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Tokyo, Japan. In the main hall of the Imperial Palace (Japanese Imperial Palace), which has a strong Tang Dynasty architectural style, His Majesty the Emperor is holding an imperial meeting.
This imperial meeting is the highest-level military and political meeting of the Empire of Japan. In addition to the emperor, the participants also included key members of the cabinet, military leaders, government veterans, and real power figures of the royal family. Under normal circumstances, it is rarely convened, but once it is convened, it will determine the future trend of Japan's military and political affairs. Major military decisions such as the Sino-Japanese War and the Russo-Japanese War were made at the imperial meeting.
The content of this imperial meeting is to discuss the future strategy of the Japanese army on the Pacific battlefield. On December 31 last year, seeing that under the strong firepower of the US Army and Navy, it was hopeless to retake Guanacanal Island, the headquarters made an order from Order to withdraw troops from Guadalcanal. This also marked that the Battle of Guadalcanal and the Battle of the Solomon Islands, which lasted for half a year, finally ended in the overall defeat of the Japanese army. But the war is still going on. After losing the important support of Guadalcanal Island, Japan must immediately make a strategic deployment in the South Pacific.
At this time, in the large main hall, Japanese Navy Minister Shimoda Shimodaro was having a fierce quarrel with Chief of General Staff Sugiyama Moto. The former believed that the United States should quickly mobilize troops from the Chinese battlefield and Manchuria before the United States fully controlled the Solomon Sea area. Capture Port Moresby, and then use it as a springboard to land in Australia. As long as Australia can be captured, not only will the United States lose its strong support in the Pacific Ocean, and it will be completely alone. The U.S. forces confronted each other.
However, Sugiyama retorted that the Japanese army and navy suffered heavy losses in the Battle of Guadalcanal, and even the second division, which was the latest and most elite to participate in the war, suffered great casualties, which led to the loss of the army in Guinea. , It is simply unable to launch large-scale operations in a short period of time. Moreover, as the Japanese army has not yet gained control of the southern Solomon Islands and has not cut off the supply line of the US military to Australia, even if the Japanese army seizes Port Moresby and lands in Australia, it will be strongly blocked by Australian and US troops. ,
Therefore, he believes that the offensive should be stopped, the troops should be transferred to strategic defense, and troops should be mobilized from the Chinese battlefield and Manchuria to guard the islands of the Solomon Islands and consolidate the New Guinea defense line to prevent the US military from using sneak attack tactics again to occupy important islands. The factory is also working hard to build new warships. After the front-line army and navy troops have made up for their losses, they are waiting for an opportunity to launch a counterattack against the US military.
Both of them have reason to say, and each has a group of supporters, so no one can convince the other for a while.
Looking at the two people who were arguing red-faced, Emperor Hirohito was calm on the surface, but he was also very entangled in his heart. After all, the strategy formulated now directly determined the future trend of the Japanese army on the Pacific battlefield. So he didn't dare to make a decision easily.
At this moment, an army officer with a folder in his hand quietly entered the hall, came to Hideki Tojo's side, and said in a low voice, "Your Excellency, this is the Commander-in-Chief of the Chinese Expeditionary Force, Hata Toshiroku." An urgent call from the general!"
"Baga, this is the imperial meeting. If there is anything to do, we will wait until the meeting!" Tojo Hideki immediately cursed in a low voice when he saw that his subordinates were so unruly.
"Your Excellency, Commander Toshiro Hata said that the content in the telegram is extremely urgent, please make a decision quickly!" The Colonel said very anxiously.
Although the voices of the two were not loud, they were still heard clearly by Emperor Hirohito who was sitting not far away, and he immediately said: "Commander Hata Toshiro has always been calm, and it must be no small matter that can make him so anxious. Prime Minister Tojo, you should take a look now!"
"Yes!" Hideki Tojo bowed and answered, then took the telegram from the Colonel, and read it, who knew that he had just read a few sentences, and a look of astonishment appeared on his face, and as he continued to read, The consternation also turned into shock and anger.
Seeing this, Emperor Hirohito asked suspiciously: "Mr. Tojo, what happened? Did the Chongqing government launch a counterattack against us after hearing the news that the US military had won in Guadalcanal?"
"Stop arguing, all of you!" Tojo Hideki stopped Shimada Shintaro and Sugiyama Moto in a loud voice, and then said anxiously to the emperor: "Your Majesty, it is the Eighth Route Army, the commander of the Chinese Dispatch Army, Hata Toshiroku, and North China Commander Neiji Okamura jointly reported that the Shanxi Eighth Route Army suddenly assembled more than a dozen divisions to launch a comprehensive counterattack against our First Army. After occupying the Linfen Basin in a very short period of time, it launched an attack on other areas. The army is unable to resist, and now the three important towns of Taiyuan, Jincheng, and Yuncheng have been surrounded by them, and China's dispatch of troops is insufficient, Commander Hata Toshi-6 requests to mobilize troops from the Kwantung Army to rescue Shanxi!"
"What!' As soon as the words came out,All the top Japanese officials, including the emperor, were dumbfounded.
Emperor Hirohito asked sharply: 'Isn't the First Army under the jurisdiction of nearly 100,000 elites? How could they be beaten so badly by the peasant army who just put down their hoes? What are Hata Shunroku and Okamura Neji doing? "
Hideki Tojo quickly explained: "Your Majesty, Commander Toshiro Hata said in his telegram that the Eighth Route Army used a lot of heavy artillery, tanks, and armored vehicles in this battle. All the planes and airfields were destroyed, and without air support, the divisions of the First Army fighting on their own were powerless to resist!"
Emperor Hirohito completely abandoned the pretense of elegance, and shouted angrily: "How could those Eighth Route Army suddenly have so many technical weapons" Halfway through the words, he suddenly remembered that half a year ago, Okamura Ningji asked them He had reported that the Eighth Route Army was acquiring a large amount of advanced weapons and equipment through a secret channel. He also proposed to mobilize heavy troops to eliminate them as soon as possible, otherwise it would not be long before it would become a serious problem for the Japanese army, but at that time neither he nor Tojo Hideki Take these words to heart. I think that even if the peasant army who has just put down their hoes has obtained advanced weapons and equipment, it is impossible for them to be the opponent of the well-trained Imperial Japanese Army. But I didn¡¯t expect it to be only half a year. Okamura Neji's prophecy has come true
Realizing that it was his own mistake, Emperor Hirohito, who made the Eighth Route Army bigger and stronger, suppressed his anger and changed his words: "How many reinforcements do they need?"
Hideki Tojo glanced at the telegram and replied: "Four divisions!"
Emperor Hirohito raised his eyebrows: "That's all?"
Hideki Tojo said: "These divisions are only used to withstand the attacks of the Eighth Route Army. Hata Shunroku said in the telegram that according to Okamura Neiji's plan, while defending the major cities in Shanxi, he will send troops from China. We will gradually withdraw five divisions from the Central Army, and once again need to transfer at least 4 divisions from the Kwantung Army to launch a counterattack against Shanxi!"
The corner of His Majesty's mouth twitched suddenly, and he cried out: "That is to say, even if you don't count the troops of the First Army, Neiji Okamura needs at least thirteen divisions?"
No wonder Emperor Hirohito was so surprised. In the previous Chinese battlefields, the Japanese army has always been in a situation of fighting more with less. There are not many battles involving heavy troops, and the battles involving more than ten divisions at one time can be counted with one hand. Even the battle that wanted to swallow more than 700,000 troops in the fifth theater and occupy the entire Jianghuai area In the Battle of Xuzhou, the Japanese army only used 13 divisions. The largest and longest battle in Wuhan so far involved only 21 divisions. Moreover, as the combat effectiveness of the Chinese army becomes weaker and weaker, there are fewer and fewer such large-scale battles. For example, the second and third Changsha battles of the Zhongtiaoshan Battle were all at the military level, and the troops invested did not exceed 8 divisions. Now it is too shocking to use more than 13 divisions to deal with the Eighth Route Army that did not even have heavy artillery a year ago.
Emperor Hirohito asked in surprise: "Mr. Tojo, have the peasant army who just put down their hoes really become so powerful?"
"Yes, Your Majesty!" Hideki Tojo nodded slightly and said in embarrassment: "Although I haven't received the battle report for this battle yet. But according to the information we have before, the strength of those Tuba roads has skyrocketed unprecedentedly in the past six months. The dozen or so they attacked Shanxi were all equipped with the automatic firearms and direct-fire guns that Mr. Gangcun showed you last time. At that time, it also had an artillery regiment and a large number of tanks and armored vehicles. The fighting power is very impressive! "
"There are still armored units? Aren't they similar to the US military? Then do we have a chance of winning?" Emperor Hirohito said in shock.
"It's still far away! Although the combat effectiveness of the Eighth Route Army has been significantly improved. It has begun to actively transform from guerrilla warfare to frontal combat. But because the vast majority of their soldiers are uneducated farmers, this transformation is very slow. From the Battle of Linfen, it is not difficult to see that although the Eighth Route Army has learned how to cooperate with various arms and used frontal combat tactics such as interspersed, detoured, outflanked, etc., the coordination between their open space, infantry, and infantry tanks is still at a low level. In the stage of very attacking, the commanders are also very young in terms of tactics. They basically rely on superior firepower to defeat our army. In addition, they are also very conservative in strategy. They still want to attack cities and seize territories, rather than destroying the enemy first. Viable force. So as long as our army can gather enough troops, we should be able to annihilate them in one sentence!"
Hearing this, Emperor Hirohito was convinced, so he said loudly: "In this case, it is the approval of Neiji Okamura's plan, from the Kwantung Army
"Your Majesty!" Seeing that Emperor Hirohito was about to transfer the troops of the Kwantung Army to the battlefield in China's Kannai, Shimoda Shigetaro hurriedly shouted: "The United States is the biggest enemy of our Great Japanese Empire. No matter whether the future strategy is to attack or suffer, we should put All troops are devoted to the Pacific battlefield, and the U.S. military must not be allowed to take a step forward in the Pacific.¡± Shimodaro Shimada was so nervous because the Kwantung Army was not only the most elite and largest group of heavy troops in the Japanese Army, but also the only one that Japan could immediately mobilize at that time. A group of troops. But because of the defense of the Soviet Union's Far East Military Region. Therefore, the Kwantung Army said that the number of troops that can be mobilized will not be too many, and now it has transferred eight divisions to the pass in one go. Then the New Guinea defense line will not be fully supplemented. (Remember the site URL: www.hlnovel.com)?No matter whether the future strategy is to attack or to receive, all forces should be devoted to the Pacific battlefield, and the US military must not be allowed to advance in the Pacific. "Shintaro Shimada was so nervous because the Kwantung Army was not only the most elite and largest heavy force group in the Japanese Army, but also the only group in Japan that could immediately mobilize troops. But because it had to defend the Soviet Far East Military Region. So the Kwantung Army said The number of troops that can be mobilized will not be too many. Now eight divisions are transferred to the pass in one breath. Then the New Guinea defense line will not be fully replenished. (Remember the website website: www.hlnovel. com