The staff officer opened the folder, took out a telegram and handed it to Li Wentian.

The telegram was sent by Song Zhewu in Taiyuan, and the content was to urgently inform Li Wentian of the statement made by the Soviet political axe in Berlin this morning from Nanjing.

"In view of the fact that the Chinese political axe completely ignores the sovereignty and legitimate demands of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, and in order to preserve the dignity of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, the Supreme Commander of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics has decided to use force to recover the territories unreasonably occupied by the Chinese side," the Soviet political axe said in a statement. At the same time, at the request of the exiled political axe of the Mongolian People's Republic, and at the same time to relieve the Mongolian people who were colonized by the reactionary warlords in China, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics decided to send troops to the Mongolian People's Republic immediately......"

North Mongolia, China-Soviet border.

Thousands of kilometers of border are flanked by mountains. Although it was only September, the snow had already appeared on the higher peaks, reflecting the holy splendor in the morning sun.

The border is extremely vegetatively covered, with many places covered by primeval forests, and there is hardly any bare surface. The trees here are dense and all tall fir and pine, and in many areas there are large areas of forest that are connected on both sides of the border. As far as the eye can see, there is a dense forest sea everywhere.

On a mountain peak more than 3,000 meters above sea level more than a dozen kilometers north of Kulun, more than a dozen kilometers from the Sino-Soviet border, in the dense forest of tall firs, two half-covered wooden houses covered with fir branches lie quietly there, and a thick layer of white snow is spread on the roof and on the ground of the branches in the forest.

It was a snowfall last night. Due to the high altitude of this mountain, snow falls only on these high mountains, and rain falls on the mountains.

From here, the view to the north is extremely open. Since there is hardly any industry in a radius of several hundred kilometers, including the territory of the Soviet Union, the air quality here is excellent, and the scenery can be seen from more than 100 kilometers away. From here, you can clearly see Lake Baikal, the largest and deepest lake in the world, which is more than 600 kilometers long and more than 1,680 meters deep, and is known as the well of the earth and the blue eye of Siberia, which contains one-fifth of the earth's freshwater resources.

The blue waters of Lake Baikal are indeed like a strange blue eye, looking up at the northern sky, which is also a blue and fascinating blue.

To the north, the terrain of the Soviet Union is lower than that of Beimeng, and apart from a winding road and a small meadow in the middle of the forest, both the peaks and the hills are covered with lush boreal trees.

An earthy yellow improvised road winds its way from the territory of the Soviet Union through the foot of the mountain to Kulen, the capital of Northern Mongolia, more than 100 kilometers to the south.

The Selenga and Orkhon rivers, which originate in the Hangai Mountains in Northern Mongolia, meet at the foot of the mountains with a silver light, and then flow mightily into the territory of the Soviet Union, where they eventually flow into Lake Baikal, which is a very important water supply river.

On a hill more than 100 meters high not far from the confluence of the two rivers, a row of stone bungalows with concrete noodles flutters a blue sky and white flag, which is the only sign of human activity on this border. It's just that there are gusts of pine waves and the occasional birdsong, and no one is moving there.

The entire border is shrouded in a strange beauty and tranquility.

"It's so beautiful here!"

In the wooden house on the top of the mountain, a large telescope of high magnification is set up in front of each of the two observation holes facing north, and in front of the telescope on the east side, a major of the Fourth Route Army who observes with his eyes close to the telescope cannot help but express his heartfelt admiration for this quiet and beautiful scenery in his field of vision.

This major is Wang Jie, the reconnaissance staff officer of the 39th Army Special Brigade.

Since the last reorganization of Taiyuan, the special brigade of the former Fourth Route Army, except for an elite unit of 1,200 people, has been dispatched to various armies, and on the basis of these people, special brigades directly under each army have been formed. This time, Wang Jie was ordered to lead a small detachment, carrying radio stations and observation equipment, to secretly sneak to the border to carry out reconnaissance and observation tasks.

In addition to Wang Jie, there were two soldiers in the room who were observing, as well as a young lieutenant.

The lieutenant was a Mongolian officer of the cavalry corps, Batel, who had been specially transferred for this mission.

At this moment, Battle was also looking at the reckless primeval forests in the north, and the boundless steppes in the north.

Hearing Wang Jie's admiration, Battle said with emotion: "This place is indeed very, very beautiful. If you go further north, it's even more beautiful. If it's summer, it's full of silver-green birch forests and turquoise savannahs. ”

"There are herds of reindeer, yellow sheep and ponies running around the grasslands, and the main food of the hunters there is the endless supply of reindeer and yellow sheep. There are more arctic foxes all over the grasslands than there are hares on the grasslands of Beimeng. ”

"Oh? Battle, have you been to the territory of the USSR? ”

Wang Jie took his eyes off the scope and asked Battle.

"I haven't been there, I heard from my grandfather, my ancestors lived there," said Battle. Later, the Russians gradually invaded eastward and came there, and my ancestors also resisted, and finally had to move south to Northern Mongolia. ”

Wang Jie was silent for a moment, and then said to Battle: "When I was in Taiyuan, the commander-in-chief once said at the oath-taking meeting: The name Siberia comes from the ancient Turkic language, which means "quiet land." It stretches from the Ural Mountains in the west, to the Pacific Ocean in the east, and to the Arctic Ocean in the north, with a total area of 12.76 million square kilometers, which is larger than our current land area. More than 800 years ago, it was the territory of the Yuan Dynasty and belonged to the jurisdiction of Lingbei Province and Liaoyang Province. More than 500 years ago, during the Ming Dynasty in our country, this quiet land was broken by the Russians, and Tsarist Russia crossed the Ural Mountains and began to gradually occupy our land. ”

The commander-in-chief said that Siberia is not only rich and beautiful on the ground, but also contains endless mineral deposits underground, and the total value of the entire Siberian underground mineral deposits is estimated to be in the tens of billions, and may even be in the hundreds of billions. The commander-in-chief said that sooner or later we will have to take back this beautiful and rich land of Siberia. The commander-in-chief always counts, please believe that one day, our Fourth Route Army will reach the Ural Mountains, and you will definitely return to your homeland. ”

Battle nodded hatefully and said, "I believe in the words of the commander-in-chief, I will definitely return to the land where my ancestors lived, and when the time comes, I will invite you to eat roast yellow sheep." ”

"Good! We're sure of it. ”

Wang Jie smiled and patted Battle on the shoulder, then put away his smile, looked at the north and said: "According to the news from the military department, the Soviet army may launch an attack on Northern Mongolia in the next two days, and we have to survive this pass first." ”

Then he asked Battle, "How much of our supply do we have now?" ”

"If you save a little money, it should be enough for our team for two months."

Battle said with a somewhat gloomy face.

This time it is said that the Soviet army has mobilized more than 400,000 troops, and this war may not be fought in a short time. However, as the captain of the team, Wang Jie can't show his own worries at any time, which will affect everyone's morale.

Wang Jie comforted Battle and said, "It's okay, the supply team will continue to deliver supplies to us." ”

Battle shook his head and said, "Captain, you don't know anything about the climate in Northern Mongolia. ”

"Here in Northern Mongolia, especially in the northern mountains, there is a possibility of snow in mid to late October, and after November, there are more frequent snowstorms, and once there is a blizzard, the road up the mountain will be buried, and the supply team will not be able to get up," Battelle explained with a little melancholy. ”

"Battle is right."

A middle-aged man with glasses in civilian clothes walked out of the suite.

This middle-aged man's name is Huang Yinghuan, and he was formerly a research institute of the Meteorological Research Institute of the Academia Sinica in Nanjing, of which Zhu Kezhen was the director, and now he is the director of the Northern Meteorological Research Institute under the Research Institute of the Northern Frontier Governor's Office. This time, he came to instruct the two students who were observing meteorology with him to set up the instruments.

Wang Jie and Battle knew that Huang Yinghuan had been a professor at Tsinghua University and was a learned person, and they respected him very much. Wang Jie asked Huang Yinghuan with a smile: "Director Huang, do you also know the climate of Northern Mongolia?" ”

Huang Yinghuan nodded and said: "I came to Beimeng this time to set up a meteorological observation station to observe and forecast the weather in Beimeng, how can I do it if I don't understand the meteorological history data of Beimeng." ”

"Winters in Northern Mongolia are cold and long, with the coldest month of the year being January, with average temperatures ranging from -30°C to -15°C, and lows that can even reach -40°C, accompanied by heavy snowstorms; Spring and autumn are short, and there are often sudden weather changes, such as yesterday morning when autumn was crisp, and in the afternoon there was strong winds and heavy snow. In winter, snowstorms are especially heavy and often cause snow disasters. If there is a snowstorm, supplies will not be delivered. ”

Wang Jie thought for a while and said, "I will send a report to the military department in a while, asking the military department to send us another batch of supplies as soon as possible." ”

Then he said with some worry: "Director Huang, the Soviet army may invade at any time, you have to get out of here quickly." ”

Huang Yinghuan smiled and waved his hand and said: "It doesn't matter, the Soviet army will only march along the main road and river valley when it invades North Mongolia, and I will also go to the western mountains to select a point and build a station, and I will not encounter the Soviet army in the mountainous areas." Moreover, I am about to leave, and the research institute personnel and the team escorting us are still waiting for me at the bottom of the mountain, and I am here to do something else with you. ”

After sending Huang Yinghuan away, as soon as Wang Jie and Battle entered the wooden house, they heard the soldiers who were observing shouting: "There is a situation!" ”

(To be continued)