Looking at the harvest scene, a middle-aged man sighed with emotion: "Commander Jiang is really a god, he can actually produce so much grain..." The farmers around him nodded repeatedly: "Yes, yes, one acre of land produces two thousand kilograms.
Even a storyteller wouldn't dare to brag like this, but today my dream has really come true. I don't even know what to say." The man slapped his head and shouted: "Set off firecrackers! We have to celebrate!
"That's right, set off firecrackers! You have to set off firecrackers! This is God's eyes open! No, this is brought by Commander Jiang, we have to thank Commander Jiang!" Someone else said eagerly: "You can't set it off here.
There is a lot of food here, and it will be bad if it is burned down. Let’s collect all the food first and then put it away!”
"Yes, yes, yes!" As a result, mountains of grain began to be transported to safe places one by one. Farmers were originally worried that the grain would not be able to feed so many people in Jiaodong. But now it seems that it is more than enough!
More than enough! In the afternoon, after the food was collected, the people excitedly took out the remaining firecrackers from the New Year and lit them excitedly. Amidst the crackling firecrackers, the Jiaodong area became very lively.
A small group of Japanese troops who took great risks to approach Yantai for reconnaissance heard these intensive explosions and thought they were gunshots, so they immediately reported this abnormal sign to their superiors. When the Japanese generals heard the news, they
The results suddenly made them laugh. They judged that this was the food crisis in Jiaodong area that had finally broken out. The source of these gunshots was very clear. It must be that the Chinese army was shooting at the Chinese refugees in order to snatch the few remaining food. In other words,
, that damn Jiang Qiang can no longer contain the food crisis, and can only use the last resort, which is to use force to control the situation!
The plan of General Hata Shunliu was indeed correct. The Jiaodong Military Region began to collapse! For a time, the 10th Division and the 103rd Division were overjoyed. As long as the chaos continued, the damn Chinese army in the Jiaodong region would definitely not attack them.
Break! Their chance for revenge finally came! But the next day, the Japanese soldiers discovered that the faint "gunshots" on the other side of the mountain had disappeared. The people were so excited that they set off all the firecrackers at once.
The Japanese generals frowned. Could it be that Jiang Qiang had already controlled the situation in just one day? Is this Jiang Qiang so powerful? No, we have to add more fire to that Jiang Qiang! So, the Japanese army continued to drive away
More refugees are heading towards the Jiaodong area, which will exhaust Jiang Qiang's food reserves. Jiang Qiang refuses no one and opens the door to welcome the refugees.
Distant Europe. Under the leadership of Hitler, Germany also emerged from the shadow of World War I. The Treaty of Versailles was completely torn to pieces, and the "Berlin Agreement" was signed with Italy in Berlin, and the "Berlin-Rome" was established.
'Axis, fascism began to invade. Under Hitler's leadership, the German army not only sent troops to occupy the Rhine Demilitarized Zone a few years ago, severely slapping Britain and France in the face, but then directly annexed Austria. Hitler
His reputation in Germany is almost at its peak.
And now, Hitler has extended his behind-the-scenes hand to the Czech Republic. He has begun to deploy troops on the border between Germany and the Czech Republic, making it appear that he will fully attack the Czech Republic. However, Britain and France still stand still and watch helplessly under the influence of appeasement.
Watching Germany climb up step by step from the quagmire of World War I. Therefore, representatives of the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and Italy held a meeting in Munich alone without the participation of Czech representatives, and signed the "Munich Agreement"
.
The introduction of the "Munich Agreement" represented the fact that Britain and France completely betrayed the Czech Republic, because this agreement directly forcibly ceded the Sudetenland area from the Czech Republic to Germany, and the wording was also very firm, directly requiring the Czech Republic to cede the Sudetenland area to Germany within 10 days.
Germany. For a time, appeasement reached its peak. British Prime Minister Chamberlain did not know how big a mistake he had made. After returning to the UK, he proudly announced that he had brought back a century of peace!
The so-called League of Nations established for peace had become a pitiful fig leaf. Britain and France could not even settle the troubles at the doorstep of Europe, so what could they do to the distant battlefield in the Far East? At this time, no one in the world
I no longer believe that the 'fair and just' League of Nations can play any role. China, which had pinned its hopes on the League of Nations being able to comprehensively sanction Japan, was also disappointed.
Hitler sarcastically said: "The League of Nations is a straw, but China wants to seize this straw to cross the river." It is no longer possible to place hope on foreign aid, and countless Chinese soldiers and civilians are still unable to see through the Japanese nature of being strong on the outside and cowardly on the inside.
After the defeat of the First World War, the soldiers and civilians gradually became desperate. They could not see the slightest hope of defeating Japan. In the hearts of many people, the Japanese army was already a terrifying army that could not be defeated.
Umezu Yoshijiro, who is the Japanese Army Vice Minister, muttered: "What's wrong with our war strategy? In just a few years, the imperial army has successfully stepped on the Chinese dragon that has suppressed Japan for thousands of years.
Under its feet, it can no longer compete with the Japanese Empire for the status of Asian hegemony, and can only eventually become a vassal and servant state of the Japanese Empire. Isn't this enough to prove the loyalty and bravery of the imperial army?"
Konoe Fumimaro sneered: "Yes, you have successfully started wars on the front line and aroused fanatical military enthusiasm in the country. But don't forget the food and bullets consumed by the millions of imperial troops on the front line every day.
, weapons, and a large amount of fuel are all provided to you by the people of the entire Empire of Japan who live frugally and frugally!"
"With the support of the whole country, the military has fought blindly again and again, spending a lot of manpower and material resources but failing to achieve the previous war goals, leaving behind messes one after another. These messes were thrown to our cabinet and let
We will bear the consequences for you." Umezu Yoshijiro was furious: "What do you mean by this! Are the immortal military achievements of the imperial army just a mess in your eyes?"
Konoe Fumimaro nodded: "Yes, it's just a mess." As soon as he said this, the whole audience was shocked. Emperor Hirohito, who had remained silent: "Konoe, please make it clear." "Hi, His Majesty the Emperor!" Konoe Fumimaro!
He immediately bowed and nodded, and then looked at the Japanese generals again: "Everyone, do you still remember the heroic words made before the battle to capture Shandong? It doesn't matter if you don't remember, I will help you recall your memories."
"You claimed at the time that as long as you captured Shandong and captured the only last industrial city in China, China would definitely surrender to us. At that time, we can end this war at the most profitable time, right?
." Konoe Fumimaro made an impassioned speech: "But now, you are blindly expanding the front line again and again, claiming again and again that you can force China to surrender to us. However, after such a long time, the anti-Japanese forces are still developing and growing, and our military strength
But its shortcomings have been exposed!”
The faces of the Japanese army generals who were present became ugly, while the navy generals were happy to see the results and looked at the jokes of the army men. Konoe Fumimaro looked at Emperor Hirohito: "Your Majesty, if you deploy defenses thousands of miles away, you will not be able to protect yourself even if you are thousands of miles away."
Defence. The Kwantung Army, the North China Front Army, the Central China Expeditionary Force, and the South China Front Army all need to bear serious combat pressure, and now our army's supply line from Tokyo to the Wuhan front line is a full two thousand kilometers long, and our troops are stretched thin and unsustainable."
He once again turned his attention to the Japanese generals, and his tone was full of accusations: "At this moment, an extremely dangerous enemy suddenly emerged in Shandong, our safe rear. What should the military do?" Umezu Yoshijiro: "Of course, we will continue to expand.
The strength, area and depth of China are too large, so we have defeated the Chinese army time and time again, but we cannot completely defeat them, because the Chinese army always has room for maneuver, and they can always retreat back to save their lives."
This crazy guy said: "I think that as long as we expand the army by another four million and establish the light infantry as a mechanized force, then our army can sweep all enemies, sweep Hainan Island all the way south, and push Xibei all the way north.
Lia, we can even hit Sichuan to the west, completely turning the Japanese Empire from an island country into a super continental country!"
The eyes of the Japanese army generals lit up. They heard the word 'Siberia' and knew that Umezu Yoshijiro was taking this opportunity to advocate the 'north travel theory'. Konoe Fumimaro immediately angrily shouted: "Idiot! Do you want to conquer the Japanese Empire?"
Is the country all desperate? There must be a limit to extreme military force! How can you be so crazy!" The Navy Minister also sneered and said: "Yes, expanding the mechanized army by four million? What a foolish dream, so many resources are invested in useless
Instead of using our army to build ships, it is better to allocate them to our navy to build ships and build an extremely powerful naval fleet."
"In this way, the combined fleet will be able to go all the way south to seize resource-rich Southeast Asia from Britain and France, providing the empire with a steady stream of resources, including oil resources in Borneo, rubber in Indonesia, tin mines in Malaysia, and rice in Thailand, Burma, and Vietnam.
The production areas will become the best nourishment for the imperial army." The naval generals also puffed up their chests, and at this moment, the 'Southbound Theory' also appeared.
——In 1939, due to the long-term war that consumed a huge amount of resources, Japan's financial situation was already very bad, and the economy would only be able to operate for a few more years before facing the risk of collapse, so it had to launch a new war to seize
resources to restore the blood supply. If the Japanese army wanted to launch a new war, it had only two goals. One was the Soviet Far East region to attack from the north, and the other was the Southeast Asian region to sweep south.
Going north is a land battle, mainly fought by the Japanese Army, so the Japanese Army has become a staunch northward faction. Going south is a naval battle, mainly fought by the Japanese Navy, and the Japanese Navy has naturally become a southward faction. There has been a dispute between the navy and the army for a long time, and at this moment
Naturally, they refused to give in to each other. Umezu Yoshijiro immediately shouted: "The risk of going south is too great! This plan will not only offend Britain and France, which have been colonizing Southeast Asia, but also may rashly offend the United States by going deep into the Pacific, and at the same time provoke
Old Western powers, this risk will plunge Japan into a situation of no return! It is better for the Kwantung Army to go all the way north, attack Soviet Russia, and capture the Far East, which also has huge resources!"
"Besides, Russia is our defeated general. It would be safer to attack Soviet Russia!" Minister of the Navy: "Going to fight the Soviet army in the icy and snowy Far East? Even if we can win the Far East, what can we do? The cost of resource extraction is extremely high.
High, but the resources in Southeast Asia are at your fingertips! Our navy can guarantee the destruction of the British Navy's Fleet Z. Don't your army dare to fight with the British Army?" "It's not that you don't dare, but that you can't!" "You are extremely cowardly!
"Baga! You navy are the incompetent people who have been watching the fire from the other side!"
…
Okay, the quarrel started again. Emperor Hirohito was a little helpless. The army and navy each insisted on their own opinions and refused to let go of each other. They criticized each other at every opportunity. It was really difficult. Konoe Fumimaro shouted: "Everyone! We are not here today to discuss going south.
It’s still the strategic decision to go north! The purpose of today’s meeting is to solve the current mistakes of the military and discuss how to eradicate the threat of Weiping! Don’t change the topic again!” Konoe Fumimaro forcibly brought the topic back to prevent these generals from deliberately
It took the damn topic astray.
After all, he broke the rules and attended the base camp meeting today to be held accountable! The base camp meeting continued under high pressure. Konoe Fumimaro was aggressive: "Whether it is to go south or north, that is a major decision for the future. And now, we must
What needs to be solved is the problems exposed by the destruction of the 107th Division, the 5th Division, and the 20th Division, as well as the problem of China's delay in surrendering to the Empire of Japan!" Umezu Yoshijiro snorted: "Making a mountain out of a molehill.
It is obviously the destruction of the 107th Division, but it is also related to the Chinese government's refusal to surrender."
General Sugiyama Moto whispered: "That's enough, don't say any more." Konoe Fumimaro immediately grasped the reason: "General Sugiyama Moto, who serves as the Minister of War, bears unshirkable responsibility for this strategic decision-making mistake. I propose,
General Gen Sugiyama was dismissed from his position as Minister of War and was replaced by Masishiro Itataru." A look of loneliness flashed across Gen Sugiyama's face.
The naval generals showed expressions that they were not too concerned about the excitement, and looked at Umezu Meijiro with schadenfreude. Umezu Meijiro was the real veteran. But Umezu Meijiro looked around, but no one said a word for him, not even General Sugiyama Gen.
They all remained silent, seeming to have acquiesced in the result of being dismissed.
Konoe Fumimaro responded tit-for-tat and smiled coldly: "Your Excellency, Deputy Minister of the Army, I don't need to trouble you to submit your resignation again. My second suggestion is to remove you from your position. You once clamored with Gen. Sugiyama Gen that you can do it in three months."
To end the war with China, but now two years have passed, the war is still far away. General Sugiyama Genda needs to be responsible, and you must also be responsible for it!" Facing such a politician wielding a knife, Umezu Yoshijiro was stunned and almost said, "
"Baga" blurted out, but since the emperor was still there, he gritted his teeth and held back his anger.
Konoe Fumimaro sneered: "The Imperial Japanese Army needs generals who can truly see the situation clearly to serve as Minister of War, instead of needing some generals who claim to be senior to continue to act recklessly and wantonly expand the war and resort to militarism. Ishihara Wanji is young and calm, so he can do it.
Let the army change its look!" Umezu Yoshijiro looked in the direction of Emperor Hirohito, but found that the emperor did not seem to have any displeasure or expression. He was secretly surprised in his heart. It seems that the emperor was also very dissatisfied with the performance of himself and General Sugiyama Gen...
He frowned and had no choice but to sit down first, but secretly decided in his heart that he would also transfer his confidant Hideki Tojo to take over the position of deputy minister of the army, thereby creating a constraint. Umezu Yoshijiro
Gritting his teeth in his heart, damn Konoe Fumimaro is so ruthless in doing things. Sooner or later, he will cultivate the power to overthrow his cabinet one day and make him kneel down and beg for mercy!
But this secretly ruthless Army Under-Secretary-General did not know that just a few years later, Tojo Hideki, whom he had single-handedly supported, actually overthrew Konoe Fumimaro's cabinet and became both Prime Minister and Prime Minister.
By combining all his positions, he has successfully become the ultimate conspirator in Japan who is more powerful than one person and has more power than ten thousand people. Of course, this is a story for another day.
Next, Konoe Fumimaro continued: "As for the annihilation of the 107th Division, General Hata Shunroku, the supreme commander of the Central China Expeditionary Force, and Lieutenant General Higashikaru Miyazaki Norihiko, the frontline commander, also bear unshirkable responsibility.
"Hearing this, Emperor Hirohito, who had always been calm, flashed a hint of caution in his eyes. To Shunroku Hata, it didn't matter to him, as long as he was replaced.
But King Higashinomu Nomonuhiko is a member of the royal family, and this level of royal status is an absolute taboo in his eyes. Emperor Hirohito can accept Konoe Fumimaro to be a good dog that can balance the growing military power for him.
But we can never accept him showing his fangs towards the royal family! Anyone who dares to attack the imperial power will be his absolute enemy!
Emperor Hirohito silently clenched his fists, ready to interrupt this person's words at any time. But the next moment, Konoe Fumimaro changed the topic and handled the incident smoothly. "But as far as I know, the battle started with the 107th
The division commander, Lieutenant General Koshimano, commanded independently. At that time, General Hata Shunroku was far away in Guangdong, and King Higashino Miyazaki was also on the plane rushing to the front line, so the two did not need to bear all the blame." "As for Kojima.
Lieutenant General Shimano, he committed seppuku and committed suicide in the battle with the Jiaodong Military Region. He used his own life to make up for his guilt, so it is inconvenient to pursue him further."
"I suggest that General Hata Shunroku be transferred back to Japan and resume his post as Director of Education. Lieutenant General Higashino Miyashihiko will continue to be responsible for countering Jiang Qiang's army and regaining the initiative in the campaign." Emperor Hirohito's expression softened, and he
Very satisfied with Konoe Fumimaro's performance.
...After the base camp meeting, the internal personnel situation of the Japanese army underwent tremendous changes: Konoe Fumimaro's cabinet dismissed Army Minister Sugiyama Moto and Vice-minister Umezu Yoshijiro, who had clamored to resolve the China Incident within three months, because the war with China was far from over.
Kwantung Army Chief of Staff Hideki Tojo will serve as Army Undersecretary.
General Hata Toshiro was dismissed and returned directly to his homeland as director of education. The specific culpability will not be dealt with for the time being. Lieutenant General Okamura Neiji was transferred to North China and was responsible for wiping out armed forces behind enemy lines. Lieutenant General Yamada Otsuzo, commander of the Kwantung Army's 3rd Army
Then he left Northeast China and rushed to the Central China Expeditionary Force, succeeding General Hata Shunroku as the supreme commander of the Central China Expeditionary Force...
At the same time, the Japanese Army General Staff Headquarters also submitted a detailed combat report on the annihilation of the 107th Division, which focused on the reasons for the defeat of the battle and analyzed Jiang Qiang. "Jiang Qiang's army currently has
The field capabilities of the large corps, its maneuvering speed even exceeds that of the Imperial Army's first-class divisions, and far exceeds that of any enemy force on the Chinese battlefield. Its firepower density can even rank among the world's first-class armies. Its only shortcoming at present may be
Just the scale does not determine the overall situation of the entire war." "Therefore, in a short period of time, our army should try to avoid falling into a field battle situation with Jiang Qiang, otherwise the risks will be extremely high and the benefits will be minimal..."
"Based on the judgment of the battle situation, the biggest reason why the 107th Division was completely wiped out was probably the sudden appearance of a Chinese army in Wanjia Village." "It was the sudden appearance of this Chinese army that completely blocked the retreat of the 107th Division.
The last road... But so far, we have not yet detected the reason for the sudden appearance of this Chinese army..." "A small number of units of the Chinese army are equipped with a large number of heavy artillery and tanks, thus forming a rapid assault capability and extremely strong fire suppression capability.
As a result, our army's support troops were delayed in arriving at the battlefield, and eventually led to the tragedy of the 3rd Division being wiped out..." "The combat analysis class concluded that Jiang Qiang's combat ideas are different from those of armies around the world.
, he did not assign tanks to various infantry units for use as fire support weapons, but concentrated all the tanks into one unit to form a tank impact group of sufficient size, thereby giving full play to the mobility and firepower advantages of the tanks."
"This is consistent with the theory of "Building a Professional Army" written by a French Army colonel named 'De Gaulle'. However, this man was only a colonel and served as the commander of the 507th Tank Regiment of the French Army. His theory did not
It was not accepted by the French Army." "But General Guderian, the director of armored forces of the German Army and the commander of the 2nd Armored Division, highly praised this tactic and is currently vigorously developing it. In his book "Attention - Tank!"
The book introduces in detail the tactics of tank impact groups and high-speed attacks."
"The General Staff Headquarters analyzed that the Imperial Army should follow the example of the Jiaodong Military Region in establishing a mechanized force to counter it tit for tat, and it also needed to develop new tanks that could adapt to the needs of high-intensity warfare. Over the past twenty years, the Imperial Army has continued to fight weak enemies,
Therefore, we can often win easily, which slows down the modernization process of the Army, which is a major hidden danger."
"Currently, the tanks equipped by our army generally have small gun calibers, fragile armor, extremely low tonnage, slow speed, and short range. They were good at dealing with the Chinese army in the past, but they are absolutely not enough to deal with Weiping." "Therefore, I
The army should abandon the Type 95 and Type 97 light tanks that have no response capabilities. As for the Type 94 ultra-light tank, it can only be assigned to ordinary infantry regiments."
"Nagoya Arsenal, Ishikawajima Arsenal, Kawasaki Motors, Osaka Arsenal, Kokura Arsenal, Tokyo Gas Electric Company, Sagami Arsenal, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, and Hitachi Manufacturing should immediately jointly design a new tank that weighs at least
It must weigh 20 tons and have enough firepower to destroy the frontal armor of enemy tanks." "If this type of tank cannot be produced in a short time, the Army should purchase this type of tank from overseas..." "The Army should use
This new type of tank is used to establish a tank division, thereby forming the most powerful assault force on the battlefield, thereby confronting Weiping." "As long as the tank division has not yet been successfully formed, the imperial army will not have the ability to compete with Weiping in a short period of time.
Jiang Qiang's ability to conduct large-scale decisive battles in the wild." "Because even if we can annihilate him, we will still need to spend a lot of manpower, material and war resources. A single move will affect the whole body. Once our army pays a lot of money to annihilate Jiang Qiang, it will
This will leave the frontline empty of strength, and this situation will inevitably stimulate the Chinese army on the Wuhan frontline to launch a large-scale counterattack, which will make the current pressure on the imperial army even worse."
"Therefore, our army should maintain a strategic confrontation with Jiang Qiang at present, and completely block him at all costs to prevent him from purchasing weapons from any channels to expand the army." "Each unit must not attack rashly again to avoid a repeat of the 107th Division.
The tragedy of being wiped out..." "In addition, the sharp increase in the number of heavy artillery and fighter aircraft of our army in the Jiaodong Military Region has also become a huge threat to our army. The explosive ammunition they project can easily inflict damage to our soldiers on the battlefield with harsh environment.