In the 30th year of the Republic of China, in October of the 16th year of the Showa era, the base camp adopted the proposal of Okamura Ninji, commander-in-chief of the Northern Group Army of the China Dispatch Army, and decided to send troops to Southeast Asia.

The new Prime Minister of the Cabinet, Hideki Tojo, asked Emperor Hirohito to once again carry out a nationwide general mobilization and reorganize 20 special infantry divisions to send troops to Southeast Asia to seize Southeast Asia's rich strategic resources such as oil and rubber.

After Hideki Tojo explained the pros and cons, Emperor Hirohito acquiesced to the decision of the base camp, and soon the base camp quietly issued an amnesty from the emperor to recruit retired reservists and young people to join the army throughout the country.

In order to maintain the combat effectiveness of the newly organized divisions and regiments, the base camp decided to transfer a large number of grass-roots officers and soldiers and backbone cadres from Okamura Ningji's Northern Group Army to supplement the newly organized 20 ad hoc divisions and regiments, and these 20 ad hoc divisions and regiments formed a huge southbound army, which had under the jurisdiction of the 15th and 16th Army Corps, each of which had five ad hoc field divisions under its jurisdiction, and was the first batch of troops to march into Southeast Asia. The division directly has three infantry wings, a baggage wing, and an engineer wing, as well as a search brigade or wing.

The reason why the base camp only sent more than 100,000 troops from two corps to Southeast Asia in the first batch was that the other divisions were not yet equipped with weapons and were in place, but the war situation in China was very urgent, so the army decided to send the 15th Army Corps and the 16th Army Corps south to fight first.

In addition to the two infantry corps, the base camp also used the Combined Naval Fleet, which, in addition to helping the Army transport troops and equipment, also served as the United States Combined Naval Fleet at Pearl Harbor and provided fire support to the landing Army at any time.

At the same time that the base camp was in full swing preparing to invade Southeast Asia, the situation of the Chinese war also quietly changed, and after several days of bloody battles between the 74th Army and the 10th Army, the two main forces of the Ninth Theater, the 58th Division, the vanguard of the 74th Army, under the leadership of Zhang Lingfu, the acting division commander, took the lead in climbing the head of Jiujiang City.

However, when the army retreated, another plague virus was put into the water sources inside and outside Jiujiang City, and after the local people and the officers and soldiers of the Ninth War Zone drank the poisoned water, they quickly became ill, and thousands of people and more than 2,000 officers and soldiers died in just a few days.

Moreover, the plague virus is still spreading at an alarming rate, and so far nearly 8,000 people in the 10th and 74th armies have been infected with the plague virus to varying degrees.

At this point, the Ninth Theater lost its offensive capability, and after the devils who retreated from Jiujiang rejoined the 101st Division that had rushed from Wuhan to reinforce it, they built fortifications around Chihu Lake west of Jiujiang to form another defensive line.

At this time, the southward advance detachment of the 42nd Group Army starting from Zheng County quickly advanced towards Wuhan along the Pinghan Railway after capturing Xuchang.

At most, it will be able to join the forward regiment in another day, and after the southward advance detachment reached Xinyang, it did not advance further, because the commander of the army, Muto Zhang, had already personally commanded three field divisions and four puppet army divisions, as well as two mixed brigades, to deploy several defensive lines in the Xiaogan area.

In front of Xinyang is Dabie Mountain, Zhang Mingyu gave him the order to stop advancing and wait for the arrival of the main reinforcement force when Ma Liqun arrived in Xinyang.

After Ma Liqun's advance detachment was stationed in Xinyang, he immediately began to organize sappers to start building Xinyang Airport, and in the next Wuhan campaign, Su Dingtian's Flying Eagle Division had to rush to reinforcements.

Therefore, the Xinyang airport had to be repaired, and because the army had seriously damaged the airport before retreating, Ma Liqun commanded the engineering troops to repair the airport for three days and failed to repair the airport.

On the road from Zheng County to Luohe, more than 20 trucks and two jeeps are speeding south.

Behind the vehicle, there were also a large number of infantry, and in the middle of a jeep, Zhang Mingyu was sitting in the back seat observing the scenery on both sides of the road.

Zhang Mingyu was looking at the moment, at this time a soldier behind him rode a war horse and quickly chased up, Zhang Mingyu immediately ordered the driver to stop, the soldier jumped off the horse, snapped up and said: "General seat, advance to the detachment call!" They were bombed by fighter planes, and the airfield that had just been repaired was destroyed by devils. ”

"What? An airport has been repaired for almost seven days, and it has not been repaired yet, Ma Liqun has something to eat, and told him to repair Xinyang Airport for me no matter what! It's his problem with what to do, don't bother me with this! In addition, telegraphed to all divisions, speed up, seize the time to rush to Xinyang, and prepare to launch an attack on Wuhan! Zhang Mingyu said with some anger.

"Yes!" The warrior snapped forward, turned and mounted his horse, and walked away.

………….

Fifteen miles southwest of Xinyang, after the army occupied Xinyang, an airfield was built here to provide take-off and landing for fighter planes in order to bomb the central and northern Henan regions.

Before the arrival of the 42nd Army, Muto Sho ordered the Xinyang Army to abandon Xinyang and destroy important infrastructure such as airports and stations.

When Ma Liqun led the southward advance detachment arrived, the airport was immediately repaired, and this situation was learned by the enemy hidden in Xinyang and reported to the Wuhan Army Headquarters.

After learning of the situation, Muto Akira immediately ordered land-based air forces to bomb Xinyang, and the focus of the bombing was the Xinyang airfield, which was being repaired.

In the past few days, it is often the advance detachment that has just repaired the airfield, and in the daytime, it is immediately bombed beyond recognition by the devil bombers who have heard the news.

In Xinyang City, advance to the headquarters of the detachment.

Ma Liqun read Zhang Mingyu's reply with a dark face, and after reading it, he put the telegram in his hand on the table in front of him heavily, glanced at the people present with a cold expression, and said sharply: "Brothers, the head office has sent a strict order, so that we must repair Xinyang Airport within three days, and ensure that the airport is intact and not damaged by the bombing of devil fighters. ”

Before Ma Liqun's words fell, a regiment commander said with a bitter face: "Commander, the plane we just repaired the devil flew over like a dog smelling, and it was blown up so accurately every time, we did so much camouflage to no avail, the little devil's fighter plane was like a dog's nose, very smart!" ”

At this time, another regiment commander suddenly realized: "Commander, I think the little devil's plane can arrive so punctually and accurately every time, there must be spies to provide them with information, otherwise the terrain here is so responsible for the remaining veins of the Dabie Mountain, the mountains and forests are dense and we have done so much camouflage, the little devil flies in the sky, it is difficult to determine the correct direction so accurately every time." This must be someone Han Jian or a devil's spy to provide them with information. ”

"Yes! Why didn't Lao Tzu think about it, although the regular army of the devils has withdrawn, there must be a lot of traitors and devil spies lurking in this Xinyang City. Ma Liqun slapped the back of his head and suddenly realized.

"Commander! We'll have to figure it out. Another regiment commander said.

"Let me think about it!" Ma Liqun put his hands behind his back and began to pace back and forth in the headquarters, just when everyone was about to be dazzled by Ma Liqun's back and forth.

Ma Liqun was overjoyed and said: "There is! ”

"What's the solution?" Everyone asked.

Ma Liqun strode to the map, pointed to the map and said: "Commander Kong, I order you to lead a cavalry regiment to immediately search within thirty miles of the defense with the airport as the center, and once you find a suspicious person, kill them immediately without asking questions!" ”

"Commander Li, you led the second cavalry regiment to patrol around Xinyang County, once you find that there are people who want to take the opportunity to go out of the city and shoot them on the spot, the rest of the infantry regiments will conduct a big search in the city, make every effort to thoroughly investigate the devils and Han annihilation agents, block the whole city, and no one is allowed to go out of the city without ordering ordinary people, and those who violate the order will be killed!"

"Yes!" Everyone immediately snapped forward and agreed in unison.

……….

Soon, the entire Xinyang county was surrounded by armed [***] officers and soldiers, the four gates and the city wall were all occupied with [***] soldiers, on the street a group of burly [***] soldiers under the leadership of the officer, door-to-door inspection, followed by several literati are old people in Xinyang County, most of the county's household registration and residents also know.

Outside the city, the 1st Cavalry Regiment had already launched a dragnet patrol around the airport, and the 2nd Cavalry Regiment also surrounded Xinyang City, and anyone who wanted to sneak out of Xinyang City from any direction would be immediately killed by [***] cavalry.

This search and arrest operation was carried out vigorously in the city for most of the day, but Ma Liqun did not catch a single suspicious person, just when Ma Liqun was so angry that he almost ran out, the cavalry regiment in charge of the search outside the city came with news.

After more than 20 minutes of running, Ma Liqun led the guard company to a forest located about 19 miles northwest of Xinyang Airport.

I saw that the commander of the first cavalry regiment was surrounding the two corpses with a large group of cavalry, and when he saw Ma Liqun coming, the commander of the first cavalry regiment immediately stood up and said: "Commander! ”

"Hmmm! What's going on? Ma Liqun nodded and asked.

"These two people are all agents of little devils, we found them in Shilipu, when they hid in a villager in Shilipu Village, oh, that family was killed by both of them, when we entered the village to search, the whole village was led by the village to be checked, and only this villager did not come out, when I sent someone to knock on the door, these two rabbit cubs killed the only remaining girl in the family, escaped over the wall, I immediately led people to chase, these two rabbit cubs should have been lurking here for a long time, We were very familiar with the terrain here, and we rode after them for twenty miles, and my grandmother was a bear and was shot by the brothers. The commander of the first cavalry regiment said.

(To be continued)