Republic of China game

Page 244

"You...what do you want?" Hamaguchi's throat was dry, as if he knew that the current situation was out of his control, or that there was an invisible hand directing everything all the time, and it was just him as the client Just ignorant.

Suzuki Shoroku sighed lightly: "Your Excellency, you also know how Southern China has changed under the leadership of the Kuomintang in these years?"

"So what? Are we going to start a war and die with them?" Hamaguchi asked coldly.

"Of course not, but the change in the southern branch has given enlightenment to the people of insight in the empire." Suzuki shook his head and sighed: "It only took them a few years to raise the level of heavy industry to a level that was barely equal to that of the empire. The point! And the empire has been standing still in the past few years."

Hamaguchi shook his head lightly: "That's because China has been the overlord of East Asia for thousands of years, with a rich family background, resources, land and population far exceeding the empire, and the support of Britain and the United States to achieve such achievements. The empire's land is small and its resources are poor. The market is also small, so it is normal for the development to be slower.”

"Not exactly!" Suzuki Shoroku stood up slowly and raised his voice:

"The national income of the Southern Branch is not as high as that of the Empire, and the fiscal revenue of the National Government of the Southern Branch is also not as good as that of the Imperial Government...The Southern Branch has a huge deficit in foreign trade every year. But their military expenditure is more than that of the Empire, and their heavy industry Their investment is more than that of the empire! Moreover, they have also implemented foreign exchange control, prioritizing the limited foreign exchange reserves to ensure the construction of heavy industry, and their government does not care about fiscal balance, and it does not matter if the budget deficit this year is as high as 30 million French currency... And where does our imperial government’s annual income of more than [-] billion yen go? We have neither built a large navy, nor developed heavy industry, nor used it to upgrade the army’s equipment. How is this money spent? The empire is now We need to try our best to save money and put all our limited financial resources into the development of heavy industry and armaments, as we did after the Meiji Restoration. Can Your Excellency Prime Minister lead us to do this?”

Hamaguchi clenched his fists tightly, and stared at Suzuki Soroku: "I see... this is your real purpose. You want to turn 7000 million people into slaves of the army, and let them contribute to the ambition of the army. out of everything..."

"Your Excellency, please unite with the army and navy to play His Majesty..." Suzuki Shoroku didn't say anything, but bowed deeply.

Hamaguchi froze there. He also knew that the Imperial Japanese Army had long been eyeing the regime, and that the young emperor who grew up in the deep palace was ambitious and wanted to dominate the world.Now it looks like the two have been completely brought together in this wrong war.Right now their first goal is Japan!Then there is China.

Winning or losing this war is actually not important anymore.If he wins, the emperor is wise and the army is invincible.The government will naturally be controlled by them.It doesn't matter if you lose, because this war was launched by the "popularly elected" cabinet, and His Majesty the Emperor and the army are just cleaning up the mess.And if you lose the battle, you should unite around His Majesty the Emperor and dedicate everything to the Empire or the Imperial Japanese Army...

But what if you know?A civilian prime minister, and a minister who has lost power and humiliated the country after losing a battle, can he prevent the wise and mighty emperor from coming out to directly lead the army and navy, and clean up the mess?

……

On April [-], [-], the Prime Minister of Japan, Yuyuki Hamaguchi, together with the Minister of the Army and Navy, the Chief of the Army General Staff, and the Chief of the Navy Command, jointly presented a memorial to Emperor Showa.Request the return of the military order, and the emperor will exercise command and directly lead the army and navy.Emperor Showa issued a decree, and at the same time issued an imperial decree to restore the active military attaché system of ministers of the army and navy.According to this system, the Minister of War or Secretary of the Navy among the cabinet members must be a general or lieutenant general in active service in the army and navy.Moreover, although the ministers of the army and navy are members of the cabinet in name, they only have to be responsible to the emperor and can directly resign from the emperor.

According to the organizational system of the Japanese cabinet, if the Minister of the Army or the Navy is lost, it must be disbanded... That is to say, the Japanese Army and Navy can manipulate the abolition of the government by letting the minister resign, so as to achieve the purpose of controlling the regime.Of course, Emperor Hirohito can also use this special knowledge to directly order the Minister of Army and Navy to resign to drive out the government that does not suit his wishes!In another history of time and space, the "Minister of the Army and the Navy's active duty military officer system" was established by the Yamagata Aritomo Cabinet in 1900, and was abolished by the Yamamoto Gonbei Cabinet in 1913, until the February 1936 Incident in 1928 Later, it was restored by Hirota Koni's cabinet.However, in this time and space, it was advanced to [-], and the Japanese Emperor Hirohito proposed... This accident and the previous "March [-] public debt incident" were later considered to be an important turning point and symbol for Japan to completely embark on the road of militarism!

On the same day, the governments of the United Kingdom, the United States, France, and the Netherlands jointly announced that because the Japanese Fourth Division "violated regulations and invaded" the territory of Zhili Province in China, it clearly intended to expand the war and invade China.Therefore, the four countries will impose trade sanctions on Japan in accordance with the "Asian Peace Treaty", prohibiting the export of all strategic materials to Japan, so as to urge Japan to stop its war of aggression against China.Although the Japanese government declined to comment on this, everyone knows that Japan cannot carry out long-term wars without the resources of countries such as Britain, the United States, France, and the Netherlands.Moreover, the situation on the battlefield is obviously unfavorable to Japan, so this Sino-Japanese Shandong battle has come to an end... Only the last battle is left under the city of Jinan.

Wuhan, Nationalist Government Military Commission.

I don't know whether it was because the war situation was going well, or because the imperialists finally realized their conscience and sanctioned Japan.In short, today Lao Jiang's fierce face is full of unconcealable smiles, and he no longer frowns when he sees the commotion in the conference room, but looks at everyone with a smile: "Dear comrades, this The war between China and Japan seems to be safe and sound. The British and American powers are now on our side to sanction Japan. With Japan’s resources and land, the war cannot be sustained without the export of steel and oil from Britain, the United States, the Netherlands and France. But... ...It seems that there is still a final battle to be fought right now." Having said that, Chiang Kai-shek's tone has dropped, his face is slightly gloomy, and his eagle eyes turned to Luo Yaoguo who bowed his head and said nothing: "Brother Fuwen, you are the boss Chief of Staff, let me tell you if you are sure about this battle, right?"

Luo Yaoguo smiled and stood up, walked to a military map of Shandong Province that had already been hung up, picked up the baton and began to introduce the battle situation: "According to the reconnaissance, the eighth, ninth, and tenth divisions of the Japanese army have about 8 troops. Carrying more than 270 cannons, they arrived in Linzi County, about 110 kilometers east of Jinan, last night. It is only 1 kilometers away from the airport outside Laiwu County. Within the combat radius. Therefore, they should have begun to suffer losses now...the next 100 kilometers will not be easy!"

"...For this battle, our army dispatched the first, fourth, fifth, sixth, No.18, and No.19 divisions, the first aviation division, the armored teaching brigade, and about 5 security forces. The total force is about 21, with 840 and six cannons, 290 aircraft, and 14 tanks and armored vehicles. The total force of the Japanese army is only six infantry divisions, with a total force of about [-] and only three or four hundred artillery pieces. Among them, there are three Four divisions were surrounded by our regiments, with heavy losses in troops and artillery, insufficient ammunition, and greatly reduced combat effectiveness. In addition, the Japanese army's aircraft are currently old products with backward performance, and there is no tank. Therefore, in this battle, our army There is no doubt that we will win, the question is just to what extent, can we wipe out all six divisions of the Japanese army before the armistice?"

……

To the west of Linzi County, a heavy group of 8 troops composed of the eighth, ninth, and tenth divisions of the Japanese army is crawling inch by inch along the road!These Japanese troops were urgently mobilized from the mainland 300 kilometers away, then took a boat to Qingdao to disembark, and then marched more than [-] kilometers all the way, and were harassed by Chinese guerrillas who came out of nowhere for several days. After suffering so much, the original purpose was to come to this long and narrow road to blow up the planes of the Chinese army!

The new head of the 41th Division, who just took office, was lying in the field beside the road, staring at the [-] small biplanes that were slowly forming a bombing formation in the sky with his head held high, his heart was dying of anxiety!This is the third time today that he has been bombed. If the bombing continues, his infantry division will become a rifle division. Now the road is full of huge craters and destroyed artillery and vehicles.

As soon as his division left Linzi County, it began to be bombed.And now, apart from lying in the field by the roadside and waiting for the Chinese plane to drop the bomb, it seems that there is no effective air defense method anymore?Half of the twelve 75mm anti-aircraft guns assigned to the [-]th Division were blown up before they were deployed. The rest were deployed and fired a few shots, and then attracted more than a dozen planes to drop bombs. Kung fu is all reimbursed!After that, the only anti-aircraft weapon was the crooked light machine gun with poor performance... This kind of broken gun that keeps jamming is just to comfort the emotions of the officers and soldiers.

"Boom! Boom! Boom!"

A brigade of Chinese dive bombers has formed a team and started to dive and drop bombs one by one.Because the current Japanese army has already learned how to behave.When they saw someone coming to bomb, they would not welcome them with dancing and dancing, but would spread out and lie in the farmland by the roadside early in the morning.These Kuomintang planes did not bomb the Japanese officers and soldiers scattered on both sides of the road. It is obviously a loss-making business to kill a few Japanese infantry with a [-]-kilogram bomb.The targets of the plane bombing were only those vehicles and artillery thrown in the middle of the road by the Japanese army.And after this period of actual combat, the Kuomintang's air force also summed up a set of knocks for bombing the enemy's marching columns.The primary bombing targets of these planes are anti-aircraft guns, and they are not allowed to swing out to fire.The second is to blow up the vehicles at the front and rear ends of the marching team, and at the same time destroy the road.In this way, the entire marching team of the Japanese army was almost paralyzed. They could only lie on the road and wait for the Chinese planes to bomb them one after another until all the heavy equipment was destroyed... and the [-] without heavy weapons What will the Japanese army do to rescue the three divisions trapped in Jinan City?

After about 10 minutes, the 41 planes that had dropped the bombs shot indiscriminately for a while, and then flew away slowly to the south.Fan Zhuang slowly got up, looking at the plane going away, an ominous feeling came to his heart.Why does this "relief" battle look like a self-inflicted trap?Now there are nearly 100 kilometers away from Jinan, and my division has already suffered more than 150 heavy bombs. The twelve Taisho Four-year-style [-]mm heavy artillery assigned to the Tenth Artillery Regiment have all become scrap iron...

"Seya." Honjo Shigeru called Seya Qi, the staff officer of the division headquarters who ran past him, loudly: "You go to Qingdao's dispatch army commander, General Shirakawa (Shirakawa Yoshinori replaced the defeated Muto Nobuyoshi) When the unlucky Commander of the Shandong Expeditionary Army) generated electricity, he informed the situation here and asked to change the march to night to avoid unnecessary losses."

Seya Kei hurriedly stepped forward and gave a military salute: "Your Excellency, the order of the dispatched army headquarters requires us to march day and night, and we must..."

Ben Zhuangfan smiled coldly: "The three divisions in Jinan City will be fine now. Without them, how could we have traveled thousands of miles to be bombed?"

Chapter 0439 of the fight to aid the battle (a)

On Qianfo Mountain in the south of Jinan City, in the peaceful and serene ancient Xingguo Temple, the headquarters of the National Revolutionary Army's Shandong Expeditionary Army has moved here.Bai Chongxi was meditating on the map. There were many antennas outside the meditation room, and staff officers at all levels were very busy passing in and out, delivering various information and orders.

Now the three Japanese army divisions in Jinan City have been surrounded by a line of defense rebuilt from the outer city wall of Jinan.After discovering that the Japanese army was trying to use the Chinese civilians in Jinan as human shields to weaken the Kuomintang army's firepower advantage, Bai Chongxi ordered the engineers to build this encirclement.

After five days and five nights of intensive construction, the city wall of Jinan Outer City has been blown up by explosives into a gentle slope of seven or eight meters high.Trench traffic trenches were excavated along the inner circle of the gentle slope, and barbed wire fences were laid out, but no laying was done.A large number of anti-gun bunkers were excavated on the gentle slope, earthworks, machine gun fire points were built, and several through tunnels were even excavated from the bottom of the gentle slope.On the outer side of the gentle slope, a large number of mortar fortifications were also built in the blind spot where the Japanese artillery fired.

Although the defense line of the siege seemed impregnable, Bai Chongxi's expression was still slightly solemn at this time.What worried him was the lack of troops to besiege the city. Although he had a total of 21 troops at hand, 5 had already dispersed to grab territory.Only six divisions and one brigade can be used. Among them, the fifth division and the No.18 division are placed on the line of defense about ten kilometers from the Lianhua Mountain to the Xiaoqing River in the east of Jinan. group. The No.19 Division and the Armored Teaching Brigade were used to destroy the Japanese reinforcements, and they were deployed behind Huashan on the north bank of the Xiaoqing River.The fourth division is the general reserve team of the campaign, which also has the task of defending the two major military airports of Laiwu and Tai'an and the storage places of army supplies.Only the first and sixth divisions can be used for the siege of Jinan.The four brigades were evenly deployed on the four sides of the encirclement circle of Jinan's outer city, and the two divisions directly under the brigade and the division's artillery were respectively placed at the commercial port in the west of the city and at the foot of Maoling Mountain and Yanchi Mountain in the east of the city.

But worry is nothing to worry about, Bai Chongxi is still fully sure of winning.In fact, it was Bai Chongxi who made the plan to start a decisive battle with the six divisions of the Japanese army under the city of Jinan to fight for aid!After Luo Yaoguo, the chief of the general staff, left the Shandong Front Army, he didn't dictate any more. Everything was left to Bai Chongxi and the Shandong Front Army's arrangements, and the General Staff Department just cooperated fully.

"Brother Jiansheng, why are you so engrossed? We didn't even know we were here?" Li Zongren's voice suddenly rang in Bai Chongxi's ears. He turned his head and saw that Li Zongren, An Sihua, and Li Jishen walked in at some time Command.

"Oh, you're here." Bai Chongxi smiled faintly, and cupped his hands at the three of them as a greeting.Li Zongren and Li Jishen also clasped their fists in return, only the half-breed An Sihua, who was taught to ruin by the Germans, stood up and saluted seriously.

"Look here." Bai Chongxi smiled and pointed to the eastern section of Jinan Outer City on the map.If nothing else, it was the place where the Jinan battle was most intense.The reinforcements of the three divisions of the Japanese army came from the east, and the three divisions in the city were also very likely to break through to the east at the same time.Moreover, the Japanese have always been prone to extreme thinking, and at that time it is likely to make a desperate attempt to use the crowd to create a way out.

"This line of defense is only 6 kilometers, but it is the key to the success or failure of the entire battle. Brother Ren Chao, the first brigade of your first division is very likely to bear the pressure of all the Japanese troops in Jinan City! With the ruthlessness of the Japanese Maybe [-] people will rush up, can the first brigade withstand it?"

Li Jishen frowned slightly, and at the same time, a hint of surprise crossed his face.The [-] Japanese troops came up with all their brains. The pressure was great, but at the same time, the credit must be particularly great!If the Japanese really fought against the sea in the position of the first brigade... Hehe, the officers and soldiers of the first division of the National Revolutionary Army will not be soft when they kill!After this battle, the first division has won the first place.Of course, if they can't stand it and let the Japanese break out, the battle will be ruined by the First Division.

"It doesn't matter if you can't stand it." Li Jishen was hesitating, but An Sihua who was beside him suddenly interjected lightly.He took a step forward, poked the northeast corner of Jinan City with his finger, and said with a smile: "The No. 19 Division and Armored Brigade under my command are here, only about 5 kilometers away from the defense line of the First Brigade... I suggest that the first The division built a reserve line of defense on the front line of Maoling Mountain and Yanchi Mountain. If the first brigade really couldn't stop it, it would retreat to the reserve line of defense. Wait for the opportunity for the Japanese army to attack the reserve line with all its strength, and use armored troops to flank their left flank."

"But what about the three divisions of the Japanese army going west?" Bai Chongxi nodded noncommittally, and asked again.

An Sihua sneered: "After we have smashed the Japanese army in Jinan City, we will go eastward to pursue it. At the same time, let the Eighth Brigade stationed in Laiwu go northward to the Jiaoji line. We only need to delay the Japanese army westward for a while. We can catch them."

Bai Chongxi clapped his hands and applauded when he heard the words: "Okay! If this is the case, it is safe. Even if the Japanese soldiers in Jinan rushed out regardless of casualties, we will be sure to eat them too! Brother Ren Chao, then your first division will not fight with the Japanese. It's really impossible for people to fight recklessly... just follow Brother Sihua's method and retreat to the second line, let the armored troops crush them!"

"Okay." Li Ji cast a cold glance at the "half-foreigner" who came out halfway to claim the credit.An Sihua's mixed blood identity and experience in the German Army, coupled with the Prussian way of doing things, made him the biggest alien in the eyes of a group of Kuomintang veterans.But this person is Luo Yaoguo's brother-in-law, the number one thug in Luo's class, and the teacher of that Whampoa department... It really makes people feel a little helpless.

Probably seeing Li Jishen's unkind expression, Li Zongren, who was in charge of commanding the troops to stop the rescue, laughed twice: "At present, Britain and the United States have jointly intervened to mediate, and this war will end at any time. I am afraid that these 10,000+ devils will not have time to kill them all! The Japanese Seeing that something is wrong, we will probably accept mediation. So we must hurry up and kill one more. If [-] infantry can really squeeze into the plain between Maoling Mountain, Yanchi Mountain and Jinan Outer City It would be good to let Brother Ren Chao and Brother Sihua show their skills here... If you can kill them all, you two will be the winners in this battle."

Li Jishen's ears were slightly red, and Li Zongren's words didn't sound right... How could this mean that Li Jishen wanted to take credit for it?

……

The night of April 17th, [-]th year of the Republic of China.

Lianhuashan Highland, about [-] kilometers east of Jinan City.

"Bombardment! Concealment..."

As soon as the shouts started, there was a thunderous roar almost at the same time, and clusters of orange fireballs continued to rise around the position of the No. 30 Fifth Brigade of the National Revolutionary Army stationed on the Lianhua Mountain Heights.Lines of orange fire rose from the back of Yuling Mountain in the distance at an extremely fast speed in the sky, then roared and rushed towards Lianhua Mountain, and exploded in the trenches of the Kuomintang defenders, turning into heat waves that swept across everything. and fragments.However, Major General Guo Shufu, the brigade commander of the No.30 Brigade, didn't care about the scene in front of him. He was still standing in the reinforced concrete bunker on the top of Lianhua Mountain, watching the Japanese artillery performance with binoculars with relish.Standing side by side with him was Qiu Qingquan, head of the Artillery No.18 Regiment. According to the Artillery Command Regulations of the National Revolutionary Army, the post of the head of the Artillery Regiment during wartime was the first-line observation post, which was this sturdy reinforced concrete bunker.

"Brother Yu'an (Qiu Qingquan), the Japanese artillery is behind Yuling Mountain, right?" Guo Shuchao put down his binoculars and said calmly, "It's a blind spot, can't you hit them?"

Qiu Qingquan frowned: "The little devil has also learned now. He knows that our planes are so powerful that we changed them to march at night and attack at night. They also placed the cannons on the back of the mountain...Brother Shizhen (Guo Shuchai), luckily we The position is strong enough, and there are many artillery holes, otherwise, there will be heavy casualties!"

"How many cannons they have, can you tell?" Guo Shufen remained calm.

Qiu Qingquan squinted his eyes, stretched his ears and listened for a while: "There should be more than 75 60mm guns. It should be a division. Their 150mm heavy guns are probably killed by the aviation brothers. It seems that they can't do anything about us. It's a mountain... Maybe the pressure on the Fifth Division on the Northern Line will be greater?"

Guo Shufen shook his head lightly, and put down the binoculars in his hand: "If we can't take this Lianhua Mountain, the Japanese will not dare to go west even if they break through the position of the Fifth Division on the northern front. We are not the Anti-Japanese Allied Army. The two divisions belong to artillery The 108 heavy artillery pieces of the regiment...With the observation point of Lianhua Mountain, they will never return when they go west. So they will definitely attack with all their strength." At this point, the corners of his mouth slightly curled up, showing a cold smile: " And I will let the lotus mountain be filled with Japanese corpses!"

……

The Japanese bombardment lasted only 10 minutes, and about 60 75mm field artillery and mountain artillery fired a total of more than [-] shells.The minefields and barbed wire fences directly east of the highland were destroyed, and the dry bunkers and earthworks were removed. However, for the Kuomintang officers and soldiers who were seized in the tunnels and artillery holes, the casualties were extremely slight and almost negligible.