April 18, Peony City, First War Zone Chief’s Department

A high-level military meeting is underway, attended by officers above the military level of the first, second, and fifth theater zones, chaired by General He, the chief of general staff of the government.

Since the battle in southern Shanxi is about to begin, the main battlefield is in Zhongtiao Mountain, which belongs to the battle sequence of the first theater. First, the chief of staff of the first theater, General Guo Guangqi, who is familiar with the situation in the theater, introduces the situation between the enemy and ourselves.

General Guo and Wei Junru were from the same hometown. He graduated from the ninth artillery department in Baoding. He was deeply trusted by Commander Wei and was promoted along with Commander Wei;

From the end of 1937 to the spring of 41, General Guo held out against the enemy in the Zhongtiao Mountains and Taihang Mountains for four or five years, preventing the invading army from advancing westward and forcibly crossing the Yellow River.

In 39 years, Chief Wei was appointed as the commander-in-chief of the first theater, and Guo also served as the chief of staff.

In the defensive battle during this period, General Guo, based on the actual disparity in equipment between the enemy and ourselves, focused on organizing the troops to build fortifications, establish a cross fire network for side defenses, lure the enemy into the mountains, then encircle and annihilate them, and repeatedly performed extraordinary feats.

In addition, Chief of Staff Guo also paid special attention to the encryption of telegraph codes to prevent the enemy from being able to decipher them.

From 1937 to early 1941, he repelled 13 Japanese attacks on Zhongtiao Mountain. Even senior Japanese generals such as Xiao Zhuoyinan recognized Guo as a senior general with strategic vision;

The masterpiece is the Battle of Xinkou, which severely damaged the arrogant Itagaki Division.

Admiral Guo said to the map:

"The enemy's 36th, 37th, and 41st Divisions, the 3rd and 9th Independent Brigades, and the Puppet 24th Division have secretly moved to Jiang County, Hengling Pass, Wenxi, Anyi, Fenglingdu, and Hejin to the west of Zhongtiao Mountain.

Ji Wenxi, all areas north of Xia County.

Since March, the enemy's 36th Division, 37th Division, and 41st Division have successively attacked our 27th Army and 15th Army on the periphery, using a large number of aircraft;

Our 27th Army's Fan Department and 15th Army's 10,000 troops suffered heavy losses. The main force moved to the mountainous areas on both wings, and the connecting belt between Zhongtiao Mountain and Taihang Mountain was separated by the enemy;

The 4th Independent Brigade attached to the 33rd Division is located in Yangcheng, Qinchi, and Qinshui areas.

The 35th and 21st Divisions and the puppet troops Zhang Lanfeng and Liu Yanfeng are distributed in Wenxian, Boai, Muye, Shanyang, Changping, and Guring areas;

The Japanese plan that has been confirmed so far includes 6 divisions and 3 brigades, as well as no less than 30,000 puppet troops, and more than 200 aircraft. They have completed the encirclement of the Zhongtiao Mountain area..."

I have to admit that Admiral Guo is a very competent chief of staff, and he has a very thorough grasp of the situation of the enemy and me;

He spent nearly half an hour introducing the situation between the enemy and ourselves in detail, and then left the rest to the Imperial Envoy, General He.

General He was the second-ranking figure in the Huangpu Clan after Zhong Cai. During the Chang'an Incident, he had a wrong idea and tried to provoke Zhang Hanqing to kill Zhong Cai so that he could ascend to the throne;

Later, after the incident was peacefully resolved, General He was suspended and never held actual military power again, let alone fought against the Japanese. His understanding of the Japanese was only on paper.

The commander changes his general before the battle, even if he replaces him with someone who understands Japanese warfare.

It is indeed a bit nerve-wracking to replace a commander who has never commanded a large corps in combat and has been relegated to the second line for a long time, far away from the military, to command a battle of 200,000 people.

Admiral He did not have this awareness. He finally caught an opportunity to prove himself, so he naturally wanted to have a good time. He said confidently:

"Everyone, according to intelligence, the enemy in southern Shanxi seems to be seizing our strongholds in Zhongtiao Mountain one after another in an attempt to completely eliminate our troops on the north bank of the river, and then respond to the enemy in eastern Henan;

Attack Peony City and Tongguan to threaten the flanks of our fifth theater, or go west to peek into the key areas in the pass."

He judged that the enemy's purpose was mainly to seize cities and land, and completely missed the point;

He did not understand at all the truth that if people lose land, both people and land will be lost; if people lose land, both people and land will survive. The real purpose of the Japs launching the Shanxi Southern Campaign was to annihilate the nearly 200,000 Central Army troops in the Zhongtiao Mountain area and occupy

Zhongtiao Mountain District;

Then, they formed an encirclement of the Eighth Route Army base area in Hedong, thoroughly improved the security in Hedong, ensured the stability of the occupied area, and allowed the strategic resources in the occupied area to be used by them, thereby supporting their ambition to participate in carving up the world.

Strategically, General He and the Japs are not at the same level at all. The Japs are not interested in big cities like Mudan City and Chang'an at the moment, and are unable to occupy them.

Based on this judgment, General He had a plan in mind to defend Zhongtiao Mountain. He continued:

“Everyone, in order to secure Zhongtiao Mountain and severely inflict heavy damage on the invading Japanese, I have decided to make the following arrangements;

The first step is to use the 93rd Army from north to south and the 27th Army from east to west to join forces with our right-wing troops at the Zhongtiaoshan position to attack the areas between Changping, Zezhou, Yangcheng, and Qincheng to restore the 29th

(Republic of China) Situation before April;

The second step is to work together with the Western Shanxi Army and the Second and Eighth War Zones to surround the enemies in the southern Shanxi triangle and annihilate them.

At a minimum, Zhongtiao Mountain must be ensured.”

Chief of Staff Guo almost fainted when he heard this. This was the rhythm of fighting against the Japanese. The strategy of luring the enemy deep into the mountainous areas and annihilating them in the 13 previous battles was completely abandoned. The 180,000 soldiers were short of food and ammunition.

How could the Kuomintang army have the strength to fight against the Japanese?

The previous 13 victories relied entirely on terrain advantages. Now this plan even gives up the terrain advantages. This is simply using one's own shortcomings to attack the enemy's strengths, playing into the enemy's hands!

He winked at Commander Yan of the Second World War Zone and Commander Li of the Fifth War Zone, hoping that the two senior and knowledgeable officers would stand up and persuade General He to change the battle plan. This was simply pushing 200,000 soldiers into a pit of fire.

It's a pity that neither Chief Yan nor Chief Li saw it. Chief Yan is not good at military affairs and is known as a smooth man who dances on three chickens. You asked him to get into trouble with General He for the First War Zone.

That is an absolute impossibility;

And General Li was not willing to offend General He over the First War Zone. This war had little to do with the Fifth War Zone. He was just here to make fun of him.

General Guo saw that the two bosses were unwilling to speak out. For the sake of the 200,000 soldiers in the first theater of war, he had no choice but to stand up and express his different opinions:

"Chief, I have some immature ideas. I don't know if I can—"

Upon hearing this, General He said very generously:

"Brother Guo is out of town. If you have anything to say, feel free to say it. Military meetings should speak freely and listen to understand. I, He Jingzhi, can also listen to your opinions."

Li Changjiang on the side looked down at him without any trace, and said to himself:

"Believe me, you devil, unless I agree with you!"

Admiral Guo is also a good man. As a theater chief of staff, he should not express opinions when the commander has made up his mind. Instead, he should formulate combat plans according to the commander's determination.

But that's 200,000 soldiers. Commander Yan, Commander Li doesn't have to be a villain if it doesn't have anything to do with him, but he can't!

Admiral Guo thought for a while and said:

"Commander, the biggest advantage our Zhongtiao Mountain has over the Japs is that we occupy favorable terrain. This time the Japs have gathered 120,000 people, a large number of aircraft, artillery, troops, and firepower, and they have a great advantage;

If our troops give up the advantageous terrain and attack out, they will suffer a lot of damage from Japanese aircraft and heavy firepower, which may cause heavy losses. Is it too optimistic to restore the situation before April 29?

At this time, should we consider abandoning some peripheral positions, luring the Japanese into the deep hinterland of the mountainous area, minimizing the role of Japanese aircraft and heavy artillery, and taking advantage of our army's familiarity with the terrain to defeat them one by one..."

Admiral He's face turned dark. This was no longer a suggestion. It was a complete rejection of his previous plan. If he accepted it, where would his face be?

Don't Li and Yan, two old cunning guys, want to see his joke?

Thinking of this, General He raised his hand to stop General Guo from continuing, and said with a dark face:

"Chief of Staff Guo, occupying the mountain as king and luring the enemy deep in, this is a typical guerrilla warfare habit, exactly the same as the tactics of the Eighth Route Army!

Zhongcai told me before that Zhongtiao Mountain was too close to the Eighth Route Army and was too deeply influenced by their guerrilla habits. I didn’t believe it at first, but now it seems that Zhongcai is still wise. He stands high and sees far. Zhongtiao Mountain needs to be rectified.

Military discipline should kill this guerrilla habit from its roots..."

Each big hat is heavier than the other. Admiral Guo can't bear it. Haven't you seen that Chief Wei is still passively recuperating in Shu?

He is not comparable to the high-ranking and powerful Chief Wei, who will be beheaded if he is labeled as pro-Eighth Route Army!

Admiral Guo could only wisely choose to keep his mouth shut. What Admiral He decided was not something he could change.

General He didn't really want to deal with General Guo. Seeing that General Guo had given up, he stopped pursuing it. The battle plan was still based on what he had decided before!

"Everyone, who has any different opinions? If you have any opinions, feel free to raise them!"

The audience was completely silent as General He finally reached a consensus with everyone.
Chapter completed!