Little Japan's manpower and national strength determine that it cannot fight a protracted war with China, it must fight a quick battle with China, so every time it fights with the largest battle, the strategic goal of the Japanese army is the same, that is, to annihilate the main force in the shortest possible time and force the Nationalist Government to surrender.

The Battle of Songhu, due to the strategic mistakes of Lao Chiang, the Japanese army basically realized the strategic intention, the 59 German divisions of Lao Chiang's descendants were basically disabled, and the defense of Nanjing, due to the two ends of the old Chiang's head rat, let the Japanese army eat the most elite dozen divisions, but in the Battle of Xuzhou, the Japanese army basically did not realize the strategic intention.

After the victory of Taierzhuang, the old Jiang Yanhong Li Zongren's achievements, from all over the country to transfer troops to the generals, ** nearly 100 divisions gathered in Xuzhou battlefield, trying to give the Japanese army a decisive heavy blow in Xuzhou, the Japanese army found out about this situation, decisively formed two strategic group armies, along the Jinpu Road from the north and south to Xuzhou encirclement.

The intention of the Japanese army was to annihilate the main army group near Xuzhou in one fell swoop and force Lao Chiang to surrender, but Lao Chiang finally learned the lesson of the Battle of Songhu this time丨 did not have a fever in his brain to fight a decisive battle with the Japanese army in Xuzhou, but promptly ordered nearly 100 main divisions on the Xuzhou front line to retreat, thus avoiding the mistake of repeating the Battle of Songhu.

The Japanese army failed to realize its strategic intentions in the Battle of Xuzhou, let alone the strategic goal of forcing Lao Chiang to surrender, so the war had to continue, and the Japanese army base camp soon formulated an operation aimed at seizing Wuhan, the geographical center of China.

After the full-scale outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War, although China ostensibly formed a united front of the whole people to resist Japan, whether it was local warlords such as Li Zongren, Yan Xishan, and Liu Xiang, or the Red Army and guerrillas under the leadership of the first party, all changed their flags and belonged to the Nationalist Government, and Chairman Chiang also ostensibly achieved the unity of government decrees.

But this is only on the surface, ** people do not need to say, even Li Zongren, Yan Xishan and Liu Xiang and other local warlords are only superficially obedient to Lao Jiang, it is obvious that due to the defeat of the Battle of Songhu, Sichuan warlord Liu Xiang tried to unite Li Zongren, Yan Xishan, Long Yun and others to make trouble, forced Lao Jiang to step down, and finally the news leaked, Lao Jiang first took the lead, and assassinated Liu Xiang in the Wanguo Hospital in the French Concession of Hankou.

Of course, there is also a theory that Dai Li carried the orders of Lao Jiang on his back.

Therefore, the base camp of the Japanese army has reason to believe that as long as Wuhan is lost, as long as Commander Chiang is expelled from the geographical center of China, even if his remnants are not completely annihilated, he will be demoted to a local government, and the Japanese government can rely on supporting the puppet government to achieve indirect rule over China, so as to quickly end the China incident and concentrate all its efforts on dealing with the Soviet Union.

It was on the basis of this judgment that the Japanese base camp launched the Battle of Wuhan at all costs.

A year after the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War, Japan's national, military and financial resources were greatly depleted, due to financial overdraft, soaring domestic prices, extremely serious inflation, and the foreign exchange reserves accumulated in the previous decades were almost exhausted, and Prime Minister Hirota Hiroki was forced to resign because he was unable to face the difficult situation.

However, before the battle of Wuhan planned by the Japanese army base camp began, it suffered a heavy blow, and Lao Chiang did not hesitate to sacrifice the well-being of tens of millions of people in the Huanghuai Valley, brazenly dug the embankment of the Yellow River at the mouth of the garden, and the surging flood flooded down, completely blocking the way for the Japanese army to advance westward along the Longhai Road and attack Wuhan from Wushengguan.

In the Jihua formulated by the Japanese army's base camp, the Japanese army attacking Wuhan had two routes, the main force attacked Wushengguan along the Longhai Road and the northern foot of Dabie Mountain, and the partial division attacked westward along the narrow area south of Dabie Mountain and north of the Yangtze River, but after the Yellow River broke its embankment, the road conditions at the northern foot of Dabie Mountain were no longer enough to expand the main force of the Japanese army, so the direction of the main attack could only be adjusted.

As soon as the Battle of Lanfeng ended, the Japanese army base camp abolished the formation of the Central China Front, and instead organized it into the Central China Dispatch Squadron aimed at capturing Wuhan, and transferred the first army of the North China Front Army to the Central China Dispatch Commander Army, and the "Chief Sabre" Tian Jun Sixth General served as the commander of the Central China Dispatch Squadron.

In order to win the Battle of Wuhan as quickly as possible and quickly end the China Incident, the Japanese army base camp was organized into the LLL Army under the sequence of sending a squadron to Central China, and transferred the fierce general Okamura Ninji from the Kwantung Army as the commander, and successively sent the squadron to Central China to supplement seven divisions, one detachment, and one aviation regiment.

In order to win the Battle of Wuhan, the Japanese army base camp mobilized a total of ll divisions and detachments (brigades), plus an aviation regiment, with a total strength of more than 350,000 troops.

However, it was not an easy task to mobilize and assemble so many troops, especially several divisions and regiments that had just been formed and had not been equipped with weapons and equipment; in fact, the Japanese army's military supply was already extremely tight at that time, and even the training guns of domestic military schools were withdrawn and sent to the front line to equip the troops.

It is said that the Japanese army should not rashly launch an attack before it is ready, but the arrogant Japanese officers did not care about these rules and regulations, and before they were fully prepared, the Potian detachment took the lead in launching an attack on Anqing.

The Hatian detachment is actually the Shigetsu detachment, which is formed by the Taiwan garrison brigade, and the officers are Japanese, but the ordinary soldiers are all Taiwanese natives, and after more than forty years of enslavement education, these Taiwanese natives basically have no concept of Chinese in their minds, and they are even more cruel than the real Japanese.

In the third stage of the Battle of Songhu, the Shigetsu detachment landed at Baimaokou, burned and plundered all the way to Nanjing, almost every officer and soldier was stained with the blood of the Chinese people, after the end of the defense of Nanjing, Hakata Shigeichi succeeded Shigetsu Chiaki as the detachment leader, and was incorporated into the newly formed Central China Dispatch Army Corps.

On the day and night of the month, the Botian detachment took advantage of the rainy night to raid Anqing.

Hakuda Shigeichi, an old devil, still has some ideas, the small Japanese attack is generally selected in the daytime, the plane bombs in the sky, the ground is heavily bombarded, and sometimes there are tanks as the guide of the infantry, the Battle of Songhu, the Battle of Nanjing and the Battle of Xuzhou, most of the little Japan are fought according to this model.

But this time, Shigeichi Harata sang about the rainy night raid.

Guarding Anqing is Yang Sen's army, in the battle of Songhu, although Yang Sen's first army equipment is poor, but the battle is unusually brave, a bloody battle, the first army of more than 18,000 people, only less than 7,000 people remained, is recognized as one of the five armies that can fight the most in addition to the Central Army's German ordnance division, Lao Jiang ordered priority to supplement.

Such a force that can fight, even if it can't hold Anqing, it will definitely not be lost soon, Wang Mingzhang can only rely on a remnant division to resist the Japanese army in Tengxian County for seven days, Yang Sen's group army (in fact, there is only one army) in the face of a detachment (brigade) of the Japanese army, how can it be held for ten days and half a month.

Chairman Chiang also thought so in his heart, with Yang Sen's group army on the Anqing front, once the Japanese army attacked, how could it be ten days and a half a month, with this ten days and half a month time buffer, it was enough for the high command to react and calmly mobilize the Central Army to enrich the various defense lines.

But in the end, the Potian detachment captured Anqing in just one night.

When Chairman Chiang heard the news, he was furious and sent a telegram angrily denouncing Yang Sen for "abandoning the famous city and laughing at friendly countries", but Yang Sen did not give in and responded that it was Xu Yuanquan's First Group Army that first abandoned Hefei and exposed the flank of the First Group Army, and in order to avoid being surrounded by the Japanese army, Yang Sen had no choice but to order a retreat.

Yang Sen did all kinds of evil in his early years, especially many women, his wife and sons were so many that he couldn't remember it clearly, but in the matter of the Sichuan army going out of Sichuan to resist Japan, Yang Sen did it very bloody, the 20th Army was almost wiped out in the big field, and he didn't see Yang Sen say a word, but now he openly confronts Chairman Jiang, which is quite unusual.

Many things look at Xuanhu, to put it bluntly, it is actually very simple, Yang Sen is wary of Lao Jiang, Liu Xiang decided to unite with Li Zongren, Yan Xishan, and Long Yun to overthrow Jiang, of course Yang Sen is aware, but Zuihou turned out to be Liu Xiang's violent death, Yang Sen didn't believe that a small tooth disease could kill Liu Xiang, this must be the spy of the Blue Coat Society.

With Liu Xiang's experience, Yang Sen was not very willing to fight against the Japanese, whether Liu Xiang's death was the initiative of Dai Li, the captain of the Biedong team of the Blue Coat Society, or the secret instruction of Chairman Jiang, Yang Sen's heart was cold, and the Botian detachment took advantage of the rainy night to raid and hit the 27th Army by surprise, and Yang Sen decisively abandoned it with his troops.

After the attack on Anqing, the Botian detachment did not stop there, but continued to trace the west and march westward, directly taking Madang Fortress.

In the second half of the month, the forward of the Botian detachment appeared on the outer defense line of Madang Fortress, which was designed by the German affairs consultant and cost countless money, which can be described as an iron gate to hold the waterway of the Yangtze River, and Chairman Chiang also had high hopes for Madang Fortress, believing that it could block the Japanese army for at least one to two months.

At first, the Japanese army tried to rely on the navy to break through directly from the river, but the Japanese navy tried several times without success, because ** used the sunken ship to create many artificial reefs in the river, and laid a large number of mines, the Japanese navy tried to send minesweepers to clear the mines, but it was heavily shelled by Madang Fortress, and finally had to give up.

After failing to open the passage directly by water, little Japan turned his attention to land, and the old devil Hakuda Shigeichi was indeed not simple, he accidentally received a message from a military reporter that the defenders of Madang Fortress were going to hold a celebration recently, so he used this information to elaborate a surprise attack.