Chapter 387: The Japanese army in Tongliao is going to retreat

Zhangjiakou Seventh Theater Command

Su Tong was listening to Chen Shaokuan's report on the battle from Chen Shaokuan, who had arrived in a hurry.

"At that time, the sea was full of floating corpses and debris, and most of our pilots were submerged in the icy sea within a few hours after they fell overboard, and when our rescue fleet arrived three hours later, we barely rescued thirty-seven, and the rest of the nearly 100 pilots who fell into the water were killed."

Listening to Chen Shaokuan's narration, Su Tong's heart couldn't help but feel uncomfortable, the loss of more than 200 planes and hundreds of pilots, these are all elites that HNA has cultivated with great difficulty! I didn't expect to lose so much in one battle, and this time HNA can be described as a big loss of vitality.

Su Tong stood up, looked at the few trees outside the window whose leaves were gradually turning green, and turned back to Chen Shaokuan and said, "Commander Chen, our warriors died well, they defended the safety and dignity of the motherland's territory and territorial waters. Their blood will not be shed in vain, and now the whole world knows that we have a heroic contingent of naval aviation, and in the future when we have our own aircraft carriers, they will be the first carrier-based pilots. ”

Chen Shaokuan muttered, "Sir, can we have our own aircraft carrier?" ”

"There will be, everything will be there, I promise you! You, the commander of the navy, will surely sail on the blue ocean on our own aircraft carrier in the future, defending our sea frontier with our own great wall of steel and weapons! Su Tong encouraged Chen Shaokuan: "Now your most important task is to run our naval school well and train a large number of talents for our navy, so that our navy will not have a situation where there are warships but no one pilots them!" ”

Hearing Su Tong say this, Chen Shaokuan's old face turned rare red, Su Tong inadvertently said this sentence just said that he just set off yesterday when the navy had an affair, just yesterday, Su Tong ordered him to take a group of officers and soldiers of the navy's submarine force to receive the eight newly arrived submarines, but when Chen Shaokuan happily wanted to send someone to receive it, he was embarrassed to find that the navy's submariners were not enough, and finally had to reluctantly scrape together more than 400 people to receive submarines.

He knew that when Su Tong said this sentence today, he was vaguely telling him not to be greedy, but to lay a good foundation slowly and steadily. If the shipyard is built and produces large ships, such as cruisers, battleships and even aircraft carriers, what does he want to control these big guys? Those large surface ships need not dozens or hundreds, but tens of thousands!

Su Tong didn't think much after seeing Chen Shaokuan comprehend what he meant, and said with a smile: "Commander Chen, it's good that you can think of this, in short, our purpose is to rather let people wait for equipment, and never let equipment wait for people!" ”

Chen Shaokuan said solemnly: "Yes, remember the teachings of the chief!" ”

"Well, it's good if you can remember......."

Inside the base camp in Tokyo, Japan

Japan's current land minister, Kantaro Suzuki, is sitting at one end of the desk with a gloomy face, and opposite him is Japan's sea minister Mitsumasa Yoneuchi, at this time Mitsumasa Yonechi is slowly drinking boiled water that originally had no taste, but now he is drinking it deliciously, as if it is a liquid in it.

The meeting, chaired by Emperor Hirohito himself, had only one topic: how to save the 500,000 Japanese Kwantung Army in Manchuria.

The just-concluded battle off Vladivostok made everyone feel the crisis, and the Seventh Theater dispatched hundreds of warplanes to bombard the Japanese task force, blowing up the task force and sinking the aircraft carrier 'Kaga' and the battleship 'Nagato,' giving a resounding slap in the face to Mitsumasa Yonechi, who boasted about the invincibility of the Japanese Navy all day long.

Later, the base camp dismissed Yamamoto Isoroku from his post as commander of the First Fleet and let him rest at home. The top brass of the Navy was dissatisfied with this decision, because Yamamoto Fifty-six's prestige in the Navy was not as high as the average second, and now he was dismissed because of a defeat, which made the Navy how convincing!

But exempting Yamamoto Fifty-six from Emperor Hirohito's intentions, the Navy had to pinch its nose and admit it. But for the land minister Suzuki Kantaro who was driving the trouble at the meeting at that time, he completely hated it.

At today's meeting, the Manchurian issue was discussed, and the army demanded that the navy must once again send a task force to Vladivostok to suppress the forces there, so that it would not dare to send troops and troops in the Tongliao area to attack Manchuria from east to west, so that the Second Flying Division of Jilin Province could rush to Liaoning to relieve the siege of Tongliao.

However, this proposal was strongly opposed by Mitsumasa Yonechi, who claimed that the strength of the navy had been dealt a major blow, and what was needed now was to urgently allocate funds to build new ships and restore strength, rather than fighting with people again. So at the imperial meeting, the land minister and the sea minister pinched each other.

"Zhuqing, now the situation in Manchuria is critical, what do you think you should do?" Hirohito's heart was actually quite unpleasant, not to mention the loss of the navy, that is, seeing that the situation in Manchuria was so critical now, but the two bigwigs of the navy and army were still fighting each other, he felt that there was a nameless fire surging in his heart.

Prince Zairen of Xianyuan Palace on the side said: "Your Majesty, the old minister thinks that the navy has been defeated at the beginning, and it is really inappropriate to let them go to Vladivostok again, we should quickly replenish the fighters of the First Flying Division lost by the Kwantung Army, and send another flying division to support, so that we can be sure to gain air supremacy over Tongliao." ”

The experience of Tongliao profoundly taught the Japanese that in the war of this era, losing air supremacy is equivalent to losing half of the war, because now the base camp attaches much more importance to the air force, and many new fighter projects are also on the agenda.

"Hmph, but now we don't have so many fighters on our own territory to supplement the deficit of the Kwantung Army." General Kantaro Suzuki, the land minister on the side, rolled his eyes on the side, if there are so many fighters to replenish us, why did we come to this meeting?

At this time, Hirohito spoke, "If there are not enough planes, they will be transferred from the Guards Flying Division guarding the homeland, and if they are not enough, they can be transferred from other battlefields in China." ”

"Your Majesty, no, the Guards Flying Division is going to defend the mainland, if the fighters are transferred to China, what will happen to the local air defense?" As soon as Hirohito's words came out, Prince Zaihito of the idle courtyard became panicked.

Hirohito's face was gloomy, "Hmph! Even with the Guards Flying Division, what can you do, aren't the bombers of the Shina people coming and going to bomb Tokyo freely? ”

"Your Majesty's atonement!" As soon as Hirohito said this, everyone left their seats and bowed 90 degrees to Hirohito.

Hirohito sighed, "Okay, let's not fight, I've made up my mind." Besides, didn't you say that the new fighter will be produced in two months? When the time comes, it will be a priority to replenish the Guards Division. ”

"Your Majesty is wise!" The crowd was silent for a while before reluctantly agreeing to the plan.

In the end, the meeting decided to transfer 200 fighters from the Guards Flying Division, and to immediately send more than 100 fighters and pilots produced in the recent past to the Tongliao battlefield and the Seventh Theater to gain air supremacy in order to relieve the danger of Tongliao. But can the battle situation in Tongliao really wait for their arrival?

At this time in Tongliao, Hu Lian was commanding more than 200,000 troops under his command to fight one after another on the battlefield of Tongliao. The 500,000-strong army has lost nearly 200,000 so far, and the remaining 300,000 troops have retreated to the rear of Dalin County in spite of Tojo Hideki's strict orders, and are retreating to Liaoyuan.

"Quick, order the troops to speed up! Be sure to catch up with the little devils! ”

Having just eliminated a Japanese wing on a blocking mission, Liao Yaoxiang, commander of the 41st Infantry Division, was in jeep with his troops and was chasing the Japanese army.

"Division, we're too far ahead, why don't we wait for other troops to pursue us?" The chief of staff suggested from the side.

Liao Yaoxiang shook his head, "Now that the Japanese army is defeated, we must catch up with them before they flee to Liaoyuan, otherwise there will be no chance." ”

"But" The chief of staff still wanted to persuade Liao Yaoxiang, but was glared at by Liao Yaoxiang, "It's nothing, carry out the order!" ”

"Yes!"

The military order was like a mountain, and the chief of staff had no choice but to order the troops to speed up the march.

Liao Yaoxiang led the troops to pursue the Japanese army, which can be described as high-spirited, but in the headquarters of the Kwantung Army, it was gloomy.

Hideki Tojo received an army of 500,000 but was still defeated, and after retreating to Liaoyuan, he locked himself in his office for a whole afternoon and did not come out.

Hideki Tojo had lost a lot of weight in a few days, and his eyes were dull for a while, "Am I really wrong?" Are the 500,000 valiant soldiers of the Kwantung Army really no match for the Shina people? Why is it so difficult for me to recover Rehe? ”

At this time, the door of the office opened, and Ishihara and Umezu Mijiro walked in together, and Ishihara Wanji said, "Tojo-kun, hurry up and stop it, while the current situation has not eroded to the point of no return." ”

"Hmph, stop it, now that the troops are already retreating, does it make any difference if I don't stop it?" Hideki Tojo smiled bitterly.

Of course, there is a difference, now that the people of China are taking advantage of the victory, Liaoyuan is already undefendable, we must quickly order the troops to withdraw to Jinzhou, as long as Jinzhou is held, we have the hope of keeping it, do you understand? Ishihara said earnestly.

Hideki Tojo was stunned for a while, and then he sighed and said to Umezu Mijiro, "Your Excellency Commander, I'm really sorry for this incident, I'm going to write to the base camp to ask for guilt, and Ishihara-kun will trouble you and Ishihara-kun about the retreat!" ”

With that, Tojo had already walked out of the office. R