Chapter 420 Desert Storm Operation

Chapter 420 Desert Storm Operation

Chapter 420 Desert Storm Operation
Liu Mingchuan, who led the artillery and the main force of the Shanghai Army and marched arduously in Mount Kai, quickly received news that Nogi Maresuke's vassal army in the front had been surrounded and annihilated.

The appearance of the other side's two new flags immediately alerted the astute Liu Mingchuan.

The opponent's tactics of defending the position have changed. This method of using the terrain, advancing and retreating in large strides, fighting mobile warfare, dividing the enemy, and concentrating superior forces to fight an annihilation war is not something that the old opponents Zhang and Yang can come up with.

In a trance, Liu Mingchuan seemed to smell the scent of his old rival who was an expert in military strategy. Could it be that those two people were still alive?

In short, the rebels had received reinforcements from Cuba and South America, and the situation was not good. Liu Mingchuan made a prompt decision and led the Shanghai Army to turn around and flee.

Originally, King Ying set up another pocket formation on the shore of Lake Suwa, preparing to capture Liu Mingchuan alive.

After waiting for two days without seeing anyone, the scouts reported that Liu Mingchuan had hurriedly fled out of the Kai Mountains and retreated to Gifu.

They only brought field artillery, and the hundred heavy artillery pieces were left behind and had to move slowly along the mountain road.

The King of England shook his head and sighed, his old rival was too cunning.

When Liu Mingchuan led his troops to Gifu, the general who stayed behind immediately reported, "The people in Meinong are all unruly. Those who went to collect food came back empty-handed. The people are defending us. We burned more than a dozen villages, but didn't get much food. We are running out of food."

"Reporting to Marshal Ming, the enemy's weakness in Nagoya is a disguise. There are 70,000 real rebels from Cuba hiding there."

"After you entered the Kai Mountains, the enemy quickly defeated our vassal army and attacked Sunamata Castle beside the Kiso River via Komaki Castle, preparing to launch a surprise attack on Gifu and cut off your retreat. Fortunately, you returned in time."

"Report, Yang Changjiu's rebels have seized our heavy artillery unit, and are leading 60,000 real rebels in pursuit, and are almost out of the mountain area."

"Report, Chen Ni led 60,000 Zhenfa rebels to chase us from the mountainous areas in the direction of Ena and Toki."

"Report, Shi Laosan is leading a large number of guerrillas and is destroying the roads and water sources from Gifu to Daheng City. The guerrillas are only composed of old men and women, and the enemy's young soldiers are almost wiped out."

Well, the enemy was very generous. They used a series of schemes to lure Nogi Maresuke into the deep territory alone, and then they had already planned to deal with me, the supervisor of the battle, afterwards.

They are trying to trap my 13,500 men in the fortified city of Gifu and kill them. Maybe they are also thinking of besieging the city and attacking the reinforcements, and cleaning up the reinforcements from Marshal Zuo and Marshal Nie.

In the tiny country of Japan, I encountered such a master of military strategy. If the King of England and the King of Wing had not come back to life, I would have written the word "Liu" upside down.

Liu Mingchuan made a quick decision and retreated immediately, all the way to Daheng City under the harassment of the guerrillas.

Behind him were King Ying, King Yi, and Yang Fuqing, leading 190,000 real Taiping troops in pursuit.

The plan of three armies to besiege Liu Mingchuan in Gifu was seen through by Liu Mingchuan, who escaped without mercy. The King of Ying was also very angry.

Liu Mingchuan did not dare to confront the Taiping Army, which was more than ten times his size, in Daheng City, and retreated directly to Omihachiman City on the shores of Lake Biwa, the former site of Azuchi Castle.

Here they joined forces with the four divisions of the new army under Nie Shicheng and Zuo Zhongtang and their newly trained 200,000 young royalist soldiers, and only then did they stop their retreat and finally feel at ease.

King Ying and Yang Fuqing followed with an army of 130,000 and the remaining 100,000 young shogunate soldiers. Both sides rebuilt their positions on the east bank of Lake Biwa.

On the Qing side, Dong Jun led the Wuwei Army to maintain the food and fodder supply in the rear. The front-line combat troops included two divisions of the Zhejiang and Fujian New Army, two divisions of the British Columbia and Alaska New Army, plus Liu Mingchuan's one division of the Shanghai Army, totaling more than 67,000 people, with 200,000 Japanese youth soldiers as servants.

The Taiping Army temporarily had 130,000 troops led by King Ying and King Fu, but there were only 100,000 vassal troops, which led to a new confrontation and war of attrition.

The Taiping Army had no troops in the rear to collect food. Under the guidance of the red-haired military supervisor, the common people in the rear took the initiative to push carts to deliver food...

Where did the other 120,000 Taiping troops go?
Zhang Lexing led 60,000 Nian troops and marched quickly from Jiafu back to Zhijiangjin City. The Nian army's ability to fight in mobile warfare was fully utilized by the King of Ying.

When the Nian Army arrived at Naoetsu Castle, Kawakami Soroku's Western Route Royalist Youth Army was only three miles away from Naoetsu Castle.

The King of England mobilized the Nian Army, creating a thrilling time difference. After participating in the Kofu Campaign to siege Nogi Maresuke, the Nian Army descended from the sky and returned to Naoetsu, blocking Kawakami Soroku.

In the eyes of King Ying and Zhang Lexing, this kind of large-scale long-distance mobile warfare is not very common? Back then, the Qing army that was chasing and blocking them had always fought like this in several provinces. Senggelinqin and Zeng Guofan had no idea what to do.

When we arrived in Japan, how big was the place? At most, it was 400 miles, and the round trip was 800 miles of mobile warfare. But in the eyes of the Japanese, he was the "God of War". There was nothing we could do. Small places had no experience.

King Yi brought another 60,000 troops from Daheng City and split up from the main force. According to the Qing court, this was a "bandit" who was able to run fast. In five days, he traveled 600 miles, passing through Nagahama, Kitanosho, Kaga, Ishikawa, and Toyama, and directly attacked Uozu Castle.

King Yi built a position in the south of Uozu Castle, Zhang Lexing defended Naoetsu Castle to the death, and 120,000 people blocked Kawakami Soroku's 80,000 young royalist troops in the west on the narrow coastal road between Uozu Castle and Naoetsu Castle.

King Yi and King Wo surrounded the city without fighting. Five days later, Kawakami Cao Liu ran out of food. Kawakami Cao Liu ordered his men to surrender to King Yi and committed suicide to repay the king's kindness. At this point, King Ying used the mobile warfare of the army like a god, and Shi Lao San launched the guerrilla warfare to assist, and the real Taiping soldiers personally took action. The two armies of the royalist army attacked northward with great momentum, and the two large pincers that were isolated and deep in the enemy's territory were all cut off and annihilated.

The arrival of two famous generals of the time, King Ying and King Yi, achieved a new strategic balance with three famous generals of the Qing court, Zuo Zongtang, Nie Shicheng and Liu Mingchuan. The situation of a war of attrition between the north and south of Japan on both sides of Lake Biwa reappeared.

…………

The first day of July in the thirteenth year of the Tongzhi reign, Persian Gulf, Port of Basra.

Amid the roar of cannon fire, Liao Rong led the British Far East Fleet to bombard the port of Basra.

The port of Basra is located in the rear of the Ottoman Empire and has no defense. The port has coastal defense guns, and the gun barrels are thicker than those on warships, but they don't have smokeless gunpowder.

With the smokeless gunpowder primer, the range of the artillery shells increased greatly. Now Liao Rong used this new technology to fire from a distance and bully the Ottomans' backward coastal defense artillery.

The coastal defense guns were quickly knocked out one by one, and then the warships moved forward and began to extend the bombardment of the city of Basra.

The Ottomans never expected that they were stabbed in the back. There were only security forces here, so they quickly fled.

After being washed by the navy's artillery and huge warships, 120 transport ships docked in an orderly manner, and more than 70,000 people, a large number of tanks, armored vehicles, troop carriers, and heavy artillery began to land in an orderly manner.

It took the Huai Army three full days to land. By the time Shao Quanzhong had settled down in the temporary headquarters, the small cavalry reconnaissance unit led by the reconnaissance staff had returned.

In the war conference room, generals were shining, and a large topographic map of the Ottoman Empire was hung in front.

Grant, who was reappointed as the Chief of Staff of the Huai Army and the actual commander-in-chief, was in high spirits.

Germany also had this configuration. His Majesty William I was the commander-in-chief, but the actual commander-in-chief was Chief of the General Staff Moltke...

"Our primary strategic goal this time is to besiege the Ottoman Empire and make it lose its combat capability. The primary goal is to fight all the way to Baku and control the important oil producing areas."

Grant spoke eloquently, and none of the generals below was puzzled as to how an army of more than 70,000 people could besiege the Ottoman Empire, which had a force of 500,000.

Well, Shao Quanzhong did not cross the Suez Canal to the Mediterranean, but planned to land directly in Basra, which meant he was preparing to open up the Eastern battlefield and besiege the Ottoman Empire.

How can an army attack? Shao Quanzhong brought 75,500 Huai Army troops, but this was not all the troops under Shao Quanzhong's command.

As the main force of the Huai Army landed in Basra and pointed its sword at Baghdad Province, Liu Jintang's Hunan Army in Sinai Province and Ma Zhan'ao's New Army in Tianfang Province responded.

Liu Jintang's troops advanced out of Jerusalem and headed straight for the Ottoman Empire's Lebanese Special Administrative Region and Beirut Province.

Ma Zhan'ao's troops sent troops to Jordan, targeting Damascus in the Syrian province.

The two mechanized units of 27,000 men faced the Ottoman Empire's Fourth Army stationed in Syria. The opponent had 50,000 men, which looked large in number, but their equipment was backward, and they were just ordinary army reserve troops temporarily recruited from the rear.

The Chu army led by Xu Bangdao, who was originally stationed in Varna, boarded the Black Sea Fleet and suddenly landed at the port of Batumi in the southeast corner of the Black Sea to contain the Ottoman Third Army that had invaded Azerbaijan.

At the same time, on the Thracian front, the 200,000 Bulgarian troops led by Shao Quanxiao increased their offensive strength and firmly tied down the main force of the Ottomans, the 250,000 troops of the First and Second Armies.

The British-led expeditionary force, with a total of 78,000 troops from six countries, including Britain, France, India, Australia, New Zealand and Canada, is landing on the Gallipoli Peninsula and fighting a frustrating mountain war of attrition with the Ottoman Empire's most powerful new Fifth Army of more than 80,000 troops.

Grant, holding a pointer, finished introducing the six armies' siege of the Ottoman Empire and smiled. "According to reconnaissance, ahead of us is the Ottoman Sixth Army, which has just been formed. The mere 40,000 troops are all weak troops with poor equipment. It will not be difficult to defeat them."

“But we have two disadvantages.”

"First, although the Chu army that entered Batumi was a tank division, the enemy had more than 80,000 soldiers. If we abandon the Russian enemy in Azerbaijan and return, the enemy is outnumbered and we are outnumbered. If we go deep into Xu Bangdao's unit, which is responsible for cutting off the enemy's Third Army's retreat, it may be difficult to sustain a long-term battle."

"Therefore, our attack on Baghdad must be a quick success. We must quickly move north to join Xu Bangdao and attack the enemy's Third Army."

"The second disadvantage is that between Basra and Baghdad is the fertile Mesopotamian River Basin, where the soil is soft and the road conditions are poor. Although the enemy is weak, it is very unfavorable for our mechanized army to advance."

"For this reason, our staff has formulated a plan to march in a roundabout way, avoiding the main roads along the Tigris and Euphrates rivers."

"We will use mechanized troops to bypass the western desert area and advance quickly, and take Baghdad directly with a blitzkrieg. Emery and I named this operation the 'Desert Storm Plan'..."

(End of this chapter)