Chapter 151: Everyone can do their best

After the strategic offensive direction is determined, other problems will be easier to deal with.

On September 10, Mu Haoyang finally made the decision to set the time to attack the Solomon Islands in early November, as early as November 3rd, and the latest November 10th. The main basis of this decision is that it will take November 3rd, and the 200 transport ships requisitioned for this strategic offensive to be in place. November 10th is the deadline for the four land combat divisions to complete the mobilization, and it is also the time for the restoration of the "Tarzan" aircraft carrier.

After the war, some people believed that the Chinese Navy and Marines did not attack the Solomon Islands in September was a major mistake.

Obviously, this view is very biased, because in September, all preparations were not in place, and even the mobilization work of the Land Warrior Division was not completed.

You should know that attacking an island guarded by the enemy is definitely not a simple thing that can be started after seizing the sea control power. Seizing the sea control power only lays the foundation for amphibious landings, and is a necessary condition for amphibious landing operations, rather than a sufficient condition.

In fact, it was a bit hasty to attack the Solomon Islands in early November.

Not to mention anything else, the Marine Corps only mobilized four Marine divisions at that time, and the subsequent actual combat proved that the US military's defense deployment in the Solomon Islands was no worse than that in the Hawaiian Islands. To occupy this archipelago, the four Marine Divisions were far from enough and needed to invest more combat troops.

From a purely military perspective, sufficient troops will not be prepared until the second quarter of 2054.

The problem is, this is not a purely military issue.

At that time, Mu Haoyang was under great pressure. Not only was there criticism from Qi Kaiwei, but also doubts and accusations from Huang Hanlin. Even Du Xiaolei believed that the Navy and the Marine Corps had spent too much energy on a remote archipelago, and there was no need for this.

Politically speaking, the Chinese military must make major strategic breakthroughs on a certain battlefield as soon as possible.

At that time, Mu Haoyang chose the Southwest Pacific, and made a lot of efforts to do so, and even made a guarantee to Huang Hanlin. If Mu Haoyang did not make a guarantee, Huang Hanlin would definitely let him change his strategic deployment and spend his troops on other battlefields.

Obviously, this in turn restricted Mu Haoyang's military decision-making.

You should know that even from a military perspective, if you miss this opportunity, you will have to wait half a year before you can enter the Southwest Pacific. There must be a prerequisite, that is, in the second quarter of 2054, you will defeat the recovered US Navy in the naval battle.

Objectively speaking, this is also a military adventure, because no one can guarantee that the Chinese Navy can win the next naval battle.

Of course, if you look deeper, this issue will be even more complicated. For example, if the Chinese Navy and Marine Corps did not attack the Solomon Islands at the end of 2053, but maintained the current situation on the Pacific battlefield, then by 2054, the US Navy would be likely to take the initiative to choose a battlefield, such as counterattacking the Mariana Islands, thus forcing the Chinese fleet to go to the battlefield chosen by the US Navy to fight to the decisive battlefield.

As a naval general who is more inclined to attack, Mu Haoyang is definitely willing to choose the battlefield himself.

In September, in addition to the finalization of the Battle of Solomon, a battle of great strategic significance broke out, that is, under the command of Lieutenant General Jiang Bowen, the Sino-Iranian Legion recovered Tehran, which was occupied by the Russian army for more than half a year, and fired the first shot to encircle and annihilate the US-Russian coalition forces, and was also the first shot to strategic counterattack on the battlefield of Iran.

To this end, China not only invested two armies in Iran, but also used two land combat divisions.

The Chinese army's large counterattack on the battlefield of Iran can be seen as the beginning of a strategic counterattack on the ground battlefield, or as the prelude to the Chinese Army's strategic offensive to start on the mainland battlefield, or as a feint operation that has reached a strategic scale.

However, Jiang Bowen once again proved with his actions that he deserved more than just the rank of lieutenant general.

In this battle planned by Jiang Bowen and reviewed and approved by Qi Kaiwei, Jiang Bowen made a false act and turned the offense of feints into a real strategic counterattack.

You know, Qi Kaiwei thinks that it would be very good for Jiang Bowen to conquer Tehran.

At that time, the closest troops of the Sino-Iran Army to Tehran were in Hall in the Kavil Desert (also known as the Kavil Salt Desert, because in history, it was once a very famous salt-producing area). There was only one highway to Isfahan, and it was a low-grade highway that could only pass ten-ton trucks. The Iranian infantry battalion was stationed here, and the straight-line distance from Tehran was 400 kilometers. In addition to Hall's garrison, the farthest Chinese-Iran team from Tehran was 600 kilometers away, and it was concentrated in remote areas in eastern Iran.

At that time, the US-Russian coalition had already occupied Isfahan.

The US-Russian coalition did not attack Hall. First, the town in the desert was indeed of no value, and second, an Iranian infantry battalion was not afraid of at all.

Of course, this is also related to the problems of the US-Russian coalition forces themselves.

After advancing to the north of the Zagros Mountains, the US-Russian coalition was at its end. The front line was more than 2,000 kilometers, but the total force was less than 300,000, of which the US-Russian coalition was less than 100,000. The total force of the Sino-Iranian army was more than 2.5 million, and the two Chinese armies had 90,000. More importantly, the US-Russian coalition did not give up its plan to march into Khuzestan Province, so it placed its main force in western Iran. There were two US military divisions and four Russian military divisions in Koramabad alone, with a force of nearly 100,000. The result was that in other parts of the front line, the US-Russian coalition had very limited troops and the defense line was useless.

At that time, the main defensive strategy of the US-Russian coalition was exactly the same as Iran's local defensive strategy: using dangerous terrain to block the enemy.

The problem is that this is not the United States, nor Russia, but Iran.

You should know that there are two conditions for using terrain to defend on the battlefield. One is that we are very familiar with the terrain and the other is not very familiar with the terrain, and the other is that we have received support and understanding from the people. Obviously, the US-Russian coalition forces do not have these two conditions on the battlefield of Iran.

In other words, the defensive strategy of the US-Russian coalition is useless at all.

In the words of Jiang Bowen after serving as commander-in-chief of the China-Iranian Legion: the US-Russian coalition that assaulted Khuzestan Province has formed a huge strategic outreach in western Iran. The two wings of the defense line are very fragile. The main force of the US-Russian coalition gathered at the top of the protrusion is easily surrounded and annihilated.

In fact, after arriving in Iran, Jiang Bowen was trying to find a way to eat the main force of the US-Russian coalition.

Interestingly, Qi Kaiwei gave Jiang Bowen the task at that time to stabilize the Iranian battlefield. The minimum requirement was to prevent the Iranian army from collapsing within the year. In Qi Kaiwei's view, as long as he launched an attack on the mainland battlefield and attacked the Volga River all the way, posing a threat to the Caucasus region, Iran's morale will no longer be a problem, because this is enough to convince the Iranian military and civilians that the Chinese army is likely to come from the north.

As a result, Jiang Bowen submitted a report in August, believing that only one attack could stabilize the battlefield in Iran.

Finally, it was this report that convinced Qi Kaiwei to ask the Chief of Staff of the Army to promise the young Army Lieutenant General to launch a limited-scale offensive operation in Iran.

In fact, until this time, Qi Kaiwei did not believe that Jiang Bowen could conquer Tehran.

You know, Jiang Bowen only has two armies in his hands.

Obviously, Jiang Bowen also knew that using two armies, as well as those large but unreliable Iranian troops, would definitely not be able to make any name for themselves.

The problem is that Qi Kaiwei will definitely not increase troops to Iran.

At this time, the most interesting thing happened, that is, Jiang Bowen asked Pang Yuelong for help, hoping to mobilize the two land combat divisions deployed in Pakistan. What’s more interesting is that Pang Yuelong did not refuse, but agreed very readily. The official reason was that these two land combat divisions were originally prepared for the Gulf region. As for sending them to occupy important coastal areas in the Gulf region or to fight in the hinterland of Iran, Pang Yuelong did not ask much.

According to Zhou Yusheng's recollection, Pang Yuelong provided help to Jiang Bowen mainly to make Qi Kaiwei look ugly.

The reason is very simple. In August, Qi Kaiwei was not optimistic about the Iranian battlefield at all. He believed that no matter how powerful Jiang Bowen was, he would not be able to make any name. If Jiang Bowen made a name on the Iranian battlefield, it would prove that Qi Kaiwei's judgment was wrong, which would definitely be a good thing for Pang Yuelong.

Now, Jiang Bowen has the same force as three armies.

More importantly, these "three armies" are equipped with ground warfare platforms and have very strong offensive capabilities.

Actual combat has long proved that Jiang Bowen is a general who is very good at offensive wars and also likes to fight offensive wars. He was sent by Yu Shihui to fight defensive wars on the Middle East battlefield, which can be said to be using the wrong place.

At that time, Pang Yuelong also did a very important thing for Jiang Bowen: he proposed to Mu Haoyang that Jiang Bowen should be the commander of the Iranian theater.

Although the word "general" is missing, this position is two levels higher than that of the commander-in-chief of the Chinese-Iran Legion.

To put it bluntly, as the commander of the war zone, Jiang Bowen has the right to mobilize all combat troops in the war zone and to formulate combat plans for this war zone. In the position of commander-in-chief of the Sino-Iran Legion, he can only mobilize ground troops, and has no right to directly formulate combat plans.

At that time, Mu Haoyang was busy planning a combat operation to enter the Solomon Islands and needed to cooperate with Pang Yuelong, so he reluctantly agreed.

The main reason for saying "badly" is that Mu Haoyang did not formally appoint Jiang Bowen, but sent Wei Chenglong, who had previously served as the commander of the war zone, to help Qi Kaiwei plan and organize offensive operations on the mainland battlefield. Qi Kaiwei had long proposed to let Wei Chenglong come back. As a result, there was no commander at the Iranian theater for the time being, so Mu Haoyang followed the situation and asked Jiang Bowen to take over the commander of the war zone.

You should know that the minimum rank of the war zone commander is the general, while Jiang Bowen is only a lieutenant general, and he has been promoted less than half a year.

In this way, Jiang Bowen can mobilize all troops in the war zone as a representative of the war zone commander, and can submit the war zone combat plan to the Ministry of War.

After the conditions were ripe, Jiang Bowen started to do it.

Chapter 151: Everyone can do their best
Chapter completed!