Songhu: Never Give Up

Chapter 349 Yue Qianli's Debate (1)

At the guerrilla column headquarters, the first war zone report Yue Qianli received was the fall of Anqing, and the Japanese officially kicked off the Wuhan attack;

The National Government immediately formulated a battle plan for the Battle of Wuhan. Its guiding principle was to base itself on the outer lines, maintain the high mobility of the troops, utilize the terrain and fortifications, gradually resist and consume the Japanese, exchange space for time, and finally change the situation from the enemy attacking to our defense.

"Brothers, based on this operational concept, the principal will be the commander-in-chief, and all the troops of the Fifth and Ninth War Zones and parts of the navy and air force will be mobilized to prepare for defense along the Dabie Mountains, Poyang Lake, and both sides of the Yangtze River, and prepare for a protracted war.

main purpose:
First, we trade space for time, combining inside and outside lines to consume and defeat the enemy;
Second, we should relocate factories and materials inland as soon as possible, prepare the army, step up production, and prepare for a long-term war of resistance;
The third is to win the sympathy and support of friendly countries and completely defeat the devils in diplomacy. "

After Yue Qianli finished speaking, he looked around and continued:

"The first and second points are feasible. As for the third point, it's half and half. The goal of obtaining a certain amount of foreign aid can be achieved, because the Western powers don't want to see the devil swallow up China alone.
But there was one thing the Kuomintang government still did not understand: what they could not gain on the battlefield, they could not gain in diplomacy either.

Trying to use diplomacy to force the Japanese to withdraw is nothing but wishful thinking! "

Everyone expressed their agreement. Under Yue Qianli's subtle influence, the backbone of the guerrilla column had an unprecedentedly unified ideology, that is, they had no illusions about peace and that victory could only be achieved on the battlefield.

Gao Zhisong took over and said:
"He still only cared about eating and not fighting. In order to win the sympathy of the League of Nations, he stayed south of the Suzhou River for half a month longer during the Battle of Songhu, wasting the best opportunity to retreat, which ultimately led to a major rout.

Not only did we lose 100,000 elite soldiers, but we also had no elite veterans to defend the national defense line, and Jinling City was quickly lost."

Yue Qianli waved his hand and said:

“Let’s not talk about these anymore. The most important thing right now is to win the Wuhan battle. The strategy of the National Government can be summed up in one sentence - the Greater Wuhan Strategy!

It was mainly divided into two parts. The Fifth War Zone guarded the north bank of the Yangtze River, and the Ninth War Zone guarded the south bank of the Yangtze River. They deployed their forces in stages and blocked the enemy layer by layer.
This overall strategy was correct, but the biggest problem was that we did not retain enough reserves for counterattacks. Passive defense alone would not win a major battle.

A dozen divisions of the Japanese may sound like a lot, but if you put them in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, they can't even deploy this amount of troops.

We can adopt the strategy of letting them come from many directions, but I will only attack one direction. Even if we use 50 men to defend and concentrate 20 mobile forces to ambush one direction, we can still inflict pain on the Japanese. "

Duan Yulin took over and said:
"It's a pity that you, Lao Yue, are not in command. You can just tell us how we should fight."

Everyone looked at him expectantly. After learning about the government's overall strategy and battle plan, everyone began to get excited.
Prior to this, Yue Qianli used his memory to produce a copy of the "Wuhan Strategy" prepared by the devils, and lied that he had accidentally found it from the 14th Division Headquarters, and passed it to CC through Lin E;

This top-secret intelligence has made the top CC officials the center of attention. Now Lin'e's status in CC has skyrocketed, and she is on the verge of becoming the chief agent. She can get the latest Japanese attack plan on Wuhan, and the value of this intelligence is immeasurable.

Lin E was promoted to lieutenant colonel in the army and her position was promoted to deputy director, which was rare among the agents whose military ranks were generally low. Yue Qianli gradually sent Lin E to an important position. Seeing that everyone was looking at him, Yue Qianli stopped keeping everyone in suspense and said directly:

"Brothers, in a war involving a million men, our 2-strong army cannot play a big role. Commander Chen, considering the fact that we are far away in the north of the Yangtze River, has decided to temporarily allow our troops to cross the river and be managed by the Fifth War Zone as its reserve.

Commander Chen is taking care of us. It will probably be our turn to play for a while, so we should all stay still and wait for Commanders Li and Chen's orders."

Although everyone was a little disappointed after hearing this, they could only stay obedient as military orders were like mountains. Yue Qianli saw that everyone was depressed because they didn't get to fight, and snorted coldly:
"Don't be so sullen when you hear about the reserve. Good steel should be used on the blade. Once the war gets tense, Commander Li will not let the guerrilla column, this good sword, rust!
You guys will have the time to eat meat. Once you receive the war zone order, it will definitely be a fierce battle. What you have to do now is to lead the troops well and wait for the call from the superiors at any time."

After hearing this, everyone instantly perked up. Although they were scolded by Lao Yue, they were all very happy. As long as there was a battle to fight, it didn't matter if they were scolded every day.

After the meeting, several detachment leaders, chiefs of staff and Lao Tian stayed to accompany Yue Qianli in conducting war game simulations. On days without combat missions, they could only rely on maps and sand tables to pass the time.

In a war involving millions of people, the battle plan actually does not play a big role. If you rely on the plan to fight a war, the final result will be a miserable defeat because the enemy situation will always change.

As the "grindstone", Yue Qianli constantly changed his tactics, launching wave after wave of offensives, sometimes on the southern front, sometimes on the northern front, sometimes on the Khan Road, sometimes on the waterway, with various offensive tactics emerging one after another;

These offensive methods were used by the Japanese in another time and space. Their 10 divisions attacked from multiple directions, causing the millions of troops in the Fifth and Ninth War Zones to be exhausted from coping. The Hata Detachment alone almost broke through the Yangtze River defense line and fought from Anqing to Wuhan.

These were still a group of second-hand devils, the Yizhou people. After being educated as slaves by the devils, they fought better than the real devils. Yue Qianli got angry whenever he thought of them. Unfortunately, the guerrilla column was out of reach, so he was so bored that he used the sand table to torture Gao Zhisong and others every day, just as a training exercise.

In the current Wuhan battle, Yue Qianli could no longer rely on foresight to fight. In a war involving millions of people, the Japanese could change their tactics at any time, so he could only respond accordingly. When Yue Qianli responded by changing his tactics again, Gao Zhisong protested on the spot:

"Old Yue, you keep changing your tactics. That's too bad. The defense can't keep up with the rhythm. It's hard not to lose."

Yue Qianli smiled and said:

"That's right, don't you know that the military situation is ever-changing and the water has no fixed shape?

The biggest constraint on the Japanese in large-scale battles is logistical support. The Japanese have a navy, and they can use waterways and rivers to provide support, so their supply cannot be cut off.
The Hata Detachment fought along the Yangtze River waterway. They could land wherever they wanted. They would fight if they could win and change locations if they couldn't win. They were hard to defend against.

A single Hata detachment would have to pin down 200,000 or 300,000 troops, and they might not even be able to win. Their naval gun support is equivalent to leading an entire fleet into battle."

Duan Yulin understood and couldn't help but praise:
"This Okamura Neiji is really amazing. He relied on the Hata Detachment and the Navy Fleet to disrupt our defense depth. This created a lot of opportunities for the other ten divisions. Is there really no solution?"

(End of this chapter)