November 8, 1938, Lidong; The first heavy snow in Nanchang finally fell, and the whole city was white, and the goose-feather snow covered all the dirt and sins of the city, making everything as white as a newborn baby; The wives and masters of the rich and noble families put on all kinds of fur coats, and took the children to play in the snow frantically, playing to their heart's content; And in those poor families, the adults were busy plugging the holes in the walls of the houses, so that the cold wind would not take away the last heating from the transfer of the house, and the children shrank in the tattered quilts and shivered from the cold......

At the Ninth Theater Command in Changsha, there was a brazier burning inside, and the room was full of warm air; Let the theater headquarters that are busy here not be so cold, but in the hearts of Chief Xue and Chief of Staff Wu, they are still cold and afraid; The supply of military supplies to the army of the 9th Theater of Operations was not solved, and many soldiers had only five rounds of rifle ammunition in the chamber, and less than 100 rounds of machine-gun ammunition on average; The artillery equipment could not be repaired, and the total number of mountain and field guns in the entire Ninth Theater was less than a hundred, and the shells were even less pitiful;

"Chief Xue, the telegrams of the commanders of the various armies urging the rectification and replenishment have not stopped every day; The logistics department is also urging the Ministry of Military Affairs, but the Ministry of Military Affairs does not have stocks now; It's hard to do! Chief of Staff Wu said with a wry smile,

"Yes! Since the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War in July 1937, the consumption of weapons and ammunition has been huge. The family funds we accumulated before the war can be supported until now, and we still exchange human lives; It's winter now, it's impossible for the devils to launch a large-scale attack, they can take advantage of the cold winter to replenish troops and equipment, Nanchang is now on the lips of the devils, and whether we can get enough weapons and equipment will become the key to deciding the battle situation; And we have two sources of weapons: imported and our own production. Produce it yourself! Not to mention, the military industrial base is weak, and the level of the arsenal is relatively low; Not only could it not produce planes and tanks, but even the most basic production capacity of guns and bullets could not meet the needs of the current war situation. All along, the government has insisted on importing, and the importance of imported weapons and equipment has already been manifested in the previous two years of operations, and the combat effectiveness of well-equipped German armor divisions is obvious. ”

Chief Xue talked eloquently, to his level; Of course, I know all about these things.

From the end of the Qing Dynasty, Germany was China's most important source of arms imports, a situation that lasted until 1938. Before the Anti-Japanese War, China set up a large number of German armament divisions by importing German weapons and equipment, and the funds required to import weapons and equipment from Germany were mainly paid for by tungsten ore, tin, antimony, tung oil and other materials. When the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression broke out in July 1937, China increased its orders for German weapons. However, in May 1938, Germany announced that it would stop exporting weapons to China, and the last batch of weapons arrived in China in August.

At present, European and American countries have adopted a policy of "non-recognition" and "non-interference" in response to Japan's aggressive act of encroaching on China's territorial sovereignty. The former reflects the contradictions between Europe and the United States and Japan, because they are unwilling to give up their vested interests in China; The latter reflects the appeasement of Europe and the United States towards Japan.

After the September 18 Incident, the Japanese armed forces occupied all the three northeastern provinces and threatened the Central Plains in the south. Japan's ambitions and aggressive behavior not only seriously undermined China's territorial sovereignty, but also threatened and dealt a heavy blow to the colonial interests of US and British imperialism in China. In early 1932, U.S. Secretary of State Stimson sent a note to the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, solemnly stating: "The U.S. government cannot recognize the legitimacy of any de facto situation; nor is it intended to recognize any treaty or agreement entered into between the Chinese and Japanese governments or their agents that is detrimental to the United States or its nationals in China;

After the economic crisis, the United States' steel scrap exports to Japan have increased every year, and its trade volume is more than ten times that of China; The investment in Japan is as high as more than 500 million US dollars; Japan has also been paralyzing and deceiving European and American countries;

After the Lugou Bridge Incident in 1937, Japan reached agreements with Germany, Britain, France, the United States and other traditional European and American powers to stop arms exports to China.

On August 21, 1937, the Kuomintang and the Soviet Union signed the Sino-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact, due to the particularity of the region, the Soviet Union did not accept Japan's conditions, so it began to provide weapons and equipment to the Kuomintang in the form of loans, which were repaid by China with minerals and agricultural products. Soviet arms supplies to the Kuomintang continued until the outbreak of the Soviet-German war. In 1938, under the pressure of the Japanese government, France seized arms from the Soviet Union to Vietnam, and later the Yunnan-Burma road was also cut off by the British, until the outbreak of the European war and the Japanese invasion of Southeast Asia, this situation was alleviated, and China's situation was a little better.

Since 1938, China has entered the cold winter of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression; There was a shortage of weapons and ammunition, and the grain-producing areas were occupied by Japanese devils in large numbers, and the main source of taxes in Jiangsu and Zhejiang was also occupied by devils; There was nothing left of China's War of Resistance except emaciated soldiers;

The situation of the National War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression is so grim that the current ruling party of China, the Kuomintang, is not in peace; In September 1938, when the Battle of Wuhan was at a critical moment, Mei Siping, the representative of Zhou Fohai, and Shigeharu Matsumoto, the representative of the Japanese Prime Minister Konoe, negotiated in Hong Kong.

In October 1938, when Wang Zhaoming met with reporters from Haitong News Agency and Reuters, he said that "the door to the armistice has not been closed", and he ignored the vigorous War of Resistance and was obsessed with peace. Later, Mei Siping returned to Chongqing with the secret letter to Cheng Wang. Wang set up a feast for Mei at home, and when sending Mei out of the living room, Chen Bijun urged Wang to make up his mind to join the enemy, saying: "Mr. Mei is leaving tomorrow, this time you have to make up your mind, don't regret it!" Wang Jingwei said repeatedly: "It's decided, it's decided!" ”

And the current stage of the War of Resistance is the time to test the resilience of the entire country and nation; Chiang Kai-shek was convinced that in September, the signing of the Munich Agreement in Europe marked the peak of the appeasement policy of Europe and the United States, and the desire of the Germanic peoples to compete for territorial and overseas rights and interests gradually appeared, and a world war was not far off; What China has been waiting for is the outbreak of war in Europe and the convergence of the world's forces against the German and Japanese fascists.

In the United States during this period, isolationism flourished in Congress and gradually reached its peak; They maintain strict neutrality, refuse to assume international obligations, and impose a mandatory arms embargo on both warring sides; However, the lack of raw materials is not in this rank; This makes China, which has a weak industrial base, even worse, and for Japan, it does not matter at all, they do not lack the ability and technology to produce weapons, but they lack all kinds of raw materials.