The shrill north wind whistled and swept across the sail. The thick cotton jacket was worn on her body, like frozen iron armor. Luo Zifang had to tighten his head to prevent the cold wind from rushing into his spine from his neck. It was not unfamiliar with this kind of weather on the battlefield, but it was the first time to sail on the sea.

In Luo Zifang's eyes, the northwest wind is simply an insurmountable obstacle, which is almost the opposite of his goal. However, for experts who have been sailing on the sea for many years, this is not a big problem. The boat is twisted in the right direction, and sometimes it even comes faster than when the wind is too small. However, the power of the northwest is too strong. The thick cotton coat is simply not enough for it. If you stay on the boat all day, your whole body is like a frozen corpse.

From Laizhou quietly left the port, the entire Eighth Legion's First Division only chose two regiments with less than 10,000 people. A considerable number of more than 60 large ships were collected from Dengzhou, which also proves that the Legion Commander had been preparing for such a plan. Luo Zifang was not sure why the Legion Commander would choose to attack Duodun at this time, but the Legion Commander's order was undoubtedly more effective than the imperial edict. From the beginning, Luo Zifang followed the Legion Commander's commander, and countless ups and downs, including Lu Long's deathly running wildly, the transformation of Jiujiang's foothold, and Zhang Yang who annexed Huzhou. In the end, the Legion Commander chose to participate in Xijiang, which made Luo Zifang feel a little disappointed, but then the reputation of the Eighth Legion made Luo Zifang finally return to his past confidence.

"The division commander, I found the ship that came to contact." The adjutant shouted excitedly as the sound of leather boots rang out.

"Oh? Please come up quickly." Luo Zifang was a little surprised. He didn't expect that the other party would come up so quickly. It seemed that the other party must have sent a lot of contact ships in the waters in this area.

Luo Zifang quickly learned about the situation on the shore. The situation in the Okhotsk area changed slightly. Although the Dutun people prefer that the Western Xinjiang side would launch a large-scale offensive in the Kuts area, Crawfordder's prophecy still made the military a little vigilant. On the one hand, they closely monitored the activities of the Western Xinjiang army in the Port of Imperial Island. On the other hand, they also sent additional patrol troops in the coastal areas of the Okhotsk area. They originally wanted to draw naval forces, but the navy was far away at the Nomenkan Naval Base at the northeast end. In addition, winter has already begun, and the Japanese Navy has control over this sea area. If the Japanese misunderstand that the Dutun Navy had other intentions, it would cause a catastrophe to the Dutun Navy. Therefore, they did not agree to the navy's southward transfer, but they just sent several patrol troops to the coastal areas north of the Hailan Fortress just in case.

The number of patrol troops of the Dukun people is small, mostly dominated by a thousand-man team. The slightly rugged terrain and backward economy of the coastal areas of Okhotsk make the transportation conditions in this area extremely bad. In turn, this makes the Dukun people even less willing to spend too much energy on this aspect, which is in sharp contrast with the Kuts area in the east of Okhotsk and the Yenimia area in the north. The Kuts area is the most important grain and cotton producing area, while the Yenimia area is the main industrial area of ​​the Dokun Kingdom, coal mines, iron ore, iron smelting, and processing in this area are particularly developed. In contrast, Okhotsk, in addition to the city of Okhotsk being mainly fishing in the sea, it is accompanied by some agricultural and fishery product processing industries, the entire Okhotsk is more like a small market town, with a population of only two or three thousand people, which is not even as large as the Hailan Fortress with a 10,000-man team.

There are two landing sites selected by the Western Xinjiang Army. One is the Black Stone Reef located forty north of Okhotsk Port, and the other is the Stone Reef located twenty miles south of Okhotsk Port and ten miles north of Hailan Fortress. If you are safe, you can quickly enter the mountains and make it easier to hide. However, the Dutun people have strengthened their patrol efforts. This choice is obviously not suitable. The landing from Stone Reef is more sudden. If you grasp it well, you can even attack Hailan Fortress immediately. It is not a dream to capture Hailan Fortress in one fell swoop, but this seems a bit adventurous. Stone Reef is only ten miles away from Hailan Fortress. The terrain is dangerous and easy to hit the reef and be easily discovered by the fortress army. If you choose to land at night, it is even more risky for the fleet. It is close to the area of ​​Stone Reef, which has a complex sea situation at night, and it is very easy to cover the reef, causing ships to be destroyed and people to die.

The contacted intelligence officials did not express any opinions, but just truthfully stated the objective difficulties and risks to Luo Zifang, the commander-in-chief of the landing cluster, and emphasized the various uncertainties that may exist in Snake Xin Point. If the wind increases, Snake Xin Point may even be stranded. If the landing is logged at night, the landing may become a disaster. If the fortress defenders discover it, the consequences will be even more unimaginable.

The a little nagging words of intelligence officials made Luo Zifang make up his mind. The more objective the situation is, the more difficult the defenders are, the more paralyzed they are. On the contrary, those places that are easy to land in battle may have been regarded as key surveillance areas by the Duoton Patrol Army and lose the possibility of a sudden attack. Then his army will only become guerrillas in the deep mountains, without the main force behind the support, and sooner or later they will only be wiped out.

The intelligence department's decision is naturally impossible to interfere with the commander's decision, but they are still impressed by the other party's courage and are able to make such a decision without being familiar with the place, and when the two of them have already stated the existing difficulties and risks clearly enough, such a decision requires the commander's determination and perseverance.

The Snake Xin Point is located under the nose of Hailan Fortress. It can be reached in less than an hour in ten miles. However, the army on the current fleet needs to dock until it completes landing and assembly. It is impossible to achieve it in less than three or five hours. Once discovered by Duoton's army, the ending can be imagined.

Even if you can successfully escape Duoduan's surveillance landing, how to capture Hailan Fortress is still a difficult problem. Hailan Fortress has a team of ten thousand people stationed. Although it is much easier to launch an attack from behind than to attack from the front, as a fortress, no matter from which direction, even if it still has basic protection, it is also quite difficult to seize the fortress from the rear, especially when the troops are not superior. Once the situation cannot be completely controlled in a short period of time, the enemy will be able to swallow this assault force as long as it wakes up, especially when there are three teams of ten thousand people stationed on the front line of Okhotsk.

However, since the commander has made a decision, the intelligence officials sent to cooperate immediately devoted themselves to the preparations for how to put the assault cluster into combat in the best condition and method. The development of the Military Intelligence Bureau in Duodon was smooth, especially in the Okhotsk region, where there were a considerable number of Tang people, which left a considerable space for the military intelligence department to gain a foothold. Okhotsk is not a key area for the Duodon defense, so the collection of intelligence in this area is also

It is relatively easier. Hailan Fortress has a close connection with the local people who rely on the fortress for their living, especially the inconvenience of road traffic, which forced the Hailan Fortress army to rely heavily on local merchants for civilian supplies to complete replenishment and supply. The detailed information provided by the Military Intelligence Bureau here made Luo Zifang realize once again that his army is not fighting alone even if it is operated outside the territory, and has a powerful intelligence system to assist him at any time. Such a battle is undoubtedly much easier for Luo Zifang.

Snake Xin Cape is a prominent headland area. The water flows on both sides of the headland, and the undercurrents and reefs are complex, and the landing conditions are not good. The only place to be used is that there is a area at the base of the headland that is relatively smooth. However, to enter this water area, you need to pass a reef group. Although the intelligence department has learned about the specific situation of the reef group through local Tang fishermen and drew a chart, it is obviously too difficult for a fleet to pass through this area. Fortunately, the intelligence department also realized this and hired two local fishermen as guides to minimize this risk. However, the captains of each ship still had quite doubts about passing through this area after inspecting the chart. However, the arrows were already on the strings. Even if they were worried and afraid, they could only go up.

The sky gradually darkened, and it was gratifying that the strong northwest wind finally subsided at this time. This was a good sign. The fleet was finally able to quickly enter the channel according to the established plan and move towards the target step by step. Luo Zifang stood alone on the bow of the boat and looked ahead. As the sky became dark, the distance between the boat had to be kept farther. The two sides could only use special waterproof lanterns to convey messages and maintain contact. According to the intelligence department's reaction, the fishermen in this area had entered the winter break period. No one would choose to go out to sea to catch fish at this time, which was even more impossible at night. The only danger was that the fishermen's guide had personally manipulated the boat to take the lead, and they were responsible for guiding the way forward. In this way, although the time may be consumed more, the risk dropped to the lowest point. After all, this was on the sea at night. Once the reef was hit, Luo Zifang could not think of any other way to save it except to shout the sky.
Chapter completed!