Were it not incredibly inappropriate, you would be pointing and laughing at your fuming subordinate. The Nationalists were furious and delighted at the same time, their newspapers singing your praises to the high heavens where only weeks before they had been calling for your head. The wide front offensive by the Chinese had vindicated your stance earlier in the month, and these past two weeks had proven you more right than you had ever hoped to be. If there was one thing that could make infantry captain Hideki Tojo furious, it was being faced with your own stoic reaction to his complaints, followed by his complete humiliation when your stance proved correct. In the army, the nationalists had lost much of their credibility over the past month, even if victories over the Chinese had emboldened them on the home front.
As far as months went, you were fairly fond of this one. May had proven to be disastrous for the Chinese in many cases. You had gained as much as 90 kilometres in two weeks against entrenched divisions occupying rail lines and fortified positions. The Imperial Guard under Kan'in had invented a new form of offensive: Heavy artillery fire, arranged in the new "creeping barrage" manner where the artillery cleared the ground in front of infantry advancing mere metres behind, had driven the Chinese into their trenches, and a wide front attack had locked down the reserves intended to reinforce them. The infantry charge the followed the artillery fire mere seconds after, proved devastating to even the elite divisions of the IVth Chinese Army, never mind the militia, who more often than not simply turned and ran at the sight of the Imperial Guard's red-trimmed uniform.
The Prince Kan'in had gained a good 30 kilometres of ground on his lonesome, and was now separated from the Second Army Corps by about the same distance in the form of a wedge, formed by infantry of the IVth army occupying the defensive positions on the Yalu river. A counter attack in the western end of Liaotung had struck the cavalry guarding his supply lines at the end of the week, and while initially it seemed touch and go, the Chinese were running out of steam by now. One of the issues Kan'in had noted however, was the lack of ability to combat the new Ilya Muromets aircraft that the Chinese were sending his way. Scout planes, with their machine guns, had been intended as a stopgap until proper interceptor planes could be delivered, but lacked the range to support the beleaguered divisions on the western end of Liaotung. They had instead been relegated to supporting the Fifth's advance in the west, which they did with much success.
Elsewhere along the front, the Third Army Corps had successfully pushed back Chinese divisions on the coast with naval artillery providing cover fire for the advancing infantry. The armoured cars and infantry of the First Army Corps saw significantly less success on the other hand, and had not managed to break through the entrenched positions occupied by the western flank of the XXIInd army. Their assault had seen them take severe casualties, 4000 dead over five days, but had locked down any reinforcements heading for the south eastern positions where the Third was advancing. The usefulness of the armoured cars proven itself once and for all, as they had covered the retreating infantry of the First Corps and fought for almost 48 hours while outnumbered ten to one to ensure the safe evacuation of the 92nd, 94th and 98th infantry brigades.
Meanwhile, the Fourth Corps had successfully broken through with their own armoured cars, and shoved back the Chinese IVth army's eastern flank from the shores of Yalu to the mountains beyond, leaving the IXth's and IVth's communications somewhat disrupted and the railway line going south from Harbin within striking distance, as well as capturing one of the two railway bridges across Yalu.
Field Marshal Hiiragi's Operation Vermilion had begun earlier than anticipated, on the 21st, after it was estimated that bad weather would linger over the straits of Formosa for more than two weeks following the 21st. The operation had apparently been spotted by Chinese fishermen, and the Changjiang Fleet had sallied to intercept the amphibious landing, but had been turned away after heavy fighting by the IJN, who managed sink three of the Chinese protected cruisers, and having none of their own ships sunk.
Though ultimately the Changjiang Fleet had been turned away, they had managed to do inhibit the landing forces, and two divisions of the five intended had been forced to turn back to Formosa. Dr. Nakamura, or Sun Yat-sen as he was known in China, had managed to sneak by undetected, and divisions led by Lie Liejung (who had been introduced to you by his pseudonym, Lie Xiehe) had captured Guangzhou and its surrounding area, but had then encountered the Chinese First Army moving south from Chunking. The First Army had successfully beaten back the republican forces to Guangzhou, but was now faced with a problem of their own: Cai E, the military governor of Yunnan, had raised 150,000 men, of which two thirds were professional soldiers, in support of the republican army and was now moving rapidly westwards, capturing both Nanning and Fangchenggang. At the same time, Japanese landing force had managed to secure Shantou, and then sent two divisions north, beginning the fairly substantial trek towards Nanking and Shanghai, where the intention was to reinforce them from Formosa at Xiamen and Fuzhou with additional divisions.
On the topic of military operations across the sea, the European War was now raging on all fronts. The Balkan League, consisting of Serbia, Montenegro, Bulgaria and Greece had declared war on the Central Powers, and Serbia and Montenegro and successfully advanced far into Bosnia and Croatia, capturing Sarajevo, Dubrovnik and through some miracle, Novi Sad in the Serbian part of Hungary. The Russian forces had also advanced into Austria, capturing Lemberg in the first day of the offensive, after which Galicia-Lodomeria fell in mere days. General Brusilov, the commander of Army Group South West, had managed to cut off the Austrian retreat towards Krakow, and surrounded 650,000 men in the Carpathian passes, after they had been forced to reroute their retreat, but Brusilov's forces were fast running out of everything from guns and ammunition to food and medicine.
Germany's General von Hindenburg, in the meantime, had advanced far into Congress Poland, and captured Brest-Litovsk, cutting off most of the Russian forces in Congress Poland from the railways, and the remaining two railways heading west into Poland were now overloaded, ferrying supplies into both Austria and Poland, as well as encircling two Russian armies in the marshes south of Kaunas and Vilnius. On the western front, Kronprinz Rupprecht of Bavaria and Helmuth von Moltke had once more crushed French offensives, and together encircled 200,000 men under General Joffre just north of Nancy, as well as annihilating two cavalry divisions.
The Ottoman Empire had seen resounding success on all fronts, somewhat surprising given that their military command had been decapitated and the general opinion was that they, as a nation, were a collapse waiting to happen. Bulgaria and Greece, smelling blood in the water after the horrendous casualties of both Russia and the Ottomans, as Typhus had broken out on both sides of the Caucasian front, and had declared war on the latter. The two nations had combined their forces and attacked, only to suffer defeats that could only be called disastrous. Greece had seen three quarters of her entire army encircled and captured or killed. With the Ottomans at the gates of Thessaloniki, they now also faced a coup from the monarchists at home, who had been fiercely against a war against the Central Powers given the origin of King Constantine of House Glückburg. Bulgaria had not fared much better, as Ottoman counter attacks had driven deep into the heart of the nation and taken Plovdiv and Burgas.
Romania, in response to the poor performance by Austria-Hungary, declared war on the Central Powers just yesterday evening. They announced their intention to "reclaim" Hungarian Transylvania, a region largely occupied by Romanians. Russia and Serbia were not necessarily pleased by this, as Romania did not have the arms stocked, nor the necessary industry to produce them, to fight a war longer than a few weeks. The Entente largely viewed this as an opportunistic land grab by an overly ambitious upstart, but nonetheless agreed to let Romania into their alliance.
In a mere month of fighting, the casualties now exceeded a million men, though most had been captured in encircling manoeuvres after foolish, rash or otherwise ill-advised offensives, rather than killed. The dead still made up more than quarter of the men lost, now nearing the 500,000 mark. Truly, a war to end all wars.
VOTE BY PLAN
NOTE: OPERATION VERMILION, THE AMPHIBIOUS ASSAULT ON SOUTHERN CHINA, HAS BEGUN THIS TURN.
Deploy Reinforcements ordered last turn:
(Planes will proceed to the airfield closest to their area of operations)
[X] Infantry Division 1 (with Engineers x2)
-[X] First Army Corps
-[X] Second Army Corps
-[X] Third Army Corps
-[X] Fourth Army Corps
-[X] Fifth Army Corps
[X] Armoured Car Division 1
-[X] First Army Corps
-[X] Second Army Corps
-[X] Third Army Corps
-[X] Fourth Army Corps
-[X] Fifth Army Corps
[X] Armoured Car Division 2
-[X] First Army Corps
-[X] Second Army Corps
-[X] Third Army Corps
-[X] Fourth Army Corps
-[X] Fifth Army Corps
For next week, you have an
acquisitional budget of ¥730k (You have received additional funds due to victory)
Each infantry must have 2 supporting brigades. Non-committed votes will lead to extra infantry and MGs by default. Vote twice on one option to double down on it.
Note: Cost changes due to change in demand & supply
[X] Infantry ¥112k
-[X] with supporting anti-aircraft guns ¥40k
-[X] with supporting engineers ¥50k
-[X] with supporting artillery ¥60k
-[X] with supporting heavy artillery ¥90k
-[X] with extra infantry and MGs ¥60k
Cavalry:
[X] Cavalry ¥120k
-[X] with supporting artillery ¥60k
-[X] with supporting engineers ¥50k
-[X] with supporting armoured cars ¥55k
-[X] with extra cavalry & MGs ¥50k
Armour:
[X] Armoured Cars ¥220k
Air:
[X] Mitsubishi IJAAS-4 "Kyu" Tactical Bomber (Squadron) ¥160k (comes with 4 25kg bombs and 2 MGs per plane)
[X] Mitsubishi IJAAS-4 "Hachi" Scout Aeroplane (Squadron) ¥81k (comes with a single 25kg bomb & 2 MGs per plane)
[X] Mitsubishi IJAAS-4 "Juu" Interceptor (Squadron) ¥120k (comes with 3 MGs per plane)
Manoeuvres
[X] First Army Corps
-[X] The First should attempt to assault the XXIInd's flank, in an attempt to drive a wedge between the IXth and the XXIInd. (again)
-[X] The First shouldn't concern themselves with the Third, and should instead support the Fourth, attempting to roll up the flank of the IVth.
-[X] The First should hold position, no movement.
[X] Second Army Corps
-[X] Push into the centre of the IVth while the west and east is falling back!
-[X] Act in support of an offensive launched by the Fifth!
-[X] Act in support of an offensive launched by the Fourth instead!
-[X] It's too heavily fortified. Hold position!
[X] Third Army Corps
-[X] We have seen success in our attack on the XXIInd, press the advantage!
-[X] The Third's position as a whole is good. Don't overextend and play the safe game. Hold!
[X] Fourth Army Corps
-[X] Hammer the flank of the IVth, go west!
-[X] Hammer the flank of the IVth, go north west and attempt to encircle them!
-[X] Push into the IXth, drive them north to widen the front!
-[X] Hold, no movement is in your favour.
[X] Fifth Army Corps
-[X] Attack in concert with the Second to link up across Yalu!
-[X] Attack solo, the Second mustn't attempt to cross Yalu until you are in position!
-[X] Hold position, overextending now could be fatal!
[X] IJAAS
-[X] Raid the IVth & XIXth by western Yalu!
-[X] Raid the IXth & IVth by the eastern end of Yalu
-[X] Raid the XXIInd's the western flank!
[X] Write-in
Want to redistribute divisions?
[X] Write-in