There are more than 23,000 Japanese troops stationed on the Pyay front line. Among them, there is an independent mixed brigade of the Japanese regular army, and a division of the National Liberation Army composed of Indonesians and Malaysians. In general, Koizumi Minichiro is the leader in Southeast Asia. The system of "using barbarians to control barbarians" planned and established was successful. As colonized people, Indonesians and Malaysians did not have much status in the first place. At this time, the Japanese entered as liberators and took some appropriate measures to benefit the people. , immediately gained the allegiance of Indonesians and Malaysians, and Japan at this time was the strongest country in Asia. Koizumi promptly introduced the policy that those who accumulated certain military exploits could become Japanese nationals, and Indonesians were immediately and the enthusiasm of Malaysians was ignited,
As the forefront of the de facto confrontation between the Japanese and Allied forces in Indochina, Pyay will naturally not be short of wars. However, after the Japanese army shifted its focus to Australia, the scale of the wars that occurred here was very small, and they were basically experimental. nature, and it is worth mentioning that at the end of last year, the British organized a counterattack. In this campaign, the British Army in India invested a total of 150,000 troops, and dispatched one aviation division and two armored divisions. However, they However, their superiority in military strength failed to translate into victory. Apart from a small breakthrough at the beginning, they suffered repeated defeats and were even almost cut off by the Japanese army.
After this battle, the British were completely honest and no longer dared to easily provoke war. As the war in North Africa intensified, the British government began to transfer troops from India to the North African front line. They did not even have the capital to compete with the Japanese army. ,
On the Pyaoi front line, the highest commander of the Japanese army is Major General Aida Masao, and the troops directly under him are the Marine Corps, which was later formed into an independent 13th Brigade. The current structure of the Japanese army in Southeast Asia is jointly controlled by the Army and the Navy. Among them, the Army is responsible for the defense of the Philippines. , and the navy is responsible for the defense of Indonesia, Malaysia and other places, and is responsible for the strategy of Australia. Such a situation is naturally related to the dispute between the army and the navy. If it had not been for the failure of Koizumi Minichiro's attack on the Philippines, the Japanese army would not have even intervened. Opportunities in Southeast Asia. As China's war situation becomes increasingly unfavorable to Japan, Southeast Asia has actually become the most important supplier of raw materials for the Japanese military industry. For this reason, Tojo Hideki's Japanese army personnel are doing everything possible to control more Southeast Asian territories in order to obtain more production areas of military industrial raw materials for the Army.
The struggle at the top affected the unity of the troops below, and a very interesting phenomenon emerged. When the war in Australia was tense and the Japanese Navy urgently needed elite land-based armed forces to enter the front line to improve the war situation, the Philippines' Masaharu Honma Corps was in Krabi. They were conducting the so-called "anti-landing exercise" on the ground, looking as if they were too idle.
Closer to home, precisely because of the battle between the army and navy, Koizumi Toshiichiro did not actually have many Japanese local troops at his disposal. Therefore, although the Piaomi Defense Line was very important, he ended up with only one brigade of local troops stationed here, and Within this brigade, at least two brigades are actually composed of Indonesians.
There has been no major battle for a long time. Although the Japanese Marine Corps' independent 13th Brigade maintains daily training, the quality can be imagined. In the past, the combat effectiveness of the Japanese Marine Corps was notoriously poor. , in this time and space, although the situation has been improved due to the emergence of Koizumi, the quality of its soldiers cannot be guaranteed, and their level can only be deceived. The war in China is tense, and Taiwan is captured by the Xuebing Army. In addition, the Kwantung Army had to cooperate with Germany to launch an east-west attack on Soviet Russia... All of the above have increased the demand for fresh blood in the Japanese Army, and also made Tojo Hideki have an extremely tight control over the domestic reserves, and the Japanese Navy wanted to To expand the Marine Corps, we can only select personnel who have been eliminated from the Army. You can imagine their quality.
For Aida Masao, it was a wonderful day when he came to Piaomi. It had only been half a year since he came to Piaomi, and his military rank had been promoted by two levels, from a lieutenant to a general in one fell swoop. The war in Australia was tense, and the Western Expedition Fleet When the combat center moved to the South Pacific, he became the commander-in-chief of the Pyai Garrison as a major general. In fact, he was already the commander of a front army. Looking at his classmates at the same time, in terms of position and authority, he was already He is the first person, which makes him feel complacent. However, it seems that his pride ends here.
The rumble of cannons sounded, and Aida woke up immediately. After all, he was an officer who came out of a regular military academy and had undergone strict training. Even if there was a sudden change, he could still remain calm and get up calmly. He first turned on the light, and then called: "Ono. "
Ono was his adjutant and lived next door to him. Ono ran in immediately, and he was still holding his military jacket in his hand, which showed that he was not as vigilant as the infantry drill required. However, Aida Not paying attention to this, he ordered: "Go out and see what happened."
As soon as he finished speaking, a violent explosion sounded. Then, Ono, who had just stepped out of the house with one foot, turned around and exclaimed: "The fierce gunfire, Your Excellency, does not seem to be harassment."
Aida had already noticed something strange at this time. This density of shelling was only seen when the British launched a counterattack. Could it be that the British had recovered from the last setback and launched another counterattack? This idea suddenly appeared appeared, and was immediately eliminated by him. The New Delhi agency had just sent information not long ago, saying that the British were currently unable to take care of them due to the tense war in North Africa. Besides the British, who else in the Indo-China Peninsula dared to stop the imperial army? Huxu, the French, and the Thais, I believe they don’t have the guts, so the only ones are the military soldiers. Thinking of this, Aida’s mind flashed to what a patrol unit reported to him yesterday, and he could no longer remain calm.
"Quick, gather the troops immediately. The Sakamoto Brigade is on duty today. Call Major Sakamoto immediately and ask him to be more vigilant. The attackers may be Chinese people."
Aida's reaction was not unpleasant, but compared to the cannonballs, he was too slow.
Sun Liren and the officers of the Third Expeditionary Army under his command had made sufficient preparations to fight this battle successfully. Although the command of the headquarters was to conduct a feint attack and then decide the backup plan according to the situation, for Sun Liren and the others, Said, they all feel that their rest time has been too long, and they will be rusty if they don't go to the battlefield, so they are not willing to let this opportunity go.
Sun Liren's order to the artillery unit was to continue the bombardment for half an hour, with the last quarter of an hour extending from the front line to the rear of the enemy's position. Based on this order, Zhang Lingfu decided to bring the infantry and artillery units that had been trained for a long time to the battlefield in coordination.