On this day, the Eastern Front of the Red Army originally planned to carry out live-fire exercises according to the pre-war plan, so many units were on the range or on their way to the range, and the commander of the Front, Kuznetsov, was to make arrangements for this purpose in the border area, leaving only Deputy Commander Safronov in the headquarters of the Front. After the sudden outbreak of war, the command was not only unable to get in touch with its subordinate units, but also could not even find the commander himself. In this case, the Soviet 8th Army carried out only sporadic counter-assaults on the advancing Chinese armored forces. By the end of February, Army Group North of the Chinese Army had advanced 20 to 35 kilometers in the main direction of the assault of the armored forces. On its right flank, the 3rd Panzer Group of Army Group Center of the Chinese Army had also crossed the Ob River. In this way, on the first day of the war, the Chinese army had already begun to smoothly separate the 8th Army and the 11th Army of the first line of the Soviet Siberian Front. In the central direction, the Chinese army deployed Army Group Center. The commander of the army group was Field Marshal Xu Yuanjin. Xu Yuanjin, who has a friendly and peaceful appearance and an angular face, is the founding father of Mingzhu China and has been in battle for a long time. After the outbreak of World War II, he was transferred to Army Group Center to command operations. On the eve of the war against the Soviet Union, the 61-year-old field marshal commanded the most powerful army group of the Chinese army, with 54 divisions and 1 brigade (11 armored divisions, 6 motorized divisions, 1 cavalry division, 3 guard divisions, 33 infantry divisions, and the brigade-sized "Great China" motorized regiment with more than 6,000 troops), reinforced by 72 artillery battalions. Together with the reserve of the Army General Headquarters in the rear, there are 68 divisions and more than 1.7 million field troops. The 9 armored divisions of Army Group Center had 2035 tanks of various types (not counting 350 tanks of 2 armored divisions of the Eastern Front Reserve of the General Headquarters of the Army). Among them, there are 1,978 "Walker" main battle tanks, 472 100-mm gun types, and 65 command types. In addition, there are 6 battalions of assault guns and 2 battalions of Readpower Spitfires, with a total of 2,576 tank assault guns. Air support for the army group was provided by the 2nd Air Force under the command of former army general Huang Shengxiang. The most powerful air force in the Chinese Air Force has the 2nd and 8th Air Forces, and controls five dive bomber wings and two rapid bomber wings. The 2nd Air Force also included the 1st Anti-Aircraft Artillery Corps, which provided anti-aircraft and anti-tank support to the armoured units. The aviation fleet has a total of 3512 aircraft. Fighting against Xu Yuanjin's army group was the Siberian Front (renamed the Siberian Special Military District) under the command of the Soviet tank hero General Pavlov, who had participated in the Spanish Civil War. The second largest military district in the eastern part of the Soviet Army under his command has 44 divisions and 625,000 men. Together with the strength of the 11th Army of the Siberian Front, there were 54 divisions and less than 800,000 people. The strength of the Chinese Army's Central Army Group was only half of that of the Chinese Army. The Siberian Front consists of 6 mechanized corps (6th, 11th, 13th, 14th, 17th, 20th armies), 12 tank divisions and 6 motorized divisions, with a total of 2,201 tanks. Together with other units, the total number of tanks was 2900 units, which was a slight advantage in numbers, but of them only 470 were in good condition. Although there are 383 "T-34" and "KV" tanks with outstanding surnames, the overall strength is still far weaker than that of the Chinese army. Moreover, the total number of motor vehicles of the entire Siberian Front is only 35,102, which is only equivalent to the number of equipment of a Chinese armored cluster. The aviation of the military region has 1,560 aircraft (377 "Il-15", 424 "I-16", 262 "I-153", 73 "I-156", 233 "MiG", 20 "Yak-1", 75 "Su-2", 8 "I-2"). Together with the 3rd Army of Long-Range Aviation of the High Command, there are a total of 1,825 aircraft, but only 1,086 can be used on the front line. On the first day of engagement, the military lost 738 aircraft, including most of its new aircraft. Thus, the Chinese 2nd Air Force, which has 428 "Swift" bombers, 565 "Woolly Rhino" fighters, 122 "Swiftlet" fighters and 323 "Javelin" dive bombers, has almost overwhelming superiority. At the same time, because the antiaircraft artillery units of the various corps of the Siberian Front were still conducting intensive training at the training ground at the time of the war, the troops of this front army had almost no means to resist the air raids of the Chinese army when they lost air supremacy.

It is not difficult to see that in this main direction of attack, the Central Army Group of the Chinese Army has a relatively large superiority in strength. And the group also occupies a favorable terrain. In this area, the Soviet-Chinese border curved sharply towards the Chinese side, forming a salient 100 kilometers long and 200 kilometers wide. This salient exposed both flanks of the Soviet Siberian Front to the Chinese. The Chinese offensive was to launch a centripetal assault on the Soviets from these two flanks, trying to annihilate them in this area.

The Chinese offensive was carried out on the northern flank by the 3rd Panzer Group of General Liu Baicheng (4 Panzer Divisions, 3 Motorized Divisions, 4 Infantry Divisions, Motorized Teaching Brigade) and General Zhang Zhonglin's 9th Army (8 Infantry Divisions, 1 Guards Division) from the Kemerovo region, and the main breakthrough was north of the city of Novodzerzhinsky, at the junction of the Eastern Front of the Red Army and the Siberian Front. The main attack here was carried out by the entire forces of the 3rd Panzer Group and the 9th and 8th armies of the 42nd Army, the 1st echelon of which had 10 divisions with a total strength of 365,000 thousand troops. The Soviet defense against this powerful Chinese assault group consisted of only 3 divisions of the 11th Army of the Siberian Front (commanded by Lieutenant General Morozov), with a strength of just over 30,000 men. The Chinese army had a strength advantage of 10 times that of the Soviet army, 6 times the artillery of the Soviet army, and 11 times that of tanks. Moreover, the three Soviet infantry divisions had only five regiments on the front of the 100-kilometer state border, and only two divisions were directly resisting the 10 divisions of the Chinese army. Among them, the 128th Soviet Division alone was fiercely attacked by 2 armored divisions (7th and 12th armored divisions) and 2 infantry divisions of the Chinese army. Under the heavy blow of the huge Chinese assault group led by nearly 500 tanks, the defeated 128th Division of the Red Army broke up and fled. The 3rd Panzer Group of the Chinese Army was able to cross the Yenisy River 30 km south of Achinsk and posed a serious threat to the flank of the Soviet Army in the east and on the Siberian Front.

To the north of the main assault direction, the Chinese 9th Army also launched an auxiliary offensive, which was initially well advanced as there was no serious resistance. It was not until 8 o'clock in the morning that the 8th Army of the 9th Army of the Chinese Army under the command of General Lu Zhuoying encountered the 56th Infantry Division of the 3rd Army of the Soviet Siberian Front. Fierce fighting until noon of the same day, the Soviet infantry was repulsed. But immediately afterward, the Soviet 11th Mechanized Corps, under the orders of the command of the 3rd Army, launched a counterattack against this Chinese army. The army has 237 tanks, including 3 "KV" and 28 "T-34", which is said to have a strong assault capability. But the mechanized corps, which had only been formed since March 1941, had neither artillery tractors, nor vehicles to transport fuel and oil, nor even a map of the area of operations. After the start of the battle, the mechanized 11th Army could only advance without the cover of artillery and aviation, relying on a pile of tanks, most of which were about to be scrapped. The anti-tank men of the Chinese infantry division, who had undergone rigorous training, skillfully used anti-tank guns to destroy old Soviet tanks one by one. That was until the "T-34" tank, which had similar sloping armor and a somewhat odd appearance as the Chinese "Walker" tank, appeared. But the Soviet 11th Mechanized Corps was also unable to achieve victory with this new weapon. Because in the air, the Chinese Aerospace Forces are constantly carrying out air strikes on the tank columns of the army. In the skies over the Red Army tanks, which had no air cover and no anti-aircraft gun defense, the Chinese planes easily went on a killing spree. Eventually, the 11th Mechanized Army, which had suffered heavy losses, was forced to stop after advancing only 6 to 7 kilometers. But for the time being, the Chinese troops were also unable to move forward.

The Chinese army, which was attacking in the southern part of the salient, was mainly composed of the 2nd Panzer Group, with the 4th Army of General Wei Lihong to the north. The 2nd Armored Group is the most powerful armored group of the Chinese Army, with 3 motorized corps (motorized 24th, 46th, 47th armies) and the 12th Infantry Corps (in fact, the army belongs to the 4th Army, but is assigned to the 2nd armored group), with a total of 5 armored divisions, 3 motorized divisions, 1 cavalry division, 6 infantry divisions, 1 brigade-sized "Great China" motorized regiment, and is supported by 1 tank battalion, 2 assault artillery battalions, 18 artillery battalions, 3 anti-tank battalions, and 2 anti-aircraft artillery battalions (army anti-aircraft artillery battalions). , with a large number of other auxiliary reinforcements. The 1st Anti-aircraft Artillery Corps of the Chinese Air Force provided anti-aircraft cover for this armored group. There are more than 200,000 armored group combat troops, 1,021 tanks and assault artillery pieces (138 "Walker" 85 mm guns, 602 "Walker" 100 mm guns, and 20 "Xuanwu" super heavy tanks), and more than 34,000 vehicles. The commander of the armored group was Army General Lin Yuying: an avid professional soldier who liked to take an adventure in an armored vehicle to the front line. Together with part of the strength of the 4th Army, there were 460,000 squadrons in this direction. In the face of this powerful Chinese army, the Soviet 4th Army under the command of Major General Korobkov could only use more than 70,000 troops, which was only less than 1/6 of the Chinese army, and was at an absolute disadvantage. Among them, only 3 of the 7 divisions of the group army, namely the 6th and 42nd infantry divisions and the 22nd tank division, resisted the attack of Lin Yuying's 2nd armored group, with a strength of 2-30,000 troops. After the sudden outbreak of war, these troops were heavily damaged by Chinese artillery and dive bombers in the process of rushing to the designated defensive area, suffering heavy casualties and forced to retreat. But in Stalinsk, a fortress city on the Sino-Soviet border that was attacked at the beginning of the war, Lin Yuying suffered a setback. The attack on the fort was carried out by the 12th Chinese 2nd Armored Infantry Corps (3 infantry divisions, more than 600 artillery mortars), while the 45th Chinese Infantry Division, which was responsible for the direct attack, was supported by 12 artillery battalions, including super-powerful artillery. However, when the Chinese soldiers crossed the bridge over the tributaries of the Ob River and rushed to the Stalinsk fortress, they were blocked by heavy fire from the 333rd infantry regiment of the Red Army and the border guards of post No. 9 in front of the city gates, and for a time could not advance. It was not until 7 a.m. that the Chinese army broke into the city, but part of the Soviet 6th and 42nd Infantry Divisions defending the city continued to resist stubbornly. The attacking Chinese 45th Infantry Division killed 11 officers and 160 soldiers on that day. The fierce battles that unfolded between the narrow roads of the fortress obviously did not end anytime soon. At the same time, the 2nd motorized armies of the 47th and 24th armored groups crossed the Ob River from the north and south of the fortress, respectively. In this process, the 18th Armored Division of the Chinese Army used "Walker" tanks with floating strainers and waterproof treatment. The tanks, under the cover of 50 Chinese artillery batteries, dived ashore from the bed of a tributary of the Ob River, up to 4 meters deep. After that, the Chinese tank and motorized units that broke through the Soviet defense line advanced almost unhindered into the depth of the Siberian Front. Long swarms of Chinese armored "reptiles" wriggled on the Russian soil. At this moment, the commander of the Siberian Front, General Pavlov, could not understand the real situation in which his troops were located at all, due to the loss of communications. For an entire morning, he could not even establish a centralized command of his troops. Under these circumstances, the chief of staff of the Soviet 4th Army (which had relatively close ties with the Front Command) at the front, Colonel Sandalov, made a quick decision and ordered the 14th Mechanized Corps and the 28th Infantry Corps to counterattack the "reptilian swarm" of the Chinese army that had broken through. The mechanized 14th Army commanded by Major General Aubolin was composed of the 22nd and 30th tank divisions and the 205th motorized division, and the 520 tanks of the whole army were all old-style, and its tank 22nd division was subjected to fierce air attacks when the Chinese army began to attack, and was repelled by the Chinese troops rushing in in the ensuing battle; The 205th Motorized Division, on the other hand, was unable to reach the designated area on time due to a lack of vehicles. Therefore, the only tank division that this army could rely on was the 30th Tank Division under the command of Colonel Rambogodanov. The 30th Tank Division of the Red Army was formed in March 1941, and combat training began only in May. At the start of the war, the division had more than 9,000 men and 197 obsolete T-26 tanks. The division had no ammunition (including mortars, artillery, anti-aircraft guns) except for tank guns and light weapons, and there were no artillery tractors. Due to the fact that the unit was formed not long ago, the training level of the whole division was generally not high. To make matters worse, the division did not have effective wired telephone and radio contact with the corps and group armies, and could only rely on sending liaison representatives to deliver information. Within the division, command was also very cumbersome, often requiring the division commander or division officer to personally run to the troops to give orders (as did the other Soviet units). The division headquarters also did not know much about the situation of friendly troops and the enemy. Until 21 o'clock in the evening, when the order was received from the military headquarters, all the information on which the division's combat operations were based was only the border defense plan issued before the war and a small amount of information obtained by the division's reconnaissance battalion.

In accordance with the marching route laid down in the pre-war plan, the 30th Tank Division marched all the way to the border under the constant air raids of German aircraft. At 13 o'clock in the afternoon, its vanguard encountered the 18th armored division of the Chinese army, and the two sides immediately began to fight. The 18th Armored Division of the Chinese Army, formed in 1940, consists of the 18th Tank Regiment, the 52nd and 101st Motorized Infantry Regiments, the 88th Motorized Artillery Regiment, the 18th Motorcycle Battalion, the 88th Reconnaissance Battalion and the 88th Anti-Tank Battalion. The division has 224 tanks, including 36 85-mm guns and 126 100-mm guns. The Chinese had an advantage in both the number and quality of tanks (only about 170 of the 197 tanks of the 30th Tank Division of the Red Army reached the battlefield), and the Chinese armored division also had artillery fire and air support that the 30th Tank Division did not have. In the face of such a powerful enemy, the 30th Tank Division of the Red Army could only shoot in place to stop the impact of the Chinese tanks again and again (in the early days of the war, Soviet tanks often used this method of firing on the spot, and the result was often to become a fixed target for the opponent's artillery), but under the blows of the Chinese army's 85, 100-mm tank guns, the Red Army's weakly armored "T-26" was destroyed in large numbers. After fierce fighting, the 30th Tank Division, which lost about 100 tanks and suffered more than 2,000 casualties, was forced to retreat under the pressure of the Chinese army on the offensive. At night, the Soviet troops, who had hoped to take a breath for a while, were attacked by more than 30 Chinese tanks guided by air-dropped flares, and had to continue to retreat. After repelling this weak Soviet counterattack, Lin Yuying's 2nd Panzer Group continued to develop the offensive. Tanks and motorized columns with the L-shaped logo (the first letter of Lin Yuying's name) are like long snakes passing through the vast Russian land. Lin Yuying's own motorized command (including 2 radio armored command vehicles, several off-road vehicles and motorcycles) was in this column, and the actions of the entire armored group were timely and effectively directed. By the end of the day, the motorized 24th Army (commanded by Lieutenant General Fang Nianzu) of Lin Yuying's armored cluster had advanced more than 70 kilometers on Soviet soil and occupied a number of important transportation hubs.

And at a time when the Eastern Front of the Soviet Union was in chaos, Stalin, who was far away in the Moscow Kremlin, did not know the real situation at the front.

(To be continued)