Chapter 78 Chapter 7 Put the word "death" on your head (Battle of Henan, Hunan and Guangxi, Battle of Hengyang)

In the spring of 1944, China had formed the Western Yunnan Expeditionary Force in Yunnan, but the U.S. government believed that the assembled troops were not enough, and it was necessary to continue to increase the number of troops, and immediately launched an attack on the Japanese army west of the Nu River. In order to organize the Western Yunnan Expeditionary Force, China's defense forces are actually insufficient, but the area to be defended is large. If too many troops are transferred to Western Yunnan, there will be no small difficulty. Chennault of the U.S. Air Force to China also opposed this approach. He warned Chiang Kai-shek: "The deployment of Japanese ground forces is the most threatening strategy since Pearl Bay (Pearl Harbor). Japan is preparing to launch two offensives. One is to sweep Beijing. The link between the Han Railway and Henan; the other is the occupation of Changsha."

Chennault's warning was not groundless, but supported by definite intelligence.The latest deployment of the Japanese army is actually the "Operation to Break Through the Continent" that the Japanese base camp had asked Hata Shunroku to study. At this time, it was officially named "Operation No. 1". "Operation No. 1" is scheduled to have a total force of 510,000, which is the largest number of troops dispatched by the Japanese army during the entire period of invasion of China. The past Songhu Battle, Xuzhou Battle, and Wuhan Battle are all far behind.In the history of the Japanese army, the original largest battle was the Battle of Mukden during the Russo-Japanese War. However, in terms of the large number of soldiers, the wide combat area, the long combat distance, and the length of the scheduled combat date, it still cannot compete with "No. 1" Combat" on a par.

However, the U.S. government, standing on their own strategic standpoint and perspective, did not take into account the actual difficulties faced by the Eastern allies who jointly resisted Japan. On April 4, after the original proposal was rejected by Chiang Kai-shek, U.S. President Roosevelt still insisted on the original proposition. He asked Chiang Kai-shek to immediately make up his mind: "Order the Y Army (that is, the Western Yunnan Expeditionary Force) to cross the Nu River and attack Burma." By 1944, the US government's attitude towards China was no longer as tolerant as it was at the beginning of the Pacific War.The news of China's continuous defeat in the War of Resistance, as well as rumors about the corruption and incompetence of the Chongqing government and its passive combat, all made the Americans believe that the military aid they gave to China might be in vain, and this seemingly weak Eastern ally It seems that they have also adopted the attitude of "not bad for a thousand years, not repaid in 10,000 years", and no longer plan to return military aid. On April 10, Marshall decided to implement threatening measures, planning to reduce the amount of airlifted aid to China, and at the same time prepare to cancel loans to Chinese airlines.Stilwell, who was competing with Chiang Kai-shek for the command in China, was even more powerful. He planned to transfer all the 700 tons of airlift for the Western Yunnan Expeditionary Force in April to Chennault's air force.

Long before the outbreak of the Pacific War, the hard life and the prospect of victory had already made the morale of the Chinese army generally low.After the outbreak of the Pacific War, the participation of the United States in the war boosted the morale of officers and soldiers. Everyone pinned their hopes on the United States and formed a certain degree of dependence on American aid.The so-called well said, the mouth of eating people is soft, and the hands of others are short. Under such circumstances, the Chinese government had to make concessions to the demands of the United States. After ten days of serious research with Chief of Staff He Yingqin, Chiang Kai-shek finally A decision was made on April 14, agreeing to transfer two group armies and 16 main divisions to fight in Yunnan.

Only four days later, that is, on April 18, the Japanese army crossed the Yellow River in North China, which opened the prelude to "Operation No. 1" (called the Battle of Henan, Hunan and Guangxi in China). On May 27, Isamu Yokoyama commanded eight divisions belonging to the Japanese Eleventh Army with a total of 362,000 people, and launched an attack on Changsha and Hengyang along the banks of the Xiangjiang River. The tactic Xue Yue used to face Isamu Yokoyama was the same as in the third Changsha battle. It was still a combination of "decisive retreat" and "fighting for the outside line". He also gave this tactic a nice name, called "Tian Furnace Warfare".

However, after research by the Japanese army, they have actually been able to effectively decipher the "Sky Furnace Method".One of its core experiences is to change the usual method of in-depth solitary troops in the past. On the basis of thickening the force, deploy the backbone corps with stronger combat effectiveness on the two wings for cover, so as to smash the strongholds that the Chinese army relies on for flanking.At the same time, in addition to deploying the first-line troops, the second-line troops are also controlled in order to maintain the ability to attack large depths.

Looking ahead, the Zhejiang-Jiangxi battle can be regarded as the first effective use of the "anti-Tianlu tactics". Later, in the Changde battle, the "Tianfu tactics" were obviously unable to do what they wanted. Even the main force of the 74th Army and the Tenth The army was kept on the side of the Japanese encircling forces, and it was difficult to form an anti-encirclement to the Japanese army by flanking. The think tanks of the Chinese military are not without foresight. Zhao Zili and others pointed out after the third Changsha battle that "you can't beat people with a dead frame", otherwise it will be difficult to win.

If you want to win, the only way is to continue to extend the depth and at the same time gather enough troops for decisive battle.Zhao Zili's idea was to change to Hengyang instead of Changsha for a decisive battle with the Japanese army. During this period, in addition to using the full strength of the ninth theater, most or a powerful part of the third, fourth, sixth, and seventh theaters should also be mobilized. Go to Hengyang to fight the enemy. However, Xue Yue was intoxicated by the victory of the third Changsha Battle, and still decided to copy the "Tianlu Warfare".Of course, even if he could adopt Zhao Zili's suggestion, given the actual situation in each war zone, it would be difficult to gather as many troops as Zhao Zili wanted - most of the troops that could be transferred were transferred to Yunnan.

There are not so many mobile troops, but the Military Commission still made efforts to deploy troops from other theaters for reinforcements as much as possible. Prior to this, Stilwell had repeatedly designated the transfer of the 74th Army to Yunnan and Myitkyina in northern Burma, and promised to airdrop supplies, but the Chinese side resolutely refused.Fortunately, they did not agree to transfer the 74th Army, otherwise, at this juncture, where would they find such a reliable mobile force? After the battle began, the main task of the Seventy-Fourth Army was to cover the flanks of the Ninth Theater on the north bank of the Xiangjiang River, and at the same time launch a flank attack on the 40th Division of the Japanese Army that committed crimes in the south.

At dawn on June 5, the 51st Division of the 74th Army mobilized part of its troops to storm Yougang Town, where the first part of the 40th Division of the Japanese Army was stationed.The battle ended at 5:00 p.m., when the Japanese army was defeated, and the 51st Division occupied Yougang, killing more than 130 enemies.In the next few days, the 51st Division and the 58th Division fought the enemy many times, and both sides suffered heavy casualties. The southward movement of the Japanese 40th Division was also greatly disturbed. With the Xiangjiang River as the demarcation line, the main force of the Eleventh Army of the Japanese Army was on the south bank of the Xiangjiang River, and the 40th Division was the only strategic corps that cooperated with the main force on the north bank.During the southward march, they must always be on guard against the attack of the 74th Army from the right-wing direction of Changde, which made the division very troublesome.

At the beginning, at the end of the Battle of Changde, Hata Shunroku had instructed Yokoyama Isamu not to withdraw from Changde. This was what he was worried about, but Yokoyama didn't listen to the advice, and at this time he had to deal with it himself.