Chapter 156

Khujand, a small city, blocked from the exit of the Fergana Valley. After the last Sino-Soviet conflict, the idea of a demilitarized zone has existed in name only. At that time, the two sides, which did not plan to start fighting, tacitly agreed not to invade each other with their actual control lines as the boundary.

As China continued to increase its troops on the border, the Soviet Union was not slow to respond. Pavlov was transferred from the European front to Central Asia by Stalin, and Chuikov to the Far East. After Pavlov arrived, Stalin successively transferred troops from Europe and established the Central Asian Front, with Pavlov as the commander of the Front.

That's right, this Pavlov is the guy in history who was beaten by the Germans. At the end of 1939, the General Staff of the Soviet Army had already drawn up an operational plan aimed at encircling and annihilating the squadrons in Central Asia. For the strategic purpose of preemptive strikes, Stalin successively mobilized a large number of troops in Central Asia. The Central Asian Front has four subordinate armies and a large number of border troops, with a total strength of five mechanized corps and 70 infantry divisions, with a strength of more than one million. In the Far East, the Soviets planned to focus on defense, but the total strength also reached two mechanized corps and thirty infantry divisions. The General Staff of the Soviet Army believes that the Siberian battlefield is very large and the strategic depth is sufficient, and even if the squadron launches an attack in the Far East, it will be difficult to threaten the core of the Soviet Union in the short term. On the contrary, Central Asia is different, as long as the Chinese occupy Tashkent and advance 500 kilometers before the blind date, they can threaten Baku with bombers produced with imported German technology.

The importance of Baku for the USSR cannot be overstated. Militarily Stalin actively prepared. Diplomatically, it has been in constant private contact with Japan, seeking cooperation between Japan and the Soviet Union, and flanking China.

But now Japan's mind is no longer on China's. The German sweep in Europe stimulated the nerves of the Japanese army and navy. Britain and France are completely paper tigers, and if they don't fight now, when will they fight. However, the Japanese Navy and Army Ministry unexpectedly reached a consensus on when to go south. That is, China and the Soviet Union fought first, and then talked about going south. Moreover, once the Japanese army wants to move south, the first thing to solve is not the Chinese Navy, but the American Navy.

Meanwhile. Hitler's quest for the French fleet in Africa was unexpectedly successful, and Churchill, a ruthless fellow, could not get the French fleet. Directly ordered the British Navy to block the French fleet in the harbor and ordered it to sink it all. Anyway, it can't be cheap Germany, this trick can be said to hit Hitler's soft underbelly, what can no navy take to realize the Sea Lion plan? The actions of the British Navy were unexpectedly discovered by German aircraft. On the way to the port of Marseille. After being bombed indiscriminately by the German Air Force and losing two cruisers, the British warships took advantage of the night to forcibly disarm the French fleet in North Africa, which was rejected by the French Navy, and Churchill ordered all of them to be sunk.

In the fierce battle between the British and French fleets, British naval guns hit the oil depot in the port of Mirskbil. 150,000 tons of light crude oil were destroyed. This made the French fleet extremely angry, and angrily launched a fierce attack on the British fleet. The navies of the two countries fought fiercely all night. In the end, the British completed their mission, sinking most of the ships of the French North African Fleet, and themselves paying the price of sinking two old battleships. It is worth mentioning that after the French fleet's newest battleship, the Selieu and five other battleships, unexpectedly escaped from Ascension and fled into the Tyrrhenian Sea, Mussolini wishfully sent planes to intercept the British Navy. And let the remnants of the French fleet hide in Naples. As a result, the fleet commanders Jean Sur ordered the shooting down of the seaplane sent by Mussolini, and fled to neutral Greece.

Most of the strength of the French navy was preserved, and on the orders of Vichy France, it was decided to surrender to Germany. The result overshadowed Churchill and Britain's situation became even more difficult.

Churchill sent a telegram to Johnson, the minister to China, urgently asking to see Fang Jianxiong, demanding that Burmese benefits be exchanged for the equipment of China's four battleships and ten infantry divisions. When Johnson hurried to the presidential palace, he was unexpectedly invited to the study, and the secretary told him that the president was having an important meeting.

Johnson casually asked, "Nothing happened, right?" The secretary didn't know if he was defenseless, and sighed: "Something big has happened, and Central Asia is fighting again." ”

After the last battle, the Soviets also tore off the mask of the demilitarized zone and began to build fortifications in Khujand, and demanded that the Chinese side should not have military presence on either side within 10 kilometers of Khujand to the east. This meant leaving a buffer area, and the Chinese side agreed. However, after the arrival of spring, the Chinese and Soviet armies, which had been at peace with each other, clashed several times with their patrols in this small area. At first, it was all bickering, and then it was done. Both sides were quite restrained, had no intention of shooting, and fought with wooden sticks in their hands.

Things took a new turn in July as the Soviet cavalry frequented the area. Not to be outdone, the Chinese also sent cavalry to patrol the area. Several times the cavalry of both sides encountered, and almost misfired.

On the day of August 20, a Chinese cavalry squad encountered a Soviet cavalry platoon, and the two sides were still the same as before, looking at each other hostilely and preparing to pass by a few meters away, but when the atmosphere was solemn, a Chinese soldier suddenly sneezed. Because the atmosphere was too heavy, the sneeze came too suddenly, and the sound was not small, a Soviet soldier subconsciously raised a gun and aimed it at the Chinese soldier.

This side was also prepared, and as soon as the gun on the opposite side was raised, the Stern submachine gun in the cavalryman's hand rang out first. Don't look at this Stern submachine gun, it was also replaced by the main force, but against the Soviet army, which only had a horse pistol in its hand, the power was very great. In two fights, the Soviet soldiers were outnumbered, and the Chinese were few, so they could only retreat while deceiving, and left six corpses, and the Soviet side suffered greater losses, killing eight and wounding sixteen or seventeen.

The Chinese cavalry sent signal flares to ask for reinforcements as they ran, and a cavalry company stationed in Kanibadam spotted the flares and immediately dispatched reinforcements. Not to be outdone, the Soviets also sent an additional battalion of cavalry reinforcements. After two encounters on the road, the Chinese cavalry company first occupied a high ground, first spotted the compatriots that the Soviets were pursuing, and immediately covered them with mortars.

This moving gun and moving artillery are completely two natures, and the Soviet cavalry suffered a big loss. The sound of artillery alarmed an artillery battery of the Soviet garrison on the Gavorov Line, which immediately opened fire on the Chinese side with 122 howitzers.

The Soviet army's 122 howitzers had a long enough range, and this time the Chinese cavalry company suffered a big loss, losing more than a dozen people. While withdrawing, he used the walkie-talkie that had been delegated to the company level to report upward. The news reached the Andijan Fortress, and Xu Tingyao, the commander, was not afraid of the big thing, and immediately asked the Air Force to send out to retaliate, and the Air Force had a temporary airfield in Yanki Kurgan, and six old Eagle III and four Mustang A were parked. In normal times, the main task of these planes is reconnaissance, and as soon as they hear that there is work to do, the flight group will take off all its fighters as if they had been beaten with blood.

Usually they had already reconnoitred and knew the approximate location of the Soviet artillery positions, and the flying group after taking off did not hesitate to rush in the direction. In less than ten minutes, the Soviet artillery positions that were still in the artillery were discovered, and all six 122 howitzers were reimbursed in one dive.

When the Chinese fighters were discovered, the Soviets did not show weakness and immediately dispatched 20 IL-15 fighters to meet the enemy. (After summing up, the Soviets believed that only twice as much as the enemy could offset the gap in fighter performance) Eagle 3 had no advantage over the I-15, and after discovering the enemy plane, Eagle 3 turned around and ran, while the Mustang fighter climbed directly, seemingly trying to escape. Seeing that they could not catch up with the wild horses, the Soviet planes, stimulated by the ground bombardment, ran after the eagles and vowed to destroy these planes. As a result, they were dived at high speed by the Mustang fighters that climbed high, and were ambushed at an altitude of 6,000 meters, shooting down four Soviet fighters in one breath. Seeing that they were about to catch up with Yanki Kurgan, the anti-aircraft guns on the ground were not easy to provoke, and the Soviet fighters could only return empty-handed, and once again suffered a big loss.

When the matter reached Beijing, Fang Jianxiong judged that Stalin would definitely not be able to bear it this time, so he immediately convened an emergency meeting, and it was under this premise that Johnson's request to see him was postponed, and he could only drink tea and wait in the reception room. In fact, at this time, Johnson was in a very complicated mood. In the event of a large-scale military conflict between China and the Soviet Union, in a sense, Hitler's Eastern Front would no longer have any worries. But you can't persuade China to be patient, right? And that must not push China into the arms of Germany? With the combat effectiveness of the Soviet army, it is fucking difficult to fight Finland, do you still expect the Soviet army to defeat the squadron? This multiple-choice question is very easy to do, and Britain at this time can only stand on the side of China, which has good relations with the United States and is supporting Britain.

Both sides have been preparing for a long time, and Fang Jianxiong does not think that Stalin can endure this time. Stalin also did not think that Fang Jianxiong had worked so hard to put so many troops on the Sino-Soviet border to engage in camping activities. The strings are very tight, and it's finally time to break. In fact, at this time, if the reaction of China and the Soviet Union was to take a step back, this battle might not be fought.

At this meeting, Fang Jianxiong made a very arbitrary decision that the armies of the Far East and Central Asia would immediately enter a state of first-class combat readiness to guard against a possible large-scale surprise attack by the Soviet Union. At the same time, five wings equipped with the new Mustang B fighters were added to the northwest, and this was 500 aircraft sorties.

Stalin, on the other hand, demanded that the Central Asian Military District be ready to take the initiative, but there was also a sense of seeing. I didn't want the Chinese side to even give an explanation, and the minister in Russia even beat me up, saying that the Soviet army took the initiative to shoot and provoke.

So, a sneeze sparked a protracted battle! (To be continued......)