"Commander, received a notification from the Air Force. High-quality updates are here"

As soon as Cai Zhonghu got out of his armored command vehicle, he saw Major General Jiang Xianyun, chief of staff of the 6th Armored Group Army, walking over with an aluminum alloy barrel. Cai Zhongwat recognized that it was a tool used by the Air Force to transmit messages to the Army, and stuffed Wen Jiàn's photo or something into this metal cylinder and dropped it from the plane hovering at low altitude! If you accidentally hit people and equipment, in case the plane crashes in the enemy-controlled area, the text and photos may be captured. So it is neither secure nor secretive, but the Air Force still likes to use such backward means of communication, especially when they want to transmit pictures and photographs, after all, the telegraph signal can only transmit words and numbers.

"What's in there?" Cai Zhonghu walked towards his temporary former enemy headquarters and asked Jiang Xianyun to open the metal cylinder to see what was inside.

"It's some photographs and maps, like aerial photographs of the area around the Yakovlevich railway station, which are very clear, and also deliberately indicate objects suspected of being points of anti-tank fire, as well as the location of Soviet artillery positions."

"Really?" Cai Zhonghu raised his eyebrows slightly, stretched out his hand to take a photo and looked at it, it was really very clear, even without training, he could find the Soviet positions and artillery from above. "That's a good thing! What was it filmed with? It's so clear. ”

"It should be the German Fokker that has just been put into service. The FW-189 tactical reconnaissance/artillery school firing aircraft developed by Wolf Corporation (Fokker and Wolf Corporation merged). It's just that the appearance is very weird, and the main body is very short. Strange plane with two tails. This aircraft has good low-altitude performance, excellent cockpit visibility and a very solid structure. It is also said that the Armored Forces Command also intends to develop an anti-tank strike aircraft based on this aircraft. Consultations are now under way with the Air Force. ”

"Anti-tank strike aircraft? Isn't Attack 2 and Stuka just that? Cai Zhonghu asked casually again.

"I heard that the design idea proposed by the Armored Forces Command is not to use bombs to counter-tank, but to put a 45mm anti-tank gun on an aircraft and attack the top and back of enemy tanks from the air."

"That's a good idea, I wonder if we can develop this kind of aircraft with cannons flying all over the sky next year? That way, our armored soldiers will be much more troublesome. ”

As the two of them spoke, they had already entered the temporary headquarters, which was a large bunker half buried in the ground and half made of logs, steel plates, and sandbags, which was very solid. Can withstand damage from a direct hit of a 152mm grenade. Inside the bunker, the staff officers of the 6th Panzer Army were already busy, and someone was hanging maps on the walls. Some people guarded a row of telephones and called the military headquarters and division headquarters below one by one, and a few high-ranking colonel-level staff officers were discussing something around the map table. Seeing Cai Zhonghu and Jiang Xianyun walking in, they all stopped their work and stood up and saluted.

"Sir. Just received a briefing from the Tulum Cluster Command. The enemy placed some of the Su-75 guns behind the semi-buried civil engineering fortifications as a fixed anti-tank fire point, which seemed to be very difficult to deal with. A colonel's staff officer brought over a telegram. Cai Zhonghu took it and took a look, and asked Jiang Xianyun to spread out a map dropped by the Air Force on the map table, which was a 1:10,000 topographical map of the area around the Yakovlevich Railway Station. The high-quality update hand-plotted the precise location of suspected anti-tank fire points and Soviet artillery positions found on all Air Force aerial photographs.

"See, the Air Force brothers have helped a lot this time, they have found out all the possible targets, and asked the artillery to make an artillery plan according to this map, and the artillery preparation time is 60 minutes. Then block the rear of the Soviet defensive zone with firepower and block Soviet reinforcements. After the shelling is over, let the air force go out to bomb. Finally, a large-scale armored cluster assault will be dispatched! Do you understand? Cai Zhongwat was taking care of it loudly. The command of the 6th Panzer Army quickly became operational.

"605 Battalion, direction angle: 31-21, distance 4600 meters, one test shot; 606 Battalion, direction angle: 33-16, distance 4000 meters, test firing; 607 Battalion, direction angle: 35-41, distance 4900 meters, one test shot; 608 Battalion ......"

"Boom, boom, boom......"

A total of 36 artillery battalions at the corps and division levels under the 6th Panzer Army began the first round of test firing at the Soviet positions around the Yakovlevich railway station in accordance with the coordinates issued by the General Command of the Army's Artillery. At the same time, two FW-189 reconnaissance planes in the sky also suddenly drilled out of the clouds, lowered their altitude, and began to observe the results of the test launch, risking the threat of Soviet ground anti-aircraft fire. "Correct Zhu Yuan, 605 battalion, distance plus 20, direction angle minus 5 degrees; 606 battalion, distance minus 25, direction angle plus 8 degrees ......"

At this time, in the headquarters of the Soviet troops under the Yakovlevich railway station, there was also a short-wave radio station listening to the communication of the Chinese reconnaissance planes in the name of the Chinese army. "Comrade commander, this is a Chinese reconnaissance plane helping the artillery to fire at school." Pavlov had staff officers who were proficient in Chinese, and he quickly figured out the contents of the Chinese army's communications intercepted on the shortwave radio.

"Artillery positions and trenches No. 1, No. 2, No. 3, No. 4...... Anti-tank positions No. 4 and No. 5 were also reported to have been shelled by the Chinese army. Bagramian put down the phone in his hand and said loudly: "Comrade commander, it seems that the large-scale artillery bombardment of the Chinese army is imminent, is it necessary to ......?"

"Let the comrades be as hidden as possible, and leave the equipment alone if they can't be moved." Pavlov frowned and said: "Did any telegram from Comrade Tukhachevsky come?" ”

"Not yet." Hearing Pavlov's sudden question, Bagramian couldn't help but shake his head in his heart, the decisive battle is about to start, and now the only thing to think about is to fight it like this, and it's best not to think about anything else.

Pavlov shook his head and muttered: "When is it, still dreaming!" This is not the usual style of Comrade Tukhachevsky! ”

Boom, boom...... Before Pavlov's words fell, a massive artillery bombardment by the Chinese army began. Flashing fireballs rose over the predetermined targets, and 684 self-propelled or towed guns from 36 artillery battalions began to roar at the same time. Yakovlevich railway station is like being in the center of a volcanic eruption! The earth trembled, and the sky was completely obscured by smoke and dust! In several areas where the shells were concentrated, clusters of orange-red fire flashed almost simultaneously. The high-quality renewal of the old fire has not yet dispersed, and the new fire has risen one after another, and the whole area seems to be enveloped in a sea of fire. Heart-wrenching explosions continued one after another, and finally became a loud bang.

The Soviet soldiers who had not yet had time to move from the trenches all shrank at the bottom of the trenches with their heads in their hands. Most of these soldiers were veterans who had participated in several actual battles, and those young soldiers were GC fighters who had been educated by the party for many years, and although they did not look very brave now, they were by no means intimidated by the shelling of the Chinese army. Most people are still silently reciting the phrases of Trotsky's Quotations in their minds. Cheer yourself up.

Most of the older veterans had fought in World War I, and the bombardment seemed to take them back to the days when they were young and fought for the Tsar. Probably remembering the eventful years of the past, most of these Red Army uncles have words in their mouths. But not by memorizing Trotsky's Quotations, but by praising the reactionary God! I don't know when the Orthodox Church began to show signs of a resurgence in various parts of the Soviet Union. Especially some elderly Russians. God bless, who is beginning to open and shut his mouth again. And the ubiquitous special service personnel on the territory of the USSR seem to be deaf to this, and now is a special period for the front! Even the Gulag could not compete with the Red Army for troops.

However, this time, the Chinese artillery shells were so precise and dense that even if Trotsky and God showed their might, they could not protect the Red officers and soldiers at the center of the rain of bullets. In the blink of an eye, the artillery positions and anti-tank strongholds exposed to the ground had been blown up everywhere, and the soldiers were either buried by the collapsed fortifications or blown to the ground. The steel cannon bodies lined up on the artillery positions were also torn and twisted by the force of the explosion. It became a pile of useless scrap metal. Only the Su-75 guns, which were hidden under the civil fortifications, escaped with steel armor, but the bunkers covering them were swept away by the powerful artillery fire of the Chinese army. The steel body, which was cratered by the fragments of the shells, finally revealed the true face of Lushan.

As soon as the terrible artillery fire ended, the roar of buzzing motors was heard in the air, and the anti-Japanese Attack 2 biplane, escorted by fighters, swooped down on the Soviet positions. Piercing screams resounded over the battlefield, and 50-kilogram bombs rained down on Soviet positions where the smoke had not yet dissipated. Even the Attack 2 planes, which had finished dropping their bombs, did not retreat immediately, but used their 7.62mm aviation machine guns to repeatedly strafe the Soviet positions on the ground that had been blown apart and cracked. There were also some Attack 2 aircraft that did not carry bombs, but installed two 20mm guns, and their targets were the exposed Su-75s. Perhaps because of the rapid progress of Soviet tanks, the Chinese defense forces are now paying more and more attention to the development of airborne anti-tank weapons. This kind of aircraft cannon mounted on the Attack 2 biplane is the latest attempt, but the effect can only be described as mediocre. The power of the 20mm gun is still not enough, and the Attack 2 aircraft is not an ideal carrier for the aircraft gun of this caliber. This aircraft is too small and too light, and the fuselage shakes violently when firing from a 20mm gun, so there is no crosshair, and you can only count on the occasional destruction of a few Su-75s.

In the sortie position of the 6th Panzer Army of the Chinese Army, 185 Chaser tank destroyers, 58 Type C tanks and 72 self-propelled guns were quietly waiting for the order to attack. Commanders leaned out of the open hatch at the top of the vehicle, smoking to relieve tension, or using binoculars to observe the battlefield that had turned into a sea of fire ahead. The gunners inside the tank also looked a little dignified, most of them had participated in the bloody battle of Nizhny Udinsk, and knew that the Soviet army already had a Su-75 attack gun that could fight the pursuers! Although for the Wehrmacht, the numerical superiority of the Stalkers was enough to help the squadron defeat the Soviet Red Army, but for the front-line tank crews, they still dreamed of being able to drive a tank with absolute superiority in performance and rampage on the battlefield.

Lieutenant General Hu Zongnan, who commanded today's armored cluster assault, had already sensed the subtle changes in the thinking of those armored soldiers under his command, and in fact he himself had the same idea. More than one proposal for the development of a new, more powerful tank has been submitted, but the answer has been "under development". One is said to be armed with an 88mm anti-tank gun. The D-type tank destroyer, which is equipped with 80mm armor steel at a 55-degree angle and weighs up to 45 tons in combat, is being tested and can be equipped with a small number of troops next year at the latest. Although the manufacturing cost of this new Tan Jab is said to be 6 to 7 times higher than that of the Stalker. And one D-type tan destroyer will definitely not be able to defeat 7 pursuers. However, Hu Zongnan, who has been in battle for a long time, knows that a powerful weapon can greatly stimulate the morale of officers and soldiers on the front line (this is, of course, weapon-only theory, which is suitable for a general like Hu Zongnan). If there was even one company of D-shaped tans now, the officers and men under his command would not be so worried.

The Panzer Corps of the Chinese National Defense Forces were worried about the opponent who had just appeared, and the Panzergrenadiers who accompanied the Panzergrenadiers holding Type 31 automatic rifles around the tanks were still full of confidence. Now the core combat strength of the Chinese army is the armored corps, and the infantry has long regarded all kinds of tanks and armored vehicles as a source of confidence in defeating the enemy. See more than 300 tanks and artillery in formation in front of enemy positions. The infantrymen who were on the first assault mission felt their blood boiling, and their young faces showed confident and fearless expressions.

"Panzers, assault!"

Hu Zongnan gave an order. All the commanders retracted their bodies into the vehicle, closed the top hatches, and all the tanks and guns rumbled and slowly moved forward.

"Panzergrenadiers. Advance! ”

See the tanks in action. The officers of the Panzergrenadiers shouted loudly for orders.

"Rush! Kill! ”

"Grenadier...... Offensive! ”

As soon as the bombardment by the air force ended, one after another, hunters, C tanks and C self-propelled guns jumped out of their starting positions. The deafening roar of the engines resounded through the heavens and the earth, resulting in the strange screams of bombs exploding and planes diving.

Almost at the same time, Pavlov sent reinforcements to the blocking positions on the western front of the Yakovlevich railway station. "Be sure to stop the enemy! Now is the key to victory in the Nizhny Udinsk counterattack, we must block the enemy to the death, and we must not let them go! Pavlov roared angrily, he didn't know that his cluster had become cannon fodder after it was broken, and he thought that Tukhachevsky was organizing more forces to prepare for the annihilation of the "besieged" Chinese armored cluster.

And. Most of his officers and soldiers also thought so. Therefore, the officers and men of the Red Army, who knew that they were responsible for their heavy responsibilities, rushed to the forward positions without hesitation, regardless of the blockade of the Chinese army's artillery fire. But the Wehrmacht artillery and air force firepower was simply too fierce. Even the forward movement of the communication trenches in Tongguò left more than a third of the Soviet officers and men under artillery fire.

Before they could catch their breath as they rushed into the front-line position, which had just been ravaged by artillery fire and bombardment, more than 200 pursuers and C-tanks had already appeared in front of the position.

"Fire! Fire! Su-75 all fired! ”

In the shouts of Baglamyan, who was on the front line to supervise the battle, more than 50 Su-75 vehicles behind the front-line trenches of the Soviet army opened fire at full power, and countless fiery red and orange lines of fire flew towards the Chinese tanks. Immediately, six of the pursuers were shot and caught fire. However, due to the long distance, the short body of the pursuer, and the good concealment, most of the shells did not hit the target. At this time, the Chinese pursuers also stopped advancing and began to return the color with 75mm guns.

"Air Force! Hurry up and contact the Air Force to support us! ”

Hu Zongnan, who was standing on the top of an armored command vehicle watching the battle, saw that the front line was evenly matched, and hurriedly and loudly ordered the staff officer to contact the air force. However, this was completely superfluous, and the FW-189 reconnaissance plane of the Air Force had already reported the scene of the tank artillery battle below to the former enemy command of the 3rd Air Force in Tulum. The Stuka and J-3E Dragon Eagles, who had been lying in ambush above the clouds for more than an hour, roared and swooped down, swooping down towards the Soviet tanks that did not have a huge blue sky and white sun mark on the top of the body (that is, for the Air Force to see, lest they bomb by mistake)! Both aircraft can carry 500 kg bombs, but they don't need such large bombs against tanks. So the Ju.87 Stuka dive bomber now carries one 250 kg bomb (belly) and four 50 kg bombs (under the wing), while the J-3E Dragon Eagle has two 30mm cannons under the wing!

The whistling, explosions and roar of artillery filled the Soviet anti-tank blocking positions, and everywhere there were Soviet Su-75 assault guns that had been beaten to the ground and smoked. Under the combined attack of the Chinese army's ground-to-air firepower, more than 50 Su-75s behind the first line of Soviet trenches were destroyed in less than 10 minutes. Subsequently, the powerful ground-to-air fire of the Chinese army turned to the Soviet officers and men in the trenches, killing and wounding them one by one, and the sound of explosions, screams, and Trotskyist slogans resounded one after another in the broken Soviet trenches.

Seeing that the combined strike of ground-air firepower had been effective, Hu Zongnan decisively ordered the armored group to continue the assault, this time the steel torrent under his command was no longer blocked, and soon tore through the Soviet defense line, and 15,000 elite panzergrenadiers also jumped into the Soviet trenches with the armored group, starting the most brutal trench clearing battle. The fierce automatic rifle fire continued to kill the remaining Soviet troops in the trenches. Just when the balance of victory completely tilted in favor of the Chinese Wehrmacht, more than two dozen 76.2mm and 57mm anti-tank guns ambushed in the forests on both sides of the Soviet positions suddenly erupted tongues of fire!

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