The first thousand and forty-five chapters regain self-confidence
The Americans have collected this intelligence, but they obviously do not have the habit of learning from every experience, or they think they have learned experience from the Xuebing Army and think they can curb the Japanese tactics like the Chinese. Anyway, When the Chinese government and military began to focus their attention on the East China Sea and the North Pacific (at least that's what the Americans thought), in the South Pacific, the Americans, led by MacArthur and King, began to arrange a strong counterattack against the Japanese in Southeast Asia.
The Australian US military has become more active than ever, and reconnaissance planes of the US Pacific Fleet have begun to frequently appear over New Guinea and even the waters of Malaysia. Naturally, it is impossible for the Japanese not to feel it. After the Southern Front was established, Koizumi had the trump card of logistical supplies, so He was able to suppress Honma Masaharu to death, and with the support of Honma Masaharu, Koizumi was able to use absolute authority to build the Southern Front Army according to his own ideas, and also allowed the Southern Front Army to return to Japan at least on the surface. During the most powerful period, after the Ryukyu Islands were captured by the Xuebing Army, Koizumi once said that this was not necessarily a bad thing, because it would be convenient for him to modernize the army, "Why did we win first in the China battlefield?" We have been defeated, and are even now completely suppressed by the Chinese. The final analysis is that we failed to grasp the direction of military development. Just imagine, if the empire had used aircraft carriers as the main battleships of the navy early, if we had had a super warship like Mount Fuji early. fighter planes, then we may have completely occupied Hainan Island and bombed Chongqing and Guangzhou into rubble..."
Just as Roosevelt was puzzled to understand the rise of China, Koizumi also did not understand it very clearly. China, no, it should be said that the rise of the Xuebing Army was too fast, and it seemed to be irregular, so Now if we really want to investigate the cause, Koizumi can only use hindsight and use the empire's early failure to suppress the Xuebing Army as an excuse to completely shift the responsibility to history.
The Chinese National Defense Force and the Cadet Army were encircled on three sides, bounded by the Great Wall in the west and Beijing in the south, firmly blocking the North China Front Army and the Kwantung Army in the Guanwai area north of Beijing. The terrible situation on the Chinese battlefield and the Cadet Army The huge threat that the Japanese army may launch an attack from the Ryukyu Islands to the Japanese mainland at any time made Koizumi feel that it was time for him to do something. At this time, the Americans just showed their intention to counterattack. In Koizumi's view, it was like dozing off and giving him a pillow, so he then It was decided to operate on the Americans in order to regain Japan's military prestige.
"We need victory so much. The confidence we lost in the Chinese can be regained from the Americans. The Americans' weapons and equipment are indeed very advanced, but from the commander of the corps to the ordinary privates, they are all brave People who are afraid of death, so it can be expected that as long as we can cause huge casualties to the Americans, the Americans will be defeated and will not even dare to face the imperial army alone..." A very strange phenomenon, the Japanese army From decision-makers like Koizumi Toshiichiro to ordinary soldiers, whenever they hear that they are going to fight the Chinese, especially the cadet army, their morale drops by half before the battle even starts. However, if the opponent is an American , as Koizumi Toshiichiro said, but everyone is full of confidence in winning, as if the U.S. military is made of paper.
Koizumi was talking eloquently, and according to what he said, it seemed like he could easily defeat the U.S. military just by stretching his hands and kicking his feet. While the Japanese officers below were listening, most of them seemed to take it for granted.
"But what about the Chinese people? Sumatra and the Chinese army north of the Song Dynasty defense line are facing fierce battles. Your Excellency, we need to strengthen our defense forces in both places." Masaharu Honma suddenly said,
In Sumatra, Bai Liusu, the commander-in-chief of the Chinese Expeditionary Force, is personally in charge. North of the Song Dynasty defense line, Sun Liren's Third Expeditionary Army has been acting aggressively. During this period, the Japanese army and Bai Liusu's and Sun Liren's troops have had more than a hundred small and large battles. Each time, without exception, they were completely defeated. The Chinese Expeditionary Force has actually become a nightmare for the Southern Front Army.
Koizumi's face immediately darkened. For the Southern Front Army and even Japan as a whole, the importance of Sumatra was self-evident. However, how could he say that he had spent all his strength, but he just couldn't defeat Bai Liusu? What can women do? Koizumi was destined to be unable to answer Masaharu Honma's question, so after pondering for a while, he said in a loud voice: "Sooner or later we will defeat the Chinese, but not now. What we have to do first is It is to defeat the Americans. Only by defeating the Americans and completely stabilizing the southern defense line will we have enough time to deal with the Chinese. I heard that the Germans and the Chinese are fighting fiercely in the Soviet, Russian and Ossanian areas. I think , after this battle is over, there may be an opportunity to defeat the Chinese."
Alliances between countries have always put interests first, so just like many countries in the Allied Powers are at odds with each other and have their own evil intentions, among the Axis Powers, Japan and Germany have never reached the level of heart-to-heart talks. Of course, this It will never prevent the Japanese from finding comfort from the Germans and using "the victory of our Axis powers" to steal the fruits of the German victory. As the initiator of the policy of German-Japanese joint operations to destroy China, Koizumi is perhaps the most senior among Japan's military and political leaders. What I care about as an ally is Germany, but the performance of the Germans is unsatisfactory, and the execution of the Japanese army is too poor. So no matter how you look at it now, the "Japan-Germany joint operation to destroy China" that Koizumi advocated seems like a farce. There will be no day when it will be truly implemented. For this, Koizumi must be quite annoyed in his heart. He thinks that Okamura Neji and Umezu Yoshijiro have failed to live up to his high expectations and failed to live up to their historical reputation. Of course, because This has actually become the only way and hope for Japan to defeat China. In order to give confidence to his subordinates and himself, he can only stick to this point now.
"Of course, Honma-kun's worries are not unreasonable, so I decided to expand the construction of minefields along the He-Song defense line."
What even Koizumi Toshiichiro couldn't figure out was why the Third Chinese Expeditionary Army, which was formed from the former Central Army of China with the lowest combat effectiveness, seemed to be a different person after changing its name, and suddenly became so fierce. , even more ferocious than Xuebingjun,
The ferocity of the Third Expeditionary Army stems from Sun Liren's famous order, which is that all those who have been to China, whether they are generals or soldiers, regardless of serious or minor injuries, will directly enforce battlefield discipline when caught. In the Xuebing Army, they have generally given up on the battlefield. With today's disciplinary policy, it is not surprising that the Third Expeditionary Army has a notorious reputation.