After a long while, Gengen Bocai said: "But General, after the 5th and 10th armies are transferred to Mongolia, what will happen to the defense of Central China? The 3rd Army alone and the garrison and security forces in various places can't do it anyway.
If it cannot control such a large area, the Chinese army will definitely launch a crazy counterattack!"
"This is indeed a problem." Okamura Neiji said, "However, it is not without a solution."
After saying this, Okamura Ningji said again: "On the one hand, we must shrink the defense line. In addition to controlling large and medium-sized cities such as Changsha, Wuhan, and Nanchang, as well as the lifeline of the Yangtze River waterway, let's give up the rest of the remote towns if we can.
, on the other hand, we must immediately call the base camp and request reinforcements from the Far East."
"Your Excellency, General..." Nebo hesitated for a moment, and then said, "The base camp was originally opposed to us launching the Southwest Battle. Now that the Southwest Battle has been defeated, the base camp may not send reinforcements from the Far East to Central China, and may even pursue Your Excellency, General.
responsibility, so I thought…”
"You don't have to think about anything." Okamura Neji waved his hand and said calmly, "As an imperial soldier, everything should be based on the interests of the empire. What does personal honor gain or loss count? Therefore, Neto-kun, as
Just do what I say, as long as the situation in Central China can turn around, nothing else matters."
"Your Excellency, General..." Nebo bowed his head sadly.
Tokyo, Japanese military base camp.
The new Minister of War, Anami Yoshiki, strode into Tojo Hideki's office. He immediately stopped his feet and stood at attention and said: "Your Excellency, Mr. Okamura Neiji called. The Southwest Campaign forced by the Central China Front Army suffered a decisive defeat. The people trapped in Sichuan Central
The 5th Army and the 10th Army will soon leave Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia and head to Mongolia to join the troops stationed in Mongolia."
"What?" Tojo Hideki said with a sudden change of expression, "Decisive defeat!?"
"Hai!" Anan Weiji suddenly lowered his head and said, "Your Excellency, Commander-in-Chief, as a result, the strength of the Central China Front Army will be less than 200,000. The defenses in various places are already extremely empty. The China Army is likely to launch a large-scale attack."
A large-scale counterattack, Okamura Neiji requested the base camp to transfer reinforcements from the expedition to central China to stabilize the situation."
"Haga!" Hideki Tojo became even more furious and roared, "The base camp resolutely did not allow this idiot Okamura Neji to launch the Southwest Battle, but he insisted on launching it. His stubbornness led to today's defeat, and he still expected the base camp to do so.
Can reinforcements be transferred from the Far East to Central China? Doesn’t he know that the situation in the Far East is even more severe than that in Central China?”
Tojo Hideki was not lying. The current situation in the Far East is indeed more severe than in Central China.
Molotov's Russian Federation inherited most of the Soviet Union's legacy, including more than 6 million troops and more than 20 million square kilometers of land. Although the Russian Federation has joined the Axis Alliance, this does not mean that Russia
would recognize the Japanese military occupation of the Far East.
So far, more than 2 million Russian troops have entered the Far East and are watching eagerly outside the Japanese-occupied areas. If it weren't for the great mediation of Germany's mustache, Japan and Russia would have fought long ago. After all, in history, these two countries have
There was a deep grudge, and a fierce and fierce battle broke out between these enemies in Lushun, China.
There are no troops to deploy in the Far East, and there are no troops to deploy in North China, Manchuria, and Southeast Asia.
As for the country, since a large number of men died in battle, women's divisions have even begun to be formed. Is it possible that the two women's divisions that have just been formed will be transferred to central China?
After pondering for a while, Ananwei suddenly said: "Your Excellency, the Empire should indeed start negotiations with Russia on the sovereignty of the Far East. The Far East has restrained too many troops of the Imperial Army, which has seriously affected the Holy War in Greater East Asia. If this stalemate continues,
If it goes down, the imperial army's rule over Central China, North China, Nanyang and even Manchuria will completely collapse."
"What did you say?" Hideki Tojo frowned, "Negotiating with Russia on the sovereignty of the Far East?"
"Hai." Anan Weiji suddenly lowered his head and said, "I think that what Russia really needs is not to immediately retake the Far East, but just to demand sovereignty over the Far East. If the empire can take a step back and recognize that the sovereignty of the Far East belongs to Russia,
Then Russia will most likely give in and lease the Far East to the empire."
"Lease?" Tojo Hideki frowned, "Do you think this is possible?"
"I think it's entirely possible," Anan said, "because Germany has had similar ideas for a long time."
Previously, when mediating the dispute between Russia and Japan, Hitler had proposed an idea: Japan would return the Far East to Russia, but all the strategic resources and ordnance produced in the Far East would be supplied to the Japanese army to support the Japanese army's war in Asia. However, this proposal was rejected.
When the Japanese government refused, the matter finally came to nothing.
Although Ananan's Lend-Lease proposal is slightly different from Hitler's proposal, considering the collective interests of the Axis Alliance around the world, Hitler and Germany will probably support it. After all, for Russia, the resources of the Far East are not indispensable.
However, for Japan, the resources of the Far East are a matter of life and death!
"Yo Xi." Tojo Hideki nodded and said, "Anami-kun, please inform the Ministry of Foreign Affairs immediately to start negotiations with Russia and Germany on the issue of sovereignty in the Far East. The bottom line of the empire is to concession the Far East for 50 years." After saying this, Dongjo
Hideki Jo said fiercely, "There is also Neji Okamura. I think he is no longer suitable to continue to serve as the commander of the Central China Front."
On June 8, the 32nd year of the Republic of China (1943), the main force of the Yue Weiguo Group Army entered Hubei, and the forward Yu Ting column was approaching Yichang. Okamura Neiji realized that it was impossible to reopen Jingmen, so he immediately ordered his troops on the Central China Front to
The last order given by the commander-in-chief was for Yoshio Shinozuka to lead the 5th and 10th armies to march north from Hanzhong.
On June 9, the Japanese army base camp officially dismissed Okamura Neiji from his duties and ordered him to return to the country to report on his duties. Shortly after returning to the country, Okamura Neiji was transferred to the reserve force.
Mr. Li hurriedly walked into the war room and reported to Yue Weihan solemnly: "Boss, the Air Force reconnaissance report shows that the main force of the Japanese troops on the North Road has withdrawn from the vicinity of Wanxian County. However, what is puzzling is that the Japs did not go through Sichuan and Yunnan.
The highway goes south to Guizhou, but takes the Sichuan-Shaanxi Highway to the north and leaves Hanzhong!"
"Oh?" Yue Weihan frowned, "The Japanese army left Hanzhong north?"
"Going north to Hanzhong?" Mr. Xu also asked, "Does the Japanese army want to go to Mongolia through Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia?"
"Ningji Okamura is crazy." Chief Bai happened to be there, and he said in disbelief at the moment, "The straight-line distance from Sichuan to Mongolia is thousands of miles. Considering the difficulty of the Shu road and the harsh road conditions and natural conditions in the northwest,
The Japanese army would have to march thousands of miles if they wanted to escape. Do the little devils want to repeat the miracle of the Red Army?"
"Reenacting the miracle of the Red Army?" Mr. Li said disdainfully, "That is simply a dream."
"Whether Neji Okamura is crazy or not, we cannot let the Japanese troops reach Mongolia alive!" Yue Weihan said this, and then told General Xu, "Immediately call the central government and ask the first and third fields to send powerful troops to
Intercept them on the way, and then order Yang Sen's troops, Xue Yue's troops and Yue Weiguo's troops to follow and pursue them."
"Okay." Mr. Xu nodded and took the order.
Yue Weihan said to Mr. Li again: "The Japanese troops on the North Road did not move south to Guizhou as I expected, which means that the No. 1 combat plan has been aborted. Immediately order all units participating in the war to implement the No. 2 combat plan, and the Siye Airborne Division will be airborne immediately.
Huaihua, cut off the retreat route of the Japanese troops on the south road, the first and third fields participating in the battle will immediately launch a general attack on the predetermined target!"
On the morning of June 9, the 32nd year of the Republic of China (1943), more than 300 DC-3 transport aircraft carrying more than 9,000 airborne division officers and soldiers and more than 200 P-51 Mustang fighter jets arrived from Myitkyina, Baoshan and Wujiaba in Kunming.
They took off from the airport one after another, traveled hundreds of kilometers over a long distance, and carried out a large-scale airborne operation against Huaihua.
On the way back from the airborne landing, more than 300 Japanese fighter planes heard the news and arrived, and a large air battle broke out.
The fierce air battle lasted for more than half an hour. Nearly a hundred transport planes and fighter jets of the Chinese Air Force were shot down. The Japanese Air Force lost more than 280 Zero fighter planes, and less than 20 fighter planes fled in panic. After this battle, the Japanese Air Force in Central China
It was severely damaged and basically lost its air control over central China.
At 2 o'clock in the afternoon, the airborne division successfully captured Huaihua and cut off the retreat route of the Japanese troops on the south road.
At the same time, the main force of the second field, with the cooperation of the troops of the first field going south, assembled more than 1.4 million people and launched a general attack on the military towns along the Yangtze River such as Jiujiang, Wuhu, and Anqing. Although the main force of the second field lacked the ability to attack difficult positions, the main force of the first field could
However, the troops heading south were equipped with a large number of rocket launchers and heartless cannons, and the Japanese outer defense line was quickly hit hard.
However, just as the various national armies launched a massive counterattack, the most unexpected situation occurred.
Jiujiang, the position of the pseudo-security army.
The one responsible for the main attack on Jiujiang was the 1st Group Army of the Second Field Army of the National Revolutionary Army, and the two artillery divisions from the 3rd Group Army of the 1st Field Army of the National Revolutionary Army arrived one after another. To be honest, there were many veterans in the Second Field Army.
There are many clever ideas, all of which were trained by Okamura Neji, but the equipment and training are really not that good.
However, the two artillery divisions that arrived one after another were fully equipped with thousands of artillery pieces of various types!
That's right, there are thousands of artillery pieces, including 75mm caliber field guns, mountain guns, 70mm caliber 92 infantry guns, and even Soviet rocket launchers based on the Katyusha. Of course, more of them are 60mm or 80mm
light mortar, and a heartless 300mm caliber gun!
In addition to being unable to produce howitzers with a caliber above 100mm, the current Taihang base also has 75 mountain guns, 75 field guns, Type 92 infantry guns, battle defense guns, rocket launchers, mortars, heartless guns, and other Maxim and Czech-style guns.
They are all ready for production, and the output has also been greatly improved. As of now, more than half of Ichino's 200 divisions have been re-equipped.
In just two days after the offensive against Jiujiang began, various departments of the national army basically destroyed the Japanese and puppet fortifications outside Jiujiang.
The two artillery divisions in Yiye made the pseudo-security forces outside Jiujiang suffer a lot, especially under the firepower of more than 600 mortars and more than 200 heartless cannons. The devils of the pseudo-security forces wanted to find
There was no place to hide. After two days, more than a dozen puppet military divisions were already dead and wounded, and their organization was half disabled.
By the third day, the officers and soldiers of the puppet security army had generally realized that the Japanese army in Central China was gone!
At two o'clock in the night, in a bunker in the Jiangfang Fortress, more than a dozen puppet army division commanders and dozens of brigade commanders and regimental commanders held a field meeting to decide their own fate. The only topic of the meeting was whether to continue to resist and wait.
Was he killed by the national army, or did he rebel before the battle and cooperate with the national army to take Jiujiang?
"Brothers, I can see clearly that this little devil is already a grasshopper after autumn and can't survive for a few days." A white-faced division commander said somewhat discouraged, "Haven't you noticed that the sky is full of national troops?
The planes were bombing us, the Japanese planes had long since disappeared, and there were also the artillery groups of the Chinese army. My mother was so hot, it really scared me to death."
After saying this, the white-faced teacher continued: "No matter what, Jiujiang City can't hold on for a few more days. It will be a matter of time before it falls. We brothers need to figure it out before following the little devils. What will happen?"
It can only be a dead end. If we rebel in front of the battle and help the national army capture Jiujiang, we may still have a chance to atone for our sins."
"But..." a pockmarked teacher said hesitantly, "We have done a lot of immoral things in the past, especially killing many underground members of the Chinese Communist Party. Now that the Chinese Communist Party is in charge, can they let us go? Don't think we just helped the country.
The army has captured Jiujiang, and if they come back and attack us, what should we do?"
The division commanders, brigade commanders and regimental commanders present fell silent.
If we really talk about these Japanese traitors seriously, which one of them has their hands stained with the blood of the Chinese people? The most minor crimes they committed are enough to be shot ten or eight times.
After a long while, the white-faced teacher said, "Brothers, you still can't understand?"
After saying this, the white-faced teacher said fiercely: "Anyway, I understand clearly. We must not follow the little devil all the way to the dark side. No matter what you decide, our division will definitely betray you tomorrow. As for
After taking over Jiujiang, we can no longer worry about whether the Chinese Communist authorities will settle accounts later."
"Yes, I support Commander Xiong." Another division commander expressed his position, "In recent years, we have helped the Japanese do a lot of immoral things, and they have really harmed many people in the country. Now we have this opportunity to atone for our sins, but we can't
If we miss it again, even if the new government wants to settle accounts in the future, we still want peace of mind, right? No matter what, we are still Chinese, right?"
The remaining division commanders, brigade commanders and regiment commanders also strengthened their determination and expressed their intention to rebel tomorrow.
The next morning, when two artillerymen from Yiye were about to carry out a routine bombardment, fierce gunfire rang out in Jiujiang City. They raised a hot air balloon and observed that it was actually the Japanese and puppet troops in the city who started fighting first. At noon
At that time, the gunfire in the city gradually fell silent, and soon the puppet troops in the city sent liaison officers, saying they wanted to surrender prisoners.
In this way, the Chinese army captured Jiujiang City before even launching a general offensive.
Before the news of Jiujiang's recovery was published, it spread in Jiangxi and Anhui provinces first. This earth-shattering incident had a serious impact on the Japanese and puppet forces in the two provinces. After realizing that the Japanese and puppet governments were gone, all counties
The township's maintenance committee immediately responded and swore allegiance to the local CCP underground party organization.
Even the bandits who usually hide in the deep mountains and old forests came out one after another and took the opportunity to rob the Japanese transport team.
This is what the world often calls a sedan chair that is carried by everyone, but for the Japanese army, it means that everyone pushes down the wall.
In less than half a month, most of the counties and towns in Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Anhui, Hubei, Hunan and other provinces broke away from the Japanese and puppet rule and announced that they would join the new CCP government. Central China was actually controlled by the Japanese army.
The sphere of influence quickly shrank to a few large cities such as Shanghai, Nanjing, Wuhan, Nanchang, Hangzhou, and Guangzhou.
China, which had been trampled under the iron heel of the Japanese army for five full years, finally ushered in its first counterattack climax.
The Japanese rule over North China, Central China, South China and East China was already in turmoil.
Such a situation, not to mention Yue Weihan, Mr. Xu and others did not expect that even Chairman Mao who was far away in Yan'an did not expect that the situation in Central China would take such a dramatic turn. At this time, the Japanese government and the Russian government had a dispute over the sovereignty of the Far East.
The negotiations have just begun, and there is still a long way to go before the Japanese troops withdraw from the Far East.
In Huaihua, Hunan, the Sime Airborne Division also successfully intercepted the main force of the Japanese army on the southern route.
After ten days of hard fighting, the 10 mechanized infantry divisions of the 4th, 5th, and 6th Group armies of Siye, plus the 1st Armored Division, and the 2nd Heavy Artillery Division also arrived one after another. The 3rd Group Army of Sanye (Long Yun and Du Yuming's troops) also quickly
They penetrated from the flanks and formed an encirclement situation on the main force of the Japanese army on the south road.
Naosaburo Okabe, who had just been promoted to general and commander of the Central China Front, realized that the collective destruction of the 3rd Army was inevitable. More than 300,000 Chinese troops had completed the encirclement of the Japanese army. The Japanese army was not only at a disadvantage in terms of strength, but also in terms of strength.
Weapons, equipment and logistical support are at an absolute disadvantage.
The Chinese army not only has a large number of tanks and heavy artillery, but also has an air force to assist it.
The Japanese aviation force has basically lost the ability to fight deep into the southwest. Since supplies cannot keep up, the Japanese artillery and tanks have basically become decorations. Naosaburo Okabe even has to worry about the rations of his 100,000 Japanese troops, because
China's southwest was originally a barren land, and coupled with drought, food has become extremely scarce.
The only thing that gave General Naosaburo Okabe some comfort was that the Japanese army on the northern route, commanded by Lieutenant General Yoshio Shinozuka, broke through the four blockades of the Chinese army within half a month and successfully got rid of the Chinese who were chasing them.
The heavily armed group has now entered the border area of Gansu and Ningxia, and will soon enter the Mongolian grassland.