Amid the rumbling artillery fire coming from Manchuria in the distance, the small city of Gobaikalsk in Russia was already a scene of large troops. Red officers and men of the brigade were pouring in from the improvised road northwest of the town, and they were accompanied by a caravan of baggage as far as the eye could see. All were European-style carriages with four wheels, some were wagons, others were luxurious carriages with elaborate decorations. But now they were all stuffed with all sorts of supplies or weapons and ammunition, dragged along by tall Don hippos or dwarf Mongolian horses...... At present, the railway from Chita to Manchuria has not been repaired, and the logistics of the hundreds of thousands of Soviet Russian Red Army troops on the front line can only be maintained by these wagons collected from all over Siberia.

The terminus of this supply line, which was maintained by horse-drawn carriages, was the Zabaikalsk railway station, which had already been urgently expanded by the Red Army sappers, with the addition of a large number of warehouses and the widening of the road in and out of the station. After the carriage entered the station, it would drive to the front of different warehouses according to the materials they carried, and the Mongolian people and the soldiers of the Red Army's baggage troops who were waiting there would unload the goods as quickly as possible. What ammunition, rations, military uniforms, weapon parts, fodder, gun oil, various revolutionary books and leaflets printed in Russian or Chinese...... All sorts of imaginable and unexpected things were unloaded from the wagons and sent to the warehouses, where they were quickly distributed to the Red officers and soldiers on the Manchurian front. In this modern war in which China, Japan and Russia participated, what really decided the outcome was not the millions of soldiers fighting on the front line, but the long supply lines behind the battle line, as well as the national strength of the various countries that supported the supply lines!

If it is replaced by the Russian Empire before World War I. It is not at all difficult to maintain this kind of consumption. However, the current Soviet Russia, under the slogan of "one qiē for the front", used the method of overdrawing the national strength and people's strength to take away the last rations and livestock in the hands of countless peasants to support the consumption of the war!

Although the political bureau in Moscow and the Red officers and soldiers at the front were confident in the liberation of the Far East, the liberation of Mongolia and the liberation of Manchuria. But the officials in charge of production and domestic supplies were already in a hurry, and there were even a few counter-revolutionaries who had been blinded by their conscience openly warned the organization that Russia was about to face an unprecedented famine...... It's so shameless, who doesn't know that Russia never starved to death.

Belch. This is a Russian proverb, but the great Russian GCD has shattered this absurd myth and created the miracle of starving tens of millions of people. Now the first Holodomor in the history of Soviet Russia is coming! And the famine was the first to break out. I'm afraid it's Trans-Baikal province, which has just been liberated. The first thing the Council of People's Commissars of the Far Eastern SSR did when they came to power was to raise livestock and food for the front without a single measure, and the hundreds of thousands of refugees and residents in Chita were barely supplied, and all the grain stocks in all the shops selling grain in the city were requisitioned! Heavily armed machine-gun requisition teams were sent around Chita to snatch the last rations of the peasants and herdsmen. At the same time, the Cheka warriors began to fulfill their duties. All the nobles, capitalists, landlords, kulaks, and White Guard officers were arrested and executed!

Many more are being detained...... They are certainly not reactionaries, and there is no surplus grain to feed them in the Far East! They were arrested as hostages! A government should take ordinary civilians under its jurisdiction as hostages! This kind of thing is of course very revolutionary, very progressive! Because it was created by the great teacher Lenin, and it is part of Leninism!

And the overall leadership of the Far East's revolutionary actions such as the suppression of the rebellion, the requisition of grain, and the arrest of hostages were none other than Shumyatsky, secretary of the Russian Far East Bureau, and his deputy Zhang Guotao. These two men are now accompanying the "Minister of Mission" Comrade Stalin on the road to Zabaikalsk in a comfortable luxury carriage.

Stalin seemed to be keen on playing the role of military commander-in-chief, and although he was not very proficient in military affairs, he was willing to appear at the operational meetings of the Eastern Front to make the final decision on behalf of Skryansky. Now he is on his way to Zabaikalsk with the command of the Eastern Front.

Looking at the convoy of transports that could not be seen outside the car window, Stalin's eyebrows furrowed slightly: "Comrade Shumyatsky, the Red Army may enter Manchuria in November (now the Soviet Russian side considers that the west of the Great Khingan Mountains is not part of China. So the Red Army has not yet entered Manchuria) to fight, and the railway line from Chita to Manchuria must be repaired by the end of November! In addition, more horses and food had to be raised. ”

"There is no problem in repairing the railway, there is enough labor in Chita, but it is not easy to raise horses and food." Shumyatsky was a figure on Trotsky's baseline. Not taking Stalin's instructions to heart, he looked at Zhang Guotao, who was sitting side by side with Stalin, and said: "I think it is possible to raise supplies on the spot in Manchuria, which is an important grain-producing area in China. ”

Stalin looked at Zhang Guotao and asked, "Zhang, what do you think?" Will enough supplies be raised from Manchuria? ”

"There is no problem, Manchuria is very rich. You can raise as much as you want! Zhang Guotao's answer did not hesitate at all.

Stalin smiled with satisfaction, and just wanted to say a few words of praise, when he heard the sound of horses' hooves coming from far and near, and then Stalin's carriage stopped, and his secretary opened the door, and reported with a somewhat solemn expression: "Comrade Stalin, the report of the 1st Cavalry Group, one of their cavalry brigades was defeated by a Japanese cavalry division of about 15,000 people near Hailar in Mongolia, with a loss of 2,000 people, including Comrade Zhukov, the commander of the cavalry brigade!" ”

With a gloomy face, Stalin took the report from the secretary's hand and looked at it again. The report, written by Skryansky, a member of the Eastern Front, described the tragic battle in as much detail as possible. The commander of the cavalry brigade, Zhukov, was betrayed by a traitor and fell into an ambush by the Japanese army, and in order to defeat the red cavalry brigade led by him, the Japanese army mobilized 15,000 cavalry, and finally paid nearly 4,000 casualties to defeat Zhukov's cavalry brigade, and Zhukov himself was hit by ten bullets. He also slashed and killed seven murderous Japanese soldiers with a knife, and finally pulled the grenade on his body and killed five enemies together!

"!" Stalin threw the report back to his secretary and said coldly: "Go and tell Comrade Sù Skryansky that a campaign to learn from the heroic deeds of Comrade Zhukov will be launched throughout the Eastern Front...... Also, go and send a telegram to Voroshilov and ask how long he can stop the Chinese? I want to hear the truth! ”

The secretary did not leave immediately, but took out a telegram and stuffed it to Stalin: "Comrade Voroshilov has already sent a telegram. ”

Stalin opened the telegram and looked at it twice. His face was a little gloomy again, and he scolded in a low voice: "A bunch of fools! Then he asked his secretary: "How much time do you have left to get to Zabaikalsk?" ”

"There's still five hours to go."

Stalin nodded: "I can't wait that long, go and inform Comrade Slyeksky and Comrade Frunze." I am convening an emergency military meeting. ”

……

The emergency military meeting was held in an abandoned chapel where huge maps had been hung and several long-wave radios had been set up. Antennas were also erected so that the decisions of the military council could be handed down to the troops in a timely manner. Both Frunze and Skryansky also received an urgent report from the 1st Cavalry Army - about 10,000 Japanese cavalry broke through and left before the encirclement in Manchuria closed! In other words, counting the Japanese cavalry division that ambushed Zhukov near Hailar, there are now about 25,000 Japanese cavalry in the Hulunbuir steppe! This number is almost equal to the number of cavalry that the 1st Cavalry Army has.

Standing in front of the map, Skryansky pointed to the Hulunbuir steppe above and said: "There may be 25,000 Japanese cavalry and the same number of Chinese cavalry there, and the cavalry of the First Cavalry Group Army and the Mongolian People's Revolutionary Army may not be enough to suppress them!"

It is estimated that the Chinese reinforcements, carrying a large number of supplies, will soon move west from Yakeshi, which is only 250 kilometers away from Manchuria in a straight line, and if no one stops them, they will reach Manchuria in 10 days at most! That is, we will either send blocking troops. Or complete the task of annihilating the Japanese army in Manchuria within 10 days! ”

"Comrade Frunze, what is your Jianyì?" Stalin asked Frunze.

Frunze frowned: "Our strength is not enough to defeat the Japanese army in Manchuria and the reinforced Chinese army at the same time. So we have to choose a key target to start with. Either siege or send reinforcements...... If we choose to attack the city, we will pay heavy losses, and it is very likely that we will not be able to defeat Manchuria before the Chinese reinforcements arrive! That's why I suggested that we focus our operations on striking the reinforcements of the Chinese army. Draw 200,000 troops from around Manchuria and march east to meet the Chinese army! Such strength should be able to crush them in one fell swoop! ”

Stalin asked again: "How many men are left of the Red Army that surrounded Manchuria?" Will the Japanese take the opportunity to break through? ”

"It's less than 150,000. However, we can leave most of the heavy artillery in Manchuria to suppress the Japanese and give them the illusion that the main force of our army is still around Manchuria. ”

"How long can this hypothesis last? What if the Japanese find out? Stalin pondered: "We cannot take such a risk, once the Japanese army breaks through, our 150,000 men who remain in Manchuria will suffer heavy losses, and the 200,000 people who advance east will lose their way back!" ”

"Then let's focus our attack on Manchuria, and at the same time let the First Cavalry Army delay the Chinese army as much as possible. It is estimated that it will take 12 days. ”

Stalin shook his head again and again: "Can more than 200,000 Japanese troops be annihilated in 12 days?" We fought in Chita for more than a month and didn't defeat them, and if it weren't for the excellent performance of the First Cavalry Group, we would still be under Chita City by now! I think we still have to think about repelling the Chinese reinforcements first. It's just that there is no need to use 200,000 people, the revisionist army does not have much combat effectiveness, and 100,000 people should be able to defeat them! ”

Hearing Stalin's instructions, Frunze showed a hesitant expression. He estimated that the Chinese army might send 3 or 4 armies, plus 25,000 Japanese cavalry, and the total strength could exceed 200,000! It will also carry a considerable amount of heavy artillery, and use 100,000 Red Army to defeat them, I'm afraid it's a bit reluctant, right? However, it cannot be said that it must not be able to fight, the other side is a revisionist army that does not have much actual combat experience and its training level is so-so, and it cannot be compared with the Japanese army and the Red Army!

Come to think of it. He bowed his head and said to Stalin: "Dispatch 3 corps, plus 5 heavy artillery regiments and 2 base shells, it should be able to defeat more than 200,000 revisionist troops." ”

Stalin nodded with satisfaction, looked at Zhang Guotao, who was attending the meeting, and said with a smile: "Comrade Zhang Guotao, prepare to take over Manchuria...... I think you can form a Chinese Soviet Socialist Republic. You can also convene a special meeting of the Central Committee of China's GCD and expel Chen Duxiu, Chang Ruiqing, Mao ZD and others from the party! At the same time, we call on the Chinese working class to rise up against revisionist rule! ”

……

The clouds were low and the snow was falling.

A cold wind blowing from Siberia. swept across the entire Hulunbuir grassland. In the former enemy headquarters of the Northeast Front in the county seat of Yakeshi County, the Wehrmacht officers stood straight in the playground. These were the battalions and commanders of the four infantry corps and one artillery group belonging to the newly formed Middle East Route Army and the battalion commanders above the battalion level, as well as the staff officers of the group army headquarters and the front army headquarters of the former enemy.

This army group had concentrated almost all of China's military forces in North Manchuria. Including the 1st, 7th, and 11th armies of the Wehrmacht brought from Kwantung, as well as the 1st Army of the Northeast Army, which was originally stationed in North Manchuria, and an artillery cluster composed of two Chinese heavy artillery brigades and four Japanese heavy artillery wings, in addition to a Sino-Japanese combined cavalry cluster of more than 20,000 people in Hailar City, which was also under the command of this group army. The total strength of the army group will reach nearly 210,000, and it will have as many as 288 large-caliber artillery pieces of more than 100mm!

Behind this large army, there is also a huge logistics support force specially organized by the Military Commission and the Heilongjiang Provincial Government, more than 100,000 people, tens of thousands of carts, mules and horses, and hundreds of trucks that have just been imported from the United States. They were to carry tens of thousands of tons of ammunition and supplies with the Middle East Route Army, most of which were used to supply the main Japanese army of 15 divisions in Manchuria. If the main forces of the Middle East Route Army and the Japanese Xianbeilian Army can meet the division. It will be enough to turn the tide of the current battle.

The sound of boots was loud. A platoon of officers walked out of a school building that was used as a headquarters and walked briskly to a podium in front of the playground. The leader is General Bai Chongxi, who personally served as the commander of the Middle East Road Group Army, and on his left and right are also the generals of Chang Ruiqing's lineage, Xia Wei and Cai Zhonghu, who graduated from the third phase of Baoding. The former was the deputy commander of the group army and the commander of the Seventh Army. The latter was the chief of artillery of the army group and the commander of the artillery group.

In the midst of the snowstorm, Bai Chongxi looked at the middle and senior officers lined up in the playground under his command, and nodded his head heavily. He took an order from the adjutant and read it aloud: "All the officers and men of the Middle East Road Army!" Today, October 24, we officially received an order from the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress issued by the Beijing Xingyuan! The Northeast Front immediately launched an operation to rescue the Japanese friendly forces in Manchuria! The main forces of the front army must be determined to the greatest extent and sacrifice at all costs. Go west with all your might. Fight a decisive battle against the Soviet and Russian imperialism that invaded our country on the Hulunbuir grassland!

Officers and men of the Wehrmacht, officers and men of the Middle East Route Army, this battle of ours is not fought for the Japanese army besieged in Manchuria! Rather, it is a war for the more than 2 million square kilometers of land that have been ceded from our country by Tsarist Russian imperialism for decades! It is to fight to recover Mongolia, which fell under the iron heel of Soviet Russia! It is to fight for my majestic China to rise in the east of Asia! It is so that the Eastern and Western powers can fight for me on an equal footing from now on! It is to fight for the future national fortune of China! If we win this battle, our China will surely rise to the top of the world! If defeated, they will become vassals of red imperialism! There will never be a day to turn over!

Here, as the commander of the Middle East Road Group Army, I, Bai Chongxi, order you to fight with your best strength! Go and use our corpses and Soviet Russia to pave a road to rejuvenation for our China!

Middle Road Army, go! Long live the Republic of China! ”

Under the heavy snowfall, Bai Chongxi took the lead in raising his arms and shouting, and the thousands of young officers below also let out majestic cheers!

On the afternoon of October 24, 1919, the Middle East Road Army, which concentrated all the elite of the Chinese army in the North Manchurian region, swore to march in Yakeshi. The infantry of the brigade as far as the eye could see, hundreds of trucks with heavy artillery, more horse-drawn artillery, and heavy wagons carrying supplies, formed a mighty long line in the heavy snow, rolling westward. Prepare to go to the front and start a big battle with the Russian Red Army that will determine the future and fate of the country!

At the same time, the order signed by the Military Council of the Eastern Front of Soviet Russia to launch a reinforcement campaign on the Middle East Road was also issued to the headquarters of the First Cavalry Group outside the siege of Manchuria. According to the instructions of the Military Committee of the Eastern Front, 130,000 troops, including the First Cavalry Army of the Red Army, the Fifth Army, the First Artillery Group directly under the Eastern Front, and the Mongolian People's Revolutionary Army, will form the Middle East Road Campaign Cluster, with Budyonny as the commander of the campaign cluster and Voroshilov as the political commissar. The mission of this campaign cluster is to advance eastward along the Middle East Road, find the main force of the Chinese invading army to start a decisive battle, and annihilate or defeat it!

Create conditions for the complete liberation of Mongolia, Manchuria and the Far East! ……)

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