Prince Su Shanqi was dismissed from the princehood, demoted to a concubine, and sent to Xi'an to serve for five years, which caused a great sensation in the Qing court, and such a severe punishment for a prince was rare in the history of the Qing court, but the East China government was indifferent to this, first, the focus of the East China government was now on the northeast battlefield, and there was no time to sort out the little broken things in the Qing court; second, for the East China government, the matter of attacking the Shanghai New Area could not be solved by eliminating a prince Su, but in the end, they would settle accounts together.

On 23 May, the military group of the East China Government held a meeting to sum up the fighting situation in the previous stage and determine the strategic objectives and operational arrangements for the next stage, as well as other related auxiliary and supporting work. Although the overall operational objectives and plans have been determined long ago, due to the ever-changing battlefield environment, it is necessary to make detailed plans for the next step at each node of the war. Although the East China government has not been involved in the war for a long time, and it has only been 11 days until now, and after deducting the three days of the armistice, it has only been eight days after the armistice, but the two goals of inflicting heavy damage on the Japanese and Russian navies, gaining absolute sea supremacy, and gaining a foothold on the Liaodong Peninsula in the first stage have all been achieved, and it is now necessary to make detailed plans and arrangements for the next step.

At the meeting, Xiao Jianjun made a military report on behalf of the Central Military Commission. Although the military group is now fully responsible for the war, the military group is mainly responsible for the work at the macro and strategic levels, as well as the overall organization and coordination; the CMC is still responsible for formulating and implementing specific tactical plans, combat plans, troop deployments, and other specialized work, and the military group examines and approves and supervises them.

According to the information fed back from the front, the combat characteristics of the Japanese army are summarized as follows: 1. The soldiers are brave in battle, and they are quite tenacious, even if they are at a disadvantage, they do not give up easily, 2. There are very few soldiers who surrender on their own initiative, and even in a situation where they are bound to lose, the vast majority of Japanese soldiers would rather die in battle, and very few give up surrendering; 3. The soldiers have high personal quality, well-trained, He has rich experience in actual combat, he is quite skilled and reasonable in the use of tactical movements, and his combat ability is strong, because he has a strong ability to fight with bayonets, 4 is that his tactics are relatively dull and lacks changes, and he only emphasizes the brave spirit of the soldiers while ignoring the use of tactics, and the troops are too concentrated during the offensive and are not fully developed, and the level, flexibility, and fire cover of the offensive are insufficient; There are obvious mistakes in the arrangement of firepower; 5 is the lack of firepower, whether it is artillery firepower or infantry firepower, it is insufficient, and the use of artillery and the coordination of infantry and artillery are poor. ”

Therefore, in the future, when fighting the Japanese army, we should give full play to our superiority in firepower, so that they should be good at using artillery and strengthen the coordinated operation of infantry artillery. In close combat, it is necessary to give full play to the advantages of group cooperation, and these tactical points have already been popularized among the troops and targeted training has been conducted. Of course, it is also necessary to strengthen the soldiers' spiritual education in daring to fight and fight, and when it is time to fight the Japanese army, they must not be soft-hearted. ”

"At present, we have two fronts in the northeastern theater, one is along the Liao River, which we call the western front, and the other is in the direction of Lushun, which we call the southern front, and at present the two battlefields have been armistice, and we plan to resume the war on May 28, no later than May 30. The main target of the next step in the western front battlefield is Liaoyang, firstly, Liaozhong is only about 50 kilometers away from Liaoyang, and it is now where the general headquarters of the Japanese army is located, so we can speed up the complete disintegration of the Japanese army by capturing Liaoyang, and secondly, the Japanese and Russian armies are now facing each other on the line from Shenyang to Tieling, once the Japanese army withdraws or is defeated, the Russian army will definitely take advantage of the situation to recapture Shenyang, and if we capture Liaoyang, we can also block the road for the Russian army to go south, forming a situation in which we and the Russian army are facing each other on the line from Liaoyang to Shenyang. ”

"In the future, the battle in the Liaoyang area will be extremely complicated, and it is very likely that there will be a situation of tripartite melee between us and Japan and Russia, and now we have only one army on the Western Front, about 70,000 or so, which is definitely not enough, so the Military Commission decided to send the 3rd Army and the 4th Army to fight on the Western Front, so that our troops on the Western Front can reach about 200,000, and now a part of the army has arrived in Jinzhou. ”

At this time, Shang Qisong said: "According to the information we have obtained, it is very likely that Japan is now negotiating an armistice with Russia and intends to join forces to fight us, but due to the lack of sufficient credit, we cannot judge the authenticity of this information for the time being, but from common sense, this possibility exists and is quite large." Therefore, we cannot ignore this factor when formulating our operational plans. ”

Wang Yunpeng interjected: "However, according to the report of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Russian consul has twice proposed to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the past few days, hoping to join forces with us to jointly launch an attack on the Japanese army, I wonder if we should trust the Russians?"

Qin Zheng said: "I think the Russians are likely to bet on both sides, after all, on the surface, it is now us and the Japanese are fighting, so Russia thinks that this time is beneficial to itself, so it is negotiating with us and Japan at the same time to see that the benefits obtained by that side are greater." However, the combination of Japan and Russia is the least likely situation for us, and I believe that we should try to stabilize Russia until we completely defeat the Japanese army. On the premise of not harming our fundamental interests, we can make some concessions to Russia appropriately. ”

Wang Yunpeng said: "But the limit of concessions is there, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs also hopes to have a principle of negotiation with Russia." ”

Xia Bohai pondered for a while before he said: "I think the principle of negotiation is to let the Russian army attack Shenyang, we attack Liaoyang, and defeat the Japanese army first. ”

Xu Jichao frowned and said, "I think this concession is too small, can Russia accept such a concession?"

Xia Bohai said with a smile: "If it is in peacetime, of course the Russians will not accept such concession conditions, but now is a time of war, in the final analysis, we must see the truth on the battlefield, even if we promise Russia that we will join forces to drive out Japan, and then we will give up the entire three eastern provinces to Russia, do you think Russia will believe this?" On the contrary, if we and Russia attack Japan at the same time, we have a very good chance of winning, and Russia can retake Shenyang, an important strategic point, which will not only reverse their current unfavorable situation in the northeast, but also ease the contradictions at home with a victory.

Qin Zheng also said: "I also think that this condition is just right, and we can negotiate with Russia according to this standard, but we must also prepare for the worst, and we must have enough plans for the joint forces of Japan and Russia." ”

Xia Bohai said: "Old Xiao, you go on." ”

Xiao Jianjun nodded and said: "Now we have organized 200,000 logistics personnel in western Liaoning, but if we want to concentrate 200,000 troops on the western front, we need to transfer at least 300,000 logistics personnel to western Liaoning, such a huge number of personnel need unified management, and there are three armies concentrated on the western front, and there are also people to coordinate and cooperate, so the Military Commission decided to set up the Northeast Theater Command to facilitate the unified management of the operational, personnel, and material scheduling arrangements in the entire Northeast region. ”

Xia Bohai nodded and said: "The people on the front line know the situation on the front line best, and I agree to set up the Northeast Theater Command, but the headquarters is temporarily located in Jinzhou, about 150 kilometers away from Liaozhong, which is still far away, and it is not conducive to the commander to understand the situation on the front line." ”

Xiao Jianjun said: "The headquarters is set up in Jinzhou is a temporary arrangement, first, Jinzhou is the current material concentration of the battlefield on the western front, and the headquarters is located in a material arrangement that is conducive to scheduling; second, from Jinzhou to Liaozhong, there is no suitable place for the time being, and after the capture of Liaoyang, it is planned to move the headquarters directly to Liaoyang." ”

Xia Bohai said: "Okay, let's arrange it like this first." ”

Xiao Jianjun then said: "The three weapons we made in an emergency for this war, armored train guns, self-propelled guns, Automobile towing guns have been tested by the war, proved to be very effective, it can be said that without these three weapons, it is difficult for us to achieve early victory, and in the later battles, we will continue to give full play to the role of these three weapons, but the next step is to fight on the east bank of the Liao River, we have begun to erect a railway bridge on the Liao River, but it will take at least a month, so the armored train gun can not be used for the time being, but self-propelled artillery, In order to make up for the lack of armored trains, the Military Commission suggested that the armored units be transferred to the Western Front to participate in the war in order to strengthen the army's assault capability. In addition, the troops would like to have more of these weapons, and now there are two more armored trains under construction, and the car towing guns will be enough, but it would be better to be able to make a few more self-propelled guns, and I remember that we should have a few more trucks. ”

Xia Bohai said: "Agree, good steel should be used on the blade, this war is related to the fate of our entire group, so as long as we can win this war, any card must be played." Armored units can be sent over immediately, and the matter of making self-propelled guns needs to be checked to determine the situation of heavy vehicles, and as long as there are free vehicles, they will definitely be modified again. ”

Xiao Jianjun said: "Also, we won the victory in the previous stage, and the high-altitude reconnaissance of UAVs is also an important factor, but now our UAVs and fuel are limited, and the consumption of the war is too great, so the Military Commission believes that the flight research team can be transferred to the Western Front to participate in the war." ”

Qin Zheng frowned and said, "The flying scientific research group is just an experimental organization, is it appropriate to let them go to Liaodong to participate in the war now?"

Xiao Jianjun took out a document and said: "This is the report submitted by the flight scientific research team to the Military Commission, if the content of the report is true, then I think it is completely feasible to let them go to Liaodong to participate in the war, not only as an effective supplement to the UAV, to complete the daily high-altitude reconnaissance mission, but also when necessary, it can also be used as a bomber." ”