The defeat of the army was very disgruntled to the base camp, and in modern times, until the Battle of Nomenkan, the Japanese army had an innate psychological advantage over the Soviet and Russian troops, which originated in the Russo-Japanese War of 1905. As the victors of the war, the Japanese army always looked down on the Russian army, and later the Soviet Red Army.

Especially when the Japanese army received the news that most of the excellent and experienced commanders in the Red Army had been executed due to Stalin's rebellion, they were even more disdainful of the Red Army, and even arrogantly claimed that the Japanese 1st Division could fight 3 divisions of the Soviet Army. It was precisely because of this that this fiasco was simply an intolerable shame in the eyes of the base camp, for which the commander of the Kwantung Army, General Ueda, was severely reprimanded by the base camp. Even many veterans who had never cared much about the actions of the Japanese army openly claimed that this was the only and greatest shame for the Imperial Japanese Army, especially the invincible Kwantung Army.

Originally, from the beginning, Senior General Ueda did not support the action of Komatsubara, the commander of the 23rd Division, but he could not bear Lieutenant General Komatsubara's repeated requests, and finally agreed to his battle plan.

However, it doesn't end there. As a result of the deliberate propaganda of the Japanese high-brass, the belligerent mood of the various units of the Kwantung Army had been aroused, and they had long been looking forward to fighting the Soviet army, and this defeat seemed to everyone to be nothing more than an accident, yes, an accident. The defeat did not bring introspection, but more mania, and the entire Kwantung Army was in a kind of morbid "euphoria".

No one cared why the cavalry wing of the 23rd Division and the heavy armored vehicle unit were still defeated after the successful surprise attack on the Mongolian army headquarters, and no one cared why the powerful heavy armored vehicles of the Imperial Japanese Army were shattered by Soviet tanks. No one cared that the cavalry was helpless in the face of these rampaging "steel monsters" of the Soviet army, so they had to desperately wield their sabers and slash. The fanatical Japanese army was eager to engage the Soviets, and more than 90% of the officers knew nothing about the situation of the Soviets, but they despised their opponents for no reason.

On May 20, before the aftermath of the previous phase of the war had been dealt with, the Kwantung Army received another telegram from Komatsubara. The contents of the telegram were: (l) the Soviet army continued to increase its troops at Nomenkan, and on the 18th it had expelled the "Manchukuo" army from the Nomenkan area; (2) Soviet planes bombed the hot springs area and the Gangur Temple, causing losses. As the commander of the garrison in the Nomenkan area, Lieutenant General Komatsubara suggested that he take the initiative to punish him severely.

Immediately after receiving the telegram, the Kwantung Army command convened an operational meeting. On the 20th, he ordered to mobilize troops in the direction of Nomenkan. The mobilized forces were all the 23rd Divisions after replenishment. The Yasuoka detachment, consisting of the 1st Tank Regiment and a part of the 7th Division, also had a subordinate 2nd Flying Group. This was a large-scale mobilization of troops without precedent in a border dispute, and its policy was to engage in a head-on confrontation with the Soviet army, and its attitude was very tough.

Moreover, there is also a large-scale bombing plan in the Kwantung Army's operational plan. The main thing is to bomb all military and civilian targets in Outer Mongolia by planes. It's just that the Kwantung Army is expected to be opposed. It was not mentioned in advance and was requested. When the General Staff Headquarters is in occasional cases. When he heard about this bombing plan, he was afraid of escalating the situation, so he immediately sent a telegram to express that it was inappropriate. He also sent the deputy chief of operations, Yumi Nakasa, to Manchuria in an attempt to persuade the Kwantung Army not to bomb.

However, the speed was still a step slower, and before Nakasa arrived at the Kwantung Army headquarters, the Kwantung Army had already bombed Tamsk, a stronghold in Outer Mongolia, and the second Nomenkan incident broke out. In order to ensure air supremacy, the Japanese army dispatched 130 aircraft and carried out air strikes on the Soviet-Mongolian airbase.

At the same time that the Kwantung Army launched another attack on the Soviet-Mongolian army in the Nomenkan area, the North China Front also received an order from the headquarters of the Chinese Dispatch Army, and the base camp ordered the North China Front to be ready to send troops to reinforce the Kwantung Army at any time, and at the same time ordered the North China Front to transfer part of its forces to carry out a local war against Chen Feng's troops in North China, so as to prevent Chen Feng's troops from crossing the Dongwu Banner and advancing towards the Nomenkan area and threatening the flank of the imperial army.

After receiving the order from the command of the Chinese Dispatch Army, Senior General Binshan Yuan did not dare to slack off and immediately convened a meeting of the principal officers of the division, brigade, and regiment to discuss the operational plan.

However, the vast majority of officers, including the chief of staff, Lieutenant General Naosaburo Gangbe, did not agree to start a war with Chen Feng's troops without being prepared, and the chances of success were not high; more importantly, after many defeats, the ordinary soldiers and grassroots officers of the front army had already cast a shadow on the battle against Chen Feng's troops, and once they were defeated again, their morale would further decline, which the front army could not bear in any case.

However, the orders of the higher authorities could not be disobeyed, and in the end, Lieutenant General Naosaburo Gangbu came up with an idea, since the front army was unwilling to go deep into the defense area of Chen Feng's headquarters, then Chen Feng's headquarters should take the initiative to attack, so as to complete the orders of the superiors without going against the wishes of his own front army headquarters.

Lieutenant General Naosaburo Gangbu analyzed, combined with Chen Feng's family, Chen Feng has a very close relationship with Yan Xishan in the World War Zone, no matter how Chen Feng is also Yan Xishan's son-in-law, in the absence of too many competing interests, this kind of kinship is still very strong, plus the last time Chen Feng's department dispatched 150,000 troops to cooperate with Yan Xishan's department to besiege the First Army, so Lieutenant General Gangbu Naosaburo believes that as long as the North China Front Army launches an attack on Yan Xishan's Jin Sui army again, and Yan Xishan's department only needs to show a little defeat, Then Chen Feng, the son-in-law, will not sit idly by.

Therefore, Lieutenant General Gangbe Naosaburo suggested that the front army once again launch a large-scale attack on Yan Xishan's headquarters entrenched in Shanxi, on the one hand, because there were many new recruits in the troops transferred to the front army by the empire this time, and they needed to train weak brigades like the Jin Sui army. On the other hand, because the strength of the front army has basically recovered, the First Army has the ability and necessity to open up the situation on the Shanxi Plateau, and it cannot be so passive. The last is the task of the superiors.

This proposal of Lieutenant General Okabe Naosaburo was quickly approved by all the officers present, and as Lieutenant General Okabe Naosaburo said, the number of troops transferred from the country this time was indeed not small, in addition to the 22 infantry brigades, there were also seven infantry brigades and two infantry divisions. But after inspecting these new units, all the Japanese officers were dumbfounded, what kind of soldiers are these, not to mention the 22 infantry brigades, they are all recruits, except for a very few soldiers (veterans) in the township, the vast majority of the soldiers have only received three months of recruit training, and then they were sent to China.

Even those brigades, regiments, divisions, and regiments with numbers and establishments are not much better, and the vast majority of the troops are half-old and half-new, that is, half veterans and half new recruits, and some even have only one-third or less of the number of veterans. Such troops can barely maintain order in the rear, let alone participate in field battles, and if you want these troops to take the lead, you have to train.

And training is also skillful, capable is not good, even if it is a hundred years on the playground is in vain, on the battlefield is still a recruit egg, so this training still needs to be trained by battle, only the team born in the artillery fire can be called elite, otherwise it is a showcase. If we encounter heavy losses in the process of training, then the entire army is likely to collapse, so the whetstone for training is very important, and it can neither be too strong nor too weak. It's too weak to work, it's too strong to be all gone before the soldiers are trained, it's not cost-effective!

In the land of North China, the most suitable whetstone is the Jin Suijun, and of course, the Tubalu. However, although the Eighth Route Army is suitable, but people are elusive, if you want to find them as a whetstone, you have to find them first, the problem is that there is no time now, and the second is that you can't find it, and it is obviously not suitable to use the Eighth Route Army as a whetstone, so this whetstone can only find the Jin Sui Army.

The commander of the command, General Umezu Mijiro, and the 4th Division, the 20th Division, the 108th Division, the 1st Brigade, the 3rd Brigade, the 4th Brigade, the 7th Brigade, the 8th Brigade, the 1st Mountain Artillery Brigade, the 1st Tank of the Combat Vehicle, the Yamamoto Special Brigade, the 3rd Division of the Imperial Cooperative Army, the Independent Cavalry Independent Regiment, and the 6th Independent Detachment were under the jurisdiction of the 4th Division, the 3rd Brigade, the 4th Brigade, the 7th Brigade, the 8th Brigade, the 1st Mountain Artillery Brigade, the 1st Tank Wing, the Yamamoto Special Brigade, the 3rd Division of the Imperial Cooperative Army, the Independent Cavalry Independent Regiment, and the 6th Independent Detachment, with a total strength of more than 100,000 troops.

In addition, the North China Front Command ordered more than 50,000 people, including the 32nd Division, the 5th Brigade, the 15th Brigade, the 9th Brigade, the 3rd Tank Brigade, the 2nd Heavy Artillery Brigade, and the Flying Brigade of the Front Army, to serve as reserves for the First Army.

The purpose of this operation is to recapture Taiyuan and inflict heavy damage on Yan Xishan's second theater, preferably to completely annihilate the Jin Sui army.

The Japanese army's actions were very fast, but because all the units of the First Army were on the Shimen line, the troop movement was not obvious, so the Japanese army's action did not attract the attention of the second war zone and Chen Feng's department.

On 22 May, the military headquarters of the new Second Army of the Sixth Group Army stationed in Yuxian County was attacked by a small group of Japanese troops, the army commander Wei Changhu was seriously wounded, the deputy army commander Li Guohua was killed in battle, the chief of staff Xu Si was killed in battle, and at the same time there were 1 lieutenant general division commander, 2 major general brigade commanders, 4 colonel regiment commanders and 6 lieutenant colonel regimental deputy battalion commanders, at the same time, the two Japanese brigades and regiments stormed the position from Yuxian to Shouyang with the cooperation of artillery and armored units, and the new Second Army, which was newly established for less than half a year, was defeated by the Japanese army overnight. More than 20,000 people fled back to Jinzhong, less than 4,000, and the rest were either killed in battle or captured, and the door from Yuxian to Shouyang was wide open. (To be continued......)