After the Battle of Wuhan, the Japanese army successfully occupied Wuhan, but at this time the Japanese army was in an overextended state. Most of its standing and A-level reserve divisions had been put into the front line and failed to destroy the main force of our army. Although most of the essence areas had been lost, the Chongqing authorities were still not ready to accept the terms of Japan's peace talks. Japan found that they were trapped in the abyss of protracted war that they had always wanted to avoid.

The Japanese army's choice at this time was to stop, consolidate the occupied areas, and take local offensives to exert pressure on the National Government, hoping that the National Government would agree to the peace talks.

This strategy is basically just a re-improvement of the old tune after the capture of Nanjing, but the situation is even worse for the Japanese army. The occupied areas are at least twice as large. The Japanese army lacks the strength to fully control the occupied areas and lacks sufficient reserves. If it is wise to say that the Japanese army adopt this strategy at the end of 1937, it would be extremely stupid to restart this idea a year later.

After deciding on the strategic concept, the Japanese army began to reorganize its troops at the end of 1938, that is, a large number of newly formed independent brigades and B-class reserve divisions were opened to China, and replaced defenses with the standing divisions and A-class reserve (special) divisions that were originally put into the battlefield. The troops that were replaced may be driven back to the country to release mobilization, or transferred to the Kwantung Army to fight against the Russian threat.

According to the plan, by early 1940, the Japanese army should deploy 24 divisions, 81 independent mixed brigades and two cavalry brigades, with a total ground troops of nearly 800,000.

The number of troops is very large. Not only does the garrison cost put pressure on the Japanese government, but the vastness of the occupied areas also made the Japanese army feel a headache.

The worse situation is the economic problems of Japan. In early 1937, Japan had just passed a sea with the United States and Russia as its imaginary enemy. The army reorganization plan was completed, with a total amount of 2.4 billion yen before it began to be implemented. The Sino-Japanese War broke out, and the war cost was consumed greatly, and the expansion of the army was still underway. Therefore, the Bank of Japan's gold was prepared to be consumed rapidly.

By the end of 1938, the Bank of Japan's gold inventory (worth only 1.35 billion yuan) had consumed more than two-thirds of the money. Even so, in order to carry out the Wuhan Battle that year, the Japanese Army had to delay the implementation of the renovation plan in order to divert enough budget to cope with the war expenses.

After the Battle of Wuhan, the Japanese Army's reorganization plan was revised, from the initial version of the 40 divisions in wartime to the 55 divisions in early 1938, and by the end of 1938, the goal was to complete the preparations for the 65 divisions in wartime and the 164 squadrons in the Army Aviation before 1942.

In order to produce and store enough equipment and ammunition, the funds required for the construction plan have been increasing steadily. The military expansion budget in 1939 alone required 1.8 billion yen, and Japan's finances have reached a critical point.

In fact, Japan also actively wanted to escape from China, but its terms of peace talks exceeded the bottom line of the National Government. On the one hand, the chance of a breakthrough was not high; on the other hand, although Japan tried to support the vassal government in North China and Central China to "control China with China" to help the Japanese army weaken the influence of the Chongqing National Government, due to the lack of results, even though it was established in 1939, the Wang Jingwei regime was established.

Therefore, the Japanese army was underpowered overall, and each division was responsible for occupation. To launch an offensive, it had to draw a large amount of defensive forces. Without troops to defend, the offensive could not be continued. In other words, if we want to weaken our army with a large offensive, the Japanese would have to increase their troops significantly, otherwise they could only attack local (and not in-depth) offensives.

The commander of the 11th Army of Japan, Okamura Yasuji, realized this and in the report, he determined that diplomatic or small offensives were impossible to be useful and that a large offensive must be greatly increased. However, at this time, the Japanese Army was busy making money to expand its troops and could not increase its troops at all.

In fact, since the Battle of Wuhan, the "garrisonization" of the Japanese army was to save money to support the army building plan. The Japanese ground troops in China were about 850,000 since the peak of the Battle of Wuhan, and by July and August 1939, the number of people had decreased by about 50,000.

The standing division or A-level reserve division (fourth registrar division) has a total of about 22,000 people, the newly transferred garrison division (third registrar) has only about 15,000 people, while an independent mixed brigade has only about 6,000 people. Although the idea of ​​Gangcun is correct, it is impossible for the superiors to accept it.

Because of the general situation at that time and the large number of anti-Japanese troops behind the Kuomintang and the Communist Party's enemy still existed, there were actually not many Japanese troops to fight in the Battle of East Henan.

To the north of Longhai Road, Heze was the closest to him. A garrison garrison was dispatched two squadrons and recruited more than 1,000 puppet troops from Juancheng, Dingtao and other places when they heard the order to go south, but were intercepted by the Eighth Route Army Hebei, Shandong and Henan Detachment and the Second Regiment of the *** Bao. One of the Eighth Army of Gao Shuxun of Yanyang went south, threatening Heze and forcing the enemy to retreat.

Pang Bingxun, stationed in Lingchuan, commanded the 40th Army to launch a raid on Pinghan Road from Xinxiang to Anyang, which interrupted the Japanese railway transportation for half a month. Among them, Li Zhenqing's 106th Division was particularly brave in combat.

The newly formed Fifth Army of Sun Dianying, Lin County, northern Henan Province (now Linzhou), heard the order to go south and met with Pang Bingxun's troops east of Lingchuan, threatening Xinxiang.

The Third Army of Tang Weiyuan in Zhongtiao Mountain and the 45th Division of Jincheng also attacked and restrained the Japanese army in southern Jin.

After receiving the telegram, Sun Tongxuan left only one brigade of the 22nd Division to guard Zhengzhou, and personally led two other brigades and troops directly under the group army to cross the river to join the war, and met with Zhou Zunshi's 20th Division and made a siege to Kaifeng.

After the Kaifeng Japanese army lost a large number of reinforcements sent, they saw that the situation was not good, so they could only shrink the garrisons in the surrounding counties and towns. In addition, the reinforcements sent by Lankao and Fengqiu were barely pieced together 3,000 people, and Yicheng confronted Sun Tongxuan's nearly 20,000 troops.

The Japanese troops from all walks of life were either restrained or had no time to mobilize them in a hurry. Only the Japanese troops in Xuzhou dispatched the largest force.

At that time, the Japanese 17th Division was stationed in Xuzhou. Lieutenant General Pinglin Shengren, the division commander, was in charge of the 17th Infantry Regiment, the 53rd, 54, 81st Infantry Regiment, the 17th Division Search Team, the 23rd Field Artillery Regiment, the 17th Engineering Regiment, the 17th Bagie Force Regiment, the Communications Team, the Weapon Service Team, the Field Hospital, the Sick Horse Factory, etc.

Many people who are familiar with the composition of Japanese troops may be puzzled. There is actually a composition of "infantry regiment" in the Japanese army, but this infantry regiment is not the same as the Chinese infantry regiment in concept.

Like the Chinese army, the standard configuration is three to four infantry regiments under the division, with the division commander of the division being the rank of lieutenant general.

However, during wartime, in the division, there will be one to two infantry regiments, and other troops (usually cavalry, artillery, engineers, etc.) to form independent units to perform certain aspects or tasks separately.

If this independent unit is composed of two infantry regiments, it is a larger brigade, with the brigade commander being a major general.

If this independent unit is composed of an infantry regiment, it is a smaller infantry regiment with the command of a major general or a colonel.

Therefore, in fact, the Japanese "infantry regiment" are actually independent combat units subordinate to the "division/division" like the Chinese "brigade". It can also be said that the Japanese "infantry regiment" is the smallest mixed combat unit of multiple arms.

The commander of the 17th Division, Ping Lin Shengren, sent this infantry regiment. To be more precise, he sent the commander of the infantry regiment and some of its troops, and reduced the garrison forces from various places, and finally gathered more than 5,000 troops.

An infantry brigade has three brigades, with a total number of more than 3,400 people; part of the 17th Regiment of the Engineers, with more than 500 people; two artillery brigades, plus baggage brigades, with a total of more than 1,000 people, with twenty-four Type 94 75mm mountain cannons; plus the infantry artillery and rapid-fire cannons belonging to each infantry brigade, the number of artillery in this "infantry regiment" is quite large.

The Japanese also added more than ten tanks, more than twenty armored vehicles, and two vehicle-mounted squadrons to the infantry regiment, and marched parallel along the highway on the north side of the railway. This fast-mobile armored force further enhanced the confidence of Major General Tanaka Kishi, the commander of the infantry regiment.

The Japanese infantry regiment in Xuzhou waited for four days before the preparations were completed. The situation in eastern Henan was severe, and the Japanese army did not dare to let the light infantry take the lead. Now, it is no longer a question of not reinforcement, but to regain the important town of Shangqiu and reopen the Longhai Railway. To this end, the commander of the 17th Division, Shengren Hirabayashi, also promised Tanaka Qin that he would continue to mobilize personnel, horses and materials to provide support to the infantry regiments that he would continue to mobilize troops, supplies and provide support to the infantry regiments on the expedition.

Four days didn't seem to be much, but Yang Tianfeng had given enough time to prepare for the battle. Participated in He Cuizhi's two brigades, one brigade of the first cavalry division, Guo Detachment and the 14th cavalry brigade transferred from Huaiyang to wait for labor, Jiang Detachment and a cavalry brigade were dispatched to the surrounding area, sweeping across the strongholds along the railway, and centering on Shangqiu, opening up a battlefield for decisive battle.

At the same time, the regular army that left only one brigade continued to besiege Zhecheng. Anyway, Song Kebin's first army replaced Zhou Tuan and the fourth detachment. Zhou Tuan and the fourth detachment, as well as the eastern anti-Japanese guerrilla brigade in eastern Henan, the civil quotient Liguan militia, the Sui County Anti-Japanese guerrilla brigade and the third detachment of Luyu, etc., worked together to make the Japanese army in Qi County and Ningling only shrink to the county town and restore civil quotient. The railway from Shangqiu to Minquan was also destroyed.

The joint defense team from Haoxian and Luyi, as well as the tens of thousands of people collected on the spot, took turns to break through the railway from Shangqiu to Yucheng, and the roadbed was flattened, fully demonstrating the people's enthusiasm for anti-Japanese war and great power.

Another place where the great tide of construction showed the power of the people was in Yucheng County (now Limin Town). As an important position to resist the Japanese army's arrival from the east, there were unique conditions here. Yang Tianfeng was also preparing to compete with the Japanese army here.
Chapter completed!