Chapter 10: Anqing (2)

Just hit this sightseeing boat!

Mo Di clenched his fist tightly and made up his mind, the transport ship is generally an armed escort, and it is not easy to fight it, but this sightseeing ship is different, it is a ship that appears for display and means peace and occupation, it is much easier to move its hand, there are not many opportunities to send it to the door, and once you have to seize it.

The appearance of this sightseeing ship is not accidental, it is completely the product of the strategic confrontation after the Japanese occupation of Wuhan in 1938. After the Japanese army occupied Wuhan, there was already a serious situation in which the border commanders were beyond their reach, and it was already very difficult for the 11th Army, which only supported one Okamura Ninji, to survive in Central China, and it was even more difficult to spread around Wuhan as the center. This is the case in the Chinese battlefield, and the Japanese did not calculate well in other battlefields, and at Nomenkan on the Sino-Mongolian border in the northeast, the Japanese army fought with the Soviet-Mongolian coalition army, and the result was a great defeat. Therefore, at this time, the base camp of the Japanese army urgently needed a buffer, at least so that the soldiers of the new division and regiment hastily formed in China could learn to shoot. After repeated discussions, it was finally decided to support Wang Jingwei in China to establish the Nanjing puppet government, to contain a large number of puppet troops to supplement the military strength of the Japanese army, and to seek the support of Western powers in the international arena to exert pressure on the Chiang Kai-shek government in Chongqing to force Lao Chiang to lay down his weapons of resistance.

In order to be able to dialogue with the Western powers, the Japanese adopted a trick of indulging in the capture of the Shanghai Concession and rectifying the Shanghai Concession with the attitude of a victor. On May 21, Britain, the United States, France, and other countries sent a note to the Japanese government that they would not allow any change in the organization of the Shanghai Concession. The Japanese Government, which received the note, was overjoyed, and Japanese Cabinet Minister Kiichiro Hiranuma went so far as to weep with joy at a cabinet meeting, saying that the European and American powers have finally come to us! With the end of the Nanchang and Suizao Battles, the Japanese army completely gained a firm foothold in Jianghan and opened the eastern passage from Nanchang to Changsha, and the situation was very good. In August, the two sides reached a preliminary agreement on the concession issue, and just as the Japanese were about to recognize the legal status of the European and American powers in the concession, Kiichiro Hiranuma was dismissed because of a misjudgment of the changes in the situation in Europe, and the next cabinet minister was Nobuyuki Abe.

The base camp of the Japanese army was also readjusted on a large scale, and because of the Nomenkan incident, the Minister of War Itagaki Seishiro was also deposed, and the new appointment was made by the former commander-in-chief of the Central China Front, General Shunroku Hatata.

Nobuyuki Abe is a standard gangster, graduated from the 9th class of the Army Non-commissioned Officer School, and after the fall of the cabinet of Kiichiro Hiranuma, Abe accepted the great order to become prime minister at the recommendation of Saionji Konobo, Konoe Fumiro, Hirota Hiroki, Ugaki Kazunari and others. Originally, Emperor Showa had great hopes for him, believing that he was cautious-minded and had a stable personality, that he was an in-law with Koichi Kido, that he was a brother with Narumi Inoue, who was not expanding the Navy, and that Masahimi Inada, the head of the Operations Division of the Army General Staff who had just stepped down, was his son-in-law. It is believed that he can control the army and at the same time establish good relations with the navy and fundamentally solve the China incident. Sure enough, on the third day of his tenure as prime minister (September 1), Germany blitzed Poland, and World War II broke out. He is very good at taking advantage of the thinking of the Europeans and Americans, believing that they can maintain the status of the European and American countries in the Shanghai Concession, but he demands that the European and American countries cut off China's military sales, because the large amount of arrears caused by the sale of military products on credit to the Chinese Chongqing government will become dead accounts because of the disappearance of this government. The European and American governments did not believe that the Japanese army would be able to take China in a short period of time, and as both sides in the war, the military trade was extremely profitable, and it was impossible to let go.

In order to dispel this idea of the European and American consortiums, Nobuyuki Abe and Shunroku Hata made a plan to sort out the China Merchants No. 1 ship of Shanghai China Merchants Bureau, imitate the European Queen Mary, and build guest rooms, restaurants, bars, shopping malls, and cinemas on the ship, just because the ship was not big enough to build a swimming pool. Some people also say that they are not walking in the sea, but sailing in the Yangtze River, there is fresh water everywhere, and the river is full of swimming pools. On the one hand, on the other hand, they invited the European and American governments to send envoys to set off from Nanjing in the form of a sightseeing ship, all the way to Wuhan, to see whether the Yangtze River is the Yangtze River of China or the Yangtze River of the Japanese.

For the invitation of the Japanese, the European and American powers were also very hesitant, China is a big country, and after the First World War, it has always had a good relationship with the European and American powers, opening the market, free trade, so that Europe and the United States and other countries in the United States in China to earn barrels of gold. After the Japanese entered China, the economic interests of Europe and the United States and other countries were obviously affected, and if they wanted to continue to enjoy the most-favored-nation status in China, they must help the Chinese to get the Japanese out and restore the pre-war situation. However, the menacing Japanese were unstoppable, and they wanted to contend with the Japanese on the battlefield of China, either by pulling themselves into the mud, or by a large amount of military aid such as meat buns and dogs, and it was impossible to return. The two opinions are debated endlessly in the European and American governments, and neither can convince anyone. On June 22, a batch of U.S. aid to China, including 510 military vehicles and 300 tons of military cloth, arrived at Haiphong Port and set off for domestic transportation.

This is the first aid material, not the previous procurement of materials, the arrival of this material made the Japanese very uneasy, European and American countries are rich in materials, plucking roots thicker than their waists, if Europe and the United States start the aid model, the Japanese Chinese occupation plan will be greatly affected. Therefore, even if it cannot prevent European and American economic blocs from selling weapons to China, they must make every effort to prevent European and American countries from providing free assistance to China.

The so-called weak country has no diplomacy, and the Chongqing Nationalist Government, which is at a critical juncture of life and death, has no idea that it has become a pawn in the hands of the European and American powers and Japan, and whether or not it can receive assistance and recognition from the European and American powers depends entirely on its attitude and determination to resist the war. It was not until the European and American countries sent their envoys to Shanghai and boarded a sightseeing ship in Nanjing that there was a faint protest from the Nationalist Government.

"Reporting to the division headquarters, fighting is our requirement, it is also our attitude, and it is also our specific action to support the Changsha War." Seeing that Mo Di was enthusiastically carrying out map work, drawing on the map with a pencil triangle board, and humming the color tone of Guibei, Jiang Chunyang said a little disappointed: "But whether you can fight or not, to what extent, needs to be decided by the superiors, this kind of thing is good to fight, if it is not fought well, it is a diplomatic incident, and we can't afford this responsibility." ”

Mo Di raised his head from the map, looked at Jiang Chunyang, and nodded, he didn't know what he meant, he knew what Jiang Chunyang meant, everyone knows the important role and significance of this sightseeing wheel, but to what extent, whether it is to kill the unforgiving or knock the mountain and shock the tiger, it depends on the meaning of the top!

Ou Shounian couldn't grasp this matter even more than Mo Di, and received a telegram from Mo Di, read it for three minutes, and then said: "Go to the military department, please make a decision from the military seat." "Uploading and distributing has become the work of a division commander, and I don't know if it's suitable.

When the army commander Zhang Yichun received the telegram, he was taken aback, this kind of thing is more important than it is, and the people staying on the ship are not Japanese, but guests from Europe and the United States, although they are Japanese guests, they can't afford to offend. Zhang Yichun's first reaction was that this ship would not be fought, and the Japanese were already in an endless situation, and there was no need to pull the Europeans and Americans in, and even if they were pulled in, they should be drawn into friends, not enemies. handed over to Li Pinxian of the group army, and attached his own opinion to it, that is, not to attack recklessly, and to act cautiously.

Li Pinxian, commander of the group army, was still fundamentally a man of letters, and his consideration of the problem was relatively comprehensive; among the generals of the Gui family, Li Pinxian's combat ability was not the strongest, but in terms of overall strategy, he was among the best. This commander, who was almost admitted to Xiucai in the Manchu Qing Dynasty, couldn't help but gasp when he saw Mo Di's telegram, and said secretly: "This Mo Tianzhong has the unpredictable wisdom of gods and ghosts, and the heart of stirring the world. The New Fourth Army was cunning, knowing the appearance of the sightseeing ship, but it did not intercept the river in the Wuwei area, but put it in Anqing and handed it over to Mo Di, and let Mo Di be this villain. It is better to let Bai Jiansheng give an order at the General Staff Headquarters to let the Jiangbei troops of the New Fourth Army who live in the Wuwei area lay down this sightseeing ship. ”

He stood up, walked to his desk and sat down, picked up his pen, and wrote a telegram in very beautiful letters, which he submitted to the General Staff, and also handed over the problem.

After receiving Li Pinxian's telegram, Liu Feile, the director of the first hall, actually wanted to play the idea of a sightseeing wheel!

It is said that for this boat, Lao Jiang threw a cup, for this boat, Wang Chonghui sighed mournfully, and for this boat, Bai Chongxi lost a few hairs.

There was only Bai Chongxi in the chief of staff's office, Liu Fei walked in, smiled on his face, and said: "If you want to talk about the initiative in combat, count us Guijun, Jian Gong, you see, Li Heling's telegram (Li Pinxianzi) is still a bit of an initiative to ask for help." ”

Bai Chongxi took the telegram and looked at it, and smiled: "Li Pinxian, this old fox!" If you want the New Fourth Army to pick up this burden, is it possible? If the New Fourth Army has the courage to do so, unless Ye Xiyi really grasps the power of the New Fourth Army. Li Pinxian must have something to hide, you directly asked Zhang Yichun to report. ”

After a while, Zhang Yichun's report arrived on Bai Chongxi's desk, and Ou Shounian's report also arrived on Bai Chongxi's desk, Bai Chongxi said to Liu Fei: "As expected, the enemy below is going to fight, Ou Shounian handed it in directly without thinking, Zhang Yichun thought about it, retreated, and went to Li Pinxian, but he had such a bad idea." really responded to that sentence, the older you get, the more useless you are! ”

Liu Fei smiled dumbly, didn't answer, and withdrew, there are some things that he might not say!