Sign in at the start of the Sword

Chapter 209, The Japanese Army's Strategy
After the Hundred Regiments War came to an end, the Eighth Route Army was summing up the experience of victory, and the Japanese army was also summing up the experience of failure.

The Chief of Staff of the Japanese Army Base Camp conveyed the "Outline for Handling the Incident in China" decided by the Imperial Conference to the Chinese Dispatched Forces, and at the same time instructed the Chinese Dispatched Forces to conduct specific research based on this Outline.

Two weeks later, Colonel Sanada Goichiro, Senior Staff Officer of the First Section of the Chinese Expeditionary Army, conveyed to Hayao Tada, Commander of the North China Front, the future work policy of the Chinese Expeditionary Army.

Two of them made Tada Jun very difficult to accept.

First, his partner, Chief of Staff Ikeda of the North China Front Army, was responsible for the defeat and was transferred to the head of the th Division of the Third Army of the Kwantung Army.

It's clearly a demotion.

Made him extremely depressed.

He knew very well that this was a warning to him.If he can't make some achievements as soon as possible, then someone will have to pay the price.

Even he himself will be punished from the base camp.

Second, when talking about the security situation in the occupied areas, the order of priority is: Mongolia, Xinjiang, the Triangle, Wuhan, and North China.

Finally, a special mention is made: North China is the worst.

Tada Hayao was very unconvinced by this.

The defeat of the Hundred Regiments War cannot be simply attributed to the improper operations of the North China Front Army.

It is even more important to realize that the Eighth Route Army is no longer what it was a few years ago. They have grown and become a force to be reckoned with.

Negating the public security situation in North China denies his contribution, and also underestimates the threat of the Eighth Route Army.

The only policy that makes Tada Jun feel gratified is that he has now begun to pay attention to North China.It is clearly mentioned that the main task of the Chinese Expeditionary Force in is to consolidate North China.

To this end, the Chinese Dispatch Army dispatched two divisions from Central China to reinforce North China.

When Mr. Sanada reported here, Tada Hayao was even a little proud.

He thought he was honored to lose.

The failure of North China this time is only from the negative side, further verifying what he had predicted a year ago.

The current instructions of the Chinese Dispatch Army are just in line with his thinking a year ago.

The North China Front Army Staff Headquarters, the senior staff officer of the fourth section, had some opinions from Suesei Sanzuo, which made Tada Hayao feel like a bosom friend.

Arisue Seizo believed that the commander of the Tada Front Army who took office in was one of the few Chinese hands in the Japanese army.

"Familiar with" China's situation, "caring about" people's livelihood, "understanding" the people's support, and fully understanding the essence of political strategy have won the trust of the Chinese side.

Tian Jun said these words very lightly.

He thought in his heart, who knows me, this person also.

"Fully understand the essence of political strategy" is the highest goal I pursue.

What Arisue Seizo said next made Tada Hayao nod frequently.

He believes that many people in the military circle verbally shouted that the suppression of the Communist Party is the first, but they do not have enough understanding of the actual situation of the Communist Army.

"This is the reason why they were controlled by the Communist Army in the Hundred Regiments War."

In particular, his last sentence touched Tada Hayao's heart.

He said that the differences between the China Dispatch Army and the North China Front Army in terms of combat ideology, especially political strategy, and lack of understanding of the Communist Army caused the commander of the Front Army and related personnel a lot of headaches.

Tada Hayao does not think that his thoughts are only based on the interests of the region.

He believes that he, who stepped down as the deputy chief of staff a year ago, has formed the habit of considering issues from the overall perspective.

To resolve the China Incident, it is unimaginable without a stable North China.

However, instead of increasing troops in North China, the China Expeditionary Army has diverted troops from North China. It has lost watermelons and picked up sesame seeds.

It is not too late to add two divisions now.

……

Changes at the top involve all aspects.

Kazuki Yamamoto is a high-achieving student who graduated from the Army University. His classmates who are in the same class have already reached the post of general if they are well mixed, and the more ordinary ones are also the rank of general.

Regarding the high-level decision, Kazuki Yamamoto quickly got news from his classmates.

And his classmate also added an extra guess: General Yoshio Shinozuka is very likely to become the second senior general to be adjusted.

After hanging up the phone, Yamamoto sat down on the chair slumped.

He has always been extremely calm, but now his mind is in a mess.It's like a paste being stirred back and forth.

The news was astonishing.

Your Excellency the Commander will be adjusted, and may even be retired from active service directly.

It was too bad for him.

The whole First Army knew how much the Commander appreciated him.General Yoshio Shinozuka left and replaced him with another person. Will his life be so easy?

Can he still be appreciated?
Kazuki Yamamoto did not want to believe the news that the commander was transferred.

But he was very clear in his heart.

My classmate has a deep background and works in the staff headquarters of the China Dispatch Army, so he is much more sensitive to news than him.

Since there is such news, it means that there are already big bosses brewing.

Letting out the rumors may be to test the reactions of all parties, or to give a chance... Kazuki Yamamoto has received too little news, so he cannot guess what the big man thinks.

But he really should think about his future.

After His Excellency Commander leaves, where will he and his special forces go?
Can his special warfare thinking be appreciated by the new commander?
There is no way of knowing.

"Report, Commander, please."

Kazuki Yamamoto's thoughts were disturbed, he got up and straightened his clothes, and followed the guards to the commander's office.

Lieutenant General Yoshio Shinozuka sat behind a heavy desk, which was covered with various documents.

Yamamoto could tell that after the battle of the Hundred Regiments, the commander looked tired and looked older than before.

Kazuki Yamamoto stepped in and stood in front of the table, "Commander, you are looking for me."

"Yamamoto-kun, let's talk." Yoshio Shinozuka raised his head and looked at the subordinate he admired the most.

Always high-spirited, like a tireless wolf.

The gossip circulating at the headquarters of the Chinese Dispatch Army naturally couldn't be hidden from his eyes and ears.

A lieutenant general and chief of staff seems to be unable to shoulder the scapegoat, and he, the commander of the First Army, is coming to an end.

Whether it's out of the idea of ​​being a monk for a day, or doing something to save his reputation and seek a more dignified retirement.

Yoshio Shinozuka needs a suitable tool.

No one is more suitable than Kazuki Yamamoto, but before making a decision, he has to test it again.

"Yamamoto-kun, have you heard about Yamazaki Nakasa's martyrdom?" Yoshio Shinozuka chose his latest defeat as the first question.

At this time, Kazuki Yamamoto did not support why His Majesty Lingguan was looking for him, so he could only take one step at a time.He replied, "I heard that, sir. I don't think it's surprising."

"Oh. How do you think about it?" Yoshio Shinozuka became a little interested. Kazuki Yamamoto was the first imperial soldier to say that it was not a surprise that Nakazaki Yamazaki died for his country.

Li Yunlong of the New Second Regiment was regarded as the enemy by Kazuki Yamamoto.The entire army of the Yamazaki Brigade was destroyed. For the purpose of knowing himself and the enemy, Yamamoto had done a review and thought deeply.

When asked by the commander at this time, he was naturally full of confidence and replied:
"He committed the common fault of most imperial soldiers. He regarded himself as the god of war, and with a few hundred troops, he penetrated deep into the enemy's hinterland. How can he be undefeated?
The grandson of China once said that soldiers are deceitful, and soldiers are important affairs of the country, the place of death and life, and the way of survival.

What can be shown is not possible, what is near is shown to be far, and what is far is shown to be near.

Don't forget, this grandson lived more than 2000 years ago. He has already made brilliant expositions on the relationship between strategy and war.

No matter the past, present or future will never be outdated. "

As a Chinese expert, Shinozuka Yoshio has also read the book Sun Tzu's Art of War, and he is even more curious about Yamamoto's unique insights.

He said: "Yamamoto-kun is worthy of being an outstanding student of the Army University. I am very interested in your opinion. Please continue."

Encouraged, Kazuki Yamamoto continued to express his views: "For example, in just a few months, we occupied the capital of China and conquered most of China.

So many of our generals are complacent.Think we're doing just as well as the Germans.

In fact, occupying Nanjing and occupying Paris have completely different strategic effects.

As far as China is concerned, even if we occupy all the cities and railways, the resistance will not stop. The Chinese army will continue to fight in the mountains, far away from the cities and railways.

Its size provides great strategic depth, with an extremely wide room for maneuver, but we will fall into a passive position.

Our limited forces and resources will not make ends meet, and cannot withstand the consumption of long-term wars.

I once read an article "On Protracted War" written by a leader of the Communist Party, and was deeply inspired.

This person proposed three stages of the Sino-Japanese War:

The first stage is the period of our strategic offensive and the enemy's strategic defensive.

The second stage is the period when our strategy is conservative and the enemy is preparing for a counter-offensive.

The third stage is the period of the enemy's strategic counter-offensive and our strategic retreat.

In the first and second phases, we will actively, flexibly, and plan to conduct offensive warfare in defensive warfare, quick-decision warfare in protracted warfare, and external line operations in internal line operations.

The Hundred Regiments War is undoubtedly the second stage, the practice of the Eighth Route Army's theory of protracted warfare. "

On the protracted war, it was a speech given by the leaders of the Rabbit Party at the Anti-Japanese War Research Conference in .

It is a military and political work on the policy of China's War of Resistance Against Japan.

Aiming at the "China's inevitable death theory" and "China's quick victory theory" against some people in the Guoguo Party, as well as the tendency of some people in the Rabbit Party to underestimate guerrilla warfare.

It systematically expounds that China implements a strategy of protracted war to win the war against Japan.

The article was released publicly, and many senior Japanese generals had read it.

Kazuki Yamamoto not only read it carefully, but also did more in-depth research and thinking, and came to an extremely pessimistic result.

Shinozuka Yoshio understood the meaning, and asked, "Yamamoto-kun, after you made these comments, can I understand that you are extremely pessimistic about the prospects of the war?"

After experiencing the failure of the Hundred Regiments War, His Excellency the Commander will be transferred away at some point, and Kazuki Yamamoto has the urge to smash the cans.

He said bluntly: "Sir, with all due respect, I am pessimistic about fighting in this way. The reason is simple, we lack the capital to fight on two fronts.

I don't know why the high command made such a stupid decision?Excuse me, maybe I used the wrong words. "

In , with Germany blitzing France, the international situation changed drastically.

In September, when Japan announced that it had officially joined the Axis powers, it completely put itself in a position of confrontation with the United States, the Soviet Union, Britain and France and other major powers.

The direct military conflict with the Soviet Union in Nuomenkan in interrupted the army's strategy of going northward and attacking the Soviet Union with Germany.

In the friction with Britain and the United States, the United States announced the abolition of the Japan-US trade treaty, which made Japan more aware of the importance of obtaining resources by going south.

With Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, France, and a series of countries surrendering to Germany, the British army withdrew from the European continent, and the mainland was also facing the threat of invasion.

The vulnerability of the Allied Powers greatly stimulated the Japanese army's desire for aggression.

They saw that the resource-rich Southeast Asia area had become a vacuum that Britain, France, the Netherlands and other countries could not defend against.

So the navy yelled "Don't miss the bus", and prepared to take advantage of the danger of Britain and France to loot in Nanyang.

The Japanese military estimates that Germany will soon attack Britain, and the war in Europe will end in a short time.

Therefore, many decision-makers at the top of the military believed that even before the China incident was resolved, they should seize the opportunity to resolutely move south.

Southward expansion has become Japan's basic national policy and the policy program of the new cabinet.

In the next few years, it is almost certain that the Japanese troops stationed in China will shrink and reduce the size of their troops.

With fewer troops, facing an enemy with more and more resistance, failure seems to be a doomed fact.

At this time, Kazuki Yamamoto felt quite a sense of desolation that everyone in the world is drunk and I am alone.

He really wanted to tell those big men in the military department that your actions would not bring final victory, but would only drag the country into a bottomless abyss.

However, no one would listen to his thoughts as a little man.

(In the eyes of the generals in the military department, Kazuki Yamamoto is just a small person.)
Shinozuka Yoshio really appreciates Yamamoto, he doesn't care about his arrogant words, instead, he gives advice as an elder.

"Yamamoto-kun, you should understand this truth, whether it is war or peace, we soldiers cannot choose.

At that time, General Togo Heihachiro ordered the flagship to raise the signal flag before attacking the Russian fleet.
He said to all the officers and men of the fleet: The fate of the empire is here to fight.We must win this war.

We won that war, and we must win this war. "

At that time, the Japanese Navy launched an attack on the Russian Pacific Fleet, and the first battle was decisive.The Japanese army won the final victory.

Russia, which defeated the old imperialists, made Japan a member of the great powers.

The Sino-Japanese War and the Russo-Japanese War were Japan's gambles again and again.They won the national fortune by gambling, and made Japan, a tiny country, a member of the great powers.

The war of aggression against China is another gamble on the country's fortune, if it can be swallowed like a snake.

Then the Great Japanese Empire is a real empire.

At that time, on this planet, only the United States, the Soviet Union, and Germany will be the three world powers that they can regard as their opponents.

The Great Japanese Empire will become one of the top four.

"General, I agree with you," Yamamoto said.

As an imperial soldier, no matter how bad the future he sees is.

He can only, and must, do his best to prevent bad results from happening.

For this, even at the cost of life.

PS: This chapter has a lot of information, it seems a bit dry. .

(End of this chapter)