CSKA inherited Tsarist Russia, and the Soviet Red Army was the direct successor of the Russian Army, and both sides ushered in an inextricable fate at this time, and this fateful duel would eventually rewrite the entire history of mankind, and its significance was actually no less than the Sarajevo incident, or even less than the First World War, because it would directly determine the pattern of World War II to a large extent.

In short, regardless of the outcome of the war, the Sino-Soviet contradictions will dominate the development of the entire world for the next half century, or even a century.

The Russian Red Army was a very formidable opponent, and as the successor of the Tsarist Army, it largely corrected the two entrenched shortcomings of the Tsarist Army, one was to change the rigidity and conservatism of the commanders, and the new batch of military commanders were younger, most of them were born in the middle and lower ranks, and had more flexible and changeable tactics; The second is to stimulate the collective fighting spirit of Russian soldiers.

Although most of the soldiers of the Russian Red Army still lacked proper and rigorous training, its combat effectiveness was definitely higher than that of the Tsarist Army, otherwise it would not have been able to easily defeat the Allied Allied forces and the Russian White Army.

If it weren't for the later Great Purge, the performance of the Soviet Red Army in the early days of World War II would not have been so bad, let alone a large lack of excellent soldiers and non-commissioned officers.

Song Biao was very mentally prepared for this, so he adopted a prudent tactic, and did not rely on the White Army, let alone unite with the White Army to attack, but held firmly in the Novosibilia area, actively prepared for the battle, and waited for the Soviet Russian Red Army to cross the distance and the Imperial Army for a decisive battle.

Of course, he was not afraid of war, and the reason why he took such an isolated defensive position was to wait for the best time to fight a decisive battle.

At this time, the situation was already very obvious, both sides tried to decide the victory in a large-scale battle, one side firmly believed in the victory of the proletarian revolution, the other firmly believed in the victory of the Chinese nation's liberation revolution, time was favorable to the Imperial Army, but unfavorable to the Soviet Russian Red Army, so the Soviet Russian Red Army must adopt a more active offensive posture and force the Imperial Army to fight a decisive battle in advance.

Before the arrival of the coldest February, the Russian Red Army urgently launched a large-scale offensive on December 4, 1919, and it was similar to Song Biao's initial prediction that the Russian Red Army would push forward the Third Front Army that had been hiding in the rear, but also pushed the Second Front Army on the south side, but the First Front Army on the north side lagged behind.

This offensive posture is rather strange, but it is also within the realm of common sense, because the lagging goal of the First Front is to maintain control of the Trans-Siberian Railway and attack Novosibirsk with the Second and Third Fronts.

The two sides first fought an outpost battle in the small town of Kocheniovo, and the Imperial Army quickly retreated, taking a desperate posture of holding Novosibirsk, inducing the Russian Red Army to continue the offensive.

This is a world-class battle comparable to the Battle of Verdun, and the total number of troops invested by both sides will reach 4 million.

On a battlefield within a radius of 60 kilometers, what a huge scale and density of investment, and what a dense firepower this means, both sides are artillery armies, the Soviet Russian Red Army mobilized 2,500 artillery pieces for this Novosibirsk campaign, mainly three-inch Lucia field guns, while the Imperial Army mobilized 3780 barreled guns, mainly M1912 75mm field guns and M1914 105mm light howitzers, both of which used French-style long-stroke brakes, The 105mm light howitzer is fully truck-towed.

In addition to the lack of submachine guns, the level of equipment inherited and captured by the Russian Red Army from the Russian army and the White Army was roughly the same as that of the Imperial Army, and the main firepower was light machine guns, pursuing a fast and fierce attack.

This is almost the early stage of the Battle of Kursk in World War II.

The frantic rain of artillery shells was cathartic on the positions, covering the entire battlefield, and the in-depth shelling continued to penetrate into every corner of the positions on both sides, due to the cold weather, it was difficult for the Russian Red Army to build complete fortifications on the positions, but the Red Army also had a secret way to deal with this, they demolished a large number of buildings in Omsk and surrounding towns, and piled up temporary positions with abandoned bricks.

In this brutal way, the Soviet Russian Red Army was almost like an armed group of countless outlaws, frantically attacking forward, without sparing manpower, but they obviously forgot that the Northeast Army, the predecessor of the Imperial Army, became famous in the form of positional warfare, and with the development of military equipment, the positional warfare at this stage could not be attacked by manpower at all.

Over the past two years of continuous construction and strengthening, the Imperial Army has built a long and strong defensive line in Novosibirsk and on the west bank of the Ob River, intertwined with three defensive lines, and massively built concrete fortresses and semi-buried fortresses, giving the adversary no chance at all on a line of defense close to sixty kilometers long.

Human life has never been so cheap and impoverished as it is today, so much so that the front of the positions of the Imperial Army was littered with corpses, and the cold corpses were soon covered with frost and became a solid obstacle for those who followed, and the corpses would even crumble in the fire when fierce machine-gun fire passed by.

Blood was barely visible on the muddy snow, and most of the soldiers had their wounds frozen in the freezing cold before they fell, and both sides were using mortars too often, relying on such short-range curved guns to deter attacks or disrupt defensive lines.

The machine guns were firing wildly on the position, and the Imperial Army began to use the M1912 Hanyang rifle on a large scale, which is a semi-automatic rifle produced in the Hanyang Arsenal with a faster rate of fire, and is the same level of accuracy, power, and range as the Mosin Nagant rifle, and the M1915 sniper precision rifle based on this rifle has been installed in every infantry squad.

In addition, the weapons of the two sides were almost identical, and the Russian Red Army also used some Shenyang rifles captured from the White Army, because the Empire basically stopped producing Mosin Nagant's R-type ammunition after the end of World War I, and considering that the supply was completely dependent on the Empire, the White Army of Kolchak's Ministry also used a large number of Shenyang rifles.

Another reason is that the CR type rifle cartridge of the Shenyang rifle is more advanced than the light and heavy machine gun, especially the Browning air-cooled heavy machine gun is lighter than the Maxim machine gun, and there is rarely the problem of overheating the barrel when used in the cold areas of the north, and the Maxim water-cooled machine gun often lacks suitable cooling water in winter, and even has the problem of freezing and cracking.

In the field of medium machine guns and light machine guns, the newly improved Popnin machine gun and Browning machine gun are more distinctive, however, the Russian army's Popnin machine gun still uses R-type ammunition, and both sides are almost using a large number of Popnin medium machine guns on the main battlefield.

Despite the great sacrifices, the Russian Red Army advanced its position to a distance of less than a kilometer along the Ob River, a distance sufficient to ensure that the Russian Red Army's artillery threatened the rear positions of the Imperial Army.

It's just that in the absence of an air force, the Soviet Russian Red Army is also withstanding the air supremacy and reconnaissance of the entire Imperial Air Force, and can only rely on anti-aircraft machine guns and machine guns to deal with the huge Imperial Air Force.

It is hard to imagine what the price of the Russian Red Army has to attack all the way here, and in the rear, with the deepening of the understanding of the cruelty of this battle, the entire Soviet Russia is continuing to step up the deployment of troops, constantly drawing troops from the southern front battlefield to reinforce, and about a million Soviet Russian Red Army will arrive within a month.

December 10th.

Just after a night of silence on both sides, at dawn the next morning, when the frost covered the land, the air force of the Imperial Army was dispatched again, and thousands of S3033 bombers, accompanied by a small number of hundreds of fighters, launched a large-scale attack on the rear of the Russian position.

The sound of rumbling machinery resounded across the land, rolling through the snow and ice, and creaking forward.

This is the first time that the Imperial T4 medium tank has appeared on the official battlefield, a total of four tank brigades, 1470 T4 types across the ice and abandoned camouflage, rushed to the position of the Soviet Russian Red Army, followed by the 6th, 10th, 14th, and 15th infantry divisions closely coordinated operations, these four infantry divisions are the main divisions of the reorganization, each assigned a tank regiment, and ensure that each infantry company can be assigned a tank.

It was on this day that the Novosibirsk offensive appeared.

This will be an epoch-making day, although in the European theater of war, the British and French forces, the United States and the German army have been groping for the tactics of fighting together, but it is the first time that such a large scale has appeared.

According to the traditional theory of artillery and infantry coordination, there is usually a large-scale artillery bombardment to destroy the fortifications and suppress the opponent's artillery before the infantry attack, but under the new equipment there is a new theory, and the most taboo in the combat of the infantry is the previous suppression of the artillery, because this will greatly damage the battlefield and make it difficult for the tank to advance.

At this stage, the status of artillery has undoubtedly declined significantly, and their role is to suppress the opponent's artillery counterattack, and more of the work of suppressing the opponent's artillery has been handed over to the Fokker Strike Aircraft.

The silent sound of artillery, the roar of planes and the clatter of tanks is a true reflection of this dawn offensive, and the advance of the Imperial Army is not fast, or even slow, but it advances slowly like a steamroller, penetrates like mercury, but is as unstoppable as the waves.

The Russian Red Army was simply unable to carry out any counterattack against such tactics, and sporadic counterattacks were futile, because the total number of tanks suddenly launched by the Imperial Army was so large and generally had stronger artillery that the Russian Red Army's fortifications were easily destroyed.

The 12.7mm Browning heavy machine gun was raging wildly on the position, ravaging the flesh and blood of all the soldiers of the Soviet Red Army who were still trying to stop it, and the position was in a panic, and the psychological oppression and fear made all the soldiers feel hopeless.

Too many of them, plus four tank regiments, the Imperial Army launched 1,895 T4 medium tanks and 270 FT-18 light tanks with an absolute advantage, the T4 medium tank did not have absolute progress in technology compared with the British Whipbit A tank of the same period, but the superiority in design and quantity was enough to ensure the great power of this battle plan.

The soldiers of the Russian Red Army began to retreat uncontrollably and frantically, unable to resist the steel torrent of the Imperial Army, and it was only after the Russian Red Army withdrew from its positions on a large scale that the cavalry and mechanized infantry divisions on both sides of the Imperial Army came out and launched a pursuit of the Russian Red Army.

The Imperial Army insidiously maintained its technological superiority until the final stage, especially when the main forces of the Russian Red Army were almost entirely tilted on the Eastern Front.

This fatal blow is really very painful.

When the Imperial Army was attacking like a torrent, Song Biao was sitting in the command post of the underground fortress, he was the supreme commander of the entire battle, and Jiang Zhengyuan, as the deputy chief of staff, personally sorted out the latest data and news, and constantly marked new changes in the military drawings on the wall.

The Russian Red Army has experienced severe casualties in the past week, and Song Biao does not believe that these soldiers are robots cast of steel, and they will also be afraid, and when the fear reaches a certain level, once they encounter such an unstoppable attack, they will completely collapse.

The military is also a psychological calculation.

At this time, Song Biao was different from him fifteen years ago, and more and more painful military experience made him more confident, and he could make decisions that other CSKA generals would never dare to make, because he could afford the price of defeat, while others couldn't.

As the supreme military commander, Song Biao suddenly pinched such a period of time to give the Soviet Russian Red Army an unprecedented heavy blow, the Second Army of the Soviet Russian Red Army has already captured half of the position, and after that, it will be a non-stop pursuit, with cavalry, tank troops and mechanized six integrated infantry divisions to pursue the whole line, all the way to Omsk, in the long attack line of 400 kilometers to pursue to the end, and the 101st, 112th, 113th, and 115th divisions of the Air Force will be responsible for the bombing of the railway and the First Army, truncating the possible surnames of the rapid retreat of the Soviet Russian Red Army.

In this kind of large-scale pursuit, Song Biao had to use 42 newly organized and reorganized baggage units and three baggage brigades directly under the central government to be responsible for maintaining logistics and supplies, ensuring that the front-line troops could pursue all the way without scruples.

The Air Force even temporarily reorganized the 114th Division into an airdrop transport unit, which was responsible for urgently transporting supplies to front-line troops.

The war was so brutal that the tide of imperial attacks could not be contained, and the rout of the main forces of the Soviet Russian Red Army could not be avoided, along both sides of the Trans-Siberian Railway, hundreds of thousands of Red Army soldiers were brutally annihilated while fleeing and retreating, and more than 850,000 troops surrendered en masse.

On December 19, the Third Army of the Imperial Army in the north continued to advance westward, with four cavalry divisions and two integrated infantry divisions formed into the Fourth Army, which was responsible for coordinating operations, and the Second Army was responsible for occupying Omsk and maintaining the middle front.

Although Song Biao did not like to use the word blitzkrieg, and had no intention of implementing such a tactical concept in Eurasia in advance, he still used the theory of blitzkrieg, using speed and steel to break through the defense line, and forcefully push it down, causing the enemy's rear positions to completely organize any effective defense.

After capturing Chelyabinsk and Yekaterinburg, Song Biao ordered a halt in the march, used the Ural Mountains to contain and deter Russia, quickly repaired the damaged railways, and used a large number of trucks and Mongolian horses to carry out rapid and effective large-scale supplies to advance the army front to the Urals.

The reason why Song Biao did this was precisely because the climate would be even colder, and the more the troops penetrated, the more difficult it would be to supply.

Time is always in the Reich's favor, at this time Soviet Russia simply does not have enough military industry and heavy industry to continue to delay, by April next year, the Reich Army on the Eastern Front will continue to increase to 4,000 tanks, or even close to 5,000, and the number of trucks will continue to increase.

During these months, the empire also needed to import more oil from the United States and Mexico, to ensure the operation of the empire's oil industry, and to ensure the supply of gasoline.

The empire coldly waited for the situation to develop in a more favorable direction for itself.

In January, during the coldest period of the Russian climate, Song Biao arrived in Yekaterinburg and transferred the front command post here, and he temporarily lived in the palace of Ibatev.

The Siberian cold wave swept across Eurasia, and the Ibatyev Palace was as cold as a cave, where the Bushviks executed the Tsar's family.

On the evening of his arrival at the Ibatyev Palace, Song Biao stood in front of the wall where the Tsar had been shot, as if he could still see the blood flowing on the wall and on the grass, and he did not know what to say.

Because he thought of Grand Duke Mikhail, with whom he had a lot of dealings.

What a pitiful and tragic royal family.

Song Biao walked in front of the wall, gently touching the cold wall with his fingertips, he felt a lot of emotion in his heart, at this time he actually had a special confusion, he didn't want to repeat the mistakes of Napoleon and Hitler, but how this war should end in the end, he didn't think clearly.

Occupy Russia, eliminate the Soviets, bring all of Russia into the protectorate of the Reich?

It sounds beautiful, but it is clearly not in the long-term interests of the Empire.

The eternal interest is, of course, to cut off the territories that are most deserving and most likely to be owned forever.

Song Biao only felt that it was a little tricky, since the October Revolution, the proletarian movement has been pouring into the whole world like a tide, and it is not a simple elimination of Soviet Russia that can stop this trend of thought.

Zhang Futian, as the most important first-class chamberlain, calmly accompanied the emperor, silent, he did not seem to have any preferences for all this, nor was he excited or sad to speak of.

At this time, Jiang Zhengyuan, who served as the deputy chief of staff, hurriedly walked over with a telegram book, bowed and saluted, and then handed a newly arrived telegram to Song Biao, saying: "Your Majesty, a telegram from Lenin, Chairman of the People's Commissariat of Soviet Russia. ”

Song Biao sneered slightly, but felt that this telegram would come too quickly.

He took the telegram and read it roughly, and the general meaning of the whole text was to first proclaim the fighting spirit of Soviet Russia and the Bolsheviks, as well as the righteousness of the cause, and then hoped that China and the Soviet Union would reach a permanent friendship, and that they would be willing to permanently assign the Novosibirsk region to China in accordance with the previous demands of the Chinese Empire, and recognize the reading power of Kazakhstan and other Central Asian regions.

After reading this telegram, Song Biao thought about it for a while, and then instructed Jiang Zhengyuan: "Call back to His Excellency the Chairman of the People's Commissariat and tell him that there is no real victorious country in the war, and if Soviet Russia wants peace talks, then it must agree to all the conditions of peace talks in the empire, and this condition is bound to be more cruel, for his situation, I express regret and sympathy, for his cause, I express understanding and respect, but the empire has invested huge national strength to win this war, Those conditions were simply not enough to halt the Empire's advance. Of course, if the Provisional Republic of Soviet Russia agrees to all the conditions of the empire, the empire promises not to support the White Army anymore, and is willing to support the Russian government in handling all domestic affairs, assist Soviet Russia in resisting foreign invasion and interference, and even sign a 20-year Sino-Soviet friendly peace treaty to ensure peaceful coexistence between the two sides. ”

Jiang Zhengyuan nodded slightly, quickly wrote down the contents of these telegrams, and then asked, "Your Majesty, do you want to put forward the specific conditions?" ”

Song Biao waved his hand slightly, and said, "Let's wait until we renegotiate, let Soviet Russia have such mental preparations." ”

Jiang Zhengyuan agreed to come down and personally left with a new telegram.

At this time, Song Biao stood alone under the wall, pondering the conditions of this peace talk in his heart, but in fact, he himself couldn't tell how many benefits he wanted to fight.

(To be continued)