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After a seven-hour flight, Zhuo Fan stepped into the Ministry of Defense for the first time in his life.

After stepping into the Ministry of Defense, which had a wide appearance, Zhuo Fan found that it was not spacious inside, and it was the end of summer, and the cement and steel buildings seemed relatively stuffy, so most of the rooms had ceiling fans on. In every room, you can see the figures rushing back and forth. More than 2,000 generals, staff officers and staff come to the building every day, busy trying to win the war.

Modern warfare has basically put an end to individual heroism-style victories, and although people need heroes, similar to the current nationwide war, whether it is heroes or intrigues, it can only be tidbits and embellishments. In the face of all kinds of investigative methods, strength and conspiracy are more important. In the end, it is the side that is more prepared and meticulous in order to win, and preparation and planning is one of the most important daily tasks of the Ministry of National Defense.

"Report! Zhuo Fan, a lieutenant colonel of the 10th Armored Division of the Army, was ordered to report for duty! "Coming to the door of the chief of staff's office, Zhuo Fan tidied up his wrinkled and messy military uniform, stood up and saluted meticulously." In. It wasn't until a voice came from inside that he pushed the door open.

After entering, he found that not only Yue Peng was there, but also Jiang Fangzhen, the president's military adviser, and General Xu Shuzheng, commander of the East Kazakhstan Theater. Facing the three generals at once made him a little nervous.

"You are Zhuo Fan? Yes, no disgrace to the school. Sit down, don't be nervous. ”

Zhuo Fan is a top student of the National Defense University, and Jiang Fangzhen, as the former president, must have a bright face, so he encouraged him to relax after entering the door. However, Xu Shuzheng, who had not been in office for a long time, looked at it twice and said with a smile: "Baili, how do I think that your words are all about taking credit for the National Defense University!" Aren't you afraid of offending those people in Baoding? ”

The National Defense University is the highest-level comprehensive military academy in China, but the number of places admitted each year is limited, so most of the officers of the army are born in the army university in Baoding. At that time, the principal of Baoding was still Jiang Taishi. It was proposed that the two countries should not only cooperate but also compete, and jointly promote the progress of the army, so there has always been a secret competition between the army university department and the national defense university department within the army, and even Xu Shuzheng should be regarded as the Baoding department.

Li Jin and Zhuo Fan and other young people who have recently appeared are all from the Department of the National Defense University, so Jiang Fangzhen was proud, ignored Xu Shuzheng's sour psychology, and said with a smile: "What are you afraid of, Yan Youbing's kid accused me of being black in front of the president, saying that I didn't dig his corner for a day or two." ”

"Alright. Don't mention your bullshit. ”

After Wang Zhuo and Yan Youbing were appointed as the principals of the two families, the old comrades-in-arms pinched each other more than in the era of Jiang Fangzhen. However, this competition does increase the vitality of the military. However, I came all the way to find people, not to investigate the household registration. So after Yue Peng interrupted, he asked: "I heard Gu Yuwen say that it was you who proposed to deal with the Soviet army in Afghanistan as soon as possible." And the plans to rush it to India? ”

The general joked, Zhuo Fan didn't dare to interject, and stood next to him and kept thinking about why he called himself. At this moment, Yue Peng's words were right, and he realized that it was Gu Yuwen who had leaked his mouth, and hurriedly got up and stood upright: "Report to the chief of staff, I proposed it, but the specific plan has not yet been handed over to the division commander." ”

"It doesn't have to be so formal. Sit down and answer. After Yue Peng beckoned him to sit down, he continued: "The president felt very good when he learned of your suggestion, so let me summon you back to ask for clarification." He was going to meet you personally, but there were some things to attend to in Congress. So let's ask first. ”

Yue Peng walked to the wall and opened the first officer's battle map: "Come, tell us about your specific thoughts." ”

"Yes!"

After knowing the purpose of transferring himself back, Zhuo Fan gradually calmed down. Walked up to the map and pointed to Afghanistan: "Chief of the General Staff, Rector." Commander Xu. Personally, I believe that the victory in Ahvaz is ripe for an end to the fighting in Afghanistan. We have been dragging it out because the Soviet army needs to be distracted from Europe and Asia, and the actual distribution of forces is insufficient, so dragging the Soviet army in Central Asia can reduce the pressure on the Persian Gulf. So far, this strategy has been successful. With the two arrows of Afghanistan and Andijan, we have dragged more than half a million Soviet troops from Afghanistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. But yesterday I heard on the radio on the road that the Soviet army had launched a counteroffensive in Iran, which showed that the Soviet Union had basically solved the European problem, so there was no need to continue to delay.

After taking control of Ahvaz, our army already had forward bases in and out of Iran, and we also succeeded in drawing the attention of Soviet troops in the Caucasus and Turkmenistan, which created an opportunity for the next battle. My idea is to mobilize two or three divisions to start from Faryab Province in Afghanistan and insert Mare in Turkmenistan, and at the same time have the Persian Gulf Army send two divisions to move north from the Strait of Hormuz to block Mashhad in Iran's Khorasan Province, and at the same time have the Air Force blow up the railway between Mashhad and Male, and attack the Soviet army in Herat from the east, west, and north, and only open the southern route to cut off the possibility of its escape back to Turkmenistan and Iran. And our army has been deliberately weakening the defenses of Kandahar in the south on the pretext of avoiding a Sino-British conflict, and now there is only one regiment and one division of the Afghan army, which creates a good opportunity for them to break through to India. ”

"What if they find themselves surrounded, fight to the death, or surrender?"

As soon as Xu Shuzheng asked, Zhuo Fan shook his head: "200,000 Soviet troops is not a small number, in the Battle of Ahvaz due to unfavorable operations and surrender and other things, Stalin has already shot dozens of senior officers, which has caused great pressure on front-line officers, so the Soviet General Staff will definitely ask for a breakthrough and preserve the living forces to avoid large-scale surrender like Ahvaz." So even if they find out, they will definitely take the troops out of the encirclement as their first goal. As long as the remnants of the Soviet army enter India, the rest of the matter will not need to be a headache for us. ”

Yue Peng and Xu Shuzheng both nodded after listening, but they didn't continue to speak, only Jiang Fangzhen smiled: "Ma Lei, hehe, the place is well chosen." This is the meeting point of Mashhad, Herat and Turkmenistan, but we have not yet declared full-scale war on the Soviet Union. ”

In fact, after hearing on the train that the Kuomintang exaggerated the president's compromise with Japan, and wanted to build momentum for the Sino-Soviet armistice when he saw the war in Europe, Zhuo Fan vaguely guessed that it was not that the war was not ready, but that the president and the Congress had not reached an agreement. Of course, these words can only be hidden in the heart, since the Wehrmacht was established with strict military regulations, and military personnel need to be politically sensitive, but cannot intervene in domestic politics. This is a big no-no! And in his plan, once the army penetrates into Mare, it means that China and the Soviet Union have declared a full-scale war.

It's not something he, a lieutenant colonel, can decide. The president is not wrong, if he cannot unify the thinking of the whole country before the big war, even if he wins in the early stage, there will still be problems in the later stage. You must know that countries like China and the Soviet Union cannot be completely defeated through a few battles, and they will not fight to the end. No one will bow their heads. From the standpoint of the Congress, it is actually not wrong to preserve its strength and sit back and watch Europe fry each other and take advantage of the opportunity. Personally, though, he prefers the former, because it's war, not business. War needs to be responsible for the interests of the country, in this great era, if you don't pay, you won't gain, and if you don't show your muscles, others won't face you.

"The idea is good, the conditions have to wait." Yue Peng praised it, but he didn't say anything. Again, he only has the power to make suggestions and not to decide. What's more, Yang Qiu has always hoped to use this declaration of war to officially enter the country into a comprehensive state of emergency with full presidential powers.

However, the idea of forcing the Soviet army to break through to India still moved him, and he continued to ask: "I heard that you have been inspecting the northwest for the past two months, so you must have some understanding of the situation, right?" I'll ask you. What would you do if we declared a full-scale war with the USSR? ”

"Chief of the General Staff, me." Zhuo Fan was a little hesitant, this topic has already involved the overall situation between China and the Soviet Union. And he is only a lieutenant colonel.

Jiang Fangzhen knew what he was hesitating about, and encouraged: "Just say it boldly." This is your chance. We old fellows haven't gotten to the point where we're fooled by a lieutenant colonel. In a word, when everyone laughed. Zhuo Fan smiled and smiled, knowing that this was a good opportunity to express himself, so he put down his mind and said: "I think that if the current deadlock is maintained for a long time, it will be very unfavorable to my country!" ”

"Oh?" Xu Shuzheng has been studying the situation since he took office, but when he heard this statement for the first time, he was surprised: "What's the disadvantage? ”

"The progress of the Soviet army!" In order to strengthen his tone, Zhuo Fan raised some of his voices: "After the Great Purge, due to the serious losses of the Soviet army's grassroots command level, a large number of officers who do not understand business were temporarily promoted, resulting in poor combat effectiveness, execution and tactical level, which can be seen from the Soviet Army's deployment in the northwest and the Battle of Ahvaz last year. Whether it is the northwest or Iran, the Soviet army has piled a large number of living forces parallel to the national border, in fact, it is still the thinking of the last European trench and war of attrition. This led to the embarrassment that when Ahvaz was broken through, the Soviet troops in Tehran did not have time to reinforce.

But as the Soviets gained more and more combat experience, their command structure and tactical thinking were quietly changing. The simplest example is that the theory of multi-layered defense in depth promoted by Zhukov in Afghanistan last year has been gradually accepted by the Soviet army after the lesson of Ahvaz, and in the past two months, the Soviet army, including the Kazakh region, has begun to strengthen the second- and third-line forces.

To put it simply, the tactic of interspersing in large depth is to use the combination of armored clusters and air-ground integration to concentrate superior forces to break through the enemy's defensive line, and at the same time protect the second- and third-line forces to accelerate through the breakthrough and launch an attack on the weak side of the enemy's rear and finally divide and encircle. This tactic is about coordination and coordination, but it also has a lot of flaws. Because, both the armored group and the air force need to consider the limitations of fuel and ammunition for an in-depth attack. That is to say, the tank is not as far as it wants to drive, even if it is the best Type 36 main battle tank in our country, the theoretical maximum single assault range is only about 120 kilometers. Therefore, each attack must be preceded by careful calculations of ammunition and fuel.

It is precisely because the offensive distance is limited, so when the opponent expands the defensive line to depth, it will form a large in-depth defense with many or even more than a dozen lines, so it is difficult to break through so many defensive lines with only one or two attacks. With the fatigue of the troops and the need for daily maintenance of the armored forces, the battle will be at a stalemate over time. At this time, the initiative of the campaign will be transformed over time to the defending side, especially in a country like the Soviet Union, where the depth of the territory is, the greater the resistance of the attacking troops will be! And at present, the deployment of the Soviet army in the northwest has shown a trend of multi-layered, so if the stalemate continues for a long time, the unfavorable factors in the offensive will only increase! ”

"Do you think there's anything you can do?" Xu Shuzheng asked.

Zhuo Fan had indeed thought of a way, but remembering the silence of the three generals just now, he hesitated for a moment before saying: "The best way is to attack immediately, before the Soviet army's tactics are getting better and better, and consume its vital strength to the greatest extent." It's like cutting leeks, constantly cutting off old leeks, so the newly grown leeks are still tender. ”

Yue Peng glanced at Jiang Fangzhen, walked to the side and poured a glass of water for Zhuo Fan, and said, "Let's not talk about the attack. Let's assume that, according to you, after the Soviets have laid out the second and third line of defense, what can you do? ”

"Yes!" Zhuo Fan took the water cup, walked to the map neatly, and pointed to the narrow and wide Balkhash Lake: "This is the biggest hole in the Soviet Kazakh defense line, Balkhash Lake!" Chief of Staff, look here. Judging from the deployment of Kazakh troops of the Soviet army, in fact, the battlefield is divided, part of it is South Kazakhstan, mainly targeting Almaty and Andijan, with a total strength of about 400,000. The other part is East Kazakhstan, which targets China's East Kazakhstan and Xinjiang, with a total strength of about 650,000. From the topography, both areas are very suitable for the movement of armored forces, so the Soviets focused on strengthening the ability to resist the impact of tanks, and the multi-layered defense line in depth I just mentioned is in these two directions. However, on the west shore of Lake Balkhash, there is no such sign, but the troops are very scarce.

Why? Personally, I think it's because Lake Balkhash is wider than ordinary lakes, even the narrowest part of the Saremsek Peninsula, which is four kilometers wide and has a depth of more than 11 meters, is not suitable for building fast pontoon bridges. And because of our confrontation with the Soviet Union, there have been no boats other than patrol boats in the lake for almost ten years, which makes the Soviet army mistakenly think that even if we have the idea, we do not have enough tools to cross the lake, and the west bank of the lake is hilly and mountainous, and the Soviet army has always believed that tanks are not suitable for fighting in the mountains, so on this line, there are only three or four divisions, and they are all infantry and heavy artillery to prevent the crossing of the river.

But my research revealed that the mountains on the west bank of Balkhash are not actually precipitous, especially near Balkhash, where there are several relatively flat roads to use. More importantly, the small landing craft of the Chinese Navy actually have the ability to be used in inland waterways. So I think that the naval landing craft can be disassembled and secretly transported to Almaty for assembly, and in the event of war, the infantry can first be drawn here by pretending to set up a pontoon bridge on the Saremsek Peninsula. Then the landing craft formation will be able to grab the beach in a straight line from Tomar, opposite Balkhash! At the same time, airborne troops were dispatched to carry out a large-scale airborne landing in the area of East Kovinratsky, 5 kilometers north of Balkhash, to drag down Soviet reinforcements.

In terms of distance, Tomar is less than 40 kilometers to Balkhash, while Balkhash to Karaganda is 350 kilometers. It takes about 2 hours for the landing craft to cross the lake, and if it can be modified and accelerated to 1.5 hours, 200 ships can be gathered, and at least 2 divisions can be sent to Balkhash in one night! If it is fast, the landing force can be inserted parallel to the two flanks along the river bank the next day, thus bypassing the multi-layered defense system of the Soviet army outside the Zhambyl region and East Kazakhstan in South Kazakhstan and implementing a tactical encirclement of the enemy army!

Of course, this plan is just my initial idea. Among them, there are three keys, the first is how the landing craft was secretly transported to Almaty and entered the lake from the Ili River without detection. The second is how to entangle the Soviet army in the front line of East Kazakhstan and Zhambyl Oblast, so that it cannot quickly return to reinforcements or flee. Finally, how many troops can the air force send in two days, if it is too few, then the armored division will not be able to penetrate due to the lack of infantry coordination after crossing the lake, and there will be no way to talk about encirclement! According to my calculations, if there are two armored divisions, and the air force can drop at least three airborne divisions, not only will there be a chance to complete the encirclement, but also a chance to quickly penetrate Karaganda!

When the Soviet army is surrounded, the main group can launch a counteroffensive, if it is fast, before the arrival of the harsh winter, it may be possible to cooperate with the Andijan army group to cut off Turkestan in South Kazakhstan to the south, and to the north can cooperate with the Siberian army group to take Barnaul and cut off the Trans-Siberian railway! Complete the cleaning of the 350-kilometer parallel line in the northwest! ”

Zhuo Fan's fingers kept sliding over the map, and at this moment, he was completely calm in his analysis, not paying attention to the corners of Yue Peng's mouth that the three of them slowly hooked