Chapter 276: The Arrogant Umezu (Asking for Subscriptions, Asking for Monthly Passes, Asking for Various !! ）

On 6 December, the 101st and 222nd Divisions, the main forces of the Eighth Theater, set out from Datong and headed south all the way to Shuozhou and Yingxian respectively.

For this battle, Chen Feng's purpose is not only to support the Wuhan battlefield from the side, but also to train troops, as for whether he can take Taiyuan or not, he actually doesn't care very much, after all, the troops stationed in Shanxi are the most elite troops of the Japanese army, although the number is a little less, but if the little devil guards Xinkou and Taiyuan and does not come out, I am afraid that the army of more than 300,000 may not be able to take these two heavy cities.

In order to achieve the purpose of training, Chen Feng specially ordered the 101st Division, the 222nd Division, and the 10th Provisional Division to each draw an infantry regiment from the original unit, and then transfer one from the garrison regiment to supplement it, so that one of the three infantry regiments under the jurisdiction of these three divisions is a new regiment. And those troops that were drawn out, Chen Feng was ready to use them as seed troops, and as long as necessary, the regiment could be expanded into brigades or even divisions at any time.

At this time, the happiest person was the old Jiang in Wuhan, and at the beginning of the Battle of Wuhan, he sent a report to Chen Feng, hoping to transfer two or three divisions from the Eighth Theater to fight in the south, but at that time, the Japanese army had just increased 4 divisions to the North China Front, which made Chen Feng extremely nervous. That dared to transfer so many troops to the Wuhan station area at will.

More importantly, Chen Feng knew the outcome of the Battle of Wuhan, although it could not be said to be a big rout, but it was a big defeat after all. According to the usual practice of the Nationalist Government, every time there was a defeat, the local troops were used to cover the retreat of the central army, and many local troops became cannon fodder. Chen Feng didn't want his carefully trained troops to be eye-catching for the Central Army, to put it bluntly, Chen Feng just didn't believe Lao Jiang, he was worried that his troops would be used as cannon fodder when they went south to Wuhan, so Chen Feng decisively rejected Lao Jiang's request.

But as a soldier, I saw my compatriots and comrades-in-arms fighting bloody battles at the front. But he took an elite army to hide in the rear to recuperate. This made Chen Feng very uncomfortable. As a result, Chen Feng transferred 330 fighters from the Northern Air Force to Wuhan and temporarily placed them under the command of the Ninth Theater, which was equivalent to nearly half of the strength of the Northern Air Force.

According to the battle report sent back by Ma Yun and Zacai Coconut, the battle has been going on for more than a month. The Northern Air Force lost a total of 67 fighters. Of these, 34 are fighters. 30 bombers, 3 reconnaissance aircraft. Another 48 pilots were killed, including 21 Soviet volunteer pilots. The casualties were heavy.

However, Chen Feng also knew that the only way for the Nationalist Government to stop the attack of the Japanese surface ships was to dispatch the air force, so air battles on the Wuhan station ground occurred from time to time, and not only the northern air force suffered heavy losses, but also several major air force units under the Aviation Committee of the Nationalist Government.

Even so, the situation on the battlefield in Wuhan was also getting worse, and in the engagement on the south bank of the Yangtze River, the Japanese army's Botian detachment transferred from Taiwan put tremendous pressure on the Ninth Theater. In mid-November, the Potian detachment reached outside the blockade line of the Jiangfang fortress of Madang, and was stopped by the Chinese troops stationed at the fortress.

This Madang fortress was designed by German military advisers and was part of the permanent defense fortifications of the Nationalist Government. After the occupation of Nanjing, the Nationalist Government sent a large number of troops to strengthen the Madang Fortress. After several months of operation and countless manpower, material and financial resources were expended, Madang Fortress can be said to be impregnable and unusually strong and strong by the national government.

Lao Chiang himself had high hopes for Madang Fortress, believing that it would be able to stop the Japanese offensive for at least a month or so. However, in response to that sentence, I am not afraid of an enemy as ruthless as a wolf, but I am afraid of a subordinate who is as stupid as a pig. Lao Chiang paid an extremely painful price for his ignorance of people, and when the Japanese army diverted to attack Ma by land, Li Yunheng, the commander of the 16th Army stationed at Madang Fortress, did not know which tendon was wrong, and the enemy was still holding a graduation ceremony for the bullshit "Anti-Japanese Military and Political University" opened two weeks ago, and forced officers at all levels of the 16th Army and local gentry to participate.

The Japanese army must have received this information in advance, and on the day of Li Yunheng's graduation ceremony, the Japanese army launched a large-scale attack, and then successfully captured Xiangshan, Xiangkou and other places that were neither prepared nor commanded by the commander. Although the 2nd Marine Brigade in the core position of Madang Fortress stubbornly resisted under the command of the chief captain Bao Changyi and repelled three large-scale group charges of the Potian detachment. However, in the end, because Xue Weiying, the commander of the 167th Division stationed in Pengze, refused to obey Bai Chongxi's order and rushed from the main road to Madang Fortress to rescue the 2nd Marine Brigade of the Marine Corps. In order to avoid total annihilation, the 2 Brigade had to withdraw from its positions. Although Lao Jiang removed Li Yunheng from his post afterwards and shot Xue Weiying, it was useless.

After repelling the counterattack of the national army, the Botian detachment and the 106th Division came to reinforce Peng Ze, and Peng Ze was lost. Soon after, the Japanese army occupied Jiujiang again, and the large army was infinitely close to the three towns of Wuhan.

Wuhan was in danger, and at this time, Lao Jiang received a telegram from Kang Ze and Wei Lihuang at the same time, saying that the Second War Zone and the Eighth War Zone had jointly dispatched 300,000 troops to respond to the Wuhan station, and the 50,000 vanguard troops under Chen Feng had arrived at the Xinkou front. Although the battlefield is in North China, once the war breaks out in North China, the Japanese army in Central China will be denied reserves, and more importantly, the weapons and ammunition shipped to Central China will be halved.

If North China fights well, the Japanese army is likely to send troops from Central China to reinforce North China, and in any respect, if North China fights, it will be good news for Lao Chiang.

What's more, this time Chen Feng's department dispatched 150,000 troops at once, with his understanding of Chen Feng, that guy is the same as his troops, it is a sharp sword, how can the sword come out of the sheath in vain, I am afraid that guy will not rest without seeing blood, in a word, the Japanese are in trouble.

Contrary to Lao Chiang's thoughts, General Umezu Mijiro, commander of the First Army of the Japanese Army stationed in Shanxi, was not worried at all after receiving the telegram from the headquarters of the North China Front Army in Beiping.

It's no wonder that Umezu Mijiro is so excited, this guy was originally a fanatical war butcher, a typical militarist. Umezu Mijiro has a strong smell of old professional soldiers, and he has no extra hobbies, he just likes to think about some problems. Moreover, he thinks thoroughly and carefully when considering problems, and is extremely good at using the information he gathers. Umezu Mijiro admires the martial spirit of the military very much, believing that the military cannot be swayed by politics, and the greatest desire of the military is to become a general, not a prime minister.

The reason why Umezu Mijiro is well known to the Chinese is because of the infamous "Hemei Agreement", after the signing of the "Tanggu Agreement", the Japanese army was not satisfied with only dividing the northeastern part of Hebei Province as a demilitarized area, and in order to consolidate the puppet Manchurians, split North China, and squeeze out the troops of the Northeast Army and the National Government in North China, in March 1934, they sent Umezu Mijiro to replace Nakamura Kotaro as the commander of the Chinese garrison.

In May 1935, under the pretext that the Chinese authorities had assisted Sun Yongqin of the Northeast Volunteer Army to enter the "demilitarized zone" in Luandong and the killing of two pro-Japanese journalists in the Japanese concession of Tianjin, Mei Jin made an unreasonable demand to He Yingqin, acting chairman of the Kuomintang Beiping Military Branch, to "expel the Northeast and the central forces from North China", and sent Japanese troops from the Northeast to the customs to threaten with force. On July 6 of the same year, under Japanese military and diplomatic pressure, He Yingqin was forced to acknowledge the Japanese demand in the form of a typed letter and signed the so-called "He-Mei Agreement". The main contents were: 1. Abolish all Kuomintang party headquarters in Hebei Province; 2. Withdraw the 51st Army of the Northeast Army, the Kuomintang Central Army, and the Third Regiment of the Military Police from the Kuomintang stationed in Hebei Province; 3. Dissolve the Political Training Department of the Kuomintang Army Branch, the Blue Coat Society, and the Inspirational Society; 4. Remove Yu Xuezhong, chairman of Hebei Province; 5. Prohibit all anti-Japanese groups and activities. The agreement deprived China of all sovereignty over Hebei and opened the door for a full-scale Japanese attack on North China.

In the process of dealing with the Chinese many times, Umezu Mijiro used despicable and shameless means to force the Chinese government to bow its head again and again, so deep down he had developed a habit of arrogance, he always believed that China's regime was a high-rise building built on sand, and as long as they touched the saber of the Japanese imperial army, it would collapse with a bang.

A few months ago, Konoe Fumihiro reshuffled his cabinet, removing Sugiyama Moto, who had declared that "the settlement of the China Incident in three months," and appointing Seishiro Itagaki as Minister of War. He was immediately transferred to the commander of the First Army of the Japanese North China Front, replacing Lieutenant General Kiyoji Kazuki, who was not active in the war.

After Umezu Mijiro took office, he was very dissatisfied with General Binshan's approach of not moving. Without the consent of Binshanyuan, he commanded the First Army that invaded and occupied Shanxi to carry out the so-called "law and order rectification" operational plan, which was to "sweep away" the anti-Japanese armed forces in various places, expand the security circle, and develop and utilize all the resources in the occupied areas to support a protracted war. In less than half a year, Umezu Mijiro has achieved brilliant results.

Under his command, the Second World War Zone was quickly driven away from the vicinity of Taiyuan, allowing the Japanese army to completely consolidate the occupied areas around Taiyuan. After that, Umezu Mijiro carried out the Jindong operation against the Eighth Route Army, which was based on the Wutai Mountain Tianwei, expanded the security area of Wutai and Fanzhi Flatland, attacked the enemy base areas along the Tongpu and Jinghan railways, expanded the security area around Lu'an, and put tremendous pressure on the World War II zone.

Because of this, Umezu Yoshijiro thought that this was the best opportunity to completely defeat the resistance of northern China, and he could not miss it. (To be continued......)