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In early 1942, at a time of successive defeats in the world's anti-Sith camp, the British newspaper The Times commented on the Third Battle of Changsha in China:
"Since December 7, the only decisive victory of the Allied forces has been the great victory of the Chinese army in Changsha."
When Chiang Kai-shek, who was far away in Chongqing, saw this newspaper, his face was deformed with joy, and the soldiers of the Ninth Theater of Operations were worthy of being loyal and brave soldiers, and Xue Yue, the "tiger boy," was also worthy of being a famous general and worthy of his trust, and handed over to him a theater with the strongest troops.
After the Japanese army occupied Wuhan, its combat strength had reached its limit, and if it wanted to launch a big war again, it was necessary to borrow troops from the garrisons in various places to achieve a relative concentration of troops. Moreover, if the Japanese army sent troops from Wuhan to attack Chongqing, whether it was taking the Han River line or the Yangtze River line, it would have to pass through the obstruction of the two heavy army groups of the Kuomintang army.
Li Zongren's Fifth Theater Marshal Flag was planted at the mouth of the Laohe River, like an "iron hammer" hanging over the head of the Japanese army; Xue Yue's Ninth Theater was more like a "steel knife" that could cut off the waterway of the Yangtze River at any time.
Therefore, since 1939, the Japanese army has successively launched the "Battle of Suizao" aimed at attacking the Fifth Theater and the "Battle of Xianggan" in the Ninth Theater, with a view to eliminating the main aces of these two theaters, namely the Tang Enbo Army with the 13th Army as the backbone and the Guan Linzheng Group with the 74th Army as the backbone. In Okamura Ningji's mind, as long as these two central military units headed by Kuomintang Huangpu officers were eliminated, then the other miscellaneous military units would either obediently give up resistance or take the initiative to surrender.
What the invaders did not expect was that their wishful thinking was wrong, and the miscellaneous armies that should have given up resistance in his plan not only did not do so, but instead fired bullets of hatred at them. Taking the Sichuan Army generals Wang Lingji and Wang Zhanxu as an example, they were originally two extremely extravagant people in life, but during the period when the Japanese army was besieged and the whole army was starving of grain, these two generals were able to dig up grass roots and eat tree bark like ordinary soldiers, and they refused to go down the mountain and surrender.
In the so-called "perfect" plan of the invaders, it is precisely the integrity of the Chinese that is ignored!
Xue Yue, commander of the Ninth Theater, was originally a half-concubine, and Chiang Kai-shek wanted to use him as well as defend him. Fortunately, with Chen Cheng's strong recommendation, Xue Yue had the opportunity to sit on the throne of the commander of the Ninth Theater.
Among the major theaters during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the Ninth Theater had the strongest troops, with nearly 500,000 troops, and almost all of them were Chiang Kai-shek's central military lineage, which was an important armed force in the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression.
Xue Yue also lived up to expectations, since taking office, he has defeated three large-scale attacks of the Japanese army in a row, especially in the Third Battle of Changsha, Xue Yue successfully used the "Heavenly Furnace Tactics" and achieved a great victory, annihilating more than 60,000 Japanese troops, which was the only victory achieved in the period of the world's anti-fascist camp. As the British media commented:
"At a time when the clouds in the Far East are thick, only the clouds over Changsha are truly dazzling."
In the summer of 1944, the Japanese 11th Army, which had been suspended for nearly two years after the Third Battle of Changsha, was again eager to launch another attack on Changsha. This is because since the outbreak of the Pacific War, especially the attack on India and Burma, the Japanese army's supply line has become longer and longer, in order to achieve its purpose of using Chinese mainland as a springboard, opening up the Xianggui Line, and establishing a most convenient communication line, the Japanese army launched the Yuxianggui Operation in the summer of 1944.
It is worth noting that for the first time in this campaign, the Japanese army exceeded our side in the same area, and the total strength of the Japanese army was 360,000, while our army was only more than 300,000. The reasons for this are:
First, Chen Cheng re-established the Sixth Theater in Enshi, Hubei Province, and a large number of elite troops originally belonging to the Ninth Theater were transferred.
Second, the defensive areas that were vacant by the troops drawn to join the expeditionary force were filled by troops drawn from the ninth set of theaters.
Third, after the third great victory in Changsha, the Ninth Theater generally held a light enemy mentality, believing that a "Heavenly Furnace Tactic" could not be cracked, and it was better to use these units in more important places than idle a large number of elite troops in the Ninth Theater.
Fourth, the Japanese army's combat strength declined. From 1943 to 1944, the Japanese army could not compare with its heyday in terms of the quality of soldiers and the quality of weapons and equipment, so in the minds of Chiang Kai-shek and Xue Yue, more than 300,000 troops were enough to resist the Japanese 11th Army stationed in Wuhan.
Xue Yue Picture from the network
It is true that the Kuomintang side has its rationality in judging the enemy's situation, but what they do not know is that since the outbreak of the Pacific War, taking 1944 as an example, the Japanese army has expanded its army by 1 million, and in order to achieve the goal of victory in the Battle of Yuxianggui, the Japanese army has drawn the main force from the Kwantung Army to participate in the battle, and this intelligence has not been mastered by the Kuomintang side. Thus, before the campaign was launched, the number of Japanese troops directly used for Changsha reached 200,000.
Although in 1944, the ratio of combat strength between the soldiers of China and Japan was no longer 5:1 at the beginning of the War of Resistance, it should be 2:1 or 3:1, according to this ratio, even if it was 2:1, it meant that the Ninth Theater should have at least 400,000 troops to compete with the Japanese army, but the Ninth Theater and Xue Yue were blinded by the success of the previous "Heavenly Furnace Tactics", so that Changsha was lost, Hengyang was lost, and eventually led to the great rout of Yuxianggui.
So, what kind of tactics is this "Heavenly Furnace Tactic"? Is it really that powerful?
According to the introduction of Xue Yue's own book", "Heavenly Furnace War", this kind of combat method is simply as magical as the creation of the heavens. According to the book:
"The Heavenly Furnace Tactics are enough to fa the mysteries of heaven and earth, the mysteries of the poor universe, to be wept by ghosts and gods, to be unpredictable, and to be nameless, so it is known as "Heavenly Furnace War"
In fact, if we can understand it, this is the tactic of "retreating to the decisive battle". That is to say, when the Ninth Theater encounters an attack by the Japanese army, it uses the networked strongholds arranged in advance in the combat area to use ambushes, trappings, flanks, tail blows, etc., to gradually deplete the enemy's strength and morale in sections, and finally, when the enemy army is "dragged" to the decisive battle area, it will be fiercely surrounded and annihilated.
Xue Yue's tactics really brought Hunan's geographical advantages to the extreme, because according to the defensive lines of the two sides before the war, if the main force of the Japanese army wanted to attack Changsha, it was bound to pass through the four rivers of the Xinqiang River, the Miluo River, the Laodao River, and the Liuyang River, and the Ninth Theater carried out strict defense along these four rivers, and at the same time organized the people to dig roads, divert water to irrigate the fields, and turn the roads into Zeguo, which seriously hindered the speed of the advance of the Japanese army's heavy weapons.
After the symbolic blockade, the front-line resistance troops withdrew to the mountainous areas, so they blocked and retreated layer by layer, and by the time the Japanese army entered the line of the Laodao River and the Liuyang River, they were basically trapped and starved, and the grain and ammunition were exhausted, while at this time, the Chinese army hiding in the mountains attacked bravely and surrounded the Japanese army to annihilate them. The first three Battles of Changsha, especially the Third Battle of Changsha, were basically this way of playing, causing the Japanese army to lose soldiers and soldiers, and did not dare to face Changsha squarely for two years.
However, there is a precondition for the success of the "Heavenly Furnace Tactics," that is, in the decisive battle, the combat strength of the Ninth Theater will exceed the combat strength of the Japanese offensive troops as a whole, and if the combat strength of the Japanese army is still not weak at the time of the decisive battle, it is very likely to become a pot of raw rice, and at that time, the two troops will be mixed together, and the final victory or defeat is unpredictable.
In terms of the combat strength of the Japanese army this time, let alone Changsha, even if it reaches Hengyang, the combat strength may not be able to reach the limit, so it is said that the Fourth Battle of Changsha has not yet begun, and it has been overshadowed.
It should be said that before the Fourth Battle of Changsha, the Ninth Theater did not notice or be bound to the movement of the Japanese army in the slightest. Just before the Japanese army was dispatching troops to prepare for the attack, Xue Yue received information that a guerrilla regiment in the Miluo River area reported that the Japanese army had recently moved frequently and there were signs of an attack on Changsha. Moreover, the Japanese army was strong.
Xue Yue laughed at this, believing that this regiment behind the enemy was making a big fuss in order to highlight its own existence value.
On the other hand, the Japanese army, after continuously suffering heavy losses in Xue Yue's "Heavenly Furnace Tactics," also began to seriously study the "Heavenly Furnace Tactics." They believed that in a region like Hunan with a dense river network, Xue Yue's "Heavenly Furnace Tactics" was simply a must. In the case of insufficient Japanese troops, it was impossible to crack it.
However, this time is different, this time the Yuxianggui operation, as the main force of the 11th Army supported 200,000 troops, the combat strength is unprecedentedly strong, if the appropriate tactics are adopted, it is possible to crack the "Heavenly Furnace Tactics" and then defeat the Ninth Theater to capture Changsha. To this end, the commander of the Japanese 11th Army, Isamu Yokoyama, formulated a set of tactics, that is, to divide the troops into two attack waves, and the first wave attacked Changsha with all its might, without worrying about the safety of the rear road and the problem of logistical supplies. When the Chinese army came out of the mountains to encircle the first wave of Japanese troops, the troops of the second wave of the Japanese army attacked to encircle the Chinese army of the first wave of Japanese troops, so that there would be a situation of internal and external counter-encirclement.
If Xue Yue perceives his second wave of troops and does not besiege the first wave of troops, then the first wave of troops can safely capture Changsha; if Xue Yue is afraid of Changsha's loss and sends troops to rescue, then he is surrounded by his own second wave of troops.
Objectively speaking, Yokoyama's tactics really cracked the "Heavenly Furnace Tactics."
At the beginning of the battle, Xue Yue found that the situation was not right, and the Japanese troops who attacked this time did not care about the rear, and attacked forward vigorously, which was completely different from the performance of the Japanese troops who were afraid of the first three times and were always afraid of being copied to the rear. At the same time, Xue Yue also received the latest enemy information briefing, and learned that the Japanese army in front of him was extremely strong in combat, and it was very difficult to win with the combat strength of the Ninth Theater at this time.
However, to give up Changsha was not Xue Yue's wish. Therefore, Xue Yue redeployed and ordered Zhang Deneng of the Fourth Army to defend Changsha, Wang Ruoqing, commander of the artillery of the Ninth Theater, led a howitzer brigade into Yuelu Mountain, Zhao Zili, chief of staff of the theater chief of staff, was responsible for coordinating the war, and he himself led the commander's headquarters to the outside line to contact friendly and neighboring troops to relieve the siege of Changsha.
Xue Yue left Changsha to the outer line, not because Xue Yue was afraid of death, but because he learned from the previous experience of Jiang Ding's general staff being destroyed by the Japanese army.
In the first stage of the Battle of Yuxianggui, the hundreds of thousands of people and horses of Jiang Ding's cultural department in Henan were easily defeated by the Japanese army, and the reason was that the headquarters and staff of Jiang Ding's cultural department were simultaneously destroyed by the Japanese army, causing the Kuomintang army to lose command. In view of this, Zhao Zili, chief of staff of the Ninth Theater, strongly recommended that Xue Yue lead the headquarters to the outer line to command, and stay on the inner line himself to command the changsha defense battle.
However, Xue Yue made a big mistake at this time, that is, he did not clarify the command authority of Zhao Zili, Zhang Deneng, and Wang Ruoqing, that is, he did not formulate a responsible person among these three people, which brought an extremely adverse impact on the loss of Changsha.
According to the position, the chief of staff of the theater should be the chief of command, and the commander of the Fourth Army should obey the command, but Zhang Deneng is the nephew of Zhang Fakui, the elder of the Kuomintang military circles, and has always had a lot of face in the Ninth Theater, moreover, Xue Yue is also from the Guangdong Army, and has a very good personal relationship with Zhang Fakui, and Zhao Zili is not as trusted by Xue Yue as Wu Yizhi, the chief of staff before Xue Yue, so when it comes to the specific defensive deployment of Changsha City, Zhao Zili and Zhang Deneng have a contradiction.
According to Zhao Zili's deployment, the artillery brigade should be placed on Yuelu Mountain, and two divisions of the Fourth Army should defend Yuelu Mountain and the other division defend Changsha City. When the Japanese army attacked the city, the artillery fire on Yuelu Mountain could support the battle at any time, even if Changsha City could not be defended in the end, as long as Yuelu Mountain was not lost, the defenders in the city could also retreat with the support of artillery fire.
Zhang Deneng, on the other hand, did not think so, believing that two divisions should be placed in Changsha City and one division in Yuelu Mountain. As for the artillery commander Wang Ruoqing, he was originally assigned to the Fourth Army to fight, as long as the other two people determined the deployment and carried it out on their own.
Just when Zhao Zili and Zhang Deneng were arguing, Zhang Deneng said that putting the main force in the city was the meaning of Boss Xue (Xue Yue). In this way, Zhao Zili, who had no real power at all, had no choice but to obey Zhang Deneng's arrangement.
Soon after the Japanese attacked Changsha, Zhang Deneng found that Zhao Zili's deployment was correct, because under the japanese attack, the defenders of Yuelu Mountain gradually became weak, and the artillery support provided on the mountain became increasingly scarce. Therefore, Zhang Deneng decided to send a division from the city to reinforce Yuelu Mountain. However, the order was mistransmitted, and the troops who were supposed to be reinforced thought to be withdrawing from Changsha, so they withdrew after crossing the river.
Zhang Deneng was physically and mentally exhausted because of the continuous war, and after arriving at Yuelu Mountain, he fell asleep, and when he woke up to find that the troops had withdrawn, he wanted to chase the troops back, but it was too late. In this way, Changsha City was only defended for three days before it was captured by the Japanese army.
After the war, both Zhao Zili and Zhang Deneng were recalled to Chongqing for a military trial. Zhao Zili was not actually responsible because he was elevated in this campaign, so he was only dismissed from his post. Zhang Deneng was convicted of crimes in this battle and was shot.
Xue Yue made two major mistakes in this command:
First, the idea of lighting up on the enemy was serious, and it did not make an accurate judgment on the enemy's situation, regarded the "Heavenly Furnace Tactics" as a magic weapon for defeating the Japanese army, and did not make corresponding adjustments to the actual situation of the enemy's situation, so that it fell into passivity at the beginning of the campaign.
Second, the responsibilities of the generals guarding Changsha were not clear, so that Zhao Zili, as chief of staff of the theater, was elevated by Zhang Deneng, causing Changsha's defensive deployment to be wrong and directly causing Changsha to fall.
Of these two major mistakes, the mistakes in Changsha's defensive deployment are particularly serious. At this point, Xue Yue also admitted after the war, if it were not for the wrong deployment of Changsha's defense, Changsha City would not be so easy to lose.
If Changsha did not fall, or held out for a long time, it would give Xue Yue and the supreme commander's headquarters time to mobilize troops to break the siege and crush the Japanese attack. However, Changsha was captured after only three days of holding out, making the Ninth Theater of Operations even more passive. The Japanese army, which had not lost its combat strength, quickly moved south, trapped Hengyang and Changde, and finally led to the Great Rout of yuxianggui of the Kuomintang, which became the most tragic defeat on the anti-fascist battlefield in 1944.