Wuhan, August 15, 1941

The Nationalist Government announced the abolition of the Sixth Administrative Region of Henan Province and the establishment of Nanyang Special City, which has jurisdiction over 13 counties: Nanyang County, Nanzhao, Tanghe, Zhenping, Fangcheng, Dengxian, Neixiang, Tongbai, Xinye, Xichuan, Miyang, Yexian, and Wuyang County.

Nanyang is located in the southwest of Henan Province, the junction of Henan, Hubei and Shaanxi provinces, surrounded by mountains on three sides, the basin of the opening in the south, because it is located in the south of Funiu Mountain, north of Hanshui, Nanyang Basin is located in the upper reaches of Hanshui, the source of the Huai River, there are Qinling Mountains and Funiu Mountains in the north, Daba Mountain and Wudang Mountain in the west, Tongbai Mountain and Dabie Mountain in the east, surrounded by mountains on three sides, and a basin of nearly 30,000 square kilometers is formed in the middle.

After the defeat of the First War Zone, Nanyang has become the last foothold of the First War Zone in Henan Province, and its importance is self-evident.

On the same day, the 68th Division of the New First Army entered the Nanyang Basin.

It's all like this, what else do you don't understand, the Nationalist Government made a deal with northern Shaanxi, exchanging Qijiang Special City for the Nanyang Basin, this deal, at first glance, it seems that the Eighth Route Army took advantage, but both government officials and market vendors felt that the Eighth Route Army had lost.

Qijiang Special City is now the largest industrial town in the entire southwest, coal, steel, weapons and ammunition, all kinds of industrial products, although the quality of the products is low, but you can't stand him with a complete range of categories, huge output, don't look at the small factories built by the national government have been put into operation one after another, can produce things in terms of quality and output can not exceed Qijiang Special City, this situation may continue for a long time, as for the reason everyone is clear, I have not seen the recent sudden surge in "imported" industrial products on the market.

The agriculture of Qijiang Special City is also very developed, although the arable land area of Qijiang is not large, but with the efforts of Li Yunlong, the limited land has been used to the greatest extent, and a complete farmland and water conservancy facilities have been built, focusing on planting potatoes and castor beans, which can produce enough potato flour and thousands of tons of biodiesel to eat millions of people every year.

The so-called potato flour is a kind of gray-black flour obtained after the potato is harvested after washing, drying, slicing, drying and crushing, which is different from potato starch, this thing is more nutritious and has a higher yield, Hans used this thing as a staple food in the last war, although the taste is not good, but it is extremely important for food security. In addition to being used as a staple food, the Qijiang factory can also use potatoes to produce a series of products such as potato starch, alcohol, syrup, vermicelli, nitrocellulose and so on

As for the production of diesel from castor beans, it has been proven that it can completely replace diesel, this technology is very mature, Hans is producing, the government is producing, although it is not a necessity, but out of consideration for fuel safety, everyone is insisting on biofuel technology.

Another is infrastructure construction, Qijiang is the first county in China to realize the highway in every village, and it is also the first county in the country to connect villages with electric lights and telephones, in the whole county, there is not even a dilapidated house, every township has a high standard of middle school, every village has its own primary school, and so on, in a very short period of time, Qijiang has been built into the highest happiness index area in China.

In addition, such as fiscal revenue, residents' savings, population density, illiteracy rate, unemployment rate, and many other aspects, Qijiang is at the forefront of the country, even at the level of the whole of Asia.

What's more critical is that the north of Qijiang Special City is a mountain city, as long as Qijiang Special City is in the hands of the Eighth Route Army, the Eighth Route Army can threaten the mountain city at any time, and then block the connection between Sichuan Province and Hubei Province, and then attack Sichuan Province and even sweep the southwest.

But what about Nanyang, since the beginning of Xinhai, the boundary has been plagued by bandits, and later, it was controlled by the big bandit Bei Tingfang, plus the looting of Deputy Commander Tang over the years, Nanyang's land is about to be scraped clean.

In terms of population, the registered population of Nanyang Special City is only half of that of the last years of the previous dynasty, and a large number of the population is still controlled by bandits and gentry, and there are not many young and middle-aged laborers in society at all, whether it is to develop the economy or to recruit soldiers, it is very troublesome.

In terms of finance, it has been 20 years since the tax revenue has been received, and if there is no expropriation, if there is no contraband, let alone the salaries of public officials, it is impossible to make everyone not hungry.

In terms of industry, although Bei Tingfang has a lot of evil deeds, he has really built a lot of factories in Nanyang, mainly arsenals, and the most important thing here is the arsenal, where bullets, rifles, pistols, rifles, light machine guns, and even small-caliber mortars can be produced, but in recent years, they have been destroyed under the key care of the Japanese Air Force, and the remaining machines and workers have also been looted by Deputy Commander Tang.

In terms of agriculture, after thousands of years of development, the Nanyang Basin has long been depleted, the water conservancy facilities are in disrepair, the grain is seriously degraded, and a large area of abandonment, the number of registered cultivated land in Nanyang is only 60% of the last year of the previous dynasty, and the grain output is only less than 30%.

Politically, although the Military Commission has ordered the remnants of the First War Zone to withdraw to Shaanxi Province for rest, no one can say when Hu Shoushan will be able to withdraw, even if all of them are withdrawn, there will still be a large number of wounded soldiers and their families left in Nanyang in the First War Zone, these are all problems that need to be solved by the newcomers of the New First Army, and the local bandits and gentry are in a state of quasi-secession, and the area that the government can control is actually less than half, to be precise, there are only five counties, well, part of it.

In terms of military threats, Nanyang seems to be only one step away from the Eighth Route Army base in Jin Province, but in fact it is under the direct threat of the Japanese army, whether it is the Japanese army in southern Jin or western Henan, they can attack Nanyang Special City at any time.

In order to threaten the national government, Yoshio Shinozuka deployed 200,000 Japanese puppet troops in the western Henan region, including even the only tank division in his hand, and its combat power should not be underestimated.

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