Quartermasters can also fight the devils

This time, the Battle of Southern Henan launched by the 11th Army of the Japanese Army to annihilate the 31st Army of the Chinese government was indeed small in scale and did not involve many troops from both sides compared to other battles of the War of Resistance. However, it still dealt a heavy blow to the Japanese Army's desire for a quick victory and inspired the Chinese people's confidence in the war of resistance.

Lieutenant General Kazuichiro Sonobe, commander of the 11th Army of the Japanese Army, was also very depressed about the failure of this operation. He had planned the offensive operation for so long, but he did not expect that the Fifth War Zone would resolve it so easily. This really made Lieutenant General Kazuichiro Sonobe, commander of the 11th Army of the Japanese Army, feel ashamed.

Just when Lieutenant General Sonobe and Ichiro, commander of the 11th Army of the Japanese Army, was angry alone, Lieutenant General Ogamo, commander of the 34th Division of the Japanese Army stationed in Hongcheng, sent a battle plan to Lieutenant General Sonobe and Ichiro, which restored the fighting spirit of Lieutenant General Sonobe and Ichiro.

When the 11th Army of the Japanese Army launched the Southern Henan Campaign against the Fifth War Zone, the Japanese troops in Hongcheng, south of the Yangtze River, were in a state of anxiety. This was because the 11th Army of the Japanese Army stationed in Hongcheng at that time only had the 33rd Division and the 34th Division, and both divisions were Type B divisions.

In eastern, western and northern Jiangxi, there are a large number of troops from the Ninth War Zone of the Chinese government. This makes the Japanese troops in Hongcheng always feel uneasy. They never know what will happen if the troops from the Ninth War Zone of the Chinese government launch a large-scale attack on them one day. This makes the Japanese troops in Hongcheng feel very uneasy.

At this time, in order to deal with the increasingly severe situation in the rear of the North China battlefield, the Japanese military headquarters decided to transfer the 33rd Division to North China and transfer the newly formed 20th Independent Mixed Brigade from Shanghai to fill the vacancies of Japanese troops in Hongcheng after the 33rd Division was transferred.

Now, the 20th Independent Mixed Brigade has arrived in Hongcheng, but it will take two months for the 33rd Division to be transferred to North China. This means that before the 33rd Division is transferred, the Japanese troop strength in Hongcheng will increase instead of decrease.

This was definitely a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for Lieutenant General Ogamo, commander of the 34th Division. Therefore, he wanted to take advantage of the fact that the 33rd Division was still in Hongcheng, and with the newly arrived 20th Independent Mixed Brigade, launch a surprise attack on the Ninth War Zone of the Chinese Government, and eliminate the most threatening 19th Army of the Chinese Government in one fell swoop.

Otherwise, if the 33rd Division is transferred away, only the 34th Division will be left to defend Hongcheng, and it will be very difficult to face so many Chinese troops.

Therefore, Lieutenant General Ohgamo, commander of the 34th Division, submitted a battle plan for the "Kinjiang Operation" to Lieutenant General Kazuichiro Sonobe, commander of the 11th Army of the Japanese Army.

In the battle plan submitted by Lieutenant General Ohgamo, commander of the 34th Division, the Japanese 33rd Division, the 20th Independent Mixed Brigade, and the 34th Division will attack the 19th Army of the Chinese government in three directions. The combat goal is to suppress the 19th Army of the Chinese government in the Shanggao area and encircle and annihilate it.

After seeing the battle plan submitted by Lieutenant General Ogamo, commander of the 34th Division, Lieutenant General Sonobe Kazuichiro, commander of the 11th Army of the Japanese Army, also studied it with Lieutenant General Isamu Kinoshita, Chief of Staff of the 11th Army.

"Mr. Kinoshita, what do you think of this battle plan of Lieutenant General Ohgamo, commander of the 34th Division? The southern Henan combat operation we launched previously in the north of the Yangtze River was considered a failure. If we can win back the victory on the battlefield south of the Yangtze River, I think it would be a good thing." Lieutenant General Sonobe Kazuichiro, commander of the 11th Army of the Japanese Army, took a sip of the tea in front of him, and then asked the chief of staff Lieutenant General Isamu Kinoshita who was sitting opposite him.

Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Kinoshita Isamu heard what Commander Sonobe Kazuichiro meant, so he said respectfully: "Your Excellency the Commander, the battle plan of Lieutenant General Ohgamo, the commander of the 34th Division, is not bad. Moreover, our Imperial Japanese Army has a practice of attacking once before deploying troops. I think we can approve this battle plan of Lieutenant General Ohgamo, the commander of the division."

For the Chief of Staff, Lieutenant General Isamu Kinoshita, he had just arrived in the 11th Army not long ago and was not very familiar with the troops below. There was no need to offend the division commanders at this time. Moreover, if the combat plan of Lieutenant General Ogamo, commander of the 34th Division, could be successfully completed, it would be very beneficial to the situation around Hongcheng.

Therefore, with the approval of the two big bosses of the Japanese 11th Army, the combat plan of Lieutenant General Ogamo, commander of the 34th Division, was naturally approved.

After receiving the telegram from Lieutenant General Kazuichiro Sonobe, commander of the 11th Army of the Japanese Army, approving his combat plan, Lieutenant General Ogamo of the 34th Division ambitiously stated that he would make a great contribution this time and would not disappoint the commander's expectations of him.

Therefore, under the planning of Lieutenant General Obama, commander of the 34th Division, the Japanese troops in Hongcheng began to actively prepare for war. However, Lieutenant General Obama, commander of the 34th Division, would never have imagined that the days to come would be the most embarrassing failure in his military career.

In order to prepare for war, the Japanese troops in Hongcheng also recruited a large number of local laborers to transport supplies and ammunition for the subsequent offensive operations. However, such blatant assembly and preparation behavior was naturally discovered by the Chinese intelligence personnel lurking in Hongcheng, and reported to the Chinese intelligence department.

The Chinese government also informed Commander Xue of the Ninth War Zone about the war preparations of the Japanese troops in Hongcheng. This is because the Ninth War Zone's troops are all around Hongcheng. The Japanese army is carrying out such a large-scale war preparation in Hongcheng. It is impossible that they are going to withdraw from Hongcheng and cross the Yangtze River to the north to attack the Fifth War Zone.

Facing the Japanese troops who were actively preparing for war in Hongcheng area, Commander Xue of the Ninth War Zone still adopted the tactic of luring the enemy deep into his territory. The troops under Commander Xue's command were very powerful. This time, Commander Xue not only wanted to stop the Japanese attack, but also wanted to surround another Japanese division and destroy it. During the last Battle of Changsha, the Japanese offensive troops escaped, and Commander Xue never forgot this account.

In order to fight this battle well, Commander Xue mobilized the 70th Army, the 74th Army, the 49th Army, the 72nd Army and the New 22nd Army that had just returned from the Sixth War Zone. This time, Commander Xue was determined to destroy an entire division of the Japanese army.