Chapter 16 Chapter 15 Asia-Pacific Battlefield

Historically, the traditional way for Japan to expand to the Asian continent is to go ashore from North Korea, enter Northeast China, and then expand to North China.During the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty, Toyotomi Hideyoshi tried to falsely go to North Korea and seize Beijing.After the Meiji Restoration, Japan's expansion path basically followed in the footsteps of its predecessor Toyotomi Hideyoshi.This striking similarity in history is probably due to the geographic location of the islands. From the viewpoint of the Annals School, it is determined by the "long period" of history.In modern times, China and Japan tried to transform into modernized countries almost at the same time, but China soon fell behind due to the traditional inertia inherent in a long civilization.In the Sino-Japanese Sino-Japanese War of 1894, China suffered a disastrous defeat and was forced to give up its suzerainty over Korea, recognize Korea as an independent country, and ceded Taiwan and the Penghu Islands to Japan. After the Russo-Japanese War in 1905, Japan seized the privileges of Tsarist Russia in the Northeast. In 1910, Japan formally annexed Korea.Afterwards, with North Korea as the base, the Northeast was fully managed, and the headquarters of the Kwantung Army was established in Dalian, putting the Northeast under armed control. In 1914, when World War I broke out, Japan took advantage of the fire and sent troops to Shandong to attack the German troops stationed in Qingdao, taking the opportunity to seize Jiaozhou Bay. In 1915, taking advantage of the melee among the European powers, Japan proposed to the Yuan Shikai government of China the "Twenty-one Measures" to destroy China.During China’s Northern Expedition, the Tanaka Cabinet of Japan, in order to obstruct China’s reunification, so as to continue to profit from it, used the pretext of protecting Japanese overseas Chinese to send troops to Shandong, creating the “Jinan Tragedy”. On June 27, 1927, the Tanaka cabinet held the "Oriental Conference" in Tokyo to step up the steps of aggression against China.

The "September 18th Incident" was a decisive step for Japan to invade China on a large scale.At that time, the global economic crisis broke out, and Japan's domestic economy was also severely impacted. In order to get rid of the immediate crisis and solve the long-term living space problem, the "young and strong" military forces in Japan were determined to seize Northeast China by force.Taking the "Wanbaoshan Incident" and "Nakamura Incident" as the background, on September 18, 1931, the Japanese army blew up a section of the South Manchuria Railway in Liutiaogou, Shenyang, falsely claiming that the Chinese army did it, and immediately mobilized the Kwantung Army and the North Korean garrison The army has a total of more than 10,000 people and launched a large-scale attack on important cities in the Northeast.The Northeast Army commanded by Zhang Xueliang was about 170,000 people. Except for a few who had to resist, most of them withdrew to the west of Shanhaiguan in accordance with the "non-resistance" secret message of "non-resistance" from Nanjing National Government Chairman Chiang Kai-shek.The Shenyang Arsenal stockpiled 8,000 rifles, 4,000 machine guns, and 260 aircraft, all of which were stolen by the Japanese army.In just three months, the Japanese army completely occupied the entire Northeast.When the national government dealt with the crisis, the reason why it acted like opening the door to robbers was because it pursued the wrong policy of "to fight against the outside world first, and to settle the inside first" in the face of internal and external difficulties. It hoped to delay the Sino-Japanese war as much as possible. The "League of Nations" put pressure on Japan to restore the Northeast to the state before the incident, and had too many hopes.The serious mishandling of the "September 18th Incident" by the Chinese government has caused extremely bad effects both internationally and domestically.

After occupying the Northeast, Japan began to support Puyi's Manchukuo.In order to divert international attention, on January 28, 1932, the Japanese Marine Corps provoked a war in Shanghai, and the 19th Route Army under the command of the Chinese garrison Jiang Guangnai and Cai Tingkai fought back. This is the famous "January 28 Songhu War of Resistance" .Two days after the start of the war, the elite 87th and 88th divisions of the Chinese army formed the 5th Army, led by Zhang Zhizhong, and joined the battle in the name of the 19th Route Army.In this battle, the Chinese army swept away the timid state during the Northeast Incident, fought bravely and won the respect of the world.During the battle for more than a month, the Japanese army changed its commander three times and sent reinforcements from the mainland twice before forcing the 19th Route Army to retreat to the western suburbs of Shanghai. On May 5, under the mediation of Britain and the United States, China and Japan signed an armistice agreement.

On March 9, 1932, the "Manchukuo" supported by Japan was established in the Northeast, and the big and small traitors headed by Puyi appeared on the stage. On January 1, 1933, the Japanese army attacked Shanhaiguan and invaded Rehe Province. Tang Yulin, chairman of Rehe Province, retreated without a fight. The Japanese army mobilized two divisions, three brigades, and three cavalry regiments to advance within two weeks. 500 kilometers. On March 4, Chengde, the capital of Rehe, was captured, and took advantage of the momentum to turn left, approaching the entrances of the Great Wall.At this moment, the Nanjing Nationalist Government is engaged in a civil war, carrying out the fourth "encirclement and suppression" of the Communist Party's Central Soviet Area.From mid-March to late April, the 29th Army of Song Zheyuan of the Chinese Army fought fiercely with the Japanese invaders at Xifengkou, the 33rd Army of Shang Zhen at Lengkou, and the 17th Army of Xu Yaoting at Gubeikou, dealing heavy blows to the enemy. .From the beginning of the war to the first ten days of May, the Japanese army, relying on their absolute superiority in aircraft, tanks, and artillery, successively captured various entrances along the Great Wall. Although the Chinese army fought bravely and fought one after another, they were eventually defeated and retreated under the pressure of the enemy's superior weapons and firepower.The Japanese army forcibly crossed the Luan River, connecting 22 counties including Miyun, Zunhua, Jixian, and Tangshan.The Nationalist government sent Huang Yu to the north to negotiate an armistice with Japan. On May 31, China and Japan signed the "Tanggu Agreement", and China was forced to accept the humiliating armistice conditions.This battle can be seen as a typical example of Japan taking advantage of the opportunity of the Chinese to kill each other and engage in civil war to encroach on China's peripheral areas.

After Japan gained Longwangshu and occupied Rehe, it began to engage in "North China autonomy" and further dismembered China. At the end of 1935, under the pressure of Japan, the Nanjing government established a semi-independent Hebei-Chahar Administrative Committee that was vacillating between Japan and Nanjing.In the case of Japan's aggressiveness, the national government had to start adjusting its domestic and foreign policies to deal with Japan's aggressive attempts.Japan further exerted pressure and rapidly increased the number of troops stationed in North China.Seeing that North China was difficult to swallow for a while, Japan used the establishment of the "Great Yuan Empire" as a bait to instigate the King of Mongolia to establish a pseudo-"Inner Mongolia Autonomous Military Government" to break away from the Chinese government and take advantage of the contradictions among ethnic groups in China to seize Chahar, Suiyuan obtained the advance base for going south to North China. At the beginning of November 1936, under the planning of Hideki Tojo, chief of staff of the Japanese Kwantung Army, and under the personal command of staff officer Takashi Tanaka, thousands of puppet Mongolian troops invaded Suiyuan.Chiang Kai-shek called Yan Xishan and asked Fu Zuoyi, chairman of Suiyuan Province, to take active actions. On November 23, the puppet Mongolian army invaded Wuchuan and Guyang in two ways from Bailing Temple. Fu Zuoyi's 35th Army and Cavalry Division attacked the Bailing Temple behind it, and captured this important military town outside the Great Wall on November 24. Most of the puppet Mongolian army was wiped out.

Faced with the severe domestic and international situation of disputes among political parties with different political opinions and strong enemies from outside, the Nationalist Government headed by Chiang Kai-shek did not put national interests first, and united all forces that could be united to form an anti-Japanese camp for the whole nation To resist Japanese aggression, but proceeding from the self-interest of the Kuomintang’s one-party rule, they stubbornly regarded the Communist Party’s armed forces as Li Zicheng’s peasant army in the late Ming Dynasty, regarded Japan as the Qing army that was about to enter the customs, and believed that the reason for the collapse of the Ming Dynasty It is fighting against foreign enemies without first destroying the peasant army.Chiang Kai-shek believes that the current situation in China is similar to that of the late Ming Dynasty. It is necessary to learn the historical lessons of the Ming Dynasty and eliminate internal troubles before dealing with foreign enemies. On June 9, 1932, at the "Five Provinces Suppressing Bandit Conference" in Lushan, Chiang Kai-shek announced the policy of "suppressing the outside world first." The time for domestic political enemies and preparations for war against Japan.In this way, in terms of specific operations, it is inevitable that Japan will be pushed forward step by step and will be tolerant; internal suppression will be merciless, and the Communist Party and its armed forces that represent the interests of the working people will be actively "encircled and suppressed", and they must be eliminated. Then quickly; the parties and armed forces that oppose or violate this order of "safety at home first, then fight against foreign countries" will also be severely suppressed.

As early as the summer of 1933, the Great Wall failed in the Anti-Japanese War and Rehe fell. Feng Yuxiang, Ji Hongchang, and Fang Zhenwu spontaneously formed the Anti-Japanese Allied Army, fought bloody battles against the enemy, and recovered Chahar Province.Chiang Kai-shek's national government, in order to carry out the established policy of "peace from the outside world, must first secure the interior", joined Japan in exerting military pressure on the Anti-Japanese Allied Forces. In the end, the Anti-Japanese Allied Forces were ruthlessly suppressed by the Chinese government forces.Chiang Kai-shek's policy of "to fight against the outside world, we must first settle down at home" not only failed to win the time to fight against Japan, but also allowed Japan to invade and occupy a large area of ​​China's territory without any effort, and consumed its already weak national power in the endless civil war , The vitality of the Chinese nation was repeatedly damaged due to the self-interest of one person or one party. Coupled with the severe suppression of the anti-Japanese movement at all levels, it aroused the anger of the people of the whole country, including some government officials and military generals.The national government headed by Chiang Kai-shek has gone against the grain, which has reached the point where the people of the whole country cannot tolerate it.

At the end of 1936, Chiang Kai-shek arrived in Xi'an and forced Zhang Xueliang's Northeast Army and Yang Hucheng's Northwest Army to attack the Northern Shaanxi Soviet Area.Out of patriotic enthusiasm, Zhang and Yang did not want their compatriots to kill each other when foreign enemies invaded, so they launched the famous "Xi'an Incident" on December 12, 1936, detained Chiang Kai-shek and his accompanying government officials, and demanded to stop the civil war , unanimously external.After the efforts of the Communist Party of China and other parties, Chiang Kai-shek finally agreed to abandon the policy of "suppressing the outside world first," and stopped the ten-year "suppression of the Communist Party."The CCP also abandoned the policy of armed riots and confiscation of land from landlords, changed the Soviet area into a special administrative zone of the Nationalist government, and the Red Army was renamed the National Revolutionary Army.In this way, the "Xi'an Incident" was reasonably resolved, and a broad anti-Japanese national united front was established nationwide, and China finally completed its internal organization preparations for fighting against Japan.

After 1935, due to the intensification of Japan's invasion of China, the national government also began to prepare for the war against Japan, including: reform of the currency system, construction of strategic railways, construction of coastal and inland defense fortifications, army reorganization and equipment expansion , the development of national defense resources, but the effect is not significant.On the one hand, the reason was that the national government put "communist suppression" at the top, which cost a lot of money; on the other hand, science and industry were extremely backward, especially the manufacturing industries such as chemistry, iron and steel metallurgy, machinery, and optical instruments, which were the basis of military industry, were very weak. China has almost no ability to produce aircraft, tanks, ships, and various heavy weapons. In modern warfare, it is precisely these advanced weapons that determine the specific victory or defeat.

While China was forming a united front in the Anti-Japanese War, Japan also accelerated the pace of its all-out war of aggression against China. On February 26, 1936, the radical "Imperial Way Faction" of the Japanese military was dissatisfied with the slow-moving policy of the "Control Faction" in foreign aggression, and launched an armed coup, but it was suppressed, which caused social and political turmoil in Japan and domestic conflicts. intensify. On May 31, 1937, the Lin Xian cabinet collapsed due to its inability to resolve internal conflicts. On June 4, the Konoe Cabinet, which advocated active foreign aggression, was formed. In order to get rid of Japan's domestic difficulties, the Konoe Cabinet decided to launch a full-scale war of aggression against China.

On July 7, 1937, the Japanese army stationed near Beiping asked to enter Wanping City to search under the pretext of looking for a soldier. After being rejected by the Jixingwen Regiment of the 29th Army of the Chinese Garrison Song Zheyuan, they immediately attacked the city, and thus began a full-scale invasion. China War. After the "July 7th Incident" broke out, at that time the head of the Operations Department of the Japanese Army Staff Headquarters Kanji Ishihara and others advocated ending the war as soon as possible and dealing with the Soviet Union, while the Kwantung Army Chief of Staff Hideki Tojo and others advocated the complete occupation of China. On July 11, the Konoe Cabinet accepted the idea of ​​the Tojo faction and decided to select 3 divisions from China, 1 division from North Korea, and 2 brigades from the Kwantung Army to reinforce the Japanese army in North China.At the same time, the 26th Army of Sun Zhonglian, the 40th Army of Pang Bingxun, and the 53rd Army of Wan Fulin marched towards the Pingjin area.While dispatching troops and generals, the Japanese army pretended to negotiate, playing tricks to slow down the troops.Song Zheyuan was wary of the Central Army and the troops of other factions, and only allowed Sun and Pang to reach Baoding, and they were not welcome further north, thus hindering a reasonable defense configuration.In addition, he had illusions about the peaceful settlement of the conflict by the Japanese side, so he fell into the Japanese army's plan to slow down the troops and lost his good opportunity to fight. On July 16, the Japanese army arrived at the border with more than 100,000 troops in five divisions. The new commander of the Chinese Garrison, Xiangyue Qingsi, personally commanded the siege of Ping and Tianjin.Song Zheyuan's army also has 100,000 people, but the Chinese army, which has neither aircraft nor tanks, is at an absolute disadvantage in firepower, and is doomed to be defeated in a frontal defensive battle.From the fierce fighting to the end of July, the Japanese army conquered Beiping and Tianjin one after another, and continued to attack southwest. After the Japanese invaded and occupied Pingjin in North China, they launched an offensive in three routes. Two routes went south along the Ping-Han and Jin-Pu railways, and one route went west to attack Shanxi. On August 24, 1937, the Japanese 1st Army of Kazuki Kiyoshi, who was heading south along the Jinpu Line, defeated the troops of the 6th War Zone commanded by Feng Yuxiang, captured Cangzhou, and formed a pincer-shaped encirclement of Baoding and Shijiazhuang on the Ping-Han Line. Beginning on September 14, the Japanese Nishio Hisao 2nd Army, which fought along the Ping-Han line, forcibly crossed the Yongding River and the Juma River to attack Baoding.Under the tremendous pressure of superior weapons, although the Chinese army fought tenaciously, they were still unable to hold the peripheral Zhuozhou defense line. On September 24, the Japanese army captured Baoding, and the Chinese army retreated to Shijiazhuang.Then, the Japanese army forcibly crossed the Hutuo River and captured Shijiazhuang on October 10.Losing Baoding and Shijiazhuang, the important military towns in Hebei, Shanxi, Henan, and Shandong were exposed to the sharp edge of the Japanese attack. While advancing southward in Jinpu and Pinghan, the Japanese army also actively launched an offensive westward. At the beginning of August 1937, the Japanese army went straight to Nankou Town, a strategically important town in Shanxi and Chahar.Commander Yan Xishan of the 2nd theater and Wei Lihuang, commander of the 14th Army, who were in charge of operations in the area, wanted to rely on the danger of the mountain to defend their positions. getting bigger. In late August, Nankou finally fell. On September 12, Yan Xishan abandoned Datong, retreated to the front line of the Great Wall inside Yanmen Pass, and continued to deal with the enemy. In late September, the Chinese and Japanese armies fought fiercely at Pingxingguan. The 115th Division of the Eighth Route Army, reorganized by the Red Army and led by the Communist Party, under the command of its division commander Lin Biao, ambushed and wiped out the reserve team and transport team of more than a thousand Japanese 5th Divisions. .The Japanese army was blocked at Pingxingguan for eight or nine days, and the Chinese army was also unable to completely wipe out the besieged enemies near the East and West Paochi. On September 27, the Japanese army repeated its old trick, attacking the Ruyue Pass behind the frontal defenders in a roundabout way, and conquered it under the absolute superiority of firepower the next day. On September 30, the Second Theater ordered to abandon Pingxingguan and retreat to Xinkou. On October 12, the Chinese and Japanese troops fought a decisive battle in Xinkou.The Chinese side faced the battle with the three armies of the left, center and right. The Japanese army used planes, tanks, and heavy artillery to charge repeatedly for more than 20 days, and could not go beyond the thunder.The Japanese army changed its deployment and attacked Taiyuan along the Zhengtai line with a force. The Chinese and Japanese armies fought fiercely in Niangziguan for half a month, and both sides suffered heavy losses. On October 26, the Japanese army captured Niangziguan, from the east of Shanxi to the back of the Xinkou defense line in the north of Shanxi.The Chinese army was forced to abandon the Xinkou defensive position and shrink its troops to Taiyuan. On November 7, 1937, the Japanese army encircled Taiyuan City, and captured Taiyuan the next day with the coordination of land and air forces and airborne troops.Fu Zuoyi, who was guarding the city, broke through and moved to the south of Shanxi. On August 9, 1937, two Japanese marines stationed in Shanghai tried to force their way into Hongqiao Airport, but were killed by Chinese guards. The mobile troops of the Japanese army in Sasebo quickly sent reinforcements to Shanghai, and the war was inevitable.In view of the history that the Mongols and Manchus have successfully adopted the strategy of invading the Central Plains from north to south, the Chinese government decided to induce Japan to invest its main force in the coastal areas of East China, adopting a wrong strategy from east to west. On the 11th, Chiang Kai-shek ordered the Chinese troops on the Beijing-Shanghai line to actively attack the Japanese troops stationed in Shanghai, and the Battle of Songhu broke out.The Chinese army fought fiercely with the Japanese invading army for three months. The Chinese side invested a total of about 70 divisions, and the Japanese army invested a total of about 10 divisions.During the war, the two sides fought repeatedly in the urban and suburban areas, and the Japanese army enjoyed absolute command of the sea and the air, as well as great advantages in heavy weapons.Except for the infantry and light weapons that have been modernized, the Chinese army is at an absolute disadvantage in terms of other weapons and equipment. It is completely based on the spirit of patriotism and fights against the superior enemy with flesh and blood, so the loss of personnel is huge. On November 5, the Japanese army took advantage of the serious negligence of the Chinese army's defense on the right side, landed at Jinshanwei with three divisions, and went straight to the rear of the Chinese army. Under the threat of being surrounded, the Chinese army was forced to abandon the Song Dynasty. Shanghai area, retreat westward.Although this battle achieved the goal of luring the enemy to the coast of East China, one-third of the main force of the Chinese army was concentrated in the flat coastal areas where the enemy's land, sea and air advantages could be fully utilized. There seems to be a serious flaw in the guidance, and most historians hold this view.However, if you choose a mountainous area that is not conducive to the use of sea and air advantages for the battle, you will inevitably give up the country's wealthiest and most important Beijing-Shanghai-Hangzhou triangle area.Subsequent facts have proved that the Japanese army's weaponry advantage was limited by the terrain until it retreated to the junction line between the plain and the mountainous area west of the Jinpu Railway.If we choose the best military solution and abandon large areas of plains without fighting, there will be side effects in other aspects. These side effects will far offset the benefits of the best military solution, such as domestic morale, international influence, and foreign aid, etc., taking into account In all respects, the Chinese authorities had no choice but to resort to this military strategy. The Japanese General Staff Headquarters originally planned to limit the Songhu operations to the east of the Suzhou and Jiaxing lines, because Ishihara Kanji and Tada Hayao of the General Staff Headquarters were fighting against the Soviet Union and did not advocate expanding the war in China.However, Matsui Iwane, the Japanese field commander in Shanghai, judged that the Chinese army had been defeated and should take advantage of the victory to attack the capital Nanjing. So he disregarded the original regulations of the base camp and crossed the Su-Jia line to pursue Nanjing. Shocked, and then immediately agreed.Chiang Kai-shek was obsessed with fighting, and he delayed the retreat order, resulting in a disorderly retreat of hundreds of thousands of troops, unable to carry out organized alternate cover.The three defense fortifications of Wufu Line, Xicheng Line, and Zhapingjia Line, which cost a lot of money and have been in operation for many years, were easily crossed by the Japanese army. On November 20, the government announced the move of the capital to Chongqing, and at the same time appointed Tang Shengzhi to lead 100,000 newly defeated troops to defend Nanjing.On the one hand, the Japanese army approached Nanjing with the main force, and on the other hand, part of its troops were inserted into Wuhu behind Nanjing, cutting off the retreat of the Nanjing defenders, leaving Nanjing in a precarious situation surrounded on three sides and backed by water on one side. On December 5, the Japanese army began to attack Jurong’s frontal positions on the outskirts of Nanjing. The battle lasted for a week. On December 12, the Japanese army broke into Nanjing from the Zhonghua Gate. Under Chiang Kai-shek’s instructions, Tang Shengzhi issued an order to break out of the siege, but only a few troops received the order to retreat. , The order of the retreat was chaotic for a while. After the Japanese army captured Nanjing, they burned, killed, raped, and prostituted all kinds of crimes. The Japanese invading army headed by Matsui Iwane carried out a brutal massacre of Chinese civilians including women, children, and elderly people, and captured Chinese soldiers. The number of people killed reached more than 300,000. International public opinion said that the Japanese army had completely degenerated into a group of beasts, a "beastly group" among human beings. After the Japanese invaders occupied Nanjing, in order to subdue the Chinese government, they decided to go further into the hinterland of China and capture Wuhan, an important military town in central China.In order to eliminate the threat of the flanks of the Japanese troops advancing westward in North China and Central China, the Japanese base camp decided to mobilize some troops from North China and Central China to attack Li Zongren's 5th theater troops in the Xuzhou area along the Jinpu Railway in two routes to eliminate the threat from the flanks.The Chinese army took advantage of the convenience of the Japanese army's aggressive advance and internal line operations, and used part of its troops to block the enemy in central China in the south on the Huaihe line, and then adjusted its deployment to lure and wipe out the enemy in the north who was alone. Beginning in late March 1938, the Chinese and Japanese armies fought a bloody battle at Taierzhuang on the north bank of the Grand Canal, 60 kilometers northeast of Xuzhou. The 31st Division of Chichengfeng, which belonged to Sun Lianzhong's 2nd Army, held on for more than 10 days.In the first ten days of April, the Seya Brigade, the main force of the 10th Division of Rensuke Kitani and the Sakamoto Brigade, the main force of the 5th Division of Itagaki Seishiro, who had ventured forward, were surrounded by the troops of the Chinese 5th Theater in Taierzhuang. After fierce fighting, the remnants broke through. .More than 20,000 Japanese troops were wiped out before and after the Battle of Taierzhuang, and the Chinese army won its first major victory since the War of Resistance. Shocked by the failure of Taierzhuang, the Japanese base camp took advantage of China's encouragement of victory and transferred a large number of cutting-edge troops to the Xuzhou area for a decisive battle, and decided to encircle and wipe out the Chinese troops around Xuzhou.The Japanese army quickly cut off the Longhai line, cut off the retreat of Li Zongren's troops in the 5th theater from the west, and surrounded China's 600,000 troops with 13 divisions.Based on past experience, the Japanese High Command judged that the Chinese army would stick to the strategically important Xuzhou area, causing Japanese troops from all walks of life to gather in Xuzhou regardless.This time, the Chinese High Command learned the lessons of the past, voluntarily abandoned Xuzhou, and took advantage of the gaps in the Japanese encirclement network. Hundreds of thousands of troops passed by the Japanese army one after another, protruding from the encirclement to the southwest, with very little loss.The Battle of Xuzhou lasted for 5 months. Apart from a defeat in Taierzhuang, the Japanese army finally lost the city. The plan to annihilate the main force of the Chinese army completely fell through.Hundreds of thousands of troops in the 5th theater successfully broke through the encirclement. Such a large-scale and outstanding breakout battle was only seen in the battlefields of Central Europe and Asia in the Second World War. In early February 1938, in response to the Battle of Xuzhou, the 14th Division of Kenji Doihara of the Japanese Army began to attack Henan.In less than a month, Song Zheyuan's 1st Army was defeated and reached the north bank of the Yellow River. On May 13, the 14th Division crossed the Yellow River and continued to attack southward. On May 21, the 150,000 troops of the first theater under the command of Cheng Qian surrounded 20,000 people from the Doihara Ken Second Division in Neihuang and Yifeng. After 10 days of fierce fighting, the Chinese army was unable to achieve the goal of encirclement and annihilation.Chiang Kai-shek resignedly said: "150,000 people besieged 20,000 people, and let the latter go away. It is also a laughing stock in the history of warfare." This shows that the Chinese military authorities are deeply influenced by the traditional "human sea tactics". Little do they know that under other conditions being the same, the advantages of weapons can far offset the advantages of numbers (this situation also happened later in the Korean War, when the Chinese army surrounded a regiment of the US army with one army, and after a costly storm, they could not Annihilate them all, let them break out and escape). On June 6, the Japanese army captured Kaifeng and continued to advance to Zhengzhou. On June 9, the Chinese army blasted the Yellow River embankment at Huayuankou, and the flooding temporarily curbed the momentum of the Japanese army's westward advance.The voluntary breach of the embankment caused a yellow flood area, which affected forty-four counties in the three provinces of Henan, Anhui, and Jiangsu. The Chinese people paid a heavy price.On the other hand, just as Russia burned Moscow to show its resistance when Napoleon invaded, the Yellow River's embankment burst showed China's strong determination to resist the war to the end. In early June 1938, after the Japanese troops frequently invaded North China and East China, they planned to attack Wuhan, which was defended by the Chinese troops from the 5th and 9th theaters, along the banks of the Yangtze River.The purpose of the Chinese army is not to stick to Wuhan, but to use the favorable terrain around Wuhan to consume the Japanese army as much as possible, and strive for 4 months to create a favorable strategic stalemate and achieve the goal of a long-term war of resistance.The purpose of the Japanese army is to hit the Chinese army as hard as possible, thereby defeating the Chinese army's will to fight.The Battle of Wuhan lasted for 5 months, and the combat area covered the four provinces of Jiangxi, Anhui, Henan, and Hubei. The battle ended with the Japanese army landing in Guangzhou on October 21 and the Chinese army voluntarily withdrawing from Wuhan on October 24.The Japanese army invested a total of 12 divisions, and the number of troops was increased gradually, with a total of about 250,000.China invested more than 120 divisions and about 750,000 people. This battle was a turning point in China's War of Resistance. It changed the situation of the Japanese military's strategic offensive and the Chinese military's strategic defense, and brought China and Japan into a strategic stalemate.From the abandonment of Wuhan to the Battle of Henan, Hunan and Guangxi in 1944, on the frontal battlefield, the Chinese and Japanese armies had been facing each other in Hunan, Jiangxi, Hubei, and Henan. After the First World War, Japan's aggressive expansion momentum broke the balance of power in the Far East and directly threatened the interests of the United States, Britain and other countries.In order to contain Japan, in July 1921, under the initiative of the United States, the Washington Conference was held and the "Washington Naval Agreement" was signed, which stipulated that the naval tonnage ratio of Britain, the United States, and Japan was 5:5:3.At the same time, the "Nine Nations Pact" was signed, declaring respect for China's sovereignty, territorial and administrative integrity, and equal opportunities for all countries to benefit from China.At this time, the "Japan-British Alliance Treaty" that restricted Russia's expansion in the Far East automatically expired according to international practice, and Japan's expansion was temporarily suppressed. On June 27, 1927, the Tanaka Yoshiichi Cabinet, which actively promoted the policy of aggression against China, established the policy of separating Manchukuo and Mongolia from Chinese territory at the so-called "Oriental Conference". After the "September 18th Incident", US Secretary of State Stimson sent memorandums to the Chinese and Japanese governments respectively, declaring that Japan's occupation of Northeast China and similar aggression in the future would not be recognized, and the relationship between Japan and the United States began to become tense. In 1937, Japan launched the "July 7 Incident" and formally invaded China on a large scale. In the summer of 1940, Germany won a big victory in the European battlefield, and Japan's desire to "go south" was greatly stimulated. In September, Japan forced the French Vichy government to allow Japanese troops to enter northern Vietnam and build an air base.Also in July, Japan forced Britain to block the vitally important international supply route, the Burma Road, behind China.The United States felt that Japan's expansion in China and Southeast Asia had seriously threatened its own interests in these regions. On September 26, the United States announced a steel embargo against Japan and decided to fully support China's war of resistance.The United Kingdom had overcome the difficulties of the "Battle of Britain" at this time, and announced on October 8 that the Burma Road would be reopened. On September 27, 1940, Japan formed an alliance with Germany and Italy to fight against the United States and Britain. On December 29, 1940, President Roosevelt issued a "fireside chat", publicly claiming that the United States was the arsenal of China and other invaded countries, and provided military aid to China and other invaded countries in accordance with the "Lend-Lease Act" as a response to Germany and Japan. Europe and Asia responded by expanding.The relationship between Japan and the United States deteriorated rapidly, and both sides had a premonition that war would be inevitable. In April 1941, Japan and the United States began negotiations to test the possibility of avoiding conflict.Japan demanded to maintain the status quo of "Manchukuo" and to station troops in North China and Inner Mongolia for a long time. The United States demanded to return to the state before the "September 18th Incident" and did not allow Japan to station troops in China.Both sides felt that the differences were too great to achieve success, so they procrastinated for time while negotiating and actively preparing for war. On July 21, Japan coerced the French Vichy government to sign the "Japan-French Protocol", and the Japanese army immediately marched into southern Vietnam.The United States responded with an eye for an eye, and ordered the freezing of Japanese assets in the United States on July 26. At the same time, the Far East Command was established in the Philippines, with MacArthur as the commander.The United Kingdom and the Netherlands also followed the United States and announced the freezing of Japanese assets. On August 1, 1941, the United States used its "killer mace" to Japan and announced an oil embargo against Japan.The economic sanctions imposed by the United States immediately put Japan's national defense and industry in jeopardy. Japan's oil is basically imported from abroad, and its domestic oil production is less than one-tenth of its daily consumption.After 20 years of hard work, the oil reserve is about 6 million tons. If there is a major war, there will be nothing left within a year, and all Japanese warships, aircraft, and tanks will become a pile of scrap steel and rotten iron.Japan now has to choose between two paths: Either accept the request of the United States, abandon the policy of aggression against China, and restore the state before the "September 18th Incident", which means four years of war in China, It's a waste of time; either continue the war of aggression against China, which means occupying Southeast Asia and obtaining the oil, rubber, and iron ore necessary to maintain the war, which means expanding the war to Southeast Asia and starting a war with the United States , Japan felt that there was no certainty of victory. On August 5, Japan proposed a "partial solution" to the United States, but the United States ignored it. On August 7, Japan proposed a meeting between the leaders of Japan and the United States, but the United States did not reply. On August 26, Prime Minister Konoe of Japan sent a letter to President Roosevelt of the United States requesting a Japan-U.S. summit. The withdrawal of Japanese troops from China and Vietnam is the premise of the meeting, and Japan will naturally not accept it. On September 6, 1941, the Japanese cabinet held an imperial meeting and made a decision to carry out negotiations and war simultaneously. On the one hand, the negotiations continued, and on the other hand, within six weeks, that is, at the end of October, preparations for combat against the United States and Southeast Asia were completed. Work.From the perspective of time, the longer the delay, the better for the United States, because the whole of Japan has completely entered the war system, while the United States has not yet entered the war system.The Japanese base camp was afraid of losing their opportunity to fight against the United States, and strongly demanded to decide whether to "war" or "peace" before October 25. On October 12, the Japanese cabinet held a "five-phase meeting" among Prime Minister Konoe, Foreign Minister Toyota, Minister Kawakai, Minister Tojo Riku, and President Suzuki of the Planning Institute. During the talks between Japan and the United States, they accepted the suggestion of the United States to withdraw all troops from China, and then stipulated in the peace treaty with China to station some troops in North China and Inner Mongolia.However, Prime Minister Tojo Hideki, who represents the army, firmly opposes giving up the army's huge cost in mainland China.The Prime Minister, Foreign Minister, and Minister of the Sea jointly exerted pressure on Hideki Tojo, but none of them could change his stubborn attitude.Finally, on behalf of the army, Tojo put forward a tough condition to the cabinet: diplomatic negotiations must not affect the results of the "China Incident" and the right to station troops in China, and negotiations should be carried out within the specified time limit.Prime Minister Konoe resigned on October 16 on the grounds that he could not be held accountable for the practice of "whichever is the worst of two evils". On October 18, 1941, the Hideki Tojo Cabinet was established.Subsequently, the cabinet and the base camp held joint meetings for 10 consecutive times, and determined two plans for the final limit of concessions to the United States and the policy of "operational preparation and diplomacy in parallel." On November 7 and 20, Ambassador Nomura submitted two proposals to the United States, both of which were rejected by the United States. The main problem was that Japan wanted to maintain "Manchukuo" and station troops in North China and Inner Mongolia for 25 years. Fully withdraw troops. On November 26, the United States put forward the famous "Hull Memorandum", clearly demanding that Japan: must completely withdraw its troops from China and Vietnam; give up its relationship with the traitor Wang Jingwei's government; give up all Japan's gains in China in accordance with the "Xin Chou Treaty" interests; withdraw from the alliance formed by Germany and Italy.After Japan received the memorandum, it was determined that the negotiations had broken down. On December 1, the Tojo cabinet decided to go to war with the United States at the imperial meeting. The Imperial Council decided to fight without declaring, and cooperated with the time of submitting the ultimatum to achieve the effect of a surprise attack. On December 6, President Roosevelt issued a final appeal for peace to the Emperor of Japan.On the same day, the Tokyo government cabinet instructed the Japanese ambassador to the United States, Nomura, at 1 pm (Washington time) on December 7, that is, 30 minutes before the Japanese Combined Fleet attacked the US Pacific naval base-Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, to declare war. The ultimatum was handed over to the US side.In this way, the attack will start 25 minutes after the ultimatum is delivered, which can achieve the effect of a surprise attack without bearing the moral condemnation of "war without declaration".But by mistake, due to the lengthy telegram from Tokyo, the translation of the telegram by the Japanese embassy in the United States was delayed. Therefore, it was not until 2:20 p.m. that Nomura delivered the ultimatum to him in Hull's office, and 35 minutes ago, The Japanese navy has begun attacking unsuspecting American warships in Pearl Harbor. The purpose of Japan launching the Pacific War was to establish a large triangular sphere of influence in the Pacific Ocean.The east side starts from the Thousand Islands in the north, passes through Wake Island, and reaches the Marshall Islands; the bottom of the triangle is a line connecting the Marshall Islands, Bismarck Islands, Java, and Sumatra; the south side starts from Malaysia and southern Myanmar, passes through Indochina, and then along China coast back to mainland Japan.After occupying and controlling this giant triangular region, it will be able to obtain rich strategic resources in Southeast Asia and maintain continued operations against China.But in terms of the strategic situation in the Pacific, the US Pacific Fleet constituted a flank threat to Japan when it moved south.Therefore, the Japanese Navy hopes to quickly destroy the main force of the US Pacific Fleet, occupy Wake Island and Guam, and cut off the US line of communication across the Pacific Ocean.Japan intends to fight a short and limited war, building up a defensive line in the Pacific that includes newly acquired military bases and resource-rich areas in Southeast Asia, turning the so-called "Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere" into a strong military The fortress made the Americans sign a peace treaty in desperation. In order to achieve the above strategic intentions, the first step is to quickly destroy the US Pacific Fleet and control the sea dominance in the Southwest Pacific.It turned out that both sides predicted that the future situation of the Japan-US naval battle would be: Japan would attack Southeast Asia, the US Navy would sail across the Pacific Ocean for reinforcements, Japan would dispatch its main fleet to intercept, and the main fleets of the two navies would launch a decisive battle in the South Pacific.However, Commander Yamamoto Fifty-Six of the Japanese Navy's Combined Fleet believed that it was difficult to grasp the time and place of the tactic of blocking midway, and he was likely to be passive.To this end, Yamamoto Fifty-Six formulated a plan for a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, and conducted many simulation exercises in a place in China that was similar to the terrain of Pearl Harbor. As of December 1941, the two sides had approximately the same number of ordinary ships in the Pacific Ocean, but in terms of aircraft carriers, Japan had five heavy aircraft carriers, namely Soryu, Hiryu, Zuikaku, Chicheng, and Kaga. “祥凤”、“瑞凤”、“龙骧”、“隼鹰”4艘轻型航母。正在建造的航母还有5艘，另有2艘正由商船改装而成的航母。美国有“列克星敦”、“沙拉托加”、“猎兵”、“企业”、“约克镇”、“胡蜂”、“大黄蜂”7艘重型航空母舰。美国的制造计划中还有17艘重型航母，9艘轻型航母，78艘护航航母。 从制造航母的规模来判断，美国国内工业力量远非日本可比，长远来看，美国巨大的战争潜力终将压垮日本，问题是如何把这种潜力化为作战实力。当时双方在太平洋的实力，日本远占优势，航空母舰有10艘，而美国只有3艘。在航空兵方面：南进陆军中有飞机700架，台湾海军基地第11海军航空队480架，另外，航空母舰上载机360架，专供攻击珍珠港之用。而同盟国在太平洋地区的军用飞机只有500架左右，大都是质量低劣之旧式飞机，日本零式战斗机的性能压倒同盟国所有战斗机。所以，太平洋战争爆发时，日本海军、陆军暂时占全面优势。 1941年10月26日，就在野村大使同赫尔国务卿进行外交交涉的同时，以6艘航空母舰为核心，上载423架飞机，组成海上攻击部队，伴随2艘战列舰、3艘巡洋舰、11艘驱逐舰、3艘潜艇和7艘油船，在南云忠一指挥下，从千岛群岛的择捉岛秘密出发，取道北太平洋向夏威夷群岛的瓦湖岛目标前进，舰队在途中保持无线电静默。12月2日，日本大本营向联合舰队下达12月8日（日本时间）开始攻击的命令。12月7日，凌晨6点（夏威夷时间），从西北逼近夏威夷的联合舰队距瓦湖岛上的珍珠港基地约230海里，由183架飞机组成的第一攻击波开始起飞，7点55分抵达珍珠港上空开始狂轰滥炸。7点15分，由171架飞机组成的第二攻击波开始起飞，9点整，飞临珍珠港，开始第二次攻击，两次空中打击均获成功。在不过1个多小时的时间里，日本一举夺得太平洋上的主动权。 美国自1940年起就已能破译日本的密电码，联合舰队的无线电通讯突然消失，也已引起美国的警觉，但没料到日本舰队不从西面逼近，而是从北面迂回过来。从北面飞来的日军轰炸机群，利用了美军监视人员的麻痹大意。当然，最主要的原因是美军长期处于和平状态，养成了惰性、散漫、低效率，致使日军偷袭成功。美军被击沉、重创各4艘战列舰，另有其他7艘军舰被击沉，被炸毁飞机188架，人员死伤3400余人，日本海军仅损失飞机29架，袖珍潜艇5艘。美国太平洋舰队暂时瘫痪，不幸中的万幸是它的3艘航空母舰“约克镇号”、“列克星敦号”、“沙拉托加号”和另一支巡洋舰队在外执行任务，免遭袭击，为日后反击保存了实力。 在袭击珍珠港的当天，日本向东南亚全面进军。1941年12月8日，日军山下奉文指挥的第25军在近800架飞机掩护下，在马来西亚登陆。英国远东舰队司令菲力普前往攻击日军运兵船，结果菲力普连同他的旗舰“威尔士太子号”、“却敌号”一起被日军轰炸机击沉。这是英国海军当局头脑僵化、无视航空母舰的作用、无视飞机能够炸毁军舰试验的报应。日军取得海、空优势后，陆军沿马来半岛东西海岸破竹而下，突破英军杰特拉防线。到1942年1月底，日军攻占马来西亚，英军退守新加坡。2月8日，日军渡海进攻新加坡，英军弹尽粮绝，于2月15日投降。 进攻菲律宾和其他地区的行动一样，在同一时间内进行，从台湾起飞的日军第11航空队对菲律宾的美军基地进行了连续4天的轰炸，本间雅晴第14军在吕宋岛等地登陆。1942年1月2日占领马尼拉，美军节节败退，菲律宾总统奎松和美军驻菲司令麦克阿瑟先后逃离，战斗到5月7日，菲律宾的美军部队全部投降。在其他方面，日军酒井隆第23军，在1941年12月25日圣诞节子夜占领香港。此外日本相继占领关岛、威克岛等西南太平洋岛屿，前锋已达新不列颠岛，在腊包尔建立了空军前哨阵地。日军坂田祥二郎第15军由法属印度支那进入泰国，向缅甸英军进攻。3月8日，日军占领缅甸首都仰光，一部分日军从萨尔温江上游附近进入中国云南，并切断中国后方大动脉滇缅公路。日军于1942年2月中旬猛攻荷属印度尼西亚，歼灭荷、英、美、澳四国联合舰队，完全占领东南亚油田地区。在6个月的时间里，日本以极少的代价达成了“南进”目标。 日本发动战争后，要求德国立即给予支持，里宾特洛甫为避免与美国交战，提醒希特勒，根据《同盟条约》，只有当日本遭受攻击时，德国才有义务援助。希特勒根本不管这些，于1941年12月11日，太平洋战争爆发后第3天，向美国宣战。