Chapter 943 Omsk (I)

The sky was still 'overcast', and there was a "rumbling" sound of rolling thunder in the distance. A storm is approaching, and although the battlefield has long been muddy, the weather will not show mercy to the soldiers who are struggling in the mud.

Struggling in the trenches full of mud and stagnant water, although the military uniforms on their bodies were already dirty, it was impossible for the soldiers to change into cleaner clothes, for the simple reason that these days were either 'cloudy' or rainy, and it was impossible to dry the clothes after washing, and the old clothes were even dirtier than the military uniforms that the soldiers were wearing now.

This is Omsk, a city located in the southern region of Western Siberia, the Trans-Siberian Railway passes through here, and Omsk has become the most important "communication" hub in Western Siberia, from here to the west to the Ural region, to the east to the Baikal region, no matter who, as long as they control Omsk, it is equivalent to controlling the hub of European and Asian "communication", so the strategic position of Omsk is quite important.

Omsk is now controlled by the army of the Russian Imperial Tsarist Government, which is in fact also the location of the Western Front Command of the Tsarist Army, where the Tsarist Army's Front Commander-in-Chief, Vice Admiral Kolchak, is in command.

Since the end of the Battle of Samara in the west a few days ago, this Omsk has become the front line against the Bolshevik offensive. Now, not only the Kolchak Corps and the Far Eastern Corps have all retreated to Omsk, but also the remnants of the Denikin Corps and the Czech Corps have retreated to the city, and as for their opponents, the Red Army of Soviet Russia has also advanced to a place only a few dozen kilometers from Omsk.

In order to defend Omsk, the Tsarist decided to strengthen the defenses here, send reinforcements, and divide the entire theater of operations into several defensive areas, which were defended by the various corps.

As a participant in the Battle of Omsk, the Far Eastern Corps of the Russian Empire was also assigned to the defense zone, which was located in a hilly area fifteen kilometers west of the city, and the headquarters of the Far Eastern Corps was also located in the easternmost part of this hilly area, and the commander of the Far Eastern Corps, Zhang Zongchang, lived in the headquarters.

Considering that the combat effectiveness of the Soviet Russian Red Army was very strong, Zhang Zongchang specially prepared several cars and trucks in the headquarters, so that once the battle on the front line was unfavorable, he could quickly leave the front line by car, flee to Omsk, and then decide whether to immediately seize the road in the direction of Baikal according to the situation.

Because he was busy arranging the retreat of the headquarters, Zhang Zongchang did not care about considering the details of the operation, and all the combat plans and defense plans were handled by his staff officers, but because the background of the officers and soldiers of the Far East Army was very complicated, including Chinese, Koreans, Japanese, Russians, and Americans, the orders of the staff headquarters were well conveyed. It is necessary to frequently summon officers to meetings at the general staff, find common ground of interest in the fierce quarrels and invectives, and decide on the final tactical arrangements through consultations.

Now, a military meeting has just ended, and the differences have finally been bridged and an agreement has been reached, and the chief of staff who convened the military conference has made a final battle plan, and according to this plan, the defending units only need to hold their own positions, and there is no need to support unrelated units to avoid unnecessary 'chaos', and the heavy artillery units in the rear will provide artillery support for this upcoming positional battle.

Due to the relatively sufficient number of troops, and the logistical support has improved much compared to the previous days, coupled with the extreme hatred of the Russian officers towards the Bolsheviks, the advantage of the defending side is not boasted.

Only if Omsk is held, the civil war in Russia will not spread to the Far East, so Omsk must be held.

As a senior officer of the Far East Army, Liu Fuji had just come out of the general staff and was walking along the trench towards his defensive position, advancing in the mud-covered trench, carrying an original German-made 'Mao' pistol in his hand.

Now the front line. It is more and more like the battlefield of the Western Front in Europe, and you can see dense trenches and machine-gun bunkers like spider webs everywhere on the battlefield, and like the Western Front in Europe, the trenches are usually full of rainwater, and "trench feet" are common occupational diseases here.

Walking to a fork in the "Jiao" trench, Liu Fuji stopped and listened attentively, the rolling thunder coming from a distance was getting closer and closer, and the thunder was mixed with some artillery sounds, which was a "commotion" and "sexual" shelling between the front-line artillerymen, which did not pay attention to accuracy, but only "disturbed" the enemy, making the enemy's combatants tense their nerves and unable to get sufficient rest.

Liu Fuji made a turn in the 'Jiao' trench, rushed towards the position he was responsible for defending, and arrived at his headquarters fifteen minutes later.

Liu Fuji's headquarters is an anti-artillery bunker, the space inside the bunker is not large, but it is equipped with the entire command headquarters, and many field telephones are installed, directly to each company, Liu Fuji is relying on these field telephones to remotely command the troops of 5,000 people under his command, but since the retreat to Omsk, this position has not been attacked by the Soviet Russian Red Army, so these field telephones are basically in a state of silence. Every day is just a routine forward report.

After rushing to the headquarters, Liu Fuji first shook the phone several times and went to the forward position to inquire about the movements of the enemy troops on the opposite side, and the answer he received was "no abnormal movement."

Although his subordinates reported that the enemy army had not moved, Liu Fuji was still not at ease, because today's artillery sound was more intense than a few days ago, and according to yesterday's reconnaissance report, the Soviet Russian Red Army had already transferred some armored combat vehicles to the Omsk front, but because of the bad weather in the past few days, the air force could not provide aerial reconnaissance reports, so no one knew how many armored combat vehicles the Soviet Russian Red Army had mobilized to the Omsk front.

Liu Fuji pressed down the phone, said to leave, took a few staff officers, and rushed to the position closest to the front line to conduct an inspection.

Along the way, the rolling thunder got closer and closer, and finally, after more than ten minutes, the sky was lightning and thunder, and a storm followed, and an accompanying staff officer hurriedly rushed into an anti-artillery bunker on the edge of the 'Jiao' trench, took a poncho, and handed it to Liu Fuji.

Liu Fuji put on a poncho. Glancing at the sky, it was already dark and dreary, as if it was dark, but it was only two o'clock in the afternoon, and as soon as it rained, the temperature dropped immediately, and the feet were soaked in the cold rain, which made people very uncomfortable, and the pair of worn military boots should indeed be changed.

After such a difficult trek, Liu Fuji rushed to the forward position with his staff officers and stood in the observation post. Holding a high-powered telescope to look west, but the rain was heavy, and nothing could be seen clearly, the sky and the earth were integrated, the forest and the field were also integrated, and only the cold guns and cold cannons that rang out from time to time reminded people that this was the front line.

Originally, Liu Fuji planned to inspect several positions, but since the rain had already fallen, there was no need to go to several other positions, and the sight there would not be better than here, so Liu Fuji decided to take shelter from the rain in the anti-artillery bunkers of this position first, and then decide whether to continue to inspect the forward positions after the rain had subsided.

But the rain lasted for two hours, and the water in the trenches became deeper and deeper, and the soldiers had to desperately dig drainage ditches to try to drain the rainwater, but due to the limited power of the 'pumping' machine, the water in the trenches quickly flooded people's knees, and the same was true in the anti-artillery bunkers.

Although it is summer, people will not be frostbitten, but the temperature of the water is still unbearable, Liu Fuji's "trench foot" is particularly painful, as a last resort, he had to decide to rush back to the headquarters, where the terrain is higher and will not be flooded by rain.

However, he had not gone far when he suddenly heard the explosion of artillery shells from the west, and it was fierce, and the first round of shelling covered the entire forward position in a sea of fire, and for a moment, shrapnel flew sideways, and the smoke of gunpowder obscured the vision.

Obviously, the artillery of the Soviet Russian Red Army intended to teach this group of "foreign devils" soaked in the rain a lesson with shells.

"Is the enemy attacking?"

Liu Fuji couldn't make up his mind, and generally speaking, launching an attack in such a rainstorm was not the wisest choice, which not only required a detailed attack plan, but also required the soldiers to have extremely high morale and strict discipline. Being able to hold out on to the charge without effective command, of course, is also advantageous to launch an offensive in such weather conditions, at least using this dim light as a cover.

"Whoosh———— boom!"

"Whoosh———— boom!"

Just as Liu Fuji hurried back to the forward position, more and more shells swept overhead, and the shells landed deeper into the east than just now, there is no doubt that this was a barrage 'shooting', but the enemy's gunfire has not yet been heard, which may be seen as a manifestation of the lack of coordination between artillery and infantry.

Liu Fuji quickly hurried back to the forward position, raised the telescope, and looked to the west, and sure enough, many black shadows appeared in the dark and heavy rain curtain, which were rushing towards the position in a loose formation, and now it was less than 500 meters away from the position, and it had entered the effective 'firing' range of the machine gun.

"Hold on! Wait until you get closer! ”

Liu Fuji gave an order to the commander of the position, and at the same time asked the command headquarters through a field telephone, and learned that at the same time that this position was attacked by the Soviet Russian Red Army, at least 20 positions of the Far East Army were also attacked, and according to the news from the headquarters, the positions of the Czech Army Corps in the north were also suddenly attacked by the Soviet Russian Red Army.

Obviously, this was by no means a small-scale offensive attempt, but a prelude to a large-scale offensive, and after waiting for many days, the Russian Red Army finally decided to take advantage of the rainstorm to launch a full-scale offensive.