Eto sneered slightly, and he was not so polite to Nishimura: "A miscellaneous card in the army scares you like this. Nishimura, are you still an imperial samurai?"

Rigao support immediately stood up to support Nishimura, but Eto was his immediate boss. Although he now had the ability to compete with him, his attitude must be respected.

"Eto-kun, Nishimura's concerns are not unreasonable. Since the war started, the performance of the miscellaneous army has not been worse than that of the Central Army. During the last battle, the 40th Army's persistence in Linyi was an important reason for General Itagaki's failure, and this is also a miscellaneous army."

Eto blushed and pointed at Ligao Support and shouted angrily: "Ligao Jun!" But he couldn't say anything. He was stunned for a moment, turned around and said to Sugiyama Moto, "Your Excellency, decide, don't hesitate anymore!"

Sugiyama Moto frowned. Eto's performance disappointed him too much. Military arguments must be based on facts and make reasonable inferences, rather than act intent. Eto did not refute the other party's facts and inferences at all. It was only based on enthusiasm and intention. This was enough for grassroots officers, but it was too far behind for senior generals.

Sugiyama Moto didn't think that the second legion could cause much damage to the Imperial Army if he had a miscellaneous brand. The two key points raised by Li Gao Support - the Air Force and the War Damage, were his heart problems. China gained an advantage in the sky, and even the Japanese Air Force generals dared not deny this. Ito and Yoshio Shinozuka were attacked by the Chinese Air Force when they attacked Caoxian and Shanxian. The war reports from the Air Force showed that the Air Force had lost nearly 100 aircraft in just a few days, with an average of nearly thirty aircraft per day. Such losses were very amazing.

Secondly, after nearly two months of fighting, the troops suffered a huge loss. Honma's 100,000 troops were only more than 30,000. Yoshio Shinozuka and Ando Rikishi fought hard along the way, and the losses were as high as 60,000. He was not sure about the situation on the southern line, but the losses would never be less than 60,000. The army's counterattack in the southern section of the Tinpu Road caused great difficulties for Haneda.

It was very difficult for the troops to fight continuously. The situation now is very similar to the situation in the Battle of Songhu. The army looked exhausted and fled in a hurry, but they severely damaged the Imperial Army under the city of Nanjing. The shadow of Matsui Ishigen enveloped Sugiyama's heart more and more strongly.

"Your Excellency," Chief of Staff Naosabu Okabe felt that he could not help but speak out. He had been watching the argument between Rigao and Eto. To be honest, he did not agree with or object to both opinions. Naosabu Okabe slowly calmed down and said: "What Eto and Rigao proposed are facts, but I think Rigao Jun is too cautious and Eto Jun is too bold."

Naosaburo Okabe attracted everyone's attention, and everyone focused their attention on him, wanting to hear his opinions.

"The army north of the Yellow River has been transferred south, and Xue Yue's army commanded by him is about 120,000, of which about 20,000 of them are blocking our army in Hebei. The remaining about 100,000 will be used east of Kaifeng or Shangqiu." Although the tone of Naosabu Okabe Naosabu was still as tough as Japanese officers, it was very slow and even a little heavy: "And the first strong army, the Forty-Ninth Army, disappeared from the battlefield. The troops of the Second and Third Army in Cao County and Shan County were fighting against the Imperial Army. Without the figure of the Forty-Ninth Army, I guess they should be resting near Shangqiu or the counterattack force prepared by the general; in this way, with Xue Yue's 100,000 army, the general could form a counterattack force with the 19th Army as the core, with about 150,000 people near Shangqiu, which is a force that cannot be ignored."

Speaking of this, the officers around Naosaburo, Eto's face was pale, but the expression of Li Gao's support was relatively calm. He was even more optimistic about Gao's support.

"As Li Gaojun said, our army suffered a lot of losses in the early battles, but I think the army's losses are even greater. In a ratio of one to two, I think the army's losses should be around 300,000, and their losses are extremely large. It is not advisable to let them rest and rest. But if our army continues to attack, the front line will only push flat, which will have little impact on the development of the battle situation. I suggest slowing down the attack pace, urging the troops on the southern line to speed up the attack pace, conquer Qiuzhou as soon as possible, insert into eastern Henan, cut off the army's rear support, cooperate with our army on the front, and completely encircle and annihilate the troops near Shangqiu."

"But, your Excellency," Ligao Support asked hesitantly, "Can the Southern Line troops complete such a task? Although Haneda's troops attacking Haozhou have four divisions, the total strength is less than 100,000 troops on the front, and they have more than 100,000 troops from the southwest."

Eto also questioned the opinions of Naosaburo Okabe: "Your Excellency, can Tani Shouo's four divisions block such a vast area? As you said, the general gathered more than 100,000 troops in Shangqiu, including the strongest Forty-Nine Army, and in the southeast the Fifth Division, the 21st Division, and the 16th Division and the 7th Division, commanded by General Ando Tomoto in the southeast, how did they act?"

This situation has happened more than once, and Naosaburo Okabe was helpless. All officers in his headquarters knew that his authority had been lost after the last defeat.

"Anto Rikihito must continue to attack until he takes Dangshan. General Fengfu's actions at the foot of the mountain should slow down." Naosaburo Okabe said firmly: "Our strategic purpose is to force Chiang Kai-shek to seek peace. Only by annihilation of the main force can this goal be achieved. If the main force of the army is still there, the resistance of the Chiang Kai-shek government will not stop."

"Your Excellency," Ligao Support spoke again: "I still think that we should stop the attack. For this attack, the Empire has drawn troops from the country and from all over the country, which has caused emptiness in various places; in Hebei, the Eighth Route Army of the Communist Party of China has returned, and about twenty counties have fallen back into their hands. The Pinghan Line and the northern section of the Jinpu Line are in frequent emergency, and military transportation is already seriously threatened, and what is more dangerous is that the domestic army has also been drained, and there are only some new troops left in the Northeast that have only been formed for a short time. This situation is very dangerous. The Imperial Army cannot take risks, because once we are damaged, we will have no strength to fill it."

If Li Gao supports it, everyone in the room was silenced. In order to organize this attack, the troops that the military generals could draw were all transferred. There was only one guard division left in the country, and only one main division left in the northeast. The rest of the troops were troops that had just been formed, and the combat effectiveness was significantly different from the old troops. What was even more terrifying is that once the attack failed, the Chinese team counterattacked, and from Tokyo to Nanjing to Peking, they didn't know where to draw troops from to block the gap. An emergency shipping like this last time was impossible because there were no troops.

Naosaburo Okabe felt cold in his heart. Sugiyama's face was as deep as water. Eto opened his mouth and wanted to speak, but finally shut up. Now he couldn't say anything randomly. He had to guarantee his words with his head. If Sugiyama's advice was adopted, once he failed, he would have to have a way to apologize. What's more important is that with the lessons from Nanjing and Xuzhou, no one dared to say that the general would not fight back.

All the problems and all the concerns were left to Sugiyama, and Sugiyama's thoughts were as chaotic as the proposition of the staff. On the one hand, he wanted to attack. According to military common sense, he should attack under such circumstances and defeat the enemy in one fell swoop; but on the other hand, the troops suffered a lot of losses, and the general gathered a large number of troops in Shangqiu. Although he did not know what the situation of these troops was, once he counterattacked, the consequences were unpredictable.

Sugiyama was hesitant and had difficulty making a decision, so he decided to hand over the conflict and let Nishio Suzuma get rid of his nerves. In addition to ordering Ando Riki to speed up the attack and seize Dangshan as soon as possible, the rest of the troops warned them to be careful and guard against the counterattack of the army.

Ligao Support sighed in his heart. He had to find an opportunity to persuade Sugiyama to stop the attack. This order was too vague. It was hard to say whether the Japanese generals on the front line would comply.

The concerns about Ligao's support were quickly confirmed. All the Japanese generals on the front line threw Sugiyama's suggestion behind their heads, and the successive victory made the Japanese generals and soldiers extremely excited. They claimed before the war that as long as Xuzhou was taken down, the government would seek peace and the war would end. When they thought of this, the Japanese soldiers were afraid of losing the opportunity to make achievements. They seized every opportunity to attack, attack, and attack again.

"Yu'an, how many tanks do your troops have?"

When Sugiyama Yuan was hesitating whether to stop the attack, the vanguard of the fast column arrived in Shangqiu under Qiu Qingquan. Before Qiu Qingquan could wait for the troops to be resettled, he ran to Wangwenzhuang to meet Zhuang Jihua and received the task.

"One hundred and one tank, sixty-five armored vehicles, and sixty cars." Qiu Qingquan replied in a proper manner. He was very excited for a while when he was the deputy commander of China's first mechanized division. He first learned engineers in Germany and then went to the Berlin Army University to study tank combat. Although he was the first general to study tank command in Germany, he did not dare to look at the commander at all. In addition to the time in Guangzhou, he also heard General Guderian, who had the first German tanker in Berlin, talked about Zhuang Jihua.

"Well," Zhuang Jihua nodded. One hundred and ten tanks and sixty-five armored vehicles. Chiang Kai-shek had already taken out his old job: "Yu'an, how about training? Tanks are a high-end thing. Without good training, it's just decoration."

"Please rest assured, the 200th Division was trained by me," said Qiu Qingquan, laughing twice. Zhuang Jihua looked at him strangely, not understanding what he laughed at. Qiu Qingquan quickly explained: "Actually, I have to thank the senior. When the teaching corps, the army lacked gasoline and shells, and the training was insufficient. This time, the 200th Division was formed, and the diesel was made from the senior's Southwest Development Team. The training was carried out under the personal guidance of the Soviet consultant, and it took longer than the teaching corps to drive tanks."

Qiu Qingquan was laughing, but Zhuang Jihua was shocked. It took longer than when he taught the corps. How long did the corps drive the tank? It would be impossible to only drive the tank.
Chapter completed!