Chapter 217: Ping Manna

People cannot be resurrected from death, but they still have to continue to die.

As early as March 26, when Dai Anlan and Zhang Ziwen fought to the death, Chiang Kai-shek had such a telegram.

"The enemy invading Burma seems to be attempting to attack Mandalay in Donghu (i.e., Tonggu) with the main force. At present, our army should use the 200th Division of the 5th Army, the new 22nd Division, and the direct subordinate of the army to engage the enemy in the first battle between Donghu and Pyin Boon Na (i.e., Binh Manna).

In the event of an unfavorable battle, a protracted resistance should be exercised in order to wear down the enemy one by one, and during this period, the entire 66th Army, as well as the 96th and 55th Divisions, should be quickly concentrated in the area of Mandalay and Zaze (i.e., Tazek) Division, so that preparations for the Second and Second Battles should be difficult to complete, with a view to breaking the enemy in depth. ”

Du Yuming, on the other hand, held that since the expeditionary force could not concentrate its main forces on a decisive battle with the enemy at the right time and place, it was in line with strategy and tactics to abandon Tonggu after inflicting a certain blow on the enemy, maintain its combat strength, and choose another favorable time and place to concentrate its forces on a decisive battle with the enemy. ”

When the 200 divisions successfully broke through the encirclement and moved on 30 March, the Staff Committee of the Burmese Army proposed that the 5th Army should maintain contact with the enemy with one division. The main forces are preparing for battle near Pingmanna.

That night, Commander Du Yuming ordered the new 22nd Division to occupy the forward position at Ye Daxi with one battalion, covering the main force to build resistance positions on the north and south banks of the south of the Siva River. The purpose was to use the new 22nd Division as a blocking corps, use the narrow strip along the Sva River to delay the enemy, and gain time to concentrate the main force of the 5th Army in the Pingmanna area and complete the preparations for the battle.

3 At 16 o'clock on the second day, Du Yuming issued an operational order at the Beibei Army Headquarters: "The enemy's 55th Division seems to have an attempt to continue its northward advance, and the army is determined to use a strong force to use the narrow forest area on both sides of the Sva River and north of it to resist the enemy, occupy a position at Pingmanna with the main force, and destroy the enemy by firepower." Turn to the offensive. Surround and annihilate the enemy."

The deployment of troops is suspended with the new 22nd Division as the base of the blocking corps, with one artillery and one chariot, relying on the existing positions along the Sva River to resist one by one, and gradually depleting the enemy, with the 96th Division as the backbone of the defensive corps, with one artillery and one chariot, holding the Pingmanna position and attracting the enemy; With 200 divisions as the backbone of the mobile corps. It is also equipped with artillery and chariots, and when the old army is in a stalemate with our stubborn corps, it will launch an offensive. At the same time, the blocking corps attacked from the enemy's flank and rear attack, encircling the enemy army in the Pinmana area and annihilating it.

The main force of the 55th Division of the 6th Army was ordered to assemble near the Heihe River, to prevent the enemy from going to Tangji along the Moltke Road, to help Pingmanna on the left back of our army, and to ask the British to hold on to the Alan Temple (Alam) and cover the right flank of the Chinese Expeditionary Force.

When Chiang Kai-shek received the news of the loss of Tonggu, he telegraphed Lin Wei to tell Stilwell that the Chinese army should be withdrawn to the vicinity of Pingmanna and coordinated with Prome. Soon after, he heard that the enemy had been found 20 miles south of Prome, so he telegraphed Lin Wei to tell Stilwell that he should use a strong force to hold the stronghold near Pingmanna. The new 38th Division of the 66th Army was not allowed to be used at the front. Will Stilwell annihilate it.

Stilwell was very dissatisfied with the remote control of Chung Kai-shek, and Stilwell said: "Chiang Kai-shek was bent on holding Manbele, and he could not see that the way to hold Mandalay was to eat the Japanese army in Tonggu."

I don't want to think about how to contain Tonggu, which is the responsibility of the Chinese.

Therefore, on April 1, Stilwell flew directly from Burma back to Chongqing, and he complained to Chiang Kai-shek that the commanders and division commanders of the expeditionary force, such as Du Yuming and Liao Yaoxiang, did not obey orders, and that I did not have enough power to compel them to obey orders.

And in strong wording, it was stated either that he would be relieved of his post or that he would be given full command powers.

Chiang Kai-shek, in order to appease Stilwell, told him on April 2. The commander of the new 22nd Division has been handed over for investigation. Luo Zhuoying was sent as the commander of the Chinese Expeditionary Force, and the commanders of the 5th and 6th armies obeyed Luo Zhuoying, and Luo Zhuoying obeyed Stilwell's orders.

And so. In the already overlapping command system of the Chinese Expeditionary Force, a new level has been added, which has not only failed to improve, but has reduced command efficiency.

On 5 April, Stilwell and Lo Cheuk-ying accompanied Chiang Kai-shek and his wife to Burma.

On the 7th, Chiang Kai-shek summoned Yi Bu, a senior general of the expeditionary force, at Meimiao: "General Stilwell is the chief of staff of the remainder, and the following five points are altogether. All members must be careful to comply. 1. Stilwell was responsible for commanding the Nationalist forces fighting in Burma. 2. Commander Luo Zhuo Mei shall be under the command of General Stilwell, and the commanders of the 5th and 6th Armies and other officers in the United States shall be under the command of General Luo. 3. The remaining authority shall have full authority to make all final decisions with General Stilwell. Fourth, General Shi Qiwei has the right to punish him. 5. All the same subject against Britain shall be taken over by General Stilwell.

Chiang Kai-shek also promised to give Stilwell a large stamp engraved with his official title. to confirm his authority.

But where would Lao Chiang put 100,000 elite eggs in one basket, and the stamp Stilwell received a week later was engraved with the Chief of the General Staff of the Allied Forces, not "Commander-in-Chief of the Expeditionary Force to Burma."

Chiang Kai-shek's political maneuver not only failed to dispel misunderstandings, but instead deepened the contradictions between him and Stilwell.

The emergence of this contradiction led to the fact that China, the United States, and Britain turned the secret struggle at the bottom into an open dispute, and the British army did not want to defend it and could not hold it.

The Americans are ready to get on the plane and run away at any time, and they can only sit and work steadily according to orders.

Stilwell directly called Chiang Kai-shek peanuts in private about this matter, because Chiang Kai-shek was a bald head, and his head shape was similar to peanuts.

Stilwell looked down on China in the first place, but he just wanted to use China to drag down most of the Japanese army.

Now that China has held back 90 percent of the Japanese army, the Japanese will support a large number of tilts and slow down the expansion of the Japanese navy. Now that the goal has been achieved, China is once again like a helpless lamb, continuing to be slaughtered.

China sent troops into Burma to help Britain stop the Japanese army, so as to keep India, reduce American support for the European theater, and still be able to make a fortune openly, Stilwell thought of the hundred thousand tons of supplies in his hands and grabbed seven inches of the Republic of China.

And the helpless Jiang Zhongzheng also wrote in his diary that now he knows that the so-called alliance and mutual assistance are all false words, and the United States cannot care about it? Today, there is still a piece of land in our country, and we want to be a military force in order to survive ourselves, but we have not sacrificed our ears for imperialism.

At this time, China was already ranked among the top four in the world, but it was just a tiger, two wolves, and a sheep, while China was a sheep.

And it is this sheep, in order to keep his pasture, constantly sending wool out from his body little by little, and helping to guard the pond next door, in order to have water to eat.

The sheep also had to help the wolves of Western Europe convince Gandhi in India not to make a revolution.

This sheep has been bitten and scarred, and when others pull their wool, they have to endure the pain to help others fight.

Looking at the wolf in the north, it is just a road, and it dares to open its mouth to deliver a truckload of supplies to deliver the same weight of agricultural products.

As Jiang Zhongzheng said, where can you have anything, but you just want to eat meat.