Formulating the combat operation for landing on Ryukyu Island is not Tan Renhao's job, and logically speaking, this must be done by the Navy General Staff, otherwise those hundreds of staff officers only eat and do nothing? However, this landing operation must be based on the First Task Force, so it is not too much to let Tan Renhao do the preliminary planning work.

After being busy for several days, Tan Renhao handed over the plan to General Gan Yongxing. What he put forward was only a report on the requirements of the landing operation, not a specific battle plan. At this point, Tan Renhao grasped it very well, at least, it can be seen from Gan Yongxing's attitude.

"Your analysis is comprehensive and all aspects are taken into account." Gan Yongxing has not been in contact with Tan Renhao for a long time, but he appreciates Tan Renhao very much. "Honestly, even if I were to do this project, I wouldn't have done it better than you. Also, we recently received information that the Japanese Ryukyu Islands Garrison Command has been adjusted. ”

Tan Renhao frowned slightly, he didn't know this information when he made the report.

"The commander who is now replaced is Lieutenant General Ushijima, an old-style army general who is orthodox, tenacious, and tough." Gan Yongxing made a simple assessment of the Japanese general, "The defenders of Ryukyu Island have also expanded to nearly 50,000 at the same time, and I heard that there is also an elite division among them. In the past few months, the Japanese army has been busy reinforcing the island's fortifications, and I am afraid that it has turned the island into a fortress. Tan Renhao nodded, and then sighed: "Then, we should appropriately increase the number of landing troops." ”

"That's not the problem." Gan Yongxing also sighed, "First of all, our transportation capacity can only guarantee that we can provide enough supplies for 50,000 landing troops at most. Secondly, we do not have enough large warships, so most of the support tasks can only be carried out by bombers. Bombers flying from the mainland to Ryukyu Islands would take at least four and a half hours to make a round trip, and would carry out a maximum of two bombing missions a day, and would not be able to provide timely support for the landing force. At last. It is also the most important thing that we do not have full confidence in guaranteeing that we will be able to control the sea in the course of landing operations. ”

What Gan Yongxing said is exactly what Tan Renhao is worried about. In particular, on the last point, if we cannot ensure sea supremacy, then the landing operation will inevitably fail, and the tens of thousands of officers and men of the landing force will be sent to their deaths. And with the current strength of the Imperial Navy. There is no complete certainty that the sea control of the landing site can be guaranteed. Especially at night, the aircraft carriers of the 1st Task Force did not have much ability to fight at night, and if the Japanese 1st Battlefleet entered the landing site at this time, it would be an absolute disaster for the landing force.

Both were silent, the problem was obvious. The success rate of the landing operation is not high, at least until the strength of the Imperial Navy is fully restored, and this kind of dispatch of tens of thousands of landing troops requires the mobilization of hundreds of large transport ships and landing ships to concentrate almost all the combat ships in the area for landing operations. In the absence of absolute superiority in naval strength, the chances of success are extremely slim.

"But we've got to do something." Gan Yongxing broke the silence..1-6-K,手机站wap,.cn." Marshal Nie Renfeng and Marshal Yan Dingyu have already stated that even if we fight for our lives, we will recapture Ryukyu Island. Now that Japan's First Air Fleet has suffered heavy losses, I am afraid that it will not be able to recover within a few months. This is our best chance to recover Ryukyu Island in the near future. The Army has said it will provide us with at least 2,000 combat aircraft for the landing operation and will deploy three divisions of ground troops. Marshal Nie Renfeng has also dispatched all the warships operating in the South China Sea to rush over as quickly as possible to strengthen the strength of the First Task Force. In addition, the naval aviation unit will also deploy more than 1,000 combat planes and dispatch a marine division in the Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Taiwan islands. At least, we won't have any problems with our troops. ”

Tan Renhao smiled bitterly, it was not hundreds of years ago. It is not the strength of troops that determines the outcome of a war.

"What's more, Prime Minister Xue Xiyue has also approved this ground combat operation. He also ordered the army and navy to abandon their previous suspicions, concentrate all their forces to fight this battle, and take the landing on Ryukyu Island as the beginning of the imperial counterattack. Gan Yongxing lit a cigarette, "The war has been going on for almost half a year, and we are still in a passive position. Although the victory in the naval battle of Ryukyu Island greatly boosted the morale of the imperial army and civilians, and increased the determination to fight to the end. You've read all the newspapers these days, right? ”

Tan Renhao nodded. For several days in a row, the newspapers advertised the victory in the Battle of Ryukyu Island. This time, the newspapers that spoke on behalf of the government did not lie about the results of the war, but reported on the actual situation. Of course, it is necessary to exaggerate the victory, and this is the main point in doing propaganda work.

"But, on the whole, the empire is still in a very passive position. If nothing else, the Imperial Navy can still only operate in the East China Sea, the Yellow Sea, and the South China Sea, and all of them must operate in sea areas close to the Imperial mainland that can be maintained by the air. The Japanese submarine has penetrated deep into the Bohai Bay, and yesterday our destroyer sank a Japanese submarine outside the port of Dalian and discovered more than 20 mines laid by it. Although the mines were quickly cleared and did not pose a danger to the ships entering and leaving, it was clear that the Empire now needed a victory, a victory that could change the tide of the war. Gan Yongxing's words were very firm, "Therefore, we need to fight a good battle with the Japanese on Ryukyu Island, not only to defeat the Japanese fleet on the sea, but also to make it clear to everyone that we can still defeat the Japanese on land!" ”

Tan Renhao also made up his mind at this time, and said firmly: "General, then let's do it, do a good job Both of them laughed, judging from the situation at that time, whether it was politically or militarily, the Tang Empire needed a victory, and it needed a victory on Ryukyu Island." At the same time, both of them also made up their minds that no matter how difficult the landing operation was, they must persevere and achieve final victory. If it drags on for a few more months, and when the new aircraft carrier of the Japanese Navy is commissioned, the Imperial Navy will not be able to penetrate the Pacific Ocean, then the Imperial Navy will lose room for maneuver, and the result will only be failure!

Preparations for the campaign began quickly. Both the "Li Jing" and the "Taizu" were repaired directly in the dock of Zhoushan Port. In order to speed up the repairs, the navy transferred some workers from the Jiangnan Shipyard and the Qingdao Shipyard, and gave priority to arranging materials for the repair of the two warships.

A few days later, a flotilla of two heavy cruisers and more than a dozen destroyers crossed the Taiwan Strait and arrived at the port of Zhoushan. These ships were originally part of the Second Fleet. They were heavily damaged in the Battle of Surigao, and in the repair arrangement, they were all lined up behind those capital ships, so they were not able to participate in the previous naval battles. Now, these warships have completed repairs. was directly infiltrated by Nie Renfeng into the First Task Force.

More transport vessels, landing ships also began to assemble in the port of Zhoushan. Most of these transport vessels were requisitioned from civilian vessels, while some of the landing ships were built after the outbreak of war. In order to transport the 50,000 officers and soldiers of the landing force, as well as the heavy equipment they are equipped with, the war materials they need. At least 120 transport vessels need to be called. And hundreds of landing craft were put into operation at the beginning of the landing. All of these need to be organized and arranged.

Bombers and long-range fighters of the army aviation also began to transfer to airfields in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, as well as on the island of Taiwan. These bombers have been bombing the island of Ryukyu. Almost every day, I would go around the island as a routine and drop some bombs along the way. The three infantry divisions dispatched by the army also soon arrived in Zhoushan, and launched intensive training for landing operations on Daishan Island, north of Zhoushan Island.

All the preparations were carried out by Chief of Staff Gan Yongxing, and Nie Renfeng was responsible for coordinating the actions of the navy and land forces, and jointly formulated the battle plan with Marshal Yan Dingyu. Tan Renhao was also assigned a new job, that is, to organize the training and recovery of the First Task Force with Ji Xiaobin, and to be responsible for completing the fleet's battle plan.

The Japanese side also smelled the smell that a vicious war was about to start. At a time when the Tang Empire was actively preparing for a landing operation. Japan is also preparing for their combat operations. Soon, the Tang Empire's ground intelligence system confirmed that Japan was indeed planning to land on the Korean Peninsula and had been preparing for it for several months. In other words, it's up to you to see who strikes first. Whoever strikes first will be in a passive position. The Japanese Navy does not advocate landing on the Korean Peninsula. The positive reason was that it was impossible to defeat the Tang Empire on land, and the Korean Peninsula was rugged, the army's offensive was difficult, and the navy could not help. In fact, however, the reason is simpler: landing on the Korean Peninsula will plunge Japan into the quagmire of ground warfare, thereby weakening the weight of the navy in the war, which will inevitably affect the status of the navy and the development of the navy in all aspects, and the combat resources will have to be redistributed. This is the exact opposite of the Japanese Navy's planned combat operations to land on the island of Taiwan.

As more and more information is sent back, the problem becomes more and more apparent. Japan will send troops to the Korean Peninsula in the coming months. At the same time, the Tang Empire's preparations for the landing on the Ryukyu Island were almost completed. As long as it landed on Ryukyu Island, Japan would have to abandon its plan to land in Korea, and the Tang Empire would seize the initiative on the battlefield for the first time. The problem, however, is that as preparations for the landing unfolded, more and more problems were exposed.

Tan Renhao can only do his job with peace of mind, he has always thought that the landing on Ryukyu Island will not be too smooth, and it can even be said that it is very unsmooth. However, he also knew why Nie Renfeng and Yan Dingyu came up with such a plan, because now the empire needed such a counterattack operation, even if it was just to improve the war determination of the empire's military and civilians, it was also necessary to carry out a decisive counterattack. Of course, while Tan Renhao is doing his job well, he is also concerned about the changes in the battle situation.

The situation on the Nanyang battlefield has stabilized, although a Japanese division has landed near Malacca, but the Tang Imperial Army has established three lines of defense on the Malay Peninsula, and the terrain of the peninsula is not conducive to attack, and the main force of the Japanese army has moved to the mainland, preparing to land on the Korean Peninsula, so the Japanese army cannot launch a larger offensive on the Malay Peninsula.

In the Indian Ocean, after the Japanese army occupied the Andaman Islands, it fought with the army aviation deployed by the Tang Empire on the island of Ceylon. Although the Japanese Second Battlefleet (formerly the Southern Fleet) had been operating in this area, the Japanese did not rush to attack Ceylon because they did not have enough strength to capture Ceylon.

In order to strengthen the security of the island of Ceylon and protect the shipping lanes of the Bay of Bengal, the Persian Empire has sent a small fleet to the port of Colombo to cooperate with the Indian Ocean Fleet of the Tang Empire. In addition, a division of marines from the Persian Empire had already reached Ceylon and strengthened its defenses.

Now, the focus of the battlefield is on the western Pacific. More than a month later, the "Li Jing" returned to the fleet after emergency repairs, and the "Taizu" still needed 20 days for repair. It was also at this time that Marshal Nie Renfeng issued a message on behalf of the Imperial Navy that the western Pacific region had been designated as a war zone, and that the submarine forces of the Tang Imperial Navy would carry out unlimited submarine operations within the scope of the war zone, and any ship that sailed into the theater without the flag of the Tang Empire or the flag of the Allied States would be sunk without any warning.

Tan Renhao didn't attach much importance to this news, he didn't know much about submarine warfare. However, this news can be said to have changed the situation on the battlefield at that time, affecting many countries. At that time, the submarines of the German Reich were already engaged in unrestricted submarine warfare in the Atlantic, attacking all enemy countries operating in the Atlantic Ocean and ships of neutral countries sailing towards enemy countries. The Tang Empire basically copied the submarine tactics of the German Empire, and threw dozens of submarines into battles to encircle and suppress the routes around the Japanese mainland.

At that time, the unrestricted submarine warfare of the Tang Empire and the German Empire in the Western Pacific and the North Atlantic Ocean became an important reason for the later participation of the United States of America in the war. However, the impact did not come so quickly, at least the United States of America was not ready for war until 1324 in the Tang calendar. Similarly, submarine warfare at that time actually did not have much impact on Japan, because the submarines of the Tang Empire could not move freely in the Pacific Ocean.