Chapter 615: The Battle of Manchuria (8)

By the time they returned to the battlefield, the battle had come to an end, and by this time the KPA had won the victory, and all that remained was to pursue the remnants of the defeated army and clean up the battlefield. However, there were corpses of men and horses everywhere, and many of them had not yet died, and they neighed in grief. It was only when a KPA soldier walked over and shot the horse in the head that he was killed directly.

Although Yang Yongjun has also experienced a lot of battles, and has seen a larger-scale war than this, but this is the largest cavalry battle since the formation of the People's Army, the dead war horse is estimated to be after 3-4000, which is the most dead horses, Yang Yongjun is a horse lover, so the mood is somewhat depressed, of course, only the winning side is qualified to play this sentimental mood.

In this battle, the People's Army annihilated 3,857 Russian troops and captured 1,426 prisoners, including 68 officers, including 4 division-level officers, including division commander Zelensky, and 7 brigade-level officers; in addition, 2,165 war horses, 3,491 cavalry-type rifles, 5,267 sabers, 7 military flags, and more than 5,000 sets of cavalry equipment were also captured. Moreover, it has dealt a heavy blow to the Russian cavalry, greatly reduced the threat to the railway line of the People's Army, and fully achieved the goals and tasks set by the tactical People's Army.

After receiving the news of the victory of the 1st Brigade of the Cavalry, the Supreme Commander of the People's Army in the theater also decided to immediately launch an attack on Hulunbuir and defeat the Russian army in one fell swoop.

At this time, the People's Army had gathered 6 divisions and 4 reserve regiments in Yakeshi, totaling about 120,000 people, and a total of more than 400 artillery pieces, plus two armored trains, two self-propelled guns with a total of 6 large-caliber guns, so it was completely possible to launch an attack on the positions of the Russian army.

He also rushed to Yakeshi from Harbin to direct the battle. He was joined by train to Yakeshi by members of the German and American military observer missions.

At this time, the German and US military observer groups had been in China for nearly five months, but when the observation group arrived in Shandong, the war in the northeast was nearing its end, so the observation group basically did not catch up with any major wars, but only watched the training of the People's Army, learned about the course of the previous war, and went to the battlefield to conduct inspections, but rarely visited the battlefield to observe.

In contrast, the members of the army's observation mission were even better, having experienced at least one battle to attack the Korean Peninsula, and in this battle, the KPA arranged a tunnel defense along the Yalu River left a relatively deep impression on the military observation missions of the two countries.

However, the KPA landed at Zhennanpu and defeated the Japanese army with this tactic, and the military observation groups of the two countries only learned about it after the battle, so naturally they were not able to participate in the landing operation in person. Of course, it was impossible to inform the Military Observer Mission of such a secret military operation before the war.

Later, the KPA launched another bombardment operation on the coast of Japan, and finally brought the members of the Navy's observation group with them, which was also regarded as a real battle, but this kind of battle was of little value.

Subsequently, the three parties carried out the Portsmouth talks, and there was basically no war, and Germany and the United States were also quite confident in the Portsmouth negotiations, so they successively withdrew most of the members of the observation mission, which was the United States, and was too optimistic about the Portsmouth negotiations, and withdrew most of the members of the observation group at once, leaving only more than 20 people, while Germany was better, and there were more than 30 people, led by several of its main members, Prince Heinrich, Rear Admiral Ludendorff of the Army, and Rear Admiral Schell of the Navy were still in China.

However, the Portsmouth negotiations eventually broke down, and Britain and France also came to the front from behind, preparing to enter the war directly, so the remaining members of the observation missions in both countries also stopped returning home and stayed to observe the rest of the war.

With the resumption of the war in the Far East, the members of the Military Observer Corps also began to get busy, and the People's Army launched the Shenyang Campaign and the Shanghai Campaign successively, but the military component of these two wars was not large, the Shenyang Campaign was mainly a psychological warfare, while the Shanghai Campaign was a typical political war, and the military value was not much, and it could only be regarded as a victory over nothing. Only this time, when the People's Army launched the Manchuria Campaign, it was a real offensive and defensive battle, and naturally it became the focus of the military observation group, so all the army observers of the two military observation groups rushed to Harbin to prepare to observe the battle.

Since this was a very rare opportunity for the Military Observer Group to observe actual combat on the battlefield in the Far East, the Observation Mission also requested the KPA that it would arrange a joint site for the Mission to observe the war.

Before the start of the war, the KPA was arranged to stop at a hill about 13 kilometers away from the battlefield, which is also the position of the KPA's armored train, and was outside the range of the Russian artillery, and the use of telescopes could still see the battlefield in general. The Mission was also very pleased with the arrangement, which allowed it to observe the artillery fire of the armoured train at close range.

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"Is it about to begin? So this time, let me take a good look at how strong the fighting power of this army of the East China government really is. Ludendorff put down the telescope in front of him, muttered to himself, turned to the army colonel next to him, staff officer Schuster, and said, "What is the result of your discussion?"

"The KPA will definitely win, and within 5-7 days it will be able to capture Manchuria directly, and the Russian army will retreat to Chita," Schuster said. ”

Ludendorff smiled: "It seems that you have a lot of confidence in the People's Army." ”

Schuster said: "It's not that we have confidence in the People's Army, but because of the current situation of the Russian army, we really can't see a chance of victory, their strength is less than the People's Army, the number of artillery is only half of the People's Army, and there is a lack of large-caliber artillery." Of course, if it is only these disadvantages, but the tactics are properly transported, and the soldiers fight bravely and fearlessly, it is not completely without a chance, but these two conditions are not seen in the Russian army. ”

Ludendorff nodded and said, "Then according to you, there is no suspense in this battle, it is just a routine operation, and there is not much value in observing?"

Schuster said: "That's not it, at least we can see the people's army's organizational and combat capabilities, the army's tactical literacy, artillery and infantry coordination, etc., from this battle, because of the power of these weapons in actual combat." ”

As he spoke, Schuster's eyes looked about 2 kilometers behind, where the 240-millimeter guns of two KPA armoured trains were parked, which were now fully deployed and in a combat state. And about 1 km in front of them, 8 155-mm guns and 8 130-mm guns of 2 armored trains were also arranged, while the other guns were not arranged due to insufficient firing range and were parked behind the positions.

According to the KPA briefing to the Mission, the armoured train has played a huge role in all KPA battles, and during this time, the members of the Mission have also visited the armoured train in detail. Since he is a member of the German Military Observation Corps, he is interested in armored trains, in fact, armored trains are not surprising in terms of technology, mainly because this idea is very good, that is, to use the load capacity of the train and the accessibility of the railway line to move the large-caliber naval guns carried by the ship in the sea to the land, once this principle is understood, most European countries can make their own armored trains.

Germany is originally a continental country, and has always attached importance to the construction of the army, and because of the existence of the Franco-Russian alliance, Germany is in a situation of being attacked on both sides, and it can be said that the armored train is simply a weapon tailored for Germany. Because of Germany's developed industry, the domestic railway lines extend in all directions, if Germany has armored trains, in wartime it can take advantage of Germany's convenient railway advantages, according to different battlefield conditions, quickly mobilize armored trains, in the local battlefield to form a firepower advantage.

However, these are all theoretical, after all, the Germans have not seen the actual combat performance of the armored train on the battlefield, and Germany is a rigorous and conservative nation, without full certainty, it will not easily pay for new affairs, because it is in the military aspect, so now is a great opportunity to observe the actual combat performance of the armored train.

Although the United States has a vast territory, and its industry and railways are also very developed, its geographical location is isolated on the American continent, it is a standard maritime country, and there is basically no strong opponent on land that can threaten its national security, so even if the armored train is powerful, it has no use in the United States. However, they will not miss it if they can observe the actual combat effectiveness of the armored train on the spot.

However, the United States is extremely interested in another new weapon of the KPA, that is, fixed-wing aircraft.

The United States was the first country to officially test a powered aircraft, so all kinds of information and technology about fixed-wing aircraft were more widely disseminated in the United States, and at this time, the Wright brothers, who were the first to successfully test a powered aircraft, had applied for a patent for their aircraft, and were actively recommending the aircraft to the US Army, hoping to obtain orders from the US Army. The U.S. Army is evaluating this project, but no one expected that the KPA would be the first to use the aircraft in actual combat, so the U.S. also asked the observation team to focus on the KPA's fixed-wing aircraft, as an important reference for the Army to evaluate the value of the aircraft project.

Moreover, before the start of the war, the People's Army also made a special trip to the observation group to send a map of the battlefield, which very clearly marked the battle lines of the two sides, the distribution of troops, etc., of course, the battle line and strength of the Russian army were taken in the air by the fixed-wing aircraft of the people, this information not only interested the United States, but even the Germans were a little shocked, it seems that fixed-wing aircraft are indeed of great use in the war.