Shanghai, Japanese Central China Front Army Headquarters.
Shanshan Yuan looked at Deputy Chief of Staff Muto Akira with a faint look, and asked: "Still unable to contact the Tachibana detachment?"
Muto Akira shook his head gloomily and said in a deep voice: "Your Excellency, Commander, until half an hour ago, we were still unable to contact the Tachibana detachment, but..."
Shan Shanyuan frowns and says, "But what?"
Muto Akira replied: "However, the Asada Brigade stationed in Taizhou came back with news that last night, a group of injured Imperial Army soldiers were transported back to the Taizhou Field Hospital from Hai'an Town. These Imperial Army soldiers once mentioned that they had entered the Seven Stars
The imperial army sweeping the lake swamp area encountered a ghost attack."
"Nani? Ghost?!" Shanshan Yuan suddenly stood up and stared at Muto Akira.
"Hai, I know this is ridiculous, but..." Muto Akira didn't dare to look at Sugihara Yuan, and his voice inadvertently weakened, but he still said bravely, "It may not be impossible."
"If you don't believe it, I never believe that there are real ghosts in this world." Sugisu Yuan tried his best to control his emotions and said to Muto Akira in as calm a tone as possible, "Keep calling the Tachibana detachment until I can contact them."
"Hai." Muto Akira nodded heavily, hurriedly left Sugimoto Yuan's office and returned to the communications office.
Unfortunately, until noon, the Communications Office failed to contact the Tachibana detachment. Instead, the Watanabe Brigade, which was pursuing north from Taixing, sent news that the sentry cavalry of the 180th Division had been discovered in Rugao, 20 miles south of Hai'an Town.
Muto Akira did not dare to neglect and immediately reported the news to Sugihara Yuan.
"The 180th Division?" Shan Shanyuan strode to the map and asked, "What kind of army is this?"
Muto Akira immediately told the origin of the 180th Division without even looking for information: "The commander of the 180th Division, Xiang Tianhu, and the chief of staff, Yan Yuhui, are affiliated with the 59th Army of the National Revolutionary Army, which in turn is affiliated with the 59th Army of the National Revolutionary Army.
The 1st Group Army was expanded from Song Zheyuan's 29th Army and consisted of three infantry corps and one cavalry corps."
Before the launch of the all-out war between China and Japan, Japan's intelligence agencies had been committed to collecting intelligence on the Middle East for more than 20 years, including research on the composition of local military factions in China and assessment of combat effectiveness.
On the document, the evaluation of the Northwest Army is eight words: Dare to fight to the death, endure hardships and stand hard work!
Muto Akira said: "According to the information provided by the secret service, the 59th Army is currently in Huainan."
Shanshan Yuandao: "That's not surprising. If the main force of the 59th Army is really near Hai'an, and is aware of the Tachibana Detachment's combat intentions in advance, and then sets up an ambush in the dense forest of Qixing Lake Swamp in advance, without Tachibana Detachment noticing for a moment,
It is not impossible to be surrounded by the 59th Army, and it would make sense if that were the case."
"Hai." Muto Akira said after a heavy pause, "It seems that the main force of the Tachibana detachment has been collectively shattered."
Shan Shan Yuan's eyes flashed. He didn't care about the loss of a few infantry brigades. The empire had a population of 80 million and tens of millions of soldiers of the right age, so the loss of a few infantry brigades was nothing. Shan Shan Yuan had a headache.
Yes, how should I explain this to the base camp and the royal family?
This is obvious. The pursuit and annihilation of the remnants of the temporary 79th Division failed again.
The last failure forced Iwane Matsui to retire sadly. What fate awaits him?
Muto Akira added: "Your Excellency, Commander, if the main force of the 59th Army is really near Hai'an, then the Watanabe Brigade and the Guards Brigade that are encircling Hai'an Town will be very dangerous."
The Tachibana detachment has six infantry brigades, three of which followed Tachibana Yoshio to Hai'an Town, one was stationed in Taizhou, and the other two detoured from Tai'an and then from the southeast to Hai'an to encircle the remnants of the temporary 79th Division.
Near Hai'an, the main force of the Tachibana detachment has now been completely destroyed. It is useless for Watanabe and the Guards Brigade to go to Hai'an.
"Order," Shanshan Yuan said immediately, "cancel the establishment of the Tachibana detachment, the Konoe, Watanabe and Asada brigades, immediately return to form the Iijima Division, and then order the Iijima Division to go north along the canal to capture Huai'an."
"Hai." Muto Zhang nodded heavily, already understanding Shan Shan Yuan's plan in his heart.
Shan Shanyuan wanted to push the Central China Front Army to move north as soon as possible, and attack the North China Front Army from north to south, and attack Xuzhou. As long as he provoked a war in the hinterland of the Central Plains, the attention of the base camp and the royal family would be diverted. After all, compared with the empire's thousand-year national destiny, the royal family
A little bit of face is nothing.
Of course, Muto Akira is also very clear that whether this move can successfully divert the attention of the base camp and the royal family, and whether it can successfully help him avoid this disaster, is still unknown. Half a month ago, Matsui Iwane was not only trying to capture the Chinese capital
Was he dismissed from the base camp on the eve of Nanjing? Who can guarantee that Shanshan Yuan will not make the same mistake as Matsui Iwane?
However, there must be an explanation for the remnants of the temporary 79th Division.
At that moment, Muto Akira said again: "Your Excellency, Commander, how should you respond to the base camp and the royal family regarding the whereabouts of the remnants of the temporary 79th Division?"
Shanshan Yuan frowned and said, "Didn't the Tachibana detachment report earlier that it had wiped out the remnants of the temporary 79th Division in Qixing Lake Swamp?"
"Hai." Sho Muto paused and said, "About a hundred people were wiped out."
"Let's see," said Sugisu Yuan, "under the fierce pursuit of the Tachibana detachment, most of the remnants of the temporary seventy-ninth division were wiped out, and only a small number of remnants fled. The Tachibana detachment went deep alone and unfortunately fell into
In the ambush circle of China's 59th Army, the main force of the detachment's more than 3,000 men, except for a small number, were all broken into pieces, which is extremely regrettable."
Muto Akira's eyes lit up and he said sincerely: "Your Excellency, Commander, is brilliant."
A proud smile appeared on the corner of Shanshan Yuan's mouth. After he said this, the unexplained and tragic failure of the Tachibana detachment immediately changed its flavor.
Because, if the truth is reported to the base camp truthfully, the Tachibana detachment will certainly not be able to escape the blame for incompetent combat, and he, Sugisu Yuan, will also not be able to escape the responsibility for improper command.
However, now that he has said this, the Tachibana detachment has become a model of implementing the royal decree to the letter. You see, in order to save the face of the imperial family and to eliminate a few hundred Chinese remnants, our detachment ended up going deep into Central Jiangsu alone.
In the hinterland, most of the detachment has been put in. So, your royal family still has the heart to say that we are not effective in fighting?
And he, Shan Shanyuan, also successfully shirks his responsibility: Everyone has seen that in order to fulfill the emperor's order, I, Shan Shanyuan, formed a separate forward detachment. In the end, the remnants of the temporary 79th Division were basically annihilated. Just because
We went too far alone, so we were unable to achieve full success and suffered heavy casualties.
Shanshan Yuan's remarks also have a hidden benefit: after this battle, it will be difficult for the royal family to force him to exterminate the remnants of the temporary 79th Division, and he will be able to get rid of this thankless job.
Freed, he devoted himself wholeheartedly to the preparations for the Battle of Xuzhou. This was what Shan Shanyuan wanted.
Of course, if the imperial family is still not satisfied, I can form a forward detachment again. However, no one can guarantee whether this forward detachment will make the same mistake as the Tachibana detachment. Although the imperial army is powerful, the Chinese army is
Although the combat effectiveness is weak, after all, this is a lone army going deep. Who can guarantee that the imperial army can win?
Shan Shan Yuan said proudly: "Just follow what I just said, report it to the base camp and then forward it to the royal family."
But Akira Muto remembered something again and whispered: "Your Excellency, Commander, if the base camp and the royal family ask about the temporary battalion commander of the 79th Division, Xu Rui, how should he respond to his humble position?"
"Well..." Shan Shanyuan's brows knitted into a knot again.
This is indeed a difficult question to answer, because regardless of the Battle of Wuxi, the Battle of Likou or the Battle of Nantong, the culprit who even killed His Royal Highness Prince Fushimi Palace was the battalion commander, Xu Rui! If Xu Rui cannot be killed,
Rui, annihilating the entire battalion is meaningless, and it is equivalent to failure.
But we can't make it up and say that they have already killed Xu Rui. Otherwise, if one day this Xu Rui appears again and gives the imperial army a hard blow, and then uses the power again, then Shanshan Yuan will not
Are you just making fun of the Japanese royal family? Then his fate may be worse than that of Iwane Matsui.
Matsui Iwane was just dismissed and retired. What awaited him, Sugimoto Yuan, might be a trial.
It seems that this matter cannot be discussed in detail and can only be dealt with in a vague manner. Let's wait for this period of time before talking about it.
At that moment, Shan Shanyuan said again: "In this case, you may die in the chaos."
"Maybe he died in the chaos." Muto Akira was dumbfounded.
"Yes, that's the reply." Shan Shanyuan nodded heavily.
"Hai." Muto Akira paused heavily, but when he turned to leave, Shan Shanyuan stopped him again.
"Muto-san." Sugisu Yuan stopped Muto Akira and said, "In view of the information provided by the meteorological observation department, there is no need for the aircraft of the aviation corps to take off today and tomorrow."
Muto Akira was stunned for a moment when he heard this, and then realized that Sugisu Yuan was worried that the aviation reconnaissance force would find "intelligence" that he did not want to see. For example, the main force of the 59th Army was not in Haian Town, which meant that
In his heart, Shanshan Yuan does not believe that the collective destruction of the Tachibana detachment was caused by the 59th Army.
Shanshan Yuan also doesn’t think this is the work of ghosts.
In other words, Shanshan Yuan believes that the collective destruction of the Tachibana detachment was caused by the temporary 79th Division Battalion!
Thinking of this, Akira Muto suddenly felt a chill in his heart. If the collective destruction of the Tachibana detachment was really the work of the temporary 79th Division Battalion, then this unit would be too terrifying.
From the look in Muto Akira's eyes, Sugisu Yuan knew that his deputy chief of staff had understood.
At that moment, Shanshan Yuan said again: "Muto-san, you should understand that you and I are just grasshoppers on a rope. You should know what can and cannot be said."
"Hai." Muto Akira paused heavily and added, "However, I am worried that the China Army will expose this matter."
"No." Shan Shanyuan waved his hand and said firmly, "With such a huge military achievement falling on his head, which general of the China Army would be stupid enough not to claim it?"
