With more than 200,000 elite troops in hand, Jiang Fangzhen was able to defend with ease, and even had enough ability to launch a counterattack to a certain extent. In the past five days, more than 2,500 of his troops were injured, most of whom were treated by field hospitals and out of danger of life.

"Brother, most of the main forces of the Japanese army are concentrated in the Miyazaki and Kumamoto areas on the front of the defensive line, and more than 200,000 Japanese soldiers have been killed in the front, but most of them are reserve soldiers, which means that the main force of the Japanese army has not been damaged. According to intelligence analysis, the Japanese army on the opposite side still has about 1 million regular troops and about 3 million reserve troops. In contrast, Jiang Fangzhen's military knowledge was more solid, and he had to work part-time as chief of staff.

After listening to Jiang Fangzhen's introduction, Zhang Zuolin nodded, pondered for a while and said with a smile: "The Japanese have recruited all their men!" But you see, we have occupied Shimonoseki and cut off the Shimonoseki Strait, and Kyushu Island and Honshu Island have been cut off. Our air force also controlled the sea area from Shikoku to Kyushu, and naval destroyers also traveled north and south of the waterway, which meant that the millions of Japanese troops on Kyushu Island were alone. ”

"Kyushu is not the industrial center of Japan, after the last war Japan built most of its factories on the island of Honshu, there are not many industrial enterprises in Kyushu, and if there are, they are small family workshops that cannot supply millions of soldiers. They lack ammunition, weapons, food, and collapse is a matter of time. ”

"So we have to push them and make them collapse as soon as possible, and attacking is the best way, I suggest starting the attack and letting He Guangsha's armored troops dispatch, he should be impatient to wait!"

"Well, I'll send a telegram to the General Staff, according to the plan of attack No. 1. Also, there is another point that we may have overlooked, and this is just my personal opinion. The Japanese government armed their soldiers and civilians with militaristic ideas and bushido ideas, imbued them with fanaticism, and at the beginning they were united, but will they still pay attention to the burial of the emperor under our continuous blows? As long as it is human, it will cherish its own life, and those reservists may relax their resistance mentality, as long as we give a certain commitment. ”

"Hehe, I see you, you are the most suitable for serving in the General Staff, so let's report your proposal with the attack plan, and see what it means, maybe you can impress the president!"

The offensive plan was approved by the General Staff, but another suggestion took time to consider, and after making the suggestion, Jiang Fangzhen put his mind on the offensive plan. It was a battle of infantry and armored forces, a battle of hundreds of thousands of people, against an enemy of millions of orders. Such a large-scale battle in human history also exists in today's Europe, but fortunately, the battle plan has been formulated, in fact, as early as a few years ago, a similar battle plan was formulated by the staff officers of the General Staff, and then it was revised many times according to the number of troops, equipment, changes in friend and foe, and the evolution of the situation, and after the start of the Kyushu Campaign, the staff officers also made some detailed adjustments according to the situation.

The offensive will be carried out from two directions, Kumamoto and Miyazaki, the Kumamoto direction is the main direction of attack, the terrain on this side is relatively flat, suitable for the rapid advance of the Chinese army's mechanized army, consisting of the second army and the eleventh army. The 2nd Army was the main mechanized army, including an armored corps, a light armored corps and a mechanized infantry corps, which would penetrate into the territory of Kumamoto from the left flank as the main offensive force and cut off the main forces of the Japanese army encircling there. Chiang Fangzhen's Eleventh Army attacked from the right flank, covering the right flank of the Second Army.

The Miyazaki direction consisted of the Fifth Army and the Taiwan Army Corps, which were to contain the Japanese forces in the Miyazaki area and prevent them from supporting the Kumamoto direction. One of the major characteristics of this offensive group is that it has a number of mountain troops, including the historic 1st Mountain Division and the 3rd Mountain Division, and the two Gaoshan Mountain Divisions of the Taiwan Corps, which have a strong ability to attack fortified positions in mountainous terrain.

Major General He Guangsha, commander of the Third Armored Corps, knows how big the scale of this attack is, but no matter how large the scale, his own armored troops are also the most eye-catching existence, and it can be said that how great the results of this battle can be depends on how beautiful his armored troops are.

As the most proficient general in armored warfare among ordinary officers, He Guangsha was entrusted with important tasks, and at the age of just 32, he became the commander of the first army and the rank of major general, second only to the promotion speed of Jiang Fangzhen and the other three. The Third Armored Corps has two tank divisions and one mechanized infantry division, equipped with the latest Leopard tanks, Leopard assault guns, Leopard rocket launchers, and other powerful combat platforms, in addition to "heavy cavalry" armored vehicles and "light cavalry" armored reconnaissance vehicles, trucks, jeeps, motorcycles, and so on, which are completely capable of accompanying the tank troops' assaults. The mechanized infantry division carries 55 guns of 150 mm and above, which can be comparable to ordinary infantry divisions in terms of heavy firepower, and will clear obstacles for tank troops.

In addition to the 3rd Panzer Corps, which served as the assault arrow, the 11th Mechanized Infantry Corps would cover the right flank of the 3rd Panzer Corps, and the 5th Light Panzer Corps would cover its left flank, followed by Chiang Fangzhen's 11th Army. The entire offensive cluster consisted of 310,000 men in 16 divisions of six armies, 2,500 tanks, 1,700 artillery pieces, and tens of thousands of trucks.

That is to say, the Chinese army has prepared more than 500,000 troops for this offensive, including the armored army, the mechanized army, the infantry army, and the mountain troops, and the arms are very complete, including almost all the arms of the army.

Kagoshima has been transformed into a large military camp, with countless supplies piled up in the ports of Kagoshima and Akune, fuel trucks, ammunition trucks, and personnel carriers crowded the roads, and the logistics department has even dispatched transport planes and airships to assist in transporting supplies. Several freight railways built before the war also played a huge role, and on the tenth day after the decision to attack was made, the Chinese army was finally ready for the attack, all the soldiers and vehicles were given the corresponding supplies, the tank engine was started, the gearbox and other key parts were carefully inspected by the soldiers, they got into the cabin and pointed the muzzle of the gun in the direction of the enemy. The first large-scale battle in the Japanese archipelago was about to begin.

"Yaga! A group of fools in the base camp, the Chinese army is obviously going to launch a counterattack, all signs indicate their offensive posture, the base camp actually insists on letting us attack, and the top priority is to transfer the troops from offensive to defensive! During this time, he analyzed a lot of information gathered from the front line and determined that the Chinese army was about to launch a large-scale offensive, so he suggested to the base camp that the reserve army should stop the attack, and the whole army would go on the defensive, use the mountainous terrain to build fortifications, use the defense to consume the Chinese army, and prepare for future counterattacks.

However, this suggestion was rejected, and the generals of the base camp, such as Kurogi Weizhen and Nogi Noshinori, believed that the main direction of the Chinese army's attack was Honshu Island, and the large number of troops that appeared in Shimonoseki also proved this. Not only that, but they also built many field airfields there, and the Japanese counterattack was also blocked on the east bank of the Toyota River - Honshu Island was in danger, and it was impossible for them to launch a large-scale attack in two places at the same time, that is to say, the offensive posture of Kyushu Island was a tactical deception, and it was necessary to let Matsunaga Masatoshi maintain an offensive posture and attract the attention of the Chinese army!

Masatoshi Matsunaga almost spurted out a mouthful of old blood, and he was also angry with Hideki Tojo, who had already ordered the reserve army to stop attacking the Chinese army's strong defense line two days ago and retreated to the rear, preparing to take advantage of the mountain jungle of Miyazaki and Kagoshima to resist, but he didn't expect the order from above to continue the attack!

At this time, the shortcomings of the chaotic command system manifested themselves, and Matsunaga Masatoshi finally complied with the orders from above and asked the troops to continue the attack, but he had already given the order for the troops to retreat. At this time, most of the troops were on the way back, and less than 100,000 reserve soldiers were on the front line as rearguards.

The speed of the troops was divided into fast and slow movements, many units did not receive the order to return, and some units also received the order to return, so the tragedy arose, they met on the narrow road, and the soldiers only knew to move forward, making the road more and more congested, and finally becoming immobile. A large number of horse-drawn carriages and motor vehicles were stuck there, and the fields and woods on both sides of the road were full of resting soldiers. The officers and signal corps, exhausted and prostration, did not resolve the confusion from top to bottom, saying that we were ordered to retreat, and that we were ordered to attack, and both sides believed that the orders they had received were correct.

The headquarters of the Kyushu garrison in Kumamoto was similarly chaotic, with several high-powered radios receiving numerous telegrams from below almost simultaneously, and various requests for instructions caused headaches for the military staff and Matsunaga Masatoshi. At this moment, he desperately hoped to get a field telephone communication system similar to that of the Chinese army, but there was no good news, and soon bad news came one after another - two high-power radios went on strike because of line failures, and it would take at least three hours to repair them - and the command system was completely paralyzed!

Hideki Tojo had already left the front line with his troops at this time and was about to enter the mountain forest area, and due to the timely reaction, his troops did not crowd the road and temporarily escaped a terrible fate. However, when he saw the Chinese planes appear in the sky again, an ominous premonition came to his mind, he could not contact the headquarters, nor could he contact other troops, and if the Chinese army launched an attack in such chaos, the Japanese army would have no power to resist! (To be continued.) )