In the blink of an eye, more than half a month passed, and the time came to early October 1938.

After occupying the three towns of Wuhan, the Japanese army divided its forces and captured more than a dozen county towns around Wuhan, and then Okamura Ningji's 11th Army also arrived in Wuhan along the north bank of the Yangtze River.

However, after occupying Wuhan, the Japanese army did not take advantage of the victory to pursue and continued to expand the offensive.

It's not that little Japan doesn't want to expand its offensive, it's that its industrial base can no longer support it.

Truth be told, little Japan has no shortage of soldiers, and it has more than five million reserves and reserves on its own soil.

Here is an explanation of the difference between the reserve and the reserve in little Japan, the reserve refers to the veterans who have served in the service, but have now retired, also known as the hometown soldiers, this part of the veterans because they have been married and had children, and most of them have been infected with the vice of drinking and gambling, so the will to fight is weak, and the combat effectiveness is generally poor.

Reserve service refers to those Japanese young people who are of proper age but have not entered the military hattorial.

Little Japan has only 17 permanent divisions and regiments, and only recruits less than 150,000 soldiers every year, so it is impossible to guarantee that all young people of appropriate age will join the army.

Most of these Japanese youths who have not had the opportunity to serve in the army are unmarried, and they have not been contaminated with the vices of alcoholism and gambling, so they have a strong will to fight and are often very strong in combat.

For example, the 101st Division, the 106th Division, and the 116th Division were all composed of rear-service reserve soldiers, and their combat effectiveness was no worse than that of the 1st Division, the 6th Division, and the 16th Division, which were permanent divisions.

In short, Japan has a large number of reserves and reserves, and as long as the Japanese government issues a mobilization order, hundreds of divisions can be formed in a short period of time!

However, waging a war is not just a matter of having an army, it is also necessary to equip the army with weapons and equipment, and it is not enough to have weapons and equipment, but also to supply ammunition!

As the old saying goes, when a cannon goes off, it costs ten thousand taels!

From this, it can be seen how much ammunition needs to be knocked out and how many resources are consumed to start a war.

Especially in the face of a country with a vast territory and a large population like China, the amount of ammunition and resources that need to be consumed is even more astronomical!

Although little Japan's industrial manufacturing base was much stronger than China's, after a year of the Sino-Japanese War, its stockpile of weapons and ammunition had been basically exhausted, and in the second stage of the Battle of Wuhan, in order to equip more divisions and regiments, even domestic teaching guns and teaching guns were pulled out and allocated to the troops.

The ten garrison divisions and regiments assigned to the 12th Army were all equipped with mountain artillery wings, and they used old-fashioned mountain artillery that had been eliminated by the permanent divisions before.

In other words, the Japanese base camp no longer has enough ammunition reserves to supply the Japanese army to launch a large-scale attack, at least in the short term.

Because of this, after capturing the three towns of Wuhan, the Central China Front stopped its advance.

Not only that, but even the original ammunition reserves of the Central China Front were allocated a considerable part of the support to the newly formed 21st Army for the launch of the Guangzhou Campaign.

Compared to the Battle of Wuhan, the Battle of Guangzhou was much smaller in scale.

By this time, although the Japanese Government was still unwilling to admit it, in fact it had already tacitly acquiesced that the Sino-Japanese war had entered the stage of strategic stalemate from the stage of all-out offensive.

Realizing this, the Japanese base camp quickly adjusted its strategy, taking a defensive position against the Nationalist army in Wuhan while accumulating strength and preparing to launch a security war in North China.

Because the base camp of the Japanese army is becoming more and more aware that the Eighth Route Army led by the Communist Party of China has replaced the Kuomintang army and has become the biggest threat to the Japanese army invading China!

If the Eighth Route Army in North China could not be annihilated, the invading Japanese army would not only be unable to achieve its strategic goal of nourishing the war by war, but might even be dragged down by endless guerrilla warfare!

Therefore, the base camp of the Japanese army adjusted the sequence of the Japanese army invading China.

The Twelfth Army was assigned to the North China Front, and Furuzhuang Kanro was also dismissed because of his poor performance in the second phase of the Battle of Wuhan, and it was Otaka Kamizo who succeeded Guzhuang Ganro as army commander.

In addition, the commander of the Central China Front, Shunroku Hatata, was also dismissed for his poor performance in the Battle of Wuhan, and it was Otozo Yamada who succeeded Shunroku Hata as commander of the Central China Front.

At the same time, the commander of the North China Front was also changed, from Terauchi Shouichi to Sugiyama Moto.

Almost the entire top level of the Japanese army invading China has been changed, which shows how dissatisfied the Japanese army base camp is with the performance of the Japanese army that invaded China for more than a year.

But there was only one person whose performance was affirmed by the top brass of the Japanese army.

This person was none other than the commander of the Eleventh Army, Okamura Ninji.

After the Battle of Wuhan, the 12th Army was quickly transferred, but Okamura Ninji's 11th Army was left in Wuhan and took on the heavy responsibility of guarding Wuhan!

For Okamura Ninji, this is undoubtedly a very serious task.

Because around Wuhan, there are more than a hundred main divisions of the national army!

Xue Yue's Ninth War Zone and Bai Chongbei's Fifth War Zone are like two giant beasts watching at the door of Wuhan's house, and the Eleventh Group Army commanded by Li Pinxian is entrenched in the Dabie Mountains.

However, Okamura Ninji, an old devil, is indeed not simple.

It only took more than half a month for the old devil to sort out the clue from the mess.

In order to ensure the safety of Wuhan, it is first necessary to ensure that the logistics support channel is unimpeded.

There are two logistics support channels from the Japanese mainland to Wuhan, one is the Pinghan Railway and the other is the Yangtze River.

Although the Pinghan Railway is faster, it is thousands of miles from Beiping to Wuhan, and it has to pass through the guerrilla zone of the Communist Eighth Route Army and the defense area of the First War Zone of the Kuomintang Army, which is extremely dangerous! Therefore, before the decisive victory in the war of law and order in North China, the Pinghan Railway could not be counted on.

Then, the Yangtze River waterway has become the only lifeline of the 11th Army!

Therefore, the primary task of the 11th Army is to ensure the smooth flow of the Yangtze River waterway.

There are two main factors that pose a threat to the Yangtze River waterway, one is the guerrilla army in the Dabie Mountains, and the other is the main force of the Ninth Theater entrenched in the front line from Nanchang to Gao'an.

Compared with the main force of the Ninth War Zone, Li Pinxian's guerrilla army was much less threatening.

Therefore, the first task of the 11th Army was to capture Nanchang and remove the flank threat of the main force of the Ninth Theater of the Kuomintang to the Yangtze River waterway.