7.57 The arrogant Seishiro Itagaki

The plan of the North China Front was to use Ryosuke Isoya's 10th Division as the right flank and move south along the Jinpu Road to Tengxian. With the 5th Division of Banyuan, known as the "Iron Army", www.biquge.info as the left flank, set out from Qingdao and marched from the Qingyi Highway to Linyi, an important military town in southern Lunan; Then the two "iron armies" met in Taierzhuang, and then captured Xuzhou.

Seishiro Itagaki was born in a noble family in the palace of Iwate Town, Iwate Prefecture, Japan, and attended the Sendai Army Local Infant School when he was young. This "god of war" once advocated the brutal training of students, through which the will of the students could be tempered, so that they could overcome any difficulties and dangers in the future wars and be invincible. Seishiro Itagaki was greatly influenced by Kenkichi Otsukoshi's thoughts, and under the long-term influence, Itagaki gradually became a fanatical, martial, bloodthirsty and warlike young officer.

Later, Itagaki entered the Japanese Army Non-commissioned Officer School and became the 16th cadet of the school. Among the students in this period, there have been many "masters" and "famous" figures who invaded China, such as Kenji Dohihara and Ninji Okamura. In Japanese military circles, it is known as the "Sixteenth Period of Glory".

In 1904, Seishiro Itagaki graduated from the Army Non-commissioned Officer School and was awarded the rank of infantry corporal, serving as an infantry squad leader. At this time, the Russo-Japanese War broke out, and Itagaki went with his troops to the front line in northeastern China. In this war, Itagaki followed his troops to fight against the Russian army mainly in Lushun and Mukden in northeastern China, and the vast land and abundant resources of China left a deep imprint on Itagaki in his mind - he thought that if the Japanese Empire had these things, it would be even stronger. This thought influenced the fate of Seishiro Itagaki for the rest of his life.

Because Seishiro Itagaki studied Chinese culture since childhood, was well versed in Chinese folk customs, and was able to speak fluent Chinese, he was sent to China by the General Staff Headquarters many times since then, and the intermittent time lasted for decades.

From the first time he set foot on Chinese soil in 1904 to the time he became a senior staff officer of the Kwantung Army in 1929, Seishiro Itagaki was well aware of China's geographical, political, economic, and military conditions.

In 1931, Seishiro Itagaki and Ishihara jointly planned the "918" incident. Challenge the 200,000 Northeast Army with 10,000 men. Because Zhang Xueliang misjudged Japan's intentions and ordered no resistance to what the Japanese army did, nearly 200,000 Northeast Army troops were defeated and retreated under the advance of 10,000 Japanese troops, and finally retreated to Guannai. It took less than 5 months for Seishiro Itagaki to acquire more than 1 million square kilometers of land and 30 million people in the entire northeast region of China for Japan! Because of Itagaki's outstanding performance in the "918" incident, it was unanimously applauded in Japan.

On March 1, 1937, Itagaki returned to Japan, and his friend Ishihara Wanji, the chief of operations of the General Staff, wanted to recommend him to be the Minister of War in Hayashijuro's cabinet, but Umezu Mijiro, the vice minister of the army, could not tolerate Itagaki climbing on his head and was reappointed as the commander of the 5th Division of the Japanese Army. The division is one of Japan's most elite army divisions, with the 9th Brigade and the 21st Brigade.

After the Lugou Bridge Incident, Seishiro Itagaki led the 5th Division from Hiroshima to Tianjin via Busan, North Korea. But he didn't get off to a good start.

At the beginning of the war, the Itagaki Division received an order to capture Nankou and protect the flank of the main force, but it was first resolutely resisted by Tang Enbo's corps in Nankou, and then the flank and rear road were attacked by Wei Lihuang's corps. Then the chief of staff of the Kwantung Army, Hideki Tojo, led the four brigades of the Chahar Corps, quickly defeated Liu Ruming's troops, threatening the rear of Nankou Townenbo's corps, Tangenbo was helplessly abandoned Nankou, and after this series of complex mobile operations between China and Japan, Itagaki barely completed the task assigned to him by the front army to protect the flank of the main force.

In order to carry out the planned battle of Baoding-Zhuozhou, the Japanese army carried out a large concentration of troops, and a brigade of Itagaki was also transferred, and Itagaki was unwilling to take half of the division to guard the south entrance, and then contact the Tojo British Machine Corps, along both sides of the Pingsui line, closely pursued the defeated Fu Zuoyi's Seventh Army, echoed each other and jointly launched an attack on Suiyuan, and extended the battle to the Shanxi Plateau on the roof of North China, which was completely beyond the plan of the base camp and the North China Front. After the Tojo British Aircraft Corps attracted the main force of the second theater of the Chinese army to the vicinity of Datong, Itagaki suddenly turned around, defeated the Jin army's Liu Fengbin division, and the flying troops went straight to the Pingxing Pass, along the route surveyed by visiting Wutai Mountain a few years ago, and broke through the line of the inner Great Wall.

Itagaki led the 5th Division in a frontal assault on the fortified Xinkou position of 200,000 Chinese troops, something that only the craziest commander could do. In the bloody battle of Xinkou for 23 days, under the fierce artillery fire of the Japanese army, the Chinese army lost several generals and 100,000 soldiers under the commander of the Ninth Army, Hao Mengling! On October 26, the main force of the Japanese army, which had conquered Baoding and Shijiazhuang, divided its troops to capture Niangzi Pass, the eastern gateway of Shanxi, and rushed to Taiyuan. Banyuan broke out of the siege, pursued dozens of Chinese divisions in a state of collapse, and took the opportunity to capture Taiyuan.

Later, this result was transmitted back to China, and it suddenly became that Itagaki Seishiro defeated more than 30 divisions of the Chinese Army with half a division and captured Shanxi, and Itagaki Seishiro was in the limelight for a while! Among the Japanese generals in North China, Seishiro Itagaki was even as famous as the commander of the North China Front, General Terauchi Shouichi. There were rumors within the Japanese army in North China that Prime Minister Konoe intended to let Seishiro Itagaki return to China to take over Sugiyama Moto's position as land minister, so when Seishiro Itagaki asked to act as an arrow to attack Xuzhou, no one dared to compete with him.

Itagaki Seishiro was anxious to take Xuzhou, and he did not pay attention to the opponent he was about to face, Pang Bingxun's 3rd Army. Long before the dispatch of troops, Chief of Staff Umezu Osa reminded Itagaki: "We are facing Pang Byung-hoon's 3rd Army Corps, which has about 5 regiments. It is said that most of Pang Bingxun's soldiers are men from the Cangxian area of China. Cangzhou was known as Youyan in ancient times, and the people were strong and aggressive, and Pang Bingxun was also accustomed to driving these big men. ”

Itagaki said disdainfully: "As far as I know, Pang Bingxun's troops are a ragtag army that is about to be disbanded, and they are vulnerable!" Any Chinese army is nothing but a swarm of ants in front of the iron army of the Great Japanese Imperial Army that I lead!"

Itagaki Seishiro embarked on the journey of attacking Linyi with such arrogance!

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