Chapter 572: The Siege of Northern Mongolia (4)

In the face of the resistance of the 38th Army, the most well-equipped unit in China at this time, the Soviet army frantically charged and did not get any bargain.

The 38th Army was not only equipped with a light machine gun in each squad, but also equipped with Type 26 semi-automatic rifles, which were very fierce.

Equipped with this latest type of rifle that can fire continuously, the infantry firepower of a company of the 38th Army is more powerful than that of a battalion equipped with ordinary rifles. Therefore, although the Soviets launched a decisive charge almost in waves, the Soviet charge was stopped at a distance of 50 meters from the position of the 38th Army.

Not to mention that the large number of mortars of the 38th Army blew up so that the Soviet Army could not organize an offensive formation, even the grenades equipped by the Fourth Route Army were much more powerful than the grenades with wooden handles.

Due to the height, the defenders' grenades were thrown down like flying locusts, and they continued to explode in the crowd of Soviet troops, and the smoke and dust from the explosion almost covered the Soviet troops who rushed up densely, and the shrapnel that flew like rain blew up the Soviet troops with many casualties. However, the wooden-handled grenades of the Soviet army could not be thrown at the position of the 38th Army, which was more than 50 meters away and had a height difference of nearly 30 meters.

The Soviet troops, who were lucky enough to break through the dense fire network woven by more than 200 guns, were already not one of them, and under the heavy fire of the defenders, the Soviet troops suffered heavy casualties, and the attack lasted only an hour, and they were no longer able to continue, so they had to stop.

Although it was only a charge of more than an hour, the Soviet army suffered more than 10,000 casualties under the various firepower exchanges of the Fourth Route Army, and the front of the 38th Army's three-kilometer-wide main position was full of corpses wearing khaki uniforms.

The huge casualties made the Soviet generals pale, and no one dared to shout about breaking through anymore. Blücher knew very well that they would not be able to break out of the encirclement on their own, so they had to order the troops to step up the construction of fortifications, prepare to hold on to the spot, and wait for reinforcements that were almost impossible.

Although the Soviet army no longer attacked, the air force and ground artillery fire of the Fourth Route Army did not stop, and for a whole day, wave after wave of planes tirelessly flew in, dropping strings of bombs on the Soviet positions, blowing up the Soviet positions and rocks, flashing with fire, and the smoke and dust almost covered the Soviet positions. So much so that the artillery and aircraft of the Fourth Route Army had to wait for a while after each bombardment before they could continue shelling and bombing.

At night, the temperature dropped significantly during the day, and the Soviet troops, who had not slept well for almost two nights, did not even have a full meal, and wanted to hide in the trenches and bomb craters to sleep and forget about hunger and cold. But they soon discovered that their limited needs could not be met.

Under the command of Fu Zuoyi, the units of the Fourth Route Army launched another night attack.

Extremely tired and hungry, the Soviet officers and soldiers had to get up and shoot at the dark valley in a daze.

The night raid did not gradually end until 3 a.m. After a night of fighting, the Soviet army's position was compressed a lot, and more than 100,000 Soviet troops who were still alive were pressed into the mountains with a radius of less than 10 kilometers.

Fortunately, after dawn, the Soviet army flew a fighter regiment from Chita and other places, so the bombers of the Fourth Route Army did not take off, and Gao Zhihang led the only remaining more than 60 fighters to take off to meet the battle, and the two sides lost more than 20 fighters after a fierce air battle, which was considered a draw.

The besieged Soviet troops finally took advantage of this rare opportunity to gather some charred grain and horses that had been killed and wounded, and barely ate a hot meal. However, if there was no airdrop, it would have been impossible for the Soviet army to have a full meal.

In mid-October, the temperature at night in Beimeng is below freezing, and if there is no tent shelter, there is only a bonfire to keep warm, otherwise people will be too cold to stand it. But their baggage was almost burned out, and the few tents that remained were occupied by the officers. The Soviet troops, who were still wearing single clothes, had to go around collecting "half-finished charcoal" that had not been burned after the mountain fires and lighting it in the trenches and mountain cols to keep warm.

Unfortunately, however, as soon as it got dark, the air force of the Fourth Route Army flew over them again, and there was a fire there, which was the target of their patronage, and although the Soviet troops were shivering from the cold, they did not dare to approach the warm fire.

Although the ground troops of the Fourth Route Army did not launch another night attack that night, wave after wave of planes kept spinning over their heads, and more than 100,000 hungry Soviet troops had no choice but to huddle together and hide behind rocks and in trenches to keep warm. …,

Even so, it was impossible to sleep, and the cold north wind made them shiver.

It was easy to get caught up in the morning, and the number of Soviet fighters increased by another regiment, covering the arrival of more than a dozen bombers and twelve JU46 single-engine transport planes, which bombed the blocking positions of the 38th Army on the one hand, and airdropped food and ammunition on the besieged Soviet troops on the other.

The JU46 single-engine transport aircraft was made by the Soviet Union in imitation of the German Junkers F-13 transport aircraft, and it was called Fili Ф-13 in the Soviet Union. In Germany, its subsequent modification was the famous German "Junker Aunt" in World War II - JU52.

The transport aircraft JU46 does not carry much cargo, and the maximum load is only more than one ton, not to mention that they are still responsible for the task of airdropping ammunition to the encircled Soviet army, even if all the airdrop food, it is not enough for nearly 200,000 Soviet troops to eat for a day, and it can probably only give the Soviet army's stomach and intestines a little comfort. What's more, the units of the Fourth Route Army were equipped with a large number of anti-aircraft machine guns, so that the Soviet transport planes did not dare to fly too low, and half of the supplies thrown from high altitude fell outside the encirclement.

Gao Zhihang led his wing to take off again to meet the battle, and this time the number of planes of the Fourth Route Army was not dominant.

Originally, Wu Jin and Mike did not approve of the remaining 40 or so fighters taking to the air to fight, but Song Zhewu believed that these few days were extremely important for both the besieged and the besieged, as long as they lasted another three or five days, the hearts of the besieged Soviet troops would be shaken, and at this time it was necessary to exert maximum pressure on the Soviet army, even if these dozens of planes were exhausted, it was worth it.

Although the pilots of these Soviet planes urgently transferred from Central Asia and Primorsky Krai have not undergone actual combat training, after all, they have more training time than the personnel of the Air Force, and in addition to the superiority in the number of aircraft, victory is inevitable. In the end, the Air Corps lost 24 aircraft, and the Soviets lost 8.

However, because of the appearance of fighters of the Air Force Corps, the bombers and transport planes of the Soviet Army did not dare to worry about airdropping and bombing, and hurriedly dropped bombs and supplies at high altitudes, and then hurriedly flew back.

After this air battle, two more stars were added to Gao Zhihang's plane fuselage, and the number reached fifteen, which means that he shot down fifteen Soviet planes.

As soon as the Soviet planes flew away, the units of the Fourth Route began to launch heavy artillery bombardment of the Soviet troops in the encirclement. Except for the first day, the Soviet army was able to shoot at the troops commanded by Fu Zuoyi, and now the Soviet artillery can no longer be heard. In the bombardment of the Soviet army in the past few days, most of them were damaged, and although there were still dozens of heavy guns, there were few shells left.

What's even worse is that the army that remained at the big turn, under the siege of the superior forces under the command of Gao Zongbao, most of them were annihilated, and the remnants of about one division broke through the encirclement and fled north. That is, in Northern Mongolia, now only this force under the command of Blyukhel remains.

In desperation, Blyukhel ordered that none of the cannons should be allowed to fire unless the squadron attacked. At the same time, the news that the Soviet army in the Great Turn was largely wiped out.

That night, under the instruction of the flares and signal flares fired by the ground troops, the Air Force Corps again launched a continuous bombardment of Soviet positions, and the Soviet troops, who had suffered all night in hunger and cold, were surprised to find at dawn that the Chinese had not only dropped bombs during the bombing last night, but also dropped a large number of colorful Russian leaflets.

The leaflet told the Soviet army that the Soviet troops at the turn were completely annihilated, and they had no way to escape, and the only way for them to return to the Soviet Union alive and see their wives, children, parents, brothers and sisters was to surrender. The Fourth Route Army guaranteed their lives and, after negotiations with the Soviet government, would send them home.

This news immediately caused great confusion within the Soviet army. With the intervention of political commissars at all levels and personnel of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the collected leaflets were sent to the headquarters for centralized destruction.

However, at some point, the Chinese set up loudspeakers again on their positions, and someone was reading out the contents of the leaflets in pure Russian, and also read a letter from Song Zhewu to all Soviet officers and soldiers.

In the letter, Song Zhewu not only told the Soviet army that he ordered the destruction of the roads north of Kulen and north of Kruren to the territory of the Soviet Union, and at the same time ordered more than 200,000 troops to block possible Soviet reinforcements along the way. Regardless of how many reinforcements the Soviet government could send in a while, now that the temperature has plummeted and heavy snow may fall at any time, he solemnly urged the Soviet army to surrender.

In order to dispel the doubts of the senior Soviet generals, Song Zhewu promised that all the senior Soviet generals, including Blyukher, would exchange prisoners for their families and give them huge bonuses to ensure that they lived a stable life in China as long as they led their troops to surrender. If they want to settle abroad, he will also give them his full support. And if the Soviet generals insisted on going their own way, then the only way that awaited them was to starve to death and freeze to death, and the Soviet generals cherished the lives of 200,000 Soviet soldiers.

In the letter, Song Zhewu also clearly stated the amount of bonuses for leading the surrender of the Soviet generals: Blyukhel - 200,000 US dollars; $10 for general-rank officers; $3-$50,000 for colonel-level officers

Thank you for the tips of "Heart of Faith", "Armored Regiment Assault", and "ㄚ-Chen Stay" book friends!

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