Chapter 138: Daydreaming
On May 19, 1938, Xuzhou fell, and the Xuzhou Campaign, which lasted more than five months, finally came to an end.
On the surface, the Japanese army occupied Xuzhou and achieved the final victory, but strategically speaking, the Japanese army did not achieve the goal of annihilating the main force of the Fifth War Area.
Because before the Japanese army occupied Xuzhou, Li Zongren had already commanded the main force of the Fifth War Area to break out of the Japanese encirclement and leave triumphantly. After paying the price of more than 45,000 casualties（ including wounded and sick）, the Japanese army only got an empty city.
After the battle, although the Japanese Imperial General Headquarters claimed that they had achieved the objectives of this campaign, the international community generally believed that the Japanese had paid more than they gained in this battle, exchanging the casualties of more than 40,000 people for an empty city.
Seeing the public opinion fermenting afterward, the Japanese government hurriedly claimed that their casualties were not as many as the Chinese government claimed, but only 16,000.
This statement instantly made countless people burst into laughter.
The Washington Post even bluntly pointed out that the Japanese army’s casualties in Taierzhuang alone had already exceeded this number. Didn’t they see that after the Xuzhou Campaign, the 10th and 16th Divisions that participated in the Taierzhuang Campaign had already been withdrawn to the homeland for rest and reorganization due to heavy casualties?
Not to mention the casualties paid by the Japanese army in Fengxian, Linyi, and during the final pursuit of the 10th and 16th Divisions by the Chinese army to block the Chinese forces.
For this, the Washington Post even showed photos taken by Chinese reporters on the battlefield, with countless Japanese corpses practically lining the entire road.
In response, the Japanese government maintained its usual attitude… I didn’t… nothing happened… you’re talking nonsense…
North China Area Army Commander General Terauchi Hisaichi even shouted that in the upcoming Wuhan Campaign, he would make the Chinese pay a bloody price.
Compared to the military’s shouting, the Japanese government fell into deep distress.
Up to now, the huge military expenditures had depleted Japan’s gold and domestic currency reserves accumulated before the full-scale invasion of China, even leading to serious overdraft.
Even increasing the tax burden could not fill the fiscal deficit, forcing Japan to enter wartime economic controls at the beginning of 1938, meaning that before the Xuzhou Campaign, Japan’s economic situation had already fallen into a serious crisis.
This in turn led to endless domestic debates on whether to continue expanding the war against China.
Although under the pressure of the fanatical military, the argument for continuing to expand the war occupied the high ground, Japan thus fell into a quagmire: wanting to end the war against China as soon as possible, yet having to continue expanding the scale of the war in order to end it quickly—a vicious cycle.
The Wuhan Campaign occurred under such circumstances.
The Army Department of the Imperial General Headquarters believed that capturing Hankou was the greatest opportunity to end the war early.
As long as Hankou and Guangzhou were captured, Chairman Chiang could be driven to the southwestern border, and China could be ruled.
The Japanese also bizarrely believed that occupying Hankou would cut off contact between the Nationalists and the Communists, leading to a split between the two parties. It must be said that this Japanese argument was extremely chuunibyou.
This was just like the non-mainstream kids in the 1990s of later generations who believed that as long as they dyed their hair yellow, they would be the most dazzling kid in the world.
To capture Wuhan, Japan mobilized 9 divisions, 1 brigade, 2 heavy artillery brigades, totaling 250,000 men, as well as the Navy Third Fleet Air Group, with more than 120 warships, more than 300 combat aircraft, and hundreds of tanks and armored vehicles. It could be said that Japan had gone all out.
Facing the Japanese army’s step-by-step pressure, the Nationalist Government showed no weakness and also mobilized more than a million troops to confront the Japanese army in the four provinces of Jiangxi, Hubei, Henan, Anhui, and along the Yangtze River.
The Wuhan Campaign occurred under such circumstances.
While the Wuhan Campaign was underway, a force of more than 5,000 men arrived at Pingxing Pass along the borders of Hebei and Shanxi.
At dusk, the wind of the Loess Plateau carrying fine sand beat against the body of the Willys Jeep, and the originally green paint was almost scraped silver-gray by the sand.
The cliffs of Pingxing Pass were like being split by a giant axe, with serpentine goat paths winding between the ochre rock layers like centipedes.
Behind came the muffled sound of tracks crushing gravel—that was the tank company passing behind him.
These steel behemoths of more than ten tons were panting roughly, with dust condensed on the gun barrels peeling off in clusters.
Just as Su Yaoyang was observing the terrain by the roadside, a Jeep stopped behind him. A man wearing a Type 36 German military uniform and the rank of colonel got out of the car and walked to his side, somewhat limping.
“Regiment commander…” Pi Ruoyu, who came behind Su Yaoyang, saluted him.
“Old Pi, you’ve arrived.”
Su Yaoyang turned around, looking at Pi Ruoyu’s still thin figure and smiled: “Old Pi, you’ve been with the unit for almost two months, how are you still so thin? Is it that your wife doesn’t feed you enough on weekdays?”
Facing Su Yaoyang’s joke, Pi Ruoyu was also helpless: “The quartermaster department doesn’t know about this. I’ve eaten plenty of sorghum rice and canned meat on weekdays, but he just doesn’t gain weight.”
Su Yaoyang burst into laughter, patted Pi Ruoyu’s shoulder, took out a cigarette from his pocket and handed him one. After lighting it, he pointed to the distant mountains and said.
“We’ve been rushing for nearly two months, traveling more than 2,000 li, and finally arrived at Pingxing Pass on the Shanxi border.
Now that we’re here, we’re only 200 li away from our destination, Wutaixian. If the tank company advances at full speed, it’s just two days’ journey, but this road is not easy to travel. As chief of staff, do you have any plans?”
“This is exactly what I’ve been worried about these days.” Pi Ruoyu smiled wryly.
He reached into the satchel at his waist, took out a map, walked to the front of the Jeep, and spread the map on the hood.
“Regiment commander, look… our current position is here.” His finger pointed to the position of Pingxing Pass.
“To go to Wutaixian, we have to pass through several strongholds controlled by the Japanese. Longquanguan, Shizicun, Sheahezhen—these places all have Japanese garrisons.
Of course, these strongholds are nothing to us; we can wipe them out with a lift of the hand.
The problem is that Dingxiang County, Fanshi County, Dai County, Lingqiu County, and Fuping County around Wutaixian all have Japanese garrisons.
What I’m worried about is that once we take Wutaixian, all these surrounding Japanese will converge at the same time, and since we’ve just arrived, we’ll be very passive.”
“You don’t need to worry about this.”
Su Yaoyang shook his head: “All worries stem from insufficient strength. You should know the strength of our militia. As long as the Japanese don’t mobilize a brigade or more of heavy troops against us, we don’t need to worry about these things at all.
What we lack most now is time. Give us two years to develop peacefully, and after two years, we won’t have to fear anyone anymore.
And don’t forget, Shanxi is different from other places.
Here, various forces are intertwined: Central Army, Jin-Sui Army, Eighth Route Army, and various bandits mixed together. It’s a pipe dream for the Japanese to concentrate all their energy on dealing with us.”
