Chapter 392: Japanese General Staff Headquarters

"Orders!" Sun Zhen said in a loud, clear voice: "In view of the brave combat performance of the 122nd Division's Jin Jizhong Regiment, Jin Jizhong is hereby appointed as Brigade Commander, Zhang Kang as Regimental Commander, Liao Junjie as Battalion Commander, and Wu Tianlu as Battalion Commander."

"The remaining officers shall be appointed by Jin Jizhong himself and reported to the Division headquarters for approval."

Looking toward Yu Hua, "Adjutant Yu, now that I have issued these appointments, tell me, who should we send out to contact our friendly forces?"

"Commander-in-Chief, Zhang Kang can go to the Hutou Mountain Base to discuss the issue of joint operations with Qiu Ming, and Wu Tianlu can go to Qingfeng Stronghold to find Zhu Ziming."

"Wu Tianlu has traveled extensively through the north and south; he has high seniority among the Paoge brotherhood and understands much of the underworld slang, so he is very suitable to go find Zhu Ziming."

After hearing Yu Hua finish, Sun Zhen laughed heartily: "Good... let it be done as you say!"

"This time, let Jin Jizhong's people handle the contact with the Eighth Route Army and Qingfeng Stronghold; as for Zhang Zizhong and Pang Bingxun, I will handle them personally!"

Hashimoto Gun had taken over the duties of Shimoyama Takuma and become the new person in power. In Shimoyama Takuma's career, forming the 10th Army, launching the landing battle at Hangzhou Bay, and annihilating the Japanese Army in the Songhu Region had been his highlight moments.

Many Japanese officers also demanded a decisive battle in the Xuzhou area. After listening for a while, Hashimoto Gun pondered for a moment.

In terms of the essence of warfare, it is also about using unorthodox methods to catch the enemy off guard and deal them a heavy blow.

"Discuss the campaign deployment immediately. We will have a major battle in the Xuzhou area to annihilate the main force of the Republic of China Army. How should we allocate our forces? Come up with a proposal as soon as possible so I can report it to the Emperor."

"The reserve soldiers in the country have already finished mobilization and can be replenished to the Pingjin Region and Songhu Region at any time."

"We must fight a quick battle to force a quick decision, wipe out the hundreds of thousands of troops gathered here, and leave the Republic of China severely crippled."

Subsequently, Sun Zhen called for a communications soldier to draft a telegram to be sent to Pang Bingxun and Zhang Zizhong in Langya.

Now, the Jinling Incident had caused Shimoyama Takuma to be condemned, and Hashimoto Gun and the others did not let this opportunity to kick a man while he was down pass, driving Shimoyama Takuma away.

"Chief!"

That was to not conduct a major battle in the Xuzhou area, but rather to concentrate superior forces, have the Japanese Army in East China coordinate with the Japanese Army in the Pingjin Region, form a Mobile Corps, move south along the Pinghan Railway Line, directly crush the Central Army of the First War Zone, and take Wuhan directly.

After this telegram was reported to the Japanese General Staff Headquarters, the newly appointed Operations Section Chief of the General Staff Headquarters, Inada Masazumi, highly praised Shimoyama Takuma, calling Shimoyama Takuma's idea very good.

According to the Imperial Army's operational plan, it was to rapidly force the Republic of China Government to submit; to force them to submit, one must annihilate the main force of the Republic of China Army.

Large-scale troop movements had appeared among the Republic of China Army near Xuzhou, gathering the main forces of the Nanjing Command.

As the newly appointed Chief of Operations, Hashimoto Gun now had to make a new campaign plan. The Sichuan Army units were assembled in the Fifth War Zone, and they had also annihilated the Chongteng Detachment.

Inada Masazumi was now eager to pad his resume and, at the same time, prove that he was also a capable person in his family, not relying on family background for promotion.

Due to the Jinling Incident, which caused a huge stir in the international community, Shimoyama Takuma was attacked by Hashimoto Gun, Tanaka Shinichi, Hashimoto Shingoro, Cho Isamu, Muto Akira, and others at home, and was forced to resign.

This plan had a high degree of risk, which Hashimoto Gun was aware of; after all, there were still a large number of Republic of China Army troops in the Xuzhou area.

This had slapped the face of the Japanese Pingjin Area Army completely swollen. Terauchi Hisaichi had repeatedly requested Shimoyama Takuma to dispatch reinforcements to be replenished to the Pingjin Region; he wanted to annihilate the Sichuan Army 22nd Group Army to wash away the humiliation.

Previously, Shimoyama Takuma had united with Hashimoto Gun and others to drive away Ishiwara Kanji, and Shimoyama Takuma served as Chief of Operations. However, after Shimoyama Takuma took office, he drove Hashimoto Gun and others to the frontline units; burning bridges after crossing the river made Hashimoto Gun and the others very unhappy.

Inada Masazumi also had an older brother named Banzai Ichiro. Why did the two not share the same surname? That was because Inada's brother was forced to marry into the Banzai family for the sake of the family's development.

Regarding the combat effectiveness of the Japanese Army in East China and the Pingjin Region, Hashimoto Gun was not worried at all; they could easily pierce through the Central Army of the First War Zone.

The Central China Area Army in the south moving north, and the Pingjin Area Army moving south, could completely encircle Xuzhou, wipe out the main force of the Republic of China Army in one fell swoop, and disintegrate their will to resist.

Many Japanese soldiers believed that a Mobile Corps would have no problem at all piercing through the Central Army of the First War Zone.

The Japanese officers in the General Staff Headquarters all cheered. A war! They were finally going to have a major battle in the Xuzhou area; this was a military merit.

They simply rejected this risky plan outright. Furthermore, the Sichuan Army had already annihilated a detachment of the Imperial Army near Teng County, and this must be used to teach the Sichuan Army a harsh lesson.

Among them, the Operations Staff Officer of the Pingjin Area Army, Colonel Shimoyama Takuma, also submitted several telegrams to the General Staff Headquarters.

However, there were now two schools of thought in the Japanese General Staff Headquarters: one group of staff officers agreed with the campaign plan of the former Chief, Shimoyama Takuma.

First, the Sichuan Army had now wiped out the Chongteng Detachment in Teng County, and the Imperial Army had already listed the Sichuan Army as a top-priority target for extermination; this must be encircled and annihilated. Plus, the Republic of China Army was gathered in the Xuzhou area.

"I agree to conduct a large-scale battle in the Xuzhou area and dispatch elite units to encircle and annihilate the Republic of China Army."

And Inada Masazumi's father-in-law, Abe Nobuyuki, was a General in the Army and later served as the Japanese Prime Minister.

And just as the Chinese side was making campaign deployments!

The Japanese Imperial General Headquarters was also further discussing the war on the Far East Continent. The new Chief of Operations of the General Staff Headquarters was Hashimoto Gun.

"Chief, we also agree to conduct a decisive battle in the Xuzhou area to annihilate the main force of the Republic of China Army in one fell swoop and completely annex the Far East Continent."

After discussing for a while, Hashimoto Gun was, after all, the new Chief of Operations; how could he approve the plan of the previous Chief of Operations? Wouldn't that make him look incompetent?

The Central Army of the First War Zone had weak combat effectiveness and was unable to withstand a single blow. The division commanded by Doihara Kenji directly fought Liu Zhi's Group Army into a continuous retreat.

Hashimoto Gun made the final decision: "Yosh!"

Among them, the Sichuan Army had repeatedly sabotaged the Imperial Army's campaigns; this unit must be listed as a priority target for attack.

Speaking of Banzai Ichiro, this old devil was also somewhat famous, because for the Xuefeng Mountain Campaign, the final battle of the China-Japan frontal battles, Banzai Ichiro was the commander of the Japanese Army for this campaign.

The reason Shimoyama Takuma's proposal of this operational plan gained some recognition among the Japanese was that at the time, Shimoyama Takuma had specifically mentioned the Three Kingdoms period, when Deng Ai took the Yinping trail, crossing mountains and ridges to move south to Chengdu.

However, if they crushed the Republic of China troops head-on, the Imperial Army's flanks would easily be attacked by the Republic of China Army gathered in the Xuzhou area.

Inada Masazumi was a nobleman from Tokyo with significant family influence. He had just been promoted to the position of Section Chief and was eager to pad his resume!

A group of people expressed to Hashimoto Gun one after another that they could produce an operational plan today.

The Japanese in the General Staff Headquarters were like they had taken stimulants, one by one starting to call friends and companions to formulate the Xuzhou campaign plan, determined to draft a plan in the shortest possible time.

(End of chapter)