the world is at stake

If this war does not gain enough, the Japanese Army will have a hard time.Hearing the second-class soldier's question, Fu Chuan frowned into the word 'Chuan', and said in a deep voice: "If Colonel Goto orders, of course."

Harada said anxiously: "But what do we rely on to fight? Do we use sabers to chop? The entire regiment lacks the equipment to deal with armored vehicles."

Yoshiko Akiyama, who established the Japanese cavalry, set the tactical idea for the cavalry of his country as "advancing cavalry", which means going deep into the enemy's rear to investigate, harass, and destroy.

During the Russo-Japanese War, a cavalry brigade was equipped with six 'Hotchkiss' heavy machine guns dragged by horses, which were called 'rapid-firing machine guns'.Because of poor equipment, the Japanese cavalry has been avoiding a head-on confrontation with the Cossack cavalry.

Now that five years have passed, the Japanese army has equipped more machine guns and cavalry guns, but weak firepower is a characteristic of all Japanese army divisions.When encountering the National Defense Forces that are open, they will undoubtedly hit a stone with a pebble.

Fu Chuan murmured, scolding the weakness of the second-class soldier with a sullen face, "As long as it is an order, it must be carried out. If there is no other way, it is not unacceptable to chop with a saber."

"But how can a saber fight against an armored vehicle?" Harada was even more anxious.

Fu Chuan didn't answer.

Before the discussion came to a conclusion, Sergeant Cao, who was the team leader, ran over viciously and shouted, "A violent armored troop has appeared and is approaching us quickly. Everyone get on their horses and prepare to fight."

Fu Chuan, who looked old, said nothing. He threw the reins on the horse's back, carried a [-]-style lance on his back, and stepped on the horse.Harada followed behind him, half a horse behind.

The sergeant was stubby, like a wild boar on horseback.He clamped the horse's belly, led the detachment out of the shelter, trot along a dirt road in the wilderness, and joined several other detachments to form a squadron and a brigade.

Harada glanced around and found that his squadron's 'Hotchkiss' heavy machine gun was set up on a small dirt bag beside the dirt road.On the side of the road is a piece of land that has just been burned and reclaimed, which is fairly flat.

The squadron leader grabbed the binoculars and hurried down from the dirt bag.

The burnt land was pitch black, and about a kilometer away there was a thin gray line moving fast, approaching along the road beside the field ridge.Judging from the outline, it is a violent armored vehicle.

It took only half an hour for the Japanese army to arrive at this land slope, and it was too late to make too many arrangements, neither destroying the road nor planting explosives.In addition to the 'Hotchkiss', the brigade also strengthened a 'Trinity Type' mountain cannon.

The wind is strong in the wilderness, and the vegetation is whirling.The convoys of the National Defense Forces seem to come with the wind. There are hundreds of them, and they raid like a prairie fire.

"It's too late." Fu Chuan, who fought in the Russo-Japanese War, whispered.He had fought bloody battles with the Cossack cavalry and was the most experienced veteran in the team.

"What's too late?" Harada's head was looking around, and he saw another cavalry squadron appearing about 300 meters away, as if about to launch a pincer attack.

Fu Chuan shook his head, "The peripheral guards found out too late. Today will be a fierce battle."

The 'Hotchkiss' sounded loudly, trying to prevent the armored vehicle from approaching, so as to provide time for its own troops to respond. The 'Three One Type' mountain cannon also fired immediately, hitting the opponent who was approaching him.

But with the aim of the mountain cannon, hitting a moving target hundreds of meters away is just a joke.The fragments that exploded after the shell landed did not stop the enemy, but urged it to continue to accelerate.

The Chinese convoy drove one car to the side of the dirt road and stopped, and the 'Maqqin' on the roof of the car fired at each other without fear.It is not afraid of the legal heavy machine guns on the slopes.

The water-cooled 'Maxim' has much better firepower continuity, and the vehicle can carry more ammunition. At most, the canvas belt is relatively hollow, and the others are almost perfect.

The opposite 'Hotchkiss' is air-cooled, and its firepower density is less than one-third of that of 'Maxim'.Although the [-]-round bomb protection plate is more reliable, its durability is far inferior to the [-]-round canvas belt.

Half a minute later, the retreating 'Three-Type' mountain gun reset and fired again, aiming at the truck loaded with 'Maximum'.The projectile exploded seven or eight meters away, at most it would jingle the car body.

'Maqqin' moved a little bit to allow the opponent to aim, that's all.

Both sides are chug chug, tom tom, tom tom.The debris from the earth slope was flying around, and the Japanese machine guns were suppressed for a while and could not lift their heads. The artillery crew of the "Three-Type" mountain gun was hit by the straddle shot of the "Maximum" and suffered casualties.

The exchange of firepower is too unequal.The other armored vehicles continued to swagger forward, and even split into two roads to outflank halfway through.

Seeing that the distance between the two sides has been shortened from one kilometer to four to 500 meters.Harada's squadron was ordered to run laterally to disperse the opponent's forces and avoid a head-on collision.

The rookies of the Wehrmacht were really fooled.

An armored truck tried to chase the Japanese detachment along the dirt road, but the driver rushed too fast and the wheels got stuck in the rutted ditch of the dirt road and couldn't move.

The sergeant who pretended to retreat immediately shouted: "Fu Chuan, you bring a group to attract the enemy's ideas. Others follow me and blow up this armored vehicle."

Although the Japanese cavalry lacked heavy weapons, they always carried explosives for destroying bridges and roads.Luring the enemy to go deep and counterattack decisively is a tactic they often practice.

Sergeant Cao obviously wanted to exchange money with the National Defense Forces, sacrificing a small number of troops for an armored vehicle.

What was stuck was an armored off-road vehicle, the body of which was tilted at more than ten degrees.No matter how the driver hits the accelerator, the stuck wheel will not come out.

Fu Chuan, the commander of the army, swung his horse's head, drew out his saber, and rushed towards the armored car with a loud shout.He didn't approach in a straight line, but pulled diagonally.When he saw the machine gun turret on the top of the car turning with him, he even turned sideways to hide on the other side of the horse.

While the Russo-Japanese War veteran took the lead, he yelled at Harada who was following him, "Follow me and get the explosives ready."

The sergeant of the squadron on the other side was relatively quiet, approaching from the side with three or four cavalrymen.Someone was also carrying a pack of explosives, intending to pull the cable and throw it at the bottom of the armored vehicle.

The battle came too fast, looking down from the sky.The encounter between the two sides in Cuizhuang Village was that the National Defense Forces took the initiative to launch an attack, rushing to attack before the opponent deployed its troops.

In mobile combat, a high-firing machine gun is obviously more advantageous than a one-shot mountain cannon.Armored trucks and off-road vehicles pushed flat on the front line, easily killing and wounding the opponent's horses.

The Japanese cavalry squadron has only one cannon and two 'Hatchkiss'.The artillery crew and machine gunners risked their lives to attack, in exchange for a pile of soil clods that occasionally exploded, and meaningless armor ricochets.

Facing the intensive firepower, the injured or frightened Dongyang horses were neighing and jumping, knocking the cavalry off their horses from time to time.Occasionally, one or two units can seize the fighter, and it is difficult to destroy the opponent's armored vehicles.

The armored off-road vehicle whose wheels were stuck could not move, and the machine gunner on the roof quickly released a yellow smoke grenade.The companions around him immediately moved closer to him for protection and rescue.

The sergeant of the unit who was trying to sneak attack was swept by a wave of 'Maqin' bullets, and a pool of blood burst out of his strong chest.The [-]mm bullet pierced through his thick cotton military uniform.

Fu Chuan, who attracted the machine gunner's attention, quickly approached the off-road vehicle, but apart from the pistol on his back, he only had a saber in his hand.

Looking at the opponent's ugly but hard armor, Fu Chuan could only slash the saber in his hand towards the only exposed machine gun turret on the roof of the car-the saber made a 'clang' sound and burst out a few sparks.

The machine gunner on the roof was startled. He was changing the magazine for 'Madsen' just now, but he didn't expect that some brave little devil would cut himself with a saber.

The little devil didn't give up after chopping once, and turned back after passing by the car body, wanting to continue chopping.He was still shouting 'Harada, dynamite' at the same time.

But 'Harada' who was following behind did not have the ability to 'hide in the stirrups', and had already been beaten to death by 'Madsen'.The corpse was just 30 meters away, holding a small dynamite bag in his arms, staring like a goldfish, dying with regret.

Fu Chuan turned his head and found that within half a minute of luring the enemy to counterattack, his cavalry unit was almost dead.Apart from him, only two or three people were riding away.

"Idiot, how can you escape? You must have the heart to die when you go to the battlefield."

'Madsen' shot again, and several bullets pierced Fu Chuan's back.His saber slashed in vain, and fell powerlessly, and the corpse fell to the ground.

The battlefield in Cuizhuang Village was one-sided.

The '104' armored car regiment going south only launched a quick battalion-level assault, and defeated the 800-man brigade under the Japanese Second Cavalry Wing.

Its only loss was that bad road conditions caused a dozen vehicles to break down halfway.

At two o'clock in the afternoon, General Goto, who commanded the cavalry, determined that the battle was unfair to him, and the main force under him could not even last a round.

At this moment, he was sure that the cavalry could only be slaughtered in front of the Wehrmacht equipped with machine guns in large numbers.The Second Cavalry Regiment must retreat immediately.But he couldn't go away.

At [-] o'clock in the afternoon, the Japanese logistics force in Haizhou was attacked—a reconnaissance force rushed into Haizhou Railway Station recklessly along the railway line and blew up the "Manchurian" locomotive parked on the platform.

The Japanese army in Haizhou sought "combat guidance" from Lushun.That's less than 24 hours since the fighting started last night.Such a rapid reversal only shows that the Wehrmacht has long been preparing for this battle.

The three railway guards are in Anshan, and they basically got in.The Lushun Heavy Artillery Regiment lost twelve precious artillery pieces, as well as its own commander.The most elite Second Cavalry Wing of the Second Division also suffered heavy losses and was unable to break through.

When the news came back to Lushun, Yoshimasa Oshima, who planned this test, had just finished his lunch break.He took the front-line telegram from the chief of staff, Major General Toyono Toyoshi, and said in surprise, "So fast?"

Major General Ohno's face was already pale, and cold sweat was breaking out on his forehead.

The rapid failure of this provocation and the heavy losses were beyond the expectations of the Japanese army-the First Division of the National Defense Forces formed by condensing the power of the whole of China was too strong.

I thought that picking a bad weather could avoid the opponent's world-renowned air power, but I didn't expect its ground armor to be stronger.

The Kanto Governor's Mansion has its own Army Department.The officers of the young and strong faction in the Ministry were still talking nonsense yesterday, hoping to sweep the three eastern provinces and destroy the whole of China.

They were all silent now, completely dazed.No one can shoulder the responsibility of defeat, let alone want to have a caesarean section.

Only then did some people think of the "National War" declaration issued by the Chinese government in the morning, and of the central government's unrelenting attitude and decisiveness in severing diplomatic relations.

The confidence of the declaration comes from the battlefield.

Chapter 64 Making choices is more important than hard work

As an island country, Japan has a small territory and limited resources.

The so-called "Warring States" period was called "county head struggle for hegemony", "township head seize power" and "village head fight".This is not without reason.

A cavalry battle of a thousand cavalry scale is already a very spectacular war scene in Japan.The Japanese cavalry is also not good at fighting in large groups, but is obsessed with 'one ride'.

The Japanese horse breed comes from China's Mongolian horse. After arriving in the island country, the breeding conditions were poor and it continued to degenerate, becoming a weak slag with a shoulder height of only 1.3 meters.

Japanese Warring States generals are also bad.

Honda Tadakatsu, known as "the strongest general in the Warring States Period" and "Oni no Heihachi", is one of the four Tokugawa kings, and is compared to Japan's "Lu Bu".

But according to historical data and the armor he handed down, it is inferred that the height of this 'Lu Bu' is about 140c - just kidding, this is a dwarf.

European missionaries went to Japan and described their cavalry as 'children riding big dogs to fight'.The ancestors called them 'wo', which is too precise.

After the 'Meiji Restoration', Japan introduced Arabian horse breeds from France, and it took nearly half a century to cultivate war horses.But during the Russo-Japanese War, they found that their cavalry was still at a disadvantage when fighting against the Cossack cavalry.

You must know that the Cossacks implemented the "Lancer" tactics, equipped with spears and Chashik sabers, and only used grasslands and forests as cover, they could repeatedly cause major damage to the Japanese flanks.

However, the victory in the Russo-Japanese War did not wake up the Japanese army. Instead, they took many absurd and outdated concepts in the war as a magic weapon for victory and carried them forward.

For example, infantry's 'pig rush' and cavalry's 'charge'.

In the battle between Anshan and Haizhou, the Japanese army, still holding the attitude of "taking it for granted", suffered heavy losses, and was taught to be a man by the Chinese National Defense Forces equipped with a large number of machine guns and vehicles.

At 8:12 on the [-]th, part of the Lushun Heavy Artillery Regiment of the Japanese Army was easily killed by the mobile artillery of the National Defense Army.This is the first 'domino' to be toppled.

At 14 o'clock, the Second Cavalry Wing of the Japanese Army was annihilated near Cuizhuang Village in the north of Haizhou. At 15 o'clock, the three railway guards attacking Anshan completely retreated.Wehrmacht mobile artillery quickly moved south.

At this moment in the battle, the Japanese army's "weak attack and incompetent defense" gave the rookie of the National Defense Force great confidence.Everyone discovered that the little devil's equipment is really bad.

At 16:[-], the remnants of the Japanese cavalry were besieged in several villages around Nantai Town in the north of Haizhou.The Wehrmacht demanded the surrender of its commander, Goto Osamu, who refused and forced a breakout.

At 17:30, Haizhou, which is only [-] kilometers away from Anshan, was raided by the National Defense Forces.At this moment, one-third of the nearly [-] vehicles in the mixed force broke down.

The Japanese army finally realized that they were powerless to attack, so they blew up the pontoon bridge on the Haicheng River to prevent the National Defense Forces from continuing to go south.

At 18 o'clock, it was already dark.Major General Xiao Jin ordered the troops to garrison in Haizhou, clean up the battlefield, gather their own personnel, and clean up the rout of the Japanese army.

By one o'clock in the morning, the National Defense Forces confirmed that they had wiped out one cavalry regiment and three railway guards of the Japanese army, killed and wounded more than 3000 Japanese soldiers, and captured nearly a thousand prisoners.

Among them, less than [-] Japanese cavalry escaped, and its commander Goto Shoji committed suicide by caesarean section in Nantai Town.His personal guards surrendered to the Wehrmacht and demanded that the body of Dazuo be sent back to Japan.

That night, Xu Shichang in Shenyang organized workers to rush to repair the damaged railway, and sent the first logistics train to Haizhou at noon on the 9th.

At noon on the 9th, the National Defense Forces bombarded the Japanese positions on the south bank of the Haicheng River and made a detour from the upper reaches.In the afternoon of the same day, Xiao Jin advanced the front line to the Dashiqiao in the south of Haizhou, and confronted the main force of the Second Division of the Japanese Army who was urgently transferred to Gaizhou.

So far, the headquarters of the Japanese Kanto Governor's Mansion was blocked in the long and narrow west line of the Liaodong Peninsula, unable to get out.The Wehrmacht also had trouble getting through, because the density of enemy troops and weapons suddenly increased and they built strong fortifications.

The 'Holy Light' team is very sober, and the National Defense Forces don't mean to solve the little devil at once.

The first division was blocked at Dashiqiao, and began to build strong fortifications.Although the battle was not complete, three-quarters of the South Manchuria Railway was cut off, and the Japanese could no longer obtain coal and iron from the three eastern provinces.

The news of the defeat was sent back to Tokyo on the evening of the 8th. Prime Minister Katsura Katsura almost thought that the military was joking with him—the Army Red Deer had vowed two days ago that the test would be successful.

Well now, the outstretched hand was chopped off.The advantage was not taken, and the Nanman Railway, which transfused the blood of the Great Japanese Empire, was still abolished.Coupled with China's economic blockade against Japan, the Japanese economy is about to suffer heavy losses.

The Japanese Army Department was extremely embarrassed by the defeat, and the young and strong officers were hit hard, and the furious ones wanted to start a full-scale war.Minister of War and Governor of North Korea Terauchi Masaki had to go to Miyagi to find Emperor Meiji to plead guilty and said he would resign.

Keitaro's cabinet was full of quarrels. Minister of Foreign Affairs Komura Komura called Oshima Yoshinaka a national traitor and asked him to abdicate immediately, hoping to restore relations with China.

But the military department ignored this, as long as Emperor Meiji ordered it.

What can Meiji do?After he heard the news, he could only keep silent, and had to push back Zhengyi's resignation in the temple to ensure that the military department would not make any bigger troubles.

As for the Liaodong battlefield...

The Second Division of the Japanese Army has proved that it cannot withstand the opponent's armored assault in the field, and the Ministry of the Army has discovered that the military doctrines of the past are completely unable to adapt to the current battlefield.

The young men in the army were furious and clamored to produce or buy more machine guns and armored trucks to form their own tank troops.

Katsura Katsura, who also served as the Minister of Finance, said that although there was assistance from Britain and the United States, the national finances could not support a full-scale war.Don't expect a big fight unless you can force China to negotiate and pay reparations.

The Japanese navy is willing to take action when the army loses face. Its main force is six former dreadnought battleships and a dozen cruisers.It has a great chance of attacking the southeast coast of China by night or bad weather.

However, Guitaro's cabinet has repeatedly emphasized that if the army cannot win, China will not surrender or pay compensation, so what if the Japanese navy bombards its entire coast?

To put it simply, this defeat brought Japan a crisis in the military and political circles.Before they come to an internal quarrel, they are simply unable to launch another attack on the battlefield.

In contrast, China's interior is relatively quiet.The broadcast only stated that the National Defense Forces repelled the Japanese attack on Anshan, killed thousands of enemies, and were confronting Gaizhou on the front line.

The "Holy Light" officer corps has verified its own army building route, and the next step is to continue to strengthen it-better soldiers, stronger training, more and better machine guns, planes, trucks, and cannons.

The common people were very satisfied with the people's army's ability to withstand the attacks of the little devils. Various mimeographed pamphlets repeatedly instilled one point in the students and intellectuals-the rejuvenation of the country and the nation is a long road, and there is no shortcut.

The time dragged on until the end of December, and China and Japan were playing small fights on the front line.The National Defense Forces are preparing to engage in a round of battles. They will bring the newly formed troops to Liaoning to fight against the 'Blue Army' for a few rounds, and then send them to the front line of Gaizhou to experience actual combat.

By January 1911, Premier Qin Qing of the State Council issued an announcement explaining the development of the national economy last year.

The national gdp is 110 billion silver dollars, roughly converted to 22 billion U.S. dollars and 11 billion pounds.It is almost one-fifteenth of that of the United Kingdom and the United States, and most of it is agricultural output value, and the proportion of industry is less than one-tenth.

Steel production has increased to 100 million tons, of which crude steel production is only 60.00%, and the rest is low-end products such as pig iron.Both productivity and quality need to be improved.

The output of other industrial products is still very low, only a fraction of that of the great powers.The domestic mining, construction and manufacturing industries are still on the eve of training personnel, manufacturing equipment and increasing production capacity.

However, when this report spread, it fell under great pressure in the eyes of the Japanese military and political circles.After Miura finished his intelligence collection in Shanghai, when he returned to Tokyo, he gathered the Japanese selected group to discuss the current situation.

"Britain and America opened up to us for scrap steel last year, but Japan's steel output didn't increase because China cut off our access to cheap pig iron and coal. As a result, this year's steel output was only 28 tons.

What can you do with such a small output?