July 23, 1942, Changchun. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info

Time goes back to the early morning of the siege of Changchun.

In order to prevent bombing, the Kwantung Army Headquarters established a temporary command command in the eastern part of the city.

The command was in a small, fortified yard near the East Railway Station. Originally, this was a sorghum field, but later, after the construction of the railway, it was gradually inhabited. Later, the Japanese came, and one after another, the Japanese built small western-style buildings near the station.

The Temporary Command is a private residence in Japan.

Although the Kwantung Army was less well informed, it still knew that the Eighth Route Army would launch a full-scale offensive from July 22 to 24.

At the beginning of the year, the Eighth Route Army suddenly occupied Outer Mongolia and completely annihilated the troops occupying Outer Mongolia. After the battle situation was reported, the Tokyo base camp did not believe it at all and demanded to verify the actual situation. Later, after Qiqihar and Harbin were recovered by the Eighth Route Army, the base camp finally believed that this was the truth.

This matter caused a heated discussion in the base camp.

On the one hand, there were successive victories in the Pacific War, and even in the Soviet Far East. On the one hand, there were frequent defeats in Manchuria, and there was no progress in central and southern China.

The victorious Soviet Far East brought back a huge amount of booty, a lot of supplies, wood, coal, Soviet machine factories, and the Pacific region also brought back a lot of rubber, copper mines, tin, rice, oil. The Japanese economy has been relieved by these supplies, and many factories that have been shut down have reopened.

On the other hand, Manchuria and China have constantly demanded the dispatch of more troops, which used to be able to bring back supplies, but now, the amount of materials brought back has been greatly reduced, and Central and South China has even demanded the transportation of more war materials from Japan itself, Taiwan, and other places.

There was a growing feeling in the base camp that troops should be withdrawn from China. This war is really not worth the loss. This group is small in number and not predominant, but they are still tenacious in making their views known to all circles. In Japan, the mainstream voice is as Tanaka Sozuki explains, whether it is to the south or the north, China is a springboard.

The prevailing view is that there must be no withdrawal of troops from China. It is intolerable that we have paid the price of hundreds of thousands of people and withdraw our troops without receiving any benefits. It was also said that Manchuria was the lifeblood of the empire and that it was resolute not to retreat. They even demanded that troops be sent to Mongolia.

Someone immediately retorted, is Manchuria still a lifeline? Manchuria has only been in and out of the country in recent years, and what about Nanyang? What about the USSR?

Recently, Yichun's radio station has repeatedly broadcast a series of Japanese programs, the core of which is that the United States, Britain, and Western powers, in order to achieve the goal of occupying Asia, have come to the aid of China and turned it into a quagmire that dragged down the Japanese Imperial Army.

In other words, China is a trap. It is an obvious trap, a trap that Japan knows but cannot get rid of. The Japanese million-dollar Imperial Army was stationed in China, and the United States and Britain had the opportunity to carry on the Pacific War.

Various points of view can convince each other.

Just when they were arguing, Jiamusi recovered.

The quarrel continues.

Previously, the quarrel was mostly focused on the allocation of resources for the Navy and the Army. The Navy wants more planes and warships, and the Army wants more military spending and planes.

Now, the navy has made a huge contribution, and it is justified in demanding that more army units be sent to Nanyang and Haozhou. The Army, on the other hand, is not so justified because of the recent unsatisfactory fighting in China, but they absolutely do not want to withdraw.

The emperor was slow to say anything. However, the emperor continued to send troops to Nanyang, Haozhou, and the Soviet Union. Although Manchuria had brought great benefits to the Japanese Empire in the past, the largest source of benefits for the Japanese army was the Pacific Ocean and the Soviet Union. The Emperor knows what's important.

In order to appease the army, the emperor issued a new conscription order, requiring more Japanese nationals to join the army.

At the same time, the emperor demanded that the Kwantung Army recruit troops from the pioneer regiments and stop transferring elite troops from Manchuria. Moreover, it continued to replenish the troops in Manchuria, but the supplementary troops were all old and young recruits, the training time was very short, the combat effectiveness was very low, and seven or eight people were not as good as an elite imperial soldier.

This also laid the foundation for the defeat of the Kwantung Army. By July, there were only a few cities left in all of Manchuria.

The Kwantung Army Command did not see this as its own problem at all, and they said: We have already asked for more troops at a very early stage, but if our opinion is adopted, then this situation will not occur in Manchuria. And now a large number of good officers are being captured and committing suicide because of this, and who is to blame for this?

Now the Japanese army had to admit the fact that it was now losing in Manchuria.

The question is, what to do with the current situation.

Responsibility and no argument came to an end, and the argument began again.

At this time, intelligence showed that the Eighth Route Army in Manchuria intended to seize all of Manchuria from the Kwantung Army, and that the general offensive was about to begin.

The confidence of the Kwantung Army is still very strong. They believed that although the Eighth Route Army had acquired a small amount of advanced weapons from the Soviet Union, they would not use these weapons against civilians in the northeast. In addition, according to intelligence, the Eighth Route Army had a small number of advanced weapons, and it was unlikely that there would be enough weapons to capture the three cities.

On July 20, the Kwantung Army command felt tremendous pressure, because the latest intelligence showed that the Eighth Route Army's railroad had been transporting, and many troops disguised themselves as refugees and headed north. We've heard early on that they're taking in refugees with great fanfare, but wasn't there any conspiracy in the middle of the war? The trains to the south are believed to have transported weapons and ammunition.

Is it the Eighth Route Army that is being transported to the north? Was it an offensive to the Soviet Far East?

The Kwantung Army immediately reported this speculation to the base camp, and also to Vladivostok.

The base camp is making decisions very quickly this time, and when necessary, you can give up.

The evacuation of overseas Chinese began.

In fact, the expatriates have been evacuated for two days, and as soon as the evacuation order was issued in these two days, the evacuation was quickly completed.

On the night of July 22, Pu Jie and the Manchurian ministers began to retreat, filling a train full of loads. After the Kwantung Army headquarters went to the station to say goodbye, the train started.

This train quickly caught up with several other trains, and five or six trains went very slowly, often stopping at the railway station because of the constant incidents of harassment on the railway.

On July 23, the battle in Changchun took a sharp turn, and at noon, the headquarters was occupied by the besieging Eighth Route Army.

The base camp assessed the situation in Xinjing, knew that the loss of Xinjing was inevitable, and did not want them to be captured alive by the Eighth Route Army, so it asked them to evacuate immediately, which was an order.

When the train passed through the city of Jilin, the siege was raging, and of course the train was attacked. Someone intercepted the train and asked to stop for inspection.

Including officers, there were almost a thousand Japanese soldiers on the train, and they began to prepare for battle. They did not identify themselves, and the Manchukuo flag was not flown on the train.

It is clear that it was the Eighth Route Army that intercepted them. The Eighth Route Army did not know whose car this train was, and asked for an inspection.

At this moment, a car drove up, and a bearded man got out of the car and ran over and said, "Who told you to intercept this train?" ”

The soldier said: "Report, we were ordered to block the railway. The superiors said that the train entering the station could not pass until the battle was over. In addition, we suspect that there are Japanese troops here. ”

Hu Zi said: "This train is our soldiers, secretly chasing down the Japanese Kwantung Army Headquarters who absconded. This is a secret and must not be divulged. ”

The warrior said, "Yes." Please, chief, your documents. ”

The beard showed him his papers, and the warrior let him go.

The bearded man knocked on the train door, got in, and shouted, "Drive!" ”

The train drove away and headed south towards Tonghua.

Or after driving for less than half an hour, a person came running and said, "Did you just pass a train?" ”

The soldier said: "Yes, isn't that our special train to chase the Japanese devils?" ”

The man said, "No, it's the train from which the devil escaped." ”

The soldier said, "No, the head of a headquarters told me to let me go." See, his papers are back in my custody. ”

At this time, a large number of people and horses came running. The man took the papers, looked at them, and said, "I'll go and verify." Remember, if you cross the train in the future, you will always be stopped. After leaving, he muttered to himself: "I have been to the headquarters with the commander a few times, and I don't have such a big beard." ”