Chapter 1124 Ito Yanichiro is here

On June 27, Myitkyina, the headquarters of the Burma campaign of the Independent Division, as soon as Alexander left with the remnants of the defeated general, Tang Qiuli immediately organized various troops and actively prepared to meet the Japanese army that continued to invade the north.

According to Tang Qiuli's real assumptions, he was not very willing to fight this battle, for no other reason, with independent divisions concentrated in the troops around Myitkyina, head-on against Ito Yanzaburo's main force of the Southeast Asian Dispatch Army, the strength was slightly weaker, and it did not conform to the concentrated superior forces that he had always followed.

It seems that Ito is holding on to the aftermath of victory, not giving Tang Qiuli the opportunity to calmly transfer troops, now, the forces he can use immediately are the eight brigades of the directly subordinate corps, the eleven brigades of Tang Qiusheng's corps, of which, there can only be six brigades for the frontal battlefield of Myitkyina, and the chief of staff of the corps, Yu Guanghan, with five brigades of troops, is active between Libao and Kunqiang, which is Tang Qiuli's ambush and cannot move.

In the eastern part of the Indochina Peninsula, Ma Chaoyang's Corps and Feng Jiwu's Corps were still on their way to northern Burma, and Tang Qiuli had displayed the strength of more than 30 brigades and more than 400,000 troops in the entire Indochina Peninsula, which was equivalent to the strength of Japan's Southeast Asian Dispatch Army, which had been repeatedly consumed.

But Ito's mind is definitely not simple, he can see Tang Qiuli's intentions, most of the troops of the independent division, in the eastern part of the Indochina Peninsula, far away from northern Burma, even if they march day and night, with the traffic conditions of the Indochina Peninsula, it will not be possible to rush to the battlefield in northern Burma in less than two weeks, so that the troops of the independent division faced by the dispatched army will not exceed 200,000.

His own strength is more than double that of the other side, of course Ito has the guts, after killing the British, raise troops to take northern Burma directly, Ito Yanzaburo, who has not fought with Tang Qiu, although he will never despise the combat effectiveness of the independent division in his heart, but with more than double the strength advantage of the other side, a battle like the annihilation of the British army is not extravagant, and it should not be a problem to seize Myitkyina and control northern Burma.

Tang Qiuli was in the headquarters of Myitkyina, after reading the map, he turned back to the chief of staff Chang Feng and said: "Chang Feng, the battle with Ito's Myitkyina, it is inevitable, it is a hard-fought battle, we will not give up Myitkyina, Ito's attack target, it is also Myitkyina, the troops directly under the corps and the Sulu mobile corps, where have they arrived?" ”

Chang Feng replied succinctly: The division commander, the 1st to 8th Brigades directly under the Corps, have already reached the designated area in the Gangao Mountains, and the troops of Deputy Division Commander Tang, who served as the right wing group of the campaign, have already moved to the line of Xinbo and Jesha in front of them, and according to the speed of the corps' march, it is estimated that it will be able to reach the predetermined ambush area in about eight hours. ”

Tang Qiuli shook his head and said: "It's still not fast enough, it's been three days, after the Japanese army kills the British, there will soon be new moves, how to make a move, we don't know it yet, order the Sulu Mobile Corps to participate in the battle, more than three hours in advance, arrive at the designated position, if the heavily equipped troops, unable to arrive, light infantry, at least three brigades, must arrive in advance, with an urgent order, sent to Deputy Division Commander Tang, I always feel that Chutian has not sent information until now, I'm afraid there must be a reason?" ”

Chang Feng recorded them one by one, paused, and seemed to hesitate a little and said: "Commander, that day, my attitude was a little excessive, and I hope that you will forgive me, I ......" What else did he want to say, the events of that day have been lingering in Chang Feng's heart, lingering, and it has become a burden for him, so that Chang Feng, who has always had no other thoughts, suffers from gains and losses.

Tang Qiuli waved his hand to stop his words, and said: "Chang Feng, everyone will have different opinions on the same thing, this is not strange, it's just that your feelings make me feel a little surprised, I want to have a good chat with you, but I don't have time to get busy, so after the battle starts, we will listen to the rumbling cannons, and then have a heart-to-heart talk, maybe, there will be more feelings, right?" Don't have baggage, let your hands and feet do it. ”

At about eleven o'clock that night, Tang Qiuli returned to his residence, lay down for a long time, and couldn't sleep peacefully, Ito's condition is unknown, which is a reason why he is difficult to feel at ease, his wife Mei Xue, who is recuperating in Guangzhou, came to a few telegrams, "The injury has healed, and the thoughts of Jun are deep, respectively, for more than two months, Jun's voice and smile, all the time in the dream, since following Jun, gathering less and leaving more, all say that the daughter of the troubled times is more true, but who knows, the troubled times are lovesick," the implication is to come to the front command in northern Myanmar to accompany themselves.

Tang Qiuli is used to the days when he has a wife by his side, first Xiaoling, then Mei Ting, and then Mei Xue in later generations, and Mei Xue's telegram, in tone, is almost the same as when he was in the Northeast, after a few months of separation from Xiao Ling, the feelings of missing him are almost the same, thinking of Xiao Ling, Liu Xinlan's face appeared in front of him again.

Thinking of his wife Mei Ting, who was far away in Dingbian, although she was accompanied by her parents, but when she was in labor, she was tens of thousands of miles away in northern Myanmar, to say that there was no guilt, it was unrealistic, the faces of three women, to be precise, were four, alternately appeared in his mind, stirring him upset, and he fell asleep for a long time.

"Bang bang bang", a rapid knock on the door, he woke up from his hazy sleep, looked at the luminous watch, it was already more than three o'clock in the morning, opened the door, Chief of Staff Chang Feng and the director of the Communications Department Chen Feng, the two of them stood at the door with a stern face, Chang Feng said: "Division commander, I have received urgent information from the head of the Chutian detachment of the special operations detachment, the deployment of the Japanese army has been clear, and the situation has changed. ”

Tang Qiuli took the telegram, read it carefully, pondered for a while, and said to Chen Feng: "Director Chen, immediately call through the radio contact with Deputy Division Commander Tang and the brigade commanders of the directly subordinate corps, and order them to be ready to accept the new orders of the division commander at any time. ”

Chutian's intelligence, to put it bluntly, is not up to the level of strategic intelligence, it is just to find out the sequence of the Japanese army's march, the number of each unit, etc., but in Chutian's intelligence, there is a very important situation that makes Tang Qiuli feel very surprised.

"Division commander, after three days of continuous collection by various detachments of our detachment, the basic situation of the Japanese army in the north has been clarified, and after first summarizing the information, report to the division that the Japanese army, with the 17th and 21st divisions, with the 1st Tank Brigade and the 1st Cavalry Wing, as the vanguard, annihilated the British army on the morning of the second day, that is, crossed the Yindun River, and has now entered Degang."

"The 11th, 15th, and 19th divisions of the Japanese army, with the second and third brigades of the tank, and the first brigade of heavy artillery, as the second echelon, set off two hours late.

"The Japanese troops in the vanguard and the second echelon, with an interval of no more than a day, marched very cautiously, and all the Japanese troops sent a large number of search troops to carefully search within a radius of 20 kilometers along the way north to Myitkyina, and after confirming that there was no danger, they quickly passed through Guò, and stationed troops at all important commanding heights along the line.

Chutian's intelligence provided at least the following information, first, Ito Yanzaburo divided the army into three parts, and each part was closely linked to form a long snake formation connected from end to end, second, Ito ambushed the British in the Libao Grand Canyon, he was naturally afraid that he would be ambushed, and sent troops to be stationed in various dangerous areas, which naturally avoided the danger of being cut off from the back road and ambush, and third, Ito's vanguard should be a bait to attract the troops of the independent division to attack, and his main force then pressed on.

Ito's guiding ideology for the campaign was to have a decisive battle with the troops of the Independent Division in the direction of Myitkyina in a certain area of northern Burma, defeat Tang Qiuli with superior forces, occupy Myitkyina, and then turn around to meet the troops of the other corps of the Independent Division that had rushed over from the eastern part of the Indochina Peninsula.

When Tang Qiu left the headquarters, under the order of Yang Ketian, dozens of staff officers were already on the map, busy marking the situation map of the enemy and us, judging from the map, the Japanese army advanced to Degang, the main force was more than 180 kilometers away at Mengmi, the beginning and tail were more than 300 miles long, and the Japanese army in the second echelon could support the vanguard and retreat to the main force.

Ito's one-word long snake formation battle layout, completely disrupted Tang Qiuli's northern Burma campaign deployment, his original campaign plan, with the six brigades of Tang Qiusheng's corps as the right flank, the five brigades directly under the corps as the left flank, three brigades to block the frontal blockade, Yu Guanghan's five brigades blocked the back road, for Ito to prepare a big pocket in the Gangao Mountains, after a battle, can not completely annihilate the Japanese army, at least can kill more than one-third of Ito's troops.

But Ito's position gave Tang Qiuli a big problem, the Japanese army was more than 360 miles long, how big a pocket could cover so many Japanese troops, how many troops were needed, Tang Qiuli didn't have it, and besides, if he hit the vanguard of the Japanese army, Ito's main force would immediately roll over, and in Tang Qiuli's reluctance, fight a passive decisive battle.

With five brigades of less than 80,000 troops, Yu Guanghan could not hold back the main force of more than 300,000 Japanese troops at all, and if he hit the middle road, the end of the Japanese army would come one after another, and the attacking troops would fall into the encirclement of the Japanese army, so the only way was to give up this campaign and look for other fighters in northern Burma.

In this way, the Japanese army will drive straight in, and the existing troops of the independent division will inevitably be in a situation of hard fighting with the superior Japanese army, and if Myitkyina will have to give up in order to avoid losses, in terms of strategic significance and influence, it will inevitably have a great negative impact on the influence of the independent division in the Indochina Peninsula, and the unwilling British may find an excuse to return to the Indochina Peninsula by taking advantage of the influence of the Americans.

This battle, whether to fight or not, is something that cannot be chosen, and Ito has forced Tang Qiuli to the point where he must choose a style of play.

(To be continued)

! #