Although the New Second Army launched a wave of more fierce offensives in the Japanese-occupied areas of Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Zhejiang, the Battle of Wuhan still inevitably ended in a **** defeat.

The fundamental reason for the failure of the Battle of Wuhan was that in addition to the aggressive Japanese offensive, all fronts were on the verge of collapse, and the main force could be surrounded by the Japanese army at any time, and the fall of Guangzhou gave Chiang Kai-shek a blow to the head.

In the early morning of the next day, all the ships loaded with the main force of the Japanese 21st Army sailed into Daya Bay and entered the sea area where Ji Luhua landed, but they were neither shelled by the Chinese coastal defense forces nor found a barrier. Before dawn, the Japanese troops began to force their landing under the cover of more than 30 aircraft.

The only battalion of the defenders was about to collapse, and the Japanese occupied Tamsui and the east and west areas that night after gaining a foothold and repelling the defenders near Tamsui.

On the day of the Japanese landing, Japanese Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Fumihiro Konoe sent a note to the ambassadors of various countries in Japan, announcing the official start of Japan's war in South China and urging all countries to refrain from all actions to aid China.

Britain, France, the United States, and other powers had no choice but to adopt a tacit attitude, and Chiang Kai-shek's wishful thinking that the Japanese were unwilling to offend Britain and France and not open up a new battlefield in South China were once again bankrupt.

Subsequently, the Japanese continued to advance northward from Tamsui and advanced to the vicinity of Huiyang on the evening of the 14th.

Yu Hanmou, commander of the Fourth Theater Fu and commander of the 12th Group Army, urgently ordered the 151st Division under his command to put up a strong resistance in the Pingshan area, and at the same time ordered Zhang Ruigui, commander of the 63rd Army, to command the main force of the 153rd Division and the 20th Independent Brigade to occupy the positions in the Henggang and Shuangmei Bun areas, stop the Japanese army, cover the Guangzhou-Kowloon Railway, and at the same time order a brigade of the 153rd Division to hold the coast from Bao'an to Humen.

On the night of the 14th, the 23rd Brigade of the 18th Division of the Japanese Army attacked Huiyang City in the rain, and the 151st Division of the defending army relied on the stubborn resistance of the city fortifications and fought fiercely all night.

At 7 o'clock on the 15th, the Japanese army captured Huizhou and crossed the Dongjiang River.

After learning of the loss of Huiyang and Huizhou, Yu Hanmou decided to use the existing positions in Guangzhou and Zengcheng to start a decisive battle with the Japanese army with the concentrated forces, but because Chiang Kai-shek transferred two divisions to help Wuhan, the Guangdong army did not have an advantage in terms of strength in the face of three divisions and one flying regiment of the Japanese 21st Army.

On the evening of 16 October, the 23rd Brigade of the 18th Division of the Japanese Army captured Boluo and continued to advance, and the situation in Guangzhou became grim.

After the Military Commission obtained that the situation in the Guangzhou area was critical, Chiang Kai-shek regretted not following Wu Ming's advice, so he had to transfer the 64th Army and the 66th Army south of Jiujiang to support Guangzhou from the Nanxun Road.

On the afternoon of 18 October, the rapid advance team of the 18th Division of the Japanese Army advanced to Futian, southeast of Zengcheng, and on the morning of 19 October, the 156th Division of the defending army was repulsed, and the Zengjiang River was crossed to occupy Zengcheng.

Subsequently, the main position of the 156th Division was broken through by the main force of the 18th Division of the Japanese Army.

On 20 October, after repulsing the 154th Division west of Zengcheng, the 18th Division rushed to Guangzhou along both sides of the Zengguang Highway, and the 104th Division also captured Shilong on the Guangzhou-Kowloon Railway after the 18th Division. Yu Hanmou led his headquarters to retreat to Qingyuan that night, leaving only the tax police regiment and a small number of military police and police to garrison Guangzhou, and the Japanese 18th Division occupied Guangzhou without a fight on the afternoon of the 21st.

The main force of the 5th Division, the follow-up unit of the Japanese army, arrived at Daya Bay on the 20th, because the first phase of the operation went unexpectedly smoothly, and the 5th Division, which was originally scheduled to land at the mouth of the Pearl River on the 27th, landed ahead of schedule on the 22nd.

On the afternoon of the 22nd, the Japanese troops landed on Dajiao Island on the west bank of the Pearl River Estuary, and Dajiao Island was lost.

In the afternoon of the same day, the Japanese army crossed the Pearl River again, coordinated with the Japanese Navy's Second Joint Special Marine Corps, and attacked the Humen Fort on the east bank.

At this time, the 9th Brigade and the 104th Division of the Japanese Army had occupied Pingling, Conghua and other places.

By the 29th, the Fifth Division had occupied all parts south of Guangzhou, and the Japanese army had completely controlled Guangzhou and its vicinity, and the Pearl River Delta had all fallen.

After achieving the operational objectives, the Japanese army turned to the defensive, and Yu Hanmou's 12th Army retreated to the west bank of the Beijiang River to confront the Japanese army, while the 64th Army and the 66th Army sent by Chiang Kai-shek for reinforcements had not yet arrived, and the situation in Guangdong was rapidly eroding.

People from all walks of life at home and abroad reacted strongly to the 12th Group Army's reckless abandonment of Guangzhou, and Hu Shih, ambassador of the Nationalist Government to the United States, sent a telegram to Chiang Kai-shek on 23 July, saying: "Guangzhou fell without a fight, and foreign countries feel very bad. ”

Looking at the Wuhan battlefield again, the Japanese army attacking along Jiangxi advanced to Yangxin, Daye and other places in mid-October, and then the Japanese army divided its troops and advanced, all the way along Xintanpu to Tongshan, all the way along Sanxikou to Xianning, all the way along Daye, Jinniu to Heshengqiao. And north of the Yangtze River, the Chinese defenders braved poison gas and suffered too many casualties to stop the Japanese advance.

On October 24, the Japanese army advanced to Huangpi, at this time the outer fortresses and defensive positions of Wuhan were captured by the Japanese army, and the north, east, and southeast were all surrounded by the Japanese army, so Chiang Kai-shek had to order the Chinese defenders on both sides of the Yangtze River to retreat on all fronts, and left Wuchang that night and flew to Hengyang.

On 25 October, the 23rd Wing of the 6th Division of the Japanese Army occupied the Daijiashan position in the northern suburbs of Hankou that night, and the Potian detachment broke through the defensive position of the 50th Division and occupied Gedian. On the same day, all units of the Chinese defenders in Wuhan had evacuated the urban area according to the plan. On the 26th, the 23rd Wing of the Japanese Army occupied Hankou, and the Potian Detachment occupied Wuchang.

On the 27th, the 60th Wing of the 15th Division attached to the Botian Detachment occupied Hanyang, the 9th Division captured Hesheng Bridge, and the 27th Division occupied Taolin Town, and officially cut off the Guangdong-Hanzhou Railway, but by this time the defenders of Wuhan had withdrawn to northern Hunan and western Hubei.

After the Japanese occupied Wuhan, the Central China Front was responsible for clearing the Chinese troops in the area east of Anlu and Yingcheng with the Second Army, and at the same time ordered Okamura Ninji's Eleventh Army to continue the pursuit and capture Yuezhou.

The 10th Division of the Japanese Second Army occupied Anlu and Huayuan on 28 October, and the 11th Army drew up an operational plan to attack Yueyang by three routes on 29 October, of which the 9th Division attacked Yueyang along the Guangdong-Hanzhou Railway from Wuchang, the 11th Brigade of the 6th Division coordinated with the navy to attack Yueyang by boat from Hankou, and the 27th Division moved south from the north of Xianning to attack Chongyang and Tongcheng to respond to and cover the attack on the left back of the Yueyang troops.

At this time, most of the Zhang Fakui Division of the Second Corps of the Ninth Theater had been transferred to the Makufu Mountain area, so the Japanese army did not encounter strong resistance along the way.

The 9th Division and the 11th Brigade of the 6th Division captured Yueyang City on the night of 11 November with naval support, and the 27th Division captured Tongshan and Chongyang from 4 to 6 November.

After the Japanese army occupied Yueyang, the Changsha garrison, which was still more than 130 kilometers away from Yueyang, set fire to hundreds of places in Changsha at about 2 a.m. on 13 November in order to carry out a "scorched earth war of resistance" at about 2 a.m. on 13 November, turning the city into a sea of fire.

The fire burned for three days and three nights, burning nine-tenths of the entire city, burning more than 50,000 houses and killing more than 20,000 people.

The situation on the Wuhan front was somewhat settled, and the generals of the Japanese Central China Front turned their attention from Wuhan back to the rear. Okamura Ninji handed over the command of the battlefield to the chief of staff, Major General Yoshimoto Sadachi, and rushed back to Nanjing by transport plane.

Nanjing, the former residence of the Nationalist Government, is now the headquarters of the Central China Front of Japan.

In the office on the second floor of Zichaolou, Yan Junliu looked at the map, and Major General Kawabe Zhengsan, chief of staff of the front army, whispered about the topography of western Zhejiang, eastern Jiangxi, southern Anhui and other places.

"The Qianligang mountainous area, where the New Second Army is located, is mountainous and watery, and the mountains are undulating, which is very unfavorable for the deployment of large corps and heavy equipment! Wu Ming placed the New Second Army in the deep mountains and old forests, and it seemed that he had already expected today's situation. After Yan Junliu finished speaking, a cold glint shot out of his eyes.

"In my opinion, Wu Ming hid the New Second Army in the mountains, mainly to guard against Chiang Kai-shek. Wu Ming is not a descendant of Chiang Kai-shek, and he is not a native of Zhejiang, since the Anti-Japanese War, Wu Ming has repeatedly committed crimes, and he has long been separated from Chiang Kai-shek! ”

While thinking about it, Kawabe Shozo analyzed: "If Wu Ming predicted this day a few years ago, I don't believe it, because even I didn't know that the Ludao War would break out last summer!" It's just a coincidence that it was just in time for the Battle of Songhu, and his strategy of building a high wall and accumulating grain just happened to deal with us. ”

"Wu Ming is really a devil, a lucky, unconventional devil, he always appears when he least wants him to appear."

Yan Junliu had a headache when he thought of Wu Ming, and scolded hatefully.

With the end of the Battle of Wuhan and the reduction of the Chinese army to the southwest and northwest inland regions, Wu Ming, who was entrenched in central and eastern China, became the most worthy opponent of the Japanese government and army. Not to mention anything else, since the Battle of Xuzhou, the troops behind the enemy lines of the New Second Army have repeatedly attacked, especially in the recent period, which has blossomed in all directions, trapping almost the entire Japanese puppet army in the city in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and the vast countryside is about to become the New Second Army's own private land.

At present, the Japanese puppet army in Jiangsu and Zhejiang has reached the level of talking about Wu Ming and the new second army.

Due to the heavy losses of the Guards Division, Emperor Hirohito, who had received the bad news, convened a special meeting of the Imperial Council, which was attended by the Chief of Staff of Kanin Palace, the Chief of Military Orders of Fushimi Palace, the Deputy Chief of Staff of Tada, the Prime Minister of Konoe, the Minister of Sugiyama, the Minister of Minekai, the Minister of Oba and the Minister of the Privy Council of Hiranuma.

After coming out of the palace, every bigwig was in a cold sweat, and the civilian officials were eyeing the generals of the military department, and their words were full of ridicule and mockery.

For this reason, the chief of staff of the Xianyuan Palace and the land minister of Sugiyama sent a special strict order to Yan Junliu, ordering the Central China Front Army to exterminate Wu Ming and the New Second Army as soon as possible.

Kawabe Shozo comforted: "Your Excellency Commander, in view of the characteristics of Wu Ming and the New Second Army, our staff department has formulated a detailed operational plan. Although Wu Ming is cunning and the New Second Army is also difficult to deal with, I believe that as long as the Imperial Army of the Great Japanese Empire fights steadily, Wu Ming and the New Second Army will definitely be wiped out! ”

Yan Junliu's complexion was slightly pale, and he nodded: "Let's hear it!" ”

"Hay—"

Kawabe Shozo came to the map, raised his baton and was about to explain, when an abrupt voice came.

"Report to the commander, General Okamura asks to see you!"

The confidential staff officer came in and saluted, and made his intentions clear.

"Call him in."

Yan Junliu's face was very ugly, and he muttered in his mouth: "It is said that Okamura Ningji is extremely capable, but he was first defeated by Wu Ming, and then defeated by Xue Yue, I think it's just like that!" ”

Okamura Ningji commanded the 11th Army to fight unfavorably, resulting in the 106th Division being surrounded and annihilated in Wanjialing, which made the Central China Front lose face, Yan Junliu was very uninterested in Okamura Ningji, if it were not for Okamura Ningji being loved by Hirohito, it is estimated that he would have been removed from the post of commander of the 11th Army.

However, Kawabe Shozo had always been friendly with Okamura Ninji, and immediately persuaded: "Commander, compared to the defeat of the 106th Division, the 11th Army has performed well as a whole, and the final victory in the Battle of Wuhan is proof of this, after all, we have an absolute advantage in numbers, and it is already very good to have this performance." ”

After a while, Okamura Ninji came in with a document in his hand, saluted Yan Junliu, and gave Kawabe Shozo a look, and then reported to Yan Junliu:

"Commander, as the situation in Wuhan tends to stabilize, the battle situation in Jiangnan has gradually become the current key point, I have some immature ideas here that I want to say to the commander, please criticize the commander!"

"Oh? What do you suggest? ”

Yan Junliu raised his eyebrows and asked pretending to be concerned.

"Commander, the Jiangnan region was originally the most economically developed and most active commercial and trade area in China, and most of the financial taxes of the national government of China were supported by Songhu and Jiangsu and Zhejiang. Now that we have completely occupied Jiangnan, we must restore order as soon as possible and establish effective rule to collect taxes to supplement military resources. ”

Okamura Ninji had one meaning in his words, to feed the war with war, and to support the next war of aggression by looting wealth in China.

"How can effective rule be established?" Yan Junliu didn't think so, but asked in his mouth.

Okamura's plan was very simple: establish a strong traitor government in the occupied areas and impose a strict armor protection system on the Chinese in the occupied areas.

Divide the territory, consolidate the public security areas within a limited time, conceal the troops in the quasi-public security areas, enter the public security areas in a planned manner, and use the remaining troops to advance to the unordered areas, so that they can develop into the quasi-public security areas. At the same time, it also carried out slavery education for the people in the occupied areas, with the ultimate goal of pulling nearly 100 million people in the Jiangnan region into the pro-Japanese camp.

"The premise of all this is to eliminate the Chinese guerrillas active in the Jiangnan region, what advice do you have?" Yan Junliu was a little interested and continued to ask.

"If we follow such steps, we will neither rush nor miss the opportunity, and at the same time launch targeted operations, and the situation will gradually improve!"

Okamura Ninji said eloquently: "We can hand over the garrison tasks of ordinary county towns and important towns to the goodwill government to maintain, and at the same time dispatch the imperial army to strike at the New Second Army, the New Fourth Army, and the Jiangsu-Zhejiang Beilu Movement in the occupied areas. Judging from the information obtained by the intelligence organs, these guerrillas are like maggots attached to the bones, and they grow rapidly as soon as the strength of the medicine has passed, so they must not relax their suppression. ”

"Sounds good!"

After the Battle of Wuhan, hopes of forcing Chiang Kai-shek to surrender were once again dashed, and it was clear that the Sino-Japanese war would not end in the short term. Now Okamura Ninji has put forward such a proposal, which can solve many practical problems.

Yan Junliu gave a rare compliment, and ordered to the riverside: "Chief of Staff, you can introduce the battle plan formulated by your staff department to Okamura-kun!" ”

The plan of the river side Zhengzo was to divide the Central China Front Army into two armies, the east and west routes, and the east route army, with Yan Junliu as the main army, commanding the Japanese army to attack from the east of Zhejiang to the west of Zhejiang.

The Western Route Army, with Okamura Ningji's 11th Army as the mainstay, marched from northern Jiangxi to central Jiangxi, and the navy entered Poyang Lake from the Yangtze River waterway to coordinate operations, waiting for an opportunity to seize Nanchang. After sweeping away the enemy in Nanchang and the surrounding areas, he left a Gongwei Nanchang, and the main force marched eastward along the Zhejiang-Jiangxi Railway, and finally joined forces with the East Route Army in Quzhou, annihilating Wu Ming and the headquarters of the New Second Army in one fell swoop.

This plan sounds extremely implementable, but if it is strictly implemented, it may not be able to wipe out the New Second Army in one fell swoop.

Okamura Ninji affectionately patted Shozo Kawabe on the shoulder and said loudly, "This plan is very good!" The Imperial Army of the Great Japanese Empire is ambushed on all sides, and even if the New Second Army inserts its wings, it will not be able to escape our strangulation! ”

Yan Junliu and Kawabe Shozo both laughed when they heard this.

In late November, all units of the Japanese army began to rest and recuperate, and ordinary soldiers began to enjoy this rare leisure time, but the top brass of the front army was busy, and the divisions and regiments began to change guards.

By the end of '38, Japan's domestic conscription work had come to an end for the time being, and four of the 15 newly organized divisions and regiments had been transported to Shanghai and placed in the Central China Front.

After this replenishment, the strength of the Japanese Central China Front reached its peak.