The brigade that Cui Kev said about entering Hailar was the Second Regiment that Zhang Yafei brought to Hailar.

After receiving Zhang Xueliang's harshly worded telegram, Hu Yukun was shocked and regretted. He knows Zhang Xueliang's surname very well, bold and enthusiastic, righteous, and re-committed. But he also has an obvious weakness, that is, he is very happy, and he is also very impulsive. He had repeatedly assured Zhang Xueliang that the Western Front he was in charge of would definitely surprise the young marshal, that is, he wanted to use more than 26,000 Northeast Army to resist the attack of the Soviet army and take back the military power he had gradually lost.

In his opinion, the defenses of Manchuria and Zhainuoer were very well prepared, and he personally went to inspect the fortifications that had been built, which were definitely stronger than Fu Zuoyi's fortifications in Zhuozhou, and they were not even a little stronger. The top of the bunker, which is made up of a large number of steel rails, logs, and half a meter of frozen soil, will not have any problems even if it is directly hit by shells of caliber less than 75mm.

Although Hu Yukun had no experience in fighting the Soviet army, he would never be able to capture such a strong fortification if it was in China in a few months. Therefore, Hu Yukun was very confident that he would thwart the offensive of the Soviet army on the Western Front. Even after his persuasion, Zhang Xueliang once promised that the Fourth Route Army would only serve as a reserve and reinforcement for his Second Army against Russia.

Although on the way back to Shenyang from Bahrain Left Banner, Zhang Xueliang once told him to absolutely obey Song Zhewu's orders, but he didn't care too much. He thought that this must be Song Zhewu gave this impulsive young marshal some [***] soup, as long as after a period of time, Zhang Xueliang's mind calmed down, he would change his mind, after all, if the Northeast Army defeated the Soviet Army, it would be his Zhang Xueliang's credit.

Hu Yukun, who was very puzzled by Zhang Xueliang's sudden change of attitude, left Hailar in disgrace on the same day after receiving Zhang Xueliang's telegram and rushed back to Shenyang overnight. The reason why he was in a hurry to go back was because he had deeply felt the young marshal's anger and even disgust with him in Zhang Xueliang's telegram, and he had to explain it to Zhang Xueliang face to face, otherwise it would be difficult for the jealous and hateful young marshal to forget this matter.

Although the various units of the Northeast Army stationed in Hailar were very dissatisfied with accepting the command of the Fourth Route Army, because of Zhang Xueliang's strict orders and Hu Yukun's experience, no one dared to openly oppose the orders of Song Zhewu's representative and Zhang Yafei.

Therefore, no matter what these Northeast Army generals think, they are actively cooperating and obeying Zhang Yafei's orders on the surface. Therefore, Zhang Yafei smoothly took over the command of the various units of the Northeast Army on the Western Front, and on the second day after arriving in Hailar, he sent a battalion to Manchuria and Zhalaunor. Because of the oversized size of the Fourth Route Army, the Soviet reconnaissance officers mistook them for two regiments.

The battalion commander of this battalion in Manchuria was Wang De, who was promoted to battalion commander as early as Xiaogan during the reorganization. Wang Dexing rushed to Manchuria with his battalion, and he really wanted to make a big move, so that these Northeast Army could see the combat effectiveness of their Fourth Route Army. Unexpectedly, when he arrived in Manchuria, he was only used as a reserve.

The supreme commander of the Northeast Army stationed in Manchuria was Liang Zhongjia, commander of the 15th Mixed Brigade who was also the commander of the Western Front.

However, he agrees with Hu Yukun on one point, that is, he also believes that with their strong Northeast Army, especially the fortifications he has been building since June, Manchuria and Zalainuoer, these two fortifications are now complete, as long as the ammunition is sufficient, it will not be easy for the Soviet army to capture these two places. Moreover, the fortifications of this Zalainorr have been tested.

In the past ten days from the beginning of July to July 12, the Soviet army launched three consecutive attacks on Zalainuoer, all of which ended in failure, and he even captured dozens of Soviet soldiers. Now he personally led his old troops, the 38th Regiment and the 43rd Regiment, to Manchuria, together with the 51st Regiment and other troops, totaling more than 9,000 people. Moreover, Manchuria has a stronger fortification system than that of Zalainuoer, and it is absolutely not a problem to withstand the attack of the Soviet army. Therefore, he once told a reporter from Fengtian who came to Manchuria to cover the news: "He has no doubt that his troops can reach Chita." ”

In 1907, Liang Zhongjia was selected by Shengjing General Zengqi to study in the artillery department of the "Tongguo Army Crash School" in Baoding. In 1909, the school was merged into the Baoding Military Academy. 13 years later, he entered Wu Junsheng's Second Brigade of the Central Cavalry and served as the third regiment.

Liang Zhongjia's troops were well-trained and brave in battle, and they were one of the rare more regular units in the Northeast Army. His talent was greatly appreciated by Wu Junsheng, who once served as the head of Wu Junsheng's officer corps and was responsible for the training of officers in the department. Liang Zhongjia is currently the commander-in-chief of the Eastern Provincial Railway Guard, the commander-in-chief of the Manchurian Army, the commander of the Fourth Route of the Heilongjiang Provincial Defense Army, and the commander-in-chief of the Eastern Wilderness Bandits. From these positions he held concurrently, it can be seen that he has a lot of weight in the Northeast Army, especially in the Heilongjiang Provincial Defense Army. It was only because of Wan Fulin's qualifications that Liang Zhongjia had worked in the position of brigade commander for fifteen years, and he was never promoted.

But this time is different, he defeated the Soviet army several times in Zalainuoer, and even captured dozens of Soviet soldiers, compared with the situation of the Eastern Front that was about to collapse, he has won the unanimous praise of the people of the Northeast and even Zhang Xueliang. Over the past two months or so, more than 300 students from universities in Northeast China have come to his army to join the army. Several of his old subordinates believed that as long as this battle was fought, Wan Fulin's big seal of the deputy commander of the Northeast Frontier Defense would be his Liang Zhongjia's.

After seeing Wang De bring the troops, Liang Zhongjia was very grateful to Song Zhewu from the bottom of his heart. He saw that Wang De's battalion was even better equipped than his elite brigade of the Northeast Army. Not only are there numerous mortars, machine guns and even squads are arranged, there are not many such units in the Northeast Army. Although his brigade is doing the same now, it is temporarily replenished because it has to fight the Soviet army. He thinks that this is because Song Zhewu has taken out his best troops, and it seems that he is sincerely helping their Northeast Army.

Therefore, Liang Zhongjia's attitude towards Wang De is very friendly. However, friendship is friendship, but the troops of the Fourth Route Army are not allowed to enter the first line, but the troops of the Fourth Route Army brought by Wang De are left in the Dongda Camp and his headquarters together as a reserve for the whole army.

Wang De had no way to arrange Liang Zhongjia, he was not Zhang Yafei, let alone Song Zhewu, he had to obey the orders of Liang Zhongjia, the front-line commander, in Manchuria.

The commander of this battalion to Zalainorr was Shi Ming. Although Shi Ming only joined the Fourth Route Army when he was in Zhengzhou, he, an officer who graduated from the Northeast Lecture Hall and received formal military education, was very rare in the Fourth Route Army, and even compared to the more than 300,000 troops, it was very rare. Such a talent is not only Song Zhewu will not let go, but even Zhang Yafei is also like a treasure. After Zhang Yafei consulted Song Zhewu, he directly appointed Shi Ming as the battalion commander. Zhang Yafei's mind is to strike first, otherwise when Laiyuan is reorganized, this baby will not know who it belongs to.

Shi Ming really lived up to expectations, although the Fourth Route Army was greatly reorganized and expanded, and there were many new recruits, but Shi Ming's battalion under his leadership quickly formed a combat effectiveness, and now he has used his ability to be recognized by the officers of the First Division who were originally not convinced by him.

Defending Zha Lai Nuoer was the commander of the 17th Mixed Brigade, Han Guangdi. Han Guangdi is a graduate of Jilin Provincial Police Officers College. After that, he studied at East Asia Higher Preparatory School and Waseda University. After returning to China, he entered the Central Army Lecture Hall and the Northeast Lecture Hall to study, and was the most educated general in the Northeast Army. In June 1927, due to his repeated military exploits. He was exceptionally promoted to the rank of Major General and Division Commander of the 24th Division. In November 1928, before the Northeast changed banners, the Northeast Army was reorganized, and he was appointed as the commander of the 17th Mixed Infantry Brigade of the Northeast Army with the rank of lieutenant general.

Clear-eyed people know that with Zhang Xueliang's surname of loving and cherishing talents, Han Guangdi will not stay in this position for too long.

In the history of his previous life, Han Guangdi was killed on November 17 in Zhalainor. This time, Song Zhewu specially ordered Zhang Yafei to find a way to ensure Han Guangdi's safety.

For this battle on the Western Front, Han Guangdi is not as confident as Liang Zhongjia, he has already seen the power of Soviet aircraft and artillery. There are also some heavy artillery in the Northeast Army, but those cannons are all deployed in the Shenyang and Shanhaiguan areas, and it is impossible to transfer them to the border now. Moreover, judging from the battle situation on the Eastern Front, Han Guangdi can feel that the Soviet Army is still an offensive with a reconnaissance surname on the Western Front, and it is not a general offensive with a decisive surname. Even this kind of tentative attack of reconnaissance and surname, after three battles, the Northeast Army also suffered more than 500 casualties.

Moreover, he has only been in this 17 mixed brigade for one year, and although he has devoted all his energy to the training of the troops, because there are many new recruits in this unit, the combat effectiveness can barely be regarded as middle and upper in the Northeast Army.

Therefore, Shi Ming's arrival made Han Guangdi very happy, especially seeing that Shi Ming's troops were so well prepared, he had the bottom in his heart, and with the support of the Fourth Route Army, he really had confidence in holding Zha Lai Nuoer. After placing Shi Ming's troops, he immediately took Shi Ming to see enough of Zalainuoer's defensive position.

The city defense system consisted of two trenches and one anti-tank trench. On the outermost periphery was an infantry defensive trench, in which there were sheltered machine-gun bunkers every short distance, supported by rows of logs, topped by rails and plates, and covered with a half-metre-thick layer of earth. The minimum temperature here at night has reached minus 30 degrees Celsius, and the half-meter-thick layer of soil has frozen solidly, and only a white dot can be seen on it with a pickaxe. According to Shi Ming's estimates, even if the 60mm mortar shell fell directly on it, it could probably only blow up more than ten centimeters of frozen soil, and it could not hurt the people inside at all.

(To be continued)