The surrender of Thailand was undoubtedly a huge blow to the Japanese invaders, and the Japanese army base camp originally planned to continue to block the Allied attack in Thailand, but whether it was Yan Shunroku, Okamura Ninjiza or the supreme commander of the Japanese Southern Army, Terauchi Shouichi, thought that the Thais were unreliable, so they would decisively abandon Thailand.

After the surrender of Thailand, the land lines of communication between the Chinese allies could be opened to traffic, and they were no longer threatened by the Japanese puppet army, which was undoubtedly bad news for the Japanese. At the same time, the surrender of Thailand greatly inspired the suffering Chinese, and after receiving the news of the surrender of Thailand, Japan's biggest accomplice in Asia, most of the cities in China fell into a carnival.

At the same time, the tide of the war in Europe took a turning point. At the beginning of October, the Allies began to launch a landing campaign in Normandy, France, and by the end of December, the soldiers were nearing the end. In this campaign, the Allied forces have mobilized 36 divisions with a total strength of 2.88 million troops, including 1.53 million army forces, 170,000 vehicles, and 600,000 tons of various supplies, preparing to cross the English Channel and open up the second battlefield in Europe. By December 24, it had been 69 days, and the war had about 240,000 casualties on both sides, including 122,000 Allied casualties and 114,000 German casualties and prisoners. By the end of December, the Allies had eliminated or inflicted heavy losses on 40 German divisions, three German marshals and one army commander had been removed from their posts or left their posts, 20 German army commanders, army commanders, division commanders, and other senior generals had been killed or captured, and more than 3,000 German artillery pieces of various kinds had been captured and destroyed, and more than 1,000 combat vehicles had been destroyed. The Germans lost 3,500 aircraft and 13,000 tanks. 20,000 vehicles of various types and 400,000 personnel. The Normandy landings were successful. The return of American and British troops to the European continent fundamentally changed the strategic posture of World War II.

On the other hand, the Soviet Union also actively cooperated with the Allied landing in Normandy on the Eastern Front, and after 51 major battles, the German army was finally completely driven out of the territory of the Soviet Union, and the front was pushed into Eastern Europe. The countries of Eastern Europe were oppressed by the Germans so badly after the arrival of the Soviet army. A large number of resistance forces from Eastern European countries have come to the fore and cooperated with the Soviet army to liberate Eastern Europe.

On the Italian side, thanks to Hitler's help, Mussolini continued to establish a government north of Italy and rivaled the current Italian government. But since the Italian government had already surrendered to the allies, and war was declared on Germany. As a result, the Allies began their march into southern Germany through Italy. Although there was no breakthrough in the troops at this time, it put a lot of pressure on Germany.

At this point, the Allies had basically taken the initiative in the war in Europe, Hitler's rule was in jeopardy, and although the German army was still strong, everyone could see that Germany's defeat was assured, and the Second World War had come to an end.

On the Chinese side. On December 28, the Huai'an front-line position was broken through by the squadron, and the recruits of two infantry divisions and one infantry brigade stationed in Huai'an surrendered to the squadron. Immediately afterwards, the 6 infantry divisions of the puppet army under the control of the North China Front revolted on the battlefield and fell to Han Yunhua's department.

The Japanese troops on the Yangzhou front fiercely attacked the positions of the squadron, and this was already the 38th offensive in a week. Okamura Ningji concentrated the most elite 330,000 troops to continuously attack the three lines of defense built by the Yangzhou Front Squadron, as long as they broke through the lines of defense built by the squadron. Then there is hope that the North China Front will escape.

But Han Yunhua also gave death orders to the troops on the front line in Yangzhou, as long as they did not fight to the last soldier. China's battle flag cannot be lost from the position, so although the battle on the front line was fierce and hard, no one in the squadron retreated. …,

However, the Japanese army has a weakness, that is, their ammunition supply is seriously insufficient, this is the 13th day of supply cut-off, although the Japanese army headquarters in China sent transport planes to airdrop materials for the troops on the front line at all costs, but due to the air attack of Han Yunhua's department, this transportation volume is not even a drop in the bucket. As a result, the Japanese army had hundreds of thousands of troops in the air, but they could not all of them be put into battle.

On December 30, the squadron broke through the layers of resistance of the Japanese army behind the palace, advanced the battle line to the Xinghua area, and strategically tightened the encirclement, encircling Okamura Ningji and the entire North China Front in a narrow area of less than 100 kilometers.

At the same time, the 400,000 elite troops of the Northeast Front Army Lu Zhengcao and Li Zhaolin sent troops to Korea, and with the cooperation of the Korean People's Army, they quickly advanced into the hinterland of Korea, while the Far East Fleet of the Soviet Navy at the other end ambushed the Japanese troop carriers in the Korean coastal waters, completely annihilated the Japanese Korean detachment, and sank 23 Japanese ships, causing more than 28,000 Japanese young soldiers to go to the sea to feed Wang Ba.

At the same time, the anti-war sentiment in Japan is also getting higher and higher, and many people have already seen that if this trend continues, I am afraid that it will not be long before Japan will be wiped off the map by the Allies, so many people secretly united to form an anti-war alliance.

In fact, Japan under internal and external troubles has been in an absolute period of exhaustion in terms of war potential, there are no resources, steel and rubber and other strategies can not be produced, followed by the lack of equipment of the troops, due to the lack of equipment, the Japanese army in the Allied forces when fighting in addition to defeat or defeat, such a vicious circle has made the Japanese military top brass realize that they must find a way out for Japan, and even some people have proposed to negotiate with the allies, even if it is worth paying a considerable price.

However, the Japanese apparently did not expect that the Allied attack would be so rapid, and before the Philippine campaign was over, the Allied forces began to reconnoiter the waters of Iwo Jima, where the Japanese were stationed. In the Battle of Leyte Gulf, the Japanese Combined Fleet was almost completely annihilated, but the Japanese land forces were not seriously damaged, and they were still stubbornly fighting to the death against the American forces. However, it was clear that the Japanese Army at this time was no longer the formidable army of a few years ago in MacArthur's view, so before the Battle of the Philippines was over, the United States began to formulate a battle plan for the battle for the island.

In this battle plan. Admiral Nimitz advised the US Department of Defense to start with Taiwan and then the Ryukyu Islands. Then came the Chiba Islands, and finally attacked the Japanese mainland. However, he did not get stuck, but he thought that Han Yunhua's frog jumping tactics were worth learning from, so he suggested that the US Department of Defense directly cross Taiwan to attack Iwo Jima, which was heavily defended by the Japanese army, and then transfer the powerful Allied air force to a place close enough to the Japanese mainland.

The U.S. Department of Defense decided to launch the Battle of Iwo Jima as soon as possible, believing that Admiral Douglas MacArthur's suggestion, although a bit risky, would reduce the casualties caused by the fight for Taiwan.

While the whole world was fighting tensely, only the Huaihai side of the Chinese battlefield gradually subsided. Due to the exhaustion of ammunition, but the vast majority of the ammunition airdropped by the air force was taken by the squadron, so the entire North China Front has lost the ability to attack, although the entire North China Front still has more than 700,000 troops, but it has fallen into the heavy encirclement of the squadron.

The Japanese command of the Japanese dispatch army had already sent a large army to the Huaihai side to rescue, but due to the loss of the surface support of the powerful Third Fleet. Therefore, the average daily speed of crossing the river is very slow. Coupled with the desperate resistance of Han Yunhua's subordinates, the Japanese army has not yet thought that the soldiers have reached the north of the Yangtze River.

The entire North China Front Headquarters was lifeless, and all the Japanese officers turned their eyes to the commander of the North China Front, General Okamura Ninji, as the supreme commander of this once glorious unit, Okamura Ninji's heart was full of helplessness and despair, and Okamura Ninji always thought that this was the most stupid thing that the Great Japanese Empire did in the world when it suddenly went south to war with such a behemoth as the United States. Because the United States is not China, the United States is a real tiger. It's not like China, which a few years ago was a plate of loose sand, a little sheep waiting to be slaughtered. …,

Now the evil consequences have been revealed, the Great Japanese Empire is full of wars, and the 7 million troops are not enough to meet the needs of each battlefield, but the land area of Japan is only a small amount, and the population of Japan is less than 100 million. Looking at the allies, China alone far surpasses the empire in all respects. Now there is American money and Soviet weapons. Coupled with the Chinese people, the chances of the Great Japanese Empire wanting to win this war were almost zero.

The main force of the North China Front had been annihilated by Han Yunhua's troops two years ago. Thinking about the prestige of the North China Front in those years, a mere fifth division defeated hundreds of thousands of troops in China's Second Theater and captured Taiyuan, an important city in central Jinzhong. But look at the present, although the North China Front Army has hundreds of thousands of troops, but it can't even break through a small encirclement of the Zhina people, and the worst thing is that the outside troops can't break through the encirclement of the Zhina people, and now the Zhina people are putting on a posture of annihilating the North China Front Army, which makes people feel cold, no one knows whether the Zhina people have the determination to completely eliminate the front army, after all, the final result is that both sides will lose, even if the squadron can completely annihilate the front army, but their own casualties are definitely not small.

On January 1, 1944, Han Yunhua was interviewed by reporters from the United States, China, Britain, the Soviet Union and other countries at the headquarters in Zhangjiakou, and Han Yunhua issued an ultimatum to the North China Front Army through this platform. Han Yunhua demanded that the Japanese North China Front Army in the encirclement immediately lay down its arms and surrender unconditionally, and the squadron would give the Japanese prisoners of war the corresponding treatment as prisoners of war, otherwise the squadron would regard them as stubborn enemies and resolutely annihilate them.

At the same time, Han Yunhua also hoped that Okamura Ningji would start from the overall situation, take the lives of hundreds of thousands of soldiers of the North China Front as the final starting point, and seriously consider the future of the North China Front.

Han Yunhua put a difficult choice question in front of Okamura Ningji, surrender is extremely humiliating for any soldier of any country, of course, the soft bones of Britain and France are counted by him. In Asia, no one would think that surrender is a matter of course, and as a soldier, surrender is the greatest stain on life, and Okamura's first reaction was to resolutely fight back.

But Okamura Ningji knew that Han Yunhua had captured his pulse, it was a full 700,000 troops, and most of them were 16 or 7-year-old teenagers, so let these people go to death Okamura Ningji asked himself if he couldn't do it, let alone do it. Therefore, Okamura Ningji, who was entangled, spent a whole day in anxiety, and he couldn't even eat.

It's not okay not to surrender. Although Tokyo ordered several times that even if all the troops were broken, they would never surrender, but Okamura knew that if they didn't surrender again. I'm afraid that the entire front line of 700,000 troops will really become homeless ghosts in a foreign land. After discussing with Yoshio Shinozuka, chief of staff of the Front Army, and several other lieutenant generals and division commanders, Okamura still couldn't make up his mind, because as far as the North China Front was concerned, opinions were not unanimous, and some division commanders believed that even if the whole army was killed in battle, it would absolutely not be possible to surrender, because it would be disastrous for the entire Imperial Japanese Army and the whole of Japan. However, some division commanders believe that now that the general trend of the front army has gone, it is extremely unwise to drag hundreds of thousands of young people to accompany the front army to the funeral.

Okamura asked Shunroku Hata about the way out of the front army. But he didn't get the answer that Okamura Ninji wanted, and when he fought, the whole army was wiped out, but he could leave a good reputation that would rather die than give in, but if he surrendered, although he didn't have a good reputation, he could save his life, which made it really difficult for Okamura Ninji to choose. …,

January 3rd. When no specific reply was received from the Japanese army. Han Yunhua issued an order for a general attack to the whole army, and after the total was launched, Han Yunhua's millions of troops launched a final attack on the Japanese army from three directions, southwest, north, and south, even if the Japanese army still had a large number of air force support in the sky, but the battle fell into a state of anxiety from the beginning, and soon the Japanese defense line in the north was crushed, and soon the entire Japanese defense line completely collapsed.

At 3 p.m. on 5 January, Okamura Ninji gave the order to the entire army to stop the return fire. sent a big Zuo to negotiate with Han Yunhua's department, hoping that Han Yunhua could give him two days, and when the time is up, if the front army has not given a definite answer, the squadron can attack at any time.

But Han Yunhua did not accept Okamura Ningji's opinion, he only gave Okamura Ningji 3 hours, and asked that Dazuo to give Okamura Ningji a word, if the North China Front does not surrender, then the squadron will carry the most tragic blow to all the Japanese puppet troops in the Huaihai area. Let Okamura think twice.

At 9 p.m. on January 5, Okamura Ninji issued a report. Unconditionally surrendered to Han Yunhua's headquarters, and Han Yunhua's headquarters wanted to ensure the life and death and safety of hundreds of thousands of troops of the North China Front.

The surrender of the North China Front was undoubtedly a blow to the Japanese army. It was not a few hundred or a few thousand, but a full 700,000 troops, which was a huge disaster for the Japanese, who were increasingly overstretched.

Although Okamura Ninji gave the order to surrender, it does not mean that the battle is over, there are still some troops who still resist stubbornly after Okamura Ninji gave the order to surrender, and Han Yunhua will of course not be polite to these troops, in a word, resolutely eliminate them.

On January 8, China and Japan held a surrender ceremony in Xuzhou City. The prestige of the North China Front has been deeply entrenched in North China, but is it not such an army that has surrendered to the Chinese now. In addition, many high-ranking officers of the Eighth Route Army, the New Fourth Army, and the Jinsui Army, who had fought with the North China Front Army, also made a special trip to Xuzhou to watch the ceremony, and Han Yunhua even specially invited Lieutenant General James, Lieutenant General Bayanluf, and General Yan Xishan.

However, it was not General Okamura Ninji who appeared in Xuzhou City on the morning of the 8th, but Lieutenant General Yoshio Shinozuka, chief of staff of the North China Front, who brought Okamura Ninji's command knife and the military flag of the North China Front, and at the same time brought news that Senior General Okamura Ninji committed suicide by seppuku in the residence of the North China Front Headquarters at half past eleven o'clock last night.

Han Yunhua is understandable about Okamura Ningji's death, on one side is the state order and on the other side is the soldier's life, it is normal for Okamura Ningji to have a difficult choice, and he knows that the final result of fighting is still failure, and the consequences of failure are not ordinarily serious. China's General Han has already issued an ultimatum to the North China Front, as long as he dares to resist, then after the city is broken, the entire North China Front will not be left behind. Then in this case, General Okamura Ninji could not make a choice at all and had to surrender.

But in Japan, a country with a strict system, disobeying the orders of the superiors is also extremely serious, not only for himself, but also for his family, so after giving the order to surrender, the only thing Okamura Ninji could do was to commit suicide and exchange his death for the safety of his family.

Although this surrender ceremony did not make Han Yunhua unusually depressed without Okamura Ningji, the avatar of the North China Front still made many people crazy. The surrender ceremony was very simple, after Lieutenant General Yoshio Shinozuka handed over the command knife of Okamura Ninji, which represented military power, and the military flag of the North China Front Army, to Han Yunhua, the surrender ceremony was completed. After the surrender ceremony, Yan Xishan patted Han Yunhua on the shoulder and said, "After this battle, there will be no more war in Jiangbei!" (To be continued......) ……，