"Chen Jun, don't prepare dinner. Let's chat for a while and then go to the General Officers Club. Lieutenant General Shimomura is going to treat you to a banquet tonight to greet you when you come to Peking. Such high-level treatment, from the commander to the general in Peking,
This is the first time since the new year, it can be seen that the commander attaches great importance to you." Colonel Qingqi said with a smile.
"I also want to thank the commander for his warm hospitality. It's better to go inside the pass. The heating has started to turn on outside the pass. I have to wear a coat when I go out." Chen Mingxiang said.
"You just came back from outside the customs. Isn't the situation there very tense?" Kiyonobu Shiozawa suddenly asked.
"Yes, when I had dinner with Chief of General Staff Yukio Kasahara, I learned that in the second half of this year, the military headquarters will mobilize a large number of troops from the Kwantung Army and deploy them to Nanyang and Okinawa to prepare for attacks by the US military."
"The General Headquarters is intensively using the remaining troops and garrison troops to form new divisions and brigades. This year alone, six divisions and three brigades have been established, one of which is a tank brigade. By next year, maybe
There will be more.”
"As Germany was about to be defeated, the Kwantung Army also felt great pressure and was racing against time to increase its strength, hoping to have enough time to train new troops, otherwise its combat effectiveness would be greatly affected." Chen Mingxiang said.
"It's like this. The base camp has given me a transfer order to serve as the division commander of the 119th Division. I previously served as a staff officer at the Kwantung Army Headquarters and also served as the Security Section Chief of the Military Police Headquarters.
I also served as the captain of the alliance, so I haven’t been back outside the customs for seven years." Shiozawa Kiyonori said.
Chen Mingxiang also thought that the Japanese army is currently expanding its troops too fast and there are not so many suitable division commanders, so they have to be transferred from other departments.
Although Kiyonobu Shiozawa is a soldier, he has spent seven years working as a spy and in administrative and diplomatic affairs. He is already unfamiliar with leading troops in war. Even such a type has been transferred to the field army as a military officer. This shows the current situation.
It's really not good.
The Japanese division is the main combat unit. The division commander is currently a lieutenant general, and the division commander is personally appointed and dismissed by the Emperor of Japan. Although this is a formality, it also shows its high status.
Chen Mingxiang guessed that Kiyonomi Shiozawa was a Japanese Army Lieutenant General. This was a necessary condition. In addition, he had served in the Kwantung Army before and was familiar with the local situation, so he was selected as the division commander of the 119th Division.
"In the imperial army, the division commander has a very high status. When you arrive outside the pass, we will meet from time to time. After all, I also have a lot of business in Manchukuo." Chen Mingxiang said.
That night, Lieutenant General Shimomura Shimomura hosted a banquet for Chen Mingxiang in the high-end club of the headquarters. This was a private banquet, and the only attendees were him, Colonel Haruki, and Lieutenant General Kato Torajiro.
"I heard that Lieutenant General Miyazaki Mon, the Chief of Staff of the Sixth Front Army Headquarters, was transferred to the Chief of Operations of the General Staff Headquarters, and Major General Joichiro Sanada was transferred to the Army Ministry as the Director of Military Affairs. He was just transferred to the General Headquarters.
Colonel Isao Takeda was appointed as the Chief of Staff of the Sixth Front." Colonel Haruki said.
"Yes, Lieutenant General Miyazaki has arrived in Tokyo on Monday. Before leaving, he stayed in Peiping for a day. We discussed some views on the current situation. According to him, the commander-in-chief of the dispatched army, General Okamura Neiji, also commissioned
He was testing out the idea of base camp.”
"At present, our dispatched troops have completed the No. 1 operation of the base camp, opened up the north-south communication line, and have formed an absolute advantage over the Kuomintang-controlled area of the Shancheng government. General Gangcun hopes to further expand the results. If we can get support from the base camp, a new round of battles will
It’s about to start again.” Lieutenant General Shimomura Sada said.
Okamura Neiji, who originally served as the Commander-in-Chief of the Expeditionary Forces on November 22, 33rd year of the Republic of China, discovered from this No. 1 battle, that is, the Battle of Henan, Hunan and Guangxi, that the combat effectiveness of the mountain city government troops was very low.
Often heavy troops were assembled but unable to withstand the Japanese attack.
In particular, there are many factions in the mountain city government army, and they do not trust each other. There is a serious distinction between direct troops and local troops. It can be said that there are many contradictions. In combat, there is often a phenomenon of voluntary retreat in order to preserve strength.
In this large-scale battle, the Japanese troops were able to successfully complete the planned mission that was initially thought to be extremely difficult under adverse conditions such as bad weather, inconvenient transportation, lack of air cover, and logistical difficulties, and defeated half of the regular troops of the Yamashiro government troops participating in the battle.
The above military strength also fully proves this fact.
Okamura Neiji believes that the dispatched troops should continue to launch new offensives to capture Sichuan Province, the core hinterland of the Yamashiro government. The other side will lose its last operational foundation and will no longer be able to confront the Japanese army.
In addition to revealing this idea to Miyazaki on Monday, he was also preparing to report to the base camp specifically on this, clearly pointing out that currently is the best opportunity to attack Gui and Sichuan provinces, and in the second half of next year, the situation of the Yamashiro government forces will be
Big changes have occurred.
The U.S. government has been assisting the Yamashiro government in weapons, equipment and combat supplies, which will cause the Japanese army to lose its current advantage. If the Yamashiro government's army adds more and more art mechanics, and the air force obtains advanced American fighters and bombers, then
This is extremely detrimental to the dispatched troops.
According to the calculation of the Army Air Force of the Dispatch Army, with the addition of the U.S. Air Force, the casualty ratio of the Yamashiro Government Air Force and the Army Air Force of the Dispatch Army is currently three to one. The Army Air Force of the Imperial Army is already at a disadvantage, but if it is not curbed, casualties will increase.
To ten to one.
In order to prevent being attacked from both sides by the Shancheng government troops and the US military on land in China, we should take advantage of the fact that the dispatched troops have occupied parts of Guizhou and Hunan provinces, formed a combat posture against Guizhou and Sichuan provinces, and can launch attacks at any time.
It was a great opportunity to continue the offensive, defeat the main force of the Shancheng government's army, and occupy Sichuan Province, which the opponent relied on for survival.
Okamura Neiji speculated that when the Yamashiro government forces encountered a critical situation in Sichuan Province, the art divisions and some U.S. troops in northern Myanmar might land from the southeast coast to support the Yamashiro government.
The dispatched troops just mobilized the main force and launched a large-scale field battle with the opponent on the land battlefield, which contained and consumed the U.S. military's strength and reduced the pressure on the homeland.
In the final analysis, this old devil's strategy is to alleviate the crisis on the mainland, transfer the battlefield between Japan and the United States to China, and use the power of the Japanese army to fight a war of attrition with the US military.
After all, in China's occupied areas, in addition to dispatching troops, the Southern Army and the Kwantung Army can also provide support. The powerful forces of the three general armies can always compete with the US military. And the north-south communication lines brought about by Operation No. 1 are connected.
