Quartermasters can also fight the devils

After that, the armies of the United States, Britain, the Netherlands and other countries attempted to attack the Japanese fleet in the Java Sea, but failed miserably. The Japanese army took advantage of the victory to land on Java Island and occupied Bandung. On the 12th, the Dutch Governor formally surrendered. The important islands of the Dutch East Indies and their rich strategic resources all fell into the hands of the Japanese army.

In addition, in the southern Pacific, in order to cut off the sea transportation lines between the United States and Australia and dismantle the vast base in Australia, which could serve as a springboard for the United States to launch a counterattack, the Japanese army launched an attack on this area at the beginning of the war.

In January 1942, the Japanese army set out from the Caroline Island and successively occupied the New Guinea Islands and the Solomon Base, and built airports on Bougainville Island and Guadalcanal Island. This posed a huge threat to the sea transportation lines between the United States and Australia and could potentially push the war to the Australian continent.

From the first day of the war, the Japanese army concentrated its forces to launch surprise attacks in the main offensive direction, quickly gained air and sea supremacy over large areas of the Western Pacific, and then implemented coordinated operations between the army and navy to complete the predetermined combat plan, gaining a temporary advantage in the early stages of the war.

At this point, Japan controlled a total of more than 1.5 million square kilometers of land and a population of up to 1 million. It launched a fierce battle with the United States on a front of more than kilometers, stretching from the Aleutian Islands in the north to Australia in the south, from the Indian Ocean in the west to Midway Island in the east.

On the day after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, in order to cooperate with the Japanese 23rd Army's attack on the British troops in the Hong Kong Island area, the Japanese 11th Army in the three towns decided to attack the northern Hunan area again and launch the third Changsha Campaign to contain the Chinese army's southward movement and possible support for the British army's operations.

The 11th Army of the Japanese Army began to become arrogant because it had captured the city of Changsha in the Second Battle of Changsha not long ago and inflicted a heavy blow to the main force of the Ninth War Zone of the Chinese Government.

Lieutenant General Isamu Kinoshita, Chief of Staff of the 11th Army of the Japanese Army, made the decision to launch the Battle of Changsha very quickly. It took him only one hour to make up his mind. He considered the battle situation before going to bed and immediately formulated an outline of the battle.

On the next day, after reading the battle plan for the Third Battle of Changsha formulated by Lieutenant General Isamu Kinoshita, Chief of Staff of the 11th Army of the Japanese Army, Lieutenant General Anami Korechika, Commander of the 11th Army of the Japanese Army, approved the battle plan on the spot and issued mobilization orders to all the troops participating in the battle.

In the guidance plan for the Third Changsha Campaign formulated by the Early Japanese 11th Army Command, the objective of the operation was determined to be "to attack the Miluo River line and defeat the enemy in the Ninth War Zone of the Chinese government in front of it, in order to support the Japanese 23rd Army's attack on Hong Kong Island and the Southern Army's operations." The entire operation period was limited to about two weeks.

For this battle, the Japanese 11th Army mobilized the 3rd Division, 6th Division, 40th Division and the 9th Independent Mixed Brigade, as well as the Ze Detachment, Noguchi Detachment and Sozono Detachment, which were used in the main combat in Xiangbei, and also used 54 aircraft from the 1st Flying Regiment to support the operation.

At the same time, he ordered the 34th Division of the Japanese Army stationed in Hongcheng and the 14th Independent Mixed Brigade to attack Shanggao and Xiushui in northern Jiangxi to support the operations in northern Hunan.

The Japanese army concentrated a total of about 70,000 troops on the front of the Xiangbei battlefield. Although due to limited forces, the combat plan formulated by the Japanese 11th Army Command limited combat operations to the Miluo River line, there were still many voices in the Japanese 11th Army Command that this battle should attack Changsha City. This showed the uncertainty of the Japanese 11th Army in this combat objective and contempt for the combat effectiveness of the Ninth War Zone.

On December 1941, 57, the Japanese China Expeditionary Army issued a combat order to the China Expeditionary Army based on Order No. issued by the Imperial Headquarters on the same day.

In November, the Ninth War Zone of the Chinese government convened the "Second Changsha Battle Review Meeting". Commander Xue of the Ninth War Zone created the "Tianlu Tactics" based on the lessons learned from the first two Changsha Battles. The specific implementation steps were to completely destroy the roads, clear the middle areas, set up ambush areas in depth, lure the enemy deep into the territory, and then encircle and annihilate the enemy in a retreat and decisive battle strategy.

The Ninth War Zone formulated and promulgated a combat plan based on the "Tianlu Tactics" developed by Commander Xue: It required the troops of the Ninth War Zone stationed in northern Hunan to use tail attacks, flank attacks and strong frontal resistance after the Japanese attack was launched, and to encircle and annihilate the Japanese troops attacking Changsha in the area between the Liuyang River and the Laodao River.

In mid-December, the 11th Army of the Japanese Army began to gather troops for the battle in Yueyang. Commander Xue, commander of the 9th War Zone of the Chinese government, also learned from the problem of untimely intelligence investigation last time and ordered the reconnaissance troops to pay close attention to the movements of the 11th Army of the Japanese Army. At the same time, he also asked the intelligence department to cooperate and let the intelligence personnel lurking in the Japanese-occupied areas pay close attention to the deployment of Japanese troops.

The news of the Japanese 11th Army's concentration of forces was immediately delivered to Commander Xue. Commander Xue of the 9th War Zone knew that the Japanese 11th Army was preparing to launch another offensive against Changsha. Faced with the almost blatant concentration of forces by the Japanese 11th Army Commander Lieutenant General Anami Korechika, Commander Xue was secretly delighted. He did not expect that the Japanese Army would prepare to attack Changsha again so soon. This time, he must let the Japanese 11th Army Commander Lieutenant General Anami Korechika "enjoy" it.

Therefore, Commander Xue of the Ninth War Zone ordered the 73rd Army to move immediately from Li County to Ningxiang and Yiyang, and to assemble and wait in the designated area. The 79th Army immediately assembled and waited in Lukou and Zhuzhou areas. The 4th Army was dispatched from Qujiang area of ​​Guangdong Province to Zhuzhou. The 74th Army, which was resting near Yishan of Guangxi Province, was transferred to Hengyang.

On the day when Commander Xue of the Ninth War Zone issued the troop mobilization order, Commander Xue organized the Ninth War Zone Command to analyze and judge the troop assembly of the Japanese 11th Army. At the meeting, Commander Xue and the headquarters staff made up their minds to concentrate the forces of the Ninth War Zone to block and eliminate the Japanese offensive forces in northern Hunan.

The combat plan of General Xue, commander of the Ninth War Zone, was to lure the attacking forces of the Japanese 11th Army to the area between the Liuyang River and the Laodao River in the north of Changsha City, and then counter-encircle and annihilate the attacking forces of the Japanese Army.

At the same time, in order to cooperate with the smooth operation against the Japanese offensive forces on the battlefield in northern Hunan, Commander Xue of the Ninth War Zone ordered the newly formed Third Army, the Reserve Fifth Division and the Jiangxi Security Column in northern Jiangxi to guard the existing positions in Gao'an and Wuning to cover the right side of the main force of the war zone, and ordered the troops in southern Hubei to cut off the enemy's roads and railways in Chongyang, Puqi and Xianning to support the battlefield in northern Hunan.