Chapter 477 The Eighth Division Playing Farming Style
Moreover, when Liu Lang didn't arrive, he also avoided facing a very important issue.
That is, the issue of the ownership of the Great Wall after the war.
Naturally, Lieutenant General Song, commander of the 29th Army, put this matter on the table while the wine and food were hot.
Of course, when the big guys were talking, no one from the Great Wall regiment school officials could interrupt, so they could only listen.
According to Lieutenant General Song's idea, it is very simple. The existence of the temporary designation of the Great Wall Regiment was just a helpless move during the war in order to integrate the forces to unify the enemy. Now that it is after the war, they will naturally return to their respective formations.
The officers and soldiers who originally belonged to the 288th and 289th regiments returned to form the 29th Army, and the officers and soldiers who originally belonged to the Independent Regiment returned to form the 2nd Division. From Song Zheyuan's point of view, although there are only 1,300 people left in the two regiments after the battle, this
Thousands and three hundred people are elite soldiers who have fought in hundreds of battles, and their combat effectiveness is no weaker than the previous five thousand people. They must be returned to Jian.
As for Huang Jie, they were neither very eager nor said they refused. Although the Independent Regiment fought a brilliant battle and added a lot of aura to the Second Division, from a high-level perspective, the hot Liu Lang
The anti-Japanese heroes are a hot potato. It will be difficult to take them back!
So it was basically a one-man show by Lieutenant General Song, but what he said was very logical and there was nothing wrong with it.
Unexpectedly, as the first person in charge of military affairs in the north, General He had no final say on the current ownership of the Great Wall Regiment. The reasons he gave were even unable to be refuted by the two lieutenant generals.
It is a bit unreasonable that Liu Lang, the temporary commander of the Great Wall Regiment, split up the troops before returning. Moreover, the meritorious service award ceremony was for the entire Great Wall Regiment. Is it possible that the awards will be divided into two divisions by then?
Since it was the first person in the northern military administration to speak, both lieutenant generals had to give face, so the matter of returning to Jian was naturally put on hold.
Moreover, I am afraid that this shelving will take a long time. Since Liu Lang, the chief officer of the regiment, will not return to Peiping, the matter of awarding meritorious service can only be shelved for the time being.
It can be said that starting from this meal, the person who was most looking forward to Liu Lang's return to Peking was not the thousands of people from the Great Wall Group, nor even Ji Yanxue who was looking forward to his lover returning to Peiping to get engaged. Instead, it was the one who was looking forward to this time
Lieutenant General Song who suffered heavy losses in the Battle of the Great Wall.
The 29th Army lost between 10,000 and 20,000 people in this battle. More than 6,000 people died on the battlefield, not to mention those who were injured. Lieutenant General Song will definitely not lose those 1,300 veterans.
of.
But Liu Lang had obviously expected this.
After the banquet, Qi Guangyuan and Dong Shengtang went to Lieutenant General Song's military headquarters in Beiping City to report military information to the commander as subordinates. This was completely normal.
However, after reporting the military situation, Qi Guangyuan brought Lieutenant General Song a secret letter that Liu Lang wrote to Lieutenant General Song before leaving.
The content of the letter is not much, and there does not seem to be any impassioned words or sensational language. Most of it is just a series of numbers.
Then Lieutenant General Song was stunned. He didn't even see his two subordinates saluting him and saying goodbye. He kept staring at the letter.
After a phone call, senior officials from the 29th Army, including division commanders and above, gathered at the military headquarters.
I don’t know what exactly was written in Liu Lang’s letter. From Lieutenant General Song Zheyuan on down, Deputy Army Commanders Qin Dechun, Tong Linge, Chief of Staff Zhang Weifan, 37th Division Commander Feng Zhian, 38th Division Commander Zhang Zizhong, and temporary 2nd Division Commander Liu Ruming
, one lieutenant general and six major generals stayed up all night in the brightly lit 29th Army headquarters.
I don't know what they are doing, but it's probably not a joke.
When Liu Ruming, the direct commander of the 288th and 289th Regiments, accompanied by Qi Guangyuan, drove three hundred miles in a day to Qinglong Mountain, Lieutenant General Song never mentioned the return of the two battalions of the Great Wall Regiment.
After the Sixth Division located in Chengde City also repaired for two days in Chengde City, except for one brigade left to garrison Chengde Empty City, the rest of the large force began to march to the north of Rehe.
Lieutenant General Masaemon Sakamoto is in a very bad mood, it can be said to be extremely bad.
Not only were the transit baggage warehouses for the entire army heading south empty, but the entire Chengde City, the capital of Rehe Province, also became an empty city. This was a huge blow to the Kwantung Army, almost destroying the strategic position they occupied in Rehe.
Victory is cut in half.
The reason is simple. The Kwantung Army can no longer extract wealth from this city, nor can it obtain supplies locally from a city that can produce its own blood. It can be said that a city without people has lost the meaning of occupation.
Moreover, the total annihilation of Chengde City's commerce would be devastating to the entire Jehol economy. What the Kwantung Army needed was not only a bridgehead for an all-out war against China, but also an occupied area that could generate wealth and supply blood to the mainland.
But now, they have been overthinking things as the Great Wall Regiment has taken a step back.
It's better to think bigger. A lieutenant general who is "concerned about the country and the people" will inevitably make small calculations after worrying about national affairs.
However, Bagaya's little calculation for himself came to nothing. Since the attack on Rehe, the two Japanese lieutenant generals had actually communicated with each other. The Eighth Division mainly attacked the relatively wealthy central part of Rehe and took the Chinese at the same time.
The wealth was plundered and shipped back to the homeland.
The big part goes to the country, and the smaller part naturally goes to the two lieutenant generals who assigned the combat tasks. Otherwise, Lieutenant General Masaemon Sakamoto would not have come from the barren area in the north of Rehe, which is nothing but mountains and grassland.
Attack direction.
You know, in that shabby place, apart from cattle and sheep that can be used as military rations, the herdsmen only have their favorite silver jewelry, but can that thing be compared with gold? With the eighth division that can steal money, they are forced to
Sakamoto Masaemon, who was interested in military matters, led his army and didn't stop at all, so naturally they didn't grab anything.
Sakamoto Masaemon, who originally expected to profit from the Eighth Division, could not even see a single drop of silver, let alone the little yellow croaker he imagined. To be precise, he only saw a small amount of money.
I saw a storage room where a large amount of gold was once stored.
They were already in a bad mood, but the Eighth Division, more than 400 miles away, was urging them to go north with telegrams three times a day, as if they would starve to death if they arrived two days late.
Since learning that Lieutenant General Nishi Giichi was injured and still in a coma, the person in charge of the overall situation is Chief of Staff Terube Tanibe, and Masaemon Sakamoto has not had a good tone towards the 8th Division. He has not scolded him in the telegram now.
The entire 8th Division, which was the disgrace of the Kwantung Army, was the result of Sakamoto Masaemon's self-restraint.
You should know that Matsuda Kunizo, the commander of the brigade directly under him, had been scolded so badly by him that he would never send any more telegrams to His Excellency Sakamoto Masaemon unless it was an urgent matter.
In fact, Terube Tanibe has not yet told the truth to the commander of the 6th Division who was always angry.
Because, to be honest, it is embarrassing, although the Eighth Division has no face now. Not only has it become a joke in the base camp of the Kwantung Army, but the most common greeting that consuls from Western countries now encounter when they meet the consuls of the Empire of Japan is, "Your country's number one"
How is the Eighth Division?
The Eighth Division, one of the eighteen permanent divisions of the Imperial Japanese Empire, except for several thousand wounded soldiers who could not move, the rest who could move went up to the mountains to hunt and dig wild vegetables, and started to play farming style!
Tanibe Terube, who was a little self-conscious, understood a truth within two days.
You can save face anytime, but you can never save face on the battlefield. Otherwise, you will lose your head.