Tanaka was gone, but his rank was not low, so he did not return to Japan on a steamer with as many other junior officers as he did, but was escorted by two gendarmes on a Mitsubishi Ki-57-II transport plane to Japan, where he was subject to severe questioning and trial.

And Gu Shoufu, who took over the post of commander of the 23rd Army, also began to take office, and the first thing he did after taking office was to immediately read all the war histories between the 23rd Army and the 202nd Army over the past year or so, and as his understanding deepened, his heart began to become colder and colder, and in the end he even had the urge to scold his mother.

Although he had long expected that Su Jin and his 202nd Army would be difficult to deal with, Gu Shoufu's understanding of Su Jin was only more than a year ago, when the 202nd Army was only the 202nd Division, and Su Jin was only a budding Chinese general. At that time, Gu Shoufu was only the division commander of the Sixth Division, although he suffered losses in the hands of Su Jin, but Gu Shoufu did not think that Su Jin was an invincible enemy, at best, it was only better equipped than the ordinary national * army troops, the fighting will was better, and the combat effectiveness was stronger. Although he has been transferred back to his homeland for more than a year because he connived at his subordinates to cause the massacre that shocked the world in Nanjing and the subsequent defeat, he never thought that there was anything wrong with him, in his opinion, he was just unlucky, as long as he gave himself a suitable opportunity, he would definitely be able to soar to the sky.

Gu Shoufu is convinced of this, in fact, he is very envious of the former commander of the Fifth Division, Seishiro Sakagaki, this guy just took the Fifth Division to China for a turn and played soy sauce, but it took more than a year to be remembered by His Majesty the Emperor, and then Hirohito asked the Konoe Fumiro cabinet to recall him, from a division commander to the land minister. In the Huaxia way, he jumped from a division commander to the high position of commander-in-chief of the army, and this promotion speed can be called unprecedented.

However, Sakagaki Seishiro's promotion speed was too fast, and he did not stay in the position of land minister for long without sufficient foundation, and just two months ago, Sakagaki Seishiro was ousted from the highest decision-making level and was appointed as the first chief of staff of the Huaxia Dispatch Army, assisting General Nishio Shouzo.

At this time, the news of the defeat of the 23rd Army and the surrender of Taro Iwasaki shook the entire cabinet, and the idle Toshio Tani took the opportunity to move around Tokyo, and finally let him get the position of commander of the 23rd Army.

Originally, in Gu Shoufu's view, the failure of the 23rd Army was due to the fact that the commander was too incompetent and the command was unfavorable, but now after reading these war history files, he realized that things were far from being as simple as he imagined, and now the 202nd Army has grown into an opponent that everyone has to face squarely.

"Alas......"

Putting down the thick file in his hand, Gu Shoufu sighed, rubbed his temples on both sides, and then pressed the electric bell button on the table, and soon the chief of staff, Takashi Murata, pushed the door and walked in, and saluted Gu Shoufu with a snap.

"Your Excellency, Commander, what do you command?"

Gu Shoufu looked at the chief of staff who was standing in front of him and nodded lightly: "Murata-kun, I want to ask you, have all the airfields we bombed by the people last month been repaired?" ”

"Report to Your Excellency Commander, the airfields have all been repaired, and only the additional planes have not yet been fully put in place, and now we have only eighty-seven planes that can be lifted into the air for combat, of which only fifty destroyers, and the rest are bombers."

"Only fifty destroyers?"

Gu Shoufu's thick eyebrows furrowed, judging from the information he had learned, Su Jin now had at least two squadrons of destroyers and one squadron of bombers in his hands, and all of them were the latest German and American aircraft, whether in terms of quantity or quality, the Empire's aircraft did not have the upper hand!

Gu Shoufu shook his head: "No, it's too little, you immediately send a telegram to Commander Tada, requesting that at least no less than three brigades of fighters be sent under our command, and in addition, we must mobilize no less than three divisions and regiments to Zhejiang within a month, so that we can have the ability to launch a counteroffensive." As long as I can have the strength of three divisions and regiments, plus more than 150 fighters, I am sure that the 202nd Army will be expelled from Zhejiang or even eaten all! ”

"Counterattack?" Hearing this word that he hadn't heard for a long time, Takashi Murata, who was standing in front of him, was stunned, and his ears instantly rang with the words that Tanaka Kuichi had instructed before leaving, but he looked at Gu Shoufu's flashing light called ambition, and the words he originally wanted to say suddenly hesitated.

Looking at Takashi Murata, who wanted to speak and stopped, Gu Shoufu stared at him a few more times strangely, and said: "Murata-kun, if you have something to say, I just came to the 23rd Army, and I am not familiar with many places, and I just need a chief of staff like you to remind me, so if you have anything to say, you don't have to be taboo." ”

It stands to reason that Gu Shoufu had a period of unpleasant energy with Murata Takashi when he first came, but at this time, Gu Shoufu did not have the idea of settling accounts after the autumn, and when he first arrived, he naturally had to make a look like a corporal of Lixian.

In addition, he had just sent the previous commander on the plane back to China, and if he offended these staff officers who held real power, then he would really be alone in the 23rd Army. Even if they didn't dare to oppose themselves openly, as long as they secretly did something when formulating combat missions, it was enough for them to drink a pot of their own, so he put on an amiable face uncharacteristically.

"Your Excellency the Commander......"

Takashi Murata gritted his teeth and said, "Before you came, Commander Tanaka instructed me to give some words to the next commander. ”

"Oh...... You said. Gu Shoufu nodded.

Commander Tanaka said that the 202nd Army is now in its wings. In the future, when fighting with the 202nd Army, we must not be greedy for merit and rash progress, still less can we rely on ourselves to be too high, we must lower our posture, no matter how much we overestimate the 202nd Army, we must not think about eliminating it as soon as possible, as long as we can maintain the pre-existing posture before the base camp greatly increases the number of troops, it will be a victory. ”

"Oh, and that kind of thing?"

Gu Shoufu's brows furrowed deeply, he didn't suspect that this was Murata Takashi deceiving him, after all, Murata Takashi didn't dare to lie about such an important thing, no matter how dare Murata Takao be, what he couldn't figure out was that Murata Takashi would raise the combat effectiveness of the 202nd Army to such an extent.

Looking at Gu Shoufu, whose face was covered with dark clouds, Murata Takashi's heart also went up and down. He is also very uncertain about this notorious guy, although Tanaka Kuichi confessed this before leaving, but this kind of thing is common all over the world, and whether this new commander can listen to it or not.

Gu Shoufu thought solemnly for several minutes, and finally raised his head to look at Murata Takashi and said slowly: "Murata-kun, I believe that what Tanaka-kun said before leaving was a good intention, and I hope I will not repeat the mistakes of the 23rd Army, but you must understand that the reason why our Imperial Japanese Army can dominate Asia depends on its ambition to forge ahead and the courage to fight when it encounters the enemy. I admit that the 23rd Army did suffer some setbacks in the past, but because of this, we have to take the initiative to fight against the Chinese people, and we must fight against the Chinese people with stubborn courage and continuous attacks, so that they will tremble when they see the flag of the Great Japanese Empire, and we will plant the military flag of the Great Japanese Empire on this land! ”

"What I just said was in vain!"

This was the only thought that crossed Murata's mind, and by this time he had clearly realized that it was impossible to change the mind of the new commander.

However, since the situation is developing now, Takashi Murata can only face reality. He took a deep breath and calmed down before he said, "Your Excellency Commander, we don't have many troops in Zhejiang right now. In Hangzhou and Shaoxing, there are two troops, the 32nd Mixed Brigade and the 92nd Brigade, respectively, and the 104th Division in Wenzhou, with a total of less than 20,000 men. ”

"What, the situation is already so dire?" Gu Shoufu was taken aback, and hurriedly asked: "What about the direction of Guangdong, is it possible to send one division or even two divisions over?" I remember that there were still three divisions in Guangdong and Fujian. ”

"No way!" Murata Takashi said without thinking: "Guangdong's geographical location is too important, we would rather give Zhejiang to the people of China than lose Guangzhou, you must know that Guangzhou is one of the most important outlets to the sea in China, once the people of China reoccupy Guangzhou, then the southeast direction of China can immediately be re-trained, and then China can regain an excellent outlet to the sea and rear base, which is absolutely not allowed!" ”

"Soga!"

Gu Shoufu sighed depressedly, the stall he took over was really bad, whether he wanted it or not, he had to admit that the current 23rd Army really had no ability to continue the attack.

"That's it, let this guy Su Jin be proud for a while." He exhaled a depressed breath, and just wanted to speak, when suddenly a staff officer hurriedly walked in and said loudly with a slightly panicked expression: "Report to Your Excellency the commander, the reconnaissance plane in front is coming, and the person from Zhi Na ...... After the occupation of Jinhua by the China, their troops did not stop advancing, but ...... Instead, they will continue to march towards Hangzhou, and it is expected that they will arrive in Hangzhou the day after tomorrow. ”

"Nani ......"

"How is this possible?"

Two unbelievable voices sounded at the same time, Gu Shoufu's face suddenly turned blue, and he suddenly found that it was no longer a question of whether he would take the initiative to attack, but how to resist the advance of the 22nd Army! (To be continued.) )