With the withdrawal of the 19th Group Army and the Independent Brigade, the Battle of Wuhan finally ended, in this battle, the national army lost Wuhan and several surrounding cities, in this battle, the Chinese and Japanese sides dispatched more than one million troops to fight desperately on thousands of square kilometers of land, the Chinese army paid more than 400,000 dead and wounded, and the number of Japanese casualties also reached more than 100,000, both sides were exhausted, and began to lie dormant and lick their wounds, ready to fight again next time.

In this battle, there was an army that began to stand out and began to attract attention from the whole country and even the world, and this army was naturally the Shandong Independent Security Brigade of the National Revolutionary Army led by Su Jin, especially when it was awarded the title of the first brigade of the national army, and the reputation of the independent brigade gradually spread overseas.

After the battle of Maochen Town, although Major General Hashimoto Masatten and several of his subordinate wing commanders died with the destruction of the heavy artillery, this matter was not over, and the other responsible person, Tani Toshio, was also transferred back to the mainland from the Tokyo base camp, and then sent to the reserve to train the boy scouts, and the commander of the sixth division was taken over by Lieutenant General Shiro Inaba, and as an indirect responsible person, although Okamura Ninji was not punished, his hope of being promoted to commander of the front army also came to naught. Yan Junliu was transferred to the Central China Dispatch Army, but the remaining position of commander of the North China Dispatch Army fell to Tada Jun's head, Okamura Ninji knew that he had to stay in Wuhan for a while, and if he wanted to go further, he was afraid that he would have to wait until he commanded the Eleventh Army to fight a few more big victories. On the day when Tada Jun served as the commander of the North China Dispatch Army, Okamura specially asked Miyamoto Ichiro, a little fat man, to play chess all night.

Okamura Ningji, who could only stay in Wuhan melancholy and wait for orders, blamed all this on Su Jin's head.

Today, the former Wuchang Military Commission, now the headquarters of the 11th Army, is heavily guarded, and a large group of Japanese soldiers will guard this place tightly, at the gate of the headquarters. Okamura Ninji stood in front of the steps with Chief of Staff Numata, Kazuo Miyazaki, Director of the War Room, and Ichiro Miyamoto, Operations Staff Officer.

Soon a black Toyota sedan stopped in front of everyone under the escort of several trucks full of soldiers, Okamura Ningji hurriedly greeted him, and soon the door opened and two lieutenant generals walked out, the front was Tada Jun, who Okamura was very familiar with, and Okamura was stunned for a moment when he saw the person following Tadajun, and then showed a look of disbelief, and said: "Ishihara-kun, why are you here?" ”

Tadajun, who got out of the car, saw Okamura Ningji's surprised look, and he couldn't help laughing: "Why, is Okamura-kun so surprised to see Ishihara-kun?" Or did you do something sorry for Ishihara-kun? ”

"Of course not. It's me who was rude, I'm really sorry! Okamura Ninji hurriedly saluted Tada.

Ishihara, who was short but cynical, patted Okamura Ninji on the shoulder: "Okamura-kun, Tada-kun and I came here this time to inspect you, are you ready?" ”

"Expedition ......"

Okamura Ningji couldn't help but be stunned, and the generals and officers of the Eleventh Army behind him were also taken aback, for Japan that pays attention to etiquette, Ishihara's words are very rude, not to mention that they just came to visit, even if they really investigated Gangcun on behalf of the base camp. I can't say such rude words, after all, Okamura Ninji is also a commander with hundreds of thousands of heavy troops in his hands.

Tada Junichi frowned: "Ishihara-kun, you have to pay attention, Okamura-kun's temper is not as good as mine!" I'm sorry. Ishihara-kun is such a personality, don't you mind. This last sentence was addressed to Okamura Ninji.

"Ah...... It doesn't matter, let's go in and talk. Okamura shook his head with a wry smile and stretched out his hand to make a gesture of please.

The three of them walked together towards the headquarters. The officers followed behind a few people, and soon the three of them entered Okamura Ninji's small office.

It is said that he is a small office, which is really small, only less than 20 square meters. There was nothing but a desk, a coffee table, and that big military map on the wall.

Tada Jun stood in the office and looked around, and couldn't help but burst out laughing, "Okamura-kun, you are still really simple enough, and you refuse to put even one extra piece of furniture, is it possible that the Eleventh Army is now so poor?" ”

Ishihara sat down at the coffee table, sat down diagonally without estimating the image, and laughed: "Okamura-kun, didn't you prepare anything good to entertain us when your old friend came?" ”

Okamura Ninji couldn't help but smile and shook his head when he saw his lazy appearance: "Ishihara-kun, you still haven't changed at all, if you can cheer up a little, maybe you will become a general a long time ago." ”

Ishihara said lazily: "Unless that senior soldier enters the Yasukuni Shrine one day, I don't have that hope in my life." ”

Okamura Ninji and Tada Jun shook their heads in unison and stopped talking, this Ishihara Waner has been an anomaly since he was a teenager, for example, when he was in military school, he didn't take a bath all year round, and kept the lice on his body in a pencil case for ornamentation. In order to train students to be able to independently carry out combat drawings in the future, the school specially arranged a sketching class, Ishihara Waner's homework, but the teacher was dumbfounded, he drew a male genitalia, and wrote a line of words: My baby, painted in the toilet on November 1, for this the school almost expelled him.

And Ishihara Waner is also extremely incompatible with the current army vice minister Hideki Tojo, and ridiculed Hideki Tojo in public, last year when Ishihara Waner was still serving in the Kwantung Army, a large Zuo went to visit Hideki Tojo, who was then the deputy chief of staff of the Kwantung Army, when he asked Ishihara Waner about Hideki Tojo's office, this guy actually said: "Oh, you are asking the senior soldier, he is in the office next door." ”

This shows this guy's arrogance, but it is undeniable that this guy has an extremely intelligent brain, which is why Tada Jun came to North China to take him as an assistant.

Okamura Ninji said helplessly: "Okay, Ishihara-kun, I know that you are coming, I have prepared sake from my hometown, waiting for you to taste it." ”

As he spoke, an orderly walked in and set up food and drinks for the three of them, and filled them with wine before withdrawing.

beckoning the two to sit down, Okamura Ninji said, "Come, so that we can meet again, drink this cup!" ”

"!" The three of them drank it all in one gulp.

Oriental people like to talk about things at the wine table, and after a few glasses of wine, Ishihara Wan'er squinted at Okamura and said, "Okamura-kun, do you know why Tada-kun pulled me to you as soon as he took office?" ”

"Of course you know, it's not for the sake of the heavy artillery brigade?" In front of a few friends, Okamura Ninji naturally let go of his serious face in the past, revealing his usual unknown side.

Tada Jun said in a deep voice: "Since you know, then tell us why." ”

Chief Okamura sighed: "What else can there be, isn't it because of the extra Jingguan troops?" ”

Ishihara Wan'er lifted the wine jug and poured wine for the three of them without raising his head and said, "Be specific." ”

Okamura picked up the wine glass and squeaked it down, and said with a long exclamation: "There is only one reason, I underestimated the strength of that Jingguan army. ”

Speaking of this, Okamura Ningji said very bitterly: "To be honest, every time I am ready and think that I am sure of destroying this army, the other party will always do something unexpected, and in the end I will always find myself underestimating his combat effectiveness, for example, this time I sent a heavy artillery brigade to help, wanting to annihilate this Su Jin and the Nineteenth Army in one fell swoop, but he actually led a death squad to raid the heavy artillery brigade and blow up all the heavy artillery, making me embarrassed, sometimes I even think." , this guy was not sent by heaven to deal with our Great Japanese Empire. ”

"You're wrong Okamura-kun!" Ishihara waved his hand disdainfully, pointed at him and said, "You are a commander, you shouldn't focus on just a brigade-level unit, you should look at the overall situation." Wuhan is the center of China, the largest river in China passes through the city in the middle, the waterway is very convenient, it is the intersection of Pinghan and Guangdong-Hanzhou railways, and the railway transportation is very convenient. The occupation of Wuhan is equivalent to grasping the outline of the fishing net of China, and the east, west, north and south can advance and retreat freely, you don't make good use of this advantage, but are entangled in how to eliminate a small branch of the brigade-level troops, isn't this a sacrifice of the basics? ”

"I'm going to give up my roots?" Okamura Ninji rolled his eyes: "You don't know the price of firewood and rice, and when you come to be this commander, you will know my difficulties, now this army has become a banner of China, if you don't eliminate him, the fighting spirit of the people of China will become more and more vigorous, and our actions in China will become more and more painful, do you know that now the imperial army has only occupied the main towns of China, so a large area of the countryside is still in the hands of the guerrillas and local troops in China, if you don't completely control these places, What kind of imperial cause, what kind of domination in Asia! ”

Ishihara sneered, "Could it be that your rule over Asia is to deal with a small China brigade?" ”

"Alright, alright!" Seeing that the two were about to quarrel again, Tada Jun hurriedly said: "You will argue about these things in the future, the main question now is, Okamura-kun, what are you going to do next?" ”

Okamura Ninji didn't answer this question, but turned his gaze to Ishihara, "Ishihara-kun, can you guess my next plan?" ”

Ishihara pouted: "What's so hard to guess about this, so let's write it on the palm of your hand and spread it out at the same time." ”

"Absolutely!"

Soon, the two took the pen and wrote a few words on the palm of their hands at the same time, and then spread them out at the same time, only to see two "Nanchang" and two bright red fonts written in the palms of the two at the same time.

The two looked at each other and laughed rampantly...... (To be continued.) )