The news that the Japanese army had attacked Pearl Harbor and launched an attack on the United States brought more than a little surprise to Li Ran and Bai Yu, because a series of previous work of the intelligence group had been affirmed because of the Pearl Harbor incident, which showed that their previous work of intercepting and deciphering Japanese telegrams was very effective.

Then the other officers also rushed over when they heard the news, and they also heard that the Japanese army had attacked Pearl Harbor, and everyone thought that the United States and other countries would definitely declare war on Japan, which meant that soon the United States and its allies would also join the ranks of counterattacking Japan, and not just China alone. Therefore, the scene was unusually lively, and everyone talked about the current situation.

Gao Qixing looked very excited, he walked to the middle of the room and said:

"This little devil really damns it, he has such a big courage to dare to cross the Pacific Ocean to attack the United States, isn't this to find himself a strong opponent? I'm really impatient. ”

Xiao Xiong and the others couldn't help but laugh happily together. Xiong Qiang has a different opinion from everyone, he said solemnly:

"I don't think it's necessarily that simple for devils to attack Americans. Some time ago, we knew that the little devils didn't transfer all their troops to the south? It seems that the purpose of the devil is to prevent the United States from blocking his southward advance, so he came up with a preemptive strike to blind the Americans, so that they dare not or have no time to block their southward advance. ”

Everyone couldn't help but nod. Xiao Xiong went on to say:

"Yes, devils are not fools, they will definitely take this risk in order to achieve some purpose. Now, I don't know what the situation is on the American side, and I don't know how much the Japanese army's sneak attack hurt the Americans. Although the entry of the United States into the war is a foregone conclusion, it is not necessarily that the Japanese devils will be eliminated soon. Perhaps, the future battles will be even more difficult and tragic. ”

At this moment, a soldier ran in with a telegram he had just received and handed it to Xiao Xiong. Xiao Xiong looked at it, waved the fist in his hand, and said loudly:

"This is really good news: the United States has declared war on Japan!"

"Good! The end of the little devil is coming! Everyone cheered for a while.

Li Ran continued:

"Our radio station has also recently noticed the unusual behavior of the devils. Judging from the intercepted Japanese military telegrams in recent days, it has been found that the telegrams sent by the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs to the Japanese consulates in Hong Kong, Manila, Hawaii, and Singapore seem to be similar to those sent to the Japanese embassies and consulates in the United States some time ago. There is also an anomalous piece of information, we have found that the Japanese naval telegrams stationed in China are extraordinary, and they have been coming and going very frequently lately, and they have asked the Japanese naval fleet stationed on the southeast coast to move south. ”

Xiao Xiong and everyone agreed that the devil is going to take action against Southeast Asian countries in the near future. Xiao Xiong immediately ordered the intelligence group to send the situation to the theater command.

On 9 and 10 December, the Ninth Theater Command sent telegrams informing them that China had formally declared war on Japan, followed by war on Germany and Italy. Xiao Xiong and the officers of his Einsatzgruppen were thrilled when they heard the news.

At 10 a.m. on the morning of the 10th, Bai Yu, who was on duty, intercepted and promptly deciphered the telegrams exchanged between the Japanese intelligence agencies and the Japanese Air Force Base in Saigon. Japanese intelligence reported the discovery of two large British warships more than 100 nautical miles north of Singapore, and requested that planes be sent to bomb them quickly.

On the 9th (Beijing time), Britain declared war on Japan, and on the 10th, the Japanese army was about to attack British warships. When Xiao Xiong learned about it, he asked Bai Yu to quickly report to the war zone.

The Ninth Theater Governor's Department immediately reported the news to the highest authorities, and then the highest Chinese authorities informed the British ambassador to China, John Curle. But this arrogant Englishman Cole did not believe that the Chinese army had such a deciphering ability, and soon forgot about it, so he did not inform his own warship in time to prepare in advance.

At nearly 13:50 on the same day, the "Prince of Wales" and the accompanying British ship "Resistance" were sunk by a swarm of Japanese fighters. The British giant battleship "Prince of Wales" was known as an "unsinkable" battleship at that time. The British transferred the "Prince of Wales" to the Far East together with another newly built large ship, the "Resistance," originally thinking of the deterrent effect on Japan and blocking the pace of the Japanese army's southward advance. They could have avoided this catastrophe, but Cole's arrogance deprived it of its only chance. No one would have thought that they had not really participated in the war, and they were soon blown up and sunk by Japanese planes.

The drastic changes in the international situation have forced the planned actions of the Ganbei Anti-Enemy Einsatzgruppen to change. The Einsatzgruppen team, which was deploying a secret spy team to hunt down devils, suddenly received an order from the theater commander's headquarters to prepare for military operations in the theater, because the Japanese army had begun to attack Hong Kong, and it was estimated that it would then launch an attack on other parts of Southeast Asia that had not yet been occupied. According to the order of the Supreme Military Council, all departments were required to prepare for the Japanese attack and cooperate with the world anti-fascist battle.

Xiao Xiong immediately urgently transferred all the troops sent back to Caijiazhou. He summoned everyone to study and plan for future battles in light of the drastic changes in the situation. According to the current situation of the Einsatzgruppen, the total number of troops is less than 200, which is not enough to carry out a large-scale battle similar to the attack on Yangjialing. For the time being, I can only fight wits with the devil, and I must find the devil's weakness and wait for the opportunity to insert a knife. Only by doing the same can we well cooperate with military operations in the theater of operations.

At present, the most advantageous way is to do everything possible to obtain valuable information about the devils, especially the information on the movement and deployment of the devils' troops, and report them to the superiors in a timely manner, which may bring unexpected results.

It turned out that on the same day that Yamamoto Isoroku led the Japanese fleet to attack Pearl Harbor in the United States, the Japanese 25th Army was preparing to start attacking Hong Kong.

Hong Kong is a colony operated by Britain for more than half a century, and it is also an important transit port for China to overseas, which has long been coveted by little devils. Therefore, after the attack on Pearl Harbor, on the day that Britain declared war on Japan, the devils sent troops to prepare to occupy Hong Kong.

However, the cunning devil suddenly discovered that the provisional 2nd Army and the 4th Army of the Chinese army had suddenly rushed south from Changsha, as if there were signs of reinforcement of the British army in Hong Kong. In order to succeed in their attempt to occupy Hong Kong and avoid being intercepted by the Chinese army, the Japanese base camp immediately ordered the 11th Army of Anami Weigi to quickly start an attack on Changsha in order to contain the movement of our southern reinforcement troops.

The commander of the Japanese 11th Army, Anami Yuki, was ordered to immediately command more than 70,000 people of his 11th Army, falsely claiming that more than 430,000 people would be sent to Changsha on New Year's Day in 1942.

The deployment of the 11th Army was: in Hubei, with its 3rd, 6th, and 40th divisions as the main force, it dispatched from Xitang, Longwan, and Xinkaitang to attack Changsha head-on; The main force of the 14th Brigade and the 18th Brigade of the Independent Mixed Brigade should fight against the frontal troops. In northern Jiangxi, the 34th Division and the 14th Brigade of the Independent Mixed Brigade attacked Shanggao and Xiushui to the west to contain the Chinese army and cooperate with the attack of the main force of the Japanese army in northern Hunan.

The Japanese army immediately took its 3rd Division as the vanguard, and in the echelon marching order of the 6th Division, the 40th Division, and the 9th Brigade of the Independent Mixed Brigade, on the evening of the 24th, braved the wind and snow and severe cold to cross the Xinqiang River by 8 routes in the area from Luojiayi to Baxian Bridge. The devils began to launch a full-scale offensive against our troops stationed in the Changsha area.

On the night of the 26th, the Japanese army approached Changle Street.

At 3 o'clock in the afternoon of the 27th, the right flank of the Japanese army crossed the Miluo River at Guiyi.

Because of the importance of Changsha's strategic position, the Supreme Military Council of China sent an urgent telegram to Xue Yue, commander of the Ninth Theater, ordering him to prepare a strategy of active defense in order to achieve victory.

"Our second-line corps can retreat a little back and equip itself, occupy favorable terrain, take the initiative to seize the fighter planes, and allow the enemy to attack Changsha first, while we will take advantage of the frustration of the enemy's attack to strike at the enemy from all sides."

Therefore, Xue Yue was ordered to convene all corps and commanders in Changsha on the 27th, and formulated a strategic plan for the "Heavenly Furnace Tactics". That is, to deploy troops in the areas of decoy and ambush, echoing from all directions, forming a natural giant furnace to wait for the opportunity to encircle and annihilate the enemy.

The meeting finally decided: (1) to order the 10th Army to hold Changsha and entangle the enemy;

(2) Determine the area between the Laodao River and the Liuyang River as the decisive battle area.

Immediately afterwards, Xue Yue issued an order to the 10th Army on the 28th: "Order your army to hold on to Changsha and strive for success, and order all officers and soldiers to fight seriously and not to retreat, and those who retreat without permission will not be forgiven, and seriously wounded soldiers shall not be evacuated; Political workers have the duty to supervise the war and must resolutely carry it out. ”

The 9th Theater of the Chinese Army formed several defensive positions with more than 170,000 troops from 13 armies and 37 divisions, under the personal command of Commander Xue Yue. Its deployment was: 10 armies, including the 20th Army, the 58th Army, and the 37th Army, deployed defenses along the Xinqiang River, the Miluo River, and the Laodao River, lured the enemy deep into the core area of Changsha's periphery to attack fiercely, and waited for an opportunity to launch an offensive on the flank and rear of the Japanese army, and attacked from the north to the south; The 78th and 72nd armies and the new 3rd army responded by blocking the Japanese army in the northern Jiangxi area.

On the 28th, the left flank of the Japanese army forced the crossing of the Miluo River near Changle Street.

On the 29th, the first division of the Japanese army rushed to the Xinkaishi and Daniangqiao areas.

On the 31st, the vanguard of the enemy's 3rd Regiment reached the middle area of the Laodao River and the Liuyang River through Chunhua Mountain, Tonglin Port and Shizipu, and advanced rapidly with the south of Changsha as the main target.

Due to the enemy's strong firepower in the plain area, the cover of the attack by armored troops, and the incessant and indiscriminate bombardment of our positions by dozens of enemy planes in the sky, our troops were forced to retreat to the south.

The Japanese army attacked the outskirts of Changsha that night, and the city of Changsha fell into the siege of the Japanese army again, and the situation was precarious.