Ushijima Sadao sat blankly in the division headquarters built of logs, steel plates and sandbags, his face extremely gloomy.
This should be the day when the Japanese Army Lieutenant General felt the most defeated in his 37 years.
Yes, after graduating from the non-commissioned officer school 37 years ago and entering the army as an infantry second lieutenant, he participated in the glory of the war with Russia, but also the decadence of being transferred to the Army University as an instructor and even being promoted to lieutenant general and being included in the reserve force.
, encountered the biggest dilemma after entering China with great ambitions. A heavy artillery brigade following the division was attacked by the Chinese at night and was completely shattered.
But none of these were as big a blow as a seemingly tiny psychological fluctuation this evening.
More than an hour ago, the leading soldier in charge of the reconnaissance position came to report that there were gunshots and explosions on the Chinese flank, and it seemed that soldiers were gathering.
Normally, Ushijima Sadao, as the supreme commander of the 20,000-strong army, would not pay any attention to this news personally. That is what the commanders at the front line should pay attention to.
However, the Japanese brigade commanders who heard this information were extremely nervous at that moment and ordered the frontline infantry to enter the trenches and stand by. As the top commander, Ushijima Sadao himself also strictly ordered the frontline to send reconnaissance troops to the flanks of the Chinese defense line.
Closely monitor military operations on its flanks.
Until twenty minutes ago, the vanguard from the front line reported that the Chinese had not taken any action. The sound of gunfire should be their internal testing. As for testing personnel or equipment, the nearest reconnaissance vanguard was more than 1,500 meters away from their defense line.
Meter can only be judged from the sound, and its true condition is unknown.
Ushijima Sadao breathed a sigh of relief involuntarily.
But then there was unspeakable melancholy, even pain.
When did the Chinese become able to easily test the performance of personnel and weapons on the battlefield, while the mighty Imperial Japanese Army was facing a formidable enemy?
This subtle psychological change made Ushijima Sadao's expression extremely ugly. He knew in his heart that this change was not due to anything else, but from a lack of self-confidence.
A week of continuous unfavorable attacks, coupled with the destruction of the 6th Heavy Artillery Brigade, has cast a haze on the hearts of the Imperial Army, which once cheered for victory and marched forward bravely. However, after these two days of cessation, the Tenth Army Headquarters
Strictly ordering the 18th Division to stand still was like the straw that broke the camel's back.
The military already believed that the 18th Division alone would not be able to break through the Chinese defense line. The Imperial Army's self-confidence was gradually consumed by this lack of trust, so that from him onwards, no one heard the Chinese's gunfire
The sound was like a frightened bird, and the whole army was on alert.
It is extremely difficult for human beings to admit that they are extremely weak, let alone for a Japanese army lieutenant general who was once full of self-confidence and wanted to make achievements in a foreign country.
Dare to admit your own weakness is progress, but your mood will never be too good.
For Ushijima Sadao, who has been sitting in the division headquarters for a long time, the only way to solve this sorrow is to attack, rely on the power of the division to break through the Chinese defense line, and reshape the 18th Division.
Confidence up and down.
Ten minutes ago, he had sent a message to Commander Yanagawa Heisuke of the Tenth Army Headquarters. He hoped that the 18th Division would restart the offensive tomorrow morning and follow the original plan of the Tenth Army to defeat Jiashan, Jiaxing, Yibin, Guangde, etc.
After inserting itself into Jinling, the capital of China, it joined the headquarters of the Tenth Army marching along the Beijing-Shanghai Railway in front of Jinling to join the capital of China.
But unfortunately, he was rejected!
Yanagawa Heisuke quickly called back and strictly ordered him and the 18th Division not to act rashly. The reason was still that the empire had lost the 6th Heavy Artillery Brigade. The Chinese were publicizing their military exploits at home and abroad, and the army was disgraced.
, can no longer bear the consequences of another infantry division suffering heavy losses.
The 18th Division can launch attacks sporadically, and its role is naturally not to break through the opponent's defense line, but to contain the more than 20,000 Chinese troops who caused heavy losses to the Imperial Army in Jiashan, waiting for the Xicheng Line to be breached.
The First Division of the Tenth Army bypassed Taihu Lake and attacked from both front and rear to annihilate them all.
To put it bluntly, Yanagawa Heisuke means that you, Ushijima Sadao and the 18th Division, don’t have any clues in your mind?
With a heavy artillery brigade with nearly a hundred heavy artillery, they were unable to defeat the opponent, and the opponent almost cut off all the balls with a backhand knife. That's it. After attacking the capital, you should be honest and be responsible for containing it, so as not to be attacked again.
It's fine if they are disabled.
Feeling aggrieved or not?
As one of the core members who formulated the conservative strategy of the Tenth Army to consolidate the Beijing-Hangzhou defense line regardless of the base camp, and chose the radical tactic of dividing the troops into two groups to attack the Chinese capital, Ushijima Sadao was of course extremely aggrieved.
It was agreed that Yanagawa Heisuke would be on one side and once the Chinese capital was conquered, Yanagawa Heisuke, who had made good progress and was making good progress, now wanted to completely suppress him and throw a scapegoat at him.
Of course Ushijima Sadao knew that, even though Ushijima Mitsuru, an idiot, had resigned, the incident of the 6th Heavy Artillery Brigade being shattered was not over yet. It was wartime, and more than 200,000 Imperial Army troops were still on the battlefield. In order not to shake the morale of the military
, he, the division commander who commands an army of 20,000 to 30,000 people, has not been touched, but once the war is over, it is necessary to settle accounts after the fall.
Whether it was because he himself issued the wrong military order to transfer the escort infantry regiment of the heavy artillery brigade, or because he had just been appointed as a reserve general to directly serve as the commander of the reorganized 18th Division because of his short qualifications, it was almost certain that he was the right one.
He is the most suitable person to take responsibility.
The only way to drag him out of this quagmire is when he leads the 18th Division to Jinling in the original battle plan to attack the Chinese capital.
But if according to what Yanagawa Heisuke said, the Eighteenth Division is only responsible for containment, waiting for one of its divisions to come around Taihu Lake to block the retreat of the Chinese in front of them, is he still capable enough to lead this battle?
The 6th Division already exists in name only. The commander of the Kunisaki Detachment of the 5th Division, Kunisaki Yu, is only a major general, but there is also the division commander of the 114th Division, Suematsu Shigeharu, who is a lieutenant general. Ushijima Sadao can almost be imagined, and Yanagawa Heisuke
They must have sent Suematsu Shigeharu and his men here.
The 18th Division, which once had a great reputation as one of the "double walls of the empire", will be led by a special division. Even if he does not have to bear too much responsibility for the merits of this battle, his reputation will be ruined, and the reserve force is facing the enemy again.
He waved again.
Don't tell me, Ushijima Sadao may be a bit mediocre in terms of command ability because of his frequent mistakes on the battlefield, but he has one great advantage that all Japanese generals on the battlefield cannot match.
I have a very clear understanding of myself.
You know, even in the past time and space, the 18th Division, under his command, defeated Jiashan, Jiaxing and Guangde where the Sichuan Army was stubbornly defending, and successfully took the retreat of Jinling.
In order to show his determination to live and die with the city, the supreme commander of Jinling burned most of the transport ships, leaving hundreds of thousands of Chinese defenders with no way to retreat and were massacred, which made a great contribution.
But this world is full of the "you work hard, but the credit goes to others" trick. A certain senior wage earner who was happily waiting for promotion and salary increase actually became the commander of Hangzhou's security army after the war.
Forget about the big boss of the 'armed police' who maintained order in the occupied territories, within a few months he was dismissed from active service because he was over 62 years old, and became a reserve force, and finally became the so-called 'Empire Veterans Association'
Vice president.
The fate of the unlucky child does not change with time and space. In this time and space, which has been disrupted by the little butterfly traveling through time and space, the fate of the unlucky child is even more tragic.
If he is not good enough, he may not even be qualified to join that association, let alone be a vice-president.
If he wants to control his destiny in his own hands, he must do something instead of just watching the dog leash tied around his neck getting tighter and tighter.
The gray-faced Ushijima Sadao sat blankly for half an hour, until the night outside the window became thicker and a cold light burst into his eyes.
"Command to Chief of Staff Kotoe to inform Major General Kame Ono, Major General Tezuka Shoichi, Colonel Masatori Notomi, Colonel Saburo Fujiyama, Colonel Kakuji Kataoka, and Colonel Matamatsu Kokai to come to the division headquarters!"
The 18th Division has two infantry brigades under its jurisdiction. Kame Ono is the commander of the 23rd Infantry Brigade, and Shozo Tezuka is the commander of the 35th Infantry Brigade.
The other four colonels are the captains of the 55th, 56th, 114th, and 124th Infantry Regiments respectively.
It also means that what Ushijima Sadao summoned is the core group of seven members of the 18th Division, who can be considered his core members.
Obviously, if he wants to fight for his future, he must get the support of these people.
The dim lights at the headquarters of the 18th Division did not go out until 11 o'clock in the night.
This chapter has been completed!