"What, a thousand planes!?"

Jasvante. Singh's head buzzed a little bigger, and the splitter snatched the telegram from the hand of Chief of Staff Makarov, and it seemed that he fell to the ground even more. How can the airborne troops with thousands of aircraft have to have a division! This is not a joke, last year the Chinese seemed to have parachuted into the Ferghana Basin, which was heavily defended by the Soviet Union, causing the collapse of the situation in Central Asia of the Soviet army!

"Srinagar...... Srinagar can't be lost! Sue Comrade Sù Shevchenko, no matter what, you must hold Srinagar! "Jasvante. As soon as Singh came back to his senses, he began to set up a defense before he could get up from the ground.

However, his order sounded complete nonsense to the Chief of Staff of the Soviet Union, Major General Makarov, who reminded: "Comrade commander, Srinagar cannot hold out, there is only the headquarters of the Kashmir Army Group and a battalion of guards. And the troops dropped by the enemy have at least one division! I immediately transferred the command of the Kashmir Army Group to Ladakh. At the same time, every effort is made to mobilize troops to block the passage from the Kashmir Valley to the Jammu area, and the Chinese must not be allowed to rush into the Punjab area! ”

"A division of airborne troops, nothing more than a division......" Jasvante. Singh got up and paced back and forth in the war room. The Airborne Forces are certainly elite, but there are only a limited number of them, so what if they can walk sideways in the Kashmir Valley? All the way to the Punjab plains? It's a complete joke, the local units of the Indian Red Army, the Red Guards, the security forces, and so on on in the Punjab plains add up to no less than 100,000 troops, although they are not front-line troops. But with a number of piles can also entangle a mere Chinese airborne division. Moreover, the Punjab region is also close to the Indian capital Delhi, where there are several divisions of elite capital garrisons, as soon as these garrisons arrive. Isn't this Chinese airborne division wiped out immediately? So after thinking about it, he breathed a sigh of relief and said, "No, don't worry about them rushing into the Punjab, we can completely put them in the Punjab and wipe them out!" ”

Makarov opened his mouth when he heard this, and was speechless for a long time. "Comrade Commander, you're not kidding, are you? Punjab is India's largest breadbasket, and if it were lost, 350 million Indians would starve......"

"Nope. Won't be lost. "Jasvante. Singh waved his hand and said: "This is impossible, the Punjab region is so big, how can it be captured by more than 10,000 people in one airborne division?" So I don't think the enemy's target is Punjab. Rather......" He walked to the front of the map and looked at it for a long time, and finally shook his head and said, "I don't know what their goal is?" The Kashmir Valley is surrounded by mountains, is it just for them to seize Kashmir? ”

"Comrade commander, you looked at Aksai Chin's squadron!" Makarov gritted his teeth and reminded. He really couldn't understand how such an unresponsive fool could command an army.

"That's right. There was also a mountain army there. "Jasvante. Singh thought for a moment. Nodding his head, he said, "With one more mountain army, we can capture the Kashmir Valley." Give me an order to move his headquarters to the Chop River to join the 1st Independent Kashmir Division, and to tell Comrade Shevchenko to hold on to the Drop River and Pangong Lake no matter what, and never allow the enemy to open the main road from Aksai Chin to the Kashmir Valley. Then he sent a telegram to the General Staff in Delhi requesting the transfer of the Guards Army garrison in Delhi to support the Kashmir region. ”

"Do you want to strengthen the defenses of the Jammu area?" Makarov reminded again: "The Zhuopu River and Pangong Lake are under the enemy's back, and it is likely that they will not be able to hold it, so that the Chinese are likely to seize the entire Kashmir Valley!" ”

"No, I don't have to. Don't. "Jasvante. Singh still shook his head: "Don't worry about them breaking into the Punjab area, there is a Guards Army." The enemy, even if he has a mountain corps and an airborne division, is no opponent. Maybe we can fight a war of annihilation in Punjab! ”

Makarov smiled bitterly in his heart: "The wishful thinking is really good, but what if it is defeated?" The jobs of 350 million people will be smashed! Or hurry up and call Comrade Pavlov and ask him to find a way to get rid of the commander of this front. ”

……

At 8 o'clock in the morning of October 11, 1935, the shells of the squadron had exploded like raindrops in front of the Indian positions on the Zhuomu River front. The Chinese used 155mm howitzers! The power of the explosion was much greater than that of the 105mm howitzers equipped with mountain troops. The field fortifications of the 1st Independent Kashmir Division were suddenly blown up with sparks flying and smoke and dust everywhere. One after another, the fortress posts made of stone blocks were blown into piles of rubble, and from time to time, broken human bodies were blown apart and flew in all directions.

The commander of the 1st Independent Kashmir Division, Manmohan. Rao knew immediately that something was wrong, and his hands holding the binoculars began to tremble. The enemy must have arrived with a large number of reinforcements! They must have built a road that could transport heavy equipment up the Aksai Chin Plateau! Just look at the momentum of their shelling now, this is not something that four mountain artillery regiments can fight! At least three artillery regiments of Chinese infantry divisions and one heavy artillery regiment attached to the Chinese Infantry Corps were firing! He hurriedly gave the order: "Immediately send a telegram to the headquarters of the group army and tell them that there are at least 2 medium ** in the direction of the Zhuomu River, and one of them is a heavily armed Chinese infantry corps!" ”

However, his superior, Major General Shevchenko, no longer has the heart to care about the affairs of the Zhuomu River front, because he has already personally gone to the front line to fight against the Chinese Airborne Forces on the high ground outside Srinagar! He did not follow the orders given by the North-Western Front Command and went to the Zhuomu River to join the 1st Independent Kashmir Division. Because he knew he couldn't go at all! The Chinese airborne troops did not come down from the planes in a line, they parachuted in a large area, and the entire area around the city of Srinagar was a parachute landing area. The airport outside Srinagar was occupied by the Chinese for the first time. Now the Chinese transport planes are constantly taking off and landing there, and I don't know how many troops have been airlifted! To make matters worse, there were more than a dozen Chinese Orion strike planes circling in the air. There were 2 37mm guns and 6 7.62mm machine guns on this aircraft. If you leave the fortified preset position and go to the wilderness of the Kashmir Valley, the more than 1,000 people in your hands are not enough to fight!

But even if there was a relatively strong position, the more than 1,000 of them could not hold out for long. The offensive of the Chinese Airborne Forces soon began. A burst of shells came in, and the heavy fire weighed down their heads. Many of the large and small fire firing points built with stones have been destroyed. Major General Shevchenko's neck was full of sand and gravel, his belly was tightly pressed against the bottom of the trench, and he lamented in his heart: "It's over, I'll never go back to Russia, I'll never see Natasha and her two children again......" when I thought about it. Something hit him on the back of his head, and then he lost consciousness when he woke up again. Already in the prison in the city of Srinagar, he became a sinner of the Soviet Fatherland - a prisoner of war.

At the same time as Major General Shevchenko betrayed the motherland, the infantry hand-to-hand battle on the Zhuomu River front had already begun. Before the smoke of the artillery fire had dissipated, the Chinese army brigade wearing yellow-brown camouflage uniforms poured over the position on the south bank of the Zhuomu River occupied by the Indian army. This unit is the 36th Mountain Army of the Chinese Army, which defeated the Indian Kashmir Army Group that invaded Aksai Chin a while ago. Probably bullying the Indian army for insufficient firepower. The 36th Mountain Army put into the offensive a large number of infantry. There were three or four thousand people, covering a large battlefield, and they began to wade across the river with great momentum. It is already October, and the snow-capped glaciers around Aksai Chin have already entered the freezing period, and the water level of the Zhuomu River has been greatly reduced without the replenishment of melting snow, and the natural danger that the Indian army failed to break through at the cost of tens of thousands of people in July has now become more than ten meters wide. The deepest creek is below your knees. However, the cold and biting water of the river slowed down the pace of the Chinese officers and soldiers.

Manmohan. Rao lowered his binoculars and looked at the position ahead, and the soldiers under him who could still move were all on the firing position under the supervision of the officers and political workers. Machine guns and rifles were erected. Then they opened fire in unison, and the bullets rained down around the charging Chinese officers and soldiers, knocking down the warriors who rushed to the front like wheat harvests. At the same time, the nine 76.2mm field guns deployed behind the Indian positions (there were originally 12 guns, but three more were destroyed in the Chinese artillery bombardment just now) also began to fire with a bang, but they were not accurate, and most of the shells fell in the Zhuomu River, although the water column was high and thick, but it did not cause many casualties.

The Chinese counterattack also came quickly, and they had already placed 75mm recoilless guns, 60mm and 80mm and 120mm mortars on the other side of the Zhuomu River, less than 2,000 meters from the Indian army's front-line positions. At this distance, the artillery of the Chinese army, which had undergone strict training and had been in battle for a long time, was of course able to hit the target accurately. The Indian trenches quickly rose up one after another of fireballs, shrezennel swept through like a storm, and many people died before they could even make the last screams, and most of them retreated back into the trenches in order to save their lives, when the Chinese army's firepower was at its most intense. As a result, the firepower on the positions of the Indian troops was naturally weakened by a large margin. Seeing that there was an opportunity, the attacking Chinese army also accelerated its pace despite the cold water of the river, covered their heads and shouted and began to charge, they had already crossed more than half of it, and no one wanted to go back and start again.

Depardieu, the commander of the 9th Company of the 3rd Battalion of the 1st Regiment of the 1st Independent Division of the 1st Independent Division of Kashmir, India, felt that the artillery fire of the Chinese army had weakened, so he raised his head from the trenches that had been beaten to pieces, and the shouts of the Chinese army and the unique screaming sound of tearing linen when the Type 34 general-purpose machine gun fired, the wind that had passed through the plateau and the continuous explosion of shells reached his ears. The company under his command was the focus of the Chinese army's assault, and at least one battalion of the enemy had already rushed across the Zhuomu River, and several Type 34 general-purpose machine guns were set up and were firing wildly. Depardieu looked around again, and there were about 80 people in the trenches who could still move, and the rest were either lying staggered in the trenches, which was estimated to be glorious, or they were still wailing and refusing to accept the reality that they were dead! And the rear was supposed to fire to support their mortar positions, but there was a dead silence, and I don't know whether it was transferred or knocked out by the artillery bombardment of the Chinese army? It seems that at this time, you can only fight with the Chinese with your life! He bent his waist along the trench to beckon his men to prepare for battle, and from time to time he said a few words of encouragement. Prepare the big guys with bayonets and grenades, which are probably the only weapons that the average Indian infantry can count on at the moment.

"Hurry up, rush up. Don't stop! ”

Lieutenant Wu Qingchen, the commander of the 3rd Company of the 1st Battalion of the 323rd Regiment of the 108th Mountain Division of the 36th Mountain Army of the National Defense Army, holding a Type 31 automatic rifle, shouted as he charged his brothers to speed up. He is a native of Yongfeng County, Jiangxi, born in 1915, just 20 years old this year, graduated from middle school three years ago and was admitted to the 16th phase of the Central Military Academy. After graduating, he was assigned to the 36th Mountain Army as a platoon commander, and fought bravely in the recent Battle of Aksai Chin. He was awarded a second-class martial arts medal and was promoted to lieutenant company commander. This time, he was ordered to take the lead, and rushed to the front with his company. However, Wu Qingchen rushed so fast not because he had no brains and was blindly brave. He also has a name in another time and space called Wu Faxian! He is a very awesome counter-revolutionary! Of course, such a character will not be brainless, and he has discovered the characteristics of India's three battles in several previous battles with the Indian army. The artillery was basically not threatening, and every time it was fought, it couldn't shoot a few shots, and it was almost to Java; Rifle machine guns are also spelling character. It's not accurate at all. The only threat is grenades. However, their technique of throwing grenades is not good, they often pull the string and throw it out randomly, and the wire of the grenade can't be burned out for a while, so it won't explode immediately after hitting the ground, and you can pick it up and throw it back if you are faster! So when he saw the grenades falling like raindrops, Wu Qingchen didn't blink his eyelids, and led his subordinates to speed up the pace of the grenades and rushed forward.

Close quarters combat immediately began in the trenches of the Indian army, which used bayonet-mounted Lee Enfield rifles. Wu Qingchen's unit has just been reequipped with Type 31 automatic rifles. This prismatic steel spike automatic rifle is far inferior to the Lee Enfield rifle in length, and it will definitely suffer if it is really a white-knuckle fight. However, the Chinese army's melee combat is not just about playing with knives. The automatic rifle strafing is more powerful than any bayonet sapper shovel. The battle between the two sides suddenly turned into a one-sided slaughter, the tongue of fire from the automatic rifle swept through, and the Indians were killed in rows and rows!

The rain of grenades in the Indian army could no longer be maintained, more Chinese infantry continued to pour in, and the company commander of the Indian army, Depardieu, was also swept in the thigh by a 7.62mm bullet, and immediately bled profusely, he knew that his life had come to an end, and on this plateau where there was a lack of medical treatment, even if he could climb to the rear, he could not get any medical treatment. Thinking of this, he did not hesitate to pull the grenade hanging on his body......

The same fierce fighting was fought simultaneously on various positions on the south bank of the Zhuomu River, and the Indian 1st Independent Kashmir Division was at an absolute disadvantage in all aspects of strength, firepower, and training. Therefore, they were completely inferior at the beginning, but they still resisted to the annihilation of the army under the command of determined GCD officers and political cadres, relying on favorable terrain. According to post-war statistics, in the Battle of Zhuomuhe, the casualties of the Chinese army exceeded 1,000, while the casualties of the Indian army did not have detailed figures, but it was estimated that there were around 10,000 people, and more than 3,000 officers and soldiers were captured. In the history of the Chinese army and later the Indian Red Army, there is not much depiction of this small battle. However, in the Indian battlefield at that time, the loss of the Zhuomu River defense line meant that the first gateway for the Chinese army to move south from the Aksai Chin cluster had been opened.

General Liu Mingzhao, then commander of the West Indian Front of the Chinese Army, described the situation in his later memoirs, My World War, as follows: "Our military operation to seize Kashmir was surprisingly smooth, and can only be described as a miracle, and the surprise attack was a complete success. The Indians put all their forces in the front line, with the Chomu River being the main force from Aksai Chin to the south. But this is the most important thing, and there is only one division of about 13,000 people to defend, and our 36th Mountain Army launched only one attack to completely break through the Indian defense line. After that, it was surprising that there was no obstacle all the way to the south. It was not until the army had completely penetrated the Guò Jammu-Kashmir region and entered the Punjab plain that a decisive battle was fought against the Guards Army, the elite unit of the Indian army. However, there was no suspense to defeat it, so he took advantage of the victory and marched into Delhi, the capital of India, and established the victory of the Sino-Indian war in one fell swoop. This is the greatest military achievement I have achieved in the army for decades, and the name of the military god comes from this.

However, the ultimate reason for the victory is not that my command level is particularly good, nor is it that our Ministry of Defense and the General Staff are particularly clever, but that we have encountered the most stupid opponent. If the enemy is in an emergency in Kashmir, he will immediately send reinforcements from the Guards Army, or let him hold the Jammu Mountains and block our southward route. Our more than 200,000 assault troops will certainly not be able to exert their full might, and if they are blocked until the winter and still fail to make a breakthrough, then the Tibetan highway will be closed due to heavy snowfall, and the operational objective of going south to Punjab will certainly not be carried out......"

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