Chapter 75 Chapter 75 Yokoyama’s Miscalculation 2

On July 3, Hideki Tojo received a telegram from the 11th Army sent by Toshiro Hata. He was furious and slammed his fists on the table and cursed: "Isamu Yokoyama has two more elite divisions. A week has passed. It's still going around the periphery of Hengyang. It's ridiculous, it's ridiculous. This doesn't look like the Imperial Japanese Army!" Headquarters Chief of Operations Sanada looked at Hideki Tojo, not knowing what to say to comfort the old boss.The battle in India's Imphal region had just ended the day before, and Mutian's 15th Army had only 30,000 of more than 100,000 troops left.This Mutian was too lacking in command and leadership skills, which aroused the dissatisfaction of the heads of the three divisions at once, and finally let the head of the 31st division lead his troops to withdraw without authorization, causing the entire line to collapse.This Muta, you are still my confidant and subordinate of Hideki Tojo, why don't you save some face for me.Tojo felt that he had an inescapable responsibility.

Misfortunes never come singly!The island of Saipan in the Pacific Ocean also had frequent reports of bad news, and it was shocked every day.The U.S. Army held a landing battle on June 15. The two sides fought fiercely for 20 days. What the headquarters received were farewell telegrams from the 43rd Division, the 47th Independent Brigade, and the Central Pacific Fleet. These two major defeats have caused criticism from the Japanese government and opposition parties, and dissatisfaction with Tojo is like a volcanic eruption, which is unstoppable.Well, in the first battle, we finally won the first stage; when you fought Hengyang bravely in Hengshan, you were frustrated, and you were unable to attack for a long time. Wouldn't this make Tojo even worse?

Hideki Tojo became more and more distracted, staring at Sanada and said word by word: "You have to urge China to send troops and strictly order Hengshan to capture Hengyang within a time limit. If it is too late, it may be too late!" Sanada knew very well what Tojo meant by "too late": if there was no Hengyang victory, Tojo, the prime minister, would probably not be able to become prime minister, and his military dictatorship would also be declared bankrupt. Sanada flew to Wuhan in a hurry, and told Hata Junroku the overall crisis in detail, and asked Hata Shunroku to give Tojo a hand in the face of Tojo's subordinates for several years.

Hearing this, Hata Junliu dared to neglect, and immediately ordered Chief of Staff Taro Matsui to fly to Changsha to supervise the battle. On July 8, Yokoyama met with his old classmates in Changsha.Matsui said earnestly: "Old classmate! The war situation is of great importance. We all have to fight hard for public and private purposes! The country needs a big victory! People's hearts and morale need victory to boost! I also I know, you have your difficulties, who wants you to meet the 10th Army of the Chinese Army! However, if the battle does not go well, Tojo will step down."

At this time, they didn't know that on the night of July 7, Tojo resigned from the post of chief of staff of the base camp with interest. He really hoped to step down with dignity. Yokoyama said: "I will try my best! However, the attack time cannot be advanced." On July 11, Lieutenant General Yan Yong Wang once again commanded two divisions to launch a second general attack on Hengyang. In southern Shonan in July, the sun is scorching hot, and the ground temperature during the day is as high as 50°C.The outlying positions around Hengyang are full of dead bodies from both China and Japan.The trenches of the Chinese defenders were filled with blood, and the stench filled the air.Fang Xianjue's 10th Army used cluster grenade tactics to block the Japanese army in front of the position time and time again.As of July 19th, half of the outlying positions in Hengyang were still firmly in the hands of the 10th Army of the National Army.

After Yokoyama carefully analyzed the battle report, he had to order to stop the general attack on Hengyang again on July 20.At that time, Hideki Tojo had been dismissed as prime minister on July 18.Hengshan felt ashamed when he heard the news.This July, in his memory, is destined to be black.He couldn't comprehend that Hengyang's defenders fought for a month under such difficult conditions, but not a single soldier came to surrender.What kind of army is this, what kind of a group of people is this, is it really made of any special material?Hengshan recalled the battlefield performance of Fang Xianjue's 10th Army when it attacked Changde at the end of last year.At that time, other Chinese reinforcements were watching from the outside, but the 10th Army, led by Fang Xianjue, actually tore through the blocking line of his two elite divisions and went to the city of Changde.If it wasn't for the barrier of the Yuan River and no boats to cross, maybe Fang Xianjue had already led his troops to join forces with Yu Chengwan's 57th Division, and the history of the vigorous Battle of Changde would be different!

This opponent is too powerful, too terrifying!Hengshan picked up a battle report, and saw that it read: "The 133rd Regiment, led by Mr. Kurose Heira, defeated the Zhangjiashan Highland yesterday. The casualties of the Kurose Regiment were 2,731." In this way, the captain of the Kurose Regiment Only 279 officers and soldiers under him can fight?It can be seen how tragic the battle situation is! Yokoyama Isamu muttered: "The battle can no longer be fought like this, and the 11th Army must be wiped out!" "Commander, what can be done about this! Commander-in-Chief Hata Toshiro called again to urge: the Hengyang issue must be resolved before the end of the month!" Army Chief of Staff Nakayama Sadatake echoed with a telegram.

"No, the 68th Division and the 116th Division have already reduced their staff by 30%, and now it's the midsummer season, so even if Hengyang is taken down, these two divisions will be completely collapsed! If Hengyang fails, our army's next step Combat will also be out of the question. It seems that only the main force of the 58th and 13th divisions will be mobilized to participate in the siege, and all the heavy artillery will be moved to the city of Hengyang." Yokoyama, who was about to throw everything at himself, looked at the map and bit Grinding his teeth, he sneered in a low voice but powerfully: "Mr. Zhongshan, you have moved the forward command post of the general headquarters to the east bank of the Hengyang River. I want to personally command the third general attack. The battles in Chaling and Anren will be carried out by the army. Lieutenant General Takeshita Yoshiharu is in command."

At this time, more than half of Hengyang's defenders had suffered casualties, and the reinforcements had not been seen for a long time.The Japanese offensive force doubled, and Hengyang was at stake. On July 29, the Japanese 11th Army Command set the time for the third general attack on Hengyang on the night of August 4. On the evening of August 1, Yokoyama took the chief of staff of Zhongshan and a group of staff members of the headquarters, took off from Changsha in two reconnaissance planes, and landed at Xiangtan Airport at night for a short stay.Because the air supremacy in this area has long been taken away by the Sino-U.S. Air Force, and the planes of senior Japanese officers were recently destroyed by the Sino-U.S. Air Force, at 5 a.m. on August 2, Isamu Yokoyama and others had to get up early and climb into the plane. At that time, the plane flew over the hastily repaired Hengyang Airport.

Yokoyama stayed in the very stuffy little plane, and heard the whistling sound of shells piercing the night sky from time to time outside the plane window.The plane was about to land when shells exploded around the runway of the airport.As soon as the first plane touched the ground, because the pilot braked too hard, the plane stood upside down.Seeing this situation, Heng Shanyong had no choice but to let go of his pretentious calm, and before the plane came to a complete stop, he jumped off the plane hastily with the support of his entourage. When Yokoyama bravely entered the nearby air-raid shelter, he saw the chiefs of staff of several divisions standing there like logs, presumably they had been waiting in the basement for a long time.

Yokoyama asked, "Are you all ready?" The chiefs of staff of the four divisions all said they were ready. Yokoyama sneered and said: "This is not a radio station, so there is no need to bluff. You know that if the situation is not serious, I don't need to come to the front line in person. So far, the defenders still have heavy artillery fire to the airport, which is enough to explain the problem No. Don’t they still have an underground passage to transport shells?!” The Chief of Staff of the 68th Division, Xiaohe, replied, "There are dozens of sorties every day to drop supplies to them." Yokoyama said sternly: "The 11th Army can no longer suffer heavy casualties. The so-called victory accumulated by the corpses of soldiers is really not something to be proud of! There are still two days before the general offensive time, all divisions Be sure to conduct actual combat simulations on the map, and strive to break through the city with the most suitable offensive means. The 10th Army in China has a strong fighting spirit. In the past two years, it has fought with our army 3 times, and each time it has caused heavy damage to our army. August 4th is the last attack, this order is a death order, until the capture of Hengyang City. If the task is not achieved, all officers and soldiers participating in the siege will commit suicide by harakiri, to thank the emperor! You, understand!" All the generals shouted in response: "Understood!" On August 2, Yokoyama walked into the command post of the 11th Army located on the east bank of the Hengyang River. The last fierce battle in Hengyang is coming. At the same time, Fang Xianjue stood on the roof of the Central Bank of Hengyang City, looking at the ruins of the city full of smoke under the bloody setting sun, his confused eyes seemed to be empty.In this way, he maintained the same posture for a long time, like a stone sculpture.He knew that the moment of the final decisive battle was coming.He didn't understand why the reinforcements Generalissimo Jiang promised every day hadn't come. It stands to reason that even if they crawled, they crawled into the city!If he replaced his 10th Army, he would have already joined the defenders!He didn't expect that a single thought at that time would ruin his reputation and fame throughout his life, leaving behind a lifetime of regret and remorse!