Beiping, No. 11 Iron Lion Hutong.

Fast forward to June 8, 1942.

Seizo Yusue rushed into Okamura Ninji's office with a thick stack of papers, but unexpectedly saw that Chief of Staff Anda Twenty-three was actually there, and both of them looked solemn.

Moritake Tanabe, former chief of staff of the North China Front, has been transferred back to the Army Headquarters as deputy chief of staff.

Anda 23 succeeded Tanabe Moritake as chief of staff of the North China Front at the beginning of last year, and will soon be transferred to the Southern Army as commander of the 18th Army.

Today I guess I made a special trip to say goodbye.

"Your Excellency, Your Excellency, Chief of Staff." There are three heads of the last essence.

Okamura Ninji waved his hand and said in a low tone, "There is a sue-kun, is there something wrong?" ”

Yusue Seizan asked in disbelief: "Your Excellency, is there something big wrong with the empire?" ”

Okamura Ninji nodded silently, but Anda Twenty-three said in a low voice: "The Navy Combined Fleet suffered a crushing defeat at Midway, all four aircraft carriers participating in the battle were sunk, more than three hundred combat planes were shot down or fell into the sea because of fuel exhaustion, and the elite pilots of the Naval Aviation were almost lost!" ”

"Huh?" Yusue Jingsan couldn't help but be taken aback when he heard this.

A few seconds later, Seizo said angrily: "I knew, I knew that there would be such a day, the last time I went back to Tokyo, I had a contact with those fools in the navy, and I found that these fools had their tails in the sky one by one after the Battle of Pearl Harbor, and I knew that sooner or later there would be a defeat!" ”

Okamura Ninji said quietly: "The proud soldiers will be defeated, and the proud soldiers will be defeated!" ”

"Yes, the arrogant army will be defeated." Anda Twenty-Three also said abruptly, "The Chinese classics not only hide the philosophy of dealing with the world, but also the philosophy of using soldiers that has been precipitated for thousands of years, but unfortunately, there are very few high-ranking generals in the imperial military circles who can put down their bodies and humbly study the ancient philosophy of the Chinese like His Excellency the General." ”

"Don't talk about that." Okamura Ninji waved his hand and said, "However, if Seon loses his horse, he will not know if it is a blessing, although the navy suffered a disastrous defeat at Midway, it is not necessarily a bad thing for our army." ”

Anda Twenty-three said: "What did Your Excellency General say about this?" ”

"It's simple." Okamura Ninji said, "If the navy does not have the defeat of Midway, they will still be empty-sighted, and they will still unrealistically propose to occupy all the islands in the Pacific, and then the limited war resources stored in the base camp will continue to be tilted towards the navy, and the resources that our army can allocate will be very limited." ”

After a pause, Okamura Ninji continued: "But now it's different, now that the Navy Combined Fleet has suffered heavy losses in the Battle of Midway and has basically lost its naval supremacy over the South Pacific, then the operational plan formulated by the Admiralty to seize Fiji, Samoa, and New Caledonia will most likely have to be abandoned. ”

"yes." Anda Twenty-Three said happily, "In this way, the navy will not need so many war materials. ”

"So, this is an opportunity for our Army, especially for our North China Front." After a slight pause in this, Okamura Ninji turned his gaze to Arisue Sandao, "Yousue-kun, how are the materials I asked you to prepare for this May Day sweep?" ”

"Hello!" Yusue Seizan handed over the thick handful of materials in the document bag in his hand.

"Yo Xi, are you ready?" The expression on Okamura Ninji's face finally looked better, and he said, "But before I leave for China, I'm afraid I'll have to go to Manchukuo first." ”

"Manchuria?" When you heard this, your eyes immediately froze.

This is to draw the elite from the Kwantung Army?

Could it be the 1st Division?

……

Northwest of Shanxi.

I heard that the arsenal had been completed and put into operation, and the brigade commander also came over to inspect it.

However, the brigade commander also brought bad news that made everyone feel heavy.

"The Jizhong Military Region, as a structure, has been completely destroyed by the Japanese army." The brigade commander said sadly, "The Jizhong base area no longer exists, most of the tens of thousands of regular troops have died, the remaining troops have been transferred to the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei base area, and only a very small number of backbone cadres have been converted to the militia to continue to fight guerrillas in the original area." ”

Hearing this, Li Yunlong suddenly sighed.

Ding Wei was even more deplorable, he was originally in the middle of it.

Ding Wei sighed and said, "It seems that the tunnel war is not to be feared. ”

"Ding Wei, you're right." The brigade commander said, "The main reason why the Jizhong Military Region suffered a defeat this time is because the Japanese army has found a way to crack the tunnel warfare. ”

After a pause, the brigade commander said again: "The tunnels of the Jizhong Military Region add up to more than 10,000 kilometers, but they were still cracked by the old devil Okamura Ningji. ”

Kong Jie said: "What method did Okamura Ningji use? ”

The brigade commander said: "In fact, it is still the same stupid method before, the blockade tactics of the blockade and entrenchment, which is to dig a blockade ditch, build a road and a pillbox, and then advance inward little by little from all sides, until the main force of our army and the people are compressed in an extremely small area, until it is trapped or forced to break through the siege." ”

Zhao Gang said: "Isn't there still an authenticity? How can you get stuck? ”

Li Yunlong also said: "Yes, even if it is divided and surrounded, the village can fight for itself, and the devil puppet army simply does not have so many troops to divide and surround so many of our villages." ”

Xing Zhiguo also said: "Last time Fuliang Mountain was swept up, we defeated the devil like this. ”

The brigade commander shook his head and said, "The method of anti-sweeping in Fuliang Mountain has been used once, and it will not work, because Okamura Ningji, an old devil, has already thought of a way to crack it. ”

Li Yunlong asked, "What way?" ”

The brigade commander said: "First use a ring trench to block the entire village, then dig a shaft in the village, and then place a large number of explosives for underground detonation, the huge shock wave from the depths of the ground can easily destroy the shallow tunnels, dozens of villages on the periphery of the Jizhong Military Region originally planned to fight for themselves, but the whole village, young and old, together with the militia, were all buried alive!" ”

After a pause, the brigade commander sighed again: "After that, the Jizhong Military Region will no longer dare to fight for itself." ”

"Holy!" Li Yunlong said hatefully, "Okamura Ningji, this old devil is really vicious." ”

"What do you think?" The brigade commander said angrily, "Even the boss said that this old devil is not easy to deal with." ”

Zhao Gang said awe-inspiringly: "In this case, our Northwest Shanxi Military Region really has to be vigilant, maybe the Japanese army will adopt such tactics in the next sweep." ”

The brigade commander said in a deep voice: "It's not that it's not impossible, but it's certain that little Japan actually has a very strong learning ability, and some tactics that are effective on the battlefield will soon be promoted." ”

"But fortunately, we're not unprepared."

Wang Ye smiled and said, "Brigade commander, in fact, we have already changed our defense strategy. ”

"I've heard that." The brigade commander said happily, "You kid is building a fortress city defense system?" ”

"Yes, the fortified city defense system." Wang Ye said, "Unconventional tactics such as tunnel warfare are still very effective against small-scale sweeps of devils, but they are not very effective when encountering large-scale attacks by devils." ”

"In the face of the large-scale attack of the devils, it is still necessary to make the defense system more effective."

Speaking of this, Wang Ye said again: "It's a pity that the mountains in the northwest of our Jin Dynasty are all dirt mountains, and there is no granite crater like Shuiyao Mountain, and in the end it will definitely not be able to stop the Japanese army, so we have to prepare for the worst, that is, to fight with the devils in several core cities and kill and injure the Japanese army as much as possible." ”

The brigade commander suddenly became interested and asked, "Do you make a sand table?" ”

"Of course." Wang Ye shook his hand and said, "Brigade commander, please come here." ”

The next group of people surrounded the brigade commander and came to the battle hall next door.

I saw that a huge simulated sand table had already been made in the battle hall.

The sand table shows a scaled-down model of the mountains, rivers and valleys in the northwest of Shanxi Province.

On the side of the sand table, there are even several scaled-down sections of the fortress.

Wang Ye took the wooden pole and pointed to the section and said: "Brigade commander, look, this is a section of several fortresses, although the specific shapes are different, but the basic structure is the same. ”

"The core purpose of the defense of the four fortresses is flank defense."

"On the highway facing the direct fire of the Japanese army, there are anti-tank cones, blocking ditches, and communication trenches, but there will never be pillbox fortifications, because no matter how strong the fort is, it cannot withstand the concentrated fire of the devil's direct fire."

"All our fortifications are built on the ridges on both sides of the road."

"And all the defensive fire, all directed at the road, formed a dense cross-flank fire."

Speaking of this, Wang Ye said again: "Once the Japanese army enters the highway, it will be killed by crossfire from both sides of the road, no matter how many people the devil throws in, there is only one result, all annihilation!" ”

The brigade commander frowned and said: "I'm afraid this is just your wishful thinking, if the Japanese army attacks the positions on both sides first, what will you do?" ”

"That's exactly what I'm trying to achieve." Wang Ye smiled slightly, and said, "That is to force the Japanese army to abandon the highway and choose to engage in tunnel warfare with our army in the mountains on both sides!" ”

"Hmm." When the brigade commander heard this, he already understood Wang Ye's thoughts.

Wang Ye's defensive thinking can be summed up in only one sentence: play up your strengths and avoid your weaknesses!

The greatest advantage of the Japanese army is firepower, so instead of engaging in frontal defense, all firepower is deployed on the slopes on both sides of the road, so as to form side-fire firepower.

Such side-fire could both block the road and avoid the Japanese firepower.

If the Japanese wanted to destroy such side firepower, they could only launch an infantry attack on the slopes on both sides of the road, which became a mountain back attack, and the Japanese army's firepower advantage was already half gone.

Then, the side-firing point designed by Wang Ye was still hidden.

It is to hollow out the hills on both sides of the road one by one and build them into bunkers.

In this way, if the Japanese army wanted to destroy the side-firing points of the Eighth Route Army, they had to seize one bunker after another, and each of these bunkers had dozens of such bunkers.

And it's increasing at an average rate of one per day.

One can imagine how hard and difficult it would be for the Japanese army to fight for it.

It must be admitted that Wang Ye's defensive thinking is still very good.

However, whether it can play its due role or not must be tested through actual combat.

Wang Ye smiled and said, "Brigade commander, I have given this defense plan a name, it is called Collapse Defense. ”

"Collapse defense?" The brigade commander asked with great interest, "Why is there anything special about such a strange name?" ”

Wang Ye said: "For example, the Japanese army is like a truck, when the Japanese army attacks, it is like a truck accelerating towards us, and one of our bunkers is a layer of baffles, one bunker can't stop it, then two, two bunkers still can't stop it, then three, four, layer by layer of rout, until the Japanese truck runs out of kinetic energy and completely stops, this time also means that we hold the fortress." ”

The brigade commander nodded and said, "This rout defense you made sounds quite powerful, but the question is, can you block multiple trucks?" And how long can it be stopped? ”

Wang Ye said: "For now, it will take about half a month to be able to block the four divisions of the Japanese army." ”

"What, to be able to withstand the attack of four divisions?" The brigade commander was taken aback, and then asked, "However, why can you only hold on for half a month?" Don't you think time is a bit short? ”

"Because there's no ammo." Wang Ye spread his hands and said, "The ammunition reserve is only enough to support half a month." ”

"Ammunition?" The brigade commander nodded, and immediately said, "Let's go, let's take a look at our arsenal." ”

At that moment, Li Yunlong asked people to prepare horses again, and then the group surrounded the brigade commander and went straight to Wanmadu.

……

Nagata Town, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, the official residence of the Prime Minister of Japan.

The Prime Minister's Residence is not the residence of the Prime Minister of Japan, but the place of office.

In the living room of the prime minister's office, Hideki Tojo and Ninji Okamura kneel opposite each other on tatami mats.

Looking at the man kneeling in front of him, Okamura Ninji couldn't help but feel a little emotional, thinking that when he was gathering in the hot spring sanatorium in Baden-Baden, Germany, this guy was only worthy of the three of them to guard the door, but now, Nagata-kun has died, Kobata Toshijun has long since faded out of the military world, and he is the only one left in the Showa Sanyu Wu.

However, this guy who was watching them at the time became the prime minister.

In order to get the support of this guy, he also had to do a lot of careful preparation.

Looking at Okamura Ninji, who was kneeling in front of him, Hideki Tojo also felt a little emotional.

Life is like a marathon, not a 100-meter race, and although the start of Nagata Tetsuyama and Toshiro Kobata was fast, their endurance was too poor, so it was him Hideki Tojo who had the last laugh.

Thinking of this, he smiled slightly, and Tojo Hideki said: "Okamura-kun, as soon as you open your mouth, you will have a large increase in the number of troops of ten divisions, and your appetite is too great, please give me a convincing reason." ”

Okamura Ningji said solemnly: "The reason is that the 386th Brigade of the Eighth Route Army can no longer be allowed to sit big, so far, the 386th Brigade of the Eighth Route Army has developed into a strategic armed force that can annihilate a division of the Imperial Army, and what is even more terrifying is that this army is still developing rapidly, or it will be enough to threaten the safety of the First Army stationed in Shanxi in less than half a year!" ”

"Okamura-kun, is it such an exaggeration?" Hideki Tojo frowned and said, "It's only 30,000 dirt and eight roads, and it's just that, how can it be more difficult to deal with than hundreds of thousands or even millions of the Central Army?" The Battle of Songhu, the elite of the 700,000 Central Army, the Battle of Wuhan, more than 1 million Central Army, were easily defeated by the Imperial Army, you now say that just 30,000 Tuba Road is enough to threaten the overall security of the First Army stationed in Shanxi, are you serious? ”

Okamura Ninji took out the first document from his briefcase and said, "Tojo-kun, take a look at this." ”

Hideki Tojo took it, but found that it was a list with the number of the unit and the commander on the list.

Okamura Ningji said faintly: "I believe that you must have seen these battle reports, Tojo-kun, but you must not have thought that it was the same army that caused these losses to the empire and the imperial army, and the number of this army is the 386th Brigade of the Eighth Route Army, which is really a different Chinese army." ”

Hideki Tojo's face finally became serious when he heard this.

At that moment, Hideki Tojo picked up his glasses and put them on, and read them carefully.

I saw that the list read:

Kuroshima United, Kuroshima Morita, Osa;

Yamazaki Brigade, Yamazaki Jihei, Shaosa;

4th Brigade, Maeda Shu, Major General;

Ninth Brigade, Yukiyuki Yamashita, Major General;

Field Observation Group: Naomi Hattori, Major General;

4th Cavalry Brigade, Kojima Yoshizo, Major General;

2nd Guards Division, Maeda Tadanobu, Lieutenant General

Sixty-ninth Division, Michiichi Miyano, Lieutenant General

Seeing the end of the list, Hideki Tojo's face finally changed.

Hideki Tojo said in a deep voice: "Okamura-kun, these units of the Imperial Army were all annihilated by the 386th Brigade of the Eighth Route Army? And these big Zuo and generals on the list also died at the hands of the 386th Brigade? ”

"Yes." Okamura Ninji nodded, and said, "In fact, the two commanders of the First Army stationed in Shanxi, Yoshio Shinozuka and Yoshio Iwamatsu, were also self-cut because of the 386th Brigade, so I said that the 386th Brigade of the Eighth Route Army is the mortal enemy of the Imperial Army, and the hands of the 386th Brigade are really stained with the blood and tears of the imperial soldiers!" ”

"Damn!" Hideki Tojo slammed his fist on the low table.

Okamura Ningji said again: "And the most worrying thing is not the combat effectiveness of the 386th Brigade of the Eighth Route Army, but the development potential of this army. ”

"What?" Hideki Tojo said in horror, "Built an arsenal? ”

"Yes, they built the arsenal." "If they had opened up their production capacity, it would have been enough to produce tens of millions of rounds of ammunition and hundreds of thousands of shells a year!" ”

Speaking of this, Okamura Ninji said in an accentuated tone: "Tojo-kun, you might as well imagine how much damage will be inflicted on the Imperial Army with the strong combat effectiveness of the 386th Brigade of the Eighth Route Army, coupled with the sufficient supply of ammunition?" Huh? ”

Hideki Tojo couldn't help but gasp when he heard this, this was terrible.

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