Hagiwara Akira saw the concern of the chief of staff of the riverside, but in the face of the current battle situation of all parties, he really couldn't find a comforting word to appease the other party: "Osa, the brigade dispatched by the Kato Brigade, if it can't successfully destroy the Shina Army in Qinyuan County, then our Saijo Wing's attack on Guanmen Mountain and Great Elm Mountain must be victorious as soon as possible; Only in this way will I be able to explain to the commander of the Sena Division, and the commander of the division will be able to explain to the commander of the First Army - please! ”

Kawabe Dasa immediately bowed his head to his brigade commander, indicating that he would do his best to win.

"Of course, the action of our army in the direction of Qinyuan County is to retaliate for the attack of the 84th Division of the Central Army on Tongpuhuo County; However, in addition to cooperating with the Nine-Way Encirclement Campaign of the First Army Headquarters, the more important significance of our two offensives here was to sweep away the Chinese Army entrenched in and around the Great Elm Mountain and Guanmen Mountain, so that they could not pose a threat to the comfort women's secret camp in the Little Elm Mountain. From this point of view, Saijo United should spare no effort to complete the task! ”

Hearing the brigade commander Major General mention the comfort women camp in Little Elm Mountain, Riverside Osa moved in his heart, and after hesitating for a moment, he finally asked: "General, has the front army headquarters been urging us to ask for comfort women recently?" ”

"What do you mean?" The expression on Akira Hagiwara's face once again became irritated: "The Wind Project has always been in the process of deployment and implementation, and there has never been any intention of terminating or suspending it. Do I need to repeat this to you several times? ”

The chief of staff of the brigade and regiment suddenly became embarrassed and uneasy, and hurriedly defended himself, saying that he himself had absolutely no second words about the implementation of the "wind plan," and the reason why he asked such questions was entirely because of the current defeat situation on the battlefield in Xuzhou, Shandong.

"What about losing? The Xuzhou front suffered only a temporary setback, and the North China Front and General Terauchi did not waver in their determination to fight; Major General Hagiwara gently reprimanded his chief of staff, and at the same time slowly took out a cigarette and lit it: "You have been busy preparing for war in the barracks in the western suburbs for the past two days, and I have not informed you of the Xuzhou front-line battle report that I just received from the division headquarters from the front army headquarters. ”

Next, Hagiwara Akira swallowed the clouds and spit out the fog, and at the same time briefly described the battle situation of the Battle of Xuzhou so far. In the latest report of the North China Front Headquarters on the Battle of Xuzhou, it was indicated that the two dispatched detachments of the two master regiments of the Second Army, which had been defeated by Taierzhuang in Xuzhou, had retreated and assembled in the Yixian area north of Taierzhuang, while the Sakamoto detachment had retreated to the area of Zaozhuang further north, basically building the depth of defensive support and stabilizing the position of the rout. The commander of the Second Army, Lieutenant General Nishio Toshizo, is personally deploying a new plan for a counteroffensive against Xuzhou.

Hearing this, Kawabe Osa still couldn't help but interject: "Is Lieutenant General Nishio still continuing to command the Second Army?" I'm afraid the front command will not tolerate this fiasco, right? ”

"The change of generals in the Second Army is undoubtedly inevitable," Hagiwara Akira said expressionlessly: "It's just not now, brewing a new army commander candidate, after all, is not so simple." However, the pace of the Battle of Xuzhou cannot be slowed. Therefore, you should not be under the illusion that the Shandong front line has been lost, and the plan to collect and transport comfort women here in Shanxi will be lost! Everything had to go according to the original deployment. And the more the battle is lost, the more urgent the front line may be to urge comfort women - if you win, you need to reward women, and if you are defeated, you also need women to comfort! ”

Listening to the remarks of the brigade commander, Major General, Kawabe Osa couldn't tell for a moment whether this was the other party's true thoughts or duplicitous cynicism. However, Dazuo's mind was still concerned about the battle on the Xuzhou front, and he walked alone to a military map of the Pan-North China region by the wall, found the Yixian and Zaozhuang mentioned by Hagiwara Akira's mouth just now, and looked at their locations.

At this time, the voice of the brigade commander came from behind him: "In the battle of Taierzhuang, although the Chinese army won, it can be called a crushing victory. The elite of the Central Army of the China Army, including Sun Lianzhong's Second Army and Tang Enbo's 20th Army Corps, suffered equally heavy casualties, and some intelligence confirmed that although the main force of the China Army pursued to the outskirts of Yixian, it was already afraid of the battle, and had no intention or ability to launch a victorious battle against the two detachments of the Second Army. ”

Riverside Dazuo was overjoyed, and couldn't help but turn his head from the map to look at his brigade commander: "So, the turning point in the Xuzhou battlefield is about to appear?" I hope that the Second Army can perform better, and wash away this great shame of the Imperial Army! ”

Unexpectedly, Major General Hagiwara's face became solemn, he got up from behind the desk, paced to the side of the riverside Osa, and brought the other party's gaze back to the map on the wall: "Don't be so optimistic first, the defeat of Taierzhuang fully confirms that the main force of the Chinese Army still has strong combat effectiveness, which means that if you continue to rely on the two divisions under the command of the Second Army alone, you may still not be able to complete the battle goal in the end." ”

"What does the general mean—" The expression of the chief of staff of the brigade also became nervous: "Is it possible that the front army headquarters will transfer troops from our First Army to support the battlefield of the Battle of Xuzhou?" ”

Hagiwara turned his head to look at the nearby riverside Osa, nodded slowly, and then let out a long sigh, indicating that this was not a "possible" thing, but an almost inevitable step. Of course, General Terauchi will not transfer the Sena Division and the Shangang Division to garrison Shanxi, but at that time, the Xiayuan Division, which has just entered Shanxi to assist in the war, and the Tufeiyuan Division, which is currently in eastern Henan, including the Nakajima Division directly under the jurisdiction of the Front Army (currently assisting the First Army in completing the operation of the Nine-Way Encirclement of Taihang Mountain), will be transferred to the direction of Shandong.

Hebian Dazuo cried out on the spot: "It's really in response to the words of the people of China - the city gate is on fire, and the fish in the pond are affected!" Originally, we had just received the assistance of the main force of the Xia Yuan Division, and I thought that from now on Lieutenant General Xia Yuan's troops would be able to stay in Shanxi! If they withdraw from the current southern and southeastern Jinjin areas, won't they be completely reduced to the world of the Central Army of the Zhina Army and the Eighth Route Army!? ”

After all, Akira Hagiwara is a brigade commander at the level of a major general, and on the surface, he is not as angry as Chief of Staff Osa. But what Kawabe described was, too, deeply concerned - Lieutenant General Sena, the commander of the division in Yuncheng, also made the worst analysis in a recent telephone conversation.

At present, Shanxi was dragged to a dangerous situation by the sudden crushing defeat of the Shandong battlefield, which was thousands of miles away: once the First Army of the Imperial Army was forced to transfer the main force from Shanxi, Hebei, and Henan to support the Xuzhou Battle Battlefield, the garrison vacancy left by it would undoubtedly quickly become the territory occupied by the Chinese Army, especially the Eighth Route Army, which was engaged in the construction of base areas; The public order situation in the so-called rear area will deteriorate dramatically if it is not done well.

At present, the Shangang Division is guarding Shanxi in the north north of Zhengtai Road, and needs to face the He Division of the Eighth Route Army and the Fu Zuoyi troops of the Jin Sui Army in the northwest of Shanxi, even if it can get the support of the harem division of the Kwantung Army (the headquarters is in the north of Jinbei), it can only barely maintain the balance of law and order. What's more, they now have a wing that is deep in the mountains and mountains in the southwest of Jin, and it is difficult to maneuver with the main force of the Jin army in Yan Xishan, and the future is unpredictable.

The Sena Division nominally garrisoned southern Shanxi south of Zhengtai Road, but its main force was now concentrated on the Linfen and Yuncheng lines, facing stubborn resistance from the Central Army of the Zhina Army. Lieutenant General Sena and the commander of the Kato Brigade had launched several attacks on the Nakajo Mountains in southern Jin, trying to drive Wei Lihuang and his remnants across the Yellow River, but with little success. Finally, the Xiayuan Division, which was sent by the First Army Headquarters to support, attacked the southern part of Shanxi from the border of Hebei, preparing to attack south in conjunction with the Sena Division; Who would have thought that first, the Xu Division of the Eighth Route Army in the Taihang Mountains jumped to the Handan Chang Highway in southern Jinnan to harass and harass, forcing the First Army to change the order of the Xia Yuan Division to turn around and march north (that is, the current Nine Route Siege Taihang Mountain), and then the bad news of the defeat came from the Xuzhou battlefield, and the Front Army Headquarters was more likely to simply transfer the Xia Yuan Division from Shanxi to reinforce the Battle of Xuzhou!

As a result, the already relatively fragile garrison situation in Shanxi will undoubtedly become even worse. Just now, the chief of staff of the riverside used a sentence of "the city gate caught fire and affected the fish in the pond" to describe the future Shanxi war situation; However, in the eyes of the commander of the Hagiwara Brigade, another saying of the Shina people: "The house leaks when it is rainy", which is used to evaluate the next situation of the Sena Division, which is more appropriate!

"Dazuo, you should be more aware by now, what is the decisive role of the current battle of the Nine Roads to encircle Taihang Mountain for the future public security in Shanxi, right?" Hagiwara Akira snuffed out the cigarette that was left behind, and said earnestly: "If everything goes well, and the advance and suppression troops dominated by the Xia Yuan Division can find the main force of the Xu Division of the Eighth Route Army and the Third Army of the Central Army and annihilate them in one fell swoop, then the threat from the hinterland of Taihang Mountain will disappear from now on. If we also succeed in attacking Guanmen Mountain and Great Elm Mountain here, then the threat to the comfort women camp in Little Elm Mountain will also be greatly reduced. In this case, even if the North China Front Army Headquarters will soon transfer the main force of the First Army to the front line of the Battle of Xuzhou, Shandong, then our Sena Division can still rely on its existing strength to maintain the current overall situation in southern Shanxi. At worst, we were in a confrontation with the Chinese army in the Lüliang Mountains in the southwest of Jin and the Zhongtiao Mountains in the south of Jin, and we were unable to drive Yan Xishan and Wei Lihuang's troops across the Yellow River - so what? After all, the two major arteries of Shanxi, Zhengtai Road and Tongpu Road, are under the control of our division and the Shangang Division, and the Zhina Army can only be trapped in the corners of Shanxi, surviving for a long time. The wind plan to recruit comfort women, which we are responsible for implementing, will continue to be carried out without even realizing it. ”

Hebe Dazuo nodded frequently when he heard this, but almost at the same time, he still thought in his heart: If the nine-way encirclement operation instigated by the headquarters of the First Army did not succeed or even failed this time, and the ideal vision just described by the brigade commander would have come to naught, then what kind of dangerous situation would Shanxi fall into!?