Chapter 449: Burning Moscow (19)

The vigorous development of the navy is the inherent traditional thinking of the Russians. Although Russia is a land power, www.biquge.info they have never given up their dream of the sea. It's like they can launch ten Russian-Turkish wars in succession in order to gain access to the Black Sea.

For hundreds of years, the Russians watched the Ming dominate the world with a powerful navy. The Russians have always dreamed that their navy would one day reach the heights of the Ming navy and plant the St. Andrew's flag all over the world.

This dream of the Russians completely ignoring their own national strength has brought them a huge loss of national strength. A large amount of military spending was spent on the gold-eating beast-like navy, but in the end, although a bunch of warships were built, these warships did not play a role in the war.

Compared with the strength of the Ming Navy, the Russian Black Sea Fleet could only hide in the fortress of Sevaskotopol and survive. And the huge warship group of the Baltic Fleet has been consuming fuel for a long time, and the Russian Navy has not played a positive role in the war at all. But the resources they consumed before the war were enough for the army to gain enormous strength.

Before the war began, the country's army was ruled by a bunch of old guys. These old people, who could not keep up with the rhythm of the times and still held on to the strategies and tactics of the last century, brought unimaginable hardships to the operations of the Russian army.

Although the Russian army already had a large number of armored units at the beginning of the war, most of these armored vehicles were backward products that could not compete with the Ming army at all. Moreover, at that time, the armored units of the Russian army were assigned to the infantry units as a covering force. Whether it is strategic or tactical, the Russian army has lagged behind the tide of the times. When the Ming army beat the Russians to the ground with their ferocious armored offensive, the Russians finally came back to their senses, and the times were different.

If it weren't for the Allied help after the outbreak of war, from design drawings to production raw materials. If it weren't for He Ziqiu's self-respecting reluctance to take the initiative before, the Russians might have been defeated. Everything that the Russian army is now enduring on the battlefield is the result of the lack of preparation during the preparation period before the war. At that time, Grand Duke Nicholas was one of the representatives of the conservative faction that led to all this.

However, compared with other stubborn old guys of the aristocratic royal family, Grand Duke Nicholas, as a royal family and has traveled in various countries, has a deeper understanding of the new era, and his vision and sense of responsibility for the country are stronger. After the heavy losses suffered by the Russian army in the early stages of the war, Grand Duke Nikolai quickly adapted to the new situation, broke away from the conservative camp, and began to massively promote and protect young reformist officers. At the same time, the reform of strategy, tactics and material production was carried out. Of course, this is just a remedy, and the sheepfold is almost completely broken. Standing outside the sheepfold was not a hungry wolf, but a fire-breathing dragon!

After several years of war, almost all the conservative old guys in the Russian army have left their posts, and Grand Duke Nikolai is the only former conservative senior general who still fights on the front line.

It's just that now it's finally time for him to retreat. Although they have tried to adapt, the new mechanization and three-dimensional warfare of this era have been out of the scope of these old people's thoughts. They have not been able to keep up with the pace of the war.

Zhukov did not care about the departure of Grand Duke Nikolai. Now the bad situation on the battlefield has already made him anxious, and he no longer has time to go to the mood of Grand Duke Nicholas.

Although Tivinov is still uncontactable, Zhukov has already realized it in his heart. With the strength of Tivinov's hands to counterattack the Ming army's armored army, the result is self-evident. Zhukov did not think of relying on Tivinov to block the offensive of the Ming army, he just hoped that Tivinov's troops would be able to buy time for the Russian strategic reserve moving south from St. Petersburg.

In fact, the Russian army had a total of two strategic reserves. One is in the southern part of Ukraine, where Russia's most important industrial, grain, resource and population areas are the huge strategic rear, and as long as Ukraine exists, then Russia has the capital to continue fighting. The other is in its capital, St. Petersburg. Zhukov was expecting troops from St. Petersburg south to support Moscow.

As an important reserve for the Russian army for strategic decisive battles, the Russian troops moving south from St. Petersburg have a powerful force including two tank armies, three infantry armies, as well as several infantry corps, mechanized corps, tank brigades, and artillery units.

Although the combat capability is not as good as that of the First Tank Army, which has been fighting against the Ming army on the front line before, these troops are also rare and powerful forces in the Russian army. The use of this force also means that Russia has reached an important point of life and death. Moscow, Russia's largest city and long-term capital, is of great political and diplomatic value in its own right. Once lost, it would be an absolutely catastrophic blow to Russia, which relied on foreign aid to survive.

Zhukov is now waiting for this force to come as soon as possible. As soon as this force arrives near Moscow, then Zhukov will put a big stone on his heart. With such a powerful force in the northern part of Moscow, the strength of the Ming army at this time was no longer able to tightly seal the huge area of Moscow in the face of a huge threat from the periphery.

This strategic reserve force actually does not need to enter the Moscow area to become a turtle in the urn, they only need to stare at the defense line of the Ming army on the periphery of Moscow, and they will greatly contain the strength of the Ming army.

And they could at any time choose the weak point of the Ming encirclement, open the road to Moscow, and have the initiative in their hands. If the Ming army wants to besiege Moscow with peace of mind, it must defeat the strategic reserves of the Russian army, but such a powerful force, and there is no logistical threat, where can it be eaten so easily?

Once the Ming army mobilized the main forces to attack the strategic reserves, Zhukov immediately dared to mobilize the garrison in Moscow to launch a counterattack and try to break the Ming army in an effort to defeat the Ming army. This was also the only tactic that Zhukov had in mind in a short period of time. However, before the arrival of the strategic reserves, the Russian army must hold on to the areas of Tver and Klin. And this will require Tivinov's counterattack to buy time.

It was not until after eight o'clock in the evening that Zhukov finally received a report from the front, which frightened Zhukov.

Although the counterattack launched by Tivinov was insufficient, these Russian officers and soldiers fought extremely resolutely. In the Pushkino area, the units of the 187,224th Infantry Division of the Russian army successfully stopped the offensive of the Ming forward troops and recaptured the Pushkino area at a heavy cost of casualties. These Russian troops repelled the attacks of the Ming army many times under the condition of serious shortage of various supplies, which greatly restrained the actions of the Ming army.

A number of battalion-based Russian armored units continued to launch small-scale counterattacks against the Ming army. Many Russian Panzer drivers simply don't care about everything and drive the direct throttle all the way until there is no fuel or is destroyed. The Russian army, including the 133rd Infantry Division and the 51st Tank Brigade, drove back the offensive of the Ming forward troops. The forward units of the Ming army were repulsed at a distance of about three to five kilometers.

This can be regarded as a small shock to Zhukov. Originally, he just wanted to let Tivinov's troops buy time, but he didn't expect that he would really repel the Ming army. When the news came, many people's first reaction was not to believe it. But that's the real thing.

In fact, the 11th Panzer Army of the Ming Army fought continuously after its sortie from the area south of Ryazan, and many of its troops were already very exhausted. After all, the Ming army is also human, and they also need proper rest, and being in a tense and intense battle state for a long time will lead to great pressure. Moreover, the 11th Panzer Army was invincible along the way, and the Russian defenders encountered on the road could not resist its advance regardless of whether they held out or retreated, which also led to the rapid rise of the arrogance of the Ming army.

During the afternoon battle, the forward units of the Ming army came into contact with the Russian army with the 22nd Panzer Division. The ministry had received news the night before that there would be a fierce counterattack by the Russian army that day, so their main forces had been building positions all morning to prepare for the Russian offensive.

But the entire 22nd Panzer Division waited until lunchtime without seeing the shadow of the Russian troops, and the commander of the 22nd Panzer Division thought that there would be no more Russian counteroffensive that day. He ordered the main forces to begin to rest for half a day, preparing to launch another offensive after dawn tomorrow. After all, the 22nd Panzer Division had been fighting continuously for many days, and it had reached the point where it was in urgent need of rest.

The commander of the 22nd Panzer Division, when he ordered the main force to rest, sent his powerful search force to advance towards the northern attack, maintaining close contact with the Russian army, and at the same time expanding his outer cordon. What no one expected was that just when the main force of the Ming army turned off the car and the people released their guns and began to rest. The Russian counterattack began when the Ming army had eaten enough and began to take a nap.

In the afternoon, the search force of the 22nd Panzer Division of the Ming Army, which had advanced to the Pushkino area, had advanced about five kilometers away. Their commander decided to build a defensive line in the village of Pushkino and then rest for a few hours, waiting for the main forces to catch up. And then the Russians came.

It was very coincidental that Tivinov's troops appeared, and at half past three in the afternoon, the 22nd Panzer Division of the Ming Army was at its most relaxed, waiting for a good time to finish eating. When the Russian armored forces and a large number of infantry appeared near Pushkino, the 22nd Panzer Division of the Ming Army, which had been raided, was forced to rush to the battle and ask for urgent support. (To be continued.) )