On December 3, 1942, the attack force of the Southern European Theater of the Ming Dynasty set out from the Greek Ssaloniki region and headed directly at Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 The forces of the Southern Operational Group of the Ming Russian Theater of Operations to capture Turkey were attacking and advancing along the Black Sea coastline from the Istanbul area. Their target was Varna, an important city on the shores of the Black Sea.

Although the Ming army attacked the cities of Bulgaria, everyone knew where the Ming army's goal would ultimately be. To the north of Bulgaria is Romania, which has one of the rare large oil fields on the Europa continent.

In the event that the material aid of the Americans will not increase on a large scale in a short time, the Russians will lose their oil fields, and the Germans will not produce enough oil fields to satisfy themselves. The oil output of Romania's oil fields was simply too important for the allies.

Although the Germans shared with various allies such high-tech as hydrogenation synthetic oils, Fischer-Tropsch synthetic oils, coal tar distillation, and so on. These advanced technologies are still beyond the reach of many countries in modern time and space. Relying on these technologies, combined with the oil production of Romania and Germany, and the assistance of the Americans, the Allies were able to barely support the huge consumption of the Caucasus oil fields after Russia lost them.

However, these important links are being continuously disintegrated by the Ming army with a strong advantage. The strategic bombing force of the Ming Army Aviation is gradually showing its formidable power. Numerous factories in various countries were reduced to ashes one after another under the rain of bullets from the bomber units of the Ming army. The industrial production capacity of various countries has begun to decline rapidly. And oil refineries and various synthetic oil factories were one of the main targets of the Ming army's bomber forces.

As the Ming army began to return to Europe, the Atlantic Fleet of the Ming Navy, which had been cowering in Gibraltar and retreating south to the Gold Coast, also made a comeback. Strengthened and reinforced, the Atlantic Fleet recaptured the strategically important Azores in early November.

From then on, the submarine forces and raid ships of the Ming army were able to penetrate the depths of the North Atlantic more brazenly to attack the convoy of transport ships bound for Europe from the United States. Because the main force of the navy suffered heavy losses in the decisive battle with the Ming Navy in the Pacific, the Americans were unable to provide a stronger escort for the transport fleet, which directly led to the continuous reduction of all kinds of materials from the Americas to Europe, including important oil.

At this point, the Russians have lost the oil fields of the Caucasus, and if the Allies lose Romanian oil again, they will immediately be in crisis. Although all countries have a lot of reserves, the reserves will eventually be used up one day. Therefore, defending Romania's oil fields was a matter of urgency for the allies.

The first to react were the Romanians themselves. After learning that the Ming army was targeting them, they panicked and asked the allies for help, and at the same time hurriedly transferred back all the troops that had just crossed the border into Russia. Not only the reinforcements, but even the troops they had previously invested in the Russian battlefield were all ordered to return home immediately.

The Romanian army was quite numerous, and although its combat effectiveness was very average, it was also stronger than the Korean and the like as a vassal of the Ming Dynasty. After joining the war, the Romanians carried out a general mobilization of the whole country, and the total number of troops was close to one million. However, most of them are local militia units and supplementary units that are not very combative.

The main forces of the Romanian army were nineteen infantry divisions, twenty-six cavalry regiments, four mountain brigades, one armored division, and paratroopers of only regimental size. Most of these troops had previously been stationed on the Russian battlefield. Although I have been making soy sauce all along, I still suffered some losses. Especially after the Ming army launched a large-scale Caucasus campaign, the Romanian army, which was originally cannon fodder among the allied forces, was naturally sent to the front line as cannon fodder.

How cruel the firepower of the Ming army was, no one who has not experienced it will not understand. It was almost endless, and the ferocious shelling and bombardment that seemed to cover the entire world was enough to make anyone collapse in despair. By the time the Ming army attacked, the huge mechanized corps, which was as turbulent as the waves of the sea and could barely be seen at a glance, was a nightmare for any Allied officer and soldier.

In the words of a Romanian veteran who returned alive from a brutal battlefield, he had not seen the Ming infantry when the Ming army attacked. Everywhere there were tanks, armored vehicles and truck transport vehicles. The infantry of the Ming army was all mechanized in the true sense of the word! In this torrent of steel, even if the Allied forces in the Caucasus outnumbered the Ming army, they were always in a situation of being passively beaten.

The German, French, and American expeditionary forces were all beaten violently in the face of the Ming army's attack, not to mention the cannon fodder Romanian army.

In less than two months, the nearly ten divisions that Romania had committed to the Caucasus were almost rotated. The troops were almost all reinforcements. As for the loss of weapons and equipment, it is even more tragic. The only armored division built with the support of the Germans was almost wiped out, and the few remaining dilapidated vehicles could only be used as exhibits in museums. In this case, Romania said that it was impossible to hold on to its country.

After perceiving the danger, Germany, France, Poland and other countries came to the rescue, sending many troops originally scheduled to be sent to the southern Russian battlefield to Romania, including many reserves on the Russian battlefield, which was exactly what Zhang Cheng wanted.

In the minds of the high-ranking dignitaries of the Allied powers, the Russian battlefield is now plunged into a long cold winter, and there will be no large-scale battles there for at least a few months. Therefore, the allies intuitively determined that the Ming army's attack on Romania was definitely a formal attack.

The cold winter is not suitable for combat, but that does not mean that it is impossible to fight. As long as you are willing to bear non-war losses and have sufficient supplies, you can still fight large-scale battles in winter.

Throughout November, the fighting in Tsaritsyn was in full swing at the front, and the size of the battle group assembled in the Chevkaya region in the rear expanded rapidly. In the beginning, there were only about two infantry divisions here. However, over time, the forces here began to expand rapidly. By the time the two sides fought along the Romanian border at the end of December, a huge corps of four armored divisions and ten mechanized infantry divisions had been massed here.

In addition to hoarding troops, during this time, Zhang Cheng deliberately allocated a part of his transportation capacity to transport a large number of supplies from the distant mainland to the Chevkaya region. Most of them are specifically designed for use during the winter months. From military-grade lubricants, cold oils, to specially developed, high-calorie foods. From a variety of purpose-built snow marching tools to rigorous winter combat training. Even the vast majority of the officers and men in these units were recruited from the northern regions of the homeland, and they had a very thorough understanding of the bitter cold.

In addition to this, there is a very important point. The weather department reported that this winter's temperatures were slightly higher than in previous years. Although it is still tens of degrees below zero, even if it is at least a few degrees higher, it is a very important thing.

Zhang Cheng gathered such a powerful force and prepared extremely rich supplies, of course, he didn't stay there to watch as a mascot. When the soft belly of the allies and the whole of southern Europe were beaten into a pot of porridge, Zhang Cheng officially issued the order to attack on January 3, 1943.

The legion, which had almost resisted the cold to the extreme, was slaughtered from where the Allies thought it was most unlikely when it was most unlikely. It took them only three days to reach Gorikovsky from the vast sea of snow, cutting off the retreat and supply lines of some 300,000 Allied officers and soldiers stationed on the outskirts of Tsaritsyn in a third of the city.

At the same time, the Ming attacking forces, which had previously occupied most of Tsaritsyn, also quickly attacked, and quickly surrounded and annihilated these troops under the surprise of the Allied forces. It had been fighting for several months, the two sides had invested millions of troops, countless supplies of all kinds, and Tsarizin, which had suffered heavy casualties on both sides, was quickly taken by the Ming army in less than ten days this time.

For this result, the Ming army was first taken by surprise, and when the defenders focused their main attention on the Ming army in the city, they suddenly came out of the vast snow. The Polish army, deployed on both sides to defend the flanks, had no ability to fight at all. They were panicked and simply unable to resist and were easily defeated by the Ming army.

Originally, there should still be more than 100,000 Romanian troops stationed on the flank defense line of the Tsarizin defenders. However, by the time the Ming army was directed towards Romania itself, these troops had already been redeployed back to their own country by the Romanians. This directly led to the emptiness of the flanks on the Tsaritsyn line.

After the flank line was breached, the Allies did not even understand what was happening at first. It was not until the Ming attack corps took Gorikovsky, an important logistical supply point, with lightning speed, and cut off the material supply of the defenders, that the Allies suddenly understood that the Ming army actually launched a super-large-scale campaign under such extreme weather conditions.

When the battle on Tsaritsyn's side began, Zhang Cheng quickly ordered all the Ming troops from the Caucasus to the Iberian Peninsula to move together, and firmly entangled the enemy forces in front of him with powerful firepower and offensive, so as to buy time for Tsaritsyn's combat troops.

In winter, the weather was cold, and the road traffic conditions in Russia were already very bad, coupled with the destruction and aerial bombardment of the Ming army. It was simply an impossible task for the Allies to mobilize reinforcements to rescue in a short period of time. Their reserves previously deployed in Ukraine and the Caucasus have been transferred to Romania, and now they have opened films with the Ming army there. Where do they go to send reinforcements at this time? (To be continued.) )