To the north of Manchuria, in the Soviet barracks near the Great Uri Station in the Soviet Union, a Russian-style three-story building stands out in the vast barracks, with its square structure and pointed iron roof with a clear Russian architectural style. The Transbaikal Cluster Command of the Soviet Army was located here.

In a large office on the second floor, the commander of the Transbaikal cluster, General Vostretsov, was leaning back in his leather chair, gazing at the red flames in the fireplace. The blazing flame passed through the spacious furnace mouth, constantly spitting boiling heat into the room, making this office of more than 50 square meters warm.

Contrary to the temperature in the office, General Vostremov's heart was as dry and cold as the cold wind outside the window, making him feel as if the blood in his whole body had coagulated.

It took a long time for Vostrezov to sit up straight and look at the letterhead he had been holding in his hand. It was a snow-white and delicate printed strip of letterhead, with not much text on it, occupying only half of the stationery, but it was this short letter that made General Vostremov's mood extremely bad.

General Vostrezov stood up, slowly walked to the fireplace, and gently threw the letterhead in his hand into the mouth of the stove, and the snow-white paper almost instantly rose up into a cloud of flames and turned into gray-black ashes, which were quickly sucked into the flue by the powerful suction force and disappeared. General Vostretsov exhaled softly, slowly sat back in his chair, and continued to think about his thoughts.

General Vostrezov was born into the Russian aristocracy, and he spent 27 years in the Russian army during the tsarist period and in the current Soviet army. After graduating from the Army Non-commissioned Officer School in St. Petersburg, he joined the Tsarist Russian army, where he was a lieutenant colonel before the October Revolution.

Although he has the care of his family forces, his promotion is also based on his military exploits. After the October Revolution, he was also one of the first officers to join the tsarist army of the Soviet political axe, and in the ensuing civil war, he fought against the White Army Denikin, Kolchak and other units, and made many military exploits.

General Vostretsov considered himself worthy of the honor of his rank and the highest authority that gave him this position. However, since he saw the letter, he had been disheartened, and he had now understood that no matter how many feats he had made, a man like him who had come from an old officer in Tsarist Russia would never be absolutely trusted in the Soviet army.

The letter he had just destroyed, which had been secretly brought to him by one of his subordinates who had followed him during the civil war, told him that 'it had been reported that his nephew, who had been a subordinate of Denikin, was still engaged in anti-Soviet activities under the protection of the British'. However, he and his nephews, including his eldest brother, who had fled the country, had long since severed contact, and he had made these issues clear eight years ago. Now there are people who have brought up the old matter again, and even the chilling "Cheka", that is, the "State Political Security Bureau", has also intervened in this matter.

General Vostretsov knew that, regardless of the final outcome of the investigation, his military career was over, perhaps after this border war.

However, what General Vostretsov did not understand was that there were not a few experienced old officers like him who were in the tsarist period and now held middle and high-level positions in the Soviet army, and if they were all allowed to leave the army, would the combat effectiveness of the Soviet army be effectively guaranteed?

Now, however, it seems that the highest authorities are not very worried about this, because he Vostremov was not the first to be purged, and it seems that he will not be the last. Before that, there were already some old officers like him and others who were forced to leave the army, and some were even thrown into prison.

General Vostretsov believed that the officers who had grown up from the workers and peasants after the October Revolution alone could not support a strong Soviet army. Now in the Soviet Army, it is thanks to a large number of old officers like him that it can be effectively operated, that is, the commander of the Far Eastern Special Army, Blyukher, who now has great prestige in the Soviet Army, was also a corporal in the old tsarist army.

General Vostretsov shook his head, trying not to think about the thing that had made him renovate, and now the most important thing was to win the border war, and if that would have the support of Blyucher, who greatly appreciated him, it would also allow him to leave the troops with dignity.

The battle plan for the Manchurian Campaign was drawn up by General Vostrezov, and the initial plan was to attack Manchuria at the same time, bypass Manchuria and Zhalainur with the main force, penetrate directly into Hailar, encircle and annihilate Hailar's Northeast Army, block the retreat of the Northeast Army in Manchuria and Zalainuoer, and then attack the Northeast Army encircling these two places on two fronts, so as to solve the war on the Western Front in one fell swoop.

His plan was strongly supported by Blyukhel and submitted to the highest authorities in Moscow for approval. However, what made him extremely angry was that the senior officials in Moscow, who could only sit and talk about the map, did not agree with his plan, thinking that his plan was too risky, interspersed with too much depth, and surrounded the Northeast Army too much at one time, fearing that he would not be able to quickly eat the Northeast Army here. After reporting to Stalin, he only agreed to allow him to besiege Manchuria by Zhalainor.

Such a shallow and deep encirclement could certainly quickly annihilate the main force of the Northeast Army on the front line in Manchuria, but Hailar's Northeast Army was still intact. If Zhang Xueliang, a warlord, does not agree to the conditions of the Soviet side to restore the original appearance of the Middle East Road, and continues to confront the Soviet army, he can rely on Hailar to carry out another round of resistance. As it continues to penetrate deeper into the interior of China's border provinces, the Northeast Army will have more and more troops, and it will be more and more difficult to win, and it will even have to continue to increase troops to the Far East.

However, it will take time to increase the number of troops in Manchuria, and the time to resolve this border war will be necessary to prolong. However, a border dispute that dragged on for too long was obviously extremely detrimental to the Soviet army.

Now, although the supreme authorities have abandoned the policy of exporting revolution on a large scale, they have decided instead to build socialism in one country, that is, to concentrate more on domestic construction. However, although the Western powers are now somewhat divided, on the whole, they are still hostile to the Soviet power. Moreover, the current weak industrial base in the country, coupled with the forced implementation of the collective farm system in the countryside, has almost collapsed agricultural production, resulting in a great famine this year, and even people in Ukraine, known as the breadbasket of the Soviet Union, starved to death.

What is even more ridiculous is that such a small-scale border war, and the opponent is still a local warlord of a weak country that was slaughtered by Tsarist Russia 20 years ago, and it is necessary to donate food and weapons from the domestic people to fight. As far as he knew, the Central Council of the All-Union Trade Union had already handed over to the Special Far Eastern Army 30 tanks produced at the expense of the trade unions; Mass organizations in Omsk, Leningrad and other places donated 300 fighter jets; Farmers who endured hunger donated tens of thousands of poods of grain, potatoes, tons of meat and other foodstuffs. God knows if these farmers were voluntary.

That's it, they didn't get all the 300 fighters in the Far Eastern Special Army, and as far as he knew, more than 200 were lost. However, these planes will not disappear out of thin air, they must have been given to the Soviet troops on the European side, which also lacked weapons, and Moscow obviously paid more attention to the defense of the European side.

All this determined that the Soviet Union, although it was a small war, could not afford to drag it out, and it had to be resolved quickly. If Zhang Xueliang, a warlord, was frightened by the First Battle of Manchuria, then it would be good to say that the Soviet Union could accept negotiations and take back the "Middle Road" to end the border war; But what if this warlord continues to fight? In his opinion, this battle must make Zhang Xueliang feel painful to the heart and lungs, and he will agree to the conditions of the Soviet side. In one fell swoop, it was the best choice to gather and annihilate all the forces on the western front, including Hailar's Northeast Army.

General Vostretsov did not care much about how many planes were missing, and he believed that with the existing armament of his Transbaikal cluster, it would not be very difficult to defeat a local warlord who could only be counted as a third-rate country in today's world.

It was only the information he got today that made him a little worried. The first is that information came from Blyukhel in Khabarovsk that a very warlike warlord army stationed in Hebei, China, had set out for the northeast in late August, and early September at the latest. The reason why they got the news was because they unexpectedly did not take the train to the northeast via Shanhaiguan, in which case not only their own intelligence officers would find out, but they would also inform them.

What is amazing is that they chose to travel thousands of miles on foot, which is extremely stupid, and in the eyes of General Vostretsov, it is likely that this warlord is not willing to go to Manchuria to be cannon fodder for Zhang Xueliang, and he is stalling for time. Even if they set off in late August, they would not have been able to go to Manchuria for more than three months, which means that they have not yet arrived here.

However, Blyukher's intelligence also said, 'Zhang Xueliang began to deliver a large number of weapons, ammunition, and military supplies to the Bahrain Left Banner in Inner Mongolia in September, and this must have been for this team, and it is estimated that the number of troops in this force should be more than 100,000 in terms of the number of materials.'" If this force rushes to Manchuria, it will be absolutely disastrous for the war on the Western Front, because with his current strength, it is impossible to defeat more than 100,000 people.

The second worry was that he had received information from his capable intelligence staff officer, Chuikov, that 'the Northeast Army, which had suddenly driven to a brigade in Hailar the night before yesterday, should be a unit of the Northeast Army stationed in Rehe, judging from the number of this brigade. Moreover, this brigade sent two regiments north yesterday, and has already received information from Manchuria, one regiment has been stationed in Manchuria, and the other regiment is estimated to be stationed in Zha Lai Nuoer'.

Judging from the above information, it is necessary to change the battle plan now, that is, the Manchuria campaign must be launched immediately in advance, otherwise reinforcements from the Northeast Army will continue to arrive. Therefore, he called Blyukhel to suggest an early attack, and Blyukhel had already called back three hours ago to agree.

(To be continued)