On August 20, 1904, in the conference room of the Ministry of National Defense of the People's Republic of China, all the generals of the Northern Group Army of the Army gathered together. And in this meeting, the Huaxia Republic will finally decide on the timing of the outbreak of war and the general strategy of action. The navy has completed the most advanced preparations, only waiting for the marines to be in place and the construction of the Philippine port can be launched to launch an attack on the Russian-Dutch fleet, and the combat readiness of the Chinese army has also reached a critical juncture, Xu Jie must understand the combat readiness of the army and formulate a detailed timetable.

"The front line of the Russians is in the Nebuchu region, where there is a front with a frontal width of hundreds of kilometers. Important areas have concrete fortifications and various trench systems. Although this is a heavy gathering area, a large amount of supplies are hoarded in Chita. Because the last section of the Russians railway ended in the direction of Chita, the Russians had to transport it by horses, a distance of about 300 kilometers from Chita to the Nebuchu front. Although the Russians had been working hard to build the Trans-Siberian Railway, it was clear that bad weather and lack of funds had slowed them to combat in close combat, and their railways now had two problems, one of which was the Chita-Nebuchu front. Another problem is that in the summer, if Lake Baikal thaws, the temporary railway line laid on it will be abandoned. They would have to go around hundreds of kilometers more. Nie Shicheng introduced.

"It seems that the Russians have made a mistake in their calculations, and perhaps in their plan that the railway to Nebuchu will be completely completed around 1905, although the Russian government is not very efficient, why is there such a huge mistake?" Ma Yukun on the side suddenly asked. Although the results of many reconnaissance surveys are as Nie Shicheng said, there are two major loopholes in the Far Eastern Railway, but from the perspective of a soldier. Such a thing seemed a little incomprehensible, and the outspoken Ma Yukun finally failed to overcome his curiosity and still raised his own questions.

"I can't keep up with the changes. Since our obsolete weapons and warships were delivered to the Turks and Persians, the Turks showed a keen interest in the Slavs in the Balkans, and as tsar, Nicholas II considered it necessary to preserve the living space of the Slavs, so he had to devote part of his energy to Austria-Hungary and the Turks. As for the Persians? Supported by the Persian kings, they began to think about clearing the Russian influence. So the tsar was asked to divide part of the funds from the poor treasury. But the navy and the army must not move, so only the railway, the big head, can make a fuss. Xu Jie said with a smile, for this hand to borrow a knife to kill. Xu Jie is still very satisfied!

"The Russians seem to have noticed this problem, so they increased the number of cavalry to improve the mobility of their troops, and of course the distance of hundreds of kilometers is not compensated for by the mobility of horses. However, the increase in the number of cavalry still strengthened the defensive resilience of the opponent. Once the line of defense is breached by our troops. A large number of cavalry can quickly pour in to fill the gap. At the same time, they also increased the depth of the defensive line. The difficulty of attacking from the front has increased significantly. Peng Yi added.

"A large number of cavalry? Having a problem on the rail line? Xu Jie kept repeating these two sentences in a whisper. If this is the case, I suggest that it is most appropriate for our army to launch a campaign in March-April 1905, on the one hand, when Lake Baikal thaws, the supply lines of the other side will have to detour several hundred kilometers, and on the other hand, at this time, we are in the middle of a green and yellow period, and this is the case in the north of our country, and even more so in Siberia! This will minimize the opponent's cavalry advantage. And to be honest, I hope this war starts and ends sooner! Xu Jie thought for a while and said.

"That means we still have half a year to prepare? That shouldn't be a big deal. However, the tracks and fuel of the armored forces still need to be stockpiled more, and in the event of thawing of the frozen ground. Quite a few places will be muddy, and if I could, I would like all tanks to be replaced with wide tracks. Peng Yi said.

"Also, I've negotiated with a few veterans, can we do this? Bypass the opponent's defenses and go straight to Chita or Chita to Nebuchu traffic. Here we can avoid the opponent's fortress group and heavy army group, all we have to face is some cavalry, and cavalry has no heavy weapons, as long as our supplies can keep up, then it is not a big problem to fight more with less! Peng Yi thought for a while and said.

"But supply is a big problem, and with the limited number of our cavalry, it is difficult to make a detour, and more importantly, our armored forces are not so large. If you want to make a roundabout, then the starting position cannot be the current front line, you must build a new starting position and supply point, there is no shortage of materials, but what is lacking is the means of transporting materials! Xu Jie said solemnly.

"But while this plan isn't very feasible, how about we take a similar approach and just bypass the opposing frontal defense? The main frontal artillery and infantry forces pinned down the enemy's main forces, and then the cavalry combined with the armored forces launched a surprise attack from behind the flanks of the position? Of course, if there were any cavalry or militia cavalry left, I wouldn't mind them harassing the Russian transport lines. Xu Jie said, after all, the more than 200,000 Russian troops in front of him have always been a piece of Xu Jie's heart, if they can't be eliminated or besieged, the Chinese Army will not be safe to fight far!

"Speaking of You Yong's scattered soldiers, I think those Mongolian princes who are still alive can take advantage of it. Their cavalry was not good at frontal combat, but when it came to plundering and harassment, it was definitely more difficult than the Cossacks when they were instructed and armed. We can't regulate their behavior like the military, but at the same time we don't have to take care of their logistics or pay for their actions. Ma Yukun said.

"This problem is to put the people below in charge of the following, we can give the equipment, but we must arrange for military personnel to go in, we can not care about robbing things or slaughtering prisoners of war, but it must be based on the completion of a certain task. Don't let a small be a big one. Xu Jie was not interested in this topic, so he said a few words hastily and it was over. At this moment, Cai Yi, who had been in the audience, suddenly raised his hand and wanted to speak, and when Xu Jie saw Cai Yi behind Peng Yi, he was stunned for a moment, but finally motioned for him to say his opinion.

"Our thinking seems to be in some kind of predicament, we have always wanted to use a similar detour and outflanking method to completely annihilate the opponent, which is considered the most effective and clean way, but we forgot that if we want to achieve this goal, we must bypass the front of nearly 100 kilometers, which is obviously an unavoidable problem for our army that lacks mobility, we lack cavalry, and the itinerary of the armored forces is very problematic, so this strategy is difficult to achieve." Cai Ye looked at the somewhat unkind gazes around him and continued.

"The enemy's defense line in front of us is very wide, so vast that even if the Russians mobilize more than 200,000 troops and hundreds of thousands of recruits, they will not be able to build this front well, there are indeed some fortifications and trenches, but between these fortresses are weak defensive areas, we only need to knock on one or two of them to tear the opponent's defense line open." Cai Ye continued.

"But after tearing it up, it doesn't mean that we can continue to go deeper, the other side has several lines of defense, and there are a large number of cavalry, they will close the gap, and we can drive one or two wedges at most. And then there's the constant attrition. And it's still a drain on our mobile forces. We have enough infantry, but once the mobile forces are stuck in the quagmire, it will be difficult to pull them out, which will cause global passivity. Nie Shicheng said with some dissatisfaction.

"We can try this way, the other side deploys the main forces in the second line with a relatively narrow front, in this case, why don't we take the goal of destroying the opponent's vital forces, implement the strategy of encircling but not attacking individual fortresses on the first line, and at the same time the mobile troops quickly insert into the opponent's second line and then work together to eat part of the opponent's forces, or choose to retreat and wait for the infantry to feel, or hold on? If the opportunity is right, we can even use mobile units as bait and infantry to set traps to ambush the opponent's counterattack forces? And when the opponent's strength drops to a certain level, we will integrate our forces to penetrate the opponent's defense line to implement division and encirclement? Xu Jie said suddenly.

"It is obviously unrealistic to eat the opponent's main force in one go, but if we can weaken the opponent first, especially the opponent's mobile forces, we can cross this battered defensive line, in this way, the distance we need to walk will be greatly reduced, this feasibility is worth demonstrating, and after driving the wedge, we can replace the mobile forces with infantry, after all, the quantity and quality of our infantry will perform better when defending, A small number of mobile troops can be re-entered into the battlefield after replenishment. Xu Jie continued.

"This method can be tried, and we will prepare for the war game now. In addition, I would like to remind you that the plan we made at that time to turn Lake Baikal into an inland lake may be difficult to implement in concrete terms, after all, we still have to divide our troops in the South Seas, and if there is a gap in the number of troops, I wonder what aspect the government of the province will focus on. Nie Shicheng's question made Xu Jie feel very uncomfortable, after all, this question has already involved the dispute between sea and land, or the question of the route between the north and the south, whether the navy will dominate the south, or the army will dominate the north.

Xu Jie already has the answer in his heart, at least in this war, going south will be the main force, because in more than ten years, Huaxia only has one chance to go south, and going north is different, if you can't get it this time, wait until the later stage of World War I, after the great changes in Soviet Russia, Huaxia still has the opportunity to do what you want to do, so in Xu Jie's eyes, going south in this war will be a more important task to grasp, but on the occasion of this army meeting, Xu Jie is not good to explain directly, so he prevaricates first, When the opportunity is right, the matter is discussed in private with several veterans of the army.

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When I woke up early in the morning, I found that yesterday's subscription was even lower than the previous two days, and a mouthful of old blood sprayed on the display. (To be continued......)