Munitions Empire-Chapter 977 - Plan of both parties 899

Chapter 977: Plan of both parties 899 Chapter 977: Plan of both parties 899 If there was a person in this world who was most eager for Zhao Yu to die, that person would definitely be Zhao Ji. Zhao Ji truly wanted to kill Zhao Yu with his own hands, and he would use a saw instead of a knife if he could.

When he and Zhao Chen arrived at the front line, the Dahua Empire’s military was still assembling. Launching an attack was actually not an easy task.

Compared to the Great Tang Empire’s strategic mobilization efficiency that had surpassed that of World War II, the Dahua Empire’s mobilization capability was closer to that of World War I, with the overall mobilization requiring more than a month’s time.

Although on a local level, speeding up the mobilization was possible, the improved speed was still not considered fast, with time being calculated in weeks.

National overall mobilization was not an easy matter, moreover, it was irreversible: it was extremely complex, requiring a complete plan and a great deal of work. It was not something that could be finished with just a leader picking up the phone and giving an order.

Therefore, even though three days had passed, the Dahua Empire’s troops near Fengjiang were still in the midst of preparations, and even these preparations were under the surveillance of the Great Tang Empire’s intelligence agency.

As one of the key areas to be conquered, the Dahua Empire had all of their troops deployed near West Fengjiang evaluated by the Great Tang Empire in terms of their ammunition stockpile, transportation capacity, and command and mobilization abilities.

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The maps of the nearby area had also been prepared very detailedly by the Great Tang Empire, with some places even mapped out to the meter.

“When can we launch the attack?” Zhao Ji, impatient, asked Zhao Chen who stood beside him as he watched the train carrying ammunition pull into the station.

This was Hezhe, the city closest to Fengjiang, whose name was indicative of its relationship with transportation. This place had always been a key transportation hub, functioning as the Dahua Empire’s traffic junction to Zheng Country.

Eastward from here lay Fengjiang, and further east beyond Fengjiang was the old border between Dahua and Zheng Country. Southward from Hezhe, there were roads leading directly to many important cities in the South.

Since the advent of the railway, the place had become even more prosperous, and the city had expanded immensely. As a strategic depth line of defense against the Great Tang Empire, naturally, a large number of Dahua Empire’s elite troops were also stationed here.

Northward from here was the key northern stronghold, the Wilderness; southward was the major grain-producing town of Wanliang; westward was the deep defensive line of Xiajian; and eastward was the renowned port city of Fengjiang.

Watching the materials being unloaded from the train, Zhao Chen, the prince who led troops, spoke honestly, “Such matters cannot be rushed! Even though some preparations were made early, to actually launch an attack would still require waiting for more than a week.”

“Why does it take so long?” Zhao Ji showed clear dissatisfaction with the pace and instinctively asked. He was actually not familiar with leading troops into battle, so he did not understand the intricacies involved.

He simply saw countless soldiers before his eyes, along with a large amount of ammunition and supplies, and thought they should be ready to go. Just a command and the battle could begin.

“Your Highness, a hasty attack will only lead to failure,” Zhao Chen explained what else he needed to prepare, “A large amount of weaponry is still on the way, the ammunition reserves are insufficient, the soldiers need bonuses as encouragement, and neither the Air Force nor subsequent reinforcements are ready… Launching a reckless attack now, how would we fare if we lost the first engagement?”

“Why do we need to prepare so much? What about the rebels on the other side? Don’t they need to prepare these things?” Zhao Ji was still unsatisfied, thinking to himself that if his side was unprepared, it would mean the enemy was equally unprepared.

“Fengjiang has always been Zhao Yu’s stronghold, and moreover, they are at their own doorstep in Fengjiang, so naturally, they can prepare much faster than us,” Zhao Chen patiently answered.

He felt he had to steady this Crown Prince and make him understand his painstaking efforts, so as to avoid the Crown Prince jumping out and causing trouble at a critical moment.

Don’t be fooled by the Crown Prince’s foolish and naive appearance. He might not have the capacity to succeed in tasks, but he certainly had enough to ruin them.

Actually, although it seemed that the Dahua Empire had an absolute advantage in terms of military strength, Zhao Chen was clear about just how many of the troops in his hand and the surrounding areas were truly obedient; only heaven knew.

With a large army applying pressure, these regions were all obedient babies, but if that deterrence was lost, many places could likely switch allegiance to Zhao Yu.

Therefore, on his way here, he had made a very clear plan: have all the surrounding troops hold their ground and turn the area near Fengjiang City into a fortified zone.

Trap the 300,000 troops of Zhao Yu near Fengjiang City and force Zhao Yu to use his limited troops to engage in an attritional battle near Hezhe with his Zhao Chen’s forces, to maximally weaken Zhao Yu’s military power.

When conditions allowed, deploy subsequent reserve forces to retake Fengjiang and completely annihilate Zhao Yu’s forces!

From any perspective, his plan had the highest feasibility—the only imperfection was that the plan might be time-consuming.

And what Zhao Kai lacked was time: as the weaker side, the Dahua Empire feared the Great Tang Empire’s involvement in the war, so they insisted on quick battles and quick resolutions.

Unfortunately, what people found regrettable was that the Dahua Empire’s mobilization speed was embarrassingly slow; several days had passed, and they had not even completed basic local mobilization.

In fact, the situation in West Fengjiang was not much better, even with the Great Tang Empire’s material support, the mobilization speed of the troops in the West Fengjiang region was not considered fast.

According to the standards of the Great Tang Empire, this was completely at the level of amateurs clumsily butting heads, watching it was enough to put someone to sleep.

Three days had passed, and after Zhao Yu’s arrival in Fengjiang, the entire Fengjiang garrison had not fully entered a state of combat, and aside from the material aid provided by the Great Tang Empire, they hadn’t taken immediate action.

Even with the advisory group from the Great Tang Empire directing the operations, this was the state of the Dahua military; no one could demand more.

Zhao Yu, full of vigor, was deploying troops and preparing to launch an attack towards Hezhe City—he felt that to simply defend Fengjiang was to sit and wait for death, so he planned to initiate the attack first.

However, apart from him, the “leader,” the rest of the officers did not plan to focus the main attack on Hezhe; because doing so was essentially equivalent to taking the path to certain death.

The troops around Fengjiang City that responded to Zhao Yu’s command numbered only about 300,000, which was all the evident strength they had. If these troops were to launch a fierce attack on Hezhe, even if they captured Hezhe, they would have no strength left to continue the offensive.

By that time, the troops of the Dahua Empire only had to wait at ease to the west of Xiajian, laying in wait for Zhao Yu’s forces to fall into the trap and seek their own destruction.

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So, from the beginning, the plan of the military advisors from the Great Tang was not to attack Hezhe to the west but to strike another city to the south: Shanping!

As long as they could break through the encirclement and head south to Shanping, there were not many main forces of the Dahua Empire there, yet economically it was more dependent on Fengjiang, and compared to Hezhe City, Shanping was also closer to Zhao Yu.

After gaining control of Shanping, they could threaten Guiguang City! To the south of this city was the famous Sword Pavilion, the Longxing Land of the Dahua Empire!

There was naturally a reason why it could become the Longxing Land of the Dahua Empire. To the west of the Sword Pavilion lay a small plain, rich in grain production, with only a single route leading directly to Sword Pavilion, and there were nearby iron and copper mines, with fairly rich natural resources.

In the past, the great ancestor of the Dahua Empire rose to power here, naming this plain to the west of Sword Pavilion “Nanku,” meaning “treasury.”

Controlling Nanku, Sword Pavilion, Guiguang, Shanping, and Fengjiang was equivalent to having the capital to contend with the Dahua Empire, as these places could provide a continuous supply of food and soldiers and even had a certain industrial base.

Therefore, holding on to Fengjiang and seizing Guiguang City became the only choice for Zhao Yu to win. Moreover, as long as he captured the southern transportation hub of Guiguang, marched north to Wanliang City, and advanced to Shanchong City, it would be a deadly threat to the Dahua Empire.

Shanchong was the transportation hub for the hinterlands of the Dahua Empire, located between three mountain ranges, extremely perilous, controlling it meant sealing off the path threatening Guiguang from the west.

Moreover, north of Guiguang was Wanliang, the major grain-producing area of the eastern Dahua Empire; losing this place would cost the Dahua Empire at least a third of its grain production.

Furthermore, from Wanliang to the northeast was Hezhe City, which was tantamount to threatening Hezhe from the flank. Under a pincer attack, the Dahua military would have to consider whether to give up Hezhe and retreat to defend Xiajian.

To hold the southeast of the Dahua Empire, it was imperative to hold Guiguang, and to block the western approach to Guiguang, Shanchong must be firmly in grip.

Similarly, to keep the northeast of the Dahua Empire, one had to hold Hezhe. If the Dahua Empire desired to concentrate forces to staunchly defend the eastern front, the shortest defensive line would actually be to staunchly defend Xiajian and Shanchong.

The strategies of both sides were already laid out in the open: Zhao Chen had to face a decisive battle with Zhao Yu at Hezhe, but the way out for Zhao Yu’s side was to head south to Shanping City.

So, while Zhao Chen was waiting for reinforcements to arrive at Hezhe, Zhao Yu’s troops, unbeknownst to him, were desperately fortifying the western defenses of Fengjiang.

They had to rely on fortifications to withstand Zhao Chen’s attack and had to pull out at least 100,000 soldiers to launch a fierce assault in the direction of Shanping.

While both sides were deploying their forces, a piece of news came suddenly that frustrated both Zhao Chen and Zhao Ji: the railway line behind them had been blown up by a gang of formidable bandits. Repairing this section of the railway would take at least another day…

This incident immediately ignited the rage of Zhao Ji, who, infuriated, personally returned to Xiajian to thoroughly investigate the sabotage of the railway tracks.

With his departure, Zhao Chen actually heaved a sigh of relief: at least now, he was free of an ignorant fool who made all sorts of ridiculous and stupid demands every day by his side.

So, he was even a bit grateful to those who had destroyed the railway tracks, thanking them for solving a huge problem for the Dahua Empire to some extent.