Just when Tang Qiuli and Chief of Staff Zhao Yuhe were quite nerve-wracking and painstakingly devised a countermeasure for the sake of Le Yiqin's troops, the battle in the Calais Mountains on Luzon Island was approaching its most tragic stage.

After receiving the report that the commanders of the three air groups had successfully ambushed and annihilated the US fighter group, Senior General Ito Yanzaburo finally burst out laughing uncontrollably, and the laughter sounded in the ears of the other Japanese staff officers, with a seeping taste, or rather, a kind of laughter that was carried away by extreme excitement.

Admiral Ito had reason to laugh wildly, carefully arranged for a few days, at the cost of sacrificing the lives of the Imperial soldiers, the American air force that posed the greatest threat to the Imperial Southwest Pacific Dispatch Army was finally completely eradicated, and there were no American planes in the sky that could threaten the Imperial Army at any time, and the rhythm of the Luzon battlefield was completely controlled in his own hands, and he could fight as he wanted, and he could do whatever he wanted, this feeling of controlling the fate of the enemy was really good!

General Ito looked at the chief of staff of Kawashima, who had been calming down beside him, and said: "Kawashima-kun, convey my order, all the attacking troops, surround and annihilate the US troops on the first line of defense as quickly as possible, the 14th Army's Haruta Yoshihiko Division, immediately pass through the guò breakthrough and attack in the direction of Manila, I fulfill my promise, Haruta-kun's troops will be the first troops of the Imperial Japanese Army to arrive under the city of Manila!" ”

Major General Kawashima thought about it for a moment and proposed his own proposal, "Your Excellency Commander-in-Chief, the form of the battlefield in front of you is absolutely beneficial to the Imperial Army, and my construction is that the Fourteenth Army will participate in the operation of encircling and annihilating the remnants of the Third Army of the United States, and then, all the troops will press towards Manila together. Giving MacArthur the heaviest blow should have a better effect, otherwise, with the existing strength of the 14th Army, attacking Manila would be slightly insufficient, and the US and Philippine troops on the front line of Manila would have more than 100,000 troops! ”

For this person who has followed him for many years and has experienced ups and downs. The resourceful and loyal old subordinates, who proposed a plan that was clearly contrary to his own orders, and after the great victory, Commander-in-Chief Ito, who was in an extremely happy mood, certainly did not blame him for being a bunch of nonsense. Not to mention in this case, even at any time. Rear Admiral Kawashima's Jianyì. Commander-in-Chief Ito attaches absolutely importance to it!

Ito ordered the guards, brought two glasses of sake, politely sat down Major General Kawashima, and said cordially: "Kawashima-kun, I understand your concerns, given the current battlefield situation in the Calais Mountains. In less than a day, the Americans would soon be wiped out by us, and the Fourteenth Army marched under Manila in order to put more pressure on MacArthur. Prompt the Anglo-Australian troops to reinforce Luzon and rush to the battlefield as soon as possible to complete the final plan of the base camp! ”

Major General Kawashima listened very carefully to Admiral Ito's analysis, and in terms of campaign command and strategic understanding, he thought that he was a little worse than Admiral Ito.

Ito continued: "If all the Imperial Army troops on Luzon were pressed together, do you think MacArthur would be able to hold on for a few days, especially Yoshihiko Haruta's Fourteenth Army, watching the other troops fighting in the mountains of Calais, they would have been holding back their strength for a long time, like a tiger in a cage, once released, it will burst out with amazing combat power and attack power." ”

Major General Kawashima interjected strangely, "Your Excellency the Commander-in-Chief, isn't this very good?" The capture of Manila is the established strategy of the base camp, and it also marks the end of the Southwest Pacific War, and the empire can carry out the next goal in a larger area, such as the mainland of the United States or the Australian mainland, or in the Indochina Peninsula, and fight for control with the devil Tang Qiuli of China, choose one of the three goals! ”

General Ito smiled, shook his head and said: "Kawashima-kun, you only know one thing but you don't know the other, with the bravery and fierceness of that guy in Harata, and the combat effectiveness and attack power of the 14th Army, I believe that he will have beaten MacArthur's Manila defense line to the ground before the battle to annihilate the US Third Army in the Calais Mountains is not over, so will MacArthur still have the courage to continue to hold on to Manila?" ”

Chief of Staff Kawashima shook his head, it was obvious that any commander, knowing that he could not hold on, would not be so stupid as to be ignorant of Cheng Dù, General Ito continued: "If we add Luzon, the other forces of the Empire, hundreds of thousands of troops besiege Manila, Manila will soon fall into the hands of our Japanese Empire, and the direct consequence is that the British and Australian reinforcements that have not yet set off from Australia will not reinforce Luzon, and our layout of more than two months will not be ruined!" ”

Major General Kawashima got up and said respectfully: "General, Kawashima has been taught, but I think too narrowly, but you also said that the attack power and combat effectiveness of the 14th Army can break MacArthur's defensive line, and ordering the 14th Army to attack Manila alone will not cause the same result?" ”

Anyway, the initiative on the battlefield is in their own hands, and all units are fighting according to the predetermined plan, and General Ito has the patience and time to say a few more words with his most relied on subordinate, "Kawashima-kun, the 14th Army will definitely beat MacArthur's Manila defense line to crises everywhere, but it will never beat the Americans to the point of abandoning the city and losing their determination to hold on, the reason is very simple, that is, the comparison of forces." ”

"If all our troops on Luzon Island are used to encircle and annihilate the remnants of the US Third Army, which is only more than 40,000 troops, and we do not attack Manila, it will definitely arouse MacArthur's suspicions, because this is against the norm, so the Fourteenth Army attacking Manila alone will put the greatest pressure on MacArthur to urge him to urge the arrival of Australian reinforcements as soon as possible, and at the same time dispel the suspicions of the Americans, and this is the purpose of my arrangement."

Major General Kawashima was completely impressed, in a simple order, there were so many tricks, such meticulous thinking, grasp of the battlefield situation, and judgment of the psychological activities of the enemy commander, he was absolutely inferior, this may be the gap!

Kawashima got up again, bowed deeply, and said, "General, Kawashima admires your wisdom and vision to grasp the battle situation!" ”

General Ito said with a little reserve: "This is the way of the general, in the ancient Chinese art of war, there is a very reasonable saying, called not to plan for a time, not enough to plan for a lifetime, a wise general, is to see through the appearance of the battlefield, see through its essence, so as to take the right method, to achieve the purpose of the war, however, compared with those predecessors in the empire, I am still far behind, just a little bit of the surface!" ”

General Ito's modesty is absolutely sincere, and Chief of Staff Kawashima can see that he admires the general's character even more, but he didn't notice that General Ito's eyes flashed with worry, because at this time, General Ito's mind flashed the name of the devil Tang Qiuli at an inopportune time, and he asked himself, if these strategies of his own were used on that devil, what would happen?

The answer is very simple, it is useless, but it will be used by the devil of China, and return to himself, so that the troops of the Imperial Army will suffer a big loss, since the Indochina Peninsula repeatedly fought with Tang Qiuli, General Ito has never taken advantage, in front of the devil who hates it, he often has a sense of powerlessness, so now he enjoys the sense of accomplishment of playing with the Americans and MacArthur between applause and controlling their fate, this feeling is quite wonderful!

On the morning of 13 August, General Tang Qiuli, commander of the Independent Division, and Major General Zhao Yuhe, chief of staff, could talk about the situation on the battlefield in their offices far away from the battlefield on Luzon Island.

The army commander, Major General Whiteman, with more than 500 people from the military headquarters, rushed into the melee battlefield, and immediately fell into the heavy encirclement of the Japanese army, perhaps the Japanese soldiers, deliberately let this force of American troops rush in, Commander Whiteman and his death squad, miraculously and a regimental unit of the American army, and the soldiers who followed around him, more and more, in the evening, night fell in the Calais mountains, Commander Whiteman's side, gathered more than 3,000 troops.

But the number is miscellaneous enough, that unit has it, it is a straggler who was scattered by the Japanese army, rushing left and right, there are Japanese soldiers everywhere, but they can't break out of the encirclement, however, the Japanese soldiers obviously received an order, and there is a plan to suppress and concentrate the scattered American troops in several directions, so as to facilitate centralized annihilation, and the more than 3,000 people led by Whiteman have few casualties.

In a cave in the mountains of Calais, Commander Whiteman and his subordinates who were overwhelmed by the Japanese soldiers finally had a place to breathe.

From the soldiers who followed him, it can be seen that the Third Army has completely fallen into the trap of the Japanese, perhaps, he and these more than 3,000 soldiers will not see the sun tomorrow, and the call on the radio has also confirmed his thoughts, and six division-level units and one brigade-level unit have all lost contact.

Commander Whiteman, sitting numbly on a rock, didn't say a word, just took out his pistol, took out the bullets in the magazine, one by one, and loaded them back one by one, a lieutenant colonel staff officer, hesitated for a long time, came over and said tentatively: "Commander, we should report the actual situation of the battlefield in the Calais Mountains to Commander-in-Chief MacArthur, perhaps, the situation of the war will turn around!" ”

(To be continued) (To be continued.) )