The random arrow plan was finally approved. This news made the commander-in-chief of the Northeast Defense Force, General Cai E, who was on the front line, very happy. This was obviously really good news, and he and the Northeast Defense Force had already made thorough preparations for this.

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After the Central Military Command's telegram was issued, Cai E couldn't wait to convene a plenary meeting of frontline commanders and summoned Zhang Zizhong, Fu Zuoyi, Liu Yazhao, Wei Lihuang and others.

At this time, the command headquarters of the Northeastern National Defense Force has been moved to Seoul, relying on Incheon Port, Incheon Airport and multiple railway lines for supplies and reinforcements. The total number of troops in the entire army has expanded to 1.7 million, with 11 air force divisions under its jurisdiction, and other local forces available for deployment.

There are 4 coastal air force divisions, and the navy is coordinated by the Central Combined Fleet, which itself has a Korean patrol fleet under its jurisdiction.

The entire army is equipped with 11,000 light tanks, 13,300 barrel artillery pieces, 2,748 rocket launchers, and a total of 15,700 infantry armored vehicles and amphibious armored vehicles.

U.S. General Matthew Ridgway said that the terrain in southern Korea is too complex, and even wheeled vehicles cannot pass through most places, and many roads marked on the map are simply impassable.

The Northeastern Defense Force also faces the same problem, but the Imperial Army has a large-scale and extremely high-level engineering force. By supporting the North Korean government in the north, it recruits a large number of Korean migrant workers to be responsible for road construction. On the one hand, it builds roads, and on the other hand, it can only rely on large-scale

airdrops and air transport to increase supply delivery.

In this third Sino-Japanese War, Song Biao fully learned the lessons learned by the Americans in the Korean War. The entire war was in and out of combat and repair.

The work is moving forward step by step in a very steady manner, without any intention of rash advancement.

In the past few months, the Northeastern National Defense Force has built five large-scale military airport centers in Seoul, Incheon, Gwangju, Jeonju, and Cheongju in southern Korea based on the military airports left by the Japanese army, and deployed five air force divisions to station them.

Coupled with the existing three major air force airports of Jeju, Wonsan, and Sinchon, Japan has achieved layer upon layer of circular suppression in the north, making it impossible for the Japanese army to prevent effective large-scale air force offensives and defensive battles.

The frontline commanders and chiefs of staff of each group army took special planes and trains to Seoul one after another, and then drove to the general headquarters. Only the Fourth Group Army led by General Chen Wu had a deeper defense line and had exchanged fire with the Japanese army many times on the front line. Military Intelligence

In case of urgent inconvenience, Deputy Chief of Staff Xu Wei came to attend the meeting, and others such as Fu Zuoyi, Wei Lihuang, Zhang Zizhong and others arrived at Seoul Airport one after another.

Everyone arrived on the morning of April 17th. When they arrived at the general headquarters, they rushed directly to the conference room. Wei Lihuang and the newly promoted chief of staff of the Second Army, Bai Chongxi, were the first to arrive, and their tasks were also completed the earliest.

, they basically don’t have much to do behind the scenes. At most, they serve as a reserve force and a stable defense.

Things were turning, and now it was finally Fu Zuoyi's turn to lead his first group army into battle. Fu Zuoyi was naturally very happy and arrived early on a transport plane. After arriving at the general headquarters, he seemed quite high-spirited.

Fu Zuoyi happened to meet Zhang Zizhong and Wei Lihuang at the door of the conference room. When he saw the two, he enthusiastically took Chief of Staff Liu Yazhao forward to shake hands with them, his face glowing.

When shaking hands with Zhang Zizhong, Fu Zuoyi couldn't help but smile and said: "Brother Chenchen, although our Second Army will be the main force in this battle, your Third Army is also full of elites. If our two armies join forces to attack from both sides,

, then defeating the enemy is in sight, and it is easy to turn over!"

Zhang Zizhong smiled, pointed at Fu Zuoyi and said jokingly: "You are too proud, don't lose Jingzhou by being careless here."

Fu Zuoyi laughed and defended: "How dare I be careless? It's just that it took me a whole year before it was my turn for the Second Group Army to attack across the board with the main force. I have been holding back for a whole year and I can't wait."

Zhang Zizhong agreed: "I feel the same way, I should give birth to a good brother."

Having said this, he invited Fu Zuoyi to enter the conference room together, and added: "The commander-in-chief may have to wait for me inside for a long time, so I'd better go and see the commander-in-chief first!"

"That's fine!"

Fu Zuoyi replied, and Zhang Zizhong invited Wei Lihuang and others to go with them. Soldiers are judged by their achievements. Compared with the two of them, Wei Lihuang's qualifications were relatively low, but in the previous Seoul offensive, he made great achievements in one go.

When we arrived in Jeollanam-do, many people felt that they could have won a big victory if they had changed themselves, but they were not sure whether they could win so beautifully.

Today, when everyone sees Wei Lihuang, they also have a lot of admiration.

Fu Zuoyi also took a deep breath in his heart. Wei Lihuang's record really put a lot of pressure on him. Under the surface of pride, he actually had a very strong desire for competition in his heart.

He wanted to fight a very beautiful decisive battle in the southeast and completely drive the Japanese army out of the Korean Peninsula.

Entering the conference room, Fu Zuoyi and others saw Cai Ezheng, Chief of Staff Liu Gengyun and others discussing issues in front of a large map. An adjutant came forward to report that they had arrived. The two army generals Cai Ezheng and Liu Gengyun turned around and saw them.

Everyone, the final decisive battle against the Japanese army is about to be officially launched at this time, and everyone's interest is very high.

"You guys came so fast!"

Cai E sighed in praise and invited Fu Zuoyi and others to sit down first.

Fu Zuoyi and Zhang Zizhong came forward together to salute and report, and then sat down in their respective positions. Since everyone who should come has arrived, Cai E and Liu Gengyun no longer discuss alone.

Cai E had a battle order officially signed by the Central Military Headquarters and the Imperial Emperor. He read the general order and informed everyone present that the official date of the decisive battle was in mid-May. The specific battle time would be notified urgently three days before the war.

After reading the battle order, Cai E took off his reading glasses again. The Imperial Army lieutenant generals and major generals present said: "Now that all conditions are mature, matters in the southeast theater will not be delayed any longer.

, the first, third, fourth, three group armies launch attacks from three areas at the same time, and they must use lightning

Unable to hide its influence, with more troops, investment in light and heavy weapons, and the large-scale advantage of the air force, the Japanese East Asia Expeditionary Force was divided into six regions. With the support of the air force and the headquarters, each department took turns to annihilate the Japanese army and completely wipe out the Japanese army.

The expulsion from the Korean Peninsula laid an important foundation for the subsequent landing operations on the Japanese mainland."

Having been the Minister of Land and Resources for many years, Cai E is much calmer this time than when he was young. When he was young, he could be considered a steady person, but he often made some slightly impatient actions, which was very strange and seemed very strange.

Steady, but occasionally he will suddenly do something less than steady.

Today's Cai E is much better in these aspects. After all, age has brought him not only his aging body and his ambition, but also lessons, experience, connections, knowledge, honors, mistakes..., veteran

Senior generals always have the advantage of senior generals.

Cai E said something calm and steady, and was thinking about something in his mind. The others were particularly energetic and had been waiting for the final decisive battle for a long time, hoping to drive the Japanese army into the sea as soon as possible.

There is a way to war.

One of the biggest differences between the Third Sino-Japanese War and the Second Sino-Japanese War of 1911 lies in the contrast in strength between China and Japan. During the Sino-Japanese War of 1911, the empire had just been established and the national power was still weak. Facing an industrial country,

Japan and the empire can only adopt an overall strategy of seeking a quick victory at all costs and exerting all their strength.

During the current Third Sino-Japanese War, the strengths of China and Japan are not at the same level at all, and Japan's inherent shortcoming is that its war resources seriously need to be imported from overseas. This allows China to fight a war based on mutual loss of strength.

The gradually advancing circular blockade battle eventually blocked the Japanese troops to death on the home island.

Strategically, China's strategy is the right way.

In terms of tactics, China takes full advantage of its military industry, national science and technology, and military resources to actively promote the progress of new tactics. It can not only fight the key points of the armored mechanized army and linear penetration blitzes, but also can fight multi-point attacks with random arrows.

In battle, you can also use multi-line division in tactical planning and focus on encirclement and annihilation.

Relying on its strong military industrial strength, the empire has prioritized ensuring that the 1.7 million troops of the Northeast Defense Force replace M35 assault rifles across the board. Especially in the Southeast Campaign and Ryukyu Campaign, whether it is the Central Military Headquarters or the frontline headquarters, the unified understanding is that

The role that armored forces can play in these two battles is limited, and more focus is needed on the offense of army infantry.

Before World War II, the Army mainly had two combat systems, one was the combination of traditional artillery and infantry, and the other was the combination of mechanized armored vehicles and infantry. After World War II, both mechanized infantry and traditional artillery needed to be combined with the Air Force and Army.

Combined with aviation.

The Imperial CSKA has made very in-depth explorations in these three systems. Jiang Fangzhen, Liu Gengyun, Han Chunlin, Liu Yazhao, Su Bin and other three generations of military theory experts, old, middle and young, have also continued to study the traditional artillery system of the Imperial Army.

Han Chunlin made great contributions, especially as a link between the past and the future. He retired to the second line and served as the deputy dean of the Central Military Academy. He has been committed to the research of multi-arms theory and also advocated "new comprehensive theory" in the field of traditional artillery and infantry.

The main core idea of ​​Han Chunlin's "New Integration" theory is to advocate the diversification, integration and lightweight of individual light weapons, with stronger firepower and lighter weight, and to pursue concentration and advantage in regional firepower, rather than simply letting soldiers

Pursuing a longer strike range and striking farther targets is the work of mechanized troops, aviation troops and artillery. What soldiers have to do is to focus on the front line to take advantage of regional firepower points and rely on the advantages of the entire system to eliminate opponents.

With the support of this theory, the Imperial CSKA has developed a large number of new individual weapons in the past two decades, including rocket launchers, grenade guns, assault rifles, M33 special sniper rifles, etc.

The status of artillery in the Imperial CSKA has declined to a certain extent compared to the past, but it can still maintain a world-class level. The development and service of new light howitzers and howitzers have been relatively smooth. The development and service of rocket launchers have been in progress in these few years.

It has been accelerating over the years.

The army is a system, and its entire equipment setup is highly scientific.

With the large-scale service and improvement of large-caliber mortars such as 105\120mm, the 75mm light howitzer has lost its original advantage as a barrel artillery. The empire began to install the M1930 105mm caliber towed light on a large scale

Howitzers and M1933 ​​120mm towed light howitzers, these two types of howitzers are the backbone of the Imperial Army's artillery force.

Like the situation in the southeastern part of the Korean Peninsula, it is more difficult for large-scale mechanized troops to penetrate. It is all mountainous, and the main Japanese garrison is also on high ground. It is impossible for tanks and armored vehicles to attack from the bottom of the mountain to the mountain.

In such a situation, the entire army's tactics must return to the traditional combination of artillery and infantry. In large-scale positional battles, artillery is a branch that is more constrained. The indiscriminate bombardment of artillery can easily complicate the frontline terrain.

As it becomes muddier, infantry can effectively utilize these complex secondary terrains, which is a great obstacle for tanks and armored vehicles.

Why are low-caliber artillery being gradually phased out? In addition to the development of mortars, a very important problem is that the range of low-caliber artillery is too short and cannot effectively cooperate with tanks. If you want to use artillery and tanks to cooperate in combat, you have to deal with the artillery.

The range requirement will be very high. It must effectively cover the opponent's rear and artillery positions, rather than bombarding the front line indiscriminately.

Also in mountainous areas, as long as the opponent's defenses are strong enough and a complete defense system is established, the role of artillery can easily be limited, unless it is a large-caliber heavy howitzer, and this large-caliber heavy howitzer

It is also difficult to move forward in mountainous and hilly areas.

Therefore, the decisive battle in the southeast theater of the Korean Peninsula must still rely on infantry as the main body. The main attack with infantry will inevitably suffer heavy casualties. In terms of tactical planning, we can only adopt the strategy of "encirclement without annihilation, which will consume its food and grass".

Classical tactics, this is the most classic chapter in Chinese military philosophy, cut off the enemy's food and grass and wait for the enemy to die.

In order to realize such a plan, it is necessary to carry out strong attacks in key areas, break through the opponent's most critical lines of defense, seize the most critical high ground, and use tank divisions to penetrate as much as possible in areas where armored troops can be used, and finally achieve the goal of defeating the opponent.

The Japanese army divided and encircled it, used counterattack as defense, and used defense as offense, which wasted the Japanese army and forced the Japanese army to take the initiative to launch an offensive to break out of the encirclement.

At this moment, General Cai E, as the commander-in-chief of the Northeastern National Defense Force, is most worried about four words - arrogant soldiers will be defeated.

Especially during this period, Cai E also clearly felt the change in this proud mentality.

Cai E was silently thinking about many things. In the past few days, he had been thinking of some way to make the troops calmer and more stable, and to adjust the mentality of the soldiers.

He was silent for a period of time before asking his adjutant to distribute the combat plans sent to each group army by the Joint Operations Staff of the Central Military Headquarters. The commanders and chiefs of staff of each group army each had a copy.

In the past few months, each group army has been intensively preparing new combat plans, but for the entire Northeast Defense Force, the most important work is the construction of basic projects and defense lines, including airports, radars, roads, and ports.

Improve facilities and repair railway bridges to ensure that the army is ready for subsequent operations.

During this period, the Japanese army was also frantically stepping up preparations, trying to use the special terrain in southeastern Korea to block the Northeast Defense Force and prepare for future counterattacks. Regardless of whether the Imperial Army believed that the Japanese army still had a chance to counterattack, at least Japan

citizens believe it.

For the Japanese people, all difficulties are temporary. The Imperial Japanese Army still has the opportunity and strength to defeat China. All they seem to lack is some luck.
To be continued...