Chapter 630: Wuhan Campaign

The Japanese Army staff officer's face was bitter, and he added in a low voice, "Commander, at present our forces are extremely depleted."

The troops of the two China war zones opposite are being redeployed, clearly indicating a major maneuver.

And the primary target at the forefront is certainly Wuhan.

The main battalions of the 3rd and 6th Class A Divisions have been fully transferred south; the remaining troops can barely maintain outpost defense and city security, mobile field forces are severely lacking, and there is no surplus to form a mobile reserve. Should the Chinese army launch a full‑scale assault, the outer Defensive Line will be extremely difficult to hold.

A Naganuma clenched both fists, his brows filled with anger and helplessness, and he growled in a low voice, "The headquarters is too obsessive! For the Nanyang campaign, they are willing to strip Central China of all its elite, treating years of occupied territory as nothing!"

"Don't they understand that if Central China collapses, the entire Huaxia occupied zone will be completely destabilized!"

A Naganuma has always believed that the headquarters' decision to focus the offensive on Southeast Asia is wrong, especially now that the Southern Army has once again become mired in the Southeast Asian quagmire.

Thus, Japan, already short of troops, cannot muster any forces at all.

The staff officer sighed lightly, voicing the headquarters' core concern and harsh reality: "Commander, the headquarters has no other choice."

"Now the Nanyang and Pacific Ocean campaigns are on the brink of collapse; if the Southern Theater is completely lost, Japan will be entirely cut off from strategic resource supplies, and the war machine will halt instantly. At that point, even a million‑strong garrison in the Huaxia occupied zone will inevitably crumble without fighting and be surrendered. Compared with the Huaxia occupied zone, the Southern Theater is the Imperial life‑and‑death key."

Immediately after, the staff officer relayed a piece of crucial intelligence that further complicated A Naganuma's thoughts: "Additionally, the headquarters' intelligence department has listed Nanko Jiang Anguo among the Imperial top three kill targets."

It is unanimously judged that the previous Jianghan Campaign and Battle of Yichang saw consecutive Imperial defeats, and the Central China situation turned from flourishing to decline, all stemming from Jiang Anguo's involvement.

He employs cunning tactics, has a sharp eye, and possesses formidable combat power; several times he has won with fewer forces, reversed the battle, and completely disrupted the Imperial's overall deployment.

Precisely because Jiang Anguo is currently in Nanyang and has no time to look east, the headquarters dares to indiscriminately pull Central China's elite, convinced that none of the domestic China war zones have a core figure capable of directing the overall situation or coordinating the entire front; even if an offensive is launched, it would only be a conventional frontal stalemate, lacking the power to truly breach Wuhan's core Defensive Line.

After hearing the staff officer's detailed exposition, A Naganuma felt the knot in his chest grow heavier, a deep sense of helplessness sweeping his entire body.

He had to admit that, though the headquarters' judgment seemed cold, it precisely hit the current battle's pain point.

In past Central China decisive battles, it was Jiang Anguo's extraordinary tactics that broke the stalemate between the two armies, repeatedly crushing the 11th Army's elite and forcibly turning the Huaxia middle front's situation.

Now that this greatest threat is trapped in Nanyang, focusing on the Java war, the Japanese Army high command has completely let down its guard, willing to drink poison to quench thirst, crazily siphoning Central China's troops to fill Nanyang's bottomless void.

But as the highest commander on the Wuhan front, A Naganuma knows the current reality more clearly than the headquarters far away in Tokyo.

The 3rd and 6th Class A Divisions appear to retain their illustrious titles and the old Class A Division framework, but in fact they have long been outwardly strong yet internally hollow, merely a façade.

After the two divisions transferred their main battalions south, the remaining garrison troops are mostly wounded soldiers who have returned, hastily conscripted new recruits, and rear‑area guards and laborers; they lack combat experience, their morale wavers, and spirits are low.

The originally fully equipped heavy artillery company, armored squad, and transport logistics units all moved with the main forces, leaving the garrison severely lacking heavy firepower; its assault, mobility, and sustained field combat capabilities have sharply declined.

The 3rd Division's expertise in mountain offense‑defense and positional stalemate can now no longer construct multi‑layered depth defenses due to thin manpower and insufficient firepower.

The 6th Division's famed close‑quarters assaults and siege‑breaking advantage have also vanished completely because veteran losses and rookie timidity.

The previously well‑coordinated combined arms, infiltration tactics, and night‑fight methods cannot be replicated in a force now dominated by new recruits.

The entire Central China garrison now only retains the ability to hold positions to the death, having completely lost the capital needed for mobile field annihilation, rapid reinforcement, and turning the battle around.

If there had been no Battle of Yichang and Jianghan Campaign, A Naganuma would not have this worry.

Because the Japanese Army has constantly pressed China, China is fundamentally powerless to resist Imperial Japan.

However, the successive loss of two divisions' troops, especially the 13th Division, and the heavy artillery battalion also lost at Yichang.

This made A Naganuma deeply pained, and at the same time he was singled out for criticism by the headquarters.

The staff officer looked at the silent A Naganuma, again handed over the latest headquarters urgent Radio Order, his tone heavy: "Commander, Tokyo's latest directive strictly orders the remnants of the 11th Army, 3rd Division, and 6th Division to hold the Wuhan core battle zone to the death, allowing no retreat of an inch, no abandonment of any ground. Headquarters judges that the Southern Theater takes priority in everything; Central China need only hold a stalemate, with no need, nor any forces, to actively seek combat. It must hold back the Chinese middle‑front main force, without dividing troops or requesting aid."

"Hold to death?" A Naganuma whispered the two words, his tone full of sorrow and resentment, "Strip the elite, dismantle firepower, pull out veterans, leaving only remnants and weak soldiers to guard the thousand‑mile Jianghan Defensive Line— is this the headquarters' hold to death?"

He lifted his gaze to the stifling, sweltering Wuhan city outside the window, his eyes sweeping the continuous hills, rivers, and defensive outposts beyond, and his mind was already clear on the battle's direction.

The th War Zone and Quinary War Zone's massive troop redeployments are far from a minor tactical probe; they are a long‑planned, built‑up strategic grand offensive.

The opponent, having seen through the Japanese Army's manpower emptiness, loss of elite, and mobility weakness, dares to decisively concentrate its main forces, waiting to retake Wuhan.

The staff officer, worried, added, "At present, the garrison forces at each outer outpost are stretched thin, many sections of the Defensive Line are sparsely manned, and there are even vacuum zones of several kilometers with no troops stationed."

"If the Chinese army presses on all fronts, we simply lack sufficient mobile forces to seal the gaps; we can only passively hold the isolated city and watch the enemy encircle us."

A Naganuma slowly closed his eyes, exhaled a long breath of foul air, his eyes filled with fatigue and despair.

He knows that the 11th Army is now a candle flickering in the wind, and the two remaining major divisions have been drained to the bone, existing only in name.

Tokyo headquarters, to rescue the dire collapse of Nanyang, spares no cost in sacrificing Central China's strategic advantage, betting the entire Huaxia middle front to gain a sliver of breathing room on the Southern Theater.

This predicament, caused by strategic tilt, is unsolvable and unbreakable by anyone.

Without reinforcements, without supplies, without elite troops, without retreat, he and the shattered 3rd and 6th Divisions have become discard pieces in the Japanese Southern Theater, forced to hold the isolated Wuhan citadel.

In the sweltering autumn of 1943, they quietly await the fated bloody battle and annihilation.