Quartermasters can also fight the devils

Chapter 750 Looking for reinforcements everywhere

Although Guangxi Province had been designated as the Fourth War Zone of the Chinese Government at this time, there was the Seventh War Zone of the Chinese Government to the east and the Ninth War Zone of the Chinese Government to the north. In addition, the Japanese troops had not attacked Guangxi Province for three years. Therefore, the defense of the Fourth War Zone of the Chinese Government could be said to be very lax.

Before the Japanese army attacked Guangxi Province, the entire Fourth War Zone of the Chinese Government only had the 16th Army Group belonging to the Guangxi clique, and under the 16th Army Group there was only one 31st Army. This led many people to joke that the Fourth War Zone of the Chinese Government was a war zone that had been "inherited for three generations", that is, one war zone, one army group, and one army.

Of course, the Chinese government, whether it is the Military Commission or the various war zones, actually did not know the strategic goals of the Japanese Army's China Expeditionary Force's "Operation No. 1" plan.

Later, when the attacking force of the Japanese 11th Army was about to capture Hengyang, the Chinese army analyzed the documents of the captured Japanese 11th Army combat force and found that the attacking force of the Japanese 11th Army was still increasing its troops. Only then did they judge that the next target of the attacking force of the Japanese 11th Army was likely to be Guangxi Province.

It was at this time that Commander Zhang of the Fourth War Zone of the Chinese Government began to panic. Although Guangxi Province was the territory of the Guangxi clique, Commander Zhang was the person in charge. So, Commander Zhang of the Fourth War Zone of the Chinese Government hurriedly asked for help from the highest level of the Chinese Government.

Commander Zhang of the Fourth War Zone of the Chinese Government sent five consecutive telegrams to the highest levels of the government requesting reinforcement of combat troops. In the telegrams, Commander Zhang of the Fourth War Zone of the Chinese Government clearly stated that the Ninth War Zone of the Chinese Government in the north of Guangxi Province still had 80,000 combat troops after the war, and these troops were more than enough to fight guerrilla warfare in the occupied areas of the Japanese 11th Army.

It means that the only way for the Chinese government to recover from the previous defeat is to ensure control of the Guilin-Liuzhou front line. It can be said that Commander Zhang, commander of the Fourth War Zone of the Chinese government, has also put in a lot of effort to defend the province of Guilin.

However, the top leadership of the Chinese government did not immediately agree to the request of Commander Zhang, commander of the Fourth War Zone of the Chinese government, to increase the number of troops. Instead, they sent the vanguard of the 93rd Army of the Chinese government to the border of Guizhou Province to await orders.

At the same time, the highest level of the Chinese government sent a telegram to Yu Hanmou, commander of the Seventh War Zone of the Chinese government, requesting General Yu to withdraw troops from the Seventh War Zone to reinforce Guangxi Province. In addition, the highest level of the Chinese government explained in the telegram to General Yu, commander of the Seventh War Zone of the Chinese government, that the strategic position of Guangxi Province is now much more important than the territories in northwestern Guangdong occupied by General Yu.

However, in the telegram sent by Commander Yu, the commander of the Seventh War Zone of the Chinese government, to the top leaders of the Chinese government, he said that the Seventh War Zone now had no troops to send. This made the top leaders of the Chinese government helpless and they could only ask people to continue to do ideological work on Commander Yu, the commander of the Seventh War Zone of the Chinese government.

Finally, it was not until a month after the 58th Division of the 11th Japanese Army captured Jeonju that Commander Yu of the Seventh War Zone of the Chinese government agreed to send the 64th Army to reinforce the operations of the Fourth War Zone of the Chinese government in Guangxi Province.

As the deputy chief of staff of the Military Commission of the Chinese government, although the affairs of the Fourth War Zone of the Chinese government have no direct relationship with Commander Bai, Guangxi Province is Commander Bai's home base after all, so Commander Bai has to make the deployment personally, otherwise he will be ashamed to face the elders and folks in his hometown.

Therefore, Commander Bai, Deputy Chief of Staff of the Military Commission of the Chinese Government, submitted a combat plan to the top leaders of the Chinese Government and explained to them that because there are many mountains near Guilin and it is easy to defend, as long as he is given enough troops, Guilin can be defended for at least four months.

In order to find enough troops, Commander Bai, Deputy Chief of Staff of the Military Commission of the Chinese Government, personally went to the headquarters of the Ninth War Zone of the Chinese Government, hoping that Commander Xue, Commander of the Ninth War Zone of the Chinese Government, would lead all the troops of the Ninth War Zone to withdraw to Guangxi Province.

When Commander Xue of the Ninth War Zone of the Chinese Government heard what Commander Bai, Deputy Chief of Staff of the Military Commission of the Chinese Government, said, it was natural that he could not refuse. There was already a serious rift between Commander Xue and Commander Bai. Moreover, in the view of Commander Xue, Commander of the Ninth War Zone of the Chinese Government, his Ninth War Zone troops had been beaten half to death by the attacking forces of the Japanese Eleventh Army in Hunan Province. Why should he help Commander Bai, Deputy Chief of Staff of the Military Commission of the Chinese Government, to defend his hometown?

Later, it was only after repeated requests for help from Commander Zhang, the commander of the Fourth War Zone of the Huaxia Government, that a part of the remnant troops withdrew from Hunan Province, which increased the military strength of Guangxi Province as follows: the 31st and 46th Armies under the 16th Army Group of the Guangxi Clique, the 20th, 29th and 37th Armies under the 27th Army Group of the Sichuan Army that withdrew from the battlefield in Hunan Province, as well as the 62nd and 79th Armies of the Huaxia Government, and the 64th and 93rd Armies under the 35th Army Group.

Although the Fourth War Zone of the Huaxia Government received reinforcements with nine armies, most of these troops were remnants who retreated from the battlefield in Hunan Province. Except for the 93rd Army of the Huaxia Government, which was a regular army, the other troops were local troops and miscellaneous troops incorporated by the Huaxia Government.

You should know that when the Japanese Army's China Expeditionary Army launched the first phase of the "Operation No. 1" Battle of Central Henan, the Chinese army deployed 23 armies with more than 400,000 troops. When fighting in Changsha and Hengyang, the Chinese army deployed 16 armies with more than 200,000 troops.

When the Japanese China Expeditionary Force was preparing to attack Guangxi Province, the Chinese army had only assembled 160,000 troops. Compared with the eight divisions, two independent mixed brigades, the Fifth Air Force and some special forces used by the Japanese China Expeditionary Force to attack Guangxi Province, the total force used by the Japanese China Expeditionary Force in the Guiliu Campaign was 150,000, which was only slightly more than the troops used by the Japanese China Expeditionary Force in the previous two battles.

Faced with such a situation, Commander Zhang of the Fourth War Zone of the Chinese Government was helpless. The nearly one-to-one comparison of troop strength made Commander Zhang of the Fourth War Zone of the Chinese Government feel that this battle in Guangxi Province would be disastrous.

However, the top level of the Chinese government stipulated that Quanzhou, Guilin and Liuzhou each had to hold out for three months of defensive operations. This was also a conspiracy of the top level of the Chinese government. The top level of the Chinese government also wanted to use these nine months to allow the Japanese offensive forces to destroy Guangxi Province, so that the Guangxi clique would have no capital to oppose them in the future.