"St. Paul and Minneapolis have about 300,000 to 500,000 people, so if we continue to fight like this, will we not be able to kill them all?"

"What about these people after they have fled? Let them continue to organize resistance in Minneapolis? ”

"There are a number of ships captured in the harbor, and these ships will be useful for our future operations. Even if you get out of the way, let's get these ships out of the way. ”

"What are you kidding, if there are no boats, those Americans will use their water drifting skills to run over the Mississippi River?"

There is finally some feeling of activity in the military staff, and of course the price of these activities is that they are less and less nutritious when they speak. Qi Rui listened to the words of his comrades and was very dissatisfied with what he had just said involuntarily. He immediately interrupted these discussions, "Now that the port has been sealed, we might as well guard the port first and monitor other areas along the river." Leave room for the enemy. ”

As soon as the acting chief of staff finished speaking, Deputy Staff Officer Zhu Jiyun raised a question, "If the speed of the battle is slowed down, will it affect the end time of the battle?" ”

The army staff immediately fell silent. The battle had gone well so far, and the blockade of the enemy's harbor meant that the encirclement of São Paulo had been completed in six hours of fighting, which was not a failure, but an overachievement. Because of this, everyone can still say something joking, but this battle time is not a joke, but the most important issue in everyone's hearts.

A battle interspersed with the enemy's back is not a frontal battle, and a frontal battle can be fought tomorrow if it cannot be fought today. If you don't have enough troops, you can request assistance from a higher level of command. The battle of seizing important places behind enemy lines was quite a one-shot deal, and when it was completed, it was natural to immediately change the strategic situation, and the entire battlefield took on a new look. If the battle is lost, the interspersed troops will naturally face the situation of annihilation immediately.

"Now that there is not enough intelligence, there is no need to intensify the offensive." Qi Rui replied almost instinctively, and after he finished speaking, he felt a void in his heart.

Qi Rui insisted on the battle plan so much, and the deputy chief of staff said: "In our plan, this battle will be fought for three days, if this is the way of fighting, can we take St. Paul and Minneapolis in three days?" ”

"Deputy Chief of Staff, it's to take St. Paul or St. Paul and Minneapolis in three days." Qi Rui corrected the deputy chief of staff in a cold tone. Although the capture of St. Paul and Minneapolis is one of the objectives of the battle plan, the gap between one goal and all of them is very different.

"I don't think it's a big difference. If there is only one Minneapolis left, shall we wait for the enemy to strike back at us from here? Do we really have that much force to hold this river? Deputy Chief of Staff Zhu Jiyun still insisted on his own views.

"Just follow the battle plan." Qi Rui said simply, sometimes disputes can't solve any problems.

Since the acting chief of staff Qi Rui has moved out the battle plan, deputy chief of staff Zhu Jiyun can only remain silent for the time being. Qi Rui immediately mentioned another question, "Who will be in charge of the landing field between the first division and the third division?" ”

In the face of the headquarters' inquiry, Ma Xiaoming, commander of the 1st Division, immediately expressed his refusal to take over the landing field on the phone, "Our troops just need to concentrate on fighting, and once we want to control the Mississippi River, our troops will be too long." Let's take on more tasks for the war, and leave this work to the Second Division. ”

The attitude of the 2nd Division was actually similar to that of the 1st Division, "Our mission is to annihilate the enemy in St. Paul, since the mission of the 3rd Division is to build a bridge over the river and contain Minneapolis." Let the division take control of the Mississippi River. We captured so many ships that it was just in time for the Third Division to drive them away. ”

Qian Daduo, the chief of staff of the Third Division, was silent for only a moment after receiving the inquiry from the headquarters, "Let's block the Mississippi River, then it is not a siege of three missing one, but a closed door and a dog." And if we deploy thousands of people on such a long front, will the distribution of troops be insufficient? ”

Since the general staff of the Third Division had such a view, Qi Rui naturally hoped that the Third Division would undertake such a task. The chief of staff is the one who formulates the battle plan, and the chief of staff is naturally responsible for the implementation of the battle plan, but it is not the chief of staff alone who has the final say on the adjustment of the battle plan. As a military chief, the commander must of course participate in the battle plan in advance. The commander is responsible for military orders, and orders must naturally be signed by the commander.

The Liberation Army is under the responsibility system of the Central Military Commission, and the three main cadres in the Central Military Commission include the political commissar, the army commander, and the chief of staff. If we adhere to the core concept of the party leading the army, the position of the political commissar is above that of the army commander and the chief of staff. Of course, the political commissar has a limited say in such purely military issues, and at this time the political commissar is only one of the members of the military commission.

Army Commander Zheng Minglun ordered the deployment to be adjusted, and the 3rd Division sent personnel to receive ships, and was responsible for establishing surveillance positions on both sides of the Mississippi River. After the order was given, political commissar Hu Dakui took a moment to call Zheng Minglun out, the two lit cigarettes, and Hu Dakui said in a low voice: "Old Zheng, I don't think it's so easy to solve St. Paul and Minneapolis in three days. ”

"It's not easy for us to get here in two days." Zheng Minglun smoked a cigarette and said in a breezy tone.

"I know it's not easy, but you can't just say nothing, can you?" Hu Dakui still made some comments.

"What we know, young people know. I have to say that we are better than them, that is, we have seen a lot, so we don't make a fuss. In that case, what are we going to do now? Zheng Minglun still spoke in a breezy tone.

Hu Dakui was unhappy at that time, his brows furrowed, "According to what you say, are we here to watch the battle?" ”

"So what do you think we should have just said? You don't think you can complete the task in three days, so can you come up with a plan to complete it in two days? Zheng Minglun still has that tepid attitude.

"Then we have to let these boys know that time is urgent!" Hu Dakui's tone was quite unhappy.

"Don't you worry." Zheng Minglun heard Hu Dakui's attitude, and he comforted Hu Dakui.

"Can I not be in a hurry? But you look at the tepid attitude of these boys, I'm worried. Hu Dakui obviously didn't eat this, so he simply said what was in his heart.

"Just say Qi Rui directly. I think this kid is actually more anxious than us in his heart, so he has to show that he is not in a hurry. These boys are still young. Speaking of the young man's performance, Zheng Minglun even smiled.

"What's the use of pretending to be calm? What if pretending to make the war better? Then let's pretend to be better than anyone! Hu Dakui disagrees with Zheng Minglun's view.

"Commissar, I'm still the same. We know it, and those young people must know it. If they make any obvious mistakes, of course we have to stop them. But before they made a mistake, we watched from the sidelines. This war is completely different from the previous wars, young people like Qi Rui know that they have many shortcomings in the command of infantry at the grassroots level, and we old guys must know that we ourselves may not know more than them. Zheng Minglun obviously wanted to persuade Hu Dakui to understand the current situation. However, after finishing speaking, he saw that Hu Dakui's attitude not only did not calm down, but showed signs of being more excited. Zheng Minglun threw down the cigarette butt and stepped on it with his foot, and then Zhengse said to Hu Dakui, "Political commissar, my attitude is very simple. As the military commander-in-chief, I ask you not to speak lightly on military issues. The current battle is not a situation in which the enemy can collapse and surrender with a single artillery shot. So we have to be more cautious. ”

When Hu Dakui heard that Zheng Minglun had the intention of depriving him of his right to speak in military affairs, his emotions became even more excited. However, Hu Dakui is a person who came over from the war after all, looking at Zheng Minglun's calm expression, he thought for a while and said, "I will wait until tomorrow afternoon at most." As far as I am concerned, there is quite a gap between the situation of the battle this time and the initial battle plan. After finishing speaking, Hu Dakui threw down his cigarette butt and strode towards the headquarters.

Zheng Minglun didn't go back, he lit a cigarette for himself. There is indeed a huge gap between the current battle situation and the original battle plan, and the Yankees did not expect that the Liberation Army would be able to run so fast and so far, and now the Yankees are stunned. Logically speaking, it is a good thing that the enemy is confused. But that's a good thing for the field army. In urban warfare, the enemy will often do a lot of actions beyond the imagination of the Liberation Army after being confused. From the point of view of "mobilizing the enemy", the raid was not successful.

But Zheng Minglun and Hu Dakui had different ideas, and he did not think that a temporary revision of the battle plan would lead to better results. War is changing rapidly, so Weeser once said repeatedly, "In modern warfare, when weapons and equipment and tactics have been determined, the requirement for commanders is to be mentally firm." ”

Before the war, Cheng Minglun attended some high-level meetings. Had it not been for the advent of motorized infantry, the initial campaign to annihilate the United States would have been a bloody battle of 20 million troops that would have taken more than five years. After the emergence of this young unit, the mobilization for war was rapidly reduced. In view of the optimism of some of the top echelons in the North American theater of operations, the number of mobilized people has been reduced from the initial 20 million to 10 million. The mobilization of 10 million units is no longer to form new units, but mainly to supplement troops.

Zheng Minglun did not mean to look down on political cadres like Hu Dakui, but Zheng Minglun felt that this war did go beyond the war concept of the traditional Liberation Army. The Liberation Army had never experienced such a high-intensity war as this one, and the 600,000 troops on the Great Lakes front had to face a completely different status quo than before. The political cadres of the Liberation Army are not people who do not know how to fight, but this time the changes are so great that even the military commanders are beginning to be unable to keep up with the situation. If political cadres fail to adjust their ideas, they are afraid that they will be even more out of touch with the war.

"It's better to be a teacher of benevolence and righteousness." Zheng Minglun couldn't help but muttered to himself. The cruelty and bloodiness of this war far exceeded that of any war Zheng Minglun had seen before. Of course, the Liberation Army is not a bodhisattva with bloodless hands, but even when the prisoners of war are executed on a large scale, the troops can still firmly believe in their own justice.

But this war is completely different, Zheng Minglun knows very well that a military commander like himself does not dare to mention the topic of justice, and it is normal for political cadres like Hu Dakui to be even more uncomfortable. If a political cadre like Hu Dakui can still face this war happily, it can only be said that the Liberation Army has become a completely different army from before.