At present, even if Xuzhou does not count the wounded soldiers, there are more than 300,000 devils, how can it not even have the strength to deal with more than 100,000 people in the 15th Army? But that's not how the account is calculated, although Xuzhou is not completely besieged now, it can also be said to be embattled, there are two or three hundred thousand people of the Eighth Route Army in the west, although they are on the defensive, but who knows if they will suddenly kill over? After all, the abundant forces were there, and the great victory that ended only a few days ago made Hata Shunroku no longer dare to underestimate the combat effectiveness of the Eighth Route Army. In the north and east, there are the other two armies of the 15 th Group Army, in addition to the 15 th Army, the number one main force, which add up to 230,000 people; although the average quality may not be as good as that of the 15 th Army, the old army that Hu Weidong started, but with the new 38 th Division, the "first division in the world," the devil will never dare to be careless; not to mention that with a solid canal defense line as a backing, these two armies can be said to be able to attack and retreat, and even if the 15 th Army leaves, the 15 th Group Army still occupies a clear advantage on this front.

Due to the threat of a strong enemy on three sides, Xuzhou will not be able to rest assured if it does not leave 200,000 troops, and in this way, the troops that Shunroku Hata can send are only a hundred thousand, even if those lightly wounded are also involved in the defense, they can only send 200,000 people at most, so that they can go to the field battle with the 15th Army, which is not less than their own strength and whose combat effectiveness is obviously stronger, isn't that death?

But in any case, if the Jinpu line cannot be opened as soon as possible, the 500,000 Japanese troops in Xuzhou really have only one dead end, so Hata Shunroku is not not not sending troops south, but just waiting, waiting for Shanghai, Nanjing and Hangzhou to send a large army to flank the Chinese 15th Army, the number one enemy in the eyes of the Japanese. However, at this time, although Okamura Ninji had already reported his suspicion of the purple cipher machine to the Japanese army base camp headquarters, the devil had not confirmed this speculation for the time being, so he only used the purple cipher machine to generate a new set of ciphers, but the cipher experts of the Red Party worked hard all night and successfully deciphered it in less than two weeks, so it was as to when the devil would be dispatched, how the troops and the configuration were. Hu Weidong is now well informed, "200,000 in the north and south (200,000 in the north and south) (The Japanese army in Shanghai, Nanjing and Hangzhou recently received 200,000 reinforcements from the mainland, increasing its total strength to about 400,000. But what they don't know is that this is also a batch of reinforcements obtained by the Central China Dispatch Army), 400,000 people against our army, and they really look up to me."

In fact. Although the Japanese army dispatched a total of 400,000 troops, because it was divided into two forces, the 15th Army only needed to break through each of them. It is not necessarily that there is no chance of victory, and it must be known that after countless battles in the past few years, although Hu Weidong's ability to command a large corps of troops is still relatively weak, the scale of 100,000 people has been completely able to cope with it, which undoubtedly makes him more confident.

But the devils were probably frightened by the movement warfare of the Red Party army, even if the 15th Army was much less superior in air because of its deep relationship behind enemy lines. In terms of air supremacy, and the Japanese ground forces had almost three times the superiority in strength (Note 1), Toshiroku Hata still chose to take the battalion step by step with great stability, and it was obvious that he would rather give up the opportunity to annihilate the 15th Army than show his flaws. was brushed by Hu Weidong again with the brilliant record of "winning more with less".

Judging from the fact that Shunroku Hata did his best to squeeze out 200,000 troops, he was actually very eager to wipe out the 15th Army and Hu Weidong himself, which was hated by the whole country of Japan, in one fell swoop, but even so, he still controlled his emotions and let the troops participating in the war fight steadily, and he deserved to be the only commander in the Japanese Army (Note 2).

In a sense, Shunroku Hata may have been the first of the high-ranking Japanese generals to realize that it was impossible to achieve a final victory in the war of aggression against China (after the Battle of Xuzhou in history, he realized that Japan had been dragged into the quagmire of a protracted war, and there was no hope of victory, and this time and space would only be earlier). Therefore, rather than destroying the Chinese army, Shunroku Hata hoped to reduce the losses of the Japanese army, so as to have as many bargaining chips as possible in the event of defeat and peace, and also to preserve a little more vitality for the post-war reconstruction of Japan

In this way, if the 15th Army just wants to retreat in its entirety, it will become very simple, but Hu Weidong will pull out his most trusted old troops and go deep behind the enemy, not just to harass the logistics supply of the Japanese army in Xuzhou, "It is not easy to mobilize the enemy, it is a pity not to seize the opportunity to destroy the enemy in the field, 400,000 people is indeed a little more, but this time I brought not only the 15th Army!" ”

Note 1: In fact, it is not so big, counting the two hidden troops, the strength of the Japanese army is only about 2.5 times, if you also count the militia guerrillas in the Huaibei base area, the Japanese army's strength advantage is even smaller, but the devil is not clear about this at this time due to the passivity of intelligence.

Note 2: During World War II, there were many tactical talents in the Japanese Army, but there were only three who were more strategically powerful, one was Ishihara Waner, one was Shunroku Hatahata, and the other was Okamura Ningji, of which Ishihara Waner was a staff officer, and rarely led troops to fight, although the strategic ability can be called Japan's first, but it cannot be called a handsome talent, and as for the latter two, most of China's first-class generals such as Mr. Peng in history think that Okamura Ningji is more powerful, but in fact, Okamura Ningji just knows too much about China. Therefore, many of the measures taken are very targeted, but if you analyze them carefully, you will find that many of his strategic plans are actually only considering the game between China and Japan in isolation, completely ignoring the influence of the United States and the Soviet Union and other powers. And the advantages of Hata Shunroku's strong principle and never swaying left and right because of the immediate interests are unique in the Japanese Army, so I personally think that if you analyze it comprehensively, Hata Shunroku is still stronger than Okamura Ningji as a commander (but it will be possible Okamura Ningji is stronger, in history, Hata Shunliu has been engaged in staff work for a long time, and because of his deep qualifications and background, he is a general in the field just with a soldier), but the two have one thing in common, that is, they have not been put in the most suitable position for them, In fact, in history, devils like this kind of improper employment abound, capable talents are always put in unsuitable positions, or put in the right position just after doing some results and then transferred to a position that is not so suitable (relative to the previous position) (to be continued). )