Chapter 946: The Sound of Artillery on the Leizhou Peninsula

Tang Qiuli deployed Feng Jiwu's corps in Fujian, which brought great trouble and interference to Japan's upcoming battle plan in southern China and Southeast Asia, and the pressure on Japan's dispatch of troops to southern China with more than 200,000 troops in the main force of the independent division was enormous, and the plan of jointly attacking from Taiwan Island and Hainan Island was facing an abrupt death.

At the meeting of senior officers of the Southern Dispatch Army, the remarks of Lieutenant General Yamashita Fumi, commander of the 15th Army, were arrogant, not only despising the squadron, but also his colleagues, and even having to undertake the landing operation along the coast of Fujian alone.

Terauchi Shouichi was not afraid that Yamashita Fengwen would not be able to complete the task, but out of the need to balance the psychology of the generals, he felt that Yamashita Fengwen's words were a little hurtful to the public, which was not conducive to the cooperation of the various departments, these two people, neither of them had the experience of commanding troops to fight with independent divisions, in other words, they had never suffered losses, they had never tasted hardships, and more than 200,000 squadrons were not a matter at all in their eyes.

Lieutenant General Honma Masaharu, commander of the Third Army, and Lieutenant General Kenji Iijima, commander of the Fourth Army, who were despised by Yamashita Fumi, looked at Yamashita Fumi's madness, although he was very annoyed in his heart, but looked at Yamashita Fumimi with pitiful eyes.

Especially Lieutenant General Honma Masaharu, since the beginning of the 77 Incident, first fought with the 29th Army, and then fought with the troops of the Independent Division, and did not take advantage of that time, hundreds of thousands of imperial troops in North China, how did they not have it, Honma Masaharu knew very well, and changed his eyes with Kenji Iijima, and looked at Yamashita Fengwen's gaze, just like an old man who had experienced vicissitudes, looking at an angry young man who was generous and pitiful.

Probably Yamashita Fengwen, also from the eyes of Honma Masaharu and Iijima Kenji, read a lot of content, the boss was uncomfortable, in exchange for extremely contemptuous eyes, the eyes of several important generals, made Terauchi Shouichi muttered in his heart, Honma Masaharu and Iijima Kenji, are both senior generals in the Japanese Army, their attitude, very weighty, in the end, Terauchi Shouichi, who could not make a decision, reported the situation of the meeting of the Southern Dispatch Army Headquarters to the base camp, focusing on the differences of the senior generals.

After Emperor Hirohito received the report, he broke out in a cold sweat, and secretly called luck in his heart, fortunately Terauchi Shouichi is an old and serious commander, otherwise, it has to be bad, the current situation is that Hirohito 10,000 does not want to provoke Tang Qiuli, and he saw the mystery from Tang Qiuli's deployment of troops in the south of China.

Tang Qiuli should have interpreted the friendly signal he sent, his troop deployment was to protect the security of the flanks in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Songhu, and in the area of Beibu Gulf and Leizhou Peninsula, Tang Qiuli did not want to fight at all, in other words, for the troops of the Imperial Japanese Army, attacking Sichuan, and occupying the Chongqing Nationalist Government, he adopted a strategy of not participating.

Perhaps, with Tang Qiuli's current strength in the south of China, there is no certainty of defeating the imperial army, no matter what point, it will be of great benefit to the empire's upcoming southern campaign, as long as this devil in China stands by, whether it is Chiang Kai-shek's Central Army or the local forces in China, they are not the opponents of the imperial army, and Hirohito does not want to provoke Tang Qiuli this difficult opponent at all.

Therefore, Emperor Hirohito's order to the Southern Dispatch Army Headquarters was to immediately revise and adjust the southern battle plan, abandon the occupation of the coastal areas of Fujian, and take the Beibu Gulf and the Leizhou Peninsula as the target of attack, focusing on capturing Chongqing, eliminating the government of China, and completing the occupation of the southern part of China.

After receiving the order from the base camp, the belligerent Yamashita Fengwen was so depressed that he couldn't understand what the base camp was worried about, or what was it afraid of? Could it be that the more than 200,000 soldiers in Fujian made those high-ranking officials in the base camp tremble with fear? The 15th Army, as the first unit to attack, took the lead in landing on the Leizhou Peninsula and opened the prelude to the southern campaign of Imperial China.

A few days later, Japan's southern dispatch army, with the third, fourth, seventh, eleventh, and fifteenth armies, totaling more than 400,000 troops, respectively targeted Dongxing, Fangchenggang, and Beihai in the Beibu Gulf and Hai'an, Xuwen, Maichen, and Xiayang in the Leizhou Peninsula, thus beginning the prelude to the Japanese army's southern campaign.

On 24 April, Tang Qiuli in Quanzhou, Fujian Province, received the news that the Japanese army had begun an all-out attack, and more than 400,000 Japanese troops landed on the Beibu Gulf and the Leizhou Peninsula respectively, and on the day of the landing, they occupied all the targets.

What he was most worried about was the safety of the 19th and 36th armies of the Gui Army, which were rushing to the Beibu Gulf area, according to time calculations, at most half a day, the vanguard of the two armies would encounter the troops of the Japanese Seventh Army, if they were entangled and could not be withdrawn, the follow-up hundreds of thousands of Japanese troops would surround the Gui army, Tang Qiuli immediately sent a telegram to Bai Chongxi, informing him of the current enemy situation, and asked him to order the two armies of the Gui Army to immediately stop advancing and withdraw to the northeast of Gui to preserve their strength. Avoid fighting superior Japanese forces.

Bai Chongxi quickly replied to the telegram, in addition to thanking Vice Chairman Tang for his report on the enemy situation, he tactfully refused to withdraw the main force of the Gui army to the northeast of Gui, and the content of the telegram made Tang Qiu anxious, "Vice Chairman Tang Xun Jian, the soldiers of the Guangxi army, are all the children of Bagui, and they have the responsibility to defend the territory, besides, Nanning is the location of the capital of Guangxi, and it is absolutely impossible to lose it. ”

After reading the telegram, Tang Qiuli scolded angrily, "Stupid, stupid, as soon as you come up, you are in a desperate posture, is there such a war?" After scolding, he sent a telegram back to Bai Chongxi, "Degong and Bai supervised, the courage of the two dukes is commendable, and the combat effectiveness of the Gui army can also fight against the Japanese army, however, Tang thinks that the defense of Nanning, in the current situation, is absolutely not feasible, the Japanese offensive is flourishing, and the strength far exceeds the Gui army, this is the enemy's strength and weakness, it is better to temporarily avoid the Japanese army, it is better to preserve the strength, and after the Japanese army goes deep into Guangxi, the troops are scattered, and they can find opportunities to annihilate their way, and they are eager to carry it out. ”

The telegram was sent, but Tang Qiuli had no bottom in his heart, with the temper of Li Zongren and Bai Chongxi, the existing strength of the Gui army, it was difficult for them to abandon Nanning without firing a shot, and a hard encounter with more than 200,000 Japanese troops must be the result of heavy casualties of the Gui army, Nanning has an open terrain, except for a Hujiang River, which can be used as a natural barrier, there is no favorable terrain that can be defended according to danger, and the Gui army will not take any advantage except for the shells of the Japanese army every day.

Li Zongren and Bai Chongxi's courage is commendable, the soldiers of the Gui army can also fight very well, but they can't change the situation, in addition to a lot of casualties, Nanning still can't be saved, Nanning, will become a place where the Gui army is greatly injured, Tang Qiuli is a pity for these Guangxi soldiers, he still has a glimmer of hope, as long as Bai Chongxi will telegraph, the matter can be reversed, however, after waiting for a day, in addition to the intelligence of the Japanese army's continuous advancement, neither Li Zongren nor Bai Chongxi have a word.

Tang Qiuli let out a long sigh, Li Bai and the two people's determination to defend Nanning was unshakable, and he could not change it, so he could only take remedial measures, he telegraphed Chang Feng, chief of staff of the division directly under the division stationed in Changsha, Hunan, to immediately lead most of the corps directly under the independent division to immediately go south to the northeast of Guizhou, occupy Liuzhou, and erect many pontoon bridges on the Hongshui River and the Qianjiang River south of Liuzhou, preparing to meet the defeated Gui army troops.

As soon as the war began, the troops of the independent division intervened in the battlefield, which was a phenomenon that Tang Qiuli did not want to see, and the Gui army and the original garrison of the Yue army in the area of the Leizhou Peninsula and the Beibu Gulf, in the face of the Japanese army's watery offensive, resisted for less than a few hours, and drowned in the torrent of the Japanese army.

The sound of guns and cannons on the Leizhou Peninsula and the Beibu Gulf completely shattered the illusions of Chairman Jiang and the local princes of Yunnan, Guichuan and Sichuan, and Vice Chairman Tang had already warned everyone that the wolf was coming, but they didn't believe it, this time, the wolf was really coming, especially Chairman Jiang, who never dreamed that the Japanese would aim the spearhead at themselves, and from the direction of the Japanese attack, it was intended to take Chongqing directly, and between Guangxi and Chongqing, there was only one Guizhou.

The people in the government were panicked, and Chairman Jiang was so angry that he scolded his mother again, he didn't understand, why did the Japanese want to find their own bad luck if they let Tang Qiuli's troops not fight? I can't hide, I really think that I'm a soft persimmon to pinch? This time, Tang Qiuli's immovable Central Army troops took action at an unprecedented speed and urgently went to the southeastern part of Guizhou to deploy defenses, spreading along the lines of Puding, Anshun, Guiyang, Majiang, and Kaili, with their backs to the Wujiang River, and setting up a long snake formation, striving to block the Japanese army in southern Guizhou and ensure the safety of Chongqing, the capital of Guizhou.

Long Yun, chairman of the Yunnan Provincial Government, also panicked, and within one day, sent three telegrams to Tang Qiu, asking for countermeasures, Guangxi and Yunnan are next to each other, the Japanese will not let go of Yunnan, and it is a matter of time before the soldiers press the border.

Therefore, Long Yun very sincerely requested that he send independent division troops into Yunnan to jointly resist the Japanese attack, but Tang Qiuli judged that there was no danger in Yunnan for the time being, and in his telegram to Long Yun, he instructed the Yunnan provincial government to immediately mobilize troops to enter the southeast of Yunnan, establish a deep defense line, and wait for the order to send troops to Guangxi.