Under the urging of the red-eyed Ueda Kenkichi almost several times a day, almost like a fateful urging, he had just been promoted from the head of the North China secret service to the commander of the Fifth Army of the Japanese Kwantung Army, and before he had time to be a hot lieutenant general Kenji Dohihara in the brand-new chair of the military headquarters in Dong'an, he had to rush to Jiamusi as quickly as possible to personally supervise the battle according to Ueda Kenkichi's order.

After receiving a telegram that Kenji Dohihara had arrived in Jiamusi, Kenji Ueda, who was anxious to save some face, ignored the fact that the planned mobilization of troops had not yet been completed, and that the 44th Wing of the 11th Division and the 1st Brigade of the Heavy Artillery Wing stationed in Muling were still on the way, and ordered Kenji Dohihara to concentrate the main force of the 4th Division, which had already rushed to the scheduled battlefield, and launch an attack on the front line of Gunce Mountain under the air cover of a large number of mobilized aircraft.

Kenji Dohihara, who was helplessly urged by Kenkichi Ueda, had no choice but to transfer the pressure given to him by Kenkichi Ueda to Lieutenant General Shigeru Sawada, the commander of the Fourth Division, who was on the front line at the moment. The crushing of people at the level of officials and universities often happened in the Japanese army.

After Kenji Dohihara transferred the pressure of Kenkichi Ueda to himself very unjustly, Lieutenant General Shigeru Sawada, the commander of the Fourth Division, although he was not very willing, could only secretly scold Kenji Dohihara for not being righteous enough and fell into the ground, and then launched an attack in advance.

Despite the heavy losses of the troops involved in the encirclement and suppression after the death of Lieutenant General Sasaki to the first lieutenant, especially after learning of the loss of the secret warehouse at Gunce Mountain, although reluctant to admit it, Lieutenant General Shigeru Sawada was well aware that the position of commander of the Kwantung Army of Kenkichi Ueda had already been completed.

The first lieutenant general of the Japanese army to be on active duty since the formation of the new army was killed, especially the loss of Qunce Mountain, the largest secret warehouse in North Manchuria, someone must be responsible. And as the current commander of the Kwantung Army, Kenkichi Ueda, who can be honorably retired in one year, is tantamount to the best candidate for this person in charge.

What does the secret warehouse of Qunce Mountain do, although Shigeru Sawada, who is the first person responsible for daily protection and the first beneficiary of wartime, does not know how much equipment is stored in it. But one thing was clear to him, and that was that this warehouse was extremely important for the Kwantung Army. The loss of this warehouse could be fatal for the Kwantung armament war, which was preparing for the war against the Soviet Union.

The loss of this largest secret warehouse in the North Manchurian region is simply impossible for the Emperor and the Ministry of War not to hold them accountable. Senior General Kenkichi Ueda, who had only one year to reach his retirement age, is likely to retire early because of these two events.

However, although he knew that the days of General Ueda Kenkichi staying in the position of commander of the Kwantung Army were numbered, Lieutenant General Sawada Shigeru, like his immediate boss, Lieutenant General Kenji Dohihara, did not dare to disobey the orders of this general, who could be said to be outdated.

As the only Osaka-born general among the active and retired generals of the army, Kenkichi Ueda not only has the style of a soldier, but also the extremely cunning business style of his subordinates, and has a wide range of contacts throughout the army. Otherwise, he would not have been able to rise repeatedly in the Japanese army, which paid special attention to the appearance of soldiers, and was promoted to the rank of army general, which was coveted by all Japanese generals.

This lame general, who had studied business in his early years, not only rose all the way to extremely important positions such as deputy chief of staff and commander of the Kwantung Army, but also stood on the right side because of the 226 incident of that year, and won the appreciation of His Majesty the Emperor and some elders and important ministers. Although he will retire early because of this incident and lose his qualification to be promoted to marshal, no one dares to underestimate his connections in the army.

If he really offended him, his future would be greatly affected. Even if this lame old guy is not on active duty, no one will dare to underestimate him. So Sawada Shigeru, who knew exactly what kind of virtue his subordinates had, attacked despite his reluctance.

Fortunately, in order to save a little face before the dismissal order was issued, Ueda Kenkichi specially mobilized planes that accounted for nearly half of the Japanese air force in North Manchu to provide air support for the Fourth Division. For the sake of the strong support of the air force, the first to launch the attack was the 61st Wing, which had already arrived on the front line of Miaolingzi Mountain and had just been transformed from corpse collectors into a garrison unit.

Compared to the 8th Wing, which had been completely merchantized, the 61st Wing, which had soldiers from Wakayama in western Osaka, was much stronger. As soon as it came up, it adopted the standard textbook attack method of the Japanese army, concentrated all artillery fire, and launched a fierce attack on several forward positions in Qunce Mountain under the cover of the air force.

Wang Guangyu, who commanded the front-line garrison, did not blindly fight to the death with the 37th Wing in accordance with Yang Zhen's prior deployment and under the command of Li Yanping and Guo Bingxun. Instead, along the hills on both sides of the small railway line leading to the secret warehouse, they took advantage of the fortifications that had been built in advance.

During the battle, Wang Guangyu strictly carried out Yang Zhen's order to get the Japanese army closer in advance and then fight, and waited for the Japanese army's fire to cover it and then shoot after reaching a straight line distance of nearly 100 meters. Not only did they make up for the lack of training with close-range and intensive firepower, but they also made the Japanese planes in the sky throw rats because of the extreme proximity of the two armies, which greatly reduced the effectiveness of their ground support.

The Japanese troops of the 4th Division could not be compared with other Japanese divisions in terms of fighting will, but they should have had a lot of training. Its soldiers are skilled in tactical movements and extremely tacit in their cooperation. In particular, the accuracy of infantry long-distance shooting is far beyond comparison with Yang Zhen's troops. Yang Zhen saw this at the beginning, and in order to reduce casualties, he formulated an order that all weapons should not fire at a distance of less than 100 meters.

In addition to strictly implementing Yang Zhen's concentration of a large number of light and heavy machine guns and grenadiers in the forward positions to kill and injure a large number of Japanese troops at close range, Wang Guangyu also made certain improvements to the tactics formulated by Yang Zhen according to his own situation.

He concentrated all the fast and slow machines of a regiment into the hands of an infantry company, plus an independent company with a large number of grenades overdistributed, and formed a professional firefighting team, which specially used the dense rain of grenades and the characteristics of fast and slow machines with fast and slow fire rate and flexible movements to fight the Japanese attack troops that broke through the machine gun fire interception and approached the forward position. Using this method of warfare, although Wang Guangyu gave up many less important positions according to the predetermined plan, he also caused a lot of casualties to the Japanese army.

Under the resistance of a battalion commanded by Wang Guangyu, who had adopted Yang Zhen's premeditated method of dealing with the Japanese attack, after a whole day of attack, the attack of the 61st Wing, which was almost a hill to bite, made considerable progress, and even reached a place less than 20 miles away from the location of the secret warehouse in Qunce Mountain. But a whole squadron was killed or wounded.

Three hours after the 61st Wing launched its attack, the previous attack was more of an armed march than a battle, and there was no resistance during the march, and the 37th Wing, which had now arrived on the front line of the Fasi River, also launched an attack on the defensive position of a battalion of the 3rd Regiment under the command of Guo Bingxun himself.

However, compared with the 61st Wing, which gnawed hard from hilltop to hill, the previous attack of the 37th Wing and the 4th Cavalry Wing, which entered the mountains from the front line of Taipingchuan and concentrated most of the artillery of the Fourth Division, was more like an armed procession. It was not until they crossed the line of the Faji River that they encountered a strong resistance.

The two wings that took the lead in the attack made smooth progress in the first phase of combat operations, to the great satisfaction of Lieutenant General Shigeru Sawada. Although the casualties of the 61st Wing were slightly larger, after all, the casualties of a squadron were still acceptable for a wing. Especially in terms of relative progress, this exchange is more tolerable than Shigeru Sawada.

It was just beyond Sawada's expectations, although the progress of the first day of the Japanese army on both sides was not bad. In addition to the 61st Wing, which had made great progress and had already reached less than 20 miles away from Qunce Mountain, the 37th Wing had even advanced to the north bank of the Fasi River, which was already close to Qunce Mountain.

But the next battle was extremely difficult. The opponent's firepower and resistance, and even cunning, greatly surprised Sawada Shigeru.

In charge of entertaining the 37th Wing was Kwok Bingxun. Guo Bingxun is a high-achieving student who studied at the French Military Academy after four years of positional warfare in World War I. If we talk about field combat capability alone, it may be a little worse. However, relying on the favorable position, it is easy to block the attack, and the rhythm control is excellent.

The 37th Wing, which had been arrogant and almost unimpeded, and thought that the opponent had been frightened by the prestige of the Fourth Division, had just crossed the Fasi River when it was bombarded head-on by heavy artillery. A whole squadron of infantry at the head was collectively united in the dense rain of bullets.

The 37th Wing, which had just crossed the Faji River and was hit head-on, immediately adjusted its tactics under the command of its wing commander Yoshitaro Hayashi after the first wave of blows. The attack was launched from the front with one force, while the main force adopted the tactic of flanking and outflanking the Japanese in an attempt to open a gap in the defenders' flank.

It's just that I didn't expect the opponent to protect his flanks almost without leakage. Although the entire flank is not a lot of troops, the firepower is absolutely strong. The rain of bullets from a large number of heavy machine guns that cross-fired at close range was almost perfectly combined with the interceptive fire network formed by the mortar barrage, and he unceremoniously gave Yoshitaro Hayashi a stick on the head.

Firing at close range of 100 meters, the defenders' heavy machine guns almost did not need to deliberately aim, and the attacking Japanese troops were knocked down in pieces. Although the grenadiers inflicted some casualties on the defenders' heavy machine guns, the grenadiers themselves were also killed and wounded by some of the defenders' accurate marksmanship.

The 37th Wing's attack on the flank, apart from forcing the defenders to abandon some unimportant strongholds, did not play any role, and under several attacks, more than one squadron fell under the opponent's somewhat strange tactic.

If it were replaced by other Japanese divisions and regiments, and such heavy casualties would have been inflicted, it would have been attacked. However, for the 4th Division, especially the 8th Wing and the 37th Wing, which were completely composed of Osaka troops, it was completely different. Seeing the corpses of his comrades-in-arms covered in blood and many of them beaten into honeycomb coal, it had a great impact on the morale of these Osaka soldiers.

Similar to the 8th Wing, the 37th Wing, which was composed entirely of Osaka soldiers, plummeted in intensity after being hit so badly. The momentum before was changed, and almost every step was extremely cautious. As soon as they encountered fire resistance, they either retreated, or retreated several times faster than the speed of attack. As soon as there was a stir on the opposite hill, all the artillery fire was organized to bombard indiscriminately.

However, the morale of the 37th Wing had dropped so rapidly that Major General Kobayashi Asaburo, who had just been transferred from the chief of staff of the 12th Army to the commander of the 36th Infantry Brigade of the 4th Division, and even before the two commanders of his own wings had time to get acquainted with it, was kicked to the battlefield without the slightest surprise.

The only thing that surprised him on the battlefield was that the opponent was nothing more than a bandit army, and there was actually a heavy artillery that even the regular army of Kannai China did not have. Kobayashi Asaburo, who has been in the army for many years, can clearly distinguish that the caliber of these heavy guns is at least 150 millimeters just from the sound of the cannons.

He was also sure that the heavy howitzers that were pouring fire on the attacking 37th Wing should be the Imperial Army's standard Taisho 4-year 150mm howitzers. He even estimated that the shells that had been smashed on the head of the 37th Wing before were at least fired by a heavy artillery brigade.

Although judging from the extremely messy explosion point of the shells, the sound of the artillery before and after, and the apparent failure of several shelling to form a salvo, the opponent was not proficient in the use of these heavy guns. However, the shells fired by these heavy guns fell firmly on the head of the 37th Wing, and it was obvious that the opponent had already drawn the firing boundary.

Listening to the roar of the defenders' heavy artillery on the opposite side again, it had just been less than a month since he was transferred back to the Kwantung Army from the main battlefield in the Kannai. Major General Kobayashi Asaburo, who only knew a little about the secret warehouse of Qunce Mountain, and even Yang Zhen's subordinates, frowned deeply: "What happened to the Kwantung Army in the past year, not to mention the defeat of a bandit army, and the opponent actually had a heavy howitzer?" ”

Looking at the 37th Wing, which was defeated again after the attack was unfavorable, Major General Asaburo Kobayashi did not blame the 37th Wing, which became cowering after several failed attacks, and looked embarrassed.

Major General Asaburo Kobayashi knew very well the virtues of the 8th and 37th Wings, the so-called main forces of the Fourth Division, as early as when he was the squadron leader of the 70th Wing. There's no need to make a fuss now.

After learning that Lieutenant General Sasaki had been killed in battle and that the troops of the 8th, 11th, and 12th Divisions that had participated in the encirclement and suppression had suffered heavy losses, Major General Asaburo Kobayashi did not agree with the Kwantung Army's urgent decision to transfer the Fourth Division into the mountains to clear the crackdown. In his opinion, since the elite brigades of the Eighth Division and the Eleventh Division have suffered heavy losses, the transfer of the soft-footed crab of the Fourth Division will not only not solve the problem, but will make mistakes more easily.

If it had been adjusted, it would have been completely transformed into a merchant group, and there would be no Eighth and Thirty-seventh Wings that they would not dare to sell. At the very least, the 61st Wing and the 70th Wing, which are not from Osaka.

Kobayashi Asaburo has never been able to understand what General Kenkichi Ueda and Lieutenant General Shigeru Sawada think. Last year, the southward detachment of the Fourth Division, which was composed of troops drawn from the 8th Wing and the 37th Wing, had almost become a joke of the Central China Dispatch Army when it participated in the Battle of Xuzhou.

This southbound detachment, composed of the two so-called main wings of the Fourth Division, put the bravery of the Imperial Army above the plundering of civilians. For the regular army of China, they can hide and hide, and if they can't dodge, they will simply come to a passive battle.

Even in broad daylight, the southbound detachment, which had several brigades, turned a blind eye to the Chinese army that broke through beside them, and then even said that it had not received a combat order. Such a unit can still be used for the main attack?

actually ate the entire four infantry brigades of the 8th Division and the 11th Division in one go, and almost crippled the 24th Wing of the 12th Division, that is, the cunning and fierce bandits. I can't say that I'm hitting an egg on a rock, but it's a bit too big.

In fact, Major General Kobayashi Asaburo did not understand too much about the reason why the division commander used the 37th Wing on the flank, but he also knew a little. The 70th Wing, which was the most effective of the four infantry wings under the 4th Division, had just been transferred to Harbin five days ago to prepare for the formation of the 25th Division. The remaining 61st Wing, which had a slightly more tough style, was attached to the front.

As for the flanks, they could only be handed over to the 37th Wing, which was slightly stronger than the 8th Wing, which had a scientific name. Compared to the Eighth Wing, which was defeated by a brigade in Dunhua and can only be used by the division commander to protect the supply line, the 37th Wing still seems to have a little bit of bravery, at least on the surface. Although it just looks. As for how rotten the Eighth Wing and the Thirty-seventh Wing were, Kobayashi Asaburo was born in the Fourth Division, very clear.

It's not that both wings are real bale pairs. According to the extremely strict training requirements of the Japanese army, the Fourth Division, as one of the veteran divisions of the Japanese army, was absolutely no worse than any other division in terms of training procedures. These Osaka vendors also know that daily training is the capital that keeps them alive on the battlefield.

With no one to guarantee that they would never be sent into battle, the vendors trained hard. According to the daily training, the combat effectiveness of the Fourth Division should not be worse than that of the other veteran divisions. But that's only if. In the daily training ground, there is no need to give up your life, and you are practicing the ability to save your life, so these vendors are naturally going all out. But when you really get to the battlefield, what you do is definitely different from what you do on the training ground.

The so-called rotten refers to the fact that both of these two wings are full of theories of the supremacy of money, and Yan zhòng lacks the spirit of bushido. For these Osaka merchants, war was more like a means of enriching themselves. As long as it is something that can be exchanged for money, there is nothing they dare not sell.

As for the so-called concept of loyalty to the emperor and pride in dying on the battlefield pursued by other Japanese divisions, this is not to be thought of in these two wings. For these people, one of their most passions is money, and the other is their own life.

In the opinion of Major General Kobayashi Asaburo, if these people are transferred to carry out some sweeps that allow them to take sheep and make some small fortunes, they can still be competent. If you go to fight a tough battle like today, it will be difficult for some strong people.

On his first day in office, Kobayashi Asaburo had heard that during the 37th Wing's clean-up operation in the Xiajiang area last year, some people even semi-openly sold ammunition to anti-Manchu and anti-Japanese forces. The Eighth Wing, which is subordinate to the Seventh Brigade, is even more excessive, not only selling ammunition, medicine, and other combat materials, but also daring to sell weapons.

What kind of rotten the Eighth Wing is, because it is not his own subordinate troops, Kobayashi Asaburo is not very clear. However, during a routine inspection after his arrival, Kobayashi Asaburo had also seen with his own eyes that weapons and ammunition were not stored in the warehouses of the 37th Wing. It is full of high-grade furs, ginseng and precious wood, which are special products of Manchuria.

To this day, he still clearly remembers the first time he met the captain of the 37th Wing, Yoshitaro Hayashi, and the words that Yoshitaro Hayashi said to himself that the 37th Wing was rotten from top to bottom. On the third day of taking office, he received a bribe of 20 gold bars from several captains of the 37th Wing, as well as a cashier's note of 30,000 yen that could be redeemed at any time.

Not only did the 8th Wing and the 37th Wing not only make themselves rotten, but even the 61st and 70th Wings were damaged by them. Although they don't dare to be as blatant as them, there are many small actions in private. At least 30 percent of the bribes sent by the 37th Wing were sent by a few middle-ranking officers of the 70th Wing. As the maiden family of Kobayashi Asaburo, the fall of the 70th Wing made him very heartbroken.

When he received the order from the Kwantung Army Headquarters to transfer the 70th Wing to Harbin to prepare for the formation of the 25th Division with it as the backbone, Major General Kobayashi Asaburo did not feel that he was being dug up, but actually felt fortunate for the 70th Wing. In his opinion, it had only been more than a year since it was transferred to Manchuria, and the Seventy Wing had already begun to degenerate rapidly. If they were to stay in the mud pit of the Fourth Division, it would be a matter of time before it was completely rotten.

After seeing another attack by the 37th Wing being easily defeated by the opponent, Kobayashi Asaburo shook his head and finally ordered to stop the attack. A brigade of the puppet Manchu army accompanying him was transferred to take the lead in place of the 37th Wing. As for these guys from the Thirty-Seventh Wing, let's let them be the Overseers in the back. Good luck can also start to work.