That night, Wu Ming stayed overnight at the Tan Mansion to discuss the situation between China and Japan with Chen Cheng. Although Chen Cheng also believes that there will be a war between China and Japan, he insists like most people today that a war is unlikely within this year, and Wu Ming continued his view in the report, saying that war would start by July or August at the latest.

Chen Cheng analyzed the change in the attitude of the new Japanese prime minister and cabinet toward dialogue, while Wu Ming scoffed at it, holding that this was nothing more than a delaying tactic by the Japanese; otherwise, the Lin Mo cabinet, which was shouting for peace, would not last long, and once it fell, the newly formed cabinet could change course at any time, and at that time, in order to conform to the voice in Japan, all kinds of conspiracies and provocations would inevitably ensue, and it would be impossible for war to break out.

Neither of the two could persuade anyone, so they had to avoid this heavy topic, Wu Ming discussed some of his training experiences summarized in the past two years with Chen Cheng, Chen Cheng listened to the spirits, and also told him about the establishment of field hospitals in the divisions of the 18th Army.

In view of the past grievances, in order to avoid everyone encountering each other's embarrassment, Wu Ming did not stay to accompany Chen Cheng to meet with Zhang Fakui and Liu Jianxu, the leaders of the Guangdong Army and the Hunan Army, and said goodbye to Chen Cheng after breakfast, and then rushed to the Songmuchang Military Station of the New Second Division under the Baoshu Tower in the west of Hangzhou, met with Fang Zhibin, Zhang Dongning and others, and set off for Jiaxing in eastern Zhejiang.

This time, Wu Ming did not choose to take the train again.

The reason why he did this before was to confirm how much time it would take to transfer troops from Quzhou to Hangzhou on a large scale, and the general situation along the railway line. Although this railway has come and gone many times, most of them have come and gone in a hurry, and they have not had much impression at all, and since they are going to submit a report to Chairman Chiang this time, they naturally have to be more meticulous.

Comparing the information obtained along the way with the aerial map, Wu Ming came to the most conclusive conclusion that even if the Japanese army landed in the coastal area on the south bank of the Qiantang River, it would not be able to easily cross the defense line composed of natural hazards such as Huiji Mountain, Tiantai Mountain, Puyang River, and Yunfeng Mountain.

The northeast of Hangzhou, on the north bank of the Qiantang River, is a vast plain as far as the eye can see, except for the lakes and rivers that can be relied on, there is basically no danger to defend, even if there is no railway, the Japanese army can come and go freely, coupled with the threat of the Japanese army and naval aviation in wartime, the train may be suspended, so there is no need to investigate the railway at all.

The defense line of Jiangsu and Zhejiang is mainly composed of Wufu line, Xicheng line and Zhajia line, of which Zhapu to Jiaxing line located on the north shore of Hangzhou Bay is completely in Zhejiang, and Jiaxing is also the necessary place for railways and highways to Shanghai, so it has become the top priority of Wu Ming and his entourage.

When leaving the Tan Mansion, Chen Cheng handed over to Wu Ming the design drawings of the defense line between Jiangsu and Zhejiang that had been surveyed by the Military Committee and the City Fortress Bureau of the General Staff Headquarters with him.

After sleeping in the car for a few hours and recovering slightly, Wu Ming took out the drawings, tasted and analyzed them carefully, and had an in-depth understanding of the design ideas and requirements.

The defense fortifications in Jiangsu and Zhejiang are mainly based on battalion-level infantry positions, and regiment-level or company-level positions are built in particularly important or minor areas. The first line and reserve positions are set up in the position, and the system of shooting, observation, communication, transportation, camouflage, bunkers and obstruction lights is equipped with equipment, and light and heavy machine guns and anti-aircraft artillery fortifications are used as the backbone to form a circular defense structure.

The building materials are mainly reinforced concrete, and natural obstacles are used as much as possible, supplemented by artificial obstacles, to form permanent solid fortifications.

But what about the actual situation?

In the following week, Wu Ming and his entourage visited Jiaxing, Daqiao, Xinfeng, Pinghu and other defense fortification support points, and the results were shocking.

On the map issued by the Military Committee, this defense line looks tightly designed, interlocking, and extremely large-scale, comparable to the Maginot Line built by the French, but unfortunately it is a showcase, and there are serious problems in the quality of the project, and many of the cement used for pouring fortifications is not up to standard at all, and often a large lump of lumps falls off with a light knock, and when you rub your hands, it becomes powder and falls from between your fingers. Not only is the precast cement slab not filled with steel bars, but even the bamboo bars proposed by Wu Ming are not added, and its explosion-resistant, seismic and compressive performance can be imagined.

In addition, just outside the fortifications, many of the machine-gun positions soaked in the water could not be used at all, and some of the so-called impregnable permanent fortifications were in fact small isolated bunkers.

Wu Ming and his entourage did not alarm the 56th Division stationed in Jiaxing, this division was the remnant of the original Sun Chuanfang's five-province coalition army that was incorporated in the Northern Expedition, and the division commander Liu Shangzhi was subordinate to Liu Heding's 39th Army. In fact, after the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, many armies only had one division under their jurisdiction, such as the 71st Army, of which Wang Jingjiu was the commander, and the 87th Division were two sets of teams, which was completely bluffing.

The 56th Division, which had participated in the "clean-up" of the Red Army guerrillas remaining in Fujian Province after the Long March of the main force of the Central Red Army, was transferred to Jiaxing in early 36 years, where it echoed with the 87th and 88th Divisions stationed in Jiangsu, and was ready to rush to the aid of the Shanghai battlefield at any time.

When Wu Ming and Fang Zhibin visited the Xinfeng fortification group, they saw that all the fortifications had the doors of General Tie, so they asked to enter the inside of the fortifications to check, and the chief of the Jiaxing Police Bureau, who was ordered to accompany the visit, looked embarrassed, saying that the key to the fortification portal was in the hands of the local security chief, and someone had to be sent to get it.

Wu Ming asked puzzledly: "What if the Japanese call and those security chiefs evacuate in advance?" The police chief was speechless.

Finally got the key from the chief's house five miles away, Wu Ming asked for a map of the location of the fortifications, so that he could count them one by one according to the map, but the result was still in the hands of the chief, Wu Ming couldn't laugh or cry.

Finally everything was done, Wu Ming led people into the fortifications to check, and found that after entering the machine gun bunker, it was as if they had entered a living coffin, which was dark and narrow, and it was extremely difficult to turn around, and it was unbelievable that there were no communication trenches between the positions, and the various units stationed in the fortifications could not support each other, and the food and ammunition in the rear could not be transported, and the officers and soldiers stationed there had no way out except to live and die with the positions.

During the inspection, Wu Ming also found that most of the fortifications were extremely unreasonable, almost all of them were built on the north and south lines of three or four hundred meters on both sides of the highway and avenue, and were generally built near the river, and there were many trees and houses on the other side of the river, and there were no cutting down or demolition at all to clear the shooting boundary, and each bunker fortification could only accommodate one squad of soldiers and one machine gun, which could not achieve the purpose of officers and men taking turns to rest and fight. Especially in many key areas, the so-called defense fortification line turned out to be just a few scattered cement bunker fortifications, and beyond that there were no other fortifications, and there was no depth at all.

It was hard for Wu Ming to imagine how the Chinese army, which lacked air power, could confront the powerful Japanese army with such rudimentary fortifications. Presumably, the collapse of the situation in history is caused by such a "tofu scum project".

Fang Zhibin was also shocked by what he saw, and even called for "dereliction of duty", saying that he would truthfully report the situation to his superiors and bring those moths to justice.

After summarizing and sorting out the problems found, Wu Ming sent a special person to send them to Chen Cheng, who had already set off for Ningbo to inspect the coastal defense fortress group, and then forwarded them to the Central Military Committee, and then continued on the road with a heavy heart.

When the convoy arrived in Songjiang County, it was late at night on 12 March.

Wu Ming and his entourage entered the freight yard of the Quzhou Chamber of Commerce on the side of the drunken white pond in the south of the city, where they were changed into short coats and long shirts for ordinary people. You must know that Lu Dao is about to enter Shanghai next, after the 128 Incident, Japan strictly forbids the Nationalist Government troops to enter Shanghai, in order to avoid irritating the Japanese, it is necessary to change clothes, and at the same time Wu Ming does not want his arrival to alarm too many people, so silent is more in line with Wu Ming's spleen and stomach.