The Iron-Blooded Army of Beacon Fire

Chapter 529: Submission
Ando Rikichi threw away the telegram and strode to the map. A large-scale detailed combat map was hung high up. Its level of detail was even more than that of the Chinese army's maps. Before the War of Resistance Against Japan, in order to enhance the combat effectiveness of the Guangxi Army, the New Guangxi Clique actively hired military instructors from Japan and purchased Japanese weapons and fighter jets. As a result, many Japanese instructors came to Guangxi to serve.

While these Japanese instructors effectively improved the overall combat effectiveness of the Guangxi Army, they also inevitably acted as Japanese military spies due to their positions. The detailed maps of Guangxi Province and military geography were obviously not secrets to these Japanese advisers.

Looking at this map with strict contour lines, elevation symbols, and dangerous terrain markings, Ando Rijitsu suddenly fell into deep thought. If there was one place on the map that was the most eye-catching, it would undoubtedly be Qisha. Even when Ando Rijitsu saw the word Qisha on the map, he felt a little subconsciously afraid. After all, the losses here were too heavy.

Soon, his gaze shifted to other directions.

Chief of Staff Nemoto Hiroshi's suggestion was not without reason. The current situation was that the army under his command landed in Qisha, but ran into an iron wall in the attack and suffered successive defeats, so he urgently dispatched a large number of reinforcements from Guangdong.

However, if this support force still lands in Qisha and joins up with the advance landing force under his command before launching an attack, whether such a tactic would be effective or not, Ando Rikichi is really not sure. The combat effectiveness of the Chinese Army's Army Assault Corps on the opposite side is really extraordinary. Continuing to bet here and adding weight to the fight to the death is obviously not a good choice.

Chief of Staff Nemoto Hiroshi seemed to have seen what Ando Toshiyoshi was thinking. He also stepped forward, picked up the baton and began to move it on the map. He said, "Commander, the enemy in front of Qisha is really strong. If the second batch of landing troops still open up a landing site here in Qisha and launch a joint attack after joining us, although there is hope of making a breakthrough, the price and losses will certainly be high. I have conducted tactical assumptions with the staff. Perhaps we can let the subsequent landing troops carry out landing attacks in other directions and adopt a roundabout encirclement tactic."

"go on."

Ando Rikichi said lightly.

Nemoto Hiroshi's baton moved to the direction of Qisha and said, "According to our intelligence, the troops stationed in Qisha are the newly formed 46th Division of the 19th Army of the Guangxi Local Army of the Chinese Army and the recently discovered Army Assault Corps. In the direction of Beihai, there is the 46th Division of the 175th Army of the Guangxi Local Army. These two troops are the Chinese Army's garrisons closest to the coastline suitable for landing."

"From the perspective of terrain, Qisha and Longmen are located on a peninsula, while Beihai to the east is located on another peninsula. We might as well order the second batch of reinforcements to land in Beihai, where there is only one division of the Chinese army and the defense is weak. With the strength of our second batch of landing troops, we can easily break their defense. After defeating the Chinese army in Beihai, we can advance to the northwest. On the one hand, we can approach Qinzhou and then attack Nanning along the road between Qinzhou and Nanning. On the other hand, advancing to the northwest can also form a roundabout encirclement of Qisha and Longmen Peninsula."

"By then, our first batch of landing troops that have already landed in Qisha and the second batch of landing troops that have come in roundabout ways will be able to encircle the Chinese troops in Qisha and completely destroy them. After destroying or severely damaging these Chinese troops, our army can smoothly advance along the road between Qinzhou and Nanning and capture Nanning."

Nemoto's tactics are not difficult to understand. Simply put, the Chinese troops in front of Qisha are too strong and difficult to fight, so he avoided the heavy and attacked the light, and let the second batch of landing troops land on the Beihai Peninsula, picking the weak persimmon. After defeating the Chinese troops in Beihai, he tried to eat up the Chinese troops in the direction of Qisha, and then launched an attack towards Nanning along the highway.

This set of tactics is nothing more than avoiding the heavy and attacking the light, outflanking, and using the strong to attack the weak.

After listening to Hiroshi Nemoto's tactical plan, Toshiyoshi Ando went over it in his mind and felt that there was no problem and that the general direction was correct, so he immediately agreed to this tactic.

"Then deploy it like this. Send a telegram to Guangdong. All troops in the second batch of reinforcements, except for those in the 18th Division, will be temporarily under the command of the 18th Division. Launch a landing attack in the direction of Beihai. Make a specific tactical plan as soon as possible and have them set off as soon as possible."

"Yes!"

Nemoto Hiroshi saluted, then quickly left the command post and began to perform his duties as the army chief of staff, formulating specific battle plans and conveying detailed battle orders.

Ando Rikichi stood in front of the high map for a long time, with mixed feelings in his heart. He did not think too much about the previous defeat. Just looking at the current situation, the direction of the war has far exceeded the previous deductions.

According to the original plan, the landing Fifth Division and Guards Mixed Brigade were enough to defeat the Chinese troops in Guangxi. But now, after increasing troops due to repeated setbacks, the troops under his command will reach the Fifth Division, the Eighteenth Division, the Guards Mixed Brigade and a large number of artillery, combat and other special military units.

This kind of troop configuration not only has a strong overall troop strength and firepower configuration, but also is extremely rare in the various battles of the Japanese army in terms of the elite level of the troops. Needless to say, the 18th Division is a veteran division of the Japanese army. Although the 1922th Division was only reorganized in (the old th Division was disbanded in ), it also participated in the Battle of Shanghai and the Battle of Nanjing, and has always been notorious.

Not to mention the Imperial Guards Mixed Brigade, which is strengthened by the 1st Imperial Guards Brigade under the Imperial Guards Division. The Imperial Guards Division is actually the imperial guard of the Japanese Emperor. It has been responsible for the security of the Imperial Palace for a long time and is the elite among the elite.

Such a powerful and elite combat force is in the hands of a master. If he still cannot win and achieve the strategic goal of capturing Nanning, then I am afraid I will really have no choice but to commit seppuku to apologize to the emperor and the people.

Ando Rikichi stared in front of the map for a long time.

He Wei, who was thinking about lying about military intelligence and stirring up trouble, could not have imagined that the Japanese army on the opposite side was hurriedly deploying a large number of reinforcements before the situation on his side even got started. He could not have imagined that the Japanese military strength situation he exaggerated would soon become a reality.

Originally, the Japanese landing force consisted of only the 5th Division and the Imperial Guards Mixed Brigade. In He Wei's modified battle report, two more divisions were added to the Japanese army out of thin air.

After Ando Rikichi's request for help, the Japanese army actually added a complete field division and a large number of special military units. He Wei's false military intelligence turned into reality.

Of course, He Wei knew nothing about this, and all his attention was focused on the top leaders of the Nationalist government.

After the two sides tacitly agreed to cease fire and rest, time passed much faster than during the fighting. On November 11, the battle report telegram with the general framework determined by He Wei and drafted by Wang Yuanling had already been sent to Nanning.

According to the current organizational structure of the troops, He Wei led the forward troops of the Central Army's Advance Detachment into Guangxi, and the superior command organization was Dai Anlan, the commander of the Advance Detachment into Guangxi, who was deploying defenses in Nanning.

Therefore, He Wei's telegram had to be sent to Dai Anlan first, and then Dai Anlan would send it to the higher-level command organization - the Guilin Headquarters, and finally, the Guilin Headquarters would report it to Chongqing.

Under such a complicated command system, it was impossible for He Wei's telegram to get a quick response. By the time Dai Anlan in Nanning forwarded the telegram to the Guilin camp, it was already November 11. Although it was only a few days, this speed was obviously very slow in terms of military command.

Of course, although it was slow, He Wei's fake battle report was like a bombshell to the Guilin Headquarters. The chief of staff of the headquarters, who was actually in charge of the military and political affairs of the Guilin Headquarters, was shocked after seeing the battle report. Before that, the assault corps also won a victory, and the Japanese troops reported at that time were far less than that many. This time they won another big victory, but the strength of the Japanese landing troops reported reached four divisions!

What the four divisions meant was self-evident. Such a main Japanese army corps, not to mention weapons and firepower, even in terms of manpower, would probably exceed the total number of National Army troops in Guangxi. Moreover, the wording of this telegram was extremely exaggerated and intimidating under the instruction of He Wei.

Even the battle process in which the Assault Corps and the New 19th Division defeated the 42nd Infantry Regiment of the Japanese Army was much more exaggerated than the actual situation. The entire battle process described in the battle report can be said to be extremely difficult and extremely tragic. The battlefield situation was described as a sea of ​​blood and corpses, like a Shura hell.

Under such circumstances, the Guilin Headquarters did not even care about the great victory achieved by the Assault Corps and immediately forwarded the telegram to Chongqing.

Thus, one stone caused a thousand ripples.

When Chongqing learned that the total strength of the Japanese landing force was four divisions, the top leaders were shocked. According to the general combat power conversion ratio, the National Army would need at least two army-level units to attack and counterattack against a Japanese division.

Now the Japanese army has deployed four divisions at once, which means that the National Army must deploy at least seven or eight armies with considerable combat effectiveness to curb the Japanese army's offensive momentum. But the current situation is that Guangxi only has two weakly combat-effective armies of the Gui Army and an advance detachment of the Central Army.

This small amount of troops could not even defend against the four Japanese divisions, let alone repel them. Given the Japanese army's combat effectiveness, these four divisions could even directly capture the entire Guangxi region.

Faced with such heavy news, the top leaders of the Nationalist government in Chongqing were shocked, the Military Commission was in an uproar, and the Guangxi clique was also shocked.

Among them, the reaction from the New Guangxi Clique was the greatest.

Prior to this, Chairman Chang Kai-shen and the New Guangxi clique leader Bai Chongxi had been fighting openly and secretly over the issue of whether to send central army troops into Guangxi for reinforcement. Chairman Chang tried to send a large number of central army troops into Guangxi for reinforcement so that the central forces could enter Guangxi.

Bai Chongxi had long seen through the thoughts of the Standing Committee Chairman. He had been extremely vigilant since the advance detachment of the Central Army into Guangxi entered Nanning. Therefore, he refused to agree no matter what. He also proposed to recall the Guangxi troops that were fighting in other provinces and use them to support Guangxi.

The two sides had been arguing for a long time, and Bai Chongxi refused to agree. Although Chairman Chang had already made preparations to send troops into Guangxi, Bai Chongxi refused to give in, and he could not forcibly send troops into the hinterland of Guangxi.

Otherwise, at the very least, it would cause extremely bad political impacts and reduce the prestige of the central government. At worst, it might even lead to internal strife.

Based on this consideration, Chairman Chang suppressed his restless heart and argued with Bai Chongxi.

This struggle lasted until all the Japanese troops landed and launched a large-scale attack, but there was still no sign of a decisive battle.

He Wei's battle report immediately changed the situation. After learning about the landing of the Japanese troops, before Chairman Chiang Kai-shek could make any move, Bai Chongxi, the little Zhuge, could no longer sit still.

Before this, he refused to give in. His primary consideration was to strongly resist the central forces of the Standing Committee from entering Guangxi. Secondly, he believed that although the Japanese army was coming with great force, he also felt that as long as the main forces of the Gui army fighting in Anhui and other provinces were transferred back, it would be enough to deal with the Japanese army entering Guangxi.

But the current situation is that the Japanese army has deployed four divisions of troops at once. Such a large-scale Japanese army would be difficult to deal with even if all the Gui army troops fighting in other provinces were transferred back.

At this point, Bai Chongxi knew that the only way out was to allow the Central Army troops to enter Guangxi for support. Otherwise, even the old territory of Guangxi might fall into the hands of the Japanese. Although allowing the Central Army to enter Guangxi was a very troublesome matter, as long as the territory was still there, Bai Chongxi and the Central Army at least had the capital to compete with the National Government.

But if Guangxi was occupied by the Japanese army, it would be the end of the world.

From a political perspective, the Japanese army has already launched a large-scale invasion. If Bai Chongxi still insists on his own opinion and refuses to allow the Central Army to enter Guangxi on a large scale, once the war situation deteriorates, it will be equivalent to giving Chiang Kai-shek an excuse to attack him. At that time, his political reputation and political status will be greatly affected.

Between two evils, choose the lesser one. No matter from which angle you look at it, allowing the Central Army to enter Guangxi on a large scale is the only option. Bai Chongxi began to relax his stance, and the Chairman of the Standing Committee also seized this opportunity and began to put pressure on Bai Chongxi.

Under such circumstances, Bai Chongxi had no choice but to agree to the large-scale entry of Central Army troops into Guangxi for reinforcement.

As a result, Chongqing received a telegram from the Guilin Headquarters on November 11, and the Military Commission officially issued an order to mobilize the Central Army troops to enter Guangxi Province for reinforcement two days later on the 25th.

At this point, He Wei's false reporting of military intelligence finally achieved the effect he expected. With a half-true, half-false, exaggerated battle report, he successfully put pressure on the top leaders, ended the wrangling among the top leaders caused by factional disputes, and thus enabled the large-scale Central Army troops to enter Guangxi Province to reinforce.

The general trend was thus instigated by He Wei.

(End of this chapter)