What is history: it is the echo of the past to the future, the reflection of the future on the past. - Hugo
The two armies are facing each other, the importance of military intelligence is self-evident, often directly determine the victory or defeat of a battle, military maps are also part of intelligence analysis, a detailed military map, equivalent to opening a radar for the troops, can better help the commander to line up troops, dispatch troops, otherwise it is like a blind eye.
In the Sino-Japanese War, the reason why the Chinese soldiers resisted was difficult, in addition to the quality of weapons and equipment personnel, a very important point is that the map of our army is too rough and rotten, many terrain and landforms, mountains, rivers and rivers are not accurate, more often rely on the map captured from the Japanese army to use. The Japanese drew a more detailed map of China than Chinese themselves, which is also too terrible to draw without 20 years.
Topographic map of Beijing and Tianjin drawn by Japan
Maps of all parts of China in the hands of the Japanese army were illegally drawn in the decades before the beginning of the war, in the name of tourism, and the Chinese at that time had no concept of mapping, which made the behavior of the Japanese more unimpeded.
Japan draws a map of the Liaodong Peninsula
The japanese drawn maps are so delicate that even modern people will be amazed by them, and the maps all mark out the protection of each city's city walls, urban buildings, mountain terrain, river directions, highway fortresses, scenic spots, and tourist attractions.
Aerial view of Hong Kong drawn by Japan
Such a map is too practical on the battlefield, we know that millions of Japanese soldiers in Chinese territory, they have never stepped into China before, with such a detailed map, for the cities to be attacked, fortresses, etc. can be seen at a glance, better than our own Chinese soldiers, this battle is not difficult to fight.
Map of the three towns of Wuhan drawn by Japan
Aerial view of Wuhan drawn by the Japanese, the Yangtze River runs through the city, dividing the greater Wuhan into three, Wuchang, Hankou, and Hanyang. When the Japanese army invaded Wuhan, although the Chinese soldiers stubbornly resisted, they were still inferior to the iron hooves of the Japanese army.
Map of the defense of Suzhou drawn by the Japanese
Just think, although the Japanese nominally drew in the name of tourist maps, but this involves urban defenses and terrain throughout the country, without large-scale manpower and material resources for systematic mapping, it is impossible to draw such a fine picture.
The Japanese painted the suburbs of Nanjing
The only reason why what kind of tourist map will draw the suburbs is that there is an airport here, which is a naked city defense map, and once the war starts, the airport will be the first to be the target.
Aerial view of Chongqing in Japan
Not only the eastern coastal area, but also Chongqing, which is deep inland, has also been painted in such detail by the Japanese, which has to surprise people's ability to conceal their eyes and ears.
Look, at that time, the Japanese studied China thoroughly, even Chinese themselves could not compare, just to say that this "tourism map" can be directly used as a military map, if it were not for thousands of people running all over the north and south of China, it would never have been possible to draw such a detailed and terrible "tourism map".
This is also the terrible place of Japan, in order to invade a country, you can first endure more than a dozen or even decades to prepare. The heart of harming people must not be there, and the heart of preventing people must not be without.