After the capture of the fortress "Lenin", Dongfang Bai waved his troops along the defensive line. One by one, he destroyed the remaining fortresses. He used the tactics of rapid maneuvering to neutralize the superiority of the new Soviet tanks. A large number of Soviet tanks were destroyed, and the Soviet defense line was paralyzed. Dongfang Bai now turned his gaze to Chelyabinsk again.

In May 1944, the Soviet defense in Chelyabinsk was weaker than in previous weeks. This was partly due to the fact that the Soviets scattered their personnel, tanks and aircraft elsewhere, and partly because the Soviets were too much interested in building a defensive line. And Rokossovsky did not make any plans to prepare for the final defense of the fortress. His intentions were reflected in the order he issued: regardless of the progress of Dongfangbai, "I have no intention of continuing to defend Chelyabinsk once the enemy is in a vantage point where he can effectively besiege Chelyabinsk." To this, he explained that he could not put an entire division of troops in the encirclement of the enemy, and his plan was approved by Moscow, so he made all preparations for the evacuation of Chelyabinsk and, if necessary, the destruction of the storage.

The new commander of the Chelyabinsk garrison was Army Major General Priyakov. He had 35,000 men under his command, mostly Russians, but also some Ukrainians and Tatars. Like Priyakov himself, most of the soldiers were newcomers and had little experience in real combat. The mines, which had previously been laid around the fortress, were cleared by the breakout defenders during the counteroffensive operation. After it was believed that Chelyabinsk was out of danger, the remaining mines were planted along the line of the defensive line.

In the midst of the bad news at the end of April, in the face of the aggressive posture of the Chinese advancing day by day, the Chelyabinsk defenders hurriedly made a final effort to strengthen the defenses. Despite this, they were still undecided whether to hold the fortress or evacuate at all costs, and they did not receive any instructions from Rokossovsky.

Top decision-makers in the Soviet Union were similarly hesitant. On May 5, the last fortress fell. Zhukov received a call from Stalin: "It is assumed that Chelyabinsk will not be abandoned under any circumstances". In the following calls, Stalin gradually turned this assumption into an order. Zhukov called back: "Rokossovsky is throwing enough forces to defend the fortress. ”

Rokossovsky intended to create a new line of defense from the fortress to the south. But then he ordered the Soviet troops stationed on this line to withdraw. The reason is that this unit has been hit hard by the Chinese armored forces and must be repaired. The next day, they withdrew from this line. On the third day, the Chinese troops again completed the encirclement of Chelyabinsk.

"For each of us," writes Dongfang Bai in his chronicles, "Chelyabinsk was a sign of resistance by the Soviets, and now we are going to settle this problem once and for all." "On May 8, with the help of the Chinese Air Force, the Chinese army began to attack Chelyabinsk. Over the course of a full day, 150 bombers made 580 sorties. Dongfang Bai's intelligence officer, Major Mei Wenfang, wrote: "In the most spectacular assault battle I have ever seen, our planes dived to bomb the Soviet Ring Line. Under our attack, smoke and dust billowed over the Soviets stronghold. When our planes dive-bombed, the entire artillery joined in, a fierce, well-coordinated network of fire. The combined power of artillery and bombers is terrifying. ”

The mine-laid positions hastily laid by Soviet units in the last days were quickly cleared out of a passage. Chinese tanks were the first to rush up. The Chinese infantry swarmed on their heels, and fierce hand-to-hand combat began. At the end of the afternoon, the fall of Chelyabinsk was a foregone conclusion. Priyakov set out to blow up storage worth millions of rubles. At the same time, he blew up most of the lines of communication, which in turn caused him to lose contact with the troops. At 9 p.m., on one of the remaining telegraph lines, Priyakov was still trying to get in touch with Rokossovsky. "The situation is out of control," Priyakov said in the telegram, "my tanks are all gone, and half of the artillery is left." He concluded in a mournful tone: "If you are ready to counterattack, let me know." ”

There will be no more counteroffensives. At 6 o'clock in the morning the next morning, Rokossovsky's last telegram to Priakov read: "I don't know how the battle will be, you can decide for yourself to act." ”

At 9:40 a.m. on May 11, Priyakov surrendered. Ironically, the blasting he carried out at the end was too late and had little effect. Rather, it played a role in hindering his own communications and maneuvers. When Dongfang Bai entered the city, he got a lot of money: 2,000 vehicles of various colors, including 30 usable tanks, 400 artillery pieces and enough fuel for his armored division to drive to Ulyanovsk, as well as 5,000 tons of food and a large amount of ammunition.

It only took a little more than 24 hours for Dongfang Bai to achieve this brilliant result, which he had been thinking about for a long time. In a letter to his wife, he wrote: "The battle of Chelyabinsk was fought beautifully! …… I said to a group of captured Soviet officers: 'Gentlemen, for you the war is over. You fought like lions, but you were played like monkeys. The next day, he was told that Yang Shuoming had specially awarded him the rank of army general in reward for his bravery in battle, "I know why he did this, but I would rather he give me an extra armored division." ”

The loss of Chelyabinsk was a blow to the USSR. When Stalin heard the news, he only said "very embarrassing." But Molotov, who was also present at the time, recalled that it was the first time he saw Stalin as if he had been stung by something.

Stalin understood that his political career was at a critical juncture, and more seriously, his country's survival was in jeopardy. The political struggle was a piece of cake for him, but the dilemma facing the country was not so easy to solve.

Rokossovsky had a different taste in his mind. On May 13, he personally commanded the front. He re-strengthened his defenses and dug trenches here to hold on. For the next six weeks, he lived with the soldiers and ate simple food. He tried to re-boost the morale of the Soviet soldiers with his composure. For the next week, Dongfang Bai continued to attack the Soviet defenses. But Rokossovsky's skillful use of a combination of defensive and offensive tactics held him back.

But, in any case, it was far from enough for Stalin and the Soviet military and civilians. Zhukov had to bear the blame for the losses of the Soviet troops over the past few weeks, especially for Rokossovsky's command mistakes. Stalin and the Soviet military and civilians could not forgive him for his mistakes for a short time. Rokossovsky's own prestige also plummeted due to the mistakes of those subordinate commanders he had chosen. But at this time, Stalin did not remove Rokossovsky, and he decided to personally give Rokossovsky the help of his real surname to turn the situation around.

At this time, the Chinese troops were only thousands of yards away from the Soviet lines, which, although on the defensive, were extremely tight and were unlikely to be outflanked by the Soviets, and if the Soviets intended to pass through, they could only launch a large-scale offensive from the front.

Under Stalin's orders, Soviet reinforcements continued to arrive at the front, including 41,000 soldiers, 800 artillery pieces, and more than 1,000 tanks – including 300 new 55-ton Tiger tanks promised to Stalin by the German political axe after the fall of Chelyabinsk. Soviet tank commanders pinned all their hopes on these German-made tanks. The Tiger tank was equipped with a powerful 88 mm gun, and its range exceeded that of any tank except the Soviet Army. They were accompanied by the 1st Panzer Division of the Royal Janissary Guard.

Despite the radical reversal of the situation in the past few weeks and the build-up of impregnable fortifications by the Chinese troops, there were not many pessimistic and disillusioned among the Soviet troops. In the days following the arrival of the Germans, the arrival of Lieutenant General Hort injected the Soviet troops with a booster. Under his resolute guidance, a group of disillusioned Soviet troops soon understood the grim reality: there would be no more retreat. To show that he really meant what he said, he scrapped Rokossovsky's contingency plan. The plan was to allow the Soviets to retreat to the second line of defense around Ufa in the event of a breakthrough from the East. "This is by no means a plan," Holt growled. "When we go back 10 yards," he told his troops, "we're going to lose half of the value of the war." He announced that he was going to burn the documents. He also took a number of other reassuring measures. When he spotted a group of Soviet soldiers digging trenches leading to the rear, he told them: "Stop me—you'll never need them." "Everything that Hoult sends out a truck to bring back is just a matter of what is needed in the rear. He issued a blunt exhortation to all officers and men: "From now on, we will not give a single yard of land to the enemy, and the soldiers will continue to fight until they die in the line of duty." ”

Hodt was a demanding, disciplined man who wanted his orders to be followed unequivocally, "I don't want to hear any jailing," he said. According to Hort, an army that straddles loosely is an army that is half crossed. However, not all officers were convinced of Hult overnight. Some were extremely annoyed by the general's arbitrariness. However, with the skills of a politician, the newly arrived field general resonated strongly with the middle and lower ranks of the Soviet army.

But it's not just his sales pitches and tricks that can amplify Hult's influence. The quality that the Soviet front-line units admired most about their German commander was the ability to win in battle. Just before Hott took office, the Soviets had already put a series of incompetent commanders under the command of them, who were led by the nose again and again by Dongfang Bai, and repeatedly deceived and deceived. Now, what this force needs is a new commander who can lead the whole army to victory in the battle of the [***] team in the resistance.

On the night of May 20, Dongfang Bai made a last effort to completely crush the Soviet army. The Chinese army's battle plan required the mobilization of most of Dongfangbai's army, including four tank divisions, to launch a defensive offensive against the Soviets, and then the Chinese army would turn its turn and penetrate straight south, cutting off the Soviet mechanized 9th Army from the rest of the Soviet army.

The success of this operation depends entirely on speed. The Soviets had already mined and fortified the area where the battle had begun, and Dongfang Bai's troops had wasted a whole night trying to clear the way in the minefield. When he finally broke out of the minefield, Dongfang Bai changed course and aimed his attack on a geographically commanding heights to the southeast. Hoult had anticipated this change and had his troops dig ground bunkers for the German-made Tiger tanks and hide them quietly. In this way, Dongfang Bai's tank and truck teams were unexpectedly attacked mercilessly by the Soviet armored forces, and for two days and two nights in a row, the Chinese army was bombarded by the Soviet army's fierce artillery fire. On May 23, Dongfang Bai retreated. This time he lost 29 tanks.

The victory of the Germans in the first battle made the Soviets understand that they already had a commander who could be compared to the "snow lone wolf" Dongfang Bai. Soon, things became clearer, and Hort was planning to take the initiative and seize the fighter plane, preparing to engage in a decisive battle with the Chinese army. But at the same time, Hoult also felt that the Soviet army was not very suitable to fight under the current conditions. There are too many recruits in the troops, and they are seriously undertrained. If there is time, he will turn this team into a first-class combat force. But alas, he didn't have time.

Compared with its opponent, the Chinese armored forces, the Soviet Eastern Front expected to have a two-to-one advantage in almost every respect, with 195,000 troops compared to 104,000 Chinese troops, the Eighth Group had 1,029 medium tanks, compared to 496 for the Chinese, and the Soviet army had almost twice as many anti-tank guns and heavy artillery as the enemy. In addition, the Eighth Army was well supplied, while the Chinese army was facing a severe supply shortage crisis. The military supplies needed by Dongfang Bai had to be transported thousands of miles from the places occupied by the Chinese army. During the whole transportation process, although the Chinese army, which held air supremacy, did not have to worry about the transport convoy being attacked by the Soviet army, the small units of the Soviet army and the guerrillas were a big trouble. To add insult to injury, the "lone wolf in the snowfield" fell ill. At this time, Dongfang Bai Li was plagued by many diseases, and he barely survived with his amazing endurance.

Despite this, no one in the Soviet camp saw the coming war as an easy task. The details of Hult's battle plan made it clear to everyone how difficult the battle would be. Under the cover of earth-shattering artillery fire, the four infantry divisions of the Soviet Eastern Front will cross minefields and clear enemy machine-gun and infantry positions, and then the engineers will clear the way for the tank group, which will be long and straight, and destroy the depth of the Chinese defenses. The Soviet mechanized 14th Army will launch an auxiliary attack in the south to firmly contain the Chinese armored clusters in that area, so that they cannot figure out the real target of the Soviet army. During this period, Soviet fighters will indiscriminately bomb enemy positions and launch attacks on Chinese front-line airfields to prevent the Chinese Air Force from harassing the Soviet troops.

On the night of June 13th, it was a quiet and terrifying night, and occasionally only the terrifying cry of nocturnal birds could temporarily tear through the dead veil, and a large, golden full moon hung low over the vast wasteland. It was so glorious that the non-combatants in the large rear could not sleep, and they had to pull up blankets and cover their heads to block out the glaring light. Those who are about to embrace death behave even more strangely. Lieutenant Colonel Oleg and the officers of the German 503rd Panzer Battalion changed into brand new uniforms at dinner, and they toasted the health of the German Emperor with glasses full of aged wine. The dashing and handsome Lieutenant Colonel Wittmann, in order to "show off his demeanor" to his subordinates, specially asked the orderlies to arrange his most beautiful pair of court trousers for him, and he announced that if he was destined to die in battle, he would also die in the most noble clothes. Almost everyone wrote a letter home or made some records in the chronicles. The commander of the 19th Infantry Division of the Soviet Army, Alexander? In a letter to his beloved wife, Major General Bunin wrote: "We have no illusions that a fight to the death is coming, and there is no doubt that it will last for a long time." But we will win this battle and thus end – I believe – this endless tug-of-war. ”

Hult climbed early onto the camp bed in the trailer. At 9:30 p.m., on the ground, the artillery command of the Soviet front-line positions was nervously facing the table. At 9:40, the order for a general attack on the whole line was issued, the Soviet artillery group opened fire, and as the heavy artillery fire continued to extend, Hort's infantry unit launched a charge. Captain Yevgeny of the "Young Guards" regiment passionately recorded what was seen at that time: "...... Rows and rows of steel-helmeted bodies, rifles held high on their chests, bayonets reflecting a terrifying cold light in the moonlight...... Give us a thumbs up gesture. We watched as they rushed towards the enemy positions in the smoke of gunpowder. "In front of each combat battalion of the Soviet army were several leading officers, who held compasses and counted the pace of walking, until the first minefield surrounded the barbed wire came into view.

From the very beginning, it was as if the sappers were having nightmares. Although the heavy shelling had detonated several mines, it was harder than climbing to the sky to clear them all, and the Soviet sappers did not intend to do so. They just need to clear a few passages that allow two tanks to move side by side.

(To be continued)