It is very common in warfare to create false images and release false information in order to deceive the opponent and achieve the goal of war. This also proves the truth that everything is used in war, and as long as the goal of war can be achieved, then deceiving the opponent is a means that can be used.

In this war, which lasted for more than four years, intelligence deception was carried out almost throughout the entire war stage, from the intelligence deception carried out by Japan against the empire at the outbreak of the war, to the intelligence deception carried out by the United States later, as well as the intelligence deception of the empire in the Pacific and continental theaters, and the intelligence deception in the European Western Front in cooperation with Germany, and so on, all belong to intelligence deception at the strategic level. The US military successfully concealed the number of aircraft carriers built, the performance of large cruisers of the "Alaska" class, "Iowa"

The performance of the class battleships, as well as the Empire's secret modification of small aircraft carriers, the acceleration of the construction of aircraft carriers, and the comprehensive improvement of the "New Provincial Capital" class battleships, etc., are all intelligence deception at the tactical level. In several battles, both sides tried their best to conceal their campaign intentions in the hope of luring their opponents in the wrong direction, which is a campaign-level intelligence deception.

Comparatively speaking, intelligence deception at the campaign level is the most difficult to achieve. On the strategic level, it is easier to implement because most decisions are made by politicians, not soldiers, and tactically, because most of the intelligence itself is classified, it is difficult to find real information. Only at the level of the campaign, it is the military who makes the judgment, and they can make the judgment based on the enemy's movements, so it is necessary to hide from the opponent in this regard. The difficulty of achieving the purpose of deception is quite high.

There are only a few successful examples of intelligence deception at the campaign level, and the last US counterattack was a relatively successful case. In addition, the Tang Imperial Navy's attack on Midway Island can be regarded as a relatively successful one. It can really achieve the purpose of intelligence deception. There are very few examples of simultaneous victories.

When Tan Renhao took over this new job, he realized how difficult it was to turn his proposed plan into practical action. Just as the Imperial Navy does not rely solely on the U.S. fleet to make decisions when judging the movements of the U.S. military, the U.S. military will judge the offensive actions of the Imperial Navy based on the deployment of the Imperial Navy in all aspects. Like what. How many ground forces are deployed in the Central Pacific direction, what is the size of the landing fleet, how large a campaign the transport fleet can support, whether the capabilities of naval aviation are sufficient, etc. If only the fleet was operating in the Central Pacific, the US military would not have thought that the Tang Imperial Navy would attack the Hawaiian Islands, because the fleet could not complete the offensive mission alone, and it had to be assisted by other forces.

This is where intelligence deception is most difficult. The fact that Task Force 1 was the Imperial Navy's number one task force was true, but the problem was that Nimitz would never make a wrong judgment because of the appearance of Task Force 1. If the Imperial Navy's ground forces in the Central Pacific were not enough to capture, or even to launch an operation to capture the Hawaiian Islands. Then Nimitz would certainly not have thought that the Don Imperial Navy would attack the Hawaiian Islands. Then, to achieve the goal of intelligence deception, it is necessary to deploy enough ground troops in the Central Pacific theater.

This problem was finally solved by Principal Nie Renfeng. After talking to Marshal Yan Dingyu on the phone and explaining the embarrassing situation in the Pacific Theater, Yan Dingyu immediately agreed to send 10 divisions of Army Reserve Units to the Mariana Islands first, which can be regarded as the Army's advance force in the Pacific Theater.

These 10 army divisions are all infantry divisions. The size is slightly smaller than that of the Marine Corps Division, with about 12,000 officers and soldiers in a division, and the strength of 10 divisions is about 8 Marine Divisions. This is already a sufficiently powerful ground force, plus the Marine Corps deployed by the Navy in the direction of the Central Pacific, its ground strength has exceeded 250,000, and under the condition that the fleet can secure sea supremacy, although 250,000 ground troops are not enough to quickly capture the entire Hawaiian Islands, but it will definitely be able to seize a bridgehead in the Hawaiian Islands and gradually advance.

The only problem is that these 10 army divisions are all reserve forces, that is, units that have not yet completely completed their training and have not been integrated into the army's regular combat sequence, and the fighting quality of their soldiers is very questionable. Fortunately, the task of this unit is only to put on a show, not to actually engage in combat operations, and it can be deployed in the Mariana Islands and can also be trained by Marine Corps instructors, so that the officers and men can master a certain amount of common sense of landing operations, which is of great significance for future operations in the Pacific.

What's more, this is an army unit, as long as the U.S. military finds out that the Imperial Army is participating in combat operations in the Pacific, then it is enough for Nimitz to judge that the Imperial Army will send troops to the Pacific Ocean in a big way to speed up the offensive in the Pacific, and this is the focus of intelligence deception.

It is not enough to have ground forces, it is also necessary to have the ability to send these ground forces to the front battlefield, after all, hundreds of thousands of people in the Mariana Islands do not make much sense, and if there is not enough landing capability, then these forces are worthless. That is, it is also necessary to have a landing fleet strong enough to support a large-scale landing campaign.

This problem was quickly resolved, and Gan Yongxing mobilized some of the landing ships that were ready to land in Australia.

After establishing a general strategic plan to first capture the Australian continent and then march eastward, the Navy intensified the construction of the landing fleet. In the middle of '24, the Navy issued a plan to second-tier shipyards to build landing ships, and according to the requirements of the Navy, the plan to build 1200 landing ships must be completed by the beginning of '26.

This is an extremely large construction project, and according to the shipbuilding capacity of the Empire, even if all the slipways are used to build these ships, it will be difficult to complete this task in a short period of time, and it can only be built in stages. The Naval Armament Technical Office first determined the design of the standard landing ship, and then distributed the design drawings to the various shipyards to build according to the standard plan. And these standard landing ships only need to be partially modified to meet the various needs of the Marine Corps. Including the delivery of infantry, the delivery of armored fighting vehicles, combat materiel. and conversion into fire support vessels, etc.

During this time, a group of standard landing ships was already put into service in the South-West Pacific theater of operations. This will not only test whether the new landing ships can adapt to the brutal battlefield environment, but will also enhance the landing combat capability in the southwest Pacific theater. From the end of '24, a large number of landing ships were launched into service, and most of the landing ships at that time were concentrated in the eastern ports of the empire, as well as the Ryukyu Islands. Taiwan Island and other places. This time, Gan Yongxing mobilized a group of these landing ships that served as reserves, and they happened to be used to transport the 10 divisions of army troops to the Mariana Islands.

According to the information provided by Gan Yongxing, this batch of landing ships can transport the strength of at least three marine divisions, plus the batch of landing ships that Liao Hanxiang originally had, it can now deliver at least five marine divisions at one time, and in the direction of the Central Pacific, it is impossible for the US troops on any island to block the landing force of the five imperial marines. That is, this landing fleet is enough to launch a landing operation on any island!

With a landing fleet, what is lacking in the end is a powerful transport fleet. The significance of the transport fleet is in no way below the landing fleet. After the start of the campaign. The landing fleet will not be responsible for supplying the troops with combat materiel, but will be transported by cheaper transport vessels (the main thing is that landing warships are far less capable of delivering than transport vessels). Therefore, any landing operation needs to be supported by a large fleet of transport vessels. The size of the transport fleet actually determines the scale of the landing operation and the number of combat units that can be put into operation.

The matter of the transport fleet was also quickly resolved, and it was Gan Yongxing who arranged the relevant work.

After the United States began to build standard freighters, the Don Empire was also inspired. Two types of standard freighters were quickly designed (there is a difference between dry cargo and liquid cargo). At that time, the main sea route of the Tang Empire was to connect the Persian Empire and the German Empire to the west, and this route was almost all within the cover of the Imperial Navy and shore-based patrol aircraft, and there were many bases along the way, and it was difficult for enemy submarines to reach the sea area where this route was located. Therefore, the empire did not lose many freighters. But the problem is that if the Imperial Navy wants to launch a strategic offensive in the Pacific, it must have enough transport ships to transport troops, combat materials, weapons and equipment for the front-line troops. For example, at that time, there were more than 100 transport ships serving the Pacific theater of operations, and more than 200 ships serving the southwest Pacific theater. The losses of these transport ships, which were active on the battlefield, were relatively large.

In order to land in Australia, the Imperial Navy has begun to reserve transport forces, and when landing ships are being built in large quantities, the construction of standard cargo ships is already being accelerated. Gan Yongxing directly mobilized a number of newly built freighters. It just so happened that Liao Hanxiang needed a batch of war materials, and the army units of the 10 divisions also had a large number of weapons and equipment to be transported to the Mariana Islands, so this batch of ships happened to be loaded with these materials and rushed to Apra Port.

After the mobilization of maritime forces was completed, the deployment of the navy was basically in place. At that time, HNA was preparing to replace with new fighters, but because the first batch of new fighters was provided to carrier-based air units, HNA's shore-based units were not able to line up at the front, and the refitting work could not begin until the end of September. During this period, except for the naval aviation units in the southwest Pacific that were still continuing operations, the naval aviation units in other directions arranged for some pilots to return to the rear to prepare for the training of new fighters. Gan Yongxing organized this group of pilots, and then set up several temporary units, deployed them to the Mariana Islands, and mobilized a group of combat planes to train the pilots here. To put it bluntly, it is to put on a show and convince the Yankees that there is a large air force massed over the Mariana Islands and is preparing for an attack.

Other related forces have also been deployed, such as the Strategic Strike Force, which deployed two regiments of heavy bombers to the Mariana Islands, and these bombers flew twice a day (normal training is to fly once a day). Task Force 1 also left for the port of Apra after receiving orders.

In order to be able to make a big noise, the Marines even began repairing Saipan's port to expand the capacity of the Mariana Islands.

Work is also underway rapidly, for example, Liao Hanxiang has built several new barracks on Guam to accommodate 10 army divisions, expanding the corresponding infrastructure, and several islands in the Caroline Islands are also starting to build airfields. All work was in full swing by September 10. Don't talk about the Yankees, even the unwitting Imperial soldiers are speculating that the Imperial Navy must be engaged in such a big battle this time to attack the Hawaiian Islands, otherwise what would it do to mobilize so many troops to the Mariana Islands?

"Finally, and most crucially, we released it yesterday.

Gan Yongxing has been so busy these days that he is about to collapse, but he is also very excited, "The intelligence bureau has leaked the information to the two US intelligence lines according to our request, and it has also sent a signal through the German intelligence department. It is believed that this information will soon be sent to Nimitz, and in the end it will depend on what kind of judgment Nimitz makes. ”

"We've got everything in place, and Nimitz has no other choice." Tan Renhao is very confident, as long as he puts on a posture of attacking the Hawaiian Islands in a big way, then even if Nimitz doesn't believe it, he has no choice.

"Hopefully, our intelligence services are also stepping up to spy on the intelligence of the U.S. military." Gan Yongxing stood up, "When there is new news, it will notify us immediately." If Nimitz had judged that we would launch a strategic offensive in the direction of the Hawaiian Islands, he would have taken countermeasures. ”

Tan Renhao also stood up. "Chief of Staff, when can I return to the fleet?"

Gan Yongxing was stunned for a moment, and then laughed. "Looks like you've been thinking about returning to the fleet, right?"

"The main thing is that I'm a little worried about Hao Dongjue." Tan Renhao gave himself a reason.

"Actually, Hao Dongjue's ability is already very strong." Gan Yongxing nodded slightly, "Okay, you go and prepare, and I will inform you of the time to return to the fleet." ”

With this not very satisfactory answer, Tan Renhao left the chief of staff's office, he just wanted to go back early.