At three o'clock in the afternoon, the commander of the field battalion, Bao Gang, reported that the nearest town to the hilly pass was Gandala. It was now empty, and the Italian troops had withdrawn.

Gandala is a full 40 kilometers from the pass where the Maritime Resistance Army is strong, and is also located on the coast of the Gulf of Aden. If the Naval Resistance Army wants to attack inland, it must occupy this place.

Staff officer Hu Bofeng also obtained a lot of information by asking local black natives who knew English, and verified Bao Gang's intelligence. The small port city of Gandala, which was garrisoned by just over a hundred Italian soldiers, had retreated in panic after a short "battle" in the morning.

Reconnaissance from the Air Force also proves this.

This news is both good and bad for the Naval Resistance Army, and on the whole it is good news. However, this good news made Li Guang a little baffled, and it was really difficult to guess what the Italian army thought. According to the textbook description of amphibious landing warfare, the Italian army should launch an offensive at the first time, and this is the right way to occupy the landing site of the naval resistance army. But it is incredible that the Italians did not play according to the routine, and retreated instead of attacking.

The actions of the Italian army were simply helping the naval resistance army. Although the port of Gandala was bombed by the Maritime Resistance Army, it was barely usable. You must know that the two infantry companies that Dong Gang arrived in had no artillery at all, except for heavy machine guns and mortars, which can barely be called heavy weapons.

This small port is so important to the Naval Resistance Force that it allows for a steady flow of heavy weapons and ammunition.

Taking a step back, if the Naval Resistance Army retreated, it would be much faster with this small port.

Along with the positive side, of course, there is also a negative side.

The triangular area that the Naval Resistance Army is now defending is not large, with a depth of only three to five kilometers and a width of less than 20 kilometers.

However, the retreat of the Italian army caused the area under the control of the naval resistance army to increase. The next place to be defended or attacked is located in the mountains more than 50 kilometers away. It was already firmly under the control of the Italian army. According to the description of the locals, there were at least a thousand Italian troops there, and there were also strong fortifications. The terrain is dangerous, easy to defend and difficult to attack.

This situation made Li Guang scratch his head.

The current situation is equivalent to the fact that the Naval Resistance Army controls the first hill, and the Italian Army controls the second hill. Between the two hills, the Gobi Desert, which is more than 40 kilometers from north to south and more than 30 kilometers from east to west, has become a battlefield.

If there is fairness on the battlefield, it is superficially fair. But the problem is that the port town of Gandala is located in this area, and the supply lines of the Maritime Resistance Army are constantly threatened.

Moreover, there is another point that is extremely unfavorable to the Naval Resistance Army, if the Naval Resistance Army wants to control this area, the total army of 2,000 people seems to be insufficient. You must know that although the pass is the main battlefield, there are countless paths in the middle of the Gobi hills, and the infantry can easily penetrate, and if you want to maintain a 40-kilometer front, you need a huge number of troops.

After weighing it for a long time, Li Guang still made up his mind to expand the occupied area. The triangular area currently controlled by the Naval Resistance Force is too small, only three or four kilometers from the hills to the seaside, and there is no so-called strategic depth at all. If the Italians attack in large numbers, as long as they take the hilly pass, the naval resistance army will have to jump into the sea.

For opponents on the battlefield, as long as both sides do not make stupid moves, the commander's choice is almost the same. As the so-called key points of the enemy, the key points of my work. For example, the combat plan that Li Guang can adopt now is to take the second hilly pass where the Italian army is stationed and expand the strategic depth.

And the only battle plan that the Italians could adopt was to hold on to the hilly passes and wait for the army to assemble. Then recapture Cape Guadafoy, cut off the supply of the Maritime Resistance Army, take the pass that the Naval Resistance Army is stubbornly defending, and drive the Naval Resistance Army out of the sea.

The military affairs were urgent, and Bao Gang immediately sent an infantry company into Gandala to take control of the port. Taking this step, the strength of the Naval Resistance Army was once again strained. An infantry company was stationed at the first pass, and an infantry company was stationed at Gandala.

The staff officers of the Naval Resistance Army may still be insufficient to fight the war, but they are quite qualified to arrange reinforcements of follow-up troops, as well as material reinforcements and even battlefield reconnaissance.

Despite this, Li Guang is not easy at all, and there is still a lot of work to be done to keep the Pacific. First, it is necessary to mobilize manpower to repair warships, second, the air force of the naval resistance force must also be strengthened, and third, the naval force must also be strengthened. Fourth, the army estimates that it will have to send more troops, and the planned 2,000 troops may not be able to resist the all-out attack of the Italian side.

The first thing is not difficult, the salvage team led by Yuan Ran is salvaging ships for the navy belonging to Visy France on the coast of West Africa. If mobilized, it will only take 10 days to reach the Gulf of Aden, and in the port of Don in Ceylon, the Maritime Resistance Army also has a ship maintenance team, which is estimated to reach the Gulf of Aden in four or five days. Although the arrangement of this matter is quite complicated, it is not difficult.

The second thing is more troublesome. Air Force pilots, there is no shortage of manpower in Yemen, but there is a serious shortage of fighters, originally there were a total of 48 seaplanes plus combat power and transport planes, but after this war, only 20 can still be put into battle (there are three seaplanes still in Tang Port to do vigilance missions. ）。 Li Guang has ordered quite a few planes in the United States, and the number that can be delivered now is close to 100. But the problem is in transportation.

At the beginning, the Maritime Resistance Army moved to Tanggang and mobilized more than a dozen merchant ships, only to carry 36 fighters. Over the next month, several merchant ships brought in 12 fighters.

Fighter jets are not like weapons and ammunition, although they are very light, but they take up space on merchant ships, and it is very troublesome to transship.

Therefore, while arranging for Zheng Xuechang to return to Shixiang Island, Li Guang ordered Huang Zhonghua to serve as the captain of the light aircraft carrier under construction, the Liberty Dragon.

Huang Zhonghua was one of the naval officers that Li Guang valued the most, and he followed Li Guang for the longest time. In the Naval Resistance Army, Huang Zhonghua is the most alternative and the most depressed, he is not slow to be promoted, but he has never been able to get the opportunity to fight.

From the Guano ship, with the pickup, to the PC, to the Baxia, and later as the captain of the pickup destroyer, and is currently the acting captain of the battleship Atlantic. In the navy of the Naval Resistance Army, Huang Zhonghua is an indispensable role, and his importance is definitely not below Zheng Xuechang, but he has never had any chance to fight. It's not that Li Guang doesn't pay attention to this young man, but that this young man is too useful. It can be said that this young man is already the panacea of the Naval Resistance Army, and he will fill in there if there is a shortage of manpower. It can really be described as a brick of the revolution, and it needs to be moved there.

Huang Zhonghua was in a hurry to go to the battlefield, but the reality was that he took over a ship, and the officers and men of the whole ship had just run in, and he was sent by Li Guang to play a more important role.

Moreover, Huang Zhonghua has another big advantage - he is sociable and extremely suitable for dealing with Europeans and Americans. At the beginning, Zheng Xuechang was sent by Li Guang to Germany to trade, and was later replaced by Huang Zhonghua, which proved to be quite business-minded.

Now that the Naval Resistance Force was seriously short of aircraft, Huang Zhonghua was once again appointed by Li Guang to serve as the captain of the Liberty Dragon light aircraft carrier. Only a ship like the Liberty Dragon could carry dozens of aircraft at once. Thirty-six fighters can be carried as standard in the cabin, and more than a dozen transport aircraft can be carried on the deck (not in combat state, just transport. If all fighters are loaded, sixty or seventy can be transported at a time. The efficiency of transporting aircraft with light aircraft carriers is much higher than that of merchant ships, and in fact, all countries used escort aircraft carriers or light aircraft carriers in World War II.

The reason why Li Guang is in such a hurry is that in addition to the fact that the ordered fighters are almost ready for delivery. There is also a batch of transport planes that must also be returned as soon as possible. This batch of transport aircraft is not the C47, but through the Curtiss company to make a deal, several airlines in the United States to upgrade the C47, there are a large number of old biplane transport aircraft to be eliminated.

These transport planes have nothing to do with being advanced at all, with a cruising speed of less than 200 kilometers, a range of less than 1,500 kilometers, and a carrying capacity of less than one and a half tons. But these transporters have a big advantage - cheap. It's only $7,500 a plane, and the price of spare parts is even more favorable.

This is an excellent choice for the commercial transportation of the Maritime Resistance Army. The speed is slow, the engine is small, and the corresponding fuel consumption is also very small. If these transport planes were to transport supplies and personnel, the cost would be low.

An important reason why Li Guang was interested in these old transport planes was that he found that the domestic traffic situation was too poor, and if it was only to transport personnel, the cost of air transportation would not only be not high, especially when traveling long distances, it would save much more than walking or other means such as trains.

You must know that only in Xu Zhan's defense area, there are still thousands of recruits of the Naval Resistance Army. Moreover, the Navy Resistance Force will continue to recruit student soldiers in its plan, and if there are planes, it will undoubtedly speed up the process.

In addition, even if you don't recruit soldiers, it is extremely convenient to use airplanes if you recruit workers.

Of course, it is the most economical if you can use ships, but the merchant ships of the Maritime Resistance Army cannot reach the entire coast of China, and this is also a last resort.

Another benefit is that with so many low-speed transport aircraft, pilots can be trained for the Naval Resistance Army. From an economic point of view, the initial use of C47 or P40 training by pilots is too expensive, and it is difficult for the Maritime Resistance Force to afford it. If pilots can be trained while flying commercially, the cost of pilot training for the Maritime Resistance Army will be greatly reduced, and it may even be possible to make money while training.

It is expected that Zheng Xuechang will arrive at Shixiang Island, and the light aircraft carrier converted by the Liberty Ship -- the Liberty Dragon will be able to be launched, although it is difficult to have weapons and some equipment necessary for combat for the time being, but it already has the basic performance of a ship transporting aircraft.

At the moment when the Naval Resistance Force was in dire need of fighters, Huang Zhonghua once again served as the captain of the Liberty Dragon light aircraft carrier. Li Guang deeply apologized for such a back-and-forth transfer, and solemnly assured Huang Zhonghua that after transporting several planes, this light aircraft carrier, whether it was equipment, training, and operations, would be handed over to Huang Zhonghua. All in all, Li Guang assured that as long as Huang Zhonghua did not make any demands, he would always be the captain of this aircraft carrier.

As the supreme commander of an army, Li Guang made rapid progress. As an army, the Maritime Resistance Army is developing rapidly. However, the imaginary kind of response to every call and order, the officers and men perform their duties, and they are still unable to do it.

There is a premise for each to perform its own duties, that is, there are enough talents to take up the right positions. Li Guang desperately recruited all kinds of professional talents, but there was still a serious shortage of talents, and there was a serious shortage of reserve personnel in the Naval Resistance Army. For example, the battleship Atlantic, not to mention the officers, even the sailors are not fully equipped so far, and the officers and men on the Pacific return to the Stone Statue Island to fill all the vacancies.

The third thing, the strengthening of the navy, is expected to lead the battleship Atlantic to return to the Gulf of Aden immediately after Zheng Xuechang returns to Shixiang Island. It is estimated that it will take a month and a half at the earliest, and Li Guang will have to find a way to find a way from the submarine force due to the lack of naval strength in the middle.

The fourth thing is not very difficult for the Naval Resistance Army. There was already a fully manned jungle battalion in Tanggang, and the mountain battalion, although the battalion commander had not yet arrived at his post, was already fully manned. These two battalions together have nearly 3,000 people, and although they are not as good as the first field battalion of Bao Gang, they still have basic combat qualities. In order to deal with a possible Italian attack, Li Guang decided to first transfer the mountain battalion to Somalia, while Su Qing's jungle battalion was to serve as the general reserve. However, it will take this mountain battalion to reach Somalia in ten days at the earliest, and before that, the only combat strength is the existing 2,000 army forces.

Li Guang lamented that an officer could spend all day planning chores like a business manager. Operational command should have been his primary responsibility, but the truth is that he spends far less energy on operational deployment than on logistics. After several years of war-torn life, Li Guang has gradually adapted to this kind of "work". He already understands very well that generals are not so easy to be, and the handling of these daily affairs is the work that every general must do. And these seemingly chaotic tasks are actually preparing for tactical strategy.

(Whether the book is good-looking is a matter of level, and it is a matter of attitude to keep changing every day, and it is a matter of attitude to keep changing, and I want to collect it.) )

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