The Germans are on the move in Europe, while the Japanese are in a hurry to brush up on their presence in Asia. Seeing that Chen Feng's subordinates were busy fighting against the Soviet Union, and Chen Feng's deliberate inducements during this period, many newspapers and magazines in China sang praises when reporting on the war between Chen Feng's subordinates and the Soviet Union.

However, he did not shy away from reporting the "losses" of the previous battles in the Eighth Theater, and the Japanese, who have always observed the subtleties, were surprised to find that in the war of more than half a month, Chen Feng's troops lost at least about 150,000 troops, almost 1:1.5 with the Soviets.

After getting the news, the Japanese were ecstatic. The Japanese army base camp unanimously believed that Chen Feng's troops had now fallen into the quagmire of the Mongol War and could not get out for the time being, and this was the best opportunity for the Japanese Empire to be humiliated. In order not to affect the interests of Chen Feng's troops and the Soviet Union, the two fierce enemies, the Japanese did not intend to make a move in the north, and they placed the battlefield in Central China.

In fact, for a long time, the Japanese base camp was very entangled, since they invaded Guangzhou and Wuhan, due to the long battle line, the troops were insufficient; The consumption of manpower and material resources is huge, and the financial and economic situation is in trouble; Anti-war and war-weariness began to grow in Japan, and there were endless quarrels within the ruling class over the bankruptcy of the "quick fix" strategy and differences in foreign policy; Moreover, because the Chinese people persisted in the War of Resistance, their strategy of dominating the world was greatly affected, and a passive situation appeared everywhere.

They wanted to change this passive situation, especially when Germany was in the middle of Europe, and the Japanese were also eager to take a ride. Seeing so many borderless lands in Southeast Asia, the Japanese were moved. But I want to go south to harvest the ripe fruit. The Chinese battlefield must be stable, and the Chinese must not jump out to make trouble, otherwise the Japanese Empire will be in trouble, and in this case, the Japanese invaders will be forced to adjust their policy of aggression against China.

In order to adapt to the southward strategy, the Japanese army made corresponding adjustments in military strategy. First, abandon the strategy of quick victory and prepare for long-term operations. Second, it is clearly stipulated that military operations should serve political and strategic work.

Third, limit the scale and intensity of the war in order to reduce attrition. In the operational range. "No attempt to expand the occupied area is not made unless there is a serious need to do so". "Refrain from expanding the unprepared front"; In terms of troop strength, "in order to prepare for future changes in the international situation, it is necessary to reduce the number of troops stationed in the cantonment and the consumption of troops in all aspects"; In the form of operations, "small contacts" are only "timely counterattacks when the enemy concentrates his forces to attack." deplete its combat power". Fourth. The focus of the military attack was shifted to the anti-Japanese guerrilla warfare in the rear.

It was decided after discussion at the base camp of the Japanese army. Immediate readjustment of the strategy of the attack on the Nationalist Government was initiated. Its overall idea was to secure and stabilize the occupied areas and make them the general military bases of the "Greater East Asia War" and to continue to exert military pressure on the Nationalist Government. Weaken its resistance to war, and use a combination of politics and strategy to destroy its attempt to continue the war of resistance, and then use the results of the "Greater East Asia War" to induce the Nationalist government to submit and realize its aggressive intentions.

In order to strike at the will of the Nationalist Government to resist the war and eliminate the main force of China's 9th Theater Army, the 11th Army of the Japanese Army China Dispatch Army concentrated about 100,000 troops of the 6th, 33rd, 101st, and 106th divisions and three brigades, and under the command of Commander Okamura Ninji, adopted the policy of rushing and attacking, and launched the "Battle of Hunan and Jiangxi" to attack Changsha, and the Battle of Changsha broke out.

In order to break the Japanese army's strategic attempt, Xue Yue, acting commander of China's 9th Theater of Operations, commanded about 400,000 troops in more than 30 divisions of 16 armies to adopt the operational policy of resisting and luring the enemy into depth one by one, and annihilated the attacking Japanese army near Changsha.

On June 14, 1940, the 106th Division of the Japanese Army launched an attack from Fengxin, northern Jiangxi, to the 60th Army of the 19th Group Army, the Chinese defenders of Huibu; With the 101st Division, the 32nd Army and the 58th Army of the Chinese Army in Gao'an carried out a diversionary attack.

The Chinese defenders did not resist the Japanese attack, the positions were broken through, and the 60th and 58th armies moved to Yifeng, Lingjiangkou and other places respectively; The 32nd Army moved to the line of Gray Port and Yuanpu on the right bank of the Jinjiang River.

On the 18th, the Japanese army captured Shangfu, Muraqian Street, Xieqiao, etc., and stormed Gao'an.

On the 19th, after a fierce battle, the defenders abandoned Gao'an and retreated to the southwestern highlands of Shiguling and Shinaowei to prevent the Japanese army from attacking westward. On the 21st, the 32nd Army counterattacked Gao'an and engaged in a fierce battle with the Japanese army; On the 22nd, Gao'an and Gaocheng were restored, and the line of Maxingshan and Zhaojiashan was occupied. The 74th Army entered and occupied Xieqiao, Nanshan Ho. The Japanese 101st Division retreated northeast from Gao'an and Wuqiaohe. The main force of the 106th Division attacked westward from Fengxin, broke through the positions of the defending 183rd Division and the 15th Division, and on the 24th, occupied Hengjie and Ganfang, and continued to advance westward. On the 25th, the Chinese army mobilized several divisions to counterattack the Japanese army in the Ganfang area and engaged in a fierce battle with it.

At the same time, the 6th Division, the main force of the Japanese army, and the Nara detachment forcibly crossed the Xinqiang River and launched an attack on the 52nd Army of the 15th Army, defending on the north bank of the Xinqiang River. The defenders resisted stubbornly for five days and nights, and on the evening of the 22nd, they were forced to retreat to the south bank of the river.

At dawn on the 23rd, the Japanese army, supported by heavy artillery fire, forcibly crossed the new wall and advanced southward; The Kamimura detachment landed in Yingtian near the mouth of the Miluo River and formed a flanking attack on the 15th Army; The 33rd Division moved south from Maishi in an attempt to wipe out the Chinese army in northern Hunan Province. The 15th Army resisted the Japanese army based on the positions of the Xinqiang River and the Miluo River, and after inflicting heavy losses on the Japanese army, it withdrew to the south bank of the Miluo River on the 24th.

While the Battle of Changsha was in full swing, Japan summed up the new policies that had been implemented not long ago, and for the first time held secret discussions about the southward campaign.

In fact, Japan's so-called new policy is nothing more than a product of the rapidly turning tide of war in Europe. At that time, not only the base camp, but the entire Japanese government and public were concerned about the question of when Germany would land on British soil. If the German landings on British soil were to bring the situation to the point of collapse of the British Empire, the political and economic spheres of the world would inevitably undergo tremendous changes, and Japan would not be able to sit idly by.

This was an opportune time to settle the Southern question in one fell swoop, and the new policy guidelines of the base camp specifically emphasized that the time for the completion of all preparations by the Imperial Japanese Empire should be the end of August 1940, which implied such an intention of the army and naval headquarters of the base camp.

The Army and Navy Headquarters, the headquarters of the Japanese army, believed that even if Germany did not land on British soil, there was no doubt about Germany's victory, which would inevitably lead to a change in the scope of the world's power, and thus an opportunity for Japan to advance southward.

Originally, Japan had to rely on imports of all or part of its important strategic materials, such as petroleum, rubber, special steel raw materials, bauxite, leather, cotton, wool, hemp, and oil, from the United States and Britain and their powers. In addition, most of the machine tools, which can be called the foundation of industry, actually have to rely on the United States. As a result, the acquisition of resources from the South to break off economic dependence on the United States and Britain and consolidate the posture of self-sufficiency was regarded as an indispensable requirement for self-survival and self-defense.

Based on the above reasons, the base camp of the Japanese army began to study the operation in the south. According to the decision of the new policy, the army and navy are faced with a number of important problems. Apart from the issues of strengthening the Japanese-German-Italian axis, stationing in French Indochina, strengthening friendly relations with Thailand, and preparing for the Hong Kong operation, the most hotly discussed issue at that time was the study and preparation for the southern war.

The new policy decided that force could be used in the South, depending on the situation, and that it was estimated that the opponent of the war might involve Britain. Now that such a national policy has been decided, the high command must naturally study and prepare for the war plan and the battle plan.

This was a fundamental change for the army, which had always been only concerned with fighting against China and defending against the Soviet Union. In view of the Army's theory of defending the south and advancing to the north, the Navy's traditional policy is to advocate the theory of defending the north and advancing to the south. Throughout the period of the China Incident, the Navy's particularly strong interest in South China was a manifestation of this.

As a result, the Army High Command began the work of conducting on-the-spot investigations of key troop-employing areas in the southern region, collecting military intelligence, and studying operational plans. The question of whether the rivals of the war should be the Netherlands or the inextricably linked Anglo-Dutch is a major question. At that time, although the army and navy commanders and navy jointly studied the operational plan again and again, neither the army nor the navy seriously considered the United States as an adversary in war.

However, the war in Europe did not progress as expected, and the hopes of a German landing on British soil were dwindling. The Navy, which played the leading role in the Southern Operations, was given ample time to consider, and the argument that the exercise of force needed to be reconsidered once again resurfaced.

On 28 June, the staff of the Navy Department at the headquarters submitted a memorandum to the staff of the War Department on the interpretation of the "Outline for Handling the Current Situation in Accordance with the Evolution of the Situation in the World and the World," calling for unity of thought. However, with regard to the preparations for the army and navy's operations in the south, they have not gone beyond the scope of mainly collecting intelligence and studying operational plans on the table, and the Japanese high command has still had a lot of work that must be done but has not been done.

What else was not done in the base camp of the Japanese army? Nothing else, just looking for allies. It must be known that once the road is ready to go south, then Japan will be the enemy of the European and American powers at the level of the entire Pacific Rim countries, and it can be said that Japan will take on half of the world with the strength of one country.

This is a dangerous task, and Japan alone cannot accomplish it at all, and besides, they themselves know better than anyone else the situation in Japan at present, and a single Chinese battlefield will almost bring Japan down, and if it is opening up one or several battlefields, if it cannot achieve a quick solution, then Japan will face an unprecedented crisis, and may even be annihilated because of this. So Japan needs allies, one or a few strong and reliable allies. (To be continued......)