Fortunately for Koizumi Minichiro, the Chinese Pacific Fleet is not in the nearby waters. Otherwise, what awaits him will be a disastrous defeat that he will never recover from.
Six days after the Bukit Gambi encounter, in the morning, inside the Southeast Asian Japanese Army Headquarters that had moved to Batam Island, Koizumi was looking at the sand table in front of him with a frown, when a series of footsteps came, and then someone shouted: " Report, urgent message from General Sasaki."
Koizumi turned around, took the telegram from a communications staff officer, glanced at it, and his face turned ugly.
"Your Excellency." Inoue Narumi came forward.
Koizumi threw the telegram to him and said: "Singapore has been captured by the Chinese Army. Sasaki's unit has only one regiment left. He requested to retreat."
Back to four hours ago, the Chinese army launched its attack on Singapore at five o'clock in the morning. This time period was chosen so that aviation forces could be dispatched to ensure that Singapore could be captured at the minimum cost.
The outcome of the Bukit Kambi encounter made Gu Zhutong see that the Japanese army had no fighting spirit. If Gu Zhutong had been scrupulous before and was unwilling to pay too much casualties in exchange for the early liberation of Singapore, now he saw that the Japanese army had no fighting spirit. After the Japanese army did not have the determination to hold on to Singapore, he knew that the opportunity was rare and immediately ordered the entire army to advance at full speed, hoping to take advantage of the Japanese army's collapse and take advantage of it.
The defeat of the Southeast Asian National Independence Army affected Japan's main army. However, in Koizumi's plan, the withdrawal sequence of these troops was in the second echelon. Koizumi Minichiro was not a military idiot. He knew that it was no longer realistic to withdraw as planned at this time. If he did not leave a core force to stabilize the war situation, the result would be a major retreat turning into a major rout, and this result was something he could not bear no matter what.
After discovering that the Chinese army had detected its intention to retreat and immediately launched an attack, Koizumi summoned Japanese officers above the division commander level for a meeting, hoping that some of them could put forward constructive opinions. Before the meeting, the front line was All kinds of bad news came, so when everyone finally gathered, the meeting turned into deciding which troop would be left behind.
Speaking of which, Koizumi Toshiichiro gave up Singapore for the sake of the overall plan. This was a bad move. After all, with the new defeat in the Battle of Malan, the morale of the Japanese army was at its lowest. At this time, what the Japanese army needed most was actually repairs and adjustments. However, After the New Delhi meeting, Koizumi wanted to preserve his strength in order to gain enough voice in the anti-China alliance after defeating China. The result was that he gave the Chinese army an opportunity to beat the dog in the water.
Although no one blamed Koizumi on this issue, Koizumi was still affected, so his words seemed a little weak: "The retreat plan has changed. In order to ensure that the main force of our army can safely withdraw from the Malay Peninsula, we must stay An elite force led part of the National Independence Army to withstand the attack of the Chinese Army."
At this time, Koizumi Minichiro can be regarded as surrounded by bright generals, Inoue Narumi, Honma Masaharu, Hyakutake Haruyoshi, Yamabekawa Sankey, Furukenichi... And like Sasaki Shota, because he is only a lieutenant general, and I registered with the Americans, so now I can only sit in the back row of the conference room.
After Xiaoquan finished speaking, he glanced at everyone, hoping that someone would take the initiative to ask for help.
Unfortunately, because everyone knew that those who stayed were doomed to a narrow escape and would definitely end in defeat, so everyone just looked at him quietly, as if they did not understand the meaning of his words.
If possible, Gu Xianyi actually wanted to stand up and take the responsibility. However, he also knew that as the commander of the Eastern Front Army, the final result would be that one of his several support divisions would be left behind, and If that's all, then there's no point in him taking the initiative to stand up.
Yes, at this moment, both Kenichi Ko and Shota Sasaki realized the following: that staying would be an opportunity to use their influence to make the chaos in Singapore even more chaotic, so that the Chinese army could Opportunities to obtain greater benefits.
Therefore, after Sasaki Shota looked around and made a gesture, he stood up and said to Koizumi: "Sir, if someone must stay, then let us, the 150th Division, stay."
Seeing Sasaki stand up, Koizumi had a look of relief on his face, but he was hesitant in his heart. There was a reason why he was so divided. One was because the 150th Division was the elite of his direct lineage. , he does not want this force that carries his great hopes to be consumed in the chaos in Singapore; based on his understanding of Sasaki, he is very worried that Sasaki will have a murderous attack, and then take the first 50 regardless of the overall situation. The division fought hard with the Chinese army and did not immediately accept Sasaki's words. However, after waiting for a long time and no one else stood up, Koizumi could only hold his nose and agreed to Sasaki's self-recommendation.
Because he was worried that Sasaki would mess up, Koizumi specifically kept Sasaki after the meeting and told him that the 150th Division only needed to sit in Singapore and monitor the operations of the National Independence Army, and authorized him to directly Withdraw from the battle.
In order to keep the 150th Division, Koizumi made such an arrangement. However, Sasaki's special status determined that since Koizumi gave him such an opportunity, how could he not make good use of it? During the three-day and one-night battle to defend Singapore, he first divided each of his four regiments into three brigades, and asked each of these three brigades to expel the national independence forces and launch a counterattack against the Chinese army. Then, after the Chinese army After approaching the urban area of Singapore, he successively divided into six brigades, claiming to give the Chinese people a taste of the power of the imperial army in street fighting. However, the result was that the Chinese army dispatched aviation troops and was directly buried in the sea of fire in the urban area of Singapore.
Koizumi thought that he had done his utmost to Sasaki and had said everything that should be said and what should not be said. However, a telegram came from Sasaki telling him that there was only one regiment left in the 150th Division. Once he thought about it, it must be Shota Sasaki went on a killing spree again and acted recklessly, so his expression was naturally extremely ugly.
The headquarters troops of the Japanese army in Southeast Asia have scarce resources. Every Yamato soldier cannot be sacrificed easily. After reading the telegram, Inoue Narumi shook his head and said: "Sasaki should not have been allowed to stay in the first place. This bastard, he There’s no big picture at all.”
"Let them retreat immediately, this bastard, didn't I tell him that there is nothing he can do and he can retreat directly, Ba Ge, Ba Ge."