By nightfall, Kunduz was in disarray. This strategic town in northern Afghanistan, where Termez and Dushanbe, the only access from the northern mountains to the Kunduz oasis, is home to 150,000 Afghans, but most of them are now empty. On the Khan Barad Pass to the east of the city, artillery roared, and from the day Kabul changed hands, the Asian Brigade and the Afghan Army launched a fierce attack on the Soviet troops stationed there. The 75-millimeter mountain artillery on both sides roared, grenades exploded on the edge of the mountain, and the snow was covered in smoke and yellow sand.

When Zhukov arrived, the Khan Balad Pass to the east was under another fierce attack. Since it is the only exit, the two sides have fought more than 20 times in the past month. Even though it was getting dark, the four bombers were still bombing the Soviet positions without stopping, and the machine guns and shells on the ground were intertwined into a net of fire, illuminating the night sky exceptionally brightly.

From his point of view, the Soviet Union was unprepared for this war, especially the rapid capture of Amanullah, which left the Red Army without an excuse to continue stationing, so he thought about retreating heavily to the territory of the country, waiting for the arrival of the main forces in the spring to find an opportunity to retake Afghanistan. But the top brass couldn't wait, and Marshal Voroshilov and the General Staff even believed that China had only one Sino-Albanian resource highway with poor traffic capacity to support logistics, and on the contrary, the Soviet army not only had roads, but also railways, so it had more advantages.

There is a real advantage on paper, and no one can deny this, whether attacking from Kabul or from the mountains of the north, the first thing to overcome is logistics, on the contrary, places such as Kunduz and Herat, which are currently controlled by the Soviet army, can be supported by rail transport. Anyone familiar with the military knows that there is no comparison between a resource highway with poor traffic capacity and a heavy-gauge railway that was completed three years ago.

Of course, Zhukov listened intently to the noisy humming of thousands of bees in the artillery fire, and he was a little breathless. Whether it was the last Afghan encounter. Or this Kabul operation, the comparison between the planes of the two sides is really very different. Fortunately, you can't win the war by airplanes alone, otherwise you won't be able to use it yourself.

"Comrade Kozilov."

"Comrade Zhukov, it's great that you can come, we have been waiting for support."

The convoy stopped in front of the Kunduz command post, and as soon as he got out of the car, he saw the commander of the 71st Division, Kozilov, coming over. This is a 51-year-old veteran officer with rich experience in combat command, compared with those officers in China who came to power after the purge and are not even familiar with the command of the infantry. The combat effectiveness of the 71st Division led by him is still worth relying on.

Kozilov also took Zhukov's hand, glad that the officer, who was well-known in the Soviet army, could come to his aid. But when he raised his eyes and found that only a few dozen trucks were following, and there were neither tanks nor armored vehicles, his expression gradually became uneasy: "Comrade Zhukov. Is this all the reinforcements? ”

Zhukov keenly grasped the uneasiness in his eyes, and asked: "What, the squadron arrived first?" ”

"Not yet. Now it is the Afghans and the North Koreans who are attacking. ”

"North Korea?"

"Yes, we captured several prisoners who claimed to be soldiers of the Korean Regiment of the Asian Liberation Front. However, they were all issued with Chinese weapons, as well as seven tanks and about four armored vehicles, so there was a lot of pressure on the mountain pass. Aircraft reconnaissance has been paralyzed. We have not been able to spot the Chinese troops for the time being, but I believe they are not far from the Khan Balad Pass. Kozilov gave a general account of the capture of Korean prisoners of war. Zhukov was very interested in this Asian brigade, and when he heard that the main force of the Chinese Defense Forces had not yet arrived, he couldn't help but secretly breathe a sigh of relief: "Comrade Kozilov, please rest assured. The 57th Division is already on its way and will arrive here before dawn tomorrow, and the 6th Tank Brigade will arrive tomorrow evening. ”

During the day, the Chinese Aerospace Forces were under heaven, and Soviet planes could not take off at all. Therefore, the transfer of troops must be covered by nightfall. However, it was learned that the 57th Division would arrive tomorrow morning, and there was also a tank brigade. Kozilov and the officers of the 71st Division next to him were still very happy. During this time, they faced a lot of pressure, especially the North Korean troops were very tenacious in combat effectiveness, and they also had rich combat experience, relying on tanks and armored vehicles to help break through the defense line repeatedly.

Night soon approached, and flares from time to time from the direction of Khan Barad Pass shone like stars. Darkness is a natural barrier, and Kunduz, which had been fighting for a day, finally ushered in calm. While the soldiers seized the time to rest, Zhukov and Kozilov did not dare to relax in the slightest. Intelligence shows that the main force of the Chinese volunteers has arrived in Tajikistan, and hundreds of transport planes are sending troops to Kabul.

Fortunately, from some indications, although China continues to increase troops in the northwest, they do not want to lift the veil on the eastern front now, and both sides hope to take Afghanistan first, cut off the other side's offensive line in Central Asia, and ensure the safety of the flanks before looking for opportunities for a decisive battle. This is also the original intention of General Secretary Stalin, after consulting with Marshal Voroshilov, who decided to block China in Afghanistan.

This means that the two sides will engage in a brutal battle for this mountainous country. It can be seen from the pressure of the 103rd Central Guard Division, which was transferred from China and is known as the absolute main force, that they are bound to win this battle. What makes Zhukov feel tricky is that Afghanistan is completely unsuitable for the Soviet army's in-depth interspersed combat theory of large corps, which has been practiced for more than ten years, and what is fighting here is attrition and logistics.

Since tonight was the ultimatum deadline, by the time the pointer came to midnight, the shouts of the officers rang out outside, and thousands of soldiers were woken up, ready for a surprise attack from the north. At this moment, the sound of wheels also sounded, and the 57th Division, which had galloped from Termez in the starry night, finally arrived, a full two divisions, which greatly boosted the morale of the Soviet troops in Kunduz.

As the deadline passed, the imaginary storm did not appear, and the weary Soviet soldiers, who had been watching all night with wide eyes, did not see the shadow of the Chinese Wehrmacht until dawn. Just as he was about to rest, there was an abominable engine sound in the sky. The 6 fighters that came together covered the 8 bombers as scheduled, and the Kunduz anti-aircraft firepower increased a lot after receiving the support of the 57th Division, but the 37-mm rapid-fire guns mounted by the Soviet infantry division were completely itchy for the high-altitude bombers.

The bomber flapped its wings and dropped a full fifteen-ton high-explosive bomb on the Khan Balad Pass. It disappeared into the northern mountains amid the curses of Soviet soldiers.

The first day of the battle for Kunduz was spent in the endless bombing of the Khan Balad Pass, and in order to fight for this only access to the Kunduz lowlands, the Chinese Air Force dispatched 62 bombers and 12 dive bombers in just one day to intensively bomb the Soviet troops stationed at the mountain pass and Kunduz. The continuous fireballs rose from the surface of the earth, and the sound was terrifying, but the actual effect made Mei Sheng, who was hovering around the battlefield, very dissatisfied.

Long Yun put down his binoculars, retracted his gaze and shook his head: "Khan Balad Pass is a typical trumpet-shaped mountain pass, with hard rocks on both sides. Bombers alone do not work much. Looking at the posture just now, the Soviet army clearly arranged heavy protection along the bell mouth, and the ground fortifications were also done well, it seems that the commander of the 71st Division is a veteran who is good at fighting. ”

Mei Sheng nodded, realizing that he was a little anxious. After the Great Purge, the combat effectiveness of the Soviet army did drop a lot. However, defensive warfare in mountainous areas can compensate for many weaknesses. He immediately put away his thoughts about a quick battle and asked, "Where are all the troops?" What about Sun Chuanfang's plan? ”

"The 12th Regiment of the 23rd Infantry Division has reached 20 kilometers east of the Khan Balad Pass, and the 24th Regiment and the Armored Battalion are interspersed with Baghlan east of Kunduz." Long Yun quickly spread out the map, pointed and said: "Sun Chuanfang is going to use the 24th regiment as an arrow to storm Baghlan to induce Kunduz to divide his troops, and then take the mountain pass to establish an advance base. In addition, the 53rd and 54th Regiments of the 27th Division and the 113th Regiment of the 57th Division have all arrived in Baghdad by plane. But the heavy equipment was left behind. They will set out tomorrow morning and divide their troops into two routes. One route south to Kandahar on the Afghan-Indian border, and the other to Lashkar Gh in Helmand province in the middle, where the Air Force intends to build a field airfield. This would make it possible to bomb Herat at close range. ”

The Northwest Military Region has conducted a thorough investigation of the geographical environment of Afghanistan, but when it is actually implemented, it is found that the difficulty of mountain operations is still underestimated. Especially after the gradual increase in heavy equipment, the disadvantage of transport aircraft not being able to transport heavy equipment was gradually exposed, and even the largest Y-8 and Y-9 could only carry 10 tons. It was also due to the lack of a large door opening design, which made it impossible to load equipment such as trucks.

OK. The President and the General Staff did not intend to achieve a quick victory, but only demanded that the Soviet troops be suppressed in Termez and Herat, indicating that they also understood that the geographical environment was not suitable for the advance of the troops. "When you have time, make a report, don't let the aircraft factory be idle, and find a way to get money to transport tanks for planes to come out." After Mei Sheng muttered a few words about the lack of airlift capacity, he realized that Long Yun didn't mention the 10th Armored Division just now, and asked, "By the way, what about the 10th Armored Division?" ”

"Them." Long Yun smiled bitterly for a while, and pointed to the mountains in the distance: "Du Yuming is scolding his mother." ”

"Thief, mother! Who oversaw the construction of the road? They should all be shot! "On the China-Afghanistan Resource Highway, less than 70 kilometers from Kunduz, hundreds of trucks, armored vehicles and tanks are like strings of sand-yellow ladybugs, lying helplessly in the middle of the road and suffering patiently. At the front of the line, the commander of the 10th Armored Division, Major General Du Yuming, wore a fur coat and held a horsewhip, because two T25 tanks of his reconnaissance company got stuck in the mud, making it impossible for the entire division to move on.

He was a graduate of the 17th National Defense University, the "company commander" of the year, and after graduation, he was assigned to the then 8th Separate Armored Brigade as a company commander. Because of his outstanding performance, and the old officers of the Xinhai period have retired, he was promoted to brigade commander three years ago. Later, the armored brigade was reorganized, the original 1st and 2nd divisions were changed to armored divisions, and the 8th brigade became the 10th armored division.

Those who can command the armored division are the best in the Wehrmacht, but he is really angry today. Since there was no railway, the 10th Panzer Division needed to advance on its own after entering Afghanistan from Tajikistan. The tank is a good thing, but this thing needs to be repaired after driving one or two hundred miles, so it took 4 days to get here after driving all the way to maintenance. Seeing that there is only half a day's way left from the Khan Balad Pass, but when this happens, it is strange that I don't hold my breath.

"I heard that we still invested in this road, how did it become like this?"

"Yes, the tanks of the reconnaissance battalion are seven or eight tons smaller than ours, they can't afford it, what should we do?"

"Tsk, the Afghans are just not reliable. I heard that this hundreds of miles of road has been built for six or seven years, and if our engineers go up and keep it for three years, it can be paved to Iran, and it is still a cement road with water. ”

"You know the, Afghanistan doesn't even have a cement factory, where is the cement road."

"Sanhe soil, won't you make Sanhe soil?"

"Fuck off, is the road of Sanhetu so easy to build? If you look at this place, you can't see any other material except stone. ”

While trying to drag out the tank, the tankers chirped and discussed who was to blame. Seeing this, the infantry in the back also ran up to help, using mules and horses to drag the logs on tiptoe to spread them in the mud pits, digging up rocks to fill in the land, and they were very busy.

The 10th Panzer Division is a typical heavy unit, with a total of one armored reconnaissance company, two armored regiments, two infantry battalions, one 105 mm self-propelled heavy artillery battalion, one combat engineer battalion, one air defense battalion, two logistics fuel battalions and one transport battalion. The division totaled 252 tanks of various types, 327 armored vehicles and trucks, with a total of 15,427 people. Such a large force is already slow, and the mountain roads in Afghanistan are notoriously difficult to walk, so it's no wonder that they don't lie down.

It took more than an hour for the two tanks stuck in the mud puddle to finally be pulled out. After the sappers filled in the logs and stones, they laid a layer of steel plates on top of the Bailey bridge components, which was barely passed. Looking at the tanks and trucks moving slowly, Du Yuming finally breathed a sigh of relief and got into his command car.

But as soon as he entered the carriage, he saw Zhuo Fan's relaxed face, sitting in the command car and flipping through the map of Afghanistan, with a leisurely expression that seemed to be completely unconcerned about the delay. Du Yuming, who was so busy with a hot vest, suddenly became angry and complained: "I said that you kid, if you still have the heart to look at the map, you won't go down to help?" ”

Zhuo Fan smiled and didn't speak.

In fact, Du Yuming was really good to him, and after knowing that his junior brother was one of the few "company commanders" in the National Defense University for three consecutive years, he deliberately arranged for him to go to the company below for internship and training. Zhuo Fan did not disappoint him, from the company to the battalion, and finally to the regiment, he ran through the third level in two years, and finally squeezed into the division staff headquarters by his own ability.

Seeing that he didn't speak, Du Yuming didn't bother to pay attention to him, knowing that this kid was active, and he was the best in the war staff, but he was silent, so he picked up the kettle and poured it violently before asking, "By the way, what time is it?" ”

"The division commander can rest assured, at the current speed, he will definitely be able to reach the assembly area in the middle of the night."

"That's good, I'm really fed up with this broken road." Du Yuming smacked his lips, and was just about to look outside, when Zhuo Fan grabbed him and handed him a telegram: "Division Commander, you take a look at this first." As soon as the reconnaissance plane arrived, the Soviet troops in Kunduz increased considerably, and I estimate that the Soviet 57th Infantry Division stationed in Tashkent should have arrived. Reconnaissance aircraft also spotted at least one Soviet armored brigade, which was assembling at the railway station on the Soviet side near Termez. ”

"Got an opponent?" Du Yuming's eyes lit up. (To be continued)