Age of Rebirth

Although Tang Qiuli's deployment of the dispatched troops to encircle the southern part of Japan was quick and timely, Terauchi Shouichi still ran away, and slipped away from the Songshaoguan battlefield without warning.

No.20 The tactics drawn up by Li Honggang, the commander of the Ninth Corps, are not wrong. If he continues to fight according to his method, Terauchi Shouyi should not try to get out of the Songshaoguan battlefield and entangle the Japanese army for three to five days. There is no problem at all. The Lu Mobile Corps has completed the outflanking of the two wings, and everything will be settled according to Tang Qiuli's idea.

Counting omissions, Tang Qiuli counted Shouichi Terauchi's thoughts and plans for the next step of the Japanese base camp, but he did not expect that Shouichi Terauchi was willing to abandon the Japanese Seventh Army who was surrounded in Chengjiang, and resolutely took the road, and He also couldn't figure out why Terauchi Shou made such a big determination. Could it be that the actions of the Sulu Mobile Corps exposed his battle plan?

Shouyi in the temple suddenly left the Songshaoguan battlefield, disrupting Tang Qiuli's battle deployment. The left and right wings of the Sulu Mobile Corps are still following the original plan, outflanking in separate routes, and there is still a day and a night away from the scheduled destination. When Li Honggang's troops discovered that the Japanese troops had withdrawn, it was already a day and a half later. [

The 10,000th Army of the Japanese Army was surrounded by the Corps directly under it. It was far away in Chengjiang, and there was no way to escape temporarily. The [-]+ Japanese Army just disappeared from Tang Qiuli's sight. He could only roughly judge that the Japanese Army should have gone south to Southeast Asia. Therefore, Li Honggang's corps was ordered to follow and pursue, and Ma Chaoyang's corps blocked the passages that the Japanese army might pass through on the borders of China, Vietnam, and Burma, and pushed the Japanese army into Savage Mountain as much as possible.

The battlefield, which was under his control, suddenly lost control, which added a lot of irritability to Tang Qiuli's heart. Li Honggang's corps followed and pursued. Whether it can bite the Japanese army is still in doubt. Tang Qiuli ordered the Sulu Mobile Corps to immediately stop the original plan of the campaign, gather troops, assemble on the front line of Songshaoguan, and wait for the next order.

The key issue at present is to find out the whereabouts and whereabouts of Shouyi in the temple. Otherwise, the 10,000+ troops of the Sulu Mobile Corps are still exhausted in northeast Yunnan. The Japanese army lived in Geyitou, north of Songshaoguan, and found traces of the Japanese army going west.

Tang Qiuli found the location of Geyitou on the map, and confirmed his own judgment. The main force of Shouyi in the temple was indeed heading towards Southeast Asia, but it was impossible to judge which route he took. , and received a call from Li Honggang, "The division pointed out that since the Japanese army disappeared from our sight, it is currently impossible to determine the specific location and whereabouts of the Japanese army. Therefore, I suggest that the No. 20 Ninth Corps should be divided into seven groups. In the direction of the project, search and track, if this plan is correct, please give instructions to the teacher!"

Tang Qiuli considered again and again and rejected Li Honggang's plan. The reason is very simple. The troops were divided into seven groups, each with only about 1 people. Facing the main force of the Japanese army of 10,000+, even if they caught up, they would suffer a big loss. If it is not done well, it will be the result of annihilation of the entire army. The risk is too great, and this matter is definitely not feasible.

On September 10,000th, after four days of tracking, Li Honggang's corps had reached the Wuding area, more than 20 kilometers west of Kunming, and still did not catch the Japanese army. Two [-]+ Japanese troops disappeared mysteriously. After receiving Li Honggang's report , Tang Qiuli ordered the No.[-] Ninth Corps to stay in the Wuding area, waiting for the next action order.

He had to do this. More than 7 troops wandered aimlessly in the northeast of Yunnan without any effect. Tang Qiuli racked his brains, Chutian's special warfare detachment had no news of the Japanese army.

Now that Shouyi disappeared, the Seventh Army of the Japanese Army, which was surrounded in Chengjiang, lost its role as a bait. On that day, Tang Qiuli gave the general attack order to the corps directly under it.

On September [-]th, after a day of fierce fighting, the Corps directly under it and the four affiliated Dian Army units captured the outer positions of the Japanese army in Chengjiang, oppressing tens of thousands of Japanese troops in the core area.

On September 21, Chang Feng, the chief of staff of the directly subordinate corps, concentrated all artillery fire and violently bombarded the Japanese army positions. By the evening of that day, more than 2 Japanese soldiers were annihilated. Under the command of Lieutenant General Iijima Kenji, he defended the core position of Chengjiang.

On September 23, the directly subordinate corps launched the final general attack on the Japanese army. In the afternoon, the Japanese army was completely wiped out. More than ten senior officers under Lieutenant General Iijima Kenji, commander of the Japanese Seventh Army, collectively committed suicide by caesarean section.

After four days of fierce fighting, more than [-] Japanese Seventh Army was annihilated in Chengjiang. In this battle, the corps directly under the Independent Division suffered more than [-] casualties, and the Dian Army suffered more than [-] casualties.

In Iijima Kenji's underground headquarters, Chang Feng discovered the telegram sent by Terauchi Shouichi to the Seventh Army, "Iijima-kun, going south to Kunming is full of difficulties. Songshaoguan has become an insurmountable obstacle for the imperial army. The strategic direction of the base camp, It has been transferred to Southeast Asia, and the dispatched army is ordered to go south immediately, and the situation of the king really worries me, if I can break through on my own, I can deal with it as appropriate."

"With the current strength of the dispatched army, it is impossible to rescue the Seventh Army from danger. I hope that Mr. Iijima will cherish himself and shed the last drop of blood for our Great Japanese Empire and His Majesty the Emperor. Yasukuni Shrine Here, there will be the spiritual seats of the princes of the Seventh Army, which will be admired by all generations, and you should be a model for the soldiers of our empire."

I don’t know if it was this telegram that caused Kenji Iijima, who was already desperate and desperate, to have a mental breakdown. He took a dozen senior officers to cut open his stomach, and brought tens of thousands of soldiers into the However, this also proved that Tang Qiuli's judgment was basically correct, and Shouichi's main force in Terauchi had already retreated towards Southeast Asia.

As soon as the Battle of Chengjiang was over, Tang Qiuli ordered the corps directly under him to go south immediately to join Ma Chaoyang's corps and make sure to block Si Nei Shouyi in China. At the same time, he ordered the independent aviation unit, the Southern Flying Group, to dispatch all Fighters, in the west of Kunming, searched for the whereabouts of the Japanese army in a large area.

On September 24, the Fifth Fighter Regiment of the Southern Aviation Group finally received good news. A large number of Japanese troops were found in the area of ​​Baicaoling in northern Yunnan and were advancing rapidly to Binzhou and Cangshan in western Yunnan. The news came that the independent division headquarters, There was a lot of jubilation, and finally grabbed the tail of Shuichi in Terauchi.

When Chief of Staff Yang Ketian connected the Japanese army's marching route into a curve that meanders toward the border area on the map, Tang Qiuli also had to admire Shouichi's cunning and sophistication.

It is doubtful that this time, the 10,000+ Japanese army was able to successfully complete the strategic retreat without being discovered by Li Honggang's corps. No one expected the route Shou Yijian took in the front. [

If you want to reach the border, you can only go to the west. The traces left by the Japanese army in Geyitou also prove this point. Therefore, Li Honggang's corps, according to this logic, has been chasing westward. Go north, enter Panzhihua in southern Sichuan, then turn west, follow the direction of Baicaoling, and go straight to Binzhou and Cangshan in western Yunnan.

Tang Qiuli used a pencil to extend the current marching route of the Japanese army from Baoshan and Tengchong in western Yunnan to Myitkyina in Myanmar. Why did the Southeast Asian Expeditionary Force formed recently have frequent activities in southern Myanmar and Yangon?

The Japanese finally made their move in Southeast Asia. Originally, it was the quickest and easiest route to land in the Indochina Peninsula in Haiphong, Vietnam. Using Hainan Island as the starting base, crossing the Indochina Peninsula can also achieve strategic goals, but Tang Qiuli decided to To eliminate the two divisions of Japanese troops operating along the borders of China, Vietnam, and Burma, the Ma Chaoyang Corps was dispatched to carry out this task.

In this way, the original strategic deployment of the Japanese base camp was disrupted. The coastal defense of Vietnam is too close to Guangxi, China. If the Japanese army landed here, they would definitely be attacked by the Ma Chaoyang Corps. Encountering such a powerful opponent, the General Staff of the Japanese Army Base Camp believed that this was not a good deal.

Southeast Asia is the traditional sphere of influence of Britain and France. The Japanese army’s combat target was the British and French troops. The battle with Tang Qiuli’s independent division was an unnecessary opponent in the Indochina Peninsula. If you haven't completed the combat mission in South China, there is no need to provoke that China devil Tang Qiuli.

At this time, the European battlefield has entered a new stage. France is occupied by Germany and has already perished. His colonies in Southeast Asia have been fully accepted by the British. The Japanese have only one opponent, and that is the British. There is no declaration of war, so there will not be too many obstacles for Japan to send troops to Southeast Asia to enter the Indian Ocean through the Strait of Malacca.

Although the British maintained a high degree of vigilance against the activities of the Japanese in the Indian Ocean, but in the European battlefield, the British expeditionary force was defeated by the German army and was overwhelmed. Southeast Asia, and, from the heart of the British, they absolutely don't want to annoy the Japanese. As long as they can find peace, the British will burn their hearts.

At this stage, the British can't afford to provoke the Japanese, and Tang Qiuli synthesized a series of complicated situations in the European battlefield and Southeast Asia, and came to his own conclusion. The Japanese will soon do something in Southeast Asia. At that time, the international situation will undergo drastic changes.

However, Tang Qiuli would never inform the British of this astonishing judgment. This was originally part of his strategic plan for Southeast Asia, to push the Japanese-China Southern Dispatch Army into Southeast Asia, and to find a reasonable way for the independent division troops to go abroad to fight. reason.

What's more, he didn't even have a little affection for the extremely selfish John Bull. What made him unbearable was the attitude of the British army towards the independent division.

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