Yan Guozhong and four front-line commanders decided on the next stage of combat operations on the 26th, that is, the day when the transport fleet and the landing fleet delivered the second batch of ground troops and a large amount of combat materials. Task Force 2 continued to cooperate with the Marine Corps offensive, while Task Force 1 continued to assist Gu Xunlei's Army forces. The Theater Fleet returns to Port Vila at the end of the month to receive supplies and rest.

In the new battle plan, Gu Xunlei was tasked with leading the army units to capture Tamworth, and at the same time, the Marines would take Skun as soon as possible and advance north to sweep away the remnants of the American forces between Tamworth and Skun. Subsequently, after the army had captured Tamworth, it would continue its offensive to the west against Gunneda, followed by a north-west advance to Narraburai. The Marines advanced at the same time as Kunabarabran, so that two lines of defense could be formed in the American forces moving south. And when the time comes, we will have to make a new decision on how to fight it according to the specific battlefield situation.

In fact, there are only three possibilities before the Army takes down the Naraburai.

One kind of Ken is that the U.S. troops originally stationed in Glen Innis have already passed through Narabrai and are advancing towards Kunabarabran, or have reached Kunabaran. In this way, the Army had to quickly capture Naraburai, encircle this force with the Marines, and block the other force of the North that was moving south, and at the same time assist the Marines in annihilating the besieged Americans, and finally cooperate with the Marines to eliminate the American forces in the north.

The second possibility is that the two U.S. forces originally stationed at Glen Innis and Tentfield did not reach Narraburai, and were both north of Narabry. Well, after the capture of Naraburai. It was necessary to build a defensive line here, with at least three infantry divisions to hold it, after the Marines had built a defensive line in the southern part of the Kunabalan. Troops will be arranged to go north to support the army in annihilating the US army and fighting a large-scale war of annihilation.

The last possibility is that both U.S. forces have already passed through Narabrablai and are advancing towards Kunabarabran, or have already reached Kunabalab. In this case, the Army would have to block the passage of the American army's escape to the north and arrange for troops to quickly penetrate south, before the American army broke through the Marine defenses. Divide the U.S. forces and finally annihilate them one by one. The Marines will primarily hold the defensive line at Kunabarabran and send troops to assist the Army in the offensive.

Which scenario will arise in the end, it will be determined by the speed of the march of the US army. Bombing intensity of fleet aviation. and the speed of the Army's and Marines' attacks. Because no one can predict what kind of situation will arise at that time, Yan Guozhong is more flexible when arranging tasks. And. He also directly appointed Gu Xunlei as commander-in-chief of the ground forces and Yuan Ye as deputy commander-in-chief. At that time, it will be up to the two to decide which battle plan to adopt according to the actual situation. It can also be seen from Yan Guozhong's arrangement that in this stage of ground combat operations, the army is the main force, and the marine corps is the auxiliary. In fact, from this point on, the army units commanded by Gu Xunlei have become the main force on the battlefield on the Australian mainland, after the capture of Sydney. The Marine Corps will gradually withdraw from the mainland battlefield and will eventually assume only logistical support tasks.

That same evening. The commanders of the six newly arrived infantry divisions all rushed over and reported to Gu Xunlei. Gu Xunlei also called the commanders of the other five divisions over. At this time, Gu Xunlei nominally had 11 divisions in his hands, but in fact, his total strength was about equivalent to 9 divisions. After transferring the six infantry divisions to Volka as soon as possible, Gu Xunlei deployed new tasks to these combat units.

The 9th Infantry Division will go to Armidale to take over the 1st and 2nd Infantry Divisions and take charge of the defense of Armidale, and the two cavalry battalions of the 2nd Cavalry Division will be withdrawn. Judging from this arrangement, Gu Xunlei actually put the weakest combat force in Armidale.

The so-called "First Infantry Division" and "First Cavalry Division" are just temporary names for the combat units under Gu Xunlei himself, or a temporary establishment. And the title itself has a certain meaning. When giving these troops a temporary establishment, Gu Xunlei arranged the number according to the combat effectiveness of the troops. In other words, the higher the number, the stronger the combat effectiveness of the troops, and the further back, the worse the level in training. Of course, this number was not recognized by the Army Command.

Gu Xunlei left the First Infantry Division and the Second Infantry Division behind, and the attrition rate of these two infantry divisions was the highest, in fact, it mainly provided a group of troops to the First Cavalry Division, so its strength was only about sixty percent of the regular establishment, far from reaching the level of combat needs, and this was also Gu Xunlei's reserve. And the strength to replenish the lost officers and men will not arrive until the fourth convoy arrives, and that will be half a month later.

The main forces used to attack Tamworth were the 1st Cavalry Division, the 2nd Cavalry Division, the 3rd Infantry Division, the 4th Infantry Division, and the 5th Infantry Division, while the 6th Infantry Division and the 7th Infantry Division were the battle reserves, and the 8th Infantry Division remained in Volka, responsible for assisting the 9th Infantry Division.

In fact, Gu Xunlei's forces were quite sufficient, and the 1st Infantry Division and the 2nd Infantry Division were withdrawn to Port Macquarie to recuperate, and these two infantry divisions were fully ready to participate in the battle if necessary. And he organized five divisions to attack Tamworth, which was defended by less than 20,000 American and Australian troops, which was indeed a bit "excessive". Of course, the U.S. military does not have the courage to directly attack Armidale, and as long as the imperial fleet is still active at sea, then the U.S. military must think about how to deal with the bombers overhead before taking the next step.

On the morning of the 27th, while the units were still maneuvering, Gu Xunlei received the latest aerial reconnaissance report. The American forces assembled at Glennis had already advanced to the west the night before, and the American forces at Tentfield were also advancing westward. In other words, the U.S. military gave up its plan to go directly south, preparing to avoid the carrier-based bombers of the Tang Empire and go south along the inland lines of communication. This is in full agreement with the previous intelligence. On this day, Yan Guozhong also returned to Port Vila, before leaving. He also told Gu Xunlei and Yuan Ye again.

"The U.S. military will definitely move south as fast as possible, and Tan Renhao and Hao Dongjue have promised to keep the fleet closer to the coastline and do their best to slow down the U.S. military's advance. Buying time for you. Before getting on the plane, Yan Guozhong still did not forget to tell the two front-line commanders, "You must do your best to attack and take Tamworth as quickly as possible, otherwise, we are very likely to have a general battle with the US army, and it is in the case of limited air support capabilities, which will not do us much good." ”

"Lao Yan, don't worry, we know how to fight!" Yuan Ye was already a little impatient when he listened. He couldn't figure it out, when did Yan Guozhong become such a mother-in-law?

Gu Xunlei smiled and nodded. "I will cooperate with General Yuan Ye, it will not be difficult to defeat Tamworth, even if it is a battle with the American army. We are also confident of victory! ”

Yan Guozhong glanced at the two of them. This time he didn't say anything more, after saying goodbye to the two young generals. He boarded the seaplane.

After seeing Yan Guozhong's seaplane leave, Gu Xunlei and Yuan Ye left the dock.

"General Yuan, I'll rush to Volka right away, and try to get the troops to set off this evening."

"I will have the logistics support troops arrive at Volka this evening, and in addition, the Marines will launch an offensive by tomorrow morning at the latest, and I will command the operation on the front line."

"Then we'll be on the front line."

After the two said goodbye to each other, Gu Xunlei went directly back to his temporary headquarters. The officers and men of the guard battalion were ready for departure, and the staff officers of the headquarters also packed up their equipment. At noon. They left Port Macquarie and soon met the 8th Infantry Division, which was the last to depart. Arrived in Volka in the evening of the same day. Gu Xunlei still set up the front headquarters in Volka, but that night he rushed to the division headquarters of the 1st Cavalry Division. At the same time, he asked people to call several other division commanders over.

"Our reconnaissance unit sent in the afternoon." Zhang Xiaolin's injury has been healed for the most part, except that his arm is still a little painful when he moves, there is no major problem. "The U.S. forces at Tamworth are expanding their lines and probably already know that we will attack with all our might. However, there is no indication that U.S. forces are increasing their forces at Tamworth. There was no sign of U.S. troops originally deployed in Verycliff Creek and Marulandi. Judging from the current deployment of the US troops, the US and Australian troops in Tamworth must have received an order from Yan Guozhong to defend Tamworth to buy time for the transfer of the main force in the north. If this is indeed the case, then MacArthur's main purpose was to reinforce Sydney Harbour! ”

Gu Xunlei nodded slightly, he didn't get used to interjecting when others were making battle reports.

"The U.S. forces in the north marched at least about 100 kilometers before dawn. Judging from the results of aerial reconnaissance, the US forces have not yet left the strike range of carrier-based bombers, and the First Task Force has arranged a round of bombing in the morning, noon, and afternoon. The U.S. troops had moved into the forest, did not continue during the day, and presumably marched at night. Zhang Xiaolin marked the location of the main US military corps in the north on the map, "Even so, by tomorrow night, the US military will be out of the strike range of the carrier-based bombers and then go south at full speed." Therefore, we have only three days at most to complete the assault on Tamworth and the advance towards Narraburai. Even if there were no obstacles, it would have taken us a day to get from Tamworth to Narabrai, and that was not to say, we would only have two days at most to attack Tamworth, and we would only be able to fight at Tamworth for a maximum of 36 hours during the insurance period! ”

"Then we'll have to throw in all the main forces!" Weng Yu spoke at this time.

"This was already planned, and this time, two cavalry divisions attacked together with the fourth and fifth infantry divisions, the third infantry division acted as a tactical reserve, and the sixth and seventh infantry divisions would catch up in half a day." Gu Xunlei also spoke, and he turned out the map of Tamworth, "The 1st Cavalry Division and the 4th Infantry Division will copy north, capture the road line between Tamworth and Gunnedas as quickly as possible, and then attack south, focusing on the US airfield in the west. The 2nd Cavalry Division and the 5th Infantry Division attacked from the front, and after breaking through the US defense line, the 2nd Cavalry Division had to penetrate the direction of the US airfield as quickly as possible, while the 5th Infantry Division swept away the remnants of the US troops along the way, striving to complete the offensive operation within 12 hours. If necessary, I would have the 3rd Infantry Division in battle, preferably without the use of reserves, of course. ”

The expressions of several division commanders became serious, this is not an easy task to complete.

"When fighting, try to use aviation support, as well as artillery support, pay attention to the preservation of armored forces, this is just the beginning, in half a month, we don't want to get new tank fighting vehicles." Gu Xunlei raised his head, "We must fight quickly, don't fight with the US army, the command post of the US army should be at the airport, so it is extremely critical to capture the airport, and strive to reach the airport during the day." If we can't capture the airfield before dark tomorrow, then we'll sweep the U.S. forces in other areas at night and wait until after dawn to attack the airfield! ”

"And when are we leaving?" Weng Yu asked a somewhat low-level question.

"Now, the troops are on their way in half an hour." Gu Xunlei took a breath, "The 1st Cavalry Division will set off first, establishing a front-line supply base 20 kilometers north of Tamworth, and the fuel transport convoy will arrive later. All tanks have to be refueled here. Remember, we only have one night to make these preparations, and before dawn, all the troops are to be on the attack! ”

Several division commanders sighed secretly, such a battle arrangement was too tight.

"Guys, it's very difficult to fight, and this is the time to test us. If there are no other problems, then go and prepare immediately, remember to give each officer and soldier a few rations, at least those rations of the Marine Corps taste good! ”

Everyone immediately laughed, the treatment enjoyed by the Marine Corps is at the same level as that of the Navy fleet, and this is much better than the treatment of the Army, and the unanimous evaluation of everyone is that the individual rations of the Marine Corps are much better than those of the Army, not only have several flavors, but also are very nutritious, unlike the Army's rations, which are just two flavors that have not changed for decades, and they often have diarrhea after eating!

Half an hour later, the vanguard of the 1st Cavalry Division departed. The forces of the five divisions were divided up, so it took only an hour for all the troops to leave Volka and kill at Tamworth.