Section 70 The helplessness of the Japanese army

After all, as the war continues, as the area occupied by the Japanese army becomes larger and larger, their energy has been involved in most of the occupied areas, and because they have to guard against the counteroffensive that may be launched by various departments of the national army at any time, the war situation has fallen into a stalemate. With their strength and the huge forces of the surrounding national armies, they can only replace defense with offense at the moment, disperse the offensive that the national army may organize with sharp attacks, and take the initiative in the war into their own hands.

Such a strategy of substituting offense for defense naturally demonstrates the strong combat power of the Japanese troops, but it has to be said that such an offensive is very risky, and as long as an offensive mistake occurs, it is very likely that the situation will be reversed and fall into great passivity, so before each operation, it is necessary to go through strict planning and serious preparation to avoid possible risks. In the 28th year of the Republic of China, the Battle of Changsha, the Japanese army organized an extremely ferocious attack after the Battle of Nanchang, but in the face of the Ninth War Zone, the Japanese troops who have always been sharp and incomparable have never been able to break through the defense line of the national army on the frontal battlefield, and finally had to take the risk, and the situation on the battlefield was reversed in one fell swoop by plunging into the belly of the national army. The battle did not last long, but the back and forth of the battle also made the Japanese realize that the strength of the Ninth Theater of the Nationalist Army was far superior to its own Nationalist troops, and it was really necessary to be cautious when fighting with such an opponent.

After that battle, the commander of the 11th Army, Okamura Ninji, was also transferred from the front line due to the defeat in the battle and the conflict with the policy of the Japanese General Staff, and the command of the Japanese 11th Army was handed over to Kazuichiro Enbe. After taking over as the commander of the 11th Army, Kazuichiro Enbe also followed the orders of the Japanese General Staff to stabilize the control area, and occasionally attacked instead of defending. From April to June of the 29th year of the Republic of China, the Japanese army launched the Battle of Zaoyi, conquered Yichang, and advanced the Wuhan occupation area to the west by about 400 miles in one fell swoop, which also allowed Enbe Kazuichiro to finally gain a firm foothold in the 11th Army. However, in the face of the situation in northern Jiangxi, he never dared to act rashly, and it was not until the headquarters of the dispatch army in China issued an order that this situation was changed.

In fact, with the passage of time, as the four-year war continued, the Japanese army gradually became a little unable to support it!

Japan is a small island country, poor in resources, and its population is far inferior to that of China. Since the 26th year of the Republic of China, the Sino-Japanese War started in an all-round way, and the slogan that the Japanese army shouted at the beginning was "Capture China in three months", but the reality is often cruel, although Japan's national strength and military strength far exceeded that of China at that time, but countless Chinese men used their own bloody nature and fearless spirit to write a "tragic song of the War of Resistance", and launched a difficult and dangerous bloody battle with the Japanese army in an extremely disadvantageous situation with the spirit unimaginable to the world.

In three months, the Japanese army not only did not destroy China, but even barely captured the Songhu area, until now, although the Japanese army occupies nearly half of China's territory, it has reached its limit. In the past four years, although the national army has suffered more than one million casualties, but the Japanese casualties are also about four or five hundred thousand, and now the Japanese army in China is only about 800,000. On the other hand, there are countless guerrillas behind them to harass, although they have lured down a lot of national troops and traitors to form a large number of puppet army troops, but it is still a drop in the bucket. In addition, because the four-year war in Japan has reached the point of exhaustion, the Japanese army has begun to lose support.

In the areas occupied by the Japanese army, the guerrillas under the command of the Chinese Communist Party caused great trouble for the Japanese army. In the second half of the 29th year of the Republic of China, the 129th Division under the command of the Communist Party and about 105 regiments of the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Army launched a fierce attack on the Zhengtai Railway controlled by the Japanese army. Although the troops stationed in these areas are basically supplementary divisions and independent mixed brigades that have been newly transferred from China, and their combat strength is far from being comparable with the first-class divisions that are facing the national army head-on, I am afraid that the number of first-class divisions will only become smaller and smaller based on the situation of the Japanese army itself. It was also this battle that made the Japanese army realize the strength of the guerrillas in the area under its control, and the losses of the North China Front were not small, so the headquarters of the Japanese army in China decided to transfer the 33rd Division from the 11th Army to North China for reinforcements.

Although this kind of troop transfer is a bit difficult for the 11th Army Headquarters, Yuanbu and Ichiro, but it is not unacceptable, although after the 33rd Division left, only the 34th Division was left in the northern Jiangxi area, but those things have little to do with him, because not long ago he had been transferred, and he will soon be transferred to the military staff of the dispatch army in China.

Enbe and Ichiro can think so, but the division of the 34th Division, Oga Shige, is a little panicked. The 33rd Division and the 34th Division and other troops are the 28th year of the Republic of China newly formed B Division, after the formation of the front line because of the shortage of troops and put into the Chinese battlefield, the 33rd Division arrived at the Nanchang line, directly followed the 3rd Division and other troops to participate in the "Battle of Changsha", but unfortunately the memories of that battle are not very good, even the 33rd Division in Tongcheng, Maishi line quite frustrated, in the face of the 79th Army and other troops, although not defeated, but did not achieve much results, this result for the Japanese army, It's tantamount to failure.

From the battle here, Oga Mao also saw that the national army troops in front of him were far from being as unbearable as rumored, and they may even be the most elite troops in the national army, such as the 79th Army, although these troops are also elite in the national army, but they are far from outstanding, compared with the 74th Army stationed on the high line, it is even worse, the 33rd Division can't even break through the defense line of the 79th Army, so their 34th Division's combat effectiveness is really stronger than the 74th Army? What's more, the national army troops stationed in the northern Jiangxi region are not only one unit of the 74th Army, but the entire 19th Group Army has almost 100,000 troops under its account, and only one unit of the 34th Division can hold it? Maybe as soon as the 33rd Division left on the front foot, they lost Nanchang on the back foot, if that really happened, I am afraid he would be finished. In order to take Nanchang, the barrier southeast of Wuhan, the entire 11th Army lost tens of thousands of people, and a division commander could bear such a heavy responsibility?

The more he thought about it, the more uneasy he became, and the more he thought about it, the more terrible he became, and he begged Enbe Kazuichiro to take advantage of the fact that the 33rd Division had not yet been transferred, and gather the strength of the two divisions to inflict heavy losses on the enemy first, so that he could hold Nanchang.

Enbe and Ichiro don't want to fight this battle at all, they are about to be transferred away, why do they spend so much energy? But Da He Mao is iron-hearted, if this battle is not fought, he will not return to Nanchang. It happened that the independent mixed 20th Brigade transferred from Shanghai arrived at the front line to prepare for the vacancy left after the 33rd Division left, so that there were more than 65,000 people in two and a half divisions on the Nanchang front, and it was initially estimated that the enemy army 19th Group Army would be around 100,000 people, and in terms of troops, they actually had an advantage, after all, the combat effectiveness of the national army was low, not to mention that a brigade was worth a division, and a wing was definitely more than enough for a division, thinking like this, Enbe and Ichiro also reluctantly agreed. For more than a year, he has been quite smooth in the 11th Army, thanks to the support of several troops of the 33rd Division and the 34th Division transferred later, otherwise, with his qualifications, it is really difficult to suppress the proud generals of the 3rd Division and the 6th Division.

Under these circumstances, with Oga Shigeru as the commander-in-chief of the front, the 33rd and 34th divisions of the Japanese army, plus the newly transferred independent mixed 20 brigades, launched a fierce attack on the front line in northern Jiangxi.

After receiving the news, Xue Yue and Luo Zhuoying, including the commanders of the Ninth Theater, discussed the battle situation overnight and studied the next operational policy and form.

As a matter of fact, as far as the Nationalist troops are concerned, their intelligence sources are still far behind those of the Japanese army, and the offensive plans of the Nationalist troops have often not yet been implemented, and the Japanese command has already known that the strength of its spy system is far beyond the strength of the Nationalist troops. On the other hand, the Nationalist troops, until the Japanese launched an attack, did not know whether the Japanese army's attack was a tentative attack or a main attack. A group of generals can only guess various situations through the information they have gathered, and make a response plan on the basis of guessing and deduction, which is naturally far less accurate than the Japanese army's plan based on accurate intelligence.

Such an asymmetry in intelligence has led to a seemingly different level of commanders, but in fact, with inferior troops, inferior intelligence, and combat effectiveness that is completely inferior, the national army units have been able to perform in this way, and the talents of commanders at all levels have been quite prominent.

Although Luo Zhuoying, commander of the 19th Group Army, had not yet judged the Japanese army's combat intentions, he had predicted the possible battle situation in northern Jiangxi before the battle began, and made preparations in advance, and the reason why the 74th Army was arranged in Gao'an, Shanggao, and Yifeng was that it was to tighten the middle road and respond to all changes without change, and the 74th Army, the strongest force, was stationed in Gao'an, and no matter what happened, it could buy them enough time to respond to the situation, so that they could make adjustments later. You can see clearly whether you are fighting or withdrawing.

On March 16, the Japanese army conquered Xiangfuguan and strode towards Gao'an.