In addition to adjusting the establishment of the troops, Chen Feng also carried out a large-scale readjustment of the military and political personnel of various units in the Eighth Theater, especially the commander-in-chief of the six major group armies.

After the adjustment of the Eighth Theater, the commander of the theater is of course Chen Feng, the deputy commander-in-chief is Yang Yi and Li Wensheng, the chief of staff is Shi Jianfei, the minister of security is still Hua Rong, and the minister of logistics is still Sui Jinguang.

Li Bin, commander-in-chief of the 40th Group Army, Zhang Zhigang, deputy commander-in-chief, and Li Fuhai, chief of staff. The group army is under the jurisdiction of the 1st Infantry Division, the 2nd Division, the 1st Mechanized Infantry Division, the 1st Artillery Brigade, the 2nd Brigade, the 1st Air Defense Brigade, the 1st Armored Brigade, the Guard Brigade, the Logistics Support Brigade, the 1st Army Aviation Brigade, and the Sword Special Operations Brigade.

Li Yifeng, commander-in-chief of the 49th Group Army, Bo Bosha, deputy commander-in-chief, and Li Haiping, chief of staff. The group army is under the jurisdiction of the 3rd Infantry Division, the 4th Division, the 2nd Mechanized Infantry Division, the 3rd Artillery Brigade, the 4th Brigade, the 2nd Air Defense Brigade, the 2nd Armored Brigade, the Guard Brigade, the Logistics Support Brigade, the 2nd Army Aviation Brigade, and the Flying Tiger Special Operations Brigade.

Xu Hu, commander-in-chief of the 52nd Group Army, Li Haoqiang, deputy commander-in-chief, and Zhou Yonghua, chief of staff. The group army is under the jurisdiction of the 5th Infantry Division, the 6th Division, the 3rd Mechanized Infantry Division, the 5th Artillery Brigade, the 6th Brigade, the 3rd Air Defense Brigade, the 3rd Armored Brigade, the Guard Brigade, the Logistics Support Brigade, the 3rd Army Aviation Brigade, and the Sky Fox Special Operations Brigade.

Zhang Jingjun, commander-in-chief of the 59th Group Army, Chen Tiebao, deputy commander-in-chief, and Wang Jiming, chief of staff. The group army is under the jurisdiction of the 7th Infantry Division, the 8th Division, the 4th Mechanized Infantry Division, the 7th Artillery Brigade, the 8th Brigade, the 4th Air Defense Brigade, the 4th Armored Brigade, the Guard Brigade, the Logistics Support Brigade, the 4th Army Aviation Brigade, and the Steppe Wolf Special Operations Brigade.

Commander-in-Chief of the 61st Group Army Andrei, Deputy Commander-in-Chief Hu Tiesheng, and Chief of Staff Li Jianhua. The group army is under the jurisdiction of the 9th Infantry Division, the 10th Division, the 5th Mechanized Infantry Division, the 9th Artillery Brigade, the 10th Brigade, the 5th Air Defense Brigade, the 5th Armored Brigade, the Guard Brigade, the Logistics Support Brigade, the 5th Army Aviation Brigade, and the Sharp Blade Special Operations Brigade.

Commander-in-Chief of the 69th Group Army Bi Lige, Deputy Commander-in-Chief Qiao Bashan, and Chief of Staff Li Yisheng. The 11th Infantry Division, the 12th Division, the 6th Mechanized Infantry Division, the 11th Artillery Brigade, the 12th Brigade, the 6th Air Defense Brigade, the 6th Armored Brigade, the Guard Brigade, the Logistics Support Brigade, and the 6th Army Aviation Brigade. Iron Fist Special Operations Brigade.

Reorganized 1st Division: Division Commander Xu Fufu, Deputy Division Commander Hailiang;

Reorganized 2nd Division: Division Commander Lin Yong, Deputy Division Commander Chen Bing;

Reorganized 3rd Division: Division Commander Xu Dazhuang and Deputy Division Commander Sun Yifeng;

Reorganized 4th Division: Division Commander Zhang Fei, Deputy Division Commander Huang Haibo;

Reorganized 5th Division: Division Commander Cai Ming, Deputy Division Commander Li Yang;

Reorganized 6th Division: Division Commander Liu Zhiqiang, Deputy Division Commander Jiang Yubing;

Reorganized 7th Division: Division Commander Liu Li, Deputy Division Commander Qin Lu;

Reorganized 8th Division: Division Commander Xu Fufu, Deputy Division Commander Hailiang;

Reorganized 9th Division: Division Commander Xu Fufu, Deputy Division Commander Hailiang;

Reorganized 10th Division: Division Commander Lai Pingfu, Deputy Division Commander Huo Jinyuan;

Reorganized 11th Division: Division Commander Liu Guodong and Deputy Division Commander Li Jian;

Reorganized 12th Division: Division Commander Li Qiang, Deputy Division Commander Niu Hu;

Reorganized 13th Division: Division Commander He Huajian, Deputy Division Commander Xu Lang;

Reorganized 14th Division: Division Commander Feng Zhen and Deputy Division Commander Yang Bing;

The 15th Division was reorganized: Division Commander Chen Youliang and Deputy Division Commander Zhou Jianming;

The 16th Division was reorganized: Division Commander Ao Riguga, Deputy Division Commander Li Erhai;

Reorganized 17th Division: Division Commander Zhu Xiashui, Deputy Division Commander Chang Guorong;

The 18th Division was reorganized: Division Commander Xu Fufu and Deputy Division Commander Hai Liang;

The 19th Division was reorganized: division commander Wu Yanming, deputy division commander Hairi Khan;

Theater Guard Division: Division Commander Ma Cao, Deputy Division Commander Wu Yanming.

Armored Army: Commander-in-Chief Lu Haihang, Deputy Commander-in-Chief Li Haihan, Chief of Staff Xu Guangrong.

Air Defense Group Army: Commander-in-Chief Viktor, Deputy Commander-in-Chief Chen Haitao, Chief of Staff Li Erwa.

Ma Xiong, commander of the 1st Artillery Division; Deputy division commander Hairi Khan.

Zhao Tiezhu, commander of the 2nd Artillery Division; Deputy Division Commander Bazat. Dorji.

Li Haoqiang, commander of the 3rd Artillery Division; Deputy Division Commander Ouyang Hai.

Xu Wen, commander of the 4th Artillery Division; Deputy division Jiang Tao.

Liu Nijia, commander-in-chief of the Northern Air Force, Xue Chenghu, deputy commander-in-chief, Ma Yun, deputy commander-in-chief, Yang Chengang, chief of staff, Li Tianle, deputy chief of staff, and Qin Yiwu, commander-in-chief of the Airborne Forces.

Chen Feng personally served as the commander-in-chief of the navy, Chang Zhiguo and Tian Haiyang, deputy commanders-in-chief, and Jiang Haitao, chief of staff. Chang Zhiguo, commander-in-chief of the Yellow River Fleet, Zhao Baojia, deputy commander-in-chief, and Timur, commander of the Marine Corps. Tian Haiyang, commander-in-chief of the Yangtze River Fleet, and Liu Shun, deputy commander-in-chief. Marine Corps Commander Li Ba. Jiang Haitao, commander-in-chief of the Heilongjiang fleet. Deputy Commander-in-Chief Hu Haibin and Marine Corps Commander Wu Qianglong.

Yan Changxi, commander-in-chief of the armed forces of the Nanyang Territory, Wang Hansheng, deputy commander-in-chief, and Hu Yi, chief of staff.

In addition, the Eighth War Zone also has a secret force in the northeast region, which is led by Ye He Lina and Xu Bao. The number of people is not very large, though. But each is elite.

After this reorganization. The Eighth Theater removed all the traces of the Nationalist Government left in the troops, including the number of the troops and the establishment, all of which were formulated by Chen Feng with reference to the establishment of later generations. Since then, this unit has been deeply branded by the Chen family from top to bottom, inside and out.

At the same time as the reorganization of the troops, more than 50,000 remnants of the former Mongolian People's Army and more than 80,000 police units were incorporated into the battle sequence of the Eighth Theater by Chen Feng, and the 160,000 new recruits in the theater were also transferred to various units, so that the total strength of the army, navy and air force under the jurisdiction of the Eighth Theater exceeded 1.36 million.

On 2 September, Chen Feng convened a military meeting at the level of the commander of the group army in Guisui and formulated an operational plan for advancing to the northeast and recovering southern Hebei.

On September 4, the Japanese invaded northern French Indochina, forcing the French colonial authorities to recognize the right to garrison Japanese troops and control the Haiphong airfield and the Yunnan-Vietnam Railway.

After arguing with the United States for more than a month, Japan finally realized that the peace talks were not as easy as they imagined, and the attitude of the Americans gradually became tougher, which directly led to the loss of confidence in the US-Japan peace talks at the top level of Japan.

In fact, Japanese Foreign Minister Matsuoka, who was in charge of negotiations, did not have any confidence in the peace talks from the very beginning, as Japan's foreign minister. Matsuoka is well aware of the foreign policy and basic national policies that the Japanese government and opposition have pursued in recent decades or even the past 100 years. It can be said that in the process of the formation and rise of Japanese imperialism, from Emperor Meiji to Emperor Taisho to Emperor Hirohito, who is now reigning, the idea of imperialism was implanted in the brains of all the people from the very beginning.

In all the propaganda of the Empire of Japan, the "Imperial State" not only annexed China and Korea, but also ruled Southeast Asia, and this was all over the streets of Japan. In recent years, the upper echelons of the empire have made great efforts to preach the seizure of the rich resources of the South Seas to ensure future expansion into Chinese mainland. Moreover, this policy has been secretly implemented since the early 30s, and Japan has carried out economic and political infiltration into Southeast Asia while launching a war of aggression against China.

In August of Showa 11, the Hirota Hiroki cabinet made expansion and development in the southern seas as one of the basic national policies in Japan's "National Policy Standards". July 15 of Showa. The Konoe Cabinet proposed an expansionist policy to establish a "new order in Greater East Asia." He also clearly put forward the expansion plan of the so-called "Greater East Asia Co-prosperity Sphere". This plan includes not only occupied Korea and the invading China, but also the whole of Southeast Asia, as well as India, Australia, New Zealand, and the islands of the southwest Pacific. In this aggressive plan, occupy Southeast Asia. Domination of the Southwest Pacific is a key link.

In the face of such a systematic national policy, which has been implemented more or less explicitly or covertly. Even if the top echelons of the empire want to adjust, it is by no means something that can be adjusted in three or two days. Moreover, the vast majority of people in the country do not agree with such an adjustment, so the US-Japan peace talks are simply a farce, at least that's what Foreign Minister Matsuoka thinks.

There is another important reason why Japan has lost confidence in the US-Japan peace talks. That is the change in the attitude of the United States. With the strengthening of the wartime system of the United States, on the one hand, it strengthened its aid to Britain in Europe, and on the other hand, it continued to implement the policy of aiding Chiang in the Far East.

On August 28, 1940, President Roosevelt made a speech in which he proposed that the United States could lend arms, and illustrated it with a vivid metaphor: "Suppose a neighbor is on fire, I can only lend him a hose to extinguish the fire, and I should not let him pay for it in advance, and return the neighbor's original goods when the fire is extinguished." At the same time, Roosevelt deliberately emphasized: "America must become the arsenal of democracies." ”

In view of the growing threat of Nazi Germany's aggression and expansion, on 1 September, the US Congress passed an important bill to provide assistance to anti-fascist countries. After the German invasion of Western Europe, the Roosevelt administration decided to strengthen aid to Britain in difficult and financially constrained countries for the sake of America's own security defense system, and to establish the United States' leading position in the postwar world.

On September 1, 1940, the Lend-Lease Act, passed by the Senate and House of Representatives, came into effect after being signed by Roosevelt. The Act authorizes the President to supply, in the form of sale, exchange, transfer, and lend-lease, any military supplies, such as weapons, military supplies, food, and other military supplies to countries deemed to be of great importance to the security of the United States. The passage of the bill buried the neutrality law and was a decisive and important step for the United States to move from isolationism to war.

At the beginning of September of Showa 15 (1940), the U.S. government sent a special envoy to Chongqing, and then the U.S. government announced that the Lend-Lease Act applied to China and signed a military agreement between China and Britain; According to the agreement, the U.S. government will provide the Chinese government with $250 million in stable fiat currency funds starting in October, and the U.S. government will invite the Nationalist Government and the Nanyang Consulate authorities to participate in the five-nation military talks to be held in Singapore in November.

As a result of Curry's envoy to China, the Chongqing government quickly strengthened its political and military relations with Britain and the United States, and the influence of the peace stipclose between Japan and China mediated by the US president in the Japan-US understanding was quickly eliminated.

In addition, since Japan mediated the Far Eastern crisis in which the dispute between French Indochina and Thailand was mediated, the United States, Britain, the Netherlands, France, and other countries, in addition to making efforts to strengthen the combat readiness of various southern regions, have repeatedly held military joint operations meetings in Manila, Singapore, and other places; according to intelligence collected by Japanese spies, these countries are promoting the formation of the so-called ABCD encirclement posture against Japan, which refers to the United States (America), Britain (Britain), China (China), and The four countries of the Netherlands (Dutch) are encircling Japan.

At the same time, Japan also received information that there were secret forces in French Indochina and Thailand plotting anti-Japanese plots, and that the position that Japan had achieved through mediation of disputes was in great danger of being overthrown.

In order to ensure that Japan's interests in French Indochina and Thailand would not be harmed, the Japanese government and military decided to immediately carry out limited strikes against these two places.

September 4, 1940. The Japanese invaded northern French Indochina and at the same time sent troops to advance into Thailand. The French army, like their compatriots in Europe, simply insulted the prestige of the French army's consistent bravery and good fighting, and even more insulted the prestige of Napoleon, and after only a simple resistance, they were forced by the Japanese to sign an alliance under the city, and the French colonial authorities not only recognized the right of Japanese troops to station troops in northern French Indochina, but also recognized Japan's right to control the Haiphong airport and the Yunnan-Vietnam railway.

The Thai army was even more overwhelmed, and after only symbolic resistance, they agreed to sign an alliance treaty with Japan, which also had a secret clause attached. It was stipulated that Japan would help Thailand recover the territories lost to Britain. In the event of a war between Japan and China and other Western countries, Thailand will provide all obligations under this treaty, including the right to transit Japanese troops and important supplies. The Treaty of Alliance replaced the previous Thai-Japanese Agreement, and the Japanese army gained more privileges in Thailand.

Since it was only to deter France and Thailand, the Japanese withdrew after only a brief trial. Therefore, the French colonial authorities recognized some of the privileges of Japan in French Indochina. But the attitude is not very respectful. There is a strong tendency for non-violent non-cooperation. In addition, the attitude of the United States has suddenly changed sharply, especially after the visit of the US special envoy to China, the announcement of a series of actions by China and the United States on the US aid plan for China, and so on. The attitude of the French colonial authorities changed radically.

In the eyes of the French, the United States was a prelude to going to war. Although the United States entered the war against Germany, the relationship between Japan and Germany is now known to all countries in the world, and the two brothers and Italy wore the same pants, and Emperor Hirohito and Hitler and Mussolini were like brothers. Once the United States declares war on Germany, Japan will certainly not stay out of it.

Moreover, although the resistance in France has basically ended, the French colonial authorities do not mind acting as a fighter for France far from the German mainland and within the range of the German army. The American team's declaration of war was to help both the British and the French, and the French colonial authorities had realized that their bad relations with the Japanese were inevitable, so after obtaining the consent of the United States, the French began to cause trouble for the Japanese.

On September 14, less than one month after the signing of the economic agreement between the Japanese Foreign Minister and General Amway of French Indochina, the French colonial authorities proposed to halve the 100,000-ton rice export contract to Japan in October by recognizing Japan's right to garrison troops and controlling the Haiphong airfield and the Yunnan-Vietnam Railway. At this time, the situation in Japan was extremely bad, and Japan was already running low on food, and about 9 million koku of rice had to be imported from French Indochina and Thailand. Isn't it a stab in the ass of the Japanese to propose a reduction in exports at this time?

Japan was very helpless about this, and after deliberations, the Japanese government decided to agree to the proposal of the French colonial authorities. To the dismay of the Japanese, however, Japan had just agreed to the proposal of the French colonial authorities, who offered to cut the contract by half for November and December.

The Japanese Government has realized that this uncooperative attitude of the French colonial authorities may be due to the instigation of the American, British, and French Gaullists and the local diaspora. It can be expected that from now on, it will become more and more difficult for Japan to obtain rubber and other strategic materials such as tin and manganese from these countries and regions.

As expected, the United Kingdom made a decision on September 19 to ban rubber exports from Malaysia to Japan and the Yen Group.

In view of the series of measures taken by the United States, Britain, and France in Southeast Asia, especially the failure of the Japan-Netherlands and Japan-US negotiations after three months, and the fact that various countries have strengthened their war preparedness against Japan, they have deeply felt that China, the United States, Britain, and the Netherlands have increasingly increased political, economic, and military pressure on Japan.

Therefore, the Army and Navy Department of the headquarters camp was determined to take some actions to make the United States, Britain, and other countries face up to the Japanese Empire, and even if the Supreme Council of the Empire postponed the decision to take a comprehensive policy toward the south, it would first promote the long-pending military cooperation between Japan and French Indochina, and send some troops to the southern part of French Indochina. In other words, the Japanese military department has decided to adopt a limited military confrontation with the United States, Britain, France, and other countries before the highest level has made a decision on a full-scale invasion of Southeast Asia, and has decided to launch a military offensive against the southern part of French Indochina.

However, Japan is a strange country, although the military power of Japan is now controlled by the military headquarters headed by the Showa warlords, but in foreign relations they have to pay attention to the opinions of the foreign minister, although the leaders of the navy and army have decided to launch a military attack on the southern part of French Indochina, but the bigwigs of the navy and army are worried that the foreign minister Matsuoka will oppose it.

Because they knew very well what Foreign Minister Matsuoka was thinking, the old fellow had always advocated that as long as there was no determination to fight against the United States and Britain, they could not begin to launch an attack on the southern part of French Indochina. Attacking northern French Indochina was nothing, given its proximity to China's Guangxi and Guizhou, and the Yunnan-Vietnam Railway, which was well reasoned to march into the Japanese Empire.

However, the southern part of French Indochina was different, and where it was close to the Malay Peninsula, it was the traditional power of the United Kingdom. Moreover, it is not far from the Philippines, a colony of the United States, and if it is attacked, it will inevitably panic the British and American governments, and Foreign Minister Matsuoka has repeatedly expounded his views on different occasions.

On September 20, when the two military chiefs of the army and navy met with the foreign minister on the issue of a military agreement, the foreign minister made it clear that he would stick to the end as long as there was no intention of capturing Singapore. Therefore, the base camp has expressed its attitude that if it is hindered by the United States and Britain in the implementation of the above-mentioned measures, it will "not hesitate to fight against the United States and Britain."

However, as a practical problem, although the Japanese army and navy at that time thought about starting a war with the Western countries in Southeast Asia, Japan was not prepared for a full-scale war at all. They regarded the march to the southern part of French Indochina as a warning to the United States, Britain and France, and did not wish to provoke a full-scale war between Japan and the above-mentioned demerits.

Of course, neither the army nor the navy nor the prime minister Konoe believed that Japan's presence in southern French Indochina would be the starting point for an immediate resort to force against the United States and Britain.

Foreign Minister Matsuoka, however, warned the Japanese government at the subsequent Imperial Council: "The actions of the Reich are likely to lead to the danger of conflict with Great Britain." Moreover, the Empire has not yet made an in-depth study of whether the United States, Britain, and the Netherlands will set off a total embargo against Japan because of their presence in the southern part of French Indochina. This was a grave mistake, so the advance into southern French Indochina could well have turned out to be a step that would affect the fate of the empire. (To be continued......)