Chapter 8, World of Conflict: Roommate Fighting China, Wuhan In the modern history of China, this capital of Hubei Province, known as the "Throughway of Nine Provinces" and an important town in central China, has been continuously burned by raging wars.
From the Wuchang Uprising that overthrew the Qing Dynasty, to the series of fierce battles in the Northern Expedition, and then to the Battle of Wuhan in the Anti-Japanese War Today, although the Japanese invaders have retreated from Wuhan, the anti-Japanese national united front no longer exists.
Out of deep-rooted hatred and hostility between each other, as well as irreconcilable class conflicts, the Kuomintang and the Communist Party once again fought, and the city was once again involved in the flames of war.
At dusk, standing on the Yellow Crane Tower on the top of Snake Mountain in Wuchang on the south bank of the Yangtze River, looking at the raging fire burning in Hanyang on the other side, and listening to the faint rumble of artillery, the Chief of Staff of the Allied China Theater in civilian uniform , Lieutenant General Joseph Stilwell, could not help but close his eyes in pain.
This Excellency "Jealous Joe", who is known for his unruliness and arrogance, is in an extremely bad mood at this time.
Everything was lost, all my work and efforts had failed again.
Frustration, disappointment, pain, powerlessness, and all kinds of negative emotions surged into Lieutenant General Stilwell's heart like a tide.
From the outbreak of the Pacific War four years ago to the present, he, who was once proud and arrogant, has always played the role of the defeated general.
For Stilwell, there is nothing more cruel than becoming a defeated general, but that he has been kicked out of the battlefield by fate before the war is over.
Recalling the early days of the war, when he led tens of thousands of Chinese Expeditionary Forces from Yunnan to Burma, he was so high-spirited.
Even though the entire army was defeated on the Burmese battlefield and the army was in desperate situation, the tenacious Stilwell did not give up, but led the With the last more than a hundred people around him, he managed to cross the vast mountains and forests, escape from the Japanese army's pursuit and interception, and successfully retreated westward to India, thinking only about when to regroup and make a comeback.
But hell, Japan, an enemy recognized by Americans as a clown before the war, is actually so difficult to deal with.
Although China has been frantically building ships locally regardless of blood, the Pacific Fleet has had its spine broken time and time again.
The performance of the army was not better than that of the navy.
MacArthur retreated from Manila to the Bataan Peninsula, abandoned his troops and fled from the Philippines to Australia with a small group of people, and then continued to retreat south in Australia.
Now he has retreated to the lowest point in Australia.
In Melbourne, at the southern end, if we continue to retreat, we will have to jump into the sea.
So far, almost all efforts by Western countries to resist Japanese aggression have failed, and the best case scenario is just a draw.
According to Stilwell, who has been in the East for many years, the root of this problem should be the deep-rooted superiority of white people over people of color.
Intellectually, they knew that the Japanese were difficult to deal with, but emotionally, they refused to believe that the yellow-faced Japanese could defeat the Western powers.
Although in the Russo-Japanese War at the beginning of the century, these island country dwarfs had already succeeded once.
Therefore, the Japanese samurai used their ferocity, cunning and toughness to teach those racists who insisted on white supremacy a hard lesson, allowing them to experience enough embarrassment and humiliation, and also combined the majesty of the United States of America and the British Empire.
Afterglow, they all stepped under their wooden clogs.
As a professional soldier of the United States of America and on the front line against Japan, Stilwell certainly believed that he should do something.
However, he couldn't do anything.
Since the expedition to Burma failed and he fled to India in embarrassment, he has no soldiers in his hands.
Although he finally opened up the "Hump Route" over the Himalayas from the air and returned to Chongqing, China, the subsequent Japanese navy's large-scale entry into the Indian Ocean and the subsequent anti-British uprising in India made Stilwell think of India as As a base, the plan to train Chinese soldiers to counterattack Myanmar was completely declared bankrupt.
As a typical American who has been taught to "hate the British" since he was a child, Stilwell can understand the hatred of Indians towards British colonists to a certain extent, but it has to be said that the timing of this hatred breaking out is really embarrassing. , and whoever set it off was really bad After the Indian subcontinent became a battlefield, the Hump route soon ran out of cargo and came to a complete halt.
This was already the last international line of communication between China and the outside world during the war.
Losing it will suffocate China's blood vessels, and no bullet or drop of gasoline can be transported to Chongqing.
Well, strictly speaking, there is an international communication line connecting the northern Soviet Union, but that has nothing to do with Stilwell, the American Lieutenant General.
Unable to obtain aid supplies and losing value, Stilwell was kicked away by Chairman Chiang and sat on the bench in Chongqing.
After that, as the Japanese army shifted the focus of its attacks to Southeast Asia and Australia, it continuously transferred troops from the Chinese battlefield, retreated step by step, and voluntarily abandoned the occupied areas of large areas of inland provinces.
Chairman Chiang easily regained Wuhan and other large areas of land, and fought against Japan.
Attitudes become increasingly negative.
When MacArthur was overwhelmed and retreating in the Australian battlefield, Stilwell once relied on President Roosevelt's call to urge Chairman Chiang not to be content with taking over the part of the territory that the Japanese had voluntarily given up.
Instead, he should cooperate with other battlefields and initiate containment.
Sexual counterattack:
"With thousands of horses and horses in the entire Asian battlefield in silence, if China can seize the opportunity to counterattack bravely and launch a large-scale attack on the retreating Japanese aggressors, it can successfully contain the Japanese army's march south, and even achieve an early recovery if conditions permit.
Our own capital, Nanjing, will certainly be a great inspiration to the anti-fascist people of the world.”
If it were before, Bald Jiang would still be able to listen to a few words from Stilwell, who had the power to distribute US aid supplies.
However, after the US aid supplies on the Hump Route were cut off, the snobbish Chairman Chiang expressed great dissatisfaction and anger towards him, and he was full of complaints: "How China conducts its own anti-aggression war has nothing to do with others.
So far, the allies have suffered a complete defeat in the war against Japan.
All battlefields are in retreat.
Only we, China, stand strong and have regained a large area of territory.
Free novels bring you joy and joy ---> storyskyline.net
Even if the allies have fulfilled a little of their Promise, give us a little bit Actual support, or cooperation with our country in fighting even once, can be regarded as reflecting the value of the alliance.
Now even the fuel of the Chennault Flying Tigers, composed of Americans, cannot be guaranteed.
Instead, we are required to contain the Japanese army from going south.
Imperialism and racism have always been Sacrificing China’s interests” Although he said it beautifully, Stilwell was speechless for a time.
However, Chairman Chiang’s approach is really unflattering.
He gave all the troops withdrawn from Burma and the last batch of US aid equipment obtained through the Hump Route to Hu Zongnan in Xi’an, and followed him wholeheartedly.
The Eighth Route Army in Yan'an was engaged in friction, but it had no interest in fighting the Japanese.
It just wanted to wait for the allies to defeat Japan, and then go pick the fruits themselves.
What use are these so-called "allies" that only take things but do nothing to the United States?
Does Washington owe you anything?
Lieutenant General Stilwell felt extremely frustrated and angry about such a stubborn "peanut", but he was helpless.
Fortunately, after a period of silence, Stilwell finally found something to do.
He no longer had to idle away the moldy U.S.
Pacific Fleet that had repeatedly failed.
In order to save face and retaliate against the enemy, he proposed the concept of "shuttle bombing".
That is to allow long-range strategic bombers to take off from Midway Island, bomb Japan, fly directly to mainland China, refuel and load bombs in China, then fly east over Japan to perform a second bombing, and finally return to Midway Island.
This can avoid the problem of insufficient aircraft range and inflict a double blow on the Japanese, but for this, it is necessary to find a suitable base on the coast of China.
Therefore, Stilwell, who was idle in Chongqing, devoted himself with great enthusiasm to the work of surveying the terrain and inspecting the location of the airport.
Unfortunately, just as this work had just begun, the unlucky General Stilwell was hit in the head again.
The second civil war between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party broke out.
As we all know, after the so-called "honeymoon period" in the early days of the Anti-Japanese War, the relationship between Chongqing and Yan'an has long been inseparable, and various conflicts and frictions, large and small, have never stopped, such as the most serious "Southern Anhui Incident" .
When the Pacific War broke out and the main force of the Japanese army gradually withdrew from the Chinese battlefield, Chongqing became even more passive in resisting Japan and actively "suppressed bandits."
However, the Japanese army's aggressive retreat not only allowed Chongqing to gain a few advantages, but also allowed the Eighth Route Army to gain ground in the north.
The power expanded rapidly.
In addition, with the closure of the Hump route, the national government has completely lost US aid and is losing blood and weakening day by day.
However, the "Soviet aid" from Yan'an is still flowing smoothly.
With one ebb and flow, the prospect seems very scary.
Therefore, Chiang Kai-shek in Chongqing saw that the Japanese troops in China had temporarily lost their threat, so he prepared to take advantage of his absolute military strength on paper to launch a "preventive war" against Yan'an.
Destroy the opponent's upward momentum and nip it in the bud.
Regrettably, Chairman Chiang obviously seriously overestimated his own strength, but forgot that his territory is now isolated from the world.
The channels for arms imports have been completely cut off, and the National Government's own military production is bizarre. , unexpectedly during the war with Japan, there were embarrassing incidents of arsenals going bankrupt.
In other words, his army could not supply its own ammunition and had nowhere to import it.
It was a "disposable army" that would be finished after just a few battles.
Therefore, the actual situation and long-term combat capabilities of the troops under the Nationalist Government were even worse than before the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War.
Quite a few motley troops did not even have enough rifles for each man, and could only fight with spears and machetes.
Even for direct troops, ammunition reserves are usually only enough to fight one or two battles, and then they run out of supplies.
The aircraft and tanks that were finally saved had neither gasoline nor spare parts, and they were actually lying dormant for a long time.
Therefore, in terms of weapons and equipment, the Chongqing government army actually has no advantage at all compared with the Eighth Route Army and the New Fourth Army, and its morale and fighting spirit are far inferior.
The great famine in the Central Plains and the exorbitant expropriation of Tang Enbo's troops caused the local people to rebel and welcome the Eighth Route Army's liberation.
As a result, in the all-out civil war that lasted for a year, the Northwest Corps of Hu Zongnan, the most die-hard direct lineage of Chairman Chiang Kai-shek, won first and then lost.
They were forced to abandon Xi'an and flee to Hanzhong in despair, and everything north of the Qinling Mountains changed hands.
Tang Enbo's regiment in the Central Plains was defeated again and again.
It made little effective resistance and suffered a devastating blow.
It fled from Luoyang, Nanyang, and Xiangyang all the way to Wuhan before it could barely gain a foothold.
The 400,000-strong army was defeated and only less than 100,000 soldiers were left.
Free novels bring you joy and joy ---> storyskyline.net
Twenty thousand.
When the frontline collapsed, a fire broke out in Chairman Chiang's backyard.
The Guangxi Army and the Yunnan Army successively called to withdraw from the civil war, declaring that they would resist Japan and Chiang.
For a while, the National Government in Chongqing was in turmoil, as if it was besieged on all sides. .
Fortunately, the puppet Nationalist government in Nanjing was in the midst of the chaos after Wang Jingwei's death.
Otherwise, even if the Japanese army did not take action, the puppet troops would probably come to kill the tiger together.
Such a series of earth-shattering blows finally allowed Jiang to calm down.
In order to stabilize his opponents, he played the peace card again and organized representatives from all parties to hold a peace truce meeting in Wuhan.
Lieutenant General Stilwell also participated in the mediation as a representative of the United States, and he sincerely and urgently hoped that all forces in China could stop the civil war as soon as possible and unite in dealing with the outside world, so that the United States could contain as much of the power of the Japanese Empire as possible.
This reduced the pressure on the U.S.
Navy and Army's counteroffensive operations in the Pacific Theater and allowed him to get some credit.
Unexpectedly, unexpected events occurred.
With the successive collapse of the fascist regimes of Nazi Germany and Italy, and the fierce fighting between the British and Soviet armies in Western Europe, the anti-fascist alliance was on the verge of collapse in the spring and summer of this year.
Even the two superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union, were on the verge of collapse.
In the meantime, it seems that they may turn against each other at any time.
In order to hold back the Americans, the Kremlin needs to find ways to temporarily reduce pressure on Japan so that the Americans can bleed more in the Pacific.
Therefore, a special envoy was sent to Yan'an, China, in April to instruct Yan'an that under the current favorable situation, they should never compromise with the "class enemies", but should first seize state power and then try to counter Japanese aggression, just like the Soviet Union in the October Revolution Follow the steps before and after.
In exchange, the Soviet Union could provide Yan'an with a large amount of arms and material assistance.
In addition, it could also improve their status in the Communist International organization and so on.
As a result, under the soft and hard tactics of the Soviet Union, the new round of armistice negotiations between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party ultimately failed, and the Wuhan peace talks were completely aborted.
In August, Yan'an restored the title of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army and launched a new all-out offensive against the Nationalist Government.
On the western front, 200,000 Red Army troops crossed the Qinling Mountains in large numbers, defeated Hu Zongnan again, and won the Battle of Hanzhong.
Red Army guerrillas were already present in the Sichuan Basin; On the eastern front, one hundred thousand Red Army troops rushed down the Dabie Mountains and easily defeated the frightened Tang Enbo Corps.
Currently, the leading troops have just entered Hanyang and are engaged in fierce street fighting.
The U.S. mediation failed, the civil war was raging again, and the Japanese army had no worries at the rear.
For a moment, Lieutenant General Stilwell felt that all hope was lost.
The Pentagon and the White House are still sending instructions, ordering Lieutenant General Stilwell to try to help China's legitimate government resist the "rebels" and must not allow China's Bolsheviks to overthrow the Chongqing regime.
However, now that all international transportation lines are cut off, he cannot get a bullet or a barrel of gasoline for Chairman Chiang Kai-shek in Chongqing.
Or an American soldier can only use these telegrams to support the table.
What else can be done Looking back, I realize that in this largest war in human history, my role was not only a loser, but also a loser.
What's even more frightening is that according to gossip, the desperate Chairman Chiang seems to have taken refuge in Japan in order to survive.
If things come true, he, an American lieutenant general, may have to join the Japanese army next. to visit a prisoner of war camp Looking at the city of Hanyang on the other side of the Yangtze River, where artillery fire was pouring in the dusk, Lieutenant General Stilwell couldn't help but become more and more dejected.
China, Shanghai In modern history, this most flashy city in China in the first half of the 20th century was called the "Paris of the East" or the "Paradise of Adventurers" by Westerners.
Its unique oriental heritage is mixed with imported Western temperament. , attracting countless people to be fascinated and flock to it.
When it is mentioned, people will think of majestic high-rise buildings and gorgeous imitation Western-style buildings; streets lined with sycamore trees, rickshaws traveling through the streets and alleys; women's hair pulled low and long cheongsam; as if they were oil paintings.
Advertising posters; the lavish Paramount and the Big World, echoing with the tired and beautiful songs of dancers.
Shanghai in this era was the most fashionable place in China and an important window for China's foreign exchanges.
Western medicine, automobiles, electrical appliances, small hardware and other foreign industrial products, as well as all kinds of foreign visitors, are pouring into the mainland from Shanghai.
Tea, silk, minerals and other agricultural products exported from the mainland are also exported along the Yangtze River. , railway all the way to Shanghai, and then shipped from here for transportation to various parts of the world.
However, by 1945, Shanghai's glamorous beauty had faded under the flames of war and became withered and dim.
Even the colorful world of Shili Foreign Market is no longer the extravagant atmosphere of the past with feasting, singing and dancing.
With the full outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War, especially after the Pacific War, the Japanese army forcibly took over the entire Shanghai concession, completely cutting off this modern metropolis from the capitalist world market, and completely cutting off routes between Shanghai and Europe, America, and Southeast Asia.
From then on, no more foreign oil, foreign noodles, and various foreign goods were shipped from the distant Western world, which quickly brought Shanghai's status as a trade and financial center to a halt.
The Japanese Empire, the only country that can still maintain "trade" relations with Shanghai, has always had a consistent attitude towards the Chinese people, which is to squeeze and plunder the Chinese people.
Therefore, during the Japanese occupation of Shanghai, thousands of horses and horses were silent and all industries were in depression.
Free novels bring you joy and joy ---> storyskyline.net
Factories large and small went bankrupt one after another, and foreign trade companies closed down one after another.
Most daily necessities such as cigarettes, sugar, oil, briquettes, soap, etc. are rationed, and the portions are very small and the quality is very poor.
White rice, a staple food, has almost disappeared from the market, or is only available to Japanese people.
Citizens could only eat corn flour, potatoes and potatoes to satisfy their hunger.
The "cheap food" occasionally distributed by the Wang Puppet Government was originally brown rice and broken rice.
By four or five years, most of it had become ground bean cake residue mixed with sand, spoiled military horse feed and rotten miscellaneous grains.
Mixed noodles are not only difficult to swallow, but also pose a risk of poisoning after eating.
If someone really lives according to the food rations rationed by the Japanese and puppet colonial authorities, it can be concluded that there is no difference between chronic suicide.
Suddenly, the vendors selling cigarettes and pear candy disappeared from the streets, and the goods in the stores were scarce.
The blond foreigners were imprisoned in enemy alien concentration camps.
The clanking trams stopped running, and the street lights at night no longer illuminated the beauty of Shanghai, a city that never sleeps, and most of it suddenly faded.
Like a haggard, poor and sick beauty who has been tortured by a rough fate for a long time, she no longer has the peerless beauty she once had.
But despite this, when the merchant ship carrying the 4th Osaka Division of the Japanese Army slowly sailed into the Huangpu River and docked at Shiliupu Pier, these Japanese soldiers, tanned by the tropical sun, still looked at them curiously.
The high-rise buildings on the Bund emitted bursts of excited cheers.
Although Shanghai is no longer prosperous at this time, for these Osaka soldiers, it is much better than that ghost place on Ceylon Island.
I have to admit that although the navy's curry rice is indeed delicious, but The origin of curry is not very suitable for Japanese people to live.
After being stationed in Ceylon for several years, all the officers and soldiers of the Fourth Division smelled of curry.
They always complained that Indian rice tasted unpalatable.
Many people also suffered from tropical diseases such as dengue fever, malaria, and itchy skin.
The troubles caused by prevalent diseases are truly unspeakable.
Relatively speaking, the water and soil in Shanghai are much similar to their hometown in Japan, giving them a comfortable feeling of returning home.
Accompanied by the sound of the whistle, the ship docked at the pier.
Groups of soldiers from the Fourth Division stepped onto the shore on the springboard.
After moving their legs and feet for a while, they got into the work of unloading the cargo in full swing.
Nanyang's Dried coconut, coconut oil, black tea from Ceylon, curry spices from India, There is also rice from Thailand.
These are private goods collected by the Fourth Division along the way.
They are very valuable.
They are determined to take advantage of this opportunity to enter Shanghai to change defenses, sell them at high prices in the Shanghai market, and make a lot of money.
Because I'm worried about the coolies at the dock hiding the goods, so I'd rather work hard to unload the goods myself.
The "Trader Division", the most unusual among the Imperial Japanese Army, is truly well-deserved for its business acumen.
At the same time, groups of Chinese workers with sallow faces and ragged clothes were also summoned next to the dock, waiting to board the ship and go to sea.
Everyone was drooling at this moment, looking enviously at these well-nourished Japanese soldiers with dark and red faces, as well as the dazzling array of good things they brought out from the cabin.
It seemed that the place in Nanyang we were going to this time was indeed rich, even if it was good.
Everything must be given to the Japanese Taijun first, so I should be able to have a good time at least.
In an office next to the dock, Zhou Fohai, the mayor of Shanghai appointed by Wang Jingwei's Nanjing puppet government, was smiling broadly as he entertained the Chinese and Western military commanders who came to handle labor transfer matters.
I saw that he first complimented the young and promising Chinese and Western military commanders, and then complained nonstop about the hardship of recruiting this group of laborers from the nearby countryside, as well as the current livelihood embarrassment of the Shanghai government, even under the Wang Puppet Government.
Civil servants only have a daily ration of 200 grams of brown rice, plus half a bag of flour every month.
Not to mention being pampered, it is difficult to even eat enough.
So, seeing as we are working so hard this time, can the Japanese Taijun slip some more benefits out of his fingers?
But on the other side, Zhongxi Gong secretly looked at the mayor of Shanghai and one of the founders of the Chinese Bolsheviks with a rather amused look.
Obviously, the guy opposite Zhou Fohai didn't know what he was doing.
An identity, otherwise this scene would be really weird.
One is a Japanese military officer who became a formal member of the Communist Party of China, and the other is the founder of the Communist Party of China who defected to the Japanese Empire.
To be honest, ever since he came into contact with red ideas at the East Asia Tongwen School in Shanghai more than ten years ago and secretly joined the party, Zhongxi Gong had never imagined that he would actually act in such a strange way under such a rather subtle situation.
Of course, as an underground worker who has been lurking in the heart of the enemy for many years, Zhongxi Gong will not let this small thing change his identity.
Free novels bring you joy and joy ---> storyskyline.net
The entanglement and inappropriate actions made are suspicious.
Nakanishi Ko smiled and praised the hard work of Mayor Zhou Fohai and all the staff of the Shanghai Municipal Government, praising them for their great contributions to Japan's allies and the Emperor's "Greater East Asia Jihad" cause, and then agreed to allocate a small number of funds to the Shanghai Municipal Government.
A batch of sugar and rice were shipped from Southeast Asia, and finally the entourage presented a bundle of naval coupons with pictures of various Yamato-class battleships printed on them, which immediately made Mayor Zhou Fohai and his entourage smile with satisfaction.
Although they are also military tickets, the Japanese Army's military tickets have basically become useless paper now, while the Navy's military tickets are relatively strong.
You can find a way to buy some Nanyang or Australian specialties from the navy's special canteen, as well as Industrial products imported from the Soviet Union And seeing them looking so satisfied and flattering themselves in every possible way, Zhongxi Gong couldn't help but sigh slightly in his heart.
To those who don’t know the inside story, the current situation of the Japanese Empire seems to be relatively prosperous and prosperous.
The Yamato nation roars proudly to the world, and famous imperial generals are shining through history.
But in fact, Japan’s national power has been seriously overstretched.
People's lives are becoming increasingly difficult, war weariness is increasing, and the general will to fight is declining.
It was just that it was difficult to reach a compromise externally and the military was stubborn internally, so we had to bite the bullet and fight on.
According to the spirit of the Communist International’s instructions, today’s Japanese Empire is like the German Empire at the end of the last world war.
Although it is arrogant, its defeat is actually determined and its strength is at the end.
It is not the real enemy of the proletarian revolutionaries.
The United States, the stronghold of capitalism, protected by two oceans, is the ultimate enemy that hinders the Communist International's cause of liberating all mankind.
Therefore, in order to plant the red flag all over the world, Bolsheviks around the world must use and strengthen the Japanese Empire.
The power of the United States held back the hands and feet of the Americans on the Pacific battlefield and bled them as hard as possible.
Only in this way can we buy time for the global proletarian revolutionary organization and make the Americans unable to interfere in the real world revolution in the future.
And Zhongxi Gong also understood and agreed with this.
Thinking of this, he couldn't help but turn his head and look at the southeastern sky.
When he set out, there was already information about the movements of the US fleet on the Nanyang front, and now, The third naval battle of Noumea may have already begun.
This time the size of the US military fleet should be larger than last time.
I wonder if Marshal Yamamoto Isoroku can achieve great results again.
However, he forgot that even a dog will know to take a detour after being beaten several times in the same place, let alone a human.
So, will the Americans really follow the same old path and once again hit the iron wall that the United Fleet has prepared for a long time?
oshow7: