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After the squadron captured Yekaterinburg and wiped out all the Bolsheviks in the territory, Xu Shichang's First Army continued to advance, broke through to the Great Bend of the Don River, and approached Volgograd.

The city of Volgograd was originally chosen on the steppes of Siberia and named Tsaritsyn (historically also known as Stalingrad) on an island where the Tsaritsyn River flows into the Volga. From the 18th century onwards, Volgograd was a military fortress, and in the late 19th century, with the construction of a railway, the city grew rapidly and became a hub for land and water transportation connecting Europe and Asia.

Whether it was Muscovy, the Russian Empire, or Soviet Russia, Volgograd was very important as the transportation choke point between the central region of Soviet Russia and the important economic regions of the south. The Caucasus oil fields near here are very important to Soviet Russia, and more than 95% of the oil supply of Soviet Russia comes from the Caucasus oil fields, so if the squadron captures Volgograd and the Caucasus, it can outflank a large area east of Moscow to the north, and penetrate deep into the Caucasus region to the south, and occupy hundreds of thousands of square kilometers of oil, grain and other resources with the Caucasus as the center.

The First Army commanded by Cai Ye and the Second Army led by Wu Peifu were tasked with capturing Stalingrad, with 12 divisions of about 150,000 men, about 3,000 artillery pieces and mortars, and about 100 tanks. In the battle, nearly 400,000 people from the German 6th Army, the Romanian 3rd Army, and the Italian 8th Army also participated in the battle.

Lenin also attached great importance to Volgograd. Trotsky, the supreme commander of the Bolshevik army in Soviet Russia, personally led about 200,000 Bolshevik troops to defend Volgograd, which was almost the only remaining armed force in Soviet Russia at this time. Trotsky organized the defense of Pavlovsk to Kurmoyarskaya, and concentrated his forces on the Great Bend of the Don. But the weapons of the Soviet Russian army were poor. A third of them did not even have rifles, 220 artillery pieces and mortars.

Xu Shichang served as the commander-in-chief of the coalition offensive, codenamed "Operation Blue", and at the same time launched a large-scale offensive in the direction of Moscow and in the south, with Moscow as the main target of the assault; In order to stop the Soviets from destroying the oil fields when they were attacked by the coalition forces, he also developed an additional plan to send Chinese special forces to disguise themselves as Soviet troops. Infiltrate the rear of Soviet troops and carry out raids on the oil fields of the Caucasus.

The raid was sent to Zhang Zongchang's White Russian regiment, who selected about 700 Russian soldiers to form a small detachment. Both are fluent in Russian.

The distance from the front line to the city of Maccamp was about 100 kilometers, and how Zhang Zongchang's White Russian army detachment could reach Maccamp safely and secretly without being detected by the Soviets was the key to this bold plan. China played a great role in the accumulation of information before and at the beginning of the war, and the squadron was very aware of some of the working procedures and details within the Soviet army at this time. This was of great help to the infiltration work of Zhang Zongchang's squad.

In the middle of the night. A clear moon hung in the dark sky, and there was a hint of coldness in the wind. Wearing a Soviet Cheka uniform, Zhang Zongchang's squad bid farewell to Xu Shichang, who came to see him off. Zhang Zongchang's reputation was not very good, Xu Shichang didn't think much of him before, but now seeing that he accepted this arduous task without hesitation, his impression of him changed greatly, patted him on the shoulder, and encouraged: "Brothers. Take care! I want to see each and every one of you alive and well, Moscow is waiting for me ahead! ”

Zhang Zongchang took out a gold pocket watch from his arms at this time. handed it to Xu Shichang and said, "Commander Xu, I have something to ask you, this gold pocket watch was given to the younger brother by Zhang Zuolin's eldest brother." If I can't come back alive this time, please return this gold pocket watch to Brother Zhang, and ask him to take care of my elderly mother! ”

Zhang Zongchang's mother was originally a witch who danced the great god, and he was extremely filial to his own mother. Xu Shichang took the gold pocket watch, looked at Zhang Zongchang with admiration at this time, nodded and said, "It must be done!" Still, I hope I'll give it back to you when the time comes! You take care of the old lady yourself. ”

Under the cover of darkness, Zhang Zongchang's squad quietly crossed the forward positions of the Soviet troops from the area of Ariksandrovskaya.

The initial offensive of the coalition forces was very successful, the Bolshevik army could not resist effectively in the open steppes, the Soviet Bolshevik army retreated up to 200 kilometers, the Don River and the richest areas of the Donbas basin fell into the hands of the coalition forces, and the troops of both sides fought a general battle in Volgograd.

The battle officially began. The German 6th Army, under the command of Ludendorff, with the 8th Infantry Corps as the northern assault group and the 51st Infantry Corps as the southern assault group, assaulted the Soviet Bolshevik army defense to implement encirclement, and developed an offensive in the direction of Karachi. At the same time, a feint attack was launched with part of the forces to the rear of the Soviet Bolshevik army in order to attract the attention of the Soviet Bolshevik army. The Germans forced the Don River near Karachi. Trotsky ordered that all servicemen who disobeyed orders and left their combat posts or retreated were to be shot, and sternly demanded that the units of the Soviet Bolshevik army "never take a step back!" ”

At the same time, Cai's army attacked northeast on the Volgograd Railway, quickly breaking through the Bolshevik lines and capturing Montenaya that day. The next day, the squadron captured Kotelnikovo, broke through to the area of Abuganerovo, independently attacked Volgograd, and advanced to the area of Gavrilovka in the south of the city, and its advance had already moved forward to capture the Jinguta station. At the same time, China's First Air Brigade, under the command of Feng Ru, dispatched 30 planes to indiscriminately bomb Volgograd, which caused a raging fire in the suburbs of Volgograd, where most of the houses were made of wooden structures.

At that time, St. Petersburg was also under heavy attack by the German army, and Lenin telegraphed Trotsky and asked him to immediately break through from Volgograd with his army in order to relieve tension in St. Petersburg.

Trotsky's army then gathered three divisions of about 70,000 men and forced a breakthrough, but the hasti preparations did not achieve the desired goal. That night, the Soviet Bolshevik army again launched a breakthrough and failed again.

The squadron again dispatched bombers and bombed the city of Volgograd into ruins with incendiary bombs, and the reinforcements of the waterways along the Volga River were also affected. Cai's army broke into the city from the north of the city, and the Soviet Bolshevik army engaged in fierce street fighting, with the two sides fighting street by street, building by building, house by house, and repeatedly fighting. China's heavy artillery intensified its bombardment, and planes bombed Volgograd incessantly, turning the city into a field of rubble, destroying 80 percent of the city's residential areas. In a city full of rubble and ruins. The average survival time of the soldiers of the Bolshevik army, who had just arrived in the city, was no more than 24 hours, and the average survival time of the officers was only about three days.

The Germans also began to bombard the city, including 420-mm guns, and the Soviet troops on the east bank of the Volga River were caught under artillery fire. The city is littered with piles of rubble and abandoned buildings that are several meters high.

The coalition forces constantly strengthened the encirclement of Stalingrad and began operations to reduce it. The distribution of rations for the Bolshevik troops in the Soviet Union had been reduced to a standard of subsistence; The lack of ammunition for the artillery began to be felt; Medicines, fuel, and fuel have been exhausted; Thousands of soldiers die every day from starvation, cold and malnutrition.

Three days later, Xu Shichang issued an ultimatum urging Trotsky to surrender. Trotsky reported to Lenin: "Our army is no longer able to support it, there is no point in continuing to resist, please allow us to surrender." ”

Lenin was very dissatisfied with the failure of Trotsky's army to break through the encirclement, so he replied: "Surrender is impossible, we Bolsheviks, we should fight to the end for the people, shed blood to the last man." ”

When Tsai's army entered Volgograd, the thirty-one-year-old Trotsky surrendered, and the prisoners of war included 22 Bolshevik generals. Facing Trotsky's group of kneeling prisoners of war, Cai Ye was full of contempt in his heart, he pulled out the Mauser at his waist, fired three shots into the air, and shouted at the kneeling generals: "You generals, why don't you die!" On weekdays, you always keep saying that you represent the people, but you enjoy all kinds of privileges, you eat the people's fat and people's anointment, and you are powerful and blessed, but today in the face of the people's enemies, why don't you take up arms and fight to the end? Are you going to show your bravery only in your newspapers? A bunch of cowards! ”

Trotsky, the leader of the Bolsheviks who had led the Cheka, trembled his legs at this time, raised his head and said: "We are willing to be judged by historical justice as prisoners of war!" ”

Cai Ye sneered and said, "I am a soldier, if you resist to the end on the battlefield, I will also consider letting you be judged, but now there is no need." Someone, drag them out, and they're all killed! ”

After that, Cai Ye ordered someone to take the oil and pile the corpses of Trotsky and others into a pile, and burned them to the ground.

The Battle of Volgograd caused the Bolsheviks to lose a large amount of vital forces, and caused mass panic and demoralization of the Soviet soldiers after that, and the squadron pursued the victory and occupied the Caucasus oil fields. The Bolshevik squads that Lenin had sent to destroy the oil fields were also killed by Zhang Zongchang's special squad.

Having occupied Volgograd, the squadron continued northward and outflanked most of Moscow east of Moscow with the coalition forces, at this time Moscow, which had been demolished by China once, and its status was not as important as St. Petersburg, the capital of Soviet Russia, Lenin ordered Dzerzhinsky's defenders to adopt a scorched earth policy and burn Moscow.

Before the coalition could attack on a large scale, the Bolshevik troops retreated, and before leaving, the Cheka threw lit torches at prepared oil drums or the houses of residents. Not long after, the flames were blazing and the whole city was on fire. It was the middle of the night, and in order to avoid panic among the residents, the Bolsheviks did not notify the civilians to evacuate in advance, and the fire lasted for five days and five nights, causing a catastrophe, burning 200,000 civilians, and killing 200,000 civilians. The Bolshevik Pravda newspaper immediately published a press release on the truth about the fire: "This is yet another grave crime committed against the Russian people by the imperialist countries, led by China and the United States!" ”

At this time, the German army on the Eastern Front had also broken through to the vicinity of St. Petersburg and would carry out the final purge against Lenin's Bolsheviks! The peasants everywhere were forced by the brutality of the Cheka and dared not speak out, but now that the Bolsheviks were retreating, they also began to resist and refused to pay the requisition, and the Bolsheviks were on the verge of collapse! (To be continued......)