Age of Conquest Reborn

Chapter 1,210 A desperate move

Ito struggled with pain and went out of the Libao Grand Canyon defense line to fight a decisive battle with the main force of the army. He had no chance of winning. Why did Tang Qiuli abandon the existing positions in Mogok? Was it to attract his main force away from the terrain?

The advantageous position of Ribo was farther away, which gave his superior air power a large number of opportunities to kill and injure the Imperial Army's effective forces.

Mogok is a trap, there is no doubt about it, but if you are passively beaten like this, when the ** Division troops attacking from the flank arrive at the gate of Mandalay, your retreat will be completely cut off, and the dispatched troops will face the end of their lives.

In the event of a disaster, the only proper way is to retreat to the Yangon line, use sea supplies to maintain the combat effectiveness of the troops, and wait for opportunities to attack northward.

Retreating to Rangoon? This was even more difficult than executing the plan for the Myanmar battle, which was the base camp, against his own will. His Majesty the Emperor would not have allowed it in the first place. Ito was so embarrassed that he almost hung himself, with his hands in his sparse hair and his elbows on the table.

, I have thought hard for several hours, but there is no surest way to solve the current crisis.

At this time, Lieutenant General Takemura Yamaichi, Chief of Staff, walked in. Seeing Ito's appearance, the corners of his mouth moved, and a smile that could not tell whether it was sarcasm or sympathy hung on his face, "Your Excellency, Commander-in-Chief, good news.

I have just received a telegram from the base camp. The South Pacific Front Army is being formed in the mainland. It is expected to be formed early next year. By then, our Southeast Asian dispatched troops will not be fighting alone. With a strong backing, we will be more confident and let go.

Fight the Chinese with your hands and feet."

Ito raised his head and shocked Takemura, "How come it's only been a few hours? This rigid-minded old guy looks like he just crawled out of a pile of dead people. His face is scary and ugly, and his eyes are like rabbits."

Red?" Takemura thought to himself, but still asked pretending to be concerned, "Commander-in-Chief, are you feeling unwell? Please go rest and leave the troops to me."

An ugly and bitter smile appeared on Ito's face, "Bah! I'm just pretending, I'll leave the army to you, don't you worry? You're as stupid as a pig, you can even take every move from Tang Qiuli.

I can't help it," he cursed in his stomach, but with a kind smile on his face, "Takemura-kun, thank you for your concern, but how can I sleep in the current severe situation!" Ito said bitterly.

Takemura deliberately asked in surprise: "Oh, Commander-in-Chief, is the situation very serious? Why don't I feel this way? Although the Chinese planes bombed our Imperial Army troops for a day, they did not inflict any damage to the Imperial Army."

Caused serious losses. In addition, according to the report of the troops who left Mogok, Tang Qiuli's troops still stayed on the Mengmi line. Does this mean that Tang Qiuli did not dare to get too close to the imperial army for fear of being attacked by the Libao defense line?

A sudden attack by the Imperial Army?"

Ito really wanted to slap this idiot with glasses and beat him until his teeth were all over the floor, making him hysterical? He was talking nonsense at night, and Tang Qiuli was afraid of being attacked by the imperial army, so why not wake up a little?

Pig head, our imperial army is afraid of being attacked by Tang Qiuli's troops. Ito absolutely cannot understand how Takemura, an army lieutenant general, could make such a low-level and ridiculous judgment?

He did not bother to make a detailed analysis of this imbecile guy, but pointed out the fundamentals of the situation straightforwardly. Ito said word for word: "Takemura-kun, if the imperial army goes out of the Libo Grand Canyon defense line and seeks to fight with Tang Qiuli,

main force

Decisive battle, then you just fell into the trap of this China devil. You have seen the scale of today's air raid. Do you think that our imperial soldiers exposed in the field positions can avoid being bombed by the ** Division aviation on the same scale?

?”

"Also, even if we can preserve our strength under the bombing of the ** Division's aviation force, once the battlefield falls into a stalemate, the two corps of the ** Division coming from the east with more than 200,000 troops will be behind us.

Insert a knife, do you think we still have a chance to win when we are surrounded by enemies from both sides? If Mandalay is occupied by the ** Division troops, we will fall into an encirclement. As the chief of staff of the Expeditionary Force, you, as the chief of staff,

Have you considered it?"

The more Ito spoke, the more excited he got. At the end, his tone became harsh, and every sentence had an accusatory tone. These words had been held in Ito's stomach for several days, to the point where he couldn't even vomit them out. After he finished speaking, he felt something in his heart.

With a smooth feeling, Takemura's face turned blue and white as he was being scolded by Ito. He instinctively felt that Ito's words made some sense, but they were not sufficient and were far-fetched, so he could not convince himself.

Takemura was a Japanese general who had never been on the battlefield. Most of his military career was spent dancing in the office and doing paper work. He never suffered a loss in the hands of Tang Qiuli. Therefore, in his mind, he was stubborn.

They retain the idea that the Imperial Japanese Army is invincible, that the Imperial soldiers are brave and good at fighting, and that one of them can stand up to ten Chinese soldiers.

Ito's analysis made sense, but he always felt that something was wrong, and he had no way to refute it. Suddenly, a judgment came to his mind, "Could it be that this old guy Ito wants to retreat without a fight? He mentioned Mandalay.

The only place to pass through Yangon.” Understand, Ito was scared and timid, and was scared out of his wits by the apparent superiority of the Chinese people.

Combining the previous signs, Wu Cun strengthened his judgment, so Wu Cun put away his false smile and said coldly: "The commander-in-chief needs to be reminded that the base camp's Burma battle plan must be launched on the 10th of this month. Today is

"The fifth day," he said, looking at his watch, and then said: "Oh, it's almost the sixth day, and we don't have much time left. You'd better think more about the orders from the base camp!"

Takemura has made up his mind. If Ito still has the same tone, he will immediately send a telegram to the base camp requesting that Ito Yanzaburo be deprived of his command. The Imperial Japanese Army will never allow such cowards and cowards to exist. What's more, the situation is not yet

It was so bad that Ito said that it was possible to defeat the Chinese troops on the Mengmi front before the arrival of the Japanese division troops attacking Mandalay.

Ito fell back on his chair like a frustrated ball. Takemura's words struck a chord with him. His excitement turned into a cold sweat. Takemura was right. The orders from the base camp cannot be changed unless he is in front of the formation.

Disobey the order and withdraw all the way south with the troops, otherwise, I am afraid that the black gauze hat on your head will be taken off without hesitation as soon as the order is given.

And the person who succeeded him was undoubtedly the one in front of him, Takemura, with a cold light in his eyes. In the end, the dispatched troops faced the same fate, or even worse. His own fate was not much better. His Majesty the Emperor and the base camp

, will never allow a disobedient front army commander to exist. The only thing he can do is to try to prevent the imperial army from suffering greater losses.

Ito stood up suddenly, the dejected look on his face was wiped away, his eyes were bright, and he whispered: "Chief of Staff Takemura, record the order, and the troops assembled on the front line of Mandalay will use it starting from October 6th.

Under cover of night, secretly head towards Libao Grand Canyon

The movement was deployed on the 8th. On the 9th, Mogok was captured. At 4 a.m. on the 10th, the main force of the ** division on the Mengmi front line was launched. The artillery and aviation units were assembled simultaneously, and the staff completed the battle overnight.

Deployment plan."

At that time, Wu Cun stood at attention with an excited "pop" and said loudly: "Yes, resolutely implement the orders of His Excellency the Commander-in-Chief!" Wu Cun's voice was so loud that all the officers in the room heard clearly, and they looked at Wu Cun proudly.

departure,

Ito sneered. He would not leave a major battle plan that determines the life and death of the dispatched troops to a fool like Takemura. His intention was just to find something for him to do so as not to get in the way and delay the main business.

Ito directly issued orders to each division. As expected of a veteran army, while Takemura was still dizzying in formulating a deployment plan, Ito had already completed the mobilization of troops, and the Japanese army was on the move. This was a desperate operation, even if

Mogok is a trap, and Ito has to bravely jump into it.

On October 6, Le Yiqin's air raid was still going on, but the scale and intensity were much lower than on the 5th. No matter how unhappy Le Yiqin was, the order from division commander Tang Qiuli was

Unable to be disobeyed, the decline shown by the Japanese Air Force invisibly increased Ito's confidence.

At the same time, on the front line of the Salween River, the Japanese troops blocking the westward advance of Feng Jiwu's regiment and Ma Chaoyang's regiment were completely annihilated and defeated. Feng Jiwu stood in front of a Japanese bunker that had been destroyed, and said to the communications staff:

"Send a report to the division commander that our corps has eliminated the Japanese blocking troops in front of them, occupied the strongholds, and continues to attack in the direction of Taunggyi. Contact Ma Chaoyang's corps immediately to inquire about the battle situation."

The well-fortified Japanese defenders formed a reinforced brigade. Feng Jiwu wasted no time and ordered the 1st Brigade Heavy Artillery Regiment to launch an all-round bombardment. Forty minutes later, a tank regiment covered two regiments of infantry and passed through the ruins.

After encountering weak resistance, they captured the important town southwest of Mandalay in less than an hour and a half.

Thirty minutes later, Ma Chaoyang called back, "Deputy Commander, our corps has captured Langmei and Meng Nai, and is now attacking Taunggyi. It is expected that the battle will be over in two hours." Feng Jiwu nodded, Ma Chaoyang's movements were not consistent.

Wait, after taking Taunggyi, the two important nodes in the southwest of Mandalay will be in your hands. The southwest gate of Mandalay is open. If you want, you can cut off the retreat of the old Japanese Ito at any time.

On the 7th, the intensity and scale of the air strikes of Le Yiqin's Southern Flying Group dropped again and stopped completely on the evening of the 8th. The air strikes against Ito's Japanese troops completed the planned campaign objectives and destroyed the Japanese troops gathering in the direction of Mandalay.

, to face the attempts of the Feng Jiwu Group on the Eastern Front of the Japanese Army.

By the evening of October 9, Ito took advantage of the less violent air raids by Le Yiqin Air Force to complete the battle deployment for the Burma battle. The Japanese troops assembled on the front line of Libo Grand Canyon reached 17 divisions and more than 380,000 people.

With the strength of the Japanese troops, that night, six divisions of the Japanese advance troops marched out of Libao and occupied Mogok. Ito finally took action.

(To be continued)