Age of Rebirth

General Umezu Yoshijiro was very interested in this military deployment plan. Before that, in order to ensure the main point and central city of Manchuria - Mukden, General Nanjiro had joined the two main field corps of the Independent Division from the western Liaoning area and Ximan area. Among the main forces of the confronting Kwantung Army, troops were deployed in batches and on a small scale to gather on the line south of Fengtian to protect the safety of Fengtian.

The Marine Corps of Han Tie went to various key points and cities in the Liaodong Peninsula, and stationed troops in Gaizhou and Andong. The Seventh Army of the Kwantung Army has been completely annihilated, so it can only mobilize troops from the western Liaoning area and the Ximan area, but it dare not make large-scale mobilization with great fanfare, for fear that the independent division troops will find out and take the opportunity to launch a full-scale attack.

This move is also helpless. The strength of the Kwantung Army is already stretched. This matter is the Kwantung Army Chief of Staff Matsuda Kenjiro himself, who is responsible for it. Therefore, as for how many troops to mobilize, it is those troops who are in place. How much, only Chief of Staff Matsuda knows, and it is this part of the force that General Umezu Yoshijiro is interested in. He wants to change the Manchurian battle. There are two more points, one is the Liaoxi Corridor, and the other is the Liaodong peninsula.

After weighing the pros and cons, in the end, General Meizu took the Liaodong Peninsula as his preferred target. This typical Japanese militarist, a Japanese general who advocates force, has a very precise grasp of the situation in Manchuria, and has a very accurate vision. He disagrees with General Nanjiro being passive. As a defensive strategy, he must take the initiative to attack and change the situation on the battlefield in Manchuria in one fell swoop.

Before Umezu Yoshijiro came to the Northeast, he paid a special visit to Lieutenant General Kobayashi Shinichi, the director of the Imperial Headquarters of the General Bureau of Military Intelligence, and had a long and in-depth talk with Japan's largest spy chief.It can be said that he basically knows the situation in Manchuria well.

In the current Liaodong Peninsula area, the strength of the Marine Corps of the Independent Division is temporarily weak. There are only three brigades with less than [-] troops stationed on the line from Gaizhou to Andong. The rest of the troops are sent to the Korean Peninsula battlefield. And because the positions of Gaizhou and Anton are too obvious and important, they are always threatened by the hinterland of Manchuria and Fengtian.It must be taken back. This is the root cause of General Umezu Yoshijiro's counterattack in the Liaodong Peninsula.

In contrast, in western Liaoning, there are more than [-] heavy soldiers from the Niangziguan Garrison Regiment of the Independent Division.Eyeing like a tiger, commanding troops.It was that Chinese devil Tang Qiuli again.Feng Jiwu, a well-known general under his command, launched a large-scale counterattack with the existing strength of the Kwantung Army. Even General Umezu Yoshijiro, who is quite ambitious, did not dare to start from the western Liaoning area. A bad fight!

Furthermore.The geographical location of the Liaodong Peninsula is too important. Before recovering the western Liaoning area, the threat from the southern part of Fengtian must be eliminated, General Umezu Yoshijiro.I don't want to be stabbed by the independent division of the Liaodong Peninsula when we are fighting at all in the western Liaoning area. No matter from which angle we analyze it, we must start from the Liaodong Peninsula to change the situation on the battlefield in Manchuria to relieve our worries.

However, General Nanjiro's plan to mobilize troops and assemble in the area south of Fengtian saved himself the time to mobilize troops from other areas. Time is very important to General Umezu Yoshijiro. The independent division Marine Corps returned to the Liaodong Peninsula area. It was too late, and its own counterattack plan would also be aborted.

The electric order rang, which was extremely harsh in the empty corridor. The staff officers guarding the door hadn't reacted for a while. In the office of the Commander-in-Chief, the electric bell hadn't been pressed for an unknown period of time. When General Nanjiro was around, he didn't have this habit.

After a short period of astonishment, an attendant and staff officer, who was on duty today, hurriedly opened the door and came in, and asked respectfully, "Your Excellency, Commander-in-Chief, what are your orders?" The new Commander-in-Chief, Your Excellency.

General Yoshijiro Umezu.He looked at the staff officer with gentle eyes, and ordered: "Come to my office immediately, Chief of Staff Matsuda!"

The tone is calm, without the slightest condescending and domineering feeling. In the past, Commander-in-Chief Nanjiro treated his staff and staff members very kindly, but the condescending meaning permeated from his bones, the way he looked at Mao and Gou Well, it's really uncomfortable.

The staff officer with mixed feelings in his heart saluted, and hurriedly withdrew, looking for someone, when he looked up, he happened to see Chief of Staff Matsuda coming from the end of the corridor, and hurried over, and said after saluting: "Your Excellency, Chief of Staff, just now, Meizu Commander-in-Chief, please go to his office immediately!"

"Oh?" Lieutenant General Matsuda's eyes flashed. Just now, he was still hesitating whether to have a heart-to-heart communication with Commander-in-Chief Meijin immediately, but it seemed that he was wronged by taking the initiative to come to the door like this. Sometime later, when he wanted to doze off, he put a pillow on him. In an instant, Chief of Staff Matsuda felt that Amaterasu was caring for him.

Chief of Staff Matsuda hurriedly followed the staff officer to the door of the commander-in-chief's office. Seeing everything he was familiar with, he couldn't help sighing that just a few hours ago, he was still walking on the same ground when he arrived here, and he didn't need to be called in at all. And ask for instructions in advance, come as soon as you say, more casual than your own office.

But after a few hours, I had to perform the ceremony of subordinates and wait for the new immediate superior to call in. Chief of Staff Matsuda felt that things were wrong, so he stopped the staff and attendants from going in to report, and went through the whole process. The military uniform on his body reported loudly: "Report to Your Excellency, Commander-in-Chief, Kenjiro Matsuda, Chief of Staff of the Kwantung Army, has been ordered to come!" The movement was loud enough, and the words were strictly followed, enough for General Meizu in the office to hear clearly Chu.

The attendants and staff who are familiar with Chief of Staff Matsuda all have surprised eyes. When did this No. [-] boss of the Kwantung Army become so humble? I remember that when I came to see Commander-in-Chief Nanjiro, He didn't need to say hello, he just knocked on the door and went in. From the corner of his eye, he didn't even look at these attendants and staff officers.

Inside the office, General Umezu Yoshijiro had a meaningful sneer on the corner of his mouth, stood up, opened the office door himself, and said with a smile on his face: "Matsuda-kun, you are the chief of the general staff, so there is no need to be so cautious! Come in, I happen to have some questions to ask Matsuda-kun!"

Then, he immediately changed his face and said sternly to several staff officers: "How do you do things? Chief of Staff Matsuda is the soul of the Kwantung Army. When he arrives, don't you know to inform me first? Instead, let Chief of Staff Matsuda Waiting outside the door like other officers? Hmm!"

General Umezu Yoshijiro was not angry and pretentious, looking at him with knife-like eyes, several attendants and staff officers were silent, but they couldn't tell the pain. Seeing all this, Chief of Staff Matsuda was moved, but General Umezu smiled wryly in his heart. , "How can I play the tricks of a politician? Buy people's hearts? Or hide the knife in a smile, hey! It really forces people to change their habits!"

After closing the office door, General Umezu Yoshijiro's face immediately restored the majesty of his superior, and motioned for Chief of Staff Matsuda to sit down. Just when Chief of Staff Matsuda guessed that the new commander-in-chief called him in, he had something important to do or an attempt. , General Meijin said straight to the point: "Chief of Staff Matsuda, about General Nanci's plan to continue to disperse and mobilize troops from the western Liaoning area and Ximan to gather in the south of Fengtian. I want to hear the details!"

Lieutenant General Matsuda was obviously not an idiot when he was able to sit in the position of chief of staff of the Kwantung Army, he couldn't help but feel a twitch in his heart, as if grasping something, he asked in a probing tone: "Your Excellency, Commander-in-Chief, do you want to... ..."

General Yoshijiro Umezu, with a blank face, said indifferently: "Chief of Staff Matsuda, answer my question just now! This is very important!" At this moment, Lieutenant General Matsuda realized that what he was facing now was no longer a matter of self-confidence. General Kanan Jiro is another boss with a completely different personality, temper, and style of work. From now on, he must put himself in a correct position, otherwise, he will suffer.

Chief of Staff Matsuda quickly adjusted his role, and answered rigorously in the tone of a subordinate: "Yes! Your Excellency, Commander-in-Chief, the situation is as follows. After the fall of the Liaodong Peninsula, General Nanjiro was worried. The independent division of the army will take the opportunity to launch an attack on Fengtian, and our seventh army defending the front line of the Liaodong Peninsula, including Lieutenant General Yokoyama Yoshihiko, the commander of the army, will be smashed to pieces!"

"For this reason, General Nanjiro ordered the Ministry to secretly deploy small-scale but uninterrupted troops from the western Liaoning and Ximan areas to form a defensive line from Fengcheng to Anshan, south of Fengtian, to prevent the independent division from attacking Fengtian. From June [-]th onwards, troops will be mobilized one after another!"

"Yoshi!" General Umezu Yoshijiro nodded appreciatively, "Chief of Staff Matsuda, so far, how many troops have been assembled in the south of Mukden? What are the numbers of those troops?"

Chief of Staff Matsuda replied rigorously: "Your Excellency, Commander. As of today, the troops assembled in the south of Fengtian have reached three and a half brigades with nearly 4 troops. However, the mobilized troops are from The units of the Kwantung Army in the direction of western Liaoning and Ximan have various numbers, and they are not mobilized as an organization, but are drawn from each division or brigade to a regiment or brigade!"

"In order not to disturb the troops of the independent division confronting us, all troop mobilizations were carried out at night under the covert state in the name of changing defenses. Therefore, it also caused the practical difficulty that heavy equipment could not be mobilized with the troops. , At present, the troops assembled in the south of Fengtian are all light infantry, used for defense, relying on favorable terrain conditions, they can barely do it, but for attack, they are powerless!"

(to be continued) (to be continued...)