On the western portion of the front, 2 Homen-Gun starts to meet heavy resistance from the Nationalists. They are no strangers to rough terrain – the conquest of the Communists was done through the worst terrain we’ve seen so far – but they’ve mercifully been able to avoid river crossings up until now. By mid September, however, VIII Gun is forced to cross the Wei (a tributary of the Yellow), and pays a steep price: 361 killed. This is more than double the casualties inflicted (155), and is an evil omen of what I might face in the dense forests and mountain ranges of western China.
In the east, with the Yellow River behind us, most of my forces have little problems driving the Nationalists ahead of them. II Gun, however, faces a somewhat unique obstacle – the Grand Canal. It runs generally parallel to my line of advance, connecting the Hai River in the North, the Yellow River, the Huai, and the Yangtse, until finally flowing into the sea near Shanghai. Because I am rarely crossing, it doesn’t merit much consideration, but it takes a slight east-west turn south of the Yellow, and II Gun needs to cross to maintain the integrity of the front. Assaulting from Jiawang to Xuzhou, they take 212 casualties. this isn’t a staggering number, and reverses VIII Gun’s recent ratio by inflicting twice as many casualties (426) as taken.
II Gun had lost a fair amount of organization in the attack across the Grand Canal, so I reinforce them with my cavalry reserve. This turns out to be a big mistake, as the Chinese promptly counter-attack. With nearly 52,000 troops stacked in the province, they lack the ability to move properly in combat, and suffer an additional 339 dead, while inflicting only 269.
The remainder of 1 Homen-Gun continues to advance with little difficulty. I shuffle the cavalry forward to give II Gun some time to re-organize. This, if anything, further exasperates the problem. After the Qingdao peninsula was taken, Qingdao becomes my biggest port facility on the continent, and my supply base is transferred there. Supply priority is given to units in order of distance from the supply base: the farthest have top priority, while nearest are the lowest supply priority. The combination of the simple proximity to Qingdao and the halted advance means that II Gun is now the lowest priority for supplies, and consequently receive little or none for days at a time. The organization of some divisions drop to zero, until repairs of the Qingdao ports and the capture of other ports farther south help alleviate the supply issue, and set II gun moving forward again.
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| Our Progress as of Early October, 1937 |
We are able to cross the Huai River with fairly little difficulty, thanks to the leapfrogging of I Gun south of it and the ability of IV Gun to bypass it at its source. In early October we are coming up on the Yangtze River, Shanghai, and Nanjing, all of which promise to be formidable obstacles.
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