On the night of September 18, 1931, the Kwantung Army blew up the tracks of the South Manchuria Railway near Wicker Lake and placed three corpses dressed in Chinese soldiers' uniforms. In this way, he accused China of sabotaging the railway, and immediately launched an attack on the North Camp, where the Northeast Army was stationed, without waiting for follow-up development. This was the beginning of the 918 Incident, which was repeated six years after the outbreak of the 9/18 Incident on the night of July 7, 1937. Falsely claiming that a soldier was missing, he asked to enter Wanping City, southwest of Beiping, to search, but after no success, launched an attack.
I thought that this time I would get the same result, but I did not expect to encounter stubborn resistance, and thus opened the prelude to the national war of resistance. The day after the incident, Yan'an sent a telegram to the whole country calling on the military and the people to unite against the aggressors, and on July 17, Nanjing also issued a statement in Lushan announcing war against Japan. The opening chapter explains: If we come to the last moment, we can only fight for the life of the whole nation in order to survive the country;
Immediately after August 13, the Nanjing authorities took the lead, and the air force arrived in Shanghai and coordinated with the garrison to launch a siege on the Hongkou base of the Japanese Marine Corps in Shanghai. Trying to drive the enemy into the sea was the first large-scale battle between the two sides in the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression - the Battle of Songhu. The entire Battle of Songhu lasted for three months, with the Japanese army investing more than 200,000 people in eight divisions and two brigades, and The most elite central teaching team in China, as well as the 87th and 88th divisions, as well as 148 divisions and 62 brigades with more than 800,000 people.
Judging from the troops invested by both sides and the results, the Battle of Songhu was undoubtedly the largest and most tragic battle in the entire War of Resistance. But in fact, at the beginning of the war, both sides did not expect that the scale would be so large, and the number of troops was increased step by step. As of the 15th, the Chinese side sent the 87th and 88th Divisions, and the Japanese side sent the 3rd and 11th Divisions in addition to the original 4,000 troops. On the 16th, it was invested again, increasing to more than 600,000 in the middle and 130,000 people in the day.
The ensuing outburst was out of control, and the number of troops continued to increase, reaching a total of about 1 million troops on both sides. In the process of this increase in troops, there was one person in the Japanese General Staff Headquarters who opposed it, that is, the deputy chief of staff, Ishihara Guan'er. This man was very high in Japan at that time, and was known as the first soldier in Japan, that is, the person who knew the most about fighting. He was a gifted military man who, in 1931, saw the situation on time, and orchestrated the 918 Incident together with Hideki Tojo, Seishiro Itagaki, Kenji Doihara, and others.
At that time, he was very fanatical, but during the Battle of Songhu, Ishihara Guan'er opposed the continuation of the increase in troops in Shanghai. Because he clearly saw that Japan was in a disadvantageous strategic position, the territory had no depth, and there were no strategic material resources. It is necessary to adopt the strategy of taking the north china and then entering the central plains, and then advancing into the Yangtze River and taking the south to complete the final goal in the southwest of the final art of war. However, all the Japanese troops at that time believed that they had enough ability to fall in March and could not abandon Shanghai, so they rejected Ishihara's proposal.
If during the Battle of Songhu, the Japanese army heeded Ishihara Guan'er's suggestion not to increase its troops, then China would be in danger. Judging from the objectives of the Battle of Songhu, as mentioned earlier, this battle was provoked by the Nanjing authorities. Indeed, from the outbreak of the Lugou Bridge Incident, the authorities realized that all-out war was about to break out. To this end, after several discussions, a combat site was selected, that is, Shanghai. In terms of topography, Shanghai's flat terrain, staggered river network, and small area are not suitable for large-scale operations.
Shanghai is also a wealth center very close to Nanjing, implicating Jiangsu and Zhejiang regardless of victory or defeat, the cost is very heavy, and choosing here is tantamount to a strong man breaking his wrist. So why Shanghai? It is a suggestion given out of long-term consideration and after careful consideration for Jiang Baili and Chen Cheng. That is, Songhu went to war and expanded, luring the Japanese army up the river, in order to prevent the Japanese from going from north to south. It is far easier to fight from north to south than from south to north, which is the answer given by countless dynastic changes in history, preventing a protracted war from north to south.
Later, as Jiang Baili and Chen Cheng expected, the situation changed by the Battle of Songhu completely dragged the Japanese army into the quagmire of a protracted war. In addition, it also won time for the factories and materials in Shanghai and the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River to move inland, so that there were material resources to support the protracted war until victory. The focus of Ishihara's proposal was also in North China, and if his proposal were adopted, then Chen Cheng and Jiang Baili's purpose of provoking the Battle of Songhu would be invalid.