Chapter 434 gathers in Songhu

On the first day of July 7, when the Japanese army in North China was defeated, Emperor Hirohito had already heard the name of this person, but he didn't care, and now, the navy suffered heavy losses, and it was also this person, who is this Tang Qiuli? Why is there so much energy? It is a pity that the information provided by the intelligence headquarters of the base camp, except for his public position, the detailed information about this person is only a few words, dry and lackluster.

Emperor Hirohito became angry again, and scolded the head of the intelligence headquarters who was present at the meeting, and instructed him to do his best to get a piece of information about this devil Tang Qiuli, otherwise, you should go to Xiǎo Island in the Pacific Ocean, where rabbits don't, and be a garrison commander

After Emperor Hirohito sent out the evil fire, the head of the intelligence headquarters who was scared and sweaty, ran out like a smoke, carried out the imperial decree of His Majesty the Emperor, and the meeting returned to the main topic, the army generals were not happy in their hearts, they didn't want to take advantage of the fire for the navy, the situation in the direction of Shanghai was erosive, and the navy poked the leak, or they went to wipe their butts themselves, why bother to pull the army?

In North China, in the face of the combat effectiveness and firepower equipment of Tang Qiuli's subordinate troops, they could not take advantage of anything if they did not maintain absolute superiority in troops, and at present, one or two divisions of the North China Dispatch Army did not dare to act alone, for fear that they would be left behind, and Tang Qiuli would seize the opportunity and swallow it in one gulp.

The army also hopes that the mainland will increase its troops in North China so as to realize the planned three-way assault, so where will there be any surplus troops to be sent to Shanghai? In addition, the army was already dissatisfied with the navy's rash move in Shanghai, and this changed the army's basic strategy of first fixing on North China and then attacking south, so they accused the navy of ignoring the overall strategic layout and sabotaging the basic guidelines for operations against China formulated before the war.

In other words, he accused the navy of taking risks for merit, and asked Shigemitsu Kiichi and Murakami Kenshu to explain the fiasco of the navy's Wusongkou, Emperor Hirohito was not happy, and he said coldly: "So, on the army side, who can give me a reasonable explanation for the defeat in North China, the loss of Tianjin, the shattering of all the Itagaki Division, the death of two lieutenant generals, and the loss of more than 300,000 soldiers?" ”

As soon as Hirohito's words came out, the audience was silent, both land and sea were not clean, you have North China lost troops, I have Wu Songkou fiasco, there is shit behind the buttocks, the old eagle fell on the pig, no one can say who is black and the meaning of His Majesty the Emperor, it seems to be a bit of that, the generals of the army are not very comfortable.

The meeting finally decided to organize a dispatch army to Shanghai in China, with Army General Matsui Ishine under its command, with the 3rd, 4th, 9th, and 11th Divisions, the 5th Tank Wing, and the 6th and 7th Field Artillery Brigades under its command, totaling a huge strength of more than 188,000 troops, to set out for the Shanghai Theater on the same day, and the combat mission was: "Coordinate with the navy to destroy the enemy near Shanghai, occupy an important area in Shanghai and its northern area, conquer Nanjing, the capital of China, and sweep away the enemy who dares to resist along the Yangtze River valley." ”

Matsui Shigen, that is, the chief culprit of the Nanjing Massacre, more than 300,000 unjust souls, that is, died in the hands of this person and his subordinates, and the Japanese official, still denying this tragedy, really made Xiǎo Jin indignant, this guy encountered Tang Qiuli this time, and it was also his fate, and it was difficult to achieve a murderous name.

On 15 August, Emperor Hirohito instructed the Japanese Marines stationed in Shanghai to issue a statement declaring that "in order to punish the violence of the squadron, protect the personal and property safety of the Japanese nationals in Shanghai, safeguard the common interests of all countries in China, and induce the Nanjing government to awaken and stop attacking for the purpose of maintaining public order, the Japanese Marine Corps stationed in Shanghai has no choice but to take drastic measures today."

Tang Qiuli saw this public statement of the Japanese government in Baoding, and he was so angry that he sneered again and again, there are shameless people, I have never seen such shameless people like the Japanese, and talking to these people is all làng fee, for such a despicable and shameless nation, only by beating them hard, they will know that things are not done by them, and words are not left to them to talk nonsense.

On the afternoon of 15 August, Matsui Ishine led nearly 190,000 Japanese troops from the port of Nagasaki on the Japanese mainland and sailed for Shanghai, China, by a large number of transport ships.

Under the leadership of General Zhang Zizhong, the commander-in-chief, the 48,000-strong Sulu Garrison Corps, which was originally organized by the 29th Army, arrived in Zaozhuang and Linyi in Shandong and Xuzhou in Jiangsu on the same day, taking over the defense of Tang Qiusheng's troops and launching in northern Jiangsu and southern Lu.

In view of the inevitability of the battle of Shanghai and the tendency of expansion, Chairman Chiang convened a meeting of the Military Committee in Nanjing to adjust the battle sequence of Shanghai, and to form the Ninth Group Army with the troops under the former Shanghai Garrison Command, with a total of three divisions and one brigade, as well as the Shanghai Police Corps, and other troops, with General Zhang Zhizhong, the former commander of the Shanghai garrison, as the commander, to undertake the task of counterattacking the enemy in the Yangshupu area.

The troops in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and other border areas were reorganized into the Eighth Group Army, with a total of four divisions and security forces from Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces, guarding the north shore of Hangzhou Bay and sweeping the enemy in Pudong to prevent the Japanese army from landing there, with Zhang Fakui as the commander.

The Sulu Mobile Corps of the former North China Independent Division has eight infantry brigades, one rapid reaction brigade, three artillery brigades, and one

An air defense brigade, with a total strength of more than 144,000 troops, formed the Tenth Group Army, with the former commander-in-chief Tang Qiusheng as the commander, to take charge of the defense of the Shanghai area, to counterattack the remnants of the Japanese army in Hongkou, the coastal defense off the coast of Wusongkou, and to resist the attack of the Japanese fleet.

The Japanese base camp and the Nanjing State Government have urgently increased their troops on the Shanghai battlefield, and the war in Shanghai is about to be rekindled, and this time, the flames of war will never be extinguished, and the military forces invested by both sides are all put in accordance with the respective goals they want to achieve, and in a certain sense, this is a strategic decisive battle.

The troops that the Japanese army put into the Shanghai Theater were four first-class divisions, and they were in full swing, and all the soldiers had the intention of being loyal to His Majesty the Emperor, and there was a sense of letting the Navy see how the Army was fighting, and with the original Marine Corps strength, the Japanese troops who were about to gather in the Shanghai Theater had reached 220,000.

On the Chinese side, the 10th Group Army, formed by the Sulu Mobile Corps of the Independent Division, was the backbone of its defense, undertaking more than half of the combat missions, followed by the 88th and 89th Divisions of the Central Army under General Zhang Zhizhong's Ninth Group Army, the 36th Division of Song Xilian, and the Shanghai Police Corps, with a strength of nearly 50,000 troops.

Although the strength of the troops reached more than 100,000, the combat effectiveness was the weakest of the three group armies, and the equipment was poor, and the soldiers were mostly ruffians and big smokers, and then they were peasants with poor soldiers, and the personnel of the troops were also strictly lacking, although it was the establishment of a regiment, the actual strength of the troops, but only four or five hundred people, and the scourge of the common people was a good hand, and when they heard the sound of gunfire, they did not run away and lose their shoes, which was considered a good soldier.

Therefore, the squadron in the Shanghai Theater, although there are more than 300,000 troops, can really fight, but nearly 200,000 people, the overall strength, is still weaker than the Japanese army, Tang Qiuli read the military committee sent to him, about the battle plan for the Songhu Campaign, quite worried, he looked at the map for a long time, Zhang Fakui's Eighth Army, responsible for the garrison of Hangzhou Bay, where there are many places where the landing can be carried out.

Chairman Jiang gave such an important place, jiāo to a group of rabble to guard, looking at it made Tang Qiuli tremble, however, he also knew that this was all the troops that the old man could mobilize at present, and the rest of the follow-up troops were on the way to Shanghai, but it would take time, and they would definitely not be able to catch up with the front of the Japanese, in history, the Japanese army landed in Hangzhou Bay, copied the back road of the Shanghai defenders, and as a result, the Battle of Shanghai was lost, Shanghai and Nanjing were lost, and the national government was forced to move the capital.

Therefore, he sent a secret telegram to Brother Qiusheng, saying that the troops should quickly solve the enemy in the Hongkou area of downtown Shanghai, and then, with a part of the troops, coordinate the troops of General Zhang Zhizhong's Ninth Group Army, besiege the enemy in Yangshupu, and transfer most of them to the Quangongting and Jinshanzui lines in Hangzhou Bay, and form a second line of defense behind Zhang Fakui's Eighth Group Army.

It is best to assume the responsibility of the second-line garrison force of Hangzhou Bay with five infantry brigades, two artillery brigades, and the rest of the air defense brigades, and if necessary, to directly take over the coastal defense of the Ninth Group Army.

Tang Qiuli believes that Brother Qiusheng can understand his anxiety, and can only complete the task of Jiāo Dynasty better, and the difficult thing to do is Chairman Jiang and Zhang Fakui, he is changing the overall deployment of the Military Committee on the Songhu Campaign, can the old man agree? There is also Zhang Fakui, his own troops, who took over the defense of Hangzhou Bay, obviously despising him Zhang Fakui's command ability, he is also a veteran general in the army, from the Northern Expedition to the present, he will definitely not be able to get over face.

Sure enough, the old man replied to the telegram that the plan for the battle of Songhu should not be changed, and that all departments should implement it according to the plan and adjust the deployment on the spot, which may cause our side to húnluàn, and General Zhang Fakui has enough confidence and ability to take on the responsibility of guarding Hangzhou Bay, and there is no need to worry about Qiuli.

Tang Qiuli was speechless for a while, Zhang Fakui was uncomfortable, that is reasonable, and you, Chairman Jiang, can't see the potential crisis in Hangzhou Bay? Look at the soldiers that the old man put there, where is the piece of tofu, they are all stronger than them, and regardless of him, he lost Shanghai, followed by Nanjing and Wuhan, and he is still fighting in North China, and he is lucky to be home if he is not attacked by the Japanese on both sides.

In his telegram to Tang Qiusheng, he reiterated the order, and the careful Qiusheng saw the strangeness from the telegram, the Songhu Battle Combat Conference, he also participated, xiǎo Qiu This is to change the overall deployment, Nanjing disagreed, but Xiǎo Qiu saw the danger, so Qiusheng made this matter extremely concealed to minimize trouble.

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