Chapter 14: Advanced (37)

Spring comes and summer, day after day, Japanese planes come to Guilin every now and then, and from time to time there will be news of a fierce battle between Chennault and Japanese planes in the eastern Guidong area, every time an aerial bomb falls into the urban area of Guilin, the whole city will be like a mourner, whenever they hear that the Flying Tigers shot down a Japanese plane, the whole city will be like a chicken blood, and the students headed by the Guilin Normal School will take to the streets, waving flags and shouting loudly.

In addition to the harassment of planes from time to time, the spring of the 32nd year of the Republic of China was quite peaceful, not only Guilin was peaceful, but the whole of China was also peaceful. After the outbreak of the Pacific War, the Japanese army transferred a lot of troops from the Central China Theater, and as early as February 10, 1942, Kitano's 4th Division was transferred to the Philippines and joined Masaharu Honma's 14th Army. And on December 21, 1942, the notorious Sixth Division was also transferred from China to Rabaul, New Bruni, to join Lieutenant General Jun Imamura's 8th Front. In order to take over the defense of the 6th Division and make up for the void after the transfer of the 6th Division, the Japanese army base camp had no choice but to transfer the 13th Army Gao Pinbiao stationed in Shanghai into the 17th Brigade and be transferred to Yueyang. Overstretched, the Japanese army was very weak, and a mere 11th Army occupied a vast area in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River. However, the Chinese army is also at the end of its strength, and all kinds of supplies have been exhausted, making it difficult to continue. The only Yunnan-Burma material line became the main battlefield from the 31st year of the Republic of China, and a few days after the Chinese New Year, the Japanese army had already invaded the Nu River and occupied Tengchong.

After two battles on the Yangtze River, the Ninth Theater allowed the Japanese army to learn the heavenly furnace of the Chinese army, and Yokoyama Yong, who took over as the commander of the 11th Army, knew that even if he and Xue Yue moved their wrists in the Laodaohe area of Changsha a few more times, they would not be able to take any advantage, and he also dispelled the idea of attacking the Guangdong-Han line again in a short time. However, the 11th Army's senior staff officer, Takeharu Shimakan, did not intend to leave the soldiers idle, and he persuaded the commander Isamu Yokoyama and the chief of staff, Kunio Kozaie, to offer to let the troops infiltrate the western Hubei region in a non-offensive way, and occupy the Yangtze River channel in western Hubei while raising supplies. Therefore, starting from 15 February, more than 20,000 Japanese troops from Qianshan and Heyang in Jiangbei crossed the Yangtze River and went straight to Dongting Hubei, where they were trapped in Huarong, Shishou, Anxiang, Fengxian, Jinshi, Hanshou, and Xinzhou. At the same time, the Japanese army in Jiangling also crossed the Yangtze River and captured Taiping, Gong'an, Songzi, Zhijiang, Wufeng, and Changyang.

According to the division of the combat area, this area is under the jurisdiction of the Sixth Theater, and Chen Cheng, the commander of the Sixth Theater. Since Chen Cheng has served in the Central Committee all the year round, Sun Lianzhong is acting as commander, and Wu Qiwei, who is also commander-in-chief of the Yangtze River Defense Army, is the deputy commander. For the Japanese attack, Sun Lianzhong had the heart to fight a decisive battle, but unfortunately the materials were scarce, the soldiers had no food in their stomachs and could still have a hard top, and there was no bullet in the gun so that they could only be helpless.

As a result, from February to the end of March, western Hubei was in a strange state, the Chinese army seemed to be fighting but not fighting, but the Japanese army advanced very resolutely. Except for a relatively decent volley by Wang Jinzai's 128th Division, there were basically no major battles in other areas.

As for the performance of the Chinese army, Shimakan Takeji Osa had long predicted, and his purpose was very simple: if the Chinese army dared to fight, then it would fight a vigorous battle and annihilate the main force of the Sixth Theater. If the Chinese army passively avoids the war, it will take control of the Yangtze River waterway from Yichang to Yueyang for a short time, and the first step is to plunder about 50 large ships of various types with a gross tonnage of nearly 20,000 in the Pingshanba area, and sail from Yichang to make up for the shortage of military transport ships in the Yangtze River.

It's just that all of this has nothing to do with Guilin's invincible, Yang Bin was transferred, and the newly appointed director Gan Lichu is relatively mechanical, a typical person who doesn't listen to things outside the window and only reads sage books. In this environment, Mo Di also began to study hard, studying war examples and reciting dogmas every day, and was very nervous, as for the war in the Yangtze River area, it was really too far away.

It wasn't until the end of March that a telegram pulled Mo Di out of his ivory tower school life, and when he looked around, he realized that the war was still going on. The telegram was sent by Liu Fei, and Vice Minister Liu of the Military Command Department asked Mo Di to ask Director Gan Lichu for leave to attend a meeting at the Guangxi Appeasement Command outside the lake.

Holding the telegram, Mo Di walked to the front of Gan Lichu's office, and after a report, he heard a sigh from inside, and then Gan Lichu's standard Rongxian Chinese: "Is it Tianzhu?" Come on in! ”

Mo Di pushed open the door and walked in, saluting and standing aside, holding the telegram draft in his left hand.

I was about to hand over the draft of the telegram and ask the director for leave, but was interrupted by Gan Lichu shaking his hand, only to hear Gan Lichu say: "I know what you are doing, I know the telegram you received, and I also know that you should go to the appeasement headquarters for a meeting, and even the content of the meeting, but I don't want you to go." You must know that it is not easy for you to get the opportunity to make up for this year, so you should seize this opportunity to learn more theoretical knowledge in the limited time you have, so that your strategic thinking and tactical level can make obvious progress. Last year, the Japanese army attacked Dabie Mountain, that is your old unit, and you should care about it. This time, the place where the incident happened was in western Hubei, not Taibie Mountain, so you don't want to let the outside chores hinder your study. There are three months left, the remedial training class is about to end, although there will be no strict text exam, but the learning experience still has to be handed in, I remember when you entered the school, everyone once wrote a study experience, I hope that through a year of study, your learning experience will change, because only through your thinking can you really feel the change and attack. ”

Mo Di stood up straight and listened carefully to the director's reprimand. Gan Lichu is different from Huang Wei, also different from Huang Jie, and even different from Yang Bin, Gan Lichu is more like a feudal parent, domineering and arbitrary. As a Guangxi native who served as the director of Guilin's sixth branch for the first time, Gan Lichu showed a strong local color, never scolding from her mouth, never leaving her whip, protecting calves, beating boards, hating iron does not become steel, and sticks are made into materials. Trying to create a batch of usable materials for Guangxi is the purpose of Gan Lichu, so after the start of school, he will increase teaching efforts and assign a large number of homework.

"After February, the Japanese army's offensive posture, Tianzong shouldn't know much, right?" Gan Li asked.

Mo Di shook his head and said a little embarrassedly: "I have been studying hard for the past two months, and I really haven't cared about outside things. ”

"Then I definitely don't know the purpose of Vice Chief Liu calling you to the meeting." Gan Lichu said: "I have here some compilation of the strategic situation of the enemy and us during this period, you can take a look at it on the way to the meeting, and you will not be ignorant of any questions when the time comes." ”

Mo Di bowed down to take the manuscript, his face becoming more and more respectful.

"There you go." With a wave of his hand, let Mo Di leave.

With enough time, Mo Di did not let Wu Tingjun drive him, but took the bus to Cross Street in Qifeng Town, although the bus was slow, it was smooth and convenient to read the manuscript.

From the point of view of his bones, Gan Lichu is a leading general, serving as the director of the school, a bit condescending. Mo Di looked at the manuscript in front of him, and guessed that it should be Gan Lichu's handwriting, the handwriting is powerful, the pen is strong through the back of the paper, and the pen is sharp. The content of the manuscript is about three parts, the first part is the operational situation and situation in northern Burma and western Yunnan from January to March, the second part is the operational situation of Japan and the United States in the Pacific during the same period, and the third part is the successful "Jiangbei Annihilation Battle" that took place in February and March in the triangle on the north bank of the Yangtze River connecting Hankou, Yuezhou, and Shashi, in which the 128th Division was defeated and the division commander Wang Jinzai was captured. At present, the Japanese army has occupied Shishou, Huarong and the other side of Shashi on the south bank of the Yangtze River, and has obtained the beachhead on the south bank of the Yangtze River. Although the Japanese occupied the Honghu area and the beachhead on the south bank of the Yangtze River, there was still a section of the Yangtze River controlled by the Chinese army, so an escalation of the campaign was inevitable. Gan Lichu had a lot of criticism about Wang Jinzai, the commander of the 128th Division, in the manuscript, thinking that this person was ambitious and talented, and did not obey orders, but he was very appreciative of Wang Jinzai's plan to attack Wuhan when the Japanese army was out of the nest, and believed that if Wang Jinzai could report the plan to the headquarters and cooperate sincerely with the military commander and other fraternal troops, the attack on Wuhan would be completely successful, and he would not be betrayed by his cronies, and the offensive route map would also fall into the hands of the enemy early. I'm behind bars myself.

Looking at the deeds of Wang Jinzai of the 128th Division and Gan Lichu's evaluation of him, Mo Di read it with relish, this Wang Jinzai built an independent kingdom in the Honghu area, and it was even more enjoyable than his own life in Yuexi. If it weren't for Chen Cheng sending someone to recruit Gu Dingxin, the brigade commander of the 128th Division, he would really not be able to tear apart this iron plate. But what is the use of a person no matter how strong he is, for the current kind of all-people war, the battle of hundreds of thousands of people, and a mere division, is only a drop in the ocean.

Mo Di estimated that Liu Fei asked him to go to the Guilin Shoujing Headquarters, and he should also hope to get his own opinion, after all, his own opinion on the Dabie Mountain incident last time was very unique, and it should be of some help to the decision-making of the Military Command Department. This time, the Japanese army had an obvious goal, attacking western Hubei with Yangmou, and put on an attitude of looking for a decisive battle between Wang Jingjiu's 10th Group Army and Wang Zanxu's 29th Group Army. In the face of an unfamiliar region and some unfamiliar troops, Mo Enemy will not have too many unique views for a while.

The bus was panting, stop-and-go, and there were occasionally a few people going up and down along the way, and there were more people when they arrived at Wayaokou, and the car was basically full of people. The car was close to the Yang Bridge, and Mo Di saw that the time was still early, so he got out of the car and walked along the lake pond to the Guilin Pacification Headquarters.

In the spring of March, Qingming is in sight, the willow trees around the lake pond are already long willows, slender willow leaves, swaying in the wind, the branches or in the lake cross, swinging out small ripples, disappearing in the distance.