Speaking of which. Umezu Mijiro said with a wry smile: "In the first battle of Nomenhan, the imperial army fired a 150-millimeter shell, and the Soviet Russian army could return fire hundreds of shells of the same caliber. The 23rd Division was either defeated, but simply blown up by the Russian army with heavy artillery. ”

"Those thin-skinned tanks of the Russian army, I don't care about the soldiers of the Imperial Army who regard death as home. However, their overwhelming artillery fire brought great casualties to the imperial soldiers. In the face of the Russian artillery, the Kwantung Army was simply powerless to fight back. ”

"Yamashita-kun, you don't know that all the 150 mm howitzer ammunition reserves of the entire Kwantung Army during the Battle of Nomenhan combined, a total of only 4,000 rounds. Even if all of them were transferred, it would not be enough for the sixteen 150-mm howitzers that participated in the war to be used for five days. Commander Kenkichi Ueda lost the secret warehouse of Gunce Mountain, and also lost eighty percent of the Kwantung Army's reserve shells. ”

"It was precisely because of the weapons and ammunition stored in the secret warehouse of Qunce Mountain that the anti-Manchurian forces in Jiangbei were enough to arm the three divisions, as well as a large number of military supplies, that they grew to the point of competing with the elite units of the imperial army."

"You must know that the fortress of Qunce Mountain does not count 150 mm heavy artillery shells, and the reserve of 75 mm mountain artillery shells alone has reached 100,000 rounds. And after the loss of this largest secret warehouse of the Kwantung Army, the entire Kwantung Army had only 16,000 rounds of shells for the 75-mm mountain artillery, of which the most important 75-mm field artillery shells were only 4,000 rounds. ”

"As for the Eighth Division you named, half of its troops have been transferred to the China Battlefield in the middle of this year to form a new division and garrison brigade. Now there is only one brigade in Manman, plus half an artillery wing. The 11th Division has not yet been replenished after suffering heavy losses in the First Battle of Qunce Mountain. Moreover, judging from the meaning of the base camp at the moment, the four infantry brigades that remained in Mudanjiang before the Second Division went north should also be transferred. ”

"Yamashita-kun, now that I've said that, I have nothing to hide. That is to say, before the arrival of the 14th Division, according to the current strategic reserves of the Kwantung Army and the actual strength of the troops, we will not be able to undertake any large-scale offensive operation before the arrival of the base camp to replenish the troops. ”

"I can give you the rest time you want, but at least until this winter, the Kwantung Army will no longer be able to launch any offensive operations. Unless all the troops in South Manchuria are withdrawn, the lack of troops will always constrain us. The losses of the previous period of attack were too great. The end of the Second Division, I didn't expect it to be so miserable. ”

"What I need now is not how to wipe out these anti-Manchu forces, but how to prevent them from continuing to expand until the reinforcements are enough to meet their needs, and how to firmly control the current control area. Manchuria was the lifeblood of the empire, and South Manchuria was the top priority. They must not be allowed to expand any further. ”

"Ah" Hearing Umezu Mijiro's words, Yamashita was stunned. In the two days since he arrived in Xinjing, he has been pondering how to reform the Fourth Division and how to exterminate these bandits north of the Songhua River in accordance with the commander's requirements. Today, however, the commander told himself that he would take a defensive position for a long time to come.

Yamashita did not know that just last night at the Tokyo base camp because the 2nd Division had exhausted all the troops going north, Umezu Mijiro's new proposal to increase the strength of at least two infantry divisions for the Kwantung Army, especially the request to transfer all the output of the Shenyang Arsenal to the Kwantung Army in the last quarter of this year, sent a stern reprimand telegram to Umezu Mijiro. The unusually stern tone of that telegram is still fresh in Umezu's memory.

The anger of the base camp is understandable to Umezu Mijiro. Originally, the 2nd Division had planned to combine the 30th Wing of the 2nd Division with the 3rd Wing of the 1st Division and the 36th Wing of the 9th Division into the 28th Division. Now it's okay, and now the 30th Wing is left with an infantry brigade left behind in Mudanjiang. The formation of the 28th Division, which was scheduled to be incorporated into the Kwantung Army, was postponed. Add to this the heavy losses suffered by the 24th Division before it, which made the Tokyo base camp extremely dissatisfied.

If it weren't for someone who spoke for the emperor for him, Umezu Mijiro, the base camp would have considered that the continuous change of commanders of the Kwantung Army in the short term would affect the progress of the expansion. Based on the huge losses in the current offensive operation, I am afraid that the results of his Umezu Mijiro will not be better than that of his predecessor Ueda Kenkichi.

The base camp not only severely reprimanded Umezu Mijiro for his loss of troops in a telegram, but also clearly told him that because the battlefield in Kannai was getting longer and longer, the strength of the army was already extremely tight. The newly formed troops, as well as all kinds of supplies, should give priority to ensuring the battlefield in the Guannai. As for the Kwantung Army, there will be no expansion before the end of the year. If we want to add new staff, we will have to wait for next year.

Although the base camp finally acquiesced to Umezu Mijiro's first cut and then played, the 14th Division, which was originally transferred to Manchuria for rest and restoration, was transferred to Jiamusi. However, the 50th Infantry Wing was carded and used to form the 29th Division. Moreover, the base camp repeatedly stressed that without the direct order of the base camp, the Kwantung Army could only let the 14th Division participate in the blockade mission, and it was not allowed to be transferred to participate in the battle at will.

Although the base camp did not say it directly. However, the meaning of this telegram was also a disguised report to Umezu Mijiro that the plan he had proposed to freeze to death and trap the other party in a narrow area west of the Songhua River in Beiman, east of the Xiaoxing'an Mountains, and north of Lao Ye Ling and Zhang Guangcai Ling had been approved. Although it was a bit of a detour, I finally agreed.

At the same time, the Kwantung Army's plan for the expansion of the Manchukuo Army was also approved by the base camp. However, in the case that the mobilization has not yet been completed in the country, the equipment should not be thought about, and the equipment produced in the country should give priority to ensuring the newly formed divisions and regiments, as well as supplementing the losses on the battlefield in the Guannai. As for the tens of thousands of people who were expanded, all the equipment was handled by the Kwantung Army itself.

For this telegram from the Tokyo base camp that was both a board and a date, Umezu Mijiro, who had developed a stoic personality in his childhood due to the love of the difficult living environment in his stepfather's house, was very angry at being beaten. But there is no excitement about this date.

He knew that the reason why he was spared was that in addition to the good offices of several friends he had made in his early years as a vice minister in the army. There is also the factor that former land minister Nishio Toshizo, who he greatly admired when he was in the army, and Sugiyama Moto, director of education, spoke. Of course, the reason why the emperor did not punish himself heavily is probably because he was in the right position in the 226 mutiny.

However, although the base camp made it clear that it would not increase the number of troops for the Kwantung Army at least until the end of this year, Umezu Mijiro was not depressed, and it didn't matter. Because of his many years of experience in the Ministry of War in his early years, he has long woven a thick network of people up and down. Those iron buddies in the Ministry of War had already secretly greeted him, and leaked the base camp and the huge expansion plan of the War Province to him.

Among the divisions to be formed by the army next year, the 28th and 29th divisions have already been allocated to the Kwantung Army. In order to strengthen the strength of the Kwantung Army, in addition to considering changing the 14th Division, which had already arrived in Manchuria, to garrison Manchuria, the base camp was also preparing to transfer the 9th and 10th Divisions, which had been ready to be transferred back to China, to Manchuria and Tuntun, and transferred them to the Kwantung Army.

In addition, the base camp has decided to reorganize the 23rd Division, which had fought with the Soviet Army and had experience in mechanized operations, into a mechanized division. In addition, the base camp is also considering transferring the 51st Division, which is formed by the left-behind troops of the 14th Division, and the 57th Division, which is formed by the left-behind troops of the 8th Division, to the Kwantung Army next year. At the same time, five more independent garrisons were added to the Kwantung Army.

At the same time as the strength of the army was greatly increased, the base camp also decided to massively increase the technical equipment of the Kwantung Army. The base camp has decided to form an additional 240-mm howitzer heavy artillery wing, a 105-mm cannon battery, and two 150-mm heavy howitzer batteries for the Kwantung Army. One battalion of 150-mm cannons and one brigade of 300-mm heavy artillery.

In addition to the greatly reinforced artillery, the base camp also decided to allocate two armored train squadrons, three tank wings, a large number of anti-aircraft artillery brigades, and a large number of radio communication squadrons to the Kwantung Army next year. Moreover, all divisions and regiments will be strengthened from 15,000 men in peacetime to 24,000 in wartime.

At the same time, in order to prepare for combat against the Soviet Union, the base camp is also preparing to add a flying group, three flying regiments, two heavy bomber teams, three light bomber teams, three fighter teams, and one transport plane team to the Kwantung Army in next year's army expansion plan.

The goal of the base camp was to go through the domestic mobilization one by one, and by 1941, that is, the year after. The strength of the Kwantung Army should reach at least 16 divisions and 750,000 men. There are 14 field heavy artillery wings, 3 heavy artillery wings, and 8 independent field heavy artillery brigades. At the same time, the number of chariot wings should be increased to nine, and the standard of 400 chariots of various types should be increased.

And the number of flying units should reach more than a thousand. Among them, the number of reconnaissance planes, fighters, light bombers, and heavy bombers cannot be less than 1,000. And the reserves of ammunition will begin next year, and every effort will be made to tilt towards the Kwantung Army.

Although the base camp did not promise to transfer the output of the Shenyang Arsenal in the last quarter of the year to the Kwantung Army. But the base camp has already decided that starting next year, the output of the Shenyang Arsenal will be prioritized for the transfer to the Kwantung Army.

Moreover, in view of the fact that the battlefield in Kannai has now entered a stage of stalemate, after two years of bloody battles, the two sides that have been exhausted by fighting will not be able to fight a full-scale war like the previous two years, except for local battles.

In the case that the strength of the government forces in China, which had already suffered severe blows from the Japanese army, had been greatly weakened, and although they were still resisting, they were no longer able to form a full-scale counterattack against the Japanese troops on the Kannai battlefield, the base camp would no longer allocate supplies for the China battlefield from the Kwantung Army reserves as before. Instead, starting next year, equipment, soldiers, and material reserves will be changed to favor the Kwantung Army.

Of course, these equipment and troops are still only on paper, and we still need to wait for the completion of mobilization in China next year. Otherwise, according to Japan's current production capacity, which has only partially completed mobilization, it is not known that it will have to wait until the Year of the Monkey to expand its artillery equipment to this number.

Therefore, Umezu Mijiro, who had already received positive news from within the base camp, was not discouraged by the current refusal of the base camp to increase the strength of the Kwantung Army. On the contrary, he knew that regardless of whether the base camp would absolutely start a war against the Soviet Union, and when the decision would be made to start a war against the opponent, the strengthening of the Kwantung Army, as the main force in the war against the Soviet Union, was imperative.

Despite the heavy losses in the previous stage of the offensive and suppression, the newly transferred troops to the Kwantung Army, which had been privately reported, remained only on paper at present. However, with the arrival of the 14th Division, although his confidence is not so strong, it can be regarded as making up for the vacancy in strength caused by the loss of the 2nd Division.

However, even the arrival of the 14th Division made up for the vacancy of the 2nd Division. However, before the new army was formed or before it arrived in Manchuria, Umezu Mijiro was embarrassed to find that under the situation of the growing opponent, his current forces in Northeast Manchuria, although more than enough, were not enough.

The Tokyo base camp drew up a huge expansion plan for the Kwantung Army, but the Soviet troops on the other side of the Heilongjiang and Ussuri rivers were not idle, and they were also constantly expanding their strength. Due to the limitations of national strength and the ongoing operation in the Shina Pass, the expansion of the Kwantung Army will not begin until at least next year. Jiangbei, on the other hand, has been expanding its forces since the Battle of Normenhan.

According to the current estimates of the intelligence department of the Kwantung Army, the total strength of the Soviet army in front of them is at least 600,000 or more, and the number of tanks and planes is even more than that of the Kwantung Army, which is still on paper at the Tokyo base camp, after the completion of the expansion plan. The number of tanks alone reached more than a thousand, and as for the aircraft, there were more than a thousand. And the number is constantly expanding.

In the face of such a large number and equipment of the Soviet army, the Kwantung Army did not dare to take it lightly. The 8th, 11th, and 12th Divisions deployed on the Manchu-Soviet border, especially in the relatively flat northeastern Manchurian region, did not dare to move. In the 2nd Division was crippled, only four infantry brigades remained in Mudanjiang, and the Kwantung Army had already lost the last mobile division.

And the Fourth Division has always been muddy and unable to support the wall, and the Kwantung Army, which has no reserves, does not dare to take lightly the three divisions. Otherwise, once there is something going on in the Northeast Manchurian region, and most of the border fortresses have not yet been built, or even like the Fujin Fortress, which has just begun to be built, and it is still far from being put into use, except for a small number of border guards, the Kwantung Army will not have any troops to resist.

What's more, the damned force entrenched in the Sanjiang area is getting stronger and stronger, and now it is even capable of defeating the anti-Manchu forces of a division of the imperial army. Judging from the small amount of information available at present, the strength of this anti-Manchurian armed force has reached at least 50,000, and the number of mountain artillery pieces of various calibers has reached nearly 100. There was even field heavy artillery.

At home, we are far from having completed our full mobilization, and now we are facing hundreds of thousands of Soviet troops externally, and we now have a well-equipped, numerous, and formidable opponent internally. In fact, the Kwantung Army, which was already under the condition that it was already suffering from two sides and was already insufficient in strength, could not be fully replenished before it was fully replenished.

General Umezu Yoshijiro believed that he would temporarily adjust his tactics, replace the mobilization of heavy troops with a tight blockade, and weaken the opponent's combat effectiveness with hunger and extreme cold. It is appropriate to lure them to go south for food and supplies, and then use the fortified city after leaving their base areas, and wear off their strength little by little.