Compared to Hokkaido, the Japanese's defense in Honshu was even more insane.
With Edo as the boundary, Mikasa City set up three steel defense lines in the south and four in the north. As for the defense of the main port, it would be even crazier than Hokkaido.
Keisuke Honda's strategy was very clear, which was to defend for a month.
Han Xin naturally scoffed at this. No matter how good a defense was, it was nothing more than a decoration in the face of an extremely powerful attack. The Art of War says, "The best defense is offense."
As for how to attack Honzhou Island, Han Xin already had a complete set of battle plans.
On the 7th of June, the northern army began to move.
Guo Ziyi led the Roaring Flame Army across the strait and landed on the northernmost tip of Honzhou Island. She was responsible for sweeping all the way from north to south. The First Legion of the City Guard Army, the First Legion of the Brave Tiger Army, and the First Legion of the Soaring Eagle Army were divided into three squads and landed at three different ports on the northern side of the island to support the Blazing Flame Army.
There were simply too many ports in Honshu, and the Japanese army was limited, so it was impossible for them to have an airtight defense. Once Han Xin found a loophole, the enemy's entire army would collapse.
Moreover, the expeditionary army had the support of Hokkaido, ensuring a steady stream of provisions and supplies to the front lines. Even if they were to fight on four fronts, they would still be able to handle the situation with relative ease.
From this, it could be seen that the expeditionary army's strategic significance in capturing Hokkaido was greater than its actual combat significance.
As for how the four armies would break through the Japanese's defense line near the port, with Ran Min's experience of taking down the Kushiro port, it wouldn't be as difficult as ascending to the heavens.
"It's just a matter of how much damage they can sustain," Han Xin said.
As the saying goes, 'the merciful do not command an army'. When it was time to be ruthless, Han Xin would also attack his own people. For the sake of the final victory, sometimes sacrificing a group of troops was something that could not be helped.
How could there be no deaths in war?
In addition to these four armies, General Han Xin personally led the Leopard Hidden Army to the vicinity of Edo. While attacking the northern part of Honshu, he also intended to sweep the outer fortresses of Edo, clearing the obstacles for the final siege.
Han Xin's arrangement minimized the time spent in the Kingdom War.
The more the Japanese wanted to delay, the more flustered Han Xin would be. There was no way to delay any longer. Of course, the final siege would require the cooperation of the Southern Army.
Not to mention anything else, just the one million Imperial Guards stationed in Edo was not something that the Northern Army could handle alone.
In the past two days, under the pressure of public opinion, the Southern Army had slightly increased the speed of the sweep. Today, they had almost taken over the entire Kyushu Island and established a large rear.
In a few days, the Southern Army will continue north to attack Shikoku Island.
Even then, the progress of the southern army was still extremely lagging behind, and it caused Ouyang Shuo to be rather displeased. Fortunately, he possessed a trump card in his possession that could turn the situation around at the critical moment.
This trump card was only known to the leaders of the Kingdom War. Even Keisuke Honda didn't know about it.
Sometimes, Ouyang Shuo even wished that Di Chen would die like this. If that was the case, he would send a big gift to Di Chen. He just didn't know if Di Chen would be able to accept it.
…
In the following week, the three major battlefields related to Huaxia entered a critical period.
Apart from the army led by Han Xin stirring up trouble in the northern part of Japan's Honshu Island, causing a series of massacres and dismembering the so-called steel defense line that Japan had built up, the other two battlefields were equally intense.
In Goryeo, the army led by Li Jing was still unstoppable. In just ten days, they had taken over the entire northern part of Goryeo and officially fought their way to the capital of Goryeo — Han City.
Different from the battlefield in Japan, Li Jing planned to surround Han City but not attack. He would then use this opportunity to sweep through the southern part of Goryeo and turn Han City into an isolated city.
Before this, Great Xia had already destroyed four countries. This strategy of first wiping out the outer barrier before attacking the capital had been tried and tested. It had already been proven to be the most effective way to destroy a country.
The root of this was probably the setting of Gaia's Imperial Guards. Even in the fifth year of Gaia, compared to the Imperial Guards, the territorial armies were still at a disadvantage. They were the side that could be easily defeated.
This situation was not only very common in small and medium-sized game zones like Star Nation and Annan Nation. Even in a huge region like Huaxia, where there were global hegemons like Great Xia and Handan City, the situation was the same.
Furthermore, before the national war, the capital and the territories were often in a state of hostility. It was even more so for those game zones that only had one capital and one territory.
Usually, both parties were in a state of competition, trying to fight for dominance in their respective regions.
With the advent of the national war, although the two major forces were united, it was ultimately a temporary cooperation that was forced. How could they really be so close?!
Therefore, when the territory was being swept by the enemy, the Imperial Guards would usually not be mobilized.
Just like in Japan, Emperor Meiji supported Mikasa City and allowed it to move around the periphery. The million imperial guards in Edo were all stationed in the city and did not move.
As Keisuke Honda's biggest goal was to hold on for a month, Edo was the final barrier. The stronger the garrison in Edo, the longer they could hold on.
Therefore, although he was unwilling, Keisuke Honda did not raise any objections.
It was foreseeable that after the national war, even if Japan could retain its territory, Mikasa City would be completely destroyed in this war and would no longer be able to lead the situation in Japan.
Perhaps, Emperor Meiji would be the biggest winner of this war.
…
Other than the battle between the field troops in Goryeo, there was another thing that was worth paying attention to. It was the battle between the navy of both sides, which was much more exciting than the naval battle in Japan.
There was no other reason than the fact that Goryeo had a famous naval general — Yi Sun-sin.
This legendary figure was once rated as the number one general in Asia by Goryeo. His most noteworthy battle was the famous Battle of Luliang Sea.
The Battle of Luliang Sea took place at the end of the 16th century AD. It was named for the fact that it took place in Luliang. The two parties involved were the allied forces of the Ming Dynasty and Goryeo, and the Japanese army's Shimazu Tachibana.
The commanders were Chen Lin and Deng Zilong from the Ming Dynasty, Yi Sun-sin from Goryeo, and Shimazu Yoshihiro from Japan. In the end, the allied forces won.
At that time, the true ruler of Japan was one of the three heroes of Japan's Warring States, Toyotomi Hideyoshi.
In this national war, Toyotomi Hideyoshi was appointed by Keisuke Honda to guard Kyushu and Shikoku, while Oda Nobunaga was naturally the guard of Honshu.
As for the Battle of Luliang Sea, this naval battle had a very important position in the history of Huaxia and even in the world. It greatly affected the geopolitical situation in Northeast Asia at that time.
The Battle of Luliang Sea was even rated as one of the eight ancient naval battles in the world by the West Point Military Academy.
In this battle, Yi Sun-sin led the Goryeo 'Turtle Ship' fleet to defeat the Japanese with fewer troops and heavily injured them. In the end, he died a heroic death. In reality, the true commander of this battle was the Ming Army's navy commander, Chen Lin. However, this credit was taken by the Goryeo Yi Sun-sin. Yi Sun-sin had always been regarded as the main contributor in this war. Because of this, he became a great hero in the hearts of the people of Goryeo. After his death, he even received the posthumous title of 'Loyal Warrior'.
The Goryeo people even used this as a backdrop to film a movie called 'The Battle of Luliang Sea'. Whether it was the number of people watching the movie or the box office record, it created history in Goryeo.
Although Yi Sun-sin was praised by the Goryeo people a little too much, he did not live up to his reputation. The Goryeo fleet that he led had an exciting battle with the coastal fleet that Qi Jiguang led.
It was also the first time that Goryeo's unique Turtle Ship entered people's sight.
You've already exceeded your reading limit for today. If you want to read more, please log in.
Login
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
