Episode 176 Main Direction of Attack

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Although it was still a cold and snowy place in the northern battlefield, it was already the middle of March, at least spring had arrived on the calendar.

On the Siberian battlefield, after a winter of small-scale tug-of-war, the battle line was basically maintained east of Chita and west of the Great Khing'an Mountains. In an environment where it is often minus forty or fifty degrees Celsius and the snow is more than one meter deep, no one has the ability to attack on a large scale. And now, both sides are gathering strength in preparation for the summer offensive of the following year. Nanjing's strategic goal was to advance at least westward to Lake Baikal before the winter of 1938 returned.

But after an offensive in the autumn of 1937, the Ming army realized that it had miscalculated. The original plan was to foster the White Russian regime as much as possible and allow them to expand their army in the areas where they were defeated, so that they could become the main force in the war against the Soviet Union in the future. But now it seems that the pace of the build-up is seriously behind schedule. Of course, the Russian people in the occupied territories were very enthusiastic to join the army, and the Soviet prisoners were generally willing to join the White Russian army, especially those who were from the lower ranks of the peasants. But the problem is that the population of the Far East is too small, only a few million people in total, and even if all those who can serve as soldiers become soldiers, it will only be a few hundred thousand.

Before the new round of summer war arrived, the military and political leaders of the Ming Dynasty had to reconsider who should be the main force to advance this war.

Obviously, with the Ming army as the main force, it can only be done temporarily, not for a long time. At most, the Ming army regained its lost territory, and then the long road to Europe was handed over to the locals. Otherwise, Daming would really be mired in war. Russia's big quagmire is no ordinary quagmire.

After several days of debate and discussion in the cabinet, a relatively unanimous conclusion was finally reached: the idea of a main force composed of Russians from the Far East should be abandoned, and the focus should instead be placed on Central Asia, with Russians and Muslims forming the main anti-Soviet force. Central Asia is densely populated and agriculturally developed. There were sharp contradictions between the people and the Soviet government not only on the land, but also on religion. The conditions that are not available in the Russian Far East are all in Central Asia. This is the area where "a spark can be sparked and the prairie can be set on fire", and an area where "after the land reform, the people will enthusiastically send their sons to the battlefield".

On the contrary, the military role of the White Russian regime, which had been established, was far less important than its political role. The "Republic of the Russian Federation" is used more as a banner of justice and legitimacy. With this banner, this war is in the nature of a civil war. But the real source of troops has to be Central Asia. Moreover, the people here are fierce, the people are very bloody, and the soldiers must be fierce and tenacious, not afraid of death. It can be seen from the current resistance.

As to whether to establish a separate regime in Central Asia, or whether to include Central Asia (excluding the Second Frontier) under the banner of the White Russian Federation, this was also discussed at great length. In the end, I came to the conclusion that it is better not to set up another portal yet. After the Ming army recovered the northern and southern frontiers, the next offensive was to be carried out in the name of the "army of the Russian Federation". Of course, local Muslim fighters had to be recruited on the spot, and after training, they became the "White Army" and became Denikin's command. In this way, with "Free Russia" as the signboard and Muslim fighters as the main force, they fought all the way west from Central Asia and directly from Kazakhstan to Europe. In this way, it is much easier to go all the way to the southern front, and it is much better to fight without having to cross the vast Siberia in the north.

After the grand strategic adjustment, the Ming army command also made a series of adjustments, preparing to attack Hami with all its might after the beginning of spring. Now, the Central Asian theater has become the main direction of attack.

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On the eastern seas, the situation in Japan is becoming more and more difficult. Months of lockdowns, especially the last three months of intense lockdowns, have left Japan feeling a hard time respite. Especially in the last month, Japan has not been able to bring in even a drop of oil. Now the whole of Japan has come up with a slogan: fuel is blood, and wasting fuel is suicide!

Many car owners in the private sector - those chaebols and high-ranking officials, have begun to lead by example and stop riding cars. They either walk to work, or take a tram, rickshaw, or bicycle...... The people of Japan have also launched a vigorous campaign to "save every drop of oil, start with me...... Not only oil, but also steel is difficult to import. Japanese elementary and junior high school students gather in groups to collect donations on the streets, but instead of money, they collect money but all kinds of metal utensils, iron, bronze, and aluminum...... Steel is used to produce weapons, copper is used to make bullets, and aluminum is used to make airplanes...... Many housewives also gritted their teeth and donated iron pots, kettles, and lunch boxes at home......

At present, of course, Japan has not yet reached the point of "smashing the pot and selling iron". To a large extent, this is more symbolic than practical, and it is just an explosion of patriotic sentiment among the Japanese people. There are still a lot of reserves in Japan, and now that the Japanese army and the Ming army have no land war, the Japanese army does not consume much fuel, as long as the navy is maintained. However, even so, the Japanese Navy has begun to "cut back on food and clothing," canceling unnecessary exercises, canceling redundant training, and making every effort to ensure that there will be no fuel difficulties in front-line combat.

For Japan, the outlook is very frightening. Now Vladivostok has surrendered, and the entire Russian Far East has fallen into the hands of the Ming army. This is equivalent to saying that now the Ming army no longer needs to send submarines in the Sea of Japan and the Sea of Okhotsk, and the submarines in the two major theaters have been vacated at once. The Ming army could press all the submarines to the east and south of the Japanese archipelago, and directly cut off Japan's main import and export routes.

And at the same time, the number of submarines of the Ming army is still increasing at a rate of twenty or thirty per month.

In late March, construction began on submarine bases in Vladivostok and Sakhalin. The main submarine base on Sakhalin is located in the military port of Korsakov. Now "Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk" was renamed "Yuzhno-Sakhalin", and "Korsakov" was renamed "Sakhalin". The port of Sakhalin, which was somewhat damaged during the retreat of the Soviet troops, is now almost cleaned up and can be used normally. However, whether it is Sakhalin Port or Vladivostok, although they are both good military ports, the Ming army cannot send a fleet to station it for the time being. Again, for that reason: it is difficult for the surface fleet to pass through the Japanese sea zone. Therefore, they should only be used as submarine bases first.

Such two excellent deep-water military ports are more than enough to be used as submarine bases, and even a bit wasteful. But it can't be helped. Other facilities are ready-made, the most important of which is to set aside submarine berths and build concrete caverns on them to prevent bombardment. Even now Vladivostok does not necessarily have to build a cement cavern, just use the slipway of a warship. Vladivostok was located in the air supremacy area of the Ming army, and the requirements for anti-bombing caves were not very urgent. Sakhalin Port is a stone's throw away from Hokkaido, Japan, but it is a must.

On Saturday, March 26, the wedding of Ye Ziyu and Bai Xiaoman was held in Nanjing. This time is not as simple as Xiang Xiaoqiang's wedding, this is a world-class consortium boss marrying his daughter, spending his own money, and doing it justifiably. The city of Nanjing was unprecedented, almost the same as Zhu Yourong's enthronement ceremony that year.

At the wedding, Bradley took advantage of this "informal occasion" to announce that Ford would increase its investment in Daming, and would soon start ten automobile production lines in Daming.