Chapter 475: The Layout of the Xia Empire
Zhang Wei looked at the analysis of the South American war situation sent by the General Staff, and felt that the European countries must have sent some officers to Venezuela and guide or train their troops, otherwise, their defensive means were not so advanced, and they actually blocked the advance of the imperial army. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info
Heavy machine gun forts, hidden batteries, trench traps, barbed wire, crossfire, anti-aircraft guns and other military technology and military equipment were used, which became a replica of the First World War, or the European countries were deliberately training their officers to fight against the Empire, or they wanted to see the real military strength of the Empire.
The Blitzkrieg, Sneak Attack, and Roundabout Warfare that the Empire was good at before were completely ineffective in the war against Venezuela, and they must have studied the Empire's tactics very thoroughly and adopted effective countermeasures.
Zhang Wei thought about it carefully, and felt that it was not possible to equip the South American theater with more advanced and powerful weapons for the time being, first, for fear of exposing the true strength of the empire, and second, to exercise the troops' ability to attack fortifications; I have always wanted to find a whetstone to train the troops well, but I have not been able to find a suitable one, and now is the right time, otherwise when we fight against the Russian Empire and European countries in the future, the war will definitely be very cruel, and if the army cannot adapt to that kind of high-intensity war, it will definitely lose.
Originally, Chen Yifeng hoped to get strong support from the empire, but he didn't expect that His Majesty the Emperor's instructions were to make the mercenaries and garrisons, even the Praetorian Guards and the Wehrmacht unable to do anything against those dense and strong and hidden fortresses, what could the mercenaries and garrisons do?
In order to come up with a more reasonable way, Chen Yifeng recalled Cao Jiachuan from the front line and discussed countermeasures together.
Lieutenant General Cao Jiachuan had just experienced that kind of tough battle, and he was really unwilling to do that kind of thing that could not be forced, so according to the battlefield situation and the latest intelligence, he suggested to Chen Yifeng that the western and northern parts should be dominated by feints, and that they should switch from offensive to defensive, so as to contain a large number of enemy forces and attract them to continue to build more fortresses; Then the officers and men of the 2nd Route Army were dispatched to the south, secretly strengthening the strength of the southern front, and quickly opening a gap while the enemy had not yet perfected the defense system of the southern front.
After all, there are not so many steep mountains in the southern defense line, the enemy can take advantage of a lot less, the airship can exert greater power, besides, it is already the dry season, and the blocking of those rivers is no longer to be feared, and fighting in the plain area, the mobile power of the cavalry can also be brought into play.
Chen Yifeng felt that this coincided with his thoughts, and immediately ordered Cao Jiachuan and all the staff officers to formulate a new campaign plan as soon as possible.
Cao Jiachuan's plan was not complicated, first of all, he ordered the 3rd Army and the 4th Route Army to move north as soon as possible, occupy the blank cities left by the Venezuelan army after the retreat, and seize the two sites that must be occupied, and cut the enemy's southern defense line into several sections that could not be taken into account; In addition, send heavy troops to support the southern front operations, including at least 150,000 mixed-race mercenaries to fight on the southern front, they are all veterans of the war, and their combat effectiveness will definitely be much stronger than the Venezuelan Defense Force, which has not experienced any battles.
Chen Yifeng was very satisfied with this plan, which would greatly reduce the area of the territory actually controlled by Venezuela, and make it easier to cut the Venezuelan army into several sections, narrow the encirclement of Caracas, and send it to the Imperial General Staff after a slight modification.
Zhang Wei and Lu Weimin had no objection to this plan, and agreed with the use of this kind of large-scale roundabout tactics, and it was much less difficult to attack from the south than from the northwest, and the logistical baggage was also easy to transport, so they successfully passed the South American theater's revision of the war plan.
According to Cao Jiachuan's suggestion, Chen Yifeng changed his thinking in time, feeling that he cherished the mixed-race mercenaries too much some time ago, if they couldn't attack the fortifications, they would lose the meaning of existence, if they could only undertake logistics and transportation tasks, there were many such mixed-race natives, and they could organize hundreds of thousands at any time.
Immediately, Chen Yifeng quickly issued an order, and in addition to leaving the necessary defensive forces behind, the 4th Route Army immediately set off, occupied as a logistics base, surrounded Anaco, and waited for an opportunity to occupy;
The 3rd Army, with one regiment of the Wehrmacht, continued to defend beyond the ports of Carreño and Paes, while the rest of the troops reached Cavruta by boat and quickly moved north, occupying the line to Chaguaramas and waiting for an opportunity to occupy Alta Gracia sul Orituco;
In addition to the 2nd Route Army, 1 national defense division, 1 brigade of Japanese mercenaries and 2 brigades of mixed-race mercenaries built forts in place, turning from offensive to defensive; The remaining troops were all transferred to the southern front, and Cao Jiachuan served as the commander-in-chief of the southern front.
The 1st Route Army was to continue to launch feints on northwestern Venezuela to attract the enemy's attention.
More than a dozen brigades of mixed-race mercenaries classified as reserve units were all transferred to the southern front.
Most of the troops on the southern front arranged by Cao Jiachuan were marching in the meridional direction, because they were afraid that the enemy would damage bridges, highways and other facilities and slow down the speed of the march; There is basically no need to cross the river on the route of the meridian march, and it is all a flat terrain.
Venezuela narrowed the front from the south, creating the conditions for the advance of the Xia Empire.
As long as Anaco was captured, the imperial army would have the opportunity to occupy Barcelona and Puerto La Cruz, which would not only divide Venezuela into east and west, but also provide port supplies and reduce logistical pressure.
In the plan, after Cao Jiachuan and the main forces of the 2nd Route Army reached the southern front, they were also prepared to occupy the line from San Juan de los Moros to San Carlos, which would not only isolate San Fernando sur Apuré and the surrounding plains, but also threaten the logistical supply of Venezuela's northwestern defense line; Moreover, Cao Jiachuan also planned to attack Valencia and Maracay from the two directions of San Juan-de-los Moros and San Carlos, isolate the Venezuelan army on the northwest defense line, and completely complete the encirclement of Caracas, the capital of Venezuela.
In order to speed up the deployment of troops, the Atlantic Fleet was also requested to support some of the cargo ships.
The 6th Army of the Venezuelan Defense Forces, which had surrendered, was escorted to Ciudad Bolivar for reorganization, and in order to facilitate management, the divisional level was abolished and they were reorganized into 1 division and 3 independent brigades; There are more than 7,000 people in each brigade, and they are temporarily dissatisfied; Isabel served as the commander of the division, with 2 brigades and some auxiliary units; The deputy army commander and two division commanders who announced the surrender of the Xia Empire in advance served as the brigade commanders of three separate brigades; The division and regiment establishment is the largest establishment of the mercenary army of the Xia Empire, and the deputy army commander and the two division commanders support this reorganization plan, Isabel and others can only accept it.
This reorganization not only fulfilled the original promise to the deputy army commander and the two division commanders, but also divided Isabelle's rights and facilitated the control and management of the troops; With the exception of Isabelle, who was unhappy, everyone else was more than happy to accept this kind of preparation.
According to the reorganization agreement, they will not directly participate in the war against Venezuela, but the Xia Empire does not want to raise idlers who eat for nothing, they must serve as baggage transporters for the Xia Empire's army, and undertake the work of digging trenches, building fortresses and roads, and building military camps.