In the blink of an eye, the time came to the end of May 1939.

After nearly a month of fighting, the Battle of Suizao finally came to an end.

Compared with the performance of the Ninth Theater in the Battle of Nanchang, the performance of the Fifth Theater in the Battle of Suizao was much stronger, and in the fierce fighting in recent months, the Japanese army paid the price of nearly 20,000 casualties, but did not make any progress, and the Tanghe, Zaoyang and other places that were finally occupied were also recovered by the national army.

It is no exaggeration to say that none of the tactical objectives set by Okamura Ninji before the war for the battle of Suizao were achieved, and not only failed to consolidate the flank of Wuhan, but made the situation worse.

Moreover, after this battle, the morale of the Fifth Theater was greatly boosted, but the Japanese army was demoralized, and at least for a short time, the Japanese army did not dare to use troops in the direction of Xianghan.

So Okamura Ninji set his sights on the south again.

Wuhan's flank has no choice but to go south.

As long as Changsha was occupied and the entire Huguang Plain was occupied, the Japanese army would be able to obtain Huguang rice, which in turn would make the Nationalist government's food supply more strained, and China's war potential would be weakened.

In addition, after occupying the entire Huguang, the Japanese army's strategic maneuver space will also be greatly expanded, and there will no longer be a few divisions and brigades stationed around Wuhan that may fall into the heavy encirclement of the national army at any time, as it is now.

Therefore, despite the defeat of the Battle of Suizao, Okamura Ninji still stubbornly proposed the tactical concept of the Battle of Changsha to the Japanese army base camp.

However, Okamura Ninji's idea was questioned in the base camp.

In the original historical time and space, Okamura Ninji's idea came true, but in this historical time and space, the situation changed, and after weighing the various risk factors of the Chinese battlefield, the safety of Wuhan was ranked second among all the risk factors, because compared to Wuhan, Shanghai was more dangerous.

……

Tokyo, Imperial Palace, Imperial Study.

Emperor Hirohito of Japan is convening a meeting of ministers in front of the Imperial Council.

The topic of this imperial meeting is which direction should troops be used? Changsha or Yinjiang?

Foreign Minister Hiroki Hirota, who is now speaking, said: "In the final analysis, it is easy to start the Battle of Yinjiang, but it is not easy to end it. ”

The Chief of the Army General Staff, Xianyuan Gong Zairen, frowned and said, "Why is it not easy?" ”

Xianyuan Gong Zairen resolutely supported the launching of the Yinjiang Battle, believing that the Yinjiang incident had reached a time when it must be resolved.

Facing the questioning of the Xianyuan Palace, Hirota Hongyi bowed slightly, and said: "The reason is very simple, Yinjiang is no longer an ordinary Chinese city now, because there are thousands of American factories in the industrial zone of Yinjiang, and once the imperial army attacks Yinjiang, it will inevitably threaten these American industrial enterprises. ”

"It's just a threat, isn't it?" "After all, the imperial army will not directly attack the industrial area of Yinjiang, but only need to occupy the urban area of Yinjiang. ”

"Even if it's just a threat, it's enough to change the international situation." "Nowadays, although isolationism is still the mainstream public opinion in the United States, the vast majority of senior officials, including US President Roosevelt, have begun to tend to intervene in Asian affairs, so the imperial army's attack on Yinjiang may trigger a backlash of public opinion in the United States!" ”

"Although I don't know much about diplomacy, I also know that it is not easy to determine and change a country's national policy, and it is even more difficult to change public opinion!" ”

"Yes, Your Highness is very right, but as Minister of Foreign Affairs, I must remind Your Majesty that there is a huge risk in the Battle of Yinjiang!" Hirota Hiroki said this, then turned his gaze to the commander of the Navy's Combined Fleet, Yamamoto Isoroku, who was invited to attend the meeting, and said, "I want to ask Yamamoto-kun, is the Navy ready?" ”

Including Hirohito, the eyes of everyone attending the meeting fell on Yamamoto Isoroku.

Hirota Hiroki seemed confident, because before attending the meeting, he had communicated with Yamamoto in private and made it clear to him the benefits of a war with the United States.

Hirota Hiroki was sure that Isoroku Yamamoto would support his opinion.

Facing everyone's gaze, Yamamoto Fifty-six first bowed slightly to Hirohito, and then said: "Your Majesty, ladies and gentlemen, here I just want to say on behalf of all the officers and men of the Combined Fleet, once the empire needs it, once His Majesty the Emperor gives the order, our Combined Fleet can completely annihilate the Pacific Fleet of the United States in one day!" ”

"What?" Hirota Hongyi was stunned for a moment, how could this be?

Hirohito, Xianyuan Gong Zairen and others were shocked when they heard this, as long as the navy has this confidence, it will be easy to do!

At that moment, Hirohito patted the case and said: "Yamamoto-kun is arrogant! As for Changsha's threat to Wuhan, you can wait, after all, the situation in Wuhan is not so urgent, and after a year and a half, the problem is not very serious, what do you think? ”

"Your Majesty is wise!"

……

When the Japanese army was intensively preparing for the Battle of Yinjiang, Zhong Yi was not idle.

Although the Japanese side did a very good job of secrecy, Zhong Yi still sniffed out the dangerous smell from the air with clues.

Because in another historical time and space, not long after the end of the Battle of Suizao, the Japanese army immediately began preparations for the First Battle of Changsha.

However, the intelligence sent back by Fang Jianwei from Shanghai showed that there were indeed shiploads of arms brought to Shanghai from the Japanese mainland, but these arms were not loaded onto trains and sent to Nanjing or even Wuhan, but were directly stored in several large arms warehouses of the Japanese 13th Army in the suburbs of Shanghai.

If the Japanese army were to launch the Battle of Changsha, then these arms would definitely be shipped to Wuhan as soon as possible.

But now these arms have not been shipped to Wuhan, but have been hoarded in Shanghai, which can only show one possibility, that is, this batch of arms was not prepared for the Battle of Changsha!

This batch of munitions was not prepared for the Battle of Changsha, so what was it prepared for?

With such speculation, the answer is about to come out, obviously prepared for Yinjiang!

The little devil of the dog day is about to launch the battle of Yinjiang, and there is not much time left for himself!

At that moment, Zhong Yi hurriedly drove to Jiangbei, he had just learned that Commodus had returned from Shanghai, so he wanted to rush over and ask, when would the equipment of the second batch of 12 American mechanics and the 500 Dshk anti-aircraft machine guns purchased by the American company from the Soviet Union be in place?

There are not enough guys in his hands, and Zhong Yi has no bottom in his heart!