Matsui Iwane finally met a smarter staff officer, who coincided with him.
He also thought so. The reason for dispatching troops early in the Dragon Boat Festival must be to lure the 26th Brigade from Chuzhou.
"Hmph, I almost fell into that Dragon Boat Festival trap. If the 26th Brigade keeps chasing, they will definitely be surrounded by the Dragon Boat Festival. If I had known, I would not have left this 150-kilometer buffer zone.
Already."
Matsui Iwane was angry, but he had his own considerations at the time. Part of Yangzhou's weapons and equipment and military supplies were taken away by the Dragon Boat Festival, and the rest was burned by him.
Therefore, the weapons and equipment delivered to the front line by the Japanese army are gone, and once the war starts, they will fall into great passivity.
Therefore, Matsui Iwane simply negotiated an armistice and peace talks with the Chinese government and established such a buffer zone of 150 kilometers to prevent the two sides from clashing with each other.
Of course, the peace talks were a sham. Matsui Iwane's real intention was to delay time, use the peace talks as a guise to quickly increase troops to the front, and replace the weapons and equipment lost on the front before starting a war.
But I don’t think the North China Expeditionary Force can’t wait to get a piece of China’s cake.
As mentioned before, the commander of the North China Expeditionary Force originally thought that the decisive battle between China and Japan would break out in Hebei. The North China Front Army was fully prepared to encircle and annihilate the Chinese army and force China to surrender in one fell swoop.
However, the highest strategic decision-making level of the Nationalist Government moved the location of the decisive battle to East China, allowing the Central China Front Army to seize the opportunity for the decisive battle, and achieved great benefits, occupying most of Central China.
Not only did the North China Front not have a chance to assist, it also had to deploy two and a half divisions to support the Central China Front in its operations.
Originally, the North China Front Army wanted to have some battlefield performance, but unexpectedly, a standby order for anti-Soviet operations left the North China Front Army no room for performance.
General Touichi Terauchi watched in vain as the Central China Front achieved the great victory of capturing Nanjing. Therefore, he became increasingly unable to hold back, so he presented to the base camp the operational concept of the North China Front's preparations to penetrate into China.
And especially the 2nd Army commanded by Nishio Hisao was even more dissatisfied, because the North China Front originally believed that the focus of the decisive battle with the Chinese army should be along the Ping-Han Railway where the 1st Army was mainly attacking, and the Japanese Army fighting on the Jinpu Railway.
The 2nd Army is responsible for assisting and encircling the right wing.
However, since the main force of the Chinese army did not gather at the Pinghan Railway, the Japanese 2nd Army had no chance to show its combat power. What is even more unexpected is that due to the expansion of the battle situation in Shanxi, the main force of the Japanese 1st Army entered Shanxi to assist the 5th Army.
The divisions fought, and the 2nd Army was directly reduced to a reserve force, and therefore could not attack the Chinese army in depth along the Jinpu Road. It could only stay in the area north of the Yellow River and prepare for war to prevent the Soviet army from attacking the Japanese-occupied areas.
It wasn't until the Central China Front successfully captured Nanjing, ice and snow blocked traffic in Siberia, and there was no threat of a Soviet army gathering, that the Japanese Second Army was released from reserve. Therefore, Nishio Juzo actively requested that the Second Army be allowed to
Attack the Shandong Peninsula and snatch the few cakes.
This is what the North China Expeditionary Army thought at that time. The Central China Expeditionary Army snatched a lot of benefits in eastern China.
This includes territory, gold and silver treasures, minerals, food, etc., etc.
In fact, to put it bluntly, the little devils came to China and robbed them. They robbed whatever they saw was good.
That's why the North China Expeditionary Force was so hasty and furious that the army and navy almost got into conflict over the territorial grab.
Long before the Battle of Xuzhou started, the navy and army of the Japanese invaders had made an appointment. After the relevant army and navy forces were ready, they would jointly attack the Shandong Peninsula and occupy the area together.
However, after the Japanese army in Central China captured Nanjing, part of the North China Second Army was impatient and took the lead in moving towards Shandong. The navy became anxious and decided not to abide by the agreement and attacked Shandong in advance, and was determined to attack Shandong before the army arrived.
Landing in Qingdao.
The Navy concentrated a large number of Marines. It also kept the Army secret as a smokescreen. In the name of education and training, it borrowed 20 transport boats from the Army Transportation Department and added the 4th Fleet. It did not wait for the arrival of the Army's maritime base construction team, that is, independent sea transportation.
Shandong Peninsula, landing in Qingdao area.
When the 5th Army Division arrived in Qingdao at the time planned by the Army and Navy commanding agencies, the Navy had already occupied the place for nine days.
They saw that the ports, transportation, and all the security and administrative agencies in the area had been seized by the navy. The army came all the way from the battlefield in Shanxi and suffered a lot, but did not get any oil or water. They were furious and furious.
Calling the navy selfish, incompetent, and all bastards.
The navy, on the other hand, took advantage of the captured ports, terminals, and transportation power to block the army. Since then, the two armies have been at war with each other, forming a sharp confrontation for a long time.
So this shows how impatient the Japanese were at that time.
At this time, the Central China Expeditionary Force was not ready yet, but the North China Expeditionary Force had already moved on. If the Prince of Beibai had not sent a message to reprimand, I am afraid that the Battle of Xuzhou would have started long ago.
Matsui Iwane also had a headache about this, but he felt that this might be one of the reasons why the Dragon Boat Festival suddenly hit An County.
If Duanwu devours his 26th Brigade, the military strength in Central China will be obviously insufficient unless he draws back troops from the offensive troops on the western front.
But if this happens, the troops on the Western Front will be empty, and there is no guarantee that the Chinese army will counterattack. He does not want to give up the territory he finally obtained to others.
Matsui Iwane sighed deeply, just like snoring. After a moment, he said: "It seems that the 26th Brigade cannot go deeper. Once it is surrounded by the Dragon Boat Festival troops in the middle section between Lai'an County and Mingguang, the consequences will be
It would be unimaginable.
Everyone, I have to say that our pursuit plan this time was a failure. We only saw Duan Wu running into our occupied area and acting recklessly, but we ignored that this was a cunning guy.
When he comes to An County, it will not be as simple as attacking an artillery brigade. He will use this mountain road that is more than 150 kilometers long to eat up our entire 26th Brigade.
Pass my order, no matter what the current battle situation is, let the 26th Brigade withdraw immediately without any mistake."
Matsui Iwane ordered all the staff to stand up and bow at the same time. Because they finally passed this level today, and everything they said in dealing with the Dragon Boat Festival was wrong.
Of course, there was Leng Tou Qing who analyzed the Dragon Boat Festival tactics before and gave Matsui Iwane a lot of suggestions. However, after repeated defeats, Matsui Iwane was dismissed from his post.
So if you want to keep your official position safely and hide in the headquarters to live and drink, then you must not get involved in the Dragon Boat Festival. Even if you have 10,000 ways to capture the Dragon Boat Festival alive, don't say it at this time. Because if you tell it
, if you don’t catch the Dragon Boat Festival, then your good days may come to an end.
But at this moment, just when many Japanese staff thought that today's level was finally over, the communications officer trotted into the conference room and reported: "Report, Prince Beibai has called!"