The chief of staff looked at Umezu Umejiro with a hint of admiration.
The Pingjin area is the main battlefield of the North China Front, and its commander, Okamura Neiji, holds the rank of general.
Unless the Kwantung Army's southward support force is led by the commander in front of him, the rank of the leading commander will definitely be lower than that of Okamura Neji.
Under normal circumstances, the Kwantung Army supports Pingjin as a guest army and must accept the command of the North China Front Army Headquarters.
In addition, Okamura Neiji has a higher military rank than the leading officer of the Kwantung Army, so there is even less reason to disobey orders from the North China Front Army Headquarters.
If the reinforcements win the battle in the Pingjin area and severely damage the Eighth Route Army, the North China Front Army Headquarters, as the direct commander of the battle, will definitely take a lot of the credit.
If the reinforcements are defeated in the Beiping-Tianjin area, the North China Front Army Headquarters may shirk responsibility and say that the Kwantung Army's southward support troops did not obey orders...
Various excuses were used to shift the responsibility for the defeat to the Kwantung Army's southward support troops.
Umezu Umejiro has already suffered in this regard and will definitely not do such a thankless job again.
However, if the military headquarters directly issues an order to the North China Front Army Headquarters, it is not allowed to intervene in the combat command of the Kwantung Army's troops heading south. All operations will be handled by the Kwantung Army itself.
As long as the Kwantung Army's reinforcements sent south and won the battle in the Ping-Tianjin area, they would get all the credit alone and no one would be able to share it.
Moreover, no one intervened in the Kwantung Army's battle. With Umezu Umejiro's understanding of the combat effectiveness of his troops, the chance of losing the battle would become very low.
The last time it supported the North China Front, the Kwantung Army lost a total of 40,000 elite troops.
Although Okamura Neiji took the initiative to assume a large part of the responsibility as the commander, Umezu Umejiro was not satisfied. He felt that the reason why the Kwantung Army lost the battle in the Yizhong Plains was entirely on Okamura Neiji.
It must be that he did not understand the Kwantung Army and its combat effectiveness, and gave random commands on the battlefield. This led to the Kwantung Army's defeat on the battlefield.
If the Eastern Army had sent people to direct that big sweep, even if it was still no match for the Eighth Route Army in the wings, it wouldn't have been so miserable.
It is for these reasons that Umezu Umejiro wanted to take command of the support troops going south to prevent laymen from commanding experts and causing the Kwantung Army to lose the battle again.
The chief of staff responded quickly and sent the telegram to the country in less than ten minutes.
Back in the war room, Umezu Umejiro was already standing next to the sand table.
Seeing the chief of staff approaching, he ordered him directly: "Send a telegram to the Liaoning Garrison Headquarters immediately..."
"Let them immediately assemble three main divisions, a tank regiment, a heavy artillery regiment, and an aviation regiment, bring all weapons and ammunition, and be ready to go south to support Pingjin."
The chief of staff did not immediately accept the order, but hesitated and asked: "Your Excellency, Commander..."
"Transferring three main divisions at once...will the pressure on the Liaoning garrison be too great?"
"The 50,000 Kwantung Army that went south to support the North China Front last time were all from Liaoning. Although the headquarters transferred a lot of troops from its garrison to support them, after all, there is still a vacancy of nearly one main division..."
"Now that three main divisions have been transferred, there are only three divisions left in the entire Liaoning garrison. What if an accident occurs?"
Umezu Umejiro asked confidently: "Then do you think there will be an accident in Liaoning?"
"The mission of the Kwantung Army going south is to reinforce Pingjin, kill the Eighth Route Army that captured Tianjin Pier and Peking Airport, and help the North China Front stabilize the security of Pingjin..."
"As long as the Beiping-Tianjin area is restored to order and is firmly controlled by the North China Front Army, there will be a North China Front Army between us and the Eighth Route Army."
"No matter how powerful the Eighth Route Army operating in North China is, it cannot threaten Liaoning's security."
"Besides, we are separated from the North China Eighth Route Army by the Kwantung Army's southward support troops, so an accident is even less likely to happen."
"If you look at the north and west sides, they are both areas controlled by the imperial army. Even if the Soviet army advances eastward, it will be blocked by the Jilin and Heilongjiang garrisons, which will not threaten Liaoning's security."
"To be arrogant, even if I only arrange one main division in Liaoning, there will be no accidents in Liaoning."
"It's just that the Kwantung Army has too many troops and it's impossible to concentrate all of them in Heilongjiang and Jilin, so six main divisions were arranged for garrison."
The chief of staff was convinced.
The worries and doubts in my mind suddenly cleared up, and I immediately accepted the order: "Your Excellency, Commander, you are wise, and I will make arrangements for this humble post now."
…………
Huang Yu gave an order, and the Tianjin Pier, which had been busy all day, fell into silence in just five minutes. Everything was dark and no lights could be seen.
Huang Yu held up a telescope to observe the sea surface.
The bright light emitted by the warship continued to approach the dock. Huang Yu saw it and felt happy in his heart.
The closer the warship is to the pier, the higher the hit rate of the nearby heavy artillery, and the greater the damage caused to the warship.
If he could really destroy three warships in a brief artillery battle and let them resist, at least tonight, the dock would not be threatened again.
Not only can the artillery under his command be able to evacuate the dock calmly, but the baggage troops can also completely empty the dock warehouse.
The engineering troops could also place a large number of explosives on the dock, waiting for the Japanese warships to detonate the explosives when they bombarded the warehouse, razing the entire dock to the ground.
Anyway, the North China Front cannot do without Tianjin Wharf.
They want to obtain a steady supply of materials, weapons and ammunition from the country. Even if they level the dock and completely destroy it, they will try their best to rebuild the dock.
Since the pier will be built again by the Japanese sooner or later, Huang Yu won't be heartbroken if it is exploded.
The more completely the Tianjin Pier is destroyed, the more difficult it will be for the North China Front Army to obtain ammunition supplies. The Japanese and puppet troops on the front line will have to face the dangerous situation of running out of ammunition and food.
The Eighth Route Army would have more opportunities to launch a major counterattack against the North China Front Army and take advantage of it.
When the three warships were still two or three kilometers away from the dock, the artillery observer on the side suddenly reminded: "Chief, the little Japanese warship seems to have stopped moving..."
"Lock the three warships immediately..." Huang Yu ordered with a raised brow.
"The enemy must be adjusting their naval guns. They want to attack us two kilometers away..."
"Each artillery position will first deploy an artillery for test firing..."
"Be sure to shoot Zhu Yuan before launching a salvo."
"Don't fire a salvo at the beginning to scare away the warships that the little devils finally managed to kill right under our noses."
"If we don't move, it will be fatal. If we move, it will be fatal..."
"Strive to hit the target in the first salvo and end the battle within five minutes..."
"Warships are not the gunboats we saw on the pier. There are more than ten main guns and secondary guns on a warship. Three warships add up to thirty or forty artillery pieces. If we really fight a protracted war with them, we will
