PS: Thank you to the book friend "Old Bookworm" and "YaYaYan" for the two monthly tickets voted respectively, and by the way, ask for recommendation votes ^_^

However, due to the fact that the Japanese column had set off earlier, the 200,000 Japanese troops had not yet been dispatched at that time, so this optional task was only after the Japanese column had already crossed the Huai River in the south, and Hu Weidong temporarily thought about it and released it to the Japanese column through the radio of the 15th Army (in order to avoid attracting the attention of the Japanese army, the Japanese column maintained a state of radio silence all the way, and easily did not dare to send a telegram to the outside world, but it was still possible to receive telegrams.) Therefore, he was not very clear about the situation in Bengbu at that time, so he made it optional, and did not want to complete it on the day.

Tomohisa Shiraishi, who was eager to make meritorious contributions, was naturally determined to complete this most difficult task, but when the troops came to the vicinity of Bengbu and learned that although the 200,000 Japanese troops had already taken the Bengbu Bridge and all the north, the Bengbu defenders still had no less than 20,000 troops (including a newly stationed three-unit additional division and an original garrison, as well as the police, gendarmes, and some devils who were forced to stay behind by the 200,000 Japanese troops who went north due to injuries and illness). After that, many of his subordinates were visibly lacking in confidence. After all, the basic establishment of the Japanese column was only more than 15,000 people, and although more than 8,000 Japanese prisoners of war who had completed ideological transformation and preliminary training were added before the war, so that the strength of the Japanese column increased to the level of a special division of the Japanese army, it was obviously not enough to run in, and it was still certain to deal with 20,000 Japanese troops in the field, but it would be much more difficult to attack the city. In addition, there are large Japanese troops in the north and south of Bengbu who are far more powerful than the Japanese column, and Bengbu is sitting on the advantage of the Jinpu line, once Bengbu is attacked, they will definitely come to the aid quickly, and the situation of the Japanese column will be very dangerous at that time.

Shiraishi Tomohisa was also a little hesitant at first, but after he noticed through his telescope that there were some young devil soldiers among the Japanese troops outside Bengbu, who were obviously not yet adults, he realized that the Japanese army had begun to dry up. Confidence was immediately greatly increased, and you must know that the quality of the officers and men of the Japanese column was not inferior to that of the permanent divisions and regiments of the Japanese army in the early days of the Anti-Japanese War, and there were also more than 20,000 people. Veterans who have been in a hundred battles fight those child soldiers who are estimated to have not even completed their training, and they are not ready to be captured? Moreover, the selection criteria of Japanese soldiers in the early stage of the Anti-Japanese War were also significantly higher, unlike now, as long as they can hold guns, they are stuffed into the army by the Japanese army base camp

Shiraishi Tomohisa, who was greatly confident, immediately told his subordinates about his discovery, and deliberately said that the age of the Japanese army junior soldiers was two years younger. "Fifteen or sixteen years old" has become "thirteen or fourteen years old", anyway, this age gap is really not completely certain in appearance, considering the difference in early and late development. Therefore, even if the lie is exposed, he can justify that he "didn't expect them to develop so late". After Shiraishi Tomohisa's flickering, the officers and soldiers of the Japanese column, who were still a little uneasy, suddenly felt like they had taken a reassurance, and their desire to fight was unprecedentedly high.

Among them, the cadres at the wing level are the most active, because everyone knows that if this battle is successful, even if the Japanese Column, which has once again made great contributions, will certainly expand to the level of the Japanese army's permanent divisions and regiments, that is, the Japanese Vertical will have two more brigades and regiments under the division and regiment directly below the wing. The performance of this battle will become an important basis for determining the candidates for the future brigade and regiment level cadres, and those wing deputy positions will therefore have the opportunity to become regulars, and the vacant seats vacated by each will also be filled by others, but the specific fall of these positions will also depend on the performance of this battle. It is no wonder that those cadres are all in high spirits. In addition, the fact that the Chinese comrades-in-arms had once again won a major victory, coupled with the signs of the gradual depletion of the Japanese army's troops, made everyone's confidence in returning to their hometown and liberating the whole of Japan unprecedentedly high, and it was also a factor that could not be ignored

Hu Weidong immediately said that he would let the guerrillas and several independent regiments in the Huainan anti-Japanese base area try their best to prevent the Japanese reinforcements from going north, and soon after the Japanese attack on Bengbu, Hu Weidong even informed his old subordinate Tan Zhenlin, commander and political commissar of the Fourth Detachment of the New Fourth Army, who had established the anti-Japanese base area behind enemy lines in Zhejiang, Suzhou, and Anhui, and asked him if he would like to eat meat with him

The reason why Hu Weidong gave such an out-of-standard support to the Japanese was of course because he attached special importance to this "Japanese traitor" unit, and even more because the Japanese learned from the captured prisoners of war that the 200,000 men of the 2nd Army of the Japanese Central China Dispatch Army, which had left Bengbu and headed north, had suddenly changed generals shortly before departure, and Ishihara Wan'er, who had just been transferred to the commander of the 16th Division just a dozen days earlier, was appointed as the new commander

As everyone knows, Ishihara Waner, a genius strategist rarely seen in Japanese history, has always had a deep contradiction with Hideki Tojo, who has been prosperous in official affairs in recent years, so the latter tried his best to squeeze out and suppress Ishihara Waner, a junior and subordinate who had a very high prestige among the middle and lower ranks of the Japanese army, but because of his unruliness, he did not like those high-ranking generals, so that Ishihara Waner once only hung up a false title and did nothing all day.

If the situation continued, Ishihara would probably end up depressed as he did in history, but because of the repeated defeats of the Japanese army on the battlefields in China, Emperor Hirohito could not help but recall Ishihara's genius plans again and again, and the calls for Ishihara's comeback in the Japanese army grew even louder, so that after Ishihara became the commander of the rebuilt 16th Division earlier than in history (Note 1), there were still many people who called on the emperor and the military department not to overdo it. And in the past two years, although Hideki Tojo, who has soared in the past two years, has become a high-ranking and powerful war minister earlier than in history, but because he was promoted too quickly and has a shallow foundation, he does not dare to act arbitrarily as in history, but he does not want Ishihara to be reused, what should he do?

Although Hideki Tojo was contemptuously called a "superior soldier" by Ishihara Waner because of his military mediocrity and incompetence, but his ability to calculate people is really not bad, in his mind, even though Ishihara Wanji is talented, but if he is put to do a job that he is not good at, I am afraid that he may not be able to perform so well, right? Especially the opponent of this battle is still extremely strong, and if this first battle is not fought, Ishihara Waner will become "Japanese Zhao Kuo"

Note 1: Historically, after Ishihara Waner took this position, due to Hideki Tojo's obstruction, Ishihara Waner never had the opportunity to go to the front line until he later re-entered the reserve and soon retired, but this also saved him from the post-war trial, but Ishihara Waner, who has always regarded himself very highly, was angry that he was not condemned as a war criminal, and finally got bladder cancer in depression, and soon died of illness, which can be regarded as a strange (to be continued) in the history of World War II. )