Chapter 1725: Thirteen. Icewind Forest (17)

"Alexander Vasilyevich, as you might expect, the magician of the empire was a very calm person. In this era of restraint and tradition that have given way to efficiency and benefits, there is this kind of calmness. The generals exist, and they are also the generals of the empire. It’s amazing."
Admiral Makarov stood by the window, and there was a rush of heat outside the window. Words like traffic and horses were no longer enough to describe Yam Liza's current busyness. It's clearly early winter, but the atmosphere of Yam Liza is like midsummer.
As the Principality Army deepened into Lapland's territory, the two countries' armies began to confront each other along the Mannerheim line of defense, and the importance and busyness of Yarmidzha increased linearly.
This is not surprising.
Offensive operations always have higher logistics requirements. Under the scorched earth operations of opponents and the extremely bad geographical environment and traffic conditions, any logistics support task may evolve into a disaster.
This is no exaggeration.
Every grain, every bullet, every blanket must be transported several times from the far back, and there may be a series of accidents, which will eventually reach the frontline unit after all the hardships and dangers-this is for any logistics The departments are disaster and hell. And with the increasingly obvious tendency to expand the fighting, this nightmare will inevitably intensify. This is exactly what Admiral Makarov and his confidants tried to avoid, as Parsifal liked.
"It must be said that His Excellency Parsifal has done a great job. Even in one thing we have expected, he can still make me feel unexpected... I believe other people will feel the same way."
Major General Kolchak is also tense with his poker face today, and the excessively serious tone tinges the content of the words with a stern air.
As a soldier, there is nothing more foolish than watching yourself step by step into the opponent's trap without any way.
Both Makarov and Kolchak knew that if Parsifal wanted his small "existing fleet" to work, the only feasible way was to repeatedly attack the fragile supply line of the Principality Army and let the Principality The army's maneuvering power was exhausted, and finally created a gap to raid the Yalliza stronghold, paralyzing the logistical system of the Principality Army in one breath, allowing the Principality Army to end the war because it could not continue to fight.
This is very reasonable and easy to move around, and Kolchak will do the same thing.
So he formulated a combat plan, intentionally keeping a certain distance between the formation and the floating ship, and throwing a bait that the other party could not resist. When the opponent thought he was lucky and threw himself up to bite, the mobile unit led by Golchak would surround and destroy the fleet.
This is the most appropriate approach.
In the offensive and defensive battles of the assault and battles, the attacking side is always easier to master the initiative and concentrate its forces on targets with weaker forces. In contrast, the defenders must set up defense everywhere, not only to arrange convoys, but also to prepare mobile patrol forces, so that when the transport fleet is attacked, they can come out at the fastest speed to support, drag the enemy attack fleet, and encircle other fleets. To gain time.
In fact, the defender is not necessarily passive defense, but more active and tactical options for Major Kolchak's appetite exist. That is, the Principality Army took the initiative to attack and penetrated into the Lapland hinterland to carry out a comprehensive and thorough attack on all its airports and floating ship bases. It is best to destroy Lapland’s floating battleships on the ground. If this is not possible, at least the enemy fleet will lose its strongholds for rest and resupply and its combat power will be greatly reduced.
Only for political reasons, this option cannot be realized.
In the case of a full-scale overall war, let alone bombing port bases, there is no problem even if the city and the country are bombed indiscriminately. Anyway, as long as they eventually become the winners, no one will blame these small things. But now it is a "limited war"-limited to a local conflict in a certain area (neither the Principality nor Lapland has officially declared war, and legally speaking, the two parties can only be regarded as armed conflicts, not legal combatants through formal procedures), A full-scale attack in the heart of Lapland is likely to raise the level of confrontation and trigger a runaway chain reaction. This is something that senior officials of the Principality and even the majority of military leaders have tried to avoid, so this more effective plan will never be passed.
"Both the enemy and us know that it is our logistics supply line that determines the victory or defeat of this war. As long as the logistics are unimpeded, the war will inevitably end with the victory of our army. Therefore, the victory or defeat of the battle around our army supply line will directly determine the direction of the war. But Our army's capability will gradually weaken with the increase in supply flow, so we hope to lead out the enemy fleet as soon as possible and lift the threat to the supply line."
The deeper the enemy's territory, the longer the supply line becomes. With the constraints of the terrain and the original traffic environment, the difficulty of implementing supply through the ground will increase exponentially. Before clarifying the various problems of ground transportation, the Principality will inevitably place more emphasis on supplying by air transportation. As the size of the floating fleet increases and the offensive against the Mannerheim line increases, the maneuvering power of the Principality's floating fleet will soon face a dilemma. Is it to adjust the force to increase the pressure on the Mannerheim defense line, or to withdraw the warships that support the army to increase the force? Either way, there is no guarantee that it will work and solve the problem in a short time, and once the battle is not in a short time If decisive progress is made within the country, the severity of the problem will inevitably increase further until progress is made ahead or the logistics line is fatally hit.
It was precisely to avoid engaging with the Lapland Fleet under these worst conditions that Kolchak developed the decoy battle. Its core purpose is to carry out a decisive battle of the fleet before the Principality's floating fleet has not fallen into a stretch, and to fundamentally remove the threat of the enemy's existing fleet.
The plan itself is no problem, and the judgment is correct. The bait that is dropped is even more generous, but the cunning enemy is to be patient and not bite.
"It's unfortunate to say that the enemy general has patience and insight beyond our imagination. More importantly, as a general guest, he has the convenience of using the empire to persuade Lapland, and also allows Lapland soldiers Obey the order and fully execute the charm of its planning. It is a blessing for the lower official to meet such a good opponent."
Kolchak was still with his face, but his mouth twitched subtly for a while, and he finally didn't say "it's a misfortune to our army".
Even if he is the "fearless Kolchak", it is impossible to say such a strong defeatist word in front of an admiral. It is already a remarkable performance to admit the enemy’s excellence as it is now, and to praise it without hesitation.
It may be that the experience is more abundant, or the personality is more open-minded, and it is more likely to take the opportunity to dial up the promising subordinates. Admiral Makarov's speech seems even more carefree.
"It's a matter of height, Alexander Vasilyevich. When we looked at the battle in front of us and thought about how to win. The magician looked at it and thought about how to end the war."
"Is there any difference?"
"It doesn't make sense if the war does not end with victory-it would be normal for a soldier to think like this. Starting from the non-commissioned officer school, we learned and looked at'how to win.' That is purely military-level strategy and tactics. But The opponents are different this time. He does not regard winning as the only condition for ending the war. As long as he remains undefeated, he will face off with the opponent and leave room for counterattack. On the basis of this, achieving peace can be achieved. ."
There was a hint of sigh in the sigh of the old man.
He did not think that Kolchak’s talents were inferior to those of Parsifal, nor did he think that there was really any difference in the horizon between the two. To really say the difference, it should be that the two have different directions. Kolchak, who is a pure soldier, tends to look at issues from an army perspective. Politics, or policy, is not within his consideration. In his view, that is the scope of politicians' work, not the field that soldiers should step on. Parsifal’s affiliation between the military and politics is roughly similar to Kolchak~EbookFREE.me~ but he believes that soldiers should have a broader perspective and a certain degree of understanding of politics, so that they can be better To achieve the goal of national defense, because in the final analysis, national defense cannot be separated from politics and exists and operates independently.
With this difference in cognition, the differences in the layout, adjustment, and operation of the current war between the two sides are also obvious.
Kolchak thought about how to win, and Parsifal thought about how to achieve peace without defeat. There is no right or wrong difference between the two ideas, but under the current international environment and battlefield conditions, Parsifal's concept is easier to realize, and that's all.
"Alexander Vasilyevich, the man fascinated by the goddess of victory, does not care how much it pays to catch the skirt of the goddess. Only the undefeated man will carefully calculate how much money is in his pocket, How to reasonably use limited resources to achieve a more realistic goal. Now that we have invested too much resources to grasp the skirt of the goddess of victory, we will continue to invest. The magician has an accurate insight into this psychology. With limited resources, he chose to wait for the opportunity. For this reason, he even let the battle on the ground cooperate with his pace. Through flexible defense, while consuming our army, he gradually withdrew to the Mannerheim line. In order to break through that line, our army must By investing more resources, the result is greater pressure on the logistics, and even the pressure on our military air force. So far, he has done a good job, but think about it in reverse, it also means that he has been forced To the point where we have to dispatch the fleet, is this not a great opportunity for us?"
"what do you mean--"
"Anyway, we are going to aim at Yam Liza in the end. Then we can be more generous and let this stronghold become the burial ground of the "Undefeated Magician" and the Lapland Floating Fleet."