Glorious Mission 1937

Yan Changxi did a good job in the United States, but Chen Feng was extremely busy in China. Although the reorganization of the troops refined the organization and functions of the troops, it also caused huge changes in the entire Eighth Theater from top to bottom, especially the command level.The improvement and expansion of the troop establishment is a test for both soldiers and officers, especially the officers.

In order to strengthen the commanding ability of the officers, and also to improve the combat effectiveness of the troops, Chen Feng began to train the officers at the division and brigade level after the transfer of the troops was completed in early March.Unlike the Central Army, most of the officers under Chen Feng's command have not received systematic military education. If they only served as battalion and company-level grassroots officers, it would be fine. Now, whether it is the Japanese army or the Kuomintang troops, the quality requirements for grassroots officers None of them are very tall.

However, as the size of the troops did not expand much, many former battalion-level officers have become division-brigade-level officers, and Li Wensheng, Li Yifeng and others have even become the commander-in-chief of the group army. Not a little doubt.Can they be qualified for their current position, can they lead an army of tens of thousands, if not, the result will be disastrous.

In the end, after discussing with Yang Yi and others, Chen Feng decided to carry out training for officers above the division and brigade level, with him personally serving as the instructor, in order to let these old and thick-legged people know what a large corps fight is in the shortest possible time.

In addition, as the weather gets warmer, the new year's production and construction in the entire Sui-Cha area is about to start, and Chen Feng needs to personally approve the agricultural industry and commercial construction plans throughout the year.Ever since, he gave lectures to officers during the day.In the evening, Chen Feng stayed up all night to instruct the documents sent by various departments, and finally he had to prepare lessons, and his whole body was almost like a spinning top.

Chen Feng's life is not easy, and the life of the Japanese is also difficult.In Wanquan and other places, they first knocked open the gate of the Eighth War Zone with landmines, and won their first victory against the Eighth War Zone.But the squadron's retaliation was not slow, and then they blew up the warship they were going to transfer Chinese cultural relics and gold in Tianjin, and a cruiser sank and two destroyers were severely damaged.

This is secondary. The most important thing is that the friction in the north is getting bigger and bigger. The Kwantung Army and the Soviet Far Eastern Front are at war, and the atmosphere is getting more and more tense.A war could break out at any time.

Since the Russo-Japanese War.Japan's threat from the north was gradually eliminated.But after the September [-]th Incident, as the Kwantung Army believed that the time had come to intervene in China's internal affairs, and wanted to use this to realize its old dream of invading Manchuria and Mongolia, it brazenly sent troops to capture the four eastern provinces (including Rehe).As a result, the Soviet Union came into direct contact with Japan due to the line of defense.Nerves become extremely tense.After Japan and "Manchukuo" shared responsibility for defense.The Soviet Union immediately concluded the same agreement with Outer Mongolia to fight against it.

This kind of nervousness gradually escalated as the puppet "Manchuria" country started to build a military railway to develop the border. In response to the military pressure from the Japanese Kwantung Army and the puppet Manchukuo, the Soviet Union also accelerated the completion of the double-track project in Siberia.Fully develop East Siberia.The Siberian Railway extends from Chita around the border of "Manchukuo" to Vladivostok. Therefore, the defense line of the Soviet Union runs from the coast in the east, through Eastern Siberia in the north, and around Outer Mongolia in the west. It surrounds "Manchukuo" on three sides, and the border of "Manchukuo" In direct contact with the most active arterial routes of the USSR, border disputes often arose.

More importantly, due to foreign independence and the September 1689th Incident, the border line of "Manchu" in the Soviet Union was unclear.Originally, the national border around Manchuria was demarcated by 11 treaties and agreements including the Sino-Russian Treaty of Nerchinsk in 600. The puppet "Manchu" government had to inherit these regulations, but some regulations were often very vague and could be interpreted arbitrarily. Moreover, there are very few landmarks, and they have been exposed to wind, sun, and rain for many years, and have lost their role as landmarks, especially the [-]-kilometer eastern suburb border from Xingkai Lake to Tumen River and the Hulunbuir Grassland in the northwest bordering "Man" and Mongolia. The area is the most blurred.

The Nuomenkan area refers to the area about [-] kilometers south of Hailar, that is, the area from Khan Dagai-Jiangjun Temple-Amu Inner Line to the Halaha River.This area is a strategically important area that both Outer Mongolia and the Puppet Manchukuo attach great importance to. In Japan’s view, this is an excellent area to enter and exit Outer Mongolia and even the mainland of the Soviet Union. Therefore, the Japanese Kwantung Army and the General Staff Headquarters wishfully determined the border that is beneficial to them. line, and is ready to launch a blitzkrieg at any time to capture Outer Mongolia.

The Outer Mongolia side maintains that the Haraha River is their territorial river, and the border between the two sides passes through the east and north sides of the Haraha River.The line they advocated was the demarcation line drawn by the Qing government's ruling as early as 1734 when the Harga and Haraha tribes competed for territory.The Soviet Union was not a vegetarian either. Stalin had always been very wary of Japan, a power in East Asia that had defeated the Slavs in the Russo-Japanese War, so he soon sent troops to Mongolia. He also prepared for the worst and was determined to fight Japan to the death. .

As early as the early 30s, the Kwantung Army showed signs of getting involved in Outer Mongolia.By 1935, specific border conflicts had increased dramatically. In the spring of 1937, someone in the Outer Mongolia Army secretly planned an anti-riot.In July of the same year, news of the Japanese army's military operations in the Pingjin area caused great fluctuations among the Outer Mongolians.Thus, the Soviet Far East Army was "invited" to enter Outer Mongolia.In this way, the Kwantung Army, which single-handedly took over the military power of "Manchukuo", and the Soviet Union, which continued to strengthen its military power, directly confronted each other on the border, and border disputes continued to occur.Some of these disputes even developed into extremely dangerous local wars that threatened to lead to full-scale war preparations.The most famous of these is the Ganchazi Incident in 7.

The Ganchazi Incident revolved around a small island in the Heilongjiang River on the northern border of Manchuria. In February 1937, Japanese and Manchurians landed on Ganchazi Island and Dabekichev Island.In this regard, the Soviet Union has repeatedly protested to the "Manchukuo" side.In May, perhaps the Soviet Union felt that only protesting was useless, so it sent a small number of troops to land on the second island.

At this time, the Kwantung Army mobilized a division of troops here, and the Soviet Union also mobilized gunboats and gunboats.So the two armies confronted each other.Originally, the Japanese General Staff Headquarters believed that for such a remote island.It is not worth pouring out troops and adopting a policy of not expanding.But the Kwantung Army was dissatisfied with this passive attitude. June 6.He arbitrarily and arbitrarily fired at the Soviet gunboats and sank one of them.As a result, the conflict between Japan and the Soviet Union intensified. On July 30, 1938, in Siberia bordering East Manchuria and North Korea, Japan and the Soviet Union once again had a fierce military conflict, which was the famous Zhanggufeng Incident.

As the conflict between the two sides intensified, more and more troops were assembled on the border between the Soviet Union and Japan. However, as the Japanese army's offensive in North China and Central China suffered setbacks, especially the strong rise of Chen Feng's troops, the Japanese army's base camp rushed to Mo Da. crisis.In particular, the relationship between Chen Feng's headquarters and the Soviet Union became closer, and a large amount of weapons and equipment were transported into China through the newly built Suimeng Highway. This crisis became more and more urgent.As a result, many senior military officers in the base camp have already started to deduce on the sand table that the Soviet-Mongolian coalition forces and Chen Feng's troops jointly launched a large-scale attack on the Kwantung Army.And the results of the deduction are very unsatisfactory.

In this context, the Riguan base camp is urgent to break this situation.There are only two ways to break this situation. One is to eliminate the eighth war zone, and the Japanese army will aggressively capture Chahar and Suiyuan.Strategically formed a siege of Outer Mongolia.The second way is to drive out or directly eliminate the Soviet troops in Outer Mongolia.

So the commander of the Kwantung Army, General Ueda Kenkichi, ordered the commander of the subordinate military corps to implement the "Manchurian-Soviet Border Dispute Handling Outline."The main contents of this outline are:

"I will not commit crimes. Nor will anyone commit crimes against me." This is the Kwantung Army's fundamental stand on the border.If you want to raid and annihilate the cross-border Soviet troops (including the Outer Mongolian Army), you can "temporarily enter the territory of the Soviet Union."

2. In areas with unclear borders.The defense commanders in various places can "draw the border line according to their own judgment" and must clearly inform the front-line troops.

3. In the event of a dispute, the front-line troops are required to "take resolute and decisive actions." As for handling the resulting situation, they must "trust the higher command."From the above, we can clearly see that Japan's idea of ​​using force to resolve disputes is now more obvious than in the past.In this way, as long as the local army faithfully implements the command of the headquarters, or the Soviet Union does not make concessions, it is inevitable that a major conflict will occur on the border sooner or later.

The result of such a tough attitude of the Japanese army was that the conflict became more intensified. Less than a month after this outline was issued, dozens of Outer Mongolian cavalry crossed the Halaha River and entered the Normen Kambult. kilometers. The "Manchukuo" garrison immediately drove them back to the west bank.

Subsequently, the Outer Mongolian cavalry entered the east bank again and fought with the "Manchukuo" garrison.The friction in the north has become more and more frequent, which has increased the pressure on the Kwantung Army Command and the North China Front Army. If the Kwantung Army decides to start a war with the Soviet Far East Front Army, then the North China Front Army has a heavy responsibility, not only to be responsible for the defense of the region At the same time, we must be prepared to reinforce the Kwantung Army at any time. In addition, we must also contain the Eighth Theater to reinforce the Soviet-Mongolian coalition forces.

However, one after another, the Kwantung Army's affairs have not yet been resolved, and the headquarters of the Chinese Expeditionary Army issued an order to the North China Front Army. The front army sent powerful troops to attack the first and second theaters of China in order to contain the Chinese troops in Henan, Shanxi, and Shaanxi.In order to strengthen the strength of the North China Front Army, the base camp ordered the newly formed independent mixed 7th and 8th Brigades to be incorporated directly under the North China Front Army; the independent mixed 9th Brigade was incorporated into the 1st Army; the independent mixed 6th and 10th Brigades Incorporated into the 12th Army.

Although the strength of 5 infantry brigades was increased at once, Bin Shanyuan did not feel at all relaxed. Although the North China Front Army has more than 30 troops, plus nearly 40 Imperial Alliance troops, the total is more than 40.But they have to deal with the pressure of the three theaters of the national government. Needless to say, the first theater, Cheng Qian's more than [-] troops guard the Central Plains, eyeing Shandong and Jiangsu.

The second war zone had just recovered Taiyuan, and the army of more than 30 soldiers was in full swing. It was very likely to drive the remaining Japanese troops out of Shanxi, and their strength should not be underestimated.

The most important thing is Chen Feng's eighth war zone. According to the information collected by the intelligence department during this period, the strength of the eighth war zone in China has far exceeded the empire's expectations. According to the deciphered incomplete telegram, the eighth war zone in China has at least There are 10 reorganized divisions and a large number of subsidiary troops, with a strength of at least 30 people, or even more.In addition, the eighth war zone has established a general military service system in Suiyuan and Chahar provinces in China, and can arm a large number of recruits at any time, which poses the greatest threat to the front army.

In addition, the Sun Lianzhong Division of the Second Chinese Army, which was entrenched in southern Shandong and eastern Henan, held fast according to the mountain situation. The imperial army failed to encircle and suppress several times. The No.12 Army launched a fatal blow and had to guard against it.

The hostile external environment made General Bin Shanyuan quite entangled. Once the headquarters of the dispatched army and the headquarters of the Kwantung Army launched a war at the same time, his North China Front Army would be in a dilemma. Supporting the war in the north would not be able to support the south, and vice versa.If both parties support, then the old nest is likely to be taken away by the Chinese people, so difficult! (To be continued..)