readx; With the support of naval aviation, the army aviation carried out wanton and indiscriminate bombing of the rear area of the national government with Chongqing as the center for several months, which not only caused heavy losses to the lives and property of the Chinese people, but also had an unprecedented impact on the people's morale and morale.

In order to dispel the shadow of the bombardment, restore the confidence of the people, and combat the defeatist sentiment within the Kuomintang, the Kuomintang political axe base camp headed by Chiang Kai-shek decided to launch a summer offensive on a larger scale than the winter offensive against the 11th Army entrenched in Wuhan. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 After receiving the order of the Military Council, the Third, Fifth, and Ninth Theaters immediately began to reorganize and train troops, replenish troops and equipment, and prepare for a major counteroffensive in accordance with the strategic intentions of the High Command.

However, the Central China Army, which had been hit hard by the winter offensive of the Central Army, was also planning a large-scale retaliatory operation, so after learning the news that the Yucheng side was about to launch a summer offensive, it was determined to use preemptive means to completely break the flanking situation in the Fifth and Ninth Theaters and gain the strategic initiative.

The General Headquarters of the Chinese Dispatch Army approved this preemptive combat plan, and the commander of the 11th Army, Kazuichiro Sonobe, quickly mobilized the 3rd, 13th, 39th, and 40th Divisions to launch an attack on Li Zongren's Fifth Theater on May 1, 1940. The Left Army, consisting of the 3rd Division and the Shimoto Detachment, attacked from north to west from Xinyang; The Central Army, which included the 39th Division and the Ikeda Detachment, attacked from Suixian to Xiangyang; The 13th Division was the main force on the right, attacking north from Zhongxiang, and after reaching the Zaoyang area, it joined forces with the 39th Division and the Ikeda Detachment on the middle route and attacked westward. The strategic intention of the Yue Army was to advance westward on the left, center, and right routes at the same time, and to encircle the main forces of the Fifth Theater in a roundabout way around the banks of the Tang and Baihe rivers in the Zizaoyang area and annihilate them.

In the face of the attack of the superior Japanese army, Li Zongren, commander of the Fifth Theater of Operations, believed that the characteristics of the operation of the Yue army were short and sudden assaults of rapid advance and retreat, and after achieving the tactical goal, they would retreat back to their starting positions within one to two weeks. Suddenly, he received an urgent telegram from the commander of the army, Kazuichiro Sonobe: Town's 31st Army had begun to move south, and its elite troops had reached the north side of Miyang on the 4th, and there was a tendency to attack the right flank of the 3rd Division that night.

Hearing that the rear road was threatened by the superior [***] team, the left army immediately stopped advancing, quickly seized the advantageous terrain, built a position, and prepared to meet the battle, but the commander of the garden department was still very uneasy, and immediately transferred another brigade to the third division to strengthen its strength. As a result, the two divisions of the Yue Army stayed in fear for three days in Miyang, but they did not even see the shadow of the 31st Group Army, and then they realized that they had been deceived, so they continued to advance westward with great vigour.

On May 8, the Third Route Army met in the Zaoyang area, but it was empty, and the main force of the [***] team was no longer here.

At this time, Li Zongren, commander of the Fifth Theater, believed that the army was accustomed to plundering and replenishing supplies on the spot, and that it would not carry a lot of food, and that the army would certainly not be able to collect enough food in its own jurisdiction, and that the only way to retreat back to the starting position was a good opportunity to annihilate the army.

However, what Li Zongren did not expect was that the army carried a large number of supplies this time, and did not encounter the stubborn resistance of the [***] team, so it still had strong combat effectiveness, so the encirclement and annihilation battle evolved into a bloody battle with hand-to-hand combat. Under the attack of the superior forces and firepower of the Chinese army, the encirclement of the [***] team was quickly shattered.

At this time, the army suddenly received information: General Zhang Zizhong, commander-in-chief of the 33rd Group Army of the Fifth Theater, personally led five divisions of troops to cross the Han River and enter the east bank. Sonobe and Ichiro immediately felt that they could take advantage of this to bite [***], and immediately ordered the 13th and 39th Divisions and the Ikeda Detachment to go south to surround the 33rd Army.

General Zhang Zizhong's headquarters was originally stationed in the Jingmen area on the west bank of the Xianghe River, and when the commander of the army drove straight into Zaoyang and attacked Xiangyang, where the commander's headquarters of the Fifth Theater was stationed, he received an order from Li Zongren to cross the Xianghe River to intercept the army. Feng Zhi'an also proposed that he lead the team to cross the river to fight, but Zhang Zizhong still insisted on going out in person and could not be changed.

Zhang Zizhong led the special service battalion directly under the group army headquarters and the 74th Division to cross the Xiang River, and immediately plunged into a fierce battle, first encountering the Yue army in Xinjie, a fierce battle, and then waving the division to the north, arriving at Yushan on May 10, and fighting a bloody battle with the Yue army stationed here.

At this time, the garden department learned of Zhang Zizhong's whereabouts and mistakenly thought that he was leading five divisions, so he poured two of his three armies to encircle and intercept, and finally surrounded the [***] team in the Changshan area of the pumpkin shop.

Zhang Zizhong's troops fought a bloody battle with the absolutely superior Yue army for several days and nights, inflicting heavy losses on the enemy, but they were never able to break out of the encirclement.

On May 16, Zhang Zizhong was shot and wounded in the left arm, but he still calmly commanded the troops to fight, and at about two o'clock in the afternoon, the defense line was broken through by the Yue army, Zhang Zizhong was shot several times, and he was martyred, and all the soldiers who fought with Zhang Zizhong were also killed.

On 31 May, the 3rd Division and the 39th Division of the Chinese Army concentrated dozens of heavy artillery pieces and, after two hours of artillery preparation, forcibly crossed the Xianghe River from the south of Xiangyang and broke through the defense line on the west bank of the Xianghe River in the Fifth Theater. Subsequently, in a short period of three days, Xiangyang, Yicheng, Nanzhang, Jingmen, Yuan'an and other places were captured one after another, and Yichang, the gateway to Sichuan, was attacked from the north.

At the same time, the 13th Division and the 40th Division of the Yue Army, with the cooperation of the Ikeda Detachment and the Hanshui Detachment, forcibly crossed the Han River from the north and south of Shayang, and even Xiasha City, Jiangling, Shilipu and other places also advanced towards Yichang non-stop, in an attempt to cut off the retreat of the main force of the [***] team in the Yichang area, and cooperate with the North Route Army to attack Yichang.

Once Yichang is lost, the fifth and ninth theaters will be cut off from the middle by the army, as long as the army breaks through the Three Gorges again, Yucheng will be in danger, so the army is attacking the north and south of Yichang, which has a great shock to the headquarters of Chongqing, and the rear is also fluctuating, and rumors are spreading, and rumors are spreading that the army will attack the interior of Sichuan.

Chiang Kai-shek urgently ordered Chen Cheng to rush to the front line and form the right wing corps of the Fifth Theater of Operations, with full command of the Yichang defense battle.

After Chen Cheng rushed to Yichang, he urgently ordered Li Yannian's Second Army, which had been replenished in Hunan, to rush to the northeast of Yichang and form a second line of defense in the areas of Longquanpu, Yaqueling, and Anfusi; He also ordered the 18th Army, which was trained in Wanxian County, Sichuan, to come to Yichang to fight the fire in the starry night. However, the 18th Army rushed to Yichang and was not ready to be deployed, and the army was already in the city. The army dispatched more than 20 bombers to bomb the defenders' positions in turn, and the ground troops, under the cover of heavy artillery, attacked the outskirts of the city in three directions.

On June 14, the Yue army captured the city of Yichang, and Chen Cheng immediately ordered the 18th Army to recapture Yichang at all costs.

Under the command of the commander Peng Shan, the 18th Army braved the dense artillery fire of the Japanese army to launch more than 20 charges in two days, and finally recaptured Yichang at the cost of more than 10,000 casualties.

The army immediately increased its forces and captured the city of Yichang again under the frantic bombardment of aircraft. Although the 18th Army counterattacked several times, due to excessive casualties, the attack was no longer sustainable, so Chen Cheng had to order to stop the counteroffensive, adjust the deployment, and defend at the entrance of the Three Gorges Estuary of the Yangtze River in the west of the city.

The loss of the important place of Yichang immediately caused Chiang Kai-shek and the Yucheng Nationalist Axe to face an unprecedentedly grim situation: the occupation of Yichang by the army was like a sharp steel knife, splitting the iron wall of the Fifth and Ninth Theaters against Wuhan into two halves, north and south, and the blade of this knife was facing the capital of Yucheng.

At the same time, the Guangxi army was dispatched to the border of French India, cutting off the international aid route into China's Guangxi and Yunnan through Vietnam.

Immediately afterwards, the international situation also changed dramatically. Out of its own interests, the British government signed an agreement with Yuben, announcing the closure of the Yunnan-Burma Highway for three months, stipulating that during this time, it would prohibit the transportation of anti-Japanese war materials such as ordnance, ammunition, gasoline, trucks, and railway materials into China through Burma, making the situation of the anti-Japanese war extremely difficult.

After occupying Yichang, the army immediately rushed to build a military airfield here, preparing to use it as a relay base for naval aviation to bomb Yucheng, while the army aviation dispatched more than 200 bombers to carry out non-stop bombing of Yucheng and the major and medium-sized cities of the entire southwestern provinces. Almost every day, hundreds of sorties flew in formation over these cities, raining down bombs

In addition to the internal panic, on the one hand, Chiang Kai-shek made speeches on the Central Radio one after another, declaring that the Yucheng Nationalist Axe would unswervingly resist the war to the end, adhere to the policy of reading the ability to resist the war independently, and respond to all changes with the same change; On the other hand, he began to prepare for the establishment of a new Sixth Theater in Yichang, and he pointed out at a meeting of senior generals of the Military Commission: The Japanese have been pressing on the gate of the capital, and we have no way to retreat, and the newly established Sixth Theater is responsible for guarding the gate of Chongqing, which is a major matter related to the life and death of the country and the survival of the nation. Therefore, the responsibility of the Sixth Theater is greater than that of other theaters and the strategic position of other theaters is more important. Our mission and slogan is, military first, sixth theater of operations!

Due to the heavy responsibility of the Sixth Theater, no general volunteered to serve as the commander, and in the end, Chen Cheng, who was full of shame, stepped forward and took the initiative to ask for this burden, his reason was very simple:

Yichang was lost in his hands, and it should be guarded by him!

After thinking twice, Chiang Kai-shek accepted his request, so that there was an additional sixth theater in the battle sequence of the national axe base camp.

In the summer of Fuzhou, the scorching heat is always connected with the typhoon, as if a pair of poor brothers and sisters can not be separated, the trees that were still struggling in pain in the raging wind yesterday are already suffering from the fierce today, and the green leaves that were dripping more than ten hours ago were soon covered with a layer of light dust, and rolled up; The asphalt was almost sunburned, and even the air above it became so hot that it seemed to be lit with a match; Pedestrians walk briskly under the banyan and mango trees lining the streets, pausing to wipe the fine sweat from their foreheads, fashionable young people fend off the scorching heat with Panama hats and light parasols, and vendors selling popsicles and sour plum soup stand by the roadside, constantly shouting in seductive voices

On the stairs of a teahouse, more than ten meters behind them, Liu Hanzhong led five plainclothes people to follow unhurriedly.

After sitting down, Cai Yuyan took off the straw hat on his head, wiped the sweat on his forehead with a handkerchief, and complained in a low voice: "It's all you, you have to do some kind of private interview, the insertion didn't heat me to death!" Then he asked, "What did you get after running for a long time?" ”

Gao Fei said with a grin: "The harvest is still very big!" I found that the prices in Fuzhou were quite stable, and the supply of goods to the citizens was relatively sufficient, so it seems that the impact of the war on this place was not very serious. There was a slight smug look between the words.

Cai Yu snorted contemptuously and said softly: "Compared with last month, the price per kilogram of rice has risen by two cents, and the price per kilogram of salt has increased by almost a dime, and you still say that the price is stable!" ”

Then he taught Gao Fei and said: "Do you think that if you go out and take a look casually, you will be able to understand the people's livelihood and suffering?" Economics is a very specialized discipline, and it is impossible to understand the actual situation through such a minister-style investigation, and only after a long period of statistical comparison of a large amount of data can we draw correct conclusions. ”

As an economic expert, Cai Yuyan was adamantly opposed to Gao Fei's whimsical investigation from the beginning.

Gao Fei looked at Cai Yu, who kept inciting the straw hat, and said with a smile: "I think that according to the income level of the people in Fujian, it is completely possible to cope with this level of price increases, and furthermore, according to economic theory, appropriate price fluctuations are very natural and in line with economic laws, there is no need to make a fuss!" In order to increase his persuasiveness, he deliberately added the terminology of economics, but forgot that he was in front of a fairly professional economist.

"I can't see it, you still have some research on economics!" Cai Yu said sarcastically: "Two cents and a dime are nothing to the income of residents, but do you know how much the price of rice and salt have risen compared with the same period last year - 30 percent?" However, the wages of workers in Fujian have increased by less than 5 percent! With that, he glared at Goofy fiercely

"How so? Fujian's industry and commerce have always developed well, and with the expansion of the areas under direct control, the market for products has also expanded correspondingly, the scale and profits of enterprises have increased, and the income of workers has naturally increased; After the fall of Guangzhou, Fujian became the main channel for the entry and exit of materials in the rear, and the increase in customs revenue was also a large amount; Our office in the rear has been purchasing special minerals and exporting them to the United States, which is also a lot of income, in addition, counterfeit banknotes should have made a lot of money, how can there be no money to raise wages for workers? ”

Cai Yu smiled bitterly and nodded: "What you said is not much different from the actual situation, but you ignore the impact of the army's blockade of the coast. ”

Gao Fei asked rhetorically: "Aren't many of our own ships registered in third countries, and the army has not occupied coastal ports, so it has no impact on these ships!" ”

Cai Yuyan explained: "Before the fall of Guangzhou, our own fleet was barely able to meet the needs of materials in and out, but with the fall of Guangzhou and the beginning of the blockade of the coastal operations of the army, the materials through Fujian increased sharply, far exceeding the transportation capacity of the fleet, and the United States and Britain were afraid of offending the Japanese and did not agree with us to continue to register ships in their countries, forcing us to entrust foreign shipping companies to transport goods and personnel, and the cost increased a lot, consuming a considerable part of the corporate profits; Although the tax revenue and several other revenues of the customs have increased, they are far from making up for the consumption of the war, and in order to make up for this shortfall, the political axe must continue to raise taxes, so where does the enterprise have extra money to increase wages? ”

Then he complained: "If you don't know the price of firewood and rice, how can you understand the difficulties in the rear."

Gao Fei hurriedly asked, "How is the life of the people now?" Isn't it tough? ”

Cai Yu replied: "At present, there is still no such situation, but it will be difficult to say in the future!" The total area under our control now is only three provinces and more than 20 million people, but it is difficult to support hundreds of thousands of troops to fight! ”

Goofy thought for a moment and asked, "If that's the case, wouldn't it be even more difficult to support the national axe of two million troops?" ”

Cai Yuyan replied with a solemn face: "According to the news transmitted by the provincial political axe office in Yucheng and the Jewish businessmen, in the past five months, the price of rice in Sichuan has doubled, and in most places there is no market, and in many places there are even crowds to grab grain!" The national political axe can't even solve the problem of eating for the people, you say how serious the problem is! If it weren't for the huge donations from overseas Chinese, it might have been a problem for the army to eat! ”

Gao Fei felt very strange: "Sichuan has been known as the land of abundance since ancient times, with thousands of miles of fertile fields, and has always been a famous granary, how can there be a grain shortage?" Could it be that some businessmen colluded with high-ranking officials to deliberately hoard grain, so as to make huge profits! ”

Cai Yu looked at Gao Fei noncommittally and said, "Our chairman and you have amazing views!" ”

(To be continued)