Chapter 898: 899Both parties’ plan
Chapter 898899The plans of both parties
If there is one person in the world who looks forward to Zhao Yu’s death the most, then this person must be Zhao Ji. Zhao Ji really wanted to kill Zhao Yu with his own hands, and he would never use a knife if he could use a saw blade.
When he and Zhao Chen rushed to the front line, the armies of the Dahua Empire were still gathering. It was not easy to launch an attack.
Compared with the strategic mobilization efficiency of the Tang Empire that surpassed World War II, the mobilization capacity of the Great China Empire was close to that of World War I, and the overall mobilization required more than a month.
Although speeding up time can speed up mobilization locally, the speed after the increase is not too fast, and the time is calculated in weeks.
The overall mobilization of the country is not an easy task, and it is something that cannot be turned back: it is very complicated, requires a complete plan and a lot of work, and it cannot be done by the leader grabbing the phone and giving an order.
So, even though three days have passed, the Dahua Empire's troops approaching Fengjiang are actually still in the process of preparation, and this preparation process is even under the supervision of the Tang Empire's intelligence agencies.
As one of the key areas to be attacked, all the troops deployed by the Dahua Empire near Xifengjiang, the quantity of ammunition in stock, transportation capabilities, and command and mobilization capabilities have been evaluated accordingly by the Tang Empire.
The nearby map of the Tang Empire has also been made in great detail, and some places are even accurate to the meter level.
"When can we launch an attack?" Zhao Ji asked Zhao Chen who was standing aside impatiently as he watched the train carrying ammunition stop at the station.
This is Hezhe, the city closest to Fengjiang. Just from the name, you know it is related to transportation. This place used to be an important transportation thoroughfare, a transportation hub from the Great China Empire to the Zheng State.
From here to the east is the Fengjiang River. After crossing the Fengjiang River and further east, you will reach the border between Dahua and Zheng. There are also roads to the south of Hezhe, which lead directly to many important cities in the south.
Since the arrival of the railway, this place has become more prosperous and the city size is also very large. As a deep defense line against the Tang Empire, of course a large number of elite troops from the Great China Empire were stationed here.
From here, to the north is the northern important town of Wasteland, to the south is the important grain-producing town of Wanliang, to the west is the Great China Empire, and to the east is the famous port city of Fengjiang.
Watching the supplies being unloaded from the train, Zhao Chen, the prince who led the troops, said honestly: "This kind of thing cannot be rushed! Although we have made some early preparations, if we really want to launch an attack, we will have to wait for more than a week."
"Why is it so slow?" Zhao Ji was obviously dissatisfied with the speed and asked subconsciously. In fact, he was not familiar with leading troops to fight, so he didn't understand the mystery.
He just looked at the countless soldiers in front of him, as well as a large amount of ammunition and supplies, and felt that he should be ready. As long as he gave the order, the battle could begin.
"Your Highness, a hasty attack will only lead to failure." Zhao Chen explained what he still needed to prepare: "A large number of weapons and equipment are still on the way, and the artillery shell reserves are not sufficient. The soldiers need bounty incentives, and the air force and follow-up reinforcements are needed. Not ready... What should we do if we launch an attack rashly and lose the first battle?”
"Why do we still need to prepare so many things? What about the rebels on the opposite side? They don't need to prepare these?" Zhao Ji was still dissatisfied. In his opinion, if his side was not prepared, didn't it mean that the enemy was also not prepared?
“Fengjiang has always been Zhao Yu’s home base, and since they are in front of Fengjiang’s house, they naturally prepare much faster than us.” Zhao Chen replied patiently.
He felt that he had to stabilize the Crown Prince and make him understand his painstaking efforts, so as to avoid the Crown Prince jumping out to cause trouble at the critical moment.
Don't look at this prince's stupidity. He may not have the ability to succeed, but he must be more than capable of failing.
In fact, although it seems that the Dahua Empire has an absolute advantage in terms of military strength, in fact Zhao Chen knows that only God knows how many of the troops in his hands and the surrounding areas are truly obedient.
When there is a large army to suppress, these areas are all obedient and good babies, but once the deterrence is lost, many places are likely to fall to Zhao Yu.
Therefore, on the way here, he made a very clear plan: all the surrounding troops were deployed on the spot and turned the area near Fengjiang City into a fortification area.
Trapped the 300,000 Zhao Yujun troops near Fengjiang City to death! Forcing Zhao Yu to use limited troops to fight against his Zhao Chen army near Hezhe, weakening Zhao Yu's army as much as possible.
When conditions permit, then invest in follow-up reserve troops to recapture Fengjiang and completely annihilate Zhao Yujun!
No matter from any aspect, his plan is the most feasible - the only drawback is that this plan may be more time-consuming.
What Zhao Kai lacked was time: as the weaker party, the Dahua Empire was afraid that the Tang Empire would be involved in this war, so they insisted on a quick victory.
It is a pity that the speed of mobilization of the Dahua Empire is really unflattering. A few days have passed, and they have not even completed basic local mobilization. In fact, the situation in Xifengjiang on the opposite side is not much better. Even with the material support from the Tang Empire, the mobilization speed of troops in Xifengjiang area is actually not very fast.
According to the standards of the Tang Empire, this was just like a novice chicken pecking each other, and it made people sleepy just looking at it.
Three days later, after Zhao Yu arrived at Fengjiang, the entire Fengjiang garrison did not fully enter a fighting state. In addition to the material assistance provided by the Tang Empire, they did not take immediate action.
Although there is an advisory group from the Tang Empire under the command, the state of the Dahua army is such that no one can force it.
Zhao Yu mobilized his troops and generals in high spirits and was preparing to launch an attack in the direction of Hezhe City - he felt that defending Fengjiang would definitely mean waiting for death, so he prepared to take the lead in launching the attack.
However, except for him as the "leader", the other officers did not plan to set the main attack direction in Hezhe, because if they did, it would basically be a dead end.
There are only about 300,000 troops at Zhao Yu's command near Fengjiang City. This is all the strength currently on the surface. If these troops are used to attack Hezhe, even if Hezhe is captured, they will no longer have the strength to continue the attack.
At that time, the troops of the Dahua Empire will only have to rest and wait for work in the mountains west of Hezhe, waiting for Zhao Yu's army to fall into a trap and find their own death.
So, from the very beginning, the plan of Datang’s military advisors was not to attack Hezhe to the west, but to attack another city to the south: Shanping!
As long as we break through the siege and go south to Shanping, there are not many main forces of the Great China Empire here, but it is more economically dependent on Fengjiang. Shanping is also closer to Zhao Yu than Zhecheng.
After controlling Shanping, you can threaten Guiguang City! Further south of this city is the famous Jiange, the land of Longxing in the Dahua Empire!
There is naturally a reason why it became the Longxing Land of the Great China Empire. There is a small plain to the west of Jiange, which is rich in food and there is only one access road to Jiange. There are also iron ore and copper mines nearby, and the products are quite rich.
At that time, Taizu of the Dahua Empire raised troops here and named the plain to the west of Jiange Pavilion Nanku, which means treasure house.
Controlling Nanku, Jiange, Guiguang, Shanping, and Fengjiang is equivalent to having the capital to fight against the Great China Empire. These places can continuously provide food and soldiers, and even have a certain industrial base.
Therefore, guarding Fengjiang and capturing Guiguang City became Zhao Yu's only option for victory. What's more, as long as the southern transportation town Guiguang is captured, Wanliang City in the north, and Shanchong City in the west, it will be a fatal threat to the Dahua Empire.
Shanchong is the transportation hub in the hinterland of the Dahua Empire. It is located between three mountains and is extremely dangerous. Controlling this place is equivalent to closing the passage that threatens Guangguang from the west.
The northern part of Guiguang is the important grain-producing area in the eastern part of the Great China Empire. If this area is lost, at least one-third of the grain output of the Great China Empire will be lost.
What's more, Wan Liang went further northeast and returned to Hezhe City. This was tantamount to threatening Hezhe from the flanks. Under attack from two sides, the Dahua army had to consider whether to abandon Hezhe and retreat to Xiajuan.
If you want to defend the southeastern part of the Dahua Empire, you must defend Guiguang. If you want to block Guiguang's westward path, you must defend Shanchong.
Similarly, if you want to defend the northeastern part of the Great China Empire, you must hold He Zhe. If the Dahua Empire wanted to concentrate its forces to defend the eastern front, in fact the shortest line of defense would be to defend Xiajuan and Shanchong.
The strategies of both sides have been made clear: Zhao Chen must fight Zhao Yu decisively in Hezhe, but Zhao Yu's way of survival is to go south to Shanping City.
So while Zhao Chen was waiting for reinforcements to arrive at Hezhe, the troops under Zhao Yu were also desperately strengthening the defense line on the west side of Fengjiang without Zhao Yu's knowledge.
They must rely on fortifications to resist Zhao Chen's attack, and mobilize at least 100,000 troops to attack Shanping.
Just when the two sides were mobilizing their troops, a piece of news that depressed Zhao Chen and Zhao Ji suddenly came: the railway line behind them was blown up by a group of ruthless bandits. It will take at least one day to repair this section of railway...
This accident suddenly ignited Zhao Ji's anger. Angrily, he returned to Xia Jian personally to thoroughly investigate the matter of the bombing of the railway track.
Zhao Chen breathed a sigh of relief when he left like this: at least now, there is no idiot who knows nothing around him making all kinds of stupid demands that make people laugh or cry every day.
So, he was even a little grateful to those who blew up the railway tracks, thanking them for helping the Dahua Empire solve a huge problem to some extent.
(End of this chapter)