Glorious Mission 1937

Okamura's sudden outburst of anger shocked all the senior officers in the conference room. It was still a mild wind and drizzle just now, so why did it suddenly become thunderous?Especially Heitaro Kimura, who was reprimanded loudly by Okamura just now, he felt that he was really wronged, even more wronged than the woman in the Chinese drama. Everything he did was for the Japanese Empire, not for himself , Why did this matter become so unbearable when it came to General Okamura's mouth, it seemed that he was not worthy of being a soldier at all in the eyes of General Okamura.

Kimura couldn't accept such an "insult" at all. The enraged Kimura Heutaro was planning to have a good debate with the newly appointed commander of the front army, but just when he was about to speak, he suddenly thought that General Okamura was not a good person On the contrary, it is obviously not a wise choice to confront him directly.

"Your Excellency, the imperial army's military discipline is still very good. Besides, the imperial army is now an occupying army. It is understandable for some small violations of discipline to happen occasionally. After all, the Japanese warriors traveled thousands of miles to China, and there are some negative emotions in their hearts. It must be vented through 'reasonable' means!" Kimura Heitaro said in a deep voice.

"Baga, raped Chinese women, robbed Chinese people, and wantonly massacred Chinese civilians. Is this what you call good military discipline?" Okamura Neji said loudly.

Lieutenant General Iijima got up and explained: "Your Excellency, the military discipline of the soldiers of the imperial army needs to be improved, but there is no way to do it. After all, the area occupied by the imperial army has been infiltrated by many armed forces from China, so the law and order is very poor. , plus the Chinese people secretly helping the resisters. Therefore, during the sweep, the soldiers will inevitably..."

"Iijima-kun, you are also one of the famous generals of the empire. You should know the importance of strict military discipline. Whether an army is strong or not depends on military discipline. If military discipline is lax, even the rebirth of Oda Nobunaga will not help. .Actually, I don’t even look at the military discipline of the Northern China Army, but I know it’s definitely not good. Even if it’s not as bad as the Chinese government reported, it’s definitely not very good.”

Neiji Okamura has his own set of standards for judging whether the military discipline of the Japanese army in the occupied area is good or not.If there is absolutely no trace of the girl on the street.That is absolutely "bad military discipline".If the girl from China is surprised by the cars and trucks of the Japanese army and looks out of the window from a distance, then it is judged that "military discipline is slightly better".If a Chinese girl walks calmly on the street where Japanese soldiers come and go, then it is judged that she has "good military discipline".

"My lords, the front army is now suffering the most dangerous situation since the China Incident. As warriors of the Great Japanese Empire, we must break this unfavorable situation. In view of the current situation, the imperial army urgently needs to do three things. First, The first condition is to maintain law and order. Stabilize the law and order in the occupied areas, and then we can gradually recover the lost land.”

"Now the goal of the imperial army's strategy should be to take active offensive and planned measures. It is necessary to divide the region, set a time limit to consolidate the security area, conceal the troops in the quasi-security area, enter the security area in a planned way, and use the remaining troops to attack the non-security area. The region advances to make it develop into a quasi-law and order area. The ultimate goal is to bring 1 million people in North China to the Japanese side. Following such steps, it is neither advisable to rush for success, nor to let the opportunity pass by. There must be targeted tactics .”

"The second thing is to clean up military discipline. This is the fastest and most fundamental way to improve the combat effectiveness of the Northern China Army. First of all, we need to find out why the Imperial Japanese Army's military discipline in China is so lax? Then we will formulate corresponding measures to clean up military discipline. .”

"The third thing is to ensure smooth access to Manchuria and Central China. First of all, we must ensure the smooth flow of the northward passage, that is, to communicate with Manchuria. This is an effective way to deal with the continuous attacks of the Eighth Theater of China. The Eighth Theater of China and the Several other Chinese armies can cooperate with each other, and our Northern China Front Army can also cooperate with the Kwantung Army, and even unite to completely defeat the Eighth War Zone of China. Secondly, we must ensure the smooth flow of the southward passage, as long as the Kwantung Army and our China Dispatch Army If the communication channel is unimpeded, then the empire will be invincible in the China battlefield."

As soon as Neiji Okamura finished speaking about the three things, the entire conference room immediately burst into warm applause. Obviously, these three things are very necessary in the eyes of the senior Japanese military officers present, and they are based on the specific conditions in North China. Developed rather than rhetoric, much less unrealistic.

At this time, No. 12 Army Commander Iijima Sadagu stood up again and said: "Your Excellency, Commander, this is a battle plan formulated by the humble officer and the No. 12 Army Staff Headquarters. Please approve it, Commander!"

After receiving the battle plan handed over by Iijima Sadagu, Okamura looked down and said, "Lu Xisu's battle plan?"

"Hay, it's Lu Xisuzheng's battle plan!" Iijima Sadagu said.

Neiji Okamura threw Iijima Sadagu's battle plan on the conference table, and then said: "I won't read the battle plan. It just so happens that you have time today, so let's listen to Iijima-kun. This battle plan!"

"Hay!"

Then Iijima Sadagu continued: "Some time ago, when the Imperial Japanese Army and the Eighth War Zone of China were engaged in the Southern Hebei Great War, the China Tuba Road suddenly launched a large-scale operation in the western and southern Shandong areas, and successively captured many places where the Imperial Army was stationed. Although the Tuba Road was severely damaged under the careful deployment of the front army, with more than [-] casualties, the imperial army failed to destroy the Tuba Road in Shandong. Through this incident, we can clearly see that I can see a problem, that is, after several years of development, the China Tuba Road has developed into a powerful regular armed force, which can completely annihilate troops below the scale of the occupied area, so in order to consolidate the Shandong occupied area , we must carry out a large-scale sweep of the Tuba Road in the defense zone."

"Iijima-kun, tell me about your plan!" Neiji Okamura said.

"Hay! The main area of ​​this operation is the Luxi public security area; the main goal is to clear the Tuba Road and other anti-Japanese forces in the area; the main participating troops are the 21st Division, the 10th Brigade, artillery, and chariot troops One for each, a total of about 1.5 people..."

After Iijima Sadagu finished speaking, Okamura Ningji said: "Iijima-kun, although your battle plan is very good, but the scale is relatively too small, the front army will use your battle plan as a blueprint to formulate a larger serious plan. The battle plan is in progress, and the target is all the Tuba Route and anti-Japanese armed forces in the North China Front Army defense area. The specific battle time and combat strength will be notified to all troops, and you can prepare for the battle after you go back!"

"Hay!"

"Then let's talk about the military discipline of the imperial army. In my opinion, the purge of military discipline is far more important than the purge of public security areas. No matter where an army with lax military discipline goes, it is impossible to be liked by the locals, and such The combat effectiveness of the army is very doubtful!" Okamura Ningji said.

"Your Excellency, Commander, in fact, the Imperial Army's military discipline has always been good when it was in the country, but for some reason, it has become like this!" Lieutenant General Yukio Kasahara, the Chief of Staff of the North China Front Army, who had been silent all this time, suddenly said.

Hideki Tojo, the new commander of the Seventh Army, said: "Masters, I think that the problem of the lack of military discipline in the Japanese Imperial Army should be analyzed from the two aspects of the quality of officers and soldiers and the issue of supplies. The military discipline of the early imperial army was indeed better than it is now. Much better, the empire has participated in many wars since modern times, such as the Russo-Japanese War, the Eight-Power Allied Forces’ War of Invasion of China, and the Sino-Japanese War, and the imperial army was able to win every battle, all of which are closely related to strict military discipline.”

"However, as the war continues to expand, the quality of officers and soldiers is declining. Officers and soldiers should first talk about officers and then soldiers. Officers are the backbone of the army. The combat effectiveness of an army has a lot to do with the quality of grassroots officers. But when I was at home In the past few years, we have discovered a problem, that is, the training of our grassroots officers has become more and more rough. You all know that the previous teaching plan of the Army University was based on a three-year course with a quota of about 50 students, but now it is It was changed to a two-year system, and with the urgency of the war situation, the base camp is even planning to change it to a one-year short-term education with a quota of 200 students."

Seeing the shocked expressions of these senior officers in the conference room, Hideki Tojo said seriously: "Can such an officer training system cultivate the military talents needed by the empire? Obviously it cannot. Haven't you guys discovered the new The low-level military officers who took office are far worse than us except for their temper. They are all defective products. It can be said that under the wartime system, the empire has interrupted the education of the military officers in previous years. , so that there is a phenomenon that as an officer, he lacks basic education.”

Neiji Okamura also interjected at this time: "The problem Tojo-kun mentioned is indeed very serious. In addition to the problem of officer education, there is now an extremely shortage of grassroots officers in all divisions of the Imperial Army. Just before that, the first army I commanded For the 11th Army, there is a vacancy of about 40% of its officers, and 30% of those below associate non-commissioned officers. Therefore, many officers are temporarily promoted by commanders from the front line of the battlefield. For example, an infantry squadron leader died in battle on the battlefield. Our usual The method is to promote the deputy squadron leader or the squadron leader to the acting squadron leader. After the battle is over, the acting squadron leader will naturally become the squadron leader. ability."

"If things go on like this, many of our squadron leaders, battalion leaders, and even officers at the level of regimental commanders may be people who have only received simple military education, or have not received orthodox military education at all. Without high-quality officers, by This shows the low combat effectiveness of the troops, and the lack of military discipline is also conceivable.” (To be continued..)