Luliang Mountain.
Ke Nan Slope.
Office of the Second Theater Command Commander.
Chu Yunfei, deputy commander Yang Xingru, and several combat staff members were prominently present.
"Commander, this is what the Japanese army newspaper announced about the Japanese casualties and the Eighth Route Army casualties in this sweep operation in northwestern Shanxi."
Yang Xingru handed a newspaper to Commander Yan Xishan sitting behind his desk.
Yan Xishan showed no interest in reading the newspaper published by the Japanese army. He waved his hand and asked, "How many casualties did the Japanese army say they had and how many Eighth Route Army troops they destroyed?"
Yang Xingru said: "The Japanese army said in the newspaper that there were 15,000 casualties and 30,000 Eighth Route Army troops were wiped out."
Yan Xishan's eyes flashed slightly when he heard this.
Yan Laoxi knew very well that it was impossible for the Japanese army to publish real casualty data in newspapers. However, the Japanese army announced 15,000 casualties in newspapers, and the casualties were definitely far more than this number.
"What did the Eighth Route Army newspaper say?"
Yan Xishan picked up the tea cup, blew gently, and prepared to take a sip of morning tea.
Yang Xingru replied: "The Eighth Route Army's border newspaper said that in this counter-mopping operation in northwestern Shanxi, more than 40,000 Japanese troops were wiped out, more than 20,000 puppet troops were wiped out, and the Eighth Route Army suffered more than 15,000 casualties."
The teacup in Yan Xishan's hand shook slightly, his expression was full of disbelief, and he quickly put down the teacup: "What do you mean?"
"The Japanese army suffered 40,000 casualties and the puppet army suffered 20,000 casualties?"
"The total casualties are 60,000?"
"Yes!" Yang Xingru bowed slightly and said, "I have verified it with the Eighth Route Army headquarters. This data should be accurate."
Chu Yunfei and several combat staff on the side could not help but look shocked.
Five divisions of the Japanese army and more than 20,000 puppet troops, a total of over 100,000 Japanese and puppet troops, went to attack Tubal Road, which only had more than 30,000 people. The fight ended like this?
And there is also a fully-staffed Class A division that was strengthened during wartime.
Is the Japanese army too weak, or are the three regiments in northwestern Shanxi too capable?
"Yunfei, what do you think?"
Yan Xishan looked at his confidant Chu Yunfei and asked.
Chu Yunfei said: "Commander, the casualty data of the Japanese army and the Northwestern Shanxi Eighth Route Army disclosed by the Eighth Route Headquarters and the border area newspapers should be true."
Yan Xishan asked: "How can you see it?"
Chu Yunfei added: "According to the intelligence, the Japanese army took about a month to sweep the Eighth Route Base Area. But now it has ended hastily in less than half a month. The Japanese army must have suffered too many casualties."
"but……"
"The Eighth Route Army in northwest Shanxi did not have the strength to defeat the Japanese mopping up troops, so the four Japanese divisions were able to wreak havoc unscrupulously in the Eighth Route base area."
Although northwest Shanxi has a population of about 2 million, part of northwest Shanxi is the territory of the Shanxi-Sui Army.
The Jinsui Army Headquarters has always been aware of the Japanese movements.
The people in northern Shanxi grew so much food. Although the Japanese were also short of food, they would definitely not be able to take it away in a short time, and most of it would be destroyed.
Chu Yunfei continued:
"From the data point of view, the three regiments of the Eighth Route Army suffered heavy casualties, but they have not yet reached the point where their vitality has been seriously damaged."
"However, more than 1 million ordinary people in northwestern Shanxi are without food, which will have a greater impact on the Eighth Route Army in northwestern Shanxi, and it is tantamount to draining fuel from the bottom of the cauldron."
Although Chu Yunfei knew that Li Yunlong had channels for aid, he did not know that he could also obtain food aid, only that he knew about weapons and ammunition.
For the Eighth Route Army, it mainly relies on the common people. If the common people starve to death in large numbers, then the Eighth Route Army will become rootless duckweeds.
Deputy Commander Yang Xingru couldn't bear it: "Commander, should we help these ordinary people in northwest Shanxi? After all, they are all ordinary people in Shanxi."
"I also want to help, but the landlords don't have any surplus grain." Yan Xishan said in embarrassment, "The materials given to us by the Chongqing government have never been distributed in full, and our territory is small and we cannot collect much grain tax. Where is the extra food to help these more than 1 million people?"
Yan Xishan also felt mixed feelings.
Fortunately, the development of the Eighth Route Army in northwestern Shanxi has been greatly restricted. What is worrying is that the one million people from Shanxi will starve to death.
As for the casualties of the Eighth Route Army and the Japanese army, Yan Xishan was indeed a little shocked.
In his eyes, the Eighth Route Army and the Japanese Army came to Shanxi to compete with the Shanxi-Sui Army for territory.
It is best for these two forces to lose both sides, knock out the fools on both sides, and then the Jinsui Army reaps the benefits.
When Yang Xingru and Chu Yunfei heard this, they could only sigh, no matter whether they rise or fall, it is the common people who suffer.
Yan Xishan's idea was that he could take advantage of the heavy losses of the Japanese army to ask Yoshio Iwamatsu for more offers and give Yoshio Iwamatsu a try.
Now the Japanese army's biggest enemy in North China is the Eighth Route Army, especially those in northwestern Shanxi, and they have no time to take care of the Shanxi-Sui Army.
…
Beiping.
No. 3, Iron Lion Alley.
North China Front Army Headquarters.
Tanabe Moritake held a folder in his hand and walked into the commander's office with Seizo Arisu.
Tanabe Moritake said: "Your Excellency, Commander, I have summarized a few points regarding the reasons for the failure of this mopping up operation."
"Oh?" Okamura Neji raised his head and said in a deep voice, "Read it and listen."
"Hi!" Tanabe Moritake picked up the folder and said: "First, the loss of fighter planes caused by poor intelligence put the Locust Army into a passive situation, whether it was the whereabouts of the 5th Heavy Artillery Regiment being leaked, or the battle of Xinzhou The fishing plan was leaked, and it can be seen that the Eighth Route Army knows the intelligence of the Locust Army very well, but the Locust Army knows very little about the information of the Eighth Route Army in the northwest of Shanxi!"
"Second, the attacking forces lacked the ability to respond and failed to take advantage of their strength. Facing the Eighth Route Army's anti-slope and tunnel tactics, each force failed to come up with countermeasures in time and resorted to fueling tactics, which led to the Locust Army The Locust Alliance suffered heavy losses!"
"The third point is still an intelligence issue. This is a dereliction of duty by the staff department, which failed to correctly assess the combat effectiveness of the three regiments of the Eighth Route Army in northern Shanxi. The combat effectiveness of the New Eighth Route Regiment, the Independent Regiment, and the New Second Regiment are much stronger than what the staff department assessed. This is also an important reason why the Locust Army suffered such heavy losses.”
Okamura Neiji nodded, pushed up the round glasses on the bridge of his nose, and said: "The fourth point is that I fell into passivity due to improper deployment and command. This is my dereliction of duty. If the troops had been withdrawn earlier, perhaps the casualties would have been much smaller, Saburo Miura The major general may not be broken..."
In fact, Tanabe Moritake also concluded the fourth point, but he did not dare to tell Okamura Neji.
Only Okamura Neji himself could say this.
Tanabe Shengwu said: "But the Locust Army is not without gains. The troops of the four second-line divisions and some Locust Alliance troops have been doing whatever they want in the so-called Eighth Route Army base area in the past few days. The people in northwest Shanxi may starve to death in large numbers next. The development of the Eighth Route in the northwest will be limited, and the threat to the Locust Army will be greatly reduced. When the Locust Army next attacks and sweeps northwest Shanxi, it will surely be able to eliminate the three regiments of the Eighth Route in northwest Shanxi in one go."
"And..." Youmo Jingsan on the side interrupted, "I heard that the 11th Army's attack on the Chinese government forces in Changsha did not go well. This attack is likely to fail."
"Oh?" Okamura Neji felt a lot more comfortable after hearing this.
The old devil's thoughts at this time were the same as those of Yan Xishan, with mixed feelings.
The good news is that it seems that it is not just the North China Front that has lost the battle, and it is not just me, Okamura Neji.
What worries me is the situation of the locust army in China, which is not optimistic.
