mtl008 Chapter 739 Many Problems
Chapter 739 Many Problems
The main reason for this situation is that some officers and soldiers in the Huaxia government's troops did not understand the suffering of the people. They occupied people's houses, burned doors and windows, and forcibly requisitioned and purchased property from the people in the name of the war of resistance, which caused a rift between the Huaxia army and the people.
As a result, whenever a war broke out, the Chinese army requisitioned a large number of horses and vehicles and forced civilians to work as laborers. Many troops with poor military discipline took the opportunity to loot. Some troops' requisitioned vehicles and horses were actually loaded not with weapons and ammunition, but with smuggled goods. The corruption of military discipline in the troops could be said to have reached its peak.
At the same time, the logistics support of the First War Zone Army of the Chinese Government also encountered major problems. The entire province of Henan had suffered from famine for years, especially the severe drought in 1942, which caused a huge famine in Henan Province.
After the Chinese army suffered a disastrous defeat in the Battle of Zhongtiao Mountains, it was surrounded and blockaded by the Japanese army from the north, south and east. On the other hand, a large number of troops were assembled in Henan Province, which added a huge burden to the local people in Henan Province.
In addition, Henan Province also needs to provide supplies to tens of thousands of troops of the Eighth War Zone of the Huaxia Government stationed in Shaanxi Province. As a result, the logistics supply of the Huaxia army fell into a difficult situation. The salaries and clothing of many officers and soldiers in the troops have not been paid for several months.
In addition, as the number of battles on the Chinese battlefield increased, many troops in the First War Zone of the Chinese government were unable to receive supplies, so they borrowed a lot of corn and other grains from the public. This caused serious nutritional deficiencies for the soldiers in the First War Zone of the Chinese government, which not only affected the combat of the troops, but also these troops had to grind so many borrowed grains themselves. As a result, the soldiers in each unit were busy raising food and grinding every day, and had no time and energy to take care of training and defense.
In fact, as early as 1940, in order to relieve the pressure on the people, the Chinese government changed the three meals a day system for Chinese army officers and soldiers to two meals a day, and most of the dishes were vegetable leaves and salt water soup. As a result, many officers and soldiers in the army suffered from serious malnutrition, and many soldiers could not even hold their guns steadily, which led to a large number of recruits in the army deserting.
This situation continued until 1944, when many soldiers in the Chinese government's troops were unable to march, let alone fight effectively. The main reason was that these officers and soldiers had been in a semi-starved state for a long time. Due to inadequate logistics and supply work, military rations from the rear could not be delivered to the front-line combat troops on schedule, which also led to frequent food shortages for the troops fighting on the front line.
At the same time, it was a common phenomenon for some of the Chinese government's armies to fail to pay soldiers or to withhold their food and wages. In addition, military rations and salt were adulterated, soldiers were unable to get enough food, and military uniforms could not be issued according to the season. In some units, soldiers were still wearing winter uniforms in summer.
Moreover, because the international supply lines were cut off by the Japanese army, the Chinese army suffered a serious shortage of medicines, and many wounded soldiers in the army died because they could not receive timely medical treatment. All these greatly weakened the combat capability of the Chinese army.
In addition, due to political factors, in order to continuously obtain military assistance from the United States and England and win the status of a great power after the war, the Chinese government had to transfer a large number of its elite troops to the battlefields in Myanmar and western Yunnan.
These include the elite Second Army, Fifth Army, Sixth Army, Eighth Army, Fifty-third Army, Fifty-fourth Army, Seventy-first Army and the new Twenty-second Army of the Chinese government army, totaling about 200,000 troops. In northern Myanmar, there are also 120,000 elite troops equipped with American weapons.
On the same day that the offensive forces of the Japanese 12th Army captured Luoyang, General Shunroku Hata, commander-in-chief of the Japanese China Expeditionary Army, also moved the forward command headquarters in Nanjing to the three towns, preparing to begin the second phase of the "Operation No. 1" plan, the Hunan-Guangxi Operation.
Since the Ninth War Zone of the Chinese Army won a great victory in the Third Battle of Changsha in January 1942, the Eleventh Army of the Japanese Army had not organized large-scale troops to attack southward for more than two years. This made Commander Xue, the commander of the Ninth War Zone of the Chinese government, feel a little complacent.
Moreover, during the stalemate between the Chinese government and the Japanese army, the Japanese military headquarters did not have any plans to occupy Changsha for a long time, because the Japanese military headquarters felt that since the troops of the 11th Army of the Japanese Army had failed to capture Changsha three times, they temporarily gave up this idea. This allowed the troops of the 9th War Zone of the Chinese government and the troops of the 11th Army of the Japanese Army to continue to form a confrontation in the area south of Yueyang.
However, the situation was fundamentally different in the Battle of Henan, Hunan and Guangxi that broke out in May 1944. In order to open up the "continental transportation line" and save the Japanese southern army that was about to starve to death, and at the same time destroy the Chinese government's air bases in China and the United States in the southwest, the Japanese army launched a large-scale attack at a huge cost.
In other words, the cities along the Pinghan Railway in Henan Province, as well as Changsha, Hengyang, Guilin and other cities in the Hunan-Guangxi section are the cities that must be captured by the Japanese army in this "Operation No. 1" plan, because these cities are the key points of the Guangdong-Hankou Railway and the Hunan-Guangxi Railway. If the Japanese army does not capture and occupy these cities, how can they allow trains to run from the northeast through North China to northern Vietnam?
Before the Japanese 11th Army attacked Changsha, the Chinese government also obtained intelligence about the attack from various intelligence collected. Facing the possible attack launched by the Japanese 11th Army, the Chinese government also came up with three strategic opinions.
One is the opinion of the Chinese government's military headquarters, which is to prepare to abandon Changsha, then lure the offensive forces of the Japanese 11th Army into the Hengyang area and then engage in a decisive battle with the offensive forces of the Japanese 11th Army. The second is the opinion of the Chinese government's Deputy Chief of Staff, Commander Bai, which is to abandon Changsha and engage in a decisive battle with the offensive forces of the Japanese 11th Army at the Huangsha River on the Hunan-Guangxi border.
The third plan was the opinion of Commander Xue, commander of the Ninth War Zone of the Chinese government, which was to fight a decisive battle with the attacking forces of the Japanese 11th Army under the city of Changsha.
Finally, the proposal of Commander Xue, commander of the Ninth War Zone of the Chinese government, was adopted by the highest level of the government, and the Chinese army began to stand ready near Changsha.
After the Chinese government won the first three Changsha battles, almost everyone was optimistic about the outcome of this Changsha battle. Both the Chinese army and ordinary people underestimated the enemy and did not fully understand the Japanese army's desperate attack this time.