With such a large army, Zhang Cheng naturally has to be commanded by his henchmen. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info Yuan Lu Zhiyuan was the most suitable candidate, but he had to serve as Zhang Cheng's assistant to unify the combat operations of the entire Central Army Group. So Zhang Cheng handed over this powerful army to his classmate at Lu University, Admiral Junmo Army, who commanded it. That's right, Junmo was directly promoted to general by Zhang Cheng, which was to correspond to his position and was also Zhang Cheng's remuneration.

He Ziqiu's imprint on the Central Army Group is very deep, and Junmo took the initiative to lead the team to force He Ziqiu to death when Zhang Cheng cleared He Ziqiu, and he has become a loner on the side of the Central Army Group. The current Junmo has completely taken refuge in Zhang Cheng, just like He Wenzhao, another person who is despised by the people of the Central Army Group. And He Wenzhao was also reused by Zhang Cheng, and served as the commander of the Ninth Armored Army after the incident. The 29th Panzer Division, which served as the vanguard of the entire Army Group, was subordinate to the 9th Panzer Army.

Zhang Cheng has always been stingy with his own people, even if He Wenzhao was just an ordinary colonel before, he could be directly promoted by Zhang Cheng to the commander of the Lieutenant General Armored Army. Even in times of war, this kind of thing is shocking news. If it were in peacetime, it would not have worked at all, unless he was a member of the royal family.

Of course, the premise of this promotion is that He Wenzhao's own strength is enough, and his ability is enough to convince the public. After all, He Wenzhao graduated with the third place in Lu University, and more than ten years have passed, and he has been working by He Ziqiu's side, and he also knows all aspects of the affairs of the army in great detail. Being a commander of an armored corps is absolutely competent. Zhang Cheng fulfilled his previous promise.

In addition, there is also a very important point that He Wenzhao is the commander of the armored army, and Zhang Cheng's control over the armored force is unprecedented. If he was the commander of the infantry corps, some people might gossip.

As the troops of the Ming Sixth Panzer Army continued to arrive on the west bank of the Sato River, a massive offensive was about to begin.

"How's it going on the front?" Jun Mo, who has never had any chance to shine under He Ziqiu, finally waited for the opportunity to lead the troops alone, and desperately wanted to prove that Jun Mo, even if he was already the commander of the group army, he had been fighting on the front line regardless of the danger, quite a bit of Rommel's style.

"Sir." He Wenzhao, who jumped directly from colonel to lieutenant general, was also eager to prove himself, and like Junmo, he had been following the troops on the front line. The Ninth Panzer Corps under Ho Wenzhao was at the forefront of the entire campaign. He also arrived at the front before Junmo and knew more about the current state of the war: "The Russians destroyed all the bridges and pontoons. Numerous fortifications were placed on the opposite bank, and heavy bombardment was constantly carried out with artillery units deployed in the city of Sarova. Several attempts by the engineering units to erect pontoon bridges were unsuccessful. ”

"Artillery deployed in the city?" Jun Mo, who was in the front-line artillery observation post, was slightly stunned when he heard this, put down the binoculars in his hand, turned his head and looked at He Wenzhao suspiciously, "Are they crazy?" ”

"I can't believe it, but it's true." He Wenzhao smiled bitterly, nodded and said, "The Russians may think that we will care about civilian casualties and will not attack cities and towns on a large scale for the sake of reputation. ”

"Humph!" Jun Mo snorted coldly, and a look of determination flashed in his eyes, "No matter!" Order the artillery and army aviation to wipe out all the Russian artillery! With these cannons, what is the cost of building a pontoon bridge? ”

"But what about the civilians in that case?" He Wenzhao said with a hesitant expression. The city of Sarova is not very big, but at least tens of thousands of ordinary people still have it. Although many fled after the war began, many remained.

The Ming army is not like the Japanese army, which has no civilized spirit at all. As the most literate country in the world, its national education and moral standards are also extremely high. The officers and soldiers of the Ming army are all elites who have received senior education, and they attach great importance to reputation. Although there will also be many things that will inevitably appear on the battlefield that will not see the light, the Ming army has always maintained the personal reputation of the army and its officers and soldiers.

"Civilians?" Jun Mo's eyes were slightly cold, "That's not our civilian!" Now it's war, it's enemy land, and those civilians are also enemy civilians. Now that the progress of the war is above all else, and the Allies are rushing towards this side on all sides, we cannot afford to waste too much time here. The casualties of those civilians are now beyond consideration. ”

"Yes!" He Wenzhao hurriedly responded, then turned around and went out to begin to deploy troops to prepare for the attack. Let go of your worries and be ready to give it a go, the Ming army is extremely terrifying.

In the early morning of 6 July, groups of Ming Army and Air Force fighters began to roar across the sky and fly in the direction of the city of Sarova. Their goal was to raze the entire city of Sarova to the ground.

Because the Russian artillery units were distributed throughout the city, it was not only difficult to observe, but also the surrounding buildings would provide them with a certain degree of protection. In this case, Junmo decides to blow up the entire city. After all, it is also very troublesome to engage in street fighting when attacking the city later. As for other things, these soldiers can no longer take care of it now.

The air forces of the allies did not show weakness, even if the gap between the two sides was not small, but the air forces of the allies did not give up the fight. Hundreds of fighter planes on both sides were entangled, and the entire sky was full of whizzing fighter planes. From time to time, planes with different logos will fall from the sky in smoke and fire. At this time, the battle is completely about attrition.

When the sky was bustling with porridge, the ground was not idle. The heavy artillery units of the Ming Army's Sixth Panzer Army, taking advantage of their range advantage, began to pour devastating artillery fire on the city of Sarova under the guidance of the school-fired aircraft.

The artillery units of the Ming Army are the best in the world. Both in quantity and quality, it far surpasses other countries. In addition to being highly valued by the military bosses, advanced scientific and technological capabilities are also a crucial factor. At least the Ming Dynasty's technology in steel smelting is very good, and the cannon steel it produces has excellent performance, and it is used in the barrel of the gun in terms of accuracy, range and life to exceed similar products of the allies.

Thousands of 203-mm, 155-mm, and even 105-mm barreled guns opened heavy fire. The blazing muzzle flames evaporated almost all of the morning fog. Countless cannonballs rose into the sky like meteors, and then swept through the city of Sarova like a manic storm. The pilots of the two warplanes, who were fiercely fighting in the sky, looked down from a high place, and the entire city of Sarova disappeared into endless fire and smoke almost instantly. The dense and thick smoke reached a height of 100 meters.

The powerful artillery bombardment of the Ming army lasted a full three hours before switching to extended fire. Under this intense bombardment, the hundreds of artillery pieces deployed by the Russian army in the city of Sarova were almost completely annihilated. These Russian artillerymen, who could not confront the artillery units of the Ming army in all respects, and had also lost their air cover, even fought back became a luxury. Only a small number of lucky artillery pieces survived, as well as those that had taken refuge in the fortifications. But the number of them left is too small.

At the same time, more than 100 Ming tanks from more than three armored battalions drove directly to the banks of the Sato River, and suppressed the fire of the Russian positions on the opposite bank with their own direct artillery fire, and named the fire points on the opposite bank one after another. Subsequently, the engineer units of the Ming army drove all kinds of armored engineering vehicles to resist the fire on the other side of the river and forcibly erected pontoon bridges.

The Russian troops on the other side knew very well what kind of situation would happen once the Ming army successfully erected the pontoon bridge. Therefore, the Russian army began to fight back frantically, trying to beat back the engineer units of the Ming army. But how could the Ming army let the Russian army's intentions succeed? After learning the news of the fierce resistance of the Russian army, the artillery units of the Ming army under heavy shelling divided part of their forces and poured fire on the heads of the Russian troops who reinforced the river bank. Most of the reinforcements of the four groups of an entire infantry division were lost on the road. As for the counterattack of Russian artillery fire and the danger from the air, it is almost negligible.

The Russian troops on the other side of the Sato River desperately attacked the vehicles of the Ming army engineers with all kinds of firepower. The rain of bullets and the frenzied direct fire caused the casualties of the Ming army's engineering units to skyrocket, and also greatly affected the speed of the erection of the pontoon bridge.

After learning of the situation at the front, Ho Wenzhao immediately ordered the infantry troops to forcibly use rubber boats to cross the river to clear the threat on the opposite bank. And he once again ordered to mobilize a large number of tanks to drive to the front line of the battlefield, using direct-fire artillery to suppress the counterattack on the opposite bank. After receiving reinforcements, the number of Ming tanks providing direct fire support on the banks of the Sato River was close to 200. That's nearly two hundred heavy guns.

After more than an hour of fierce fighting, after paying hundreds of casualties, about two battalions of infantry forced their way across the Sato River under the direct cover of tanks and gained a firm foothold on the opposite bank.

These infantry rushed across the river bank and quickly swept away the nearby Russian positions, thus greatly reducing the pressure on the sappers behind them. Subsequently, as the artillery fire escalated and began to extend the attack to the depth of the Russian position, the Ming engineering units finally erected two pontoon bridges over the Sato River after hard work.

Using a special mold steel plate as the base unit, these steel plates were then all connected to quickly erect a pontoon bridge. This steel pontoon bridge has been tested many times and is sufficient to pass all the heavy vehicles equipped by the Ming Army at this time.

After the pontoon bridge was erected, many impatient Ming tanks that had been waiting for a long time quickly attacked, roared their tanks onto the pontoon bridge, and then killed the Russian positions on the other side of the river. After receiving reinforcements from armored forces, the Ming infantry who had crossed the river before quickly became active. With the cooperation of armored forces, they swept the positions of the Russian army and constantly expanded the wallhead. (To be continued.) )