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Chapter 1441 Pros and Cons Gains and Losses

Nanjing, Supreme Command. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

Chiang Kai-shek was convening a meeting of the Military Commission to discuss the establishment of troops at the level of group armies, corps, and divisions belonging to the various forces and theaters.

By 4 p.m., the establishment of the major group armies had been freshly released.

The group armies belonging to the lineage of the Central Army include Jiang Dingwen's Fourth Group Army, Zhu Shaoliang's Ninth Army (Zhang Zhizhong was transferred to Hunan Provincial Chairman) as commander, Guan Linzheng's 10th Group Army, Xu Tingyao's 13th Group Army, Wei Lihuang's 14th Group Army, Chen Cheng's 15th Group Army, Luo Zhuoying's 16th Group Army, Hu Zongnan's 17th Group Army, Xue Yue's 19th Group Army, Huang Jie's 24th Group Army, Huo Yuzhang's 25th Group Army, Yu Jishi's 26th Group Army, Xia Chuzhong's 27th Group Army, Shangguan Yunxiang's 28th Group Army, Tang Enbo's 31st Group Army, Gu Zhutong's 32nd Group Army, and Chen Yi's 36th Group Army won 17 of the country's 41 group armies in one fell swoop.

The Jin Sui Army had the serial numbers of Yang Aiyuan's Sixth Group Army, Fu Zuoyi's Seventh Group Army, Shang Zhen's 20th Group Army, and Chen Changjie's 40th Group Army, which mainly undertook combat missions in Shanxi.

At present, the Gui Army, which has been deployed to the surrounding areas of Xuzhou, includes the establishment of three group armies, Li Pinxian's 11th Group Army, Liao Lei's 21st Group Army, and Xia Wei's 41st Group Army, and has become the absolute main force in the Battle of Xuzhou.

In addition, there are the 10th Group Army of Zhang Fakui of the Guangdong Army and the 12th Group Army of Yu Hanmou, which bear the heavy responsibility of coastal defense in the southeast, and the 2nd Group Army of Sun Lianzhong, the 3rd Group Army of Sun Tongxuan, the 29th Group Army of Song Zheyuan, and the 33rd Group Army of Zhang Zizhong, concentrated in the 1st and 5th theaters to fight against the Japanese army on the north bank of the Yellow River and the first line of Shandong,** The 18th Group Army, which he led, was still under the leadership of the Second Theater of Operations.

At the same time, the Yunnan Provincial Army was formally independent of the First Group Army system, and Zhu Peide was appointed commander of the Fifth Group Army, and in addition to Zhu Shigui's 58th Army, Zhan Huanqi's 27th Army and Lu Han's 60th Army were also given official titles, and these three armies were under Zhu Peide's command. The Central Military Commission ordered that the Fifth Army must assign an army to Yunnan to participate in the war, and Zhu Peide replied by telegram saying that he would send Lu Han's troops to the battle, although Lu Han knew that this was a means for Zhu Peide to eliminate dissidents, he still received the order, and in the near future he would take a train and go east to Nanjing to participate in the war.

In view of the fact that the Japanese troops in Datong and Shijiazhuang were about to move, the Fifth Army Corps assumed important responsibilities, and in order to declare the independence of the Anjia Army from other military systems, the 30th Group Army was specially given the title of Hu Jialin, with Hu Jialin as the commander of the group army, and Lu Yixuan was temporarily acting as the affairs of the group army and independently commanding the operation.

During this time, good news came from all over the country.

In the second theater of operations, the Japanese army in Datong gathered heavy troops, with the 102nd Division, the 103rd Division and four independent mixed brigades, to forcibly assault Yanmen Pass, on the front line of Xiawu Mountain, encountered the heavy blow of the 9th Army, the 14th Army and the 97th Army of the Central Army under the command of Wei Lihuang, the Japanese army dispatched aircraft artillery, but Wei Lihuang's 14th Group Army also had a large number of anti-aircraft anti-aircraft guns and a huge 75mm artillery group, and the Japanese attack troops encountered a large area of artillery fire, lost their troops, and fled back to Shanyin County in embarrassment.

Subsequently, Itagaki Seishiro was unwilling to fail, and mobilized the Fifth Division to cross the canyon between the Yellow Cliff Jianshan Mountain and the Longxu Mountain in the Hengshan Mountain Range, capture Shizhuang, and then take Lingqiu County, all the way to the west, and occupy Donghenan Town, but in the Wutai Mountain Range, he suffered a major setback:

The baggage troops behind the palace of the Fifth Division encountered an ambush by the 115th Division, the 120th Division and the 129th Division of the 18th Group, losing nearly 2,000 troops, and then Yan Xishan gathered the Jin Sui Army Yang Aiyuan, Shang Zhen, Chen Changjie and the 22nd Group Army of the Sichuan Army Deng Xihou, a total of 24 divisions and 15 independent brigades, attacked on both flanks of Taixi Mountain and Hengshan, and the Fifth Division, which was surrounded by more than 500,000 squadrons, had to change from attack to defense, but in the face of the continuous stream of squadrons from all sides, the ammunition ran out after holding on for a day. In desperation, he had to retreat gloomily and retreat back to Guangling County in one breath, and only after receiving the 26th Division stationed in Wei County could he be regarded as holding a steady breath. The squadron followed all the way and successfully recovered Lingqiu County and recovered the Hengshan defense line.

The first line of Bauhinia Pass in the northwest direction of Baoding, because the mountain is dangerous, the road is extremely narrow, and the mechanized troops can not be used at all, and the Japanese army on the first line of Pinghan Road dispatched three divisions to carry out round battles, but in the face of the defense of the squadron like an iron wall, it is helpless.

Although the Japanese army dispatched bomber clusters to bomb in turns, the thousand-year-old city wall coupled with continuous reinforced concrete reinforcement, the first soldiers of the three independent brigades of the Jinsui Army guarding here only need to hide in the ground more than ten meters deep and wait for the Japanese army to come to the door to shoot at the narrow mountain road from the shooting hole. The thousand-year-old Xiongguan Pass, which was continuously attacked by the Japanese army, was still majestic, and there were enough food and materials stored in the Bauhinia Pass, so in the end the Japanese commander had to retreat gloomily, return to Baoding, and re-look for the pass into Shanxi.

The defeat of the above two armies is nothing, and the most embarrassing thing is the Japanese army on the front line of Niangzi Pass.

In the past month or so, Lu Yixuan has not been idle, and from the moment the war in North China resumed, he dispatched three divisions of the 17th Army, which had completed preliminary training, to Jingcheng County, and rushed to repair five fortifications on the Lotus Mountain, Jingcheng Pass, and other highlands along the Zhengtai Railway in the northeast of Jingcheng County.

When the Japanese army captured Baoding and was blocked on the front line of the Dasha River, Yang Jiuxiao had already taken the 17th Army and began to organize the transfer of people in Zhengding, Wuji, Jincheng (now Jinzhou), Luancheng, Yuanshi, Shijiazhuang, and Houlu (now Luquan).

With the completion of the retreat from the defeat of Baoding, the 17th Army Engineer Corps quickly demolished the tracks of the Zhengtai Railway west of Luxian County, and at the same time, along the railways and highways, a large area of pressure and mixed mines, trigger mines, induction mines and intelligent mines braking by electromagnetic effects were laid in a large area along the railways and highways, as well as miniaturized mines disguised as branches, leaves, stones, grass, etc., turning the narrow road to Shanxi into a death channel.

After the Japanese army occupied Shijiazhuang, they immediately gathered heavy troops vigorously, and rushed to the county town of Houlu along the Zhengtai Railway. In the eyes of the Japanese commanders, the wealth and people of the city can be transferred, but the resources underground cannot be moved, right?

Jingcheng Coal Mine is a famous large mining area in North China, as early as the Song Dynasty, there was mining, for Japan which is extremely poor in resources, the Jingcheng Coal Mine located next to the Zhengtai Railway, has a high mining value, the command of the Japanese army, also occupied Jingcheng County east of Niangzi Pass, as the end point of the first phase of the campaign.

The result can be imagined, the Japanese army had just captured the west gate of Luxian County, and was attacked by all kinds of mines, and an infantry wing that played an outpost was able to return to Luxian County safely, less than one-tenth, and all of them were wounded. This serious incident was quickly reported to the front command, and Ishihara immediately ordered the troops to stop the march and wait for professional sappers to carry out demining.

However, when the Japanese engineer units entered the minefield, they still suffered heavy casualties.

It turns out that the series of mines produced by the Syrian Arsenal are not only metal mines that can be detected by metal detectors used by sappers, but also ceramic mines, plastic mines, and glass mines that can be detected by anti-sappers.

In this way, the Japanese army filled in an engineering wing, and the minefield cleared was less than 500 meters, which made the Japanese army frustrated.

So far, the Japanese army has used a variety of methods, such as using dense artillery fire for carpet covering, using flamethrowers to try to detonate mines at high temperatures on the scorching ground, and other demining methods, all of which are not very effective.

You must know that the horror of landmines lies not in how destructive they are, but in their secrecy and uncertainty. It is not terrible to be killed by the explosion and "broken jade" on the spot, but what is terrible is that the stump and arm are broken and blind, and that wail will seriously hit the morale of the troops, and then make the whole army fearful.

Towering Taihang, Xiongqi is very handsome, the mechanized corps wants to enter Shanxi from the Hebei region, only through the river valley bend washed out by the tributary of the Hutuo River, that is, the canyon between the peaks of the mountains that the Zhengtai Railway passes through at present, otherwise there is no other way, now this minefield stretching for dozens of miles has become the protector of the first line of Niangzi Pass, and even until now, the Jingcheng coal mine that is only more than 30 kilometers away from the Japanese army is still mining, and it is continuously delivering energy for the great cause of resisting Japan.

It was precisely because of the outstanding performance of the Fifth Army on the front line of Niangzi Pass that Chiang Kai-shek once again set his sights on Lu Yixuan, a student he admired very much.

In Chiang Kai-shek's eyes, Lu Yixuan, who only joined the independent division in 28, is not a real descendant of An Yi, and later Lu Yixuan also commanded the 17th Division and participated in the encirclement and suppression of the Soviet area of the Red Army in the south of the Yangtze River.

What is particularly crucial is that Lu Yixuan, who has always had a grudge against the Red Army, is still a useful pawn for Chiang Kai-shek to monitor the movements of the 18th Group Army nearby, and as long as Lu Yixuan shows the strength to deal with the Japanese to deal with the 18th Group Army, then even if the 18th Group Army has the ability to reach the sky, there will be no way for the 18th Group Army to develop rapidly, and then after the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japan, there will be a full guarantee for the resumption of power from the central authorities to realize the true sense of military and political unity in the whole country.

Therefore, this time the whole country adjusted the army, Chiang Kai-shek not only instructed Chen Cheng to upgrade the Fifth Army to the 30th Group Army, but also gave Lu Yixuan the establishment of two divisions, the 35th Division and the 106th Division. In this way, with the addition of the original three divisions of the 17th Army of the Fifth Army Corps and the 170th Division, the 30th Group Army will become the main group army of the Sixth Division, and it is believed that it will play a greater role in conducting large-scale corps operations.

Compared with the Second Theater, the Fifth Theater fought more arduously on the front line in Jinan, Shandong.

The Japanese army assembled five divisions on the south bank of the Yellow River, eager to open the passage to the south and storm the towns of Zhangxia and Jieshou along the Jinpu Railway. However, although the mountains on both sides of the Jinpu Railway are not as steep as the Taihang Mountains, the Lishan Mountains and Taishan Mountains that stand on the plains are across the main passage of the Japanese army to the south.

Although the Tianjin-Pudong Railway runs through the winding canyon washed by the flooding of the Sand River, it is not conducive to the deployment of large armies, while the defenders have a unique advantage in ambushes. Because the railroad track had already been dismantled by the squadron, the Japanese army could only go south on foot, and encountered ambushes in the middle of the truncated and broken tail attack many times, and then simply spread out the troops completely, and carried out a hill by hill in unison.

As a result, on the highlands and mountains of the hinterland of Shandong at an altitude of 200 to 600 meters, the Chinese and Japanese armies launched a life-and-death contest and a struggle for the top of one mountain after another.

Li Zongren, commander of the Fifth Theater Command, took turns to dispatch the troops at hand to fight on the front line, sharpen his edge, and pay the price of his life in exchange for the gradual improvement of the combat effectiveness of the troops.

At this time, the Central Air Force also learned to be shrewd, and absolutely did not confront the Japanese four-engine bomber group head-on, bypassed the Japanese fighter group, chased the tail of the Japanese ground troops, and took advantage of the advantage in speed to fight flexibly and flexibly, therefore, although our army's defensive positions were subjected to the overwhelming aerial bomb attacks of the Japanese army, the supply lines of the Japanese army were also frequently attacked by the Chinese Air Force, and many materials could not be supplied at all. Regardless of whether the An Yi group, which was in charge of resettlement, could afford such a large population, the Japanese army often got quiet villages and towns with all their might.

After continuous battles, the Japanese army has only barely advanced to Wande Town between Lishan and Taishan, which is very different from the Japanese army's high hopes for a quick capture of Tai'an and even Ziyang, and it has also made the Japanese army begin to reflect on whether it is worth such an unusually cruel war of attrition.

Just when Chiang Kai-shek was wondering how much the Japanese army would have to pay to capture the entire defense line of the squadron north of Tai'an, Foreign Minister Wang Chonghui walked into the conference room quickly and put a newly obtained diplomatic document on Chiang Kai-shek's desk.

After reading it, Chiang Kai-shek was extremely shocked with a look on his face, and immediately stood up and stopped the meeting:

"Ladies and gentlemen, in the early hours of this morning, Germany officially sent troops to occupy Austria, and the Nazi party member Seiss, who became chancellor of Austria earlier this month, officially sent troops to occupy Austria. Inquart solemnly signed his name on the "Law on the Reunification of Austria with Germany" issued by German diplomats, officially announcing the union of Germany and Austria, and Austria becoming the Eastern Province of Germany. Inquart has been inaugurated as governor of the province, and the German Government has sent an official diplomatic message to our national government, requesting that we change the level of the embassy in Austria and withdraw the embassy from the consulate in Vienna......"

There was a buzz in the room, and the participants were shocked and shocked.

It is a very unimaginable thing for Germany to brave the condemnation of the world and annex a sovereign country under international joint supervision.

At this time, He Yingqin had already signaled to the staff officers of the General Staff Headquarters to hang up a large map of Europe as soon as possible.

Chiang Kai-shek was very satisfied with He Yingqin's shrewdness, paced to the map, and pointed to Austria in southern Germany: "Austria, a small country of about 80,000 square kilometers, is located in the middle of Europe, so it is also called the heart of Europe and the crossroads connecting the west and the east. Let's talk about how the European and American countries will react......"

Some of the Nationalist Government are experts on European and American diplomatic issues, but obviously they do not include the generals attending today's meeting. Relatively speaking, they are not so good at international affairs that are far away from them, so it is difficult to sort out the current changing international situation for a while.

In the eyes of many people at this time, Britain is still the well-deserved boss of the world today, its territory covers every corner of the world, and its powerful fleet cruises in the Pacific Ocean, the Indian Ocean, the Atlantic Ocean and even the Arctic Ocean. In addition, the French army had defeated the Germans in the last European war, so everyone was amazed by the German adventure.

He Yingqin hurriedly browsed through the relevant materials sent by the staff officers, focusing on confirming the "Versailles Treaty" and several relevant international treaties, and had a relatively clear and intuitive impression of the European powers in his heart.

"With the profound lessons of the last European competition, and the formal clause in the Versailles Treaty that forbids the German-Austrian merger, France will not sit idly by. In order to prevent Germany from gaining too big and at the same time to establish a separate zone against Russia, France successively signed treaties with Poland, Czechoslovakia, Romania, Yugoslavia, and other countries to the east and south of Germany to help Germany invade each other, and at the same time, Austria, Hungary, Yugoslavia, Romania, Turkey, and Greece also signed treaties of mutual assistance to prevent Germany and Russia from invading. With such a complete prevention system, I think the Germans will suffer a terrible defeat, and Britain and France may even take resolute strikes and sanctions against Germany, after all, allowing Germany to develop is a huge challenge to European security. ”

Li Liejun, Tang Shengzhi, Xu Yongchang, Chen Tiaoyuan, Xiong Bin, Long Yun and others, who were still intimidated by the terrifying strength of the British empire, spoke out in favor of He Yingqin's analysis.

Although Chen Cheng had a different opinion, he had no argument to support his own view, so he turned to the foreign minister and asked curiously: "I wonder if Germany's coveting of Austria was done suddenly or by a precursor?" How did Britain, France and other countries respond before? ”

Wang Chonghui is very clear about the grievances and entanglements between European and American countries, and patiently explained:

At the beginning of July this year, French Foreign Minister Bonet openly declared to the media that France had no objection to the establishment of closer economic and cultural ties between the two countries after the signing of the German-Austrian Agreement in July 1936, and agreed that the German minorities in Czechoslovakia should enjoy broad autonomy. Later, French Chancellor Chauden said at a press conference that he himself "had no objection to the obvious expansion of Germany's influence in Austria by evolutionary means."

Britain, on the other hand, has been seeking a comprehensive solution to its contradictions with Germany, and Austria, Czechoslovakia, and Poland are bargaining chips between the two countries. Late last month, after Hitler had shown his strength against the Austrian government, the British Privy Counsellor Halifax, in his visit to Hitler at Berchtesgaden, made it clear that 'the error of the mandatory treaty of Versailles must be corrected', that the question of changes in the European order, namely Danzig, Austria and Czechoslovakia, would sooner or later, and that Britain was only concerned that 'these changes must be achieved through peaceful evolution'. Therefore, I think it is unlikely that Britain and France will take measures against Germany. ”

Wang Chonghui's introduction broke the deep-rooted worship of Britain and France in the minds of many generals.

Chen Cheng nodded again and again, and many things that he had suspected for a long time were fully penetrated, and he said without hesitation: "The matter is already obvious, with the experience of Japan's flagrant violation of the provisions of the League of Nations and the Washington Treaty, and the inability to impose sanctions on Britain and France in China, I believe that this German adventure will be a great success, and I believe that in a few days, Britain, France, the United States and other countries will recognize Germany's annexation of Austria, just as they admit Japan's invasion of our country." Austria is finished, and no one sympathizes with it, and this is the sadness of the weak countries in international relations. ”

Speaking of this, Chen Cheng sighed and pointed to Czechoslovakia in eastern Germany: "Once Britain and France adopt a policy of appeasement and compromise, it will certainly greatly boost the ambitions of the Germans, especially their Führer Hitler, and their next target of aggression will definitely be Czechoslovakia, which has a large number of Germanic people." If Britain and France took a step back on the Czech question, then Poland would also fall prey to Germany.

"There are too many grievances between Poland and Germany, Poland is essentially the product of the victory of the Entente in the last European war over the Central Powers, and its territory is mainly carved out from Germany, Austria-Hungary and Russia's western Ukraine, there are both political factors and contradictions of interests, in other words, Poland is essentially an empire that forced Germany to cede land, for the Germans, Poland is actually a country within a German state, as long as it exists, the German nation cannot raise its head, so there is bound to be a war between the two countries.

"However, Poland is different from Austria and the Czech Republic, Britain and France and other countries have signed more than ten alliances with Poland, and they have an unshirkable responsibility for Poland, according to my estimate, the day Germany attacks Poland is the time when Britain and France declare war on Germany, and at the same time it also means the outbreak of the second European war!"

The audience was silent, silently digesting Chen Cheng's shocking inference.

Chiang Kai-shek was very satisfied, Chen Cheng's judgment was the same as An Yi's, which showed that he had a good eye for people, and this did not disappoint this army expansion, and he expanded the Central Army under Chen Cheng's command into four group armies in one go. You must know that Chen Cheng's department is the first unit in the first team to open the financial administration to the whole country, Chen Cheng is even more loyal to himself, and he has to report to himself in every detail, which makes Chiang Kai-shek always have a feeling of being respected and valued, and also gives Chen Cheng more trust.

Bai Chongxi slowly digested Chen Cheng's judgment and suddenly asked, "If Germany is at war with Britain and France, who will win or lose?" ”

Chen Cheng hesitated a little, and then said: "It should be similar to the result of the last European competition, Britain and France defeated Germany." Not only did the French build the Maginot Line on the border, their infantry was second to none, and with the British navy, Germany could have lost even worse than the last European war! ”

Bai Chongxi nodded, and then asked, "Then can my country get any benefits from this?" ”

Chen Cheng smiled bitterly and said: "Now we are still too busy to take care of ourselves, where can there be any benefit......" Speaking of this, Chen Cheng's heart suddenly moved:

"Not necessarily, Germany and Japan have signed the "** Industry International" treaty, maybe Japan will create some friction in the Far East to attract the attention of Britain and France, and then Germany suddenly attacked, saying that there may not be a surprise...... However, that treaty was not a formal alliance, and the Japanese would not be so stupid as to set themselves on fire, and I think that at least Europe will decide their own position, just like in the last European war, and sit on the fisherman's advantage. ”

Chiang Kai-shek nodded silently, and at this time, he suddenly remembered a person - Wu Ziliang, the head of the French Annam Party Department of the Kuomintang.

Wu Ziliang, whose name is Chonglou, was born in an overseas Chinese family in Annam, France, studied at Tokyo Imperial University in Japan in his early years, and joined the League at Tokyo Imperial University. After that, he followed Mr. Zhongshan until he was assigned to the French Annan Party Department of the Kuomintang as director for opposing Mr. Zhongshan's two major policies, "United Russia" and "United Communist Party", and stayed there for several years.

After the September 18 Incident, Wu Ziliang personally rushed to Nanjing and presented himself with the "Strategy for Advancing South", which seemed to mention the suggestion of how China could profit from it when Japan was pressing forward step by step and the situation in Europe was deteriorating.