A group of fortresses, seven fortified fortresses of all sizes, 11 No. 20 ground-penetrating bombs, the loss of three dive bombers, the death of one pilot, and the wounding of one are the answers handed over by the special pilots of the sea and air forces. From 8 a.m. local time, in just five hours, the long-troubled area of the siege of the Bazar Gang was opened. The fortified area, which had long been blown up by railway artillery, could not stop the swarming armored clusters. By seven o'clock in the evening, the northern gate of Tashkent was smashed open by a swarm of tanks, and two divisions of the South Kazakh Army and the Polish Corps, totaling 350,000 troops, rolled south along the Isthmus of Zhga.

The success of the No. 20 bomb finally gave the Air Force the ability to deal with reinforced fortresses. On the day they received the news, the Urumqi, Baotou and Shenyang No. 3 factories cut off and modified dozens of captured Soviet B4 203-mm gun barrels to prepare ammunition for several other fortresses. At the same time, the Shenyang factory also produced a mass-produced No. 20 bomb in accordance with the artillery steel process, and two months later developed an 800-kilogram light No. 21 bomb and a 2,000-kilogram extra-heavy No. 23 bomb, and a total of 3,527 ground-penetrating bombs were delivered throughout the war, helping the army quickly conquer a series of solid underground bunkers and fortresses.

But for Apanashchenko, who was bent on using the Tashkent fortress to consume and hold back the main forces of the Wehrmacht and buy time for the counterattack, the news was like a bolt from the blue. "What?!" In the underground command post of the Tashkent fortress, known as the Stone City, he could not believe it when he received the report. The group of fortresses, which had been blocking for a month, was destroyed in a row in a few hours, and at once he and the Uzbek Front were pushed into a desperate situation. He had always believed that he would be able to hold out until at least August, and if he was lucky, even until winter, thus completely shattering the Wehrmacht's dream of leveling and consolidating the Central Asian defense line by the end of the 40s.

"I have ordered the troops to deploy a new defensive line in Chilchik, but our tanks are seriously insufficient, and the anti-tank forces are also poor, and Chilchik is a field fortification that is difficult to stop." Sheko Chief of Staff raised his wrist and looked at his watch: "Since the enemy can destroy the Zhrga fortress, then the Almazar fortress in the south is probably also dangerous, so it is necessary to strengthen the defense along the Syr Darya River and prevent the enemy from erecting pontoon bridges to cross the river." ”

Apanashchenko had lost his cool and repeatedly paced around the room, asking: "What about Samarkand?" ”

"I've been out of contact for 11 hours." Sheko didn't go any further. Samarkand was not a fortress city, and seven infantry divisions simply could not stop the continuous siege of one of the enemy's army groups. The worst thing is that it is too late to break through now, after the loss of Samarkand, the only railway and flank protection force to the outside of Tashkent are all gone, and it is impossible to even break through to the western desert, because once the troops lose the cover of their positions and fortresses, the open desert will not be able to withstand the continuous onslaught of thousands of tanks.

In a desperate situation, Apanashchenko was desperately provoked, and he tore the button of his collar fiercely, and his face was hideous: "Send a telegram to Moscow informing me of the situation here." Let all the soldiers enter the position, and the gendarmerie overseer set up the machine guns. Clean up the city! Convey my words to everyone, we have no way back! Make use of every street, every wall, every tree! Kill the enemy or be killed by the enemy, there is no second way! ”

Apanashchenko's order was quickly conveyed below, and panic with no way back turned into savage killings in the blink of an eye. Five trucks raced through the chaotic streets, and when they reached a mosque, soldiers rushed in. "Get out of here, get out of here!" The soldiers who jumped out of the car expelled the local residents who were hiding here. Because the Wehrmacht avoided such structures during bombing, these places were targeted by the outlaws of the Soviet army, who had no way to escape, and were ready to use them as cover. But the Uzbeks were reluctant to give up the mosques, and many got into scuffles with Soviet soldiers. "Comrade company commander, they don't want to leave."

"Then use your bullets to chase them away!" Soon after the meaty-faced second lieutenant company commander gave the order, gunshots rang out from inside the mosque, and in less than half an hour, hundreds of corpses were discarded by Soviet soldiers into a nearby ditch. Then they set up machine guns and cannons inside the temple and turned this place into a fortification. This scene took place throughout the Tashkent Plain, where hundreds of mosques were forcibly requisitioned by force, hordes of residents were driven by bayonets to the mountains and woods, and entire cities were turned into large barracks, and behind every building, behind every wall were soldiers with red eyes clenched with rifles.

At the same time that the battle for the city of Tashkent was about to break out, Sheko's telegram was also sent. But the consequences of this telegram were not expected by anyone, and Zhukov decided to launch a counteroffensive in advance after careful consideration in the face of new bombs that could destroy the fortified fortress. On 28 April, at the same time as the seven divisions of Samarkand were completely annihilated, 15 infantry divisions and 2 tank corps of the Siberian Front set out from Petropavlosk, arrived at Asnata by train, disguised themselves as the main forces supporting Lukin, and burrowed into the dense woods of Kurgalkin from the specially set joint. Since Yang Qiu ordered not to tell the news that the front-line password had been cracked, this trick really worked. The reconnaissance planes and reconnaissance troops regarded Zhukov's troops, which had converged here, as the main force to support Lukin, so Long Yun immediately mobilized 19 divisions from Pavlodar and Semiy to set up a defensive line on the Ishim River east of the heights of Mount Akdem to prevent Lukin's main force from moving east.

In order to cover Zhukov, Lukin led the Kazakh Front to set up a decisive battle posture, with the Akdem Mountain Heights as the center, and launched a comprehensive offensive on the 300-kilometer front from Ekbastuz to Karaganda on the north and south flanks, in order to deal with this turbulent counterattack, Xu Shuzheng transferred 13 divisions from East Kazakhstan, Almaty and Tacheng to reinforce Longyun's East Kazakhstan Army, and also strictly ordered 8 divisions of the Kazakh Independence Army to reinforce, with a total of 87 divisions on both sides strangling back and forth along the 200-meter-wide Ishim River.

At the same time, Zhukov spent two days bypassing Shakhtinsk under the cover of the forest, but his good luck was terminated by reconnaissance aircraft after reaching Taldesai, northwest of Rzezikazgan. The pilot who was the first to discover it summoned two entire H-5 groups and two Snake B ground attack aircraft groups to participate in the siege. During the entire day of air offensive, the Wehrmacht not only shot down 61 Soviet warplanes, but also destroyed at least 120 tanks and hundreds of trucks, inflicted nearly 5,000 Soviet casualties, and forced Zhukov to abandon nearly half of his baggage to accelerate his advance.

On 29 April, the Central Asian Theater Air Force again flew out to bomb two Soviet forward tactical supply points in Arkarek and Astana, northwest of Rzezkazgan, with 433 H-5 and 57 ghost car dive bombers taking part in the operation. During the two consecutive days of bombing, a total of 1,393 sorties were sorties, destroying the two forward supply bases at the cost of 51 of their own aircraft.

On the same day that the Air Force bombed the forward supply base, Zhuo Fan also arrived at the defense line of the Ultau Mountains west of Rezikazgan. Mount Ultau is the most important barrier to the southwest of Rezikazigan, with an average altitude of 370 meters, which can only be regarded as hills, and the slope is gentle, the terrain is open, and there is no danger to support. It is not the best terrain from a defensive point of view, but most of Kazakhstan is suitable for armored group operations, so it cannot be said that it is not worthless. Together with the Rzezkazgan Line, it formed an "L" shape. It is precisely because of the existence of this "L" that the possibility of Soviet troops penetrating deep into Kyzylorda from here is blocked. Defending here were two infantry divisions of the 2nd Army and the 24th Army, which in recent days have been supplemented by two infantry divisions from East Kazakhstan and two divisions of the Kazakh Independence Army.

A total of 11 divisions needed to defend an L-shaped line with a total length of 85 kilometers, and the pressure was still very high.

So when he arrived, tens of thousands of soldiers stationed here were laying out the defensive line. They first used trench trucks to plow through the sand, then expanded with sapper shovels to build anti-tank trenches. But this trench is special, with a wide mouth and a narrow bottom, and a depth of 9 meters. Different from the V-shaped anti-tank trenches that are common in various countries at present, the soldiers piled all the excavated soil on their own side, and dragged thousands of containers 5 meters long and 3 meters high, and also filled the boxes with excess soil, which was also piled on their own side, forming a three-meter-high embankment with containers in the middle and a soft soil layer below.

In the center, there is a gap every 20 meters for people to pass through, and 300 meters behind the gap is a buried anti-tank bunker. An 85mm anti-tank gun and the latest 35-year-old B hunting tank lay in ambush. This 32-ton hunting tank was improved on the basis of the 35-year model. The same Type 31 tank turf was used, and some of the 31 tanks damaged on the battlefield were also directly used, and the biggest improvement was the use of Chongqing Company's 105 mm/L55 type sub-assembly anti-aircraft gun. This gun was originally developed for the navy's anti-aircraft artillery project, so it used more powerful sub-loading ammunition, but in the bidding, the navy felt that the 85-mm anti-aircraft gun produced in Zhengzhou was small in size, fast, and very good in range and power, and the 105-mm and the main 120-mm high-level dual-purpose gun contradicted each other, so the plan was abandoned. The army has always tightened its belt to live, so it was immediately selected as the Type 36 main battle tank artillery, but the Type 36 main battle tank needs to be fully loaded, so Chongqing had to make significant changes to this gun, but did not expect that the new tank gun was still being tested after the war began, but the old sub-assembly gun was used to hunt and destroy tanks.

Compared to the 85 mm tank gun, the biggest improvement of the B is that in addition to the 105 mm cannon, the frontal armor is thickened. But it was thickened in a peculiar way, using the additional armor of BDD used in later generations. The BDD additional armor is a simple but effective new technology, which looks like an iron box from the outside, with a front of 30 mm of carburized hardened steel with a surface, and inside is 4 layers of diagonally 5 mm homogeneous steel plates, filled with expanded perlite particles bonded with glue (the real BDD filling was supposed to be polyurethane foam, which was changed due to limited technology at the time). According to experiments, the armor-piercing projectile will deflect and decompose the optimal armor-piercing shape after hitting the BDD, and it also has a good protection ability against two new types of ammunition, armor-shattering bullets and armor-piercing bullets. Originally, the frontal armor of the Type 31 tank was 80 mm, and it was still arranged at an angle of 40 degrees, and the actual protection was higher than 110 mm. After the installation of BDD additional armor, the actual frontal protection capability has been enhanced to 220 mm counting the tilt angle, not to mention the latest 57 mm anti-tank gun of the Soviet army, even the 36 main battle tank's anti-tank cannon can not bite.

The most satisfying thing is that if only the front is strengthened, each tank will actually increase by only two tons, and all Wehrmacht tanks and armored vehicles are designed with sufficient margin, so they can all be hung. And the cost is also very low, even if it is a small manual factory, as long as you know how to weld, you can manufacture it in batches. With the advent of the new 57-mm long-barreled cannon of the Soviet Army at Navoi and the threat posed to the Type 31 tank, this cheap DDD additional armor has quickly entered mass production.

It is not uncommon for new tanks to be hunted, and Zhuo Fan had a detailed understanding of the performance when he returned to China for vacation, but it was this new trench that opened his eyes. Strangely, some of the trenches that had been dug were covered with thin planks and then refilled with earth, making them look like they were level. This made him secretly exclaim, not to mention that the heavy tank would fall directly into it and not be able to climb up after being crushed, even if he found that the 3-meter-high loose mound reinforced with containers on his side was enough to trap the attacker. If you want to forcibly fill it up, you will be caught in the light and heavy fire from behind the container mound.

Just as he was fascinated by the idea of who had invented this method, a voice rang out from behind.

"It's Zhuo Fan, right?"

Turning his head, a man with a round face, glasses, and a military uniform without a rank came over and stretched out his hand enthusiastically: "Meet me, my name is Liu Mingzhao, yes, you are a fellow villager in Sichuan." ”

"Hello sir."

Zhuo Fan was startled, he didn't expect to meet this legendary figure just after he came, and hurriedly stood up and saluted. "Here, you can sit here." Liu Mingzhao didn't have a shelf, pointed to a few big stones in the distance and pulled him to sit down, and took the initiative to talk about the university. Although the tone was kind, Zhuo Fan did not dare to be presumptuous, because there were many legends of this person. The "squad leader" of the National Defense University, who was the second most re-elected in the National Defense University, participated in the European War while studying in Germany, represented the German Wehrmacht in successive battles, and later participated in a top-secret operation, bringing back industrial materials and technical equipment worth billions for the country. After returning to China, he led troops in all military regions, and the commander of the Blue Army, who conducted six annual military exercises, was finally transferred to the General Staff as the head of the Operations Department. Although he is not as famous as generals such as Long Yun and Bai Chongxi, he has appeared in almost every military reform and military plan for more than ten years.

On the contrary, Liu Mingzhao didn't think he was very famous, and compared with Long Yun and others, he had not really participated in actual combat after becoming the commander of the Second Army, so he turned around and asked about the detailed process of the two battles in Kazakhstan and Kyzylorda. After chatting, Liu Mingzhao put away his notebook, put the pen in his breast pocket, and pushed his glasses: "What do you think of the counterattack of the Soviet army?" ”

I don't know if it's because Liu Mingzhao has no shelf, or if the conversation is speculative, Zhuo Fan gradually relaxed: "It's hard to say, it's still a little tricky from the situation." There are too many forces in Tashkent that have been held back, so the timing is good. The Akdem Mountain Heights, which are the only highlands between Pavlovsk and Karaganda, are densely forested and have many mountain slopes, which are not conducive to air force bombing. If they can't recapture it in a short period of time, they can use this as the center to advance in depth. The disadvantage is that supplies are not available, and the nearest railway points from the Urals to this are Alkalet and Asnata, both more than 300 kilometers from the front line. The Soviet army was already short of trucks, and the supply logistics had not been properly resolved. So this time it depends on their determination, if they invest several times the force to break through quickly, they can achieve certain victories, but if they are entangled by us for ten days and a half months, I am afraid that there will be problems. ”

"Well analyzed." Liu Mingzhao praised it, beckoned to take the map from the orderly's hand, and said: "I have greeted Commander Chu, and your two divisions are temporarily under my command, so let you come to discuss with you how to fight." ”

Zhuo Fan didn't expect that a big man like Liu Mingzhao would discuss with him, and he was just about to say "please give an order from the commander" when he was interrupted. "Don't make up your mind so early, I'm not a big musician." Le Datou is the nickname of the new commander of the First Army, Le Shiwen, but this nickname is only known to Liu Mingzhao and others.

Without waiting for him to speak, Liu Mingzhao asked while flipping through the map, "Where are your troops?"

Zhuo Fan pointed to the map and said the movement position of the troops: "My 3rd Mechanized Infantry Division, the 49th Infantry Division, the 3rd Cavalry Division and the 7th Infantry Division of the Kazakh Independent Army have all arrived at Aksala, which is 97 kilometers away from you.

"Very well, you look at this map, do you find anything?" Liu Mingzhao swiped his finger on Pavlodar's long line of defense here, and asked in a test tone. This is a long line of defense that is 1,000 kilometers long, and there are many loopholes on the whole, but there is only one largest. So Zhuo Fan immediately pointed to his defense zone and replied, "I'm the weakest!" ”

"It's not you, it's us the weakest." Liu Mingzhao nodded with satisfaction: "From Pavlodar to Shakhtinsk, there are a total of 55 divisions, plus 70 divisions and 4 armored divisions in reserve. Only we have only 13 divisions in this direction, and you are still included. So the enemy's goal this time is very clear, which is to eat me and then go south to Kyzylorda from here. As long as Kyzylorda is occupied, it will not only relieve the siege of Tashkent, but also cut the Central Asian battlefield. According to the latest information, Zhukov has bypassed Shakhtinsk, and although the Air Force is already blocking the bombing, this is a wilderness, and it is even more impossible to make a sortie at night. So I reckon he'll be there tomorrow afternoon. Moreover, he had already joined forces with an army group from the Don River, with a total strength of 25 divisions and 2 tank corps. ”

Zhuo Fan was taken aback: "So many troops! Two tank armies, that's not at least 2,000 tanks? ”

"What? Scared? ”

"Not really, just a little surprised. The larger the troops, the greater the consumption, but to be able to invest such a large number of troops, Zhukov should be very determined about this attack. ”

Liu Mingzhao nodded: "That's right, if it's me, knowing that the supply is poor, I will fight hundreds of kilometers away from the railway supply point, and I will also gather at least several times the number of troops to fight quickly." So I'm sure he'll punch and lunge as soon as he comes up. There will also be a tank army to bypass the Ultau Mountains from the north and copy my rear road, so you are here to block them and then go straight to the depths! ”

Zhuo Fan didn't expect Liu Mingzhao to also want to play Sun Chuanfang's left hook tactics, but the machine infantry division was not an armored division, and he only had four divisions, two of which were still miscellaneous Kazakh independent divisions, so he was very panicked. But it's not good to say that you don't dare directly, so you can only nod and say: "Don't worry, commander, even if you ask me to take a taxi to Lyabinsk, I will dare to break through." ”

After seeing his thoughts, Liu Mingzhao laughed instead of being angry: "Hehe, young man, it's good to have enthusiasm, but you can't be blindly enthusiastic." We are fighting with the Soviet Union for the national fortune, the national fortune for the next hundred or even hundreds of years! Under this strategic framework, the goal was to continuously deplete the Soviet Union's national strength, population, and industrial capacity. At the moment we can't hit Europe, and we don't need to go to Europe, so the last goal is still difficult for the time being, but the first two can be done. Let me ask you, what is the best way to consume the enemy and reduce your own consumption as much as possible? ”

"Attack, occupy the territory at intervals, and then establish a defensive line to force the enemy to counterattack and grab. When he counterattacks, we'll eat one more and move on, then sit down and wait. If you perform this tactic repeatedly, you will be able to save yourself to the greatest extent and deplete the opponent's vital forces. ”

'That's right, so our goal this year is to level the defence. The current Central Asian defense line is too wide to be conducive to the later war, so now it is necessary to consume this wave, and then wait for the railway to be repaired before attacking, taking the northern side of the Caspian Sea as the standard, and extending to the Petropavlovsklaping line. If you can eat Omsk, it is best to blow up the railway, force it to shrink to the line of Orenburg and Chelyabinsk, and trap him in the Urals. Stalin had to fight back again for the sake of the mines and factories in the Urals, and then we could encircle and suppress again. After three or five times, even if he didn't drop a single bomb in Europe, he would have to pay at least six million soldiers to lose Central Asia and Western Siberia, and the total population of the Soviet Union was only 130 million, which was enough to make them suffer for a long time. So your mission this time is to attrition, constantly consuming the enemy! ”

"But we only have four divisions, and we only have one armored regiment in total." Hearing that he let himself consume, Zhuo Fan couldn't help but blurt out his worries.

"Don't worry, I won't cheat you." Liu Mingzhao smiled and said the deployment: "Your Third Mechanized Infantry Division has an armored regiment, I will supplement you from the Second Armored Division, and an armored regiment on Li Zongren's side will arrive tomorrow morning." The 11th Separate Panzer Regiment and the 10th Panzer Brigade of the Polish Corps are coming west by train from Turkestan and will arrive by tomorrow night at the latest. So you have 6 armored regiments (2 regiments of the 10th Polish Armored Brigade), about 900 tanks, plus three infantry divisions exactly one army. As for the rest, it's up to you to choose, in short, your task is to bypass the Ultau Mountains, help me take out the detour tank corps, and then rush north along the Arkaret all the way north into the Ishim region, disrupt the counteroffensive of Zhukov and Lukin, and completely disrupt their second line.

There is no special goal this time, it is to let you let go of your stomach and eat as much as you want! But remember, you must not go too deep to the west, you must keep a parallel line of 300 kilometers along the Karaganda line, if it is too deep, the air force will not be able to cover it, and it will not be able to give you airdrops and supplies, and even we will not have time to save us if something happens. ”

"Let me command the operation of an armored corps?" Even if Zhuo Fan was conceited, he was taken aback by this scale. Unexpectedly, I had just learned a little bit of military-level command from Sun Chuanfang, and I was about to command an armored corps to intersperse behind enemy lines, and I suddenly had some difficulty breathing.

"Why don't you dare?" Liu Mingzhao looked at his eyes, his eyes were clear and expectant.

I've used all the agitation methods, what else can I do? What's more, Zhuo Fan himself was also looking forward to this operation, so he gritted his teeth and popped out a word: "Dare!" ”

"Haha." A decisive "dare" made Liu Mingzhao laugh again: "Look at your appearance, it's not for you to be sent to death." Rest assured, the decision to put you in command was suggested by me, but it was also endorsed by the Theater Command and the General Staff. I'm afraid that your command and dispatch will not be smooth, so the troops that are replenished to you are all regimental-level, and several of them are old friends who have cooperated with you, so there should be no problem. ”

Hearing this, Zhuo Fan knew that Liu Mingzhao had thought of everything, and even the command problem was good. You must know that he is only a brigadier general, if the supplement is an armored division, then the commander is at least a major general, and the low-level command is high-level, so it is strange if he does not make trouble. As for the Polish armored brigades, don't worry, they have already promised to follow the command with full authority. Therefore, I admire this kind of meticulous calculation ability. But he was still worried about the safety of the Rezikazgan defense line, and asked, "Thank you for giving me this opportunity, but if I take so many troops away, won't your troops here be too weak?" Even if you drag down a tank corps and disrupt the rear, Zhukov still has 25 divisions and 1 tank corps in his hands, and you only have 12 divisions and 2 armored regiments on your side, and the air force is greatly affected by the weather, isn't it too risky? ”

"There is no risk where the harvest will come. Not to mention 12 divisions, even if there are 10 divisions, if he Zhukov wants to think about my Ultau Mountain, I can break his white teeth! Liu Mingzhao clapped his hands, shook off the dust and pointed to the trench with a smile on his face, full of confidence.

After following his fingers to see the special trench just now, Zhuo Fan understood that Liu Mingzhao should have already figured out how to fight. But there was one thing that he was very strange, such a careful deployment was by no means something that could be thought of in a day or two, so he asked tentatively: "Commander Liu, did you know that Zhukov would go here?" Then why didn't you tell Commander-in-Chief Xu and the General Staff earlier? ”

"If I tell them, it must be an early flanking attack, will Zhukov still be able to go south?" After Liu Mingzhao smiled, his tone was abruptly sharp: "I'm going to be here and eat him 100,000 horses!" Look what other troops he uses to defend Siberia! ”。 Wonderful Novel [Net] Remember our website: