Open an aircraft carrier to fight against Japan

Looking at the content of those telegrams, Lin Yuan saw that they were either tactical advice or training methods, all of which were "tasteless" information, and thought to himself: "What is the purpose of the Qing court sending these innocuous telegrams?"

The next day, November [-]rd, the General Staff suddenly notified Lin Yuan that they had intercepted the telegram of the Qing army's counterattack route to North China!As soon as Lin Yuan heard this, he rushed to the staff department, and a staff officer hurriedly handed over a telegram to Lin Yuan, saying, "Commander Lin, this is the telegram."

Lin Yuan took the telegram and looked at it carefully, and saw that it said: "Now adjust the offensive route as follows: Yuan Shikai's department, starting from Huai'an, passing through Xiaowangzhuang, Heyang Town, and attacking Liaocheng..." There are also Xu Yingkui's and Zhang Zhi's troops behind him. The attack plan of the hole department.

Lin Yuan carefully read the telegram three times, thinking: "These offensive routes are indeed good. Not only are the roads along the way good, but there are also many villages, towns and rivers that can supply food and drinking water."

Just as Lin Yuan was thinking, he only heard the staff officer say: "Shuai Lin, are we deploying our defensive operations based on this telegram?"

Lin Yuan shook his head lightly and said, "I suspect that this telegram is fake."

The staff officer hurriedly asked, "Why is it fake?"

Lin Yuan said: "Kodama Gentaro already knows that their password is in our possession, and he still uses this password to send such important information. If he didn't deliberately lure me into the bait, what is it?"

The staff officer thought for a while and said, "So that's how it is!"

Lin Yuan thought for a while and said, "Have any telegrams about the time of action been intercepted these days?"

The staff officer said: "It has been intercepted. The time of action of the three troops is different. Among them, Zhang Zhidong's department is in..."

Lin Yuan waved his hand lightly, and said, "Don't tell me these things, you can calculate, according to the route and time of dispatching troops by the Qing court, when will the Qing army meet us and the first-line troops?"

The staff officer said: "I have already calculated that the three troops will cross the middle ground on November [-] and meet our troops."

After hearing this, Lin Yuan sneered and said, "November [-]th? Kodama Gentaro is giving me enough time to transfer troops to routes where there is no Qing army at all."

The staff officer said: "So that's the case. They really are deceiving us, but Lin Shuai, what's the use of asking about the marching time?"

Lin Yuan smiled and said: "Of course, I have already thought about it. Whether Kodama Gentaro is deceiving me on purpose or not, I don't care about him. Let's attack the Huaihe defense line before they counterattack North China. November [-]th It is a critical time point, the attack time of the Qing army will definitely be after November [-]th, because we have transferred the troops away by then. You immediately prepare a video call for me, and I will deploy the attack arrangement."

The staff officer said: "Okay, I'll do it now."

At nine o'clock in the morning on November [-], the division commanders of the eight divisions in North China gathered together to participate in Lin Yuan's video conference. Preparations to attack North China." Everyone nodded, and Lin Yuan continued: "What we have to do now is not to wait for them to attack us, but to take the initiative to attack the Huai River defense line of the Qing court."

Everyone said: "Great, it's finally the day of the attack, we've been ready for a long time."

Lin Yuan said: "Let me first announce the changes in the organization. For the convenience of command, I divided the eight front-line divisions into two armies. The commander of the first army is Ou Zhenhai, the commander of the third division; the seventh division and the No.11, 14th, and [-]th divisions formed later are organized into the second army, and the commander is Xiao Yingwu, the commander of the seventh division. I personally As the commander-in-chief of the two armies, does everyone understand?"

Everyone nodded in agreement, and Lin Yuan continued: "Our battle this time is mainly to annihilate the enemy's vital forces. The Qing army has been fighting us in field battles and mobile warfare recently. This is to use their weaknesses to meet our strengths. We will accompany them to the end. We must pay attention to using flexible tactics to encircle and annihilate the opponent."

"In terms of attack locations, the First Army will mainly attack Hubei, with Xiangyang as the main attack point; the Second Army will mainly attack Anhui and Jiangsu, with Huainan and Huai'an as the main attack points. All ministries must complete their offensive preparations before November [-]th, and Launch the attack, do you have any difficulties or questions?"

Everyone shook their heads, Lin Yuan said: "Well, our meeting today will end here, everyone go back and prepare." After the meeting, Lin Yuan thought in his heart: "I should also take some actions to confuse the judgment of the Qing court. So Lin Yuan ordered Chen Fei in Jiangyin to lead the amphibious combat brigade to launch a tentative attack on the upper reaches of Jiangyin; at the same time, he ordered the Eighth and Ninth Divisions to attack the Suzhou defenders.

The garrison of Suzhou did not have Japanese advisors, so the garrison of Suzhou did not engage in the field battle in the city, but hid inside the city walls. The defender of Suzhou was named Gao Yunwen, a very capable general. He knew that Lin Yuan’s troops were attacking the city. The ability is extraordinary, especially the artillery of Lin Yuan's army, which is extremely powerful. If you want to defend Suzhou, you must withstand the attack of the artillery, so you came up with an idea: thicken the city wall!

In the Qing Dynasty, Suzhou was not an important military town, so the city wall was not thick, only about 15 meters. Now, in order to guard against the artillery of Lin Yuan’s army, the thickness of the city wall was simply increased to 50 meters. This is a big project. Those city wall bricks cost 10,000+ blocks. Fortunately, the Suzhou area has a large population and developed industry and commerce, and the city wall has actually been thickened to 50 meters.

What's more amazing is: Gao Yunwen has a good understanding of the technology of artillery shells. He knows that if the artillery shells want to explode the city wall to the maximum extent, they must install a delayed detonation fuze, so that the artillery shells penetrate a certain distance into the city wall before exploding. He believes that Lin Yuan's troops are The shells used when bombarding the city wall must have a delayed detonation, so the craftsmen were asked to mix the mud with stones and smear it on the city wall, making the city wall full of protruding squares, like a toad.

After the city wall has been modified in this way, the fuze will be activated when the shell hits the block, and the shell will go deep into the block to explode, and the wall behind will not be damaged too much.

Lin Yuan's troops came to the city and laughed when they saw the toad-like city walls. They immediately organized artillery units to bombard the city walls, but only after a round of rapid fire did they find something was wrong. A few gaps were opened, but the city wall of Suzhou remained unmoved, with only a lot of bomb craters on the wall.

The attacking troops of the Eighth Division immediately reported the news to the division commander, and the division commander reported to Lin Yuan, who immediately instructed: "We can attack and harass the defenders of Suzhou. We don't need to forcefully attack the city wall, and we can even encircle without fighting. The main purpose of attacking Suzhou is to contain the troops of the Qing court and cover the troops in North China."

The Qing court was restless when they heard that Lin Yuan had attacked Suzhou. They knew very well that the reason why Chen Fei’s troops did not dare to leave Jiangyin and attack Zhenjiang was all because of the containment of the Suzhou defenders behind them. If the containment of the Suzhou defenders disappeared , Chen Fei's troops will attack Zhenjiang and Nanjing unscrupulously, and the temporary capital of the Qing court will be in danger at that time.