The Japanese did not keep their actions secret in advance, and anyway, the Japanese military top brass also knew that such a large-scale military operation on China's territory would be in vain even if they wanted to keep it secret, and that China's intelligence department was no worse than the Japanese army's special high-tech department, and in some respects even stronger than the special high-tech department, so the Japanese simply came with great fanfare in order to put pressure on the Chinese government in an explicit manner.

Although the Nationalist Government won the first Battle of Changsha, the losses were not small, and six of the 11 Japanese mechanics divisions who entered the battle suffered more than half of the casualties, and the remaining few also suffered a lot of losses, and they have not yet recovered. According to information obtained by the Military Command Bureau, the total strength of the ground forces of the Japanese 11th Army for offensive operations in Changsha was as high as 45 infantry brigades, and as many as 26 artillery brigades were used to cooperate in the operation, and a number of naval and aviation units were involved in coordinated operations.

The Nationalist Government attaches great importance to this battle, although the muscles shown by the Japanese army are a little scary, but as a condition for agreeing to the United States, the Nationalist Government believes that no matter how difficult it is, this battle must be fought well, and this is related to how much US aid the government can win, although the Americans promised to provide the government with $500 million in arms and materials, but Special Envoy Curry also said that when the $500 million aid will be fully delivered to the Nationalist Government, it depends on the performance of the Nationalist Government itself, and he is the special envoy of the United States. Only the $250 million promised before is guaranteed, and the rest needs to be fought for by the national government itself.

For the sake of this US aid, Lao Chiang personally ordered the general and appointed Xue Yue as the commander of the Ninth Theater of Operations, responsible for the Battle of Changsha. After receiving Lao Jiang's order, Xue Yue immediately moved his headquarters to Changsha City. At the same time, senior officers of the Ninth Theater were summoned to discuss strategies for dealing with the enemy.

Although the Ninth Theater was not established for a long time, it was the one that knew the 11th Army of the Japanese Army the best among all the troops of the Nationalist Government. Since the First Battle of Changsha, the Ninth Theater has engaged in a head-on confrontation with the Japanese 11th Army in the area south of the Yangtze River across Hunan, Hubei and Jiangxi provinces, and has also engaged in skirmishes from time to time. Today you eat one of my platoons, tomorrow I will sneak attack your squad, today you snipe me a second lieutenant, tomorrow I will kill you a Cao Chang, so the two sides can be said to have a deep hatred like the sea, and at the same time they know each other very well.

The headquarters of the Ninth Theater of Operations in Changsha is unusually well guarded today, and a large number of soldiers armed with submachine guns surrounded the entire headquarters. There were even soldiers who set up machine guns at the entrance of the headquarters. The roads at the entrance of the headquarters are closed to traffic.

In fact, it is no wonder that those soldiers in the Ninth War Zone are nervous, because at the time of the Ninth War Zone today's combat meeting, the entire conference room is now full of senior officers, and the lowest rank is also a major general and division commander. The most are officers with the rank of lieutenant general. There were even a couple of army generals. If the Japanese were to drop two bombs here now, it would be enough to deal an irreparable blow to the Nationalist Government.

At this time, the conference room of the Ninth War Zone was filled with smoke. A faint green smoke drifted out of the crack in the door of the conference room, and if it weren't for the fact that a meeting was going on inside Zhilu Dao, I am afraid that the soldiers outside would have thought that there was a fire inside.

Xue Yue, commander of the Ninth Theater, sat on the main seat, his brows furrowed, and after Luo Zhuoying, deputy commander of the Ninth Theater, finished his report on the enemy's situation, Xue Yue got up and said: "Everyone has heard what Deputy Commander Luo said just now, the situation is like this, the Japanese army has now gathered a total of more than 60,000 people, and with the cooperation of aircraft, artillery and tanks, they are rushing towards our Ninth Theater, in a vain attempt to eat the shame of the main force of our Ninth Theater in one fell swoop." The commission ordered us to keep Changsha at all costs, preferably to fight a big victory like the first Battle of Changsha, what are your good plans? ”

There are many high-ranking officers in the conference room, all of whom are well-known people in the Chinese Army at present, such as Yang Sen, deputy commander of the 9th Theater, Wang Lingji, commander of the new 3rd Army, Yang Hongguang, commander of the new 3rd Army, Wang Yaowu, commander of the 74th Army, Ou Zhen, commander of the 4th Army, Yang Hanyu, commander of the 20th Army, Sun Du, commander of the 58th Army, Han Quanpu, commander of the 72nd Army, Xia Shouxun, commander of the 78th Army, Li Yutang, commander of the 10th Army, Xiao Zhichu, commander of the 26th Army, Chen Pei, commander of the 37th Army, Fu Zhongfang, commander of the 99th Army, Xia Chuzhong, commander of the 79th Army, Zou Hong, commander of the 2nd Army, Li Mo'an, commander-in-chief of the Hunan-Hubei-Jiangxi Border Region, Major General Wang Ruoqing, commander of the artillery, and Major General Zhu Huanting, commander of the engineers.

These people are either Xue Yue's old subordinates, or have fought with Xue Yue, and they know very well the temper of this "tiger boy" in the mouth of the committee, and they know that this person who doesn't like to listen to empty words, likes to do things in an orderly manner, and likes people who have evidence, so for a while the entire conference room was quiet, and no one dared to speak.

Xue Yue is also used to this kind of thing, in the military meetings he chairs, cold scenes are a frequent occurrence, and he lost his temper a few times at the beginning, but now he is used to it.

After a long while, Luo Zhuoying, deputy commander of the Ninth Theater and commander-in-chief of the 19th Group Army, stood up and said: "Commander, according to the terrain of our Ninth Theater and the deployment of the Japanese army, combined with the summary of the first Battle of Changsha and the Battle of Shanggao, I humbly judge that there will be three offensive directions of the Japanese army, namely northern Jiangxi, southern Hunan, and northern Hunan!" ”

"Let's be specific, from where the Japanese army will attack!" Xue Yue opened his mouth and said.

Luo Zhuoying continued: "In northern Jiangxi, the Japanese army is likely to be directed from De'an and Anyi to the line of Wuning, Xiushui, and Tonggu, and the Japanese army will not let our army's troops in the high direction threaten its strategic base Nanchang, so it is humbly judged that the Japanese army will send an army from Nanchang to attack in the direction of Gao'an, Shanggao, and Wanzai, or from Nanchang to Xingan and Ji'an. On the southern Hunan, the Japanese army may attack south from Chongyang, Tongshan, and Tongcheng, and the front of the troops will be directed towards Pingjiang and Liuyang. In northern Hunan province, the Japanese army would move south to Changsha along both sides of the Guangdong-Hanzhou Railway. ”

After Luo Zhuoying finished speaking, Yang Sen, deputy commander-in-chief of the Ninth Theater and commander-in-chief of the Twentieth Group Army, a general of the Sichuan Army, also got up and said: "I also think that what Deputy Commander Luo said is very reasonable, the direction of the Japanese army's attack will not exceed these three places, and the humble post also believes that among these three directions, Xiangbei should be the main direction of the Japanese army's attack, and the others are the direction of response or containment. After all, the main object of the Japanese army's operation this time is our Ninth Theater, and the main purpose of the operation is also to attack our Ninth Theater and occupy Changsha! ”

Xue Yue thought for a while and said, "Is there a way to retreat from the enemy?" ”

Yang Sen looked at Luo Zhuoying and said: "The strategy of retreating from the enemy has not yet been thought of, but I think that before retreating from the enemy, we still have to defend our positions in order to plan for the future!" Based on this, he suggested that the theater could deploy the main force in northern Hunan and use the Xinqiang River, Miluo River (Mishui), Laodao River, and Liuyang River in the depth of this direction to build multi-layered positions, strengthen the resilience of defense, and control the mobile troops in the mountains of Mufu Mountain and Lianyun Mountain on the east side, so as to flank and attack the Japanese army. ”

Seeing that Xue Yue did not interrupt his words, Yang Sen continued: "In view of the fact that the Japanese army's strength in this attack is not very large, there are only more than 60,000 people in three divisions and regiments, which is less than the last 100,000 army, but our army has a full 12 armies and 33 divisions of regular troops stationed in northern Hunan, northern Jiangxi, southern Hunan, etc., in addition to dozens of security regiments and brigades, with a total strength of more than 400,000, more than 6 times the strength of the Japanese army, so our army should give full play to its superiority in strength. ”

"Northern Jiangxi and southern Hubei are not the main direction of attack of the Japanese army, so the humble judgment that the Japanese army will not invest too many troops, at most one division, so the humble position believes that our army strives to flank it in the north of Chongren and Xingan, Yichun, Wanzai, Tonggu, east of Xiushui and north of Xiushui, Changshou Street, and Meixian, and break them individually. However, Xiangbei is definitely the main direction of the Japanese army's attack, and the Japanese army will gather at least two divisions and regiments here, and the navy and aviation will definitely all be assembled here, so he believes that if the enemy attacks Changsha from Yanglin Street, Changle Street, Fulin Pudao, and the areas on both sides of the Guangdong-Hanzhou Railway with the main force, he will lure the enemy to the south of the Miluo River and on both sides of the Laodao River, counterattack and annihilate him. ”

Xue Yue deduced on the map for a while, and only then said: "The judgment of Deputy Commander Luo and Deputy Commander Yang is consistent with my thoughts, the Japanese army is now jumping over the wall in a hurry, and the party-state has now reached a consensus with the US government, and the Americans are sympathetic to us in the position of resisting the Japanese invaders, so the Americans are willing to provide us with weapons and equipment and low-interest or even interest-free loans to help us resist the Japanese." Therefore, the Japanese will definitely occupy a provincial capital city like Changsha this time as a counterattack, forcing the party-state to submit to it, as a party-state soldier, it is our duty to defend the territory and resist the enemy, even if we die on the battlefield, it is also a glorious destination, so I have made a military order to the commission, we must win this battle, and if we lose, we will die! ”

Everyone was shocked, they didn't expect Xue Yue to make such a strict military order to the old man, this is a battle to break the cauldron and fight against the water, win the chicken dog ascend to heaven, and lose and suffer together.

Wang Lingji, deputy commander-in-chief of the Ninth Theater and commander-in-chief of the 30th Group Army, who had not spoken, suddenly got up and said: "Chief Xue, if it is only this 11th Army, it is not invincible, but as far as the humble post knows, the 13th Army of the Japanese Army stationed in Shanghai and the 12th Army stationed in Shandong are all ready to move, and the Japanese army seems to have mobilized troops from Taiwan. At the same time, they can also ask for help from the Eighth Theater of Operations, so that they can launch an attack on the Japanese army from North China, contain the Japanese army in North China, and prevent it from increasing troops in Central China. ”

"In addition, although our army is indeed stronger than the Japanese in terms of land numbers, it is far inferior to the Japanese army in terms of air force and navy, and according to the experience of the first Battle of Changsha, we can be sure that the Japanese air force has an extremely advanced combat aircraft, and the old Hawk 3 destroyers and the Yi-15 and 16 fighters of our air force are not opponents at all, and we heard that the Eighth Theater has a very powerful air force, and we can ask General Chen for help and ask him to send an air force unit south to assist our army in combat!" (To be continued......)