War is like a chess game.

How the enemy will play chess is often predictable.

The army knew early on that China would launch an unprecedented offensive in the southeastern theater of Korea, and that he could no longer lose anyway, even if he wanted to block all the soldiers of the Imperial Army of the Great Emperor in front of the enemy's guns, he could not hesitate.

At this time, the base camp of the Yue army already knew that it was impossible for Yue Ben to defeat China, but as long as he made every effort, he could still hold the southeastern region of Korea, and if he held this place, he would be able to prevent China from landing on the mainland, and he would still have the advantage of negotiating an armistice treaty with China.

If China can be inflicted a heavy blow in the southeastern theater of operations on the Korean Peninsula, there is no doubt that it will be in the best interest of Yuben.

At the same time that China was preparing to launch the Southern Korean Campaign and the Ryukyu Campaign, he was also doing his best to stop the Northeast Defense Force, whether it was using espionage methods, sabotage in northern Korea, and recruiting a large number of troops in the country, maintaining more than 1.4 million troops in the southeastern theater of Korea, trying to stop China's attack on the mainland.

In the traditional map division of Korea, the two sides still control the western mountain areas of North Gyeongsang-do, South Gyeongsang Province, South Jeolla Province, and North Chungcheong Province of North Korea, as well as the southern part of Gangwon Province. However, the army was stationed in Sangju and Daegu.

The confrontation between the Northeast Defense Force and the East Asian Dispatch Army on this line of defense has been nearly four months, and a real war has reached the point where it is on the verge of breaking out, and at this time it has already reached the point where it cannot afford to lose, and all the people are soldiers, and 45 new divisions and regiments have been added to the country, which are constantly expanding and increasing their training, and will continue to be dispatched to new battlefields at any time, and efforts must be made to maintain the situation at the present stage.

A counteroffensive was a real luxury for him.

Even for Prince Zaihito, who has always been arrogant and confident, the chief of staff who secretly controls the base camp of the Yue army behind his back is also very aware of the current situation, and he cannot withstand such attrition at all when he risks going to war against the strong, and he also understands that China's strategic plan is to implement a circular blockade on Yue Ben and block him in the island country, which will directly deprive him of all the resources needed to support the war.

In addition to the population of 70 million, there is really nothing else left, and other than that, it is the Yamato-class battleship that symbolizes the glory of the Great Yamato-class empire.

Until this moment, Prince Zaihito of the Imperial Palace still believed that as long as the Yamato-class battleships did not fall, the Daishoben Empire would not fall, no matter how difficult it was, as long as an armistice treaty was reached with China that could be said to be justified, relying on the existence of the Yamato-class battleships, the Daishoben Empire would eventually rise again and build the first navy in Asia.

He was so resolute, even though he knew the predicament he was currently facing, because he firmly believed that the Yamato nation was one of the best nations in the world, and that the 70 million Yamato people were far better than 500 million pigs.

To this end, he persuaded Emperor Showa to allow the Japanese army to use chemical weapons in the subsequent war, trying to deter China's decisive intentions with greater casualties and forcing China to agree to sign an armistice.

If this leads to China's retaliation for the use of chemical weapons on the mainland, he believes that the Yamato nation will be able to hold on.

Prince Jaehito decided to gamble again, not because he wanted to gamble, but because there was no other way to do it, for the sake of the strength of the empire, for the future of the empire, it was already to the point where it was necessary to use chemical weapons to intimidate opponents.

At this time, he hoped that fate would favor the empire again, so that the empire's luck would be a little better and win the game, but he didn't know how big the mistake he made the moment he signed the order to use the gas bomb.

At a critical time of life and death for a nation of 70 million people, the time gradually entered May, and the preparations for the war in the southern Korean theater entered a more urgent stage, before the arrival of Daegu on April 14, as the director of education of the three commanders of the army, General Toshiroku Hatamoto was recommended as the commander-in-chief of the East Asian Dispatch Army.

General Shunliu Hata clearly expressed his dissatisfaction with the arrangement of the former commander-in-chief Shoichi Terauchi in the southern defense line, and tried to make adjustments, wanting to shrink the forces from the north and retain more troops as a reserve, but Prince Jaehito, as the actual controller behind the base camp, clearly forbade the army to abandon its position, and strictly ordered Shunroku Hata to defend every inch of land in southern Korea, and to fight to the death with the Chinese army on every inch of mountains and heights, until China cowardly agreed to armistice negotiations.

This order made it difficult for General Shunroku Hata to make effective changes, but Prince Zaihito agreed to transfer ten more divisions to the East Asian Dispatch Army as a reserve force, and there were soldiers, but the problem of lack of artillery in the army was difficult to solve, and the serious shortage of gun production capacity forced the army to take out the stock of Type 30 and Murata Type 22 rifles again, and the new semi-automatic rifle Type 97 was still in service in the army for a short time, and the number was seriously insufficient, and the main rifle of the army was still Type 38 rifle.

In terms of body-barreled artillery, the army is still dominated by Type 75 mountain guns, and the number of 105\120mm caliber guns is obviously insufficient.

Soon after arriving in Daegu to take over the post of commander-in-chief of the East Asia Dispatch Force, Shunroku Hata ordered the cessation of the original counteroffensive and the many small-scale battles that were being underway, and quickly continued to gather his forces and concentrate all his manpower and material resources on defensive operations.

During this period of time, Cai Ye also made continuous adjustments within the Northeast National Defense Army, in order to correct the arrogant atmosphere within the army, he has done his best, but for Cai Ye, the most difficult thing for him is to face two more difficult things, one is the inevitable mass casualties in this battle; Second, the consumption of ammunition in this battle will be alarming, and these two problems require that the Northeast National Defense Force must ensure the ability to dispatch and supply materials.

Rich war experience is the most valuable asset of high-ranking generals such as Cai Yi and Liu Gengyun, who have been able to predict all this very early, even before the Central Military Department officially ordered them to be appointed as the supreme commander of the Northeast Defense Force.

Through the deployment of the Central Military Department, Cai Ye has established the world's largest field medical team in the Northeast National Defense Force, with an average of one trained medical soldier in each infantry squad, and a sufficient reserve of morphine, penicillin and other special drugs, enough to ensure the use of 300,000 wounded.

300,000.

This is the upper limit of casualties that Cai set for himself.

Details determine success or failure, Cai and Liu Gengyun do a very peculiar division of labor, Liu Gengyun is responsible for the overall tactical planning and deployment, while Cai Yi is responsible for the adjustment of troops and these details, and Shu Fangde, as the head of teaching, is responsible for coordinating the air force, navy and patrol forces.

In a war, they have to deal with thousands of problems, the vast majority of which are extremely trivial and small problems that determine the ultimate success or failure.

The number of troops accumulated by the two armies in southern Korea has exceeded 1.7 million, and the total number of troops and equipment has reached the level of the Sudkursk Campaign.

The official start of the Random Arrow operation plan was on May 17, but before that, starting in March, the Imperial Air Force and Navy continued to blockade the Korean Strait, attacking the supply fleet and all other ships of the Imperial Army.

From the beginning of the war to the present, the J-5 Tiger Shark fighter-bomber has been a well-deserved battlefield star, from beginning to end has a variety of key values, its large body, long range, can be used as a second-line bomber, attack aircraft, and fighter plane, and can even independently undertake reconnaissance, anti-submarine, night searchlight, and so on, from March to May, the army lost as many as 400 transport ships in the Korean Strait, about two divisions and regiments sank in the Korean Strait directly because of air raids.

This put Shunroku Hata's army in a very difficult situation, at this time the army was far from being comparable to the period of the war of aggression against China in terms of strength, there were no resources such as the Northeast, the Korean Peninsula and Taiwan, and the national strength of the army itself was also very limited.

In the Battle of Seoul, the army was crushed by Wei Lihuang's attack, and more than 2,000 artillery pieces and a large amount of military supplies were captured, which made the situation even worse for the troops stationed in the southeastern theater of Korea.

The scale of the troops on both sides is very large, and the cost of military rations of nearly 700,000 kilograms per day is even more unbearable for the Syrian army; the arable land in the south of Korea is small, and there is not much grain that can be snatched by the Syrian army; in fact, since April, the military ration supply of the Syrian army has been gradually halved.

Cai Yi and Hata Shunroku are classmates of this Lu University, and the two of them still have a certain understanding of each other, and Hata Shunliu is also well aware of Cai Ng's ambition, talent and shrewdness, and both sides are not in a hurry to make a move in the southeast theater, but a battle between China and China is inevitable and will come.

After Emperor Showa agreed to Prince Zaihito's proposal, the army had accelerated the deployment of chemical weapons during this period, and the empire was also actively carrying out related defense and counterattack work, in fact, Cai Ye and Hata Shunroku did not want to use this weapon, but they were powerless to intervene in high-level decision-making, and both of them were only the executors of the campaign.

At a time when the various group armies of the Northeast National Defense Force were stepping up preparations for war, people did not notice that Chen Wu, a veteran who had left the Chinese Army for nearly 10 years, was shining with new brilliance.

Lao Ji is in the stable, aiming for thousands of miles.

Among the four group armies, Chen Wu's Fourth Army was the last to be established, about one-third of the officers and soldiers came from the patrol forces in the northeast and north China, one-third came from the reinforcement of new soldiers, and the real elite troops were only two infantry divisions.

Chen Wu was not dissatisfied or sad because of this, on the contrary, he cherished the opportunity in front of him.

The chief of staff of Chen Wu's Fourth Group Army is also General Han Chunlin, who was temporarily transferred, and the reason why the Central Military Department made such an arrangement was also to consider the deep personal relationship between the two of them, and the person who made this decision was Jiang Fangzhen, but Jiang Fangzhen did not know that Chen Wu had changed a lot over the years.

Han Chunlin had not yet arrived at the front line at this time, and the relevant work was in charge of Xu Wei and Lin Yangchun, Xu Wei was the acting chief of staff, Lin Yangchun was the deputy chief of staff, and Xu Wei, who was born in the Far East Military Academy, happened to be Chen Wu's old department, and Chen Wu knew a lot about this old department and trusted him very much.

In the past six months, Chen Wu has led the Fourth Army to fight against the Yue Army many times, and the record is not outstanding, but after all, Chen Wu is experienced in a hundred battles, and it is in this half year that he has been fighting and training, and the level of these inconspicuous new units in his hands has been tempered.

In the eyes of many people, Chen Wu is a very old-fashioned, conservative, and stubborn senior general, and his tactical thinking is relatively backward in the Central Defense Force, and he has always had the old atmosphere of the Northeast Army era, and he has placed too much emphasis on military fighting spirit and hard training, but veterans have the advantages and advantages of veterans.

Moreover, over the past few years, Chen Wu has not remained as unchanged as everyone imagined.

After arriving on the Korean Peninsula, he has been exploring new tactics for new equipment in the southern region, adjusting the wartime establishment of the Fourth Army, increasing the number of soldiers in each squad to about 15, each company has four platoons, and each platoon has four squads, and each battalion retains a grassroots unit as a reserve force, while each battalion is similar to other group armies, generally increasing to 5-7 companies.

Chen Wu is indeed very old, but he has fought a lifelong battle after all.

The battlefield of North Korea is not new to him at all.

Like Cai Yi and Liu Gengyun, Chen Wu also knew very early on that if he wanted to end this battle, he would ultimately have to rely on the same set of methods of the Northeast Army back then, but on this basis, he had to make substantial adjustments and improvements to his tactics in accordance with the new equipment, and the grassroots establishment was constantly adjusted and changed because of this.

Chen Wu also has a very special place, that is, he has always personally commanded the divisions to fight on the front line, leaving the instructor Yuan Zonghan behind to be responsible for logistics and scheduling work, although Wei Lihuang and Zhang Zizhong are also used to commanding on the front line, but they are not as direct as him standing within the range of the enemy's artillery.

In the past few days, the air force has markedly intensified the frequency of air raids on the frontline positions of the Syrian army, and has continuously penetrated deep into the hinterland of the Chinese army to strike at some of the limited air force of the Chinese army.

Chen Wu had received a clear telegram ordering him to launch an all-out attack at 10 a.m. on May 17, and before that time, he planned to send an infantry division to quickly penetrate Jingshan County to cut off the retreat of the Yue army and prevent the southern side of the Yue army from joining the headquarters.

He wanted to fight an ambush and besiege the city for reinforcements.

He is not a general who is good at using stratagem, and neither is Han Chunlin, the two thought about it, and finally considered fighting a real bayonet-to-bayonet bloody battle, which is a bit like a copy of the battle of Meng Lianggu, not giving the opponent a chance to rescue, and directly killing the opponent's most elite troops to hit the opponent's morale.

This is what Chen and Han are good at.

Hard dry!

Of course, hard work is not brute force, on the same strength, you have to fight harder than your opponent, this is the real ability, the strength is higher than the opponent, and the hard fight is harder, that is also the real ability.

Under the Central Military Department's grand plan and grand strategic objectives of the Random Arrow Plan, Chen Wu and Han Chunlin prepared to meticulously organize a real battle of encirclement and annihilation in view of the current strengths and advantages of the Fourth Group Army, and to wipe out the 3rd Division and the 27th Division of the elite 7th Army in Gangneung and Jingshan.

…… May 17th.

In the wee hours of the morning.

The sky is dark and the starlight is scarce, it seems that it will be cloudy today, or there may be light rain, during this time in the early hours of the morning, Wei Lihuang is still in the headquarters with Bai Chongxi, Xue Yue and others to discuss the new situation.

The Second Army, which is mainly armored units, is currently very difficult to send the main force to attack the southeastern part of Korea, and Wei Lihuang, who has only two infantry divisions and three newly formed infantry brigades, must carefully use all means to accomplish his operational objectives.

The objective given to him by the Central Military Headquarters was to capture Haman County, to flank Changning County from the north and south with the First and Third Armies, and to open a passage for the First Army to continue its southward offensive against Busan, and to make all necessary preparations.

His armored troops can basically hit Xianyang County, but it is difficult to break through the 60 kilometers of mountainous land between Xianyang County and Xian'an County, and this is precisely the key area of the defense of the Yue army on the southern front, especially in Shanqing County, the passage through which the two places must pass, the defense of the Yue army is not only strong, but also a large number, although many batches of air force have been dispatched to carry out bombing and ground attacks, the current feedback is still not ideal.

Wei Lihuang's luck was not good, his opponent was General Matsui Ishine, after the Battle of Seoul, the army was already extremely frightened by Wei Lihuang's troops, although theoretically not worried that Wei Lihuang's Second Army was still capable of crossing the vast mountains to continue the attack, the base camp of the army still sent General Matsui Ishine to Gyeongsang South Province to serve as the commander of the Fourth Front Army of the East Asian Dispatch Army.

After analyzing the situation of the troops of the Wei Lihuang Division and the characteristics of the main commanders, General Matsui Ishone, who had an extremely keen sense of war, realized that "the Wei Lihuang Division is the ace force of the armored forces in the Chinese Army, and in view of the situation in the southern part of Korea, the possibility that the group army will continue to rely on the armored force to advance eastward is very low", based on this analysis, Matsui Ishone chose to shrink his forces, and instead of setting up a frontal defense, he arranged a highland defense line around Jirisan Mountain, and contained the advance of the Wei Lihuang Department by holding each other down through a large number of high grounds.

Just as General Matsui Ishine judged, Wei Lihuang also knew very well that the most difficult thing for his troops to cross was the seemingly loose defense line of Jirisan Mountain, and if he wanted to complete the plan of the Central Military Headquarters to occupy Xianyang County, he would first have to defeat the 24th Division and the 2nd and 8th Brigades of the Yue Army in Zhirisan Mountain, and the strength of his mountain troops and regular infantry divisions and brigades was far from enough to accomplish this goal.

Wei Lihuang could only choose to go north, detour to Changshui County, and then attack Xianyang County along the south, and use mechanized divisions to storm Gucheng and Nanyuan, garrison on the spot, and force the army to take the initiative to abandon the Zhiyi Mountain defense line and return to the division to rescue Xianyang.

If the Yue army resolutely does not shrink the defense line of Zhiyi Mountain, Wei Lihuang can only let his mechanized armored division stop in Nanyuan, neither attack nor mobilize, and watch the 24th Division and two infantry brigades of the Yue army, but how he can use the only two infantry divisions and three mixed brigades in his hands to capture Xianyang is also a complicated problem.

Wei Lihuang is different from Fu Zuoyi, he is not extremely enthusiastic about the desire for military achievements, compared to the temptation of the rank of general, he attaches more importance to the efficiency of the operation, and the highest instruction given to him by the Central Military Department is to prevent Matsui Shigen from going north to support Hata Shunroku, so he chose the strategy of forcing but not attacking, and in turn established a defensive line in the north of the Xianyang Army, preventing Matsui Shigen's troops from going north, and waiting for Fu Zuoyi and Zhang Zizhong to attack Hata Shunliu.

He decided to go against the plan of the Central Military Headquarters and not attack the heavily defended Xianyang County, but to take the smaller Juchang County and get stuck like a thorn between Matsui Ishine and Hata Shunroku, so that the two armies could not support each other.

Of course, he also had to take a great risk, if Fu Zuoyi's attack failed, it was possible that Shunroku Hata would move south to attack his defense line in Juchang County with Matsui Ishine in the north and south.

At this time, Wei Lihuang did not believe that his old boss and senior would fail, but he had always had to prepare with both hands, if the situation changed, he must still hold firmly in Juchang County, hold here, no matter when, it will be difficult for Matsui Shigen to withdraw, and he can only sit and wait for the imperial army to attack wave after wave.

After Wei Lihuang received the battle plan from the Central Military Department, he had already determined his battle plan before the end of April, but in the early morning of the day when the troops were actually dispatched, he still called his most trusted subordinates Huang Baitao and Xue Yue to the command post to re-examine each specific step together.

If the situation is smooth, how many troops he needs in Juchang County, how to arrange the defensive line, how to set up ammunition reserves, how to set up artillery positions, and how to arrange if the situation is not smooth, all of this needs a little consideration.

The three of them discussed until 3 o'clock in the morning, and when they heard the alarm clock set in advance, Wei Lihuang threw the pencil in his hand aside, and sighed with Xue Yue: "Brother Boling, this time Juchang County's actions are all up to you, the grassroots officers and soldiers of the army are brave and belligerent, extremely martial, and the infantry attack is not good for us, and there will be heavy losses in the defense, therefore, you must occupy Juchang County quickly, and you should be careful after the occupation, there are very few places where our department can support you, only please ask the air force to support, I am in the north of Changshui County, At that time, all the rocket artillery will be located in the north, and the range will help you hold the southern line of Taniguchi. ”

Xue Yue immediately stood up and saluted: "Please rest assured, your subordinates will do their best." ”

Wei Lihuang also reassured: "Fu Zuoyi and Zhang Zizhong's two armies are heading south, and the probability of defeat is extremely low, we should rest assured about this, but military matters always lie in preparedness." ”

Xue Yue agreed: "What the military seat said is very true. ”

Huang Baitao said: "Not necessarily, the military seat, Boling, General Fu came in with a rather arrogant posture, if the enemy army goes deeper, and then encircles and annihilates him with heavy troops, even if he can escape a catastrophe, the loss will be not small." The key to the military department's operation this time is that Fu Zuoyi's department and Zhang Zizhong's department should take the lead and go south together, but Fu Zuoyi's department is close, has fierce firepower, has many soldiers, and has many elites, so it is inevitable that they will win one step ahead. ”

Wei Lihuang was said to be the most worried place in the center, and said: "Actually, what I'm worried about is here, the military department's plan is wonderful, but no matter how good the plan is, it depends on people to implement, and we can only wait and see what the specific effect is." ”

It was not early, Wei Lihuang got up and shook hands with Xue Yue after saying this, and said, "Don't say anything else, you go back and prepare first, and officially send troops at 7 o'clock at noon." ”

Xue Yue nodded in agreement, saluted again, and left the command post first.

Wei Lihuang's Second Group Army is an elite gathering, and Huang Baitao, Guo Yuqian, Xue Yue, and Sun Ren are all famous generals, but Huang Baitao and Guo Yuqian are both better at using armored troops, and they are quite limited on the battlefield in southern Korea.

Wei Lihuang's arrangement was for Guo Yuqian to lead an army to attack Nanyuan, Xue Yue to attack Juchang, and he and Huang Baitao led a team to garrison Changshui County, which could be supported on both sides, just in case, and Sun Renbu stayed in Gwangju to stand by.

The development of war is always ever-changing and unpredictable.

At this time, Wei Lihuang did not know that history would once again push him to a new peak of the most shining one.

(To be continued)