16th October
Japanese general staff poured over the maps of northern China and formed a new line to advance to. It will not expand the amount of provinces we need to defend, but it will allow Japan to recapture all the lost Shanxi lands in the south. The western frontier needs to be expanded into Xiebi San Ma, this will then skirt to Xianyang at the far south of former communist China, before tracing along the yellow river eastwards to Jincheng before arcing to rejoin our current positions in the two provinces of Hengshui and Changzhou.
Once we capture this line we will settle in for the winter and await reinforcements. We will need an additional 8 divisions to expand the proposed line to the downstream length of the yellow river, so Japanese offensives may not restart till mid-next year.
We started sharing infantry theory with Manchukuo.
A naval battle kicks off in the Gulf of Chili as the Chinese attempt to land troops at Dalian, where three wings of Japanese aircraft are based. They are immediately rebased as we await news on the battle.
After a few hours the Chinese fleet is routed with no losses, but before it could land troops.
17th October
Chased the Chinese fleet, it eventually evades destruction in two subsequent battles and reaches the port of Qingdao. Decided not to sink them in port as it'll just waste enemy repair IC and wont pose a threat when rebuilt.
22nd October
Japanese positions advance into Yulian, Zichang, Tongchuan, Daning and Taigu.
Chinese forces holding Uxin Ju, in Xiebi San Ma begin to abandon their position for Shizuishan. We decided to attack Chinese forces in the province the Uxin Ju troops are retreating into, this is because it has a fort and we didn't want to see a highly organised force hold mountainous forts. We also attack the Uxin Ju troops to prevent them reinforcing for the duration of the assault.
The force at Shizuishan immediately surrenders and leaves the province. We reduced the attack on Uxin Ju by 1 division to lure the defenders into staying long enough to be trapped as we move in Shizuishan behind them. 44% to victory. An enemy tactical bomber is attacking us but interceptors cannot reach Xeibi san ma border.
23rd October
GI division is ready for deployment.
27th October
Quality Chinese reinforcements reach Shizusishan and we are forced to abandon the attack into the fort province. Our bombers are 7km short of being able to reach it, which would provide us with a solution to the problem. We continue pressing into Uxin Ju.
30th October
Our mountain division arrives at Liangzhen, south of Shizuishan. We press westwards into the mountains of Otog Qingai with the mountain division and move another division in to hold the province of Liangzhen. This presents the Chinese at Shizuishan with an option, abandon the fort or be forced into a pocket.
1st November
Progress in Uxin Ju
2nd November
Another GI division completes training. Two more GI divisions ordered.
Current production:
1 convoy [+10 ships]
1 Aircraft Carrier [no CAGs]
1 scout panzer [+1 queued]
5 GI divisions [3 to finish production by late december]
We are also building 51/51 upgrades.
3rd November
Mountain troop arrives at Otog Qianqi and is immediately forced to defend from the north. To lower pressure and also take advantage of this, we immediately attack Shizusishan.
4th November
By nightfall, we are 80% to victory with 1 division in combat and three attempting to reinforce. 6 Chinese divisions are defending with a further 3 retreating into the pocket.
8th November
Some attacking divisions had 2 days worth of supplies left, so many were removed from the attack. We are now down to 2 attacking divisions at Shizuishan, one with 9 days of supplies left. Combat stands at 85%
12th November
Defenders at Sizuishan are down to 1 active division, 6 in reserve of which 3 are HQs and 0 are inf/militia with organisation ratings.
16th December
Enemy forces crumble.
Victory!
Scale of encirclement and destruction of enemy units.
Because we have now conquered this area, units that were spread out over four provinces now only have two hold two, both of which are mountainous with rivers. In the west supplies are so short we will just move units into their new positions and wait a while.
The two completed divisions are now serving in the GI IV corps of the second army. This means we are able to free up the JJ III corps along with our reserve JJ II corps for offensives into the yellow river. Supplies are also short here, but as soon as a resupply occurs the next advance will begin. Aircraft are sitting idle to rebuild org during the supply pause.
18th November
Chinese offensive into Shijiazhuang in the center of our front line, supported by a tactical bomber. Immediately shut down by our interceptors and superior land forces. Unusual attack since we had an entire corps based in that province.
20th November
The 2 JJ corps we're waiting to attack with were spread out to reduce supply stress hopefully.
26th November
Repeated Chinese offensives into Shijiazhuang has opened the door for our supply strapped forces to win a quick victory and advance into the province of Yushe. 51% to victory.
29th November
Penultimate Scout Panzer division is completed. After our quick victory in the battle for Yushe, another offensive into Xintai is immediately launched. An attack into Yongquan followed immediately afterwards as there is now no possibility of a counter-attack against these troops. Xingtai at 65% and Yongquan at 69%.
3rd December
The forces attacking Xintai run out of supplies and fuel before they are able to move into the province, despite being victorious on the field. A division in supply nearby is marched in their place.
The vanguard in the battle of Songyan have arrived. The cavalry division is immediately beset by a quartet of enemy divisions. Three days until reinforcements arrive. This division may get routed at Songyan, but it is cavalry and we are not in a manovure phase of war so it is an acceptable loss.
4th December
Politics
Noticed that the leninists and left-wing radicals now hold 6% popularity between them. Control clique stands at 14%. Social conservatives and market liberals hold 60% between them. Feeling suspicous of American and Soviet spies, but I don't want to risk a coup so we're improving organisation and switched minister of security to Baba Eiichi with the prince of terror trait +15% ruling party support.
If you're wondering why I never touched Guangxi Clique by seizing Hainan, at 60ICs it's best to let sleeping tigers lie.
8th December
Spotted Chinese ships near Taiwan, sent a fleet to investigate.
11th December
Pleasant surprise, one of our speculative peace offers paid off!
This is fantastic news because we can improve the port of Hamhuang before resuming hostilities. We were see-sawing on some offensives, especially around Xingtai because supplies simply ran out and other troops from elsewhere had to be drafted in several times.
Some legal changes.
27th December
Pulled the second army out of China, 2 JJ corps and a GI corps to reduce supply issues for the garission.
31st December
The GI V Corps were formed on the home islands out of three recently trained divisions.
We are producing 4x Naval base levels for completion on July the 18th 1938. This will be applied to the port of Hamhuang, once these are produced and applied we will be able to reopen war with the Chinese.
We are considering an attack on Siam, however it has serious drawbacks. Although it will increase overall ICs, it will also need an investment of garission divisions which will outweigh the increase in IC during the period from now till we restart war with China. So it will put us behind on that count, it will also allow the UK to greatly increase threat ratings since it will share a border with us. On the positive side, we will be able to run a war economy a little longer and hopefully begin to close in on parity with the nationalist chinese economy. With Shanxi, we stand at 117 ICs and I imagine the Chinese one is even bigger given Guangxi's is estimated at 63 by itself (4spies).
The new Japan