Liaocheng, Shandong, the 5th Division of the Army is stationed.

At this time, the 5th Division had basically nothing to do with the original Sakagaki Division, not only was the division commander Seishiro Sakagaki and the chief of staff Sakurada Takeshi assassinated, but the two major infantry brigades, the Kunizaki Brigade and the Sakamoto Brigade, were destroyed one after another, and even the fully formed 5th Cavalry Wing was transferred to the newly formed 105th Division.

Although the current 5th Division is still nominally an old division, it is actually a newly built division.

However, Lieutenant General Yoshio Shinozuka, the new commander of the 5th Division, was by no means discouraged by this, and his heart was even more full of fighting spirit, for the simple reason that if Yoshio Shinozuka could rebuild the 5th Division into a "steel army", then he would become the most highly decorated division commander among the previous division commanders of the 5th Division.

In addition, the soldiers who have been replenished also make Yoshio Shinozuka full of confidence.

Of the four infantry wings that were re-replenished, one wing was transferred from the Second Division, but the number was changed to the 11th Wing, and the remaining three infantry wings were also recruits from the reserves.

The engineer wing and cavalry wing directly under the division and regiment have also been rebuilt, the baggage wing and the field artillery wing have even been strengthened, the baggage wing has two whole truck brigades, and the other divisions and regiments have only one truck brigade at most, and the two 75-caliber field artillery brigades of the field artillery wing have all been equipped with 105-caliber field artillery.

The only thing that made Lieutenant General Yoshio Shinozuka feel a little regret was that the 5th Division was incorporated into the third echelon.

According to the instructions of the base camp, there will be 26 divisions and regiments directly or indirectly participating in the battle of Xuzhou, including 16 divisions in the North China Battlefield, 10 divisions in the Central China Battlefield, and all the 26 divisions and regiments participating in the battle are divided into three echelons, the combat task of the first echelon is to hold [***], the combat mission of the second echelon is to transfer from all directions to the counteroffensive, and the third echelon is actually a strategic reserve.

The ambition of the base camp of the army did not stop at winning the Battle of Xuzhou, but also planned to capture Wuhan in one fell swoop.

When Lieutenant General Yoshio Shinozuka was frowning and contemplating at the battle map, an officer with a tall figure and an age of no more than forty walked straight in, and immediately suddenly retracted his feet and stood upright, bowed his head and saluted: "Your Excellency, the new chief of staff of the 5th Division of the Imperial Army, Teng Tian Zhi, report to you and ask for instructions." ”

"Yo Si." Lieutenant General Yoshio Shinozuka turned around when he heard this, and said happily, "Tengtian-kun, you're finally here." ”

"Hello." Tengtian Zhi Dazuo suddenly replied again, "I'm really sorry to keep Your Excellency the General waiting for a long time." ”

"Where, where." Lieutenant General Yoshio Shinozuka waved his hand, and when his eyes inadvertently swept over the collar on Teng Tianzhi's collar, his originally gentle gaze couldn't help but stare slightly, only half a month ago, this guy was just a young staff officer in the staff department of the front line command of the base camp, but in less than half a month, he was promoted to two ranks and became a big leader!

There are factors such as his father and family, as well as the fact that Terau and Lieutenant General Okabe admire him, but the most important thing is that Teng Tian Zhi himself is indeed an outstanding officer, and the Terauchi General does not hesitate to praise him when he talks about him, thinking that Teng Tian Zhi is likely to be the most outstanding representative of the future imperial army generals!

For no reason, Lieutenant General Yoshio Shinozuka had the idea of comparing in his heart.

Lieutenant General Shinozuka smiled and asked, "Tengtian-kun, I heard that you have a unique opinion on this 'Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity' holy war, I wonder if you can tell me about it?" ”

Tengtian Dazuo sighed and said, "Your Excellency, with all due respect, the pattern of the Great East Asian Holy War or the 'Sino-Chinese War' has been decided, and both sides are already mired in the mud, and they are obviously unable to change their respective deployments from the grand strategy, so it is meaningless to discuss this proposition now. ”

"Nope." Lieutenant General Yoshio Shinozuka waved his hand and said, "I still want to hear Tengda-kun's high arguments." ”

"Hello." Tengtian Dazuo suddenly bowed his head and said, "Your Excellency, General, I think that the decision of the base camp has been deviated from the beginning, and we have gone astray from the beginning of this holy war. ”

"Oh?" Lieutenant General Yoshio Shinozuka was shocked and moved, "I would like to hear about it." ”

Tengtian Dazuo said: "Your Excellency General, the country of China is a country dominated by the Han people, in the long history of China, there is only one experience of half the country, the so-called half time is the destruction of the Ming Dynasty by the Manchu Qing Dynasty, the reason why the Manchu Qing Dynasty was able to enter the Central Plains is actually at the cost of fully accepting Confucian culture, so it is difficult to say who destroyed whom." ”

"Another time is the destruction of the Great Song Dynasty by the Mengyuan Dynasty, the destruction of the Great Song Dynasty by the Mengyuan Dynasty is basically pure force, and there is almost no compromise in civilization and culture, so the people of China are really dead this time, and they have also been slaves of the country for decades, until the Ming Dynasty Zhongxing expelled the Mengyuan from the Central Plains, and the branch was considered to have restored its own temple."

Lieutenant General Yoshio Shinozuka listened carefully and asked, "Is this related to the Holy War of the Empire?" ”

Tengtian Dazuo said: "Your Excellency General, I think the experience of the Manchu Qing Dynasty in destroying the Ming Dynasty is not worth learning from, because the history of the Han people has a long history, and the inclusive surname is beyond imagination, if we follow the example of the Manchu Qing, then within three hundred years, the Yamato nation will also become a vassal of the Han like the Manchus, and it is absolutely impossible to guarantee the dominant position." ”

"So......" said Lieutenant General Yoshio Shinozuka, "we should follow the example of Meng Yuan?" ”

"Yes." Tengtian Dazuo said, "We must not only strategically emulate the Meng Yuan and resolutely abandon the absurd idea of conquering China culturally, but also follow the Meng Yuan tactically and adopt the strategy of the Meng Yuan to destroy the Great Song Dynasty to destroy the national political axe, if the empire really did this, then at this time, the national political axe is likely to have surrendered." ”

Lieutenant General Yoshio Shinozuka frowned and said, "Tengtian-kun, can I listen to the specific deduction?" ”

Lieutenant General Yoshio Shinozuka was obviously a little unhappy, and Teng Tian Zhi was so ashamed to speak so loudly and openly deny the grand strategy formulated by many senior staff officers in the base camp, which made him feel very uncomfortable.

"Of course." Teng Tianzhi strode to the map hanging on the wall, and immediately picked up the command pole and pointed to the map and said, "Your Excellency General, please see, when the Mengyuan Dynasty destroyed the Great Song Dynasty, it used a counterclockwise encirclement, and from the very beginning, it gathered the whole country's troops to march south, first breaking through Sichuan, the country of abundance, and then detouring to Yunnan, cutting off the retreat of the Zhina people, and finally launching an attack on the Zhina people from the north, west, and south at the same time. ”

"If the empire can do its best from the beginning, mobilize at least 50 divisions in the shortest possible time, and then land from Lianyungang, cut Xi'an along the Longhai line, and then attack Sichuan from Xi'an, and then divide the troops to Yunnan, Guizhou, and Liangguang after occupying Sichuan, at most half a year, the imperial army will be able to occupy all the above areas."

Yoshio Shinozuka was silent when he heard this, Sichuan, Yunnan and Liangguang were actually controlled by local Chinese warlords, and if the imperial army really gathered the main force to attack the above areas, Chiang's central army might not be able to help, and even if they reluctantly sent troops, most of them were only symbolic surnames, and occupying the above areas within half a year was really not a difficult thing for the imperial army that poured the country's troops into the army.

Teng Tianzhi said: "After occupying Sichuan, Yunnan and Liangguang, the imperial army will be able to form a half-moon-shaped encirclement of Central China from a grand strategic point of view, and the Chinese army will also lose the space for strategic maneuver, and will be forced to fight a decisive battle with the imperial army. ”

Lieutenant General Yoshio Shinozuka was speechless for a long time, as proud as he was, and he had to admit that this little guy Tengtian Chi did have extraordinary strategic vision, and if Ishihara Wan'er, the deputy chief of staff of the base camp, could have such a vision, then at this time, I was afraid that the Great East Asia Holy War had ended, and China had perished.

"It's a pity ......" Teng Tian Zhi put down his command pole, let alone sighed, "Our base camp has neither foresight nor strategic vision, they are intimidated by the vast territory and huge population of China, and from the beginning they did not think that the Great Empire had the strength to destroy China, so they adopted a conservative and stupid encroachment strategy. ”

"It wasn't until the people of China took the initiative to provoke disputes in Shanghai that the empire reacted passively and mobilized urgently."

"Until this time, the empire still had the strength and opportunity to destroy China in World War I, but the base camp once again had a major strategic miscalculation, they passively and stupidly gathered a large number of elite troops in the Songhu area, and fought two wars of attrition with the China army in Nanjing, which not only gave the China political axe enough time for strategic transfer, but also consumed a large number of elite veterans, thus forever losing the opportunity and strength to quickly attack the hinterland of China."

Lieutenant General Yoshio Shinozuka said, "So, is there no room for redemption?" ”

"Yes." Tengtian Zhi said, "The only chance now is to gather heavy troops to land in Guangzhou, and then quickly capture Liangguang, Yunnan and Guizhou, and cut off the connection between the Zhina political axe and the outside world from the grand strategy, then with the poor industrial strength of the Zhina political axe, even if it has a deep strategic maneuver space, it will eventually be trapped alive by the imperial army in the Lianghu area!" ”

Lieutenant General Yoshio Shinozuka said, "What do you mean...... The Battle of Xuzhou is meaningless? ”

"Yes." Teng Tianzhi said very simply, "The Zhina army assembled on the battlefield in Xuzhou seems to be a lot of people, but in fact, they are all Chinese peasants who have just put on military uniforms, and they are all primitive and shabby weapons in their hands. ”

"Therefore, it is a completely stupid decision to force the surrender of the political axe of China by destroying the living force of the Chinese army, and the most effective strategy to deal with the political axe of China is to follow the example of Meng Yuan and pour the country's forces to fight quickly, followed by a long-term siege, wait for the internal strife of the political axe of China, and then support the puppet political axe to gradually encroach."

(To be continued)