Chapter 20 Chapter 4 The devil is coming (3)

3 In the spring of 1938, Doihara commanded the 14th Division to hastily ended the raid in northern Henan and began to forcibly cross the Yellow River. In the year when the "July 7th Incident" broke out, judging from the so-called "records" announced by the Japanese military, the "winner" of the Japanese invaders should be none other than the Dohihara 14th Division.This invading army, mainly composed of students, citizens and peasants, penetrated the farthest into the hinterland of China, captured the most cities in China, defeated more than ten times the number of enemy troops, but had the lowest number of casualties, etc., creating a series of battlefield miracles.Therefore, some fanatical Japanese newspapers touted the division as the "China Nemesis", and some people called Kenji Doihara the "model division leader", and so on.In fact, since the 14th Division landed in Tanggu, it has captured dozens of large and small cities such as Tianjin, Beijing, Shijiazhuang, Baoding, Yuncheng, Taiyuan, Changzhi, and Xinxiang, and swept through several provinces in Hebei, Shanxi, and Henan. Most of their opponents Abandoning the city and fleeing did not form a truly strong resistance.Doihara's record has aroused the envy of many division heads. Some people attribute his victory to good luck, or to winning without a fight. The Fifth Division fell into a tragic ambush at Pingxingguan, and the Second Army also encountered strong resistance like Taierzhuang, and the two main divisions suffered heavy casualties and once retreated.But the above statement is not fair. After all, the 14th Division has fought for thousands of miles and achieved a lot of victories. Could it be all because of good luck?

The secret is only clear to Doihara himself, that is, he spent most of his life as a spy in China, which came in handy.Doihara, who is known as "China Handy", considers himself a political soldier, unlike most Japanese generals who are simple-minded and know nothing about the enemy except fighting.For example, Wan Fulin, the general of the Northeast Army stationed in Hebei, has been in a slump since the "Xi'an Incident" and has no intention of fighting at all. Doihara sent someone to reach a secret agreement with him in advance.So Wan Fulin really gave up the Baoding and Yongqing areas according to the agreement, and retreated through the Beijing-Hanzhou Railway without incident.The same example can also be seen Shi Yousan, the security commander of Zhubei North, Shang Zhen, the commander-in-chief of the 20th Army, and so on.This is the main reason why at the beginning of the Anti-Japanese War, the provinces in North China quickly fell to the enemy without fierce resistance.Doihara beat and pulled these miscellaneous troops that were squeezed out. Later, many of them openly surrendered to the Japanese and became the "Imperial Association Army" that helped the evildoers.

However, a stern order from the commander-in-chief of the temple changed the direction of the 14th Division, and Doihara had to turn to the land of Shandong on the other side of the Yellow River.Regarding the intention of the dispatched army and the future tasks of the division, he and his staff have made various speculations, and they agreed that the most likely thing is to capture Heze so as to maintain the combat posture of supporting Xuzhou and protecting the security of the dispatched army's flanks, that is, to continue to implement diversionary operations. Task. The dry season of the Yellow River greatly facilitated the crossing of the Japanese army. The defenders on the other side retreated hastily after only a brief resistance. As a result, Heze City, an important town in southwestern Shandong, was fully exposed to the invaders.Heze is rich in peonies and is known as the "Peony City" in western Shandong. However, this thousand-year-old city is also a logistics base and material transfer station for the Chinese army.The intelligence indicated that the 23rd Division under the 20th Army was already standing outside the city. When Doihara ordered the tank brigade to carry the search brigade (battalion) to go forward with all their strength and must defeat the enemy to seize the city, the chief of staff worried that the follow-up troops might follow Failure to do so will lead to weak attacks and increased casualties.But Doihara was not worried. He said contemptuously: To deal with these Chinese people, I think two brigades are enough.

The chief of staff reminded him: But air intelligence shows that there are three divisions of the Northeast Army south of Heze. Doihara laughed loudly, and he said: I bet Wan Fulin can't do anything but retreat, please execute the order. The Japanese army approached the city of Heze.