In the first half of the night on July 21, Kostanay was nervous but hectic. News of Vlasov's ambush convinced Timoshenko and other officers of Lukin's plan. But Lukin himself still did not dare to be careless, because the 24th Army still has no way of saying how many tanks and soldiers the ambushed enemy has. So what he could do was to personally check the readiness of the main breakout force, collect each livestock that could be used, and instruct the soldiers to bring more ammunition, water, and food.

In the eyes of the soldiers, he is a good officer, sympathetic to his subordinates and respectful of the soldiers, and can organize tactics according to the situation of each unit, unlike some officers who only emphasize the spirit and will, but have no understanding of the actual abilities of the soldiers. Even now, there are many officers who ask soldiers to complete some hopeless tasks, treating them as consumables. But in good officers, there are times when they break up with the troops. At nine o'clock in the evening, a bearded cavalry major with a body covered in blood, a prancing horse rushed into the headquarters: "Transferred! Mobilized! The enemy from the north has moved westward! ”

"Did you read that right?" Temoshenko jumped up from his chair and hurried to the major.

"It was my light eye that hundreds of tanks and trucks passed over the pontoon bridge of Alexander Drokaf. You see, when they retreated, they were also discovered by enemy armored vehicles, and many soldiers died. ”

"Great! Comrades, let's get moving! Pull out all the artillery, get ready for the heavy artillery regiment, open fire in ten minutes, blow up the pontoon! Timoshenko shouted excitedly and walked up to Lukin: "Comrade Lukin, you are most familiar with the troops, so you will personally lead the assault troops." ”

"Nope! Comrade Commander. You can't find an officer who is more familiar with defense than I am, so I must stay behind! Lukin categorically refused the order. At this time, he had no intention of hiding his clumsiness, and in fact, among the current senior commanders of the Soviet army, there were indeed few officers who were better at defense than him. And he also has selfish intentions, because he knows that it is said that the whole army has broken through, but at least 100,000 soldiers will stay behind and lose all the heavy equipment including artillery. If he leaves, the troops will definitely not be able to stop the opponent's armored torrent, and only by staying behind can he fight for a glimmer of life for these soldiers.

Seeing that he insisted on staying, Timoshenko did not hesitate too much, and after shaking hands, he left the command post under the protection of the guards. After he left, the command post that was still crowded just now suddenly became cold, looking at the last few officers around him who were assigned to stay, Lukin smiled bitterly in his heart, but shouted vigorously: "Cheer up, get ready!" We can definitely return to the Urals! ”

As Lukin cheered everyone on, the roof of the city's church was rudely lifted by the soldiers, revealing two thick, hideous cannon barrels. This is the killer weapon that Timoshenko used to destroy pontoons, the BR-18 type 305-mm heavy howitzer. This howitzer has a range of more than 16 km, the shell weighs 330 kg, and the rapid-fire fire is 12 rounds per hour. With a combat weight of 35 tons and a marching weight of 54 tons, it was the largest caliber field gun in the Soviet Army. However, due to its large weight, it is often used for fixed defense.

These two BR-18 and four BR-5 280mm howitzers were Lukin's killer arsenal, which originally wanted to inflict casualties on the opposing infantry at a critical time, so they were deliberately hidden in churches and adjacent buildings that the Chinese Air Force usually does not bomb at will. "Fire!" In the shouts of the artillerymen, six heavy guns spewed out huge fireballs at the same time. Almost at the same time, the remaining 3,000 or so barreled guns of the Siberian Front also opened fire at the same time, opening heavy fire on the surrounding Wehrmacht positions.

In order to destroy the pontoon bridge 15 kilometers away, Timoshenko not only gathered 6 heavy guns, but also 20 ML-20 152-mm howitzers to bombard together. The Soviet artillerymen, who were already determined to break through and no longer have to skimp on ammunition, were also mobilized and frantically threw ammunition at the target. In the face of the sudden surge of Soviet artillery fire, the Wehrmacht also quickly launched a counterattack, 85mm field howitzers, 105mm self-propelled howitzers, 105mm/155mm towed cannon howitzers, 130mm self-propelled rocket launchers, 155mm self-propelled howitzers, and 210mm self-propelled howitzers The entire night sky was full of red ballistics drawn by artillery shells. Fifteen minutes later, the Soviet troops, waiting for a breakthrough, suddenly burst into loud cheers, and the pontoon bridge upstream of Kostanay was finally blown off by a 305-mm shell.

"Long live the Soviets! Long live Stalin! Comrades, rush! ”

"Ulla!"

Like an open barrage, more than 300,000 Soviet troops rushed out of their bunkers and broke through to the north under the cover of hundreds of tanks/armored vehicles and armed trucks. The huge breakthrough operation swept the entire battlefield, and the Soviet soldiers fought extremely frantically under the stimulation of the desire to survive. In the face of machine gun and artillery interception, it was completely stepping on the corpse of his partner and rushing up. After learning that the main force of the Soviet army broke through to the north, Liu Mingzhao fell a big stone in his heart, in order to reduce losses and continue to paralyze Timoshenko, he decisively ordered the four infantry divisions remaining in the north to fight and retreat. In this way, Timoshenko's breakthrough went more smoothly, and in just one hour, the striker passed Alexander Drokaf.

This ease made Timoshenko more and more convinced that Xu Xiangqian's main force had been attracted by Vlasov to the west. But he was wrong! In fact, after Xu Xiangqian received Liu Mingzhao's warning and order, he immediately asked the Zhouqiao regiment to erect a pontoon bridge 30 kilometers upstream, and then deliberately let the Soviet army discover it, and swaggered to lead the main force across the bridge to the west. At this moment, he had already led 1 armored division, 1 mechanized infantry division and 2 motorized infantry divisions to turn around, parallel to Timoshenko across the river, and rushed to the spare pontoon point. Sun Liren also led the 2nd Armored Division and the 101st Armored Division, as well as 2 motorized infantry divisions and 1 Kazakh cavalry division, to make a long detour to the northeast, and the arrow pointed directly to the northern Temoshenko's inevitable road, Timiryatevka.

After the pursuit troops set off, in order to continue to confuse the broken Lukin, Liu Mingzhao deliberately put on a posture that he had just learned that the enemy had broken through, and ordered 4 mechanized infantry divisions and 10 infantry divisions to attack Kostanay, and then sent the last 1 mechanized infantry division and 2 wheeled chariot regiments to the west to support Wang Wenshan. The onslaught of 14 divisions made Lukin feel unprecedented pressure, but it also made the last trace of worry in his heart slowly dissipate. "You must hold it!" In order to help Timoshenge buy time and attract Liu Mingzhao's main force, he simply went to the front line to cheer up the soldiers. Under his leadership, the Soviet army fought very tenaciously after the break, and repeatedly withstood the charge of the Wehrmacht. However, he was missing more than half of the main force, and after all, he could not stop the rampage of hundreds of tanks, and held out until four o'clock in the morning, and after learning that 350,000 soldiers had broken out of the encirclement with Timoshenko, he decided to go west with the whole army and join Vlasov to break through the siege, trying to force Liu Mingzhao to divide his troops to pursue and relieve the pressure on the main force.

Lu Jin wanted to sacrifice himself in exchange for the chance to survive the main force, but he didn't know that Liu Mingzhao had already dug a trap in front of Temoshenge.

Lacking reconnaissance means and losing air supremacy, Timoshenko did not know that he had become someone else's prey, and his mind at the moment was all about Timiryatevka in front. Beyond here, there is a huge forest in front of you, and as long as you burrow into the forest, it will be impossible for the Chinese defense force to catch up quickly, and the Chinese air force will not be able to give full play to its advantage. After crossing the forest, it was Sergey Yekav, although the Moscow Central Army sent by Rokossovsky was blocked by Jiang Xianyun's 5 infantry divisions, he was completely sure that he would quickly eat the opponent in front and rear, and then lead the army back to Kurgan along the railway.

But just when the Soviet assault arrows saw the edge of the forest, Xu Xiangqian's 19th Armored Division suddenly came out of the forest. "Manchurian Tiger!" More than 200 Type 36 'Siberian Tiger' main battle tanks and half-track infantry fighting vehicles made Timoshenko shiver, and only then did he understand why he was able to run 70 kilometers in just six hours without encountering any decent obstacles.

With no turning back, he could only grit his teeth and order an attack, trying to break through the opponent's interception and enter the forest. However, the 19th Panzer Division soon told the Soviets that they should not fight against an integrated Panzer Division in the field at any time. In just one hour, the 19th Panzer Division destroyed 72 T34/76 and more than 100 trucks, crushing the three forward divisions led by Major General Amoriv. Faced with the almost invincible 'Siberian Tigers' main battle tank, Major General Amolev had no choice but to seek reinforcements from the main forces behind. Cornered, Timoshenko also had red eyes, forgetting that this was a wild plain, ordering his troops to launch a continuous onslaught, and also sending cavalry to act as death squads.

Faced with the situation that rushing over was the way to live, the Soviet soldiers were also completely red-eyed, and they were shoulder to shoulder, singing the Internationale all the way, and launched a pig-like charge that resembled the Japanese army. The first row of soldiers fell, the second row followed, then the third row, and the fourth row of countless soldiers shouted battle cries like wild boars, rushing in groups everywhere. In order to escape, even the elite Cossack cavalry repeatedly strapped anti-tank grenades and explosives packs to their horses and launched suicidal charges against the tanks. The battle was extremely bloody, and although it was protected by thick armor, the 19th Panzer Division still paid the price of 58 tanks and 43 half-track infantry fighting vehicles being destroyed, and almost all of the division's armored infantry regiments were destroyed!

At this critical juncture, the 592nd Armored Regiment led by Yang Tianlei arrived in time. "Scatter them! Climb up and use a machine gun! Multi-purpose machine guns! "From the captain battalion commander of the 1st Armored Division to the major of the 101st Armored Division of the 592nd Regiment, Yang Tianlei, who rarely ran at the forefront of the troops, was probably fed up with the long-term 'deliberate' protection, not only ordered to give up long-distance artillery bombardment, but also directly let his armored regiment crush into the Soviet army's charging queue. Although the name of the Central Guard Division has gradually faded, the 101st Armored Division is the second only to the First Armored Division in China, and it is an elite force that is completely organized in accordance with the standards of later generations, and there are 118 Type 36 'Siberian Tiger' main battle tanks in one regiment alone, and the actual combat capability is even more than that of the two tank armies of the Soviet Army.

Torrential rain of bullets, icy tracks, crushed corpses, and bloody scenes of flesh splattering the tank shell frustrated the Soviet offensive. In the face of Yang Tianlei's reinforcements, Timoshenge, who had been completely stunned, actually asked the troops to attack, and shot several persuasive officers to show his determination to break through. But as more and more corpses appeared on the battlefield, the frenzy of the Soviet soldiers gradually subsided. After a night of rushing and breaking through, hours of fierce battles, they finally exhausted their last physical strength, and in the face of Yang Tianlei's full horsepower and direct crushing, even many soldiers were frightened crazy by the bloody tank.

At 10 o'clock in the morning, after the main force led by Xu Xiangqian and Sun Liren came out from the east and west at the same time, the hundreds of thousands of Soviet troops who had been singing war songs a few hours ago completely collapsed, 170,000 of the 350,000 Soviet troops were killed on the spot, more than 40,000 were missing or fled, and the rest were all captured. Timoshenko himself died of blood loss after a leg was broken by an arriving dive bomber.

His death also helped Yang Qiu open the bloody road to the Urals.