Wang Hai and the others began their return flight around two o'clock in the afternoon. After He Yingqin stopped harassing them, the airport's unloading efficiency surged. The combined unloading speed of the next eleven Sky Fortresses was only twice the time it took Wang Hai's aircraft. And just as they were on their way back, on the west bank of the Oujiang River, the Xuebing Army advanced in three directions. With the support of Xue Changkong's Fujing Aviation Unit, they once again launched a counterattack against the South China Corps of the Communist Army.
In the three-pronged offensive, Ye Zhao's Second Xue Army advanced the fastest. There was no big river like the Oujiang River to block it, and it was located in a plain area. With two brigades of tank troops as the vanguard, they descended to Quzhou in half a day and captured the Dragon Boat Festival in the evening. Youxian, then the troops divided into two groups overnight, attacking Huangshan all the way and approaching Jiande City.
The cadet army's military front was too strong, and the fifth division of the Korean puppet army and the independent tenth brigade were simply unable to withstand it, and because Okamura Ningji and the new South China Corps military advisory group leader Ono Shengji deliberately abandoned small and medium-sized cities and settled in big cities. Starting a decisive battle with the cadet army directly gave the stickmen a reason to "strategic retreat", so a scene appeared that made the cadets dumbfounded. Often they would just start preparing for artillery fire, and the stickmen had already run away. , by 11 o'clock that night, two units of the Second Xue Army captured Jiande, and the other arrived at Huangshan, and had fully controlled the initiative on the northern battlefield.
Of the three offensives, the one with the greatest difficulty was the southern line commanded by Jiang Guangnai and Liu Yuqing. Because it was across the Oujiang River, and because Taizhou was one of Okamura's designated decisive battle sites, Ono Shengji paid special attention to it and personally commanded it. To defend, in order to buy time for troops from other directions to assemble in Taizhou, the Japs mobilized all the Chinese and Korean puppet troops in Taizhou, Ningbo and the Japanese military police to participate in the defense. They also expelled about 10,000 Chinese civilians and ordered them to help build fortifications. , unable to use artillery and aircraft, the Fourth Military Army attacked for an entire afternoon. After paying a heavy price of more than 2,000 student casualties, Jiang Guangnai had to order a suspension of the offensive.
On the middle line, Rao Guohua advanced very smoothly at first. However, after taking Yongkang, he encountered a joint counterattack in Wuyi County by about one and a half divisions of Chinese and North Korean puppet troops and about two brigades of Japanese military police troops who were massing towards Taizhou. It was getting late, and considering that a large-scale shelling might accidentally injure the Chinese residents in the city, Rao Guohua also suspended the attack after asking Jiang Guangnai for instructions.
The Xuebing Army had just begun to launch an attack on the Japanese-occupied area on the eastern front of Oushui. Ono Shengji reported to Okamura and the military headquarters.
And because the Japanese Military Headquarters had just received a report from Nishio Hisao, commander of the Chinese Expeditionary Forces headquartered in Wuhan, about the large-scale reinforcements of the Cadet Army Aviation Force to Chongqing in the afternoon, Tojo Hideki and others felt that the attack on the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau would become too difficult. It was so difficult that I couldn't help but waver in giving up on southeastern Zhejiang.
What the kid was most worried about was that after occupying the frontline airport in southeastern Zhejiang, it would be easier for the Xuebing Army to organize air raids on the Japanese mainland. So after a dispute, Tojo pointed out that in order to avoid another incident similar to the "Nagoya Plague Incident" After the tragedy, southeastern Zhejiang must not give up. It is proposed to transfer one or two standing divisions from China's dispatched army and more than 20,000 Korean puppet troops from the Taiwan Corps of the Communist Army to support the South China Corps. We do not seek to retake southwest Zhejiang, but we must stabilize it. Ou Shui Defense Line, in order to strengthen his persuasion, he finally said: "Some people always think that the empire can use its huge scale of military industry to offset the development advantage of the student army. I think this view is ridiculous. Although we have the advantage of traditional military industry, please Don’t forget, it only took six short years for the Xuebing Army to grow from a mere regiment to its current size. Gentlemen, have you studied the development model of the Xuebing Army? I have been working on this during this time. After researching and achieving some results, I found that the growth of the Xuebing Army is directly proportional to the territory it occupies. In other words, as long as it is given a large enough territory, it can grow into an army that can compete with the Empire. Monsters that can compete with each other. Therefore, if we really want to use our traditional military advantage to defeat the Xuebing Army, we must also restrict the Xuebing Army from expanding its territory. Gentlemen, has anyone paid attention to the situation in Hainan? To put it nicely, The Fourth Division firmly occupies the southwestern coastal area of Hainan, but in fact..." At this point, the old devil deliberately "scorned" Mitsumasa Yoneuchi, and only after everyone showed enough concern, did he He continued: "Three days ago, Lieutenant General Sawada exchanged several telegrams with me. Gentlemen, the situation of the Fourth Division is not optimistic. They are actually struggling to survive under the siege of the Xuebing Army. Why is this happening? The reason for this situation lies with someone here. Because of his connivance, the Xuebing Army actually smuggled luxury goods to the mainland through the descendants of the merchants of the Fourth Division. What is the difference between this and capitalizing on the enemy? It is tolerable. This is intolerable. I think that after guarding southeastern Zhejiang, we should immediately mobilize our forces to resolve the situation in Hainan..."
In fact, no matter from which perspective, the Osaka Fourth Division of the Japanese Army is a deformed existence on Hainan Island. Let’s not talk about the Xuebing Army. Ouyang Yun actually keeps it for ulterior motives and it will be of great use in the future. ; So from the Japanese perspective, the Army was deceived at first, but after discovering the anomaly, it could only embarrassingly acquiesce to the fact due to face problems. The Fourth Division always achieved staged victories. In other areas of the Army, When the front troops had zero victories against the Army, this had actually become a fig leaf for the Army Ministry, so although it felt there was a problem, even if it was to explain to Hirohito and the people, the Army Ministry still needed it to continue. To continue to exist on Hainan Island in a deformed state, no matter how much supply it costs, the Navy did not want to see it at first because of its poor performance in the Hainan strategy, and then wanted to use those "descendants of traders" "The purpose of stealing the semiconductor components of the Xuebing Army was to retain a springboard for attacking the Xuebing Army from the sea. Therefore, although Yamamoto Isoroku realized that there was something fishy in it early on, he kept it secret.
Tojo didn't know the history of the Fourth Division's occupation of Hainan Island, and he was simple-minded and couldn't think about it in depth, so this scene happened. After just two telegrams with Sawada Shigeru, he thought he had an insight. After taking everything into account and taking it as an opportunity to counterattack the navy, he made a surprising statement,
After uttering this long series of astonishing words, Tojo thought that he could defeat Mitsumasa Yoneuchi's army. His expression was very proud and he looked at him aggressively.
But Mitsumasa Yoneuchi, as an "old stick" who has been active in Japan's military and political circles for many years, is not so easy to get along with. He counterattacked in just a few words and Tojo was speechless, "Osaka No. 1 The Fourth Division is under the control of the Army, right? Could it be that the division has been changed to the Marine Corps?"
The subtext of these two sentences is obvious. Since the Osaka Fourth Division is under the control of the Army, should the Army be responsible for its actions?