Okamura Ninji fell on the marching bed and squinted for a while, then he was awakened by the sound of footsteps, and when he looked up, he saw that the chief of staff of the 11th Army, Sadachi Yoshimoto, had already entered his field tent.

After the Matsuura Division was completely annihilated, Okamura Ninji learned from the pain and innovated his tactics, one of the most surprising measures was to move his group army headquarters forward to the front line, and moved out of his fixed residence to live in a low and damp field tent like the front-line soldiers, which required a lot of determination.

Because it is already July, the land of northern Jiangxi is hot and humid, and mosquitoes and flies are rampant.

In fact, the sweltering weather in northern Jiangxi and the massive number of mosquitoes and flies that breed because of the decay of corpses are rapidly replacing the Nationalist Army as the number one enemy of the Japanese army, and in the last week alone, more than 500 people in the divisions and regiments of the 11th Army fell ill, of which 16 soldiers died of illness.

Okamura Ninji did this because he wanted to grasp the physical endurance limit of the front-line officers and soldiers through his own personal experience, so as to help him make the right decision.

Okamura Ninji rolled over from the marching bed and sat up, and while looking for his near-eye glasses, he asked, "Yoshimoto-san, how is the battle situation on the front line?" ”

Yoshimoto Sadachi walked over, picked up his glasses from the canvas table and handed them to Okamura Ninji.

Then he paused and said: "Your Excellency, the 22nd Division, the 27th Division, and the 3rd Division, which has just arrived from Nanjing, have all entered the designated positions, and to paraphrase a proverb of the Chinese people, the 74th Army of China has become a turtle in an urn, and the imperial army can launch a final general attack on them at any time." ”

"The 74th Army?" Okamura Ninji put on his glasses, then waved his hand and said, "Yoshimoto-san, do you only see the 74th Army of Shina?" ”

Yoshimoto said, "Your Excellency, I would like to remind you that it was this 74th Army that annihilated Matsuura-san's 106th Division, and this is also the first time since the Meiji Restoration that the Imperial Army's divisional units have been surrounded and annihilated by the enemy, and this alone is enough for the 74th Army to become a mortal enemy of the Imperial Army." ”

Okamura Ninji said, "So what? ”

Yoshimoto Sadachi said: "Therefore, I think that the 74th Army should be the priority target of the 11th Army. ”

Okamura Ninji said: "Yoshimoto-san, you are wrong, the 74th Army can indeed be called the sworn enemy of the imperial army, and it has indeed given me a great shame for the Japanese Imperial Army, but as a senior commander, you must not only have the word revenge in your thinking, you have to stand at a higher height and look at the entire battlefield in Central China." ”

"Hello." Yoshimoto Sanichi paused again and said, "I know what Your Excellency Commander is referring to, the reason why Your Excellency the Commander surrounded the 74th Army of China and did not fight is actually fishing, taking the 74th Army of China to lure the 1st Army of China to take the bait, I don't know if what you said is right or not?" ”

Okamura Ninji smiled slightly and said: "That's right, I am indeed fishing for the 74th Army in Nachina, Yoshimoto-san, you can see this, it is enough to go down to any field division as the division commander, but if you want to be the commander of the group army, I am afraid that you still owe some fire." ”

Yoshimoto Sadachi frowned slightly and said, "Could it be that Your Excellency the Commander has a bigger and more valuable goal?" ”

"Of course." Okamura Ninji smiled reservedly, "In my eyes, the 1st Army is just a slightly valuable tactical object, and it is not worth my careful calculation, but my target is the elite main force cluster of the National Army in the entire Central China battlefield!" ”

"Nani?" Yoshimoto said awe-inspiringly, "The elite main force cluster of the Nationalist Army in the entire Central China battlefield? ”

Okamura Ninji glanced at Yoshimoto Sadachi and said with a smile: "Ikeda-san, you take a closer look at the forward position of the 22nd Division, and then think about why I let the 3rd Division land from Eishu?" ”

Yoshimoto Zhen was stunned when he heard this, and said in amazement: "The 22nd Division went out of Wuning, and the 3rd Division landed from Yongxiu, isn't it to cut off the reinforcements from Changsha and Nanchang?" ”

Okamura Ningji shook his head with a laugh and said: "The strength of the China Army has been used up, how many other China reinforcements can be in the direction of Changsha and Nanchang, and it is worth me to use two divisions to block it?" ”

Yoshimoto's face changed when he heard this, and he seemed to suddenly understand something.

At that moment, Yoshimoto hurriedly approached the canvas table and spread out the map, then lowered his head and carefully examined the map.

After a while, Yoshimoto Zhen flashed with joy on his face, raised his head and said: "Your Excellency Commander, I understand, you ordered the 22nd Division to go out of Wuning, and then ordered the 3rd Division to land from Yongxiu, not only to detour behind the 1st Army Corps, but also to drive straight to the west, take Zhuzhou directly, first cut off the southern section of the Pinghan Railway, and then intercept Changsha from Zhuzhou to the north!" ”

"Yoshimoto-san, now you are qualified enough to be the commander of the group army, hehe." Okamura Ninji nodded approvingly to Yoshimoto Sadachi when he heard this, as if he was already the commander of the Central China Dispatch Army, and he could already appoint the commander of the subordinate group army at will.

"Hello." Yoshimoto Sadachi won Okamura Ninji's praise, but his heart was very excited.

In fact, in the minds of the vast majority of young officers of the Japanese army, Okamura Ninji, the head of the Baden-Baden League, was even more popular and loved than Tian Shunroku, the commander of the Dispatch Army.

Because everyone understands that behind Okamura Ninji stands Emperor Hirohito.

Okamura Ninji ate some biscuits with cold water, and then said: "However, until now, the Chinese army has not completely entered the encirclement preset by the imperial army, and if the imperial army is launched in advance at this time, not only will the intention of gathering and annihilating the main force of the 1st Army Corps not be achieved, but the intention of detouring to Zhuzhou, cutting off the southern section of the Pinghan Railway, and then intercepting Changsha to the north and gathering and annihilating the elite main force cluster of the Central China Army will also be frustrated. ”

Yoshimoto nodded and said, "So, Your Excellency Commander, what shall we do now?" ”

"Now?" Okamura Ninji's eyes hiding behind the lenses revealed a faint cold color, and he said word by word, "The 74th Army should be put under some pressure to force them to ask for help from the Shina Command, as far as I know, the commander of the 74th Army is a fellow countryman of Chiang, the leader of the Shina, and the relationship between the two should be good." ”

"Hello." Yoshimoto sadachino paused.

(Dividing Line)

In the evening of the same day, the Japanese 11th Army intensified its offensive against the encircled 74th Army.

Wang Yaowu, deputy commander of the 74th Army, immediately asked the headquarters of the 1st Army Corps for help, and Luo Zhuoying, commander of the 1st Army Corps, received Wang Yaowu's telegram for help, and immediately transferred it to the Wuhan Command.

Yu Jishi, commander of the 74th Army, who remained in Wuhan to recuperate, also asked to see Chairman Chiang overnight.

In fact, Xu Rui was not the only one who saw the danger, Bai Chongxi, deputy chief of the general staff of the Ministry of National Defense, and Jiang Baili, president of the Army University, who was bedridden, both of them made suggestions to Chairman Jiang, but unfortunately, Chairman Jiang was quite unimpressed by this.

Under the vigorous persuasion of Chen Cheng, commander-in-chief of the Ninth Theater of Operations, Chairman Chiang finally decided to reinstate Xue Yue and ordered Xue Yue to rush from Changsha to the De'an battlefield to preside over the overall situation, and Xue Yue had already been transferred to the commander of the Changsha garrison at that time.

After Xue Yue received the order, he drove to De'an overnight, but Xue Yue was also a human being after all, not a god, and at this time, it was impossible to reverse the decline of De'an with Xue Yue's ability, let alone rescue the 74th Army from the heavy encirclement of more than 200,000 Japanese troops, and the 74th Army was already in a catastrophe.

But what is really worrying is not the 74th Army!

Xue Yue rushed to the De'an battlefield in the evening of the next day, and Xue Yue's first order after arriving at the De'an battlefield was that all the armies belonging to the 1st Army Corps should immediately retreat and give up the rescue.

From the sudden contraction of the 1st Army Corps, Okamura Ninji quickly sniffed out a strange breath, and decisively ordered the Japanese army to attack on all fronts, and the 74th Army, which was encircled, was soon completely annihilated, and most of the more than 20,000 officers and soldiers under the deputy commander Wang Yaowu died on the battlefield, and only Zhang Lingfu led the 305th Regiment to break through the encirclement.

The heavy artillery brigade of the 74th Army also returned to the devils.

After the total annihilation of the 74th Army, the Japanese 11th Army took advantage of the victory to pursue.

At this time, the 1st Army Corps, which had already exhausted itself, was immediately unable to parry, and the defense line collapsed, and the next day, De'an fell, and three days later, Nanchang, the capital of Jiangxi Province, also fell.

After the capture of Nanchang, in addition to sending two divisions to Xinyu and Ji'an to pursue the rout of the 1st Army Corps, Okamura Ninji also sent another division to drive straight into Hunan from the first line of Gao'an, Shanggao, and Pingxiang, and rushed straight to Zhuzhou with great momentum.

(Dividing Line)

When the news of the loss of Nanchang and the Japanese army's attack on Zhuzhou from Pingxiang from Pingxiang with the strength of a division reached Dameishan, it was already several days later.

At that time, Xu Rui was on the construction site of a power plant in the mountains.

After completing the design and supervision of the Shaqiaogang Fortress, Mr. Mao Yisheng had returned to Wuhan, but before leaving, he still specially helped the Dameishan base to design the plant project of the power plant, the arsenal, the ash factory, and the possible future steel plant.

According to Xu Rui's requirements, all factories are hidden in the mountains, and they are hidden deep in the belly of the mountains.

Xu Rui pushed a small cart of gravel and mud out of the tunnel, and saw Sai Hongfu hurrying over with a pair of long legs, just looking at Sai Hongfu's face, Xu Rui knew that something was wrong.

After taking the telegram from Sai Hongfu's hand and reading it in a hurry, Xu Rui couldn't help but look up to the sky and sigh.

The worst result finally appeared, the inertia of history is still unstoppable after all, and the more it is blocked, the more powerful the rebound of history will be, if according to this logic, Xu Rui simply don't do anything, because the more he does it, the greater the damage to the entire situation of the Anti-Japanese War, which has become a paradox.

But soon, Xu Rui expelled this negative thought from his mind.

Xu Rui never believes that his efforts will only backfire, even if history has a strong inertia, but there is also a limit, just like a bow, when your pull exceeds its limit, the bow of history will also be broken! So what Xu Rui needs to do now is to work harder.