The Japanese, who were also forced to abandon the purple cipher machine, were even more in a dilemma, because they had to reduce the combat effectiveness of their troops for the sake of intelligence security when they suffered setbacks in the war of aggression against China, and this loss was really a little bigger. Although the Japanese army, especially the Japanese Army, has declined in combat effectiveness to a lesser extent than the German army due to its relatively low degree of modernization, Japan does not have the same capital as Germany. But if you continue to use it, the cost of constantly leaking military information is undoubtedly greater, so the devil has to "choose the lesser of two evils", and in order to reduce the adverse effects of this aspect as much as possible, the devil has since paid more and more attention to the seemingly backward and inconvenient field wired telephone, just like the volunteers in the Korean War, for countries with backward science and technology, this kind of low jishu content but simple and reliable means of communication is actually more practical

Although the hidden danger was eliminated, the losses of the Japanese army were not small, and the situation of the War of Resistance against Japan accelerated in a direction unfavorable to the Japanese army. In order to salvage the defeat, Japan had to cater to the Western powers with an increasingly clear anti-Soviet stance in exchange for their support for themselves, but the Western powers were not fools, and they needed to see more than just statements, but also to take concrete actions, which became another important trigger for the conflict between Japan and the Soviet Union soon after

As early as when the news of the annihilation of more than 70,000 people came, Okamura Ningji had already realized that the strength of the Eighth Route Army was now only above his 11th Army, and it was not just a little stronger, so Okamura Ningji naturally did not dare to continue to attack westward, but led the main force of the 11th Army to quickly retreat to Kaifeng, which had just been occupied for a few days.

In a sense, Okamura Ninji sacrificed more than 20,000 people of an ad hoc division not only to confirm the password issue, but also to subconsciously resist the possible chaos of the Central China dispatch army. Because if Okamura Ninji had 180,000 men under his command, perhaps Shunroku Hatata, the commander of the Central China Dispatch Army, who did not understand or did not believe in the current strength of the Eighth Route Army, would force him to continue the attack, and if there were only 150,000 men left, the next battle in his mind would be more likely to be passed

Okamura Ninji gave up the original plan of attacking westward. But he also did not think that it was a good idea to withdraw to Xuzhou, and after the loss of three highly powerful divisions, the mechanization of the Japanese 11th Army fell to the same level as that of the Eighth Route Army. Even worse (Luoyang's newly produced cars and tractors in the last two months have been temporarily allocated to the Eighth Route Army, the total number is more than the average of most Japanese divisions with a maximum of 150 vehicles each. And because the enemy has air supremacy, the Japanese army can only move day and night. The speed of the march is limited; As for the Longhai Railway, it is simply impossible to transport such troops at one time and return them in batches. It will only lead to the troops that will go backward being eaten more easily by the Eighth Route Army, and this section of the railway is still constantly under enemy aircraft and special forces (the battlefield on the Western Front was originally a national control area, so there were no guerrillas, so special forces could only be temporarily sent over to do these jobs. ) of harassment and destruction. Therefore, if Okamura Ninji's 11th Army chooses to withdraw to Xuzhou, it will definitely be quickly overtaken by the Eighth Route Army, which can force a march day and night if necessary, and when the time comes, the 11th Army will be completely annihilated against the superior forces of the Eighth Route Army, which is good at mobile warfare.

Therefore, Okamura Ninji unexpectedly decided to stay in Kaifeng and hold on. Although Kaifeng is located in the plain and there is no danger to defend, there are fortifications left by the previous national army to use, and because the strength of the 11th Army has been sharply reduced to sixty percent of the time of departure, and most of the supplies are still stranded in Kaifeng City, which has just been captured, so the 11th Army is now very well supplied. On the contrary, if they retreat eastward, these materials can only be destroyed, so as not to cheapen the Eighth Route Army.

In addition, in order to hold out longer, Okamura Ninji also drove out more than 100,000 citizens in Kaifeng City to seize their living materials, which also interfered with the pursuit and siege of the Eighth Route Army, and bought valuable time for the Japanese army to improve the fortifications left by the national army and arrange defensive forces.

For Okamura Ningji's approach, some of the generals of the Eighth Route Army felt very strange, since the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, it is not once or twice that the devil uses civilians to make the Chinese army throw a rat trap, does this old devil still have some conscience? But Hu Weidong knew that Okamura Ningji, who single-handedly concocted the "three-light policy" in history, would definitely not be a good man and a woman, and in his opinion, there was no need for the devil to threaten the Eighth Route Army with civilians at all, and it must be known that the Yellow River, whose riverbed was higher than the ground, flowed not far from the north of Kaifeng City. Moreover, the slaughter of the city requires a lot of troops, which will also lead to chaos in the city, and will also greatly stimulate the fighting spirit of the Eighth Route Army

Although the Yellow River has now entered a dry period, even if the embankment bursts, it will not be as harmful as the Huayuankou embankment burst in history, but no one in the Eighth Route Army or even the leaders of the Red Party Central Committee dare to take this risk. Thanks to Hu Weidong's timely reminder, the Eighth Route Army realized this hidden danger in time, and they immediately dispatched an elite integrated division to rush to the north of Kaifeng overnight, taking advantage of the fact that the Japanese army had not yet taken into account the north to establish some defensive positions on the south bank of the Yellow River, effectively preventing the risk of the devils bursting the embankment. With the remaining weapons and equipment of the 11th Army, even the most powerful 150mm howitzer, it is difficult to cause some damage to the Yellow River embankment, and as for the heavy bombers of the Devils, the North China Air Corps does not eat for nothing, so as long as the Japanese army is not given the opportunity to carry out engineering blasting, the Yellow River embankment will be foolproof, at least until the Yellow River enters the flood period in the coming year.

However, Okamura Ninji did not send troops to attack the integrated division of the Eighth Route Army (Note 1), because at this time he did not think that he would definitely lose the Central Plains War, so he was not in a hurry to break the net with the enemy.

Note 1: In fact, even if the attack cannot be defeated, under the premise that the quality of the soldiers and weapons and equipment of both sides are equal, even if there is a 5:1 superiority in troops, it is by no means an easy task to eat the enemy forces that have air supremacy and defend with all their might. (To be continued.) )