Chapter 729 Scales
Tianjin.
Japanese North China Front Command.
"Report to the commander, Major General Hiromoto Toyota sent a message saying that His Excellency Yoshio Kimura had committed suicide by separatism." A communications soldier said respectfully.
"Yaxi, I understand, you go down."
Sugiyama nodded in a difficult position and waved his hand to let the communications soldiers go down.
At this moment, there were only three people sitting upright in the huge conference room, but these three people were full of aura and extremely calm faces.
Commander-in-chief of the Front Army, General of the Japanese Army, and Sora Sugiyama.
Chief of Staff of the Front Army, Lieutenant General of the Japanese Army, and Tomofumi Yamashita.
Deputy Chief of Staff, Japanese Army Colonel, Akira Muto.
The entire conference room seemed extremely dull. After a long time, no one spoke. In the end, it was Deputy Chief of Staff Akira Muto who took the lead in breaking the silence.
"Hisser Commander and Chief of Staff, with the outbreak of the Battle of Handan, our army's troops in various parts of Hebei had serious shortages.
Our strongholds in Tangshan, Hengshui, Cangzhou, Shijiazhuang, Baoding, Xingtai and other places are constantly being attacked and disturbed by the Eighth Route Army.”
"And along the railways and important highway traffic points in our army were even attacked by the Eighth Route Army on a large scale!"
"As of 8:00 tonight, all parts of Hebei under our control had 5 counties and 12 towns, which were captured by the Eighth Route Army, and nearly two thousand imperial warriors died tragically. This is just the data from the rear for two days.
If the Battle of Handan cannot be resolved in a short period of time, the safety of our rear of Hebei will be more passive and the losses will increase."
Deputy Chief of Staff Colonel Muto read out the information word by word. Although his face and tone were extremely calm, his unintentional shaking limbs betrayed him.
The situation in Hebei is tense!
As the 50,000 elite Japanese troops marched south to Handan, resulting in the lack of power in other places. Under the instructions of the headquarters, all the Eighth Route Army units sent half of their forces to attack the rear of the Japanese army.
The other half of the forces are participating in the Battle of Handan.
The Battle of Handan in just 2 days caused huge losses to the Japanese army!
In the Battle of Handan, China and Japan were at a stalemate, with both sides winning and losing, and no one could effectively suppress the other side in a short period of time.
But in fact, the balance of war is tilted towards China.
Therefore, Lieutenant General Yamashita Tomomi suggested that the Battle of Handan be stopped immediately and turn it into a slow plan. However, this suggestion was strongly refuted by Commander General Sugiyama Moto.
"Your Excellency Commander, your strength will only make the situation in North China worse!"
Chief of Staff, Tomoto Yamashita, said in a deep voice: "The Eighth Route Army is a group of beggars and farmers. In Chinese, they are just a group of barefoot people, not afraid of us wearing shoes. In the current situation, if we fight for consumption with them, our Great Japanese Imperial Army will lose more.
Therefore, we should stop the battle immediately, stabilize the rear first, and wait for the troops to wipe out the enemy."
"Baga!"
Upon hearing this, Sugiyama Moto was immediately furious.
He did not expect that as the chief of staff, Yamashita Tomoto dared not to execute his orders and refuted it, which made Sugiyama Sora unacceptable, even if he knew the consequences of not being able to fight for a long time.
"Mr. Shanxia, do you want me to stop attacking Handan City and hand over the 12,000 kilometers of land in the huge Handan area to Tujiao Route Army?"
Sugiyama Yuan was really angry!
"Yamashita, I, Sugiyama, is the commander-in-chief of the front army and the general of the empire. I am responsible for this matter, and I have the final say. You have to agree and you have to agree if you agree."
At this moment, Sugiyama Tsubaki showed his strong side.
You should know that former Japanese Prime Minister Mitsumo Kotomo was forced to step down by Sugiyama, and Sugiyama was just a lieutenant general at that time.
Sugiyama Moto is the number one in Japan's aviation force and the number one in strength.
"snort!"
Sugiyama Yuan was angry, but Yamashita was also angry!
"Your Excellency Commander, now you are not arguing about the loss of one city and one place, but the security of the entire North China. What the empire needs is a stable North China that can make the empire more prosperous, rather than a turbulent North China. With such a simple truth, do you still want me to teach you?"
Although Yamashita Tomoto was only a lieutenant general, he was the chief of staff of the front army and was the second-in-command, and he had the right to restrict the top leader General Sugiyama Moto.
In the future, Yamashita Fengwen was also one of the Japanese generals.
Therefore, Yamashita Tomoto was not afraid of Sugiyama.
In 1942, Yamashita Tomoto, who was transferred to commander of the 25th Army of the Japanese Army, launched a horrific massacre against the Chinese in Singapore on the Pacific battlefield.
From February 18 to 25, 1942, Yamashita issued a document to conduct a major inspection, also known as "clearance".
After they determined the hostile elements, they immediately dealt with them (death sentence). In the end, the Japanese side arrested tens of thousands of people, most of whom were taken to the suburbs or remote beaches and shot them collectively, while the rest were sent to Thailand to build a "death railway."
Because there was no record of the investigation, no one knew the real number of casualties.
The official number in Japan is 5,000, but the number given by the Singapore Chinese news agency is 100,000. The evidence in the post-war trial is about 50,000, most of which are Chinese!
"Your Excellency General, please think twice and put the overall situation first!"
"My mountain Fengwen, in the name of the Chief of Staff of the Front Army, please pay attention to my suggestions again!"
"North China, we can't continue like this anymore!"
The mountain at the foot of the mountain bowed to Sugiyama Yuan, with a very sincere attitude.
For a moment, Sugiyama's anger subsided a lot, and it was difficult to get out again.
The Battle of Handan was a hasty battle. Although the Japanese army invested 50,000 troops, which was huge in several miles, they did not prepare too much. The various departments of its troops were temporarily recruited.
Although they are elite, they lack cooperation between each other and their combat effectiveness cannot be fully exerted.
On the other hand, the Chinese team is actually roughly the same as the Japanese army. Tens of thousands of people from all the troops who came to reinforce were also in a hurry and lacked effective cooperation. In addition, they were divided into two parties with the Eighth Route Army, and there must be friction between them, and the combat effectiveness is difficult to fully exert.
Fortunately, Ouyang and others occupied the center of the battle, Handan City!
This gave our army a decisive advantage!
Sugiyama Moto and Yamashita Tomomichi argued for a long time, and finally reached a consensus under the mediation of Deputy Chief of Staff Colonel Muto Akira.
"Two days!"
"If our great Japanese Imperial Army can no longer gain a decisive advantage in these two days, I, Sugiyama Motodao, immediately ordered the end of the Battle of Handan."
General Sugiyama Moto said in a deep voice.
At that moment, Yamashita Fengwen nodded and said, "It should be like this, our army can't delay any more!"
"hehe!"
Sugiyama Tsuki suddenly laughed.
His eyes were staring at Fengwen at the foot of the mountain and gritted his teeth and said, "Mr. Yamashita, today I will teach you another sentence in the name of my friend. The battlefield is a place full of miracles. Don't ever give up until the last moment, and you may be reversal in the next second!"
~~~~~~
A few hours later.
May 18, 1939, late at night.
The 110th Division of the Japanese Army suddenly swept away the decline and launched a crazy attack on Li Yunlong's troops in the 887th Regiment of the 512th Brigade of the Eighth Route Army!
At the same time, Ouyang, who was far away in Handan City, suddenly received a system prompt.
Chapter completed!