Although the KPA was stationed on the west bank of the Yalu River, it sent a large number of reconnaissance personnel to infiltrate the east bank of the Yalu River to reconnoiter the movements of the Japanese army. Since the KPA had already seized the favorable terrain along the Yalu River, the Japanese army's position could only be set up 5 kilometers away from the river, and only a small number of outpost observation points were set up along the river, otherwise the Japanese army's position would be under the cover of the KPA's artillery, and this also provided a lot of convenient conditions for the KPA scouts to sneak into the east bank of the Yalu River.

The Japanese army wanted to launch an attack, and naturally the dispatch of the army was indispensable, so the scouts quickly reported this situation to the command of the 5th Army, which was responsible for guarding the defense line of the Yalu River, and after analysis, the command of the 5th Army judged that the Japanese army would launch an offensive in the short term, so it mobilized the defending troops to prepare for battle on the one hand, and reported to the military working group in Qingdao on the other.

When the military working group received the report, it also attached great importance to it and immediately began serious discussions. Of course, the content of the working group's discussion was not to resist the Japanese attack, but in fact, a lot had already been done about the Japanese army's offensive plan and preparation, and at this time, the KPA had already established perfect fortifications along the Yalu River, so there was no need to worry, the working group's discussion was actually about the next direction of this war, or how this war should end.

Generally speaking, war is a continuation of politics, so when a strategically planned country starts a war, it must not only have a clear goal, but also consider how the war should end, or what goal should be achieved.

Before entering the war, the East China Government set the following objectives: (1) to occupy China's northeast region and expand the development space of the East China Government; (2) to weaken the strength of Russia and Japan so that they would not be able to wage another war in the Far East in a short period of time so as to gain time for the East China Government to develop; (3) to obtain war reparations from Russia and Japan and to obtain funds for the development of the East China Government. Judging from the current results, the first two goals have been basically achieved, Japan has been driven out of Northeast China, and the commander-in-chief of the Russian army has also been driven to Manchuria on the Sino-Russian border. Moreover, both Japan and Russia suffered heavy losses in this war, and the intensification of contradictions in Russia caused a serious social crisis, while Japan was exhausted and indebted, so it was impossible for the two countries to start another war in a short time. The third goal is to be achieved in the later negotiations, of course, what we have to do now is to accumulate chips for the later negotiations to achieve the goal?

Moreover, the US consul in Qingdao has repeatedly proposed to the East China Government to mediate the war and preside over the tripartite talks, and the East China Government has used diplomatic language to prevaricate the past, but now it is really time to consider the matter of negotiations, so after the People's Army captured Harbin, the focus of the military working group was not war, but negotiations.

Although it is impossible to get what you can't get at the negotiating table if you can't get it on the battlefield, victory on the battlefield doesn't necessarily translate into victory at the negotiating table. The kind of Qiba behavior of winning the war and signing an unfavorable treaty can only be regarded as an example, but the victory but did not take any advantage in the later negotiations, there are indeed many examples, the most typical is the [Portsmouth Treaty] signed by the two sides after the Russo-Japanese War in the old time and space, Japan did not take much advantage of this negotiation, and the benefits in hand were basically obtained on the battlefield, especially the reparations that Japan wanted the most, and did not get a penny.

If the other party does not give up its interests at the negotiating table, it will lose more, and the signing of the [Portsmouth Treaty] is like this, because although Japan won on the battlefield at that time, it has been exhausted and exhausted and unable to fight anymore, so Russia insisted that it would not pay reparations, and if it did not accept it, it would fight again, and Japan had no choice but to give up the demand for reparations.

The working group made a careful analysis of the current situation and held that the East China Government had been participating in the war for half a year, and because the preparations in the early stage were sufficient, and Japan and Russia were also quite vulnerable, the East China Government still had enough strength to launch another war, and it also had sufficient means to threaten Russia. At present, the People's Army has captured a small number of territories belonging to Russia, such as Vladivostok and Shuangchengzi, and has trapped 300,000 Russian troops in Shenyang, which can be regarded as hostages of the People's Army, and the Russian army basically has no combat effectiveness, and it is difficult for Russia to increase troops to the Far East on a large scale due to the social crisis, so if Russia refuses to make concessions in the negotiations, the People's Army can capture more Russian territory in the Far East and annihilate the Russian army in Shenyang, so that Russia will only lose more interests.

So the working group made a decision to take the tactics of encircling the Russian army in Shenyang without fighting, of course, not fighting here means not launching a ground attack, artillery bombardment can still exist, and if the artillery bombardment causes a huge lethal effect on a certain position, it can be taken down without too many casualties, then a ground attack can also be launched, but the scale is controlled in one regiment. This can reduce their own unnecessary losses, and at the same time use continuous small-scale attacks to wear down the fighting spirit of the Russian army, if you can grind until the will of the Russian army is exhausted, all or a large number of surrenders, it is also a good result, in negotiations with Russia, the 300,000 Russian troops are also a big bargaining chip, if Russia wants to protect the 300,000 troops, of course, come up with real money.

However, the East China government still lacks sufficient means of threatening Japan, mainly because the East China government does not have a direct territorial border with Japan, and cannot threaten the Japanese mainland, and now Japan has reassembled an army on the Korean Peninsula, at least it has the ability to fight with the East China government, so it is not suitable to negotiate with Japan before the Japanese army is completely defeated.

But now the Russian army on the Korean Peninsula is mainly attacking the People's Army's defense line on the Yalu River, which is a great opportunity to completely defeat this Japanese army. Of course, this attack was initiated by the Japanese army on its own initiative, and once the attack failed or the battle was unfavorable, the Japanese army could take the initiative to retreat in order to reduce its own losses, so it was not easy for the KPA to inflict heavy losses on the Japanese army.

In this regard, War Minister Zhu Yaping put forward two operational plans: The first is to lure the enemy into depth, that is, after the Japanese army launches an attack, deliberately abandon the defense line of the Yalu River, retreat backwards, wait for all the Japanese troops to cross the Yalu River, and then concentrate forces to fight a war of annihilation, striving to completely annihilate or eliminate most of the Japanese army in one fell swoop. Moreover, after inflicting heavy losses on the Japanese army, the KPA can also choose to cross the Yalu River and attack the Korean Peninsula according to the situation, because the Korean Peninsula is basically a Japanese colony, so the KPA can use it as a bargaining chip in negotiations with Japan, and if Japan refuses to make concessions in the negotiations, then the KPA can continue to march and completely drive Japan's forces out of the Korean Peninsula, and bring the Korean Peninsula into the sphere of influence of the East China GovernmentIt is also a sharp sword for Chinese mainland to attack Japan, so the East China government's inclusion of the Korean Peninsula in its sphere of influence is also a huge gain, allowing the East China government to gain a geostrategic advantage over Japan.

However, the implementation of this plan requires a large number of troops, and it cannot be completed by relying only on the 5th Army guarding the defense line of the Yalu River, and Qingdao can only send 2-3 additional divisions of troops, which will not help, and at least one army must be withdrawn from Shenyang to ensure the completion of this plan.

However, in the Shenyang battlefield now, the People's Army is using three armies plus one division from the Far East Theater to occupy Changchun, with a total of about 240,000 troops, and to besiege about 320,000 troops of the Russian army, the strength is already very tight, and I am afraid it will be difficult to draw out another army to support the Yalu River battlefield. In addition, if the occupation of the entire Korean Peninsula is also listed as the goal of the East China Government, it will be a major revision of the operational objectives set before the war, and it will inevitably expand the scale of the war, and it will require the investment of more manpower and material resources.

Another combat plan is to take a landing battle, that is, when the Japanese army launches an attack, send a landing force to land in the central part of the Korean Peninsula, detour back to the rear of the Japanese army to launch an attack or destroy the Japanese army's logistics, and force the Japanese army to retreat.

The advantage of this combat plan is that there is no need to transfer troops from the Shenyang battlefield, and it can be accomplished by only sending a few additional divisions to the 5th Army and Qingdao. Of course, the landing battle needs to be carried out by the marines drawn from the northeast battlefield, after all, only the marines have been trained in the landing battle, and they have actual combat experience in the Lushun landing battles and the Vladivostok landing battles. However, this is not a difficult thing to do, because now there are no large-scale battles in the Far Eastern Theater, and there is nothing for the Marines to stay in the Far East, and there are still two divisions of the 7th and 16th Army in Qingdao, which can be exchanged for marines with these two divisions, and it will not reduce the strength of the Far Eastern Division.

The disadvantage is that this battle plan can ensure that the KPA defeats the Japanese army and inflicts greater casualties on the Japanese army, but it is difficult to inflict heavy losses on the Japanese army or even annihilate it. Therefore, if we want to gain greater benefits in the negotiations with Japan, we need to find ways to increase the bargaining chips of the East China government in other aspects.