Achar, on the Irtysh River

As soon as the sixteenth improvised bridge was built, the commander of the engineer regiment, Qingqiu, wiped his sweat and instructed the soldiers to carry out a final inspection of the bridge, and then signaled to the infantry who were waiting to cross the bridge to pass slowly.

Although the bridge is simple, it is sturdy. With an arch bridge structure, the steel structure is modular, and it only needs to be assembled in the order of the drawings to make it a solid bridge, which is enough to pass the armored forces at full capacity. The greatest difficulty in the construction of the whole bridge is on the load-bearing surface on both sides of the river, and the rest is just to twist the screws. In four days, two and a half engineering regiments worked day and night, and a total of sixteen bridges were built, plus the two bridges that Achar already had, and these eighteen bridges were constantly passing through the army day and night. The 170,000 troops of Yuan Shoushan's cluster have now basically crossed the river, and the remaining logistics baggage will also pass one by one.

When the truck full of fuel drums slowly passed over the bridge, Qingqiu breathed a sigh of relief: it was finally over. The five days of sleepless work of the engineer unit could finally come to an end. Qingqiu, who was relaxed, lay on the river, didn't care about the sun, and snored and fell asleep.

Since ancient times, the most dangerous time is when a large army crosses the river, once the enemy army suddenly arrives, the open river can easily cut the army in two, and the front and rear cannot echo. Especially when dealing with the Russian army, which has a total strength of as many as 400,000 troops, once the Russian army divides half of its troops to attack here, the army will be in danger. However, Liang Huadian's corps gave Alekseev enough pressure on the front, and the skyrocketing artillery fire was like a prelude to the attack, so that Alekseev did not dare to be distracted, and the first division remaining in Achar had made sufficient preparations, so that the safety of the army crossing the river was greatly improved. However, it is also necessary to take precautions, not to mention that the various departments crossing the river need to regroup and arrange their stations. Those who cross the river first need to build fortifications, and those who cross the river later need to advance in an orderly manner. The 170,000 army itself is a unit with a huge workload.

In order to arrange for the 170,000 troops to cross the river in an orderly manner, Yuan Shoushan had already made Yuan Shoushan restless, but now he couldn't care about it. He was roaring at the map: "What do you mean to completely annihilate the Russian army in Omsk?" Are the staff officers of the General Staff Headquarters full of in their heads? ”

As Yuan Shoushan, who was independently in charge of the Northeast Theater, of course, his view of the problem will not be limited to the military level. He is well aware of the impact of the total annihilation of 400,000 Russian troops in Omsk on the international situation. In this way, China's military strength in both land, sea and air forces is enough to make the world's major powers deal with it carefully, and this will have an incomparably huge influence on China's efforts to gain international status and political interests after the war, because after this war, no country dares to declare war on China alone. Naturally, China could take advantage of the victory to strengthen the Chinese Empire's control over Asia, thereby restoring China's ancient sphere of influence.

But the problem is that even if the Russian army suffers heavy losses from air strikes and shelling, there will still be at least 300,000 people. The General Staff Headquarters asked him to use 170,000 men to surround 300,000 enemy troops. Do you want to be wiped out? Even if it's 300,000 pigs, he can't catch them all.

"With the armored division as the leader, concentrate on attacking the depth of the Russian army, cutting off and annihilating the Russian army. At the same time, taking advantage of the inability of the armored division to effectively restrain the attack, causing the Russian army to disperse, and then trailing and covering the killing. Siege Sanque is the earliest strategy set, and the battle situation at this time is also the best choice. If the General Staff Headquarters suddenly changed its strategy before the war without any explanation, has there been a change in the situation? Chief of Staff Zhang Zuolin was worried.

"There have been changes, of course there have been changes!" Yuan Shoushan was furious: "It's not Liang Huadian's house, the report sent back declares that the morale of the Russian army is low. In addition, there are photos as evidence, and the General Staff Headquarters naturally believes that the Russian army has no intention of fighting, and as long as the army surrounds the Russian army, it will raise its hands and surrender. It's just that a million Russian troops are now surrounding us, at least we have to fight. What's more, we are doing more with less. really forced the other party to be anxious, and people can always highlight one when they concentrate their efforts. MD, no matter how bad the Russian army is, it is still an army, it is an army!! ”

"In fact, the General Staff Headquarters is not entirely a matter of course. The Russian army was so pressed and beaten by us, and it didn't think that it would take the initiative to attack once. Its will to fight is indeed debatable. Moreover, it is really possible to completely annihilate the Russian army, which is also extremely beneficial to our country. It's just that our army is short of troops, and there is not enough time to reformulate the plan now. ”

"Enough. How not enough. Aren't the three cavalry divisions reserved for the main force of pursuit? Now send them up and sweep back and forth on the periphery of Omsk with their mobility. The other troops acted as planned—"

"Driving-" The whip is waved, and ten thousand horses are galloping. The four mountain flags are like sunny clouds, and the hooves of ten thousand horses are like showers. The strong man has the courage to dry the eagle, and the general shoots the tiger and the old side talent.

On the endless grassland, thousands of horses galloped, like a wind sweeping in front of you, and like colorful clouds floating to the sky. The three cavalry divisions divided into three routes, and slammed into the rear of Omsk with great fanfare, slaughtering villages along the way, and destroying towns, and the Mongol cavalry went all the way west to kill like their ancestors dragged mines. At the same time, the long-dormant Chinese special forces went deep into cities and villages, including Ufa and Yekarina Fort, in small groups, to carry out large-scale sabotage of the command, transportation, and warehouses of the Russian army.

The Chinese army has actually penetrated deep into the Russian hinterland like Ufa and carried out indiscriminate destruction of all military units?! This was intolerable to Nicholas II. In fact, without the order of Nicholas II, Alekseev already regretted not launching a counteroffensive after learning about the atrocities of the Chinese cavalry, so he immediately sent his most elite Cossack cavalry out.

The most important ability of the cavalry is mobility, interspersed with divisions, sabotage and assault are the jobs that cavalry should do. Therefore, in positional warfare, especially defensive positional warfare, cavalry will not play a role at all. Therefore, Alekseev sent all the cavalry to the rear early, and it happened to escape the Chinese air raids and artillery bombardment. But the accumulation of all kinds of materials in Omsk is a heavy loss, and now when it is urgently mobilizing all kinds of materials from the rear to replenish the front, the appearance of the Chinese cavalry has seriously threatened the supply line of the Russian army in Omsk, everything is cut off by the Chinese, and the Russian army does not even have to eat. So Alekseev sent all four cavalry divisions under his command.

In the barren steppes of Western Siberia, the cavalry of the two countries ran back and forth like hide-and-seek. The Chinese cavalry had no specific target, all the people and vehicles that walked around the wasteland. All within their attack range. Their mission is to sweep, and their combat philosophy is to feed the war with war. When they came across a small village, they rushed in and burned them. At the same time, replenish the necessary supplies, and bypass large and well-prepared towns. Annihilate a small army when encountered. When you encounter a hard idea, run. Without a specific goal, there is no tactic to speak of, and the timing and direction of the attack are based on the commander's momentary interest. Maybe the commander will give the order to attack at dawn today, or maybe the commander wants to sleep and wait until he has lunch before attacking. It may be sprinkled out as a company today, or tomorrow it will be a collective attack by the whole division towards a single target.

The randomness of the actions of the Chinese cavalry caused great trouble to the commander of the Russian Cossack cavalry, Mikhailovich. He and Ben could not find the location of the Chinese cavalry from the countless attacks on the information, so they could not carry out the war of annihilation. He also scattered his army in search of the main Chinese cavalry, but in every skirmish, the Chinese cavalry was always quick to bring in reinforcements. The Cossack cavalry, which still had the advantage, was immediately crushed by the Chinese cavalry rushing out from all directions. If a large force encounters a Chinese cavalry, they immediately turn around and flee. I finally caught a few Chinese cavalry detachments, but I couldn't ask anything.

The flexible Chinese cavalry shattered Mikhailovich's attempt to fight a decisive battle as soon as possible, and in order to ensure the safety of logistics and supplies, it was necessary to find ways to reduce the range of activities of the Chinese cavalry. The scattered army was easily overwhelmed by the nimble Chinese cavalry, which suffered heavy losses. Strengthening the army with a single movement will widen the gap between the various units and give the Chinese an opportunity to take advantage of. Finding the position of the main force of the Chinese cavalry became a problem for Mikhailovich, and three days later, Mikhailovich sent a division to protect the transportation of supplies. The other troops simply gathered up, attacked at high speed on the steppe with divisions as units, and ate the Chinese cavalry squads one by one with absolute superiority in strength, and Mikhailovich did not believe that the Chinese still dared to divide their troops. As long as the Chinese do not divide their troops. There is always a chance for a decisive battle.

Five days, five days in which the Chinese cavalry units suffered heavy losses. In total, nearly 3,000 people were lost, and several companies could not be contacted. Although no less than 4,000 casualties were inflicted on the Russians, the commander of the Chinese cavalry corps, Xiao Er, could not sit still. Such a one-to-one exchange was not his purpose.

Although the Russian cavalry had four divisions, one division had been sent to protect the convoys. The strength of both sides was three divisions. Since the Russians want a decisive battle, let's fight. He immediately sent a report to Yuan Shoushan requesting a decisive battle, and Yuan Shoushan quickly called back to agree. Because at this moment, Yuan Shoushan's corps was attacking the outer city of Omsk, Troitskoye, and was met with stubborn resistance from the Russian army, and progress was slow. But Omsk is in front of him, and Yuan Shoushan believes that as long as the armored division can quickly attack Omsk, then being able to annihilate the Russian cavalry at this time will also be of great benefit to the future strategy.

But for the sake of safety, Yuan Shoushan planned to send an armored company to support the cavalry, and he believed that the appearance of armored troops could defeat the Russian army faster and minimize our casualties. For the commander-in-chief's kindness, Xiao'er only refused.

As a descendant of Genghis Khan, he always wanted to restore the glory of his ancestors. He also looked forward to one day being able to cross the desert like his ancestors. However, those who have systematically studied military theories only know that armored units have heavy defensive power and powerful attack power, as well as strong mobility. The cavalry will gradually change from the absolute main force of the cold weapon era in the past to the escort force of the armored forces. In fact, the cavalry has become the escort of the armored forces, and this time it is not covering the armored division all the way? The large-scale formation of armored troops in the imperial court has become an irresistible trend, and the armored forces will definitely replace the cavalry on the battlefield in the future. The emergence of the armored forces means the decline of the cavalry, which may be the last confrontation between the cavalry as an independent unit. A total of more than 60,000 cavalry on both sides fought in the grassland, which was also an unprecedented large-scale battle of cavalry. He was lucky enough to command one of the largest engagements in cavalry history. It is not lucky that the cavalry will be completely reduced to an auxiliary branch after this battle. But he swore that even if the cavalry would wither away like fireworks, it would burst out with the brightest light at this last moment. He believes that this light will forever be recorded in history. Therefore, he refused the reinforcement of the armored troops, because this was a war that only belonged to cavalry.

He ordered all the troops to move closer to him, and at the same time sent small detachments to guide Russia to his preset battlefield. The commanders at all levels of the unit were all in high spirits after receiving the order, and this was a war that will be remembered by the whole world.

The change in the Chinese cavalry caused Mikhailovich to be alarmed. This does not meet the strategic needs of the Chinese. But for him, this may be the only chance to completely annihilate the Chinese cavalry. So he chose to fight. Because he also had no choice.

He gathered his troops and slowly retreated, while Mikhailovich gathered his troops and advanced quickly. Finally on the evening of June 14th. On the northern shore of Lake Ebeit caught up with the main Chinese cavalry. At sunset, tens of thousands of troops separated by more than ten miles dismounted to make fires, and Mikhailovich had a tacit understanding that the date of the decisive battle was chosen the next day.

The cool morning breeze blows across the grassland, and the grass that is still sticking to the dew sways with the wind, and the whole earth is surging like waves. The Chinese and Russian cavalry on the north shore of Lake Ebeit had been fully armed, silent, and the Chinese and Russian cavalry on horseback both gave up their rifles and all held swords, because the pride of the cavalry made them more willing to settle the war between the cavalry with sabers. The grassland is like a forest with a saber rising, only the cold light flashing on the blade makes the whole grassland look particularly gloomy. All the horses are together. But the horses seemed to feel the tension of the battle, and the horses' hooves were also restless and gently digging the grass under their feet. Every soldier on both sides knows that today, this steppe will be covered with blood.

When the sun rises lazily from the east of the grassland, it selflessly sprinkles its warm rays onto the earth. When the sun slipped through the distance, when the sun shone on the two armies, no one knew whose first shout detonated the earth-shattering sound of fighting. The cavalry on both sides urged their mounts at the same time, and rushed towards each other with their sabers held high. It's getting faster and faster. Faster and faster.

The Mongol cavalry columns were placed in extremely wide formations, and the troops were arranged in many roughly parallel columns, advancing in a wide line. This is a tactic passed down from the time of Genghis Khan, when the forces of the opposing sides are getting closer and closer. After careful aiming, shoot javelins and poisoned arrows with devastating power at the enemy. Then the heavy cavalry charged, and the light cavalry spread out to the flanks and around the enemy's flanks and backs. After completing the encirclement of the enemy. The various units immediately launched attacks from all directions, causing great chaos in the enemy's positions. In the end, the enemy was completely defeated. This encirclement was a common method of warfare for the Mongol army, and it was also a tactic used by the Mongol cavalry to be invincible across Europe and Asia.

But not right now. The strength of both sides is roughly equal and they are all cavalry, and the most important thing is that no one will send all 60,000 cavalry to the battlefield at once. But both sides sent a division for the first round of confrontations, there were no tactics, only direction, attacking and attacking, this was a contest of courage, this was a hard-fought encounter. Twenty thousand horses were carrying their own athletes.

The horses had already run to the limit of speed under constant urging, and the Cossack cavalry rushed towards them with shouts and sabers. The Mongol cavalry, however, handed his saber to his left hand, took out his javelin from behind his backhand, and threw it with all his might.

The overwhelming javelins were fired head-on, and the Cossack cavalry fell on the necks of their horses, and the cavalry attacking at high speed could not turn or slow down, because there were comrades in front of and on the left and right, and they could only rush forward.

"Puff puff puff ......" a large number of Cossack cavalry or men or horses fell by guns, but the following cavalry horses did not slow down and stepped over them, leaving a ground full of blood and mud. Then the Mongol cavalry took out a spear from behind his back and held it in his hand......

Watching the battle from afar, Mikhailovich pointed at the Chinese cavalry in annoyance, but he couldn't say a word in a hurry. The Cossack cavalry, which did not prepare javelins, had already suffered for a while, and when the Mongols again took out their spears, the Cossack cavalry naturally reacted by falling down again. This time, however, the Mongol cavalry took out not javelins for throwing, but specially made saber extensions.

Who said that cavalry can only use the same sabre to cut each other, the truth of the soldier's sophistry has been passed down in China for thousands of years. He only watched with a sinister smile as his cavalry put his saber on the extension pole and raised it high.

The moment when the Chinese cavalry raised their sabers was the moment when the two armies collided head-on. The speed of the horses and the fierce slashing of the cavalry caused the Cossack cavalry to fall to the ground as soon as they came into contact with them, because they could only watch as the Chinese cavalry slashed their sabers at them, and their sabers could not reach the enemy.

The horses were staggered, and the cavalry on both sides were mixed. The sounds of fighting, shouting, and the roar of Naruto Mano overwhelmed everything else. The Chinese cavalry, which had the advantage of weapons, swung long knives and slashed in all directions, and the Cossack cavalry with short sabers also fought back.

The cold light of the blade flashed, and a stream of bright red blood rose into the sky...... An inch long is an inch strong. The 20,000 cavalry fought against each other, but it was only half an hour. The Cossack cavalry was completely inferior.

Take advantage of your illness to kill you. In the same way, I want you to die while you are weak. Without waiting for the Russian army to react. The Chinese cavalry was mobilized, and the 2nd Chinese Cavalry Division set up an offensive formation. However, the 2nd Cavalry Division had already put its saber on the extension pole in advance and raised it high.

"Order the 2nd Cavalry Division to prepare—" Mikhailovich calmly gave the order, allowing his 2nd Cavalry Division to also set up an offensive formation. Mikhailovich knew very well that China was going to attack again in order to completely defeat the Russian army on the front line at one time, which of course could not allow China to succeed. As soon as the Chinese launch, his second cavalry division will also be thrown into battle. Although the Chinese had an advantage in weapons, the Cossack cavalry's combat skills were certainly better than the Chinese cavalry. The first encounter was lost only because of carelessness, but as long as they persisted, the Cossack cavalry would definitely be able to achieve the final victory. In this regard, Mikhailovich had full confidence in his cavalry. But what he didn't expect was that the Chinese Second Cavalry Division on the opposite side was delayed.

As the minutes ticked by, neither the second wave of the attack nor the second wave of the attack was launched. The sound of fighting on the battlefield between the two armies gradually lowered, because there were fewer and fewer soldiers who could still sit on horseback and fight. The place where 20,000 people once fought has now been halved, and most of the remaining sergeants are still Chinese cavalry. Mihajlovich couldn't sit still, but he reacted faster. The 2nd Chinese Cavalry Division was the first to rush to the battlefield.

"Sortie. The 2nd Cavalry Division quickly attacked. Mikhailovich gave the order, and the 3rd Chinese Cavalry Division on the opposite side followed suit and also charged.

The Chinese must not be allowed to have a military advantage in battle. Mikhailovich's idea was right, and he immediately gave the order for the whole army to attack, but only one cavalry regiment was left with him as the last reserve. Because the Chinese on the opposite side also left about a regiment of reserves. It's just that the order of the Chinese cavalry is well prepared and the action is smooth. But the Russian army was improvised, so when the third attack wave followed the second wave of sorties. There was a little confusion in the articulation. It's small, so small that no one notices the problem.

How big of a battlefield does it take for 60,000 cavalry to fight? Nobody knows. As far as the eye could see, horses were running and swords were facing each other. Blood stained every piece of grass, and every time the horse's hooves rose and fell, it splashed bright red droplets......

Both sides have invested too many troops. Maybe you've just hacked down an enemy in front of you, only to be attacked by an enemy behind you. All the personnel were intertwined and fought each other, and it was difficult to distinguish the winner for a while. The sun slipped overhead, and the battlefield was still scorching.

When the Mongol cavalry swept through Europe and Asia, the tactics used were frontal attacks and flank outflanking, and Mikhailovich, who had been in battle for a long time, naturally knew this. But it was a flat field, and there wasn't even a small hill as far as the eye could see. So there is no need to worry about the possibility of ambushes, and the most important thing to worry about is the Chinese cavalry that may come around from both sides of the battlefield, so Mikhailovich put all his attention on the battlefield. Anyway, there are other guards who will pay attention to the movement around them. It's just that he forgot that this battlefield was chosen by Chinese......

Farther north, two cavalry regiments were approaching the battlefield at medium speed. They wore camouflaged turf and quietly rushed towards the back of the Russian army. To be honest, such camouflage can do very little in the endless grassland, but it is good if it can shorten the attack distance by even an inch. In fact, these units were discovered by the Russians shortly after they came into view, but they were not visible from a distance. As if the heat rising under the scorching sun distorted the light in the distance, the Russians did not pay enough attention. Soon their attention was drawn back to the direction of the battlefield.

"Kill-" A Chinese cavalry killed the Russian army and rushed towards the Russian army that was sweeping the formation.

In the center of the fierce battlefield, a relatively intact company has always been maintained. Their purpose was to wait for the order to break through the Russian positions and attract the attention of the Russian reserves. Just when the Russian army discovered the shadow shaking in the distance, the ambush unit received the report that the telegram had been discovered, so he immediately ordered the company to attack. This reinforced company of more than 300 men fought hard, and when it broke through the enemy formation, only 100 men remained.

A mere hundred people is a small amount for a reserve team of nearly 3,000 people, so Mikhailovich didn't care, and the commander of the reserve only sent two companies to block it. It's just that these more than 100 Chinese cavalrymen turned their horses' heads and wanted to go around from the side, and they didn't fight hard against the Russian army. But does it work? The commander of the Russian reserve smiled disdainfully.

"Cavalry, cavalry. It's Chinese cavalry-" Someone finally discovered that the light and shadow that shook in the distance turned out to be Chinese cavalry.

"Remove your camouflage and charge at full speed—" The ambushed Chinese cavalry finally charged with all their might, and by this time they were still at least five miles from the main battlefield.

Two regiments, at least two regiments of troops! Mikhailovich was nervous, and his first instinct was to draw troops from the battlefield where the battle was raging.

"They fled-" As the Russian troops moved back to defense, the fierce battlefield sounded in Russian, which was the Russian language that every Chinese cavalry had learned before the war.

It is true that the Russian troops withdrew from the battlefield, but their purpose was to stop the Chinese cavalry that was sneaking up. But where did the Russian troops in the fierce battle figure it out, all they saw was other troops running towards the rear.

Could it really be that someone is running away? As soon as the soldiers on the battlefield were distracted, they had no intention of fighting, and this brought about a fiercer attack by the Chinese, and for a time the Russian army fell behind. And then there really were deserters......

"Go back, get back to your position." The Russian army overseers wanted to kill people as a deterrent, but he couldn't tell whether these soldiers who broke away from the military formation were deserters or soldiers who were ordered to return to defense.

There was confusion in the rear of the Russian army, and then it spread forward, and when the Russian army at the front began to retreat, the Russian army began to completely disorganized.

"Follow me—" Er took the lead and rushed out with his saber in his hand. (To be continued.) )