"Shizuo, north of Xuzhou, the front line of Lincheng and Zaozhuang is almost impossible to defend, why does Chief Li still send heavy troops to guard here?"

"Chief Li has the difficulties of Chief Li, if he gives up these places to the Japanese without firing a shot, what do you think will happen to public opinion in the country?" Xie Jiyuan explained.

"And there will be people who make waves, and Chief Li will become Han Xiangfang's second!" Leng Feng hit the nail on the head.

"It's not all understandable......"

"Some people don't understand the military, and they won't tell you about the military, and the military is for the service of politics, and the defense of Nanjing was a battle against the water, and the art of war is also the most taboo, but it is still necessary to defend it, why, if the government of a country is not even determined to defend its own capital, then what faith do the people have to fight against the invaders?"

"Of course, the situation in the Fifth War Zone is different from the Battle of Nanjing, but politically, Chief Li does not have much choice."

"Yes, Chief Li was originally ordered to be in danger, and now this is the best start." Xie Jiyuan said.

"How is the Japanese offensive on the southern front?"

"There is no news yet, the 31st Army and the Japanese Iizuka detachment have been fighting fiercely in the Meiguang area for a day and night."

"It seems that Mingguang can't be a Japanese army for a few days, and it seems that fighting the Japanese army in the Huaihe area is not a good way." Leng Feng frowned.

Of course, Leng Feng knew that the Battle of Taierzhuang in the Battle of Xuzhou, the Fifth Theater blocked the Japanese troops, and it was not a hard-fought positional battle.

Instead, let the southern line of the Jinpu Road open, the main force shrink to the mountainous area west of the Jinpu Road, attack the Japanese army from the flank, and drag the Japanese army's northward advance in the movement, so as to achieve a temporary balance.

This balance dragged on until the victory of Taierzhuang, and then it was broken by the Japanese army's increase in troops in Jiangbei.

Now it's a different story.

The troops of the three armies of Commander Li's descendants and Xiaohou did not know whether they could achieve the strategic goal of blocking the Japanese army on the south bank of the Huai River for more than half a month.

"The worst-case scenario is that the Japanese army occupies all the area south of the Huai River and returns to the situation when we went north." Leng Feng said, "I think even Chairman Liao still has this ability." ”

"What's going on with XSJ?"

"They stopped the Japanese army near Lai'an, but they fought a few good battles, and they eliminated a squadron of the Japanese army, and they became famous."

"They have always advocated resolute resistance to Japan, and I am very optimistic about their performance in the future."

"Shiza, although the guerrilla tactics of *** are somewhat useful, they are not so magical, right?" Xie Jiyuan didn't quite understand Leng Feng's thoughts.

"On the frontal battlefield, this tactic is obviously not suitable, but it is of great use behind enemy lines, although there is no immediate effect, it can be fought piecemeal, and small victories are accumulated into big victories, and their role is not small." Leng Feng said, "Lao Xie, we also need to learn this tactic from others, and if we use it well, it will also be of great help to us to fight the enemy head-on." ”

"Oh?" Xie Jiyuan expressed doubts, he was born in an orthodox army, so he naturally didn't look down on this kind of wild way, but Leng Feng was a person he believed in, and he must have a reason for saying this.

"The ancients said that soldiers and horses go first before they move food and grass, and in this modern war, although the quality and equipment of soldiers are very important, there is one thing that cannot be ignored, that is, logistics support!"

Xie Jiyuan nodded, he admitted this, there is no logistics support, the soldiers have nothing to eat, no drink, how can the battle be fought?

"Lao Xie, our resistance to Japan is not only a face-to-face contest with the Japanese army on the battlefield, but also a contest in all aspects of economy and culture." Leng Feng said, "Just like we are now, if we win on the battlefield, can we stop the Japanese army from continuing to invade, obviously not, because Japan has formulated the basic national policy of destroying our China, unless we beat them down and have no power to fight back, they will not admit defeat." ”

Xie Jiyuan is a soldier, and he has the quality of a single soldier and simplicity, and he is not as good as Leng Feng politically.

"If we are fighting, it is estimated that it will take at least five years or more to see hope."

"Five years?"

"You must not underestimate Japan's war potential and their willpower, if we can defeat the Japanese army in five years, then we will burn high incense."

"Division, Junglewolf Group Routine Telegram!"

"What's the matter?"

"Today, a Japanese transport plane took off from the Nanjing Forbidden City Airport, heading north. Who was on the plane, they didn't try to find out, but it was definitely an important person. ”

"Got it." Leng Feng nodded, such a telegram can be said to be worthless, because there is no way to know who is on the plane and where it is flying.

"Can you find out where the plane landed?"

"It's not easy, and if you want to find out, you have to mobilize a lot of resources, and we don't have the capacity to do that right now." Yang Zhiyi explained.

"Don't check, the travel of senior Japanese personnel at this time must be related to the battle situation in Xuzhou, maybe the two Japanese armies in North China and Central China are plotting something." Leng Feng smiled.

I have to say that Leng Feng guessed very accurately.

On board this transport plane was Akira Muto, deputy chief of the general staff of Japan's Central China Dispatch Army, who was ordered to go to Jinan to discuss with the North China Front Army the matters concerning joint operations between the two armies.

To put it simply, it was for the coordination of the Japanese army in North China and the Japanese army in Central China to attack Xuzhou.

At this time, Jinan City was under full martial law, and the streets were full of short-legged Japanese devils.

It's time for someone to come to Tokyo.

Hashimoto Qun, chief of operations of the staff headquarters of the base camp, led a group of subordinates to form a base camp dispatch squad and flew directly from Tokyo to Jinan to discuss the battle plan for Xuzhou.

At this time, the base camp had ended the internal strife and decided to conduct a battle in Xuzhou.

The Hashimoto group came to announce the order on behalf of the base camp.

The meeting was chaired by the commander of the 2nd Army, Nishio Terama, and in addition to Hashimoto, the chief of the operations section of the North China Front, Takuma Shimoyama, the staff officer of the First Army, Miharu Kon, the chief of staff of the Second Army, Suzuki Shumimi, the chief of staff of the Second Army, Kiyofuku Okamoto, the combat staff officer, and Akira Muto, deputy chief of staff of the Central China Dispatch Army, who flew from Nanjing to Jinan.

The commander of the 10th Division, Ryosuke Isotani, was temporarily recalled because Nishioji saw his plan to attack Xuzhou.

He felt the need to send Ryosuke Isoya back to Jinan to explain the plan to the people at the General Staff Headquarters.

Since the Central China Dispatch Army could not change the task of the Second Army to attack Xuzhou for the time being, he naturally regarded the capture of Xuzhou as the main strategic purpose of the Battle of Xuzhou.

This is also an ambitious ambition of Shunroku Hatata.

"I think that the base camp's decision to plan the battle in Xuzhou is correct, but as for the purpose of this battle, Commander Shunroku Hata and all my colleagues in the General Staff of the Central China Dispatch Army believe that the primary purpose is to annihilate China's elite field army from Shanghai and Nanjing after the war, to further destroy China's will to resist the war, to increase the weight of China's will to resist the war, to force China to submit, and to occupy Xuzhou is just a way."

"I'm against it!" Okamoto Kiyofu, the combat staff officer of the Second Army, said loudly, "Although Xuzhou is not big, it can be located in a key position, the place of four battles, for the soldiers to fight, the occupation of Xuzhou can not only connect North China and Central China, it is of great significance, because in this way we can include the richest area of China, so I think the primary goal of the operation is to occupy Xuzhou, as for the annihilation of the Chinese army, Muto-kun, do you know, what kind of army are the Chinese troops in the Xuzhou area?" ”

"As far as I know, it's all some local miscellaneous cards, and it's not elite at all!" Kiyofuku Okamoto smiled disdainfully and curled towards the corner of Muto Zhang's mouth.

"Then why was your army held back for seven days by a ragtag Chinese army in tiny Teng County?"

"What about you, driven out by a herd of toothless sheep?" Kiyofuku Okamoto sneered back without hesitation.

Hashimoto frowned slightly, he knew that the North China Front Army and the Central China Front Army had opinions before he came, but he didn't expect the opinions to be so big.

Determining the priority of the target is related to the formulation of the next battle plan, and this opinion is not agreed, and it is difficult to realize the strategic intent of the base camp.

In fact, the base camp has no strategic intentions, and what both sides say actually makes sense, and forcing China to surrender is the most important thing.

A protracted war with China may not be a good option for Japan.

Suzuki, chief of staff of the Second Army, clearly stood on his side, believing that the battle of Xuzhou would first capture Xuzhou, a geographically important place.

He even cited the story of the three kingdoms fighting for Xuzhou as an example.

The generals of the Second Army also preferred to occupy Xuzhou first, after all, the occupation of Xuzhou was a real feat.

"Haha......" Muto Akira suddenly laughed, "Chief of Staff Suzuki, aren't you too pedantic?" ”

Suzuki's face darkened, and Muto Zhang was too faceless to give him on such an occasion: "I have long known that Muto-kun likes to be unconventional, but I didn't expect it to be exactly the same as the rumors." ”

Kiyofuku Okamoto also laughed, and the people of the Second Army laughed one by one, and even the corners of Nishioji's mouth showed a hint of a smile.

In everyone's opinion, Suzuki's response was not sharp, but it also labeled Muto Akira as unusual.

Such people have always been prone to isolation.

On the contrary, the "pedantic" Suzuki is not so unpopular.

Pedantry can be a representation of tradition, while unconventionality is an act that is not accepted by the world.

Muto Akira was very annoyed, but today he was away, and he forced himself to calm down: "The main attack task is handed over to your Second Army, according to the plan, after the Second Army begins to attack, we can only move with two divisions of the Central China Dispatch Army, in this case, the Chinese army is very likely to run away for fear of being annihilated, in that case we will fall short, so our Central China Dispatch Army's point of view is to use the Second Army to attract the main force of the Chinese army first, and after the troops of the First Army and the Central China Dispatch Army complete the encirclement of the Chinese army, The Second Army will start attacking again, so that it can achieve greater results! ”

I have to admit that if Muto Zhang's plan is implemented, it will be a huge disaster for the Chinese army in the Xuzhou area.

The Battle of Xuzhou finally ended with the retreat of the Chinese army, and it was precisely because of the surprise attack of Kenji Tufeiyuan who smuggled across the Yellow River, occupied Lanfeng, and penetrated directly into eastern Henan, and had an attempt to encompass hundreds of thousands of Chinese elite field troops in the Xuzhou area, that he had to order a retreat.

Now that the Second Army has taken the lead, a Teng County has been fighting for seven days, although it has been finally defeated, but the price paid is a bit big.

Muto Zhang's remarks made Ryosuke Isoya have a fierce glint in his eyes, didn't this kid just say that he can't fight, only steal merit?

However, some people applauded Muto Zhang's words, this person is the first army's combat staff friend near Miharu, the first army is worried that there is no chance to fight south, Muto Zhang's words are sleepy and send a pillow.

In order to cut off the retreat of the Chinese army in Xuzhou, it was necessary for the First Army to cooperate.

The base camp had many restrictions on the Japanese army in China, which had made the soldiers on the front line dissatisfied, and after the First Army captured Shanxi, although there were many small battles, there were few major battles.

The reason is very simple, the empire does not have so many war resources, and if it wants to fight, it must have military spending, and it can't fight a war without money.

If nothing else, ammunition alone, if there are not enough reserves, who would dare to launch a big campaign?

Sometimes you really can't ignore the words of the base camp, if you really cut off your material supply, is this battle something you can fight if you want to?

If the First Army wants to get into the war, it has to be involved, and it has to be mixed in for legitimate reasons, so that it can get the material supply of the Empire.

Of course, this was also an opportunity for the Imperial officers who were eager to expand their territory.

The First Army's support for Muto Sho and the idea of the Central China Dispatch Army is also out of self-interest, and the occupation of Xuzhou is sure that the First Army will not be able to fight, and Tomomi Miharu will not fight for this, what he wants is to go in.

At this time, people and mud are needed, this person will not be the Hashimoto group of the staff headquarters, if he fails to open his mouth and succeeds, then he will not be able to open it.

Nishioji can't do it, he is the commander of the Second Army, he will definitely stand in the interests of the Second Army, he will only adhere to the opinion of the Second Army.

The first army and the second army are both subordinate to the North China Front, and now his two subordinates have different opinions, and he, the boss, naturally has to come forward.

He carefully considered the language: "Judging from the current signs, it is impossible for the Chinese army assembled in Xuzhou to retreat, after our army was greatly injured in Nanjing, Mr. Jiang's attitude in Wuhan has become tougher, they really want to win another battle in Xuzhou, we can take advantage of their mentality, I think that in this case, the goal is to occupy Xuzhou, even if it is the smallest encirclement, the results of annihilating the surrounding Chinese army are not small, of course, Muto-kun's suggestion is not bad, but the current biggest enemy of the empire is not China, Rather, Soviet Russia to the north, most of our forces were placed in Manchuria......"

Suzuki said that he was still biased towards the Second Army, and stood up and said: "There is an old Chinese saying that greed is too much to chew, can the strength at hand eat the Chinese army in the Xuzhou area?" ”

"Suzuki-kun, what do you mean?"

"The information we just got that the Wuhan side has transferred their most elite troops to the Xuzhou area, this force, I think everyone is not unfamiliar, the Chinese army we encountered in the Battle of Nankou."

"But the Tang Corps?"

"That's right!" Suzuki nodded solemnly.

(To be continued.) )