Chapter 1210 All or Nothing

Ito was painfully entangled, out of the defense line of the Grand Canyon of Libao, and had a decisive battle with the main force of the Independent Division, he had no chance of winning at all, why did Tang Qiuli give up the existing position in Mogu, not to put his main force

, attracting Libao far away from the favorable terrain, for his superior air power, creating an opportunity to kill a large number of living forces of the imperial army.

Mogok is a trap, this is undoubted, but it is so passively beaten, and when the independent division troops that attack from the flank come to the city of Mandalay, their own retreat is completely cut off, and the dispatch army is facing a catastrophe, and the only proper way is to retreat to the front line of Yangon, use the sea supply, maintain the combat effectiveness of the troops, and wait for the opportunity to attack north.

Retreat to Yangon? This is more difficult than his own yang and yin, to carry out the base camp Burma battle plan, the emperor will not allow the first one, Ito is so embarrassed that he almost hangs himself, his hands are stuck in his sparse hair, his elbows are propped up on the table, and he has been thinking for hours, there is no surest way to solve the current crisis.

At this time, the chief of staff, Lieutenant General Takemura Yamaichi, walked in, saw Ito's shape, the corners of his mouth twitched, and a smile that could not tell whether it was sarcasm or sympathy hung on his face, "Your Excellency Commander-in-Chief, good news, I just received a telegram from the base camp, the South Pacific Front is being formed on the mainland, and it is expected that it will be able to form an army at the beginning of next year. ”

Ito raised his head and startled Takemura, "How come it's only a few hours, this old guy with a rigid brain, just like he just crawled out of the pile of dead people, his face is ugly and scary, and his eyes are as red as rabbits?" Takemura thought to himself, but he still pretended to be concerned and asked, "Commander-in-chief, are you not feeling well?" Please rest and go, and the troops will be handed over to me. ”

An ugly and bitter smile appeared on Ito's face, "Bah! Pretend to be a gesture, the troops will be handed over to you, can you rest assured? Just you, a stupid and stupid guy like a pig, can't even catch Tang Qiuli's move," he scolded in his stomach, but there was a kind smile on his face, "Wumura-kun, thank you for your concern, it's just that in the current grim situation, how can I sleep!" Ito said with a bitter mouth.

Takemura deliberately asked in surprise, "Oh, Commander-in-Chief, is the situation serious?" Why don't I have such a feeling, although the plane of the Zhina people, although it bombed our imperial army troops for a day, it did not cause serious losses to the imperial army, in addition, according to the report of the troops who left Mogu before, Tang Qiuli's troops were still on the front line of Mengmi, does this mean that Tang Qiuli did not dare to get too close to the imperial army, and was afraid of being suddenly attacked by the imperial army troops of the Libao defense line? ”

Ito really wants to slap this idiot with glasses all over the ground with a big mouth and get hysterical? Talking nonsense at night, and Tang Qiuli is afraid of being attacked by the imperial army, is it okay to be sober, pig head, our imperial army is afraid of being attacked by Tang Qiuli's troops, Ito absolutely can't understand, how could Takemura, a lieutenant general, make such a low-level and ridiculous judgment?

He didn't bother to make a detailed analysis of this imbecile guy, but pointed out the root of the situation straightforwardly, Ito said word by word: "Takemura-kun, if the Imperial Army troops go out of the Libao Grand Canyon Defense Line and seek a decisive battle with Tang Qiuli's main force, then they just fall into the trap of this branch devil, and you have already seen the scale of today's air raid, do you think that our Imperial Army soldiers exposed to the field positions can avoid being bombed on the same scale as the independent division air force?" ”

"Also, even if we can preserve our strength under the bombardment of the independent division aviation, once the battlefield falls into a stalemate, the more than 200,000 troops of the two corps of the independent division coming from the east will stick a knife in our back, do you think we still have a chance to win in such a situation of being attacked by the enemy in the back? If Mandalay is occupied by the troops of the Independent Division, we will be encircled, have you considered all this as the chief of staff of the Dispatch Army? ”

The more Ito spoke, the more excited he became, and in the end, his tone turned sharp, with a tone of reproach, these words, held in Ito's stomach for several days, to Cheng Dù, who did not vomit unpleasantly, after speaking, there was a smooth feeling in his heart, Takemura's face was blue and white for a while when Ito was scolded, and he instinctively felt that Ito's words had some truth, but the reason was not sufficient, with far-fetched meaning, and he couldn't convince himself.

Takemura is a Japanese general who has never been on the battlefield, and most of his military career is long sleeved and good at dancing in the office, making paper articles, and he has never suffered a loss in Tang Qiuli's hands, so in his mind, he stubbornly retains the concept of the invincibility of the Imperial Japanese Army, the idea that the imperial soldiers are brave and good at fighting, and the top ten soldiers are on the top.

Ito's analysis made sense, but he always felt that something was wrong, and there was no way to refute it, and suddenly, a judgment came to mind, "Could it be that Ito, this old guy, wants to retreat without a fight?" He mentions Mandalay, which is the only place to go to Yangon, "I see, Ito is scared, timid, frightened by the apparent superiority of the Shina people.

Combined with the previous signs, Takemura was even more firm in his judgment, so Takemura put away his false smile and said coldly: "I need to remind the commander-in-chief that the Burma battle plan of the base camp must be launched on the tenth of this month, and today is the fifth," he said, he looked at his watch, and then said: "Oh, it's almost the sixth day, and there is not much time left for us, so you better think more about the orders of the base camp!" ”

Takemura had already made up his mind, if Ito still spoke in this tone, he would immediately send a telegram to the base camp, requesting that Ito be deprived of the command of Ito Yanzaburo, the Imperial Japanese Army, absolutely not allowing such cowards and cowards to exist, not to mention, the situation is not so bad that Ito said Cheng Dù, it is completely possible to defeat the Shina troops on the front line of Mengmi before the arrival of the independent division troops attacking the direction of Mandalay.

Ito was like a deflated ball, slumped back in his chair, Takemura's words hit his fate, full of excitement, turned into a cold sweat, Takemura was right, the order of the base camp cannot be changed, unless he disobeyed the order in front of the battle and retreated all the way south with the troops, otherwise, I am afraid that as soon as the order was issued, the black gauze hat on his head would be taken off without hesitation.

And the person who replaced him was undoubtedly the one in front of him, with a cold light in his eyes, in the end, the dispatch army faced the same fate, or even worse, his own fate was not much better, His Majesty the Emperor and the base camp would never allow a disobedient commander of the front army to save his life, and the only thing he could do was to try to avoid the imperial army troops from suffering greater losses.

Ito Huoran got up, the decadent color on his face was swept away, his eyes lit up, and he said in a low voice: "Chief of Staff Takemura, record the order, the troops assembled on the front line of Mandalay, from October 6, under the cover of night, secretly move in the direction of the Libao Grand Canyon, complete the deployment on the 8th, occupy Mogok on the 9th, and launch an attack on the main force of the independent division on the Mengmi front line at 4 o'clock in the morning on the 10th, the artillery units and aviation units under it are assembled simultaneously, and the staff completes the campaign deployment plan overnight. ”

Takemura was excited at that time, and said loudly: "Yes, resolutely carry out the orders of His Excellency the Commander-in-Chief!" Takemura's voice was so loud that the officers in the room could hear it clearly, watching Takemura leave proudly, Ito sneered, he would not hand over the deployment of the heavy battle that decided to send the army to life and death, to a stupid pig like Takemura to do, his intention was just to find something for him to do, so as not to get in the way and delay the business.

Ito directly gave orders to the divisions, worthy of an old soldier, when Takemura was still dizzy to formulate the deployment plan, Ito had already completed the transfer of troops, the Japanese army moved, this was a desperate operation, even if Mogoku was a trap, Ito had to jump into it.

On October 6, Le Yiqin's air raid was still going on, but the scale and intensity had dropped a lot compared with the 5th, no matter how unhappy Le Yiqin's heart was, but the order of the division commander Tang Qiuli could not be disobeyed, and the decline of the independent division's air force invisibly increased Ito's confidence.

At the same time, on the front line of the Salween River, the Japanese troops blocking the westward advance of Feng Jiwu's corps and Ma Chaoyang's corps were completely annihilated and defeated. ”

Forty minutes later, a tank regiment, covering two regiments of infantry, stepped through the almost ruins of the fortress, and after encountering weak resistance, in less than an hour and a half, it captured the important town of Legu, southwest of Mandalay.

Thirty minutes later, Ma Chaoyang called back, "Deputy division commander, our corps has captured Langmei and Meng Nai, and is now attacking Dongzhi, and it is expected that the battle will end in two hours," Feng Jiwu nodded, Ma Chaoyang's movements were not slow, after Dongzhi was taken, the two important nodes in the southwest of Mandalay were controlled in his own hands, and the southwest gate of Mandalay was opened, and as long as he wanted, he could cut off the retreat of the old devil Ito at any time.

On the 7th, the intensity and scale of the air raids of the Leyiqin Southern Flying Group decreased again, and by the evening of the 8th, it completely stopped, and the air attack on the Japanese troops under Ito's headquarters completed the predetermined campaign objectives and disrupted the Japanese army's attempt to assemble in the direction of Mandalay to meet the Feng Jiwu group on the eastern front of the independent division.

By the evening of 9 October, Ito took advantage of the fact that the air raid of the Leyiqin Air Force was not fierce to complete the campaign deployment for the Battle of Burma, and the Japanese troops assembled on the front line of the Libao Grand Canyon reached 17 divisions and more than 380,000 troops.

(To be continued)