Chapter 430 "8.13" War Background

The harsh conditions put forward by the Japanese for the settlement of the Hongqiao Airport incident were unreasonable and shameless, and as soon as the news came out, public opinion was in an uproar, and the whole country was indignant, and there was no doubt that the Japanese wolf ambitions were also violent, and they wanted to occupy Shanghai, and if they did not agree to the conditions, they would use force to solve the problem.

Chairman Chiang of Nanjing, when he saw the conditions of the Japanese from General Zhang Zhizhong of the Songhu Garrison Command, turned red with anger and scolded again and again: "Niang Xipi, the Japanese are insatiable, occupy the northeast, and start a war in North China, they are intent on destroying our country, who do you think of me Jiang Zhongzheng?" Li Hongzhang of the late Qing Dynasty? ”

The three divisions of the Central Army, which marched slowly on the road, rushed all the way to Shanghai with billowing smoke and dust, and it seemed that they had received strict orders from the old man.

General Zhang Zhizhong received an order from Chairman Chiang: "Strictly reject the unreasonable demands of the Japanese, actively prepare for war, and if you feel that the troops in your hands are insufficient, you can ask Vice Chairman Tang to send effective troops to rush to Shanghai's aid.

After receiving Chairman Chiang's telegram, Zhang Zhizhong couldn't help laughing out loud, the old man had previously rejected Vice Chairman Tang's request to send troops to reinforce Shanghai, but this time seeing that the situation was tense and that the troops of the Central Army were still on the way, he was in a hurry, and he was embarrassed to speak, let me say, in fact, other people's troops have been here for a long time, and they are actively preparing for war.

After the 1st Regiment of the Dongzhi Air Defense Brigade of the Independent Division was stationed at the Wusongkou Fortress Fort, it really took more than a day of effort to clean up the mess left by the former Jiangsu Provincial Security Forces, and several trucks of garbage were cleared out alone.

After cleaning up, the soldiers used the Japanese warships dangling on the sea as active targets every day, practiced aiming, and mastered the skills of shooting, fortunately, they were all artillery, although one hit the target in the sky and the other hit the target at sea, the principle was similar, and dozens of mén high shè guns and dozens of tǐng high shè machine guns were arranged in the spare place of the fortress, ready to do supplementary firepower, but also to prevent the Japanese planes from attacking.

On 11 August, General Zhang Zhizhong, on behalf of the Chinese authorities in Shanghai, issued a proclamation: "The conditions put forward by the Japanese side are really unacceptable, and if we look at the history of foreign countries, we have never seen such an unreasonable demand, and the Japanese soldiers invaded our military important places first, and injured many of our soldiers, and the Japanese side ignores the facts and blindly uses strong words to reason, which is really the logic of bandits.

As soon as General Zhang's proclamation came out, it also showed the attitude of the Chinese government, and simply refused to accept it, and if the Japanese side did not withdraw its unreasonable demands, the Chinese people would not hesitate to fight.

In the afternoon, more than 15,000 Japanese marines landed at Yangshupu, and the total strength of the Japanese army in Shanghai reached more than 40,000.

On 13 August, Japanese ships anchored at the mouth of the Huangpu River first shelled the Chinese defenders, and then the Japanese army launched a large-scale attack on Shanghai with the Shanghai Concession as its base and divided its troops into three routes.

Tang Qiuli's worries still happened, the fuse of the battle of Shanghai, was ignited by the Japanese lightly, they have been planning for a long time, just waiting for an opportunity, the Hongqiao Airport incident on August 9, burst out of the first spark, and then, the Japanese added fuel to the fire, and finally burned into a skyrocketing fire.

Speaking of which, the reason for the Japanese to move in Shanghai was very simple, and it was ridiculously simple, all of which stemmed from the long-standing dispute between land and sea within the Japanese army.

The Japanese Army's proposition was to go north, enter the vast and sparsely populated Siberian region of Russia, seek rich resources, and then attack the hinterland of Russia with Germany and share the fruits of victory equally.

The Japanese navy's proposition was to go south, and the area of Southeast Asia, which was rich and had excellent natural conditions, was a ripe fruit, waiting for the navy of the Great Japanese Empire to pick it, and then compete with the old empires such as Britain and the United States in the vast Pacific Ocean, and that Shina was nothing more than a land base for the imperial navy.

Later, in 1931, the Japanese Army took the lead in Northeast China, and at a slight cost, it seized a large area of rich land in Manchuria.

The Japanese Navy, which learned the news, was preparing to take action in Shanghai on 8 July, and the limelight could not be snatched away by the Army, but in the following few days, Tang Qiuli made a heavy move, beating the Japanese Army in North China to the point of bleeding from the nose and mouth, and looking for teeth all over the ground, and the Japanese Navy was a little frightened, quietly withdrew the claws that had been stretched out, and was somewhat gloating about the situation in North China.

Later, Japan greatly increased its troops in North China, Tang Qiuli withdrew from the Pingjin area, adopted a defensive position, and the army reoccupied the Pingjin area.

The Japanese Navy Marine Corps Headquarters in Shanghai also received an order from the Chief of the General Staff Zairen, but the top brass of the Navy were not too interested in the emperor's royal brother, the chief of the general staff of the base camp.

What's more, the Japanese navy also looked down on the army's style of play, North China in China was originally a remote area, why bother where to entangle with that Tang Qiuli, the navy took action, directly took out the heart of the government of China, and laid down Shanghai, followed by Nanjing, the capital of China, and then the richest Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions in China.

Based on the above-mentioned simple and complicated reasons, the Japanese Navy chose to start in Shanghai on August 13, 1937, with the Marine Corps as the main force of the offensive instead of the Army, which also changed the established strategy of the Japanese base camp and changed the basic pattern of China's anti-Japanese battlefield.

Tang Qiuli knew the root cause of the outbreak of the Battle of Shanghai, he was pressed by more than a million Japanese troops, and he couldn't spare his hand, and the only mobile force was Brother Qiusheng's Sulu Mobile Corps, and it was impossible for all of them to reinforce the direction of Shanghai, Xuzhou, that was a fatal eye, and he always felt that something was going to happen.

In the war in Shanghai, the Japanese marines could not take advantage of it at the beginning, and with their own more than 60,000 troops, it was not difficult to kill more than 40,000 Japanese troops, but I was afraid that Japan would increase its troops in the direction of Shanghai one after another, and Chairman Chiang needed time to mobilize troops, and he could not concentrate his troops.

If there are troops and bear part of the pressure for themselves, the independent division can also transfer several brigades of troops to take over the defense of the Sulu Mobile Corps, and the corps can move the whole army south to strengthen the forces in the direction of Shanghai, and the Shanghai campaign will be worry-free

Tang Qiu couldn't help but think of the hundreds of thousands of Jin troops in the hands of Chief Yan of Shanxi, he had an arsenal, the equipment was good, and the training could be called well-trained, but that old man, would he be willing to go through this troubled water? It's just a trip, the old man calculates and counts, thinking that he won't suffer, can he rest assured? Give him the defense of half of North China, Tang Qiuli really has no bottom in his heart, unless the Japanese kick his family's mén and beat his people, otherwise, Yan Xishan will not really work hard with the Japanese in the Hebei area.

There is also the ** Red Army in northern Shaanxi, Tang Qiuli also thought about it, it is a force with strong combat effectiveness, the political belief is also firm, the goal is very clear, willing to put aside a grievance, unanimously gun to the outside world, he believes that as long as a call, the ** Red Army will not hesitate to drive to the Hebei front, and will never bargain, but at best there are more than 30,000 people, and the weapons and equipment are not a little bit worse, although he quietly replenished it a few times, it can't solve the fundamental problem.

There is also a fundamental reason, Tang Qiuli really can't bear it, and he fought for more than 20,000 miles on the North China front, and it is not easy to leave a little bit of family background, and there is a suspicion of killing people with a knife, not to mention, the Red Army is good at guerrilla warfare, and this kind of face-to-face positional warfare is not something they can afford.

After thinking about it for a long time, the only thing that can be used in his hands is the 29th Army unit that has been formed, after the first battle of Beiping, the army still has more than 48,000 troops, and it is resting in the Shijiazhuang area, which was originally the general reserve of the independent division, ready to be pulled up at the critical time of the Japanese army's large-scale attack, and now it seems that this reserve force must also be used.

On 14 August, Tang Qiuli, in his capacity as commander of the 29th Army, issued an order that all units of the 29th Army should immediately stop resting and recuperate, and set up a Sulu garrison headquarters, with General Zhang Zizhong, the former commander of the 38th Division, as the commander-in-chief, and the whole army quickly moved south along the Jinpu Road and stationed in Zaozhuang and Linyi in Shandong and Xuzhou in Jiangsu to take over the defense of the Sulu Mobile Corps of the Independent Division.

The remaining troops of the Sulu Mobile Corps of the Independent Division, led by the commander-in-chief Tang Qiusheng, immediately moved south, joined the troops that had arrived earlier, and joined the Songhu battlefield, which could be under the unified command of General Zhang Zhizhong, commander of the Songhu garrison.

Tang Qiuli used all the troops in his hand, and if there was something else to do, he could only help and be in a hurry.

At this time, the Songhu battlefield had already been full of fireworks, and the defense of the city and its surroundings was completely dependent on the support of the vanguard of the Sulu Mobile Corps of the Independent Division.

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