In the afternoon of February 19, 1942, Niangziguan, Shanxi, China. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

On a stretch of the Great Wall near Chengguan, a group of exhausted Chinese soldiers took advantage of the battle to reinforce their positions with sandbags. Some of them wore steel helmets, some only wore cloth caps, and the style of their rifles was not neat, and the military uniforms blackened by gunpowder were full of holes cut by stones and shrapnel, and they looked very embarrassed.

Behind an arrow chopping that was still intact, two Jin Sui soldiers, an old man and a young man, lay on their sides. The older veteran's face was full of wrinkles and he looked like he had been through the vicissitudes of life, but it was hard to tell his real age. I saw that he used a cloth strap of leggings to tie several grenades together, and unscrewed the lids of these grenades one by one, knotting the cables together to make a simple bomb.

The little soldier beside the veteran was about seventeen or eighteen years old, with a thin body and a young face, but the military uniform and the spear in his hand made people feel a kind of incongruous maturity. Looking at the work in the hands of the veteran, he asked worriedly, "Brother, is this ...... Success? ”

The veteran put the cluster grenade beside him and patted the soldier on the shoulder, "Quasi-successful!" Just stuff a bundle of grenades under the belly of the enemy's chariot and keep it for nothing! As long as we move fast enough, we can't hurt the fur! ”

"Oh......" The soldiers looked into the distance again, and the Japanese soldiers were still preparing for a new attack, dozens of Japanese tanks and hundreds of infantry were gathering outside the range of the field artillery. Since the Pacific War, it has been more than six years since the Japanese army occupied most of Southeast Asia, a part of South Asia, Australia, and the islands of the South Pacific, and the production facilities damaged in the war have been restored one after another, and various minerals and crops have been continuously transported to Japan, which has not only reversed the precarious economic situation in Japan, but also further strengthened its military machinery, and the construction of the navy and air force is still in the first place. This made them enough to crush the Chinese army in all conditions.

After a three-year armistice period of active preparation, the equipment and training level of the Chinese army has been improved to a considerable extent, and the formation of 22 American and 20 semi-American divisions, 12 German and 11 semi-German divisions has given great encouragement to the Chinese military and people, but this army still lacks heavy weapons, its combat aircraft are less than one-fifth of that of the Japanese army, and the total tonnage of naval ships is less than one-twentieth of that of the Japanese army. After the Japanese army resumed the war, the Chinese side unsurprisingly lost the Yangtze River defense line, but they then organized their defense in an orderly manner in the deep zone, and resisted the Japanese invasion of China with a total strength of one million troops, which made the quick victory plan of the Japanese base camp bankrupt again. After the New Year, the Japanese army gathered 300,000 elite troops to launch a large-scale offensive against various strategic points in Shanxi, and the Chinese side gathered more than 700,000 Jinsui troops and the Central Army to carry out defensive operations, and there was no doubt about the determination and fighting spirit to defend the homeland and defend the country, but with the deepening of the war ahead and the consumption of soldiers and materials, the Chinese army as a weak side was under increasing pressure, and the Japanese army relied on the resources of most of Asia, like a storm set off by a hurricane, wave after wave washed over the embankment built by the Chinese military and civilians with flesh and blood. The Battle of Taiyuan lasted until the second month, and the casualties of the Chinese troops participating in the battle had reached more than 200,000, and some divisions that had shouldered heavy responsibilities even lost seventy or eighty percent of their combat strength. Beginning in late February, the invading Japanese army launched offensives in central and southern China one after another, conquering more than 50 cities and towns in just half a month, and approaching strategic bases such as Changsha and Chongqing. With the help of the US Military Staff Committee's suggestion, the Chinese Military Commission successively adjusted its deployment and dispatched vital forces to various places to "fight fires," which reluctantly resolved the crisis facing Central and South China, and consumed a large amount of ammunition and materials in continuous operations, so that China's already insufficient strategic reserves quickly bottomed out. According to the professional statistics of the US General Staff Committee, if the Japanese offensive continues until mid-to-late April, most of the Chinese troops will face the dilemma of running out of ammunition......

In front of Niangzi Pass, before the Japanese ground attack was launched, there was a palpitating buzzing sound in the sky, and a group of fighters appeared in the sight of the defenders. They ignored the pitiful anti-aircraft fire of the Chinese defenders, hovering in the air, searching for targets, and dropping bombs.

This Niangzi Pass is known as the "Ninth Pass of the Great Wall", by the mountains and rivers, condescending, but no matter how good the fortifications are dead things, in the face of modern weapons, one after another steep passes have fallen, it is difficult to stop the pace of the Japanese army.

"Get down!"

After being pressed under the veteran, the little soldier suddenly felt a wave of dizziness, and his ears were ringing violently. He tried to push the veteran away, but found that the veteran was so heavy that he was still humming quietly, and the little soldier quickly felt the hot and moist liquid on his face, and he felt bad, and when he got up, he found that the veteran was covered in blood.

"Brother, brother!" The soldier was so anxious that he was about to cry, he looked left and right, and shouted, "Medic! Paramedics! ”

But there were wounded people everywhere, and a few medics had no time to take care of them.

The veteran opened his eyes, his lips moved slightly, and the little soldier leaned his ears over, only to hear an intermittent sentence:

"Stuffed under the stomach...... it...... Send them back to their hometown......"

Before the Japanese artillery fire rang out, the veteran stopped breathing and his eyes were wide open.

Before the chariots and infantry attacked, the Japanese army used heavy artillery to bombard the city pass, and the Japanese fighters painted with plaster marks also flew in waves, and finally blasted a gap in a weak section of the Great Wall under the fierce attack, and the company of the small soldiers was urgently transferred to plug the gap.

After the artillery fire stopped, the Japanese ground forces really shifted the direction of the main attack to the side of the gap, and thousands of Japanese soldiers rushed towards this side under the cover of more than 20 combat vehicles, and the fire of the Chinese defenders swept down many Japanese soldiers, but the rifle and machine gun bullets were helpless.

The creep clung to the bundle of grenades left behind by the veteran.

"Stuff it underneath, blow it up, and send them back to their hometown!" The soldier muttered softly, his eyes full of determination.

The cacophony of metal grinding drew closer, and one Japanese tank was the first to climb the gentle slope of the gravel in the gap, and soon the second one climbed up, and the soldier's last memory was of pulling the cable of a grenade as the Japanese tank drove past him......

There was a loud bang, the Japanese tank drooped on the barrel and wilted in place, the plaster flag planted in the turret was torn off by shrapnel at some point, and the blood of the strong man was not shed in vain, but more tanks rumbled past the side.

Just a few hours later, the Chinese defenders, who had suffered heavy casualties, were forced to evacuate Niangzi Pass.

Conquered Niangzi Pass, the Japanese army took a short rest on the way, and then echoed the friendly forces from Zhangjiakou and Datong to advance to Taiyuan, the battle situation of the Chinese side was precarious, although the high-level was bent on defending Taiyuan, but also knew that the chances of successfully resisting the Japanese army were slim, but at this time, the arrogant Japanese army took the initiative to stop the offensive after a bluff attack, and all the departments retreated along the original road, and the Niangzi Pass that was captured by thousands of casualties was also given up by the Japanese army. Whether the Japanese were trying to capture the old and wait for the Chinese defenders to relax before attacking, or whether they had to postpone or end the attack for other reasons is a question worth pondering......

Soon after the Japanese troops on the Shanxi front stopped attacking, most of the Japanese troops in other directions slowly retreated to the starting point of the attack, and the information transmitted from the enemy-occupied areas indicated that the Japanese army was secretly moving troops northward, and the barracks of those famous field divisions in the Chinese mainland's permanent residence suddenly became empty, leaving only a few remaining personnel, who continued to send meaningless telegrams in the name of the division headquarters.

On March 29 of the same year, accompanied by the Russian ambassador to Ireland, Alexei Nikonov, the special representative of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Russian Federation, Lebedev, met with the King and Prime Minister of Ireland and made a request for urgent military assistance under the framework of the Moscow Conference Agreement - the Russians hoped to receive 60,000 tons of ammunition and 30,000 tons of fuel in the next three months, and Ireland needed to requisition ships to transport these supplies to the port of Murmansk in the north of Soviet Russia.

"Is this the rhythm of a big battle?" In front of the Russians, Pierce asked in surprise.

Lebedev, a balding middle-aged man who looked a little like Lenin, replied slyly: "Part of it is for military training, and part of it is for dealing with potential threats." ”

At this time, Natsuki spoke: "The former accounts for 10%, and the latter accounts for 90%? ”

Lebedev smiled and said nothing.

Because of the communication with the prime minister and relevant personnel in advance, Xia Shu said: "Although there were some unpleasant frictions between our two countries earlier, this is really nothing in the international political and diplomatic arena. Since Ireland is a signatory to the Moscow Agreement, it is responsible for fulfilling the terms of the agreement, but the production and supply of 20,000 tons of ammunition and 10,000 tons of fuel every month is beyond our current capacity, in fact, since the summer of 1938, our military production capacity has been reduced in batches, even if it is at full capacity, it can only meet the requirements of your country, and in addition, we can allocate a part of the materials from the strategic stockpile, such as grenades, mines, mortar shells, which is estimated to be about 20,000 tons. In three months, we can provide 50,000 to 60,000 tons of war materiel, which is enough to support a protracted and large-scale campaign. ”

"What Your Majesty said is probably a battle based on 100,000 people, right?" Lebedev replied calmly, "But we are considering a battle of 500,000 men, so will the ammunition needed be calculated by five times?" ”

Of course, Natsuki knew that the Russians not only made a request for urgent supply of arms to Ireland, but also made requests to Germany, Italy, Austria-Hungary and other signatory countries, but due to the problem of the non-universal caliber of weapons and ammunition, only part of the military production capacity of various countries can be converted into aid to Russia. Although the size of the Irish military industry is only one-third of that of Germany, it has a relatively high proportion of export sales, with production lines of 7.62mm rifle cartridges, 120mm mortars, and 152mm howitzer shells, which is enough to meet a considerable part of the military needs of the Soviet and Russian armies as long as the Irish go all out.

(End of chapter)