We all know that at the beginning of the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japan, the Japanese army was very rampant, clamoring to take China in three months.
And at the beginning, they fought really hard, and the results were very brilliant.
Since the Japanese army invaded China in an all-round way, Beiping, Tianjin, and other key cities in North China have fallen into the hands of the enemy.
The North China Plain was opened wide under the iron hooves of the Japanese army, and China's rear was in danger.
In the Battle of Songhu in November 1937, the first was defeated, and Shanghai also fell.
The arrogance of the Japanese army was even worse, and they immediately rested their troops, wanting to take it while the iron was hot.
Nanjing, the political center of the Kuomintang at that time, and they did it.
In December 1937, Nanjing fell, and the southeastern provinces did not escape the catastrophe and were occupied one after another.
In order to preserve its strength, Nanjing ** regarded Chongqing as a companion capital and continued the war of resistance.
Recalling this period of history now, people can't help but break out in a cold sweat, after all, the Japanese army's offensive rhythm is so fast, and the results are so brilliant, that we are the last thing we want to see.
If the Japanese army had maintained such a pace of attack, China would have been in danger of not falling into the hands of the enemy in three months.
But why, only a year later, to 1938, the Japanese army suddenly weakened as if it suddenly couldn't move?
What happened this year?
As a matter of fact, the fact that the Japanese army was able to win in our country at the beginning was due to a general strategy for the war of aggression against China that they first formulated.
In this strategy, the Japanese army drew up a plan to outflank China by land and sea.
That is, first send a part of the troops, take the three northeastern provinces as a breakthrough, and quickly move south, advancing towards the Central Plains of our country.
The other part of the force relies on Japan's strong naval force.
Landing from Shanghai via the East China Sea, it then advanced inland along China's western front, looking for an opportunity to join the Japanese forces moving south.
After the two sides successfully met at Wuhan, the huge army marched south together to occupy the rest of China's remaining provinces.
In this way, China will be completely divided by them, even if one or two troops occasionally appear to resist.
In the face of the overwhelming number of Japanese troops participating in the war, it was also an egg hitting a stone, and it could not become a climate.
Soon, the Chinese people will give up resistance, and the Japanese army will successfully realize its ambition to occupy China.
And this victory is what they desire and must get.
With the help of this factor, coupled with a detailed general operational strategy, the Japanese army quickly achieved tremendous results.
Although he failed to take China in three months as expected, he still grasped the initiative of the battle situation and got the priority ticket to victory.
Then why did Japan at that time have to win the war of aggression against China?
In fact, this is closely related to the world pattern at that time.
Looking at the international community at that time, Japan's political, economic, and military development prospects were not optimistic.
After the end of World War I, Japan, like the Soviet, American and German powers, rapidly grew into a military power.
But it has not yet reached the point of complete hegemony, after all, behind them, there are still old powers such as Britain and France to contain them.
Then, in order to seek more initiative, countries began to develop their own economies.
Among them, the Soviet Union has undergone many industrial reforms, and under the escort of one plan after another, the industry has achieved rapid development.
At that time, the United States was already the world's largest power, and although the economy was in recession, after the end of the war, it had a lot of resources looted back during the war, and the economic reversal could be completed in an instant.
On the German side, because of the huge losses in wartime, Hitler began to pay close attention to the economy after coming to power, and with the resources of the country's land area, the national strength was also rapidly recovering.
Japan is the only country with a small size and a lack of resources on its islands.
In particular, oil resources have been constrained by Britain, France, and other countries one after another, and the situation is very difficult.
It is even more difficult to develop the economy. Although they occupied Korea and then Treasure Island, these resources were far from satisfying Japan's development ambitions.
Aside from oil, they can't even make their own decisions about steel, and they have to rely on imports from the United States, which makes them passive and very uncomfortable.
So I thought about how to break this impasse and find a vassal country with rich resources for themselves, so that they could not worry about future development.
And in an era of turmoil, oil resources are of great importance to any country.
Oil was already the world's most important strategic resource at that time.
Japan is also salivating. However, at that time, the world's major oil-producing areas were occupied by the Soviet Union, Britain, the Netherlands, the United States, Germany, etc., and it was pure pipe dream for Japan to get a piece of the pie.
After all, at that time, in order to protect these oil shares, countries sent troops to protect them.
In the oil-producing regions of the world, a large number of military bases have been established, and the purpose is very simple.
It is the idea of declaring one's own ownership and deterring other countries from fighting the oil in this place.
At that time, Japan had to find another way out, unlike other countries that had a vast territory.
Japan is an island country, and its geographical disadvantages have made them develop a sense of worry, and they are more worried about their future, which has stimulated their ambitions to expand outward.
Moreover, Japan is still in the **belt,**volcanic eruptions occur from time to time, and safety cannot be guaranteed.
At the same time, the population is still exploding, and it is necessary to have more land in order to meet their needs and thus seek economic development.
Geographically, Japan is located to the east of the Eurasian continent and is surrounded by oceans.
If you want to expand, you can only go in the direction of the west.
At that time, only two countries, the Soviet Union and China, were in the west of Japan that could satisfy Japan's imagination for the future.
At that time, the Soviet Union did not dare to provoke even the United States easily, let alone Japan, so it was natural for Japan to set its greedy eyes on our country.
I want to use Japan's vast territory to transform Japan from a maritime nation to a land nation.
In addition, relying on Japan's abundant resources, Japan can get rid of the dilemma of limited resources and realize self-sufficient economic development.
Moreover, in addition to the vast land area and rich resources, China also has a large population.
If Japan can occupy our country, there is no need to worry about the problem of labor.
All the people of the defeated country will be reduced to their free labor.
At that time, Japanese people could lie down and enjoy life, and I have to say that this abacus was really good.
That is to say, the land and population of our country at that time, the hidden market potential and production potential behind it.
It has been seen by the Japanese, and once realized, it can smoothly help Japan become a global hegemon.
Thinking of this, Japan can't hold back.
Moreover, at that time, China was far inferior to countries like the Soviet Union in all aspects, and it was easier to bully.
This also provides the possibility for them to realize their dreams of prosperity.
As a result, Japan decided to attack China. This was Japan's early concept of the so-called Greater East Asia strategy.
Japan's initial general strategy for the war of aggression against China was formulated in more detail under this strategic concept.
That's what they did later.
Under such a brutal attack by the Japanese army, Nanjing fell, and the people at that time were forced to shift their political and economic focus from the southeast to the southwest.
Under such a policy, our country has set off a mighty wave of migration.
Not only the people who fled from the city, but also many businesses and schools have joined the relocation army.
A new strategic key area with Chongqing as the center has been formed.
However, due to the large scale, the transportation capacity during the war was very limited.
Many important strategic materials have been concentrated on the only way to Chongqing, Wuhan.
At that time, Wuhan became a transit point for people and materials.
When the Japanese learned of this news, they immediately increased their troops towards Wuhan.
This move was not just for those strategic materials concentrated in Wuhan, but for Wuhan at that time.
It is also a very important industrial city in China, and its status is very important.
Taking this place was also planned by the Japanese army in strategy from the beginning, since it can kill two birds with one stone now, why not do it?
At that time, we also attached great importance to Wuhan, although it did not have the name of the capital, but it had a strategic position that the capital should have.
Moreover, the people at that time could not watch so many strategic materials in Wuhan fall into the hands of the enemy in vain.
Otherwise, it will be a heavy blow to the strength of **.
At that time, we still wanted to rely on that batch of equipment to recharge our energy and find an opportunity to fight back against the Japanese invaders.
Based on this idea, the people immediately decided to organize a heavy army.
Formulate a detailed battle plan for the Battle of Wuhan, and fight to the death with the Japanese here.
At that time, the Japanese army had been fighting in China for more than half a year, and the battle line was getting longer and longer, and the demand for military supplies was also increasing.
And the pressure in Japan has also risen sharply.
Therefore, at that time, Japan did not have the heart to delay with our side, and we grasped this weakness of Japan.
He planned to rely on the abundant products of the motherland and the strength of the masses to fight a war of attrition with the Japanese army and completely drag them down in Wuhan.
At the same time, it can also buy more time for our side to transfer some strategic materials.
Hoard in a safe place to prepare for a long war of resistance in the future.
In this way, the plan for the Wuhan operation was formulated.
At that time, the Japanese army was still dreaming of taking China in three months, hoping to use heavy troops to suppress the border.
Forced the people to surrender without a fight, and finally signed some unequal treaties.
Take a huge amount of money from the hands of the people, and then go to Western countries to buy more advanced **.
Help them to invade our country again, and achieve their goal of feeding the war with war.
Therefore, the battle of Wuhan, they are determined to win.
But unfortunately, we can't afford to lose Wuhan, and we plan to defend it to the death.
The Battle of Wuhan was also the most fundamental reason why the pace of the Japanese army's invasion of China slowed down later.
It is clear that they have overturned in their strategy against Wuhan.
At that time, the Japanese regarded Wuhan as a piece of fat, but Wuhan was also of great significance to our country.
The survival of Wuhan is related to China's national fortunes, and the Chinese soldiers did their best to resist the Japanese invaders in Wuhan.
In the end, with the coordination and cooperation of all forces, the Japanese army was held back for 4 months.
It not only eliminated a large number of Japanese troops, but also ruthlessly extinguished the arrogance of the Japanese army.
It has become the largest, longest and most annihilated battle in the strategic defense stage of China's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression.
And it also completely disrupted the rhythm of the Japanese army's offensive.
In the end, the Battle of Wuhan ended with the withdrawal of our soldiers on their own initiative, and the Japanese were happy to finally take Wuhan.
Unexpectedly, the capture of Wuhan and Guangzhou also made them lose their strategic advantage in most of China.
The protracted Battle of Wuhan turned Japan from a strategic offensive to a strategic conservative.
It completely smashed their strategic policy of wanting to take China in a quick battle.
Because at that time, the Japanese army did not expect that the defenders of Wuhan would be so difficult to fight, and carried out four or five additional troops in succession.
Eventually, the largest force that could be mobilized at the time was assembled here, about 300,000 men.
And it also dispatched the navy, land and air forces to fight, but even so, it was a bitter battle for more than four months.
has not been able to take the main force of **, but has lost almost 3550,000 people.
But later, according to our statistics, the number of ** people in Japan can be as high as 2560,000 people.
Even if one is high and the other is low, there are more than 100,000 people in the compromise.
The Japanese army, which did not have much reinforcement, felt even more powerless as the battle line lengthened.
After this battle, they were no longer able to organize a large-scale operation.
In the subsequent scattered battles, they completely lost their local advantage, and their forces were scattered and defeated one after another, and they were forced to turn from offensive to conservative.
The last thing the Japanese wanted was to see themselves in the quagmire of a protracted war, but at this time they had no choice.
And they used heavy troops to invade the precipitous terrain of South China in our country, causing more soldiers to be silently wiped out in guerrilla warfare.
Moreover, in this terrain, their superior navy and air force cannot give full play to their strengths, and can only rely on the army itself.
I can't use a large heavy ** yet, so I can only maneuver around with us in the mountains and forests, and the entire combat rhythm is infinitely slowed down.
This is why after the Japanese army entered 1938, it seemed that it suddenly could not move.
At the same time, the Japanese army, which was mired in the quagmire of war, also seriously dragged down Japan's own national strength.
In an island country like Japan, all materials rely on imports, and no matter how rich the family is, it can't stand such a toss.
The country's ** reserves have fallen sharply because of the delay of the war.
At the time of the Battle of Wuhan, there was a serious shortage of equipment, and even the rifles used for training in Japanese schools were withdrawn"。
Used to expand the army, some children were forced to go to the battlefield.
The increase in the number of soldiers has caused the loss of domestic labor in Japan, and there is not enough food to eat.
Seeing that it will not be able to maintain it, and the plan formulated before to feed the war with war has also failed, and it will be impossible to support it.
In addition, at this time, there were also problems within the Japanese army, and the power struggle between the officers intensified, and they all wanted to build up their military exploits quickly.
Don't consider the overall situation at all, fight their own battles, and let the plans they made before all come to naught.
And if they want to divide troops from other places, they are afraid that the surrounding countries such as the Soviet Union will act rashly.
In order to guard against the Soviet Union, they sent heavy troops into the three eastern provinces, which is said to be the most numerous.
Japan sent 700,000 troops to Tohoku, and these people simply could not be mobilized.
Therefore, in the later period, Japan was jointly contained by China, Britain, the United States, and the Soviet Union, which also became the root of its difficult exertion.
Coupled with the spirit of our Chinese sons and daughters who are not afraid of aggression and fight tenaciously, what will Japan use to occupy China?