Quartermasters can also fight the devils

After a month of confrontation, Lieutenant General Kazuichiro Sonobe, commander of the 11th Japanese Army, ordered the abandonment of the occupation of Yichang after completing the combat mission assigned by the headquarters, and the troops withdrew to the area west of the Han River for rest and replenishment.

This month was quite unpleasant for Lieutenant General Kazuichiro Sonobe, commander of the 11th Army of the Japanese Army. The troops of the Fifth and Sixth War Zones of the Chinese government constantly harassed his supply routes and rear areas, which made his troops extremely exhausted, but they were helpless.

The Chinese army would fight and then run away. By the time you gathered your troops to pursue them, they would have already disappeared. If you did not gather your troops but sent out a small-scale force to pursue them, they would fall into the ambush circle set up by the Chinese army, which would completely expose the problem of insufficient manpower of the Japanese army.

Therefore, as soon as the time for the headquarters' combat mission arrived, Lieutenant General Kazuichiro Sonobe, commander of the 11th Army of the Japanese Army, could not wait to issue an order for the entire army to retreat. He really did not want to play hide-and-seek with the Chinese army. Moreover, the supply routes were now very fragile, and the supply of materials to the front-line troops had serious problems. If they did not retreat, they might really be cut off and surrounded by the Chinese army.

As the Japanese army retreated, Commander Chen of the Sixth War Zone of the Chinese government also ordered all troops to follow the Japanese army's retreat and recapture some of the previously lost areas. This was a very acceptable thing for Commander Chen. After all, recapture of some areas without losing manpower was already the best result.

The end of the Zaoyi Campaign also allowed the Chinese government to fully realize the huge problems currently facing the Japanese army. That is, as the Japanese-occupied areas expanded, the Japanese army had obvious shortages in manpower and material replenishment. This also strengthened the Chinese government's confidence and courage to fight to the end.

Moreover, with the dramatic changes in the situation in Europe, the Chinese government has also seen more possibilities for seeking foreign aid. However, the current stage is also a very difficult time for the Chinese government. Practical problems such as the shortage of strategic materials, lack of combat troops, and obsolete weapons and equipment have become increasingly obvious.

Before this situation, the Chinese government was unable to organize troops to launch a large-scale attack on the Japanese-occupied areas and could only take passive defensive measures.

In Europe, Germany was sweeping across central and northern Europe, which made the Japanese government itchy. The Japanese government urgently needed to seize the colonies of these old powers in Southeast Asia while the European powers were fighting each other, expand Japan's colonial scope, and provide Japan with a steady supply of war resources.

Therefore, the Japanese government hoped that the Japanese military headquarters would quickly end the war in China and implement the "Southward Advance Plan" as soon as possible to provide blood transfusions for Japan's economy. At the same time, the Japanese government also accused the bigwigs of the headquarters.

This is because, before the war between China and Japan broke out, the bigwigs at the headquarters had always said in China's combat guidance plan that China's war problem would be resolved within a year. However, several years have passed now, and this combat guidance plan has not been implemented, which has caused the top leaders of the headquarters to fall into deep worry.

You know, after several years of fighting, the Japanese army still has not been able to conquer the Chinese government. Except for the Kwantung Army, more than 800,000 Japanese troops are trapped on the battlefield in China and cannot move. Many transportation lines needed for the "Southward Plan" have not yet been opened. This is really unacceptable to the Japanese government.

You know, the current changes in the European situation are a good opportunity for Japan to get involved in Southeast Asia. As long as it occupies Southeast Asia, the Japanese government will be able to obtain a large amount of food, rubber and oil. These important strategic materials are the basis for ensuring Japan's economic and military strength.

With pressure from the Japanese government, the Japanese military headquarters is also considering reducing its troops on the Chinese battlefield. After withdrawing troops from the Chinese battlefield, more troops will be invested in the battlefield to seize Southeast Asia.

When the headquarters was considering reducing the number of troops on the Chinese battlefield, the Japanese leaders in the Chinese Expeditionary Force were also very impatient. Now they could only launch an offensive operation to plunder more supplies from China, destroy the Chinese government's army, and end the war in China as soon as possible.

However, the actual situation facing the expeditionary forces was that they had to launch offensive operations but could not engage in large-scale operations. This was because the current size of the Japanese army was simply not enough to ensure the occupation of the area after a large-scale offensive operation. If they could not occupy the area, how could they plunder resources?

Moreover, the Chinese government's army has changed their combat methods at the beginning of the war. Most of the time, the Chinese government now does not care about the gains and losses of a city or a place with the Japanese army, and no longer defends like it did at the beginning. Moreover, the Chinese government's army is now flexible and mobile when the Japanese army launches a large-scale attack, making it impossible for the Japanese attacking forces to capture the main force of the Chinese government and engage in a decisive battle.

Another point is that once the Japanese army concentrates its forces to launch a large-scale offensive operation, the Chinese government's army will harass and attack the attacking force's transportation and supply lines from both wings, which poses a great threat to the attacking force's retreat.

Under such a contradiction, in order to speed up the resolution of the war in China, Lieutenant General Nishio Toshizo, commander-in-chief of the Japanese China Expeditionary Army, and the leaders of the expeditionary army, after careful research, proposed the tactical idea of ​​"short-range interception operations."

This new tactic actually meant not engaging in long-distance and deep combat with the Chinese army, but instead focusing on rapid assaults, and even stipulated the specific distance that each division should advance during the attack.

After determining the new combat method, the expeditionary force headquarters also ordered the Japanese 11th Army to plan a new offensive as soon as possible. The future offensive would not aim to occupy a certain number of Chinese cities and lands, but to annihilate the main force of the Chinese government and deprive the Chinese government of the military capital to continue resisting.

After receiving the order from the expeditionary force, Lieutenant General Kazuichiro Sonobe, commander of the 11th Army of the Japanese Army, hurriedly stockpiled military supplies and studied the direction and target of the attack with the staff officers of the headquarters.

For Lieutenant General Kazuichiro Sonobe, commander of the 11th Army of the Japanese Army, he would fully support any attack that was not aimed at expanding the occupied area, because Lieutenant General Kazuichiro Sonobe, commander of the 11th Army of the Japanese Army, had always believed that it was impossible to continue expanding the occupied area with the current size of the troops, and that the only way to resolve the war in China was to eliminate the Chinese government's army.