Shanghai, the headquarters of the Central China Dispatch Army of the Japanese Army.

Tsukada Tsukata, then chief of staff of the Central China Dispatch Army, rushed to the bed of Matsui Shigen, who was being treated with infusion, and excitedly saluted him and reported: "General, great victory, great victory!" ”

Matsui Ishine was in serious condition, so after the last military meeting, he was rushed back to the hospital for treatment.

Hearing Tsukada's words, he couldn't help but feel good, forced his sick body to sit up from the hospital bed, and asked, "Tsukada-kun, where did you get the great victory?" Suzhou? Jiangyin? Or the Kunisaki detachment? ”

Tsukada replied very excitedly: "It is Suzhou, under the joint command of two generals, Yoshika Ryosuke and Yamamuro Sotake, the 9th Division, the 11th Division, and the 5th Independent Heavy Artillery Brigade, with the assistance of the Imperial Army's carrier-based aircraft and land-based aviation units, inflicted heavy losses on the independent brigade of the Shina Army.

Hundreds of tanks, fighting vehicles, anti-aircraft guns and military trucks were destroyed, and the Separate Brigade was almost completely wiped out and fled in defeat. ”

Matsui Shigen was overjoyed when he heard this, and said excitedly: "Okay, it's really good!" ”

As he spoke, the old devil directly pulled out the infusion needle on his left hand and stood down from the hospital bed.

Tsukada said with some consternation: "General, who are you?" ”

Matsui Ishine went to get his military jacket and said, "The imperial army has won such a big victory, and now the morale is high, and the fighters have appeared." We must seize this golden opportunity to hit the city of Nanjing in one go, force the Nationalist Government of China to surrender, and end the war for the empire as soon as possible! ”

"But, General, your body?" Tsukada Tsukada said worriedly, but before he finished speaking, he was interrupted by Matsui Shigen raising his hand: "I'm fine, immediately notify all the officers above the Osa, and quickly go to the war room of the headquarters for a meeting." ”

"Hay!" Tsukada responded with a bang, and after saluting Matsui Ishone, he immediately turned around and took the order to leave.

A moment later, all the staff officers above the rank of senior officer of the Shanghai Dispatch Army arrived.

Tsukada first excitedly told them the news of the victory in Suzhou, and then Matsui Ishine stood up and spoke: "Everyone, in the battle of Suzhou, the Independent Brigade has been severely damaged by my heroic Japanese Empire, and the remnants are not to be worried, what do you think we should do next?" ”

The new deputy chief of staff, Major General Mamoru Iinuma, immediately stood up and suggested: "Your Excellency, I believe that since the enemy in front of us has been defeated by the imperial army, then we should move forward quickly and break through Nanking as soon as possible, so as to force the government of China to surrender and end the war!" ”

"Yes, Nanjing is the capital of the Chinese people, as long as this place is captured, it will not only severely damage the will and morale of the Chinese people, but also have a great possibility that it will force the Nationalist Government to surrender, and join the imperial army to quickly resolve the strategic goal of the war in China."

Tsukada Tsukasa also stood up and said: "General, although the imperial army has been delayed in Wuxi for some time, the Kunisaki detachment, as a partial division on the west road, has almost reached Wuhu, I believe that it will not be long before they will be able to cross the river and go north, go straight to Pukou, and successfully cut off the retreat of the Nanjing defenders and the connection with Jiangbei." ”

Iinuma Mamoru said: "In addition to the Kunisaki detachment, I believe that we should also send another partial division to cross north from the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, take Yangzhou and other places first, and then join the Kunisaki detachment in Pukou, so that the two-pronged approach can really completely cut off the retreat of the Chinese army."

In this way, we can completely annihilate the defenders of China in the Nanjing area in one fell swoop and completely conquer China! ”

Tsukada nodded and said, "I agree with Iinuma-kun's suggestion, the Shigeto detachment transferred from the direction of Taiwan has landed from Baimaokou a few days ago and integrated the remnants of the 16th Division.

Now they are cooperating with the navy to attack the Jiangyin fortress, and it is suggested that once they break through the Jiangyin fortress, they can let the Shigetsu detachment cross the Yangtze River from Jiangyin to the north, first go down to Yangzhou, and then advance west along the north bank of the Yangtze River, and finally join the Kunisaki detachment in Pukou. ”

Matsui Shigen nodded again and again when he heard this: "Yo Xi, just do what you say, and immediately send a telegram to Yoshika Ryosuke, Kunisaki Detachment, and Shigeto Detachment respectively, and order them to march to Nanjing with all their might."

In particular, I want to tell Ji Jiajun and Yamamuro-kun not to take the enemy lightly, the battle of Suzhou shows that as long as the imperial army does not go deep alone and the enemy is paralyzed, the independent brigade of the Chinese army is not our opponent at all. ”

"Hay!" Tsukada attacked, Mamoru Iinuma and others bowed their heads to receive orders.

……

Suzhou, the former enemy headquarters of the Japanese army.

Because the independent brigade retreated too quickly after the defeat, when Yoshika Ryosuke and Yamamuro Munetake sent out the pursuing force, only the corpses of the fallen soldiers of the independent brigade were left on the battlefield, as well as the wreckage of hundreds of bombed tanks, armored vehicles, and anti-aircraft gun transports.

In this case, Yoshika Ryosuke vetoed the chief of staff, Hiroshi Nakagawa, and suggested that he pursue it directly and wave his army north to take advantage of the situation to capture Wuxi.

The reason is very simple, it is easy for the 9th and 11th divisions to move forward, but it is not easy for the heavy artillery brigade to move once, and the land-based and sea-based aviation units that have come to help in the battle have basically run out of ammunition and must return.

Under these unfavorable factors, Ryosuke Yoshika, who already had the experience of the 16th and 6th Divisions, certainly did not dare to take risks.

His ideas were also supported by the 11th Division's Yamamuro Munetake, so the Japanese army did not take advantage of the situation to march to Wuxi, but continued to camp in Suzhou and stabilized its position.

It can be seen that the Japanese generals were not all fools, on the contrary, they were also smart and good at learning.

Fujita Jin was unlucky, and was killed by Xu Wen, who had just landed.

Nakajima Isago and Tani Toshio were one underestimating the enemy, the other arrogant, and they didn't realize the strength of their opponents, so they were defeated and died.

Of course, there is also a reason why Xu Wen has a systematic blessing against the sky.

Just as Ryosuke Yoshika and Munetake Yamamuro were discussing whether to march to Wuxi, Matsui Ishone's order came.

At this time, the scouts sent by Ji Jia Liangfu and them also came with the news that the defenders of Wuxi seemed to have withdrawn.

So Yoshika Ryosuke said to Yamamuro Sotake: "Yamamuro-kun, what do you think? ”

Yamamuro Munetake muttered: "At least two-thirds of the independent brigade has been wiped out by us, but judging from the battlefield situation, the part that escaped still has a lot of tank and armored forces, and we must not be able to divide it."

Therefore, if we continue to march towards Wuxi, we must be careful to guard against their armored raids. ”

"Well, as long as we don't disperse our forces, don't let the troops below act alone, and all the troops advance in groups, the Chinese army has no chance." Ji Jia Ryosuke nodded approvingly: "In this way, we will leave the strength of a brigade to defend Suzhou, and the other main forces and the independent 5th heavy artillery brigade will be dispatched together to advance to Wuxi!"

At the same time, we must send out all the cavalry of your and my two divisions, and bring all the areas from Wuhu to the Yangtze River into our reconnaissance range.

We should closely monitor and report the armored units of the Chinese Army as soon as they are discovered, so that we can take action in a timely manner so that they will not have any more opportunities. ”

"Yo Xi, just do what General Jijia said!" Sotake Yamamuro nodded happily in agreement.