In war, the military command is like the brain of the entire military machine, and it determines the course of the entire war, whether it is offensive or defensive, the use of troops, and the allocation of firearms. Just as a person's brain implicates all the nerve endings in the human body, the brain of the military command directly affects every tunnel and skirmisher. And there is no doubt that as the troops advance, the military division must move forward accordingly.

The headquarters of the First Army Corps in Xinmin County had already moved forward to the banks of the Liao River, not far from the sortie positions of the front-line troops.

The cold wind of mid-March galloped across the frozen Liao River, sweeping across the western Liaoning Plain. On the other side of the Liao River, the grass and trees are orange, the craters are piled up, and there is a vast group, and tens of thousands of troops are crossing the Liao River along the ice bridge, and long-range heavy artillery is on the east bank of the Liao River, bombarding the defense line of the Third Group Army.

It is said that the army is defending to the death, and the Chinese army is attacking to the death!

On the second day of the outbreak of the war, reporters from various countries and officers of the field investigation group who rushed to Xinmin by train described the war with almost no warning in eight words.

Once upon a time, they thought that the artillery fire of the Chinese army attacking the 203 heights might be the fiercest in the world, but when they saw the artillery fire of the Chinese [***] team, they were completely stunned.

In just two days, the Chinese artillery units poured more than 100,000 rounds of more than 60 mm shells on the defense line of the Yue army, which was equivalent to half of the artillery shells fired by the Yue army during the larger Mukden Campaign.

The artillery fire, which almost tore apart everything in heaven and earth, was not a charge call, and when the fierce artillery fire was attacking, the officers and men of the Guards were stubbornly carrying out earthwork and close work, as if to them, it was not important if they eliminated the Mukden army.

When 200,000 people were building a trench system with a depth of 2 kilometers around the city of Mukden, and nearly 40,000 officers and soldiers were carrying out close operations, the heavy artillery fire finally slowly fell down.

The headquarters of the 1st Army on the east bank of the Liao River was located in a tunnel deep underground. Dense as cobwebs, telephone lines were pulled into the tunnel, which was damp and somewhat dreary compared to the bitter cold of the wilderness. A gas lamp reflects the hole, and the log on the roof of the cave can be seen under the light.

Frowning slightly, Xiao Xingren stared at the huge combat map hanging on the cave wall. On the map, the various red and blue arrows and other markings marked by the operational staff officers clearly showed the distribution of the enemy's situation in the north and south in the Tieling and Liaoyang areas, and the staggered distribution of troops in the three colors seemed to remind him of the danger of the current situation.

There has never been a battlefield in the world as chaotic as the current Northeast Battlefield, where the Russians' 200,000 troops are waiting for each other in the Siping area, and between Tieling and Siping, the main force of the Second Army Corps must be careful of the Russians when confronting the Yue Army, and the main forces of the three group armies of the Yue Army are in the area from Tieling to Fushun, and one group army is in Shenyang, but they are torn apart by three divisions of the Guards Army, and there is another division of the Yue Army in Liaoyang, and two divisions are reinforcing Liaoyang. In Dalian, however, the isolated First Reading Force Mixed Brigade was being attacked by the Japanese army.

You have surrounded me, I have surrounded you, and the battle line has been chaotic to such an extent, perhaps for the first time in the history of world warfare. But now, he is in a messy battlefield, like a tiger pulling out his teeth.

"According to the report of the enemy, the Yalu River Army, the commander of the group army, Kawamura Keiaki. He is stepping up the mobilization of troops, and he is building fortifications in the direction of Fushun, and according to the current movement of the army, it is speculated that he will first build a defensive system to prevent our army from attacking his main force on both sides, and then reinforce the Nogi Army. The Yalu River Army, which is currently advancing, is organized into the 11th Division, the 1st Reserve Division, the 16th Reserve Brigade and the 59th Reserve Infantry Wing, with a strength of about 60,000 troops.

From the blue arrows on the map indicating the enemy's operational deployment, Xiao Xinren seemed to see with his own eyes that the enemy was deploying troops and building fortifications one by one. He has seen a prelude, a prospect for the enemy to make full use of space and territory to form a cascade defense. From the deployment of the enemy's front-line defense troops, it seems that the breakthrough of the Yalu River Army's defense line will not be very large, and the question is whether his own troops can break through the enemy's defense line, which is still bottomless in Xiao Xinren's heart. In war, the situation between us and the enemy is ever-changing, and everything must be adapted.

In the eyes of the General Staff, Mukden was a decoy, a decoy to attract the army from the direction of Tieling to Mukden, and to turn offensive warfare into defensive warfare.

That's why the General Staff will choose a more stable combat method, but after His Majesty's suggestion was rejected, he chose to send a secret message to Xiao Xinren, he can't interfere with the decision-making of the General Staff, but he can affect the generals on the front line.

His Majesty's decree is everything, for Xiao Xinren, between the General Staff and His Majesty, he chose the latter, the General Staff is His Majesty's General Staff, and he is also His Majesty's general, and he must obey His Majesty first.

"Knock out an army group for me!"

The secret telegram sent by His Majesty contained only a few simple words.

"Be fast, be ruthless, and let the world see the combat effectiveness of the Guards!"

"Sir, according to the aerial reconnaissance of the aircraft, it has been discovered that there is a defensive gap of about 5 kilometers between the Second Group Army and the Yalu River Army at the old station, and if you want to encircle the Yalu River Army, you must use a lot of three divisions to intersperse it and enter the area of Hengdaohezi and Yingpan to prevent the Yalu River Army from retreating north!"

When Duan Qirui introduced the battle plan, Xiao Xinren kept thinking, in fact, in his heart, he still thought that it would be relatively reluctant to fight this battle, if he was allowed to lead the second legion, maybe this task would be simpler, the second legion is the real division of a hundred battles, but what about the first legion? Only played "war games".

"According to Chief of Staff Duan's style of play, there are three divisions in front and three divisions in the rear, so if the troops are divided equally, what will be the consequences if the roundabout troops cannot pass and the frontal attack force is insufficient?"

An officer raised his own question, but there was a hint of dissatisfaction in his eyebrows, after all, Duan Qirui was not from Huangpu, or even a recovered officer, but a former Qing official, for the Guards Army, which emphasized "purity within the system", this may be the reason why the vast majority of people did not accept him.

And Yu Zhucheng, the commander of the First Cavalry Division of the Guards Army, who had been silent, stood up and replied in a stern tone of righteousness/"Three divisions can't be inserted, so how many divisions do you have?" Give me two divisions and a heavy force regiment, and I promise to hit in! Sir! ”

With that, he turned his gaze to the commander on the side, he was asking for strategic command.

Whether it is the Liberation Army in the past or the Guards Army at present, divisions are the largest establishment, and armies and corps are strategic units, which can only be formed in wartime, and preventing possible defections led by commanders within the system is a key point in the study of the military system during the period of the Liberation Army, and the same is true of the wartime organization of such strategic units.

The commander of the corps is usually sent by the general staff, and the chief officer only needs to bring a group of staff officers and service officers to take office, and the general staff will mobilize divisions and regiments to form corps of different sizes, and the corps commander can temporarily organize into a temporary army according to the changes in the battlefield, and now what Yu Zhucheng wants is the command of this temporary army.

"Yu Daozi!"

Looking at Yu Zhucheng with a smile, Xiao Xinren's face was full of intimacy, he liked this knife.

"How many days do you want to be able to intersperse two divisions behind enemy lines?"

Yu Zhucheng walked to the map, and after measuring the distance, he spoke.

"Report sir, taking into account other factors, it will take two days at the earliest!"

"What if I'm going to nibble away the main force of the Yalu River Army in two days?"

Xiao Xinren's voice shocked the officers in the command at the same time, they didn't expect the commander to have this idea and gnaw the Yalu River Army in two days!

And Duan Qirui looked even more incredulous, he looked at Xiao Xinren, he knew that this Commander Xiao from the Virginia Military Academy was a close confidant of His Majesty, and the two had known each other long before the establishment of the industrial company.

"For officers, the first is the confidence of victory, the second is the confidence of victory, and the third is still the confidence of victory! Without self-confident officers, the army led out is an army without the confidence to win, and without confidence, the army cannot win the war! ”

But confidence is confidence, he can say that he will gnaw away the Yalu River Army in two days, but can he really gnaw them off?

"That's more than 60,000 people, not more than 60,000 ducks!"

Duan Qirui just muttered in his heart.

At this time, Xiao Xinren walked to the map and drew a few lines on the map with a pencil.

"Compared with Chief of Staff Duan's plan, I am more inclined to attack from multiple directions, divide and encircle, and break through the defense line of the army from multiple directions, quickly penetrate into depth, and encircle while dividing!"

"Yes...... Commander, our army has no experience in dividing and encircling large corps! ”

Duan Qirui cautiously put forward his opinion, but Xiao Xinren just smiled.

"Experience is fought, if you don't fight, you will never have experience, there is a first time in any battle, whether it is the Liberation Army or the current Guards, we have always learned while fighting, learned in battle, and grew in battle!"

(To be continued)