Chapter 27 Chapter 27 The speed of death

The war in the South continued to burn. The burning place is in Shanghai, which seems to be the continuation of the "January 28" Songhu Battle five years ago, so it is also called the second Songhu Battle. It is indeed too similar, even the Chinese commander is exactly the same as in the past, he is Zhang Zhizhong, the commander of the 5th Army. Regarding the results of the "January 28th" Songhu Battle, Zhang Zhizhong and Cai Tingkai felt the same at the time, both extremely sad and unwilling. The 5th Army only joined the battle halfway through. Zhang Zhizhong therefore believed that the main reason was the lack of preparation and strength. If they played another game, they might not be unable to win.

In February 1936, in order to prepare for the war against Japan, the Nanjing government divided the country into several defense zones, and Zhang Zhizhong was appointed as the chief of the Beijing-Shanghai District. The so-called preparations are secret preparations. Not only can they not be made with great fanfare, but if the Japanese know about it, it may cause trouble. Zhang Zhizhong's public identity is still the director of education of the Whampoa Military Academy. One day, he hung another sign next to his superintendent's office, which was called: Senior Instructor's Room (High Classroom).

Later, Zhang Zhizhong selected a group of students in the Whampoa Military Academy, both civil and military, as "senior instructors". No one will find it strange that the chief education officer selects and arranges instructors, which is a matter of course.What makes people feel strange is that Zhang Zhizhong still has a class rule for the "senior instructors": it is absolutely not allowed to disclose the affairs of the high classroom. It's just teaching the students, what kind of secret can there be? The secret is big, because the "senior instructors" are not preparing lessons in class, but are studying how to fight against Japan in the office.

No one knew that this small office was the headquarters that opened the prelude to the war of resistance! The Gao classroom was originally located in Nanjing, but later moved to Suzhou due to the needs of field reconnaissance. As a result, it seemed inappropriate to be called the Gao classroom, so it was renamed "Central Military Academy Camping Office". I took the students out for camping, so a mobile temporary teaching office was built. Regardless of the high classroom or the camping office, Mr. Zhang implements institutionalization, just like a doctoral supervisor in a university leading graduate students. The former has a project, and the latter students will bring the project to research and practice.

The main area of ​​practice is of course Greater Shanghai. The first topic that Mr. Zhang gave was called how to attack. To attack, specifically to attack Hongkou, the main point is to be familiar with the enemy's situation. This time it is useless for you to send the security team, because the security team cannot enter the Japanese Concession.The only way is for the students to dress up as plainclothes and enter Hongkou in batches, and then seize the opportunity to draw all the barricades and bunkers where the Marine Corps is located, and number them uniformly in sequence, marking them on the 1:5000 map.

In addition, another booklet was compiled according to the reconnaissance situation.In this booklet, the location of each stronghold passage, the direction of shooting, how many troops there are, and what weapons may be equipped inside are all very specific. The second topic that Mr. Zhang gave is called how to keep. Shou, specifically Shouzhabei, focuses on building fortifications, but according to the "Songhu Armistice Agreement", the Chinese regular army cannot openly enter the city, let alone drive construction vehicles. Zhang Zhizhong adopted a method, that is, disguised the students as security teams, and used this universal ID card to build secret fortifications in the Zhabei area.

Since it is called a secret fortification, of course it cannot be seen by others and must be built in the room.To say that this was impossible to do, after all, it is big Shanghai, how can there be a group of old men who are decorating private houses, and the news will not leak. But Zhang Zhizhong found an important person in Shanghai, with this person, everything will fall into place. He is Du Yuesheng. Although he is the boss of the underworld, he is very patriotic. He not only helps rent a house, but even gives up his own house to repair fortifications for the army. As a result, many mysterious houses appeared in the Zhabei area. From the outside, they looked like ordinary houses, but when they entered, they found that they were full of reinforced concrete bunkers.

These bunkers adopt a decomposed design, that is, they can be disassembled like the building blocks we built.They were not poured temporarily when they arrived in Shanghai, but were first built in the rear, transported to Shanghai at night, and then assembled. As for why he put offense before defense, it was because Zhang Zhizhong noticed a new tactical theory introduced by German consultants to the domestic military at that time. Its name is called Blitz. Germany is a big military country. The military theory of this country can often lead the world trend. Even the Japanese have to follow suit. As students, their well-known outflanking tactics were taught by German teachers. Since then, they have been relying on this Tactics make a living, and they can even beat the invincible opponents in East Asia.

Military strategists look at Germany, just like fashion designers look at Paris now. If you don't know or understand the latest information there, you will undoubtedly be eliminated. By the 1930s, Germany's military theory was constantly being refurbished, and outflanking and outflanking were considered outdated, and blitzkrieg, which paid more attention to speed and efficiency, surfaced. Generally speaking, roundabout outflanking requires you to have the resources and ability to overwhelm your opponent. This is why the Japanese army was able to copy one by one in East Asia, because you are weaker and the other is stronger.

Blitz warfare is different. It is often beneficial to the weak and can be used to defeat the strong. For example, the Battle of Suiyuan actually has a bit of blitz warfare. — Before the other party sat down completely, he fell to the ground and couldn't get up. "January 28" Songhu Battle, I defended the temple line for a long time and still failed to defend it. If I don't defend it this time, it's fine if the Japanese don't come to Shanghai. If they come again, I will beat him to the ground first with a blitz. Before the "July 7th Incident", Zhang Zhizhong went to Qingdao for treatment due to illness. When he heard the fight over the Marco Polo Bridge, he immediately realized that there might be something wrong in Shanghai. job.

Zhang Zhizhong set up a special intelligence research organization in his "camping office". Through intelligence analysis, he judged that the Japanese would attack Shanghai sooner or later. They did not do it now because the war in the north was still going on. Once the opponent completely occupied North China, Shanghai is the next target. Since sooner or later it's a knife, why didn't I stab him first? For more than a year, Zhang Zhizhong has been discussing strategic and tactical issues with the students with the students. He said that our dealings with the Japanese can be divided into three periods. In the first period, when he hit me, I did not fight back, such as "September 18"; in the second period, I fought back when he hit me, such as "" "January 28" and the Great Wall War; in the third period, I judged that he was going to hit me, so I hit him first, which is called preemptive strikes. Of course, this has a lot to do with Zhang Zhizhong's understanding of blitzkrieg, because in theory, blitzkrieg is a surprise attack, and in fact it is a preemptive strike. Zhang Zhizhong's judgment that the Japanese were going to attack Shanghai came from two signs. One was the "Hongqiao Airport Incident", in which the Japanese army broke into the airport and was shot dead by Chinese guards; , The situation in Shanghai changed suddenly. All of this is almost a replica of the situation before the "January 28th". Due to the restrictions of the "Songhu Armistice Agreement", the environmental conditions of Zhang Zhizhong and Cai Tingkai were very different. After all, the latter's 19th Route Army was stationed in Zhabei, but the main force of the German weapon division that Zhang Zhizhong could mobilize was all In the areas of Suzhou, Wuxi, and Changzhou, it is a long way from the suburbs of Shanghai. However, as soon as the order from the Nanjing High Command was issued, Zhang Zhizhong led 87 and 88 German armorers into the urban area of ​​Shanghai overnight. The next morning, when Shanghai citizens woke up, they found that the streets were full of regular troops wearing German-style helmets, as if they had descended from the sky, and they couldn't help being surprised. Where do they come from?Why so fast? The first element of blitzkrieg is speed. The mobility efficiency of the Chinese army has always been very slow. Zhang Zhizhong was able to set the minute hand so fast at once because he had concentrated the trains and cars on the Beijing-Shanghai line as much as possible, concentrated shipments, and concentrated operations. The speed could not be faster. With the speed, there will be a surprise attack next. Zhang Zhizhong originally planned to launch the attack before dawn on August 13. Before the Japanese Marine Corps recovered, they came and wiped them out.But at a critical moment, the Nanjing government suddenly hesitated again. The hesitation is due to diplomatic considerations. The neutral country in Shanghai proposed a 24-hour mediation proposal, and August 13 was still within the 24-hour range, so Chiang Kai-shek wanted to wait a little longer. On August 14, the "August 13" Songhu Battle officially started. At this time, two full days have passed since Zhang Zhizhong entered the urban area of ​​Shanghai. As analyzed by Zhang Zhizhong, the Japanese had to finish the battle in North China before they could take care of Shanghai, so they didn't restart the round in Shanghai right away.Although Kiyoshi Hasegawa, the commander of the 3rd Fleet, was ready to send Japanese overseas Chinese back to China, the request for war report has not been approved by Minai Haimin. If Zhang Zhizhong can strike as scheduled, it is possible to catch him by surprise. It was precisely the two-day pause that gave Hasegawa Kiyoshi time to deploy his defenses calmly. The reason why the German blitzkrieg was successful was that Hitler used diplomacy to cover up the war. Diplomacy was secondary and war was the main priority. When war was wronged by diplomacy, it was difficult for any surprise attack or clever tactics to succeed. However, since the main force of Sun Yuanliang's 88th Division was dispatched that day, although it was an offensive, the overall battle was not bad, especially the Huangmei Xing brigade's offensive ability was very strong. Huang Meixing, nicknamed the Yellow Tiger, was a tiger general. He turned around from the left wing and slammed into the marines, causing the latter to grin. Then, Huang Meixing adopted the "advance step by step" method, like squeezing toothpaste, to force the opponent into the base of the wall little by little. "Advance one by one" on this side, and retreat on the other side. At the end, Kiyoshi Hasegawa had to take out all the special steel shields to block the rain of bullets ahead. At noon, Huang Meixing fought more and more bravely, and had already reached the vicinity of the Marine Corps headquarters.On the battlefield, the corpses of the Japanese army were scattered all over the place. Some of the remaining people hid in the headquarters, while others fled into the public concession in a panic. If it is a lightning strike, the result will be greater, but after it becomes a fortification, it will be very difficult to advance when encountering a relatively solid obstacle.No matter how smoothly Huang Meixing fought, he didn't win many actual strongholds, and he himself died in the battle that day. In the evening, Zhang Zhizhong received an order from the government: Do not attack and stand by. Of course, it is mainly due to diplomatic considerations. For the next two days, they will be "on standby" and can only make preparations for an attack. As time went on, Zhang Zhizhong felt that this would not work. The Japanese Marine Corps would receive reinforcements. Once the reinforcements arrived, positional warfare would become even more difficult. In any case, these strongholds on the shore must be pulled out before the reinforcements from the other side land. On August 17, Zhang Zhizhong got the will and launched the second general attack. He named this attack "Iron Fist Project". There has been no big movement for two days, Hasegawa Kiyoshi will definitely be paralyzed, and now I will give him a blitz, and I will definitely beat him to collapse with an iron fist. The direction of the iron fist is indeed fierce. In Operation Iron Fist, Mr. Zhang's topic of "how to attack" was put into practice. According to the maps and brochures drawn at the time, the attacking force found the Marine Corps bunker easily.After the encirclement, first use infantry to "clear the field" to eliminate the surrounding marines, then artillery bombardment, if the artillery shells can't be bombarded, then use the engineering demolition team to bomb it, use all eighteen kinds of weapons, anyway, this bunker must be removed from the list Cannot be cleared. On August 17th, Guangwang Jingjiu's 87th Division laid down nearly 10 bunkers in one go. The Japanese soldiers were so frightened that they didn't dare to stay in the small bunkers and shrank into the big strongholds one after another. Some didn't even dare to show their heads. Yilu, for fear of being injured by stray bullets. In addition to listening to the report of the advance situation by the signal soldiers, Zhang Zhizhong also required that every time a stronghold was occupied, the street house number should be removed as evidence. The last house number could not be handed in, because the troops had already reached the Huangpu River! But the problem is that small bunkers are easy to attack, but large strongholds are difficult to attack. Hasegawa Kiyoshi surrounded the big stronghold, placed many solid obstacles on each road in advance, and used tanks and chariots as mobile fortresses. There are dead fortresses, and there are living fortresses, so the blitzkrieg is anticlimactic, and finally turned into a tough battle again. Zhang Zhizhong personally supervised the formation on the front line and commanded the artillery to fire a salvo at the big stronghold. The shots hit the big stronghold, but the target was so strong that it could not be destroyed. However, the general attack of the day was still the best of the two general attacks. In addition to the suddenness and sharpness of the "Iron Fist Project", the strong support of the Chinese Air Force is also an important reason for Zhang Zhizhong's outstanding performance. Under the oppression of the Air Force, the Marine Corps was in a panic, and the anti-aircraft guns were shooting upwards desperately. The Air Force is so brave, but it was beyond everyone's imagination. Soon after the "July 7th Incident", Chiang Kai-shek urgently summoned Mao Bangchu, deputy director of the Aviation Committee, in Lushan. When going up the mountain, beads of sweat kept falling from Mao Bangchu's forehead. Don't think that Deputy Director Mao is sweating because he was tired from climbing the mountain.In fact, others didn't need to exert any effort at all when they sat on the sliding pole, but just like that, Mao Bang's first sweat was almost the same as that of the bearer who carried him. After meeting Chiang Kai-shek, the man's sweaty secret was finally revealed. Chiang Kai-shek asked him how many planes we have now to fight. Mao Bangchu replied: 91. Hearing this, Chiang Kai-shek's face turned red and flushed. Why are there only 91 planes? I have read the records of the Aviation Commission. There are obviously 500 planes. Why are only 91 planes capable of fighting? What about the other 400 planes? Where did you hide them for me? At that time, there was another person who went to Mount Lushan with Mao Bangchu, and he was an American.This foreigner came to China not long ago, he didn't expect the dignified head of state to be so angry, especially in front of himself as a foreigner. After being furious, Chiang Kai-shek calmed down a little, turned sideways, and asked the Americans how the investigation was going. He probably hoped that the old beauty in front of him could overthrow Mao Bangchu's conclusion, but the other party's answer gave Chiang Kai-shek another blow to the head—I think the number of "General Mao" is completely correct. In fact, Mao Bangchu was not to blame for this incident.All of this should be attributed to the mess of the Italians. At that time, China mainly hired two types of foreign consultants. One was German consultants. Needless to say, they mainly taught the Army, and they were really talented and helped a lot; the other were Italian and American consultants, who taught the Air Force. .American consultants began to be in charge of only one Central Aviation School (Central Aviation School), and most of the others were taught by Italian consultants, who even once controlled the Aviation Committee. But the level of the Italians is really underwhelming. In fact, it is not surprising to say that it is strange.In World War II, the Italian army stood next to the German army, which always made people feel very mismatched. It seemed that the puppet army was running errands behind the "imperial army".When it comes to military talent and actual combat performance, the two are even farther apart. The Italian consultants are bad, but the brains of the heads of the Aviation Committee are not particularly high.The director Zhou Zhirou was born in Baoding, and the deputy director Mao Bangchu graduated from Huangpu. Therefore, the worse ones had to listen to the worse ones. Know why there are 500 aircraft in the records of the aviation committee? That's because since the book was made, there have never been too many planes, and none of them have been written off! Airplanes are no different than anything else, they need to be updated and maintained all the time.But even if this plane has been destroyed, or is completely empty, like waste, it can still be listed as a usable plane in the flight file. It was this register that Chiang Kai-shek saw. In that book, the strength of the Chinese Air Force "inflated" by as much as four times out of thin air. Chiang Kai-shek studied artillery in the military academy, and he didn't have much knowledge of the air force, so the comedy turned into a tragedy in a blink of an eye. In terms of knowledge of the Air Force, his wife, known as the "mother of the Air Force", is very strong. Long before the Xi'an Incident, Soong Meiling joined the Air Force. After the Xi'an Incident, the Jiangs became more aware of the importance of the Air Force. Such an air special force must not be easily handed over to others, so Soong Meiling logically appointed the Secretary General of the Aviation Committee His identity actually took over the power of the Air Force. According to relevant records, Song Meiling herself was slightly airsick, and she had only received education in music, literature, and social virtues, so she was a complete layman in the field of the Air Force. But knowledge can be learned.Song Meiling is a person with a very strong personality, which is exactly like her brother Song Ziwen. She subscribes to many aviation technology publications, reads them every day, and keeps a daily diary. He can even tell that he is ugly and Yinmao. Even in the military at that time, there were very few people who could do this, so it is true that the Song family has talented people. Although Song Meiling is only the secretary-general, her management of the air force is more meticulous than that of Zhou Zhirou and Mao Bangchu, and she keeps talking about "my air force".It is said that she knows every plane and every pilot in the Air Force like the back of her hand.Even the foreigners at the time knew that "Mrs. Jiang" was the actual controller of the elite air force, and anyone who wanted to be obsessed with ghosts and wanted to get something out of it or become a "stealer" would undoubtedly be sentenced to death. With the first lady taking care of her personally, the life of the Air Force will be easier.Especially in the late period of the Guangdong-Guangdong Incident, the Guangdong-Guangdong Air Force merged with the Central Committee, and the Central Air Force expanded unprecedentedly. However, Song Meiling gradually discovered that although she was big, she was very imaginary, and there were many problems in it, which caused her a lot of headaches. She asked an American consultant beside her: Does your country have such talents who can help us transform the Chinese Air Force into a decent military branch in a short period of time? The American consultant is a retired old pilot.He thought for a while and said, there is a person who looks exactly like an eagle, if you invite him over, maybe it will be OK. Song Meiling sent an invitation letter to the "Eagle" without hesitation, inviting him to come to China.In the letter, she promised the other party that once she came to China to teach, she would get the best conditions and treatment that this country can offer. The Lushan meeting was arranged by Song Meiling. On the surface, it seemed to be a questioning of Mao Bangchu, but in fact, it was to introduce overseas high-level talents to her husband: the Chinese Air Force will be rebuilt in the hands of this American! American Eagle, can you do this?