Lieutenant General Jonathan's words were loud, with a fierce light in his eyes, and the US generals who were still wawing and wawing just now shut up together, whether it was guilt and shame, or rejoicing and relieved, anyway, no one raised any objections.

They really have nothing to say, as the commander-in-chief, they all take the troops to stay behind to block the attack, what else do they have to say, and then look at the new commander-in-chief, the murderous intent in his eyes, the one who got on the boat after he compared to other troops, and argued, this guy may be able to kill a few people on the spot.

Lieutenant General Jonathan saw that no one objected, with a tragic atmosphere, after announcing the dismissal of the meeting, all the commanders hurried back to their troops, ready to evacuate, the happiest thing was that the commanders of the two Philippine troops were finally no longer used as cannon fodder, as for the American troops as the rearguard, it was not a matter that they could worry about, anyway, they were not themselves!

After the generals at the meeting were gone, Chief of Staff Kleist said worriedly: "General, you are the supreme commander, and you should not lead the troops to the task of blocking it, in case you ......!" ”

The Chief of Staff of Kleist did not say the following words explicitly, but Lieutenant General Jonathan understood what he meant, sighed suddenly, and said in a low voice: "Chief of Staff, I know what you mean, but you have also seen the situation of the meeting just now, and you are eager to retreat immediately, so this burden can only be picked up by me, Chief of Staff, when I command the troops to block the Japanese army, you have to command the troops to board the ship at the dock, and the responsibility is also very heavy!" ”

Chief of Staff Kleist nodded, neither of them spoke again, their eyes turned to the dark night sky, and in the conference room, there was silence, only outside Manila. The sporadic sound of artillery from time to time broke the silence, but it became more and more depressing.

At the same time, Lieutenant General Yoshihiko Haruta, commander of the 14th Army of the Japanese Army on the periphery of the Manila Line, was also in a tent and held a military meeting.

Unlike the generals and soldiers of the US and Philippine armies who were attacked, who were in constant fear and had a feeling of impending disaster, the Japanese generals who attended the meeting were obviously confident that they would win.

Four consecutive days of assault on the Manila Line. The commanders of the various attacking units on the Japanese front line have figured out the depth and depth of their opponents, and the tactics of Guò are changeable, and the enemy is constantly being consumed and exhausted, and the Imperial Army troops are doing so at a price that satisfies them. Little by little, wring out the blood of the opponent, all the Japanese generals believed it. Capture Manila. It's just a matter of three to five days.

However, Commander Yoshihiko Haruta was not satisfied with the current results, and in his opinion, the 14th Army, together with the troops of the two divisions and three brigades attached to it, attacked Manila with all its might, and Manila should be within three days. It was possible to occupy them all, but it took four days to fight, which exceeded their expectations. Lieutenant General Haruta ran out of patience anymore.

Of course, there are many reasons, the will to resist of the soldiers of the United States and the Philippines should be beyond imagination, and they are not as vulnerable as expected, the so-called trapped beast is still fighting, Commander-in-Chief Ito strictly ordered that the capture of Manila at the cost of heavy casualties among the soldiers of the Imperial Army made Commander Haruta dare not let go of the use of white-knuckle charge tactics, but in Lieutenant General Haruta's view, the fundamental reason was that the commanders of the various attacking units blindly sought stability and did not dare to let go of the attack.

Although such tactics can avoid casualties among Imperial soldiers to the greatest extent and consume the vital strength of American and Philippine soldiers as much as possible, this kind of battle is not the kind that Lieutenant General Yoshihiko Haruta likes.

Therefore, at the beginning of today's military meeting, Lieutenant General Yoshihiko Haruta did not summarize the battle as is customary, and in his own words, after four days of fighting, there was nothing new, and the fighting spirit of the 14th Army was not reflected at all.

Lieutenant General Yoshihiko Haruta looked at the division and brigade commanders with relaxed expressions, frowned, and said loudly: "Gentlemen, today's military meeting has only one content, that is, how to completely annihilate the US and Philippine troops on the Manila defense line in the shortest possible time, and occupy Manila as much as possible. ”

Chief of Staff Hashimoto's attack plan had only one main point, which was to change the previous mode of operation that focused on depleting the vital forces of the US and Philippine armies in order to avoid excessive casualties among the troops; in other words, to change the method of fighting with boiled frogs in warm water and adopt the method of attacking on all fronts, and all troops were thrown into the attack, and the time of the attack was set at 5:30 a.m. on 29 August.

The method of attack was to take the 14th Army's 103rd, 104th, 108th, and 109th Divisions as the attack arrows, and to take Batangas, Lucena, Cavite, and Quezon City as the breakthrough points, and adopt a continuous attack method to storm the four key points on the American Manila defensive line, and the rest of the subordinate units were evenly dispersed in four directions, as the second echelon of the attack, and the first echelon of the attack took turns.

Chief of Staff Hashimoto's plan was announced, and the Japanese commanders did not show the excitement and excitement they deserved, and Commander Harata's style of fighting, fierce and fierce, could fully display the indomitable and fearless attack spirit of the Imperial Japanese Army, but the casualties of the troops would increase to an unbearable level, in other words, they used the tactics of crowds and the bodies of soldiers to break through the defense line of the US and Philippine troops.

The commanders of the Japanese army at all levels, who had fought skillfully for several days, had already tasted the sweetness, and at the cost of the smallest casualties in exchange for the greatest effect of annihilating the enemy, they suddenly changed to this desperate style of fighting, and they still felt a little uncomfortable in their hearts; moreover, according to the current tactics, it would not take a few days for the US and Philippine troops on the opposite side to be consumed and vulnerable.

Why do you want to take such a way with a lot of casualties, not to mention that the headquarters of the dispatch army did not strictly order the troops to capture Manila within a certain time limit, in this case, what we have is time, drain the blood of those Yankees, the Japanese generals do not understand, but one thing they understand is that their commanders like to attack the enemy in this way.

Lieutenant General Yoshihiko Haruta knew what his subordinates were thinking, and he also knew that according to the current tactics, the 14th Army could completely annihilate the American and Philippine armies and occupy Manila at the minimum cost of casualties, but he was extremely tired of such tactics.

However, his inner thoughts could not be known to his subordinates, so Lieutenant General Haruta changed his way to explain the new offensive plan, he said: "Gentlemen, our vision should be broadened, and it should not be limited to Luzon Island, because those incompetent guys in the navy did not complete the scheduled task of annihilating 100,000 British and Australian soldiers in the Coral Sea, resulting in 100,000 British and Australian soldiers arriving in Australia smoothly. ”

"Gentlemen, what does this mean, it means that Commander-in-Chief Ito's Attack on Australia Legion, in a short period of time, the intention of completely annihilating the enemy forces on the Australian continent has become very difficult, and it is imperative to increase the troops on the Australian battlefield, don't you want to participate in the last battle of the Imperial Army of Japan to occupy the Pacific Ocean again?"

Lieutenant General Haruta's words aroused a huge repercussion in the hearts of these Japanese generals, and they all lit up and aroused great interest, Lieutenant General Haruta smiled proudly, and then said: "We can only go to the Australian battlefield by ending the war on Luzon as quickly as possible, if so, our 14th Army will be the imperial army that has won the victory of the total annihilation of the enemy army in two consecutive battlefields, and at that time, you will understand what I am doing today!" ”

Needless to say, the murderous spirit in the hearts of the Japanese generals has been successfully provoked by Lieutenant General Haruta, and they are full of confidence one by one. Murderously assured Lieutenant General Haruta, Chief of Staff Hashimoto always looked at this qiē with a smile, "If anyone says that Lieutenant General Haruta is a martial artist, then he is very wrong!" He thought to himself.

On the night of 28 August, at about 9 o'clock, Tang Qiuli was looking at a telegram from Lieutenant General Jonathan, the new commander of the US and Philippine armed forces, about the specific deployment and timing of the withdrawal of troops.

Tang Qiuli put down the telegram and said to Chief of Staff Zhao Yuhe: "Yuhe, you immediately call Qiao Busen in my name, and ask him to immediately change the blocking deployment, abandon the Manila defense line and Manila City, and arrange all the blocking troops on the Polillo line, mainly to cover the withdrawal of troops in other directions from their existing positions. ”

Zhao Yuhe said: "Division commander, Jonathan's current deployment is indeed very inappropriate, with a division of more than 20,000 troops, to defend the defense line that originally required more than 200,000 troops, the strength will be so weak that it will be broken at the first stab, once the Japanese attack, I am afraid that not only the Seventh Mechanized Division will be submerged by the Japanese army, but the American and Philippine troops who are boarding the ship in the port will also have to leave more than half of the people, but, division commander, our order, will Jonathan obey?" ”

Tang Qiuli sneered and said: "In the telegram, you clearly told him that this is an agreement reached between the two sides, and in the process of evacuation, there are American and Filipino troops on Luzon Island, all of which accept my command, and if he refuses to carry it out, it is okay, and we will also refuse to escort him!" ”

Zhao Yuhe smiled and said: "Division commander, this is the death hole of the Americans, I can't help but they don't listen to the command!" ”

Tang Qiuli's eyes flickered, and he said: "I don't know how this Jonathan did it, he actually came up with such a blocking method, stupid, concentrating the blocking troops on the Polillo line, an area no more than ten kilometers wide, will make the defense depth reach a certain thickness, and Polillo happens to be stuck in front of the embarkation assembly place of the US and Philippine troops, which is the most ideal blocking position, but in this way, the escort plan of the Leyiqin Air Force will have to make some local adjustments!" ”

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