Chapter 749 is full of eight roads

At this time, the whole of North China entered the summer harvest season, and both the Japanese army and the Eighth Route Army knew that this was the critical period for deciding to eat grain throughout the year, and only with grain could they have sustained combat capability. The Japanese army can also say that in addition to the grain that can be provided by Japan itself and Northeast China, they can also get some supplements from the occupied areas in North, Central, and South China, and can even buy grain from other countries. The squadron could only rely on domestic grain production to support the war, especially the Eighth Route Army, and there was no other way than to supply military supplies according to local rations. Therefore, both sides of the enemy and us invariably set their eyes on food, and the Japanese army wanted to weaken the sustained combat capability of the Eighth Route Army in North China by grabbing grain, and the Eighth Route Army wanted to ensure a protracted war of resistance by protecting food. One shot and one protection have become a distinctive feature of guerrilla warfare behind enemy lines in this summer harvest season.

The headquarters of the Eighth Route Army issued an operational order to actively carry out the protection of the summer harvest, requiring all units to actively launch an attack on the Japanese army and protect the summer harvest in the base area. The Northern Bureau and the Shandong Bureau also issued instructions to the base areas to make every effort to organize the summer grain harvest and ensure that the grains are returned to the warehouse. All county brigades, district squads, and militia are required to cooperate with the main force to cover the villagers' rush to harvest, and governments and schools at all levels are organized in a unified manner to participate in the summer grain harvest. The base camp of the Japanese army also saw the squadron's dependence on food very thoroughly, and strictly ordered the North China Front, the Central China Dispatch Army, and the 21st Army in South China to organize troops to carry out a sweep, loot and destroy grain, make up for the Japanese army's rations, reduce logistical pressure, and at the same time weaken the squadron's sustained combat capability. According to the words of the order of the Japanese army base camp, it is necessary to protect the grain in the occupied areas from falling into the hands of the squadron to the greatest extent, destroy the food resources in the occupied areas of the squadron to the greatest extent, use grain to weaken the combat effectiveness of the squadron, pressure the Chiang Kai-shek government to surrender, and pressure the Eighth Route Army in North China to reduce and expand its scale.

Just when Liu Yimin ordered a sweep of the Suzhou-Anhui border area, the headquarters of the North China Front Army was also busy, and the Japanese army was making final preparations for a large-scale sweep for the purpose of grabbing and destroying grain.

During this time, Shanshan Yuan lived a very comfortable life. Fumiko Hayashi is like a late-blooming cherry blossom, and although she misses the flowering season, she also blooms with bewitching beauty. In addition to being busy, Shanshan Yuan secretly had a good time with this well-known Japanese beauty writer, like a dewy couple who were happy and fairy. Shanshan Moto wrote in his diary: "When I was young, I was bent on making contributions to His Majesty the Emperor, and after marrying my wife, I also lived a harmonious and beautiful life. I originally thought that I would be able to fall in love with my wife in this life, but I didn't expect to meet Miko in ancient Beiping. Compared with Mrs., although Miko does not have the graceful and luxurious lady temperament of Mrs., she is smart and beautiful, and she has an indescribable bookish atmosphere. Appreciate it carefully, it is like a literati painting in the Ming Dynasty, with a far-reaching artistic conception. Moreover, Miko is more slender than Mrs., because she has never given birth, and her private parts are tighter than Mrs. Beauty, so I always feel like I am newly married. That taste is not to be expressed to anyone. ”

Shanshan Yuan, who has rejuvenated the second spring, in order to please Lin Fumiko, took Meizi to visit Qi Baishi, a great painter who stayed in Beiping, and wanted to ask Qi Baishi to paint a portrait of Lin Fumiko. He felt that Lin Fumiko in love was extremely beautiful, and with Qi Baishi's peerless brush, several famous paintings would definitely be born.

At this time, Qi Baishi's fame in China was not as great as that of later generations, and a painting could not be sold for much money. However, it is more famous in Japan, because Qi Baishi's mentor Chen Shi once introduced Qi Baishi's paintings to Japan, and they were sold at a high price in Japan. Shanshan Yuan has been in the army for a long time, and he is not good at art, only knowing that collecting ancient Chinese antiques, calligraphy and paintings can make money, and he knows very little about contemporary painters. It was Lin Fumiko who reminded him, saying that Qi Baishi's paintings were very good, and wanted Qi Baishi to paint a few paintings for her.

Shanshan Yuan took Lin Fumiko to Qi Baishi's apartment, only to see that the door was closed and a notice was posted on the door. As soon as the translator translated, Shanshanyuan couldn't cry or laugh, because the notice read: "If Chinese and foreign officials want to buy the painting of Baishi, they can use a representative, and they don't have to drive to the door in person." Officials never enter the people's homes, and the officials enter the people's homes, and the masters are unfavorable. We would like to inform you that we will not be able to meet you. ”

After all, Shanshan Yuan was a general who had been the Japanese land minister, and his demeanor still had to be talked about, so he didn't order to slam the door, but nodded his head and asked people to knock on the door to report.

The best at this kind of thing is naturally the big traitor Wang Kemin. I saw Wang Kemin coughing, walked to the door of Qi Baishi's courtyard, and knocked on the door pretending to be very elegant.

The door was opened, but the person who opened the door told Wang Kemin that Mr. Qi Baishi was not a guest, and gentlemen, please come back.

Wang Kemin himself feels that he is already the number one person in North China, and he has to shake Beiping City three times when he stomps on it, and now he is accompanying his master again, how can he allow a dilapidated painter to close his door and disappear? Therefore, he waved the civilized stick in his hand, asked the traitor spies who came with him to drag the person who opened the door away, and he took the lead and led Shanshanyuan and his party directly to Qi Baishi's studio.

Seeing Qi Baishi, Shanshan Yuan and Lin Fumiko were a little surprised, the person in front of them was really like the legend, wearing a black robe, a pair of stone mirrors on his clear face, a gray beard, and a string of heavy keys around his neck, how could he look like an old man in the countryside!

Lin Fumiko stopped Wang Kemin's arrogance, whispered her admiration for Qi Baishi, and asked Qi Baishi to paint a portrait of herself, and then took out 50 yen from the women's bag in her hand and presented it.

Qi Baishiren is old-eyed, how can he not see the Japanese soldiers with loaded guns in the courtyard? However, he also knew that it was not possible to stick to it without painting, these Japanese people could do anything without blinking an eye when they killed people.

Qi Baishi told Lin Fumiko that he had not painted ladies' paintings for many years, and now his hands were trembling and he could not hold the pen for a long time, and he could not meet the needs of his guests. But meeting is fate, he is good at painting flowers, birds, insects and fish, so let's draw a crab for the guest!

Wang Kemin immediately scolded: "Carpenter Qi, let you paint because you can afford to look at you." What kind of shelf? Who do you think you are, believe it or not, I smashed your studio? ”

When Qi Baishi heard this, he was so angry that his beard trembled, and he simply stopped painting, and his eyes squinted at Wang Kemin, watching how he smashed the studio.

Shanshan Yuan stopped Wang Kemin again and told him to shut up, but Lin Fumiko and Qi Baishi talked.

Lin Fumiko actually beat the drum in her heart after seeing Qi Baishi, for fear that this old man would not be able to draw his own charm, this heard that Qi Baishi was unwilling to paint a portrait of himself and was willing to paint the crab he was good at, and he was already willing to do so, so he asked Qi Baishi to paint quickly.

Qi Baishi didn't want to do much, so he spread out the drawing paper, began to paint, and under the gaze of Shanshan Yuan and Lin Fumiko, he drew a vivid crab, and inscribed on it, "Taste the crab with cold eyes, see how long you will go rampant." After writing, it was stamped and handed to Fumiko Hayashi.

When Wang Kemin saw that Qi Baishi was willing to paint, he was still very proud. Because he also asked Qi Baishi to give him a message and ask Qi Baishi to paint for him, but he was refused. I was still thinking about how to teach Qi Baishi not to be ignorant, and I didn't expect that Shanshan Yuan would bring Lin Fumiko to make Qi Baishi's portrait. To be honest, he was afraid that Qi Baishi would stubbornly come up and refuse the portrait, so it would be a trivial matter for Qi Baishi to be unlucky, and it would be troublesome if he came to take him to get angry. Seeing that Qi Baishi had drawn such a vivid crab, the stone in Wang Kemin's heart finally landed. When Qi Baishi wrote, "Taste the crab with cold eyes, see how long you will run rampant", Wang Kemin was stupid, he couldn't imagine that this dead old man from a carpenter was so stubborn, he dared to break ground on Tai Sui's head, and dared to mock the imperial army with paintings, purely to die!

Wang Kemin was about to have a seizure, when he saw Lin Fumiko happily put away the painting, and couldn't stop bending down to thank him, Wang Kemin thought that Shanshanyuan and Lin Fumeiko's Chinese skills were not very good, and he couldn't see the meaning of these two poems. He didn't dare to do much, and hurriedly left Qi Baishi's house with Shanshan Yuan.

Walking out of Qi Baishi's courtyard, Wang Kemin quietly called a traitor and asked him to take someone to smash Qi Baishi's studio, and all his Qi Baishi's deposits were frozen, starving the dead old man!

How would Shanshan Yuan know that Qi Baishi was sarcastic about them, at this moment, he was beautiful in his heart!

In addition to enjoying Lin Fumiko's love, there is another reason why Shanshanyuan feels that he is in a very good mood, that is, the instructors of the Eighth Route Army, who have been making trouble, have not launched any more major campaigns, and the supplementary training of the divisions directly under the North China Front Army and the units under the 21st Army is basically in place. He felt that since he took office, he had never had such confidence in the war situation in North China as he did now. As long as the base camp can add three to four permanent divisions to him, he will be sure that he will wipe out the base areas of the Eighth Route Army in North China piece by piece, just as he did when he captured the Jilu border.

Shanshanyuan personally inspected several major divisions and regiments, and felt that the combat effectiveness of the troops had generally increased. In particular, the rebuilt 14th Division, the 10th Division, and the 35th Division, since they were all recruited from the reserves of several main permanent divisions and regiments, the soldiers had a very high level of individual tactics, and there was no gap between the level of bomb throwing, stabbing and shooting with the permanent divisions and regiments, and the only difference was the question of the will to fight.

During the inspection of the 10th Division, Shanshan Yuan consulted the diaries of individual soldiers. One of the soldiers wrote in his diary: "I would love to die for His Majesty the Emperor, and I would like to stab 100 Shina with my bayonet, but the thought that I might die at the hands of the Shina men's guns made me feel a drum in my heart: If I die in battle, will my son become someone else's wife?" Will my Taro drop out of school because he doesn't have a father to support him? After thinking about it, I still feel that I need to be more careful, and try to shrink back a little when charging, so as not to find me with bullets from the dirt road." Another soldier wrote in his diary: "I am already in my thirties, and the army still recruited me to North China, and it is very likely that I will die in North China." This morning I was with my team to sweep a village, and the people were hiding. When I smashed a courtyard gate, a mine fell from the lintel, but fortunately I saw the opportunity quickly and jumped to the side. Hachiro who accompanied him was not so lucky, and he was blinded by a landmine. In this life, he will never see beautiful cherry blossoms again. When I stood guard in the afternoon, I had in my mind the image of Hachiro throwing himself on the ground and covering his eyes and howling, so I unconsciously hid in the fortifications. His Excellency the Squadron Leader took me out and slapped me when he was inspecting the sentry, and he had to punish me in the name of fear of war. Fortunately, I still had 30 yen in my pocket, and His Excellency the Squadron Leader smiled and forgave me. I really want to tell Your Excellency the Squadron Leader that it is not that I am cowardly, but that I am afraid that I will never return to Japan and never see my family. ”

During the inspection, Shanshanyuan found that the morale of those garrison divisions was relatively high, and the training was also tight. When Shanshan Yuan went to inspect, he saw that these young soldiers were full of emotions and shouted strong slogans. Shanshanyuan was also afraid that those division commanders and wing commanders would personally talk to some young soldiers in order to please him with their special performances. Sugi Morito's heart was overjoyed by this conversation, and he found that these energetic soldiers had completely regarded His Majesty the Emperor as a god, and were eager to forge their military exploits with the blood and lives of the Shina people.

Shanshanyuan came to the conclusion from this, that is, the conscripted reserve soldiers have relatively high combat skills, but due to their age, they are easy to doubt the significance of the Great East Asian Holy War, and their will to fight is not strong.

In response to this situation, Shanshan Yuan took four measures, one is to let the pen unit create more works that inspire morale and let the soldiers read them. The second is to let many Shinto monks in the country come to the army to do it. The third is to mobilize the families of the soldiers to make amulets for the soldiers to wear and bless their safety. The fourth measure was to send a telegram to Prince Zaihito Miyaji, chief of the General Staff, and Shunroku Lu Xianghata, drawing their attention to the fact that as many unmarried young people between the ages of 18 and 25 as possible should be recruited into the army, and that they must complete their recruit training in Japan, and that it is best to go to Manchuria to spend the actual combat training period of recruits, and then replenish the troops in North, Central, and South China.

Shanshanmoto's telegram made him score a lot in Emperor Hirohito's heart. According to a telegram sent by Prince Zaihito of Kanin Palace to Sugimoto, after the telegram he submitted, His Majesty the Emperor believed that Senior General Sugimoto was, after all, a pillar of the country, and that the issue of conscription raised was very important, and that the older soldiers had family influences and that demoralization was certain. Emperor Hirohito asked the old prince to convey to Shanshan Moto that he must combat the arrogance of the Eighth Route Army in North China and quickly restore law and order in North China.

Emperor Hirohito's will must be implemented, the war of law and order in North China must be carried out to the end, and grain must be grabbed. However, Shanshanyuan knew that the morale and combat effectiveness of the North China Front Army when it was beaten by the Eighth Route Army were not high, and his measures alone were far from enough. The North China Front needed a real victory to boost morale. Every day they suffer defeats, the soldiers live in fear, and it is impossible to have high morale.

There is another reason why Sugisugi is eager to win a big battle, and that is that he already feels that the cabinet of Kiichiro Hiranuma is in jeopardy. The reason is that after Hiranuma Kiichiro took office, although he promulgated the "Outline of the Plan for Expanding the Productive Forces," set up the "National Spiritual Mobilization Committee," abolished the short-term military service system, extended the period of national military service, and concentrated all the human, material, and financial resources of the whole Japanese society to maintain the war of aggression against China, this was a continuation of the Konoe Cabinet's policy, and Hiranuma Kiichiro did not have any good way to enable the Japanese economy to quickly reverse the deterioration of inflation, and his foreign policy was also indecisive, which had already caused a backlash from the military department. Now it depends on the outcome of the exchange of fire with the Soviet army, if he can win a big victory, Hiranuma Keichiro may be able to work for a while longer, in case of defeat, Hiranuma Kiichiro's cabinet is very likely to collapse. If the Hiranuma cabinet collapses, Sugi Sugimoto feels that there will be no good person to serve as the next cabinet minister besides himself. Therefore, he wanted to fight a winning battle and increase his prestige.

The chief of staff of the North China Front, Yamashita Fengfumi, and Shanshan Moto had the same idea, this guy liked offensive operations the most, and being pressed and beaten by the Eighth Route Army as he was now, and fixing all the troops on the lines of communication not only damaged the reputation of the Imperial Japanese Army, but also did not conform to Yamashita Fengfumi's combat style. But now the conditions did not allow it, the Kwantung Army was exchanging fire with the Soviet army, the 5th Division was transferred to Manchuria, and the Guards Division returned home. Although Commander Shanshanyuan had already sent a report to the base camp requesting that the Guards Division be transferred to expand and split into two and return to the North China battlefield to fight, it would take time, and even if the Guards Division was expanded, it would not necessarily be able to be transferred to North China again, after all, the strength of the North China Front Army was already huge enough.

Yamashita Fengwen pondered and meditated hard, and finally completed the battle plan and troop deployment of Shanshanyuan's decision to concentrate on sweeping the base area of the Eighth Route Army in Shanxi, and arrived at the Guards Division. This time, Yamashita learned the lessons of the previous siege failures, and in accordance with the tactics of Terauchi Shouichi's heavy troops sweeping Shandong, he formulated a tactics of first dividing and attacking together, gradually advancing, compressing and encircling, and then dividing and "clearing" and breaking through each one.

After the battle plan came out, Yamashita began to send daily reports to the base camp, stating the reasons for the need for the Guards Division to fight in North China, and urging the base camp to make a decision as soon as possible.

To Yamashita Fengfumi's surprise, the base camp really agreed to the expansion of the Guards Division, and sent the First Guards Division, that is, the Old Guards Division, to North China again, under the command of the North China Front. Now it's okay, with the Guards Division, Yamashita Fengwen's face has become red, and he wants to seize the opportunity of the main force of the Eighth Route Army Instructor to be far away in the Suzhou-Anhui border area, and start killing.

What Shanshan Yuan and Yamashita Fengwen didn't expect was that as soon as they sacrificed the butcher's knife on their side, the flames of war were rekindled on Jinpu Road, Jiaoji Road, and Longhai Road, and the Eighth Route Army Instructor actually launched an attack at the same time on the long line of communication.

With Liu Yimin's order, from Cangxian in Hebei Province in the north to Suxian County in Anhui Province in the south, and from Lianyungang in the east to Shangqiu and Dangshan in the west, all units of the Eighth Route Army took action and launched an attack on the Japanese army by means of multi-directional attacks by small troops.

For a time, various units of the Japanese army reported being attacked by the Eighth Route Army and asked for tactical guidance.

Shanshan Yuan and Yamashita Fengwen were completely stunned, they couldn't figure out how Liu Yimin knew that they were going to launch a sweep, and they actually launched it in advance, and completely disrupted the deployment of the Japanese army when the North China Front army was not moving.

Shanshan Yuan's proud mood was blown away by the wind at once, staring at the map with red eyes, and muttering: "Eight roads everywhere, eight roads everywhere!" ”

Ladies and gentlemen, the mountain people have gone to Shanghai, Suzhou and Hangzhou, Yangzhou, Wuxi and Putuo Mountain. I haven't been there for several years, but the mountains and rivers in the south of the Yangtze River are still the same, but the appearance of the city has changed greatly. The long-distance drive is very tiring, but it is also really eye-opening. Finally got home today and started updating normally. Thank you friends for your support. Thank you! R