readx; In this campaign, the Fourth Theater invested a total of five main divisions, including the Nanyang Corps, the 78th Division, the New Second Division, the 60th and 26th Divisions, the 154th, 156th, and 157th Divisions of the 12th Group Army, and the Nanyue Local Troops led by the Fifth Column, with a total strength of nearly 150,000 troops. cast a shadow over the victory in the Battle of Guangzhou. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

After resuming the occupation of the area around Guangzhou, the army did not continue to pursue the [***] team to the north, but gathered the strength of two infantry brigades in the Jiangmen area on the south bank of the Pearl River, occupied Jiangmen and Xinhui with the cooperation of a large number of ships, and then waved its army south, preparing to sweep the Leizhou Peninsula. Li Wuzi's fifth column was defeated and retreated one after another under the blows of the superior army, and finally had no choice but to break into pieces, disperse in the southern Guangdong area, and persist in the struggle with guerrilla warfare.

On 15 March, the Fourth Theater Command held a military meeting in the Shaoguan area to discuss future operational guidelines.

Gao Fei first said: "Although the Guangzhou Battle was a failure, the performance of the various units was quite satisfactory, among which Xiao Hanliang's armored troops performed the most outstandingly, and more than half of the results of our army were contributed by them, and I hope to make persistent efforts in the future!" ”

Then he said: "The army is obviously prepared to adopt the strategy of defending to the north and developing to the south, concentrating on pacifying southern Guangdong, and then dealing with us when the rule there is more stable. ”

Yu Wenzheng met Gao Fei's gaze and said: "Commander, if there is no way to deal with the air threat of the Yue army, we will still be beaten passively, and any strategy is useless!" ”

Goofy immediately retorted, "How can you think that! Although the air power of the Yue army is strong, as long as it is dealt with correctly, it can still be defeated! ”

Yu Wen was waiting for Gao Fei's words: "Commander, since you said so, why didn't you think about it when you were in Guangzhou, but the whole army retreated?" ”

Gao Fei felt that there was a hint of questioning in Yu Wenzheng's words, smiled indifferently, and asked rhetorically: "According to the situation at that time, if we do not hesitate to pay, Guangzhou can indeed be taken, but do you have a way to hold it?" ”

Yu Wenzheng replied angrily: "But I can't give it to Yue Jun!" ”

Gao Fei continued to ask rhetorically, "Do you want us to completely erase Guangzhou from the map and then retreat?" What about the hundreds of thousands of citizens in the city? ”

Ma Debi looked at Yu Wenzheng angrily and said, "You are still a soldier!" I just want to kill myself, and I don't care about the lives of the people! ”

Yu Wenzheng said dissatisfiedly: "Old Ma, you have to rely on your conscience when you say this: in order not to hurt the innocent, I took the initiative to replace the armored troops, and I almost gave up my life, isn't this enough?" ”

Gao Fei immediately picked up the words: "I haven't settled accounts with you yet!" The head of a dignified division runs to the front line at every turn, what kind of system does it become! If something happens to you and the troops lose command, how much damage will it cause? ”

Then he said in a deep voice: "If such a thing happens again in the future, I will remove you!" ”

Yu Hanmou was afraid that the meeting would go off topic, so he took the initiative to put forward his own views: "The reason why the army adopts the strategy of defending to the north and developing to the south also has its last resort. At present, the forces assembled near Guangzhou are only four divisions, and they are still at a disadvantage compared with our army, and if they attack rashly, they will easily be taken advantage of by our army, so it is better to concentrate on sweeping away the local armed forces. We can't let them gain a foothold here, we should send the main force to cooperate with the local troops and expel the Yue army from Nanyue! ”

Ma Debi said with a smile: "The Leizhou Peninsula is the lifeline of Guangxi, how can the Gui family be allowed to be occupied by the Yue army?" The 16th Army should take the initiative! ”

Gao Fei shook his head and said, "It's hard to say! It is said that the high-level of this army has had close contact with the Gui faction, and they should have a good understanding of the relationship between Guangxi and the national political axe, and know the bottom line of the other party. ”

Xie Dingxin added: "Maybe the 16th Army will take the opportunity to absorb the local armed forces that retreated to their defense area, and they have not done this kind of thing once or twice!" ”

Gao Fei said: "Commander Yu's suggestion is still very safe, and we can consider transferring two or three regiments of troops to form a reading brigade to support guerrilla warfare in the southern Guangdong region. ”

At this time, Xiao Hanliang, who had not spoken out, put forward his own suggestion: "The goal of the Yue army in the short term should be to hold on to Guangzhou in order to cut off China's sea supply lines, and in order to achieve the above goal, we must occupy Bao'an and Huiyang, which are adjacent to Hong Kong, so that we can compete with the Yue army in these two places and take the opportunity to destroy their living forces!" ”

Gao Fei looked at Xiao Hanliang and nodded approvingly: "This suggestion is very good!" Although the army is strong, its tactical thinking is very old-fashioned, and it is still obsessed with attacking cities and grabbing land, and it is possible to make some articles by taking advantage of the enemy's shortcomings! ”

Yu Hanmou added: "However, the training of the troops should be carried out simultaneously, so as to ensure that the troops will not be gradually weakened in battle." ”

Gao Fei nodded and said, "The whole training work can't be stopped. In addition, I plan to use this time to build up the localities, strengthen the administrative organization, and establish a reserve system at the local level, so as to ensure sufficient supplies of troops and materials for the protracted war of resistance. ”

Yu Hanmou nodded and said, "Local government affairs need to be vigorously rectified!" In the past, the powerful local factions colluded with the senior generals of the army, and relied on smuggling tungsten sand and other strategic materials to Hong Kong to seek huge profits, and had no intention of developing the local economy, wasting the economic foundation laid by Chen Jitang for us in Guangdong! ”

Gao Fei heard him mention tungsten sand, and asked puzzledly: "After the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, didn't the National Political Axe Base Camp set up a special mineral coordination committee to manage the production and sales of strategic materials in a unified manner, and where did they get it from?" ”

Yu Hanmou said with a wry smile: "The purchase price given by this committee is lower than the production cost, who would be willing to sell it to them?" Smugglers in Guangdong often go deep into Hunan, Sichuan and other places to buy tungsten sand from private individuals at a much higher price than the political axe, and then transfer it to Hong Kong to make huge profits. Before the army landed at Daya Bay, the water and land transportation was controlled by these officers, and they could transport whatever they wanted. ”

Goofy nodded thoughtfully and said, "I see! Then he added: "Now that Bao'an and Huiyang are still in our hands, we can allow these businessmen to continue to buy in the mainland, and then be escorted to Hong Kong by the armed army in exchange for much-needed foreign exchange to replenish the troops." ”

Yu Hanmou looked at Gao Fei as if nothing had happened, and said tentatively: "This is not good!" Replenishing equipment without authorization and smuggling strategic materials is not good to say, and it is easy to arouse suspicion! It's better to wait for the Ministry of Defense to equip us with weapons and equipment, and it will be safer. ”

Gao Fei sneered and said: "With the financial resources of the national political axe, it would be good to be able to maintain the consumption of the central army, where can we take care of our local troops!" What's more, there are still some moths inside the national political axe, either selling these strategic materials to Yue himself, or using precious foreign exchange to buy luxury goods for their ladies and wives to squander! Then he looked at Yu Hanmou and asked, "Commander Yu has been in Guangdong for many years, and this is an important passage for materials to enter and exit, haven't you found any clues?" ”

Yu Hanmou looked at Gao Fei's aggressive eyes, felt a sense of emptiness in his heart, and replied involuntarily: "This kind of thing has never been discovered before the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, and it has only been more common in the past two years!" ”

Gao Fei sneered again and said: "Of course: in the past, it was enough to import directly from Shanghai and Nanjing, and you didn't need to go through Guangzhou, of course you didn't know, and then it was a last resort!" ”

Seeing that Yu Hanmou acquiesced to his statement, Gao Fei said unceremoniously: "According to the usual practice, the commander of the theater is also the chief executive of the area under his jurisdiction, so I have the final say in the administrative affairs of Guangdong!" Beginning today, all the chief executives of various localities will go to the Fujian Government Affairs University for training and assessment in rotation, and those who fail to pass the test will be dismissed from their posts on the spot, and then a suitable candidate will be selected from among the students to replace him. In addition, I will select a group of retired officers to serve as commanders of local units in various localities and reorganize security regiments and guerrilla units. ”

When Yu Hanmou and the generals of the 12th Group Army heard this, they immediately felt that something was wrong: Gao Fei did this to make it clear that he wanted to turn Guangdong into the territory of the Ninth Army Corps.

Gao Fei seemed to know the worries of Yu Hanmou and the others, and said bluntly: "You don't have to worry, I will explain it to the chairman!" ”

As if to comfort them, Gao Fei said: "Now, the training and refitting of the 151st Division has been basically completed, and the other units of the 12th Army will take turns to Fujian to change equipment and replenish personnel, and the strength and armament of the troops will be exactly the same as the main division of the Ninth Army Corps: rifles, submachine guns, and gun grenades will not be less!" In addition, the appointment and dismissal of officers below the regimental commander of the 12th Army is directly decided by Commander Yu, and there is no need to notify me in advance! ”

After he said this, the generals of the 12th Group Army except Yu Hanmou were very happy, as a soldier, who doesn't want to have the best equipment?

Ou Hong seemed to be in a good mood when he saw Gao Fei, and asked tentatively: "Commander Gao, you said that the armament of the two group armies is exactly the same, so can we have armored troops?" ”

The strong combat effectiveness of the armored units of the Nanyang Legion left a deep impression on these generals, and they were all a little fascinated.

Gao Fei said with a smile: "At present, the tanks of the 78th Division are not in place, and the tanks of the Nanyang Army are purchased by the overseas Chinese in Nanyang themselves!" However, I can promise you that there will be a place for an armored division in the 12th Army, and it depends on Commander Yu's specific division! ”

Seeing Gao Fei showing favor to himself so bluntly, Yu Hanmou couldn't hold on any longer, so he had to say, "Then thank you Sir Gao first!" ”

Gao Fei finally waited for Yu Hanmou to express his attitude, and said very happily: "Our two group armies will work together, seize the time to train the army, and when the time is ripe, we will have a showdown with the Yue army!" Finally, in order to boost the morale of the generals, Gao Fei deliberately said: "The news just sent from Fuzhou: The first fighter squadron of our army has begun flight training, and I believe that it will not be long before our army can fight with the army in a dignified manner without an air threat, and counterattack Guangzhou again!" ”

In the first few months of 1939, the situation on the battlefield in China developed exactly as Gao Fei had predicted, and the Yue Army did not fall into the dilemma of exhaustion because of the long front, but simultaneously launched a fierce spring offensive in both the north and the south, and its goal in the direction of Guangzhou was to consolidate the occupation of the 21st Army and develop the southern Guangdong region into a solid rear so that the occupation forces could be replenished locally; On the Wuhan side, because the 11th Army was facing the threat of nearly one million troops in the Third and Ninth Theaters, and even the safety of the Yangtze River waterway could not be guaranteed, Okamura Ninji asked the Tokyo Command to replenish the troops and ammunition, and prepared to use a ferocious offensive to completely expel the squadrons around Wuhan and ensure the safety of the occupied areas.

In mid-February 1939, after many studies and consultations, the Tokyo Command believed that Lieutenant General Okamura Ninji's plan was very good, because the Yangtze River waterway was the lifeline of Wuhan's 300,000 troops and its safety must be ensured until the purpose of replenishing supplies in the occupied areas and feeding the war was not achieved. The Emperor approved the battle plan on the advice of the High Command, and sent the Director of Education, General Nishio Toshizo, and the Minister of War, Seishiro Itagaki to China to coordinate the battle.

At the same time that Okamura Ninji was dispatching troops, Chiang Kai-shek and the Chinese high command had already detected the enemy's movements from the various signs of the assembly of the Yue army, and correctly judged that the target of the Yue army's attack was Nanchang, so they immediately telegraphed Xue Yue, commander of the Ninth Theater, to prepare for the attack, and it was best to preemptively strike before the Yue army launched an offensive, so as to disrupt the deployment of the Yue army.

After receiving the order, Xue Yue immediately began to assemble troops, replenish war materials, and prepare to launch an offensive. However, at this time, the units of the Ninth Theater were in the process of training, and there were not enough vehicles and boats to transport troops and materials, so they relied entirely on animal power and rickshaws, and the mobility of the troops was very poor, and it was difficult to mobilize; in addition, the Nanchang area was a combination of the Third Theater and the Ninth Theater, which involved the coordinated operations of the troops of the two theaters, and the communication channel between the troops was very unsmooth.

Due to the above-mentioned reasons, the attacking forces of the Ninth Theater were not assembled by 10 March as ordered, and certainly did not launch an attack on the troops on 15 March as scheduled.

In sharp contrast to the sluggish reaction of the Chinese [***] squadron, the 11th Army, relying on a large number of vehicles and ships, quickly assembled the 101st, 106th, 116th, and 6th Divisions, four and a half wings of field heavy artillery, one and a half wing of combat vehicles, and dozens of ships of the Third Fleet in less than a month, while the army aviation dispatched more than 100 bombers to provide air support.

At dawn on 17 March, Okamura Ninji gave an order, and the attack troops of the army attacked in three directions and launched a full-front attack on the [***] squadron assembled in the west of Poyang Lake.

The Left Route Army, a wing of the 116th Division and the Marine Corps, equipped with more than 30 large and small warships, more than 50 motorboats, and more than 10 bombers, swooped down from the north of Poyang Lake to carry out a three-dimensional encirclement of the defenders of Wucheng, integrating land, sea, and air. The defending 5th Division and a regiment of the 32nd Army resisted desperately, and all reserves were pulled to the front line to fight, but they were still unable to stop the fierce attack of the superior army, and the whole city was bombed into ruins by artillery fire and aircraft. The battle lasted until March 23, and Wu City was lost.

The army on the right is the 6th Division of the Army and the headquarters of the 11th Army, which directly governs artillery, chariots, and cavalry. Under the cover of the aircraft, they attacked the 73rd and 8th armies of the northeast defenders of Wuning from Jixi. After nine days and nights of fierce fighting, both sides suffered heavy casualties, and the 47th Wing of the Sixth Division of the Japanese Army was completely annihilated. And in the large-scale hand-to-hand combat on Coffin Mountain, there were only five survivors of the 89th Regiment of the [***] team, and the rest all died heroically!

Tens of thousands of people of the 101st and 106th Divisions of the Central Route Army, which were the main force of the attack, repaired the water river with intensity amid the roar of more than 200 cannons, broke through the defenders' defensive line, and covered up the attack on Nanchang. On March 26, the Yue army surrounded Nanchang City in a roundabout way, and engaged in fierce street battles and positional battles with the First Division of the Chinese 32nd Army and the Nanchang City Garrison in and in the suburbs of Nanchang City. The whole city was on fire, the smoke of gunpowder was everywhere, and the sound of killing shook the sky. In the streets and alleys, tragic hand-to-hand combat is carried out everywhere.

On the night of March 27, the gunfire in Nanchang finally subsided, and the army completely occupied the city, and thus the first phase of the Battle of Nanchang came to an end.

At the most intense moment of the army's offensive against Nanchang, all the troops in the Fourth Theater were in the process of moving in, and the senior generals, including Gao Fei, had no time to pay attention to this battle that took place nearly 1,000 kilometers away, so when the news of the loss of Nanchang came, the commanders gathered at the theater headquarters were stunned!

Nanchang is located in the lower reaches of the Ganjiang River, on the delta of Poyang Lake, is the water and land key point of Hunan, Jiangxi and Zhejiang provinces, Zhejiang-Jiangxi Railway and Nanxun Railway meet here, Xiangtang Highway and Beijing-Hunan National Highway are connected. During the civil war, in order to encircle and suppress the Red Army, the Central Army built a road network extending in all directions, and Nanchang City is surrounded by mountains on all sides, facing the Ganjiang River in front, backed by the Fu River and the Jin River, the rivers in the territory are vertical and horizontal, the hills are undulating, the terrain is easy to defend and difficult to attack, and [***] has arranged a considerable number of troops here, with a total strength of more than 200,000, but it only lasted for ten days, how not to be shocked!

Although Goofy was as shocked as everyone else, he had expected this outcome for a long time!

(To be continued)