My Apprenticeship to Uncle Jiu: I Was a Warlord in the Republic of China

In just ten days, a large amount of weapons, ammunition and food continued to reach the guerrillas.

After carefully surveying the terrain, they hid these things in batches in various places in the mountainous areas of central Shandong and the Jianghuai hills.

At the same time, they continued to expand their numbers and further strengthen the guerrillas' strength.

The other two armies of 700,000 to 800,000 people mobilized by Muto Yoshinobu have also launched an operation to wipe out the guerrillas from Hebei all the way to Shandong.

Of course, the guerrillas were not the only ones who suffered during this period. The villages and towns encountered along the way naturally could not escape this disaster and were all harmed by the Japanese pirates.

A large number of civilians suffered tragically, and countless women were raped and plundered. Along the way, we could see innocent people dying everywhere. Many bodies were mutilated and became food for wild beasts and stray dogs. It was such a tragedy that we couldn't bear to watch.

However, even though the Japanese pirates were so brutal, they did not wipe out all the guerrillas. The remaining guerrillas relied on their understanding of the terrain and managed to escape the pirates' pursuit.

They successfully embarked on the retreat route that had been deduced many times before and entered the mountainous area of ​​central Shandong and the Jianghuai hills.

But how could those Japanese pirates give up? They continued to pursue them relentlessly, trying to wipe out all the guerrillas in one fell swoop.

However, these places are not their home ground. No matter how well-trained and well-armed they are, it is difficult for them to mobilize large armies of mechanized troops due to terrain restrictions.

Even airplanes were much less effective due to range issues. Even if they managed to get in, they would lose most of their vision due to the mountains and vegetation, making it difficult to find the guerrillas' position.

It was precisely because of this that their original plan to quickly eliminate the guerrillas with a thundering strike and then free up their hands to join forces and destroy the main Chinese force fell through.

They could only continue to circle in the mountains, playing a game of cat and mouse with the guerrillas.

But this would not only waste time, but also cause great trouble for their logistical supply due to the large number of Japanese pirates and the rugged mountain roads.

After encirclement and suppression for more than half a month, there was still no progress, which forced Mutō Yoshinobu to recall part of the troops and leave only 300,000 people to continue pursuing the guerrillas.

The remaining 400,000 troops, together with the more than 200,000 reinforcements from Jiangsu, fought a decisive battle with the Anmin Army.

But at this moment, an emergency occurred on the navy side.

It turns out that in addition to competition for resources, the Japanese navy and army also have major differences in strategic goals.

The strategic goal of the Japanese Army was to "advance northward". It advocated that after occupying China, it would continue to expand into the Soviet Union's Siberia region and make the Soviet Union its main combat target.

The strategic intention was to first concentrate all superior forces to defeat the Soviet Union and then attack Southeast Asia. Therefore, the army's main imaginary enemy was the Soviet Union, followed by Britain and the United States.

As for China, it is just a small mound of earth in a huge strategic intention. In their eyes, it can be easily flattened and is not taken seriously at all.

However, the Japanese navy's strategy was to "advance southwards". They advocated occupying China and then expanding towards Southeast Asia and the Pacific.

The navy's imaginary enemies are mainly Britain and the United States, and then the Soviet Union.

This strategy aims to seize the rich resources in Southeast Asia and other places, especially strategic materials such as oil and rubber, to sustain the needs of the war.

For example, Japan's rapid occupation of Southeast Asia, including the Philippines, Malaya, the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia), etc. in the early days of World War II was the implementation of the navy's "Southward Advance" strategy.

They did this to ensure maritime hegemony, strive to control the sea transportation lines in the Pacific region, develop into a maritime power, and safeguard Japan's dominant position at sea and the security of resource transportation channels.

It is precisely because of these strategic differences between the Japanese navy and army that they look down on each other, not to mention China's resistance.

They didn't take it seriously at all. In their view, China, an agricultural country, was in chaos at the moment. Facing Japan, which had already completed industrialization, it had no power to resist.

However, this paper tiger, which they did not take seriously at all, actually caused heavy casualties to both the Japanese navy and army.

They don't care about the casualties of the army. The navy also made great efforts in this battle and suffered heavy losses.

Not to mention the forty planes lost in the previous sneak attack by the Anmin Army.

Take the fierce attack on Jinshanwei launched to cooperate with the Japanese reinforcements and rescue the defenders in Shanghai. In this battle alone, the Japanese navy lost tens of thousands of sailors, which made them heartbroken.

As the saying goes, it takes three years for the army and ten years for the navy. A professionally trained naval officer who can skillfully operate ship equipment cannot be compared with those army idiots who can be trained in two or three years.

However, what is most infuriating is that after their navy suffered such heavy losses, these idiots of the army were unable to successfully rescue the soldiers in Shanghai city due to harassment by some insignificant guerrilla forces.

This has pushed their confidence in the incompetence of their army commanders to a new high, and has also made them even more pessimistic about the prospects of their expansion based mainly on the army.

So when they received the army's request for a joint attack again, they immediately started to think about asking the army to change their strategic goals.

The Navy certainly knows that this is definitely impossible.

They proposed this condition simply to obtain more resources after occupying China, in order to lay the foundation for future expansion plans with the navy as the main force.

However, Muto Yoshinobu knew what they meant, but how could he be willing to give up part of the power he had obtained?

So he simply pretended not to understand the deeper meaning, rejected the navy's request outright, and made a harsh statement, saying that he could sweep across the entire China without the navy's assistance.

If word of this gets to the navy, they will be easily defeated. This is not giving our navy any face at all!

So they also spread the word, we will just watch here to see whether your army can do what it says, and don’t come to us for help in the end, otherwise we will make you pay the price!

It was this little trick of the Japanese pirates' navy and army that made them miss the best opportunity to wipe out most of the Chinese army in one fell swoop.

...

As for Jiang Li, he felt somewhat relieved when he learned that the Japanese pirates' army was divided into two groups, one to pursue the guerrillas, and the other to join the more than 200,000 reinforcements to prepare for an attack on Shanghai.

Although it was difficult for the guerrillas to destroy the logistical supplies of the Japanese pirates, they did tie down a large number of enemy troops, reducing a lot of pressure on frontal combat.