Set the time back four hours ago. []
Shanghai, Japanese Central China Front Army Headquarters.
Shanshan Yuan looked at Deputy Chief of Staff Muto Akira with a faint look, and asked: "Still unable to contact the Tachibana detachment?"
Muto Akira shook his head gloomily and said in a deep voice: "Your Excellency, Commander, until half an hour ago, we were still unable to contact the Tachibana detachment, but..."
Shan Shanyuan frowned and said, "But what?"
Muto Zhang replied: "However, the Asada Brigade stationed in Taizhou sent back a message that last night, a group of injured Imperial Army soldiers were transported back to Taizhou Field Hospital from Hai'an Town. These Imperial Army soldiers once mentioned that they had entered the Seven Stars The imperial army sweeping through the lake swamp area was attacked by ghosts."
"Nani? Ghost?!" Shanshan Yuan suddenly stood up and stared at Muto Akira.
"Hai, I know this is ridiculous, but..." Muto Akira didn't dare to look at Sugihara Yuan, and his voice inadvertently weakened, but he still had the courage to say, "It may not be impossible."
"If you don't believe it, I never believe that there are real ghosts in this world." Sugisu Yuan tried his best to control his emotions and told Muto Akira in as calm a tone as possible, "Keep calling the Tachibana detachment until I contact them."
"Hai." Muto Akira nodded heavily, hurriedly left Sugimoto Yuan's office and returned to the communications office.
Unfortunately, until noon, the Communications Office failed to contact the Tachibana detachment. Instead, the Watanabe Brigade, which was pursuing the north from Taixing, received news that the 180th Division's Sentinel Cavalry, Muto, was discovered in Rugao, 20 miles south of Hai'an Town. Zhang didn't dare to neglect and immediately reported the news to Shan Shanyuan.
"The 180th Division?" Shan Shanyuan strode to the map and asked, "What kind of army is this?"
Muto Akira didn't even need to search for information, and immediately came up with the origin of the 180th Division: "The commander of the 180th Division, Xiang Tianhu, and the chief of staff, Yan Yuhui, are affiliated with the 59th Army of the National Revolutionary Army, and the 59th Army is affiliated with the 1st Army Group Army, the 1st Group Army was expanded from Song Zheyuan's 9th Army, and has three infantry corps and one cavalry corps."
"Song Zheyuan's 9th Army? Northwest Army?" Shan Shanyuan's eyes immediately narrowed.
Before the launch of the all-out war between China and Japan, Japan's intelligence agencies had been committed to collecting intelligence on China for more than 20 years, including research on the composition of local military factions in China and assessment of combat effectiveness, and submitted them to the Ministry of War for combat operations. On the class document, the evaluation of the Northwest Army is eight words: Dare to die and fight, endure hardships and stand hard work!
Muto Akira said: "According to the information provided by the secret service, the 59th Army is currently in Huainan."
Shanshan Yuandao: "That's not surprising. If the main force of the 59th Army is really near Hai'an, and is aware of the Tachibana Detachment's combat intentions in advance, and then sets up an ambush in the dense forest of Qixing Lake Swamp in advance, without Tachibana Detachment noticing, It is not impossible to be surrounded by the 59th Army, and if so, it will be possible."
"Hai." Muto Zhang said with a heavy pause, "It seems that the main force of the Tachibana detachment has been collectively shattered."
Shan Shan Yuan's eyes flashed. He didn't care about the loss of a few infantry brigades. The empire had a population of 80 million and tens of millions of soldiers of the right age. So what did the loss of a few infantry brigades mean? Shanshan Yuan's headache is how to explain this to the base camp and the royal family
This is obvious. The pursuit and annihilation of the remnants of the temporary 79th Division failed again.
The last failure forced Iwane Matsui to retire sadly. What fate awaits him
Muto Akira added: "Your Excellency, Commander, if the main force of the 59th Army is really near Hai'an, then the Watanabe Brigade and the Guards Brigade that are encircling Hai'an Town will be very dangerous."
The Tachibana detachment has six infantry brigades, three of which followed Tachibana Yoshio to Hai'an Town, one was stationed in Taizhou, and the other two detoured to Tai'an and then from the southeast to Hai'an to encircle the remnants of the temporary 79th Division. Near Hai'an, the main force of the Tachibana detachment has now been completely destroyed, and it is useless for Watanabe and the Guards Brigade to go to Hai'an.
"Order." Shanshan Yuan said immediately, "Cancel the establishment of the Tachibana detachment. The Konoe, Watanabe and Asada battalions will immediately return to form the Iijima Division, and then order the Iijima Division to go north along the canal to capture Huai'an."
"Hai." Muto Zhang nodded heavily, already understanding Shan Shan Yuan's plan.
Shan Shanyuan wants to prompt the Central China Front Army to move north as soon as possible, and attack the North China Front Army from north to south, and attack Xuzhou. As long as he provokes a war in the hinterland of the Central Plains, the attention of the base camp and the royal family will be diverted. After all, compared with the empire's thousand-year national destiny, the royal family's A mere appearance is nothing.
Of course, Muto Akira is also very clear that whether this move can successfully divert the attention of the base camp and the royal family, and whether it can successfully help him avoid this disaster, is still unknown. Half a month ago, Matsui Iwane was not just capturing the Chinese capital. Was he dismissed from the base camp on the eve of Nanjing? Who can guarantee that Shanshan Yuan will not make the same mistake as Matsui Iwane
However, there must be an explanation for the remnants of the temporary 79th Division.
At that moment, Muto Akira said again: "Your Excellency, Commander, how should we report to the base camp and the royal family regarding the whereabouts of the remnants of the temporary 79th Division?"
Shanshan Yuan frowned and said, "Didn't Tachibana detachment report earlier that it had wiped out the remnants of the temporary 79th Division in Qixing Lake Swamp?"
"Hai." Sho Muto paused and said, "About a hundred people were wiped out."
"Let's see." Sugisugimoto said, "Under the fierce pursuit of the Tachibana detachment, most of the remnants of the temporary seventy-ninth division were wiped out, and only a small number of remnants fled. The Tachibana detachment went deep into China alone, and unfortunately fell into China. In the ambush circle of the 59th Army, the main force of the detachment, more than 3,000 people, except for a few who broke through, the rest were all broken into pieces, which is extremely regrettable."
Muto Akira's eyes lit up and he said sincerely: "Your Excellency, Commander, is brilliant."
A proud smile appeared on the corner of Shanshan Yuan's mouth. After he said this, the unexplained and tragic failure of the Tachibana detachment immediately changed its flavor.
Because, if the truth is reported to the base camp truthfully, the Tachibana detachment will certainly not be able to escape the blame for incompetent combat, and he, Sugisu Yuan, will also not be able to escape the responsibility for improper command.
However, now that he has done this, the Tachibana detachment has become a model of implementing the royal decree to the letter. You see, in order to save the face of the royal family and to eliminate a few hundred Chinese remnants, our detachment ended up going deep into the hinterland of central Jiangsu alone. , and most of the detachment has been put in. In this way, your royal family still tolerates our inability to fight
And he, Shan Shanyuan, also successfully shirks his responsibility: Everyone has seen that in order to fulfill the emperor's order, I, Shan Shanyuan, formed an advanced detachment on my own, and in the end, the remnants of the temporary 79th Division were basically annihilated. Just because We went too far alone, so we were unable to achieve full success and suffered heavy casualties.
Shanshan Yuan's words also have a hidden benefit: after this battle, it will be difficult for the royal family to force him to exterminate the remnants of the temporary 79th Division, and he will be able to get rid of this thankless job. After being freed, he devoted himself wholeheartedly to the preparations for the Battle of Xuzhou. This was what Shanshan Yuan wanted.
Of course, if the imperial family is still not satisfied, I can form a forward detachment again. However, no one can guarantee whether this forward detachment will repeat the mistakes of the Tachibana detachment. Although the imperial army is powerful, the Chinese army Although their combat power is weak, they are going deep alone. Who can guarantee that the imperial army can win
Shan Shan Yuan said proudly: "Just do what I just said and report it to the headquarters and then forward it to the royal family."
But Akira Muto remembered something again and said: "Your Excellency, Commander, if the base camp and the royal family ask about Xu Rui, the temporary commander of the independent battalion of the 79th Division, how should he respond to his humble position?"
"Well..." Shan Shanyuan's brows knitted into a knot again.
This is indeed a difficult question to answer, because regardless of the Battle of Wuxi, the Battle of Likou or the Battle of Nantong, the culprit who even killed His Royal Highness Prince Fushimi Palace was the commander of this independent battalion, Xu Rui! If Xu Rui cannot be killed, annihilating the entire independent battalion will be meaningless and equivalent to failure.
But we can't make it up. They have already killed Xu Rui. Otherwise, if Xu Rui appears again one day and gives the imperial army a hard blow, and then uses power again, then Shanshan Yuan will not be the one. Are you playing tricks on the Japanese royal family? Then his fate, Shanshan Yuan, would probably be worse than that of Matsui Iwane.
Matsui Iwane was just dismissed and retired, and what awaited him, Sugimoto Yuan, might be a trial.
It seems that this matter cannot be detailed and can only be dealt with in a vague manner. Let's postpone it for a while.
At that moment, Shan Shanyuan said again: "If you do this, you may die in a chaotic battle."
"Maybe he died in the chaos." Muto Zhang was dumbfounded.
"Yes, that's the reply." Shan Shanyuan nodded again.
"Hai." Muto Akira paused heavily, but when he turned to leave, Shan Shanyuan stopped him again.
"Muto-san." Sugisu Yuan stopped Muto Akira and said, "In view of the information provided by the meteorological observation department, there is no need for the aircraft of the aviation corps to take off today and tomorrow."
Muto Akira was stunned for a moment when he heard this, and then realized that Shan Shan Yuan was worried that the aviation reconnaissance force would find "intelligence" that he did not want to see. For example, the main force of the 59th Army was not in Haian Town. That is, Shan Shan Yuan In his heart, Sugimoto does not believe that the collective destruction of the Tachibana detachment was caused by the 59th Army.
Shanshan Yuan also doesn’t think this is the work of ghosts.
In other words, Shanshan Yuan believes that the collective destruction of the Tachibana detachment was caused by the temporary independent battalion of the 79th Division!
Thinking of this, Akira Muto suddenly felt a chill in his heart. If the collective destruction of the Tachibana detachment was really the work of the independent battalion of the 79th Division, then this unit would be too terrifying.
From the look in Muto Akira's eyes, Sugisu Yuan knew that his deputy chief of staff had understood.
At that moment, Shanshan Yuan said again: "Muto-san, you should understand that you and I are just grasshoppers on a rope. You should know what we can and cannot do?"
"Hai." Muto Zhang paused heavily and said, "But I am worried that the China Army will expose this matter."
"No." Shan Shanyuan waved his hand and said firmly, "With such a huge feat of war on his head, which general of the China Army would be stupid enough not to claim it?"