Age of Conquest Reborn

Chapter 1,124 Ito Yanichiro is here

On June 27, Myitkyina, the Burma Campaign Headquarters of the ** Division, as soon as Alexander left with the defeated soldiers with the remaining troops, Tang Qiuli immediately organized various troops and actively prepared to fight the Japanese troops who continued to invade the north.

According to Tang Qiuli's true vision, he was not very willing to fight this battle for no other reason than that the troops concentrated around Myitkyina were facing the main force of Ito Yanzaburo's Southeast Asia Expedition Force head-on, and their strength was slightly weaker.

Since it does not conform to the concentration of superior forces that he has always followed, it is a waste if he does not fight. If he fights, it will be a war of annihilation.

It seems that Ito took advantage of the remaining power of victory and did not give Tang Qiuli the opportunity to calmly deploy his troops. Now, the troops he can immediately use are eight brigades directly under the corps and 11 brigades from Tang Qiusheng's corps.

, only six brigades can be used on the frontal battlefield of Myitkyina. Yu Guanghan, the chief of staff of the regiment, led five brigades of troops to move between Libao and Kunqiang. This was Tang Qiuli's ambush and could not be moved.

The Ma Chaoyang Corps and Feng Jiwu Corps in the eastern part of the Indochina Peninsula were still on their way to northern Myanmar. Originally, Tang Qiuli had demonstrated the strength of more than 30 brigades with more than 400,000 troops in the entire Indochina Peninsula.

Japan's Southeast Asia Expeditionary Force, which was consumed over and over again, had an equal amount of troops. How could Ito weigh the opponent's weight?

But Ito was definitely not a simple-minded person. He saw Tang Qiuli's intention. Most of the troops of the Army Division were in the eastern part of Indochina Peninsula, far away from northern Myanmar. Even if they marched day and night, given the traffic conditions of Indochina Peninsula, there were no two

Weeks later, it would be impossible to reach the battlefield in northern Myanmar. As a result, the dispatched troops would not face more than 200,000 troops from the First Division.

Our own force was more than double that of the opponent. Of course Ito had the courage. After killing the British, he raised his troops and marched directly to northern Burma. Although Ito Yanzaburo had never fought against Tang Qiuli, he would never underestimate the combat effectiveness of the Japanese division.

, but with the advantage of more than twice the opponent's strength, it is not an extravagant hope to fight like the annihilation of the British army. It should not be a problem to capture Myitkyina and control northern Myanmar.

Tang Qiuli looked at the map at the headquarters in Myitkyina and turned back to Chief of Staff Chang Feng and said: "Chang Feng, the battle with Ito's Myitkyina is inevitable. It is a head-to-head confrontation. We will not give up on Myitkyina.

Ito’s attack target is also Myitkyina, where have the troops of the Directly Affiliated Corps and the Sulu Mobile Corps reached?”

Chang Feng answered succinctly: The division commander, the 1st to 8th brigades directly under the corps, have arrived at the designated area of ​​​​Gangao Mountains. The troops of Deputy Division Commander Tang, who serves as the right wing group of the battle, have already moved to the Xinbo and Jiesha lines. According to

The regiment's marching speed is expected to reach the predetermined ambush area in about eight hours."

Tang Qiuli shook his head and said: "It's still not fast enough. It has already been three days. After the Japanese army kills the British, they will soon make new moves. We still don't know how Ito will make a move. Order Sulu

The mobile corps will join the battle three hours in advance.

Go up and arrive at the designated position. If the heavily equipped troops cannot reach it, the light infantry, at least three brigades, must arrive in advance. Use an emergency order and send it to Deputy Commander Tang. I always feel that Chutian has not sent the information yet.

, I’m afraid there must be a reason?”

Chang Feng recorded them one by one, paused, and said with a slight hesitation: "Sir, my attitude was a bit too much that day. I hope you can forgive me, sir, I..." He wanted to say something else,

What happened that day has been lingering in Chang Feng's heart, and it has become a burden to him, making Chang Feng, who has always had no other thoughts, worry about gains and losses.

Tang Qiuli waved his hand to stop him and said: "Chang Feng, everyone has different views on the same thing. It's not surprising. It's just your emotions that surprised me a little. I want to have a good chat with you.

But when we are busy, we don’t have time. In this way, after the battle starts, we can listen to the rumble of cannons and have a long heart-to-heart talk. Maybe, we will feel better? Don’t be burdened, just let go and do it.”

At about 11 o'clock that night, Tang Qiuli returned to his residence and lay down for a long time, unable to sleep peacefully. The unknown condition of Ito was one of the reasons why he could not feel at ease. His wife Mei Xue, who was recovering from an injury in Guangzhou, sent several telegrams saying, "The condition of the injury"

After recovering from illness, I miss you more and more.

We were separated for more than two months, and your voice and smile appeared in my dreams all the time. Since I followed you, we have been together less and apart more often. They all say that the love between daughters is more true in troubled times, but who knows that lovesickness is so painful in troubled times."

I would like to come to the northern Myanmar frontline headquarters to accompany me.

Tang Qiuli has become accustomed to having his wife by his side, first Xiaoling, then Mei Ting, and then Mei Xue, and the tone of Mei Xue's telegram was the same as when he was in the Northeast, and after being separated from Xiaoling for several months, he said to himself

The feelings of longing he expressed were almost the same. When he thought of Xiaoling, Liu Xinlan's face came to mind again.

I think of my wife Mei Ting, who is far away in Dingbian. Although her parents are with me, I was tens of thousands of miles away in northern Myanmar when she was about to give birth. It is unrealistic to say that I don't feel guilty.

The faces of three women, or to be precise, four, appeared in his mind alternately, making him feel uneasy, and it took him a long time before he fell asleep.

"Bang bang bang", a rapid knock on the door woke him up from his hazy sleep. He looked at the luminous watch and saw that it was already past three o'clock in the morning. When he opened the door, Chief of Staff Chang Feng and Director of the Communications Department Chen

Feng, the two of them stood at the door with serious faces. Chang Feng said: "Division Commander, I have received urgent information from Captain Chutian of the Special Operations Detachment. The Japanese army's march deployment has been made clear, and the situation has changed."

Tang Qiuli took the telegram, read it carefully, pondered for a moment, and said to Chen Feng: "Director Chen, immediately call the radio station with Deputy Division Commander Tang and the brigade commanders of the directly affiliated corps, and order them to be ready to accept it at any time.

The division gave a new order, Chang Feng, to summon all personnel from the staff office and operations office to the headquarters for a meeting."

Chutian's intelligence, to be honest, is not up to the level of strategic intelligence. It only identifies the marching sequence of the Japanese army, the numbers of each unit, etc. However, there is a very important point in Chutian's intelligence.

Tang Qiuli was very surprised by the situation.

"The division commander, after three days of continuous collection by each detachment of our detachment, the basic situation of the Japanese army invading the north has been figured out. After summarizing the intelligence, it was reported to the division commander. The Japanese army used the 17th and 21st divisions to

Attached to the 1st Chariot Brigade and the 1st Cavalry Regiment, as the vanguard, they annihilated the British army and crossed the Yindun River the next morning and have now entered Degang."

"The 11th, 15th, and 19th divisions of the Japanese army, equipped with the 2nd and 3rd tank brigades, and the 1st heavy artillery brigade, as the second echelon, set off two hours later. Currently, they have arrived in Mengmi

, the main force of the Japanese army has also moved north after resting for a day at the Yindun River. Currently, the marching speed is normal on the Mogu line."

"The Japanese troops in the vanguard and the second echelon were separated by no more than one day and marched very cautiously. Each Japanese army sent a large number of search troops to search carefully within a radius of 20 kilometers along the way north to Myitkyina to ensure that there was no danger.

, passed quickly, and stationed troops at all important commanding heights along the line. Our detachment did not have a clear order from the division commander, so it did not alert the Japanese army and took close surveillance."

Chutian's intelligence at least provided some information. First, Ito Yanzaburo divided the troops into three parts, and each part was closely connected to form a long snake formation connected end to end. Second, Ito ambushed the Ribo Grand Canyon.

The British were naturally afraid that they would be ambushed and sent troops to various strategic locations, thus naturally avoiding the danger of being cut off and ambushed. Third, Ito's vanguard should be a decoy to attract the Japanese division's troops to attack.

, his main force then pressed forward.

Ito's guiding ideology for the campaign was to engage in a decisive battle with the ** Division's troops in the direction of Myitkyina in a certain area in northern Myanmar, defeat Tang Qiuli with superior force, occupy Myitkyina, and then turn around to fight in the Indochina Peninsula.

The troops from other regiments of the ** Division coming from the east are another way of defeating them individually.

When Tang Qiuli arrived at the headquarters, under the order of Yang Ketian, dozens of staff officers were already on the map, busy marking the situation of the enemy and ourselves. From the map, the Japanese forward reached Degang, and the main force was at 180

Mengmi, more than ten kilometers away, is more than 300 miles long from end to end, and the second echelon of Japanese troops can advance to support the vanguard and retreat to join the main force.

Ito's long snake formation battle layout completely disrupted Tang Qiuli's northern Burma battle plan. His original battle plan was to use the six brigades of Tang Qiusheng's corps as the right wing and the five brigades directly under the corps as the left wing.

Three brigades blocked the attack from the front, while Yu Guanghan's five brigades blocked the rear route and prepared a large pocket for Ito in the Gangao Mountains. After the first battle, the Japanese army could not be completely wiped out, but at least more than one-third of Ito's troops could be killed.

But Ito's formation posed a big problem for Tang Qiuli. The Japanese army was more than 360 miles long from head to tail. Tang Qiuli didn't have the size of the pocket to cover so many Japanese troops. How many troops were needed?

Furthermore, if they attack the vanguard of the Japanese army, Ito's main force will immediately roll in and fight a passive decisive battle without Tang Qiuli's reluctance.

Yu Guanghan, who was copying the tail, had five brigades with less than 80,000 troops. He simply could not hold back the main force of more than 300,000 Japanese troops. If he attacked in the middle, the Japanese troops would finish off one after another, and the attacking troops would be surrounded by the Japanese troops.

, then the only way is to give up this battle and look for other fighters in northern Myanmar.

As a result, the Japanese army marched straight in, and the existing troops of the ** Division will definitely be in a situation of head-to-head combat with the superior Japanese army. If in order to avoid losses, Myitkyina must give up. In terms of strategic significance and impact, it will have a negative impact on the ** Division

The influence on the Indochina Peninsula will inevitably have a huge negative impact. The unwilling British may use the power of the Americans to find an excuse to return to the Indochina Peninsula.

In this battle, whether to fight or not is not a choice. Ito has forced Tang Qiuli to the point where he has to choose a way of fighting.

(To be continued)

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