Itamoto Masaemon, Hirose Shousuke, Matsuki Naory, Nishi Yoshiichi and others all put down their wine glasses and stood in front of the newly remade Chengde sand table, and almost everyone's eyes fell on the three support points of Majiagou Side Ridge, Tiger Ditch, and Monk Guanfeng.

Okamura Ninji did not understand the specific actual situation when he first arrived at the front, and he was not in a hurry to express his views and opinions, and Okamura Ninji knew very well that these division commanders and brigade commanders were all influential figures of the Lu University back then, and their pride and conceit made them not very accustomed to accepting the opinions of those who were equal or lower in rank than themselves, and Okamura Ninji was the chief of staff of the Kwantung Army, not the chief of operational staff of the divisions below, so he had to play a suitable role, not only playing a leading position, but also not being too compromised.

Itamoto Masaemon frowned and circled the sand table twice, and then pointed at half of Chengde's city with his baton: "If I defend Chengde, I will definitely defend the entire city area, take advantage of the favorable terrain on all sides, even if the surrounding area is breached, I can still use the city walls for defense, and finally retreat into the city for street fighting!" ”

Okamura Ninji nodded and said, "That's true, if I come to defend, I'm afraid I won't just defend half of the city like this?" In this way, although the triangular defense is very solid, it lacks strategic depth, and it may be very effective in a short time, but if our army storms one point, once it breaks through, it will be shaken on the whole line, and in such a small range, our army's artillery superiority will be fully manifested. ”

Itamoto Masaemon pointed to the side ridge of Majiagou and said: "Compared with Laohugou, the terrain here is easier to defend and difficult to attack, so the main force of Zhong[***] must not be here, so I think that our army should concentrate its forces to attack one of the three support points of Chengde City Defense, break through one point and shock the enemy's entire line, and then launch a general attack in an all-round way to annihilate the stubborn enemy." ”

Nishiyi glanced at Itamoto Masaemon and said: "The terrain of Monk Guanfeng is too dangerous, and the casualties of our army's upward attack may be unbearable, but now our army has sufficient artillery support, so I think that Monk Guanfeng is the real weakness, and taking Monk Guanfeng can also condescendingly suppress the first line of Tiger Ditch and block the enemy's reinforcements." ”

Okamura Ninji looked at Nishiyichi, and then at Masaemon Itamoto, he didn't expect that the two would immediately go toe-for-tat as soon as they came up? After hesitating for a moment, he smiled and said: "I think what the two division commanders said has its own truth, so how, the sixth division joined the attack on the side ridge of Majiagou, the tenth division attacked the side ridge of Majiagou from the left flank, the eighth division joined the direction of Seng Guanfeng and cooperated with the 14th division, the first wing of the heavy artillery brigade was assigned to the sixth division, the second wing was assigned to the eighth division, and the headquarters of the sixteenth division was deployed along the line of Lijiazhuang and Fengzhuang to block the enemy's reinforcements. The 33rd Brigade is located on the front line of the Huya Pass to ensure the safety of the flanks of the siege troops, and the 14th Brigade is the general reserve, and the attack will begin at dawn tomorrow! ”

Itamoto Masaemon, Nishiyoshiichi and others also realized that this was the deputy chief of staff accommodating themselves, and the joke turned out to be an unscrupulous order, and everyone hurriedly answered yes, after all, what they saw was the deputy chief of staff of the Kwantung Army attacking the former enemy's commander-in-chief.

After the dispersal of the unique combat meeting, the brigade commanders happily took away the sake, dried squid, beef jerky, and so on brought by Okamura Ninji, and their expressions were as if they were attending a dinner, and from time to time some people talked about the approachable Deputy Chief of Staff.

Standing in front of the sand table, Okamura Ninji was holding an ordinary military-sized aluminum water cup at the moment, and from the slightly trembling water cup, it could be found that the smile on Okamura Ninji's face was gone at this moment, replaced by a hideous face!

Looking at the sand table in front of him, recalling the unruly attitude of Itamoto Masaemon and Nishiyoshiichi, Okamura Ninji took a deep breath, these division commanders didn't put themselves in their eyes at all, they didn't hold a military meeting in the name of the former enemy commander-in-chief, and took out sake to ease the atmosphere, the purpose was to give these old army qualifications a face, if Okamura Ninji became the Minister of War, he would definitely let these old guys who were eating and waiting to die go back to their hometown to retire for the first time!

Obviously, he should concentrate his forces to storm the Chengde Majiagou flank ridge position and seek a breakthrough, but he was forced to split the heavy artillery brigade into two parts, and the artillery firepower was used in a concentrated manner, causing huge casualties to the enemy and shaking the enemy's determination to hold on and fight.

And if the offense fails? A thought flashed in Okamura Ninji's mind that even scared himself, how could it be? Four divisions attacking a small city held by a Chinese division? Okamura Ninji slowly put down the water cup, and measured the sand table with a wooden ruler with reference to the map, and its accuracy was quite satisfactory, but even such a sand table could only be regarded as barely passing the exam at Lu University.

Okamura Ningji repeatedly measured the attack positions on three sides of Chengde, and suddenly gasped, before he also thought that the Chengde besieged by the two divisions would be broken at most, and the result of the battle was that the 10th Division and the 14th Division suffered heavy casualties, and a brigade commander was killed, and now it seems that the defense arranged by the Chinese defender Zhang Xuewu is still quite a set, and it seems that it is very stupid or even irrational to abandon half of the city to hold on to three points, in fact, it is equivalent to reducing an attacked aspect, and no matter which support point is attacked, In addition to the main attacking force, the left and right flanks will be hit by oblique fire from the flanks, and the Chinese defenders' artillery groups in the city can adjust their direction at any time and shoot at all the positions where they have set the ruler, while their own side has a very limited battlefield capacity, so even if they invest the strength of one wing at a time to attack, there is only one squadron that really faces the fierce exchange of fire from the Chinese defenders' positions.

Okamura Ninji can be said to be more and more frightened the more he looks, among the three support points, the battlefield of Monk Guanfeng is the narrowest, the strength of one squadron can barely be deployed, and the position of Laohugou is the widest, which can roughly accommodate the strength of the next brigade, but at today's meeting, the two division commanders Matsuki Naoliang and Hirose Shousuke, except for sighing and complaining about not listening, the rest almost did not say anything! What the hell are these two guys trying to do?

Okamura Ninji suddenly realized that since the Russian War, the Imperial Army has maintained the establishment of 17 standing divisions and regiments, and there are only a handful of people in the army who can get close to the division commander, and they basically have to be transferred to the reserve in the position of division commander and retired. There is even a voice in the military department that only expands the war endlessly!

In contrast to Okamura Ninji's view, it is an incomparably stupid act to expand the war endlessly, and China's great depth is very unfavorable to the strategy of quick victory, and once the fragile national strength of the country is caught in the ocean of China's battlefield, the consequences will be very serious, and it will directly affect the overall strategic deployment of the empire, and China can only eat away but not swallow it!

In Okamura's view, a true strategist should not only know when to start a war, but also be able to grasp how to end it while maximizing its benefits.