"The Second Front Army has the 10th, 22nd, 35th, and 36th Divisions under its jurisdiction, and the commander of the Front Army, Ryosuke Isoya, and the Third Front Army has the 6th, 14th, 23rd, 38th, and 39th Divisions, of which the 23rd Division is a mechanized division, and the commander of the Front Army is Yamashita Fengfumi.

After Ishihara Wan'er finished reading, he slowly put down the order paperwork, and suddenly there was an uproar in the battle conference room, Gu Shoufu stared at the big fat man not far away with a vicious gaze on his gloomy face. A small character has climbed to the top of their old qualifications? Kenji Dohihara, who has been looking forward to it, is also overjoyed? The expression is extremely embarrassed and depressed!

Ryosuke Isoya, who felt a little confused, didn't expect that he would unexpectedly become the commander of the front army? Isn't that the same level as Tada Jun and others in terms of position? What great news! For a while, the conference room of the Kwantung Army Operations Command became a vegetable market, Ishihara frowned unhappily, and Ueda Kenkichi, who was the commander-in-chief of the Kwantung Army, was still closing his eyes and recuperating, as if these things had nothing to do with him at all?

After a long time, after the generals present seemed to have vented their dissatisfaction and anger in their hearts, Ueda Kenkichi slowly opened his eyes, as if he had fallen asleep? After looking around, Ueda Kenkichi said: "Our Kwantung Army and the Chinese Dispatch Army are at the same level as the General Army, and it is normal to have three front armies under it, and the decision to select the commander of the front army is the decision of the Imperial Council, do you have any objections?" ”

Ueda Kenkichi's words made everyone present stunned, and Ueda Kenkichi snorted and said: "The Great Emperor [***] was born to serve His Majesty the Emperor, and for the future of the Great Emperor this empire, he did not hesitate to break his bones, and fought here for fame, fortune and power?" It is better to think more about how to solve the 10th Theater of Operations of the China Army, because this time the change in the troop establishment between our Kwantung Army and the two front armies of Central China and North China is so great, it has a lot to do with it, especially the abolition of a group of B divisions that were formed before and whose combat effectiveness is not strong, which is also a wake-up call for all the gentlemen here! ”

After all, Ueda Kenkichi is the commander-in-chief of the Kwantung Army, and the subordinate division commanders have converged a lot, and the three newly promoted front army commanders are also much more modest than before, after all, the three of them are now standing on the cusp of the limelight, and the veteran division commanders like Gu Shoufu and Kenji Dohihara have been looking at the position for a long time, and the sixth division of Gu Shoufu performed extremely poorly in the Battle of Nanjing, and it is already a great gift not to transfer it to the reserve, but Kenji Tohihara, who performed well in North China before, seems to be a little depressed, You must know that at this moment, Umezu Mijiro and Okamura Ninji and others in the North China Front are only the positions of army commanders, and they are still a little out of reach from the commander of the front army. Did those guys in the base camp and the Imperial Council of the General Staff Headquarters get water in their brains?

Speaking of which, the fifty-three-year-old Yamashita is not a young lieutenant general, but the difference between him and ordinary division commanders is that he has been a civilian until 1930, when he first became the commander of the Army's Third Infantry Wing.

At that time, Yamashita Fumi, who was serving as a field unit for the first time, was about 170 centimeters tall and weighed 90 kilograms, which was the same weight as the 37-millimeter caliber 11-year-old flat-fire infantry gun manufactured by Yumoto. During the exercise, a riding horse cannot bear his weight, so there must be a replacement horse. At that time, the 11-year-old infantry cannon also happened to be carried on two horses, so the infantry cannon became the original nickname of Yamashita Bongfumi.

It is said that the necessary conditions for the development of soldiers in this army are academic qualifications, ability, boudoirs, and military style. All of them, Yamashita Fengwen is not lacking. As for the boudoir lord, Yamashita Fumi's wife was the eldest daughter of Major General Motohiko Nagayu, who was born in Sachu Prefecture, and this marriage brought him the attention of the Imperial Sect such as General Taro Utsunomiya and Lieutenant General Mazaki Shizaburo and Lieutenant General Sadao Araki.

At a time when the war of Rehe had not yet fallen, the Kwantung Army had suffered heavy losses, and a large number of generals had been reprimanded, Yamashita Fengfumi, who had been smooth sailing, was transferred to the post of head of the Military Affairs Division of the Military Affairs Bureau of the Ministry of the Army, which was a rather important position. In the army system, there are two main lines for the development of officers, one is the Military Administration Bureau, that is, the Ministry of the Army, and the other is the Military Command Bureau, that is, the General Staff Headquarters. In the military and political field, the first target is the head of the military section, and in the case of military orders, the chief of the operations section, and then the director of the military affairs bureau and the chief of operations are promoted. It is precisely because of the important surname of the post of military section chief that it has a certain risk surname, and it will naturally get involved in factional struggles. It was in this position that Yamashita gradually became the main powerful figure of the Imperial Road faction after the leaders of the Imperial Sect, such as Sadao Araki and Shizaburo Mazaki, under the care of his father-in-law's old friends.

Two. Immediately after the 26 Incident, the army began to enforce a large-scale purge of the army, and the Imperial Road faction was purged like never before, and Sadao Araki, Shizaburo Mazaki and others were dismissed from their military staff posts. The commander of the Kwantung Army, Minamijiro, and the chief military attache, Shigeru Honjo, were transferred to the reserve. It is said that the army has made an unprecedented large-scale transfer of nearly 3,000 officers.

Terauchi Shouichi, as the soul of the whole army, naturally did not like to see Yamashita Fengwen, who almost had the opportunity to serve as the chief of staff of the North China Front, so he took the opportunity of adjusting and supplementing the troop establishment to kick Yamashita Fengwen from the North China Front into the Kwantung Army sequence, and as a result, Yamashita Fengwen, who was so immortal, just caught up with the promotion evaluation, because his 40th Brigade had made outstanding achievements in the Shanxi operation before and was promoted to lieutenant general! So he almost met the last hard surname standard "lieutenant general" for being the commander of the front army! It can be said that Yamashita Fengwen relied on nepotism to ascend to the top, which annoyed Tani Shoufu and Kenji Dohihara, who were ashamed of themselves in nepotism.

Ueda Kenkichi re-changed seats, and the three commanders of the front army sat in the third, fourth, and fifth positions of Ueda Kenkichi's rank. It's like eating that dish first at a banquet? Eat that dish again!

After adjusting his seat, Ueda Kenkichi said absentmindedly to Ishihara: "There should be two tank divisions in the Kwantung Army, but now there is only one tank division in Ohara Tachie, and I am afraid it is too reluctant to deal with the 10th theater, I don't know the supplementary plan of the General Staff Headquarters and the Ministry of the Army?" Is it possible to replenish one or two wings of new heavy vehicles before the campaign starts? Otherwise, if we encounter the chariot troops of Zhang Xuewu's department in the 10th Theater of Operations, our army will be in an extremely disadvantageous position on the Northeast Plain and the North China Plain. ”

Ishihara took a deep breath and said, "Actually, this major strategic adjustment is a revised battle plan formulated by the Imperial Council based on the latest information!" ”

Hideki Tojo, who was very dissatisfied with Ishihara's question, snorted and said, "Has Major General Ishihara been in the reserve for too long, and he has even forgotten that he is from the Kwantung Army?" His Excellency Commander-in-Chief Ueda asked about the latest heavy tank brave, not a decision of the Imperial Council, the Kwantung Army is a direct subordinate unit of His Majesty the Emperor, and the successive commanders of the Kwantung Army have been personally selected by His Majesty the Emperor, not through the Military Headquarters and the General Staff Headquarters, and the order issued by the Military Command Bureau is just a formality, and Major General Ishihara will not forget it, right? ”

Hideki Tojo has a major general Ishihara and a reserve, which is actually stimulating Ishihara Wanji, because Tojo Hideki is a person who holds a lot of grudges, and the embarrassment that Ishihara Wanji gave him can be said to make him annoyed for life, Private Tojo? Can only manage two machine guns? Hideki Tojo will not give up any opportunity to taunt Ishihara.

Ishihara Wan'er smiled disdainfully: "Everyone must also have some questions, why the defensive operation of the 10th Theater of Operations should be changed to offensive operations, and the offensive of the previous Battle of Xuzhou was changed to strategic defense, because according to the latest intelligence, the supreme commander of the [***] team of the Central [***] team is very distrustful of Zhang Xuewu, the commander of the 10th Theater, and believes that Zhang Xuewu is a warlord who has risen in the new faction, and Zhang Xuewu handles the materials provided by the Soviet side, and even the Soviets regard Zhang Xuewu as almost the same political existence as the national political axe." ”

The division commanders below rarely have any political concepts, and they are also the most annoying about politics, so they are all confused and inexplicable, Ishihara Wan'er coughed and continued: "It's very simple, if our army attacks Xuzhou, the Tenth Theater will definitely send troops to take the initiative to attack our army, from the recent large-scale transfer of troops in the Tenth Theater, it can be seen that Zhang Xuewu is preparing for a large-scale attack, but we think in reverse, if our army attacks Rehe, Xuzhou will maintain a strategic balance, So will Chiang Kai-shek sit back and wait for the right moment as he has always done? Let his side be a thorn in the side, and the 10th War Zone will fight to the death with us? Consume Zhang Xuewu's strength? In this way, the Empire can concentrate on pulling out the nail behind us and avoid launching a large-scale battle on two fronts at the same time, because the previous two-front operations have proved that the Empire's national strength and the army's military strength are not yet equipped to conduct two large-scale battles at the same time. ”

Ishihara's words shocked the division commanders present, especially the three newly appointed commanders of the front army? It turned out that the focus of the entire operation should be changed from opening up the Jinpu Road and connecting the Longhai Line to besieging the [***] Tenth War Zone, and the long knife behind it was solved once and for all!

(To be continued)