Chapter 202: Attacking Xuzhou (Asking for subscriptions, monthly passes, and various !! ）

Peiping. Command of the North China Front.

At this time, the North China Front Army Headquarters was holding a secret military meeting, and in addition to the commanders of the North China Front Army, only a few division commanders were left to attend the military meeting, and none of the officers below the rank of major general or brigade commander were eligible to attend the military meeting.

The meeting was still presided over by Lieutenant General Naosaburo Gangbe, chief of staff of the North China Front, and only after the empty talk without any nutrition was the meeting was finished that Lieutenant General Naosaburo Gangbe transferred the right to speak to General Terauchi Shouichi, commander of the Front Army.

General Terauchi Shouichi said in a deep voice: "Gentlemen, after more than three months of rest, the troops have recovered their vitality, and even made great progress. Since the Empire decided to conquer China by force in Showa 12, in just one year, the Imperial Japanese Army was brave and invincible, achieved brilliant results, and dealt a devastating blow to the government of China. The Imperial Army not only occupied Beiping, Tianjin, Baoding, Jinan, Guisui, Baotou in North China, but also occupied Shanghai, Ningbo, Hangzhou, Suzhou and other important cities in Central China, and even Nanjing, the capital of China, has become the location of the Central China Dispatch Army Headquarters, and now the territory captured by the Imperial Army is equivalent to about 13 times that of the Great Japanese Empire. ”

"Great Japanese Empire onboard!"

"His Majesty the Emperor is on board!"

After General Terauchi Shouichi finished shouting, all the senior officers in the conference room shouted with a feverish expression: "The Great Japanese Empire is onboard!" "His Majesty the Emperor is on board!"

"In order to quickly achieve the destruction of China. In accordance with Order No. 27 of the mainland of the base camp, the base camp decided to take Nanjing and Jinan as bases and attack Xuzhou along the Tianjin-Pudong Railway from the north and south ends this month. The main force of the government army of China was forced to start a strategic decisive battle with our Japanese Imperial Army in the Xuzhou area, so as to annihilate the main force of the resistance army of China in one fell swoop. "Terauchi Shouyi said.

As soon as General Terauchi Shouichi finished speaking, Lieutenant General Nishio Shouzo, commander of the Second Army, spoke: "Now that our North China Front Army has occupied Lubei and Luzhong, the government army of the Fifth Theater of China only controls a few small cities in southern Lunan, and a few months ago, Han Fuqu, deputy commander of the Fifth Theater of China and chairman of Shandong Province, was booby-trapped in Kaifeng, the leader of China. If there is a Central China dispatch army to cooperate with our army in the battle. It's actually very easy to get through Jinpu Road. Our Second Army fully supported the operational plan of the base camp. ”

Nishio Shouzo was the commander of the Second Army, which was now tasked with capturing Shandong, so he knew a lot about the situation of the Chinese troops in the area. After the outbreak of the Lugou Bridge Incident, it was Han Fuqu's troops who were responsible for garrisoning Shandong. How do you know that Han Fuyu is stationed in Shandong. Confronted with a formidable foe. also made a small calculation to preserve strength. Therefore, the Xiwei Shouzo Department easily captured the important town of Quy Nhon in Shandong, and then Han Fuyu left without a fight, on December 27, 1937. Jinan was lost.

Then the Nishio Shouzo Department attacked Tai'an from Boshan and Laiwu, and the Han Fuqu Department retreated in a hurry, and Tai'an immediately fell into the hands of the 2nd Army Isoya Ryosuke. Han Fuyu lost ground in a series of mourning ponds, causing the front gate of the northern section of Jinpu Road to be opened, so that the Japanese army could drive straight along the line, and also made the Second Army of the North China Front Army unanimously believe that the combat effectiveness of the Chinese army was so unbearable, and Lieutenant General Nishio Shouzo even said to his subordinates that the Chinese army was piled up with sand, and a few bullets and shells could make them fall apart, which was simply vulnerable.

In Nishio Shouzo's view, fighting with the Chinese army in the fifth theater is equivalent to picking up meritorious deeds in vain, and there is really not much skill to speak of, and this kind of thing is of course the more the merrier for him, so he was the first to speak out in support.

Nishio Shouzo's words just fell, after the commander of the garrison army. Gong Chun hurriedly got up and said: "Your Excellency, the opportunity is certainly a man, but please don't forget the 40th Group Army, according to the reliable information obtained by our department, the total strength of the 40th Group Army has exceeded 100,000 people, with the combat effectiveness of that army, once our army concentrates its forces to attack the south, it will inevitably send troops to threaten the Pingjin area." ”

General Shouichi Terauchi seemed to think of something, and said with a smile: "After. Gong Jun, the 40th Group Army of China is now too busy to take care of itself, and this army of China has lost its combat effectiveness in a short period of time, so there is no need to worry. ”

"Your Excellency, how is this possible". Gong Chun said with a frown.

General Terauchi Shouichi said with a smile: "Gangbe-kun, it's better for you to explain to you!" ”

"Hay!"

"Gentlemen, before explaining this matter, I will introduce you to a person." After speaking, Lieutenant General Naosaburo Gangbe shouted outside the door: "Takahashi-kun, please come in!" ”

Soon, the door to the conference room was pushed open, and an officer in a Shaozo uniform strode in, then saluted respectfully to everyone in the conference room, and then bowed his head and waited for instructions.

"Takahashi-kun, please be seated."

"Hay!"

"Gentlemen, Takahashi-kun is a third-class military doctor of Unit 731 of the Imperial Kwantung Army, responsible for the research of germs. Against the fierce 40th Army of China, Takahashi-kun and his squad made an indelible contribution. Not long ago, Takahashi-kun and his team successfully sent their research to Chahar Province, and through reconnaissance by the intelligence department, it was learned that large-scale plagues have broken out in Datong and Zhangjiakou, the major cities under the jurisdiction of the 40th Group Army of China, and the number of infected people has now exceeded 10,000, and the epidemic has also broken out in Weixian, Xuanhua and other counties, and the death toll has exceeded 1,000 in just five days. And some of the soldiers of the 40th Group have also contracted the disease, and all this is due to Takahashi-kun. Lieutenant General Naosaburo Okabe said excitedly.

These generals in the conference room were not stupid, and if they thought about it carefully, they knew how the Lu Dao Front had solved the threat of the 40th Army of China, and when they heard the word plague, everyone in the conference room was stunned. This is a plague, and tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of deaths are nothing to officers who often face death, but the problem is that the plague is really difficult to control, and if you don't get it right, you will be burned.

Perhaps seeing the idea of becoming officers again, Lieutenant General Naosaburo Gangbe said again: "Although the plague that broke out in Chahar this time was handled by the front army, the specific situation is not very clear to me and His Excellency the Commander, so let's let Takahashi-kun explain it to us in detail!" ”

Masahiko Takahashi got up and said, "Generals, Masahiko Takahashi is the leader of the plague squad of Unit 731 of the Kwantung Army. The plague that broke out in Chahar was the use of the Gerilla 1 germ, a type of virulent plague. A total of 300 pathogens were selected for this time, including 200 in Zhangjiakou and 50 in the direction of Datong and Weixian. ”

"At the speed of the Huliela virus, at most, in a week, Zhangjiakou, Datong and the surrounding counties will become a dead city. Neither civilians nor the military will be able to avoid it, and the only way to do so is to kill an infected person and incinerate the body. Unfortunately, the people of China have lost their chance, and once the number of infected people exceeds 5,000, the plague can no longer be controlled by man, unless they can get the pathogenic bacteria of Hurela, and then formulate a vaccine. But this is impossible, the pathogenic bacteria of Huliela are not in North China now, and with the medical level of the people of China, even if there are pathogenic bacteria, they will not be able to formulate a vaccine or an antidote. Therefore, the only result of the 40th Group Army this time is to be completely wiped out by the Huliela virus, even if some of them are lucky enough to escape this catastrophe, but they will definitely lose their vitality, and it is a miracle that 100,000 people can survive one-tenth of them. ”

"The incubation period of Hulila is a week, and now it is the sixth day, and from tomorrow, the people of China will enter a peak of death, and if there is no antidote, all the first infected people will die. According to General Ishii's predictions, if Tiger Liela does not mutate again, it will kill one-third of the population of Chahar Province. If the Chinese had not imposed traffic restrictions in the week before the outbreak began, the area could have been extended to Shanxi, Hebei, Rehe, Suiyuan, and further afield to Shaanxi and Henan, and the death toll would have increased accordingly. ”

After Masahiko Takahashi finished speaking, these senior Japanese officers in the conference room gasped, Nima, it turns out that the most terrifying thing is not their generals, but these military doctors. They only kill people by a calculation, and no matter how crazy they are, they can only kill tens of thousands of people. Look at these military doctors, as soon as they open their mouths, they are calculated based on the total population of a province.

Chahar Province is not large and has a small population, but according to the national conditions of China, the population of Chahar Province is at least 2 or 3 million. In other words, this little white-faced military doctor can eliminate 70-1 million people at one time, which is too damn terrifying, whether it is the Fifth Division with the title of Steel Army or the Sixth Division with the title of Beast Army, it is simply weak compared to others.

With Takahashi Masahiko's words, all the officers in the conference room knew that the 40th Army of the Dochina was in big trouble this time, and even if the Imperial Japanese Army did not attack them, they would not be able to bounce for long, and the terrible plague would eliminate them in the place of the Imperial Army. Now not only could the Imperial Army attack them, but they also had to prevent them from spreading the plague to the territory occupied by the Imperial Army. Once the epidemic enters the occupied territory, even if the Imperial Army has the vaccine for Hurela, it will be extremely troublesome to solve.

Since there was no threat from the 40th Army, the Japanese army's military conference was quickly brought to fruition. The meeting decided that on 28 May, the North China Front Army and the Central China Dispatch Army successively mobilized about 200,000 men from six divisions, three brigades, and two detachments, under the command of Shunroku Hatata, commander of the Central China Dispatch Army, and Toshiichi Terauchi, commander of the North China Front, to advance from north to south, first to capture Xuzhou, a strategic point in East China, then to take Zhengzhou west along the Longhai Railway, and then to capture Wuhan south along the Pinghan Railway. After the plague had almost wiped out the 40th Army, the Front Army sent elite troops to surround Chahar, completely sweeping the 40th Army into the garbage heap of history, and using Chen Feng's head to pay tribute to the heroic souls of the Japanese warriors. (To be continued......)