In times of great war, time is of the essence!

After Terauchi Shouichi agreed to transfer the Fifth Division and the Sixteenth Division back to North China, Okabe Naosaburo did not stop for a moment, left Terauchi Shouichi's office, went directly to the war room, led a group of staff officers, and began operations on the map, revised the battle plan for eastern Henan, and formulated an operational plan for eliminating the eastward advance detachment of the Eighth Route Army. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

The operational staff officers of the North China Front Army Command are all graduates of the Army University, and they are very professional and proficient, and they are experts in revising old operational plans and formulating new operational plans. It's just that now the Japanese army's offensive speed is too fast, the battle line is too long, and the Central China Dispatch Army strictly implements the order of the base camp and transfers the troops participating in the Battle of Xuzhou to the direction of the Huai River, resulting in the inconsistency of the two front armies, and the forces that Okabe Naosaburo can use are a little stretched.

There is no way, it is difficult for a good woman to cook without rice, so she can only tear down the east wall to make up the west wall!

General Terauchi Shouichi just said very clearly that the 16th Division must capture Shangqiu and rescue the 14th Division, which was under siege in the Lanfeng area, before it could be transferred back to North China to fight. In other words, the line of stop of the offensive of the North China Front was in the area of Lanfeng.

This was definitely not Terauchi Shouichi's original intention, the problem was that the Eighth Route Army captured Texas and inserted a knife in the heart of the Japanese army, forcing the arrogant General Terauchi Shouichi to bow his head and have to suspend the attack to the west, freeing his hands to extinguish the raging fire in the backyard.

Naosaburo Okabe is the chief of staff of the North China Front, and he must faithfully carry out the orders of Commander Terauchi Shouichi! It's just that Okabe Naosaburo knows in his heart that if he executes the order of General Shouichi Terauchi, the cucumber dishes will be cold. By the time the 16th Division captured Shangqiu and rescued the 14th Division that had fallen into heavy siege, the Eighth Route Army had already carried out the heavy supplies in Dezhou City and hid in the vast plains.

What Okabe Naosaburo didn't know was that just after this morning after eliminating the Second Brigade of the Second Wing of the North China Garrison Mixed Brigade Regiment, Xiao Siming ordered Huo Cheng to mobilize the masses to demolish the ancient city wall of Dezhou. By the time the Japanese Fifth and Sixteenth Divisions rushed back, Texas was not only an empty city, but even the city walls that had been used as defensive barriers were gone.

Out of this consideration, when Naosaburo Okabe formulated the battle plan, the first step was to independently mix the 3rd Brigade and regiment to urgently shrink the troops overnight, advance to Xuzhou, and then continue to the north, return to Jinan, and take up the task of Jinan's city defense.

Lieutenant General Naosaburo Okabe secretly complained in his heart about working on the map and studying and formulating the battle plan, knowing that what he had just said to His Excellency the Commander about the transfer of independence and mixing into the third brigade to defend Jinan was just a matter of paper, and it would not be possible to do it in a short period of time!

The reason is very simple, when the Chinese army broke through from Xuzhou, it destroyed the railways and highways all the way, and the Japanese army pursued non-stop after occupying Xuzhou, and it was too late to repair the railway, from Bengbu to Xuzhou and then to Lincheng, the railway was not open at all, and the third brigade of the independent mixed brigade had few cars, and if the soldiers walked on two legs, it was impossible to rush to Tai'an or Jinan in one day, or even three or four days.

If you wait for the independent mixed third brigade to withdraw to consolidate the city defense of Jinan or Tai'an, it will be equivalent to giving Jinan to the Eighth Route Army!

There was no way, Okabe Naosaburo could only set his sights on the troops with a high degree of mechanization and many cars.

The Japanese army had three mechanized divisions, namely the Guards Division, the Second Division, and the Fifth Division. Among them, the Guards Division was the Emperor's Imperial Forest Army, which remained on the mainland; The 2nd Division was in the Kwantung Army sequence, and like the 1st Division, it was the main force preparing for war against the Soviet Union; The 5th Division is a strategic mobile unit in the base camp, and it is transferred wherever it is needed.

Before the Battle of Xuzhou, the base camp instructed the North China Front Army to deploy the Fifth Division on the Jiaoji Railway Line, the purpose of which was to facilitate the Fifth Division to support operations in other directions.

After the Japanese army captured Xuzhou, the base camp ordered the Fifth Division to temporarily return to the command of the Central China Dispatch Army, and ordered the Fifth Division to be deployed in the Bengbu area, also for the purpose of facilitating mobilization. When the Japanese army repairs the Jinpu Road and restores the opening of the Jinpu Road, the Fifth Division can board the train in Bengbu and transport it to the battlefield in other directions at any time.

The use of the Fifth Division in the base camp of the Japanese army is meaningful, that is, the common people often say to keep one hand and hold the hole cards in their hands.

Historically, in July, the Fifth Division was once again placed under the direct jurisdiction of the North China Front Army and was still stationed on Jiaoji Road. On 19 September, the Japanese army headquarters organized the 5th Division, the 18th Division, and the 104th Division into the 21st Army, with the 5th Division in Qingdao, the 18th Division in Shanghai, and the 104th Division in Dalian. In the critical period of the Battle of Wuhan, the Japanese army released the winner and defeated the enemy, using more than 100 transport ships to ship the 21st Army to the sea near Guangzhou, landing in Daya Bay, and capturing Guangzhou, which led to the Chinese side having to end the Battle of Wuhan in a hurry, and the Japanese army successfully occupied Wuhan.

Now if you want to transfer the 5th Division back to North China, you have to negotiate with the Central China Dispatch Army, and you have to report to the base camp and ask for approval!

There is another unit that the North China Front can use, that is, the mixed 3rd Brigade under the command of the 16th Division.

This unit was formed from the 2nd Division, which was a mechanized unit and could quickly return to North China. It's just that at this time, they have attacked the vicinity of Shangqiu along the Longhai Road with the 16th Division, and if they return to Xuzhou along the Longhai Road, and then enter Jinan from Xuzhou to the north, it will be too far away from Dezhou.

If you take a shortcut, it is to go straight from eastern Henan to southwest Lu to northwest Lu, and it is not easy to cross the Yellow River and canals without bridges. Moreover, there is the main force of the Chinese army in southwest Lu, and the communication line has not been completely opened, and there are too many variables on the way, which is not advisable!

Under these circumstances, Okabe Naosaburo had no other choice, and immediately sent a telegram to the base camp asking for instructions, and communicated with the commander of the Central China Dispatch Army, General Shunroku Hata, by telegram, requesting that the Fifth Division be urgently transferred back to North China, recapture Dezhou, open up the Jinpu Road, and eliminate the eastward advance detachment of the Eighth Route Army that had captured Dezhou.

By this time the war of aggression against China had been fought, the quick victory theory of Terauchi Shouichi and the cadres he had brought in from the Army Central Committee, Sugiyama Moto, and Umezu Mijiro had gone bankrupt, and the "destruction of China in three months" shouted by Sugiyama Moto, the prime minister of the army, had become a laughing stock. In view of the possibility that the war of aggression against China would fall into a quagmire and become a protracted war, the Konoe Cabinet changed its guiding ideology, changing from the original rapid destruction of China to supporting the puppet regime. Therefore, on May 25, the day Xiao Siming launched the Battle of Dezhou, the Japanese army headquarters dismissed Lieutenant General Seishiro Itagaki from the post of commander of the Fifth Division, transferred back to China, and appointed Lieutenant General Toshiyoshi Ando to take over as the commander of the Fifth Division.

This personnel change will lead to a series of personnel changes. Because the Konoe Cabinet sent Seishiro Itagaki who had made great contributions to the Japanese army in the establishment of Manchukuo and the full-scale invasion of China to return to China, he was asked to replace Sugiyama as land minister. At the same time, he was also transferred back to the Army Central Committee as Chief of Staff of the Eastern Army, Hideki Tojo, as Vice Minister of the Army.

In other words, Japanese Prime Minister Fumiro Konoe, who had announced that he would not take Chiang Kai-shek's government as his opponent in negotiations, had already realized that it was impossible to win a quick victory in the war of aggression against China, and that it was time to change generals, and that he would kick out of the Army Central Committee, the representative of the theory of quick victory, Lu Xiang Sugiyama Moto, and Vice Minister Umezu Mijiro.

In fact, Seishiro Itagaki and Hideki Tojo are also war maniacs, and Seishiro Itagaki also belongs to the quick victory faction, and letting him go back as a land minister can only make the Japanese army go further and further on the road of expanding aggression, and if you don't do it, you will have to bring the Konoe cabinet to collapse!

At this critical moment of personnel alternation, the North China Front had to report to the base camp for the urgent transfer of the Fifth Division, and the difficulty can be imagined!

Okabe Naosaburo was worried about the war situation in North China, and he couldn't take much care of it, so he sent a report to the base camp, requesting that the Fifth Division be urgently transferred to take charge of recapturing Dezhou.

The Fifth Division is the number one ace division of the Japanese army, and its combat effectiveness is strong, and if it can really transfer the Fifth Division back to North China and recapture Dezhou, there will be no suspense.

If the Fifth Division could not recapture Dezhou, which was captured by the eastward advance detachment of the Eighth Route Army, it is estimated that little Japan would not have launched a war of aggression.

General Shoichi Terauchi, commander of the North China Front, was a giant of the Japanese army, and he basically said nothing in the Japanese army, only that he disobeyed the orders of the base camp, and basically there was no matter that the base camp did not agree to his request. Anyway, even if the base camp doesn't agree, he will do what he thinks and force the base camp to finally approve.

It may be that the heads of the base camp also realized the importance of Texas, realized the huge losses brought to the Japanese army by the eastward advance detachment of the Eighth Route Army, and read the telegram sent by Okabe Naosaburo in the name of Count Terauchi Shouichi, the commander of the North China Front, without hesitation, and directly called back to approve the request of the North China Front, and ordered the Fifth Division to be temporarily placed directly under the North China Front!

Okabe Naosaburo, who received the telegram, immediately reported to General Terauchi Shouichi, and then directly sent a report to Lieutenant General Ando Toshiyoshi, commander of the Fifth Division, ordering the Fifth Division to hand over the defense of the Bengbu area to Central China, quickly gather and assemble troops, and return the whole division north to Jinan, preparing to launch the Battle of Dezhou and completely annihilate the eastward advance detachment of the Eighth Route Army.

As for the independent mixed 3rd Brigade, in view of the extremely weak garrison of Pinghan Road and Zhengtai Road, Okabe Naosaburo sent a telegram ordering them to retreat with the 5th Division and go to Jinan to take over the defense, and the original defense line in the Bengbu area was also handed over to the Central China Dispatch Army.

With the Japanese army's number one ace of the Fifth Division, Okabe Naosaburo was immediately confident, and the battle plan was well formulated.

Okabe Naosaburo set the time for the Fifth Division to set off for the vanguard to set off tonight, and the main force must march to Xuzhou tomorrow, that is, before dark on the 27th, and turn to Jinan. By the afternoon of the day after tomorrow, that is, on the afternoon of the 28th, at the latest, they arrived at the Yellow River, crossed the Luokou Bridge, and prepared to go north along the Jinpu Road, recapture Dezhou, and control the Jinpu Railway and Highway.

This timetable can only be achieved by the fully mechanized Fifth Division.

As for the 16th Division, it is necessary to continue to carry out the operational plan of capturing Shangqiu, and it must capture Shangqiu before the 29th.

In order to strengthen the attack power of the 16th Division, Okabe Naosaburo's battle plan included a brigade from the 10th Division, which was under the command of the 16th Division, and it was necessary to complete the task of quickly capturing Shangqiu.

Okabe Naosaburo knew in his heart that as soon as the Japanese army captured Shangqiu, the siege of the 14th Division would inevitably be resolved. Moreover, he also knew that the 14th Division was fierce, and the Chinese army could not attack. As long as the 14th Division is supplied with sufficient fuel, ammunition, and food by airdrop, there will be no problem at all in holding out for a few days.

Therefore, Okabe Naosaburo's plan was that after the 16th Division captured Shangqiu, it would hand over the defense to the 10th Division, immediately secretly assemble and collect troops, retreat to Xuzhou along the Longhai Road, and return to Jinan by train to Lincheng to participate in the sweeping operation of the Eighth Route Army in the North China Plain.

The task of continuing to advance westward along the Longhai Road and rescuing the 14th Division was handed over to the 10th Division, the 3rd Mixed Brigade, and the 13th Mixed Brigade to complete.

When the two armies met, the 14th Division commanded the 3rd Brigade and the 13th Brigade to seize Kaifeng, and confronted the Chinese Army Cui on the Kaifeng line, and the battle situation temporarily stabilized. After the Fifth Division and the 16th Division completed the task of sweeping the North China Plain, they would consider concentrating their forces to advance westward along the Longhai Road, seize Zhengzhou, and control the Pinghan Road.

The fly in the ointment of this plan was that it failed to encircle Dezhou with two elite divisions, the Fifth Division and the Sixteenth Division, as just unaware of which Lang and Terauchi Shouichi envisioned, and it was possible to allow the eastward advance detachment of the Eighth Route Army occupying Dezhou to escape. But this is a helpless thing, not to mention that the 16th Division still has the task of rescuing the 14th Division, even if there is no such task, let them return north tonight, with the mechanization of the 16th Division, it is impossible to rush back to Jinan at the same time as the Falling U Division, let alone launch an attack on Dezhou at the same time.

However, as long as there are two elite divisions in hand, the Fifth Division and the Sixteenth Division, Okabe Naosaburo has a solution. No, the second step of his battle plan was to rely on the Jinpu Road and Pinghan Road to sweep through the North China Plain and completely wipe out the Eighth Route Army in the plain area.

The 16th Division and the 3rd Mixed Brigade had already captured Yucheng today and carried out a small reconnaissance attack on the periphery of Shangqiu, so it was feasible for Naosaburo Okabe to order the 16th Division to capture Shangqiu before the 29th.

After the major plan of the battle plan is decided, the staff officers will draw up a detailed and specific battle plan and do a solid job in the details.

Naosaburo Okabe took the main points of the plan that had just been drafted and reported to Shouichi Terauchi.

Seiichi Kita and Lieutenant General Yoshitoshi Tokugawa were still in Terauchi Shouichi's office, and two beautiful Japanese girls in kimonos were kneeling on the carpet and waiting for Terauchi and the three to enjoy the tea ceremony. The three of them chatted while drinking, talking about how to infiltrate the base areas of the Eighth Route Army, spy on intelligence, and assassinate senior generals of the Eighth Route Army.

As soon as Naosaburo Okabe came in, the three stopped talking.

Terauchi Shouichi took the main points of the battle plan presented by Okabe Naosaburo and read it, and immediately after the 16th Division captured Shangqiu, he secretly retreated to the retreat and listened to it, frowning and thinking about it.

Okabe Naosaburo hurriedly explained, saying that the 14th Division was equipped with five artillery wings, with strong firepower and mechanization, and if they wanted to break through the encirclement, they would definitely be able to use artillery shells to kill them, and the Chinese army would not be able to stop them. The mixed third brigade composed of the troops of the second division is a mechanized unit, and its firepower is equally powerful, with many combat vehicles and armored vehicles, and its attack force is very strong.

Terauchi Shouichi took the pen from Okabe Naosaburo at this time, modified it slightly, signed his name, and ordered Okabe Naosaburo: "Immediately send all troops to execute!" (To be continued.) )