The Boss of the Yan Family in Siheyuan

Chapter 471 Japanese surrender

Author: Star Traveler

Chapter 471 Japanese surrender

After all, it was already July 1945, and there were still 37 days left before the Japanese surrender.

Before this, no one thought that the Japanese army would surrender so quickly. Although the two big bombs played some role, the most important thing was the destruction of the Japanese Kwantung Army.

On August 8, 1945, the Soviet Union declared war on Japan. On August 9, the Soviet Red Army dispatched troops to Northeast China and defeated the 700,000-strong Japanese Kwantung Army in just one week.

This gave the little Japanese a great shock. Without control of the Northeast, the Japanese army had no room for struggle.

We know that a short-term war is mainly determined by the combat power of both sides, while a long-term war is a struggle for the war resources of both sides.

Japan has a small territory, lack of resources, and very limited war resources. However, many people do not know that Japan's main war resources in the late World War II came not from the country, but from the Northeast China it occupied.

In fact, Tohoku was already a very powerful military industrial base before 1945. For example, in 1944, the smelting pig iron here was 2.5 million tons (only 2.7 million tons in Japan) and 1.3 million tons of steel ingots (only 2.9 million tons in Japan's national enterprises)

). And 55% of the technical equipment for producing synthetic fuels in Japan is located in Tohoku.

The concept is that the military industries in Northeast China and North Korea can fully guarantee the supply of weapons, equipment, ammunition and technical weapons for a million-strong army. Only bombers and heavy artillery cannot be produced.

When old American bombers began to carry out concentrated attacks on the Japanese home islands, their industries, military centers, naval bases and other life-and-death targets.

As a huge rear base and military warehouse, the role of Northeast China is even more obvious. Since Northeast China is still outside the activity radius of the old and American "Flying Fortress".

Therefore, many factories and enterprises, together with their equipment, were relocated there from the Japanese mainland. There are countless barracks in the Northeast, enough to accommodate 55 to 60 infantry divisions, and air stations and airports can park more than 6,000 aircraft at the same time.

The Japanese military headquarters can leisurely train and replenish troops for the front line, form new units, reorganize old units, and take other necessary military measures without any interference.

The most powerful Japanese army, the Kwantung Army, is stationed in the northeast. It has jurisdiction over the 1st Eastern Manchurian Front Army - the 3rd and 5th Army, the 3rd Western Manchurian Front Army - the 30th and 44th Army, and the Northern Manchuria Independent Front Army.

The 4th Army, the 34th Independent Army, the 17th Front and the 58th Army have a total strength of more than 700,000.

In addition, the puppet Manchukuo army, the Japanese puppet army in Inner Mongolia and the Zhang Sui army were also under the control of the Kwantung Army headquarters. This powerful group of more than one million troops was also supported by two aviation armies, the 2nd and 5th Air Force.

The two air forces have approximately 2,000 aircraft.

The strategic defense scenario determined by the Japanese Army General Staff Headquarters at the end of World War II theoretically increased the Kwantung Army's hope of victory in the upcoming war against the Soviet Union, even if it was a limited hope.

The reason is that the Northeast, according to its natural conditions, is more suitable for defense than offense. The surrounding mountains and virgin forests become natural obstacles for the attackers, ruling out the possibility of extensive rapid maneuvers such as tanks, making it possible to equip heavy technical weapons.

It was difficult for the troops to pass, and the artificial obstacles built by the enemy doubled the difficulty of overcoming natural dangers.

By the spring of 1945, after the victory over fascist Germany, the Far East General Command headed by Soviet Marshal Vasilevsky was established. Under its deployment, many military trains departed from the western region and traveled across the entire Soviet Union to the Far East.

The 39th Army troops were first transferred eastward from East Prussia. Then, the 5th Army also moved from East Prussia, and the 6th Guards Tank Army and the 53rd Army changed their deployment from Czechoslovakia to the coastal area.

Many independent units and regiments of armored forces, artillery, aviation, engineering and communications, as well as logistics units and agencies, were also transferred to the Far East from other fronts.

Before sending troops to the Northeast, the Soviet troops in the Far East had increased from 32 divisions to 59 divisions. In addition, there were 4 tank corps and mechanized corps, 6 infantry brigades, 40 tank brigades and mechanized brigades assembled here.

The total strength of the brigade is 1.5 million.

The Soviet army sent troops to the Northeast, and the offensive lasted only 10 days and nights. On land, combat operations in the Northeast, Inner Mongolia, and North Korea swept across nearly one million square kilometers of land.

This is equivalent to the land area of ​​three Frances, and the Kwantung Army is the largest and best-equipped army among the Japanese armed forces, with permanent defense facilities.

But all of this fell apart within 10 days of the Soviet Red Army's offensive campaign. Isn't this amazing enough? Compared with the U.S. military's battles with the Japanese army in the Pacific Theater, such speed, scale and effect are also unprecedented.

Extraordinary.

After all, the Americans and the Japanese fought fiercely for almost four years to compete for some archipelagos and isolated islands.

Hundreds of thousands of U.S. soldiers, supported by powerful fleets and bombing aircraft, stormed an island where a Japanese garrison was stationed for weeks, sometimes months.

By the spring of 1945, the Americans finally occupied some key positions and advanced to the ground leading to the Japanese archipelago. However, the final victory was not easy for the Allied allies and was very problematic.

According to published materials, the U.S. military command estimates that the Japanese resistance will be completely defeated in 1946 at the earliest. However, some people believe that even this date is too optimistic and may not be fought until 1947 or even 1948.

.

After all, the Japanese army still maintained a strong combat effectiveness at this time. They also had a huge rear base in Northeast China and mainland Korea that stored a large amount of grain, weapons, ammunition, and stationed the powerful Kwantung Army.

In total, as of August 1945, the Japanese Army, including the aviation force, had a total of 5.5 million men. The Navy had 109 major combat ships of various types, and the Air Force had nearly 6,500 aircraft.

Because of this, the U.S. military and British military headquarters believe that the final stage of the landing operation on the Japanese mainland will be long-term and very difficult. As British Prime Minister Churchill later said, the operation on the Japanese mainland "requires a huge amount of effort."

An unprecedented number of troops in this war. No one can determine how many lives of British and American soldiers will be sacrificed and how much money will be consumed in this battle."

So the Soviet offensive in the Northeast left an impression on the allies at the time. Yes, these 10 days in August not only shocked the Japanese military headquarters and Japan, but also surprised the Americans. They played a major role in crushing Hitler's Germany.

The Soviet army also showed the same bravery and skill in fighting Japan.

In the arguments of later Western historians, the atomic bombs dropped by the US military on Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and 9 played an important role in the Japanese surrender.

They asserted that it was the atomic bombing that proved to everyone in Japan, including their military leaders, that continued resistance was futile.

However, this was not the case. After the defeat of the Kwantung Army, Borodov personally interrogated the commander of the Japanese 5th Army and many other generals.

The morale of the Japanese troops was often raised during the interrogation, but none of the generals mentioned the atomic bomb.

However, all the prisoners talked about the mental shock caused to the Japanese soldiers by the Soviet army's capture of Berlin and the possibility of launching a war against Japan, as well as the final launch of the strategic offensive campaign in Northeast China.

Whether they were generals, officers, or soldiers, they all affirmed that the shock caused by these facts was so strong that the thoughts of "Russians attacking Northeast China" and Japan's imminent defeat lingered in their minds all the time.

The first few days of the Soviet strategic offensive campaign in Northeast China proved to Japan that fears of rapid defeat were not exaggerated, or even quite the opposite.

Not even any pessimist in Japan expected that on the second or third day of the Soviet offensive, the Japanese front and corps-level headquarters would lose control of their subordinate units.

By the end of the first week of the campaign, disaster and complete destruction were a foregone conclusion, and the entire Kwantung Army was reduced to a ragtag group scattered over a vast area.

They abandoned the last batch of artillery and baggage and waited for capture, or fled into the virgin forests, mountains and swamps, dreaming of taking temporary refuge there and waiting for the day when they could make their mark.

One can imagine what the scene was like inside the Tokyo Military Headquarters and other military agencies at this time.

They will not fail to understand that the rapid defeat of the Kwantung Army, one-fifth of the entire Japanese army, and the Soviet tanks advancing to southern Manchuria and continuing to advance towards the Beiping area will put other Japanese front armies in North and Central China in a critical state.

They would not fail to understand that the combat concepts they were accustomed to in the past, as well as the practical experience gained by the Japanese army in China, Burma, the Pacific and other areas over the years, were completely ineffective in the first battle with the Soviet army.

They will not fail to understand that for them, the time, space and force sufficient to even slightly limit or delay the Soviet attack are gone.

Therefore, there is only one way out, and that is to admit Japan's complete defeat and surrender.

Li Yunlong thought about what would happen next, so he was not fully prepared for the next more than a month. He dispersed most of the 120,000 troops in the army and sent them out, in order to be able to attack the enemy immediately after the Japanese surrender.

Take time to receive weapons and equipment.

The distribution of Japanese troops, except for the Kwantung Army in the northeast, was mostly within the Kwantung Pass.

North China is the rear area of ​​the Japanese army, so there are not many troops deployed. The peak number was only 300,000. Now, there are only about 200,000 Japanese troops remaining in North China. In addition, there are a large number of puppet troops.

force,

Li Yunlong's eyes were fixed on the Japanese and puppet troops in North China. After all, North China had an advantage in distance compared to other regions.

So Li Yunlong dispatched a large number of troops to North China, leaving only seven regiments of more than 30,000 infantrymen in the defense zone. The main task of this unit was to go to Taiyuan in time for the Japanese surrender on August 15.

Accept weapons and equipment from the Japanese army.

Although in history, in order to organize the Eighth Route Army to obtain weapons and equipment from the Japanese army, Baldy Jiang secretly reached an agreement with the Japs and only allowed the Japanese troops in the pass to hand over weapons and equipment to the national army.

But this was not a problem for Li Yunlong. He had already made plans. When he helped Chu Yunfei deal with Qian Bojun, he had seized the weapons and equipment of Chu Yunfei's regiment and put the equipment of this regiment together with the military uniforms.

They were also collected just for the arrival of this day.

With Li Yunlong's expectation, time soon came to August 15, 1945.

At noon that day, Li Yunlong called Zhao Gang, Ding Wei, and Kong Jie to the command room for the first time, and then turned on the radio.

"Old Li, tell me what's wrong with you. I still have a lot of things waiting for me to deal with." Zhao Gang frowned and sat down and said dissatisfiedly to Li Yunlong beside him.

After all, as the political commissar of the First Column in North China, Zhao Gang is indeed responsible for a lot of things. With the expansion of the defense zone, he has to handle most things, so he is busy every day, so for Li Yunlong, he called them for the first time.

The meaning is somewhat dimensional.

"Yes, Lao Li, what happened to you boy today? Is there something important that you have to call all three of us over?" Kong Jie also said from the side.

Since the military academy was built into the army, he and Ding Weiwei have focused part of their attention on the school. After all, there has been no fighting in the army for several months. If they don't find something to do, they will have to die idle.

After hearing what the two said, Ding Wei looked at Li Yunlong. He was also a little curious. Li Yunlong must have something important to say when he called the three of them together today, otherwise Li Yunlong would not do this according to his character.

"Why are you so anxious? Just sit down and wait. You will know what happened soon." Li Yunlong rolled his eyes at a few people angrily and then said.

At this moment, a voice came from the radio. Li Yunlong quickly asked the three of them to shut up, and then pointed at the radio.

After the three people were stunned to hear what was coming from the radio, Li Yunlong turned off the radio, then put it aside and looked at the three people with a smile.

"Old Li, this..., the Japanese army surrendered?" Kong Jie asked Li Yunlong in disbelief.

After all, more than ten years have passed since the Japs invaded China in 1931. Although they had previously speculated that the Japanese surrender would be a matter of time, they did not expect that it would happen so quickly.

Li Yunlong smiled when he heard Kong Jie's words and said, "Haha, didn't you hear everything?"

"Old Li, pinch me too. Am I dreaming? The little devil is surrendering right now. I really can't believe it." Kong Jie stared and pulled Li Yunlong and said.

Ding Wei, who was on the side, picked up the water glass with trembling hands and took a sip. Then he stared at Li Yunlong and said in disbelief: "Old Li, did you guess that the Japanese were going to surrender? Why didn't you follow me before?"

We discussed it and sent the troops out."

After hearing Ding Wei's words, Zhao Gang and Kong Jie also turned to look at Li Yunlong. Although he did not believe that Li Yunlong could predict the future, the facts were here.

(End of chapter)