Glorious Mission 1937

The actions of the Japanese were not kept secret in advance. Anyway, the high-level Japanese army knew that even if they wanted to keep such a large-scale military operation on Chinese territory, it would be futile. It is even stronger than the special high-tech, so the Japanese simply came here with great fanfare, just to put pressure on the Chinese government.

For the Japanese invasion, the national government felt very difficult. Although the national government won the first battle of Changsha, the loss was not small. Six of the 11 Japanese engineers who went into the battle suffered more than half of the casualties, and the remaining few also lost their lives. The loss is not small, and it has not recovered yet.According to the information obtained by the Military Control Bureau, the Japanese 11th Army’s ground forces used in the offensive operations in Changsha had a total strength of 45 infantry brigades, as many as 26 artillery brigades to cooperate with the operation, and several naval and air forces coordinated operations.

The national government attached great importance to this battle. Although the muscles exposed by the Japanese army were a bit scary, as a condition for agreeing to the United States, the national government believed that no matter how difficult it was, this battle must be fought well. This is related to how much American aid the government can win. Although the Americans promised to provide the government with 5 million U.S. dollars in military supplies, Special Envoy Currie also said that when the 5 million U.S. dollars in aid will be fully delivered to the Nationalist Government, it depends on the performance of the Nationalist Government itself. The special envoy only guarantees the 25 billion US dollars promised before, and the National Government needs to fight for the rest.

For this US aid, Lao Jiang personally appointed Xue Yue as the commander-in-chief of the Ninth Theater to be in charge of the Changsha battle.After receiving Lao Jiang's order, Xue Yue immediately moved the headquarters to Changsha City.At the same time, senior military officers from the Ninth Theater were called to discuss strategies to deal with the enemy.

Although the Ninth War Zone has not been established for a long time, it is the one who knows the Japanese No.11 Army best among all the troops of the Nationalist Government.Since the first Battle of Changsha, the Ninth War Zone has been confronting the Japanese 11th Army in the area south of the Yangtze River across the three provinces of Hunan, Hubei, and Jiangxi, and from time to time there has been a small-scale battle.Today you eat my platoon, tomorrow I sneak attack your squad, today you kill my second lieutenant, and tomorrow I kill your chief Cao, so the two sides have a deep hatred, and at the same time, they know each other very well.

Changsha Ninth Theater Command, the headquarters is extremely heavily guarded today, and a large number of soldiers with submachine guns surrounded the entire headquarters.There were even soldiers setting up machine guns at the gate of the headquarters.The roads at the entrance of the headquarters are closed to traffic.

In fact, it is no wonder that the soldiers in the Ninth War Zone are nervous, because today when the Ninth War Zone is holding a combat meeting, the entire conference room is now full of senior officers, and the lowest rank is also a major general and division commander.Most of them are lieutenant general level officers.There were even a few army generals.If the Japanese threw two bombs here now, it would be enough to cause an irreparable and serious blow to the Nationalist Government.

At this time, the meeting room in the ninth theater was filled with smoke.Faint green smoke drifted out from the crack in the door of the conference room. If they didn't know that a meeting was in progress, the soldiers outside might have thought it was on fire.

The commander-in-chief of the Ninth War Zone, Xue Yue, sat on the main seat, frowning. After Luo Zhuoying, the deputy commander-in-chief of the Ninth War Zone, finished the enemy situation briefing, Xue Yue got up and said, "Everyone heard what Deputy Commander Luo said just now. The situation is In such a situation, the Japanese army has assembled a total of more than [-] people. With the cooperation of aircraft, artillery and tanks, they rushed towards our ninth war zone, trying to eat up the main force of my ninth war zone in one fell swoop. The committee ordered us to do whatever it takes To keep Changsha, it is best to win a big victory like the first battle of Changsha, do you have any good strategies?" [

会议室里的高级军官不少，都是眼下中国陆军中有头有脸的人，像第九战区副司令长官杨森、王陵基、新编第3军军长杨宏光、第74军中将军长王耀武、第4军中将军长欧震、第20军中将军长杨汉域、第58军中将军长孙渡、第72军中将军长韩全朴、第78军中将军长夏首勋、第10军中将军长李玉堂、第26军中将军长萧之楚、第37军中将军长陈沛、第99军中将军长傅仲芳、第79军中将军长夏楚中、暂编第2军中将军长邹洪、湘鄂赣边区挺进军中将总指挥李默庵、炮兵指挥官王若卿少将、工兵指挥官朱焕庭少将。

These people are either Xue Yue's old subordinates, or have fought with Xue Yue, and they know the temper of this "tiger boy" in the mouth of the committee member very well, and they know that this person does not like to listen to empty talk, but likes to do things in an orderly manner , I like people who speak with evidence, so the whole meeting room fell silent for a while, and no one dared to speak.

Xue Yue is also used to this kind of thing. In the military meeting he presides over, cold silence is a common occurrence. At the beginning, he lost his temper a few times because of it, but now he is used to it.

After a while, Luo Zhuoying, the deputy commander-in-chief of the Ninth Theater and the commander-in-chief of the 19th Army, got up and said: "Commander, according to the terrain of our Ninth Theater and the deployment of the Japanese army, combined with the summary of the first battle of Changsha and the battle of Shanggao. , I judge that the Japanese army will attack in three directions, namely northern Jiangxi, southern Hubei, and northern Hunan!"

"To be more specific, from where will the Japanese army attack!" Xue Yue said.

Luo Zhuoying continued: "In the north of Jiangxi, the Japanese army is likely to point from De'an and Anyi to Wuning, Xiushui, and Tonggu. In addition, the Japanese army will not allow our troops to threaten its strategic base Nanchang. The humble judge judged that the Japanese army would send an army from Nanchang to attack along the directions of Gao'an, Shanggao, and Wanzai, or from Nanchang to Xingan and Ji'an. In terms of southern Hubei, the Japanese army may go south from Chongyang, Tongshan, and Tongcheng For the offensive, the front of the troops was directed at Pingjiang and Liuyang. In the north of Hunan, the Japanese army would head south along the areas on both sides of the Guangdong-Han Railway and head straight for Changsha.”

After Luo Zhuoying finished speaking, Sichuan Army General Yang Sen, Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Ninth War Zone and Commander-in-Chief of the No.20 Group Army also got up and said: "I also think that what Deputy Commander Luo said is very reasonable, the Japanese army will not attack beyond these three places. , Beizhi also believes that among these three directions, Xiangbei should be the main attack direction of the Japanese army, and the others should be the direction of support or containment. After all, the main target of the Japanese army this time is our ninth theater, and the main purpose of the operation is also to attack us. The Ninth War Zone and the occupation of Changsha!"

Xue Yue thought for a while and said, "Is there a way to retreat from the enemy?"

Yang Sen looked at Luo Zhuoying and said, "The strategy of retreating from the enemy has not yet been thought out, but I believe that we should defend our position before retreating from the enemy, and plan for the future! Based on this, Beizhi suggested that the main force of the war zone can be deployed in the north of Hunan." , and use the Xinqiang River, Miluo River (Mishui), Laodao River, Liuyang River, etc. across the depth of this direction to build multi-layer positions, strengthen the resilience of the defense, and control the mobile forces to the east. Yunshan mountainous area, in order to flank the Japanese army.”

Seeing that Xue Yue didn't interrupt him, Yang Sen continued: "In view of the fact that the Japanese army's attack strength is not very large, there are only more than 12 troops in three divisions, which is less than half of the 33 troops last time." , while our army stationed in northern Hunan, northern Jiangxi, southern Hubei and other places, there are 40 regular troops with 6 divisions. In addition, there are dozens of security regiments and security brigades, with a total strength of more than [-]. The Japanese army is more than six times larger, so our army should give full play to its superiority in strength.”

"Northern Jiangxi and southern Hubei are not the main attack direction of the Japanese army, so I judge that the Japanese army will not invest too many troops, at most one division, so I think that our army will try to pinch them in the north of Chongren, Xingan, Yichun, Wanzai, Tonggu, the east of Xiushui, and the north of Xiushui, Changshou Street, and Meixian should be defeated one by one. North Xiangbei must be the main attack direction of the Japanese army, and the Japanese army will gather at least two divisions here. The navy and air force will definitely gather here. Therefore, I believe that if the enemy attacks Changsha with the main force from Yanglin Street, Changle Street, Fulinpu Road and the areas on both sides of the Guangdong-Han Railway, it will lure the enemy beyond the Miluo River. Nan and Laodao river banks, strike back and annihilate them.”

Xue Yue played on the map for a while, and finally said: "The judgments of Deputy Commander Luo and Deputy Commander Yang are consistent with my thoughts. The Japanese army is now in a hurry, and the party-state has now reached a consensus with the US government. Americans are sympathetic to us, so Americans are willing to provide us with weapons and equipment and low-interest or even interest-free loans to help us resist the Japanese. Therefore, the Japanese will definitely counterattack by occupying provincial capitals like Changsha this time. , to force the party-state to submit to it. As a party-state soldier, it is our duty to defend the soil and resist the enemy. Even if we die on the battlefield, that is an honorable destination. Therefore, I have issued a military order to the committee. We must win this battle, and we must die if we lose. !"

Everyone was startled, they didn't expect Xue Yue to issue such a strict military order to the old man, this was going to be a last-ditch fight.

Wang Lingji, the deputy commander-in-chief of the Ninth Theater and the commander-in-chief of the 30th Army, who had not spoken all the time, stood up suddenly and said: "Mr. Xue, if only the No. 11 Army is not invincible, but as far as I know, the Japanese troops stationed in Shanghai The 13th Army and the 12th Army stationed in Shandong are about to move. In addition, the Japanese army seems to have mobilized troops from Taiwan. If the war does not go well, the Japanese army will definitely send more troops to the Changsha area. Therefore, I have a suggestion. We can unite with the Fifth Army. At the same time, they can also ask for help from the eighth theater, so that they can launch an attack on the Japanese army from North China, contain the Japanese army in North China, and prevent them from increasing their troops to central China."

"In addition, although our army is indeed stronger than the Japanese in terms of army numbers, it is far inferior to the Japanese army in terms of air force and navy. In addition, according to the experience of the first Changsha battle, we can be sure that the Japanese aviation has an extremely advanced combat aircraft. Our air force's old Hawker 3 destroyers and Iraqi-15 and 16 fighters are no match for them at all. I heard that the eighth war zone has a very powerful air force. We can ask Admiral Chen for help and ask him to send an air force. Go south to assist our army in combat!" (to be continued...)[