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Chapter 1606: Wake up too late

Leninabad (now Khujand) is located on the banks of the Syr Darya River, the west mouth of the Ferghana Basin, is one of the famous ancient cities in Central Asia, was founded in the fourth century B.C., is a trade route between China and the countries bordering the Mediterranean, Tang, Han, Yuan Dynasty and Qing Dynasty has always been China's inherent territory, in 1866 into the imperial Russia, the Soviet Union inherited the land from the hands of the imperial Russia, after 1525 planning and construction, in the late thirties developed into the second largest city in Tajikistan. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

Leading the troops to hold the Leninabad area was the four divisions of the Ninth Army under the command of Lieutenant General Zhou Dingcheng.

Zhou Dingcheng is the general of the Anjia Army, when An Yi's model battalion was expanded to a supplementary regiment, Zhou Dingcheng was the commander of the machine gun company, and then with the expansion of the Anjia Army, he successively served as the deputy of the third regiment of the independent division, the commander of the second brigade of the Jiangxi Security Command, and the deputy commander of the 16th Division.

When Li Jinlong asked whether it was necessary to allocate additional troops to replenish, Zhou Dingcheng calmly analyzed that the Soviet army had become a tired division due to a serious lack of food, and it was difficult to give full play to the eleventh of peacetime combat strength.

The area that Zhou Dingcheng needs to defend is from the Sulyukta Pass in the west to the Kokand Valley in the Fergana Basin in the east, with a diameter of 110 kilometers from east to west, and steep mountains from north to south, which are easy to defend and difficult to attack. Zhou Dingcheng arranged one division on the western front and one division on the eastern front, leaving two divisions to be used as strategic reserves.

The battle began on the 26th, and it has been a week now, and the Soviet army has not advanced an inch, and as time goes by, the Soviet army has shown less and less combat effectiveness. So far, the Soviet army has suffered at least 30,000 or 40,000 casualties, while the 25th Mountain Division, which is responsible for the defense of the Western Front, has suffered less than one-third of the casualties, which shows that the Soviet army has become a tired division.

In the war room of the headquarters of the Ninth Army, Lieutenant General Wu Yanzi, deputy commander of the army, calmly analyzed: "According to various circumstances, the shortage of food in the Soviet army has reached an extremely serious situation. Because of our insistence on clearing the wilderness, and at the same time the massacres of the Soviet army in Almaty and Shymkent have been spread in all directions through physical photographs, the people of Central Asia have stayed away, and everywhere the Soviet troops went, all the houses were empty, and they have not been supplied with food until now. Judging from the information fed back by the captured prisoners, the Soviet army has insisted on two meals for quite a long time, and now even two meals cannot be effectively guaranteed, and one meal has become the norm! Under such circumstances, it is pure wishful thinking to break through our defense line and join up with the Tianshan Corps on the southern front. ”

"That's right!"

Major General Zhuang Zhenhua, Chief of Staff, seconded: "The situation of the Soviet army is indeed very difficult! Kulik regarded his food, ammunition and oil supply base in Ursachyev as more important than anything else, and our special brigade was discovered several times when he touched the edge, but fortunately the losses were not large. The Soviet army not only has a tight air defense network in Ursachiev, but also has a lot of light and dark firepower, and our side has more than it gains from air strikes or ground attacks. However, if we destroy this supply base, the fighting spirit of the Soviet army may collapse! ”

Zhou Dingcheng looked carefully in front of the map for a while, and nodded silently: "The Soviet army gave up along the Caspian Railway, which finally led to today's predicament...... It seems that the war in Central Asia can end early! In the name of the group army, how about proposing to the Front Army and the Theater Command that the missiles of the Second Artillery Corps be used to carry out precision strikes on their grain bases? ”

"Okay!"

Colonel Gao Chongqing, chief of operations, was greatly excited: "The headquarters has given us the power to use the Second Artillery Corps according to actual needs, and I have long wanted to see the power of this large-scale killing weapon in our hands!" Now that the Soviets are clearly holding on, I would like to see how they can sustain the war without food, oil and ammunition! Kulik always thought that the troops under his command were strong in combat, and we would help him to recognize the reality. With the current situation in Central Asia, as long as Kulik's main combat corps is annihilated, then Chuikov's Almaty Corps and its Tianshan Corps on the southern front can only be captured, and the war in Central Asia will end victoriously! ”

Wu Yanzi and Zhuang Zhenhua agreed, so the matter was settled.

Soon, the telegram reached Hu Jialin, the commander of the theater of operations.

As soon as Hu Jialin and Huang Zhiluo discussed, they immediately contacted Ye Cheng and Li Jinlong through encrypted telegrams.

At this time, Ye Cheng and Xiao Wu had successfully joined forces, Xiao Wu left an infantry division and a tank brigade to guard the Saukpal Pass, blocking the westward advance road of the Chuikov Corps, and the main force followed Ye Cheng's cluster to fight southward, and it was expected that Tashkent would arrive by rail in two to three days.

Li Jinlong's main force rested in the Samarkand region and Jizzak, east of the Latau Mountains, and could respond to Ye Chengqun's southward offensive at any time. If before that, the morale of the main forces of the Central Asian Red Army under the command of Kulik is completely defeated, which will only be good and not bad for the future Armageddon.

Soon after, Ye Cheng and Li Jinlong both telegraphed in agreement with Zhou Dingcheng's suggestion, and after some radio contacts, it was decided that the time of the general attack would be advanced from 15 August to 8 August, and before that, the Second Artillery Corps would carry out precision strikes on the Soviet army's logistics supply bases to speed up the course of the war in Central Asia.

......

Begovat (present-day Bekabad), the war room of the Central Asian Theater Command of the Soviet Army.

Kulik's face was as dead as ashes, and his hand holding the letterhead trembled slightly.

The letterhead was sent by General Valentin (then known as the commander of the 2nd Army Group) who replaced the shot Stern as the commander of the Tianshan Corps on the Southern Front.

From the letterhead, Kulik felt a deep crisis!

Ares is lost! Tashkent is lost! Jamble is gone! Now it is highly likely that Frunze and Chu City have also been lost! Judging from this result, the main force of the squadron was not concentrated on the southern front, and it was very likely that it escaped north into the Karatau Mountains, and took advantage of the opportunity of his main force to go south to give himself a hard blow from the abdomen!

Deceived!

Kulik was in a state of confusion, he didn't expect that he would fall into the enemy's calculations step by step, so, could this current strategic situation be premeditated by the other party for a long time?

Kulik told himself to calm down, closed his eyes and pondered for a while, strode to the map, and carefully observed the situation, the more he looked, the more frightened he became.

At present, the entire main combat cluster is stationed in a narrow area from the Syr Darya River in the north, to the Sulyukta Pass in the east, and to Ulyannovo in the west, with a radius of no more than 100 square kilometers, because he has not been worried that Tashkent and other places will be attacked, so he has not paid attention to the security of the Syr Darya River, as for the western front, he has never thought that the battle situation is so bad that he thinks that as long as the main force of the Anjia Army caught in the encirclement is annihilated, the situation will naturally be clear, and it will be easy to attack anywhere at that time. So much so that it has not yet been figured out whether the Western Front was heavily defended by the Anjia Army.

Kulik thought calmly for a long time, and finally made up his mind. He motioned for Mehris to go down to the meal with the five Red Army soldiers who had reported the message, and then returned to the conference room and gave the order in an irrefutable tone:

"I now issue the following order in the name of the commander-in-chief of the theater of operations: the 1st and 6th Armies continue to attack the Sulyukta Pass, the 2nd Army, the 1st Cavalry Corps and the Panzer Group immediately move west to capture the important town of Jizzak, east of the Latau Mountains, the 5th Army and the 2nd Cavalry Corps try to move to the north bank of the Syr Darya River to see if there are any defensive positions built by the squadrons, the 3rd, 4th, and 5th Cavalry Corps move to the northwestern steppe region, and the 7th and 8th Armies are assembled as reserve corps and ready to enter battle at any time. The 3rd and 4th Armies, which had suffered heavy losses before, were merged into a single army group after resting and recuperating.

"Comrades, the current military situation is urgent, and we are most likely in a big trouble, and if we do not quickly find out the enemy's situation and find a way out, we will be in a situation from which we will never recover. Therefore, after the adjournment of the meeting, everyone acted immediately and there must be no retreat. ”

Many of the generals stood up, saluted, and immediately left.

......

At noon on 3 August, when the Second Cavalry Corps was passing through the Syr Darya railway bridge, it encountered intensive fire from light and heavy machine guns on the other side of the river, and the cavalry corps launched five intensive charges, but since the appearance of machine guns, which are weapons of mass destruction, the combat effectiveness of the troops is not determined by the number of troops, and in particular, the cavalry can only assault on the railway bridge, which is even more difficult. After half a day of fierce fighting, the cavalry suffered heavy losses and retreated in disarray.

In the evening, the Soviet Fifth Army reached the south bank of the Syr Darya River and quickly unfolded. After a brief exchange between the commander of the army group, Vladimir, and the commander of the cavalry corps, Lieutenant General Ivanovich, took several officers and lay down in the trench that had just been dug by the forward troops, carefully observing the situation on the other side of the river.

The criss-crossing ravines in the telescope, the jagged fortifications, made Vladimir gasp. He was experienced in combat and knew that if the infantry alone launched a forced crossing, the huge losses would be unbearable for the current Fifth Army. Due to the severe shortage of fuel, which led to fewer and fewer trucks to operate, Vladimir brought only two artillery regiments, each armed with forty-eight 76.2mm Putilov field cannons, and no large-caliber heavy artillery.

A staff officer made a rough estimate and found that the opposite position was more than 400 meters away from the Syr Darya River, and couldn't help but ask strangely: "Comrade commander, the position arranged by the Chinese is a bit strange, why is it so far from the river bank?" ”

"This is the cunning of the Chinese!"

Vladimir put down his binoculars with a solemn face and let out a long sigh: "The opponent we are facing is well-trained and experienced in combat, and the 76.2mm Putilov field cannon of our artillery has a limited range, and they set up their defensive positions far from the banks of the Syr Darya River, so that their defensive fire points are out of the direct strike range of our artillery, and we can only kill and injure the enemy through large-scale artillery shelling, and cannot carry out effective and accurate point fire!" ”

General Antonido, the political commissar of the group army (called the political commissar of the second group army at this time), hesitated, but could not help but ask: "Comrade Vladimir, the defensive positions of the Chinese are very perfect, do you ask the command for instructions and transfer a tank unit over to coordinate the operation?" ”

"No need! It's just that it's okay for our infantry and cavalry to attack, if the tank troops are mobilized over, it is estimated that the Chinese will blow up the bridge! Tanks can only become decorations, and if we separate air defense units to cover the tanks, it will greatly weaken our own air defense! I'm worried about the Western Front now, if there is a main force of the squadron in the Jizzakh area, our situation will be very bad! ”

Vladimir, who was yellow and thin due to long-term malnutrition, once again raised his binoculars to observe the position on the other side of the river, and he didn't figure out a clue for a long time.

After hurriedly returning to the temporary command, the commander-in-chief of artillery, General Vik, was waiting for Vladimir: "Comrade Vladimir, our division has been deployed, is it an immediate attack?" ”

Vladimir just wanted to refuse, but after thinking about it, he waved his hand and said: "Shelling for a quarter of an hour and see the effect!" Pay attention to the arrangement of anti-aircraft machine gun and anti-aircraft gun positions, our shelling is likely to provoke retaliation from the opposing fighters! ”

"Yes!"

Victor happily took the order.

Five minutes later, with an order, the Soviet gunners who had been on standby for a long time pulled the gun ropes at the same time, and in the roar, the muzzles of the ninety-six 76.2mm Putirov field cannons flashed at the same time, and orange flames roared towards the Chinese defenders' positions on the opposite side.

The well-trained Soviet ammunition crews had stuffed 76.2 mm shells into the smoke-filled chambers before the first grenades exploded, and the secondary gunners pushed the bolts, and the gunners fired at a fraction of a second, and when the second group of shells swept over the Syr Darya River, the first shells had just exploded on the positions of the Anjia army.

Except for a few officers and men in the first trench who stayed in the bunker to observe the enemy's situation, all the other officers and men went into the anti-artillery shelter to avoid the coming heavy shelling.

"Shhh

76.2 mm shells smashed around the trenches with a strange scream.

"Boom—"

In the sound of explosions, the earth suddenly shook violently as if a strong earthquake had occurred, and scarlet fireballs rose from the ground for the first time.

Amid the firelight and smoke, the earth flew on the ground scorched under the scorching August sun, and thousands of shrapnel monsters screamed at high speed in all directions.

Nearly 100 76.2mm Putillov field cannons, shrouded in smoke and dust, fired frantically at a top speed of 10 rounds per minute. A group of plucked bullets swept through the sky like chasing the stars and the moon, and smashed hard inside and outside the trench built by the An Jiajun.

The officers and soldiers in the anti-artillery hole, with their mouths wide open, silently endured all this, without a trace of fear on their faces. Having experienced a hundred battles, they know that as long as they are not directly hit by shells, it is very safe to hide in the anti-artillery holes, and even some officers and men with strong psychological quality simply close their eyes and recuperate.

The casualties were the observation posts that stood in position to monitor the movements of the Soviet troops. A soldier curled up as much as he could, lying tightly in the bunker, from time to time a ball of fire exploded not far from him, and sharp shrapnel screamed over his head.

"Poof!"

In the muffled sound, a piece of shrapnel slammed into the trench wall beside the soldier, and the soldier shook the mud off his head and looked at the shrapnel that was still buzzing and trembling. As long as he deviates more than ten centimeters, he will be pierced in the heart. Beads of sweat rolled down the soldier's face, and he knew that he couldn't be so lucky every time, and there was an anti-artillery hole not far behind him.

The desire for life made the soldier want to retreat more than once to the anti-artillery hole that represented safety, especially when the squad leader more than ten meters away turned into a rain of blood in a brilliant fire.

"No!"

In the battle between the soldier's duty and survival instinct, the muffled whistling made the experienced soldier roar in anger, and before he even had time to roll, a 76.2 mm cannon shell that had been accurately hoisted into the trench fell on the top of the bunker where he was. The powerful penetrating power of the cannon shell pierced through the top of the bunker at once, the cannonball exploded, and the powerful shock wave made the soldiers soar into the air, and the body gushing with blood was cut into several pieces by the swarming shrapnel in an instant, and a head fell on the position in a strange arc in the air, and there was a trace of relief in the eyes that slowly closed.

The shelling of the Soviet army did not last long, and five squadrons of bombers came quickly from the direction of Tashkent. The anti-aircraft guns and anti-aircraft machine guns of the Soviet troops, desperately neighed in order to prove their existence.

Vladimir's fears finally came true, however, he thought that at most a few tigers would be recruited, but he did not expect to attract a terrible pack of wolves. If a few bombers are fine, such a dense group of aircraft can only pray that the air defense positions will play an extraordinary role.

Unfortunately, Vladimir's wish was not fulfilled, because the artillery of the Anjia Army, which had been enduring for a long time on the other side of the river, finally launched a counterattack.

Twenty-four 120mm howitzers, twelve 150mm howitzers, and twenty-four Type II eight-barreled 150mm rocket launchers (Type I was gradually phased out because it integrated too many barrels, which was not conducive to loading), roared angrily, and one after another large-caliber bombs exploded on the Soviet air defense positions, and many anti-aircraft guns and anti-aircraft machine guns were accurately hit by shells before they could be fired, and the gunners and machine gunners, together with the weapons they operated, turned into pieces of objects and flew in all directions.

Just when the Soviet air defense forces were in chaos, a hundred B2 bombers, overwhelming, lined up in the air, swooped down towards a target, and one after another huge aerial bombs pounced on the Soviet artillery positions with a shocking scream.

In an earth-shattering explosion, huge orange fireballs rose into the sky on the artillery positions of the Soviet army. The 100 B2 bombers that went back and forth to bomb at low altitudes dropped nearly 1,000 50-kilogram, 100-kilogram, and even 250-kilogram aerial bombs, and the entire Soviet positions groaned in pain in the explosions that destroyed everything.

The cannons were destroyed and decomposed in the bombardment, and clumps of mud rose into the air, mixed with the rain of blood, leaving huge pits on the ground.

After a quarter of an hour of reciprocating bombardment, the Soviet artillery position was in a mess, nearly 100 artillery pieces could not find a single intact, including the artillery commander Viktor, more than 5,000 artillerymen, were killed in this fierce bombardment, which made Vladimir, who gave the artillery order, beat his chest and was annoyed, and felt that the future was bleak for seizing the position on the north bank of the Syr Darya River.