"Commander!" Seeing that Zhang Zhizhong was still hesitant, I urged him: "At this time, the first batch of Japanese reinforcements have arrived, and other Japanese reinforcements must be not far away. In addition, the Japanese army has completely grasped the initiative in the sea and air. This allows the Japanese army to easily land at any point on our coastline, so my subordinates believe that our army should prepare a retreat in time, otherwise our hundreds of thousands of troops will be in danger of being surrounded and annihilated by the Japanese army"
"What did you say?" Before I could finish speaking, Zhang Zhizhong stared at me with blazing eyes and said, "Captain Fang, just now you just said to slow down, but now you are getting more and more outrageous and you want to retreat. ?¡±
Looking at Zhang Zhizhong's appearance, I understand what "accompanied the king like a tiger". What can I do if I have made great achievements in the past? If you don't follow Zhang Zhizhong's wishes, then you can just do whatever you want with me? As the saying goes, there is no point in trying to inflict a crime, not to mention what I just said can be regarded as disrupting the morale of the army.
However, when I thought about the possible losses on the Songhu battlefield, I gritted my teeth and pointed at the map and continued: "Commander, please see, in order to deal with the Japanese army on the Songhu battlefield, our army can be said to have deployed all the troops in the country. Shipped to the Songhu area, I think once the war gets serious, even coastal cities such as Hangzhou will go back to the sea for reinforcements!"
"Yeah!" Zhang Zhizhong nodded solemnly. As the commander of the regiment, of course he knew this very well.
In fact, in order to convince little Japan that we wanted to fight them to the death in Shanghai and Huihai, Chiang Kai-shek moved three-fifths of the country's troops here. The remaining two-fifths are either stationed on the front line in North China or are some old and remnant soldiers who really have no combat effectiveness.
"In this case" I concluded: "Our army will inevitably be empty at the rear. If Japan sends a large number of reinforcements to fight our army in Shanghai and the sea on the one hand, but on the other hand sends a powerful force to rely on its sea and air superiority to use thunder and lightning. They landed in Hangzhou without being able to cover their eyes With the rapid return of the Japanese mechanized troops, our army's supplies can be cut off in a few days and our hundreds of thousands of troops can be heavily surrounded. Then our army will be in trouble!"
Hearing this, Zhang Zhizhong couldn't help but draw back a breath of cold air and was speechless for a long time. An adjutant beside him couldn't help but stepped forward and interrupted: "Commander, my subordinates also feel that what Company Commander Fang said is very serious." It makes sense. The Japanese army can rely on warships to quickly mobilize and transfer troops. However, our army will have difficulty taking cars and trains under the bombing of Japanese aircraft. Once the Japanese army lands on our flank I am afraid that our army will not be able to make amends even if it wants to. It¡¯s too late!¡±
In fact, these are not what I, a military rookie, thought of out of thin air, but this is how the Battle of Songhu in history developed At the beginning, the Chinese army also fought very bravely in Shanghai, with hundreds of thousands of troops blocking the Japanese army. For more than two months, the Japanese army's "subjugation of China in March" completely turned into a joke.
Although the National Army suffered more than 100,000 casualties in more than two months, it also caused more than 40,000 casualties to the Japanese army. Such a casualty ratio is still acceptable for the National Army whose equipment is completely disproportionate. However, the Japanese landing at Jinshanwei in Hangzhou formed a flanking attack on the Chinese army and Chiang Kai-shek's erroneous command caused the Chinese army to retreat across the board. In just ten days, the Chinese army suffered more than 100,000 casualties. ¡
"No!" Zhang Zhizhong broke out in cold sweat on his forehead at this time. After thinking for a while, he said in a panic: "I want to report this matter to the Chairman of the Chiang Committee!"
¡°As he said this, he didn¡¯t even bother to say hello to me and hurried towards the radio room with his adjutant.
However, I know that this is useless. The reason is that I know It is not true that no one has seen this in history. Chen Cheng and Bai Chongxi were persuading Chiang Kai-shek to take advantage of the situation to achieve the expected strategic purpose of attracting the main force of Japan. Just go back to Shanghai. However, Chiang Kai-shek has always had a very high vision. He was not satisfied with achieving his original goal. In other words, the reason why he attracted the Japanese army to Shanghai was because he had another goal that others did not know, which was political politics. Target.
There are British, American and French concessions in Shanghai, right? If the national army goes to war with little Japan in Shanghai, it will inevitably offend the interests of Britain, the United States, and France in Shanghai, and it is even possible that bullets and artillery shells will be fired into these concessions To put it bluntly, Chiang Kai-shek said this At that time, he most hoped for something like this to happen, because he just wanted Britain, the United States, France and other countries to intervene and mediate because their interests were harmed. This would create another opportunity for negotiation
To be honest, this political intention also makes some sense. After all, the gap between China's navy, land and air force and the Japanese army was too big at this time. It was best not to fight without being prepared. From the perspective of the Japanese army, their original strategy was not to attack Zhonghuiguo but to attack the Soviet Union with Germany. However, they underestimated Zhonghuiguo and misjudged Zhonghuiguo's military strength. They were arrogant and thought that it would only take three months to defeat the Soviet Union. If we can defeat China, we will soon be free to deal with the Soviet Union.
Of course Chiang Kai-shek knew this, so he was willing to invest all his wealth in returning to Shanghai. On the one hand, it was for strategic purposes, and on the other hand, he was also trying to show the European and American powers that they were coming back, and at the same time, he was also trying to fight against the small powers. Looking at Japan, he wants to let little Japan know that it is impossible to return to the country after three months of destruction. He advises little Japan to be wiser and turn the finger elsewhere.
It should be said that Chiang Kai-shek's strategy still had a certain effect, because even Japan's ally Germany was willing to mediate. Germany, which hoped that Japan would attack the Soviet Union together with it, certainly did not want to see Japan sink into the quagmire of China's return to China. What a pity Little Japan did not think that China's return to China was a quagmire at all. They made a mistake after conquering Shanghai. They thought that they had destroyed the economy of Zhonghui, and it would not take long before they could completely defeat the Zhonghui army. After they captured Nanjing, the capital of Zhonghui, they mistakenly thought that it would not take long before they had shattered the spiritual pillars of the Zhonghui people. You can occupy the entire territory of China!
As a result, the Japanese fell deeper and deeper into mistakes again and again, and their apparent victories deviated further and further away from their original strategic goals, so that in the end, millions of troops returned home and were unable to extricate themselves ¡
There is a saying that "strategic victory can never make up for tactical victory." The day Japan decided to return to China for a quick victory and annexation, it actually made a big strategic mistake. This was doomed. They even doomed the failure of Fahui and Xihuisi. It can be said that if Japan did not make this mistake, then the outcome of World War II is still a mystery.
Will the Western powers stand up and speak for China for the sake of their insignificant interests in Shanghai, as Chiang Kai-shek hoped? Of course he can speak, but he can only say a few words. While they were protesting, they were still making huge war profits by selling back military supplies to Japan.
In fact, it is very simple to prevent Japan from fighting. Isn't it? Japan is a resource-poor country, and China does not produce oil at this time. Once Europe and the United States stop exporting oil and steel to Japan, Japan's oil reserves will only be enough for one year. In other words , a year later all the tanks, cars, warships, and aircraft of the Japanese army were turned into scrap metal The United States did this a few years later, and that's why Japan attacked Pearl Harbor.
Sure enough, within a short while, Zhang Zhizhong came back a little dejectedly. He sat down heavily on a chair with a telegram in his hand. After a long time, he said gloomily: "The commission leader thinks the little ghost ghost Huizi We will focus our attention on returning to Shanghai. We do not have enough troops to land from our occasional troops, so we can concentrate on fighting without worrying"
What else can I say? This result was actually within my expectation. Even figures like Chen Cheng and Bai Chongxi could not convince Chiang Kai-shek. What role could a mere company commander like me play?
There was another oppressive silence, and no one in the headquarters was willing to say anything except the beep-de-de-de sound of the telegram and the burst of gunfire outside. Zhang Zhizhong and I both had our own concerns. Zhang Zhizhong suddenly realized that the battle situation was not as ideal as he imagined, and that the entire army might even be in danger of being surrounded and annihilated, so he felt heavy. And I there is only helplessness in my heart.
"Company Commander Fang" After a long time, Zhang Zhizhong sighed and said to me: "You'd better go back to your base first! Always pay attention to the movements of the Japanese army. If you have any ideas, please contact me directly on the radio!"
"yes!"
I stood up and saluted Zhang Zhizhong, knowing it was time to leave. But when he turned around, he suddenly remembered what the director of education had said before, so he turned around and asked Zhang Zhizhong: "Report to the commander, there is a batch of munitions in the basement of the headquarters building. Since the building can be blown up by the Japanese army at any time, the car camp is Things"
"Oh!" It was obvious that Zhang Zhizhong would have forgotten it if I didn't mention it, but at this time he obviously didn't want to be upset about it anymore, so he waved at me to interrupt my words and said to the person next to him. The adjutant ordered: "Adjutant Li, immediately arrange for a motor battalion to be commanded by the 15th Regiment!"
"Thank you, Commander!" I didn't dare to say anything else. I saluted Zhang Zhizhong and wisely left the headquarters.
It wasn't until I got on the jeep and drove to the headquarters that I sighed secretly: Although Zhang Zhizhong is a good general, his mood is easily affected by external factors, and he is not at all worried about the collapse of the general. With such a calm expression, it seems that he is really not suitable for commanding such a huge army to return to fight. It is no wonder that Chiang Kai-shek in history had a taboo of changing generals on the battlefield and dismissed him in the middle of the battle. .
From this point of view, I don¡¯t know whether it was a blessing or a curse that my appearance prevented him from being dismissed. But no matter what, history seems to be developing along the same path as before, so I have to worry about it.How to prevent the national army from suffering more than 100,000 casualties in the great retreat!