The forward of the Sena Division captured Yuncheng, an important town in southern Jinnan!

When the news reached Bunjo, there was jubilation in the Hagiwara Brigade and Regiment Headquarters, and the brigade commander, Major General Hagiwara Akira, specially recalled the chief of staff Kawabe Daisa, who had been sitting at the railway station, to the brigade headquarters, and together with several principal staff officers, held a briefing meeting.

Yuncheng is located in the south of Jinnan, is an important station on the Tongpu railway line, from Yuncheng and then south to Fenglingdu Town, dozens of miles away, you can reach the end of the Tongpu Railway that runs through Shanxi.

"Ladies and gentlemen, the goal of our division to open up the main arteries in the southwest and north of the mountain is about to be realized!" Hagiwara Akira excitedly waved his right hand clenched into a fist: "Taiyuan, is already preparing for the civilian opening of the entire Tongpu Road, and the long-term peace and stability of the imperial army in Shanxi is just around the corner. ”

The chief of staff and the staff officers on the riverside applauded excitedly—the smooth and rapid progress of the battle situation in Jinnan greatly exceeded the expectations of these Japanese officers. Thinking about the bitter battles between northern Jinbei and Jinzhong from last autumn and the stubborn resistance of the Chinese army, and looking at today, half a year later, it is hard to imagine that the imperial army is facing the same enemy army in Shanxi!

"Lieutenant General Sena has ordered the division headquarters to be formally set up in Yuncheng, and the division and regimental headquarters to be set up in Linfen," Hagiwara Akira picked up a telegram from the division headquarters and continued: "At this point, our division has gained a firm foothold in the three important strongholds on the Tongpu Railway in Yuncheng, Linfen, and Wencheng, and has formed a strong strategic support from south to north with the Shangang Division in Taiyuan, the hinterland of central Jin. ”

"General, how is the situation of the Saijo Wing cooperating with the Yamaoka Division in the southwest of Jin? When will they be rebuilt? ”

The question was asked by the chief of staff of the brigade, Kawabe Osa. At present, the two wings of the Hagiwara Brigade, the Otsuka Wing, were defending the "three-point line" from Bunjo to the direction of Little Elm Tree Mountain and Toyodian, and the other Saijo Wing was temporarily assigned to the Yamaoka Division in late February to attack the main force of the Jin army that was attacking Yan Xishan in the southwest of Shanxi.

Hearing this question, the excitement on Hagiwara Akira's face weakened, he groaned slightly, and replied: "It's hard to say this, judging from the recent battle reports exchanged by the Yamaoka Division, the imperial army's attack on the southwest of Jin seems to have fallen into a repetition; The remnants of Yan Xishan's Jin army were erratic, sometimes defeated, sometimes made a comeback. ”

As the chief of staff of the brigade headquarters, Kawabe Daisa has actually lost control of the Saijo Wing at the moment. Since the wing was incorporated into the Yamaoka Division to fight, it has always been under the control of the Motokawa Brigade, and this inevitably made the chief of staff himself feel resentful. At this moment, he looked directly into Akira Hagiwara's eyes and said:

"General, in fact, after the opening of the Tongpu Railway, the garrison tasks along the way will be very heavy for our brigade and regiment, and the Otsuka Wing currently has another heavy task on its shoulders, and if the Saijo Wing does not return for a long time, the pressure on us will be great."

The brigade commander, Major General, certainly understood the intentions of the chief of staff. However, the current battle situation in the southwest of Jin is indeed complicated, and while the Sena Division is advancing all the way, the action of the Shangang Division to attack Yan Xishan's nest is a little ineffective.

"In the southwest of Shanxi, the mountains and rivers are dense, which is not conducive to the development of the campaign of the large corps; Intelligence shows that although Yan Xishan has made a gesture of crossing the Yellow River to the west, due to the pressure of public opinion and considering the morale of the army, Yan Xishan still chooses to stay in the southwest of Shanxi," Hagiwara Akira led his subordinates to the front of the military map hanging on the wall, and continued: "According to the report on the military strength of the Jinsui Army provided by the spy personnel of the Kwantung Army and the North China Front Army at the end of last year, the formation of its 33rd Army and 34th Army has been basically eliminated; Fu Zuoyi's 35th Army was stationed alone in western Shanxi, and Zhao Chengshou's cavalry army was stationed alone in northwest Shanxi. Therefore, Yan Xishan's current army in the southwest of Jin is only Wang Jingguo's 19th Army and Chen Changjie's 61st Army. And after last year's battle, they are all remnants. ”

"General, since the Jin Sui Army only has the remnants of two armies in the southwest of Jin, and the troops of the Imperial Army are the elite of the two wings of our two divisions, why is the progress so slow? Is it just because of the terrain? An operations staff officer asked.

The commander of the Hagiwara Brigade did not answer for a while, and the chief of staff of the riverside interjected angrily: "I am afraid that you should ask His Excellency the Commander of the Motokawa Brigade this question." The commander of the Motokawa Brigade he was talking about was the Third Major General of Motokawa Province of the Yamaoka Division, and it was he who was leading a wing of his brigade and the Saijo Wing of the Hagiwara Brigade to fight against Yan Xishan. The Yamaoka Division belonged to the reserve division of the Japanese army, and it was obviously inferior to an old permanent division like the Sena Division in terms of combat effectiveness.

Hagiwara Akira stopped the chief of staff's rudeness with a stern look, and then explained: "The Jin Sui army did not confront the imperial army head-on, but took advantage of the weakness of our side, which was not familiar with the local topography, and mainly carried out guerrilla warfare, which caused General Motokawa a lot of headaches. In addition, the main force of the Chen Brigade of the Eighth Route Army's Forest Division also appeared in that area, causing a lot of trouble. ”

"Lin Biao, the commander of the Eighth Route Army's Forest Division, has been shot and wounded, and it is reported that now Chen Guang, the brigade commander of the Chen Brigade, has taken over the position of division commander, and the combat effectiveness of the division must also be weakened, so it should not be a problem, right?" Another staff officer said cautiously.

Hagiwara was noncommittal. In his opinion, the Eighth Route Army's activities under Yan Xishan's nose seemed to be inseparable from Yan Xishan's headquarters. But at present, for the battlefield in the southwest of Shanxi, the key is whether Yan Xishan can be completely expelled from Shanxi, which will form a heavy psychological blow to the second theater of the Chinese army in a strategic sense, and he is not completely sure of this.

"Since the main force of our division has entered and occupied the front line of Yuncheng, we will be able to take Fenglingdu, the southernmost part of Shanxi, can General Sena consider it. Bring a part of the army back to the division to the north, and attack the remnants of Yan Xishan's Jin Sui army in the southwest of Jin, in order to achieve a quick victory in that area? Chief of Staff Kawabe Daisa stared at the map and said slowly.

"I'm afraid this will be very difficult to do," Hagiwara Akira immediately shook his head and replied: "Lieutenant General Kazuki (author's note: that is, the commander of the First Army of the Japanese North China Front) recently informed our division headquarters of the North China Front Army's combat situation in the Shandong direction. The Sakagaki Division and the Isoya Division of the Second Army each sent a detachment and were attacking and advancing in the direction of Taierzhuang, north of Xuzhou. The fighting is fierce at the moment, but it is only a matter of time before the capture of Xuzhou is completed. Once the front army makes a breakthrough in this direction, it is very likely that the headquarters will order our division to cross the Yellow River in the advance of Jinnan and attack the Longhai Railway in Henan, with a view to forming a situation of encirclement in the first theater of the China Army. General Sena has always been deeply worried about this, fearing that the battle line of our division and regiment will be stretched too long and the troops will be overstretched. However, if the front army headquarters issues this order, it will be inevitable that the first division of our division will go out of Henan. In this case, General Sena may not have the heart or ability to take care of the battle situation in southwest Jinxi at the moment. ”

Regarding the plan to go out of Henan and cut off the transportation line of the Longhai Railway of the China Army, the chief of staff of the river side had heard about it before, and he was not optimistic about it like the division commander and lieutenant general, so when he heard Hagiwara Akira's analysis, he fell silent. In the entire brigade headquarters, the atmosphere has swept away the joy at the beginning of the meeting, and has become dull and even depressing. The brigade commander, Major General himself, did not want to affect morale, so he hastily turned the topic to the future deployment of troops in important towns along the Tongpu Railway, and then dismissed the meeting.

Masao Kojima, the head of the secret service, came to the brigade headquarters after the meeting. He brought Hagiwara Akira a new piece of news about the Communist Eighth Route Army: In the previous stage, Zhang Shaodong, commander of the 687th Regiment of the Xu Brigade of the Eighth Route Army's Forest Division, and Lan Guoqing, chief of staff of the Eighth Route Army, fled with their whereabouts unknown. This incident caused a great shock within the communist army, and it is rumored that Xu Haidong, the commander of the Xu Brigade of the Forest Division, was so angry that he vomited blood.

Hagiwara Akira was interested in the news brought by the commander of the Kojima office: the commander of the Lin division had just been mistakenly wounded by the soldiers of the Shina Army, and now, it was reported that one of their regiment commanders had fled—it seemed that this trump card unit of the Communist Army was greatly unstable.

Seeing that the brigade commander Major General was concerned, Kojima Masao gave a detailed introduction that the Military Commission of the Nationalist Government in China had only given the names of the three divisions and six brigades of the Eighth Route Army, and according to its two-regiment system for each brigade, the entire Communist Army was only 12 regiment commanders, so Zhang Shaodong took the lead in fleeing with the dignity of the regiment commander, and the blow inflicted on the Communist Army could be called fatal.

"Where is the position of the main force of the Xu Brigade now? Shanxi or Hebei? Hagiwara asked, rolling his eyes. Since the basic activities of this brigade of the Eighth Route Army were in the defense area of the Yamaoka Division, Hagiwara Akira did not know much about it.

"Under the blow of the Shangang Division, the Xu Brigade once went to Pingshan, Hebei Province to hide, and concealed from the Military Commission of the National Government, on the basis of the original 687 Regiment and 688 Regiment, privately established the 689 Regiment, the previous stage of the brigade under the leadership of Xu Haidong returned to Shanxi, into the Xiyang line, of which Zhang Shaodong led the 687 Regiment to Gaoluo Town, Xiyang County, where Zhang himself suddenly fled."

"I heard that the conditions and treatment of the communist army are very poor, and Chiang Kai-shek's military committee has been suppressing them.

"Possibly, the exact reason is unknown. However, general, the intelligence shows that the Lin Division Xu Brigade is currently out of the defense area of the Shangang Division and advancing south to Wuxiang, and geographically, its forward has swept parallel to our east, behind our southeast flank. ”

Hagiwara Akira looked at the location of Wuxiang County on the map and shook his head: "The mountains separated from my department by Taihang Mountain and Guanmen Mountain are not a problem. ”

Kojima Masao also agreed, but he immediately reported that the 12th Independent Brigade of the Jin Army of Yan Xishan, which had previously guarded Wencheng, had now confirmed that under the leadership of the brigade commander Zheng Yuan, had fled to Pingquan County in southern Jin, which was only 70 miles away from the lair of a branch unit of the Xu Brigade of the Eighth Route Army at the western foot of Guanmen Mountain, and the division may still maintain a scale of nearly 2,000.

This time, the brigade commander of the Japanese army squinted his eyes and thought: 2,000 guns, this is not a small force! Will they have the guts to go back to the front line of Wencheng in the future? Will they and the team of the Eighth Route Army's Lin Division Xu Brigade in Guanmen Mountain not interfere with each other or will they hinder each other? Or join forces to help?

He called a staff officer and asked him to connect the phone number in Fengdian County, and he wanted to talk to Captain Kosuke Otsuka: This guy Otsuka once exchanged fire with the 12th Independent Brigade of the Jin Army, and he wanted to know the exact strength of this miscellaneous unit of the Jin Army through him.