Back to the Republic of China as a commander

Leaving aside the extent to which countries such as Britain, the United States, and France, which have invested heavily in China, will respond, at least Japan's response is a bit exaggerated.

Faced with the declaration of war by the Chinese government in Southern China, Japan's reaction was not anger. In their view, it was just a reaction from the blood of a local warlord in China.At the same time, they were full of confidence in the fighting power of the Imperial Japanese Army. In their opinion, as long as His Majesty's samurai stabbed the hot-headed China warlord lightly with a bamboo spear, he would be dead.Therefore, they neither carried out a general mobilization to enhance Japan's immediate combat power, nor agreed with Nagata Tieshan and Ishihara Wanji's proposal to withdraw the main force of the imperial army from the Siberian expedition, because both Prime Minister Keihara and Prime Minister Tanaka Riku They are not prepared to expand the war against China.

First, judging from the current situation, the British Empire seems to be still strong. After the end of the European War, it first successfully suppressed the German Revolution and the Hungarian Revolution, and then actively interfered in the Turkish and Russian issues. The returnee from Europe said that it was about to decay and collapse.I don't know that the British treasury is already empty, and the Japanese high-level officials such as Hara Jing and others dare not wantonly expand the scale of the war against China. After all, China is also the sphere of influence of the British. It is a sheep in the British pasture, and the value of Japan It's just a dog watching the sheep. If the dog dares to bite the sheep to death, the British farmer will kill the disobedient dog if he can't keep it.The Japanese don't have the courage to start a war with a world empire like Britain.Secondly, there are many contradictions in Japan at present. Due to the sharp drop in orders after the end of the European War, Japanese factories and mines are generally underutilized.This is also the reason why Yuan Jing agreed to send troops to Siberia and China. It is nothing more than realizing internal potential by expanding domestic demand and relieving economic pressure.But it has to be said that because Japan has been providing military products to Europe in the past few years, Japan's own war power reserve is very unsatisfactory. They simply do not have enough power to launch a full-scale war of aggression against China.What is particularly dangerous is that the annual steel output in southern China is expected to be the same as that of Japan by the end of this year. Although the quantity of special steel is not as good, the quantity alone is enough to make Japan worry.Nevertheless, with the support of Nagata Tieshan, the Japanese military has formulated a plan and a plan b.

The so-called plan a is that the Japanese army fought smoothly in Shandong and successfully defeated the Southern China army, and then the war was handed over to Zhang Zuolin's Feng army to continue.

But Plan B is much more terrifying. According to Ishihara Waner's suggestion, once the Japanese army fails to fight smoothly or even loses unexpectedly in the Shandong area, the empire should consider expanding the scope of the war to punish China. At this time, it should send more imperial troops and the United The main force of the fleet landed together in the rich southeastern region of China, inflicting heavy damage on the entire China. . .

Out of an attitude of being responsible to His Majesty the Emperor, Tanaka had to allow plan b to exist as a backup plan, and the two divisions placed in Kyushu will also exist as the execution force of plan b.But despite this, Tanaka still firmly believes that with the strength of the Imperial Japanese Army, Plan A will surely succeed, onboard, onboard!

The final problem still lies in the implementation. Although the Japanese side had premeditated, due to various reasons, not all the three divisions were transported to Qingdao, Shandong.To be precise, the soldiers of the three divisions have arrived, but many heavy equipment are still in the process of being shipped from the mainland.An infantry division without heavy weapons can only be regarded as a rifle division. The commanders on the front line do not have the arrogance of Araki Sadao, who dared to let the samurai take bamboo spears to kill the enemy.Therefore, Tanaka's offensive plan became impossible to implement from the beginning of the war, and the Japanese army only took over the communication line from Qingdao to Weifang in the next half month.

Since the Japanese are so polite, there is no need for the youth army to be polite. Bai Chongxi issued the battle order for the Jinan campaign almost the next day after the declaration of war.The ten divisions deployed on the front line of Xuzhou unceremoniously started combat operations. . .

Bai Chongxi's combat orders were so detailed that Liu Xing, the commander-in-chief of the Eastern Route Army, had almost nothing to do.And his purpose of deploying operations is very clear:

Zhang Zizhong, the first division of the Youth Army, was asked to march 300 kilometers to Zibo and organize defenses on the spot. It is worth mentioning that since they are assault troops, they have nothing to do with taking the Beijing-Puzhou line and taking the train. At most, they are heavy equipment You can walk along this railway, because the Shandong section of this railway is still under the control of Zhang Zongchang.Therefore, the task of Zhang Zizhong's troops is very arduous. This is still based on the fact that most of the marching routes are plains. If it is Shandong, no matter how hard the training is, the first division will be difficult to complete the task of rushing to Zibo fortification in seven days to ensure the time for the decisive battle in Jinan.The fifth division, Yu Zuobai, the sixth division, Dai Yue, the No.15 division, Gu Pinzhen, and the No.20, first division, Tao Jun, set off from Xuzhou and went straight to Jinan along the Beijing-Puzhou line. Bai Chongxi asked them to divide into one Second, the 21th and 20th Divisions, which are good at mobile combat, outflanked and advanced, while the 20th and 20st Divisions alternately attacked along the railway line. No.20 Fifth Division Xue Yue Division, No.30 Seventh Division Zhu Peide Division was ordered to march [-] kilometers to occupy the Rizhao area and threaten the Qingdao flank. No. [-] Eighth Division Zhu Jiande stayed in Xuzhou, No. [-] Ninth Division Liu Mingzhao followed and marched to Jinan, but instead of simply following, they marched along the west side of Weishan Lake, took Jining and then took the railway.The No. [-] Normal Shisheng Department was required to follow the First Division and keep a one-day marching distance, so that it could form a strong reinforcement for the First Division at any time. . .

The division commanders below are not so fuel-efficient. Gu Pinzhen, Fan Shisheng, and Zhu Peide, the division commanders from the Yunnan Army, were eating with the division commanders Liu Bocheng and Zhu Jiande from the Sichuan Army when they received the order. better than normal.Gu Pinzhen looked at the battle plan and exclaimed: "Our boss Bai is really not an ordinary person. He deserves to be the one who defeated the Germans in Europe. This battle order never released Zhang Zongchang's Zhilu coalition forces from the beginning to the end." In my eyes, every layout is aimed at the Japanese, and this time the little Japan has a lot of fun.”

Liu Mingzhao disagreed: "I'm afraid things are not that simple. Looking at the layout, I'm afraid it's not to defeat the Japanese, but to eat them all in one bite. I went to Europe late, and I didn't fight back in Verdun." Catch up, but as far as I know, it was a mobile battle at that time. I don’t know if Commander Bai is planning to play mobile warfare again this time. If so, the little Japanese and the Germans are different. They are also well-known players in mobile warfare. Really Putting it all together, the losses of our troops participating in the war are not small."

Zhu Peide nodded: "I've heard people from other brother troops say that this chief of staff, Bai, is the one who is most willing to pay for the war. He never considers the casualties of the troops under him. He wants to win. This time we never I am transferred from my hometown to listen to his command. I am afraid that the loss of soldiers and generals will be small, and it is not impossible for the entire army to be wiped out."

Zhu Jiande shook his head and said: "Compassion is not in charge of the army, and we are probably not much better than this dear man. It doesn't matter if we lose anything. Our Marshal Wang treats everyone equally, and all he gives us are standing numbers. How much we lose is sure." How much is added. What we have to do now is to fight hard in this battle and play our own prestige..."

Fan Shisheng laughed and said: "I know you have ideas, hehe, each of you has more than 2 elite soldiers, first-class equipment, and sufficient supplies, which are much better than when we were begging for Yuan in the past... all tempted, Thinking about becoming famous. Actually, I also think so myself, just as Marshal Wang said, this is the era of our soldiers, the era of our becoming famous..."

While the proud and conceited Japanese army was still waiting for equipment in Qingdao, the first division of Zhang Zizhong's youth army had already started a very arduous march. In Shandong in October, the weather had begun to turn cold, so Bai Chongxi's idea was to End the Shandong war in the shortest possible time.But it was quickly vetoed by Wang Zhenyu. Wang Zhenyu clearly told Bai Chongxi that he must be prepared to continue the war for half a year to two years or even longer, because the Japanese are people with dreams.

On the Sulu border, the Zhilu coalition forces have arranged many patrol battalions here in order to guard against the youth army's surprise attack.However, in the middle of the night on October 10th, these patrol battalions did not play any role at all. Zhang Zizhong's first division broke through the Sulu border very easily. Easily took down the defenseless Lanling County, broke into Shandong for more than 11 miles, and captured more than 12 Zhilu coalition forces.At this time, Zhang Zongchang, who had just received Zhang Zuolin's secret retreat order, was still hugging his Xinna's concubine and had just woken up. The first thing he did when he woke up was not thinking about how to carry out Zhang Zuolin's retreat order, but yawned and told the adjutant to say: : "Concubine, concubine, concubine tax will be levied in the whole province in the future, why should I have to pay the money for concubine?"

The adjutant seemed to be accustomed to this, and immediately turned around to initial the tax increase order. Zhang Zongchang, who could easily lose a hundred thousand oceans in a card game, was stingy with his troops. None of the high-level command departments are equipped with radio stations.Zhang Zongchang felt that it was useless to spend money on that thing. If there is really something wrong, wouldn't it be over if the orderly ran errands?So the news that the youth army entered Shandong was finally told by the Japanese to Zhang Zongchang, and it was already the next day. . .

It was only at this time that Zhang Zongchang remembered that he had not organized the northward retreat of the Zhi-Shandong Allied Forces. . .