Chapter 678: Gambling

The loss of Xuzhou made the North China Front very passive, and the original plan to retreat south can only be canceled now, and the retreat is a systematic work, if it is intercepted halfway, it will be wiped out.

After urgent consultations between the North China Front Headquarters and the Twelfth Army Headquarters, it was decided to order the entire 12th Army stationed in Shandong to urgently withdraw to Qingdao, either to Shanghai by water, or to Yingkou to the north and to Dalian.

But there is also a certain amount of risk in doing so, because the Chinese Navy is no longer the navy of a few years ago, and the current strength of the Chinese Navy is extremely strong, not to mention the Japanese Third Fleet, which is now stationed on the coast of China's coast, even the main force of the Combined Fleet has been beaten to the ground.

The withdrawal of troops by water should be taken into account whether the Chinese Navy will send troops to intercept it? Once it encounters an interception, the Third Fleet has no ability to deal with it, if it is really on land, even if it encounters an interception, it can still fight back desperately at the worst, and it can still pull a few cushions, but at sea, the army can hardly exert any combat effectiveness, and it can't do it if it wants to let go.

But it was equally dangerous to stay in Shandong, the Chinese army in the direction of Tianjin had already moved south and launched an attack in the direction of Dezhou, and at the same time, the Chinese army in the direction of Xuzhou also divided its troops to the north and launched an attack in the direction of Taierzhuang and Zaozhuang. In addition, the local anti-Japanese armed forces in Shandong also became active, carrying out attacks and sabotage everywhere, and the law and order in the 12th Army's defense area suddenly deteriorated.

If the momentum continues, it will take up to one month. The Chinese army will be able to reach Jinan, and it is completely predictable that the 12th Army will be completely annihilated.

The 12th Army withdrew to Shanghai, and the North China Front Headquarters presided over the retreat while ensuring the defense of eastern Hebei and Rehe. The Twelfth Army still had Qingdao and Yingkou to retreat to, and if Jidong and Rehe were lost, the North China Front would not even have a way back to retreat.

The Japanese army moved quickly, and in just one week, the large army withdrew to Qingdao, leaving only a part of the puppet army to continue to pretend in various places. Apparently these puppet armies have been abandoned.

The matter of the retreat to the south is very secret. Even the officers at the wing level of the 12th Army were not notified, and only the senior officers above the brigade commander knew the true purpose of Lu Dao's trip to Qingdao.

Chen Feng's subordinates also did not know that the Japanese army was trying to escape, and since 1937, the Japanese army rarely fled on the frontal battlefield. Surrenders are also rare. Therefore, the Chinese commanders at the front did not expect the Japanese army to flee at all. Therefore, the Twelfth Army took advantage of this loophole.

On July 2, when Zhang Jingjun and others captured Tai'an, they found that most of Shandong was now empty. Including Linyi, Tai'an, and Jining, only a small part of the puppet army is maintaining local law and order, and the Japanese army is not a single one.

Zhang Jingjun understood as soon as he heard it, these puppet soldiers have been regarded as outcasts, and the puppet army didn't know where the Japanese had arrived at all, through analysis and multi-directional reconnaissance, Zhang Jingjun finally knew that he had fallen into the evil deeds of the Japanese, and the little Japanese devils had all gathered in Qingdao, and they boarded the ship and retreated two days ago.

Zhang Jingjun was furious and ordered the troops to immediately divide into more than a dozen routes and pounce on all parts of Shandong in regiments. Sure enough, like Tai'an, there are only puppet armies and no Japanese troops. Zhang Jingjun's department took the entire Shandong in just 4 days, but failed to destroy the Japanese 12th Army.

Although the 12th Army of the Japanese Army was not completely annihilated, the recovery of the whole of Shandong was still a major event, and when the government announced this matter, it quickly aroused great repercussions at home and abroad, and both the United States, Britain, the Soviet Union, France and the Netherlands and other countries unanimously believed that the Chinese battlefield was the first battlefield for the entire anti-fascist war crime in the world to enter the counteroffensive.

The people in China are also very satisfied with the current government, education and health care reform is in full swing, and the people have received tangible benefits. Now the army is so powerful, the great victories are one after another, Heilongjiang in the four eastern provinces has been recovered, and in just over a month, the government army has recovered two provinces one after another, and this is in the eyes of the common people that victory is just around the corner.

At the same time that the army launched an attack on the Japanese forces in Northeast China and North China, Chen Feng believed that it was necessary to strike the last blow at the Japanese navy and annihilate the remnants of the Japanese navy in one fell swoop.

In Chen Feng's words, the Japanese army is a war machine, and their navy is responsible for delivering nourishment to this war machine.

After receiving Chen Feng's telegram, Chen Shaokuan and others quickly formulated an operational plan for the Japanese Navy's Third Fleet, and decided to send troops to the Japanese naval base at Wusongkou to seek an opportunity to annihilate Japan's maritime forces in China.

On July 15, under Chen Feng's order, the Northern Cluster established the Harbin Arsenal on the basis of the former Japanese Army North Manchurian Arsenal in Harbin, which mainly produced Danyao and tanks, and at the same time, a large number of oil refining workers entered the Daqing area.

Changchun, the Japanese puppet called Xinjing, is the capital of the puppet Manchukuo, now the whole Xinjing from top to bottom, from the inside to the outside is a panic, after half a month of fighting, although the Japanese puppet army occupies an absolute geographical advantage, but still heavy casualties, both sides enter the Xinjing battlefield every day The troops are tens of thousands, in addition to hundreds of thousands of reserve troops ready to participate in the war at any time, Xinjing is like a large meat grinder, devouring life every day.

Achieving a war of attrition on the battlefield of Xinjing is not the result that Umezu Mijiro wants, and at the same time, it does not lose the result that Chen Feng wants, but Umezu Mijiro and Chen Feng have no choice, at this time, no one can stop, and they can only keep increasing troops to Xinjing.

Although Chen Feng's troops have strong combat strength, after all, the Japanese army is on the defensive side, and it has been operating in China for a long time, so it is obviously impossible for Chen Feng's troops to drive all these invaders out of China in a short period of time, and a war of attrition is inevitable.

The army's defeat on the battlefield in China made the Japanese army base camp very anxious. Although they launched the Pacific War because of resource problems, the ultimate goal of the Japanese side was to occupy Chinese mainland. At present, in the Pacific theater, other countries have achieved great results, but the Chinese battlefield has gone wrong, and the cart is completely turned upside down.

The Japanese side urgently held a meeting to discuss the matter, hoping to find a solution to the matter. The meeting was attended by high-level officials, including the Emperor of Japan, members of the Imperial Family, and the Prime Minister, the Prime Minister, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Prime Minister of Land, and the Minister of the Sea.

After urgent consultations, the Japanese side believed that the most effective way to resolve the current crisis was to destroy the Chinese government, or to dismantle the Sino-Soviet, Sino-American, and Sino-British alliances. Therefore, on the one hand, the Japanese side must increase its support for the Wang Chingwei regime and absorb and win over those who are dissatisfied with Chen Feng, and at the same time, it must also negotiate with the United States, the Soviet Union, Britain, and other countries, even if it is to withdraw troops from Southeast Asia.

However, to the frustration of the Japanese government, no matter how much they tried to lure them, the United States, the Soviet Union, and Britain remained unmoved. Although the conditions offered by the Japanese side were attractive enough, the United States, the Soviet Union, and Britain were well aware of the importance of Chen Feng's troops to the anti-fascist war in the entire world.

On the one hand, Chen Feng's department holds 80% of the patents for the production of necessary drugs for war in the world, and secondly, Chen Feng's department has a large number of elite troops and advanced weapons and equipment, and after solving the domestic war in China, this part of the troops is likely to be invested in the attack on the Japanese army in Southeast Asia or the German army in Europe, which is a great help to the United States, Britain, the Soviet Union and other countries.

The second is that China's top leadership, led by Chen Feng, is carrying out large-scale industrial construction, which covers all light and heavy industrial sectors. In the past few months alone, the Chinese government has placed orders with the United States and the Soviet Union as high as more than one billion US dollars, and every day there will be new large orders between China and the United States, China and the Soviet Union, which has greatly alleviated the dilemma of the US and Soviet governments' tight finances.

For the U.S. and Soviet governments, cooperation with China is mutually beneficial and win-win, and cooperation with the Japanese is to seek skin with the tiger.

After the failure of the division and co-optation, the Japanese government fell into a dilemma, and now the Chinese battlefield and the Southeast Asian battlefield can only choose one of them, either withdraw troops from the Chinese battlefield to stick to the Southeast Asian battlefield, or withdraw troops from the Southeast Asian battlefield to stick to the Chinese battlefield.

By withdrawing its troops from the Southeast Asian theater, Japan will lose its overseas resource base and the ability to continue fighting. If the Japanese top brass were reluctant to withdraw troops from the Chinese battlefield, after all, the price paid by most of China in Bactria was heavy, and the economy dragged down by the war alone set Japan back by more than 10 years. Now such a gray withdrawal of troops, not only the top management is unwilling, but I am afraid that the vast majority of the army is also unwilling!

On August 1, 1942, Emperor Hirohito, the base camp of the Japanese army, decided to authorize the Chinese Dispatch Army Command to launch a large-scale attack on Chongqing, the seat of the Chinese government, hoping that this campaign could destroy the Chinese government in one fell swoop. (To be continued......)