Chapter 157: The Eve of the Great War

In 1944,

In order to destroy the US air base in southwest China, the Japanese army

Open up and secure the mainland communication line. In order to facilitate long-term perseverance on the East Asian continent.

Strengthen the confidence of the Japanese people in the decisive battle!

Access to special resources in areas along the transportation route,

Especially tungsten ore and lead ore in Hunan and Jiangxi provinces.

It was determined to launch a large-scale offensive against the Chinese troops on the Hunan-Guizhou, Yue-Han and Ping-Han lines.

Thus delivering a annihilating blow to the main forces of China.

This is what was later known as the Battle of Yuxianggui.

Let's take a look at the qualifications of the Chinese and Japanese generals in the Battle of Yuxianggui.

The Chinese general, Tang Enbo, was born on September 20, 1898.

Second-class general of the Republic of China Army, a native of Jinhua, Zhejiang, and a backbone general of the Huangpu Department.

After the outbreak of the July 7 Incident in 1937, the command post resisted the Japanese attack in the Nankou area and inflicted heavy losses on the enemy.

In October, he was appointed commander of the 20th Army of the Chinese National Revolutionary Army.

In March of the following year, he led his troops to participate in the victory of Taierzhuang.

In June of the same year, he served as the commander-in-chief of the 31st Army of the National Revolutionary Army, and successively participated in the Battle of Wuhan and the Battle of Suizao.

Japanese general - Okamura Ninji (Japanese: おかむら やすじ),

General of the Japanese Army, Commander-in-Chief of the Japanese Chinese Dispatch Army at the end of the Anti-Japanese War.

The third place of the Showa warlord's three feathers.

Okamura Ninji graduated from the Japanese Army Non-commissioned Officer School in 1904.

After the outbreak of the "918" incident, he served as deputy chief of staff of the Kwantung Army.

Later, he served as the Supreme Commander of the North China Theater.

Battle of Henan-China

The first stage of the campaign was the Battle of Henan, in which the Japanese army dispatched about 150,000 troops.

The Kuomintang army concentrated 35-400,000 troops. In April and May, the Japanese army captured Zhengzhou, Luoyang and other places.

Battle of Changheng

On the same day that the Japanese captured Luoyang,

The commander-in-chief of the Japanese Chinese Dispatch Army, Shunroku Hatata, advanced the forward command post in Nanking to Hankow,

The Xianggui Campaign, the main stage of the campaign, began.

Battle of Guiliu

The Japanese army attacked Guangxi from three fronts: Hunan, Guangdong, and Vietnam, and began the Guiliu Operation.

From mid-April to December 1944, in just 8 months,

The Kuomintang army lost more than 560,000 troops in the Battle of Yuxianggui,

Lost most of Henan, Hunan, Guangdong, Guangxi, Fujian and other provinces and one part of Guizhou,

The four provincial capitals of Luoyang, Changsha, Fuzhou and Guilin were lost.

and 146 small and medium-sized cities such as Zhengzhou, Xuchang, Baoqing, Liuzhou and Wenzhou.

Hengyang, Lingling, Baoqing, Guilin, Liuzhou, Danzhu, Nanning 7 air bases and 36 airfields,

More than 200,000 square kilometers of land have been lost, and more than 6,000 compatriots have been ravaged by the Japanese army.

Then why did the three major battles of Yuxianggui lose so badly?

What was the general level of combat effectiveness of the Japanese army like at that time?

In 1945, little Japan announced its unconditional surrender. The illusion is that in 1944 the Japanese army should not have died.

In fact, it couldn't be more wrong. The overall combat effectiveness of the Japanese army was still far ahead of the Chinese army.

Let's compare it vertically.

The world-famous decisive battle of Okinawa,

Before the Battle of Kuah Island, the 2nd Division of the Japanese Army participated in the battle with 10,000 tons of supplies.

As a result, it was attacked by the US military, and only 3 tons of supplies were sent ashore.

The 2nd Division relied on these 3 tons of ammunition ~ medicine to fight with the US army,

It can be said that the combat effectiveness has been reduced to 3 per 10,000,

If all the supplies are sent ashore, it is difficult to say who will die in the battle of Kuah.

In the Chinese battlefield, before the implementation of the Battle of Henan-Xiang-Gui, the Japanese army had sufficient supplies.

It can even be said that the Japanese army's troops, weapons and material preparations are very strong.

The response unit sent by the 23rd Army from Guangdong alone carried 160,000 tons of war materials.

Together with the main attacking force, the Japanese army concentrated 400,000 tons of supplies,

It is 130,000 times the material of the 2nd Division of the Battle of Kuah,

You must know that the U.S. military also suffered 6,000 casualties in the Battle of Kuah Island.

In the second phase of the Battle of Hunan and Guizhou, the Japanese army prepared 4 battle sub-ammunition for each of the 8 divisions.

a total of 32 divisions and regiments ammunition, not counting the ammunition of independent artillery units,

This part alone has 4.8 million rounds of artillery shells, not counting mortars and grenadiers.

If all are calculated, then the number of shells of various types exceeds the Battle of Berlin, which crushed a million German troops.

For example, the number of Japanese artillery shells in Henan, Hunan, and Guangxi is even more staggering when the number of Japanese artillery shells in the three stages is combined.

In comparison, the Chinese army is really far behind.

According to later statistics.

The armament of a division of the Chinese army is completely incomparable with that of the Japanese infantry wing.

1 Japanese infantry company 4 mountain guns, 6 infantry guns, 18 mortars,

8 sniper guns, 4 rapid-fire guns, 153 grenadiers, 185 machine guns,

This firepower is much more powerful than 1 elite division in China.

Take the 36th Division of the Chinese Expeditionary Force as an example,

The division was a famous German armor division in the 30s, a real elite unit,

However, the eight years of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression have become weaker and weaker, and the weapons that have been worn out, especially heavy weapons, have not been replenished at all.

The 36th Division was equipped with 4,876 rifles and 351 light machine guns in the Battle of Songhu.

76 heavy machine guns, 24 mortars, 18 mountain artillery.

And by 1944, the armament of the 36th Division was; 1,784 rifles, 156 light machine guns,

48 heavy machine guns, 62 mortars, 0 mountain artillery.

- You read that right. The mountain artillery is zero.

This is still a well-known elite unit that participated in the expeditionary force and was replenished with American aid weapons,

An infantry division with only 1700 rifles and 0 suppressed artillery is already an elite unit of the expeditionary force,

The situation with other forces in the country can be imagined.

Therefore, the two armies are against Lei.

The Japanese army could even directly destroy the positions of the defenders of the Nationalist army with tanks unimpeded!

This is the difference in strength.

Not only the lack of weapons, but also the fact that China's access to the sea was blocked by the Japanese navy at the beginning of the Anti-Japanese War.

The country's finances have actually begun to collapse,

In 1937, China's fiscal revenue was 400 million US dollars, and by 1939 the fiscal revenue had dropped sharply.

Only printing money can be relied on to keep the situation afloat.

This method of quenching thirst has brought inflation.

By 1942, the fiat currency had become 200 fiat to 1 dollar.

The official exchange rate in 1944 was 300 fiat to 1 dollar.

Inflation has led to skyrocketing prices,

In particular, all available resources throughout the country are given priority for military use,

The prices of civilian products have risen three times a day.

In 1943, the price of goods in Chengdu was 174 times that of 1937.

And the salaries of university professors have risen by 19 times.

Finance Minister Kong Xiangxi ordered military factories to produce cigarettes to subsidize the purchase of raw materials.

The entire population lives with hunger and extreme poverty.

If a soldier wants to buy a pen, it will cost him nearly 10 years of military salary.

It's a joke that doesn't make people laugh.

But how many more soldiers can survive to the tenth year in a brutal war?

In the 1944 Sino-American Air Force Mixed Regiment, the monthly salary of a U.S. Air Force lieutenant was $400.

A Chinese Air Force captain earns only $1 a month.

Two people do the same work in the same unit, but the difference in salary is 400 times.

This harsh reality makes it impossible to balance the mindset.

In 1943, the grain output per mu of land in Henan was only 13 catties!

A magistrate said that it is very difficult to get fodder for military horses now.

Because we're still eating wheat straw! The soldiers' already low ration standards,

It was cut in half again. An American journalist's metaphor for China at the time was;

Discarded springs in the yard of the factory, rusty,

There is no strength at all, it has no shape, it is strong, it is curled, and it will collapse in one day.

In 1944, it wasn't Japan that was going to collapse,

It's that China's national ** has begun to collapse,

Money has become waste paper, economic, financial, military,

Industry has begun to crumble because of the destruction of a long period of all-out war!

At this time, 500,000 Japanese troops with thousands of artillery mortars,

Thousands of tanks, armored vehicles, and artillery shells that could fight 500 battles in Okinawa.

The "Battle to Open the Continent" was launched.

It was the largest offensive battle in Japanese history.

Although, the Japanese army also suffered a lot of casualties,

But all the main theaters of operations of the Chinese army were dealt a devastating blow,

More than a million troops have been killed or wounded, missing, fled and sick.

It is against such a grim backdrop.

Wu Daxiong still has something to do. Through the hard operation of Qi Niang.

He recruited some heroes of the Iron and Blood Alliance, Chen Qiuhua, Li Heiniu, Lin Dayou, Chen Musheng,

Plus Nie Chong. Qiu Rong and the fourth girl, Wei Ying, and a group of eight people embarked on the anti-Japanese journey with their heads held high.

Go deep into the war zone and carry out tasks that are impossible for ordinary people.

Let's see how they crisscrossed the dark night during the Battle of Yuxianggui for eight months?

(End of full chapter)