. Chapter 285: Myth Busting (4)

The atmosphere in Nanjing City is a little depressing.

Traun, who had just stepped off the train, immediately felt the difference, the station was almost full of military uniforms, and a group of soldiers were preparing to take the train to the north along the Jinpu Line, and the good men from all over the world were sent on a bloody journey by the man with excitement, responsibility or confusion.

Out of the station is also a nervous picture, the patrol on the street is obviously more and more, many Japanese foreign banks have chosen to temporarily close business, but several Japanese banks lined up in front of the door, this is not that the Chinese like them, but the unique run on the war (). In recent days, Japanese banks across China have been run on due to fears of war, and the worst loss was the Shanghai Japan Zhengjin Bank, which is said to have directly ordered the exchange of millions of yen into gold, resulting in a sharp decline in the bank's reserves.

However, Japan is also confident that it will win this war, right? If victory is not just about recovering exchange losses, I am afraid that the whole of Manchuria, Mongolia and North China will be swallowed by Japan! So he always felt that Yang Qiu was too anxious, even if he wanted to fight, he should wait a few more years, but it was a pity that Germany was currently tied up in Europe, otherwise it would be good to help him win this battle and lay the foundation of relations between the two countries.

Traun felt that he had thought a little too far, and the most important thing for him at the moment was to cooperate with Prince Reinhardt to establish an alliance between the two countries as soon as possible. After arriving at the presidential palace, he met Yang Qiu and Li Yuanhong in the conference room, the two were listening to the analysis of the battle situation, and when they saw him, they immediately got up to greet him: "Your Excellency, why don't you make a phone call first, we can also get ready." ”

Traun didn't have the heart to talk about pomp, seeing that Song Ziqing was still standing in front of the map, it was clear that the battle plan had not been reported, so he was a little hesitant to avoid it first, but Yang Qiu pulled him to sit down and said with a smile: "Your Excellency the Minister is not an outsider, go on." ”

Song Ziqing understood what Yang Qiu meant, and continued: "At present, the Japanese 38th Wing has arrived in Fengcheng, and there is also a cavalry wing and an artillery wing with them, and the total number of people has exceeded one brigade. The 74th Wing of the 19th Division was also heading north to Yingkou, and the Manchurian and Mongolian rebels also sent more than 1,000 troops to cooperate. It is worth noting that the battle cruiser Kurama, which was originally deployed in Arthur, has already arrived at Yingkou. Li Yuanhong was still frowning, he was also one of the many people who were worried about the defeat, although Benxi had arrived, but he knew very well how big the gap between the engineer wing and the infantry wing was, not to mention that there were still two wings larger than the brigade, and the prestige of the Japanese army for 20 years was built on this kind of infantry wing.

Song Ziqing didn't say anything about the Benxi war, and Traun didn't know that it was still possible to deliberately block the news for a few days in this era of underdeveloped communications, so Traun saw that he was worried, and thought he was scared, so he seized the time to sell his alliance strategy: "These Japanese are too arrogant, and such a blatant dispatch of troops into areas outside the concession is already equivalent to a declaration of war, I think it is necessary for the two of you to consider deepening the relationship between our two countries and deterring Japan from withdrawing from the Northeast ()." ”

This kind of deterrence could have been effective a year ago, but now Yang Qiu had already told Li Yuanhong all his thoughts, so the latter's big round face immediately mourned a lot, making Song Ziqing secretly laugh at the old fox's ability to steer the rudder when he saw the wind.

Li Yuanhong pretended to be very helpless and said: "Don't hide it from Your Excellency the minister, in fact, I also discussed this matter with Chenhua, and the two of us are very much in favor of forming an alliance with your country, but. When he said this, he deliberately looked to the side, Yang Qiu took over the conversation and continued: "Your Excellency should know that our country is a parliamentary system, and there is still a lot of resistance on the part of the parliament because of the concern about the Anglo-Japanese alliance, and it takes time to convince. ”

"But please rest assured, Your Excellency, I will try to convince the Congress, after all, it is a good opportunity for our country to promote the development of the country, in fact." Yang Qiu deliberately raised his voice a few degrees and said with a smile: "Don't you think we're already working hard?" Japan will be pinned down in the northeast, Britain will need to devote a lot of energy if it fulfills the alliance, and recently intelligence agents have told me that the Russian troops stationed in the Far East have begun to worry that they will definitely not be able to return to Europe in the short term. ”

Traun nodded, he also knew that this matter could not be discussed so quickly, of course, what Yang Qiu said was also very right, the situation of the Sino-Japanese war was what Germany wanted to see the most. There has been news from Europe, because Nicholas II had already had the idea of sending more troops to the Far East to loot while the fire was on fire, and France was already anxious about this, and was asking Britain to pressure Japan not to continue to stir up China's nerves. All this is good news for Germany, so even Prince Reinhardt, who was resting in Shanghai, told the German reporters who came with him that although no agreement has been reached, China and Germany are gradually getting closer.

But there was one thing he was very puzzled about, that is, Yang Qiu had been increasing the number of troops around Shandong recently, and asked: "Your Excellency, Vice President, I still have a question, why does your country continue to mobilize troops to the periphery of Jiaoji?" ”

Yang Qiu guessed that he would ask this, and immediately glanced at Song Ziqing, who took out a piece of information and handed it to Traun: "This is the information we have got, the Japanese Navy is likely to send landing troops to Tianjin, Dongying and other places during the Northeast War, and we are also worried about the British in Weihai, so these are just precautionary measures." ”

Traun didn't doubt this, because Germany also thought so, after all, it was impossible for Yang Qiu to declare war on the two at the same time, so after promising a few aid that was destined not to arrive, he said: "Our ambassador to Japan has received definite information, Japan is mobilizing several divisions, so we think that they are likely to officially declare war in the near future, and I hope this will help the two of them ()." After he finished speaking, he took his leave, leaving Li Yuanhong with a bad face.

How many divisions ?! The two rushing front teams have a headache to death, how can they fight a few more? Thinking of this, I couldn't help but look at Yang Qiu.

Seeing this, Song Ziqing disagreed, and said with a smile: "Don't worry too much, the president, our move this time has been beyond Japan's expectations, it will take time to increase troops across the sea on a large scale, and Japan's domestic shipping force itself is very poor, not to mention that the Japanese army was basically in a state of rest before, and it was not possible to do it in a month after mobilization, and in the short term, we are still facing three divisions here in Korea and Lushun." Therefore, Yue Peng's plan was to first go all out to defeat the 38th Wing after building a defensive line in Haicheng, and as long as the 14th Division behind this roadblock was removed, it would be able to join the 12th Division from Changchun to the south of Fengcheng and Andong, and then use the Yalu River to drag the Japanese troops coming from Korea, forcing the Japanese army to only attack Haicheng in one direction.

Shi Xiaolou had already ordered Wu Peifu to lead the 6th Division to move towards Chahar, the 10th Division left a brigade to monitor Chahar and Mongolia, and the rest began to move south from Rehe, the 101st Division would go to Mukden after the 4th Division took over the defense of the Beijing-Tianjin area, and the 16th Division led by Chen Yan could also reach Liaoyang before Japan completed its troop increase. ”

Li Yuanhong had already learned the entire battle plan, and on paper, if he could defeat the 38th Brigade, he would be able to take the lead and open up the situation, but he felt a little risky to take out a large wing by relying only on the two brigades of the First Division, and said: "Although the 1st Brigade and the 2nd Brigade are good fighting divisions, the Japanese Army is very strong, is it too thin in terms of strength?" ”

Song Ziqing said: "The 2nd Brigade is blocked and the 3rd Brigade is packed, which is enough in terms of strength, but we have also taken into account the combat capability of the Japanese army, so the two regiments and one artillery battalion of the 101st Division have arrived in Mukden and are advancing towards Benxi, and they will converge with the 45th Brigade of the 14th Division to make a detour from Benxi to the left side of the Japanese army." ”

Hearing this, Li Yuanhong was a little relieved, and muttered to himself: "The three brigades can still fight." ”

Yang Qiu knew Li Yuanhong's mood of gains and losses, in fact, there were few people in the whole country who thought that the Wehrmacht could defeat the terrible Japanese army in their eyes, so he very much agreed with Yue Peng's plan to take the 38th Wing first, as long as the 38th Wing could be defeated, then the situation could be completely opened, and the whole country and even the whole world could understand how ridiculous the myth of the invincibility of the Japanese army was!

Three brigades against a wing, it is still worth looking forward to when the equipment is fully superior, but it is Yingkou and Haicheng that make him worried, especially Yingkou! It was too close to the sea, and the Japanese naval guns could easily support it, and it would be very dangerous to go crazy once the Japanese borrowed naval artillery support, so they immediately asked: "Is it possible for the mobile artillery regiment to go directly to Yingkou along the South Manchurian Railway?" ”

The two mobile artillery regiments are the temporary establishment of the Wehrmacht, which is formed with two purchased armored trains as the core, so Song Ziqing immediately shook his head after hearing this: "The track system is different, the South Manchurian Railway uses 1067 mm narrow gauge in Japan, and our armored train uses the same German standard regulations as the Jiaoji Railway, Mukden lacks large machines, so it is impossible to temporarily change the train chassis, I asked Mr. Cheng and some experts about this, and they said that if they want not to destroy the roadbed, The only way is to use the existing roadbed to add an extra rail next to the narrow gauge, but this method is slow, and it will take at least one month to lay it from Mukden to Yingkou. ”

Li Yuanhong was also born in the army, and he still understood very well the truth that the thicker the muzzle, the greater the chance of victory, and heard that the armored train could not use the South Manchurian Railway, so he suggested: "The battle cannot be fought in a day or two, and there are some rail reserves on the Fengtian side, and while laying temporary outer rails, they will go out before assigning a few artillery battalions, and the existing narrow-gauge train will enter Haicheng first, and without artillery, it will not be able to prevent the Japanese army from going north by relying on the crowd alone." ”

"That's what I thought too." Song Ziqing nodded: "This time the combat artillery will become the most important force, so I have asked Jiang Tai to lead the mobile artillery regiment to take the train to Fengtian first, and it is estimated that it will arrive in Fengtian in five days at the latest, Yue Peng and they are also stepping up the laying of steel bridges, he has 16 long-range heavy artillery in his hand, which can deal with Haicheng, and if he is lucky, he can deter the Japanese Navy a little." ”

Yang Qiu's eyes were locked on the Sky Ridge between Fengcheng and Baofen, and now it was up to him to see how much time it would take to defeat this 38 Wing! waved his hand: "Send a nationwide telegram to send out the matter of the two wings of the Japanese army entering our territory, and as for the news of Benxi, I will press it first." ”

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