Going to the airport to see off Yamashita, Umezu returned to the office from the airport, pondering all the way. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

It is true that the Kwantung Army is underpowered.

After the Battle of Nomenkan, the Northeast Democratic Alliance Army was active for a while, and slowly shifted its focus to North China, especially after participating in the Battle of the Hundred Regiments, they basically did not make any major moves in Manchuria, and according to the reconnaissance of the secret services, their main troops were deployed in the south of Liaoning, the north of Chahar, and the first line of Inner Mongolia.

However, Umezu was well aware that now, there was a phenomenon of north-north modernization in the northeast, and the imperial army had lost control over the vast rural and mountainous areas.

There was a proposition within the Kwantung Army to eliminate them, and it was planned to eliminate the Northeast Democratic Alliance Army in northern Manchuria and eastern Manchuria.

At present, the Kwantung Army has a total of more than 300,000 Japanese troops in the Far East, which are the essence of the Kwantung Army. The deployment of these 300,000 troops was overstretched: the 178,000 Manchurian Army was deployed along the Baikal line, and 50,000 or 60,000 troops were distributed along the railway, not only to eliminate the Soviets along the line, but also to be responsible for transporting supplies and ensuring the smooth flow of the railway.

In the eastern Far East, the Amur River, which the Chinese call the lower reaches of the Heilongjiang River, also has some cities, large areas of land, and there is Huatai Island. The army is needed in these places. The Kwantung Army arranged fifty or sixty thousand men, one of which is currently advancing towards the island of Huatai.

The rest of the troops were stationed in large cities, and the main armies were distributed in several large cities such as Vladivostok, where the Soviets resisted fiercely, and they had to hurry up the clean-up and massacre.

The military strength was insufficient, and some border troops were originally prepared to transfer over, so as to ensure that there were still garrisons in the big cities of Manchuria. If there were no garrisons in Manchuria, the situation in Manchuria would not be optimistic.

The one who knew best about the crisis of Manchuria's insufficient military strength was him, the commander.

At this time, the chief of staff, Lieutenant General Yoshimoto Sadachi, walked in and said, "Good news, the Ulan-Ude problem has been solved. ”

Umezu said: "When was it resolved?" ”

Yoshimoto Sadachi: "Three hours ago,"

Lieutenant General Sadachi Yoshimoto took office on April 10, 1941. Lieutenant General Iimura left office on October 22, 1940, and Lieutenant General Hyotaro Kimura served for half a year, and then there was Yoshimoto Sadachi.

Umezu said: "I'm not surprised by this, we have 100,000 people besieging the city, and it is a matter of time before we capture this city." How are the rest of the forces on the Western Front progressing? ”

"The other troops have taken a series of small cities along Lake Baikal, and now, having besieged the largest city, Irkutsk. There are 50,000 defenders in Irkutsk, which is advantageous for us. ”

"The Soviets are panicking in the Far East and Siberia, and if they concentrate all these forces, it will be bad for us," Mezin said. ”

Yoshimoto said: "They're just afraid that they won't be able to gather many troops." In my analysis, they are using delaying tactics to slow down the pace of our attack. ”

Umezin said: "This winter, the German army will not do much. We can only hope for good progress in the European war next spring. Now, we are not fit to be too presumptuous in Siberia. If we take Novosibirsk, the Soviets will inevitably mobilize hundreds of thousands of troops to attack us and encircle Yekaterinburg. In this way, it is good for Germany and bad for us. ”

"We can stop in several urban agglomerations in the western part of Baikal and see how things change next year before deciding to act. ”

Umezu said, "Yes." We don't have the strength to go any further west. There was not enough food to find in the Soviet villages and towns, and our supplies became a big problem. ”

Yoshimoto: "Yes." But there is also good news, thanks to the hard frozen ground, thanks to the cold climate, thanks to the Soviet prisoners, the railway from Vladivostok to Ulan-Ude was repaired. In this way, we can transport the military forces over and back the booty harvested in the Soviet villages and towns along the way. ”

"That's really good news. I have one thing that I want you to do. ”

Yoshimoto said, "Please speak." ”

Umezu said: "It's the conscription I talked about a while ago. Now, the pioneers of the early years have grown up. This time we are mainly confronted with their conscription. ”

Yoshimoto Sadachi: "Do you still plan to recruit 100,000 soldiers?" ”

Umezu said: "The first batch of 150,000 soldiers will be conscripted first. ”

Yoshimoto said: "The 150,000 army is somewhat underequipped. ”

He actually disapproves of those recruits, the old and the young. Not to mention that they don't have combat effectiveness, they can't even do physical strength, these troops can only make up the numbers, and the number of troops is large, except for being able to scare those who are afraid of the Great Japanese Imperial Army, what else can they do? It's a scarecrow that scares birds. If the bird was not afraid of the scarecrow, it would be time for the Empire of Japan to leave Manchuria.

Umezu said: "The local government will send us 150,000." These 300,000 troops can not only make up for the transferred troops, but also increase the total number of Kwantung Army. As for the equipment, have you found out the reason for the lack of output at the Shenyang Arsenal? ”

"Everything doesn't happen in a day, there is a massive loss of skilled workers, 30 percent are sick and quit, 30 percent are injured retirements, and there are many reasons for the rest. There is a shortage of skilled workers, the pass rate of finished products is gradually declining, and the output of weapons produced is gradually declining. ”

Umezu said: "Can't you recruit workers from other factories in Shenyang?" It is necessary to ensure the production of the arsenal and supporting factories. ”

Yoshimoto: "There is a similar phenomenon in other factories, where workers are lost. ”

Umezu said, "It's all gone to the mountains." It's intolerable. The General Staff, together with the Manchurians, worked on a measure to get these workers back. He said it mildly, but in fact, it was lost to Yichun. He was unwilling, but there was no way. Even if it is lost to Yichun, it is speculation, and it is speculated from the intelligence obtained recently from where the Soviet prisoners were.

The Soviet prisoner was a secret service, and his confession showed that many of the judgments of the Kwantung Army against the Japanese coalition forces in the past were wrong, from the initial contempt to the later deception, all of which were wrong. Ordinary middle- and low-level staff officers can talk nonsense about these things and mistakes, but a high-ranking official like him cannot talk nonsense. He had to act like a politician.

Yoshimoto said: "Yes." In addition, Manchuria had insufficient grain and could not be harvested. Our solution to this problem was to relocate hundreds of thousands of people from the mainland to the line from Vladivostok to Burleigh and open up land. The East should be better. There's a problem. ”

Umezu said, "Please speak." ”

Yoshimoto Sadachi: "At the beginning, the navy promised us to attack the Soviet Union, on the condition that it would not involve the energy of the south. It is already difficult to ride a tiger in the south. Now that we have won the north, the base camp has asked us to draw a large number of troops. How should we? ”

Umezu said: "Only promise them." The empire is now in full swing, and the Soviet Union and China are in decline. It should not be dangerous for us to transfer troops. ”

Umezu said so, but he had something else in mind, and he also knew that Manchuria was now the same as the North China occupation zone, and that the only towns and lines of communication remained in the occupied area of the imperial army. None of this can be changed.

The Kwantung Army was about to begin large-scale migration from within Japan to the newly occupied areas. Their focus is on Vladivostok. The Soviets in Vladivostok were basically killed, and the Tatars also killed a lot. The area of land in this area is vast, making it a good place for immigrants.