Chapter 84: Attitude
"Your Excellency, the battle has reached this stage. I personally think that Shang Zhen's command is problematic."
At the Northwest National Defense Army Headquarters in Gaolan, Second Deputy Chief of Staff Zhou Yawei complained to Dai Jiliang.
"The Second Army on the front battlefield of Zheng County has already filled in 10 divisions, including the 123rd Division, the 128th Division, the Islamic Anti-Japanese Allied Forces, and the Tibetan-Yi Independent Brigade. But Shang Zhen acquiesced to Sun Weiru, Sun Xuantong and other troops standing by and watching. What's the logic behind this?"
If Wang Yizhe's Second Corps had fierce exchanges of fire with the Japanese Fengmu Detachment in the direction of Xinmi, and He Guozhu's Third Corps had repeated battles with the Japanese in Zhengxian and Nanyang, then Sun Tongxuan, who gave up Yuxian at the beginning, could be said to have been a bystander throughout the war. The same situation was true for Sun Weiru's Seventh Corps and Pang Bingxun's Fourteenth Corps.
However, Pang Bingxun's troops were in Taihang Mountains and were not planning to be transferred back to participate in the Zhengxian battle. As a result, the situation of the two Sun troops was rather abrupt.
"Is it Takatako who is complaining?"
Dai Jiliang spoke while looking at the front line without raising his head.
"What does he mean? Does he want Lanzhou to intervene directly?"
At this point, Dai Jiliang raised his voice.
"This is nonsense. Just because Shang Zhen is not from the Northwest, can Gao ignore his position as the war zone commander? In that case, how can the Northwest embrace all rivers and how can I command the various war zones? Brother Zhenjia, send him a telegram and ask him to think it over carefully. I want to see what he thinks."
Although Dai Jiliang did not directly rebuke Zhou Yawei, the villain Zhou Yawei's face was somewhat unhappy. It seemed that he could see Zhou Yawei's embarrassment. Senior staff officer Zhang Daohong spoke up to help: "Deputy Commander Chen of the Hubei-Henan-Anhui War Zone reported a counterattack plan, preparing to use the Seventh Army to encircle and annihilate the Hatakeyama Detachment."
The so-called Hatakeyama Detachment was formed by the Hirota Detachment and the 4th Temporary Brigade of the Japanese army's subsequent reinforcements. It was a Japanese army corps headed by Major General Kenji Hatakeyama, commander of the 35th Infantry Regiment.
The detachment currently has 17,000 people, including nearly 3 infantry regiments, 1 search regiment, 2 field artillery battalions, 1 engineering battalion and 1 light and heavy regiment. Except for the insufficient number of artillery, its strength is not inferior to that of ordinary Japanese divisions.
"Chen Qiankang is ambitious. He is not satisfied with killing more than 7,000 devils from the Sichuan Bao Detachment. He wants to make a big catch this time."
Having said that, Dai Jiliang was not surprised. After all, it was a good thing for the subordinates to have such an idea. He was just a little worried whether the Seventh Army’s strength was sufficient to undertake this task.
"But I'm worried that he doesn't have enough troops, and the fish will break through the net after he is caught in it."
Dai Jiliang’s worries are not non-existent.
In the process of destroying the Kawabata Detachment, the Seventh Army mobilized four divisions and one combined artillery brigade, which is nearly 10 times the number of troops as the Kawabata Detachment. However, facing the desperate enemy, the Seventh Army also suffered heavy casualties. The loss of nearly six or seven thousand people was almost .
However, the greater losses for the Seventh Army came from the subsequent operations to block the Hatakeyama Detachment.
In just less than ten days, two divisions were completely wiped out in positional warfare, not to mention the four divisions of the Third Corps assigned to the Seventh Army, which were reduced to empty shells early on.
"The Chief of Staff is also worried about this, but Deputy Commander Chen's strategy is not without reason. Instead of fighting the Japanese army in a positional battle, it is better to attack continuously."
From Zhang Daohong's words, it can be heard that he agreed with Chen Youliang's counterattack. After all, the Northwest did not have the ability to fight the Japanese in a consumption contest. Apart from anything else, since the battle, the 75mm artillery shells in the military stations in Xingyang and Nanyang have almost been used up.
“Maybe it can turn the situation around.”
Zhou Yawei opened the briefcase and handed the battle plan to Dai Jiliang, while explaining it in detail.
"Deputy Commander Chen's plan is to first use the 12th Army and the 11th Corps to counterattack the Japanese troops on the southern front. After receiving reinforcements from the Japanese troops in Hubei, this Japanese force has more than 7,000 people. The 10 divisions of Liu and Yang's forces will definitely not be able to destroy the enemy, but it will be enough to contain the Japanese army and divert their attention."
Zhou Yawei then added: "During the southern front operation, the Hebei-Henan War Zone should also use Wang Yizhe's Second Corps and Sun Tongxuan's Eighth Corps to counterattack the Fengmu Detachment to contain the enemy outside Zhengxian County. When the two Japanese armies are distracted, the Seventh Army will give the Hatakeyama Detachment a sharp blow. Of course, in order to achieve the best attack effect, Deputy Commander Chen hopes to transfer a powerful detachment from the First Light Armored Division as the vanguard."
Dai Jiliang frowned as he flipped through Chen Qiankang's battle plan. Halfway through, he stood up and walked to the phone, stretched out his hand and called Zhang Zili: "Brother Pu Chu, Zhou Yawei and Zhang Daohong are here with me now. Yes, it's about Chen Youliang's battle plan. What do you think? Is it too large? It's not easy to coordinate between two war zones? Yes, that's what I think. I'm more worried that once the counterattack is successful, it will attract all the Japanese troops, and then the problem will be serious. In the final analysis, our cadres are still too short-sighted. They can't see the international situation clearly and only think about their own little piece of land. This is not acceptable."
Zhou Yawei and Zhang Daohong were listening on the side. They looked at each other in bewilderment. Finally, Dai Jiliang hung up the phone. They were about to say something, but Dai Jiliang waved his hand and said, "You all heard my conversation with the chief of staff. I am not just criticizing Chen Youliang. You are the same. Chen Qiankang may not see clearly at the local level, but you should not."
Zhang Daohong, whose face turned red after being criticized by Dai Jiliang, stammered, "Your Excellency, are you referring to the disagreement in Japan about advancing south or north? Forgive my stupidity, I don't know what this has to do with the ongoing battle?"
Dai Zhixiang glanced at Zhang Daohong coldly: "You should be clear about the conditions that the Chiang clique has set for us. What does this mean? In my opinion, first, it means that the Chiang clique does not want to take advantage of us, so it wants to make the world know so that the Japanese will retreat; second, it means that the Chiang clique has exposed its own shortcomings, which means that its strength is not enough to compete with the Japanese army."
Zhou Yawei suddenly realized: "Your Excellency means that we must not let the Japanese think that we are a serious threat at this time, otherwise the Japanese can put aside the dispute between the south and the north and focus on dealing with us. It is not wrong to say that, instead of transferring all the Kwantung Army, we only need to transfer 10 divisions to Henan, and we will be unable to cope with it."
"Understood?"
Dai Jiliang glanced at the two people with ochre-red complexions.
"It's good that you understand. Now is the most dangerous moment. As long as we can get through this, our pressure will be greatly reduced. That will be our chance to let go. So now, go tell Chen Youliang that the counterattack plan is not approved and we will continue to use positional warfare to consume the Japanese army. If he feels that he cannot accept it, let him come back to Lanzhou to see me. I will personally teach him an international politics class."
The two responded and wanted to retreat, but Dai Jiliang stopped them, "Wait, the blocking strategy reported by Zhang Hanqing and Liu Ziqian looks so weird to me. What was Zhang Hanqing thinking? Was he going to use human lives to fill the gap for the Japanese artillery fire? If that's the case, then those who should block the attack should block it, and those who should attack the city should attack it. But they didn't attack the city. What's this?"
In fact, the General Staff of the Northwest National Defense Army also found the battle situation reported by Zhang and Liu incredible, but Zhang Xueliang was consuming his own strength. As for the Fourth Corps and the Nineteenth Army Group, they were not the direct lineage of the Northwest, so they turned a blind eye to it.
"Zhang Xueliang can't turn around now, but sooner or later he will realize that he made a bad move. According to human nature, most people will not think that they have done anything wrong, but will blame the people around them for not stopping them. So if we don't intervene now, it will be detrimental to the complete integration of the Northeast Army system in the future."
Of course, Dai Jiliang was not short-sighted in the General Staff Headquarters. After all, one of his principles was that military personnel should not interfere in politics. Therefore, it was normal for him to lack political acumen.
"Brother Daohong, you will fly to the Hunan-Hubei-Bashu War Zone in person and find Deputy Commander-in-Chief Zhang to convey my opinion in person. Since we cannot destroy the Guxian Detachment, we should just retreat in big strides. It was a good move that he arranged for the 19th Army to build the Tanghe Defense Line. Next, we should use the Xiangfan and Tanghe Defense Lines as a corner to force the Japanese army to voluntarily give up the positional battle and retreat."
"By the way, I heard that the Fourth Army fought very hard this time. Go to the Military and Political Committee and find Chairman E and tell him what I said. Prepare a batch of medals for Fu Zuoyi and allocate another 100,000 yuan as a reward. As for Jin Xianzhang who died for his country, propose to posthumously promote him to lieutenant general and erect a monument in his hometown in the name of the Northwest National Defense Government."
At first glance, the above sounds like Dai Jiliang's admiration for Fu Zuoyi's troops' fighting spirit, but the real drama is yet to come: "The wounded Division Commander Sun Lanfeng should be sent back to the northwest for treatment as soon as possible. As for the current strength of the Fourth Corps, it will be temporarily reduced to a division, which will continue to be commanded by Division Commander Lu Yinglin. For the vacancies, a part of the Shanxi Army will be mobilized in the name of the Lanzhou General Headquarters to provide assistance."
Dai Jiliang's move not only weakened Fu Zuoyi's direct troops, but also curbed the power of the Shanxi Army, and further intensified the contradiction between Fu's troops and the Shanxi Army. It was truly a three-pronged approach. However, his order was upright and could be considered an open conspiracy. As long as Fu Zuoyi and the Shanxi Army continued to accept Lanzhou's command, they would not be able to refuse.
Dai Jiliang was confident, but Zhou Yawei was still a little worried: "Your Excellency, the previous mobilization of Fu Zuoyi's troops made the Shanxi side very unhappy. If the Shanxi army is mobilized to leave the province again, will Yang Aiyuan raise any objections?"
"Objection? The Jin army is no longer part of the Chinese military?"
Dai Jiliang sneered.
"Besides, the Jin army had expanded to four armies before, and we only transferred one of them. How could it affect the overall situation in Jinzhong?"
Dai Jiliang's words sound nice, but in fact the Jin Army did expand by four armies, but only two were added at the division level, and most of them were just some direct-affiliated teams.
"If you feel that the troops are really insufficient, then we can return two divisions to him."
It seems that these two divisions, like the 225th and 234th divisions that entered Shanxi before, came to Shanxi to grab territory. The Shanxi side would definitely be dissatisfied with this, but who makes the Northwest have the highest title?
"Now it depends on whether Yang Xingru is a smart man. If not, we should settle accounts with him. The Jin army has been expanding for nearly half a year, and they have never fought a serious battle with Shinozuka Yoshio. I would like to ask, what is the position of the Jin side?"
