War is like a chess game.

How enemies will play chess is often predictable.

The Japanese army knew very early that China would launch an unprecedented offensive in the Southeast War Zone of North Korea, and Japan could no longer lose anyway. Even if it wanted to block all the soldiers of the Imperial Japanese Army of the Great Japanese Imperial Army before the enemy's guns, Japan could not hesitate.

At this time, the Japanese base camp knew that Japan could not defeat China at all, but as long as it made all efforts, it could still defend the southeastern region of North Korea. If it defended here, it would prevent China from landing on the land. Japan would have the advantage of negotiating a ceasefire agreement with China.

If China can be severely damaged in the southeast war zone of the Korean Peninsula, it will undoubtedly be the most beneficial to Japan.

While China is preparing to launch the southern battle of North Korea and the Ryukyu campaign, Japan is also doing its best to stop the Northeast Defense Forces, whether it is using spy means, sabotage in northern Korea, and recruiting a large number of troops in the southeastern war zone of North Korea, trying to stop China from attacking Japan.

In the traditional map division of North Korea, Japan currently controls North Gyeongsang Province, South Gyeongsang Province, South Jeolla Province, North Jeolla Province, North Jeolla Province, North Chungcheong Province, and North Gyeongshen Province in North Gyeongshen Province. The two sides intersect each other in the four areas of South Jeolla Province, North Jeolla Province, North Jeolla Province, North Chungcheongshen Province, and Gyeongshen Province. The four armies of the Northeast Defense Forces are distributed in these four areas to confront each other with the Japanese East Asian Expeditionary Forces. Among the six fronts of the Japanese East Asian Expeditionary Forces, four fronts are arranged separately, but the Japanese army has one front army stationed in Sangju and Daegu.

The confrontation between the Northeast Defense Force and Japan's East Asian Expeditionary Force on this line of defense has been nearly four months. The real war has reached the point where it is about to break out. At this time, Japan has already reached the point where it cannot afford to lose. The whole nation is full of soldiers. Forty-five new divisions are added in China, and it will continue to expand and train. It will continue to be dispatched to a new battlefield at any time. We will strive to maintain the current situation of China and Japan.

The counterattack is a real luxury for Japan.

Even for Prince Zaihito, who was always arrogant and confident, the chief of staff who secretly controlled the Japanese base camp behind him was also very clear about the current situation. Japan, which took the risk of going to war against the strong, could not withstand such losses at all. He also understood that China's strategic plan was to implement a circular blockade of Japan and block Japan within the island country, which would directly make Japan lose all the resources needed to support the war.

Apart from the population of 70 million, Japan really has nothing left. In addition, it is the Yamato-class battleship symbolizing the glory of the Great Japanese Empire.

Until this moment, Prince Zairen of the Immortal Courtyard still believed that as long as the Yamato-class battleship did not fall, the Great Japanese Empire would not fall. No matter how difficult it was, as long as a war agreement was reached with China that could still be justified, relying on the Yamato-class battleships, the Great Japanese Empire would eventually rise again and build the No. 1 navy in Asia.

He was so determined, even though he knew the difficulties Japan is facing at present, because he firmly believed that the Yamato nation was one of the best nations in the world, and the 70 million Yamato people were far better than the 500 million china pigs.

To this end, he persuaded Emperor Showa to allow the Japanese army to use chemical weapons in subsequent wars, trying to use greater casualties to curb China's intention to fight, and forcing China to agree to sign an armistice agreement.

If this leads to China's retaliation against Japan's local use of chemical weapons, he believes that the Yamato nation will definitely be able to hold on.

Prince Zai Ren decided to bet again, not because he wanted to bet, but because there was no other way. For the strength of the Great Japanese Empire and the future of the Great Japanese Empire, Japan had reached the point where it had to use chemical weapons to intimidate its opponents.

At this time, he hoped that fate would favor the Japanese Empire again, so that the empire would be more lucky and win this game, but he didn't know how big the mistake he made was at the moment when he signed the order to use the poison gas bomb.

At a critical moment of national life and death with a population of 70 million, under such a critical situation, time gradually entered May, and the preparations for the two sides on the southern battlefield of North Korea entered a more urgent stage. Before that, as the education director of the third chief of the Japanese Army, the Japanese Army General Shinroku Hata was recommended as the commander-in-chief of the East Asian Expeditionary Force and arrived in Daegu on April 14.

General Hata Shunji was clearly dissatisfied with the arrangement of the former Commander-in-Chief Terauchi on the south-facing defense line and tried to make adjustments, hoping to shrink the troops from the north and retain more troops as a preparation. However, Prince Zairen, as the actual controller behind the base camp, clearly prohibited the Japanese army from abandoning their positions, and ordered Hata Shunji to defend every inch of land in southern Korea to fight against the Chinese army on every inch of mountain and high ground until China timidly agreed to the armistice negotiations.

Such an order from the upper level made it difficult for General Shintoshi Hata to make effective changes, but Prince Zairen agreed to add ten divisions to the East Asian dispatched troops as reserve forces, and there were soldiers, but the problem of the Japanese lack of artillery is already difficult to solve. The serious shortage of gun production capacity forced the Japanese army to re-use the inventory of Type 30 and Type Murata 22 rifles. The new semi-automatic rifle 97 has not served in the army for a short time and is seriously insufficient in number. The main rifle of the Japanese army is still the Type 38 rifle.

In terms of cannons, the Japanese army still used the Type 75 mountain cannon as the main body, and the number of cannons with a caliber of 105\120mm is obviously insufficient.

Shinji Hata was very aware of the difficulties he was facing. Shortly after arriving in Daegu as commander-in-chief of the East Asian Expeditionary Army, he ordered the cessation of the original counterattack and the ongoing small-scale battles, quickly continued to gather troops, and concentrated all manpower and material resources for defensive operations.

During this period, Cai E also made continuous adjustments within the Northeast Defense Forces. In order to correct the arrogance in the army, he had done his best. However, for Cai E, the most difficult thing was to face two more difficult things. One was that there would inevitably be large-scale casualties in this battle; the other was that the consumption of ammunition in this battle would be astonishing. Both of these problems required the Northeast Defense Forces to ensure the ability to transport and replenish materials.

Rich war experience is the most precious wealth of senior generals like Cai E and Liu Gengyun. They could predict all this very early, and they had already made such a judgment even before the Central Military Department formally ordered them to be appointed as the supreme commander of the Northeast Defense Force.

Through the deployment of the Central Military Department, Cai E has established the world's largest field medical team in the Northeast Defense Forces. On average, each infantry squad has a rigorously trained medical soldier. The reserves of special medicines such as morphine and penicillin are abundant, which is enough to ensure the use of 300,000 wounded people.

300,000.

This is the upper limit of casualties set by Cai E for himself.

Details determine success or failure. Cai E and Liu Gengyun have a very strange division of labor. Liu Gengyun is responsible for the overall tactical planning and deployment. Cai E is responsible for the adjustment of the troops and these details. As the head of the teaching staff, Shu Fangde is responsible for coordinating the Air Force, Navy and Patrol Force forces.

In a war, they have to deal with thousands of problems, most of which are extremely trivial and small problems, and these small problems determine the final success or failure.

The accumulated forces of the Chinese and Japanese armies in southern Korea exceeded 1.7 million, and the total amount of troops and equipment reached the level of the Soviet-D-Kursk Battle. Once started, it will definitely become the final battle that completely determines the fate of China and Japan.

The official start date of the Arrow War Plan was May 17, but before that, starting from March, the Imperial Air Force and Navy continued to blockade the Korean Strait, attacking the Japanese supply fleet and all other ships. Since the Japanese army had lost air and sea control after the Seoul War, they could not effectively prevent the Imperial Air Force and could only transport at night, but were easily attacked by tiger shark fighters and submarines at night.

Since the start of the war, the J-5 Tiger Shark fighter bomber has been a well-deserved battlefield star, and has many key values ​​from beginning to end. Its fuselage is large and has a long range. It can serve as a second-tier bomber, attack aircraft and fighter aircraft, and can even undertake reconnaissance, anti-submarine, night searching, etc. From March to May, the Japanese army lost more than 400 transport ships in the Korean Strait, and about two divisions' forces sank directly in the Korean Strait due to air strikes.

This put the Japanese army in a very difficult situation. At this time, the Japanese army was far from comparable to the war of aggression against China. Without resource areas such as the Northeast, the Korean Peninsula and Taiwan, Japan's own national strength was also very limited.

During the Battle of Seoul, the Japanese army collapsed thousands of miles under the attack of Wei Lihuang, and more than 2,000 artillery pieces and a large amount of military supplies were seized, which made the Japanese East Asian dispatched troops stationed in the Southeast War Zone of North Korea even worse. In order to ensure the daily supply of more than one million Japanese troops, the Japanese army could only levy levies in southern Korea and seize supplies from North Korean families and merchants.

Both sides have a huge military force, and the daily expenses of nearly 700,000 kilograms of military rations are even more unbearable. The area of ​​cultivated land in southern Korea is small, and the Japanese army can not rob much food. In fact, since April, the supply of Japanese military rations has been gradually reduced by half.

Cai E and Shinji Hata are classmates from the mainland University of Japan. They still have a certain understanding of each other. Shinji Hata also knows Cai E's ambitions, talents and shrewdness. Both sides are not in a hurry to take action in the Southeast War Zone, but a unique battle between China and Japan will inevitably come.

After Emperor Showa agreed to Prince Zairen's proposal, the Japanese army had accelerated the deployment of chemical weapons during this period, and the empire was also actively carrying out related defense and counterattack work. In fact, neither Cai E nor Hata Shunruo wanted to use this weapon, but they were unable to intervene in the decision-making of the top leaders, and both of them were just executors of the battle.

While the Northeast Defense Forces armies are stepping up preparations for war, people did not notice that Chen Wu, a veteran who has left the Chinese Army for nearly ten years, is shining with new brilliance.

The old horse stays in the stable and is determined to be thousands of miles away.

Among the four armies, Chen Wu's Fourth Army was last established. About one-third of the officers and soldiers came from the patrol troops in Northeast China and one-third came from the addition of new recruits. The real elite troops had only two infantry divisions.

Chen Wu was not dissatisfied with this or was not sad. On the contrary, he cherished the opportunity in front of him very much.

The chief of staff of Chen Wu's Fourth Army was also a temporary General Han Chunlin who was temporarily transferred. The reason why the Central Military Department made this arrangement was because they had a deep personal relationship. The person who made this decision was Jiang Fangzhen, but Jiang Fangzhen did not know that Chen Wu's changes in recent years were actually very big.

Han Chunlin had not yet arrived at the front line. The relevant work was in charge of Xu Wei and Lin Yangchun. Xu Wei was the acting chief of staff and Lin Yangchun was the deputy chief of staff. Xu Wei, who was born in the Far East Military Academy, happened to be Chen Wu's old subordinate. Chen Wu knew this old subordinate very well and trusted him very much.

In the past six months, Chen Wu and the Fourth Army have fought with the Japanese army many times, but their achievements are not outstanding. However, Chen Wu has experienced many battles after all. It was during the past six months that he was fighting and practicing to train all the levels of these inconspicuous newly formed troops in his hands.

In the eyes of many people, Chen Wu is a very old-fashioned and conservative and stubborn senior general. His tactical ideas are relatively backward in the Central Defense Forces. He always has the old atmosphere of the Northeast Army era. He emphasizes too much military fighting spirit and hard training, but the veterans have the benefits and advantages of veterans.

Moreover, in the past few years, Chen Wu has not been as unchanged as everyone imagined.

After arriving at the Korean Peninsula, he has been exploring new tactics for new equipment in the southern region, adjusting the wartime organization of the Fourth Army, increasing the number of troops in each squad to about 15, with 4 platoons in each company and 4 squads in each platoon, and retaining a grassroots unit as reserve force, while each battalion is similar to other gangs, generally increasing to 5-7 companies.

Chen Wu is indeed very old, but he has fought a lifelong battle after all.

The battlefield of North Korea is no stranger to him.

Like Cai E and Liu Gengyun, Chen Wu knew very early that if this battle ended, he would ultimately rely on the Northeast Army's method back then. However, on this basis, he had to make significant adjustments and improvements to the tactics based on new equipment, and the grassroots organization was constantly adjusted and changed.

Chen Wu also has a very special place, that is, he has always personally directed the battles of various divisions on the front line, and left the instructor Yuan Zonghan behind to be responsible for logistics scheduling. Although Wei Lihuang and Zhang Zizhong were used to commanding on the front line, they were not as straight as him to stand within the range of the enemy artillery.

In the past few days, the Air Force has significantly strengthened the frequency of air strikes on the Japanese front-line positions, and has continued to go deep into the Japanese hinterland to launch strikes, defeating some of the Japanese limited air force forces.

Chen Wu had received a clear telegram to launch a full-scale attack at 10 a.m. on May 17. Before this, he planned to send an infantry division to quickly insert into Jingshan County, cut off the Japanese army's retreat route, and prevent the Japanese army from joining the headquarters on the south side.

He wanted to fight an ambush and siege the city and attack reinforcements.

He is not a general who is good at using strategies, nor is Han Chunlin. After thinking about it, the two of them finally considered a bloody battle between the real bayonet and the bayonet. This is a bit like a replica of the Menglianggu Battle. It does not give the opponent a chance to rescue and directly kill the opponent's morale of the opponent's most elite troops.

This is the skill of Chen and Han.

Hard work!

Of course, it is not a reckless move. If you have the same strength, you have to fight harder than your opponent. This is the real ability. If you have the strength higher than your opponent, you have the harder one. That is the real ability.

Under the grand planning and strategic goals of the Central Military Department on the Arrow Plan, Chen Wu and Han Chunlin prepared to carefully organize a real encirclement and annihilation battle based on the current strengths and advantages of the Fourth Army, and eliminated the 3rd Division of the 7th Army, the 27th Division of the elite 7th Army, in Jiangling and Jingshan.

...

May 17.

Early in the morning.

The sky is dark and the stars are sparse. Today seems to be cloudy, or there is light rain. During this period of time in the early morning, Wei Lihuang was still discussing the new situation with Bai Chongxi, Xue Yue and others in the command center.

The Second Army is mainly armored troops. It is difficult to send the main force to attack the southeastern region of North Korea. Wei Lihuang, who has only two infantry divisions and three newly formed infantry brigades, must use all methods carefully to achieve his combat goals.

The Central Military Department gave him the goal to capture Xian'an County, and the First and Third Army attacked Changning County from north to south, and at the same time, it opened the passage for the First Army to continue to attack Busan to continue to attack south, and make all necessary preparations.

His armored troops can basically attack Xianyang County, but it is difficult to break through the 60 kilometers of mountainous land from Xianyang County to Xian'an County. This is precisely the key area for the Japanese army to defend on the southern line, especially in Shanqing County, the only channel between the two places. The Japanese army's fortifications are not only solid, but also large in large numbers. Although many batches of air forces were sent to carry out bombing and ground attacks, the current feedback is still not ideal.

Wei Lihuang's luck was not good. His opponent was General Matsui Ishione. After the Seoul Battle, the Japanese army was extremely frightened by Wei Lihuang's troops. Although in theory, they were not worried that Wei Lihuang's Second Army would still be able to cross the vast mountainous areas to continue attacking, the Japanese base camp still sent General Matsui Ishione to Gyeongsang South Road to serve as the commander of the Fourth Front Army of the Japanese East Asian Expeditionary Army.

After analyzing the troops of Wei Lihuang and the characteristics of the main commander, General Matsui Ishigen, who had a very sensitive sense of war, realized that "The Wei Lihuang troops are the ace force of the armored forces in the Chinese army. Given the terrain in southern North Korea, the possibility of the army continuing to rely on armored forces to advance eastward is very low." Based on this analysis, Matsui Ishigen chose to shrink its troops and not set up front defenses, but instead arranged high ground defense lines around the Zhiyi Mountain, and curbed the advancement of Wei Lihuang by restraining a large number of highlands.

Just as General Matsui Ishione judged, Wei Lihuang knew very well that the most difficult thing his troops were the seemingly loose defense line of Zhiyi Mountain. If he wanted to complete the plan of the Central Military Department to occupy Xianyang County, he would first destroy the 24th Division and the 2nd and 8th Brigades that were lying on Zhiyi Mountain. The strength of his mountain troops and conventional infantry divisions was far from enough to achieve this goal.

Wei Lihuang had no choice but to go north, detour to Changshui County, and then headed south along the river to attack Xianyang County, and used a mechanized division to attack Gucheng and Nanyuan, garrison on the spot, forcing the Japanese army to voluntarily abandon the Zhiyi Mountain defense line and return to rescue Xianyang. Once the Japanese army abandoned the Zhiyi Mountain defense line, his armored troops could find ways to break through the hilly areas in the north of Zhiyi Mountain and attack Xianyang from the west.

If the Japanese army resolutely did not shrink the Zhiyishan defense line, Wei Lihuang could only let his mechanized armored division stop in Nanyuan, neither attacking nor mobilizing, and watching the Japanese 24th Division and two infantry brigades. It was just how he used his only two infantry divisions and three mixed brigades to capture Xianyang, which was also a complex problem.

Wei Lihuang is different from Fu Zuoyi. He is not extremely enthusiastic about fighting achievements. Compared with the temptation of the rank of general, he attaches more importance to combat efficiency. The highest order given to him by the Central Military Department was to prevent Matsui Ishikoto from going north to support Hata Shunroku. Therefore, he chose the strategy of forcing but not attacking, and in turn established a defense line in the northern part of the Xianyang Army, preventing Matsui Ishikoto's troops from going north to wait for Fu Zuoyi and Zhang Zizhong to attack Hata Shunroku.

He decided to violate the plan of the Central Military Department and not attack Xianyang County, which was heavily guarded, but instead took down Juchang County, which had fewer troops, and stuck between Matsui Ishione and Hata Shunroku like a thorn, making it impossible for the Japanese troops to support each other.

Of course, he also had to take a huge risk. If Fu Zuoyi's attack fails, Hata Shunrok would be able to lead his troops south to attack his defense line in Juchang County with Matsui Ishike's north and south.

At this time, Wei Lihuang did not believe that his old boss and senior would fail, but he always had to make preparations. If the situation changed, he had to steadily defend it in Juchang County and defend it. No matter when, Matsui Ishike's head would be difficult to withdraw, and he could only sit and wait for the Imperial Army to attack one after another.

After receiving the combat plan of the Central Military Department, Wei Lihuang had already determined his combat plan before the end of April. However, in the early morning of the day when he actually sent troops, he still called his most trusted subordinates Huang Baitao and Xue Yue to the command post to rethink the specific steps.

If the situation goes well, how many troops he needs in Juchang County, how to arrange the defense line, ammunition reserves, and how to set up the artillery positions. If the situation goes well, how to arrange it all requires a little consideration.

The three of them discussed until 3 o'clock in the morning. When they heard the alarm clock set in advance, Wei Lihuang threw the pencil aside and sighed to Xue Yue: "Brother Boling, this move of Juchang County depends on you. The Japanese grassroots officers and soldiers are brave and fierce, and are extremely martial. The infantry attack is not good for us, and the defense will also be severely damaged. Therefore, you must occupy Juchang County quickly. After the occupation, you should be careful. There are very few places where our troops can support you. Only ask for support from the Air Force. I will be in the north of Changshui County. At that time, all the rocket launchers will be set in the north. The advantage of range can help you guard the southern line of Gukou."

Xue Yue immediately stood up and saluted, "Please rest assured, your subordinates must do their best."

Wei Lihuang also comforted: "The two armies of Fu Zuoyi and Zhang Zizhong went south and the possibility of defeat was extremely low. We should be relieved about this, but military affairs are always in case."

Xue Yue agreed: "What the military throne said is very good."

Huang Baitao said: "It may not be that the military throne, Boling, and General Fu are quite arrogant when they come in. If the enemy goes deeper and then encircle and annihilate them, even if he can escape the disaster, he will suffer a lot of losses. The key to the military's battle is that Fu Zuoyi's troops and Zhang Zizhong's troops will meet first and go south together. However, Fu Zuoyi's troops are close, have strong firepower, many soldiers, and many elite troops, so they will inevitably win first."

Wei Lihuang was said to be the most worried part of the center and said, "Actually, what I am worried about is that the military department's plan is wonderful, but no matter how good the plan is, it depends on people to implement it. We can only wait and see what the specific effect is."

It was getting late. After Wei Lihuang said this, he stood up and shook hands with Xue Yue, saying, "I won't say anything else. You can go back and prepare first. We will officially send troops at 7 noon."

Xue Yue nodded in agreement and saluted again, and then left the command post first.

Wei Lihuang's second army gathered with elite troops, Huang Baitao, Guo Yuqian, Xue Yue and Sun Ren were all famous generals, but Huang Baitao and Guo Yuqian were both better at using armored troops and were quite limited on the battlefield in southern North Korea.

Wei Lihuang's arrangement was to let Guo Yuqian lead his army to attack Nanyuan, Xue Yue attack Juchang, and he and Huang Baitao led their team to garrison in Changshui County, and both sides could support him. Just in case, Sun Ren's army stayed in Guangzhou and stood on standby.

The development of war is always unpredictable.
Chapter completed!