February 15, 1939, Tokyo Imperial Council

The Emperor sat in his chair and listened intently to the report of the Minister of War, Lieutenant General Seishiro Itagaki. Present at the meeting were: Chief of Staff Prince Zaihito Miyaji, Minister of Staff Sugiyama Moto, and the new Director of Education, Toshizo Nishio.

After Itagaki Seishiro finished his report, he stood up straight and waited for Emperor Hirohito's question.

Hirohito caught a cold a few days ago, and asked in a thick nasal voice, "What does Sugiyama-kun think?" ”

Sugiyama Moto touched his chin and said with some satisfaction: "I think Commander Okamura's opinion is very good, taking Nanchang, the connection between the third and ninth theaters of the Shina war will be severed, which is conducive to the imperial army to break through each of them." ”

Nishio added: "After the occupation of Nanchang, the front and flanks of Changsha were completely exposed, and after the capture of Changsha and Hengyang, the Guangdong-Hanzhou Railway was completely opened by us. ”

Seeing that all the ministers agreed with this, Hirohito cleared his throat and said: "The 21st Army in Guangzhou must cooperate with this operation, and in order to make this operation foolproof, Nishio and Itagaki must personally go to Huaxia to coordinate, and it is necessary to ensure that the battle can be carried out smoothly. Gentlemen...... The great cause of the empire depends on you. ”

Everyone stood up, straightened up, and said in unison, "Hai...... May I die for His Majesty the Emperor! ”

At the end of 1938, Japan had a total of 34 regular infantry divisions, of which only one Guards Division remained in Tokyo, one division was stationed on the Korean Peninsula, and the remaining 32 divisions were all engaged in the Chinese battlefield. Among them, there were eight divisions of the Kwantung Army, 24 divisions were invested in the Kannai battlefield, and only one division was responsible for the defense of the Japanese mainland. The number of people is too small, which makes the face of the Japanese government, which has always been good-looking, a little unbearable, because when the fighting in Wuhan was fierce, the Japanese government set up 14 left-behind divisions on the mainland, and its task was to send trained recruits to China.

After Okamura received an order from the base camp. Immediately begin the work of assembling troops. Because the 11th Army had been under pincer attack by Li Zongren's division in the Fifth Theater of China and Xue Yue's division in the ninth theater, Okamura weighed again and again and agreed to the battle plan of Kazuo Miyazaki, the director of operations.

The plan was as follows: The 11 th Army was to devote 90 percent of its entire strength to launch an attack on the Fifth and Ninth Theaters at the same time. The main purpose of the attack on the Fifth Theater was to undermine the defenses of the Fifth Theater and to cooperate with the Nanchang Campaign. With about 150,000 troops of four to five divisions, find the fifty divisions led by Xue Yue for a decisive battle.

Just as Okamura Ningji was in full swing preparing to attack Nanchang, Chairman Jiang, who was in the Jiang Mansion in Chongqing, after dinner, was also looking through the documents and important messages sent below, but when he saw a telegram sent by Xue Yue, his face immediately showed a solemn expression, he reached out and picked up the black phone on the table and said: "Let Dai Yunong and Chen Cixiu come to me immediately." ”

Half an hour later, wearing a neat military uniform, wearing Dai Li, who was wearing the rank of major general, and Chen Cheng, who was wearing the rank of general, pushed open the door and came to Chairman Jiang and said loudly.

"Report the principal. Student Dai Li (Chen Cheng) was ordered to come and ask the principal to give instructions! ”

Chairman Jiang quietly pointed to the sofa in front of him and said lightly: "Sit!" ”

"Yes!"

Both of them knew that their boss liked to be simple, so they didn't talk nonsense, so they immediately sat down and half-pulled their butts. Quietly waiting for the news of the chairman.

Chairman Jiang took out a telegram and put it on the table, "Let's take a look at this telegram from Xue Boling first, right?" ”

Dai Li quickly stood up, quickly stepped forward to pick up the telegram and read it, then handed it to Chen Cheng, and the two of them groaned in unison after reading the telegram. Didn't take a stand at the first time.

Seeing this, the chairman of the committee did not urge, but just picked up a glass of boiled water and drank it deliciously.

After a long time, Chen Cheng spoke: "Chairman of the Committee, what Xue Boling and Brigade Commander Su of the Independent Brigade guessed may not be non-existent. Nanchang is indeed very important to us, if Nanchang is lost, the third theater and the ninth theater will be completely cut off, and then the Japanese will be able to break through each of these two theaters, so Nanchang will be our must-defend place! ”

"Hmm......" The chairman nodded, and then asked, "Then do you have any countermeasures?" ”

As Chen Cheng became more and more trusted by the chairman, he held more and more positions, and now Chen Cheng has several positions, such as director of the General Political Department of the Military Commission, chairman of Hubei Province, member of the Aviation Commission, chairman of the Central Training Commission, secretary of the Central Youth League Department of the Three People's Youth League, and chief of education of the Central Training Corps.

However, Dai Li is jealous, but he has no other ideas, because he knows very well that he is a dirty worker, and his power today depends on his own boss to support him, and he is not a fart without the boss, but Chen Cheng is a real important minister of the country, which is like the difference between the governor of Dongchang and the head of the cabinet in the Ming Dynasty, and the two are not comparable at all.

Chen Cheng, who was on the side, thought for a while before he said slowly: "Chairman of the National Committee, the ministry thinks that even if the Japanese want to attack Nanchang, they will not be able to attack in a short period of time, and they will have to wait until early April at the earliest to prepare for the attack. So we might as well preemptively strike and catch him off guard first. ”

"Preemptive?" The chairman of the committee chewed it and nodded with satisfaction, "This plan can be dropped, since the end of the battle of Wuhan, our troops have been training for several months, and how well the training is going depends on the facts, so let's make a plan for me when you go back, and if there is no problem, follow this plan." Also, Yunong, you should also pay attention, I heard that there have been a lot of spies pouring in into Chongqing recently, how did your military commander do it, and Chongqing has made a miasma. ”

Hearing this, Dai Li's heart was suddenly shocked, and he quickly stood up and bowed his head and said: "Principal, rest assured, this is all the negligence of the students, and the students will be checked as soon as they go back, and these insects must be cleaned up." ”

The chairman snorted from his nose: "That's it, it's your business how to clean it up, I just want the result, understand?" ”

"Yes, students understand!"

"Alright, you all go down!" Chairman Jiang waved his hand and signaled that the two could go down. (To be continued.) )