As the new commander-in-chief of the Russian 57th Army in Mongolia, as General Zhukov, who rose from the bottom of Russia and experienced dozens of battles, he still has real skills.

Zhukov is tenacious and proficient in the art of war, but he has a fatal flaw, that is, he treats the lives of soldiers like dung, and he can sacrifice all soldiers without hesitation for victory.

In the same way, Zhukov, who was so cruel to his own people, treated the enemy even more cruelly, and Zhukov believed that as long as it was an enemy, it should be destroyed, including the enemy's body and spirit, even if it was the enemy's relatives and friends.

Therefore, for enemy-occupied areas, he has never had the so-called distinction between civilians and soldiers. In front of him there were only two kinds of people, comrades-in-arms and enemies, and General Zhukov was the most outstanding representative of Cibu's army.

General Zhukov also particularly admired the large corps and the joint operations of multiple arms, especially the coordinated operations of the army and the air force, and Zhukov's tactical thinking was ahead of the military generals of all countries in the world in this era.

However, at present, he has not yet had a successful example of air-ground cooperative operations, so he very much wants to implement his air-ground integrated combat theory in the Normenhan area, and even more wants to put into practice his theory of tank group charge.

In Zhukov's belief that the current 57th Army was much superior to the Japanese army on the opposite side in terms of both the number of troops and equipment, he really couldn't think of a reason why he couldn't defeat the Japanese.

However, he never fought against the Japanese, who had the spirit of bushido as their will to fight, and he still suffered a great loss.

First of all, a week after Zhukov arrived in the Nomenkhand area, the Japanese Kwantung Army also mobilized two first-class divisions from southern China to the Manchuria area to prepare to reinforce the Japanese army in the Nomenkhand area.

It's just that these two veteran divisions with strong combat effectiveness have just started, and the Russo-Japanese War in the Nomenkhand region has already begun. And the beginning of the war was a great surprise to both Japan and Russia.

General Zhukov originally thought that with 60,000 Russian troops and the advantage of aircraft and tanks, the Russian army would sweep the Japanese army with a tendency to wither and decay. But in fact, it was Japan that resisted a large number of Russian troops with its flesh and blood, and not only that, but also greatly killed and wounded Russian soldiers.

What was even more excessive was that the Japanese army did not use 50,000 troops at all, they only dispatched more than 25,000 men of the 23rd Division, a newly established second-class division, to defeat the entire Russian 57th Army with more than 60,000 troops.

First of all, in the air, Zhukov threw 500 Russian planes at one time, wanting to eat the Japanese army, and deployed 200 Japanese planes on the border of Manchukuo.

As a result, several hundred Russian fighters caused the Japanese planes to flee in the desert, and it turned out that the Russian planes at this time were much behind the Japanese planes.

At this time, the Russian planes were not only slow, with a small amount of ammunition, but also quite clumsy, and the most important thing was that the Russian pilots were negligent in training, and the real elite pilots had already been slaughtered in the past few years of the Great Purge Campaign.

Most of today's Russian pilots are basically new recruits and have no real combat experience at all. Many pilots can only take off and land normally.

Everyone was forced to fly the plane into the sky, and whether they could fly back safely, these Russian pilots themselves were not confident.

On the other hand, the pilots of the Japanese army were completely different, not only were the Japanese pilots well-trained, but also often participated in the bombing of the inland Chinese army because they had been suppressing bandits for many years, so almost all the Japanese pilots were skilled fighter pilots with considerable combat experience.

And these skilled pilots flew nimble fighters, and with the spirit of bushido, they shot down 160 Russian fighters in the first air battle at the cost of 10 casualties.

What was even more terrifying was that the Japanese pilots took the opportunity to attack the Russian air base in the Normenhan area, not only destroying a large amount of Russian armaments and supplies, but also destroying dozens of warplanes parked on the runway and dozens of fighters parked in the hangar.

In other words, in just one war, the Russian air force lost more than half, and compared to the Japanese army, the result of losing only ten of the hundreds of aircraft was almost negligible.

In this war alone, Russia lost its air superiority, and since then, the Russian Air Force has never taken the initiative to attack again for half a month, and has switched to air defense.

And it was not only the air force that made Zhukov uncomfortable, as Zhukov believed that his powerful army could also inflict huge casualties on the Japanese army, because the Normenkhand region was a vast steppe that was very suitable for the offensive of their tank divisions and armored brigades.

Think about it, is the torrent of steel composed of nearly a thousand tanks and armored vehicles still unable to defeat the Japanese tank division with less than 200 tanks on the opposite side?

But Zhukov forgot one thing, that is, the steppes are indeed flat, but the grass of the steppes is too lush. The savannah at the beginning of June is the month when the weeds are overgrown.

And as long as the short Japanese in the vast steppes bowed their bodies, the tall Russian tank and armored divisions could not be seen by a single enemy.

The most important thing was the Japanese army's spirit of not fearing death and accurate artillery bombardment. In the first major battle between the two armies, the Japanese tanks did not even appear, and the 23rd Division only sent a large group of daredevils, holding bundles of cluster bombs and carrying infantry guns to attack closely.

At the cost of sacrificing hundreds of daredevils and nearly 1,000 Japanese soldiers, in the same day's fighting, 180 of the 500 Russian tanks were destroyed, and more than 100 of the 400 armored vehicles were destroyed. And then the entire Russian armored division collapsed.

Hundreds of tanks and armored divisions threw down their infantry and began a frantic retreat towards the Nomenkhand area. At this time, the Japanese infantry fighting vehicles and tanks began to pursue, and the defeated Russian soldiers scattered and fled. The Japanese Army drove the Russian 57th Army back to the Nomenkhand area in just one battle.

Seeing that the Russian army was so badly damaged, Zhukov was stunned, is this his invincible Russian elite soldier? Are the Japanese soldiers on the other side really just Japan's second-rate army?

Although Zhukov failed in the first battle, Zhukov did not think that his tactics were wrong, and could only say that his soldiers did not understand his tactical arrangements well.

So Zhukov reorganized his troops and had in-depth discussions with the generals of all branches of the army, and after gaining the understanding of the generals, General Zhukov launched another battle with the Japanese army in late June.

This time the two sides won and lost each other, and there was no decisive victory, once the Russian army even surrounded the soldiers of a wing of the 23rd Division of the Japanese army, but the soldiers of this wing were stunned to blow up a bloody road with grenades, and after killing and wounding 3,000 Russian troops, most of them still succeeded in breaking through the siege despite their own casualties of 1,000 people.

It was at this time that Zhukov finally realized the huge difference between the Russian and Japanese soldiers in terms of individual quality and will to fight. It turns out that a soldier's will to fight can work miracles. This is the combat experience that Zhukov summed up after two defeats.

However, Zhukov would not stop the offensive because of this, so Zhukov again asked Army Group North to send more new fighters and more advanced tanks, and at the same time to draw experienced veterans from the armies and divisions of Army Group North.

He was going to fight the last battle with the Japanese army. Finally, in mid-July, Zhukov, who had been fully prepared, again mobilized 50,000 Russian troops, and 50,000 Mongolian cavalry carried out the largest attack on the two Japanese divisions on the opposite side.

This time, Zhukov's air-land coordination seemed to have some effect, although the pilots of the Russian Air Force were not yet opponents of the Japanese pilots as a whole.

However, with the support of the latest fighters and a large number of experienced pilots, and the number of Russian fighters was far greater than that of the Japanese army, after several days of strangulation in the air, Admiral Zhukov slowly reversed the disadvantage of the Russian Air Force.

In the same way, after receiving effective air assistance, the land of the 57th Army seems to have regained the feeling of fighting. It took them only a few days to defeat the 50,000 Japanese troops on the opposite side.

Seeing that the Japanese army was retreating frantically, Zhukov remembered Comrade Stalin's suggestion that he could take the opportunity to capture parts of Manchukuo in order to gain the greatest bargaining chips for future armistice conferences.

So Zhukov waved his hand, and the whole army was escorted to pursue the fleeing Japanese army. Who knows when the Japanese army fled back dozens of kilometers and had just escaped from the Normenkhan region into the borders of Manchukuo.

The Russian soldiers suddenly found themselves surrounded by nearly 100,000 Manchukuo puppet troops. Although the Russian soldiers always looked down on the Manchukuo army. However, the combat effectiveness of the Manchukuo army at this time was equally strong. At least not to fall behind in the battle against the Russian soldiers.

Who would have thought that the Japanese army, who was fleeing in defeat at this time, would kill the horse pistol with his backhand and join the ranks of the encircled Russian army, and the Russian army could not bear it.

It turned out that the reason why the previous Japanese army was defeated was indeed a deceit, and the purpose was to lure out the Russian army in the Nomenkhand area, annihilate it in the field, and then occupy the undefended Nomenkhand in one fell swoop.

After General Zhukov learned that the 50,000-strong army was surrounded by more than 100,000 Manchukuo troops and Japanese troops, he immediately ordered the 57th Army to break through with all its might.

And also ordered the Air Force to rescue the 57th Army at any cost. But at this time, the border of Manchukuo was no longer the domain of the Russians. The Japanese Air Force began to frantically strangle Russian fighters in the air.

The most infuriating was the allies of the 57th Army, the 50,000 Mongol cavalry led by Choibalshan, after they heard that the Russian 57th Army was surrounded by more than 100,000 Sino-Japanese coalition troops.

They didn't think about how to rescue the Russian 57th Army, they relied on their familiarity with the surrounding terrain and the advantages of being quick to retreat alone.

Zhukov, who was commanding the battle in Nomenkhan, saw Chomasan leading tens of thousands of Mongolian cavalry to flee back alone, and he was so angry that he almost turned his face with Choibalsan on the spot.

While making a strong protest to Mongolia, Zhukov actively contacted Army Group North, hoping to get reinforcements to rescue the encircled 57th Army.

However, Zhukov received information that Army Group North was regrouping, and that there were no surplus troops that could reach the Nomenkhand region in a short time.

And even if there is an army to adjust, a large army to travel, food, grass, ammunition supplies, etc., it will not be completed at all in a week, let alone reach the Normenhan region in a few days.

The officers and men of the 57th Army who were surrounded had already sent an urgent telegram, they could only support for three days at most, and after three days, if reinforcements were not available, they could only lead the people to surrender to the Japanese army.

Looking at the telegram sent by the 57th Army, Zhukov sat at his desk and was stunned for a long time, he could imagine what would happen to him once he lost to the Japanese this time.

At the thought of Stalin's grim eyes, Zhukov shuddered when he felt the mix. He thought of his wife, his children, and his close friends in Minsk. He can't be defeated, and he can't afford to lose.

But now that the Mongol army can't count on it, and the northern army group is far away from quenching its thirst, can he still count on God to send him heavenly soldiers and generals?

Just when Zhukov was about to go crazy, his confidential secretary knocked on his door: "Report to the general, a young man who calls himself Li Tie asks to see him, and I said that I will not see him without an appointment."

But he insisted that I come and tell you about it, and he said that you have rented 100,000 bandits from them and have not paid for it, and he wants to pay for it. ”

"What? Li Tie is here! Let him in. Zhukov suddenly felt as if he had been saved.