Chapter 156 The new Japanese commander, Yoshio Iwamatsu!

Shanxi, the highest command headquarters of the Japanese garrison in Shanxi.

Yoshio Shinozuka stood silently in front of the map of his office that covered the entire wall and included the entire Shanxi Province, thinking about the battle plan to retake the Shangdang area.

A guard quickly entered the operations room and reported to Yoshio Shinozuka.

“Reporting, Colonel Yamamoto has arrived at the headquarters and is waiting outside.”

After listening to the guard’s report, Yoshio Shinozuka immediately turned around and gave instructions to the guard.

“Hurry up and ask Yamamoto Ikki to come to my office!”

Soon, led by a guard, Yamamoto Kazuki, wearing a neat colonel uniform, entered Shinozuka Yoshio’s office.

“Commander, you’re looking for me?”

When Yoshio Shinozuka saw Yamamoto Kazuki coming, he waved his hand to motion Yamamoto Kazuki to stand next to him, and then spoke to Yamamoto Kazuki.

“Mr. Yamamoto, your initial decapitation operation against the Eighth Route Army’s highest command had to be terminated due to an unexpected incident at the Yamazaki Battalion.

But before that, Major General Hattori Naoomi reported your special operations plan to the North China Command.”

“The North China Command attaches great importance to your special operations plan, so it has removed 200 officers of captain and above from various units in North China.
Led by Major General Hattori Naoomi, we are here to observe your special operations at our First Army.”

Yoshio Shinozuka’s tone was very bad, and he could be said to be very dissatisfied.

Originally, he would have to hand over his position as commander of the First Army in about a month, and he planned to gain enough credit for himself within this month to get promoted to the next level.

But for an officer of his level, if he wants to be promoted from lieutenant general to general, ordinary military merits simply cannot meet the promotion requirements.

As for Shanxi, there are only two ways for him to gain enough credit to support his promotion to a general.

One is to destroy the Second War Zone and annihilate all Chinese troops.

But this is basically impossible to accomplish. If the Second War Zone was so easy to resolve, the previous commander of the First Army would have resolved it long ago, so there would be no need for him to get his turn.

Another way is to eliminate the Shanxi-Suiyuan Army’s highest command or the Eighth Route Army’s highest command.

To resolve the issue, it is not necessary to kill all the senior officers of the Second War Zone; calling for their surrender is also acceptable.

Although the first kind of merit can directly promote Yoshio Shinozuka to the position of general, Yoshio Shinozuka does not need to do anything else.

But Yoshio Shinozuka had no way to wipe out all the troops in the Second War Zone.

So the only option left for Yoshio Shinozuka is the second one.

In order to increase the chance of success, Yoshio Shinozuka chose to take a two-pronged approach.

While trying to destroy the Eighth Route Army’s highest command, they also tried to contact the highest commander of the Shanxi-Suiyuan Army in an attempt to persuade him to surrender.

Originally, the contact with the Shanxi-Suiyuan Army was quite good, but the Eighth Route Army suddenly launched an attack on the Shangdang area and took over the entire Shangdang area in just three days.

The impact of this incident was very great. The highest commander of the Shanxi-Suiyuan Army directly sent back the people he sent to negotiate peace, and the surrender attempt failed.

Finally, there was only one way left, which was to destroy the Eighth Route Army’s highest command. At this time, Yamamoto Ikki just proposed to carry out another decapitation operation on the Eighth Route Army’s highest command.

So Yoshio Shinozuka agreed without even thinking about it.

And considering that he had consumed so many resources to train Yamamoto Ikki’s special forces, he also specially prepared to convene a group of officers from the First Army to observe Yamamoto Ikki’s actions.

But he didn’t expect that Yamazaki Jihei actually organized a group of defeated soldiers and accidentally discovered the Eighth Route Army’s headquarters arsenal.

In order to increase his own merits and delay the handover of the commander’s position, Yoshio Shinozuka directly sent three brigades of troops to launch an attack on the Shangdang area.

They wanted to destroy the Eighth Route Army Headquarters Arsenal and reoccupy the Shangdang area at the same time, and use the credit of the Eighth Route Army Headquarters Arsenal and the reoccupation of the Shangdang area to make up for the loss of the Shangdang area.

Similarly, because of the need to re-attack the Shangdang area and the relocation of the Eighth Route Army headquarters, which was no longer in its original location, Yamamoto Ikki’s decapitation plan had to be temporarily stopped and he had to look for another opportunity.

This was nothing, he had already made preparations. After the three brigades took over the gateway to the Shangdang area, he would order the troops to slow down the attack.

If possible, the Eighth Route Army should delay the time for one or two months.

By that time, as long as there are wars everywhere in Shanxi, it will be impossible for the headquarters to replace the highest generals of the troops during such a war period.

Although the people in the base camp are stupid, they are not stupid enough to change their generals in the middle of a battle.

If the headquarters was really stupid enough to change generals at the last minute, then he would have dared to give up command of the troops and leave Shanxi and return to the country as soon as the order was issued.

By then, the First Army will lose unified command, and we will see how the new commander will take over this mess.

He originally planned to wait until the troops reoccupied Linyuan County and Shiquan County, and then let Yamamoto Ikki’s special forces team look for an opportunity to destroy the Eighth Route Army’s highest command.

But what he didn’t expect was that Hattori Naoomi actually reported the matter directly to the North China Command.

After Yoshio Iwamatsu, who was waiting to take over his position as commander at the North China Command, learned the news.

Directly make a suggestion to the headquarters, and go and see the strength of the special forces team that Yoshio Shinozuka has spent a lot of resources to train.

In addition, two hundred officers with the rank of captain and above were selected from various units in North China to form a so-called officer observation group and go to Shanxi.

The reason is to watch the training results of the special forces team and see how effective Yamamoto Ikki’s special operations are.

In fact, as long as Yamamoto Ikki’s special forces team fails to complete the mission, Iwamatsu Yoshio will immediately fly to Taiyuan to replace Shinozuka Yoshio.

Those two hundred middle and senior officers will quickly enter various units of the Shanxi First Army to stabilize the troops. In this way, even if Yoshio Shinozuka wants to let his confidants disobey orders and not obey announcements to Yoshio Iwamatsu, it will be of no use.

At that time, Yoshio Shinozuka will have no choice but to return to the base camp in disgrace, bearing the responsibility for the loss of the Shangdang area. Let alone promotion, it will be a honor for his family if he is not benched.

And Yoshio Iwamatsu could naturally take over the credit for the First Army’s reoccupation of the Shangdang area and the destruction of the Eighth Route Army headquarters arsenal.

And most importantly, he did not receive any relevant information until the officer observation group mobilized by Yoshio Iwamatsu entered Shanxi. Only then did he learn about these things.

According to the time mentioned by Hattori Naoomi, the officers’ observation group will arrive in Taiyuan in the evening!

(End of this chapter)