On March 19, 1941, the Japanese garrison headquarters in Hailar was decorated with lights, the entire garrison headquarters was dressed up quite festively, and there was an endless stream of people entering and leaving the garrison headquarters, which showed that today was definitely not an ordinary day.

Indeed, as long as the wealthy businessmen in the city or the wealthy family know that today is the birthday of Lieutenant General Yano, the commander of the Hailar garrison and the commander of the 23rd Division, and the well-known people in Hailar City and even the entire Hulunbuir area have received invitations from the headquarters of the 23rd Division.

This Yano Taijun has been in office for more than two years, and he has to hold such a birthday party every year, and the time is uncertain every year, sometimes it is early, sometimes it is late, but no matter whether it is morning or evening, the person who receives the invitation must come, of course, people can not come, but the birthday gift must come, this is the rule!

Unlike the Chinese who like to hold a wine banquet at noon, the Japanese like to hold a wine banquet in the afternoon or evening, and today's banquet is arranged in the afternoon.

With the appearance of Lieutenant General Yano, the banquet finally began, and the banquet itself was still very good, at least the dishes were not fooled, each table was eight cold and eight hot 16 dishes, the sake was the best sake in Japan, and there was also a military band performing live, of course, this occasion was also indispensable to the geisha with Japanese characteristics.

However, for the Chinese, those Japanese singers who are not ghosts are really unappetizing. It is simply contrary to the aesthetics of the Chinese.

However, just as the banquet was at its climax, a staff officer rushed into the banquet hall in a hurry, and then whispered a few words in the ear of Otozaburo Yano, and then Otozaburo Yano left in a hurry, leaving only a large group of guests in the banquet hall and not knowing what to do.

Garrison Command. Operational command room.

As soon as Yano Otozaburo entered the combat command room, he hurriedly climbed to the map and looked at it, and after a long while, he raised his head and asked, "Ono, is the news accurate that the Shina people suddenly gathered troops in the border area?" ”

Ono Shaoza hurriedly replied: "Your Excellency the commander of the reporting division, the news is from the patrol force in the border area, and it should be accurate." ”

"Yaga. What is called should be accurate. Check it out now, quickly! Lieutenant General Otozaburo Yano shouted angrily.

"Hay!"

Soon, Ono Shaosa returned, and when he saw Lieutenant General Otozaburo, he immediately reported loudly: "Your Excellency, the commander of the division. The information has been verified. The Chinese army is indeed massing towards the border areas! ”

"Have you found out how many of those armies there are?" Otozaburo Yano asked in a deep voice.

"According to the information sent back from Manchuria. The Chinese army has no less than 2 infantry divisions, and the follow-up troops are constantly gathering near Manchuria, and our reconnaissance troops have found the heavy artillery units of the Chinese people and the chariot troops! Ono replied loudly.

"Yaga. What are the people of China going to do, are they preparing to launch an attack on the Imperial Japanese Army? What do you think? ”

The Tom Kou-kun mentioned by Otozaburo Yano refers to Lieutenant General Tom Kiichiro, the commander of the 9th Division of the Japanese Army, and the 9th Division was sent by the Kwantung Army Headquarters not long ago to strengthen the defense of the Hailar area.

Lieutenant General Tomoguchi Jiichiro looked at the map and said: "Yano-kun, the gathering of the Shina army in the Manchuria area is definitely not a plot, it seems that the analysis of the chief of staff of Okabe is very correct, but the people of China are fighting Hulunbuir's idea, Yano-kun, we must be ready to fight a big battle and a bad battle!" ”

"Hmph, the people of China are too underestimated by our Imperial Japanese Army, now that our army is strong and strong, how can we be afraid of their attack, since this group of stupid people from China has come to the door, how can we let them go back, Tom Kou-kun, are you interested in completely annihilating this army?" Otozaburo Yano asked loudly.

"Although there are some difficulties, I am willing to create this miracle with Yano-kun!"

"Yo Xi!"

Then Lieutenant General Otozaburo Yano said: "Since the Chinese are constantly gathering troops in the Manchuria area, it means that the main direction of attack of the Chinese is in Manchuria, and Manchuria is indeed the city closest to the Chinese people's defense area, I think it is necessary to send a reinforcement force in the direction of Manchuria!" ”

"Yo Xi, what Yano-kun said is very reasonable, there is only an infantry wing of the Imperial Army and a cavalry division of the Imperial Allied Army in Manchuria now, and the strength is indeed a bit weak, so you should send someone to reinforce there! In addition, if it is really the main direction of attack of the Shina army, then I think it is necessary to send a high-ranking officer to take command, Yano-kun thinks? ”

"Yo Xi, Tom Kou-kun, I also have this intention, so let's do it, if you can, please let you go, I'm a little worried about sending someone else!" Because the Ninth Division is only a unit that comes to cooperate in the operation, not a subordinate unit of the 23rd Division, Tomoguchi Kiichiro is also a lieutenant general, and the Ninth Division is also a permanent division in the top 20 of the Japanese Army, that is, the legendary first-class division, and the level is more than one level higher than the 23rd Division, which was built later, so Yano Otozaburo spoke very politely to Tomaguchi Kiichiro.

"Hai, then I'll take a trip, in view of the increasing number of Chinese troops, the imperial army in Manchuria must be kept at about one division, and the strength of the left and right banners of the Balhu should also be increased accordingly, in case the Chinese army attacks the imperial army from the flank!" Lieutenant General Tom Keiichiro reminded.

"Yo Xi, Tom Kou-kun, in addition to the two infantry wings from the Ninth Division in Manchuria, I will also send a chariot wing and an artillery wing to your command, and I will also send an infantry brigade and a cavalry regiment of the Imperial Allied Army to reinforce the left and right banners of Balhu. As soon as you arrived in Manchuria, you took over the command of Manchuria, and all the imperial armies, including the Balhu Left Banner and the Right Banner, were under your command! ”

"Hay!"

The news of the Japanese reinforcement of Manchuria was soon sent to the former enemy headquarters in Dongfang City, and it was learned that the Japanese army had only sent an infantry brigade and some technical units to reinforce Manchuria, and that there were still more than 20,000 defenders in the Hailar area, which made Chen Feng extremely dissatisfied.

Immediately Chen Feng ordered Zhang Jingjun to add fire to the Japanese army, Zhang Jingjun understood, and immediately sent an infantry division and an artillery brigade to Manchuria, and also advanced the defensive line in the direction of Manchuria by 5 kilometers, the location of the military camp is only 10 kilometers away from the city of Manzhouli, and has entered the range of the Japanese field heavy artillery, of course, the defenders of Manchuria have also entered the range of Chen Feng's heavy artillery.

Knowing that Chen Feng's troops outside Manchuria were as high as 3 infantry divisions, 2 artillery brigades, and some chariot troops, with a total strength of more than 50,000 troops, Lieutenant General Tom Ji Yilang was taken aback, and he secretly calculated that the defenders in Manchuria plus the more than 10,000 reinforcements he transferred this time were only 3 infantry wings, 1 artillery wing, and 1 chariot wing, plus the cavalry division of the Imperial Cooperative Army, adding up to only 20,000 people.

In addition, although Manchuria is said to be a famous big city on the Hulunbuir grassland, but it is only a big city on the Hulunbuir grassland, and it is just a small county town that can not be smaller in other places, although there are city walls, but they are all rammed, less than three meters high, less than two meters wide, and it will collapse after a few cannons, and it is not a strong fortress at all.

Tom Kou Jiichiro estimated that if the combat effectiveness of the Chinese army was really as strong as the imperial intelligence department said, the army in his hands was really not an opponent, and the most important thing was that he was extremely distrustful of the combat effectiveness of the cavalry division of the Imperial Cooperative Army.

It is no wonder that the Japanese army originally looked down on the puppet army, especially this puppet army was still a defeated general under Chen Feng's subordinates, the last time Chen Feng's troops attacked Suidong, not only completely annihilated the 12th Division of the Japanese army, but also eliminated the puppet regime of King Mengde, and even the puppet Mongolian army was beaten to pieces, and a large number of senior officers, including Li Shouxin, the commander-in-chief, were captured.

Only Wang Ying was lucky, and he happened to be out of Tongliao City at that time, so he was spared. After the war, Chen Feng's troops withdrew from Tongliao, and the Japanese army had to put Wang Ying on the throne in order to appease the puppet army.

These are secondary, the important thing is that because most of the puppet army was wiped out by Chen Feng's department, the remaining three or two kittens could not become the climate at all, so the Japanese army had to assist Wang Ying to continue to recruit troops and horses on the grassland, and even did not hesitate to transport prisoners of war here from the battlefield in Guannei, and now this puppet army is a new recruit unit that has only been formed in the last year or two.

If you want to talk about this combat effectiveness, Wang Ying himself is blowing the earth-shattering sound, but the Japanese army does not believe it at all, when Tom Kou is calculating the combat effectiveness, the cavalry division with a strength of 5,000 people is directly discounted to 2,000 people, so that in the eyes of General Tom Kou, he is going to use 15,000 people to deal with more than 50,000 people under Chen Feng, and the odds of winning are really not big.

Before Tom Kou could figure out how to deal with this matter, there was another bad news from there, and traces of the Chinese cavalry were found on the periphery of the left and right banners of Balhu, although the strength was only a few thousand people, but this still caused great pressure on Lieutenant General Tom Jiichiro.

This is not a good omen for Lieutenant General Tom, which is a chariot and heavy artillery, and it is completely a sign of a large-scale invasion by the Shina army, so Lieutenant General Tom Kou has no choice but to continue to send a report to Lieutenant General Yano, asking Hailar to continue to send additional troops. (To be continued......)