In early May, Lieutenant General Okamura Ninji received an order from the military headquarters to act as commander of the East China Dispatch Army. The military headquarters ordered him to integrate all the troops of the East China Dispatch Army and form the Eleventh Army, so that the East China Dispatch Army would form four army sequences, with a total strength of 450,000 troops. The military headquarters ordered him to inspect the detailed battle situation of the Battle of Jiangxi with full authority and submit a report to the military headquarters. At Hongqiao Airport, a transport plane landed on the runway. The cabin door opened, and Lieutenant General Okamura walked down the spiral staircase with a calm face.

Born in 1884, he is 53 years old. If it weren't for the outbreak of a full-scale war between China and Japan, perhaps he would have been unknown. Now the master tactician is beginning to show off his military and political prowess. Okamura's resume is complicated, and his achievements are mainly played in the Kwantung Army, where he is now appointed commander of the 11th Army from the position of commander of the 2nd Division, and acting commander of the East China Dispatch Army. To be exact, he was promoted exceptionally, and it was obvious that the military department was not satisfied with Matsui Ishine.

At this time, on the tarmac, the outgoing Matsui Ishone looked gloomy. The two sides saluted each other, and Matsui Shigen said coldly: "Gangmura-kun, Jiangxi is a difficult bone to gnaw, good luck!" Okamura nodded in respect, and Matsui got on the transport plane, and soon the transport plane lifted off and disappeared into the sky. Okamura Ninji smiled slightly, turned around and looked around at the generals who greeted him, and his eyes stayed on the face of the commander of the 8th Army, Yusuke Takakura, who was understanding.

Gangcun Ningji was not good at talking, so he just nodded to the generals with a smile, and then got into the car. As the car drove towards the city, Okamura Ninji looked at the rice on the field outside, and seemed to be a little careless. Okamura Ninji is known for his thoughtfulness, and he has always acted strategically before acting, and he never makes a move if he is not sure. His personality is introverted, not rough, calm, not showy, and efficient. Okamura Ninji uses today's words to describe him as a compound talent, who is not only proficient in strategy and tactics, but also uses espionage and political methods with ease.

That evening, Okamura Ninji welcomed Yusuke Takakura at his official residence. When Okamura Ninji was the deputy chief of staff of the Kwantung Army, Takakura Yusuke served as the commander of the Northern Border Troops, and the two not only knew each other but also had a good personal relationship. After meeting, the two continued their old days, and Okamura Ninji got straight to the point and said: "Takakura-kun, I have been fighting fiercely against the Communist Party's Eighth Route Army in Jiangxi for two months, I want to hear your thoughts?" Takakura Yusuke smiled bitterly and said: "Fighting against the Eighth Route Army of the Communist Party, it is difficult to achieve the strategic goal of continuing to attack in the current state. ”

Gangcun Ningci remained silent, just nodded in approval. "Okamura-kun, the battle against the Jiangxi Eighth Route Army is not a matter of strategy and tactics, but something outside the battlefield, which leads to today's unfavorable operation. First, in the past, we focused on the Kuomintang and relaxed our understanding of the Communist Party. As a result, the Communist Party has quietly developed and grown, and we have no knowledge of it, resulting in a major strategic miscalculation. Second, an outstanding military and political talent has emerged in the Communist Party, and this person is Ouyang Jian, chief of the general staff of the Eighth Route Army. ”

"According to the information provided by the special high class, this person is an outstanding strategic master of the Communist Party. After the Communist Party established itself in Jiangxi, this person began to secretly develop munitions enterprises and important factories. This person is bilingual and knows the European and American worlds, including us. Since the Communist Party made careful preparations several years ago, it is not surprising that today's situation has arisen. Okamura Ningji said: "This time in the base camp, I have studied Ouyang Jian, this person cannot be explained with normal thinking. The Eighth Route Army of the Jiangxi Communist Party is aimed at us in terms of army composition, weaponry, strategy, tactics, and defensive measures. ”

Okamura Ningji's eyes were sharp and he continued to say calmly: "Ouyang Jian used the most practical, simplest, most ingenious, and least expensive method to prepare carefully in advance. I can conclude that he is the most outstanding strategic genius of China, you see this!" Okamura Ninji took out a few pieces of paper, and on the paper was a sketch of the tunnel fortifications, and continued: "We drew a simple map of the tunnel fortifications based on aerial photos. Judging from the drawings, the tunnel is 5 meters deep, and the logs are staggered with three layers of logs, and the top is a two-meter-thick soil layer. The specialists of the base camp came to a conclusion after blasting tests! ”

Yusuke Takakura's eyes widened in surprise, "Experts believe that this kind of tunnel fortification seems simple, but so far our infantry artillery fire and aerial bombs have not been able to destroy the tunnel fortifications at all. And naval guns with a caliber of more than 200 mm can blow up tunnel fortifications. It can be seen that the Communist Party has carried out meticulous research on the construction of tunnel fortifications and has taken the civil fortifications to the extreme. The weakness of the tunnel fortifications is that they will be useless once they break through, and the advantage is that they are resistant to artillery fire and air strikes. ”

"Therefore, the tunnel fortifications built by the Communist Party must rely on the large depth of the defense line, the large depth of the defense line was proposed by European and American military experts, but I did not expect the Communist Party to take the lead, it seems that Ouyang Jian, chief of the general staff of the Eighth Route Army, is indeed extraordinary, this person has advanced strategic vision." Yusuke Takakura seemed to see the clue and asked, "Okamura-kun, what do you mean by the base camp?" Okamura Ningji said: "The base camp needs me to provide a detailed report, and tomorrow you will accompany me to the Jiangxi War Zone to observe in the air." ”

Okamura Ninji's pragmatic attitude made Takakura Yusuke appreciate it very much. The fact that the Supreme Commander dared to take the risk of going to the front line to inspect is admirable. The next day, Okamura Ninji, accompanied by Yusuke Takakura, boarded a transport plane at Hongqiao Airport and headed for Jiangxi under the cover of four fighters. Aerial observation first began on the Jiujiang De'an defensive line, on which the transport aircraft circled twice. Okamura Ninji held the binoculars and looked down in silence.

"Okamura-kun, after two months of continuous fighting, the Eighth Route Army has not changed its defenses, and they have always maintained a strong counterattack force, which is the reason why I dare not make a large-scale breakthrough." Takakura is telling the truth. "Takakura-kun! You did the right thing, if you put in heavy forces to attack, I'm afraid your 8th Army will no longer exist. Your mind is very clear, Ouyang Jian is building a large depth defense line on the east and west fronts, the purpose is to give up the forward position at any time when the battle situation is unfavorable, and then implement counterattack operations, this is the active defense tactic. ”

"Okamura-kun has a sharp eye, it's good that when our troops attack, they can quickly break through the forward position, but they are quickly counterattacked, and the other party organizes a strong counterattack. The melee opponent has fierce firepower, and we have suffered for this. "According to what I know, in two months of fighting, we suffered more than 30,000 casualties. It was foreseeable that the casualties of the Eighth Route Army would surpass ours. I judged that Ouyang Jian must have formed a powerful reserve corps, and the purpose was to fight with us. What would the outcome look like if the war was protracted? ”

"You mean that the purpose of the Eighth Route Army is not only to hold Jiangxi, but also to consume the soldiers of my elite troops?" "This is the terrible thing about Ouyang Jian, and maybe this is also the overall strategy of the Communist Party. With a population of 40,000, China has unimaginable strategic depth. If China resolutely resists to the end, he can raise tens of millions of troops, do you know what this concept is? Our aim was to force the Nationalist Government to surrender and end the war as soon as possible. If the war is protracted, it will be difficult for the financial resources of Great Japan to support it, and it will be difficult for the population to support it, which is the most terrible thing. ”

Yusuke Takakura's strategic vision is far worse than Okamura Ninji, and his strategic insight ability is significantly higher than Okamura's Ninji. "We lack understanding of the Communist Party, especially about Ouyang Jian, a legend of the Communist Party. But the most terrible thing is the shrewdness of this man, who not only understands us, but also takes targeted measures. The Communist Eighth Route Army was not only well-armed and equipped, but it could be concluded through the Xingta blockade operation, which lasted for two months in the Battle of Jiangxi. ”

"There is an essential difference between the Communist Eighth Route Army and the Kuomintang Army, which is a group of people who do not seek fame, do not seek profit, and worship the faith fanatically. To be precise, a powerful group of Soviet and Russian formations that has risen in China will become our most formidable adversary in the future. Therefore, I believe that the strategy of the empire must change, to defeat the Kuomintang militarily and politically as soon as possible, and finally to concentrate all its efforts on dealing with the Communists. We must take advantage of the contradictions of the Chinese people themselves and adopt the strategy of razing and destroying to achieve our goal・・・・・. ”

Okamura Ningji took a transport plane to make a few laps around the De'an Line, and on the return trip, he passed through Nanchang, Jingdezhen and Shangrao to check the Line. Returning to Shanghai, Okamura Ningji immediately ordered the De'an defensive line, Jingdezhen, and Shangrao line Japanese attacking troops to retreat and defend on the spot to prevent the counterattack of the Eighth Route. At the same time, the army aviation units at the Shanghai and Nanjing airports were ordered to continue bombing and carry out key strikes at important military and economic targets. After a few days of investigation, Okamura Ninji submitted a detailed report to the base camp.

In his submitted report, Okamura wrote: "・・・・・・, to sum up, the Battle of Kieong has lost its meaning. The purpose of the Jiangxi Communist Party's long-term preparations was defensive operations, and the Eighth Route Army of the Communist Party did not have offensive capability at present. The defeat in the Battle of Jiangxi did not affect the overall strategy, and we still held the strategic initiative. I believe that the battle of Wuhan will be launched as soon as possible, and the offensive posture on the northern front is already clear. On the eastern front, after we took control of the Yangtze River and Jiujiang rivers, we also had powerful conditions for attacking from east to west. ”

"As long as we eliminate the main force of the Kuomintang army in Wuhan and form a trend of attacking Jiangxi from the east and west from the direction of Hunan, we can eliminate the Jiangxi Communist Party. If we attack Wuhan, we will continue to shake the foundation of the Kuomintang government, cooperate with political means to find agents within the Nationalist government, and achieve goals ・・・・・・that cannot be achieved by military means. With his sharp strategic vision and pragmatic style, Okamura Ninji prompted the Japanese army base camp to quickly change its strategy, and the Battle of Jiangxi came to an end.

In the headquarters of the 3rd Corps in Yunshui County, with the retreat of the Japanese attacking troops, Su Yu and Luo Ronghuan returned to the transportation county from the front-line headquarters. In response to the new situation that emerged, Ouyang Jian and the generals were discussing, and an operational staff officer reported: "Report, news has come from the dark arrow, and the commander of the Japanese East China Dispatch Army has been changed. The former commander, Matsui Ishone, resigned, and the new commander was Lieutenant General Okamura Ninji, commander of the 11th Army. "Order Peng Dehuai to let the reserve corps replace the first-line troops, and the front-line troops of the De'an defense line will also be withdrawn to rest!"

Su Yu asked, "Chief of the General Staff, do you think the Japanese army will attack again?" "After the Japanese army took Zhengzhou, it already had the conditions to attack Wuhan. The Japanese army was willing to move this bone in Jiangxi. Avoiding its edge, the new commander Okamura Ninji is very pragmatic, and this person will be our strong opponent in the future! "Ouyang Jian guessed that the changes in the Japanese army were completely the masterpiece of Okamura Ningji." Deputy Commander Su, you will handle the aftermath of the troops, and I will go to Ruijin immediately! ”