"Load the shells! Yuri, tell me the coordinates. ”

"Comrade lieutenant, the smoke is too loud for me to see clearly."

More than 2,000 Soviet soldiers were densely packed into the fortifications of the Kartar Pass. Lieutenant Yakov-Dzhugashvili took the gas mask from the soldier, put it on and continued to direct the anti-tank operation. As a tank soldier, he was transferred back to the Urals early by Malinovsky because of tank damage during the Battle of the Bulge, where he served as the commander of the anti-tank battalion. Of course, he himself knew that his father had something to do with avoiding the last catastrophe. Although he was transferred back early, he did not lose confidence in defeating the enemy, and in fact, since last year, hundreds of thousands of craftsmen have been mobilized to build many tight fortifications and special terrain, which has given him and everyone a lot of confidence.

The Urals did not have many permanent fortifications, but after the Chinese Air Force continued to bomb them before the winter of last year, his father mobilized hundreds of thousands of soldiers and civilians to build a large number of permanent fortifications by using the abundant cement and steel resources in the area. For example, the circular rifle fortifications he was in were reinforced and poured with one-meter-thick cement and steel plates, which could effectively resist direct fire from 150 mm cannons. And there are hundreds of such fortifications in the Urals, several large and even super-large fortresses, and countless small fortresses. What is really worrying is that the main forces did not withdraw in time, resulting in insufficient defensive forces. Reinforcements in the rear were delayed by the enemy's continued bombardment of the lines of communication. Like his Kartale, which was supposed to garrison two divisions, now has only two brigades and a total strength of less than 3,000, but he still believes that he will hold out until reinforcements arrive, because he has the most powerful anti-tank weapons in the Soviet Union. "I saw it! 1100 meters. When the shelling observer seized the gap in the smoke and saw a wheeled armored vehicle that was releasing infantry, Yakov immediately shouted the order: "Armor-piercing shells, open fire!" "With a 'boom', the targeted hound-wheeled armored vehicle turned into a ball of fire, and the scattered parts swept the infantry who jumped out of the vehicle.

"The 7th car!" Lieutenant Yakov has become a hero to everyone, because the 130mm cannon he commanded alone destroyed 7 tanks/armored vehicles, 3 of which were 'Manchurian Tiger' tanks that even my father and the General Staff had a headache for. "Go on, comrades! We're going to be here and give the enemy a head-on blow! Break the myth of the Manchurian Tiger! Yakov encouraged everyone and personally participated in the loading of shells.

Listening to the cheers coming from the fortifications, He Hai gritted his teeth, and the destroyed chariots behind him made him even more reluctant to pick up the slow 'Earth Dragon' blasting tank and rush in. But he also had to try to keep his wrists soft, after all, the remote-controlled tank is only 1.5 tons, and it is easy to be knocked over by raised rocks and trees. Fortunately, with the fierce artillery battle and the constant guidance of tracer shells, he could see the target accurately, and the Soviets could not hear the hum of the gasoline engine. Ten minutes later, the 'Earth Dragon' under his control finally managed to climb over a jutting rock and approach the observation port at the bottom of the fortification.

"Look for your next target!" After loading the shells, Yakov began to search for the next target in high spirits. As soon as the lookout saw a Siberian tiger approaching, he felt something shake in front of him. "Comrade Lieutenant, there seems to be something outside."

"What is it? Do you see it clearly? Machine guns, search for it, commandos prepare. When Yakov heard the report, he immediately prepared five Maxim M1910 water-cooled heavy machine guns, and walked quickly to the observation window. Just as he was about to lean over to check, a cloud of light suddenly exploded outside the fortifications. A full 80 kilograms of powerful explosives instantly unleashed terrifying destructive power. Although the 1-meter-thick cement reinforced exterior wall blocked most of the shock wave, Yakov's right arm was still severed by a fragment of a blasting tank that flew in through the window, and his whole body and legs were instantly fractured in multiple places, and the whole person was pushed back several meters away by the air wave, if it hadn't happened to hit a bunch of soldiers, I am afraid that the flesh and blood would have been blurred.

He didn't see it after the fortifications crumbled like eggshells, more than a dozen Chinese elite commandos with black faces and automatic rifles quickly rushed up from the foot of the mountain, and He Hai also followed behind the veterans, quickly swept to death several Soviet soldiers who tried to rush out, and occupied the fortification. The elite veteran commandos were obviously not interested in paying attention to the bloody unconscious Yakov in the corner, and after taking over the fortifications, they immediately turned their machine guns and opened heavy fire on the surrounding Soviet infantry bunkers.

Soon, several other fortifications also exploded, and after the inspection, 4 of them were damaged to varying degrees, and only 1 was unable to complete the task because the blasting tank was blocked by bushes and the detonation point was too far away. "Save him, please, he is the son of Stalin!" He Hai had just picked up a box of machine gun bullets to support the heavy machine gun when a voice suddenly sounded from the corner. An ordinary Soviet medic, sitting in a pile of corpses, approached him with his bloody body in his arms.

"Stalin's son?" Not to mention He Hai now, even the veterans around him were all wide-eyed.

An hour later, Yakov was rushed to a rear hospital by Yun Qi, and two weeks later to a high-ranking prisoner-of-war camp outside Beijing.

After losing their comrades, the remaining two heavy anti-tank guns did not last long before they were blasted at close range by veteran commandos with Soviet artillery, and all the soldiers inside were burned to death with flamethrowers. After losing the heavy artillery, the Soviet soldiers insisted on resisting until the next morning, but as Cai Rui ordered a strong attack early the next morning, they had to leave more than 1,000 corpses into the woods.

After a day and a night of fierce fighting, He Hai and his comrades finally broke open the door to the Urals. By 10 o'clock in the morning of the next day, Cai Rui, who led three wheeled armored regiments, had broken through the outer defense line of Magnitogorsk, which was garrisoned by only one mountain infantry division.

At the same time, good news also came from Kostanay, Yang Yuchun took advantage of the fast mobility of his troops to jam Fedorovka east of Troitsk in advance, and fought fiercely for three hours with Lukin and Vlasov, who arrived later. However, due to the fact that it was already evening, he was still captured by Lukin and took away nearly 60,000 veterans, but Vlasov was not as strong as Lukin, and in the face of Yang Yuchun's fierce attack, he lost confidence at ten o'clock that night, leading more than 50,000 people of the 24th Group Army to surrender to Yang Yuchun.

On July 25, Liu Mingzhao's main 10 divisions, which had completed the Annihilation of Kostanay, quickly passed through Kartale, which had been controlled, and launched a general attack on Magnitogorsk. At the same time, he asked Gong Chu to lead 4 infantry divisions straight to the south, and cooperated with Li Yuguo to encircle the main force of Kilponos. Probably premoniting his end, Kirponos ordered Potapov to lead the main force of the 5th Army and 70,000 cavalry to break through the siege at the moment before Gong Chu closed the gate, leaving him behind. This Soviet general, with his own tragic death and tens of thousands of Soviet troops, in exchange for a total of 120,000 troops of the 5th Army and cavalry, successfully took a small road from Volgogradsky into the Ural Plateau and successfully broke through.

Major General Potapov, who led his troops to break through the siege, originally wanted to go to Orsk, but before the troops set off, Duzishan, who had just captured Atyrau at the mouth of the Ural River, returned to Aktobinsk and led 280,000 soldiers including two armies from the rear to launch a general attack on Orsk.

After a brief rendezvous with Kirponos, Zhukov, who had escaped, was sent by Timoshenko to Orsk to take charge of the defense. In the face of Du Zishan's ferocious offensive, Zhukov, who had only 50,000 regular troops and 50,000 guerrillas from the local population and the Western Kazakh guerrillas, was once again beaten in disarray. On August 1, after Du Zishan attacked the east and west, and let the main force attack Orsk to contain Zhukov's main force, he personally led 70,000 troops, with the help of local Kazakh and Tatar militias, and successfully attacked Novotroitsk, west of Orsk. Then, Du Zishan used 2 captured 305-mm heavy guns to constantly bombard Orsk. Having lost an important western barrier and being attacked by heavy artillery and bombers, Zhukov had no choice but to flee for the third time, leading the remnants of the defeated army up the river to join Potapov, and then using the forests and hills to cross the Ural River and retreat to Orenburg.

On 3 August, an agitated young communications non-commissioned officer, after storming the banks of the Ural River in Orsk with his troops, sent a telegram that would become world-famous.

"Motherland, my feet have crossed Europe and Asia!"

When the telegram was sent, the communications non-commissioned officer and the troops did not actually cross the Ural River (the Ural River is the boundary river) by 'stepping on Eurasia', in fact, it was not until 7 months later that the first unit officially crossed the boundary river, and he did not know that this telegram once caused Yang Qiu a great headache. But in any case, the occupation of Orsk meant that the Central Asian Allies had obtained a second strategic passage in and out of the Urals. It also means that the 16-day Battle of Kostanay is over. After the Battle of the Bulge, the Soviets not only lost more than 500,000 troops again, bringing the total number of troops lost since the beginning of the war to 6.13 million (including 2.6 million dead), but also more than 4 million Soviets in Central Asia, Siberia and the Urals were killed by the fighting, and 6 million (3.3 million evacuated from the Urals alone) withdrew to Europe. After Turkmenistan and Tajikistan, Kazakhstan was left with only a section west of the Ural River, and the rest of the region was liberated.

After learning of the battle report, Yang Qiu immediately gave instructions, asking the troops not to underestimate the enemy, nor to be blind to the depths, but to first stabilize the surroundings and repair the railway, and at the same time let the logistics department and the national combat readiness mobilization department seize the time and use all means to reserve heavy cold-proof equipment and fuel for wintering to the front line. When Yang Qiu began to think about the harsh winter, Mei Sheng and Sun Chuanfang had not stopped, and with the settlement of the southern route and the middle route, the two began to plan and prepare for the 'Tyumen-Kurgan' campaign, hoping to take Kurgan before the winter and open the third passage.

The news of the entry of the Chinese Defense Forces into the Urals caused a huge earthquake! After the Associated Press learned of the telegram sent by the communications non-commissioned officer through a special channel, it immediately reported the news of the Chinese Army's entry into the Urals, and Reuters and Agence France-Presse followed suit, and even the Huaxin News Agency reported the good news one after another. The Wall Street Journal, which has been reading China through colored glasses, even published a half-length color photo on the front page, accompanied by "They're back!" Such an alarmist title. In the background of the photograph is a map of Eurasia, with a small photograph led by an arrow next to the Ural River (the Eurasian boundary river). In the small photo, several Chinese recruits in sand-yellow combat uniforms, who have just completed training, carry guns on their backs and sit on a 'Siberian Tigers' main battle tank. The long barrel of the gun is pointed at Europe, gesturing with victory and smiling confidently at the camera.

The hearty, confident smile, heroic enthusiasm and fearless spirit that have never been seen before have all been condensed into a small negative, allowing Americans and the world to reacquaint themselves with a new generation of Chinese young people. The Associated Press reporter's photography skills are top-notch, but even more first-class is the argument that the world is not chaotic. Although it was not directly said, the allusions throughout the article reminded those who had read the report of the "whip of God" that almost destroyed European civilization. In addition to alluding to China, the Wall Street Journal also unceremoniously pointed the finger at the defeated European allies at the end of the article. Note 1: Britain and the Commonwealth, which mobilized 11 million, Free France, which mobilized 1.1 million, the United States, which has mobilized 9.3 million, and the other 2.5 million Indo-African Allied forces, which have half of the world's manufacturing capacity and can be called the world's largest military armed forces, were beaten to the ground by Germany and Italy, which had not yet mobilized their countries, and suffered heavy casualties, which really made the American people very angry. A certain British lace tabloid even ridiculed the defeat of the Allied forces in Europe with a cartoon of "Yang Qiu stepping on Stalin and whipping Churchill and Roosevelt with a horsewhip" and made a lot of nonsense that Beijing should give Beijing full command of the Allied forces.

Churchill, who has been completely defeated, doesn't care about this, and his relationship with the press is almost a duel with a gun, but Roosevelt, on the other side of the Atlantic, must bear the biggest crisis of confidence since becoming president of the United States! He and the United States have already gotten into a quagmire, and some members of Congress have even suggested that China should be recognized as having international trusteeship over Marianas, Wake Island, Marshall and other places in exchange for Beijing projecting military power into Europe. Of course, Roosevelt would not be so short-sighted, he knew very well that even if he announced his withdrawal from all the Southwest Pacific, Yang Qiu would not send ground forces to Europe so early.

Also in trouble and crisis are Moscow, Timoshenko and Kirponos were killed, Malinovsky surrendered, Vlasov surrendered, Mechelis was captured and the counteroffensive that had been prepared for more than half a year not only failed to regain lost territory, but also lost a million troops in vain, causing the gate of the Urals to be wide open, and even his son was put in! Stalin exploded! Directly demoted Zhukov, who had 'escaped' three times, to a second lieutenant and threw him to Poland as a sentry. But this 'new job' Zhukov was also only a month in the job, and then he was thrown to another place, where he really showed his offensive talent.

"The Urals must not be lost! Behind it is Moscow! There is already no rear, the whole USSR is a battlefield! ”

Stalin, having learned of his son's arrest, threw harsh words at the Central Political Conference and demanded to mobilize again. And this time, he didn't even take advantage of the winter training, and directly ordered the guns to be issued to the conscripts, and then stuffed into the trains to the Urals and Stalingrad. In his words, even if all the Soviets were killed, the Urals must be saved. In addition to military preparations, Stalin again sent Motolov on a secret visit to Berlin, with an unprecedented gift.

Ceded Soviet-controlled Poland, sent troops to cooperate with the attack on Turkey, and mobilized 300 important factories and workers in the Balkans, France and other places by GC International to help build any munitions. 2 million tons of crude oil, 2 million tons of crude steel, 3 million tons of timber, 500,000 tons of coking coal, 500,000 tons of nickel-manganese and other concentrate sands, as well as 1 million tons of wheat, will be handed over at one time.

The conditions were a formal alliance with the transfer of captured non-Jewish workers in the Balkans and Poland to fill the growing shortage of workers in the Soviet Union, and the provision of new weapons and production equipment, including aviation and tank engines, fighter jets, 88 guns, radars, and the bombing of Stalingrad (the second largest oil refining base in the Soviet Union before the war, first Sevastopol and third Bashkir), which had plummeted to only 5 million tons of oil refining equipment and aviation gasoline per year (Note 2).

Stalin, put all the bets on it!