143 Blood Red, Snow White (4)

In China's Bohai Sea, at a distance of more than one hundred nautical miles from Tianjin, the Japanese fleet was implementing a patrol. It was called a patrol, but this fleet, with three cruisers as its main force, simply didn't have enough patrol vigilance. This couldn't be blamed on the Japanese Navy not being serious enough; the People's Party had no navy, and the Beiyang Navy had already withdrawn south to Fujian. There was simply no trace of Chinese warships south of the entire Yangtze River in China. What the so-called patrol could encounter was nothing more than British merchant ships. These merchant ships were fully loaded with goods boarded at ports other than Tianjin, sailing leisurely towards the south of China. Their destination was British ports in the Pacific and even the Indian Ocean, and the final goal was war-torn Europe.

After five or six days of heavy snow, the sky finally cleared. The originally gray vision now became incomparably clear. Under the azure sky, merchant ships spewing thick smoke from their chimneys were extremely clear in the observation scopes of the Japanese fleet. Although these British merchant ships sailing leisurely on the sea had no hostility towards the Japanese fleet, the naval officers and sailors on the Japanese fleet looked at the British merchant ships with malicious eyes. The continuous Sino-British trade meant that the People's Party was still competing fiercely with Japan in foreign trade, yet the Japanese fleet simply didn't dare to intercept them, and couldn't even have any obstructive actions. This couldn't help but make the Japanese fleet, which temporarily controlled the seas of Northeast Asia, quite annoyed.

In the captain's cabin of the fleet flagship, high-ranking officers of the Japanese Navy gathered together. Just according to rank, they should have held the meeting on a battleship. But the navy was a gold-swallowing beast; even without fighting, every sortie required huge expenses. dealing with the People's Party which had no navy at all, dispatching battleships would be too much loss for the gain.

"Gentlemen, the Cabinet Prime Minister has already stated regarding the comprehensive war plan proposed by the Army Ministry this time that if the plan is demonstrated to be feasible, he will agree. I hope you all can propose opinions on this matter!" Navy Minister Kato Tomosaburo said.

"The People's Party has no coastal targets worth attacking. Even attacking Qingdao would be more loss than gain." A navy officer immediately put forward his own view. After cruising along the northern coast of China these days, this was also the view of the Navy Ministry officers.

The life of naval guns in these years was only 200 rounds. A salvo of ten thousand guns seemed majestic and magnificent, but the price behind the magnificence was equally expensive and terrible. The attitude of China under the rule of the People's Party was tough, not even like Chinese people. Not to mention that the army horse dung had never been able to win in land warfare. If they couldn't get tangible and reliable benefits, and merely made the war an endless war of attrition, Japan simply couldn't maintain a long-term combat posture.

"Your Excellency Kato, I heard that the Army Ministry hasn't proposed a comprehensive war military plan yet. Is this true?" Navy officers cared quite a bit about this matter. Leaving aside the contradiction between the Army and the Navy, if the Army Ministry advocating total war against China couldn't propose a plan, the war with China couldn't enter a real breakthrough.

Listening to the Navy Ministry officers asking about the Army Ministry formulating a comprehensive invasion plan for China, Kato Tomosaburo had mixed feelings in his heart. Japan hadn't got the plan to break through China yet, but their relationship with the garrisons of other European countries in China had achieved a "breakthrough."

The current garrisons in China were all those countries of the Eight-Nation Alliance back then. These countries themselves had already split into the irreconcilable Entente Powers and Central Powers. Japan simply didn't need to count on getting support from Germany and Austria. As for the British garrison representative, he simply proposed the requirement that the Japanese army must not threaten the safety of the British and French headquarters in Tianjin. The attitude of various countries was almost unprecedentedly consistent: "Japan needs to act against China itself. Don't count on getting support from other countries like before."

Mentioning the meritorious officials of the Russo-Japanese Battle of Tsushima, everyone would think of Combined Fleet Commander Togo Heihachiro. Undoubtedly, this naval battle decided the outcome of the Russo-Japanese War. It was precisely because of Japan's victory in the Russo-Japanese War that Japan became a world-class country and attracted the attention of various countries. So Togo was called the God of War and was granted a state funeral by the Japanese Emperor after his death. But Kato Tomosaburo, who worked closely with Togo on the same warship, served as the Chief of Staff of the Combined Fleet and was the number two figure in the fleet. He was an artillery expert, and the proper use of Japanese naval artillery was an important factor in achieving victory.

This artillery expert didn't just understand military affairs and not diplomacy. The Russo-Japanese War was indeed ended by military victory, but the role played by diplomacy was no smaller than the selfless slaughter on the battlefield. Without British funds, intelligence, and even full support behind the scenes, Japan might not have been able to achieve victory. Not to mention that now in 1915, Japan still owed Britain 600 million pounds in foreign debt because of the Russo-Japanese War.

Kato Tomosaburo knew very clearly that current China couldn't be defeated by the navy. For Japan, the rise of the People's Party was simply like a nightmare. Suddenly, hundreds of thousands of brave soldiers and tens of thousands of various technical personnel appeared in this backward country of China. The reason the Navy Ministry supported pressuring Tianjin was simple: cutting off the Beijing-Tianjin Railway could maximize the strangulation of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army's transportation line out of the pass.

However, the huge shelling cost and the life-and-death fighting and sacrifice of the marines did not cut off this railway. On the contrary, because of the Japanese invasion, the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army occupied Tianjin instead. Those Chinese braved Japanese artillery fire with amazing courage to drive the locomotives parked at Tianjin Railway Station to a safe place. It wasn't until obtaining the report from intelligence personnel that the Japanese army remembered they should have destroyed these locomotives with artillery.

But at this time, this opportunity had already been lost. From then on, traces of Chinese trains appeared on the Beijing-Harbin line again. The Japanese marines attempted small-scale operations to cut off the railway and achieved certain success at first. But the railway interruption time wasn't long; the Chinese quickly repaired the railway, and trains could still run well. The Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army also constantly set ambushes for the marines. After losing thousands of men in succession, the navy was also unwilling to bear such losses anymore.

"In order to get their plan passed, the Army Ministry is now using all their strength on making plans. Instead, actual military actions are very limited," Kato Tomosaburo replied. Towards the Army Ministry who blew their own trumpet to the sky, Minister Kato expressed his dissatisfaction with such words.

"Could it be that the Army Ministry is preparing to wait until next spring to fight?" The Navy Ministry officers were very dissatisfied with this. "The snow in Manchuria is heavy in winter, but isn't this exactly a good opportunity for us to use our transportation advantage to surround and annihilate the enemy?"

This view immediately received the support of the naval officers. Facing the People's Party which had no maritime strength at all, the land warfare concept identified by the Japanese Navy Ministry could be said to be firm in campaign concept and clear in tactical thought. That was to thoroughly annihilate the effective strength of the People's Party. If commanders of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army listened in on such an idea, presumably they would also agree.

After listening to the discussion of the Japanese naval officers for a while, Navy Minister Kato Tomosaburo spoke up to interrupt the discussion. "Gentlemen, what you are discussing is a war with the goal of occupying Northeast China. I don't want to say there is any problem with everyone's idea, but the Army Ministry is now aiming for a war to overthrow the People's Party. I personally can understand the Army Ministry's difficulties. The People's Party will absolutely not easily give up the Northeast. Even if defeated in the Northeast, they will not easily let it go at that. If it becomes like this, the war will become long-term. And our Great Japanese Empire does not have the ability to endure this long-term war."

"Just wait until the European war ends, and the Entente Powers will definitely support us." The naval officers were relatively knowledgeable, and they immediately proposed this absolutely correct view.

"How long will the European war fight? One year? Half a year, or two years?" As a military expert, Kato Tomosaburo didn't blindly consider the aspects favorable to Japan. The duration and intensity of the European war up to now had already greatly exceeded Kato Tomosaburo's expectations. "If this European war fights for another two or three years, what should we do? Do you gentlemen think we can endure a protracted war of two or three years?"

A naval officer probed: "It's impossible for the European war to fight for so long!"

"Then how do you prove that the European war is impossible to fight for so long?" Kato Tomosaburo asked back.

No one dared to continue speaking. No one in the Japanese Navy Ministry dared to brag like that, boldly predicting the process of the European war.

"Then what is your meaning, Your Excellency?" The officers of the Navy Ministry considered their thoughts unified and were willing to fully support Kato Tomosaburo.

"I don't have any meaning. I think the Navy Ministry has no reason to support a total war, but recently it is necessary for us to implement annihilative military strikes against the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army in Northeast China. Completely controlling Northeast China first, this is the bottom line of all our future military operations..."

Just as Kato Tomosaburo was expressing his opinion, a signal came from the voice tube. The observer at the observation post discovered a People's Party reconnaissance plane in the sky. Naval observers were all talents selected for excellent eyesight. Some guys with strong vision claimed to be able to see stars in broad daylight. This was not a joke; it wasn't that there were no stars during the day, but that the strong sunlight made people unable to see the starlight. In the Russo-Japanese War, just because a Russian warship didn't close its porthole, a glimmer of light in a distant place was discovered by a Japanese naval observer, allowing the Japanese army to occupy the advantage of attacking first. Since the Japanese naval observers said they discovered a People's Party plane, they definitely discovered a People's Party reconnaissance plane.

The officers of the Navy Ministry, including Kato Tomosaburo, fell silent. The People's Party's air force indeed exceeded the air forces of the Great Japanese Imperial Army and Navy. During the siege of Qingdao, the Japanese Navy's planes were beaten so hard they dared not take off. Because those who dared to take off were all shot down by the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army. This was also once an excuse for the Army Ministry to ridicule and even attack the Navy Ministry.

Lack of air superiority was also an important reason why the Navy was unwilling to dispatch marines on a large scale. The Navy indeed possessed powerful mobility at sea, but on clear days, naval landing operations would be detected by the People's Party's air force. In weather so bad that the air force couldn't sortie, naval landings also faced huge difficulties and even dangers. This danger was sometimes even greater than what the air force encountered. Even facing the People's Party with a huge advantage, the Japanese Navy itself knew very clearly that they didn't really occupy an unshakeable advantage everywhere.

"Gentlemen, no need to pay attention to the People's Party's air force first. What views does everyone have on the future direction of the war?" Kato Tomosaburo said in a grave tone.

"We support your idea!" The naval officers said one after another.

At this time, the 18th Corps of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army far away in Panjin also faced snowy days completely. This snow entering December indeed made the troops face huge difficulties. After a heavy snow, the temperature in the Northeast dropped below minus ten degrees. According to the meteorologist's measurement, the lowest temperature was already lower than minus seventeen degrees. Moreover, strong winds blew frequently. Even though they changed into thick winter clothes, the soldiers felt extremely unaccustomed. The enemy at present was no longer the Japanese, but the harsh climate of the Northeast.

After Mu Husan confirmed the temperature, his worried look all along was finally slightly alleviated. The Military Commission emphasized many times to pay attention to the difficulties of wintering in the Northeast, but when really facing this situation, the comrades truly understood what "bitter cold land" meant. After a little water got on the hair, the whole hair could freeze hard instantly. Peeing on the ground, the heat floating in the air hadn't dissipated yet, and the water on the ground could freeze instantly. If they hadn't seen it with their own eyes, the comrades would definitely think this was a joke.

Of course, the Military Commission wouldn't only make requests and warnings to the comrades. Within the scope of its ability, the Military Commission also proposed all suggestions. For example, regarding garrison camps, the Panjin area didn't have enough houses for troops to station. Houses built in a hurry weren't enough to live in either. One of the reasons the Japanese army could occupy Fengtian, or dare to occupy Fengtian, was that Fengtian had enough places for troops to live.

The "snow packing machines" obtained by the 18th Corps of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army finally came in handy at present. In areas already selected, snow houses and igloos were built imitating Eskimos. If not for the bitter cold of the Northeast, this camp construction method couldn't be implemented instead. Even so, wanting to make snow into usable material couldn't be completed by manpower alone. Only with specialized tools could construction work be carried out truly efficiently.

Originally, the soldiers of the 18th Corps thought Mu Husan's "overcast turning sunny" look might be because Mu Husan was driven crazy by the immediate situation. When everyone moved into the snow houses, the comrades realized that sometimes after the temperature dropped to a certain degree, perhaps the phrase "things turn into their opposites when they reach the extreme" could be used to describe the change in the situation.

Low temperature didn't mean completely unbearable; the important thing was the howling wind. The bone-chilling cold blew into every gap of the soldiers' clothes with the strong wind, or simply blew through the clothes, making the body temperature drop rapidly. Military tents shook back and forth in the strong wind at night, making it uncertain if the comrades could sleep well all night.

With houses made of ice and snow, the cold wind was blocked first. Setting up tents inside the ice house, the temperature inside the tent could be seven or eight degrees at least, which was already spring-like warmth compared to outside. Moreover, these ice and snow camps could be set up in places with important strategic positions but no human habitation at all, which was more beneficial for war. Although still not quite used to the material of these "barracks," the comrades of the 18th Corps no longer complained about the current conditions. Having such a camp was of great benefit for the comrades to get used to the Northeast weather.

The troops not only had to get used to the Northeast weather but also had to get used to fighting. Before winter began, the comrades started cutting down trees to make many sturdy wooden planks and poles. At that time, the soldiers didn't understand this. When these wooden planks and poles were used for ski training, everyone knew what they were for. No longer sinking into the thick snow with one step, the marching speed of the troops began to increase greatly in the skiing course.

Mu Husan conducted comprehensive training according to the wintering suggestions proposed by the Military Commission, including winter firearm maintenance and adjustment, and various temporary solutions. Things that needed to be done piled up like a mountain.

"Are we still going to fight in winter?" The Chief of Staff from Subei cared about this very much. He wasn't afraid, just that in such an environment completely unimaginable before, war became not the most important option.

Mu Husan knew this wasn't the Chief of Staff's doubt alone; the comrades of the troops all had this worry. He said loudly: "Isn't everything we do preparing for war? We are humans, Japanese are humans too. Now what we are competing on is who adapts to this winter first. Whoever can exert combat effectiveness in this winter will definitely win."

Time passed day by day like this. By January 1916, besides having preliminarily adapted to the Northeast weather, the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army also selected the first batch of snow combat soldiers.

"Comrades, our trip this time is not entirely for fighting, but to prepare for subsequent operations. Our targets are here and here!" The assault team captain tapped heavily on the Anshan and Dandong positions on the map. And outside the assault team's camp, the sound of dogs barking could be heard occasionally. That was the barking of Alaskan sled dogs Chen Ke bought from the United States.

These big dogs with sapphire blue eyes looked similar to wolves in appearance, and their temperament was quite cold. They didn't like to bark randomly on ordinary days either. Pulling sleds in the snow, and even tracking, they were excellent. The dog handlers were from Shandong, which was the most "severely cold" region the People's Party could provide at that time. In the Northeast, the bloodline of these dogs made them adapt to the climate here earlier instead.

"When do we set off?" The soldiers' blood boiled one by one. Such boundless snowy plains were indeed a good place to display their skills.

"I say it again, we are not going to fight, but to probe the road. There is plenty of time to fight, but without a marching route, fighting would definitely be twice the effort for half the result." The assault team commander emphasized again.

"Understood!" The soldiers answered immediately.

"Then everyone prepare to set off tomorrow." The commander replied very satisfiedly. Speaking of this, he urged again, "The white silk is used for cover; try your best not to get it dirty!"