After General Terauchi Shouichi commanded the North China Front Army and the Kwantung Army Air Force to destroy the Eighth Route Army's Mianxian military base and the air force airfield, he was still not at ease, and in the afternoon he ordered the planes to take off again to carry out a second bombing of the Mian County military base and the air force airfield. After confirming the target of the complete bombing, General Terauchi Shouichi reported the victory to the base camp and held a press conference in Peiping.

Major General Kita Seiichi, chief of the secret service of the North China Front, had been promoted to lieutenant general by General Terauchi Toshiichi directly to the emperor because of his great meritorious service.

Seeing that the reporters had all arrived, Major General Kita Seiichi spoke: "Dear journalists, first of all, I have been entrusted by General Terauchi Shouichi, Earl of the Great Empire and Commander of the North China Front, to report two good news. First, on May 19, the Imperial Army captured Xuzhou, defeated the 200,000-strong army of the Chinese government axe that was firmly defended in Xuzhou, and achieved the goal of connecting Central China and North China into one. Second, this morning, the Imperial Army Aviation Corps mobilized more than 300 warplanes to raid Shaanxi, completely blowing up the rear military industrial base of the Eighth Route Army and cutting off the Eighth Route Army's source of arms supply. The Eighth Route Army Aviation Corps dared to fight fiercely with the Imperial Army Air Force, and was completely destroyed by the Imperial Army fighters. According to statistics, more than 50 fighters of the Imperial Army stole from Liu Yimin of the Eighth Route Army and have been reduced to ashes. At present, air supremacy in North China is entirely in the hands of the imperial army. ”

After the loss of Xuzhou, the Chinese side did not report to the outside world, and the army was in Xuzhou, feeling that the strategic goal had not been achieved, and the base camp, the North China Front, and the Central China Army spent a lot of effort, and as a result, the bamboo basket was empty, and in shame, it did not make a big publicity. Therefore, the outside world does not know the news of the fall of Xuzhou. Kita Seiichi's statement is undoubtedly a bombshell. Therefore, as soon as the translation was over, the reporters on the scene immediately began to record it in a rustling manner.

Seeing the performance of the reporters, Kita-sekoto smiled even more: "Next is the question time, if you have any questions, you can directly ask General Shouichi Terauchi." Who says first? ”

The reporter of the news agency in Beiping took the lead in raising his hand, and Kita Chengyi nodded with satisfaction: "This gentleman, please!" ”

The reporter stood up, glanced at his colleagues arrogantly and proudly, and then bowed to General Terauchi Shouichi, and then asked: "Dear General Terauchi Shouichi, I am a reporter of the Osaka Asahi News in Beiping, first of all, on behalf of the readers of the "Asahi News", I would like to congratulate the North China Front Army of the Dazaban Empire on its proud achievements!" I would like to ask Your Excellency, Commander, what is the significance of the imperial army's capture of Xuzhou to the construction of a new order in Greater East Asia that integrates China and China? Will the destruction of the Eighth Route Army's military factories help the war situation in North China? Thank you! ”

The Asahi Shimbun was one of the three major newspapers and periodicals of the Sho Shimbun, which was founded in Osaka on January 25, 1879 by Takeshi Kimura and Ryuhei Murayama, and was called the Osaka Asahi Shimbun. In the early days, it was an illustrated tabloid, with the policy of "impartiality and non-partyism", and its readers were mainly intellectuals. In 1888, it was industrialized and published in Tokyo with the Tokyo Asahi Shimbun.

The title of this "Chao Yue News" was written by Ouyang Xun, a famous regular script master in the Tang Dynasty of China. There is a reason for this, it turns out that when the "Chao Yu Shimbun" was founded in Tokyo, several members of the preparatory committee were calligraphers at that time, and they respected Ouyang Xun's calligraphy, so they found Ouyang Xun's "Zongsheng Guan Ji", from which they selected the three characters "Chao", "Yue" and "Wen" and described them with the double hook method as "filling in the book", but there was no "new" word in the post, so they used the words "pro" and "analysis" to eliminate "see" and "wood" respectively, and synthesized the word "new".

Shouichi Terauchi's reputation in the country is not very good, and when he saw that the reporters of the three major newspapers of the newspaper "Asahi Shimbun" were so cooperative, he was very happy and immediately said: "This journalist friend, I am very happy to be able to communicate with the readers of the "Asahi Shimbun" through you. Let me answer your first question first, as you know, Xuzhou is an important city in northern Jiangsu and an important transportation hub connecting the Jinpu Railway and the Longhai Railway. The capture of Xuzhou not only integrated Manchuria, North China, and Central China and greatly improved the operational efficiency of the imperial army, but also blocked the outlet of Chiang Kai-shek's reactionary political axe to the sea, thereby providing a bridgehead for the capture of the hinterland of Chinese mainland and speeding up the pace of the imperial army's liberation of the Chinese people. Here, because it involves military secrets, I won't say more, and I ask readers and friends to give full play to their imagination to imagine reasonably, and it is impossible to think too much. As for your second question, as you know, since the Eighth Route Army joined the North China battlefield, it has caused a series of unexpected losses to the imperial army, resulting in the dissatisfaction of the domestic people with this army and this general. In fact, readers and friends don't understand that the Eighth Route Army led by this [***] is a guerrilla armed force that is not a political axe, and it has never been impermanent in war, and it has never stuck to one place, and Chiang Kai-shek's troops had nothing to do with them back then. Especially their mentor, the leader is a guy named Liu Yimin. This guy is a liar, a hooligan, a scoundrel and a despicable sneak attacker, he is simply a bandit, or rather, a professional thief, who specializes in disrupting public order and always carrying out sneak attacks while the imperial army is unprepared. This time, the Imperial Army Air Force blew up their military industrial base and wiped out their air force, which was tantamount to kicking their jobs and cutting off their lifeline. It won't be long before the Eighth Route Army will become a Hanako army without ammunition supplies, and there will be no material basis for opposing the imperial army. At that time, as soon as the imperial army arrives, these dirt roads will fall apart, and the public security situation in North China will soon improve. When our army captures Zhu De, Peng Dehuai, Liu Yimin, [***], Liu Bocheng, He Long, Xu Xiangqian, and other habitual bandits in the future, I will personally escort them back to Yueben and ask them to apologize to the families of the soldiers who sacrificed their lives for Yuehua's friendship! I don't know if you're satisfied with my answer? ”

Without waiting for the reporter to answer whether he was satisfied, General Terauchi continued: "There is another question, that is, I want to tell those friends who are close to Chiang Kai-shek through the news of the DPRK with a wide coverage, and ask them to tell Chiang Kai-shek that there is no point in resisting, and the only way out is to surrender to the imperial army, work together with the imperial army to eliminate [***], eradicate [***], and jointly build a Greater East Asia co-prosperity sphere." ”

Shouichi Terauchi is worthy of being a famous general of the army, and at this critical point, he did not forget to persuade Chiang Kai-shek to surrender and provoke the relationship between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party. Historically, the Battle of Lanfeng was also one of the most dangerous periods in the history of China's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the army marched westward and could take Wuhan directly at any time, Chiang Kai-shek had no choice but to order to blow up the entrance of the garden, with the tragic price of more than one million deaths and more than 10 million people fleeing the famine to ask for food, temporarily blocking the footsteps of the Yue army, and winning time for the Battle of Wuhan and the safe transfer of war resources.

At this time, although the arrival of Liu Yimin threatened the army at all times, the self-confident Shouyi of the temple also thought that the army was interspersed with detours, intercepting and eliminating the main force of the [***] team on the plain, and Wuhan was about to be exposed to the guns of the army, and it could be occupied by them anytime and anywhere. As for the threat of Liu Yimin's instructor of the Eighth Route Army, Terauchi Shouichi believed that on the Jinpu Road from Tianjin to Xuzhou, there were the 5th Brigade, the 24th Division, the 7th Brigade, the 108th Division, the 8th Division, the 13th Brigade, the 114th Division, and the 10th Division.

The Yomiuri Shimbun reporter raised his hand to speak, and the question he asked was, since Liu Yimin's instructor had caused a series of heavy losses to the imperial army, why did the North China Front not mobilize heavy troops to completely destroy it, but instead went to capture Xuzhou.

Terauchi Shou shook like a rattle, and he didn't even understand the reporter's strategy, whether it was the Eighth Route Army, they were just local forces and local armed forces in China, and they had no influence in the country, and for the imperial army, they were just a disease of ringworm. Chiang Kai-shek's national axe is different, they are the legitimate political axe of China, and they are the real opponents of the Great Empire, as long as Chiang Kai-shek's political axe army is defeated, the problem of China will be solved.

The reporter was also interested, and then asked: "Your Excellency, Commander, readers in China are very concerned about the public security situation in North China, and they want to know what measures the powerful North China Front will take to stabilize law and order in North China?" ”

Shouichi Terauchi immediately put on a calm and idle look, and talked eloquently: "Readers and friends do not need to worry about the public security situation in North China, the North China Front Army has already taken effective measures, and I believe that after a period of hard work, North China's economy, production, commercial circulation, and road traffic will be on the right track." At present, the provisional political axe of the Republic of China is actively establishing a new political system, economic order, and public security order in North China. Specifically, militarily, the Imperial Army will guide the North China Public Security Army to launch a large-scale public security campaign to eliminate the Tubalu guerrillas and all resistance forces, and create an excellent environment for the people of North China to learn the advanced culture and technology of the Great People's Republic of China and to achieve all-round liberation. Politically, in coordination with military operations, it launched a campaign to suppress public order and rectification, and established five levels of political power in Hebei, Shandong, Shanxi, Beiping, and Tianjin, at the provincial, provincial, provincial, county, district, and district levels, and brought into play the overall strength of the Chinese, military, officials, and people, and built North China into a paradise of the zodiac. Economically, we will actively develop industrial production, focusing on the five major cities of Beiping, Tianjin, Jinan, Qingdao, and Taiyuan, and at the same time we will try our best to restore and develop the economy in North China by thinking of increasing grain output in rural areas. Of course, this is a long process, and the premise is that the law and order and the operation will achieve the expected results. However, I am confident that the recent opening of the China United Provision Bank is gaining momentum, which is a good sign. As for local public order, the North China Front will guide the provisional political axe of the Republic of China to establish and improve the police stations and public security police units at the provincial, provincial, and county levels, and to form self-defense regiments among the people, so that there will be no hiding place for Tuba Road, and the work of the guerrillas will be completely eliminated. ”

Terauchi Shouichi spoke with great interest, and the reporters also listened with relish, but unexpectedly, there were always people who came out to spoil the scenery at critical times.

A golden-haired reporter stood up and asked: "Your Excellency, Commander, according to Chinese radio and newspaper reports, [***] Instructor Liu Yimin of the Eighteenth Group Army has recently been active in southeastern and south-central Shandong, and once captured Tai'an, successively eliminated the main force of the 10th Brigade of the Imperial Army and the 6th Brigade of the Reading Force, and killed Major General Mizuno Shin and Major General Tsuchiya Bingma. My readers want to know, is this Liu Yimin really the evil star of the Yue army as the legend says, and how many generals and soldiers of the Yue army want to break jade in his hands? ”

Before the reporter finished speaking, General Terauchi Shouichi was furious, slapped his right hand on the table, and scolded "Baga", then stood up and pointed at the reporter and scolded: "Your conscience is greatly broken, and you dare to listen to the propaganda of the people of China." Now you immediately take a car to Tai'an to have a look, and see if the soldiers patrolling the streets are the soldiers of China or the warriors of the Great Empire. Major General Mizuno Nobu and Major General Tsuchiya Bingma were obviously transferred to the Kwantung Army, but you said frantically that their jade was broken, what is your intention? Now, hundreds of thousands of warriors of the Imperial Army are singing triumphantly on the front line, and the progress is going extremely well, but you have listened to lies, slandered the invincible Imperial Army, and your conscience is greatly bad! Gendarme, arrest me this remnant of the rumor-mongering and sabotage of the Great East Asian Holy War! Find out which newspaper he belongs to, escort him back to their consulate, and lodge a strong protest with them! ”

The two wolf-like gendarmes immediately pounced, pressed the well-mannered-looking reporter to the ground, handcuffed him, and slipped out.

At this moment, the reporters present were speechless, no matter how many smiles were piled up on the faces of Major General Kita Seiichi and how tempting his words were, no reporter asked any more questions. Seiichi Kita had to announce that this was the end of the press conference.

After the press conference, Terauchi Shouichi issued three orders in succession: First, he ordered the aviation troops to urgently mobilize and complete the airdrop of supplies for the 14th Division before 8 o'clock tomorrow morning. Second, he ordered the 27th Division in Beiping to secretly ride south along the Pinghan Road overnight, preparing to cooperate with the 1st Division of the 22nd Division to cross the river to support the 14th Division. The third is to order the 108th Division to end the offensive operation against Luxi and return to Jinan. After giving the order, Shouichi Terauchi felt that the big thing was decided, so he waited for the good news to come.

In fact, Terauchi Shouichi was too stubborn and self-serving, how did he know that Liu Yimin was a traverser, and he was very familiar with the before and after Chiang Kai-shek was forced to open the garden entrance, and he categorically would not allow the tragedy to happen again. Now that he has successfully stopped the Nanjing Massacre, Liu Yimin has the confidence to launch a thunderous blow to disrupt the deployment of the army and save the situation. What's more, the chairman, the headquarters, and Chiang Kai-shek are urging the instructors to launch an attack as soon as possible?

After Liu Yimin sent a telegram to the chairman, Feng Dafei and Zeng Zhao, he calculated the time, and knew that the Battle of Lanfeng had entered the stage of the second siege of the 14th Division of Tufeiyuan. Thinking about it again, even if the Shangqiu defenders were ordered to hold on to Shangqiu, in the case of losing air supremacy, facing the heavy siege of the Yue army, Shangqiu would not be able to hold it, but it could be held for a while longer, so as to gain time for Xue Yue to encircle and annihilate the Tufeiyuan Division.

Originally, Liu Yimin felt that the situation was very different from the original history, Chiang Kai-shek must have gathered heavy troops in eastern Henan, and the Southwest Lu Garrison Brigade seized the supplies of the army, and this Tufeiyuan division would definitely perish. The best time to launch the Luzhong campaign should be after the Tufeiyuan Division was wiped out, and then he would fight like this in Luzhong, and the north and south lines would work together, so that the heavy army group of the Yue army would take advantage of the situation to launch a comprehensive counterattack, and the army would probably retreat to Xuzhou to hold on to it, maybe the army would divide its troops, and our army could also meet fighters again, and if it was done well, it could even force the army to take the initiative to shrink on the whole front.

Today's bombing by the devils has sounded the alarm for Liu Yimin, and for the time being, the army is still strong, and this strength cannot be changed by destroying one or two divisions and regiments. Perhaps at this time, the new heavy army group of the Japanese army is rushing to China by ship. Thinking about it this way, the expectations for the battle of Lanfeng cannot be too high, after all, there are planes in the sky, tanks and artillery on the ground, and even if the [***] soldiers with their blood and courage are not afraid of death and wipe out the Tufeiyuan Division with all their might, I am afraid that they will no longer have the strength to deal with the heavy army group of the Yue Army advancing westward in the direction of Xuzhou, and it will inevitably be a situation of losing thousands of miles at that time. In case of such a situation, Chiang Kai-shek, as the commander-in-chief of the whole army, may still open the entrance to the garden, and he will not have any woman's kindness.

Luo Ronghuan saw that Liu Yimin was sitting there alone after sending the telegram, thinking about it, knowing that he was thinking about major issues, and did not bother him, but just took care of the guards and poured water in time.

When it was time for dinner, He Xinghua brought the news of the pseudo-radio station that he answered, and recorded the content of the press conference of General Shouichi Terauchi; after Liu Yimin saw it, his face became more and more gloomy, and he kept cursing in his heart that the old devil Shouichi in Terauchi was so cruel that he actually wanted to carry out public order and rectification activities in North China. It seems that in history, Okamura Ninji was inspired by Shouichi Terauchi and summed up the lessons and lessons of Shouichi Terauchi's campaign to eliminate public order.

After scolding Shouyi in the temple, Liu Yimin went through the battle plan from the beginning to the beginning in his heart, and felt that the only variable now was the reaction of the 108th Division once it started, would they directly retract back to Jinan, or would they stick to it on the spot? It would be good if they held on to the spot and confronted the Second Brigade and the Luxi Garrison Brigade, so that as long as the Eighth Division reinforced Weixian, they could take advantage of the situation to take Jinan and expand the results of the battle. What if the 10th 8th Division retreats back to Jinan and comes to the aid side by side with the 8th Division? Can your main forces win?

After thinking about it, there is no perfect plan, so we can only do it first, and then make appropriate adjustments according to the changes in the enemy's situation.

So, Liu Yimin called the chief of staff, Zeng Zhongsheng, and began to issue the order for the Luzhong campaign.

(To be continued)