Chapter 36 2. The victory and defeat are determined before the battle

At 5 pm on May 25, 1944, several black cars escorted by armed soldiers drove into the headquarters of the 11th Japanese Army in Hankou. The first to get out of the car was Yokoyama Isamu, commander of the 11th Army, followed by Hata Shunroku, commander-in-chief of the Chinese Expeditionary Army. The 65-year-old Hata Toshiroku is of medium build, with a rosy complexion and a peaceful expression. He is not like most imperial generals with a murderous look on his brows, but more like a civil servant.This may be because he has been a diplomatic mission to Germany and Sweden for many years, and served as the cabinet director of education for several years.

Isamu Yokoyama accompanied Hata Junliu to see a large office and a bedroom.Hata Toshiroku smiled and said: "Is Heng Shan-jun still afraid of wronging me? Could it be that I am really old in your heart?" At 8:30 a.m. on this day, the first phase of the "Operation No. 1" battle on Pinghan Road came to an end when the 3rd Tank Division of the Japanese Army and the 63rd Infantry Division defeated the 15th Army of the Chinese Army and occupied Luoyang.After receiving the report, the six generals of Toshiro Hata immediately drove to the airport and flew directly to Wuhan.He will live in the 11th Army Command until the end of the second phase of operations.

In the second stage, the 11th Army played the leading role in the Hunan-Guangxi line. The opponents were the powerful Chinese Ninth and Sixth Theaters and the elite troops of the Central Army. In order to ensure victory at this critical stage of the overall strategy, Hata Shunroku transferred four additional divisions to the army that already commanded five divisions.In addition to the artillery and aviation, the military strength has reached more than 200,000, which is unprecedented in the command authority of an army commander.The base camp also specially sent Takeji Shimaguchi, a senior combat staff officer of the Kwantung Army who is proficient in strategy, to serve as a senior officer in the 11th Army to assist Isamu Yokoyama in commanding operations.Shimanuki was well aware of the heavy responsibility. Before reporting to the 11th Army, he studied in detail the materials of the previous Hunan operations in the base camp, and consulted the opinions of the base camp officials who had been in charge of the Hunan operations. When he flew to Hankou to report, he already had a more feasible detour in his mind. Attack Changsha's belly case, and hit it off when talking with Yokoyama Yong.Before Shimanuki reported to duty, Takei Seitaro, a senior staff officer of the 11th Army, had formulated an implementation plan based on the general intention of "Operation No. 1", but it was rejected by the base camp. Shimanuki formulated another plan within a few days after he took office.For fear of losing confidentiality, he personally carried the plan and flew back to the mainland to report. After returning a few days later, the first thing he said to Yokoyama after getting off the plane was: "It succeeded."

In order to achieve the suddenness of the battle, Yokoyama racked his brains to conceal his intentions and secretly mobilized troops. He placed 5 divisions on the front line, 3 divisions on the second line, and another division as the general reserve.After the deployment was ready, Isamu Yokoyama bid farewell to Junliu Hata, and led the army headquarters to the nearby Puqi, Hubei Province on the border of Hunan and Hubei to command. Before leaving, Hata Shunroku held Yokoyama Isamu's hand tightly, but he didn't speak for a long time.Yokoyama felt that the old hand was shaking. Contrary to the powerful Japanese generals who were anxious about the safety of the homeland and the outcome of the war like mourning soldiers, the generals in the Ninth War Zone were relaxed at this time.

The third Changsha battle ended successfully, and Xue Yue sang songs. In the two years from January 1942 to early 1944, apart from assisting the Sixth Theater in the Battle of Changde, there was no major war in the Ninth Theater.During the Battle of Changde, the battlefield was very close to the area under the jurisdiction of the Ninth War Zone. A senior officer surnamed Lu once advised Xue Yue to take some precautions, so as not to be passive when the Japanese army turned around and attacked. A 'Tianfu Warfare'?" At that time, the Japanese army did not come.After recapturing Changde, the Ninth War Zone celebrated, Xue Yue joked about it at the banquet, and punished Lu Gaocan for drinking.

Victory is a fine wine, but drinking too much of it can make one faint.Some people say that the officer who likes to read maps has much less time to read maps after the third Xiangbei victory. Wu Yizhi, the chief of staff of the war zone, also felt uncomfortable after winning the battle. With his motherland in mind and the world in mind, he wrote a statement on strengthening Asian operations.He incisively analyzed the situation in the Asian battlefield and its position in the world's strategic structure, pointed out the significance and possibility of strengthening the combat intensity in Asia, and proposed specific combat concepts.After writing the article, he really enjoyed himself, and then through his brother-in-law who worked in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, he actually transferred it to the desk of US President Roosevelt in the white building on the other side of the ocean.Roosevelt has always been admonishing, and at this time he also carefully read the translated version of the article, thinking that there are indeed merits, and replied to Wu Yizhi to express his gratitude and appreciation, and told him that the precious document had been transferred to the relevant departments as a strategy Policy reference.

When Wu Yizhi saw the President of the United States call to appreciate him, he was naturally too beautiful to close his mouth. He sent a telegram to report what had happened to Chiang Kai-shek, thinking that strengthening the Asian strategy would benefit China's early victory in the War of Resistance, and Chiang Kai-shek would of course be happy.Unexpectedly, Jiang was furious after seeing the telegram, ordered him to be removed from the post of chief of staff in the theater, and handed over to the Military Law Executive Director's Department for investigation! It turned out that the relationship between Chiang and the American general Stilwell, who was sent by Roosevelt to serve as the chief of staff of the Chinese theater, broke down.

Stealing chickens is not enough to eat rice and flatter the hoof.Under Xue Yue's repeated maneuvers, he was dismissed without submitting to the military law department.Wu Yizhi thought he was unlucky and took a long vacation to return to his hometown to regret. Xue Yue recommended Zhao Zili, the chief of staff of the trusted staff, as the chief of staff in the theater. Zhao Zili was 36 years old at the time, but he had already achieved the rank of lieutenant general. He should have devoted himself to the military and studied the situation and the enemy's situation.He has nothing to do, so he writes poems and lyrics, and he talks about it all day long.Wang Yanxu, the deputy chief of the war zone, is a former Qing scholar with a solid foundation in stereotypes. Zhao sent his collection of poems "Yifeng Yincao" for guidance.

On May 6, the Military Commission telegraphed Xue Yue: "Recently, we have received a lot of information that the Japanese army will attack Changsha and attack Zhuzhou and Hengyang in the south. Wu hopes to pay special attention to and actively build stronghold fortifications, and complete them within a deadline, just in case." Xue Yue ignored this important reminder and request. Although the Japanese army well concealed their combat intentions and organized their troop mobilization in a very secret way, our military and civilians still discovered many clues. On May 11, the intelligence system of the Nine War Zones collected information such as the increase in the number of Japanese troops in northern Hunan, the Japanese troops everywhere along the Yangtze River, and the extremely heavy water and land traffic in the Japanese-occupied areas. Lin Fangce, who succeeded Zhao Zili as the chief of staff of the theater, wrote a Written report.Lin Fangce's comprehensive intelligence analysis and judgment: the Japanese army will attack Changsha in a short time.

After the report was submitted, Zhao Zili reminded Xue Yue to strengthen precautions.Xue Yue believes that the Japanese army is now focusing on the Pacific Ocean and has no time to take care of the interior of China. Besides, they suffered a loss in the third Changsha battle and dare not attack Changsha lightly.As for the husband--probably went to Nanyang as a coolie? Since the chief thinks so, why should the chief of staff look for trouble?Zhao Zili is so happy that he still chews on words every day, arty. On May 18, the large Japanese army assembled in front of the Ninth War Zone with Yueyang as the center. The ships were full of ships, the vehicles filled the road, and the sun was covered by dust. The offensive intention could no longer be concealed, and the war was imminent.Lin Fangce once again wrote a stern letter to Xue Yue, pointing out that this was not an ordinary attack. The Japanese army had 5 division numbers on the front, and they were also assigned to deep troops.

Xue Yue just woke up like a dream.While hurriedly reporting the enemy's situation to the Military Commission, he asked to transfer troops from neighboring theaters to defend against the enemy in Hunan, and at the same time ordered the troops in the nine theaters to take action and prepare for battle.At that time, the 4th Army was in charge of Changsha city defense. When the order was passed to the military headquarters, the commander could not find the commander Zhang Deneng. Because the military situation was urgent and urgent, I had to ask around, and finally learned from the personal guards that Commander Zhang was in love with an actress who had fled from Shanghai to Changsha, and the two met frequently in a hotel in the city.Zhang also ordered the guards to keep it secret and no one was allowed to disturb him, so angry that everyone in the headquarters scolded their mothers. On May 21, Chiang Kai-shek authorized Bai Chongxi, the deputy chief of staff of the Military Commission, to go to Guilin to organize the fourth, seventh, sixth, and ninth theaters to crush the Japanese attack.Based on the fact that the Japanese army had a large number of troops and it was difficult to win in a short time and in a small space, Bai Chongxi proposed to open up the battlefield, resist one by one, and conduct a decisive battle in Guilin, Guangxi.From the analysis of the development of the war situation later, this assumption is objective. But Xue Yue firmly opposed it.He described letting go of the battlefield as Bai Chongxi asked the troops from the Ninth Theater to guard the gate of his hometown.He strongly advocated the use of the "Tianlu Warfare" that has been proved to be correct in practice, and still fought decisively with the Japanese army with Changsha and Liuyang as the center, recreating the third Changsha victory. At that time, Chiang Kai-shek did not grasp the real strategic intention of the Japanese army to attack in Hunan. Under Xue Yue's efforts, he agreed to the operational plan of the Ninth War Zone, and dispatched Ding Zhipan's 26th Army in the Third War Zone, Peng Weiren's 73rd Army in the Sixth War Zone, Shi Zhongcheng's 74th Army, and Wang Jiaben's 79th Army. Army, Li Tianxia's 100th Army, Li Xingshu's 46th Army in the Fourth Theater, and Huang Tao's 62nd Army in the Seventh Theater are under the command of the Ninth Theater.Xue Yue basically deployed all the troops under the command of the Ninth Theater according to the layout of the third Changsha battle, ordered Zhang Deneng's 4th Army to stick to Changsha, and Fang Xianjue's 10th Army near Hengyang as the general reserve. As soon as the order was issued, hundreds of thousands of Chinese soldiers packed their backpacks and guns, rode in military vehicles or lined up, singing military songs, and rushed to the battlefield from their respective camps. In May, the seedlings of the first season of rice in Sanxiang had just been planted, and the misty rain enveloped the boundless green hills, hills and farmland.Going to the battlefield, bloodshed and death in an extremely familiar scenery and atmosphere, what kind of mood should most Chinese soldiers of peasant origin feel? On May 26, 1944, Isamu Yokoyama reported to Commander-in-Chief Hata Junliu of the Chinese Expedition Army stationed at the 11th Army Headquarters in Hankou with the latest radio code at the Puqi Operational Headquarters: All troops have arrived at the designated positions and are ready for offensive operations. Everything is ready, and the original attack time on May 27 remains unchanged. Hata Jun6 replied: "Remember the glory." Only the senior generals of the Japanese army understood the deep meaning of this sentence. On May 27, 1905, the Japanese Navy wiped out the Czarist Russian Baltic Fleet in the Battle of Tsushima Strait. Bearing in mind the glory of the Japanese nation in the war, this is the real reason why the six generals of Toshiro Hata chose to attack on this day.