Glorious Mission 1937

The transaction involving more than 80 square kilometers of land must not be hidden from anyone. The news that the Chinese Chen family purchased the two islands of New Guinea and Tasmania from the Australian "government" with more than [-] billion yuan will soon be released. It has spread all over the world. While lamenting the wealth of the Chen family, people are also envious of Australia's good luck. You must know that New Guinea had no relationship with Australia's "Mao" before World War I. It's just that the Australian "government" is good at capturing opportunities. , After World War I, while all countries were busy with European affairs, they quickly occupied this colony that originally belonged to Germany.

It was only a dozen years ago. At that time, the dilapidated deserted island was sold for tens of billions of dollars. What is even more enviable is the authorized patent of the penicillin drug. Although it is only an authorized patent, Australia is the world's largest The second country in the world that can mass-produce pure penicillin drugs.

The value of penicillin is well known to all countries. As the world war intensifies, this kind of drug that was originally a civilian drug will soon become a war resource that countries all over the world are vying for. The Japanese army fought more and more courageously, but the Japanese army who fought with them went from bad to worse, which had nothing to do with this powerful drug.Especially countries such as Germany and the Soviet Union, they have always had close ties with the Chinese "government" and know the great role of penicillin in war.The Australian "government" can obtain the authorization of the penicillin drug at this time, which is definitely a profitable business.

In addition, although there are hundreds of thousands of aborigines in New Guinea and Tasmania, their economies are extremely underdeveloped, and their infrastructure is even worse. The manpower and material resources needed to develop these two islands will be one Astronomical figures, while the Chen family's hometown is China.With such a large Pacific Ocean in the middle, it can be said that China has no help in the development of these two islands at all. If you want to develop these two islands, you must trade with Australia. This will definitely be a big deal for the Australian economy. Stimulation, a good thing that kills three birds with one stone, no wonder countries all over the world want to envy and hate.

The Japanese are definitely the most dissatisfied with this private-state transaction. Although Chen Feng entrusted the U.S. "government" to train the navy on his behalf, it was very secretive, but the Japanese had already obtained information from special channels, and even It is known that the US "government" has sold more than 30 naval ships to Chen Feng.It also includes 2 decommissioned cruisers with a displacement of 8 tons and [-] destroyers with a displacement of [-] tons. [

Despite this strength, Japan really didn't notice it.But this is not a good signal. What Japan is most worried about is that the United States "intervenes" in the Sino-Japanese war. If the United States fully supports China, then with the strong economic strength and industrial production capacity of the United States and China's huge population.Japan's established strategy of capturing and destroying China is simply impossible to complete.

Now Chen Feng bought such a large piece of land in the South Pacific.With Chen Feng's strong and strange rising speed.The Japanese have reasons to believe that Chen Feng is likely to build a powerful naval force in a very short period of time.Therefore, after the Australian "government" announced the sale of the island, the Japanese were the first to jump out and object, thinking that it was inappropriate for the Australian "government" to sell the island of New Guinea to private individuals without authorization.Because New Guinea is not part of Australia.

But no one will care about the opposition of the Japanese. At least before Japan launched the Pacific War, major countries such as Britain, France, the United States, Germany and the Soviet Union did not think highly of Japan, thinking that they could only jump on the land without giants in Asia. , the above-mentioned big countries can wipe out little Japan with just a few clicks of their fingers.Although Australia does not have this strength, Australia is a major member of the Commonwealth of Nations. Once Australia is attacked, the powerful navy of the British Empire stationed in the Strait of Malacca and the fortress of Singapore will arrive soon. Therefore, Australia is too lazy to respond to Japan's opposition !

There was no positive response from the Australian "government", which made the Japanese high-level extremely angry. The prison was a huge threat from Chen Feng's headquarters. The base camp urgently called a high-level meeting to discuss the matter, and decided to continue to put pressure on Australia, and at the same time send an elite team to the United States to assassinate Chen Feng. Yan Changxi, the spokesperson in the United States, blocked the transaction.

Obviously, it was too late for the Japanese to get the news. By the time their people arrived in the United States, the Australian delegation had already returned to Australia with $140 billion in cash, and the transaction was over.

But the Japanese resolutely decided to continue to assassinate Yan Changxi in order to destroy Chen Feng's layout in the United States and the entire overseas. However, this assassination failed.At the same time, the U.S. "government" issued a severe diplomatic protest to the Japanese "government". If the Japanese "government" continues to act recklessly in the United States, it is necessary for the U.S. Pacific Ocean to take a turn in the Sea of ​​Japan.

The assassination plan failed and was approached by others, which made the Japanese "government" extremely angry. The Japanese emperor personally issued an edict to reprimand the base camp for ineffectiveness, and demanded that the incident be quelled as soon as possible.

After some diplomatic efforts, the Japanese "government" calmed down the incident, but this made the Japanese "government" even more afraid of Chen Feng's strength. Unexpectedly, in just over a year, Chen Feng had already received such strong support from the US "government". Support, this is obviously not good news for the Japanese "government".

Therefore, the Japanese army headquarters immediately issued the latest instructions to the Japanese army on the Chinese battlefield, ordering the Central China side to capture Wuhan as soon as possible to end the battle in Central China, and then concentrate all their efforts on dealing with Chen Feng's troops in the northern part of the border to resolve this threat.

After receiving the order from the base camp, Lieutenant General Neiji Okamura, commander of the No. 11 Army, immediately held a meeting of officers above the division commander. The meeting decided to abandon the plan to encircle and wipe out the main force of the Ninth Theater of China, and instead captured Wuhan with all its strength.

After the first battle in Wuhan, the national government had actually lost most of the important fortresses on the outskirts of Wuhan, including Fuchikou Fortress, Madang Fortress and so on.Wuhan has been exposed to the guns of the Japanese army, but Okamura Ningji intends to completely encircle and wipe out the main force of the Ninth Theater, so the purpose of the operation has not been to occupy Wuhan.It is obviously not going to happen now, and the base camp ordered the war in Central China to end as soon as possible.

On October 10, the two main divisions of the Japanese army gave up pursuing the squadrons on the outskirts of Nanchang and transferred them all to the outskirts of Wuhan. Then the Japanese army launched the largest attack on the defenders in Wuhan.At this time, the national government's troops outside Wuhan had gathered 3 troops, and the Japanese army in Wuhan had four divisions, two mixed brigades and one detachment, totaling 31 people.

The two sides fought repeatedly within a range of 6 kilometers outside Wuhan, and the fighting was extremely fierce. By the afternoon of the [-]th, the Japanese army had already approached the city wall of Wuhan. The guns were fired, and the planes continued to carry out air strikes on Wuhan.

In view of the heavy casualties of the troops and the loss of all strategic locations, the Military and Political Department of the Nationalist Government issued an order requiring all military and political institutions in Wuhan to withdraw from Wuhan within two days, and at the same time set Chongqing as the capital, and ordered the troops to withdraw from Wuhan in three days. .

On the evening of October 10, all the Nationalist Government's Wuhan garrison troops withdrew from Wuhan, and the Japanese army immediately occupied this important town in central China, and Wuhan fell.

The Battle of Wuhan lasted one and a half months, and ended with the squadron's voluntary withdrawal from Wuhan.As far as the campaign is concerned, the Japanese army won the victory by occupying the three towns of Wuhan and controlling the heartland of China.But in terms of strategy, Japan failed to realize its strategic intentions and failed to encircle and annihilate the main forces of the Ninth Theater and the Fifth Theater of the Nationalist Government. More importantly, the top Japanese army always believed that as long as Wuhan and Nanchang, Guangzhou were captured, In these big cities, the national "government" will submit, and the Sino-Japanese War will end with Japan's victory.

But in fact, the Japanese army did not make the National Government surrender in this battle. The National Government decided to move the capital to Chongqing, and all the rear offices and factories moved to Sichuan, Yunnan and other places to continue the war of resistance.Although Wuhan fell, the Japanese army paid a heavy price in the second Wuhan battle. Compared with the first Wuhan battle, the Japanese army suffered even more heavy losses this time. The army casualties exceeded 11, and the naval and air forces also suffered heavy losses. , A total of 48 large and small ships of the Navy were damaged and sunk, and 240 fighter planes of the Air Force were shot down.

After the battle of Wuhan, the Japanese army, which already felt insufficient in strength, became more and more insufficient with the extension of the front line, and tried to organize large-scale strategic attacks such as the battles of Songhu, Xuzhou and Wuhan, with the goal of siege the city, and was forced to Switch to strategic conservatism.This made China's War of Resistance develop from a stage of strategic defense to a stage of strategic stalemate, and at the same time, this stage of strategic stalemate was greatly shortened by these two major battles, making the Japanese aggressor army fall into a protracted stage that it was least willing to engage in. In the quagmire of war, there is no way to extricate ourselves.

In addition, the huge casualties and material loss caused Japan's national power to rapidly surface due to excessive loss.The war itself is fighting the economy and resources. Japan is an island country with a lack of strategic materials and mainly relies on imports. At the same time, Japan's economic strength is not very strong. [

During the "July 13th" Incident, Japan's "gold reserves, including reserves for issuing banknotes, were only 5000 billion yen."Such an economic situation is doomed that Japan cannot persist in this war for too long. Therefore, while Japan launched the war, it did everything possible to "seek an early resolution."

In order to maintain the war of aggression against China, "the total amount of military supplies imported from overseas in Showa 12 reached 6000 million yen."In order to carry out the Wuhan battle, the Japanese army even took back the rifles used by the school coaches to equip the expanded army.Moreover, due to the continuous increase in the number of soldiers, domestic labor, food, and energy are all in short supply.By 1939, Japan's military expenditures had reached 6156 billion yen, which had far exceeded Japan's national reserves. As a result, "the poverty of Japan's national strength has become apparent sharply", and it had lost the ability to fully guarantee the military supplies of the army, thus " It aggravated the pain and pressure of the head of the Central Command," so that its chief of staff and Prime Minister Lu claimed: "Externally strong but middle-functioning is the portrayal of our country today, and it will not be able to maintain it for a long time."Roughly after the first battle in Wuhan, the Japanese army's establishment, equipment, and combat effectiveness decreased significantly compared to before the war and when the war started.

Although the second Wuhan battle did not last very long, only one and a half months, the heavy casualties of the Japanese army and the huge consumption of materials were unprecedented before.This also made the above problems in Japan more prominent, which also forced the Japanese army to launch the Pacific War in advance to make up for the consumption of its war resources. (To be continued..)

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