Just when the Chinese and Japanese armies were fighting to the death on the Songhu battlefield, the headquarters of the Japanese Kwantung Army also changed its owner. With the arrival of Umezu Yoshijiro, Ueda Kenkichi also officially ended his service period. A few days ago
He has retired from active service and returned to Japan to retire.
The first thing Umezu Yoshijiro did after taking office was to convene a meeting of senior officers of the Kwantung Army. At the meeting, Umezu Yoshijiro proposed to increase troops in Rehe to maintain pressure on the Chahar government so that it could not let go of supporting the war in Shanghai.
proposal.
"Your Excellency, Commander, I think you are still too cautious. Most of Chahar's troops are now trapped in Siberia. The number of troops in Chahar at this time will never exceed 300,000. We can completely concentrate the Kwantung Army.
Most of the troops will press forward and completely level Chahar, and at worst, Rehe can be recovered." At the beginning of the meeting, Tojo Hideki jumped out and bluntly pointed out the conservativeness of the new commander's strategy.
"No Tojo-kun, you are wrong." Umezu Yoshijiro shook his head: "You only thought that Chahar now has less than 300,000 troops, but you did not think of their war potential. In recent years, several provinces of Chahar have
With constant immigration, their population has now exceeded 60 million. They have enough soldiers to compete with us. The empire cannot compete with the enemy's strengths based on its own shortcomings. The most important thing now is to contain them and not let them let go.
Support the Battle of Shanghai."
"Umezu-kun, I think as a senior general of the empire we cannot be too conservative, we should" Tojo Hideki jumped out to retort.
In the conference room, the commander and the eldest son of the staff were fighting with each other. The commanders of the divisions below had nothing to do with themselves, and they were all meditating with their eyes closed. The big guys above were fighting, and we brats
I won't participate anymore. You can tell us when you're done and we'll discuss it further.
Seeing Tojo Hideki's self-righteous face talking beside him, Umezu Meijiro closed his eyes in pain. It seems that Ishihara Kanji is right, this Tojo's IQ is only worthy of being a first-class soldier, but he is not yet
The biggest fool is the person who asked him to serve as the chief of staff of the Kwantung Army.
"Okay, this is the decision of the base camp. Tojo-kun, if you feel that the decision made by His Majesty the Emperor and His Excellency Prince Kanin Miyazaihito is wrong, you can submit a memorial to His Majesty the Emperor yourself." Finally, Umezu Yoshijiro said this.
The newly appointed commander had to carry out Emperor Hirohito, which made Tojo Hideki shut up in anger.
Seeing Tojo Hideki finally shut his mouth, Umezu Mijiro secretly broke out in a cold sweat. At the same time, he also secretly decided in his heart that he must get Tojo Hideki away from him and never allow this kind of person to continue.
Stay with the Kwantung Army.
"Okay, let's discuss how many troops should be sent to northern Liaoning and Liaoning in order to put enough pressure on them."
"Your Excellency, Commander, now that our Kwantung Army has strong troops, I think there will be no problem in placing ten divisions on the front line in northern Liaoning and Liaoning." Tojo Hideki jumped out and spoke again.
"Ten Divisions of Nani"
As soon as these words came out, let alone Umezu Yoshijiro, even the division leaders below were shocked.
What is the strength of the ten divisions? There are at least more than 20 and nearly 300,000 troops in the ten divisions. This is already half the strength of the Kwantung Army. This is no longer called deterrence, but a naked display of force.
We are in an offensive posture. If you put so many troops in northern Liaoning, why don't you have to defend other places? Do you have to be on guard in the Far East and North Korea?
This guy is a fool and an idiot. This is the evaluation of Tojo Hideki by the division commanders present at the meeting.
At this time, a division commander stood up: "Your Excellency, Commander, I think that if we only want to deter the Chahar area, it is enough for us to put five divisions on the border. We can look at the situation of the Shanghai war in the future."
It is not too late to decide to send more troops. Since we are not yet sure of swallowing up Chahar, we should not excite their nerves too much. You must know that their commander-in-chief Su Tong is an arrogant and unreasonable guy."
When everyone saw it, it turned out to be Lieutenant General Kawamura Kyosuke of the First Division. In Japan, the division commander of the First Division has always been inextricably linked to the royal family. Under normal circumstances, the First Division
The commander of the division has the highest status among the division commanders. The commander of the first division often serves as the spokesperson of each division in the military circles. Therefore, the words spoken by Lieutenant General Kawamura Kyosuke also represent to a certain extent
The sentiments of a large number of division commanders were expressed.
"Yes, he is unreasonable." This is the general evaluation of Su Tong by Japanese generals. During the two years of dealing with Chahar, Su Tong's biggest impression on the Japanese was that he was overbearing and would fight whenever he disagreed.
Don't believe in evil. He really has this strength. Many Japanese generals have fallen into his hands. If anyone provokes him, he will definitely fight you in a life-and-death attitude.
The polar bear in Russia is usually quite overbearing. Stalin originally wanted to take advantage of Mongolia, but he never thought that not only would Su Tong drive him out, but even Siberia would be taken over by him. Now the two sides are still
Stalin must be regretting it now.
This guy is just a lunatic. If you are not sure of beating him to death with a stick, it is best not to fight with him for the time being, lest you end up scratching him all over without eating the meat.
If Chief Su was lucky enough to hear the voice of a Japanese general, he would definitely feel very proud. He must be the first in Chinese history to receive such a high evaluation from the Japanese.
"Yo Xi, what Kawamura-kun said makes sense." Umezu Yoshijiro saw that someone finally stood up to support him, and a smile finally appeared on his face. Although he is the commander and has the right to make decisions when encountering problems, considering that he has just arrived,
, Umezu Yoshijiro doesn’t want to leave a domineering impression when he first takes office. Therefore, now that he sees someone coming out to support him, Umezu Yoshijiro is very happy.
In the final meeting, a decision was made to dispatch five additional divisions to Liaoning and northern Liaoning to station troops in Heishan and Wuhan to continue to exert pressure on Chahar.
Su Tongzheng and Jiang Baili of the Zhangjiakou Seventh War Zone Headquarters discussed the recent frequent mobilization of the Japanese Kwantung Army against Chahar.
"This is the latest mobilization situation of the Japanese troops in Manchuria. It seems that the people here are evil." Jiang Baili handed Su Tong the latest intelligence updates.
"Hmph, Umezu Yoshijiro is afraid that we will continue to increase our support for Shanghai and put pressure on us." Su Tong glanced at the message and said disdainfully.
"But we know clearly that this is our opponent putting pressure on us, so we can only bite the bullet and continue to increase our troops to Rehe. The Japanese are now confident." Jiang Baili frowned.
"The Japanese lost Rehe last time, and they are definitely not willing to accept it. Umezu Yoshijiro wants to regain the situation this time. If we show weakness, these five divisions will definitely rush over and seize Rehe. If we send troops to reinforce
, the support for Shanghai is bound to be reduced, this Umezu Yoshijiro's abacus is really very precise." Su Tong put the information on the table with some distress, and tapped the table with his fingers.
Su Tong's biggest worry now is the lack of troops. Although he is recruiting soldiers on a small scale, he is suffering from food and financial problems and cannot recruit freely. As the saying goes, the soldiers and horses go first before the food and grass are used.
An army that cannot guarantee supplies cannot win a war.
Although Li Daxia, the Minister of Agriculture, was sent to preside over the large-scale development project of the Hetao River in Ningxia at the beginning of this year, the initial results will not be achieved until at least next year. Therefore, Su Tong still dare not recruit soldiers on a large scale. Now, in the four provinces of Chahar
In a place that is not rich in food, it is already difficult to feed 700,000 horses and horses.
"Next year, once the first phase of the Hetao Development Project is completed, Chahar's fiscal revenue will reach a new level, and I can expand the scale of military conscription again. By then, Japan will have something good to look at.
." Su Tong was secretly furious.
Seeing the uncertain expression on Su Tong's face, Jiang Baili was not anxious. He knew how heavy the burden was on Su Tong's shoulders, but some things still had to be solved by himself. After all, he was the top military and political officer of Chahar.
Sir, there are some things you cannot do for yourself.
Su Tong thought for a long time before slowly asking: "Mr. Dan Ning, the strength of the Kwantung Army has now reached 600,000, and the strength of the North China Garrison Army has also reached more than 300,000. The combined strength of these two front armies is
The number of troops has reached nearly one million. It can be said that if they work together to attack us, can we stop their attack with our current strength of only 250,000 to 300,000 troops in Chahar?"
"It's difficult but not impossible." Jiang Baili admitted frankly.
"But why don't they dare to fully attack us? Have you ever thought about this?" Su Tong then asked.
A smile appeared on Jiang Baili's face, "Haha, it seems that you, the commander, are giving test questions to me, the chief of staff, okay, then I will just talk about it, and you will just listen."
Jiang Baili continued to smile and said: "This question looks very complicated, but it is actually very simple. Otherwise, the Japanese are not sure."
"Our current elites in Chahar are actually not here. Except for a few limited units such as the 102nd Division and the 5th Division, our real elites have all fallen into the battlefield of Siberia. Although there has been no big deal with Soviet Russia recently.
The battle was just a confrontation between the two sides, but Zhukov's 700,000-strong army held them back in Siberia. If the Japanese really cornered us, we would negotiate a peace with Lao Maozi and withdraw the entire army from Siberia.
, if all these 700,000 troops are thrown into the battle with the Japanese, then the Japanese will be miserable. With our strength, it may not be possible to completely annihilate the Kwantung Army, but at least the North China region will be recovered
There’s still no problem.”
"As expected of our Chief of Staff, he hit the nail on the head." Su Tong praised with a smile.
"Many people are accusing me of why I stay in Siberia and spend so much military expenditure to maintain a huge military force in Siberia. But they have not considered that Siberia is a treasure.
Oil, natural gas, wood and various ores can be said to be all available. Over the past year, our exploitation of the Duolun Oilfield has actually gradually decreased. The reason is the success of the development of the Siberian Oilfield, which can not only supply the entire Siberian Group with oil.
The supply can also be imported back into our country, and this alone is already amazing."
As he talked, Su Tong's mind was already thinking about other things. Su Tong knew clearly that in the next two years, he would definitely build a navy. What the navy's ships rely on is oil. To maintain a stable environment,
The amount of oil required to support a navy of a certain size is astronomical.
It is just a joke to rely on the Duolun oil field to maintain a navy. So now, no matter how high the price is, he will occupy Siberia like a toad biting cotton, and he will never let go.
.
"Jianming, Jianming, come to your senses." Jiang Baili saw Su Tong getting distracted while talking, and couldn't help but screamed in a funny way.
"Oh, I'm sorry, I got distracted." Su Tong smiled apologetically and continued.
"Now we have more and more steel mills and smelters in Chahar, whether government-run or private, and the demand for various ores is also growing. However, the quality and reserves of our domestic ores have also changed.
Unsatisfactory. Therefore, those minerals in Siberia have been put to great use. When the railway to Siberia is completed at the end of this year, we can continuously transport various resources from Siberia back to Chahar. Said
After all, wars are fought based on a country’s comprehensive strength, not to mention that the next bigger war may come soon.”
Su Tong was also preparing for the arrival of World War II at this time.
The outbreak of World War II was actually a time for the major powers in the world to reshuffle their cards. If you want to obtain sufficient benefits from World War II, the largest war in human history, you must make your own voice and strength.
With the current strength of Chahar, if he wants to fight for his own interests in World War II, it is not enough to share the cake with the major powers. So Su Tong is now racing against time, seizing every opportunity to strengthen himself, in order to achieve
this ambitious goal.
Although he has the moon base as a trump card, it cannot be seen in the light after all, and China cannot rely on this cheating device forever. In Su Tong's view, when China can stand up on its own and roar with its own strength, then its own goal
Only then is it truly completed.
It is better to teach a man to fish than to teach him to fish. Everyone knows this truth, but it is not so easy to do it. Su Tong is now firmly moving towards this goal.