The most important thing is that the Kwantung Army needs not a few thousand additional troops at the moment, but a huge number. Even if the battle is stopped immediately, the Kwantung Army's current losses are better than last year's. But the total number is also nearly 100,000 or more, and all of them are permanent losses.

Not counting the other divisions that lost more than half of the battle, only four divisions and regiments that were completely wiped out lost more than 60,000 troops. Such a huge number of losses, and in the current situation, I am afraid that it will not be able to be replenished until the southward operation is completed.

Not only are the losses of soldiers huge, but what is more dangerous is that the losses of junior officers are also quite huge. And the losses of these junior officers are all permanent. The shortfall cannot be met by the graduates of the Army's noncommissioned officer schools who are transferred from home each year, as well as by the reserve officers and the Army's strict control over the number of officers selected from among veterans in the army.

At present, while these two representatives of the base camp are present, Umezu Yoshijiro hopes to get through to them and obtain the approval of the base camp to recruit some young and middle-aged soldiers from among the Manchurian soldiers and overseas Chinese to supplement the Kwantung Army. At the same time, the production capacity of weapons and equipment produced by the Mukden Arsenal can be doubled to ensure that the Kwantung Army can complete the replenishment of battle losses in the shortest possible time.

At the same time, the Kwantung Army was approved to expand the Gongzhuling Army School, as well as the Manchurian Imperial Army Military Academy, which has now been moved to Fushun, to expand its enrollment. Select a number of special agents Cao Chang, Cao Chang and Jun Cao, as well as veterans in the rank of soldier commander and army commander, and enter the military academy for short-term training and then be promoted to officers. In the shortest possible time, the officers who were damaged in the battle were replenished, although the combat effectiveness was restored.

In Umezu Mijiro's view, the most crucial issue at present is how to restore the combat effectiveness of the Kwantung Army in the shortest possible time. Replace all the troops and officers damaged in the battle. is the only thing that he, the commander who is afraid of leaving, can leave to the Kwantung Army. As for other matters, there is no need to continue the dispute now.

Where is the current strategic focus of the base camp, although except for a few people with a keen sense of smell, most of the others do not know what the next strategy of the empire is in Okabe's mouth. But he and Lieutenant General Sadachi Yoshimoto still know about this matter.

At this time, the base camp will not have any relents. Therefore, instead of making trouble with the base camp on the issue of increasing the number of establishments. It is better to focus on how to solve the problem of replenishing the current battle losses of the Kwantung Army as quickly as possible, which is what I should do for the Kwantung Army at the moment.

It's just that General Umezu Mijiro, who was preparing to argue with the two representatives of the base camp on this matter, said this request. Adjutant Umezu, who had been waiting outside the conference room, rushed into the conference room in a hurry, ignoring even basic politeness, and handed something to Umezu Mijiro.

And Umezu Mijiro, who was about to reprimand him harshly because of this adjutant's violation of the order that no one was allowed to enter the conference room for anything against him, and for his extremely rude behavior, saw this, and his face instantly turned pale.

After being silent for a long time, looking at the battle situation on the battlefield, there were some not very good changes, which would make the commander's already quite ugly face even more ugly. or silent, or curious, or melancholy looking at their audience.

This general, who has always been calm and calm, threw the report in his hand on the conference table, and said with irrepressible anger in his tone: "The whereabouts of Lieutenant General Gu Shoufu have arrived, and he and Major General Numata Takazo, chief of staff of the Sixth Army, were captured in the enemy's surprise attack on the Left Banner of Wengniut, along with most of the senior officers of the Sixth Army Headquarters. ”

"Our adversaries have just published on their radio the personal confession of our Imperial Army Lieutenant General and Commander of the Imperial Army what he and his Sixth Division had done in the Battle of Nanking. And this broadcast was for the whole of China, not just Manchuria, and even the empire itself. ”

"When they're broadcasting, they're just passing by. But our listeners could tell that the commander was raping the concubine of a local Mongol prince when he was captured alive. It was carried out of the bed by the bare butts of our current opponent's commandos. ”

"At present, the war is raging, and the situation of the Kwantung Army is becoming increasingly unfavorable. A military commander in his dignity, a lieutenant general of the Imperial Army, still has the heart to ask Liu? Now it's even more time to have fun, and I was caught naked by the enemy from the bed. ”

"He, Lieutenant General Gu Shoufu, is simply a shame for the empire, a shame for the army, and a great shame for the Kwantung Army. Not only did it set a record for the first army commander to be captured since the Meiji Emperor established a new type of army, but what was even more shameful was that he was captured in this way, which was simply an open smear to the face of the emperor and the entire Imperial Japanese Army. ”

"And that Major General Numata Takazo, what does he eat as a chief of staff of the army? The enemy army is in front of you, but you don't know it. Not to mention the fact that the headquarters of an army was cut off, it set a record for the Imperial Army in which the commander and chief of staff of the army, as well as all the senior officers, were captured. ”

"Among them, there are only three major generals, not counting dozens of officers above the rank of junior general. An army headquarters was so inexplicably served by others, and so many troops around it didn't even react at all. When did the Kwantung Army fall to this point? ”

"Why didn't these officers commit suicide and martyrdom when they lost and their headquarters were encircled and unable to break through, and did such a degrading thing as being captured en masse, and did such a thing that violated the spirit of bushido? They are not worthy of being samurai, but a bunch of cowards who are greedy for life and afraid of death. ”

"And our intelligence department, now it is not worthy of being an intelligence officer at all, it is all a bunch of straw bales and rice buckets. The list of captured officers was published on the radio station. You intelligence officers who have been painstakingly cultivated by the empire and have a large amount of intelligence funds. However, it has not yet been ascertained what happened to the headquarters of the Sixth Army and the whereabouts of those who are missing. Is the intelligence department of the Kwantung Army all a bunch of rice buckets that can only eat dry rice? ”

"I think the intelligence department of the Kwantung Army must be reorganized. At the beginning of this battle, the enemy army had a large number of tanks, and for a long time, you did not know anything. The enemy launched this battle, and you didn't even find a fart for such a large-scale troop movement. ”

"Can any of you tell me why the enemy is nearly twice as strong on the battlefield as you have reported? So many tanks, what the hell came out of there. And their new weapons, where they were made. What kind of course has their military-industrial capacity reached now? ”

"It's been two days since the Sixth Army headquarters was attacked, and the whereabouts of all the missing people have to be found out through the enemy radio station. What I need is definite information, not vague speculations that you yourself don't know how accurate, probably, or should be. ”

"The Kwantung Army allocates millions of yen to you every year, and you have come up with such a result. If this situation is allowed to continue, do you think that the intelligence services of the Kwantung Army still have the need to survive? The empire spends a lot of money every year, so does it just raise a bunch of waste? ”

Looking at the face of Umezu Mijiro's general Tetsu Qing, Yoshimoto Sadaichi on the side was a little hesitant. But considering the impact, he still defended the prisoner Gu Shoufu: "Your Excellency, the enemy's broadcast may not be true. Propaganda warfare is also a commonly used means of conducting war. The tenacity and tenacious spirit of the Imperial Army have always been the best in the world. ”

"It is not uncommon for the enemy army to make up some lies in order to demoralize the Imperial Army and its subjects. Didn't the government of China often announce how many and how many imperial armies it had annihilated? According to the number of enemies they destroyed, the empire would have already withdrawn from China. ”

"But now the empire and the army, aren't they still firmly occupying the richest half of China? The government army of China has millions of troops, isn't there still no way to take the empire? Propaganda warfare is nothing but a habitual means used by both sides to boost their own morale and undermine the morale of their opponents. ”

"Even if he is like this, he is still a dignified lieutenant general of the Imperial Army, deeply influenced by the spirit of bushido, and will not do such a thing that insults the spirit of bushido. Whether Lieutenant General Tani was captured or killed in battle cannot be confirmed by their broadcasts alone. ”

"Even if you take 10,000 steps back, even if Lieutenant General Gu Shoufu is really captured. Nor will they be caught naked from the bed as they said on the radio. Lieutenant General Gu Shoufu was a high-ranking officer of the empire no matter what, and at the beginning of the China Incident, he was extremely outstanding and made many military exploits for the empire. ”

"I think such an experienced senior officer can still prioritize when he can relax and when he has to devote his energy to combat. I don't think it's credible that the propaganda of our opponents on the radio is just a smear against the Empire and the Kwantung Army. ”

"As for the fact that the headquarters of the Sixth Army was raided and most of the senior officers were captured, I was not surprised by this result. In the hands of our adversary is an extremely mysterious force. Compared with other units, this unit has never made its name public, and all the qiē are kept in a state of extreme secrecy. ”

"And the Imperial forces that fought against this force have almost no survivors. Even if they occasionally fall into a siege, they will completely destroy them with grenades, along with the equipment they carry with them. This extreme tactic of the enemy forces makes our intelligence services even less aware of this force. ”

"Nothing is known about the main combat missions, the establishment, the composition of personnel, the various tactics used, and the weapons and equipment of this unit. It is not even clear what kind of training they have and where they are stationed. The only thing we can judge at the moment is that they have a unit with extremely strong combat effectiveness, extremely special training, and special strategies and tactics. ”

"What kind of combat mission they are engaged in, we can only guess from the encounters of some of the Imperial troops with whom they have fought at the moment, and their use is mainly aimed at the raids and sabotage of our army's high command. Before the war, I had a special talk with Lieutenant General Gu Shoufu about the mysterious unit of the Anti-Japanese Alliance, and asked him to pay more attention to the safety of the headquarters. ”

At the time, he was very unimpressed, and it was clear that he did not take my warnings to heart. And the kind of contempt he had for the people of China that came out of his bones was also destined that he would not listen to me. If his corps headquarters had not been particularly fortified, and the enemy had invested precisely this mysterious force, then it would not have been surprising that the Sixth Army Command had suffered a fate. ”