Wu Siren evacuated very timely because the next day, the Japanese army blocked the channels leading to the outside of the concession, and the concession authorities also allowed the Japanese secret agencies to send people to the concession to arrest anti-Japanese war personnel.

Wu Siren was not surprised that this happened. After the outbreak of the European War, John Cow and Gaul Chicken had no time to care about it. Isolationism prevailed within the US imperialists, so this kind of compromise occurred.

However, through this incident, Japan also saw the essence of Britain and France's strength and the strength of the country, which strengthened their determination to go south.

After several twists and turns, Wu Siren and Ma San and others returned to Yuzhou successfully. It was already March, and Japan began to gather troops and move towards Yiling again, preparing to continue to move south.

After the Battle of Jiangcheng, the Japanese army successfully occupied Jiangcheng, but at this time the Japanese army was in an overextended state. Most of its standing and A-level reserve divisions had been put into the front line and failed to destroy the main force of the Chinese army. Although most of the essence areas had been lost, the Chongqing government authorities were still not ready to accept the terms of peace talks from Japan. Japan found that they were trapped in the abyss of protracted war that they had always wanted to avoid.

The Japanese army's choice at this time was to stop, consolidate the occupied area, and take local offensives to exert pressure on the government, hoping that the government would agree to the peace talks. This strategy was basically just a re-improvement of the old tune after the capture of Jinling, but the situation was even worse for the Japanese army. The occupied area was at least twice as large. The Japanese army lacked the strength to fully control the occupied area, and also lacked sufficient reserves. If it was wise to say that the Japanese army adopted this strategy at the end of 1937, it would be extremely stupid to restart this idea a year later.

After deciding on the strategic concept, the Japanese army began to reorganize its troops at the end of 1938, that is, a large number of newly formed independent brigades and B-class reserve divisions were launched into China, and replaced defenses with the standing divisions and A-class reserve (special) divisions that were originally put into the battlefield. The troops that were replaced were either driven back to the country to relieve mobilization, or transferred to the Kwantung Army to fight against the threat of the Red Empire. By the beginning of 1940, the Japanese army deployed 24 divisions and 21 independent mixed brigades and two cavalry brigades in China (except Northeast), with a total of nearly 800,000 ground troops.

The number of troops is very large, and the cost of garrisons also makes the Japanese government feel quite pressured. However, the occupied areas are too large, so that although the Japanese army has broken the garrisons into pieces and stationed in a large number of squads and platoon-level strongholds in order to control the occupied areas. Even a division can only maintain the mobile force of one brigade, but the control effect of the occupied areas is still not very good. The guerrillas behind the enemy, the Red Party, not only live well, but also have the mood to "graze" each other.

In addition to striving to control the occupied areas, the Japanese army also hoped to consume the strength of the Chinese anti-Japanese war with local offensives. Since the elite troops of the Guofu were mostly deployed in the southwest as reserves, or arranged around Jiangcheng to wait for the opportunity to counterattack Jiangcheng. Therefore, the Japanese army decided to focus the local offensives on the defense zones of the fifth and ninth war zones against China, and to successively attack the direct units of the Guofu. Therefore, when the troops were busy adjusting defenses, they mostly replaced the divisions with brigades.

Under the circumstances, the 11th Army that occupied Jiangcheng still controlled the huge forces of 7 divisions and 3 brigades, and took on the task of continuously carrying out local offensives. In 1939, the 11th Army first captured Yuzhang, and then launched a large-scale offensive against the Fifth War Zone of Jingchu and the Ninth War Zone of Xiangchu. Our side called the Battle of Yuzhang, the Battle of Suizao, and the First Changsha Battle. However, the above offensives were not severely hit by the Chinese army except for capturing Yuzhang.

A worse problem occurred in the local economy of Japan. In early 1937, Japan had just passed a sea with the United States and Russia as the imaginary enemy. The army reorganization plan was completed with a total amount of 2.4 billion yen, but it was only started to be implemented. The Sino-Japanese War broke out, and the war cost was consumed greatly, and the expansion of the army was still in progress. Therefore, the gold bank of the Japan Central Bank was prepared to be consumed rapidly. By the end of 1938, the gold inventory (valued only 1.35 billion yuan) in the hands of the Japan Central Bank had consumed more than two-thirds. Even so, in order to carry out the Jiangcheng Battle that year, the Japan Army had to delay the implementation of the reorganization plan in order to divert enough budget to cope with the war expenses.

Therefore, Japan was preparing to implement old methods to promote peace and fight, and to support war, forcing the government led by Chang Kaishen to compromise and surrender.

"Commander, you're back. The 11th Japanese Army gathered 120,000 people to embark on the Zaoyang and Yichang areas. General Xuchen has sent more than ten telegrams to request our support."

As soon as he returned to Luoyi, Chen Ziliang couldn't wait to come to Wu Siren.

"Have you called from the Shancheng?" Wu Siren asked.

"No!" Chen Ziliang said in confusion: "According to reason, the government should issue orders to us. After all, the only one who can help General Xuchen and others is our tax police group."

Wu Siren sneered: "They are guilty. My trip to Shencheng this time is strictly confidential, but the Japanese began to search for me shortly after I arrived in Shencheng, and informed me that all supplies to the government will be stopped from today, including the Luoyi training class of the Military Commission."

"Are these bastards now? They still have the leisure to eliminate dissidents." Chen Ziliang said angrily.

"It's not the first day that you know my uncle, and I refuse to obey him. Naturally, I have to get rid of it as soon as possible. The enemy I will face in the future is not only the Japanese devils." Wu Siren sighed.

Although he was very dissatisfied with Chang Kaishen, Wu Siren did not think about stubbornly stubbornly with Zhang Xuchen and the others. After all, Zhang Xuchen led his army to provide assistance to the Tax Police Corps during the Battle of Jiangcheng.

Two days later, Wu Siren met Zhang Xuchen, who was secretly visiting at Luoyi Mansion.

"Welcome to visit Xuchen." Wu Siren took the initiative to shake hands with Zhang Xuchen, the patriotic general.

"Moran, I have no choice but to ask for your door. Based on the information we have recently obtained, the Japanese are preparing to launch an offensive against the Ninth War Zone where I stationed. You also know that the war has almost changed since now. Now there is a serious shortage of military supplies, so I can only go to you to fight Qiufeng." Zhang Xuchen was embarrassed.

"What is the combat mission given to you by General Li Delin? Of course, if you need to keep it confidential, you can not say it," Wu Siren said curiously.

Zhang Xuchen said readily: "You don't need to be kept secret from you. After the battle begins, I am responsible for leading troops to cross the Xianghe River in the east, leading my troops to advance north, and actively launching an attack on the invading Japanese soldiers to attract the main force of the enemy. Other troops will be besieging the main force of the Japanese soldiers. This plan formulated by General Delin is to lead the army into the trap."
Chapter completed!