition, another reason for the failure of the Qing court's "Westernization Movement" was the lack of "guides", in our vernacular, that is, the lack of "noble people to help".
The success of Japan's "Meiji Restoration" was due to the help of "nobles", with the help of which Japan passed the initial stage of development relatively smoothly, and then achieved a soaring leap on this basis.
So who is this "nobleman" who helped Japan? Naturally, it is the United Kingdom, which was once known as the "empire on which the sun never sets".
Of course, as the saying goes, there is no love for no reason, and Britain's help is not without purpose, and the reason why it is willing to help Japan is to think about supporting Japan so that it can contain and deal with Tsarist Russia.
With this purpose, Britain almost taught Japan how to industrialize and how to build a modern national system, and also gave Japan a lot of military guidance, not to mention loans, basically giving as much as they could.
With the help of the British, Japan quickly stood up, not only economically, but also militarily stronger, and it was precisely because of this that the powerful Japan defeated the Qing Dynasty and Tsarist Russia in the "First Sino-Japanese Naval Battle" and the "First Russo-Japanese War" respectively.
With these two achievements, Japan has also been recognized by Western countries as one of the "great powers".
But these two wars have brought different "gains" to Japan, this time, Japan extorted as much as 230 million silver from the Qing Dynasty, which can be regarded as a ruthless profit, but the time against Tsarist Russia, it almost made Japan lose the bottom.
What's going on? To put it simply, it is a horizontal encounter with a deadly person.
At that time, in order to defeat Tsarist Russia, Japan can be said to have invested a huge amount, almost all the belongings saved since the Meiji Restoration, and also borrowed a huge amount of loans from Britain to pay for high military spending.
Originally, Japan was thinking that after winning the war, it would be able to knock on another one like the last time it blackmailed the Qing Dynasty, so that not only could the British loan be repaid, but it could also make a lot of money, but as a result, it was indeed a win if it won the war, but on the side of Tsarist Russia, it simply said happily that if you don't want money, don't think about land, if you are not convinced, then you will fight again.
If Japan had money in its hands and could support it to continue fighting, I believe that Japan would definitely teach Tsarist Russia a lesson, but the problem was that Japan really had no money at that time, so it would not be able to fight.
This situation has made Japan very angry, but it is also helpless, and Tsarist Russia has also pinched this point, and from the beginning to the end, it has always been an attitude of "asking for money, but having the ability to take it".
In the end, Japan had no choice but to agree to the mediation of Britain and the United States and other countries, in short, in the end, although Japan was the victor in this war, it did not get the desired result.
And in this way, Japan is embarrassed.
At that time, the situation faced by Japan was like a gambler who borrowed a circle of loan sharks, prepared to win a big win after the stud, and then relied on the money won to pay off the old debt, but the stud ended but did not win the money, but the creditor urged him to repay the debt immediately.
Some people say no, what can you do? As far as Britain's strength at that time was concerned, if Japan really dared to repay its debts, then Britain had a way to make up for its losses, and anyway, Japan did not dare not to pay it back, and it was impossible not to pay it back.
In this way, Japan reached the point of crumbling overnight, and it is not an exaggeration to say that it was almost on the eve of collapse, and just when Japan was almost unsustainable, World War I broke out.
The outbreak of World War I gave Japan a chance to breathe, and at that time, European countries were in full swing, and Britain, as the head of the Entente, rushed to the front, and in this case, naturally there was no time to take care of Japan for the time being.
Not only did Japan have a temporary respite, but at the same time, due to the huge consumption of materials in the war, and because it was not affected by the war, Japan received a large number of orders for various materials.
According to statistics, in the three years from 1915 to 1918 alone, Japan earned 1.41 billion yen in export trade, and the pressure on foreign debt was greatly reduced.
However, there is a saying that there is no 100-day red flower, and good life is not always sustainable, and Western countries do not want to see Japan live a "good life" so easily, so after the end of World War I, Western countries that have freed up their hands soon adopted a series of high-pressure policies against Japan, including but not limited to trade sanctions and so on.
Due to the deliberate targeting of Western countries, Japan's life is becoming more and more difficult, especially the economic aspect has been greatly affected, but this is only the beginning, and even greater difficulties are coming.
First, in 1923, Japan was hit by a rare and strong earthquake, the Great Kanto Earthquake, which reached a magnitude of 7.9 (some say 8.1 magnitude), directly causing about 100,000 casualties, and even three members of the Japanese imperial family were killed in the earthquake.
In addition to the casualties, the economic damage caused by the Great Kanto Earthquake to Japan reached astronomical levels, and it also caused turmoil in the country.
And that's not all, a few years later, a global recession hit Japan even harder.
As we all know, Japan is a country that is highly dependent on export trade, and only when export trade remains normal can it meet its imports of grain, oil and other materials, but because of the global economic recession, it has led to a great reduction in Japan's export trade, according to statistics, the reduction once reached more than 70%.
As a result, a large number of companies in Japan closed down, and the number of unemployed people increased dramatically.
From this, it is conceivable that Japan at that time had reached the point where it was unsustainable, and it is not an exaggeration to describe the people's livelihood as withering and in dire straits.
Even in order to combat the economic crisis, Japan had to reduce its troops, but it was a drop in the bucket.
How to solve this dilemma? At that time, the Japanese cabinet also racked its brains, and some people suggested that it was better to plunder wealth by waging war, which was the fastest and most effective way to turn the situation around.
As for who and where to wage war, needless to say, it is the northeast of China.
As for why Tohoku was chosen, it was because it was so rich, and in the eyes of Japan at that time, Tohoku was a treasure land, in addition to the fertile land that could be harvested by planting anything, there were countless mineral resources, such as oil, gold, and coal, which were almost everywhere.
Such a place, if you grab it in your own hands, you can solve too many problems.
And for this proposal, including the emperor and the cabinet at the time, some people did not have much confidence at first, why? First, the Northeast Army was huge and its strength should not be underestimated, and second, Japan's economy was weak at that time, and if it lost this war, then Japan could be transferred directly from the ICU to the crematorium.
Even if it does not fail for the time being, but confronts the Northeast Army, then Japan will not be able to hold out for long.
Therefore, for this obviously somewhat risky suggestion, the Japanese top brass was hesitant at first, but the junior officers headed by Ishihara Waner relied on the method of "going down to the top" to plan and carry out the "918" incident without authorization, and in the end, because of the inaction of the Northeast Army, these Japanese lower-level officers made the right bet.
And after learning that the Northeast Army withdrew without resistance, the Japanese were almost crazy.
They didn't expect that the treasure land of the Northeast would be so easily obtained, and they didn't expect that when they were dying, they would get the super luxury life-sustaining gift package of the Northeast.
Immediately, Japan launched a frenzied ransack of the Northeast.
What did Japan rob of in Tohoku? In order to settle this account clearly, we must know how rich the Northeast was before 918, first of all, in terms of grain, because of the fertile land, the area suitable for cultivated land in the three eastern provinces at that time ranked first in the country in terms of per capita cultivated land, reaching more than six times the average level of the provinces outside the three eastern provinces.
These lands produced one-fifth of China's grain at that time, and in 1930 alone, the total output of various agricultural products in the three eastern provinces reached more than 19 million tons.
According to relevant data, the proven coal reserves in the three eastern provinces at that time were as high as 1.45 billion tons, and as for the iron reserves, Liaoning alone reached more than 600 million tons, and this is not counting those large and small gold, silver, copper and other minerals.
The huge output of grain, coupled with rich mineral resources, gave Northeast China a foundation for rapid development, and under the management of Zhang's father and son, Northeast China became the most economically developed region in the country at that time, and it was also the region with the strongest military capability in the country.
It not only has aircraft, navy and other troops, but also has the largest arsenal in the country, that is, the Shenyang Arsenal, and the various weapons manufactured here almost surpassed the world-class level at that time.
As for other aspects, such as the civilian chemical industry and various manufacturing and processing industries, it is no exaggeration to say that the Northeast at that time has come to the forefront of the country and even Asia.
But all of this eventually fell to the enemy.
According to relevant records, after 918, some people made rough statistics, and the property losses of the Northeast officials alone reached more than 5 billion US dollars, of which, in Shenyang Marshal Mansion alone, the Japanese obtained 2.56 million taels of gold, which is only the gold grabbed in Shuaifu, as for the non-governmental people, it is an immeasurable figure.
One would think that where would there be so much gold in Shuaifu? In fact, this is not an exaggeration, you must know that the large and small gold mines all over the Northeast produce a large amount of gold every year, and the Zhang father and son have been operating in the Northeast for many years, so naturally most of them have entered the Shuai Mansion.
In addition to the sacking of the Marshal's Mansion, the Japanese army also looted a total of 1.06 billion silver dollars in the major military and political organs and banks in the Northeast.
You must know that in the "Treaty of Shimonoseki", Japan extorted 230 million silver (about 368 million silver dollars) to make its mouth full of oil, and this is more than 1 billion silver dollars, you know, at that time, the annual tax revenue of the national government was only about 700 million.
And this is only a rough count of official losses, the specific number is certainly much more than that, and this is only the loss of real money, and other losses have not been calculated in detail.
Among them, the most distressing is the Shenyang Arsenal, at that time, the Shenyang Arsenal, whether it is the scale of production or the level of production, has reached the forefront of Asia, and also produced a large number of finished weapons and equipment, according to records, in the Japanese looting machine, only guns, artillery and all kinds of ammunition, there are enough 20 army divisions to equip the number.
But these were all pocketed by the Japanese army, not to mention those priceless production lines, which were also taken by the Japanese army.
And these are only a fraction of the fraction of what Japan gained during its plundering of Northeast China, and what really benefited it greatly was the massive mineral, forest and food resources of Northeast China.
For example, in addition to directly snatching a large amount of grain reserves in the northeast, Japan has also migrated a large number of reclamation groups from its own country to the northeast, and through these operations, the situation of food shortage in Japan has been greatly improved and alleviated.
Another example is the forest resources, after 918, Japan began to cut down the forest areas in the northeast, transporting the equivalent of 50,000 square kilometers of timber in the forest area, and it is still high-quality wood, which is said to have been used by Japan for decades.
As for those minerals, Japan has made a lot of money, and if these grains, forests, and food resources are included, then the wealth that Japan has looted from the Northeast has reached an unimaginable and immeasurable level.
These plundered resources and wealth not only brought Japan back to life, but also gave it a sufficient material foundation, and even made its ambition to invade even greater, and finally under the impetus of this ambition, it laid the groundwork for Japan's full-scale invasion of China and even the expansion of the war to the Pacific Ocean.