In the command of the 2nd Ukrainian Front of the USSR, there was a tense atmosphere. As happened to the 45th Tank Brigade, half an hour ago, all the radios here were out of action. The staff officers were sweating profusely, but no matter how hard they tried, there was still a noisy rustle on the radio.

"It must be a ghost made by the Chinese!" The tall Admiral Gilbernos, whose face was pale, as the former commander of the Southwestern Front, had been on the front line since the beginning of the war. Unfortunately, the Southwestern Front, which had the best performance in the East Kazakh campaign, suffered heavy losses due to underestimation of its opponents, and then suffered heavy losses in the spring and summer offensive last year. Although the newly formed Second Ukrainian Front had 40 divisions, the combat effectiveness of the troops was much inferior to that of the old ones, having lost a large number of experienced veterans. Therefore, he knows very well that the more this kind of green and yellow is not available, the more it is necessary for commanders at all levels to calm and coordinate. But when the enemy was counterattacking, the radio lost its effect, which made him very worried.

The heavy pressure overwhelmed him and the front army. Although Sarekopa is not the main theater of operations, it is the center connecting the north and the south. If it is lost, it will have a negative impact on Kokshetau and Irgiz. "Are the cavalry back?" So after learning that the radio was out of service, he sent a large number of cavalry to contact the troops to understand the situation.

"Some haven't come back yet." The commander of the 5th Army, Major General Potapov, wrinkled his eyebrows in pain. He was the commander of the 5th Army of the Southwestern Front, and because he did not participate in the previous battles, his unit was the only remaining complete army group of the Southwestern Front, and it was also the most important reserve in the hands of Kirponos. "This is what we know now, the enemy is attacking from the north and south sections of Lake Sarecopa at the same time. Comrade Jankovic said that there are at least five or six divisions on the Taush front in the south. The situation in Saga in the north was also serious, and the commissar of Powers replied that the enemy had thrown in a very large amount of heavy artillery, and the entire fortified area was seriously damaged. And here, here, all under attack. But the exact amount of the enemy will not know until the cavalry returns. ”

"The situation is serious, Comrade Commander! On such a large scale, it must be a full-scale counterattack, so please let me lead the troops up. Potapov asked.

Kilponos's face sank like water, his hands propped up on the edge of his table, staring at the attacking arrows that appeared simultaneously north and south of the lake on the map, his mind hesitating. It's easy to go up in reserve, but in which direction should it be sent? The Sarecopa Line is 50 kilometres wide and the lake is 10 kilometres long. If the communication is smooth. Relying on the reserves of the 5th Army and several cavalry divisions, it was still possible to maneuver with the opponent. But now that the communication is paralyzed and it is impossible to determine the direction of the enemy's main attack, rashly throwing into the reserves will only cause greater losses!

Did the enemy go south, break through Taush and cross the Grand Canyon and outflank the rear of Irgiz? Or storm Saga and threaten Kostanay through the plateau? Intelligence, intelligence! He is now in desperate need of an accurate intelligence feedback!

"Speed up!" On the edge of the forest in the southeast of the Turkai Plateau, Colonel Skorohod led his 9th Cavalry Division in a rapid advance in the night. This is a cavalry division formed in the winter of 1940 in the Krasnoyarsk and Tomsk regions. Most of the troops were fierce Cossack cavalry. Originally, his mission was to defend Central Siberia, but in the defeat of last winter, Zhukov and Rokossovsky withdrew them to the Urals in order to preserve their strength. It is this order. Only then did the 9th Cavalry Division survive and be incorporated into the 2nd Ukrainian Front three months earlier. Kirponos was well aware that the Chinese army was more mechanized than the Soviet army, and putting the cavalry on the front was tantamount to death. So he deployed the 9th Cavalry Division in the southeast of the plateau. Serve as a reserve.

As soon as the battle began, Colonel Skorohod received an order from his command to immediately assemble his forces and prepare to support the junction of the forest and the plateau. But what made him uneasy was. After the troops were on the road, no matter how hard he tried, the telegrams sent out were like a stone sinking into the sea. What's wrong? "Got in touch?" Colonel Skorohod slowed down and asked about the situation next to the communications carriage on the racetrack. "Still no response, and."

"And what?"

"I don't know, it's all noise on the radio, and the closer you get to it, the more noise it gets." The communications corps did not dare to hide it.

"Those factory bitches know that deception is shoddy! They should all be killed! "The hot-tempered Colonel Skorohod thought it was a broken radio station and scolded the factory and the workers." Faster! Something must have happened, so that everyone is ready to fight at any time. ”

"Divisional Commander, Divisional Commander!" After Colonel Skorohod gave the order to continue to speed up, a reconnaissance cavalryman hurried from the front of the line: "Division commander, there seems to be movement ahead. ”

"What's going on?"

"Sounds like the sound of a truck, lots of it! Comrade Company Commander has already gone up, and he asked me to report to you. ”

"Get ready to fight! Let tanks and armored vehicles come quickly! Go, set up the cannons, and wait for my orders. As soon as the scout cavalry finished speaking, Colonel Skorohod immediately ordered preparations for battle. The Cossack cavalry, which once made the whole of Eurasia sleep, worthy of being the best cavalry in the world, and as soon as the order was given, thousands of cavalry completed the offensive transformation in the dark.

To enhance the combat capability of the cavalry, Soviet cavalry divisions were equipped with fast tanks and armored vehicles. For example, the 9th Cavalry Division has 22 T26, 44 BT7 tanks and 16 Ba10 armored vehicles, as well as 8 122mm howitzers, 24 76mm cannon howitzers, 16 82mm mortars, and 16 45mm anti-tank guns. At the beginning of last year, it was also armed with 12 37-mm anti-aircraft guns and 18 anti-aircraft machine guns.

The reconnaissance cavalry did not lie about the military situation, and they were met by the 66th Mechanized Infantry Division and the 1st Tajik Armored Regiment, which followed Sun Liren and entered the plateau from the forest area. When the reconnaissance company of the 9th Cavalry Division crossed the hill, it was immediately startled by the sight in the moonlight. I saw hundreds of tanks and trucks, speeding north along the hills ahead. "Tanks! We were discovered! Get your grenades ready! "The reconnaissance company commander knew that with such a small number of troops, rushing forward was not enough for people to shoot with machine guns. But just as he was about to retreat, a team of hundreds of tanks and armored vehicles suddenly broke away from the large force on the opposite side and rushed at high speed in the direction of the 9th Cavalry Division.

This sudden division of troops made the commander of the Soviet reconnaissance company mistakenly think that he had been discovered by the other side, so he had to attack hard.

In fact, he misjudged that the armored reconnaissance company of the 66th Division and the 1st Tajik Armored Regiment, which were moving towards him, did not find him at all, and the reason why they divided their troops. It's because of the special terrain here.

The average elevation of the Turkige Plateau is only a few hundred meters, but it is a table-shaped plateau of remnant hills, salt lakes, canyons and basins. The central part is a depression, the north is a steppe belt and agricultural reclamation area, and the south is a semi-desert area with many mineral deposits, which is the most important iron ore base in Kustanay and even the Urals industrial region. It was intimidating to armored units, not because of the altitude, but because of the rolling hills and numerous canyons, which made it difficult for large forces to pass quickly. If it weren't for Zhuo Fan's invention of the dispersed breakthrough, then the concentration. Finally, Liu Mingzhao did not dare to rashly let the heavily armed troops move in this place where they were easily ambushed.

Therefore, as soon as the 66th Division reached the plateau, Wang Wenshan dispersed the three armored regiments in his hand and assaulted according to the plan. But what I didn't expect was that this time the mistake happened to make the Soviet reconnaissance company mistakenly think that the main force was discovered, so it had to use the attack to warn the companions behind. "It's Soviet cavalry! Quickly, inform the division commander that there is Soviet cavalry activity nearby. Attention all, the 4422 offensive formation! "Commander of the 1st Armored Regiment in Tajikistan. Major Liu Jianguo, who graduated from the Baoding Armored Forces Academy, immediately sounded the battle alarm.

"One battalion, one company, fire! Two and three companies surrounded the two wings, and the rest of the vehicles continued to advance, and they must rush over the hill before the enemy! Liu Jianguo quickly gave the order.

The Tajik tank crews, who participated in the war for the first time, did not fail the efforts of the Chinese instructors. The 14 Type 31 'Golden Leopard' tanks of one battalion and one company were the first to slow down and fire, and the other two companies also quickly spread out to the flanks. "Boom." A series of orange-red fireballs, particularly striking in the night. 12 70-mm tank guns, firing incessantly at the Soviet reconnaissance cavalry company. However, the cavalry charged at high speed was suppressed with artillery. The effect was not very good, so soon the company switched to machine gun synchronous firing.

Heavy artillery fire and machine guns inflicted heavy losses on the cavalry reconnaissance company, which did not rush to the tanks. and they were all killed. But their sacrifice also bought Colonel Skorohod time, and as soon as the cannon fired, he realized that he was most likely confronted by an armored unit. Of course, he wasn't stupid enough to use cavalry to attack an unknown number of tank troops, so he immediately accelerated his tanks, and the cavalry made a detour to the flanks, trying to make the cavalry charge quickly and use the latest RPG40 anti-tank grenades to carry out a close attack after the tanks were entangled.

When the cavalry drew their grenades and made a detour to the flanks, 66 T26 and BT7 finally played the role of fast tanks and rushed up the hill first. "Not good! Second battalion, set fire to destroy them! Watch out for the cavalry all around! Don't let them come close! As soon as he saw the Soviet tanks in the moonlight, Liu Jianguo secretly said that it was not good. Because he knew very well that the 1st Tajik Panzer Regiment in the first battlefield would be difficult to cope with the joint attack of the Tancai, he immediately called the 66th Division, hoping to get support.

The fastest reaction was the armored reconnaissance company of the 66th Mechanized Infantry Division that acted with them. As soon as they saw the Soviet tanks, 14 reconnaissance 'Golden Leopard' tanks rushed forward. After the Siberian Tigers gradually became the main force, the Golden Leopards began to take on the task of reconnaissance and accompanying infantry at the beginning of the war, or to provide support to some important allies. But it is undeniable that even in the face of the latest T34/85 of the Soviet Army, the 'Golden Leopard' is still a very good medium tank. Tilted armor combined with a 70 mm / L50 cannon is extremely lethal.

Although the BT7 and T26 are fast, they really can't stop the onslaught of the 'Golden Leopard', and the 45mm main gun can't even penetrate the opponent's armor at zero distance. By the time the 1st Tajik Tank Regiment rushed up the hill, 25 of the 66 Soviet tanks had been destroyed, and the rest were all under passive attack. However, the tenacious Soviet tank crews still won an opportunity for the cavalry, taking advantage of poor vision at night and shelter from the hills, more than 5,000 Cossack cavalry quickly rushed into the armored regiment from both flanks.

"Watch out for grenades! Left! Rumble! "Two Cossack cavalrymen, dodging machine guns, approached a 'Golden Leopard' from the side and rear and threw RPG40 anti-tank grenades into the position of the engine compartment cover. It is a giant grenade that uses the powerful explosive force of a large charge to carry out destruction, and looks like a tin can with a handle. With a diameter of 95 mm and a 200-gram TNT charge inside, the process is also very simple, and it has a strong ability to destroy the top of the tank and the engine compartment cover. The hatch, which was only 30 mm thick, could not withstand such a powerful explosion, so the tank that was hit immediately burst into flames.

"Machine guns, machine guns!"

Hundreds of machine guns roared and hissed at the shouts of the officers, and they continued to fire in all directions. In the terrible barrage, the elite Cossack cavalry fell in pieces. It could be seen that Colonel Skorohod's heart was bleeding. But the Cossacks also lived up to their demeanor as the world's most elite cavalry, sacrificing their lives to launch a ** charge under the rain of bullets. Tanks were constantly hit by grenades and caught fire, and those tank men who crawled out were mercilessly slaughtered by the cavalry without exception.

Although the 1st Armored Regiment of Tajikistan is not a national defense force, Liu Jianguo still has a lot of affection for this unit that he has brought out through training. However, the poor experience and the tension of the first battle made it impossible for the troops to give full play to even half of their strength, and if it were not for the protection of the armored reconnaissance company of the 66th Division, I am afraid that the casualties would have been even greater. Just when he was in a hurry, the RPG40 anti-tank grenade, although it was not a hollow charge, was not small, and tanks were constantly being hit.

At a critical time when the 1st Tajik Panzer Regiment was in disarray. A series of more dense bullets suddenly poured from behind.

Dozens of 'hound' wheeled armored vehicles of the 66th Infantry Light Armored Battalion of the 66th Mechanized Infantry Division climbed up from the north side of the hill. Wheeled vehicles have poor survivability, most of them are 40mm rapid-fire guns and heavy machine guns, but they are much more agile than tracked vehicles, and rapid-fire firepower is better suited against cavalry. Rapid-fire guns using fragmentation grenades can also completely ignore the damage to friendly tanks, so the 'hounds' of the infantry lightly armored battalion don't need to aim at all, just aim at the mixed battle circle. In the face of the strangulation of a total of more than a hundred tanks and armored vehicles, the courage of the 9th Cavalry Division of the Soviet Army completely collapsed in front of steel. The steady stream of armored vehicles also made Colonel Skorohod realize that he was afraid that there was a complete armored division in front of him, so he had to leave thousands of corpses and retreat westward. But he is much better than Ponov. Didn't forget to send cavalry to inform the command.

"What! A large number of tanks into the plateau? Damn it! Tell me, where?! ”

When Kirponos received the news, it was already two hours later. As the cavalry panted and pointed out the place of encounter, a hot flash rushed to his nose. "Bastard! This bastard Bonov! Why didn't he report it. Why! ”

Kilbonos was furious, because he knew very well that if the 9th Cavalry Division was encountering a complete Chinese armored division. I'm afraid I won't be able to hold even an hour. This means that the enemy has been out of the combat zone for at least an hour! Even with complex terrain, mechanized marching guarantees a speed of 30 kilometers per hour. The nearest 5th Army was 40 kilometers from the encounter point, so even if the 5th Army set out to pursue it now, it would already be difficult to catch up. But that's not all, it's more important! The radio was still unusable, and according to the cavalry who came to report, it would take at least three hours to get out of the jamming of China's mysterious weapons.

It was already 4 a.m., that is, at least until 7 a.m., before the news could be sent to the theater command and Lukin in Kokshetau. Fate seemed intent on tormenting Kirponos and the Ural 2nd Army, and before they could figure out a solution, an urgent message came from the Saga line north of the Sarekopa Lake. Li Yuguo concentrated a total of 600 tanks of the 7th Mechanized Infantry Division, the 19th Mechanized Infantry Division, the 4th Amphibious Armored Regiment of the Army, the 2nd and 3rd Kazakh Armored Regiments, and the 5th Polish Armored Brigade, and broke through the defense line of the Turkai River from 17 kilometers north of Saga.

This means that it is impossible for Kilponos to send cavalry in pursuit. "Immediately organize the cavalry to set off with the radio, and in any case, the news must be told to General Timoshenko as soon as possible! Then command the aviation division, search for the enemy's whereabouts at any cost! Comrade Potapov, please immediately set off with the 5th Army, and the gap must be plugged no matter what! ”

Dozens of Soviet cavalrymen here rushed out with the radio on their backs, and Li Yuguo over there also took out the chess pieces at the bottom of the box.

Behind the gap opened by the armored cluster, the energetic General Li Yuguo and Deputy Commander Dai Jintang stood side by side, looking at the troops crossing the river, remembering the battle report received in the afternoon, and sighed in their hearts: "Lao Du's battle was fought miserably." ”

"yes. The battle report said that the two armies only withdrew more than 60,000, plus more than 20,000 who were injured and evacuated early, and lost more than 50,000 soldiers in the first battle! Hey, I don't know if he'll make it through this. Dai Jintang also nodded. Both of them are friends of Du Zishan. In that year, Du Zishan became famous in the Battle of Rainwell, and they were also led by Yue Peng, on the Bazangkul Heights, to block the impact of the 8 elite divisions of the German army, and finally completed the Battle of Rainivale, which established the image of the best people. Now the three of them are already generals, and they all have gray temples, so they are very worried about the loss of their old friends.

"Chief of Staff Liu is right, it's time to help him." Li Yuguo took a deep breath and beckoned to the officers who were waiting next to him, their faces full of excitement and ready to attack. "Remember! Don't be in love! Armored clusters will help you fend off your pursuers. I remember one sentence, after passing through the war zone, immediately take a long detour to the south, and be sure to block the road from Irgiz to Aktobinsk (now Aktobe) before sunrise tomorrow! ”

"Kilponos, Malinovsky, Zhukov, I want to see how they jump out this time! Let's go! ”

In Li Yuguo and Dai Jintang's departure order, three light armored battalions composed of Type 26 fast tanks and wheeled 'hound' armored vehicles, and four Kazakh and Tajik cavalry divisions, with a total of 70,000 soldiers, swooped down on the rear of Irgiz in the southwest...... (To be continued......)