The sudden attack of the Japanese Second Army on the Northern Front not only caught Li Zhongren off guard, but also Kitashirakawa Ai.
Kitashirakawa was very worried that if the northern front started the war first, it would attract Dano there. Moreover, the intelligence department reported later that the Independent Regiment and the 522nd Regiment were showing signs of setting off. But then, for unknown reasons, the two regiments returned to normal.
Kitashirakawa Ai yelled at Juichi Terauchi, the commander of the North China Expeditionary Force, that he was a fool and almost ruined his plan.
But he didn't know that Juichi Terauchi's Second Army had been ready for battle a few months ago.
As early as the beginning of the Songhu Battle, the North China Front believed that the decisive battle between China and Japan would break out in Hebei.
For this reason, the North China Front Army has made sufficient preparations to quickly encircle and annihilate the Chinese army and force China to surrender in one fell swoop.
But what no one expected was that the highest strategic decision-making level of the Nationalist Government moved the location of the decisive battle to central China, allowing the Central China Front Army to seize the opportunity for the decisive battle and capture the capital Nanjing.
Not only did the North China Front not have a chance to assist, it also had to deploy two and a half divisions to support the Central China Front.
Originally, the North China Front Army wanted to have some battlefield performance, but unexpectedly, a standby order for anti-Soviet operations left the North China Front Army no room for performance.
General Touichi Terauchi watched in vain as the Central China Front gained the honor of a major victory in capturing Nanjing, and because of this, he became increasingly unable to hold back.
Therefore, Juichi Terauchi presented to the base camp the North China Front's operational concept of preparing to penetrate into China.
In particular, the 2nd Army commanded by Nishio Hisao was even more dissatisfied because the North China Front originally believed that the focus of the decisive battle with the Chinese army should be along the Ping-Han Railway where the 1st Army was mainly attacking, and the Japanese 2nd Army fighting on the Jinpu Railway. The army is responsible for assisting and encircling the right wing.
However, since the main force of the Chinese army did not gather on the Pinghan Railway, the Japanese Second Army had no chance to use force.
What's more surprising is that due to the expansion of the battle situation in Shanxi, the main force of the Japanese First Army entered Shanxi to assist the 5th Division in fighting. The Second Army became a reserve corps, and therefore could not attack the Chinese army in depth along Jinpu Road. , they could only stay in the area north of the Yellow River and be on standby to prevent the Soviet Union from attacking the Japanese army.
It was not until the Central China Front successfully captured Nanjing that ice and snow blocked traffic in Siberia, and there was no threat of Soviet troops gathering. Only then did Japan's Second Army lift its reserve status. Therefore, Nishio Hisao actively requested that the Second Army be allowed to gather. Attack the Shandong Peninsula.
At this time, the Japanese base camp saw that the operational objectives in Central China were close to being achieved, and the Soviet troops were not gathering, so they allowed Juichi Terauchi to send the North China Front across the Yellow River to attack Shandong.
But what no one expected was that this almost ruined Prince Beibai's plan.
He issued an order and telegraphed Juichi Terauchi, asking him to slow down the Second Army's attack. He also reprimanded Juichi Terauchi for taking advantage of the situation and sending troops before the southern front was fully prepared. Once the Chinese army secretly transferred troops from the southern front to open pocket formations, The imperial army on the northern front was in danger of being surrounded and annihilated.
Therefore, Kitashirakawa is not as stupid as he seems. If he rebuked Shouichi Terauchi for saying that the Japanese on the northern front affected his plans, then his position as Prince Beibai would be too small.
Instead, he reprimanded Shouichi Terauchi for being greedy for merit and advancing unpreparedly on the southern front. Once the Chinese troops on the southern front were mobilized in large numbers to make a surprise attack on the northern front, Shouichi Terauchi would definitely suffer huge losses. This looks like concern, and I'm afraid Juichi Terauchi would be grateful even if he was scolded.
So for the same thing, different statements have completely different effects.
Kitashirakawa once again proved his wisdom. In this battle, he would play with the Chinese lunatic who made the Imperial Japanese Army frightened like a mouse.
However, at this time, let alone the operation of putting down Kitashirakawa's secret camera, it was said that the Japanese troops on the northern front quickly stopped advancing.
Jinan was temporarily saved. Not only Li Zhongren felt surprised, but also Duanwu felt surprised.
After Jiyang was defeated, Jinan had no natural moat to defend except the city wall, but the Japanese army stopped attacking. This abnormal behavior even the Dragon Boat Festival could not understand.
Because he never thought that a prince like Kitashirakawa would be staring at him.
However, this bought enough time for Dragon Boat Festival, because just two days later, on December 30, he waited for the person he wanted to wait for - Ma Ping'an.
Ma Pingan is an old underground party member. As he said, he knows everything.
And what Dragon Boat Festival wants is his words.
When Ma Pingan arrived at Duanwu's headquarters, Duanwu went straight to the point and asked Ma Pingan for help.
But Ma Ping'an smiled and said: "Put the helping matters aside for now, because there are more important things than this."
With that said, Ma Pingan and Duanwu whispered for a while, and Duanwu immediately frowned, because in Bengbu, there had been Japanese spies lurking in the city for a long time.
Of course, Duanwu also guessed that there might be Japanese spies operating in the city, but he did not have the time or energy to take care of this matter.
All battalions are stepping up training. Who has the time to search for spies in the city now?
What's more, many Japanese spies have been lurking in the city for several years or even more than ten years. If they are new faces in the city, then they are most likely the Independent Regiment of Dragon Boat Festival and the 522nd Regiment of Zhou Weiguo.
Therefore, without clues, the Japanese spies have no way of investigating. As for the police station in the city and the local county magistrate, if they could have found out, they would have found out already, and they would not have waited until the Dragon Boat Festival to come.
But the arrival of Ma Ping'an provided exactly this clue for the Dragon Boat Festival.
Ma Ping'an said: There is a 90% probability that the Feixiang Photo Studio in the south of the city and the Fenglai De Foreign Trading Co. in the east of the city are the nests of Japanese spies.
Ninety percent of this was enough. Duanwu asked Lao Abacus to go to the secret service camp in person and tell Lao Shou about it. He believed that Lao Shou would know what to do.
As for fishing for big fish in the long term, forget about it. There is no time in the Dragon Boat Festival to use these two Japanese dens to fish, and there is no time to catch them all.
Because the war will begin soon after Ma Ping'an arrives. If he waits any longer, I'm afraid Han Fuju will withdraw his troops from Jinan again and send all of Shandong out.
Therefore, it would be enough to directly make arrangements, then conduct a city-wide manhunt, drive the Japanese spies out of Bengbu, and put the Japanese spies in a vacuum in Bengbu City in a short period of time.
And what to do next? There are people in Ma Ping'an keeping an eye on him in the city, and he feels very relieved now! .....
