Now the North China Front Army is like a greedy snake that has swallowed too much and refuses to give up everything it has swallowed or eaten when faced with danger. That is, it does not want to give up Shanxi.
Any occupied area must also contain the enemy's offensive in southern Chanan, northern Shanxi, and even the entire Suiyuan battlefield.
The greedy Japanese soldiers never want to throw away anything and never know the relationship between giving up and giving up. But the current situation forces them to make a multiple-choice question between continuing to persist and giving up. Although this is a question for those who have always eaten.
It is undoubtedly quite difficult for the Japanese who are unwilling to spit out the stuff.
But he is a relatively clear-headed person after all. Okamura Neiji knew that he had to make a choice when he failed. As long as he kept the 69th Division and Datong, the northward base, Suinan would be temporarily lost. But when
When reinforcements arrive, they can still recapture it. If Datong and the 69th Division are lost, then not only Suinan may be lost, but the entire Shanxi Province will also be threatened by the Anti-Japanese Alliance.
After looking at the map and pondering for a long time, Okamura Neiji ordered the 69th Division on the Jining battlefield to form an independent third brigade. He immediately abandoned Jining, avoided the anti-alliance troops on the front line of Fengzhen, and detoured to the Jinlubao Pass.
Withdraw to Datong. Order the defenders of Datong to defend Datong with all their strength and wait for reinforcements from the front army.
Lieutenant General Mamoru Iinuma, commander of the 110th Division, was ordered to hold on to the Huade and Shangdu lines at all costs for at least a week. In the view of Okamura Neiji, the 26th Division can rely on more unfavorable terrain to hold on for as long as
More than ten days. Then with the support of favorable terrain, the 110th Division can hold on for longer.
What's more, after the 26th Division was encircled, a considerable part of the heavy artillery troops originally assigned to the 26th Division withdrew to the combat area of the 110th Division. Moreover, the Shangdu where the 110th Division was located was the center of the entire Suizhou Army.
The logistics supply bases of the East and Chaxi battlefields. The amount of food and ammunition reserves there is enough for two divisions to last for three months.
At the same time, as early as the end of last year, the front army built a large number of fortification areas in Huade, Shangdu, and Zhenghuang Banner. Although the area is not as large as the 26th Division's combat area, the solidity and concealment of the design are not.
Second to the fortification area where the 26th Division was originally located.
According to Okamura Neiji, as long as the 69th Division can break through the enemy's narrow blockade outside Jining, cooperate with the 15th Division that launches a frontal counterattack, and make every effort to first solve the problem of Fengzhen and Datong directions, the quantity
There are not many enemy troops. Then there is room for counterattack in the entire Suinan battlefield.
After successively issuing orders to the 69th Division and the 110th Division, Okamura Neiji sent the chief of staff, Lieutenant General Adachi 23rd, to Linfen in person and asked the commander of the 41st Division, Lieutenant General Shimizu Noriyuki, to
Get rid of the entanglement of the surrounding communist troops as soon as possible and send all-out reinforcements to the north.
Ordered the commander of the Twelfth Army, Lieutenant General Tuqiao No. 1, to immediately mobilize the 32nd Division stationed in Yanzhou to assemble immediately in Yanzhou, take a bus from Jinpu Railway to Peiping via Shimen, and participate in the deployment of defense on the front line of Juyongguan. Ordered the main force of the 15th Division
, immediately transported from Shimen to Taiyuan via railway to reinforce the Datong battlefield.
Neiji Okamura carefully considered the decision to dispatch the 32nd Division stationed in Yanzhou to the north for reinforcements. Yanzhou is an important town in southern Shandong, bordering the jurisdiction of the 17th Division of Xuzhou to the south, and the 35th Division stationed in Kaifeng to the west.
On the border, to the north is the 59th Division stationed in Jinan.
Some important strongholds held by the 32nd Division will be left as the backbone, and the main defensive tasks will be handed over to the Security Army and the Imperial Association Army. All non-important strongholds will be evacuated. As for the defense gaps in Yanzhou, Jining and other areas, 30 troops can be deployed
The Fifth Division and the Seventeenth Division each took over.
In addition to the 32nd Division, Okamura Neiji also transferred five infantry squadrons from the independent mixed fifth, sixth, and seventh brigades affiliated to the Twelfth Army. Each of the independent mixed brigades directly under the front army has not yet participated in the war.
Three infantry squadrons were mobilized from the regiment to form a reinforced detachment, commanded by Major General Torajiro Bankai, commander of the 6th Independent Mixed Brigade, and immediately go north to the Ping-Tianjin line.
With the 225th Infantry Regiment of the 37th Division of the First Army stationed in Yuncheng, Shanxi as the backbone, to strengthen the station in Kaifeng, three infantry brigades were transferred from the 35th Division of the 12th Army, and the 59th Division was transferred
Six infantry squadrons were sent out to form a detachment, commanded by Major General Nakajima Kisaburo, commander of the 37th Infantry Regiment of the 37th Division, to immediately reinforce northern Shanxi.
But for Okamura Neiji, the gap left by the 32nd Division's withdrawal from Yanzhou was easy to understand. Although the 17th Division was a unit of the 13th Army, he and the commander of the 13th Army, Lieutenant General Shimomura,
There is no problem in asking him to take care of her temporarily.
However, for Okamura Neiji, it is not enough to dispatch only one Thirty-second Division and two detachments to go north for reinforcements. The Chanan battlefield has been partially guaranteed, but what about the northern Shanxi battlefield? For the concentration
The Anti-Union troops on the same front as Ning, Fengzhen, and Datong, and the Anti-Union themselves will do everything possible to reinforce them.
Judging from the combat effectiveness and firepower displayed by the Anti-Japanese Alliance in the previous battle, even if the 41st Division and the Nakajima Detachment are added, the number of reinforcements may not necessarily meet the needs. Moreover, with such a transfer, the entire
The front will no longer have reserves to use.
After hesitating for a long time, Okamura Neiji finally did not worry about his face. He sent a telegram to General Hata Shunroku, the commander of the China Expedition Army in Nanjing, and to the headquarters in Tokyo. After giving a truthful report on the battle situation,
He directly told General Hata Shunroku and the Tokyo base camp.
If you want to ensure the Ping-Tianjin area and continue to control Shanxi, you must either increase the strength of two divisions to the North China Front Army in the shortest possible time. Or abandon the southern Shanxi area west of the Tongpu Railway and station the No. 3 Division in Yuncheng.
The 37th Division withdrew to the area north of Jiexiu to free up the 37th Division to go north to reinforce northern Shanxi.
Even Okamura Neiji believes that even Changzhi can be abandoned when necessary. The two divisions south of the Zhengtai Railway will be withdrawn west of Tongpu Road to the north of Pingyao-Liulin Road.
To the east, they withdrew to the areas north of Pingyao, Yushe, and Liao County.
When Okamura Neiji gave up Yuncheng, he did not simply consider it to reinforce the northern Shanxi battlefield. Many of his ideas were based on the current domestic political situation in China. As a China expert, when solving China's problems, he would rather
The Chinese people themselves are in chaos.
He believed that the best way to solve the incident in China was to effectively utilize the internal contradictions of the Chinese people, reduce the pressure on the Japanese army on the battlefield, and shorten the Japanese army's front line. He proposed to give up the entire southern Shanxi to the second theater dominated by the Shanxi-Sui Army.
, which includes the Luliang, Taiyue, and Taihang mountainous areas where the Eighteenth Army has the most frequent activities, as well as the Zhongtiao Mountainous Area, which was originally part of the First War Zone.
In the view of Okamura Neiji, the Chinese people's so-called unity with the outside world has now become a slogan. In fact, there have long been serious internal divisions due to various conflicts on the battlefield. If the Japanese army were not still in China,
Both sides are definitely taking action now.
During the Battle of Zhongtiao Mountain last year, when the North China Front launched an attack on the defenders of Zhongtiao Mountain, the Second Theater of Operations, which was just around the corner, sat silently. It held hundreds of thousands of troops, but did not send a single division of reinforcements. Not even a single division of reinforcements was sent.
Chongqing asked it to send troops to cover the defeated Zhongtiao Mountain garrison, but they failed to do so.
The King of Shanxi, who can now only defend a dozen counties in southwest Shanxi, has avoided all military operations. More is to preserve his strength. The King of Shanxi and his so-called Jinsui Army, whose control area is shrinking day by day, in order to preserve themselves
Strength, and not being completely annexed by Chongqing, is full of contradictions with Chongqing.
At the same time, in order to compete for territory, frictions continued with the Communist forces in Shanxi. If the territory in southern Shanxi could be handed over to the Shanxi king, the Chinese in southern Shanxi would start fighting. In the hands of the Shanxi king, the Shanxi people were eager to expand their living space.
The Sui Army, the Central Army that wants to go north to retake the Zhongtiao Mountains in the Henan barrier, will have conflicts with the CCP, which controls most of the rural areas in Shanxi.
As for the Japanese army, even if they give up southern Shanxi in a short period of time, judging from the strength and combat effectiveness of the second theater, the North China Front Army can take it back at any time if they want to. Giving up in a short period of time will cause the Chinese to have internal problems.
Contradiction. The best choice at present is to place the current focus of the North China Front's operations on the battlefields of northern Shanxi, Chanan, and Suinan.
This is far better than mobilizing reinforcements from thousands of miles away to the North China Front and distracting the Japanese army from fighting in Southeast Asia and the South Pacific. At least in terms of speed, it is much faster than mobilizing reinforcements from the mainland and other battlefields.
.It can solve the problem of insufficient strength of the North China Front Army in the first time.
But Okamura Neiji's suggestion is absolutely impossible for both the base camp and the China Expeditionary Force to accept. The China Expeditionary Force has never given up the idea of completely occupying China, and it cannot accept giving up southern Shanxi. At this moment,
It had become the base for the Japanese army to attack Shaanxi and was abandoned in the hinterland of Henan.
However, considering the current development of the war situation, both Pingjin and Shanxi are already facing real threats. If northern Shanxi and Chanan are lost, the chain reaction will be triggered, which the Tokyo base camp must consider. The North China Front Army must maintain various
In the occupied area, when the troops have been used to the extreme, adding reinforcements becomes the only option.
Fortunately, the Japanese offensive in Southeast Asia is progressing extremely smoothly. All the troops originally planned to be used in the Dutch East Indies have been freed up and can be transferred to other directions. Therefore, the base camp also happily agreed to complete the Bataan Peninsula operation.
The 48th Division.
As well as the troops directly under the Southern Army, they are waiting in the Indochina Peninsula. The 21st Division, which was originally intended to attack India, has been transferred to the North China Front. As for the 5th and 16th Divisions named by Okamura Ningji, the base camp is really unable to
Agree. As for the fourth division, which is the most laid-back at present, Okamura Neji himself is determined to live or die.
As for the Guards Division, the headquarters would definitely not dare to be transferred to North China to compete with the Anti-Japanese Alliance. For the headquarters, the Guards Division, the Emperor's personal soldier, would be more suitable to pick on the weaklings. To compete with the Anti-Japanese Alliance.
It is really inappropriate to fight with this powerful team of lions.
After careful consideration, the base camp finally decided to allocate the two divisions that currently have no combat missions to the North China Front Army. As for the plan to attack India, we should wait until Burma is completely occupied before making any plans. Burma has not been completely occupied.
A one-step battle plan cannot be implemented.
In fact, the base camp and Nanjing so happily agreed to Okamura Neiji's reinforcements. He should be grateful to the Kwantung Army. If the Kwantung Army had not suffered consecutive defeats at the hands of this army, the base camp would have become more and more dissatisfied with the Kwantung Army.
The anti-Japanese bandit armed forces gained a new understanding.
Otherwise, if the battle had ended like this, he would have had the opportunity to bargain like this with the base camp. If nothing else, the entire army stationed in Mongolia would be destroyed, which would be enough for him to go home and eat himself. The army stationed in Mongolia is the base camp of the Japanese army.
It was specially formed to encircle the hinterland of China from the west. Now that the entire army is destroyed, how can the base camp spare him?