At this time, the garrison of the Russian army in the Vyazma area was mainly nearly 7,000 officers and soldiers of the 217th Infantry Division under the command of the 22nd Army of the Russian Army under the command of Major General Karaev, as well as some local militia and reserve units, with a total strength of about 20,000 people. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo

The main force of the 11th Armored Army of the Ming Army, after making a detour from the Vyazma area to the north, remained to be responsible for capturing the 311th Mechanized Infantry Division directly under the Group Army. The army command also strengthened the infantry division, including two tank battalions, one anti-aircraft battalion, one combat engineer battalion, and four independent battalions. Powerful forces including artillery battalions.

Although the strength of the Russian defenders was at an absolute disadvantage compared to the siege forces of the Ming army. But these Russian troops still put up a desperate resistance. Fierce street battles took place between the two sides in the city of Vyazma, inflicting heavy casualties and equipment losses on the Ming army, which was somewhat proud of its successive victories. forced the Ming army to brace and take it seriously.

By August 29, the 311th Mechanized Infantry Division of the Ming Army had finally taken the city of Vyazma. Most of the officers and men under the command of Major General Karaev, commander of the Russian garrison, were killed in battle, and few survived. However, they succeeded in holding back the Ming army for several days, greatly delaying the Ming army's combat schedule.

As a retaliation for the Russian army's insistence, the Ming siege troops retaliated with the most brutal artillery fire on the city of Vyazma after heavy losses. Assigned to the 4 divisions of the 311th Mechanized Infantry Division. The artillery battalion had forty-eight heavy howitzers of 155 mm caliber. This land-based weapon was so powerful that after repeated heavy bombardments, the entire city of Vyazma was in ruins after the battle. As for the exact number of Russian defenders and local residents buried under the rubble, it is impossible to count.

And the main forces of the 11th Panzer Army of the Ming Army, soon after passing through the city of Vyazma, reached the Rzhev area. At the same time, at this moment, the Sixth Panzer Army in the east has also broken through the layers of interception of the Russian army, and is rapidly approaching Klin, an important train transit station north of Moscow.

According to the order of the General Staff of the Ming Army, the meeting place of these two powerful armored units was to be the city of Tver, about 150 kilometers north of Moscow. Once the Ming army achieves its operational objectives, the millions of Russian troops in the area around Moscow will be trapped in a huge encirclement.

The situation is already terrible for the Russians. Zhukov did not have a strong force in his hands to be able to counterattack the armored forces of the Ming army, thereby containing the powerful offensive of the Ming army. The infantry, lacking the support of heavy weapons, simply could not fight against the thousands of Ming armored vehicles in the field. Flesh and blood cannot compete with the torrent of armor.

When the Ming army's armored torrent was overwhelming, the Russian infantry had only rifles and machine guns and cocktail bottles in their hands. These weapons are simply not capable of fighting tanks and armored vehicles with strong armored defenses. The small number of heavy weapons equipped by the Russian army did not even have much room to play under the heavy fire of the Ming army and the fierce attacks of army bombers, and they were often quickly destroyed not long after they opened fire. It was a one-sided and oppressive battle.

The Daming Army Aviation firmly holds air supremacy on the battlefield. The main forces of the Allied air forces were at this time in the Volga and the Caucasus to provide cover for ground forces. The main force of operations in the area near Moscow is the Russian Air Force. Although the number of fighters of the Russian Air Force is quite large, their quality cannot be compared with the Ming Army Aviation at all.

As the war deepened, large areas of the country were occupied, and important cities were constantly bombed by the Ming army, which directly led to the collapse of Russia's economy. Now that the whole of Russia has been subjected to a strict rationing system, the only reason why they have been able to hold out until now is that the allies have used Russia as a dam to resist the torrent of the Ming army, and they have constantly transfused blood for Russia. If it weren't for the support of other countries, Russia would have been unable to hold out a long time ago.

For Russia, where ordinary citizens eat black bread mixed with sawdust as their staple food every day, except for the little industrial foundation before the war, which is far away from the battlefield, the rest of the industry has long been reduced to copper and iron in the fierce bombardment of the Ming army, and it is very difficult to even recover it. In this case, the Russians would not be able to build any decent aircraft.

Because of the lack of various metals and aviation aluminum, and the pace of losses at the front line was simply too fast. The Russians had to massively use wood as the main building material for aircraft. The engines shipped from the United States and Germany were equipped with a wooden fuselage that looked like a toy, and there was not even a grinding car, so the pilots were directly driven to the sky to fight. This kind of purely disposable consumables could not be the opponent of Daming Army Aviation in any case. Their biggest role is to increase the record of the ace pilots of the Ming Dynasty.

Therefore, when the fierce battle near Moscow was in full swing, the sky had already been firmly grasped by the Ming Army Aviation. The transport aircraft unit of the Daming Army Airlines even dared to directly land a large number of transport airships among the front-line troops at night, and after unloading the goods, Shi Shiran flew away. This is an unspeakable humiliation for the Russian air defense.

From the beginning of Zhang Cheng's attack on Moscow, it was only a month or two, and Zhukov's hair was already gray, and he didn't know how long he hadn't rested. Especially after the start of the Ming army's siege of Moscow, Zhukov, who spent only hours in the war room every day, felt that his spirit was passing rapidly.

In order to defend Tver, the last land passage between Moscow and the rest of Russia, a desperate Zhukov kept urging the strategic reserves to speed up their march with reinforcements from St. Petersburg. On the one hand, the 22nd, 24th, and 48th Infantry Armies, four tank brigades, and several battalion-level armored units were drawn from the garrison in Moscow to form a new 27th Composite Army, and launched a counterattack against the forward troops of the Ming Army's 11th Armored Army.

The reason why the largest armored units are tank brigades is nothing more than tank brigades, and the main force of armored forces is at the battalion level. The main reason is that these troops are basically the remnants of armored troops that were disabled by the Ming army in the previous battles.

Since the launch of this campaign, under the direct supervision of Zhang Cheng, the progress of the campaign has been too fast, and Russia has retreated thousands of miles and has been defeated repeatedly. Under the strong pressure of the Ming army, the Russians simply did not have time to reorganize the troops under their command. Being able to maintain the size of the battalion was already Zhukov's best effort.

The new 27th Composite Army and the Tver Operational Group stationed in Tver collided head-on with the forward units of the Ming 11th Panzer Army in the Mikulino area, southwest of Tver.

In fact, at this time, because of the continuous defeat and continuous retreat, the organization of the various units of the Russian army has long been chaotic. Coupled with the fact that the Russian army has many numbers, but lacks communication equipment, and the huge panic caused by the high-speed assault of the Ming army, many Russian troops do not know where they should go, where they should fight, and where they should receive supplies and replenishment. Even many of the troops did not know where their troops were and who they were under command after they were defeated and retreated.

At this very moment, in this extremely unfavorable situation, there are already signs of a large-scale rout. Everywhere there are panicked rumors and soldiers who are constantly deserting. The gendarmes in white steel helmets were killing people every day, not only killing deserters, but also local civilians who dared to snatch military supplies with red eyes and hungry eyes were also executed in large numbers by the gendarmerie troops. The roadside was littered with uncollected corpses.

In this kind of chaotic situation where soldiers cannot find generals, they will not be able to find soldiers. Judging by the training and quality of the Russian army, they are simply not capable of organizing a combat operation on the scale of an army group in a short period of time. As a matter of fact, many Russian officers and soldiers were unable to receive any orders and blindly and chaotically followed the large troops. Not only did it make it extremely difficult to mobilize troops and fight operations, but it also dealt an extremely serious blow to the morale of the troops.

Zhukov's plan was good. When the 6th Panzer Army of the Ming Army had not yet reached the vicinity of Klin, it gathered the powerful forces at hand and launched a counterattack against the 11th Panzer Army, which was already rapidly advancing, so as to contain the encirclement of the two Ming armored armies and gain precious time.

By this time the Russian strategic reserves, which had moved south from St. Petersburg in the north, had already passed Novgorod, and in a few days at most they would be able to reach Torzhok. In this case, as long as it can maintain a supply route with the outside world, it may be possible for Moscow to hold out until the onset of winter.

After all, Moscow is a huge city. There are too many buildings in the city, and the number of defenders is very large. As long as they can get sufficient supplies, it will inevitably bring huge trouble to the Ming army's attack operations. It's a pity that the Russian army at this time has gradually lost control over the troops.

When the time came to the morning of September 2, only the 48th Army, which was relatively complete of the three infantry corps of the 27th Composite Army of the Russian Army, which was scheduled to launch a counterattack, came to the starting position. The other two infantry corps were nowhere to be found. Among them, the 22nd Infantry Corps confirmed that it was still wandering in the Kling area more than 30 kilometers away. And the 24th Infantry Corps simply couldn't get in touch.

As for the armored units of battalions, regiments and brigades, less than a fifth of the predetermined number came to the starting position. The vast majority of the troops were completely nowhere to be seen. Lieutenant General Tivinov, the commander of the 27th Composite Army of the Russian Army, who was responsible for directing the counterattack, scolded angrily, but there was nothing he could do.

Radio communications on the battlefield have been greatly disrupted, and ground alliances are very time-consuming and labor-intensive. It has now become a difficult thing for the Russians to even connect with each other. (To be continued.) )