Chapter 939, Pre-war Conference

The rectification of the three northeastern provinces is not limited to military affairs, but also related matters in administrative matters are also "in the way". After all, the three northeastern provinces are outside the pass, and they are allowed to separatist warlords and collusion with the powerful forces for many years. Suddenly making drastic changes will probably cause panic. Therefore, Wu Shaoting specially formulated the administrative measures for the three northeastern provinces, setting up the United Provincial Advisory Council to replace the previous Governor's Office of the three northeastern provinces. At the same time, it stipulated that the United Provincial Advisory Council is the highest public opinion organ of the three northeastern provinces, and consists of special members selected by the advisory Council of each province. In other words, Wu Shaoting deliberately added the three northeastern provinces to the administrative unit. His intention was not only to unite the three northeastern provinces and provide the opportunity to transition to centralization of the old warlord system, but also to deal with the Sino-Japanese conflict.

Of course, strictly speaking, the three northeastern provinces are not a complete administrative level, because Wu Shaoting did not intend to set up another top chief of the three northeastern provinces, and the Speaker of the United Provincial Advisory Council is only a person in charge of the work of the United Provincial Advisory Council and does not have the administrative power to govern the three northeastern provinces. The administrative work of each province is still the responsibility of the highest chief of each province.

Regarding the matter of the highest officials of each province, Wu Shaoting abolished the supervision system without hesitation, and dispatched specialists from Nanjing to go north to strictly implement the governor system and establish a complete provincial and municipal and county-level advisory council system. However, before that, the governors of the three provinces were basically succeeded by the former governors. The governor of Heilongjiang Province was Bi Guifang, the governor of Jilin Province was Meng Enyuan, and the governor of Fengtian Province was Zhao Erxun. It is not difficult to see from the appointment of the governor of Fengtian Province that this was Wu Shaoting's insistence on promoting the separation of military and political affairs, and it was necessary to completely end the warlord system of military and political integration.

On the afternoon of June 3, the First Route Army Command Building of the Three East Provinces of Fengtian City, which is the former 27th Division Command. The yard has three times more sentry guards than usual, and the yard is full of various vehicles, but the license plates of all vehicles are hung with military fonts. Wu Shaoting issued a secret order last night notifying all senior officers in Fengtian Province to go to the First Route Army Command to hold a military meeting today.

Although the theme of the meeting was not informed in advance when the secret order was issued, all the invited officers heard that it was a "military meeting", and they did not need to deliberately guess that this was a deployment meeting before the war. The reason for choosing to hold a meeting at the First Route Army Headquarters was because the Sujiatun Military Camp was still too simple, and the deployment meeting before the war was highly confidential, and the security of information circulation must be ensured. If it were in Nanjing, the meeting would inevitably be held in the "Hunting" war room of the Ministry of National Defense.

Before the official meeting, at noon, Wu Shaoting, Cai E, Wu Peifu, Zhang Zuolin, as well as senior officials from the Ministry of National Defense and local governments in the three eastern provinces held a simple lunch meeting. At the lunch meeting, Cai E briefly introduced the current situation of the Sino-Japanese conflict and the comparison of military forces between China and Japan, and also slightly revealed the agenda of the afternoon meeting.

Basically, the purpose of the lunch meeting is to determine the leadership of the Sino-Japanese War. All those participating in the lunch meeting will be direct leaders of the entire battlefield, but their respective divisions of labor are different.

At two o'clock, officers invited to attend the conference entered the venue one after another. After the gates of the venue were closed, Wu Shaoting, Cai E, Wu Peifu and others walked in through the side door. Everyone stood up and saluted. Wu Shaoting walked to the rostrum and waved his hand to signal everyone to sit down. Then he gave some irrelevant opening remarks, including revealing the recent turning point in the European battlefield, the progress of the North Korean temporary government, and the deployment of the National Defense Force.

After saying the opening remark, Wu Shaoting directly got to the point and said: "Here, I formally decided to hold a military exercise in Dandong the morning of June 5th the day after tomorrow. The 34th Division and 37th Division of the Northern First Army were involved in the military exercises. Of course, this military exercise was only a superficial reason. There was no exercise for the 37th Division and 34th Division. They would directly enter actual combat and break into the North Korean border. I would declare war on *** at 12 noon that day, because the *** government ignored the Double Five Agreement and refused to return the Lushun Concession and handed over the South Manchuria Railway. I will inform Beijing and Nanjing later, and the news and publicity units will cooperate with the public opinion to build momentum."

Although the expectation of Sino-Japanese conflict is no secret, for many officers present, it is more or less abrupt to start the war the day after tomorrow. In fact, the entire preparation for the war was operated by Wu Shaoting and the Army Command in secret, so the officers of the middle and lower classes did not have a very clear idea. Now the preparation work has been prepared long ago, and the war is about to start in the blink of an eye. There is no necessary transition and connection in the middle, so naturally I am not able to adapt.

There was no discussion in the venue because everyone present had military status and they understood what discipline was.

Wu Shaoting paused for a moment and continued: "The decisive battle between China and Japan is related to the foundation of the country. You will be the core members of the war. Greater China must lay the foundation for a strong Asian country and eliminate the pre-China shame of the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895. Although the previous diplomacy has been tortuous, the Asian strategy has been explained from the beginning. You are also Chinese soldiers here, and you should show your professional spirit to deal with the war."

These words encouraged the officers who felt abrupt. Then he asked Cai E to further explain the strategic deployment of the war against Japan. Cai E did not rush to stand up and speak. He ordered the attendants on the side to hang the topographic map of the Sino-Korea border. In order to facilitate the entire venue to see the instructions on the map clearly, this map was a special large-scale wall chart.

"At present, the main forces of our North First Group are basically gathered in the area at the border between Fengtian Province and North Korea. The main strategic offensive point is in Dandong, stationed by the 34th and 37th Divisions. As the head of state said, they will also be responsible for the primary offensive task. In addition, the 33rd and 35th Divisions are stationed in the northern part of Linjiang County, Jilin Province. After the battle in Dandong's prominence began, the 33rd and 35th Divisions will be put into combat within the next hour. The 38th Division has not yet fully reached its designated position, and the logistics forces and some subsequent forces are still in transportation. Their gathering point is in Yanbian. It is expected that all rectification work will be completed in two days, that is, it will be put into combat on June 6th. Finally, the 36th Division, currently stationed in Baishan, serves as the reserve force of the entire front."

Cai E quickly explained the deployment of the entire North First Army. Many officers present actually knew this. However, in order to make it easier for civilians from the Ministry of National Defense to understand the overall situation, they simply summarized it. On the large map, the stationing locations of each division were clearly marked, including logistics transportation lines, material points and hypothetical offensive routes, etc.

"According to the information collected by our intelligence units, as of today, *** has gathered four divisions and five brigades in North Korea, namely the 16th Division and the 17th Division, two brigades of the 7th Division and the 10th Division that have been urgently mobilized from Taiwan, two brigades of the newly formed 19th Division, and one brigade of the 20th Division. It is estimated that the total force is more than 120,000, and the subsequent force is still being mobilized continuously. However, if *** wants to complete all pre-war troop mobilization, it will take at least one and a half months to wait." Cai E continued.

Everyone present listened carefully to Cai E's introduction. Even though the military preparations of the Republic of China were a while earlier than the *** people, this battle took place in a foreign country and had a serious impact on the geographical environment. As early as the Ming Dynasty war to assist North Korea in fighting against the Japanese, the Ming Dynasty army caused many unnecessary losses due to geographical unfamiliarity, so we should naturally pay more attention to this.

At this time, Cai E picked up the command whip and pointed on the map, continuing: "*** Headquarters of the General Staff obviously would not naively pin their hopes on the Double Five Agreement, or as early as when China had a diplomatic crisis in February, North Korea had already begun to carry out active military deployment. The 16th Division had been urgently transferred from Seoul to Shinyiju on the Sino-North Korea border, and the 17th Division also arrived at the Jiangjie border from Pyongyang, and the 7th Division, which was recruited from Taiwan, had already begun operations five days ago, and rushed to Huishan from Pyongyang to garrison. The Japanese troops currently pressing on the Sino-North Korea border are these three divisions."
Chapter completed!