Late September is still late autumn, and even if it takes ten days and a half, it will still be the beginning of winter. The weather has not yet reached the point where heavy snow falls, so it will not cause too much damage to the landing across the sea and the subsequent attacks on Jinzhou and Fuzhou. Influence.
And when the Dongji people reacted and began to mobilize a large number of troops to counterattack the Liaodong Peninsula, trying to drive the Chu army's landing troops into the sea, the first snow would most likely begin to fall.
But now is the Little Ice Age. For high latitude areas like the Northeast, even early winter will be very cold and the snow will be very heavy.
The cold winter season can effectively delay the time for the enemy to gather large-scale forces to counterattack the Liaodong Peninsula, reduce the defensive pressure on the Seventh Army, and give the Seventh Army more time to build fortifications.
What's more important is that the troop mobilization and logistical supplies of the Dongji people in the cold winter season will be very troublesome, but it will not affect the logistical supplies of the Dachu Empire's landing troops.
Because the logistical supplies of the landing force are supplied directly by sea, and at the same time, according to the planned plan, the Seventh Army will not operate far away from the port, so the overall supply difficulty will be very small.
With this increase and decrease, the Seventh Army that landed on the Liaodong Peninsula will be able to completely establish a foothold on the Liaodong Peninsula.
And after the Seventh Army gains a foothold in the Liaodong Peninsula, the Dongji people may not be able to sleep peacefully...
If they don't want to wait until the beginning of spring and Chu's Seventh Army, tens of thousands of troops, go directly to Shenyang, then the Dongji people must take advantage of the winter to continue mobilizing the army, not to mention driving the Chu army into the sea, at least to Defend the northern part of the Liaodong Peninsula and block the Chu army in the central and southern part of the Liaodong Peninsula.
And this requires a lot of troops, not even 30,000 or 40,000, but 50,000, 60,000 or more.
Otherwise, they would not be able to withstand the fierce offensive of the Seventh Army.
After all, the Seventh Army has two new first-class divisions and one second-class division with reserve troops and equipment. In addition, it will be equipped with a number of independent artillery, cavalry and other troops. The total strength is estimated to reach 50,000.
This does not include the 2nd Marine Regiment.
If they want to withstand the follow-up attack of more than 50,000 Chu troops, the Dongji people conservatively estimate that they will have to mobilize the same number of troops. If they want to be more secure, they will need at least 70,000 to 80,000 troops.
After all, the Chu army was famous for its sharp guns, and it was not unknown to the Dongluo people.
Then comes the more interesting thing. The total strength of the Dongjiu people is limited. When they send so many troops to the Liaodong Peninsula, the corresponding strength in other directions will inevitably decrease.
In this way, after the spring of next year, when the Chu army launches a general offensive in the Liaoxi Corridor and launches a sheep attack on the Jizhen and Xuanda front lines, the Dongjiu people's troop deployment will fall into an extremely passive and embarrassing situation.
As for the temporary general mobilization, when some old and weak people also organize to fight, that is too underestimated the Chu army.
If the Dongji people dare to directly pull these old and weak people who have not undergone strict training to fight, the Chu army will dare to directly fight one against ten, and one division can launch an attack against 100,000 people on the opposite side!
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After the negotiation between the army and the navy was completed, Bai Yangrong continued to lead the Seventh Army to conduct adaptive training while the scheduled time for crossing the sea and landing was still more than a month away.
On the one hand, the problem of seasickness must be solved, which determines whether the troops can have combat effectiveness after landing, and cannot be treated lightly at all.
On the other hand, they began to conduct advance drills and arrangements for specific landings and scheduled subsequent siege operations against Jinzhou Guard, Jinzhou Zhongzuo, Fuzhou and other places.
Especially the early landing operations, which were huge landing operations involving hundreds of ships and more than 50,000 people, how to transport personnel and equipment, especially a large number of artillery, ammunition, etc. ashore in the shortest time, all of these are It's a very complex issue.
To this end, personnel from the army and navy were meeting almost every day and gradually finalized numerous detailed plans amid numerous debates.
For example, the transportation and landing plan of artillery has been finalized. Artillery can easily weigh hundreds of kilograms, even for two and a half kilogram field guns, not to mention a large number of five kilograms and nine kilograms field cannons.
A nine-pound field gun costs more than a ton, even if you don't include ammunition. It's impossible to land directly on the beach using ordinary methods. A dock is needed, and it is best to have hoisting equipment.
However, in the proposed landing site, there are only a few suitable docks, let alone hoisting equipment... Therefore, how to quickly disembark heavy materials such as artillery has become a problem.
In the end, the Navy came up with a solution, which was to bring over some specially modified small ships and use these ships to build a floating dock on the landing site in the same way as building a pontoon bridge to solve the problem of the lack of docks at the landing site.
To hoist the equipment directly, build the components first, bring the components and engineers with you when you land, and assemble them on site after landing.
With the floating dock and simple lifting equipment, at least the early disembarkation of artillery and ammunition can be considered solved.
As for subsequent transportation, naturally we cannot rely solely on these floating docks and hoisting equipment. After capturing the local port, they will directly send engineers to build fixed docks and hoisting facilities while paving roads, etc.
To this end, the military has contacted the Ministry of Industry to carry out various engineering matters.
The preparations for the landing on the Liaodong Peninsula by the Dachu Empire were detailed and thorough, taking into account all aspects.
Even the daily drinking water issue of the landing troops was thought of. In addition to the water in the kettles carried by the soldiers, a number of ships were specially arranged to be filled with boiled and sealed storage of water to accompany the landing, so as to avoid the need for the landing troops to go ashore. , couldn't find drinking water and died of thirst...
Then we need to arrange manpower to prepare dry food in advance, because the troops in the early stage of landing will be very busy, especially the first batch of landing troops. They need to land as soon as possible, and then launch an attack on the enemy to expand depth. During the continuous combat operations, there may not even be enough time to bury pots and make rice. In order to avoid any accidents, the landing soldiers need to carry dry food with them.
And considering that when landing, the soldiers will wade ashore, because the food and gunpowder carried by the soldiers need to be waterproof.
This waterproofing measure alone involved the experience of many people. The Ministry of Industry also sent engineers to assist, and even built a food processing plant on site in Weihai to meet the military food needs during the landing operations.
In addition to these messy matters such as landing procedures and material transportation, the troops of the landing force, especially the 23rd Division, need to conduct tactical adaptive training to ensure the smoothness of the landing operation.
At the same time, many tactical alternatives were also made. For example, when a large number of enemy troops were suddenly found in the scheduled landing site, especially when there was a large number of enemy artillery, how to change the landing site in time and select an alternate second landing site.
Another example is how to respond when the first batch of landing troops are unable to expand the beachhead area when they encounter a fierce counterattack by the enemy's outpost troops after landing.
Although Bai Yangrong knew that the possibility of the tactical alternatives he had made being adopted was less than 1%, but in war, no matter how small the possibility is, he must take it into consideration and make preparations for dealing with it.
It is much better to write down a few plans without getting too tired. It is better than actually going to the battlefield, encountering an unexpected situation and being overwhelmed, resulting in the failure of the battle and heavy casualties.
"The Evil God"
Besides, he doesn't need to do things like alternative combat plans himself...he has a lot of staff below.
This is what people do in their job. If you don't let them come up with all kinds of messy tactics, why don't you let them sit in the office doing nothing every day, or simply run to the beach and say "Face the sea and the flowers are blooming..."
Numerous preparations such as various tactics and logistics were implemented one after another, and time passed day by day.
On September 7, the Weihai base welcomed a very special official, Wu Ruizhi, a bachelor's degree student at the Hanlin Academy and one of the deputy directors of the Secretariat.
This person was ordered to inspect and express condolences to the army and navy officers in the Weihai base.
That is, an imperial envoy in the traditional sense!
After Wu Ruizhi arrived here, he read out an edict of condolences to Xia Qiuyang, Bai Yangrong and dozens of other army and navy generals in the front yard of the building in Weihai base!
In the imperial edict, Emperor Luo Zhixue asked them to take the initiative and fight bravely in the battle on the Liaodong Peninsula, fighting for the empire and the people of the world. I am waiting for your good news.
After Xia Qiuyang received the order on behalf of the army and navy officers here, the ceremony to receive the order was considered over.
Wu Ruizhi, who had never smiled before, also took the initiative to greet General Xia Qiuyang.
What Wu Ruizhi represented just now was not himself, but the emperor. When he read out the imperial edict, not to mention Xia Qiuyang had to kneel in front of him, even Xu Zhixian had to kneel to receive the edict.
But after receiving the order, Wu Ruizhi became himself.
Although Wu Ruizhi did well in the Hanlin Academy, he was not a high-ranking official after all. He was incomparable to an admiral, so it was natural to be polite.
However, he was an imperial envoy after all, so Xia Qiuyang naturally had to give him enough respect. In the next three days, Xia Qiuyang personally accompanied the imperial envoy on inspections and visited various departments of the army and navy.
After inspecting the navy's fleet, he also boarded the ship to inspect the warships in the port.
I also watched a landing exercise organized by the Army. I guess it was not big, but it was mainly an exercise that reflected the landing operations.
Wu Ruizhi is also someone who doesn't understand military affairs... What kind of knowledge can be seen from these? He knows the direct mission very well. This time he came here to be a mascot, letting the soldiers here know that His Majesty knows them, values them, and Expect them to come back with a big win.
Therefore, when he was not inspecting a place, he would inevitably talk to the middle-level and even grass-roots soldier representatives, and make an impromptu speech to let them know His Majesty's concern.
On the fourth day, Wu Ruizhi, who had finished his inspection and condolences, took a boat directly south to return to Jinling City.
A few days later, Admiral Bai Yangrong, commander of the Beiyang Fleet, ordered the entire army to make final preparations and dispatched a squadron to sea to investigate and blockade coastal ports on the Liaodong Peninsula to provide cover for the subsequent official cross-sea landing operations.
On September 16, according to a large number of people with rich experience in weather changes, including many old farmers, old fishermen, and veteran sailors in the navy, it was unanimously judged that the weather would be calm and suitable for going to sea in the next five or six days.
That afternoon, Admiral Bai Yangrong, as the commander-in-chief of the early sea-crossing landing operations and the highest-ranking military officer in this joint army-navy operation, officially ordered the full implementation of the Liaodong Peninsula landing operations.
