The movements of the British troops at the beachhead were reported to the joint headquarters of the 1st Mixed Brigade and the 3rd Guard Brigade. Liu Yongfu and the others combined with the intelligence reported by Buenos Aires quickly analyzed that the British troops stationed at the beachhead were not moving forward. s reason.
"Brigadier Liu, Deputy Brigadier He, please take a look."
Shen Fushan, commander of the 3rd Guard Brigade, pointed to the march map on the table and analyzed: "The British expeditionary fleet is divided into two groups. The main force of one group confronts our army offshore the Buenos Aires port, and the other group of fleets confronts us along the coast of Lapu. Going upstream from the mouth of the Lata River, there is a strong tendency to advance towards the inland area of the Paraná River."
"Advance along the river, destroy or occupy the areas along the Paraná River. On the one hand, we will mobilize and exhaust our army's reserve forces. On the other hand, we will indirectly support the Argentine local armed forces. Finally, we will merge with the Brazilian Army support troops to launch a fierce attack on our army.
The British have quite an appetite.”
He Yanliang guessed the opponent's strategic intentions based on the British army's intelligence.
"Let go of the heavily defended inland towns of our army, specifically choose coastal port areas to break through, attack upstream along the inland rivers, and penetrate directly into the core area of our army's rule. The British used this method in the Opium War thirty or forty years ago. With this move, the warships occupied Zhenjiang, and the army marched to the gates of Nanjing. They used a quick and decisive march to force the Qing government to negotiate for peace and accept peace negotiation conditions that were beneficial to the British army. Now that the world has passed for several decades, the British want to repeat the same trick. Trying this trick on us is in vain."
Following He Yanliang's words, Shen Fushan added.
"Today is different from the past. Today's National Defense Force is not the decadent and backward Manchu Green Camp Army. Even if the British use their superiority in maritime military power to attack our army, they will not get any benefits."
Deployed from Annan to the mainland of the Han Dynasty, and promoted step by step from battalion commander to brigade commander of the main mixed brigade, Liu Yongfu had the most profound understanding of the differences between the National Defense Forces and the Manchu Army.
The green battalion troops of the Qing army were eating empty food, drinking soldiers' blood, smoking cigarettes and other chaos. Even Feng Zicai's command in Guangxi, which had defeated the peasant uprising army several times, could not stop this chaos.
On the other hand, in the National Defense Force, the pay of soldiers and officers is statistically verified by the General Staff, and then uniformly distributed by the National Bank to the accounts opened by the soldiers in the bank. The payment of military pay to each soldier is recorded and can be checked, which completely solves the problem of being taken over by the chief officer of the army. , the problem of army officers embezzling military pay.
Economic guarantees such as military pay, soldier casualty pensions, and land rewards for soldiers who join the army are the basis for maintaining the combat effectiveness of the National Defense Forces. At the same time, drawing on the experience of later generations, systematically cultivating professional officers, and rationally optimizing the force structure are to ensure that when the war comes, the expanded combat effectiveness of the National Defense Forces will not be serious. Another important measure of decline.
Before the outbreak of the Argentine War, the total number of field troops of the National Defense Forces was hundreds of thousands. After the outbreak of the war, including supplementary field troops, garrison troops, and militia troops, the total number of troops expanded to more than 300,000, including 220,000 frontline troops and local left-behind troops. About one hundred thousand.
Among the newly expanded troops of nearly 200,000 people, more than half of the grassroots officers were transferred from other troops, while the other part of the officers were temporarily promoted military academy cadets like Wang Shizhen, Lu Rongting and others, as well as veterans with rich combat experience.
Following the German officer corps policy after the end of World War I, a large number of officers were retained as deputies in the army during peacetime. This ensured that when the war broke out, according to the organizational structure of the shelf army, an army was quickly divided into two basic units, and additional recruitment was The recruits formed a new combat unit.
The combat effectiveness of the newly expanded troops will decrease to a certain extent in the initial stage of integration. However, under the model of grassroots officers and key non-commissioned officers leading the new with the old, it can help the new recruits adapt to the battlefield environment as quickly as possible and complete the transition from new recruits to a qualified war fighter.
The main force of the 1st Mixed Brigade was divided into three and split into other battlefields. The 1st Mixed Brigade directly commanded by Liu Yongfu only had more than 1,000 soldiers, while the 3rd Guard Brigade, with more than 6,000 soldiers, was filled with about half of the recruits.
With the combined strength of the 1st Mixed Brigade, the 3rd Guard Brigade, engineers, artillery, logistics and other units, Liu Yongfu barely had more than 10,000 troops under his command. When assigning combat missions two days ago, Liu Yongfu once told Li Mingyuan
He made a suggestion, hoping to recruit young soldiers from the army's boy camp from the rear to enhance the strength of the army, but was rejected by Li Mingyuan.
Adhering to the military traditions of the Taiping Army and the major powers of later generations, the National Defense Forces also have an established Boy Scout unit.
However, unlike the Boy Scouts during the Taiping Army period, the Boy Scout Camp only recruits war orphans, orphans recruited from the mainland, and some children from civilian families who have a strong desire to join the army.
After several years of expansion, the number of young soldiers between the ages of 12 and 15 has exceeded 10,000, and the number has remained around 15,000. The number of young soldiers under the age of 12 has reached 40,000, and the number is increasing year by year.
.
The Children's Camp is a supplement and improvement to the Army Middle School education. At least two-thirds of the young trainees who enter the Army Middle School every year come from the Children's Camp. Therefore, many civilian families regard joining the Children's Camp as a shortcut to becoming officers and send their boys to the Children's Camp one after another.
Study in a children's camp.
Among the later generals of the Taiping Army, King Chen Yucheng of England, King Mu Tan Shaoguang, King Protector Chen Kunshu, King Xie Tan Tiyuan and Li Mingyuan's biological father, King Li Shixian, were all young soldiers from the Tongzi camp.
The young Taiping soldiers with simple beliefs and bravery fought on the front line of the war, but they often became victims of the Taiping senior leaders' efforts to win.
During the Wuhan offensive, Chen Yucheng's boy battalion acted as a death squad and suffered heavy casualties. In the Jiading defensive battle, more than a hundred soldiers from the boy battalion were killed in order to cover the retreat of the main force of the Taiping Army.
The high-level officials were corrupt, the army was retreating steadily, and the soldiers at the bottom were bleeding and sacrificing themselves for nothing. In the end, all they got was the betrayal and abandonment of the Taiping Army's high-level officials.
The cruelty and ruthlessness of the people in power were nakedly displayed in the war. As a South American Chinese leader whose ideals have never been destroyed, Li Mingyuan could not take advantage of the admiration of the youths in the children's camp and consume them in a tragic war in advance.
Not only was Liu Yongfu's request rejected, but the requests of those generals who were remnants of the Taiping Army and who used the Taiping Army's old practice of recruiting teenagers to form death squads to attack the city were also rejected one by one.
After receiving a harsh reprimand from Li Mingyuan, the pride that had just risen in Liu Yongfu's heart was immediately extinguished. He formed an organizational team with his deputy He Yanliang, a caring staff member who was familiar with him before. When formulating the battle plan, Liu Yongfu was a little more cautious.
Be careful and cautious.
"His Royal Highness is personally in charge of Buenos Aires. It is difficult for the British army to break through there. The New Capital City is connected to the Patos Lagoon and the open sea. Large British warships cannot approach the port area. The threat to the New Capital City is limited. But if
The British warships did not entangle with our army, leaving only an army unit to occupy the beach and set up fortifications to contain our army's movements. Their naval frigates and gunboats gave up their entanglement with our army and attacked Rosario and Paraná all the way upstream.
City, Santa Fe City, wouldn’t that disrupt our army’s combat deployment?”
After Liu Yongfu calmed down for a few minutes, he raised his concerns.
"It's not impossible."
He Yanliang frowned, put one arm on the table, and thought deeply.
"Siring officers, telegram from the frontline headquarters!"
While the three of them were lowering their heads and thinking about countermeasures, the officer on duty in the telegraph room hurried into the war room and took out a telegram and handed it to Liu Yongfu.
"Okay, okay, more than 14,000 mines have been deployed in the Santa Fe and Paraná river basins. The mine-laying warships of the inland fleet are laying mines in the waters outside Rosario. The frontline headquarters ordered our troops to land on the British troops tonight.
The troops launched a raid to delay the British fleet's advance into the inland river basin and try to buy time for the inland river fleet to lay mines."
Liu Yongfu said three good words in succession, and handed the telegrams in his hands to He Yanliang and Shen Fushan respectively. "Five days ago, the inland river fleet transported a batch of weapons to the First Mixed Brigade. I thought they had just completed the inland river escort and transportation mission, but they didn't."
Thinking of the navy's action, mines have been deployed for hundreds of kilometers in the Santa Fe and Paraná rivers, and mines are also being deployed in the waters around Rosario. With the obstruction of mines all over the inland river basin, the British fleet will no longer be able to freely pass through Brazil.
The Lana River is not that simple."
"Yes, the water at the mouth of the Rio de la Plata is vast, so it is difficult to lay mines and the effect is small. We simply don't lay mines within the 300 kilometers of the banks of the Rio de la Plata to paralyze the British fleet commanders and make them think that our army acted in a hurry and did not have enough time.
Laying mines on the Paraná River can also encourage them to boldly sail to Rosario, and at the same time taste the power of the Han Dynasty's unique mines."
Shen Fushan put down the telegram and said with a smile on his face.
Mines, grenades, machine guns, and landmines have relatively low technical content. Li Mingyuan, who was a mercenary in his previous life, knew a lot about these weapons that he often came into contact with. During field operations, he used existing weapons or equipment to lay booby traps, discover and avoid them.
Laying mines in local areas is a must-have professional skill. Therefore, in certain specific military industrial fields, with Li Mingyuan's intervention and command, the armed equipment of the National Defense Forces is much higher than that of Western officers at the same time.
Pressure-fired, trigger-type, floating, electrolyte-type, various types of mines with different uses were constantly invented, and then after experimental improvements, they were manufactured in large quantities, and finally stored until the day they were needed.
Liu Yongfu did not understand the structural principles of mines, but he had seen simulated mine attack tactics in naval drills and could intuitively feel the power of mine attacks.
The big strategic policy has been formulated by the frontline general headquarters. What Liu Yongfu and others have to do is to complete the specific tactical deployment according to the orders of the general headquarters.
"Convey the order from the frontline headquarters of officers at battalion level and above. All regiments and battalion units should prepare for battle before twelve o'clock, and launch a surprise attack on time at twelve forty midnight!"
