October 6, 1939. The headquarters of the North China Front Army in Beiping was just yesterday, and it has just changed its owner. The previous owner here was recently ordered to commit suicide by the Ministry of Justice, and the newly appointed commander of the North China Front was named Tada Jun. Born in 1982, Tada Jun is a native of Miyagi Prefecture and the eldest son of Tada, a Sendai feudal priest, and is now 58 years old. Although he is close to the age of sixties, Tada Jun, as the lieutenant general of the Great Empire, is not too old.

However, at this time, Tada Jun was not so happy about the promotion of the commander of the North China Dispatch Army (North China Front), and when he received the order from the military department, Tada Jun had already imagined that the situation in North China must be rotten, but just after listening to the report of Major General Yamaguchi Umeko, the head of the North China Region of the Special High-tech Branch, she knew that the situation in North China was far more chaotic than she imagined, and the North China Front Army at this time was simply a mess.

"Yamaguchi, I already understand the general situation, you don't need to say more, you first tell me how many troops we still have and how effective they are." Tada Jun knew that no matter when the troops were fundamental, the territory could be recaptured if it was lost, but if even the troops were gone, everything would be over, so at this time, Tada Jun was most concerned about the situation of the North China Front troops.

Yamaguchi Umeko thought for a moment and immediately replied: "Report to Your Excellency Commander, the Northern China Battle Empire suffered heavy losses, and the Yamashita Division, Ushijima Division (Twentieth Division), Cavalry Group, Reading Mixed Third Brigade, Reading Mixed Fourth Brigade, and Field Heavy Artillery First Brigade were all erased from the battle sequence of the front army by Han Yunhua's Division, and the 26th Division, 10th Division, 21st Division, Takagi Brigade, 32nd Division, and 35th Division were also severely damaged. And the Twelfth Army of the Empire stationed in Shandong only had the Fifth Division still complete, and the rest were more than half of the casualties, especially the infantry of the 10th Brigade of the Reading Mixed Brigade was only one and a half brigades. The situation of the First Army stationed in Shanxi is not bad, the 108th and 109th divisions are fairly complete, and although the units directly under the First Army have also suffered heavy losses from the Chinese side, there has been no case of total annihilation of the formation. At present, the front army still has eight fairly complete divisions and eight relatively complete infantry brigades, but almost all of the troops are not fully manned, and the statistics collected half a month ago show that our front army still has 160,000 troops that are still fighting and 60,000 lightly wounded, and these wounded can be returned within three months. In addition, five aviation wings of the Front and two marines were not hit by the Chinese forces. ”

Tada Jun let out a long breath and asked suspiciously: "Yamaguchi, you now tell me clearly, how many troops our army lost in the Battle of Shoshina, according to what you just said, there is a big difference with the data of the military department's external propaganda, I don't believe that the front army has only lost so many troops in total, and the situation has become so erosive. ”

Yamaguchi Umeko looked at Tada Jun, and then said solemnly: "Your Excellency Commander, please pay attention to Han Yunhua's headquarters of the Eighth Route Army, which is strange and profound, and it is very harmful to the front army. He was almost the nemesis of the top of the front, and since this person appeared in Saibei in Showa 12, the Imperial North China Front had been attacked many times by the destruction of the department, and the first battle that attracted the attention of the empire was the destruction of the 15th brigade of the Reading Force, which was a battle, and the empire lost a complete infantry brigade and two brigades that were heavily damaged by the department. At this point, the department was out of control, and the front army sent several times the enemy's troops to encircle and suppress this person many times, but it was all in vain, and the department grew stronger and stronger, and even in the 13th year of Showa, the empire's forces in the entire Saibei were all expelled from the country, and even the commander of the Mongolian army, Lieutenant General Hasunuma Pan, was also broken for this, and His Excellency Terauchi Shouichi, who was affected by this battle, was sent back to Japan, and was not incorporated into the reserve force. Not long ago, the Battle of North China, which was called the Battle of North China by the Chinese side, concentrated all the 380,000 troops that the Front Army could mobilize, and at the same time requested the Kwantung Army stationed in Manchuria to participate in the battle of about 13,000 people from the main force of the Second Division and the Fourth Division, which lasted one month and eleven days, and our army lost a total of 190,000 troops, of which 109,361 were annihilated, and the number of dead and captured cannot be determined. At least more than 25,000 imperial troops were taken prisoner by Han Yunhua's subordinates, and according to the reports of the members of the Yagyu special operations team who had escaped, the vast majority of the prisoners were soldiers of the Yamashita Division and the Ushijima Division. The wounded of the various units of the front army in this battle also exceeded our expectations, totaling more than 86,000 people, of which more than 20,000 were lightly wounded and more than 24,000 were seriously wounded. The worst thing is that because the city of Tianjin was captured by the Chinese people, a large number of military supplies stranded in Tianjin Port were seized by Han Yunhua's department, including more than a dozen tons of medicine that had just come ashore. ”

It is no secret that the rise of Han Yunhua's unit is in the entire army, but people who have not experienced the brutal blows of the Inner Mongolia Military Region or have had close contact with the units of the Inner Mongolia Military Region will not truly realize the strength of the Inner Mongolia Military Region. Tada Jun had heard of the strength of Han Yunhua's division in China before, but now it seems that this army, which has risen for an extremely short time, is more than powerful, which is simply terrifying.

"Yamaguchi, how much do you know about the special forces in China, what is the situation of our special combat team, I visited His Excellency Yanagi before I came to take office this time, and Your Excellency is very concerned about the special combat team that was sent to our North China Front, and I know that this North China Battle This unit was hit by the China Army, but I don't know the specific situation, so I asked me to inquire." Tada continued.

"Report to Your Excellency Commander, according to the investigation of many departments of the special high-tech department, there are now two special forces in China, one is the guard of the leader of the political axe of China, Jiang's guard, the name of the unit is ominous, known as the "Chinese military police", its combat effectiveness is extremely strong, after more than two years of spying, the special high-tech chrysanthemum organ finally obtained the specific information of this special forces in the 11th year of Showa, the predecessor of this "Chinese military police", can be roughly traced back to Ye Ting's "iron army" in the Northern Expedition of China, with the consolidation of the rule of the national axe of China, Chiang Kai-shek, the leader of the political axe of China, began the selection of 2 million troops across the country in 1927, and after strict screening, a guard of about 8,000 people was formed. The members of the guard all have special skills, and they block a hundred. In 1933, with the close relationship between the national political axe and the German political axe, at the invitation of Chiang, Hitler secretly sent the Nazi SA ace instructor Brom to China to carry out the secret training of the Chinese military police, and under Brom's strict training, nearly 4,000 soldiers were eliminated. At this point, the Chinese military police was formally formed. Under the harsh training of German instructors with almost fascist methods and German-style armed equipment that was almost advanced to the teeth, they were like tigers with wings, and finally became the most elite troops in China and even in the whole of Northeast Asia. When the South China Army was sent to attack Nanjing, the capital of China, this special force once appeared and routed the Meicun Division head-on, showing surprising combat effectiveness. As for Han Yunhua's special combat team in China, compared with the large-scale operation of the Chinese military police in China, the special operations unit in the South Korean department is more like a ghost, and the attack method of this special combat team is very similar to that of the two standing forces under the jurisdiction of our North China Front, both of which operate on a small scale to attack the enemy's key departments or strategic targets, usually at a small price in exchange for heavy losses of the enemy, so as to turn the entire tide of the war. According to incomplete statistics, in the past two years, a total of 1,256 officers of our army and above have been sniped by the special combat team of China, including 856 officers with the rank of lieutenant and below, 398 adjutants, and 2 generals. Yamaguchi Umeko said this, took out an extremely scribbled document from the military leather bag she carried with her, handed it to Tada Jun, and said: "Your Excellency Commander, this document was written by the captain of the Yagyu special combat team, Yamada Akitoshi Nakasa, at the last moment of his life, and it is some information about the Korean part of the Chinese army, and it is they who found some characteristics from the killed Chinese special forces, including Yamada Nakasa's evaluation of the weapons and equipment of the mysterious Chinese special forces. This precious document was sent by the members of the Liusheng special combat team at the risk of death, and less than 50 of the more than 200 special combat personnel returned to Beiping. Our army still has two standing teams, the stronger combat effectiveness is the Mashiko standing up team led by Mashiko Shaozuo, but this standing up team was encircled and suppressed by the 300th Division of the reorganized branch in the Battle of North China, and suffered heavy losses, but the structure is still complete. ”

Although Tada Jun took the information, he didn't read it immediately, but gently put it aside, and said to Yamaguchi Umeko at the same time: "Yamaguchi, now the front army is at a critical moment of life and death, and the entire front army is withering, and the only senior officers who really understand the situation of the front are a limited number of people such as you and Takagi, even the commander of the First Army, Kazuki, doesn't know about North China, let alone the general of the North Branch, So I and the entire front army need to get your help and the entire Tegaoko behind you. Before I took office, I studied the detailed battle reports in the North China region in the past two years, and I found that the most threatening force in North China was not the general Yan who controlled this Shanxi as we expected before the war, but the armed forces of China [***], among which the most threatening was that Han's troops, and I found that the reason for the repeated failures of the front army was that they knew very little about the enemy's situation. Suddenly, Tada Jun got up and took a military map of North China and spread it on the desk and said: "As far as the Battle of North China is concerned, before the war, His Excellency Binshan Yuan and the General Staff of the entire Front Army estimated that Han's troops would be at most 150,000 people, and definitely not more than 200,000, but we will look at it now, we have clearly besieged 40,000 to 50,000 Han troops in Qian'an, and more than 60,000 troops of the cavalry group in Chengde, plus more than 40,000 troops besieging Beiping at the same time. There are still more than 30,000 people in the 300th Division, and according to Major General Takagi, there are at least 20,000 elite troops in the Datong area, which adds up to more than 200,000 elite troops, and according to His Excellency Kimura, the strong fighting force that fought with them in southern Hebei, that is, the unit that directly led to the mixing of Lieutenant General Sasaki to the First Lieutenant General and the entire Reading Force into the entire Jade Fragment of the Third and Fourth Brigades, actually belongs to the battle sequence of the Korean Department, don't believe it, According to the confessions of more than 20 wounded soldiers captured by the 32nd Division by chance after the war, the number of that branch of the unit was called the instructor of the Inner Mongolia Military Region in China, and the division commander was the senior general Han from Saibei. Therefore, it is unceremonious to say that the biggest person responsible for the fiasco in the Battle of North China should be your special high-tech department, and you, the general person in charge of the North China region, are even more responsible, but since the military department did not hold you accountable for the special high-tech department, then I will not embarrass you, but from now on I hope that the special high-tech department will really assume the responsibility of the imperial army's eyeliner and intelligence agencies, and of course I myself hope to get your help from Yamaguchi. ”

In fact, these things were already thought of by Yamaguchi Meizi not long after General Binshan Motoda was sent back to China, and she also knew very well the reason why she was not guilty, and it was at this time that she suddenly felt that her powerful father still loved her. However, as a soldier, she did not want to evade her responsibility, and she sent a clarification telegram as soon as she learned of the news that General Binshan Motomu had ordered seppuku, taking the responsibility on herself, but she was not approved by the military department. And the response of the military department is very clear, the battle is completely due to the command error of General Binshan Yuan, if it were not for his desperate attempt to send the only remaining infantry brigade of the Yamashita Division and the Ushijima Division to Daqingshan to attack Han Yunhua in the fortifications, then the situation in the entire North China would not be so erosive as it is now, so the military department did not approve of her clarification telegram, but recognized the situation of Lieutenant General Yamashita Fumimi and Lieutenant General Kimura Hyotaro and others that she said in the telegram. At the same time, the military department promised to reduce the punishment of some officers of the North China Front, as appropriate.

Now that Lieutenant General Tada Jun said it to his face, Yamaguchi Umeko has nothing to hide, Yamaguchi Umeko quickly got up, bowed his head and bent over, and said loudly: "The humble post understands that the performance of the special high-tech department in the past two years is indeed unsatisfactory, and the lowly post can now clearly tell His Excellency the commander that if the special high-tech department does not improve in the slightest within half a year and does not get the approval of His Excellency the commander, the lowly post is willing to cut the stomach to thank His Majesty the Emperor for his trust." ”

"Sit down, Yamaguchi, you must know that seppuku does not solve the problem, His Excellency Binshan Yuan has already seppuku to thank His Majesty the Emperor, but that can only mean that he washed away his sins in the way of a samurai, but all this does not help us in the whole of the North China occupation, so as the loyal guards of His Majesty the Emperor, we should not always talk about the word seppuku. I still believe in your ability, but our opponent this time is really very cunning, so each of us must be cautious and cautious. Tada Jun said solemnly.

In fact, there is no need for Tada Jun to say this, Yamaguchi Umeko is also very clear about this truth, the vast majority of soldiers and more than half of the grassroots officers in the army are about bushido, and they will crush jade and cut their stomachs at every turn, and they don't take their own lives seriously at all, and because of this, a person who doesn't take his own life seriously will not take other people's lives seriously, so the crazy army will break out with such a powerful combat effectiveness.

However, all of this is for low-ranking officers and soldiers, once promoted to Osa or promoted to Wing Commander, officers of this level can already have access to military secrets, so they have a better understanding of the essence of the spirit of bushido, knowing that bushido is just a tool for the top to control the soldiers, seppuku is a joke for these people, and for a general like Umeko Yamaguchi, seppuku is just a gesture. Throughout the war, the army has not been smooth sailing, far from it, as far as the battle of Pingxingguan is concerned, the Fifth Division lost a whole baggage team, and it was broken by the [***] team The myth of undefeated, but I didn't see how the Itagaki Seishiro of the army headquarters was, and the army was killed more than 10,000 people in the Battle of Taierzhuang, but I didn't see the lieutenant general and major general commit suicide by seppuku, and the usual slogans are loud, but those are just slogans, in fact, no officer is willing to cut the abdomen, including General Binshan Yuan, If it weren't for the order of the military department and the signature of the emperor, Binshan Yuan would not want to cut himself like this.

"Hay! Your Excellency Commander, in addition to the fact that we have not yet formed a complete intelligence system for the Korean Ministry in the north, the rest of the Chinese army, whether it is the political axe army in China or the big warlord who controls Shanxi, or the Eighth Route Army in China [***], already have our informants, as long as there is any wind and grass over there, our informants will send the information out as soon as possible, if the Korean Ministry wants to make any big moves, as long as we need the cooperation of several other troops, we can also get the news quickly. It's just that we didn't pay the price for buying these informants, but a little bit of it was worth it compared to the gains. Umeko Yamaguchi said confidently.

"Yo Xi, Yamaguchi, you have done a great job, the purpose of our holy war is to seize the entire China, as long as we achieve this ultimate goal, no matter how much we pay, it is worth it, as long as there are useful people, we must win them over at all costs, and we will not suffer. In the words of China, isn't the wool still out of the sheep, hahaha!!! Tada Jun laughed very loudly, but to Yamaguchi Umeko, no matter how loud this laughter was, it seemed a bit strong and dry.

(To be continued)