At this time, the commander of the Kwantung Army, Kenkichi Ueda, still had some cards in his hand, including the Kwantung Army Headquarters, all of whom were fighting hard, although they sent many people to the base camp to lobby, thinking that at least one attack by four divisions should be launched to strike at the Japanese army, and by the way, the remains of the soldiers who died in the war should be collected. But these demands were outright rejected by the base camp.

After all, at this time, the Battle of Wuhan had reached the most critical period, and the Japanese army invading China suffered considerable losses during the Battle of Wuhan, and even had a tendency to keep up with the Battle of Xuzhou. In the southeast of the Republic of China, the war was also continuous, and the Japanese army's front had been stretched to thousands of kilometers at this time, and it was undoubtedly extremely unwise for Japan at this time to provoke such a strong opponent as the Soviet Union while fighting against the Republic of China.

At this time, the Soviet Union, Russia and Europe were preparing to invade Poland, and the Soviet base camp was more concerned about the situation in Europe than the Far East.

At this point, this largest military conflict between the Soviet Union and Japan in history ended with the defeat of the Japanese army.

However, the real Battle of Nomenkan was far from the Japanese army's crushing defeat in front of the Soviet army as rumored in later generations.

However, after the Great Purge, the Soviet army had extremely low combat effectiveness, and under the absolute superiority of troops and technical troops, it had a result that the casualties were higher than those of the Japanese army. Compared with Zhukov, who received the full support of the Soviet high-level, and the Kwantung Army, except for the tacit approval of the base camp in the early stage, in the middle and late stages, it has not been allowed to show its hands and feet, and the strength of several divisions and regiments has not been able to put into battle. He was ordered by the base camp not to expand the scale of the war.

In the course of the operation, the Soviet Union invested at least four divisions of about 57,000 combat troops, and against the Japanese army, the combat strength of more than 25,000 Japanese troops was more than double. And the 23rd Division is compared to the 5th and 6th permanent divisions fighting in China. Flooded with quite a few recruits. The 23rd Division has added a certain number of combat troops, and after reaching more than one division, the number of troops participating in the battle is only about 25,000. And the 5th Division, known as the Steel Army, reached 28,000 men during the war, which was not very out of the ordinary.

ALTHOUGH THE NUMBER OF ARTILLERY PIECES IS ABOUT THE SAME, THE NUMBER OF 122MM AND 150MM HEAVY GUNS IN THE SOVIET UNION ACCOUNTS FOR A CONSIDERABLE PART OF THE MORE THAN 500 CANNONS. Whether it is range, power, or number, it has an overwhelming advantage. IT IS THE SOVIET 76MM FIELD ARTILLERY, WHICH HAS CERTAIN ADVANTAGES OVER THE JAPANESE ARMY'S 75MM MOUNTAIN ARTILLERY AND FIELD ARTILLERY.

Reinforcements were put in successively, with nearly 500 tanks, more than 300 armored vehicles, and more than 500 aircraft of various types.

In contrast, the Japanese army had only more than 180 tanks and armored vehicles, more than 300 aircraft, and only more than 500 artillery pieces, including only 70 or 80 heavy artillery pieces.

And the person in charge of commanding the Soviet army was Zhukov, one of the most capable generals of the Soviet Union in World War II.

However, even under the command of an outstanding general like Zhukov, when the initial strength was not too superior, he could only rely on hundreds of tanks and armored vehicles to act as a firefighting team to save the scene, so as to resist the Japanese offensive. It was not until the follow-up Soviet reinforcements and more armored units continued to arrive and consumed several times the number of artillery shells of the Japanese army that the situation was reversed.

But it was in the case of such an advantage that the casualties of the Soviet army were actually higher than those of the Japanese army. In addition to the fact that the Soviet army has not experienced large-scale fighting in recent years, it is conceivable that the impact of the Great Purge on the Soviet army was far-reaching. Almost half of the experienced and combat-ready officers of the army were cleansed. Even in the Soviet-German war, in a sense, the German army failed to inflict such great results on the Soviet army, which shows that the internal losses are sometimes not necessarily greater than those brought by the external enemy.

And in order to maintain such a long-distance war, the Soviet Union's logistical pressure on the Soviet army has almost reached the limit. To say that the victory of the Soviet army in this war can only be said to be the success of pushing back the counterattacking Japanese army to the east bank of the Haraha River. From a military point of view, the Soviets did not achieve much victory. The fact that the Soviet army was relatively low after the Great Purge was not only reflected in the Battle of Nomenkan, but also in the subsequent invasion of Finland, where the weakness of the Soviet army was once again exposed.

It can be imagined that the Soviet army at this time had such weapons and equipment, and the Japanese army still fought so fiercely, and on the battlefield of the Republic of China in history, countless soldiers and civilians of the Republic of China faced millions of Japanese troops, how much pressure they were under

"Commander, Britain and France have declared war on Germany!"

When Jiang Li got the relevant data about the Battle of Nomenkan, he also heard a news that was not too surprising.

"What should come is always coming, and these Englishmen and Frenchmen thought that concessions could be avoided. Isn't what happened between the Republic of China and Japan enough to prove that blind concessions can only make the war come faster? Jiang Li sneered, the drastic changes in Europe are still coming as in history.

"Europe is too far away from us to have much to do with it at the moment. At present, Wuhan is alone, as well as northern Henan, which is enough for us to worry about. Zhang Zhibang took a breath, the battle in eastern Henan was not fierce, and with several army commanders under him and the staff of the group army to support him, there was no chaos. Just in time for the Luoyang Military Conference to be held again, Zhang Zhibang rushed back by plane, and he couldn't miss much.

"Who says it's none of our business? Britain and France just declared war on Germany, and Japan forced Britain and France to close the Yunnan-Burma Highway and the Yunnan-Vietnam Railway respectively, if the Japanese plan really succeeds, we spent tens of millions of dollars to build the Yunnan-Burma Railway, which will be opened to traffic in February next year, but whether it can really be put into operation, it is difficult to say. Jiang Li threw a report on the table in front of Zhang Zhibang.

"What? Close the Yunnan-Burma railway and road, they dare? Zhang Zhibang suddenly exploded, "The road we have spent so much money to build, not to mention that the Japanese can't do it, it's a foreign devil, if you really dare to do this, you have to weigh it, really when our Republic of China is easy to bully, commander, I know that you have hole cards in your pocket, and you have to show it at a critical moment, so that those foreigners can see that our Republic of China is not poor and white." ”

The northwest obviously has a lot of automobile production, and in the past two years, steel and oil production have also increased. Although even Zhang Zhibang didn't know much about the production of tanks. However, the expansion of the 2nd and 3rd Mechanized Brigades is visible to the naked eye. And the armored forces on the Suiyuan side were formed even faster than the Central Plains side. Zhang Zhibang believed that as long as Jiang Li was willing, after more than a year of savings, it would be possible to organize one or two large-scale counterattacks and cause a certain degree of pressure and casualties on the Japanese army.

"If the hole cards are lit too early, it won't have the effect of the final word, and the commander naturally has the commander's consideration." Feng Zhanhai, who came from Lanzhou, glared at Zhang Zhibang and said.

"Doesn't that feel too aggrieved? Originally, I was counting on the Soviet Union to fight with the Kwantung Army and share a little pressure on us, but I didn't expect that this old man was not a good thing, and he didn't fight after only half of the battle, and he was also a wax gun head that was not useful, and we all dragged down millions of Japanese soldiers, and they couldn't kill more than 10,000 Japanese soldiers. Fought with a division for so long. Zhang Zhibang muttered again.

"In recent years, the Soviet Union has engaged in internal strife, and a large number of generals and outstanding officers have been killed by their own people. Without these backbone forces, the officers will be scattered when they command, and they will be in a mess when they go into battle. If you can play well, you will have a ghost. However, after all, the industrial foundation of the Soviet Union is still there, and after a few battles, the army has actual combat experience, and this combat power will be raised. Jiang Li smiled disapprenousively.

"Wuhan has been fighting for so long, and I can't bear it anymore, so this time I will gather you, and naturally there will be action. The main branch is weak, and now the nerves in the central part of Wuhan are more sensitive, and we have occupied Henan before, and in Sichuan, some of the influence of the central government has also been squeezed out by us little by little. Directly sent troops to help Wuhan, it is estimated that the Japanese did not fight, and others regarded them as grabbing territory. Therefore, it is still the old rule to start from the two directions of northern and eastern Henan, and use the existing forces to fight two counterattack battles, and there is no need to recover much lost territory, the key is to try to preserve itself in the battle while giving the Japanese army more casualties. ”

"Commander, if you don't give us more troops, I'm afraid this battle will not be easy to fight." Zhang Zhibang said.

"It's easy, just let the people who think it's easy to fight it. If you don't fight well, the team will be pulled down and let Zhao Tieshu go up, and it just so happens that his 2nd Army has also rested for a while. Jiang Lidao.

"Then it's better for me to go up, I'm just going up, I haven't fought a few decent battles, how can I trouble Lao Zhao. In fact, when you think about it, it's not that difficult. The 9th Army was able to hold out. ”

Zhang Zhibang's repetition made everyone in the venue burst into laughter.

"It's not completely unreinforced, this time an independent heavy artillery regiment was assigned to each of the fighting armies. Besides, isn't the mechanized brigade constantly strengthening? Feng Zhanhai also smiled when he heard this, but his tone changed, "However, Wuhan still has to make a certain amount of support, and there is no shortage of ground troops in Wuhan for a while, what is lacking is still able to block the support firepower of Japanese aircraft and artillery, and our flight team in the north will not make a move, but it should not be a problem to organize a few large-scale air raids." I have to help Wuhan survive these few months, and when winter comes, the logistics pressure on the Japanese army will be even greater. We can also have more time to prepare, but Wuhan fell prematurely, and the Central Plains fell into the dilemma of being attacked on three sides, even if we have been preparing for a long time, we must try to avoid, or postpone this unfavorable situation. ”

"Then let's do it, the pressure in northern and eastern Henan will be heavier, and the strategic bomber formation has been resting for so long, and it is also necessary to come out again to practice." Jiang Li clapped his hands and said, in fact, Zhang Zhibang's guess is good, 1939 was a relatively quiet year for the Northwest Army, although northern Henan has been fighting a lot of battles, eastern Henan, Shanxi, and Suiyuan are also stopping. But the overall scale is not large.

The Northwest Army lost more than 170 tanks, while the Japanese army only lost more than 200 tanks, and the relatively close exchange ratio, compared with before, the losses of the Northwest Army at first glance were much worse than the previous records, on the one hand, the Japanese army's newly commissioned Type 97 tanks did cause certain losses to the Northwest Army, especially the Avenger tanks, compared with the Type 97, they no longer had too many advantages. However, in tank battles, the Northwest Army was still the dominant side, and a considerable part of the Northwest Army's tank losses were brought to the Japanese infantry during the attack on the Japanese army. The losses of tanks were greater, but the casualties of the infantry of the Northwest Army were kept under control to a certain extent. And in the past year or so, the Northwest Tank Plant has successively produced more than 400 tanks. In addition to supplementing the war attrition, the armored forces in the northwest have also been continuously expanded, and the three mechanized brigades at the beginning only had 100 tanks, while at this time the Northwest Army was already in continuous operations, and the number of tanks rose to more than 400. Chow Tai Fu's armored mixed brigade has been expanded. At the same time, the 2nd and 3rd Mechanized Brigades are also being expanded one after another.

However, this is not Jiang Li's real trump card.

After the meeting, Jiang Li and Feng Zhanhai rushed to the garrison that had been expanded into a garrison division.

On the lawn inside the heavily guarded barracks, the turf was flipped over with the rolling of the tracks of a low-looking tank.

The tank nimbly made several turns on the turf. Eventually stopped. COMPARED TO THE TOMAHAWK SERIES TANKS IN THE NORTHWEST, THIS TANK LOOKS LOWER, BUT THE BARREL IS THICKER THAN THE MODIFIED TOMAHAWK 2'S 57MM GUN. SUDDENLY, IT WAS A 75MM CALIBER GUN.

"This tank looks a little weird, the thick barrel is thicker, it's shorter, and it's a little smaller than a tomahawk. Can it be better than a tomahawk? Yang Hucheng questioned. Although he is not a tank driver, and he rarely gets into it, some principles are the same, for example, when he sits in a car, the size of the space in the car is directly linked to comfort, and the small size of the tank means that there are fewer steel plates to hang, which directly affects the defensive performance. At this time, the Tomahawk had become a landmark weapon of the Northwest Army, and as a newly developed tank, it was natural to compare it with the Tomahawk.

"It's easy to use without Tomahawk tanks." A few people came out of what looked like a tank and something that didn't. At the head of the group was a member of the tank crew in charge of testing. gave Yang Hucheng such an answer.

"To be precise, this is born out of the Avenger tank, and it may be more appropriate to call it a self-propelled gun. This self-propelled gun has no turret, so it cannot be flexibly rotated to attack targets at different angles like a tank. However, the advantages of this self-propelled gun, which has been modified several times, also make up for certain shortcomings. After the gun turret is removed, the relatively low body has a higher survival rate on the battlefield. Although it looks small, its armor thickness is not low, and its defense ability can reach 80% of that of a Tomahawk tank. ”

"And the additional artillery is powerful enough to penetrate all the improved frontal armor, including the Tomahawk, at a distance of more than eight hundred meters. As for the Japanese tanks, as long as they were hit, it was very difficult for them to be spared. IN ADDITION, THE ADDITIONAL 75MM ARTILLERY ALSO HAS A GREAT DESTRUCTIVE EFFECT ON GROUND FORTIFICATIONS. (To be continued.) )