The troops of the 11th Panzer Army of the Ming Army, which attacked and advanced on the right flank, also achieved considerable results. Pen~Fun~Pavilion www.biquge.info They also took three days to defeat the blockade of many Russian troops and kill near the Krazimu River. However, due to the large number of Russian troops gathered here, they were not able to successfully capture the bridge over the river. However, this is irrelevant, because the strategic intention of the Ming army has been basically realized, and they have successfully encircled the strategic reserves of the Russian army.

A large number of Ming infantry followed behind the armored forces to continuously consolidate the encirclement, and packed many panicked Russian troops into another big pocket. The Ming army packed into this pocket more than 400,000 Russian troops, including two tank armies, three infantry armies, more than a dozen infantry corps, mechanized corps, tank brigades, and artillery units.

By the time the time it came to September 18, the situation on the battlefield of the Russians could not have been worse. Heavy groups of Russian troops were encircled in Ryazan, Moscow, as well as in the area south of Torzhok. The Russian troops in these huge encirclements are more than 1.5 million people!

Don't look at the Russian army, there are still tens of millions of men, but most of them are ordinary local militias and garrisons that cannot conduct field battles. Many of those people were old men over fifty years old, children under sixteen years old, and even many women. These people are not even equipped with rifles, who can expect them to have any combat effectiveness?

These Russian troops are basically the same level of combat effectiveness as the homeless people who were coerced by the rogues at the end of each dynasty. Really on the battlefield, facing the regular army of the Ming army with fully automated weapons, these people have no role other than being killed by a dense rain of bullets. The tactic of relying on the number of people to kill the enemy has completely withdrawn from the battlefield stage after the invention of the heavy machine gun.

In the previous years of war, the Russians continued to launch large-scale counteroffensives such as summer offensives, winter offensives, spring and autumn offensives. The use of crowd tactics to attack the Ming army's strong defensive positions resulted in huge casualties on themselves. By now, there were very few Russian troops that could really fight.

The Ming Army's Central Army Group had killed and wounded nearly two million Russian troops in the previous three months, most of which were capable troops in the Russian army. In this case, once the troops in these encirclements are really lost, then the Russians will not be able to continue fighting. Without the troops that could fight, the country would not be able to survive the war.

But the Russian army now has no choice. They only have a group of local militias and garrisons with little combat effectiveness at hand, how can this kind of force fight against the elite troops of the Ming Dynasty? At this time, even the gathering of these troops and sending them to the front was an impossible task for the Russians.

Now only the Tsar's Guards and the British Expeditionary Force were present in St. Petersburg, but neither the Tsar nor the British would send these troops to their deaths. At this time, the last capable troops in the hands of the Russians were concentrated in the southern Volga, the Caucasus and Ukraine. Even if you don't mention the fierce battle with the Ming army, it will not be easy for these troops to be transferred in a short period of time.

A large number of troops were surrounded, especially after the news that the strategic reserve was defeated in the battle and was besieged by the Ming army reached St. Petersburg. The whole of St. Petersburg was suddenly enveloped in an atmosphere of terror. Almost everyone was pessimistic and disappointed about Russia's future, and no one thought that Russia would be able to defeat the Ming Kingdom.

Since September 18, the price of passenger ferry tickets leaving St. Petersburg has skyrocketed, nearly tenfold in one day, and is increasing at an even faster rate. By 20 September, many shipowners began to refuse to accept paper money, accepting only gold coins and other valuables to pay for their ships.

The Russian upper strata were very pessimistic about the future of the country, believing that Russia was about to be defeated. Many people are unwilling to stay in Russia and wait for the Ming to rule, who knows if the Ming will arrest them all and eat them all? Rather than being disposed of at will as a member of a defeated country, losing the guarantee of life and property. It is better to spend a large sum of money to travel to the United States, which is relatively safe at this time.

Compared to the war-torn continent of Europa, the United States, or the whole of America, is now relatively safe. Even if these Russian upper-class people pay a lot of money, it is better to go to the United States than to stay here. Even if the Americans were defeated in the end, it would be the same wherever they fled.

Many Russians believe that across the vast Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, it will be difficult for the Ming to launch a fierce attack on the powerful American continent, and that the two sides may eventually end the war at the negotiating table. At that point, they may be able to escape.

Although crossing the Atlantic now requires a lot of expensive ferry tickets, and there are also bad weather and sea conditions on the way, as well as the threat of Ming naval raids and submarines. But the number of people fleeing St. Petersburg and preparing to flee St. Petersburg is still growing day by day. Faced with this situation, the Tsar was extremely angry, but there was nothing he could do. Who let them defeat it?

The flight of many nobles and wealthy people from Russia had an irreparable effect on the entire society. An atmosphere of pessimism and despair began to permeate both the civilian population, the soldiers began to become unmotivated, and the civilians were trying their best to leave the country or hide in the countryside. The combat capability of the Russians has rapidly declined.

When the news of the defeat at the front reached St. Petersburg, it brought about another development, that is, the rapid rise of the forces of the Lords and factions within Russia. If you are defeated, you have to bear it, and you can't accompany the whole country, right? The Russians began to prepare to end the war at the negotiating table. For many Russian front-line officers and soldiers, the saddest thing is that they are still desperately resisting on the front line, and the bigwigs in the rear are already plotting to abandon them.

The soldiers at the front did not know anything about what was happening in distant St. Petersburg, and they were now fighting to the death to be able to survive. Their opponent is one of the most powerful armies in the world, and the powerful Ming Army is constantly intensifying its attacks on the Russian troops in the encirclement, intending to end the fighting in the encirclement as soon as possible. The Ming army was unwilling to waste time waiting for the Russian army in the encirclement to run out of ammunition and food before surrendering.

At this time, the Russian army in the encirclement has completely fallen into endless chaos. The Russian army in the Moscow region is better, most of them have an establishment, and they barely have material supplies and command structures at all levels, plus there are a large number of people and a fortified city of Moscow, so the situation of the Russian army guarding Moscow can barely be maintained.

But the Russian troops near Ryazan and south of Torzhok were miserable. After these troops were cut off from the supply lines, they experienced heavy artillery fire and bombardment every day, and the Ming army continued to press the Russian positions, driving them like ducks into the gradually narrowing area.

The Russian troops in the encirclement tried to break through many times, and some of them successfully penetrated the Ming army's unstable defense line and escaped. However, the entire Russian army has fallen into great chaos, and many Russian troops who have broken out of the encirclement do not know where to go, nor do they know what the situation is in the outside world.

Many Russian troops who took advantage of the fact that the Ming encirclement was not yet fully formed chose to go to Moscow, but most of these Russian troops became prisoners of the Ming army. According to the statistics of the Ming army, by September 20, the Ming army had cleared out the troops outside the encirclement of Torzhok and Ryazan, and had captured more than 150,000 Russian officers and soldiers when they were ready to launch a war of annihilation.

The Ming army optimistically estimated that they would capture at least half a million Russian troops in the Ryazan and Torzhok regions. Of course, the Ming army's offensive was not all smooth sailing. There are still many people in the Russian army who have not completely given up resistance and are still insisting on their duties as soldiers.

When the Ming army launched a general offensive, the Russian troops in the encirclement put up a desperate resistance, not only holding on to any position, but also leaving broken and harassing troops in numerous swamps and woods to use for the logistics and transportation of nearby Ming troops. Especially near the forests in the area south of Torzhok, from time to time a group of Russian infantry and a few tanks would rush out to attack the Ming army's convoy, bringing considerable losses to the Ming army.

But these tactics and resistance are meaningless. The Russian army lacks supplies, everything is used a little less. What's more, they lacked the support of tanks, artillery and aircraft, and could not hold out for long under the blows of the powerful armored forces of the Ming army.

On September 22, the troops of the Ming Army's 9th Panzer Corps successfully broke through from the left flank and cut the Russian troops in the encirclement south of Torzhok into two sections from the middle. Subsequently, more than 400,000 Russian troops in the area south of Torzhok were completely annihilated on September 25. At least 250,000 people became prisoners of the Ming army, and the number of Ming troops lost in the battle with the Russian strategic reserve was even less than 60,000.

As the Ming army became more and more elite and well-equipped, the officers and men had more combat experience. As the Russian army is getting weaker and weaker, the loss of many technical weapons and a large number of front-line combat personnel, coupled with the inability of the Russian army to follow-up, can no longer provide sufficient supplies and excellent soldiers for the front line. The gap between the two sides is widening.

The well-armed and well-trained Ming army has been able to play a very large exchange ratio against the Russian army, which has little training, not even rifles, and has begun to mix old men, children, and even women.

What is needed for the crowd tactics is people, a large base of the population. Compared with the Ming Dynasty, the population of the Russians is far from comparable. In this case, they dare to use crowd tactics, and there is no way out except to destroy themselves. (To be continued.) )