Chapter 45: The End of the War
The Ryukyu Sea Battle ended with a complete Chinese victory, and the outcome of this sea battle also shocked the entire world. At the cost of only one damaged escort vessel and five wounded aircraft, China annihilated the main force of the Japanese Combined Fleet and its air force. After the sea battle, Japan almost lost its strategic offensive capability, while China completely grasped the initiative in this war.
The Japanese mainland has lost confidence in taking Ryukyu, and now they are considering doing a good job of defending their homeland. After losing the main force of the navy, it is still unknown whether the remaining two escort fleets can guarantee the safety of the mainland.
The Chinese aircraft carrier fleet's confidence soared after the Battle of the Ryukyu Sea, and Wu Shiwen ordered the fleet to make some repairs and replenish supplies and ammunition before joining forces with the landing force. The troops that carried out this amphibious operation were the Taiwan Marine Brigade, the Second Army Group of the Army, the First Army of the Mainland, and the South China Sea Fleet's Marine Corps, with a total strength of 1 million men.
The Taiwan Marine Brigade and the South China Sea Fleet's 1st Marine Brigade, with a total of 10,000 men, served as the first wave of attacking troops to land on Ryukyu, clearing obstacles for subsequent troops. After the Marine Brigade captured the beachhead, the First Army and Second Group Army followed up with full force to occupy the entire Ryukyu Islands.
Lin Feng will have Taiwan's only five landing ships and ten 50,000-ton transport ships paired with some small-scale transport troops on the mainland to form a transport fleet for the landing force. The five amphibious assault ships serve as the vanguard of the landing force and fire support vessels.
At 11:12 on October 3, the half-hour-long air raid finally came to an end. The Japanese troops in Ryukyu also began a brief reorganization, and they were well aware that they would face even more intense landing battles from China next. Since China had already fully controlled the airspace and sea power around Ryukyu, the Japanese troops on the island of Ryukyu had become fish in a barrel, and any supplies from Japan could not reach Ryukyu by breaking through China's blockade line.
Japan once attempted to organize some kamikaze teams to break through the sea and air blockade lines, but was met with devastating blows from China. After several attempts, Japan completely abandoned its attempt to reinforce Ryukyu Island, and could only hope that the Ryukyu mainland defense forces would be able to withstand the Chinese attack.
At 11:20, the Ryukyu landing battle officially started. A missile cruiser, a destroyer and 30 aircraft provided long-range firepower support for the landing troops. Five "Ling Snake"-class amphibious assault ships carrying two marine brigades and equipment began to charge towards the enemy's beachhead under the cover of five armed helicopters. For a time, the entire sea surface was filled with cannon fire, and the Japanese army's position was instantly shrouded in thick smoke. The air-to-ground missiles and precision-guided bombs launched from the carrier-based aircraft accurately landed on the heads of the Japanese army.
The "Yue Fei" missile cruiser launched the "Yan Wang" cruise missile, which accurately hit the Japanese military's missile and artillery positions under satellite guidance, causing these troops to be wiped out before they could even take the stage. The only ones that caused some trouble for the landing troops were the rocket soldiers equipped with single-soldier shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles, but due to the limited number of 60 sets of single-soldier air defense equipment, they were quickly depleted under China's strong firepower support. In the end, after suffering a loss of 2,000 people, Chinese forces finally occupied the Ryukyu beachhead.
After that, the Japanese army began to shrink into the circular defense position on the island. The Japanese army set up three circular defense lines and concentrated all the remaining 40,000 troops for a desperate defense, planning to use the advantageous terrain to consume China's living forces. The First Army and Second Group Army soon took over the attack task from the Marine Brigade, and the armored units and mechanized infantry of the Second Group Army and the Armored Corps of the First Army launched an attack on the Japanese position first, and the Japanese also launched a desperate charge.
Two different troops launched a desperate battle for the same purpose. Although the Chinese army had an advantage in equipment, it had not experienced war for a long time, and veterans who had experienced the Korean War had basically retired. These new recruits were experiencing war for the first time, so China did not have an obvious advantage on the battlefield.
However, China had an advantage in military strength. As time passed, the Japanese army's strength dwindled, and the defensive line was only left with Naha City Center. This Japanese army had already made preparations to die for the Emperor. Faced with the Japanese army that had gone mad, the Chinese General Headquarters ordered a temporary halt to the attack on Naha City, and instead focused all its efforts on sweeping other areas of Ryukyu.
Now in the center of Naha City, 10,000 remaining Japanese troops are entrenched. The entire city center is a reinforced concrete structure, and the Japanese have established perfect defensive facilities here. Various bunkers, pillboxes, and underground facilities are scattered throughout the city center. In order to destroy these numerous strongholds, the Chinese Expeditionary Army Front Command ordered all frontline aircraft to change their ammunition to special bombs, including precision-guided penetration bombs, cluster bombs, incendiary bombs, etc. As a result, after several rounds of air raids, the underground bunkers that the Japanese were proud of were completely destroyed.
After destroying the Japanese defensive fortifications, the First Army and Second Group Army launched an attack. Two hours later, the Chinese military announced to the outside world that as of 16:00 on October 3, 1976, the invading Japanese army had been completely annihilated, and China formally recovered the Ryukyu Islands, and from now on, a special administrative region would be established in the Ryukyu Islands.
Just after China announced the recovery of Ryukyu, the Japanese government in Tokyo expressed that it would not accept the fact that China occupied Ryukyu. Lin Feng sneered when he heard the reaction of the Japanese: "Don't cry until you see the coffin, and I didn't plan to let you off either." Before this war, Lin Feng had already planned a counterattack against Japan, and in order to thoroughly weaken Japan's strength, the General Staff had long been planning to bomb Japan.
On October 8, just as the sky was breaking, a piercing air raid siren suddenly sounded in Tokyo, and the Chinese Air Force began its first round of aerial strikes against Japan. 20 tactical bombers, escorted by 80 fighter jets, started bombing major cities in Japan. The Japanese air defense forces and the remaining air force units launched fierce counterattacks. In the Sino-Japanese War, the Chinese military placed great emphasis on reconnaissance and surveillance of targets. Before the air raid, the expeditionary force obtained a large amount of strategic, campaign, and tactical intelligence on Japan through various means such as reconnaissance satellites, wireless technical reconnaissance, and espionage. A four-phase operational plan for aerial strikes was carefully formulated: The first phase of the air raid, "Operation Beheading", mainly used massive bombs and precision-guided weapons to directly target the Japanese leadership, namely the Prime Minister and his core leadership. Although the two "beheading" operations on October 8 and October 10 may not have achieved the expected results, their impact and "shock" on the Japanese leadership and combat troops were evident. The direct effect was to force the highest command of the Japanese army to reduce ground command activities and lower its control over combat troops.
The second phase, "Shock and Awe", mainly used cruise missiles and long-range air-to-ground missiles to strike Japan's command and communication systems at the chosen time. In the first phase of this war, the Chinese army did not thoroughly destroy the enemy's command and communication system in order to obtain intelligence from the Japanese military's communications links, deviating from the usual practice of attacking the enemy's command and communication system first. However, from the second phase of the war onwards, the Chinese expeditionary force significantly strengthened its attacks on the Japanese military's command and communication systems, particularly targeting Japanese government institutions, communication and broadcasting equipment, water and electricity supply systems, and even suspected gathering places of Japanese armed forces, such as shopping malls and hospitals, leaving no stone unturned. This maximally destroyed Japan's war potential, quickly causing the Japanese command to become paralyzed, with each defensive unit losing unified command, unable to communicate information in a timely manner between top and bottom, and between friendly units, resulting in each fighting separately. This forced the Japanese military system to become paralyzed, ultimately achieving the strategic goal of the Chinese army.
The third stage "point hole action", the Chinese army took the Japanese combat troops as the focus of attack. In this war, the Chinese Expeditionary Force had been taking the Japanese defensive forces as the main target of air raids from the very beginning.
The fourth stage "Paralysis Action", the Chinese Air Force began to launch a bombing campaign against Japan's important systems and infrastructure. China hoped that by striking the enemy's important systems and infrastructure, it would make its opponent lose its ability and will to resist.
To win the war in the 21st century, Lin Feng formulated the "Star Wars" strategy. According to this new strategy, air, land and sea warfare will extend into space, requiring the air force to have the capability to discover, accurately locate, aim at and destroy any fixed or mobile target on earth in a timely manner.
It is under the guidance of the "Star Wars" strategy that the Chinese Air Force has demonstrated the outline of the "Star Wars" strategy in its multi-dimensional warfare against Japan's air raids on land, sea, air, space, and electricity. First, it emphasizes seeking information superiority, using for the first time the "21st Century Troop Brigade and Below Command System", in coordination with command systems such as the "Comprehensive Data Transmission System" and the "Maritime Command and Control System". This allows combat platforms to share data, implementing unified command, coordination, and control over air raids through a combination of near and far-range command within and outside the war zone. Air strikes began by competing for information dominance, under China's strong electronic interference and anti-radiation attacks, Japan's military command system was severely disrupted and destroyed, wireless and wired communications, television, etc. almost all paralyzed in an instant, the entire battlefield information presented a clear one-way transparency.
Secondly, emphasis is placed on seizing air and space supremacy. Lin Feng believes that outer space will become the main battlefield of future wars, and aerospace weapons will replace traditional air weapons. The use of integrated air and space early warning and strike capabilities has become an inevitable choice for the times. In the face of China's air and space advantages, Japan's combat aircraft were unable to take off to meet the enemy in a two-week battle.
Thirdly, emphasis is placed on long-range rapid maneuvering and striking. Rapid maneuvering and long-range striking are the necessary requirements for winning high-tech wars. Before and after the war, the air force dispatched large numbers of "Kunpeng" and other large military transport planes to rapidly deploy troops to peripheral areas such as the East China Sea and Yellow Sea. New strategic bombers and stealth bombers took off directly from Taipei and Hsinchu, flying back and forth over a thousand kilometers to carry out airstrikes on predetermined targets within Japan.
