After a brief hesitation, Umezu Yoshijiro finally said to Yoshimoto Sadao: "Yoshimoto-kun, since the chief of staff, Lieutenant Colonel Takei, also agrees with your plan, then according to your idea, you will personally order the divisions at the front to immediately
Terminate the attack and retreat at full speed. The defense areas of these divisions after their retreat will be handled according to your decision."
"For future strategic actions, you and Lieutenant Colonel Takei come up with a detailed plan. If I am not dismissed from my position by the base camp this time, by the end of this year, before the base camp completes the next strategic goal, the Kwantung Army will implement this plan
.As for the issue of accountability, the Kwantung Army will give a complete explanation to His Majesty the Emperor and the base camp in the future."
As soon as Umezu Yoshijiro finished speaking, Lieutenant General Okabe Naosaburo over there said: "I don't want to comment on how the Kwantung Army will adjust its deployment. But since the Kwantung Army has made up its mind to terminate the operation, the Fifth Division and the Tenth Division
The regiment and base camp will be transferred. Once the divisions at the front retreat, these two divisions will be transported to Kanto Prefecture immediately by train."
"It is getting closer and closer to the time for the next strategic development of the base camp. If these two divisions continue to be in Manchuria, it will affect the development of the next strategic intention of the base camp. And not only these two divisions need to be adjusted
Let’s go, the Thirteenth Division must also return the organizational structure of the China Expeditionary Force within the shortest possible time.”
"General Umezu, this is the base camp's overall plan for the empire's future strategic development. The China battlefield is now almost entirely dependent on ad hoc divisions and newly formed divisions for support, and there is a serious lack of backbones. And the empire currently controls the area in China.
It is not only a grain warehouse, a resource warehouse, and a base for necessary labor to support the empire's future strategic development, but it is also an important financial source for the empire."
"In order to ensure that the empire has strict control over the currently occupied areas in China, to ensure the supply of strategic materials such as coal, grain, and cotton to the empire, and to use the richness of China to ensure part of the empire's financial resources, the empire must maintain a strong garrison in China. This
The return of the Thirteenth Division to the China Expeditionary Force was decided by the headquarters at the beginning of this battle."
"However, considering the current predicament of the Kwantung Army and the current situation of the Manchurian Empire, the base camp agreed to replenish the several divisions of the Kwantung Army that were lost in this battle as soon as possible. At the same time, the base camp will consider as appropriate, increase the number of divisions to the Kwantung Army.
The establishment of the two divisions. Based on the Gongzhuling Army Tank School, the mecha units will be expanded."
"But whether it is to increase the establishment of two divisions or to expand the organization and scale of the mecha troops, we must wait for the empire's next strategy to be completed before we can start. As for now, the empire cannot focus all its energy.
In Manchuria. You must know that the Kwantung Army is indeed the most important strategic group in the empire, but the empire does not currently have only one Kwantung Army."
"I hope that until the empire completes the expansion of the Kwantung Army, the Kwantung Army will at least not act rashly for the time being, and everything will be focused on ensuring the security of Southern Manchuria and Rehe. I would like to emphasize again that before the empire fully restores and strengthens the combat capabilities of the Kwantung Army, the Kwantung Army will not act rashly.
The safety of Manchu and Rehe must be guaranteed, and no mistakes can be made in the direction of Xinjing. This is the base camp's minimum requirement for the Kwantung Army."
"Manchuria and Mongolia are the lifeline of the empire, and southern Manchuria is the lifeline of Manchuria and Mongolia. If anyone puts southern Manchuria in danger at this time, he will become a historical sinner of the empire. However, considering the current situation in Manchuria, the base camp will order the North China Front Army
In terms of strategy, give the Kwantung Army maximum cooperation and coordinate actions with the Kwantung Army."
"After I return to my hometown, I will also ask the base camp to provide the Kwantung Army with some additional special warfare weapons. From now on, we will strive to ensure that the Kwantung Army's special warfare weapons reserve doubles the current number before the end of the year.
We are allocating 20,000 Korean troops to the Kwantung Army to expand the force of the Manchu Empire and temporarily make up for the Kwantung Army's lack of strength."
"However, if the Kwantung Army agrees to this plan, then the expansion of weapons and equipment required by the Manchukuo Army can only be temporarily solved internally by the Kwantung Army. The base camp can only coordinate the China Dispatch Army to allocate part of the loot and reserves to the Kwantung Army. The rest.
For the part, we can only rely on the Kwantung Army itself."
For Okabe Naosaburo not only to transfer the 5th and 12th Divisions, but also to return the 13th Division to China. Yoshijiro Umezu did not express any objection from beginning to end, because he knew
No matter how firmly you oppose it, it is of no use.
The war going south is the top priority of the empire at present. The base camp will not affect the southward fighting for the sake of the Kwantung Army. It is true that Manchuria and Mongolia are the lifeline of the empire, but now Manchuria does not have what the empire needs more.
To solve the current predicament, the empire is now in a state where it is ready to launch its southward campaign.
At this time, even if the base camp attaches great importance to the Kwantung Army, from a strategic point of view, it will not devote most of its strength and energy to the Kwantung Army. At least when the battle south is fully clear, they still have to
Most of the energy is focused on the south.
The fact that these two divisions were able to stay in Manchuria for such a long time in this battle was the best effort of Naosaburo Okabe, the representative of the base camp. If he wanted to keep these two divisions in the Kwantung Army for a long time, the base camp was determined
I won't agree. As for the Thirteenth Division, it was originally sent by China to support the army. Now that the war has stopped, it is normal to return the organization.
Compared with Northern Manchuria, which has not been developed in most areas, the base camp believes that as long as the industrial base, coal and steel bases in Southern Manchuria are ensured, it will not have any impact on the empire's progress in the war for the time being. As for Northern Manchuria, in
Now that we have given up fighting against the Soviet Union for the time being, it is no longer that important.
Therefore, in this battle for strength, the base camp is destined not to tilt its main attention to the Kwantung Army. When the battle was still going on, the base camp ignored the current situation of the Kwantung Army's fierce fighting and continued to draw from the Kwantung Army's reserves.
, transferring a large number of artillery shells to the south has already explained the problem.
And the influence of himself, the commander of the Kwantung Army, on the top ranks of the army is far less than that of the commander of the Southern Army, who once served as Secretary of the Army and Director of Education, two of the three giants of the army. In this battle for troops, he
In a weak position.
He knew that it was simply impossible for the base camp to increase the strength of the Kwantung Army at this time. If the base camp could in the shortest time, the Seventh Division, the Fourteenth Division, and the Twenty-third Division, the three main forces of the Kwantung Army,
After replenishing the division and restoring the organizational structure, you have already given yourself a lot of face.
Moreover, after this disastrous defeat, the base camp still doesn’t know what to do with itself and Lieutenant General Yoshimoto Sadichi. Like his predecessor, General Ueda Kenkichi, it is not impossible to be evacuated to the end. After all, if we talk about failure, we have lost troops and generals for two consecutive years.
His own situation is much more serious than that of Daichi Ueda.
If the base camp followed the precedent of reorganizing senior officers of the Kwantung Army after the Battle of Nomonhan, and ordered itself and Lieutenant General Yoshimoto Sadichi to be transferred to the reserve this time, then how much troops would the base camp mobilize to the Kwantung Army, and what would the Kwantung Army do?
Wherever you go has nothing to do with you.
Therefore, General Umezu Yoshijiro did not show any concern about Naosaburo Okabe's move of taking money from the bottom of the cauldron at this time. That was a matter for the commander later, not for himself who is now half-awaited. He should think too much about it.
The defeat of the Kwantung Army this time is something that I, as the commander, have no shirk responsibility for. Moreover, I am afraid that the emperor has also lost confidence in himself due to the consecutive defeats since arriving in Manchuria.
Although Umezu Yoshijiro still didn’t know how the base camp would deal with his defeat, he did not make any statement on the base camp’s move. He even helped Naosaburo Okabe suppress it.
After the move of three divisions, dissatisfaction broke out on the scene.
However, although Yoshijiro Umezu thinks that he was dismissed from his post, he believes that after all, he is still the commander of the Kwantung Army, and there are some things that he should still strive for. Especially in terms of replenishing soldiers and battle-damaged equipment, as the current commander of the Kwantung Army, he must
It must be completed in the shortest possible time.
In fact, it is not too difficult for the Kwantung Army to replenish the troops lost in this battle. It can be done alone without even having to bother with the base camp. There are several local soldiers and expatriates in Southern Manchuria.
One hundred thousand. From this, some young men can be mobilized to join the army, which can easily replenish the battle-damaged troops.
This is much faster than mobilizing troops from the mainland to replenish troops. Moreover, the number of expatriates in South Manchuria and the number of soldiers in the countryside can fully meet the needs of replenishing troops. This will not only save a lot of time,
It can also prevent the enemy from taking advantage of the situation.
Transferring three divisions at once would, for the current Kwantung Army, be tantamount to weakening its own strength, which was already quite weak after the war. The slow supplementary training in the local area should have been given to the Kwantung Army's supplementary troops, so in the supplementary
Before it is over, the Kwantung Army will stick to the existing front line, let alone counterattack, and its strength will be seriously insufficient.
Umezu Yoshijiro believes that in the current extraordinary period, naturally we cannot stick to routine. How to complete the existing organizational structure of the Kwantung Army in the shortest possible time is what we need to do. Step by step, we can only allow the Kwantung Army to survive for a long time.
If it weakens, it will give the enemy on the opposite side an opportunity to take advantage of it. The Resistance Alliance in front of them is not the Northeastern Army during the Manchurian Incident.
It's just that although the Kwantung Army can rely on the overseas Chinese currently in Manchuria, it can complete its replenishment independently. But after all, as a modern army, Japan has a strict conscription system. Temporarily recruiting some overseas Chinese to participate in the war does not violate the Japanese army's conscription system.
Japanese military practice.
However, recruiting a large number of supplementary troops from overseas residents without the consent of the base camp is tantamount to a partial mobilization. No matter what the starting point of the Kwantung Army was, in the eyes of Umezu Yoshijiro, it was tantamount to directly destroying the Japanese military recruitment system.
And this point is precisely what Umezu Yoshijiro, who firmly opposed the action of lowering the upper class, adopted various means after taking office to completely eliminate this trend in the Kwantung Army, where the trend of lowering the upper class was the worst, could not accept it. Without the approval of the base camp, he would not do so without permission.
Action.
Only in the mainland, new divisions are being continuously formed for the upcoming southward war. In order to stabilize the occupied areas in mainland China and ensure the supply of supplies, new divisions are also being continuously added to the China Expeditionary Army to fill the original divisions.
A vacancy arises when the regiment is transferred.
As well as the combat effectiveness of those well-equipped divisions that have been transferred away to a certain extent. The Kwantung Army is definitely not in the first place in the replenishment sequence of the entire base camp at the moment. At least before the end of the southward campaign, it will definitely not be
They are at the front of the queue. If we still follow the past practice of waiting for local reinforcements, then when it is the Kwantung Army's turn, we will no longer know that it is the year of the monkey and the month of the horse.