As early as the early days of the Anti-Japanese War, Li Zongren expressed some views in his book "On the Scorched Earth War of Resistance".

"From a strategic point of view, if the Japanese army and our army engage in a dignified positional battle, they will be strong and weak, and they will not be able to defeat them! The Japanese army also noticed this, so the enemy relied on a quick victory! ”

"But we must not be pinned down by the Japanese army, we must avoid our shortcomings, give full play to our strengths, and make use of the conditions of our vast land, people, mountains and rivers, and other conditions to make a long-term war of attrition that is planned to resist step by step! Once the Japanese army is caught in our vast strategic depth, its battle line is elongated, and it is difficult to supply and withdraw, we will carry out the strategy of clearing the wilderness with strong walls, launch guerrilla warfare in areas behind enemy lines, and sabotage the enemy's communications, transportation, and supplies...... So that the enemy can not gather strength at one point, distracted by other cares, tired of running for his life, taking care of one thing and losing the other, and falling into the quagmire of war! ”

"In this way, it will be easy to use our vast strategic depth to exchange space for time to drag down the enemy and defeat the enemy!"

In the battle of Xuzhou, Li Zongren made initial use of his concept, he was well aware of the weakness of the enemy's strength and arrogance, and used his tens of thousands of mourning soldiers to launch a mobile war with the Japanese army, giving full play to the strategic principle of 'the enemy retreats, and the enemy retreats and I fight'.

Although it failed to completely annihilate the Japanese army, it laid a solid foundation for the Battle of Wuhan, and it also represented the transformation from the original passive defense to active defense.

As Chen Cheng said: "The victory of Taierzhuang is the strategic effect of our guerrilla warfare and sports warfare!" ”

The impact and significance are enormous!

And the end of the Battle of Xuzhou also marks the imminent start of the Battle of Wuhan!

It's the end of an old and the beginning of a new one!

The Battle of Wuhan can be said to be a major turning point in the history of the Anti-Japanese War! In this battle, the two sides gathered more than a million troops again, and both sides were desperate to use the strength of the whole country to deal with it!

In order to resist the Japanese attack and protect Wuhan, the defenders successively mobilized 50 armies, 130 divisions, more than 200 planes of various types, more than 40 ships of various types, and more than 40 mine-laying ferries, with a total strength of more than 1 million people, to organize defense and defend Wuhan by taking advantage of the favorable terrain on both sides of the Dabie Mountain, Poyang Lake, and the Yangtze River.

After the capture of Xuzhou, the Japanese army also gathered the strength of the whole country, and led the 2nd and 11th armies under the command of Commander Shunroku Hata with a total of about 140 brigades and more than 25 troops responsible for the attack on Wuhan.

With Okamura Ninji commanding the five and a half divisions of the 11th Army to attack Wuhan on both sides of the Yangtze River, and the four and a half divisions of the 2nd Army commanded by King Tsukihiko of Higashigur to assist Wuhan along the northern foot of the Dabie Mountain, as well as more than 120 ships of the Navy and the Third Fleet of Kawakoshiro, plus more than 500 aircraft led by Vice Admiral Tokugawa Yoshitoshi of the Japanese Army, and five divisions directly under the Central China Dispatch Army were assigned to the garrison of Nanjing, Shanghai, Hangzhou and other areas, so as to consolidate the rear and ensure the success of this operation!

The Japanese army has moved such a big force this time, for the current Japanese army, it is not an exaggeration to say that it has made a desperate bet!

You must know that the economy of the Japanese army at this time has long been overwhelmed.

In fact, as early as before and after the start of the July Seven Incident, the Japanese army had been extremely nervous because of many military operations, so that their soldiers were extremely nervous, although after many times of increasing troops, they were no worries, but also because of this, the increase in troops and the cost of the front line increased sharply, making the RB economic system unable to support, and even overloaded.

Military spending forced Konoe to reshuffle his cabinet, and as a result, he issued a budget for the war effort.

Although the economic constitution of the war has slowed down the financial bankruptcy of the Japanese army, everyone knows that this is only temporary!

If you don't change it, you will inevitably end up with that last step!

Under such circumstances, the Japanese base camp was very anxious, coupled with concerns about the Soviet army's assistance and their military strength, so the Japanese army base camp was eager to take down our living forces in a short period of time and force Chiang to defeat someone, so as to gather more resources for the strategy of advancing north or south, as Emperor Hirohito said at the imperial meeting before preparing for the Battle of Wuhan: "To deal a fatal blow to China and force the other side to surrender!" He didn't want to see the 'Imperial Millions of Heroes under the control of China!' ’

Therefore, in dealing with this battle of Wuhan, the Japanese army has already exhausted the strength of the whole country and made a desperate strategy.

All the Japanese troops in China have been dispatched, and even the last Guards Division in the mainland is ready to go to support for this battle, so it can be seen that the situation of the Japanese army is also very difficult!

As for the situation of the Japanese army, the defenders saw it very clearly.

Therefore, they understood that in this battle, as long as they won the Japanese army, or the living strength of the Japanese army was consumed by them, then the little devils would no longer have the strength to organize such a big battle.

From then on, they were able to truly exchange space for time, using their vast strategic depth and various terrains to constantly harass the Japanese army with guerrilla warfare, movement warfare, sneak attack warfare, and intrusion warfare, so that the little devils were exhausted and fell into the quagmire of war, so that they could not extricate themselves, and finally ...... Drag it down!

If it is said that at the time of the Battle of Xuzhou, the defenders and even some high-level leaders could not see any hope, but at this time, they have already seen it!

They saw the hope of victory, and they also saw where the opportunity to defeat the Japanese army was!

For this Wuhan battle, a very important label has been put in everyone's hearts, for them, this Wuhan battle can only succeed, not fail!

In the event of defeat, most of the country will fall into the hands of the enemy, and they will also have the ability to organize such a large battle with the Japanese army! From now on, we will also be caught in a difficult struggle!

And if their strategy succeeds, then the hope and brightness of the country are just around the corner!

In order to command the operation, Li Zongren, commander of the Fifth Theater, immediately threw himself into the preparation and planning of the Battle of Wuhan after he withdrew from the Battle of Xuzhou, and he would command more than 23 armies to be responsible for the operation and defense tasks in the Jiangbei area, while Chen Cheng, commander of the Ninth Theater, was to command 29 armies to be responsible for the defense of Jiangnan.

In addition, the first theater was on the south bank of the Yangtze River in Wuhu and Anqing and the area east of Nanchang, guarding against the Japanese army's detour to the Guangzhou and Wuchang sections of the Guangdong-Hankou Railway through the Hangzhou-Zhuzhou section of the Zhejiang-Jiangxi Railway, that is, the Hangzhou and Zhuzhou sections.

War, on the verge of breaking out!

(End of chapter)