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Author: Yi Pin Wen team a constant single step, no authorization to ban the transfer!
During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the Nationalist Government successively established eleven theaters of operations and two guerrilla theaters in succession in accordance with the direction of the national territory and the convenience of better commanding the war against Japan. At the same time, considering that the entire territory of Northeast China has completely fallen, Taiwan has become a Japanese colony because of the "Maguan Treaty". For this reason, in the theaters set up, the three northeastern provinces at that time, namely Heilongjiang, Liaoning, and Jilin, were not established as theaters, and Taiwan was also not within the jurisdiction of the above-mentioned theaters because of the "Maguan Treaty."
Since the outbreak of the "Lugou Bridge Incident" in 1937, the key offensive area of the Japanese army invading China was north China, and the core offensive target was Shanxi Province, and the second theater could be said to be the first to bear the brunt of it, taking the lead in a deadly decisive battle with the Japanese army.
Although the Military Commission of the Nationalist Government at that time established the above-mentioned theaters, it was by no means to let them fight separately, but still adhered to the idea of a national chess game. When the Japanese army attacked from Hebei to Shanxi, the Military Commission of the Nationalist Government knew that relying only on the troops of the Second Theater of Operations could not resist the attack of the Japanese army, which had absolute superiority in weapons and army quality, and urgently reinforced the 22nd Group Army and the 14th Group Army into Shanxi. In particular, the 14th Group Army, with Wei Lihuang as commander-in-chief, was obviously superior to other units in the Second Theater in terms of weapons and equipment and daily training.
To this end, Yan Xishan, as the commander-in-chief of the Commander-in-Chief's Department of the Second Theater, was very self-aware and took the initiative to hand over the command of the Second Theater to Wei Lihuang. Since the beginning of the Battle of Xinkou, the 14th Group Army has also changed from cooperating with the second theater of operations to playing the main role, and hundreds of thousands of troops and horses of the five group armies have successively launched the "Battle of Xinkou," the "Battle of Taiyuan," the "Battle of Pingxingguan," and the "Battle of Datong" in order to stop the Japanese army's offensive arrogance, until the fierce "Battle of Zhongtiao Mountain, fighting the Japanese army with flesh and blood, thus blocking the Japanese army dead in Shanxi and failing to go further into the hinterland of China's great northwest.
At the same time as the Second Theater and the Japanese army were fighting hard, the Third Theater, which was responsible for the task of guarding the Beijing-Shanghai-Hangzhou area, could be said to be the seat of the headquarters of the national War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression at that time. Since the "Lugou Bridge Incident", in view of the crazy aggression of the Japanese army against North China, the Third Theater took the initiative to launch the "Battle of Songhu" in order to alleviate the pressure on the Second Theater.
[General Wei Lihuang, deputy commander-in-chief of the Commander-in-Chief's Department of the Second Theater]
The "Battle of Songhu" can be said to be the battle in which the Chinese army invested the most troops and paid the greatest sacrifice during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, and the "Battle of Songhu" invested a total of 6 group armies such as the 8th, 9th, 10th, 15th, 19th, and 21st, not including other troops, nearly 800,000 people and horses, and a battle lasting up to 3 months.
Although the "Battle of Songhu" was sacrificed, after this battle, the arrogant plan of Japanese imperialism to destroy China in three months was completely smashed. At the same time, shortly after the end of the "Battle of Songhu," the Third Theater quickly organized a series of battles such as the "Nanjing Defense War," which dealt a heavy blow to the Japanese army. Because the Japanese army was shocked by the tenacious fighting spirit of the Chinese army, after attacking the city of Nanjing, it actually carried out the inhumane "Nanjing Massacre", with the intention of destroying the lives of thousands of Chinese to crush the Chinese people and the will to resist of the Chinese army. Undoubtedly, this evil plan of the Japanese army was doomed to fail, on the contrary, it further aroused the determination of the Chinese people and the Chinese army to swear to fight to the death and not to be a slave to the country.
Based on national indignation and the indomitable belief in defending the homeland, the Fifth Theater of Operations for the defense of Lunan and Northern Jiangsu was under the command of Li Zongren, commander-in-chief of the Theater Commander's Department, and the "Battle of Taierzhuang" was launched. The Fifth Theater of Operations concentrated the 2nd Army, the 20th Army, and about 290,000 horses and horses.
The "Battle of Taierzhuang" killed and wounded more than 20,000 Japanese troops, changed the passive situation in which every battle since the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression ended in failure, and encouraged the belief that the whole nation would be able to win victory as long as it persisted in resisting Japan.
[German mechanics at the Battle of Songhu]
In the few years immediately after the beginning of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, in the face of the Japanese army's constant and ferocious offensive, the Military Commission of the National Government gradually soberly realized that it was absolutely impossible to resist the Japanese army on the battlefield in a dead-to-die and hard-fought manner, and realized that the War of Resistance was bound to be a protracted and arduous war, so as to truly achieve the goal of "accumulating small victories into big victories and exchanging time for space."
In view of this, in order to prepare material, talent, and manpower guarantees for the protracted War of Resistance, the Military Commission of the National Government drew up the "Wuhan Defense War."
The operational policy of the "Wuhan Defense War" was to actively delay the offensive rhythm of the Japanese army, withdraw the strategic materials from Shanghai, Nanjing, and other major cities to Wuhan, continue to retreat along the Yangtze River and the highway to the rear area, and win time.
It is precisely in keeping with this aim that the Military Commission of the National Government decided to merge the units belonging to the 5th and 9th theaters into the newly organized 9th Theater to defend Wuhan. In total, about 200 combat aircraft, more than 30 ships, 14 group armies, 50 armies, and nearly 1.1 million troops were mobilized. All combat units began in June 1938, using natural barriers such as Poyang Lake and Dabie Mountain to organize defenses and defend Wuhan.
The Battle of Wuhan lasted four and a half months and ended with the voluntary withdrawal of Chinese troops from Wuhan. The end of the Battle of Wuhan was that the Chinese government at that time had achieved the set goals set when the campaign was launched, and a large number of talents and strategic materials were safely withdrawn to the rear, laying a certain material foundation and talent reserve for China to persist in the long-term War of Resistance. At the same time, the Battle of Wuhan came to an end, although it satisfied the Japanese army's desire to control Central China. As the Japanese army's front line gradually lengthened, the contradictions of national strength becoming increasingly empty, insufficient troop resources, and insufficient materials became increasingly prominent, and they were no longer able to organize such a large-scale strategic offensive as the Battles of Songhu, Xuzhou, and Wuhan, aiming at attacking the city strategically, and were forced to switch to the stage of strategic defense.
The "Wuhan Defense War" made China's War of Resistance develop from a passive strategic defensive stage to a strategic stalemate with the Japanese army.
After the end of the Wuhan Defense War, the Japanese army base camp realized that the complete elimination of China was tantamount to a fool's dream, which meant that the Japanese army was completely offensive, intending to quickly eliminate the living forces of the Chinese army, and the dream of forcing the then Nationalist government to surrender by force was completely bankrupt.
It is even more important to mention the three Battles of Changsha launched by the 9th Theater, which by no means occurred within a year, but lasted for several years.
The specific period was from September 1939 to February 1942, during which the Chinese army fought heroically with rudimentary weapons, so that the newly established anti-fascist Allies, especially britain and the United States, saw that the Chinese army was still able to defeat the Japanese army, which had absolute superiority in weapons, without superior firepower.
Compared with their armies, especially the British army and the Japanese army defeated in the First World War, they were defeated and retreated, and their views on the Chinese army were greatly improved, and it was clear from the comparison that the war against Japan must rely on the Chinese soldiers and the Chinese army. As a result, the ORIGINAL US aid program to China, which had set up various obstacles, was quickly implemented, and China's international status was greatly improved, forcing the United States, Britain, and other countries to voluntarily give up various extraterritorial jurisdictions that had been acquired in China since the Opium War in 1840. It can be said that the Chinese army's tenacious battle against the Japanese army in the 9th theater area has sacrificed the small self and achieved the great self of the Chinese nation.
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