Chapter One Hundred and Two: The Japanese Army's Counterattack
The Japanese counterattack was still very fast, and as soon as the emergency military meeting of the North China Front Headquarters was held, the forces of the Japanese army in all aspects began to be mobilized. First of all, a part of the main force of the Mongolian Corps headed by Gu Shoufu made an all-out advance in the direction of Jining, and secondly, Lieutenant General Houguan Chun of the Datong Front Army commanded the 26th Division, the 39th Infantry Brigade, and the 3rd Independent Mixed Brigade to march with all their strength to the hinterland of the base area of the Inner Mongolia Military Region, and divided two wings to attack Jining City together with Lieutenant General Gu Shoufu. The rest of the troops were personally led by Lieutenant General Houguan Chun and marched towards the front line of Xinghe.
At the same time, the main forces of the 21st Division and the Chinese Garrison Brigade (Yamashita Brigade) attacked Zhangbei County with all their might, and it was necessary to defeat the enemy in front of them within 10 days, and to join the division of Toshio Tani and Lieutenant General Houguan Chun at the foot of Daqing Mountain in Xinghe County before July 15.
According to the battle plan unanimously agreed upon by the senior officers of the North China Front, the North China Front Army mobilized the main force and went all out to attack the hinterland of the Inner Mongolia Military Region until it completely occupied Han Yunhua's lair. As for the Shina troops on the front line of Chicheng and Fengning, Terauchi Shouichi ignored them for the time being, and Terauchi Shouichi believed that even if Han Yunhua occupied these counties in a short period of time, it would be impossible to completely digest them. As long as Han Yunhua's lair is completely occupied, then Han Yunhua's department will lose the foundation of survival, and it will be much easier to eliminate it in this way.
Therefore, Terauchi Shouichi finally decided that the North China Front Army and Han Yunhua's main force would fight separately to see who could not hold back to the headquarters first.
At the same time, Yanagi was also entrusted by Terauchi Shouichi to lead the more than 30 students he brought from the Japanese Army University to attack Chahar with the army, and if possible, wipe out Han Yunhua's special operations team on the spot.
Liu Shengjun's mission in China this time was to investigate the reasons for the strong rise of Han Yunhua's department, and Han Yunhua's special forces were also a very important factor in the rise of Han Yunhua's department, so he gladly accepted Terauchi Shouichi's commission.
As for the special forces of Han Yunhua's department, Liu Shengjun is just an uncertain conjecture now, and he doesn't know what the truth is.
However, Liu Shengjun still came up with a way to force Han Yunhua's special forces to take the initiative to show up, this time he followed Liu Shengjun to China with a total of three standard special operations teams, each team of 12 people, plus 12 senior agents of the special high-tech department, he has a total of forty-nine elite fighters in his hands.
At 11 o'clock in the evening of July 7, Yanagi led the only 49 people in his hand to secretly set off from Beiping to the Chahar area, and what their mission was, only the commander-in-chief of the operation, Yanagi Shengjun, and the commander of the North China Front, General Terauchi Shouichi, knew about it, and even Lieutenant General Naosaburo Gangbe did not know.
Not only did the Eighth Route Army Headquarters pay special attention to the war in Northern Cyprus, but even Yan'an was very concerned about it, and every day it had to send a report to the Eighth Route Army Headquarters to inquire about the battle situation.
In addition, far south, the highest authorities also set some of their eyes on Inner Mongolia, a place where there is yellow sand except for green grass. Both the military commanders and the central commanders received orders from the highest authorities to keep a close eye on the war in North China and to send a telegram to Wuhan as soon as there was a change in the situation of the war.
However, in the current situation, a large number of senior Kuomintang generals, including Chen Cheng, He Yingqin, Bai Chongxi, and Li Zongren, are not optimistic about Han Yunhua's subordinates, although they also admit that Han Yunhua, who was born in mud, is a guy who is good at creating miracles like most of their officers. Of course, he is also a bold and reckless fellow, and even the nominal supreme authority of the country and the commander of the Second Theater Yan Xishan dare to extort money, but now the Japanese army attacking the Chahar area has almost one-third of the strength of the Japanese North China Front, including the Sixth Division, the Yamashita Brigade, the Aviation Regiment directly under the Front Army, and other most elite troops. At this time, all units of the Eighth Route Army were also besieged by nearly 30,000 Japanese troops, and they themselves became mud bodhisattvas, and they had no ability to rescue Han Yunhua's subordinates.
In addition, the time for Han Yunhua's troops to occupy the Chahar region was too short, and the construction of the base area was very poor, so the senior officers of the Chiang Kai-shek government believed that even if Han Yunhua's troops were not completely annihilated this time, they would be greatly damaged, and it would be difficult to recover their combat effectiveness in a short period of time. And the so-called base area, in fact, the territory it occupies will also be destroyed by the Japanese army and will be newly reduced to an occupied area.
This kind of thinking is not only the argument of the vast majority of high-ranking military and political officials in the Kuomintang government, but even some party figures in Yan'an have a negative attitude toward this war, and some senior leaders have openly criticized Han Yunhua and the Japanese North China Front on different occasions as an act of personal heroism without organization and discipline, and the party should punish Han Yunhua's behavior accordingly. ,
Indeed, Han Yunhua did not make a clear report to the headquarters of the Eighth Route Army and Yan'an in advance for such a large-scale battle with the Japanese North China Front. This is not Han Yunhua's personal negligence, but Han Yunhua knows that if he makes this battle too clear, there will definitely be different opinions within the party and the army, and among these different opinions, the anti-war faction will definitely prevail. At that time, the Eighth Route Army will lose a great opportunity for development, so before the war was launched, Han Yunhua only vaguely made a small report to the Eighth Route Army headquarters.
However, Vice Chairman Zhou and the vast majority of the senior officers of the Eighth Route Army did not express any opinions, but their attention to the Chahar war did not relax at all. Therefore, the successive military "defeats" of the Inner Mongolia Military Region also reached the headquarters of the Eighth Route Army, and the headquarters of the Eighth Route Army reported the battle reports of the past few days to Yan'an.
At this moment, the rear of Yan'an University was lively, and under the impetus of some well-intentioned people, the news that Han Yunhua was going to defeat the battle suddenly spread in Yan'an City. Fortunately, after ** learned about it, he immediately stopped the development of the situation, and telegraphed to the headquarters of the Eighth Route Army to ask Han Yunhua to report his battle plan to Yan'an as soon as possible.
Besides, Han Yunhua himself stabbed such a big Lou Zi, but Han Yunhua himself was not worried at all, because he knew that he would definitely be the final winner in this battle, and everything he was doing now was to reduce his losses. In just two days, Han Yunhua's department has occupied all the two counties of Chicheng and Fengning, and most of Guyuan County is also under the control of Han Yunhua's department, leaving only a lonely Guyuan City still there to resist stubbornly, but it can't support it for a few days.
At about 9 o'clock in the evening of 7 July, Yang Ruihua sent a telegram from Jining saying that an hour earlier, the offensive intensity of the Japanese army had suddenly increased, and the main force of the Sixth Division had broken through all the defensive lines along the line from Zhuozishan County to Jining, and the main force of the division had already built fortifications ten miles outside Jining. Secondly, the Japanese army on the Datong side also took the front banner of the right wing of Chahar, and the front of the troops was directed at Jining, and the situation was very critical.
Later, Han Yunhua received a telegram from the headquarters of the Eighth Route Army, ordering Han Yunhua to send a battle plan to the headquarters as soon as possible, so as to appease some discontent within the party.
Han Yunhua also knew that he had completely turned his back on the theory of guerrilla warfare in fighting in this way, but it was somewhat similar to the theory of positional warfare of Division Commander Lin, and this could easily arouse the dissatisfaction of some people in the party, and the party Central Committee had reason to remove him from his post as commander of the military region on the basis of the fact that he had launched a super-large-scale campaign without the approval of the party Central Committee and the headquarters of the Eighth Route Army.
But now that the battle is at a critical juncture, it is taboo for soldiers to change generals in battle, so no one will mention the issue of such an idiot as removing Han Yunhua. But if Han Yunhua loses the battle this time, what awaits him is not a simple punishment, but a permanent snow hide.
Han Yunhua saw this more clearly than anyone else, until now he did not receive a telegram of criticism from his superiors, Han Yunhua knew that ** and Commander-in-Chief Zhu still believed in him, on the one hand, he believed that Han Yunhua was a good comrade and would not betray the party. On the other hand, they believe in his Han Yunhua's operational command ability and hope that he can achieve better results, although this possibility is really unlikely.