At this time, even if Ningyu Prefecture was taken, it was also given time for other states, especially Zishengzhou, Jingzhou and other large states to develop and produce equipment for rear-loading guns, maybe when the Southern Navy turned around and went east to the east half a year later, Yuan Yonghan's troops were already equipped with rear-loading artillery.

But don't underestimate the industrial strength of the feudal towns in the Great Heng Empire.

Before the civil strife of the Daheng Empire, it was a first-class power in the world, one of the earliest industrialized countries, even if there was civil strife, but the industrial development of the Daheng Empire did not stagnate, but was stimulated by the war, and the major feudal towns paid great attention to the development of industry, especially the defense industry.

As a result, in all parts of the Daheng Empire, in fact, the defense industry is relatively leading.

On the other hand, some civilian industries are lagging behind, but the impact is not great, and there is no need to worry about the market being preempted.

For example, the textile industry in Nanhai Prefecture is not good, the quality of the cloth produced is average, and the price is not cheap, but it still occupies an absolute position in the market in Nanhai Prefecture.

Why?

Because high-quality and low-cost cloth from other states and foreign countries can't come in at all!

Trade protection, that's what almost every feudal town is doing.

Nowadays, the industrial development of the feudal towns in the Daheng Empire is seriously biased towards the national defense industry, which is why Daheng has civil strife, but all kinds of weapons and equipment still do not lag behind the world-class level.

Previously, the 120-mm new bronze smoothbore gun of the Nanzhou Machinery Bureau, the 100-mm front-loading rifled gun, and then the current rear-loading rifled gun, have even maintained a leading position in the world.

However, several other large arsenals within the Daheng Empire were not bad either.

I didn't come up with a breech-loading rifled gun before, it was because of the lack of design concepts, but now with the rear-loading rifled guns of the Southern Navy, they only need to take a simple look and give birth to a sigh: Mom, it turns out that it is so simple to solve the problem of bolt strength, and it is so simple to solve the problem of air leakage!

When the design is in place, manufacturing is not too much of a problem for them.

Although the material of the barrel is a special steel, if they are given time to test it a few more times, they can make it.

Taken into account, it will not be too late for several other large feudal towns to mass-produce and equip their rear-loading guns.

And what Lin Ziran wants to do is to control as many areas as possible before they are equipped with rear-loading guns on a large scale, suppress competitors, and form a greater strategic advantage.

If possible, take Dongding Prefecture and even Zishengzhou as soon as possible, as long as these two states are taken, three of the thirteen states of Daheng will be occupied, which is enough to make Lin Ziran the most powerful feudal town in Dahengli at present.

In this top-secret meeting, the top leaders of the South China Navy formed a unified opinion, that is, no matter what Ningyu Prefecture, no matter Zhongluo Prefecture or Quyang Prefecture, they should directly go east to take Dongding Prefecture and then turn north to seize Zishengzhou.

Once the main tone was set, it was time for the staff to draw up a detailed battle plan.

Only three days later, Wu Guanlin submitted a preliminary battle plan to Lin Ziran, this battle plan is still preliminary, outlined, and a more detailed battle plan is still being studied.

The reason for the rush to submit the battle plan was to move troops in advance and transport reserve supplies in advance.

It is expected that at least more than 200,000 troops will be mobilized in this Eastern Crusade, and at least 150,000 front-line combat troops will be invested in the early stage.

This is to completely seize the eastern part of the Hetai defense line in a short period of time, and enter Dongdingzhou with a thunderous momentum, so as not to give Yuan Yonghan's department and other feudal towns too much time to react.

Either the Eastern Crusade will not be fought, and once it is fought, it will be launched with a thunderous attack!

Even in order to avoid the front-line troops from despising their opponents because of a series of victories in the early stage, which would lead to unnecessary trouble, Lin Ziran sent letters to generals everywhere: "The lion fights the rabbit, and use all your strength!" ”

If you can concentrate ten times your forces to attack the enemy, you will definitely not need to fight with nine times your strength!

Therefore, in this Eastern Crusade, when the General Staff formulated the battle plan, it actually did not care how many troops Yuan Yonghan's troops had and how many they could fight, but according to their own situation, they would draw troops to fight as much as possible.

The basic principle is to ensure that the Luohe Gorge on the northern front is not lost, to maintain the necessary forces in Qingyuan County on the western front, and to maintain a certain number of mobile forces in the Liangluo area, and then to transfer all other forces to the eastern front.

In accordance with this principle, the General Staff Headquarters successively issued instructions to all units, instructing the First Division to defend the Luohe Gorge and deploy defenses outside Guang'an and Hexi, and also to transfer a certain number of troops south to Luo'an to act as a mobile reserve.

The Fourth Army on the Western Front was fully responsible for the defense of the Western Front and Luohai County.

In addition to the First and Fourth Armies, the Second Army, the Fifth Army, two cavalry corps, and two artillery brigades will all be transferred to the Eastern Front, and together with the Third Army, they will form an Eastern Expeditionary Army with a total strength of more than 200,000 troops.

When the troops began to maneuver, a large amount of supplies also began to be transported by boat, moving eastward along the Nam Luo River to Hetai County.

After more than two months of rest, the huge war machine of the South Korean Navy has once again begun to operate at full strength, even if the war has not officially broken out, but it can still make people feel the huge threat of the war machine of the South Korean Navy!

Yuan Yonghan, who bore the brunt of the crime, couldn't sleep every day, he was worried.

However, there is no way to worry about it, so we can only passively continue to prepare for war, in order to be able to block the attack of the South China Navy in the future.

It is not a secret that the Southern Navy is going to go eastward, and even half a year ago, many people expected that Yuan Yonghan had begun to prepare for war three months ago, so this time the southern navy did not hide the eastern crusade, and the transfers were basically carried out openly.

In late August, the movement of troops in the South China Navy was basically complete, with more than 200,000 troops gathered in Hetai County, and countless supplies were piled up in every munitions warehouse.

On 26 August, the Luohai Daily, which is controlled by the state government, published a signed article by Lin Ziran entitled "Long Live the Reunification of Daheng," emphasizing the necessity and urgency of the reunification of Daheng, expounding his own political philosophy, and explaining that the external expansion of the Southern Navy was not for the purpose of grabbing territory or seizing power, but for the reunification of Daheng!

Hundreds of thousands of officers and men from the top and bottom of the Southern Navy will fight to the death for the reunification of Daheng!

On August 28, Lin Ziran came to Hetai County with many elite backbones of the headquarters, preparing to command the 200,000 troops nearby.

On 29 August, Lin Ziran held an enlarged meeting in Hetai City, and in addition to his regular mobilization speeches, Lin Ziran once again emphasized to the whole army the justice and necessity of the Southern Navy's Eastern Crusade in the name of Daheng reunification.

"When those selfish, criminal separatist towns, evil old forces of the dynasty plunged the whole country into turmoil for the sake of territory and personal power, we bravely stood up, we used our efforts and sacrifices to reunify Nanhai Prefecture, and now, it is time to rescue the people in other places."

"Not for the territory, not for the power, we are only for the unification of Daheng and the rescue of all the people from fire and water!"

"In order to make Daheng rise again and stand proudly at the pinnacle, every glorious and proud Daheng person must have the consciousness of making any efforts and even sacrifices for the unity of Daheng, because we are flowing with the glorious and proud Daheng bloodline, which does not allow us to lower our heads, even if it is death, we are also proud Daheng people!"

"For decades, our Daheng has fallen into a trough and civil strife due to the old forces of the evil dynasty and the internal strife of the feudal towns vying for power and profit, what should we do at this time?"

"The ancestors of the past generations have told us with practical actions that when Daheng is in danger, then we should stand up, pick up our guns, use our bullets, and use our bayonets to destroy any enemy who intervenes to block Daheng's rise!"

"Anyone!"

"History will surely remember everyone who has made efforts and even sacrifices for the unification of Daheng!"

"Long live the unification of Daheng!"

After the pre-war mobilization was completed, Lin Ziran approved the battle order on 1 September!

A large number of the South Navy began to advance to the front line and successively entered the predetermined positions.

The next day, at dawn on September 2, the 52nd year of Yongchang, the Southern Navy launched an all-out attack on Yuan Yonghan's headquarters on the Hetai Heights, which was nearly 100 kilometers long.

Daheng fireworks bloomed again, like blood, dazzling and bloody!

On the day of the attack, the South China Navy concentrated more than 800 breech-loading rifled guns and carried out comprehensive artillery coverage of Yuan Yonghan's headquarters in front of them!

From seventy-five mm caliber, to one hundred mm, one hundred and twenty mm, one hundred and fifty mm, artillery of different calibers launched a fierce shelling of the Eastern Front.

One of the divisional artillery regiments fired 5,000 rounds of 75-millimeter shells in just one hour.

The independent artillery regiments fired nearly 5,000 rounds of 150 mm and 120 mm and 100 mm shells.

Within an hour of the start of the war, the South China Navy fired tens of thousands of shells!

Because of the huge consumption of artillery shells, it is necessary for the Southern Navy to organize more than a dozen civilian transport regiments in the rear to transport artillery shells!

And so many shells are fired, and the effect is just now!

Even though Yuan Yonghan's subordinates had expected that after the outbreak of war, they might be subjected to heavy shelling, but they still did not expect the intensity of the shelling to be so fierce.

In fact, the shell projection of the South China Navy was not much more than that of the front-loading artillery, and those smoothbore guns were able to fire more than two shells a minute when necessary.

However, the shelling of the South China Navy was all long-range artillery bombardment, which was a one-sided hanging attack, and the artillery unit under Yuan Yonghan's command, even if it was a front-loading rifled artillery unit, was completely unable to return fire.

Another very important point is that the cylindrical shells used in the rear-loading artillery of the Southern Navy are too powerful.