Chapter 2104
If it weren't for the fact that most of the elite troops under his command were going to participate in this military operation against the Hirado clan, and someone must be stationed in the rear of Fujian to ensure stability and provide logistical support for the expedition, then the leading commander would probably not be Xu Yuzhuo. Instead, Xu Xinsu personally led the troops to the expedition.
And Xu Yuzhuo came north to Zhoushan to meet with Shi Diwen in advance this time, which also brought some personal requests from Xu Xinsu: "My father hopes that this operation can completely eradicate the 18th Zhiyu Party and all related personnel, so that they will not stay as before." ”
"I'm afraid this will be difficult." Shi Diwen replied calmly: "Even if we can have enough troops to surround Hirado Island from the sea before the war begins, it is difficult to guarantee that no one will escape. You know It is so close to Kyushu that people with good water skills can even swim directly from Hirado to Kyushu. Unless we can get the Tokugawa Shogunate to help us arrest people, it will be difficult to achieve the effect Master Xu requires." br>
In fact, let alone seeking help from the Tokugawa Shogunate, the premise mentioned by Shi Diwen is difficult to achieve. The island of Hirado Island covers an area of more than 160 square kilometers. To surround such an island from the sea, one or two hundred ships are far away. Not enough. The narrowest part of the Hirado Strait is even less than one mile. It is indeed difficult to prevent people from escaping to the Kyushu region in the east after the war begins.
Both Haihan and Fujian will send heavy troops to participate in this operation. From a strategic point of view, it is not difficult to defeat the Hirado Domain militarily, and it may even be suspected of killing the chicken with a knife. But to meet the conditions proposed by Xu Xinsu, then It is beyond human power, and even if we deploy additional troops, it will be difficult to achieve.
Xu Yuzhuo said: "My father also knows that there are many difficulties, but our Fujian Navy will fight with all our strength and try not to leave any chance for our opponents to escape."
Shi Diwen didn't understand the other party's intention to express his determination, but he would not be affected by such a simple provocation and changed the topic to the current material preparation and logistical support.
"We have initially stocked tens of thousands of kilograms of grain, a batch of medicinal materials and medical supplies, and spare weapon parts for maintenance at this port. When the naval fleet arrives here, they can be loaded onto the ship immediately. If General Xu needs anything else, he might as well If you mention it, we will organize procurement from the nearby Ningbo Prefecture very quickly.”
Shi Diwen did not take the initiative to raise the cost issue, but Xu Yuzhuo could not be ignorant and immediately stated that he would bear the relevant material procurement costs. The Fujian Xu family relies heavily on Haihan, and of course they cannot let Haihan pay for these expenses for themselves. Even if the naval fleet will ship grain and grass supplies from Fujian on its own, it may not need the supplies officially purchased by Haihan at all. Then You also have to spend money to buy these supplies.
However, this is not the first time that the two sides have jointly sent troops overseas, and they have some experience in coordinating material supplies. Therefore, the generals of both sides only need to express their attitudes on this issue, and the remaining specific connection work will be implemented by the quartermaster.
The real focus of the discussion between the two sides is the combat plan for this operation. Two five-foot-square maps have been hung on the wall of this conference room. One is a chart of the East China Sea. On this map, the distance from Dinghai Port to the Wudao Islands is clearly marked as 1,400 miles. . The other map shows areas including the Goto Islands, Hirado Island, and the west coast of Kyushu. Many target locations, including Hirado Port, have also been marked in red.
This was not the first time that Xu Yuzhuo saw such a very detailed map at a combat readiness meeting led by Haihan. Apart from admiration, he had always wanted to understand how such an accurate map was produced. After all, even if Haihan sent people to conduct on-site surveying and mapping, it would be impossible to draw such a detailed map in such a short period of time.
However, this is one of Haihan's most important military secrets, and Shi Diwen will naturally not explain the origin of these maps to him. The purpose of displaying these detailed maps in front of allies is to enable allies to better comply with the combat plan formulated by Haihan and clearly assign goals and tasks to them.
"The voyage from Zhoushan to Hirado is 1,500 miles long. If the battle lasts for a long time, it will put a lot of pressure on our logistics supplies. So before this, we have finalized a distance relatively close to the destination. The nearest supply port." Shi Diwen raised his hand and pointed to the west of the Goto Islands and said: "The Seogwipo Port in the south of Jeju Island has been temporarily requisitioned by our army as the main supply for this operation. This port is only four hundred miles away from the Goto Islands and more than five hundred miles away from Hirado Island. It only takes about four days for a supply ship to go back and forth. Our army has basically begun to transport various supplies to this port. At that time, the North Sea Fleet heading south from the Korean Peninsula will be on standby in Seogwipo, waiting for us to set off from Zhoushan before coordinating operations.”
Logistics and supplies must be properly arranged before setting off for an expedition. This is a major feature of the Haihan Army's overseas operations, and Xu Yuzhuo is no stranger to this. He looked at the location of Seogwipo in the direction Shi Diwen pointed. It was indeed much closer than going from Zhoushan Island. North Korea is willing to donate the local area as a temporary military port. It is probably the result of Haihan's pressure on it.
"Will North Korea... send troops to participate in this operation?" Since North Korea was mentioned, Xu Yuzhuo also asked about it. Of course, he didn't have much hope for North Korea to send troops. He had already seen the combat effectiveness of the North Korean army in last year's war to aid North Korea. It would be a blessing if they were not delayed. Fighting side by side was something he never dared to hope for.
Sure enough, Shi Diwen shook his head and said: "North Korea suffered a heavy blow last year, and now it is temporarily unable to deploy troops to fight overseas, so for this operation they are only responsible for providing ports and some supplies, and will not directly participate in front-line combat tasks. ”
Hearing Shi Diwen's explanation, Xu Yuzhuo breathed a sigh of relief. If the North Koreans also went with him, he would not be distracted from taking care of them, which would affect his own combat effectiveness.
Shi Diwen continued: "At present, our army's reconnaissance force has discovered at least one harbor suspected of being a secret stronghold of Shibazhi on the Wudao Islands, and has discovered several docks where warships are being built. So we are preparing to attack At the same time as Hirado, some troops were allocated to destroy this local stronghold.”
Xu Yuzhuo heard Xiange and knew what he meant, and took the initiative to ask: "How about giving this place to my navy?"
Shi Diwen said: "The harbor is narrow and the naval fleet may not be able to form a large-scale attack, so my personal suggestion is to deploy some warships to block the channels in and out of the harbor, and then send your infantry ashore to clear out the local Enemy.”
This time, more than a thousand musketry infantry accompanied the Fujian Navy. Under normal circumstances, using such a force to clear out local strongholds should be more than enough. And according to the information sent back by the reconnaissance force, there are no shore defenses such as forts at that place, so there should be little pressure for the infantry to complete the landing there.
In order to reassure Xu Yuzhuo about this arrangement, Shi Diwen added: "When launching the landing, our army will also send warships to provide cover to ensure that the infantry can land safely."
Xu Yuzhuo had seen the Haihan Army's landing operations more than once, and he also had some understanding of its tactics of using ship-based artillery fire to cover infantry landings. If a Haihan warship provided fire cover from the shore, the landing would be safer. There will also be an increase. Of course, this is actually just an insurance measure for stability. In fact, neither Shi Diwen nor Xu Yuzhuo believed that the local enemies could carry out anti-landing defense deployment in advance. Once the musketeers and infantry landed and assembled, how could they deal with the local It will be easier for the armed personnel. Even if the opponent has a certain number of muskets in their hands, they are only civilian armed forces after all, and it is difficult for them to compete with well-trained professional troops on a frontal battlefield.
Haihan's combat plan still targets Hirado Island as the primary target, but the secret strongholds on the Goto Islands must also be cleared out as soon as possible. Xu Yuzhuo has no objection to this arrangement.
Shi Diwen then pointed at Hirado Island and said: "According to the situation we currently have, the targets on Hirado Island are mainly concentrated in the northern part of the island, so we plan to divide our troops into two groups and cut off Hirado from the east. The main channel of the strait, the other way is from the west, landing at Furukou Bay and Hakuang Bay to the west of Hirado Domain to cut off their retreat."
"Then what is the mission of our naval fleet?" Seeing that the main event was finally reached, Xu Yuzhuo asked eagerly.
"Go north from the east coast of Hirado Island, cut off the Hirado Strait, and ensure that no sails from Hirado Port can reach the sea!" Shi Diwen gave the task that Xu Yuzhuo was looking forward to.
In view of the actual situation of Hirado Island, the coalition forces can probably only try to form an encirclement in the northern part of the island and implement a multi-point combat method, blocking the waterway from the east, attacking Hirado Port, and secretly crossing Chencang from the west to implement the landing. Then attack from both sides to bring all the most important bustling areas on Hirado Island under control, and then slowly eliminate the enemies in Hirado Castle.
However, the combat plan is a unilateral plan after all. What difficulties will be encountered during the specific implementation and what degree of resistance will be encountered? There are too many situations that are currently unpredictable, so they must fully discuss the plan now and try their best to Try to avoid some unfavorable factors as much as possible.
The combat mission Shi Diwen explained was only two or three sentences long, but the specific implementation method required careful study by the two armies. And this task does not mean that if the task is handed over to the Fujian Navy, the Haihan Army will not participate in the operations on the Eastern Front at all. In fact, the Haihan Army will also appear on the Eastern Front battlefield in order to control the battle process in a timely manner.
If you follow Haihan's combat process, you may even need to make a battlefield sandbox for tactical deductions. But this time Sanya's request is to make a quick decision and try to solve Japan's hidden dangers before summer. Therefore, it is too late to make a sandbox. The two armies The staff officers could only formulate detailed action plans with the maps at hand.
This process is not as exciting as killing the enemy on the battlefield, but is very boring. Everyone has to calculate in detail the troops required for each combat link, the approximate time and materials consumed, and the remedial measures and alternatives if an emergency occurs. In short, there are many details that need to be discussed, and the cooperation between the two militaries needs to be confirmed repeatedly.
This is one of the main reasons why Xu Yuzhuo brought his command team to meet up in advance. It takes a lot of time and energy to discuss the battle plan. It would be too stressful to wait until the large forces set off before discussing the battle plan with Haihan. .
This combat meeting lasted for several hours as soon as it started. By the time it came to an end, the moon was already shining brightly and it was already midnight.
Shi Diwen sympathized with everyone's hard work and asked the kitchen to prepare midnight snacks. Xu Yuzhuo asked while eating: "I forgot to ask the general, who is leading the troops going south from North Korea?"
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"General Qian will serve as the operational commander of the troops in the north." Shi Diwen said calmly: "His special operations group will also participate in this mission."
"General Qian will lead his troops to attack. It seems that the landing on the island will be easier this time." After hearing this, Xu Yuzhuo did not forget to say a few flattering words.
Xu Yuzhuo is no stranger to the strength of Qian Tiandun and his special forces. In terms of field combat capability in mountainous areas alone, it should be regarded as the most powerful unit he has ever seen, and it also has a very good record whether it is defending a city or attacking a fortress. According to the available information, most of the area on Hirado Island is covered with mountainous and dense forests, which is a perfect fit for Qian Tiandun's troops. It is only natural that Qian Tiandun will take part in this mission.
The Ministry of National Defense believes that although this combat mission was launched from the sea, considering that the opponent's ship armed force is limited, the decisive battle should still be carried out on land, and the navy is mainly responsible for transportation, delivery and blockade tasks, so the army will It would be more reasonable to serve as the main offensive force.
It is precisely because of the opinions of the Ministry of National Defense that Wang Tom is responsible for dispatching logistics from behind and assisting Qian Tiandun. Of course, if the battle situation does not go well, Wang Tom will also lead the reserve troops to rush to the rescue in time, but this possibility should be unlikely. After all, there is still a big gap between the opponent's strength and the special forces, and there is almost no chance of a comeback.
On the second day after Xu Yuzhuo arrived at Zhujiajian Island, several warships from the Datong River base arrived in Seogwipo. Disembarking from the ship were not only the Haihan soldiers with guns and live ammunition, but also the special envoys sent by the North Korean court to inform the local area Officials here have been temporarily taken over by the Haihan military.
This notice really confused the local officials. They had just sent away a fleet of the Haihan military fleet a few days ago. There was even the son of military judge Shen Jingzhen in the fleet. The explanation given to them at the time was that Seogwipo was the Used as a temporary supply port. But I didn't expect that just a few days later, the imperial court issued a new order and directly designated this place for the use of the Haihan people.
(End of chapter)