Ren Hao was also invited to attend this theater meeting, after all, he had also commanded operations before and had a good understanding of landing operations. In addition, before this, Luo Yunchong had already talked to Tan Renhao, and he also hoped that Tan Renhao could support his views at the meeting, so that Han Shaofeng would agree to attack Santiago, instead of going to the remote Sienfuegos to fight an innocuous landing operation.

Because the fleet had to take different actions if it chose different landing sites, Tan Renhao asked the fleet headquarters to draw up two sets of battle plans. From the perspective of the fleet, Tan Renhao is more supportive of Han Shaofeng's decision than to storm Santiago.

Cienfuegos faces the Caribbean Sea, the Cayman Islands to the south, and Jamaica and, most importantly, the open sea, which has plenty of room for the fleet to maneuver. Although Cienfuegos is closer to the continental United States, the fleet can operate outside the strike range of U.S. shore-based tactical bombers to avoid entering dangerous waters. According to Tan Renhao's estimate, when the time comes, the fleet only needs to operate in the waters south of the Cayman Islands, which will be enough to support the landing of the marines. In addition, after the fleet has mastered sea supremacy, it will be very difficult for the US Navy's Atlantic Fleet to threaten the landing site, so as to avoid exposing the landing fleet and transport fleet to the front, and there is no need for the fleet to go to the front to cover it. These are extremely favorable conditions, at least so that Tan Renhao can use the combined fleet boldly and confidently.

On the contrary, if Santiago is attacked, even if Santiago is a little farther away from the US mainland, it is also within the strike range of the US tactical bombers, and the 100-kilometer gap will not have much impact. On the other hand, to the east of San Diego is the Windward Strait, and the U.S. Atlantic Fleet only needs to operate in the waters of the Bahamas to threaten the landing fleet and convoy. This forced Tan Renhao to press the Combined Fleet forward to deal with the U.S. naval threat. In this way, the Combined Fleet will inevitably enter dangerous sea areas, and when supporting the Marine Corps in operations, it will also have to consider the threat of the enemy. In the end, it is quite possible to disperse the action, thus giving the enemy the danger of breaking through each of them. There is no doubt that Tan Renhao will be more cautious when the time comes, and it is very likely to affect the entire campaign operation.

Because Tan Renhao did not consider this campaign operation only from the position of the commander of the fleet. So when Luo Yunchong came to the door, he didn't refuse, but promised Luo Yunchong and tried to persuade Han Shaofeng.

On the surface, storming Santiago would have more disadvantages and be more difficult than attacking Cienfuegos, but there was one advantage that would never be gained in Cienfuegos, and that was the ability to quickly capture the surrounding U.S. airfields.

At that time, there were four regular U.S. military airfields near San Diego. In addition, several large field airfields have been built that can be used by strategic bombers. Of the four regular airports, the closest to Santiago is Palma Soliano, which can be reached in less than 50 kilometers. The farthest is Guantanamo, the distance is about 140 miles, and it only takes two and a half hours to reach it by truck. In other words, with San Diego as a base, the supplies in the port can be quickly transported to these four airports, and the four airports can deploy thousands of heavy bombers, and convenient transportation routes can ensure that these bombers can obtain enough ammunition supplies. This. You can't find that in Cienfuegos, where the nearest airport is 150 miles away! Considering the capacity of the two ports, Santiago and Cienfuegos, there is no doubt that Santiago is the most ideal port and forward base to support the strategic bombing of the United States.

It is precisely because of this that Tan Renhao is biased towards the direction chosen by Luo Yunchong. The ultimate goal of attacking Cuba is to carry out a comprehensive strategic bombing of the United States from here, if it is not achieved. Or if this cannot be achieved immediately, then there is little point in attacking Cuba. Moreover, after conquering San Diego, the fleet could enter the Bahamas through the Windward Channel, and Han Shaofeng's Marines could quickly conquer the Bahamas without having to set off from Cienfuegos to capture the eastern part of Cuba, which also saved a lot of time.

In terms of the ultimate goal, San Diego was definitely the best choice, even if the landing operation was a little more difficult and the task of the fleet was a little heavier. It would have been risky, but it was worth it, as Santiago would have gained a foothold in Cuba without hastily sweeping the rest of the island, giving it time to maneuver strategically and pave the way for the next operations.

At the meeting, Tan Renhao elaborated on these reasons in great detail, after both commanders were in favor of attacking Santiago. Han Shaofeng also had to agree to this decision. In fact, Han Shaofeng is not unaware of the benefits of attacking Santiago. He just wanted to control the losses of the marines. In addition, he did not fail to make relevant preparations. At the meeting, Han Shaofeng raised a very crucial issue, that is, how to successfully land in Santiago instead of fighting a landing campaign with the US military.

This is also a key problem for Tan Renhao and Luo Yunchong. At that time, the only way to achieve this was campaign deception. For Tan Renhao and Luo Yunchong, campaign deception does not make a living, and several other senior generals also know the importance of campaign deception, and have participated in previous campaign deception operations. But the question is, this is not the first time that campaign deception has been used, and several times it has been an operation against the US military, will the commander of the US army be fooled again?

"There is very little chance that the U.S. military will be fooled, even if we don't touch San Diego before the landing begins, the U.S. military will not be fooled." Han Shaofeng's mood was a little low. "We know the importance of San Diego, and the U.S. military understands it, so they won't easily change the focus of defense, and in the end, we will inevitably fight the U.S. military head-on in San Diego, and the losses of the Marine Corps will not be less. If the U.S. counterattack is in place, even if we are not driven out of the sea, the progress of the campaign will be much slower than expected, and eventually the campaign will not be successfully completed, and it will be impossible to seize the port and airport in time, which will put great pressure on our logistics support, and may even lead to the defeat of the campaign. We have to consider this, after all, Cuba has hundreds of thousands of US troops, and it is impossible for us to put in hundreds of thousands of landing troops in one go

"We can consider letting Gu Xunlei launch a diversion attack at the same time to disperse the strength of the US military, at least to disperse the US air force, and let the US military transport more supplies to the Mexican battlefield, which can reduce the pressure on the landing operation." Lei Shaoqing proposed a solution that anyone could think of.

"This is also impossible to completely solve the problem, in Cuba is dominated by the Marine Corps and the Army units that participated in the Pacific War, and the US military is unlikely to send these troops to the Mexican battlefield, and Gu Xunlei's attack will not contain the US army for too long, and the impact will not be too great." Han Shaofeng immediately pointed out the key flaws in this approach.

"Then we'll have to figure it out in Cuba." Tan Renhao knocked lightly on the table, drawing the attention of the others. "Campaign deception is still the key, and if our deception can be effective, it will allow the Marines to fight a decisive battle with the U.S. forces when they go ashore, at least for a few days to allow the Marines to successfully go ashore and get through the most dangerous stage, so that even if the U.S. military reacts, there is no way to drive the Marines into the sea."

Han Shaofeng sighed, he didn't just want the first few days, if he could avoid a decisive battle with the US army, then he would definitely try to avoid it, but if he couldn't avoid it, he could only retreat to the second, as long as he could not be counterattacked by the US army in the first few days, and let the marines go ashore smoothly, he would be sure enough to defeat the US counterattack on the ground.

"But the question is, how can we get there?" Luo Yunchong asked Tan Renhao rhetorically, and then said, "We have deceived the US army many times, and most of what can be used has already been used, if the US army insists that we are going to attack San Diego, then it is unlikely that they will be fooled." ”

"What if we do the opposite?" At this time. Huang Xiaotian spoke, and everyone immediately looked at him, and he continued. "In the past, we all covered up our true purpose and made a big fuss about the direction of the feint. This time, we will directly put on the appearance of attacking Santiago, and make some small moves on the side of Cienfuegos, and perhaps, the US military will think that we will attack Cienfuegos. This allows the U.S. military to shift its defensive focus to that side. ”

"If we don't land in Cienfuegos, I'm afraid the U.S. military won't be fooled."

"Not necessarily." Huang Xiaotian added what he had said at the beginning. "First of all, the U.S. military must know that we are going to attack Cuba, and it will carry out campaign deception before attacking Cuba, and this time we have adopted the exact opposite deception, and the U.S. military may not be able to judge it. Secondly, before landing, we will inevitably carry out preliminary fire preparations, and we can appropriately expand the scale of preliminary fire preparations. And if the focus is on Santiago, and not so much on Cienfuegos, what will the US military think? Of course, if it is finally decided that a landing operation must be launched in Cienfuegos, then the scale does not need to be too large, and it is not even necessary to bring the marines ashore, but only need to send a landing fleet over, and this landing force can be transferred to the Santiago side within a day and come ashore as a second landing force, which will not affect the landing operations on the Santiago side. ”

Han Shaofeng frowned slightly. The proposal was too bold, he didn't want to have the Marines scattered on the eve of the landing, and he didn't have any extra landing ships in his hands. In addition, if the scale of the feint is too small, it will not only fail to serve as a cover, but will cause the feint troops to suffer unnecessary casualties. At the same time, the forces in the main directions were dispersed.

"It's a good idea, but to do it, we're going to have to be thorough." Tan Renhao and Han Shaofeng had different views, and he immediately saw the value of Huang Xiaotian's suggestion. "It's less than a day's flight from Cienfuegos to Santiago, and the landing fleet only needs to be equipped in the open sea, so that in about 20 hours, the landing fleet can > from CienfugoSantiago, and the transfer of US troops on the ground will not be so fast. Coupled with the blocking actions of the fleet and air force, it is difficult for the US military to quickly return to defense. Therefore, I think that before the landing begins, we can first focus on Santiago, put on a strong attack on Santiago, and then send the landing fleet to Cienfuegos, and carry out one or two days of fire preparation, and the final stage of direct fire suppression. Hereunto. Most U.S. forces will think that we will focus on attacking Cienfuegos, so they will send troops to Cienfuegos. We can take this opportunity to strike at the transferred US troops. The battle on this side ended before the landing, and the landing fleet quickly moved to the San Diego side, taking advantage of the fact that the US forces had no time to return to the defense, and launched a landing operation. ”

"In this way, a direct fire strike on the Santiago landing site will be much weakened." Han Shaofeng raised a question.

"The Combined Fleet and Support Fleet are responsible for providing full fire support to the Marine Corps, so that even if we appropriately reduce the time for direct fire strikes, it will not have much impact on the landing operation." Tan Renhao immediately answered Han Shaofeng's question, "Plus we have already carried out a preliminary firepower strike on Santiago before, I don't think the problem will be serious." ”

"If the U.S. Atlantic Fleet appears at this time, what should we do?" Luo Yunchong was also a little uncertain about Tan Renhao's bold proposal.

"Dealing with the US Atlantic Fleet is the task of the Combined Fleet, and I will arrange this." Tan Renhao did not want to talk about the operation of the combined fleet at the meeting of the theater command.

"How can we solve the problems of local command brought about by the large-scale movement of troops?" Han Shaofeng still disagreed with this risky plan.

"That's your business." Tan Renhao looked at Luo Yunchong.

"We can only arrange all kinds of combat operations in advance and have a clear command relationship." Luo Yunchong breathed a long sigh of relief, "The specific front-line command is in charge of General Han Shaofeng, and the theater command is responsible for full cooperation, I think, the trouble in command should be reduced a lot." ”

Everyone looked at Han Shaofeng, after all, Han Shaofeng was the commander-in-chief of the landing operation, and if he didn't agree, any opinion would not have much meaning.

"It seems that this is the only way we can think of now." Han Shaofeng finally made a concession, because he really couldn't think of any other better way.