The Rise of the Writers of the Republic of China - Chapter 1048

   After more than half a year of disputes and wrangling, the Chinese Expeditionary Force’s second entry into Myanmar has finally entered the stage of a comprehensive counter-offensive.

   We all know that the first time the expeditionary force entered Burma was a mess. There are no more than three reasons: first, the British sold teammates more thoroughly than on the French battlefield; second, Stilwell was incompetent, stubborn and lacked overall consideration; third, Chang Kaishen’s micro-manipulation, decisive victory thousands of miles away.

   These three factors, each of which is fatal, can only be felt for the soldiers of the expedition.

   In fact, Stilwell set a combat goal a year ago for the counter-offensive on the Burmese battlefield. But Chang Kaishen didn’t want to fight, and even rejected Roosevelt many times at the Cairo Conference. He believed that the United States must send troops to cooperate to start a major counter-offensive.

   Lao Jiang has his own considerations. For example, he doesn’t trust the British army and Stilwell’s ability, and at the same time he wants to preserve the strength of the expeditionary army.

   But the pressure from the US government was too great, coupled with the bad domestic situation, Chang Kaishen finally chose to compromise – the US threatened to stop the Lend-Lease Act and cut off the aid to China.

  This counter-offensive battle will last for a year. The Chinese Expeditionary Force suffered 85,000 casualties and wiped out nearly 70,000 Japanese troops. It is a rare victory in the history of China’s war of resistance.

   However, it directly led to the rout of Henan, Hunan and Guangxi in 1944!

In order to launch a major counter-offensive in Burma, Stilwell consumed enough military supplies for the entire Chinese theater for four months, evacuated the logistics of the Chinese army that was resisting the Japanese No. 1 Operational Plan, and made China’s domestic battlefield lose its strategy. Reserve team.

   These are the fundamental reasons why Chang Kaishen refused to agree to the counter-offensive into Myanmar.

We often use the defeat of Henan, Hunan and Guangxi to laugh at the incompetence of Lao Jiang and the national army, because in 1944 it was the end of World War II, and the European battlefields reported many successes, but the Chinese battlefields lost 146 cities, more than 200,000 square kilometers of land and land within eight months. 60 million people.

   But the background of this great rout was the complete collapse of the Chinese economy, and the US aid supply was transferred to the Burma battlefield. The ninth theater, which has about 30 elite divisions of 11 armies, can only piece together 50 old cannons when facing the Japanese attack. During the Battle of Guilin, there was a reinforcement force of 14,000 people, but there were only 2,000 rifles, and the soldiers were all hungry.

Let’s take a look at the coverage of the Fourth Battle of Changsha by American reporters: “Chinese soldiers marched on foot with their rifles and rations on their backs. They were thin and sweaty, struggling with every step. Extremely difficult to see. When the attack started, a division of Chinese troops, under the cover of a WWI-era French mountain gun and 9 mortars, began to climb up the mountain occupied by the Japanese…”

  Please imagine that Chinese soldiers were hungry and dragging their tired bodies, under the cover of World War I era mountain guns and mortars, they attacked the Japanese with their rifled rifles. And their enemies have ample logistics, with artillery, machine guns, aircraft for fire support, fortified fortifications, and even inhumane chemical weapons. This extremely difficult attack lasted for three days, and the Chinese army finally began to retreat. Their retreat was not due to lack of willpower, but to exhausted supplies – no ammunition and no food!

   Regarding the defeat of Yuxianggui, Lao Jiang and the national government should certainly be scolded, because they were corrupt and stuffed into their own pockets when the country was the most difficult. But the soldiers of the Anti-Japanese War should not be scolded. They have reached the limit of what they can do, and they are using their flesh and blood to bear the Japanese artillery and bullets.

   At the same time, this guy Stilwell should also be scolded.

Taking the Hengyang defense battle as an example, the army commander Fang Xianjue resisted the siege of 110,000 Japanese troops by means of crude field fortifications, which lasted as long as 48 under the circumstance of insufficient troops, insufficient equipment, lack of reinforcements, and unsustainable logistics. Day and night, the Japanese army suffered more than 60,000 casualties.

   Not only that, Fang Xianjue also planned to cooperate with the reinforcements to launch a counter-offensive. Not only did Stilwell refuse to send 1,000 tons of supplies to the reinforcements, but he even said, “Let them get angry.” This made it impossible for the reinforcements to start and made the battle for Hengyang even harder.

  We have said that Stilwell used “peanuts” to satirize Lao Jiang Zhi’s lack of talent, and he himself did the same.

   Here, and quoting two Americans’ comments on Stilwell—

Flying Tigers captain Chennault said: “If he (Stilwell) is a company commander and a battalion commander, he is only responsible for the troops under his direct command, which is indeed commendable behavior. It can be used as a US military in Asia with a heavy responsibility. The commander and the chief of staff of the Chinese theater of staff, who left the unit without a word for three weeks, was appallingly ignorant and irresponsible.” – This is referring to Stilwell with more than 100 people The experience of escaping from Burma was used by the American media to describe Stilwell as a legendary hero, while the soldiers in the entire Chinese war zone scolded him bloody.

   Davis, First Secretary of the U.S. Ambassador to China, commented on Stilwell’s staff: “Happy mediocrity to old age and incompetence.” —As the chief of staff of the Allied China Theater, the staff team managed by Stilwell was chaotic and slack in business. Even the U.S. Embassy in China couldn’t stand it anymore, and asked him to rectify it many times.

   Japan’s “Operation Plan No. 1” and its subsequent revision plans are the root cause of the great defeat of China’s Henan, Hunan and Guangxi. Before the Japanese army launched the “No. 1 Operational Plan”, Lao Jiang had repeatedly warned that Japan might launch an attack, hoping that Stilwell would not send troops to the Burma battlefield.

   But Stilwell ignored it and thought that Jiang was timid and did not dare to launch a major counter-offensive in Burma. Until the Japanese had launched the offensive, Stilwell was still indecisive and refused to believe the facts. There is a report that its staff “should have been attacked in advance, but I don’t know how far it has developed since it started, and it is still unknown whether it has passed or not.” Stilwell wrote in this report: Really?

   To tell the truth, the chief of staff should have been dragged out and shot for this kind of thing.

   Not only is his staff ability insufficient, but Stilwell’s command ability is also poor. He emptied the logistical materials of the Chinese battlefield, and it took three months to conquer Myitkyina (Harmony). Finally, the problem was solved when the Chinese army opened up the Hukang Valley, which indirectly led to the humiliating defeat of Henan, Hunan and Guangxi.

   At that time, Chennault was so angry that he directly sent a report to Roosevelt: Stilwell) concentrated all our main forces into Burma, and now it has led to the fall of East China.”

   Since then, Stilwell has a nickname in China: the best four-star battalion commander.

   The Chinese theater of World War II was so tragic. The commander-in-chief was “infantry platoon leader” Chang Kaishen, and the chief of staff was “the best four-star battalion commander” Stilwell. But these two still hate each other, squirt and pinch each other on various occasions, and make each other’s sacks-is this the so-called pecking of chickens?