I am Jiang Weiguo in World War II

After the July [-]th Incident broke out, Yan Xishan put forward the slogan "sacrifice to save the country, defend the country and fight against Japan", without the word "anti-Japanese", in order to imply to the Japanese that "if you don't attack me, I won't fight back".

From the beginning to the end, Yan Xishan had an "ambiguous relationship" with the Japanese, and he kept giving in to the Japanese. Even if the Japanese army attacked Suiyuan Province that belonged to him and annexed half of Suiyuan Province, he would bear it, but he also insisted on never The bottom line of blatantly falling into the sun.

In the final analysis, whether it was Song Zheyuan in Hebei, Han Fuju in Shandong, or Yan Xishan in Shanxi, they all conducted "secret communication" with the Japanese. One foot on two boats is a major feature of these local warlords.

Right now, the Japanese army is completely tearing their faces away from Yan Xishan for the benefit of the strategic level. The Tojo Division is rushing along the Pingsui Railway, intending to sweep Shanxi Province from north to south, and the Banyuan Division is following the Pinghe (Pingping to Beiping) The Taiyuan) railway is aggressively pressing, intending to break through the defense line of the Taihang Mountains, directly attacking Huanglong and pointing at Taiyuan.

There was no way for Yan Xishan to retreat, so he had to carry out the "war of defense of the soil".

Objectively speaking, the conditions of Yan Xishan’s war of resistance were much better than those of Han Fuju. First, more than 80% of Shanxi Province was mountainous, and half of Shandong Province was plains with two sides facing the sea, so the terrain of Shanxi was better than that of Shandong; The modernization level of the Lu Army and Jinsui Army is second only to the Central Army and the Northeast Army. They also have their own arsenal, and their strength is more than twice that of the Lu Army. For more than seven months, the Shanxi-Sui Army built a relatively complete defense line along the Taihang Mountain in eastern Shanxi, and built a large number of trenches, tunnels, fortifications, and firepower points. Therefore, the Japanese army broke through easily. First, the Lu army had no fighting spirit and voluntarily gave up the line of defense. Second, Dahe's defense in the war was indeed not as good as that of Dashan.

).

On March 3, the leading troops of the Dongtiao Division stormed Tianzhen, a military center in northern Shanxi. At the same time, the leading troops of the Banyuan Division began to attack the central throat of the Taihang Mountain defense line and Yangquan, the eastern barrier of Taiyuan, thus kicking off the Shanxi Province Anti-Japanese War.

As soon as the war started, Yan Xishan asked Chiang Kai-shek for help repeatedly. He didn't ask Chiang Kai-shek for troops from the central army, nor did he ask for artillery or tanks, but only for planes.

In Shanxi Province, where [-]% of the area is mountainous, the importance of aircraft must be unquestionable and even ranked first.

Yan Xishan was very smart. He knew that Han Fuju's Lu army was bombarded indiscriminately by Japanese aircraft and Japanese artillery groups because they did not have aircraft reinforcements from the Central Army.

Chiang Kai-shek attached great importance to Yan Xishan's request for help. In North China, Hebei was lost, Shandong was lost, and only Shanxi was left. If Shanxi can hold on, it can not only provide a barrier for the Northwest, but also keep North China from falling completely and keep the last glimmer of hope.

Chiang Kai-shek sent a telegram to Jiang Weiguo, seeking Jiang Weiguo's opinion.

Jiang Weiguo simply sent a telegram to Yan Xishan on behalf of Chiang Kai-shek: "Mr. Yan, please transfer the machinery, equipment and personnel of the Taiyuan Arsenal to Luoyang immediately, and hand them over to the Ministry of Military Industry (Jiang Weiguo's direct line department) for management. The Air Force will immediately reinforce the military and civilian resistance in Shanxi!"

Yan Xishan was furious and helpless. He knew that Jiang Weiguo was taking the opportunity to blackmail him and wanted to swallow his military industry in Shanxi, but he had no choice but to agree.

When Yan Xishan began to relocate the Taiyuan arsenal, the Chinese Air Force dispatched more than 300 aircraft to Shanxi Province to participate in the War of Resistance in accordance with the instructions of Chiang Kai-shek and Jiang Weiguo. Almost all of them were fighter jets. The Sui army provided a powerful air umbrella, at least to ensure that the Jinsui army would not be bombed unscrupulously by the Japanese fleet like the Lu army, which greatly reduced the casualties and combat difficulties of the Jinsui army.

Among the three provinces of Hebei, Shandong, and Shanxi, Shanxi Province fought the best war of resistance. The Japanese army failed to annex Shanxi like lightning annexed Shandong, and also paid a much higher loss than the annexation of Shandong.

During the one-month war of resistance in Shanxi Province, although part of the land was occupied, it was basically a secondary area, and the officers and soldiers of the Shanxi-Sui Army fought bravely against the enemy, causing the Japanese army to pay more than [-] casualties within a month.

After the news came, Chiang Kai-shek, Li Zongren, and Jiang Weiguo all breathed a sigh of relief.

In this North China rout, Shanxi Province temporarily held on, which gained a lot of hope for the situation in North China that was almost out of control.

At the same time, the Central Army in Henan Province and the Guangxi Army in northern Jiangsu also actively launched counterattacks, initially curbing the Japanese offensive in North China. into a precarious crisis.

The Japanese army that swallowed southern Hebei and the entire Shandong province seems to have recovered its previous "spirit" from the long-term decline in Nanjing. It made the front-line Japanese army feel insufficient, and also made Tokyo feel insufficient. Therefore, the Japanese army in North China stopped fighting on the third front. The 10th Division no longer attacked northern Jiangsu, and the 14th Division no longer attacked northern Henan. Instead, they concentrated their forces on Shanxi Province.

There are two starting points for the Japanese army's move: one is to obtain the rich resources of Shanxi Province, so as to make up for Japan's loss of national power, stimulate Japan's economic recovery, and realize the initial "supporting war with war"; the other is to win Shanxi Province, Completely consolidate the occupation of North China.

If the Japanese army attacked northern Jiangsu or Henan without capturing Shanxi Province, there would always be a large and threatening armed group behind the Jinsui Army, so it would be impossible to launch a new offensive from North China to Central China and East China.

In Nanjing City, Jiang Weiguo, Tang Shengzhi, Xiao Shanling, Huang Wei, Song Xilian, Li Yutang, Wang Yaowu, Chen Mingren and other senior generals gathered together to repeatedly study the situation in Nanjing, North China and even the whole of China.

It was March 3th at this time, and the city of Nanjing had been holding on for nearly four months. As of that day, it was a full 30 days.

Objectively speaking, Nanjing City actually "cheated" in March, because the besieging Japanese army hardly attacked Nanjing City in March. A regiment of the Japanese army and a regiment of the Japanese army met in the wild and started an encounter.

During the entire March, the Nanjing Army only suffered more than 4000 casualties, and the Japanese Army suffered only more than 6000 casualties. Compared with the previous three months, the fighting intensity was almost negligible.

In addition, after this month, the population of Nanjing increased to 40, a full increase of 11 compared to the beginning of March, all of whom were old, weak, women, children, and civilians who were driven into the city by the Japanese army. In fact, more than 16 people were driven into the city. More than 3 people were sent away by the naval fleet (at the same time, most of the seriously wounded and disabled in the city were also sent away).

At the end of March, there were a total of 40 people in the city of Nanjing, including: 8.5 regular troops, more than 4 militiamen, more than 3 young and middle-aged migrant workers (most of them can be converted into militiamen), and more than 2 wounded soldiers (the original total was more than 4.5 people). Among them, more than 2 people were seriously injured or disabled, and they were basically sent out of Nanjing City. The remaining 2.5 people were mildly or moderately injured who could recover. More than 7000 people returned to the team, but more than 2000 wounded soldiers were added), plus more than 22 old, weak, women, children and civilians who accounted for more than half.

"Shame!" Wang Yaowu slammed the telegram on the table angrily, "more than 1000 devils actually captured Jinan City! More than 1 people from the Lu army didn't shoot a single shot, abandoned the city and fled! The Yellow River natural danger was handed over to us. Japanese! That Gu Liangmin is simply the scum of the party-state soldiers! He doesn't know the principle of "strike at halfway"? More than 1000 devils have no shelter on the surface of the Yellow River, and they can be wiped out with a single shot! It's ridiculous that the battle has been fought like this! It's a big joke in the world!"

"Zuomin (Wang Yaowu's name), don't be angry with yourself!" Chen Mingren said, "Shandong has been lost, now North China is left with Shanxi, let's talk about the situation in Shanxi!"

"I think, Chief Yan can last for a while, but I'm afraid he can't last for a long time!" Song Xilian frowned, "Have you noticed? First of all, as time goes by, the follow-up troops of the Japanese Army in North China will continue to arrive and join the battle. Secondly, the Japanese army no longer fought on multiple fronts, and no longer divided its troops into multiple routes, but concentrated its forces on a few points.

At the beginning, only the Tojo Division and Itagaki Division were attacking Shanxi, with 10 to 14 troops. Then, the first part of the 12th Division and the first part of the 16th Division also invested in the attack on Shanxi, which increased the Japanese army's strength to [-]. , Now, the Japanese army is increasing the strength of one brigade or one regiment every day. If it is full, there are more than [-] Japanese troops currently attacking Shanxi Province.

The total strength of the Jinsui Army is about 20. Even if Shanxi's geographical advantages in mountains and rivers are included, the Shanxi battlefield still cannot escape a situation of "the enemy is strong and we are weak"! "

"The chairman has ordered the 14th Army of Wei Lihuang's Department to enter Shanxi to participate in the war, but Yan Laoxi has repeatedly pushed back on this!" Li Yutang said with a little embarrassment, "The enemy is now, and he doesn't know how to unite in the war of resistance, but there is still such a strong desire. Warlord thinking! It’s unreasonable! Shanxi Province is part of China’s territory and belongs to the central government! It’s not Yan Laoxi’s alone! Could it be that Yan Xishan wants to follow in the footsteps of Han Fuju? He would rather see the Japanese army gobble up Shandong Province than die Sending the Central Army into Lu for emergency treatment! What a disaster for the country and the people! How is this move different from traitors?"

Huang Wei nodded again and again, with an indignant look on his face: "In just 20 days, the vast land of 700 counties in Qilu land was abandoned! As a result, [-] million Shandong compatriots fell into the clutches of the Japanese army! This Han Fuju is really 'Everyone in the country can be killed every day! '!"

Chen Mingren said: "[-]% of Shanxi Province is mountainous, which is not conducive to the rapid deployment of Japanese mechanized troops, and during the six months after the July [-]th Incident, the Jinsui Army spent a lot of manpower, material and financial resources to build the defense system of Jin Province such as the Taihang Mountain Defense Line and Taiyuan City Defense Fortifications. , The Jinsui Army also has reinforcements from the National Army of Henan Province and Shaanxi Province, as well as air force planes to help in the battle. It should last for a few months!"

The participating generals agreed with Chen Mingren's opinion.

Jiang Weiguo secretly recalled that in the original history, the Anti-Japanese War in Shanxi Province began with the Battle of Tianzhen in early September 1937, and ended with the fall of Taiyuan and most of Shanxi Province (except the southern Shanxi area) at the end of November of the same year. In three months, the Chinese army (including the Jinsui Army, the Central Army, and the Communist Party of China) who participated in the war had a total of more than 9 casualties and killed more than 11 Japanese soldiers.

Right now, the objective conditions of the Anti-Japanese War in Shanxi Province are indeed better than in the original history. Chen Mingren's judgment that the Jinsui Army can last for a few months should be a more accurate conclusion.

"However..." Chen Mingren changed the subject again, "According to the habits and style of the Japanese army, if the Japanese army is making slow progress on the Shanxi battlefield, they will definitely make tentative attacks on other places, find out the weak points of our army, and then carry out high-intensity attacks. Attack to get results.

Eighty percent of Shanxi is covered by mountains and rivers, and the Japanese army won Shanxi without haste. However, the northern and eastern parts of Henan Province and the northern part of Jiangsu Province are all flat plains, which are very conducive to the rampage of Japanese mechanized troops.

I estimate that the Japanese army may dispatch one, two, or two or three divisions to conduct tentative attacks on northern Henan, eastern Henan, and northern Jiangsu in the near future. If the national army fails to resist, the Japanese tentative attack will directly turn into a strong attack! "

"Ziliang's words are justified!" Wang Yaowu agreed.

Huang Wei, Song Xilian, Li Yutang, Xiao Shanling and others also agreed after thinking about it.

"Everyone..." Tang Shengzhi said bitterly, "Let's focus on our own eyes! Nanjing, what should we do next? The Japanese army seems to have given up attacking Nanjing, but they surrounded Nanjing tightly, causing We have nowhere to go right now.

You have also seen the information that the Japanese army dug deep trenches outside the city, built high fortifications, switched from attack to defense, and replaced attack with defense, as if they wanted to trap us to death!"

Wang Yaowu nodded: "And the Japanese army continued to drive people into the city, using the mouths of the old, weak, women and children to consume our food.

Although the Japanese army’s move was slow to take effect, it was very vicious and effective, and at the same time allowed them to gain the initiative on the Nanjing battlefield, and it also allowed them to save a lot of troops for the North China battlefield!”

Jiang Weiguo nodded silently. The fact is exactly the same, and the reason is very simple: Nanjing City is strong and difficult to attack, and one hundred thousand Nanjing troops will be put to death to survive. Stop fighting, switch from offense to defense, replace offense with defense, and adopt siege and blockade tactics. Then, the Japanese army can achieve this by investing only 40 troops. The troops required for defense are naturally much less than those required for offense.

What should the Nanjing Army do?Almost impossible.

If the Nanjing Army wanted to kill the enemy, the enemy had to take the initiative to attack. Only in trench warfare, positional warfare, urban warfare and other combat modes that were beneficial to the Nanjing Army as the defender but not conducive to the Japanese army as the attacker could the "most cost-effective" kill The Japanese army can at least achieve a ratio of one to three battle losses. However, the Japanese army does not attack anymore, but only blocks outside the city. The Nanjing army will either take the initiative to attack or stand still. The result of the loss is basically one to one, which is obviously "not cost-effective". The Nanjing army broke away from its own trench position and rushed to the Japanese army's trench position. The combat mode is that the Nanjing army becomes the attacker and the Japanese army becomes the defender. During the battle, the vital force of the Nanjing Army was consumed, and then the city of Nanjing was captured. The Nanjing Army was dead, and the city of Nanjing naturally became the possession of the Japanese Army. Therefore, the Nanjing Army could not take the initiative to attack easily. The people are constantly being driven into the city, consuming the food reserves of the Nanjing Army. Therefore, the Nanjing Army will starve to death without food if it has been standing still.

I have to admit that the Japanese are very shrewd, cunning, and vicious.

Throughout March, the Japanese army and the Nanjing army could be called "peaceful coexistence", but the Japanese army has been "killing" the Nanjing army by killing without blood.

"What should I do? What should I do?" Jiang Weiguo was in a state of desperation and his thoughts were numb.

"By the way, Jianhao, there is one more important thing!" Tang Shengzhi said suddenly, "Today is March 3th, tomorrow is March 30st, and the day after tomorrow is April 3st!"

"April 4st? April Fool's Day?" Jiang Weiguo was a little surprised, and then he suddenly came to his senses, April 1st is here!

April 4st is the expiration date of the "Dashengguan Agreement".

The Nanjing Army and the Japanese Navy signed a three-month "Dashengguan Agreement" on January 1. According to that agreement, the Japanese Navy withdrew from the Nanjing War before April 5 and stopped attacking Chinese coastal ports. to block.

Right now, three months are almost over, and April 4st is here.

On April 4st, it means that the Japanese navy will be able to drive battleships into the Yangtze River to bombard Nanjing City and the Nanjing Army (although the Japanese navy may not dare to do so), which means that China will be blocked again by sea blood vessels, Cut off the sea transportation lines for foreign aid (mainly German aid).

"Do you want to return the battleship Mutsu to the Japanese as scheduled?" Tang Shengzhi asked Jiang Weiguo.

"This..." Jiang Weiguo felt hesitant and hesitant.

"What a fart! It was blown up clean! Let the Japanese let the blood out again!" The navy frogman unit headed by Bu Xiao strongly demanded that the Mutsu be blown up "without promise".

Return the Mutsu or blow up the Mutsu?This troubled Jiang Weiguo very much.

Troubled things that made it difficult for Jiang Weiguo to decide came one after another. The second urgent report came from the Navy's submarine force.

This afternoon, Wang Lang, the captain of the Chinese Navy submarine u-1023 in the eastern waters of the Japanese mainland, discovered "a group of fat prey": five giant ships with a displacement of more than 18000 tons, all of which were oil tankers, and all of them were flying the Stars and Stripes After observation and confirmation, the largest of them is the large ocean-going oil tanker "Hart Creek" in the United States, with a displacement of about 15000 tons and a capacity of carrying about 1.2 tons of crude oil. The displacement is between 1.5 tons and [-] tons.

The total displacement of these five tankers is about 7 tons, and it is estimated that they are loaded with a total of about 6 tons of oil (maybe crude oil or refined refined oil).

The five tankers and the crude oil they carried were all from the United States and destined for Japan.

"Will we fight or not?" Wei Zihao, the commander of the Navy's submarine force, did not dare to make a decision lightly, so he had to ask Jiang Weiguo for instructions, and at the same time told Jiang Weiguo, "We have three submarines in that sea area that can participate in the battle, and the five American tankers are expected to arrive at nightfall." It will reach the Japanese mainland, so our submarine must do it when night falls, so you only have more than three hours to make a decision!"

"Damn it!" Jiang Weiguo was extremely irritable, "Damn Yankee! You've lost your money!"

Oil, which drives the planes in the sky, the tanks on the ground, and the warships at sea, is the blood force that can activate the war machine.

As we all know, Japan's local resources are extremely scarce, and it is extremely dependent on foreign trade. Oil ranks first in Japan's imports at this time.

Japan's own oil production is 200 million barrels per year (including some small oil fields that have been discovered in Japan, the Korean Peninsula, Northeast China, Taiwan, etc.), which is absolutely unable to meet Japan's needs, and the United States is the world's largest at this time The largest oil-producing country in the world, with an annual output of 14 billion barrels of oil, is 700 times that of Japan, and the United States is the largest seller of oil obtained by Japan.

More than 80% of Japan's imported oil was sold to Japan by the United States. In the original history, until July 1941 (more than five months before the outbreak of the Pearl Harbor incident and four full years after the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War), Japan brazenly invaded France. In the southern part of the Indochina colony, the U.S. government finally realized that the Japanese were indeed spying on Southeast Asia, including the U.S. colony of the Philippines. The U.S. government stopped selling oil and other war materials and industrial raw materials to Japan, which eventually caused the Japanese to jump over the wall and sneak attack Pearl Harbor.

Let me ask, if the U.S. government really "sympathizes with China and loves peace," why did it continue to sell oil and other supplies to Japan within a full four years after the outbreak of the war in China, and a full three and a half years after the Nanjing Massacre?As long as the United States stops selling oil to Japan, Japan's war machine will be paralyzed immediately, unable to continue to invade China on a large scale. Why doesn't the United States do this?

Right now, the Japanese army is deploying troops on a large scale in North China. Naturally, the demand for oil is extremely expanded, so the volume of oil trade between the United States and Japan has increased, making the cargo ships from the United States to Japan in the Pacific Ocean busier than before. The ships are full of Japanese invaders. Urgently needed oil, steel, rubber, chemical raw materials, and even American arsenals produced and sold to Japan for the American bombs that the Japanese army dropped on the Chinese.

"Should we fight these five American tankers?" Jiang Weiguo felt extremely hesitant.

During the Battle of Songhu, Jiang Weiguo ordered the Chinese navy submarine to sink the American cargo ship "Athena", and sent the ship and more than 6000 tons of crude nitroglycerin and more than 7000 tons of gasoline sold by the United States to Japan into the Pacific Ocean. This incident caused an uproar, and the relationship between China and the United States almost turned bad. The Nationalist government spent a lot of effort, humbly apologized and compensated the United States, and finally settled the matter. Now, the same problem has appeared in front of Jiang Weiguo again. And the difficulty of decision is much more than last time.

Section 325 Forced to choose

When Jiang Weiguo hesitated repeatedly whether to order the navy submarine to attack the five American tankers carrying oil to Japan, Alexander von Falkenhausen hurried to Jiang Weiguo.

Falkenhausen is the head of the German military advisory group stationed in China at this time. On the one hand, he is dedicated to his duties and advises China against Japan. On the other hand, he also assumes the responsibility of a German military observer in China, and he always pays close attention to the Sino-Japanese war. , and reported the latest battle dynamics, the situation of the war, the results of both sides, the losses of both sides and other detailed information to the German high-level, and provided the German high-level with the latest situation of the Sino-Japanese war in real time.

Generally speaking, Falkenhausen is a very good and responsible typical German soldier. He is old-fashioned, rigorous, and serious. Most of the defense systems of the national army in East China, Central China, and South China were designed by him. However, Falkenhausen After all, Hausen was a German soldier, so his way of thinking and working in China was still German. In Jiang Weiguo's words, "it doesn't quite fit China's national conditions."

If the words are clearer, let a German general who is good at fighting mechanized warfare direct the Chinese army to defeat the enemy with millet and rifles. Obviously, no matter how diligent this German general is, he will be a little out of touch with reality.

"Mr. Jiang, in response to the latest situation in North China, my colleagues (German military attachés in China) and I have repeatedly studied and come up with a wonderful way to stop the Japanese army in North China and prevent it from threatening Central and East China! Falkenhausen looked very excited, "And I have submitted my plan to Generalissimo Jiang. Although he was noncommittal after reading it, I am sure he approves it and will use it as a last resort as a rescue plan." The final trump card for the defeat in North China!" (Chiang Kai-shek was actually in Wuhan, and Falkenhausen knew this secret, so he handed over the plan to the real Chiang Kai-shek himself.

）

Jiang Weiguo was immediately interested: "General Falkenhausen, what trick did you come up with?"