And the second time was the Battle of Xuzhou. After conquering Shijiazhuang and Shandong, the Japanese army deliberately stopped expanding the scale of the war against China. It was the unauthorized actions of the North China Front and the East China Dispatch Army, which caused the main force of the Japanese army invading China to be out of step with the actions of the base camp.

The 918 Incident was due to the fact that the Japanese army had insufficient mobilized troops in a short period of time and were scattered everywhere, giving Jiang Li a chance to break through. And in this Battle of Xuzhou, the strength of the Japanese army was very impressive at first glance. But if you really calculate it, compared with the 500,000 or 600,000 Central Army in the Fifth Theater, it does not have much advantage. In addition, the Japanese army attacked the city and plundered the land all the way, and in just over half a year, it swept the Republic of China's Shandong Dabei, Hebei, and even Nanjing. Underestimating the possible resistance to the Battle of Xuzhou. If you take down Taierzhuang in one go, it will be enough to force Xuzhou. But this time, the Central Army fought extremely stubbornly. Because this operation of the main force of the Japanese army turned into an out-and-out military adventure.

To say that the number of more than 200,000 Japanese troops is not a lot, but the main force of the front army is out of touch with the more than 20,000 Japanese troops who launched the Battle of Taierzhuang. Supporting a battle of hundreds of thousands of troops, all the food and ammunition consumed were not fully prepared, which dragged down the offensive strength of the main Japanese army, so that the main reinforcements of the Japanese army were blocked on the periphery and unable to rescue the Sakamoto and Seya detachments that were surrounded near Taierzhuang. And logistical problems, coupled with the bombing of the Northwest Air Force, directly led to the Seya detachment having to abandon more than a dozen tanks and armored vehicles.

Due to the lack of fuel, a considerable number of cars can no longer function as before. THE ONLY 2 155MM HEAVY GUNS WERE ALSO SELF-DESTROYED, ALONG WITH SOME CARS, ABANDONED ON THE BATTLEFIELD. The reason why the Seya Detachment, the Sakamoto Detachment, and the Taierzhuang Dispatch Army were able to be encircled and annihilated in such a short period of time was, in the final analysis, that there was not enough ammunition in the object, otherwise with the desperate resistance of nearly 20,000 Japanese troops, it would never be able to gnaw it down in a short period of time. Even if the other side is barely annihilated, the ratio of casualties between the two sides will never be about 2 to 1 as it is now.

You must know that in the later stage, the Seya detachment was encircled and annihilated, and most of the operations of the Sakamoto detachment were fought with more and less, and the opponent almost ran out of ammunition to help before the casualties were brought back. Before the encirclement and annihilation of these two parts, the ratio of the two sides had been maintained at four to one.

After the Northwest Army announced its entry into the Fifth War Zone, Terauchi Shouichi made certain arrangements to avoid a great blow to the front army, but several detachments near Taierzhuang were not so lucky.

All in all, strategic mistakes can have serious consequences. This can be seen from the losses directly caused by the two spontaneous actions of the Japanese army. As for some of the protagonists described in later movies, they acted alone in the army, disobeying orders at every turn, beating those above and fighting themselves. However, in reality, such generals are often either killed by enemy soldiers or shot by their superiors on the battlefield.

"The losses of the Japanese army this time are not small, and the casualties of the North China Front this time are not small, which is really an opportunity for us." Zhao Tieshu said with some pity, "It's cheaper than Zhang Zhibang's guy, and this time I picked another leak." ”

"It's not that simple, it's a fact that the North China Front suffered heavy losses this time, but the situation may not be as optimistic as expected, and the war potential of the Japanese army is not something we can confront head-on now. Even if one or two battles are won, the overall disadvantage will still not change. The original policy of the long-term war of resistance cannot be changed at will. For now, it's still defense-oriented. ”

Zhao Tieshu can't be said to be wrong from a military point of view, but Jiang Li needs to consider it holistically. After several major battles, the fallen soldiers need to be replenished, and the whole thing is one thing. Another more important reason is that with the expansion of the Japanese occupation area, Shandong, Hebei, most of Shanxi, Jiangsu, and the fall of Anwei I, a large number of refugees poured into the area controlled by the Northwest Army. At this time, the central government, which had moved to Wuhan, was simply unable to take care of these ordinary people.

Although there were certain measures, most of them were left to their own devices for the rapid attack of the Japanese army. At this time, the number of refugees pouring into Henan from all directions reached millions, and if you count those who fled from Shanxi to Shaanxi, this number will only gradually increase as the Japanese army advances step by step. If these people are allowed to fend for themselves, what an injustice it is to the civilians in this troubled era, and the significance of a regime's long-term existence lies not in how powerful it is militarily and how good its reputation is in the outside world, but in whether it can always put the lives and safety of the people under its rule first.

Rescue these millions of refugees, for the northwest at this time, the pressure is not ordinary, after all, the main grain-producing areas are now reduced to war zones, the northwest in the past two years, although the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides has begun to be promoted, self-sufficiency is not too much of a problem, but in raising this millions of troops, to meet the war consumption at the same time, but also to provide hundreds or even tens of millions of war refugees rations, its difficulty is not lower than the battle of Xuzhou.

This is also the reason why Jiang Li decided to continue to take a defensive position. In addition, through the current situation, Jiang Li's original desire to push the Japanese army south has become further strong. The industrial scale of the gradual rise in the northwest, as well as the rapid growth in the later war, the ability to cope with the war of resistance was gradually improved, and even the output of strategic materials such as steel and oil would rise to a point where it could compete with the Japanese army in a few years. Jiang Li was worried that the rapidly rising Northwest Army would pose too much of a threat to the Japanese army, and that the Japanese army would not move south as it did historically. And the Northwest Army, the will of the whole country to seek war, is not something that Jiang Li can suppress personally. The general trend is irreversible, but the current victims have given Jiang Li some inspiration. After all, the resources in the northwest are limited, and if these resources are used more for the resettlement of disaster victims, then the resources used on the battlefield will be relatively small. Every year, hundreds or even tens of millions of victims are rescued, and the materials required to consume are astronomical.

At this time, the labor in the northwest is still too scarce. Of course, the Northwest did not have the ability to help these refugees free of charge at this time, and Jiang Li's intention was to follow the old routine of the previous Northwest immigrants and use work for relief. Using these extremely cheap laborers during the war, the infrastructure in the northwest, along the rise to Henan, and even to Shanxi was pushed to a higher level. The situation of the military industry takes time, but relatively speaking, the construction cycle of some light industries is shorter, and Henan supports five or six hundred thousand Central Plains field regiments to fight, and the materials to be consumed every month are astronomical.

Military uniforms, military shoes, sabers, and some simple mechanical parts can also be obtained from some hardware factories near Henan, which are relatively much more convenient than transporting them from the northwest. Molybdenum ore, aluminum ore, and some small and medium-sized mineral deposits in Henan also need to be mined. In short, things that seemed impossible to operate before have some opportunities now.

If part of the resources of the northwest can be transferred to the refugees, these refugees can be transformed into the infrastructure of the northwest and Henan. Lay a solid foundation for the take-off of the industry in the future. At the same time, it can be exchanged for the Japanese army to go south, which is relatively worthwhile. After all, if all the military strength of the Japanese army was poured on the land of the Republic of China, the losses caused to the Republic of China would undoubtedly be greater. Moreover, after missing the precious opportunity of World War II, it was not so easy for the Republic of China to extend its influence to Southeast Asia as much as possible. The red leaders in the northwest have begun to gradually rectify the politics of the northwest, and some redundant feudal bureaucracy in the northwest has begun to be gradually cut, in fact, everyone who has risen in the chaos of war has merit. At least the current politics in the northwest has begun to show a clear color, after all, most people at the beginning of the founding of the country were hard-working.

"Extra, extra! Our Central Army fought bloody battles one after another, and then with the cooperation of the Northwest Army, more than 20,000 Japanese soldiers in front of Taierzhuang were annihilated, and Taierzhuang won a great victory! ”

"Celebrate the victory of Taierzhuang!"

"Celebrate Lunan Victory!"

At this time, in the city of Xuzhou, firecrackers did not stop all night, and the news of Taierzhuang's victory reached the three towns of Wuhan, which had been shrouded in the clouds of the Japanese army. At every street corner hangs the great victory of Taierzhuang, laying the foundation for the second phase of our army's anti-Japanese war. Celebration, with red cloth and black banners celebrating various great victories. All the organs, at the entrance of the corner row, will hang the national flag and a white cloth printed with the information about Jiexun. All newspapers published newspapers about the victory in the war. All party and government organs, anti-Japanese war rescue groups, and factories sent large trucks with loudspeakers to pull military bands and singing teams around every street in the city. At around six o'clock in the evening, the party held at Zhongshan Park Stadium pushed the atmosphere to a high point. More than 50,000 people participated in the torch procession, which stretched for more than ten miles, and the entire three towns of Wuhan seemed to be boiling, and similar celebrations were held in Guangzhou, Changsha, Chongqing and other places at this time.

"The international community will also be moved by the spirit of our army's arduous war of resistance and will also help us to restrain the enemy." After the large-scale celebration ceremony, Chairman Chiang made this speech at the meeting.

Out of optimism about the Xuzhou Theater, after the Battle of Taierzhuang was over, Chairman Chiang sent a telegram to the Fifth Theater to unite and forge ahead, intensify the pursuit of the Japanese army, and strive to annihilate as many enemies in Lunan as possible and expand the results of the battle. The 29th Division of the 55th Army blew up many places on the Dawenkou Railway, derailing Japanese trains, and the 81st Division attacked Dawenkou Airport at night again, destroying 8 Japanese enemy planes. Later, he attacked Yanzhou at night and annihilated a Japanese army. The total number of operations of such a scale was no less than hundreds, which not only brought a lot of casualties to the Japanese army, but also greatly harassed the logistics of the Japanese army.

In view of the intelligence from all sides, the Wuhan government believed that it was quite feasible for the Japanese army to recover Zaozhuang and Linyi under the condition that the Japanese army's logistics were greatly troubled. At this time, the troops of a corps of the Northwest Army had already rushed to the direction of Yixian and Zaozhuang. With the Northwest Army taking the lead, the Central Army of the Fifth Theater can relatively draw a larger part of its troops to the direction of Linyi. Victory tends to overwhelm some people's minds, and they fought well before relying on their relative superiority in forces to defend and counterattack. It was also the logistics of the Japanese army that was seriously affected, at this time the Japanese army shrank the defensive line, and the main force of the front army was making new arrangements, but the Japanese army fought a defensive battle according to its own position, and even the main force of the 20th Army Corps, which was relatively well equipped in the Central Army, also ran into a bloody battle in Linyi.

Moreover, Tang Enbo has always avoided attacking fortifications, and after the initial setback, he reported the situation in Linyi to Li Zongren and Chairman Jiang. While waiting for news from the Northwest Army, Li Zongren and Bai Chongxi, after some consideration, also sent a report to the high headquarters, suggesting that they should avoid attacking positional battles, that the front of the army in the Fifth Theater was too long, that it was weak everywhere, and that it lacked heavy weapons and did not have the ability to attack fortified positions. It was planned to deploy only a small number of surveillance troops on the encirclement line, and to assemble the main forces in positions that were convenient for maneuver, and on the one hand to disrupt the communications behind enemy lines, and on the other hand, to use small units to conduct guerrilla attacks first, so as to induce the Japanese army to fight a decisive battle outside the position.

"I can't imagine that the Japanese army's position is so strong, and the German armor division led by Director Zhang Jiao Jiao surrounded the Japanese army in Shanghai and fought with thousands of people, but also failed to defeat the Japanese army's position, I should learn from it, and this time I made the same mistake, causing nearly 1,000 soldiers to suffer in vain, which is really embarrassing."

When Li Zongren received the battle report from Linyi, he was embarrassed. In fact, the gap between the two armies during the Anti-Japanese War was even greater than some people imagined, and the Japanese army was basically the attacking side in all the major battles. As the defender, the national * army relied on its own position, and while paying several times the losses of the Japanese army, it could only retreat with hatred. It is not that the army of the Republic of China is really several times the enemy army, and it will definitely be able to defeat a certain number of Japanese troops. For example, let **** attack the positions held by the Japanese army. The disparity between the two sides will only widen. The losses will only get worse.

This is also the reason why Jiang Li vetoed some optimists in the Northwest Army. It is the Northwest Army, unless it occupies a considerable advantage, to attack the Japanese position, there is still a few chances of victory, but the loss is not acceptable to the Northwest Army at this time.

"If you don't give it a try, where can you know the depth of the Japanese army, the Linyi side can't fight now, now it depends on how well the Northwest Army is fighting in the direction of Yixian and Zaozhuang. Except for a part of the Sichuan Army, the Northwest Army is a descendant of the Northwest Army Headquarters, and its combat strength is quite considerable. Bai Chongxi said, "But speaking of which, I always follow the Northwest Army to pick up leaks, but this propaganda about the Battle of Taierzhuang has pulled the Northwest Army aside, and I don't know what Jiang Li thinks." It's hard to say whether they will continue to be guns for us. ”

"Jiang Li, I've only seen him once in Luoyang. Since the last Luoyang Military Conference, I have analyzed this person, combined with his past deeds, his heart of resistance is relatively sincere, and it is not like the malicious speculation of some people in Wuhan. I think that as long as there is an opportunity, the Northwest Army will take advantage of it and tear off a piece of meat from the Japanese army. Speaking of this, Li Zongren smiled, in military affairs, maybe he was slightly inferior to Bai Chongxi, but in the years that he presided over the Gui family, Li Zongren has always been the mainstay, and naturally he has his advantages. At least in terms of employing people and grasping the overall situation, Li Zongren is better than Bai Chongxi. (To be continued.) )