Compared with the Battle of Saibei in the Inner Mongolia Military Region, the victory or defeat of the Battle of Nanchang was more important to the Chinese nation, and for a time the people's attention quickly shifted southward. Even the newspapers reported less on the recent situation of the Battle of Saibei, and the vast majority of the pages were occupied by reports on the Battle of Nanchang.

On January 31, 1939, shortly after the first Battle of Wuhan, Lieutenant General Okamura Ninji, commander of the 11th Army, issued a battle guidance strategy of "Operation Ren", which was scheduled to start action in early March, capture Nanchang in one fell swoop, cut off and smash the squadron along the Zhejiang-Jiangxi line, and prepare for the second Battle of Wuhan. In order to fully prepare for battle, after the end of the First Battle of Wuhan, the battle sequence of the Central China Dispatch Army from November 1938 to February 1939 was adjusted as follows: First, the Iida Detachment, which had suffered little losses during the battle, was incorporated into the battle sequence of the 21st Army. On December 9, 1938, the 10th Division, the 101st Division, and the 27th Division were transferred to the North China Front combat sequence. At the same time, the battle sequence of the 2nd Army was revoked, the army headquarters was transferred back to China, and the units under the 2nd Army were transferred to the command of the 11th Army, and the time of the change in command relationship was 12 o'clock on December 15. At this point, the Central China Dispatch Army was commanded by Lieutenant General Yamada Otsuzo and Major General Yoshimoto Sada, Chief of Staff. The Central China Front is under the jurisdiction of the 11th Army (Lieutenant General Okamura Ninji and Major General Numata Takazo as Chief of Staff) under the direct jurisdiction of the 15th Division, 17th Division, 22nd Division, 116th Division, 4th Cavalry Brigade and Aviation Regiment.

On January 19, 1939, the 11th, 12th, and 13th brigades of the newly organized Reading Force were incorporated into the direct jurisdiction of the Central China Dispatch Army; The 14th Brigade was incorporated into the 13th Army's battle sequence.

On February 15, 1939, the headquarters ordered the newly organized 33rd Division and 34th Division to be incorporated into the 11th Army battle sequence.

In the view of Lieutenant General Yamada Otozo, commander of the Central China Front, it was enough to deal with the more than 30 Chinese infantry divisions commanded by Luo Zhuoying in the Ninth Theater of Nationalist Operations. After all, the Eleventh Army has nearly 150,000 troops under its jurisdiction of the 3rd, 6th, 9th, 33rd, 34th, 13th, and 16th Divisions, as well as the 12th Brigade and the 13th Brigade of the Reading Force, while the Nationalist Axe of the same period was only 20,000 or 30,000 A divisions, and a B division of two brigades and four regiments was only more than 12,000 people, and the vast majority of the temporary division of the three-regiment system was only 5 or 6,000 people, although Luo Zhuoying's department seemed to have more than 30 divisions. In fact, it was only 278,000 horses. Since the beginning of the war, the 11th Army's 150,000-strong army has less than 300,000 troops against China, which is already a big fuss with a knife. This is the first Wuhan battle after the army suffered a big loss, and only after it began to face up to the combat effectiveness of the [***] team before it was rearranged, according to the previous habits of the army, Luo Zhuoying's more than 30 divisions were placed in the army at most four divisions, and there would definitely be no permanent divisions. You must know that at the time of the Battle of Xinkou, Itagaki Seishiro commanded half of the division and defeated more than 30 divisions of the Jin Sui Army and the Central Army.

The summary of the troop deployment of the army in the Battle of Nanchang is as follows: 1. Before late February, the main force of the 3rd Division, the 16th Division, and the necessary troops directly under the army will be assembled in the area south of De'an, and the main force of the 16th Division will assemble near Jixi to make the necessary preparations. The repair of other communication routes, battlefield reconnaissance operations, and the preparation of necessary combat materials will be completed by mid-February. The 16th Division of the 2nd and 3rd Divisions assumed the main attack task of the Battle of Nanchang, broke through the enemy's position on the right bank of Xiushui near Yongxiu, pursued the Ganjiang and Ruihe rivers from the direction of Anyi and Fengxin with the main force from the Nanxun line, and eliminated the enemy along the way. 3. The main force of the 6th Division broke through the enemy's position near Jixi at about the same time as the attack began, and advanced from the area on both sides of the Xiushui River to the vicinity of Sandu. With the progress of the above operations, advance in the direction of Bongshin as soon as possible with a strong force and cut off the rear of the enemy forces on the banks of the Xiushui River. Fourth, when directly capturing Nanchang, cross the Ganjiang River from the upper reaches of Nanchang with the main force and capture it from the south. During this period, it is necessary to ensure the main points of Bongshin and the south with one piece. 5. During the above operations, if the waterway situation permits, one detachment will advance from Poyang Lake to Jinxian and cut off the Zhejiang-Jiangxi line. 6. In the initial stage of this operation, a part of the 6th Division (3 infantry brigades) will be controlled by the army as a unit directly under the command of the army, and it will be used according to the situation, that is, as the general reserve of the military headquarters. 7. At the end of late February, the command post of the combat command of the General Army advanced towards De'an.

After the first Battle of Wuhan, the attack on Nanchang by the Yue army was already known to everyone in Sima Zhao's heart. As early as February 1939, the Chinese Nationalist Axe had already judged the intention of attacking Nanchang, and Chiang Kai-shek himself instructed the Military Commission to begin arranging the Battle of Nanchang. In order to win this exhibition, Chiang Kai-shek invested a lot of money, and the Military Commission ordered the 9th Theater to launch an attack in the direction of Nanxun on the other line of the Japanese army three times in order to divert the enemy's offensive direction and disrupt the offensive deployment of the Japanese army. However, the Ninth Theater of Operations had been delaying the attack on the grounds of poor preparation, but in fact it was afraid of the counterattack of the 11th Army on the opposite side, and finally delayed the fighters.

On March 17, the army preemptively launched an attack. The squadron and the invading army fought fiercely in the Nanchang area.

At the same time as the Battle of Nanchang began, new changes also took place in the eastern Hebei battlefield. When the news of the Battle of Nanchang reached Han Yunhua's ears, Han Yunhua frowned and froze on the broken chair in the command headquarters for nearly half an hour, and did not come back to his senses until Wei Peng and the others came in to inform him that he could leave.

Han Yunhua sighed, he knew that the result of this Nanchang battle would definitely not be too good. On the one hand, after the defeat of the army, he was ashamed and courageous, carefully prepared and fully prepared for the war, in order to delay the main force of the Eighth Route Army and prevent Han Yunhua's troops from supporting the national political axe, he did not hesitate to launch a large-scale battle to confront Han Yunhua's troops and the entire Eighth Route Army. Although the army has suffered heavy losses, it has gained the initiative strategically. On the other hand, the troops of the Kuomintang Civil Axe, the first Wuhan meeting of the Warring States Civil Axe achieved an unprecedented victory, completely annihilating the two major field divisions of the Chinese Army, crippling two divisions and several brigades, and also achieved very good results in the two major battlefields on the surface and in the air, especially the total annihilation of the Third Fleet of the Third Fleet, although the military command department later investigated that the National Political Axe was only annihilated by the main force of the Third Fleet, and could only be regarded as a relatively large sub-fleet of the Third Fleet, but this still made all the officials of the National Political Axe ecstatic. At this time, the national political axe, especially the commanders and fighters on the front line, believed that after nearly two years of hard fighting, the number of veterans of the army had dropped sharply, and the combat effectiveness of the troops had also dropped by several levels. Especially the ninth war zone, which was the first Wuhan battle, was arrogant and arrogant for a while.

Although Han Yunhua also knows that the current army is indeed inferior to the group of little devils who just entered China in 37, and 39 is also a crucial year for the qualitative change in the combat effectiveness of the combat units of the army. However, it does not mean that the army after 39 years is the national political axe can be one-to-one, in terms of individual combat until the surrender of the national army is still much stronger than the national political axe, even a year before the end of World War II, the army can still launch the Yuxianggui Campaign, the national political axe hundreds of thousands of troops defeated, resulting in the national political axe not only lost hundreds of thousands of soldiers, but also lost nearly 20% of the country's land.

If you don't take the little devil seriously at this time, you can still have a good result in a fight. In fact, the historical outcome of the Battle of Nanchang is far from being described in a tragic sentence. In just over ten days from mid-March to late March, Lieutenant General Okamura Ninji, commander of the 11th Army of the Chinese Army, commanded three divisions to defeat more than 30 divisions on the right flank of the Ninth Theater commanded by Luo Zhuoying in a short period of time, occupied Nanchang, and repelled the [***] counteroffensive. The civil affairs of the Warring States period lost more than 100,000 soldiers, while the army lost no more than 10,000 people, and the ratio of casualties between the enemy and us reached an astonishing 10:1.

Han Yunhua knew that with his current status, everything he said was in vain, and Chiang Kai-shek and his staff would not listen to his warnings, so the outcome of this Nanchang Battle was already expected by Han Yunhua.

It's useless to think too much, Han Yunhua can only order the troops in Jidong to hurry up, as long as the battle in Jidong is fought, the national political axe side will feel better. Although the troops of [***] won the battle and the troops of the national axe lost their troops, so Chairman Jiang's face may not be able to pass, but Han Yunhua can't take care of it so much, he Jiang has the ability to let the millions of troops under his command also fight a beautiful battle, otherwise he can only look at it and blush.

At eight o'clock in the evening of March 17, when the mysterious unit of the Yue Army was exchanging fire with the Eighth Brigade of the Independent Army in Changli County, Han Yunhua led the transport team and the saber special combat team to the headquarters of the Guisui Military Region with the group of Germans.

On the morning ************** 18 ********* cutting the ************** line, Han Yunhua and others finally arrived in the Dayingzi area on the outskirts of Chengde. At this time, the battle of Ye Baoguo's headquarters to encircle and annihilate the remnants of the Second Division had been fought all night, and this night was a long night. Ye Baoguo led the General Reserve of the Inner Mongolia Military Region, although it is said to be a reserve, but in fact these troops are all units directly under the Military Region that were reorganized when the field troops under Han Yunhua's unit had experienced a hundred battles were reorganized. Although there were only six infantry regiments and two motorized infantry regiments, their actual combat effectiveness was stronger than that of any unit of the 77th Division and the 8th Independent Brigade.

After taking over Chengde, Ye Baoguo gathered all the more than 20,000 people in his hands, and then stormed the Ximen area of Chengde, as for the southeast, north and south, only a few infantry battalions were put into the battle.

According to the judgment of the 77th Division, the remnants of the 2nd Division of the Chinese Army are quite numerous, and the preliminary estimate should be 5,000 or 6,000 people, which is equivalent to an infantry brigade. Moreover, Chengde is the largest city in eastern Hebei, and it is also the center of political, economic, military and cultural affairs in eastern Hebei. At the same time, the army also hoarded a large number of weapons and ammunition in the city of Chengde for the war against China, although the defenders in the city of Chengde are only a remnant, but its soldiers are strong and strong, the supply is sufficient, and the combat effectiveness is not weak. Although due to the fact that Han Yunhua's troops destroyed Chengde City too badly when they withdrew, coupled with the lack of young and middle-aged labor, until now these city fortifications have only been repaired in less than half, and most of them have only dug an ordinary trench with a foundation. But despite this, Ye Baoguo's department also had a problem. After fighting all night, the position of the Yue army remained immovable, although Ye Baoguo's headquarters had destroyed all the outer positions of the Yue army, and the defending troops of the Yue army also suffered many casualties. But the little devils of the 2nd Division still held on and did not back down at all.

However, Ye Baoguo is also a ruthless character, he did not stop the attack after dawn as Lieutenant General Yasui Fujiji imagined, but divided all the more than 20,000 people in his hands to the four gates of Chengde, and ordered the troops to continue the attack without rest. At the same time, he ordered the artillery unit to quickly shoot out all the special ammunition in his hand, and gave the army a great lesson when most of the infantry of the Yue army were gathered together.

How could the army have thought that Han Yunhua's troops would have precious poison gas bombs, and it has always been the artillery unit of the Yue army that bombarded the [***] team with poison gas bombs, and there has never been a poison gas bomb used by the [***] team, and even the wealthy national political axe has not been used. At this time, Lieutenant General Yasui Fujiji panicked, there were a lot of strategic materials in Chengde, but only there were almost no poison gas bombs, and even the gas masks were discarded as useless things when they were defeated. Under the first round of artillery fire, the second division suffered such heavy losses! I only saw Lieutenant General Yasui Fujiji Uchiniu's face (tears).

Originally, according to the combat habits of the squadron, especially the Eighth Route Army, almost all of the squadrons would withdraw after dawn, leaving only a few dozen or even a few observation posts on their positions, and the rest of the large units would hide as soon as possible to prevent being bombed by the army's aviation units. But today, Ye Baoguo's headquarters was unusual, and the intensity of the attack after dawn did not weaken, but became more violent. Before nine o'clock in the morning, the squadron had organized a total of eleven charges, and Lieutenant General Toji Yasui had just filled in one squadron that was quickly exhausted, and the front-line commanders called for support one after another, and the reserves of the two brigades had now used up four squadrons, counting all the guards and non-combatants such as confidential secretaries, staff officers, and cooks of the division and regimental headquarters, and there were less than three squadrons left in all the reserves of the entire second division.

The situation at the front deeply surprised Lieutenant General Yasui Toji, how could the troops suffer such serious casualties, even the most elite troops of the same national political axe did not wear down so quickly. For this reason, he made a special inspection of the front-line position, but after returning to the headquarters, Yasui Fujiji did not say a word, and ordered the telegraph operator to immediately send a telegram to General Binshan Yuan and the Kwantung Army Headquarters, telling these two bigwigs that if they did not see reinforcements within three days, they would receive a farewell message from him and the entire Second Division, and that the Second Division could hold out for three more days or even less. Because the squadron [***] is completely consuming the imperial troops with a deadly style of play, in the opinion of Lieutenant General Yasui Toji, the officers and men of the second division have performed very well, and the perfect combination of tactics and fighting will, every time the Chinese army attacks, they will pay a heavy price.

However, the biggest dilemma of the second division now is that there are too few troops, and Lieutenant General Yasui Toji's original telegram to General Binshan Yuan said that there are still more than 7,000 soldiers in Chengde City, this number is correct, but there are less than 5,000 people who can fight, and the rest are light and seriously wounded. Even if it is calculated according to 6,000 elite infantry, the strength of the second division is still stretched, and each of the four city gates in Chengde is only 1,500 people, that is, a reinforced brigade. However, the troops attacking Chengde City now have six infantry regiments and two artillery regiments left behind by the 77th Division, and each city gate has an average of nearly 6,000 people. In addition, the weapons and equipment of Han Yunhua's department were not inferior to those of the Second Division, so the Second Division was very difficult to defend.

General Binshan Mototo was greatly surprised after receiving a telegram from Lieutenant General Toji Yasui, the [***] team is trying to eliminate internal hidden dangers at all costs, as long as they occupy Chengde City, then even if they "recover" Chengde again in the future, then tactically they have failed. Moreover, now the Chinese army has not issued a battle report for the total annihilation of the Second Division, but as long as Chengde is occupied, the Chinese army will definitely announce the annihilation of the most elite Second Division of the Empire at the first time, so the remnants of the Second Division led by Lieutenant General Yasui Toji must be saved.

However, there are no more mobile troops to be called upon in the eastern Hebei region, and although the first division is well-equipped, it is thousands of miles away in Changli County. The cunning Zhinatu Eighth Road has destroyed all the roads leading to various places in Changli County, and it is not possible to repair it in a few months, especially in the eastern Hebei region, where there are many rivers, and once there is some accident on the bridge, it is definitely not a short time to repair. Until now, Okabe Naosaburo had been fighting against the cunning Shina troops in the western part of Changli County, and the heavily anticipated heavy artillery brigade had now made it clear that it was no longer capable of rushing to Chengde due to the surprisingly poor transportation conditions. The infantry, on the other hand, was frequently attacked by the Shina army, especially by a small number of Shina snipers, so the marching speed was also extremely slow. As for the troops of Zhangjiakou under the mountain Fengwen, it was also difficult to move an inch after entering Zhangbei County, and the entire Zhangbei County was almost a place paved with mines and bombs, and the empire had to pay a lot of death every time it moved forward. A few days before the start of the war, the army still used sappers to clear mines, but the effect was extremely bad, and they were often sniped by Chinese snipers, and a brigade of sappers was quickly consumed. After that, the murderous Yamashita Fengwen ordered the Imperial Association Army to manually go through the mines, and in less than a day the Imperial Association Army was killed and wounded more than 700 people, and that night 70% of the combat effectiveness of the Second Brigade of the Imperial Association Army fled, and even the brigade commander Zhang Guofu also fled, and the situation was extremely bad. As for the strength of Qinhuangdao, General Binshan Yuan didn't consider them at the beginning, no one knows better than him, although 60% of them are authentic imperial soldiers, but they are the rear garrisons at the bottom of the empire's combat effectiveness, and they are not even third-rate in terms of combat effectiveness, and using these people to rescue the second division is simply a sheep's mouth, no different from delivering food.

(To be continued)