Chapter 641 Jinzhou (I)

Jinzhou is located on the northwest shore of Liaodong Bay in the northern part of the Bohai Sea. Xiong according to the middle section of the western Liaoning corridor, in the west of it is a series of low mountains and hills, the east is the Bohai Sea, its potential is the back of the mountains and the sea, as far as the strategy is concerned, Jinzhou is to control the Shanhaiguan north of the Guanwai and the Guannei 'exchange' strategic place, whoever controls here, who will hold the strategic initiative in the western Liaoning corridor.

Since ancient times, Jinzhou is the place where soldiers must fight, at the end of the Ming Dynasty, around the control of Jinzhou, the Ming army and the Qing army had a tragic tug-of-war in this area, when the Qing army controlled Jinzhou, the Ming army was no longer able to launch an attack on the western Liaoxi region, after the eight banners entered the customs, paid special attention to Jinzhou, there were heavy troops stationed in this place, and the Shengjing garrison general was directly responsible for the defense of the Jinzhou region, during the First Sino-Japanese War, when the Liaodong Peninsula was lost, the Qing court gathered the remnants of the defeated generals. The purpose of the concentration in the Jinzhou area was to prevent the Japanese army from invading Shanhaiguan through the western Liaoning corridor and entering the Beijing-Tianjin area.

At the end of the Qing Dynasty, the rise of the railway, connecting Beijing and Shenyang inside and outside the railway is by Jinzhou through, Jinzhou's strategic position is more important, but the Qing court is shaky, decay and incompetence, national sovereignty and the powers, Jinzhou to the Beijing-Tianjin area of the arch guard role is not to talk about, the former military town declined rapidly, replaced by a new commercial city.

After the republic, Jinzhou because of its important strategic position, quickly into the central line of sight, here soon became the military outpost of the Liaoning West Corridor, in the south of Jinzhou Huludao built a commercial port that can be used as a military use, peacetime can be used as a naval fleet training base, wartime can quickly become a sea supply and sea attack base, if the Chinese Air Force and Navy can master the local sea dominance, then from Huludao Port, can directly cross the sea to attack the western coastal areas of the Liaodong Peninsula, from the flank threat Lushun, Dalian, It can also directly attack strategic places such as Gaiping and Xiongyue.

It is precisely because of the above strategic destinations that the staff headquarters of the Chinese Army is located in Jinzhou and the strategic reserve is also stationed along the Jinzhou-Xinmin line during the "Zhangde Exercise." The strategic reserve force can quickly reinforce the Shenyang and Liaoyang areas along the Beijing-Shenyang Railway, and in order to cover the Jinzhou flank, a torpedo boat unit is stationed in the Huludao area, which can carry out tactics against the enemy in the sea in the direction of Liaodong Bay. In order to facilitate the air force to attack, Jinzhou has also built four large airfields, which are comparable to Dengzhou airfields in terms of scale alone, but because the current main force of the air force is still in the direction of Dengzhou, only five flight squadrons are stationed at Jinzhou airfield, and only one bomber squadron is stationed at Jinzhou airfield.

Since the central government decided to start a war against Japan, Jinzhou, like other cities in the theater of war, has all suspended classes in primary and secondary schools, and the residents have also carried out the necessary evacuations. However, at present, the situation of the war is developing smoothly, and the possibility of a protracted war is very low, so Lan Tianwei decided to attack according to the original tactical plan.

At present, Lan Tianwei is holding the last military meeting before the war with his staff members in the war room, and in addition to the military commanders of some units, there are also some local administrative officials, who will be responsible for assisting the army staff in mobilizing the people in various places, providing reliable logistical support for the military offensive, and strengthening local law and order work, and at the same time undertaking some counter-espionage tasks. It is very likely that these saboteurs will become accomplices of the Japanese military department, and these hostile elements must be eliminated.

The meeting started at nine o'clock in the morning, and it has been going on for almost two hours now, what should be talked about has been discussed, and what should be emphasized has been emphasized, Lan Tianwei didn't dwell on anything, stood up and glanced at everyone present, and then announced the adjournment.

As soon as these officers left Jinzhou by train, a telegram came from the Xiuyan front, which was taken by Zhou Daogang, commander of the First Army, and the content was mainly to report on the current advance of the troops.

There are four divisions under the jurisdiction of the First Army, and the troop sequence is: the 105th Division of the Wehrmacht, the 106th Division of the Wehrmacht, the 128th Division of the Wehrmacht, and the 131st Division of the Wehrmacht.

Among them, the 105th Division and the 106th Division are the "Beiyang Relics" troops that Duan Qirui desperately retained. The 128th Division was adapted from the original "South Sichuan Independent Division", while the 131st Division was a mountain division, among these four divisions, in addition to the relatively strong combat effectiveness of the mountain division, the other three divisions can only be regarded as second-line troops, although the 105th and 106th divisions are known as the first division, but only refers to the treatment of officers and soldiers on par with the first division, as for the equipment, it is far less advanced than the first division, it can also be seen that the first army is the main force in the "Zhangde exercise operation" in the combat effectiveness ranked in the lower position.

In fact, the role of the First Army is a tactical feint force, this force will be the first to start a ground battle, but it is not the unit that undertakes the main offensive task, this is very clear to Lan Tianwei, but Zhou Daogang, the commander of the First Army, is not clear.

Therefore, in the telegram to the army staff, Zhou Daogang still believed that his troops would be the most critical force in the entire ground campaign, so he once again asked the army staff to strengthen the front-line forces, especially the armored troops, in order to break through the Japanese defense line at Xiuyan in one go.

However, since Lan Tianwei had decided to attack according to the original battle plan, it was naturally impossible for Zhou Daogang's telegram requesting aid to be approved. However, in order to 'confuse' and 'confuse' the Japanese army, Lan Tianwei still decided to strengthen some local troops and ** guards for the First Army.

In the morning, the General Staff sent a telegram informing him of the results of the battles of Lushun and Dalian, and that Lan Tianwei knew very well that the air force and navy had won a brilliant victory, and that the Japanese naval fleets in Lushun and Dalian had suffered heavy losses and were no longer able to provide effective fire support to the garrison units of the Japanese Kwantung Army in Lushun and Dalian. The second option is not to strengthen the front-line troops, but to mobilize the troops to attack in accordance with the operational plan, to 'induce' the Japanese army to change its disposition, to 'disrupt' all the operational arrangements of the Japanese general staff, and to look for an opportunity to eat the main forces reinforced by the Japanese army in one bite in mobile operations, so as to make Japan more painful and seize more benefits for China.

According to the opinion of the General Staff, the first choice was the "lower policy" and the second choice was the "upper policy," but on the other hand, the "lower policy" was more secure than the "upper policy." In the end, the president made the decision, taking the "upper policy" as the basic basis for drawing up the battle plan, and taking into account the "lower policy."

After the news of the battles of Lushun and Dalian came, many people in the army staff suggested that Lan Tianwei take the first option, that is, the "next strategy", strengthen the strength of the front-line troops, strive to end the war as soon as possible, and negotiate, but after careful consideration, Lan Tianwei decided to take the second option, and fight according to the original combat plan, that is, the "upper strategy", which was exactly the same as Zhao Bei's choice.

The reason for making this choice is that Lan Tianwei and Zhao Bei's starting point is basically the same, they both believe that even if the Lushun fortress is quickly taken, the Japanese government and the military department will never come to the negotiating table, because the pressure in Japan is too great, and there are many fanatics among the Japanese people, and the Japanese military department can even use this sentiment to incite the continuation of the war, and in the battles of Lushun and Dalian, the Japanese naval fleet suffered heavy losses. Several capital ships were sunk, and under such circumstances, no Japanese politician dared to disobey the "public will" and choose peace talks, so even if the Chinese army quickly took the fortress of Arthur, the Japanese government would most likely choose to continue the war rather than quickly sit down at the negotiating table, even if the great powers mediated between them.

In addition, the topographical characteristics of the theater also determine the arduous 'nature' of this ground battle, and the so-called "quick victory" does not mean that the war will end in a few days or within a dozen days, as long as the combat time does not exceed three months, the strategic intention of the center will be achieved.

Both Zhao Bei and Lan Tianwei believe that the front-line forces cannot be strengthened now, which fully takes into account the possible changes in the battlefield situation:

If the Chinese army captures the fortress of Arthur in one fell swoop, and the Japanese government decides to go all out into the war, then, in the case that Lushun and Dalian have fallen into the hands of the Chinese army, there is a high probability that the Japanese military headquarters will not directly counterattack Arthur, and the Japanese army is likely to rely on its strong naval force to carry out landing operations in the southern coastal areas of China, and according to the pre-war war games, the most likely landing place chosen by the Japanese military department is the coastal area from Jiangsu to Fujian, which is close to the island of Taiwan, and it is more convenient for Japan to supply logistics. And once the Japanese army did carry out the landing operation, then, for China, the war had actually begun to be protracted, and this is precisely what the center tried to avoid.

Looking back, if the Chinese army units do not immediately take Lushun and Dalian, but drag the Japanese "Kwantung Army" on the Liaodong Peninsula for a period of time according to the original battle plan, then, according to the situation faced by the Japanese government and the military department, they will have to send reinforcements to Lushun and Dalian to ensure that the "Kwantung Prefecture" is not recovered by the Chinese army, otherwise, they will not be able to 'deliver' to the Japanese people, after all, the leased areas of Lushun and Dalian have long been regarded by the Japanese as Japan's "colonies". If we sit idly by, it is very likely that the Japanese government will fall into the attack of public opinion, which will lead to the collapse of the Japanese government, and no one knows what the situation will develop at that time.

Of course, if Lushun and Dalian are not taken, the Japanese army may also carry out landing operations in other directions along the Chinese coast in order to reduce the military pressure in the direction of Lushun, but this possibility is not very 'natural', and under the condition that the siege of Lushun is not resolved, the Japanese army will not be able to concentrate its forces on attacking other areas, especially when there is still a Japanese naval fleet blockaded in Port Arthur, even if the Japanese Army wants to "encircle Wei and save Zhao," the Japanese Navy may not agree.

Therefore, for the army chief of staff Lan Tianwei, he must grasp a good measure, if the Japanese army carries out a landing operation on the southeast coastal area, he must quickly eat the Japanese army on the Liaodong Peninsula, and then mobilize troops to the south to reinforce, if the Japanese army is willing to stalemate on the Liaodong Peninsula, then he will find a way to attract more Japanese troops to the Liaodong Peninsula, and strive to eat it in one bite, so that the Japanese Army can drain the blood on the Liaodong Peninsula and completely crush the Japanese fighting spirit. In one fell swoop, we will resolve the long-standing unresolved issues between China and Japan.

In consideration of the changes in the battlefield situation and strategic decisions, Lan Tianwei also decided to step up aerial reconnaissance on the Korean Peninsula, the Liaodong Peninsula, and the Bohai Sea and the Yellow Sea, so as to keep abreast of the movements of the Japanese troops.

At the same time, the Air Force will also step up air patrols in coastal areas to ensure that it can keep abreast of the movements of the Japanese Combined Fleet.