Zhang Xuewu knew very well that he could not persist because of his reckless military force, because although he had carried out pre-war mobilization and formed 65 active divisions and more than 35 reserve divisions, his national economic system had not yet been incorporated into the overall strategic mobilization.

In fact, this is a very abnormal economic system, because war is the most important joint in the country's overall strategic link, and his own practice is actually to cover up the fragility of his economy, and in order to avoid the early collapse of the economic system, he can only increase the plundering of Korea, Taiwan, and the three eastern provinces, otherwise his national strength will not be able to support the consumption of more than 100 divisions and regiments without being transferred to the wartime economic system.

Sure enough, in the afternoon of the same day, the authorities began to warn the civil airliners of various countries not to fly to all the areas where China and the two countries are at war, otherwise they would be shot down, but he himself also made special exceptions, such as the Eurasian flights controlled by the United States and Britain. At this time, the power of the powerful naval power of the Empire was finally manifested.

Sure enough, what Zhang Xuewu was most worried about finally happened, on April 6, 1937, the two sides were in one. After the 28th Songhu Anti-Japanese War, another battle of Songhu broke out, which can be called the largest scale.

Unlike in history, the Shanghai Dispatch Army was not under the direct jurisdiction of the military department, but was transferred to the General Staff Headquarters, and Tada Jun, chief of the General Staff, directly commanded Matsui Ishine, commander of the Shanghai Dispatch Army; this was the ultimate embodiment of the staff system, that is, the division commander, and when the division commander was not in the combat command position, the senior staff officer of the division and regiment acted as his command, rather than the commander of a subordinate brigade as it is generally believed.

At the beginning of the formation of the Shanghai Dispatch Army, Tada Jun directed his campaign objectives directly under the capital, so he sent Deputy Chief of Staff Ishihara Waner to guide the operation, and the Shanghai Dispatch Army directly under the jurisdiction of the 3rd, 6th, 9th, 11th, 13th, 16th, 18th, 101st, and 114th Divisions, the Shigeto Detachment, the Fifth Brigade of Field Heavy Artillery, the Signal Corps, and the troops directly under the military station, instead of the historical successive transfer of troops, but in one go, so that the troops that are being increased and are planning to use the troops one by one [***] The team caused great distress.

In Zhang Xuewu's view, the policy toward the United States at this time should still be to strive to maintain friendly relations with the United States, because he knew very well that although Manchuria was rich in coal and iron resources, it lacked the most important strategic resources, oil and rubber. These important strategic resources are all controlled by the Americans and the British in Southeast Asia, so we must not turn against the US political axe unless we have to, as long as we do not turn against Britain and the United States, the United States, which pursues a policy of loneliness, and Britain, which pursues a policy of appeasement, will acquiesce in the existence of Manchukuo, because there is a Manchuria that I control, which just eliminates the worries of Britain and the United States going south.

In fact, in the early thirties, there was a plan for the navy and army to jointly capture Wuhan, but in view of the fact that the power of the central government in Nanjing, China, had been strengthened, and this plan had already been forced to abandon the plan to capture Wuhan in the event of war, because it was not allowed by the country's national strength.

However, the north-south division of the [***] team's combat strength, so that its north and south can not echo, heavy troops to intercept the Rehe army, so that it is useless, cut off the Pinghan, Jingpu, Zhengtai Road north-south advance plan, the overall strategy of forcing the city of Nanjing is still allowed for the national strength of the empire, occupation to eliminate destabilizing factors, stabilize the international situation It will take a certain amount of time, and people who are still clear in their minds in the country have long realized that it is impossible to completely destroy China within six months to a year. And it is likely that Ben will be dragged into the quagmire of a protracted war and will not be able to extricate himself.

Twenty nautical miles from the mouth of the Huangpu River in Shanghai, more than a dozen destroyers are closely guarding the battleship Izumo, the flagship of China's dispatch fleet, and from time to time there are three-plane formations of Type 95 navy-type fighters cruising through the air.

In what Izumo himself considered extravagant and luxurious, the special envoy of the base camp, Lieutenant General Hatohiko Asakanomiya, the commander of the Shanghai Dispatch Army, General Matsui Ishine, the deputy chief of the General Staff Headquarters, Ishihara Wanji, the commander of the 10th Army, Lieutenant General Yanagawa Heisuke, the commander of the 3rd Division, Lieutenant General Fujita Sususu, and the chief of staff, Lieutenant General Toshio Tani, the commander of the 6th Division, and the chief of staff, Ichiho Shimono, the commander of the 11th Division, Lieutenant General Yamamuro Munetake, and the chief of staff, Katamura Shibachisa, the commander of the 18th Division, Lieutenant General Nakajima Sadao, Chief of Staff Megumi Koto, Commander of the 101st Division, Lieutenant General Masaka Ito, Chief of Staff Fukutaro Nishiyama, Lieutenant General Shigeji Suematsu, Chief of Staff Saburo Isoda Osa, Commander of the 114th Division, Major General Chiaki Shigeto, Commander of the Shigeto Detachment, and Major General Tadaharu Shiga, Commander of the 3rd Flying Division of the Army Air Corps, gathered together.

The entire conference room was full of flattering words, and almost all the generals of the army were congratulating King Hatohiko and Matsui Ishine, although the battle ahead was extremely unsmooth, and it was planned to draw troops from the 10th Army to attack the [***] soft underbelly from the landing flank of Hangzhou Bay, but the atmosphere at the moment seemed to be celebrating victory.

Among all the people, only Ishihara Waner behaved very calmly, Ishihara Waner looked at the Donggong Tetsuo of the 47th Infantry Wing of the 36th Brigade of the Sixth Division beside him and smiled slightly: "Tetsuo-kun has always been good?" Imperial body big cut? ”

Donggong Tienan hurriedly saluted and said gratefully: "Thank you for your care, everything is fine, but I don't adapt to the weather in the south of China, and I miss Manchuria!" ”

The commander of the 11th Division, Yamamuro Sotake, who was on the side, was a little dissatisfied with Ishihara Waner, so he said to his chief of staff, Katamura Shihachi: "Ishihara, this guy is getting more and more arrogant, this official has a few words with him, and it makes people angry to see his appearance of being a boiled person, who is that Dazuo over there?" They seem familiar? ”

Katamura Shihachi glanced at Donggong Tetsuo and smiled slightly: "Your Excellency the division commander doesn't know yet, right?" That guy is the famous Donggong Iron Man! Back then, it was he who personally secretly blew up Zhang Zuolin with the detonator of Emperor Fengtian Gutun in Manchuria, and he was a well-known radical! But two-two. After the Six Incidents, they were also much more honest, and if it weren't for Hideki Tojo, I'm afraid these people would have been purged together. ”

Ishihara Wan'er looked at the ambitious generals and sighed to Donggong Tetsuo: "In fact, the most difficult thing is not how to start a war, the excuse is not important, the real thing is to know how to end a war, in the old saying of the Chinese people, it is necessary to accept it when it is good, the Imperial General Staff Headquarters strategically despises the Chinese in order to boost morale and boost the people's hearts, after all, the Chinese are too big for the empire, but our generals are stupid enough to despise the Chinese people tactically!" The same is true of the fiasco in Rehe Chengde! ”

Donggong Tienan hesitated for a moment and said: "Your Excellency, this time, I am determined to use a total of nine divisions, four infantry brigades, two artillery brigades, and the Shanghai Special Marine Corps, with a total of more than 280,000 people, more than 120 warships, more than 500 aircraft, and more than 300 vehicles equipped with the latest Type 95 tanks. ”

Ishihara Wan'er smiled slightly and said, "Donggong-kun! What would you do if your team approached the city of Nanjing? ”

Donggong Tetsuo was slightly stunned and said, "Of course it's an attack!" The capture of the capital of China is the glory of my empire that has not been seen in 2,000 years, even if I disobey the order and die under the city alone, I will die without regrets! Glorious and magnificent! ”

Ishihara said coldly: "Now the Shanghai Dispatch Army has invested five divisions, and is ready to invest three divisions to hit the soft underbelly of [***] on the landing side of Hangzhou Bay, but it will take at least twenty days for the troops to complete the loading, and this protracted war is estimated to be coming to an end, and there is still a Chinese defense line between Shanghai and Shanghai and Hangzhou, Wufu Line, but this line of defense is not worth mentioning, it can be said that once the Imperial Army defeats the main force of the China Army in Shanghai, Nanjing, the capital of China, is completely exposed to us, and at present, our army needs time to complete the transportation and material deployment of the entire dispatch army, but the main purpose is to use the Battle of Songhu to consume a large number of elite descendants of the central political axe of Nanjing, and the determination to destroy the resistance of the people of China is to defeat their elite descendants, such as Zhang Xuewu of Rehe and the German armor division of Nanjing Political Axe. ”

Donggong Tienan nodded in surprise and said: "It is said that the Chinese army is very heroic and fearless in Shanghai, even if it has stubbornly held out within the range of our warship guns, our army can only occupy the position when the enemy army is completely destroyed, and in such a narrow combat area of Songhu, so many troops are invested in the battle of a large corps, I am afraid it is also an extremely strong stroke in the history of world warfare!" ”

Ishihara nodded and said: "However, although the ground forces of the North Branch are making rapid progress, they have been intercepted by the air force of Zhang Xuewu's department in Rehe, and it was Zhang Xuewu's army fighters who shot down my seventeen Type 97 heavy bombs a few days ago, and the threat brought to us by these fighters is too great, so I asked for additional flying troops to lure the enemy into battle, and use the interval between their battles to destroy these fighters on the ground." ”

At the same time, Chiang Kai-shek, who rushed to the Songhu front line to inspect, looked at his subordinates who were starry and felt very satisfied, especially Hao Wenbin and Ye Yunfei who sat at the end, but what made Chiang Kai-shek even more satisfied was his little fellow Huang Tianming, Huang Tianming was the lieutenant colonel captain of the 105th Fighter Brigade under the Rehe Army, and the 105th Fighter Group moved to Nanjing four months ago to do the so-called exchange training. Four months later, Songhu had an endless book.

Although the surname of the BF-109 fighter can be used for many purposes, it still cannot stand up to the wolf pack tactics of the Yue himself, and the army has openly strafed the pilots who parachuted out of our army, aiming to hit the morale of our pilots, Huang Tianming is now the ace of the nine brigades in the Rehe battle to hold the highest record, and the number of 22 planes shot down is beyond the reach of his colleagues in Rehe.

Chiang Kai-shek nominated and praised the fighter brigade commanded by Huang Tianming for its impressive achievements in the air battle on April 10, and the record of 37 to 3 made the fighters dare not roam the Songhu battlefield, and decided to designate April 10 as the Air Force Day every year!

After the General Staff successively announced the sequence of troops to reinforce the Songhu battlefield, Xiong Shihui once again stood up and emphasized the three-point anti-Japanese war proposition, repeatedly defeated, defeated again and again! Immigrants are clear, and the walls are clear! Avoid the real and attack the false, and move day and night.

Chiang Kai-shek immediately ordered the 7th Artillery Regiment to go to Baoding under the command of Sun Lianzhong, and this regiment was equipped with Czech-style field artillery, which belonged to the Central Army. Chiang Kai-shek was most worried about the landing of the army in Qingdao and Haizhou, cutting off the Jinpu Road, and severing the connection between the central government and the north, so it was decided to give priority to supplementing Han Fuyu's troops, and the signal corps troops also advanced to the north to effectively grasp the situation in the north.

After many trivial matters, Minister of Military Affairs He Yingqin said expressionlessly: "This report is mainly to review the situation of ammunition and grain reserves and the distribution of new weapons!" Our army has 700 million rounds of rifle machine gun ammunition in reserve, 400 million found to be in stock, and 300 million rounds distributed to the troops. Of the stocks, 90 million are south of the Yellow River, 40 million are in Wuchang, north of the Yangtze River, and 100 million are in Nanjing. 400,000 rounds of artillery shells for mountains and fields, 900,000 rounds of artillery shells for infantry and mortars, and 50,000 rounds of artillery shells for battle defense. This ammunition was enough for thirty German armourers for three months. There are 600,000 people in grain reserves, 100,000 horses in one month, and two months' reserves are being purchased. The first task is to advance the above grain and ammunition reserves to the north of the Yellow River, and Han Fuyu's divisions plan to replenish 2,000 new Han-made rifles per division. A battalion of the Signal Corps was transferred to Xinxiang, and a battalion was transferred to Zhengzhou to stand by, and could go north at any time, and four of the above reserve ammunition became made and provided by the Rehe side, and now the army is said to complete the strategic encirclement of Rehe, Chahar, and Suiyuan, and it is also unable to get a single shot from Rehe, and at the same time it is also unable to support the Rehe Zhang Xuewu Corps, and the urgent thing to delay is to expand production and find ways to import, otherwise within five months, our army will fall into the predicament of running out of guns and guns, such as the battle of Songhu in two months, our army's ammunition will be completely exhausted. ”

In the past, Chiang Kai-shek only knew that Zhang Xuewu was constantly supplying ammunition to Nanjing, and it seemed that he had also made a large number of reserves in several warehouses under the Ministry of Military Affairs. It seems too risky, but now it has reached the point where it is impossible not to fight, and if you give yourself three years, the Germans help you build up the military-industrial system, and most of your 60 reorganized divisions are trained, then it will definitely be a different situation.

At present, there are 12 integrated divisions in training, and most of the others are adjustment divisions, and due to interference from this side, most of Germany's contracts with China have not been fulfilled or delayed in the end.

Due to the special topography of the Songhu battle area, the squadron was unable to give full play to its superiority in strength, and in the face of the army's three-dimensional combat mode of land, sea, and air, there was no balance line between quantity and quality, and a small partial victory could not recover the negative effects caused by the huge casualties caused by the overall gradual increase in troops.

The National Revolutionary Army's combat sequence in the entire Songhu theater was divided into three corps: left, center, and right, with Chen Cheng, commander-in-chief of the left-wing corps, Liu Jianxu, commander-in-chief of the Central Corps, and Zhang Fakui, commander-in-chief of the right-wing corps.

Wearing grass green military uniforms and wearing British flat-topped helmets, carrying the Czech-made Gui elites used their flesh and blood to fight fiercely in the firepower network composed of naval guns, ground guns, tanks, and aviation firepower for a whole morning.

The elite Gui Ninth Brigade only worked in one morning, three brigade commanders were killed, and more than 40,000 officers and soldiers who attacked were only less than 10,000 survivors, even so, the Ninth Brigade of the Gui Department still reorganized the remnants and snatched back the lost attack starting position, according to their words, the position handed over to me by the brothers in front of me cannot be lost in the hands of Lao Tzu, otherwise I am sorry for the brothers who left first!

When Li Zongren learned the news of the defeat of the new elite Ninth Brigade of the Gui Department, he stumbled and fell on the sofa, tears flowing uncontrollably down his cheeks, you must know that the elite of the Ninth Brigade is the team he has trained for many years, and it was originally used to expand the Third Brigade against Chiang, but he didn't expect that five years of hard work would be lost? This is 40,000 Guangxi children! It is believed that after this battle, Guangxi will be full of white flags.

When the news reached the ears of Bai Chongxi, who was the deputy chief of staff of the national government, Bai Chongxi looked up to the sky expressionlessly and sighed, the failure of this attack was originally expected by Bai Chongxi, but he didn't expect it to be so miserably! Jiang Gong! Bai Chongxi's mouth was full of bitterness at the moment, and he didn't know where to start? The Central Army has begun to fight hard in Songhu, and the three regiments of the teaching corps have been half-crippled, and now Jiang Gong has given an order, whether it is the Sichuan Army or the Gui Department, Yan Xishan in Shanxi is also fighting for the old book, who dares not to listen to the dispatch? Otherwise, a big hat that destroys the War of Resistance and helps the enemy can make you ruined.

However, Zhang Xuewu is even more uncomfortable than Bai Chongxi, because Zhang Xuewu has completely become a spectator who is in a hurry.

(To be continued)