In the steppe hills, thousands of horses galloped, and Cossack cavalrymen wearing cylindrical curly hats and black coats galloped across the sea, and the earth seemed to tremble.

In the cavalry ranks, there was a big man with a thick yellow beard, his name was Dientali, the commander of the 3rd Regiment of the Cossack Ural Corps, and the land where he galloped at this time was the territory of the Chinese, called Tangnu Ulianghai.

In the scorching heat of August, the sky was like a fire, and Dinentari's heart was even more hot, using the blood of the Chinese to stain the blade red, and slaughtering the citizens of this powerful eastern country, which was ten thousand times more exciting than the torture of the inferior race of the Caucasus.

The target of the cavalry regiment was Kizil, more than 100 miles ahead, which was also the military and commercial base of the Chinese in the Tangnu-Ulianghai area.

The Chinese seem to have a paranoid love for the resources of the frontier, according to the analysis of the Russian upper class, it is likely that the vast land of the Central Plains is actually lacking in resources, so that it can explain its frequent use of great efforts to mine in the frontier, such as Kizil, which is so far away from the Chinese capital, but the Chinese want to mine the coal here, and do not hesitate to use a lot of manpower to build the road from Kizil to Uriya Sutai, and the construction of the railway has started a year ago, and it is said that it will be completed next year.

Between Uriya Sutai and Dihua, the first railway in Mongolia has long been built.

Sometimes Ye Zhao also thinks that the construction of his railway trunk line is similar to the goal proposed by Yuan Shikai when he founded the country, but Yuan Shikai experienced a warlord melee just after the founding of the country, and his goal can only become a mirror.

Deintali didn't understand this, he only knew that his mission was to kill all the Chinese Tangnu Ulianghai people he saw, that is, the Tuvans in the mouth of the Russians, so as not to leak the news, and behind him, more than 200,000 Russian [***] troops had been continuously deployed.

The nearest Siberian railway city to Kizil, Abakan, is only a few hundred miles away, but it has to cross some mountains and rivers.

The Mongolian theater of operations is the main battlefield chosen by Milyutin in the war against China.

In the early stage of the war, the Western Front, where more than 300,000 troops were gathered, would take a defensive position and had already built more than 80 kilometers of trenches to resist the attack launched by the Chinese infantry sea, because according to intelligence, China had gathered more than 300,000 or 400,000 troops on the front line of Lake Bakkash in Tianhu City.

The emigrant cities and armies of the easternmost West Siberian coastline could only be abandoned, and it was inevitable that they would fall victim to this war.

But as long as the Central Mongolian Theater can realize its strategic intentions, that little sacrifice is nothing.

Surprise attack on Kizil, use the wide road from Kizil to Uriya Sutai as a transportation line, capture Uriya Sutai, if you are lucky, you can capture a few locomotives, maybe you can attack Dihua like lightning, the Chinese emperor and his headquarters, and senior officers in the army are in Dihua City, if the Chinese emperor is captured, then the war will be a miraculous victory.

Of course, Milyutin would not think that he had such good luck, his strategic intention was that when the Chinese first attacked from the Western Front, the Russian Central Route Army would attack Dihua from Uriya Sutai, and if Dihua could be overcome, it would be equivalent to cutting off the supply line of the Central [***] team, and the hundreds of thousands of Chinese troops on the Western Front would collapse without a fight.

The minimum goal of the strategic intention of the Central Route Army is to use Uriya Sutai as a springboard to threaten the hinterland of the Central Plains and find better fighters in the chaos of the Chinese.

Ten days ago, a large-scale conflict finally broke out between the Chinese and Russian armies in East Kazakhstan, and Russia immediately declared war on China, and as expected, the Chinese troops on the western front immediately invaded Russian territory and began to march towards Alexandersk. In the central Mongolian battlefield, if the battle is advanced at the fastest speed, the battle goes smoothly and with some luck, it is not difficult to achieve the highest strategic goal, and even the Chinese Western Expeditionary Army will not have time to rescue when conquering Dihua.

According to intelligence, in Uriya Sutai, the Chinese only have two group armies and some sporadic border troops, about 100,000 people, which is also normal, in the western front Balkhsh Lake to Turkestan, the Chinese have gathered more than 400,000 troops, obviously they are very confident in the defense of the hinterland, and do not think that the Russians will launch an attack in the middle of the deserted mountains, even if the Russians attack Outer Mongolia, relying on excellent transportation capacity, they can quickly organize a huge number of troops to give a head-on attack on the lone Russian army.

However, Milyutin proposed to Alexander II to attack the Chinese and Mongolian regions with heavy troops on the central front, gathering 232 infantry battalions, 191 cavalry battalions and 715 artillery pieces with a total of more than 240,000 elite people, and giving the Chinese a fatal blow in the Mongolian steppe.

A pro-Russian prince of Uriya Sutai had long promised that he would fully support the Russians in their military operations as long as the Russians helped him become the Great Khan of the Zasaktu Khan.

Although it was difficult to dismember the huge China in this war with the Chinese, the victory over China forced it to abandon the territory of the Western Regions and Siberia and accept [***] status, which was the ultimate goal of the Russians.

Dientali did not know the strategic intentions of the High Command, he only knew that he had been ordered to kill all the Chinese Tuvans who saw them, lest this excellent attack lose its meaning.

It is said that there are only tens of thousands of Tuvans, most of whom live in the Kizil area and its southern region, at least the vanguard of Dientali only encountered a Tuvan tribe of a few hundred people, hundreds of people, regardless of age, children, women and children, and were immediately killed.

Dientali waved his hand and shouted a few words, slowing slowly as the galloping cavalry whistled.

Beyond the vast steppe and desert, more than 100 miles ahead, is Kizil where the Yenisei River runs through, according to the information of the Mongol prince, Kizil is stationed in a Chinese border regiment, Dientali does not know that the intelligence comes from the Mongolian prince of China, he only knows that he has to wait for his companions, gather more than a dozen cavalry battalions to carry out a surprise attack on the Chinese, and cannot let a Chinese soldier escape.

…… When nearly 10,000 Cossack cavalry appeared on the horizon around Kizil like wild beasts, the Chinese reacted extremely quickly, with fierce tongues of fire erupting from the military pillboxes, and the fortifications composed of barbed wire and trenches were quickly occupied by the infantry, and the dense gunfire of light machine guns and rifles soon rang out on the ground.

Before the Cossack cavalry attacked, the telegraph line erected along the road to the south had long been cut off, so that although the first charge was repulsed by the Chinese bullet rain, the Cossack cavalry was not discouraged, shouting and circling in preparation for a second charge.

Dientali's eyes were red, his cavalry regiment rushed to the forefront, suffering heavy losses, and hundreds of knights flew flesh and blood in one charge, and this unsuccessful charge was obviously caused by the dispersion of the Chinese fire hastily launched from all sides.

Therefore, when the commander of the corps, Panwitz, summoned the generals to arrange tactics, Dientali stood stubbornly on his horse and ignored it.

In the town of Kizil, suddenly a huge balloon rose into the air, the balloon was fixed with iron chains, and in the hanging basket, there were faint small black dots, which should be Chinese scouts.

Dientari was stunned for a moment, the vast grasslands, forests, rivers, low mountains, standing in the sky, looking at thousands of miles, that is to say, every move of his cavalry team will be watched by the Chinese.

A cavalryman suddenly galloped in and shouted: "The Chinese released carrier pigeons!" The Chinese released carrier pigeons! ”

Deintali's heart sank even more.

Panvitz drew his saber and sharply said: "For the glory of the Cossacks!" ”

Immediately, the snow was bright and the sabers were like a forest, and there were black horses with no end in sight, and the Cossacks waved their blades and screamed, and a violent aura rose to the sky.

"Arjuna, are you afraid?" Chaganba asked his wife sideways. After the barbed wire and trench fortifications, there were hundreds of Mongol cavalry, the cavalry battalion of the Kizil border regiment, all recruited Mongol warriors.

The battalion commander, Chaganba, and his wife, Arjuna, were on a high ground in the city. Chaganba said that she was from the Zasaktu Khan tribe, and Arjuna was from the Tohuit tribe, both of whom were from poor backgrounds, and Arjuna was once a slave of the clan leader. When the empire began to abolish aristocratic privileges, exile some aristocratic bullies, appoint officials to administer the subordinate territories, and implement the system of supervision of tribal chiefs, Chaganpa, like many impoverished Mongol youths, became the vanguard of the imperial policy, launched a campaign to elect chiefs in his tribes, and soon enlisted as a glorious imperial cavalryman.

A year later, he met Arjuna, when the empire had just built a city in Kizil and resettled miners, and the previous dynasty commissioned the Tohuite tribe to rule the Tangnu Ulianghai region, which was still in the stage of slave society, and Chaganba said that he met Arjuna when he rescued the slaves of the Tohuite tribe, and the two quickly warmed up their relationship and married three years ago.

Reluctantly separated from her husband, Arjuna soon joined the hygienist training course and became an excellent hygienist, and a few months ago, she was transferred to the cavalry battalion as a squad leader.

They are also well-known husband and wife files in the border defense regiment, of course, this is specially approved by the division headquarters, after all, according to the regulations of the army, under normal circumstances, there should be no direct subordinate relationship between husband and wife.

Looking at the Cossack cavalry rolling in the distance, Arjuna's eyes lit up like stars in the sky, she was not afraid, she could meet her husband for two years, from a hellish life to heaven, even if she was facing death now, she was not afraid.

She didn't speak, just looked resolutely ahead and tugged at the gun belt on her body.

"Ulla! Ulla! "The earth-shattering roar, the scene of nearly 10,000 black pressure Cossacks charging in unison was extremely terrifying.

All around, deafening and dense gunfire rained down again, and white fog rose amid the sound of the rows of horses and guns that crushed the black and crushing Cossacks.

"Boom, boom, boom", cannon and mortar shells exploded one after another among the Cossacks, men and horses screamed, flesh and blood flew everywhere, and the Cossack cavalry who rushed to the front was immediately subjected to intensive strafing by light machine gun fire, and the cavalry and war horses that were beaten into a sieve fell one by one, and the area in front of the barbed wire fence was full of blood.

When the two infantry divisions of the Second Russian Central Route Army arrived on the battlefield quickly, the Cossacks of the eighteen battalions had been reduced by almost a third, and Kizil remained firmly in the hands of the Chinese.

The Russian infantry units built fortifications and waited for the arrival of artillery. Nikolanavich had long ordered that if the cavalry raid was unsuccessful, the vanguard must wait for fire support before launching a strong attack on the Chinese.

Mikhail? Nikolanavich was conservative and liked to fight steadily, which is why Alexander II and Milyutin chose him as the commander of the Mongolian theater of operations, and if the second general was wrong, it was easy to become a lone army in the Mongolian theater and encounter a head-on attack from the Chinese.

Three days later, the Russian troops arrived in the Kizil area, and the conservative Mikhail? Nikolanavich even left two divisions scattered to maintain his supply lines, which were impossible to attack.

During these three days, more than 30,000 Russian infantry launched a fierce attack on Kizil, the artillery fire almost leveled the entire town, and the Chinese artillery positions had long been muted, although they broke through the first line of defense of the Chinese, but the hill bunkers built by the forest at the western end of the hill quickly formed a second position, and in the broken walls destroyed by artillery fire, the Chinese soldiers stubbornly resisted the Russian attack.

When Mikhail? Nikolanavich was stunned for a long time when he listened to the military briefings of his generals on the banks of the Yenisei River, and he was greatly surprised that a fully manned infantry regiment in China, which was said to number about four or five thousand men, including its armed logisticians, had maintained extremely resilient combat effectiveness without artillery support.

Although he repeatedly warned himself from the bottom of his heart not to despise the Chinese, the performance of the Chinese [***] team still shocked him.

"Lord Duke, I propose that my corps take over the attack on the Chinese!"

The middle-aged general with a grim face who spoke at the long table was Mikhail, the commander of the 3rd Division of the 2nd Army Corps of the Mongolian Theater of Operations? Ivanovic? Dragomirov, a well-known Russian military theorist, denied firepower and advocated the eternal bayonet.

The position held by the Chinese is dangerous and unsuitable for a large army to attack.

Mikhail? Nikolanavich nodded slightly and asked the general beside him: "Are you ready to attack Uriya Sutai?" He did not care about this little episode of the stubborn resistance of the Chinese infantry battalion, from the overall strategic point of view, even if the Chinese held out for a long time, they only needed to send a small number of troops to besiege it, and there was always a chance of surrender.

The Chinese should have known about the attack on Kizil, but their intelligence may not be accurate, because when the carrier pigeons were released, it was only the Cossack cavalry that besieged Kizil, and the Chinese would not easily judge that they would trek through mountains and rivers to invade Outer Mongolia on a large scale, and even if they learned about it, it had nothing to do with it.

Now the Chinese [***] team must be on the way to emergency assistance, set up an ambush between Kizil and Uriya Sutai, crush the Chinese rescue team, eat the two Chinese army groups in Uriya Sutai, and then attack Dihua, this is Mikhail's strategy.

The main forces of the Chinese are on the western front, and they are marching to Alexandersk, and it is difficult to defend in a short time, not to mention that the spies of Tianhu City have already received orders to destroy the Chinese railway line, and it is not very difficult to blow up several sections of its railways out of the desert section from Alishan Pass to Tianhu City, and in East Kazakhstan, a cavalry battalion has been deployed to blow up the Chinese railway.

Without railway support, its corps on the Western Front had nothing to worry about.

It is foreseeable that after the annihilation of China's two armies in Uriya Sutai, the Chinese [***] team they faced was more of a reserve force with low combat effectiveness, and they had the support of the Mongols, and it was not a difficult goal to conquer Dihua, an important town in the northwest of the Chinese.

Listen to the Grand Duke's question, the commander of the Second Legion, Joseph? Vladimirovich? Gurko said: "After a short rest, we will launch an attack on Uriya Sutai. ”

Mikhail? Nikolanavich stood up, looked at the huge military map hanging behind him, held his chin, and silently pondered.

(To be continued)